Hello and welcome to this episode of how to be a great GM (Game Master). Well today we're
looking at the question of how to help players create backgrounds (for their characters). Now it's an
interesting question in the first place, how involved should you as the GM be in
terms of creating character backgrounds with your players. Well more importantly I've had
players who've been playing for many years, who've joined my table saying "oh I
don't create backstories", "I'm not very interested in in backstories", "oh I'm not
very creative", "not very good about it". You then as a GM are then stuck with the
situation of having a player who doesn't have a character background, which is basically
like well having a character no. It's basically like having a blank space and
your novel - oldest character doesn't have any backstory because well they just
don't. So something that you can do is to help encourage or to help create a
character backstory for your players character. Now I must emphasize the importance here -
that you are helping the player create a backstory. You are NOT creating the
character backstory for your players character that is something that they have to do
because if you do it they won't own it, they won't understand
it, they won't have been part of that journey, that character won't be visceral
to them. Whereas if you help them create it, if you guide them through the process
of what they need to do then they will be more invested in their character backstory and
they will more likely use it during the game - so these are my 10 ways in which I
helped create backstory with my players so that their characters are a bit more
rounded and so that I have something to work with when it's time for me to use
the backstory in the eventual creation process so number one you need to
explain to your players why they need a backstory and it's not just because you
as a GM we're going to plunder it for adventures later on down the line it's
because it helps to create more apathy or more empathy weren't not empathy more
empathy with the character from the player's perspective
if they know a little bit about this person's history they're more likely to
care about that person they're more likely to behave more appropriately
accordingly according to that person according to their background so a
background is this really powerful arsenal of role-playing opportunities of
guides of helping players who are not creative to become a little bit more
interesting rather than just this generic unknown shadow moving around the
world so the reason for a backstory is very important for a player and
obviously for a GM it's vital and that's something to point out to the players is
often they don't realize especially if they've never dreamed they don't realize
just how much effort and how much work you need to put in to GM and having a
backstory just makes it that much easier and that's something that's of value to
you and of course should be of value to the player because they should want to
help you make your game run better run easier and make your life a little bit
easier if they don't it's time to question whether they should be in your
playing circle to begin with number two you need to explore why the character
became the class they did now this is a very difficult question because
frequently frequently you ask this question of the player well why why did
Dalila become become a paladin what was her motivation you've got as a bit of a
backstory she grew up on a farm why did she become a paladin oh is it's a cool
class and I wanted to play a paladin all right
that's why you're playing a paladin but why did Delilah become a pattern what
was her motivation this is a trick because if you asked real people in real
life why they became an accountant or a doctor or a veterinarian or a
neurosurgeon oftentimes they won't necessarily know the answer or was just
a job so Delilah became a paladin because she
needed to earn money and she thought while being a paladin was the easiest
way to earn money and she didn't want to be a city guard because they're not as
cool as paladins that in itself comes a story if if that thinking is
there that Delilah had the choice of becoming a city guard or becoming a
paladin and she chose to become a paladin this requires her to have a
certain amount of faith it also requires her to have a certain
amount of martial skill so that starts to speak to a back story now this is
where you as the gym start to become the interrogator and motivator of narrative
in terms of the character the backstory if you start to prompt these questions
saying well obviously Delilah grew up did she grow up with brothers and she
learned how to fight with a sword I mean what when did she first pick up a sword
or how did she decide that she wanted to go into a combat career rather than
becoming say a scribe or a librarian or something perhaps that might suit her
temperament a bit better though she doesn't have a temperament well now we
can start to work on things so it's about exploring the character then of
course it's about exploring the family now there is a video on the other
channel bacon RPG on YouTube if you're going to look for that where we ask
eight questions to create the ultimate backstory players sometimes use it
sometimes they don't and if they don't then this is a great opportunity for you
at number three to ask about the characters family are they still alive
what do they do what were they beforehand was mother of famous sell
sword and father was an infamous Nancy who ran around on the stage and
entertained kings and queens with his published behavior what was the family
doing and how and why are they still doing it if they are still alive and if
they aren't alive what killed them why did they die where they're buried those
kind of questions it may seem to be irrelevant to the
player myself I don't know they're there where's their point at the map and say
well in which star system are they based you know where you say they there well
where's there talk to me let's discover your family then you can ask about a
childhood event number four is asked about her childhood event now childhood
events shape things and we have good childhood
events we have bad childhood events again these 10 questions you might not
necessarily ask all ten but even if you asked just five of them you've already
got more of a backstory than you had when the players said I don't have a
backstory oh my I grew up on a farm and I wanted to become a star fighter and
and it didn't happen so at least you're at the moving the right direction so you
asked them about a childhood event ask them about a positive childhood event
and a negative childhood event the positive childhood event oh you remember
when father bought you that pair of shoes that you'd always wanted in the
new wore them and they were fantastic and then the negative is remember when
your favorite dog Pongo ate the goldfish and then died because the goldfish was
inside the cat at the time uh whatever the case might be get them to write a
positive and get those rides negative again it helps them to entrench their
character in their mind but it helps you as the GM to remember to bring back
Pongo as an undead zombie dog with a mutated goldfish inside its belly that
every now and again emerges to suck on the players characters it allows you the
latitude of adding in more story to your campaign so awesome about her childhood
event number five what was the character doing just before session zero or before
your first session what were they doing were they in a tavern were they in the
bathroom were they riding a horse were they parking the starship that they
came in on were they fleeing were they running were they wondering about the
nature of the universe did they find an answer so what were they doing just
before adventuring started and this is a good question to throw out to the entire
party when they're doing character creation and if you haven't done it
during character creation you can do it just before session zero describe to me
what were you for doing and what were you v doing just before we start where
where are you and then take it from there
again it's about investing the player in their character it's about making sure
that the player really really likes their character and wants to to know
about their character a little bit more and in doing so obviously they like the
characters they want you to play the character and
they want to do things appropriately it's a nice knock on effect number six
favorite item and where did they get it now in some systems I think it's and
indeed fifth edition as a matter of fact there is a trinket page where you get to
roll a d100 and there are a hundred different trinkets that have all got
little things like a little brooch that moves around over time from one pocket
to the other or a pen that will write your name automatically little simple
things that in a high magic world are appropriate of course in a low magic
world it might just be a doll that's been carved out of a whale's tooth and
was given to the child when they were young and they've kept it with the
merits ever since to theer's their favorite
object so the idea of having them have some kind of object or item that they've
brought with them from their childhood is fantastic for example when I moved to
Japan I made sure that I brought my favorite things a few things anyway that
I could fit into luggage and get past customs a few things with me from my
childhood past and they've got a lot of stories attached to each one of them so
the idea is again get them invested in something because then later on you as
the GM here can have it taken away steal it destroy it or have it lead to
something more important and traumatic than anyone could possibly have imagined
or just have it as a conversation piece again just bringing back the character's
history and making the character more real number 7 what's their view on the
world now peasants starship captains aliens from the fifth dimension
everybody has a view of their world do they think it's good do they think it's
bad do they agree with current politics do they even know what the current
politics are are they invested in say a financial institution do they care about
the current emperor / King / ruler cat / hierarchy that's currently running
Kingdom Dominion etc etc the world view can become quite interesting because it
can lead to some dynamics within the party that weren't there before
especially if you prod them on well you know that you're in the kingdom of X
and that the ruler is quite insane what do you think about that what is your
character think about that one character might think that it's perfectly normal
the other character might think that it's the worst thing since sliced bread
so the idea by asking them their worldview is just to prompt a position
that they might come back to later on especially because if you're going to
use the worldview question you can then load up adventures that's challenge that
worldview or that push it in a certain direction if they're against the leader
have them doing quests for the leader that forces them to realize that is
actually not a bad guy if they are against the local mistress well maybe
the mistress should tempt one of them into her bed chambers especially the one
that she doesn't like or if you want to be even more devious she is the one that
forces the character who hates her to capitulate and do something for her
against that players characters will so that's an option so a worldview allows
you to do that kind of wonderful stuff number nine and number eight is and as
links to worldview what is their political leaning some people have no
care about politics in medieval world a serf was a serf was a serf and they
didn't really care who was king or who wasn't they just showed up at the
rallies for the free food that got thrown at the monarch as they were led
down to the traitors square so the idea is what is their political leaning in a
science-fiction campaign do they support the federation are they against the
federation what do they think of the Empire what do they think of the
Republic all of those kind of questions allows you again to create a more
rounded character for your player but also allows you as the GM to then add in
little adventures that poke and prod at those questions which they may or may
not have answered something that I should have mentioned the beginning of
this video by the way is that you should get the player to write these answers
down it's important so they can refer to them later now yes so that's number
eight political leaning what is their political leaning and how will it all
won't it affect them now again if you've got a world where anyone who supports
this particular leader wears an armband of a certain color well that's even
better because now the character starts to win the same
armband and it starts to create all those wonderful little political stories
that suddenly spring to life when you have opposing political opinion number
nine is similar to number eight in number seven but different religion what
is the religious view a lot of players that run around and fantasy games where
there are gods all over the place say oh I'm an atheist really you're an atheist
you have gods literally performing miracles on a daily basis even if you
are in a slightly low level magic level world you still have priests who can use
the power of gods to heal your character every time your character gets healed by
some twit who puts their hand on you and sutures up that wound using divine magic
and you're an atheist you don't believe in the gods that is in my opinion like
someone who doesn't believe in electricity you just can't not I would
create a very very very strong reason as to why the character doesn't believe in
the gods or perhaps it's not doesn't believe in the gods in terms of I don't
live there there it's just that I don't believe that they could influence us in
any positive or negative way even that's pushing it a little bit when a local
druid or a local priest can walk past and create water out of thin air so
there is some skepticism that I have there when people say oh I don't worship
a God on the other hand if you have a deity that manifests and that can
control your destiny your character is probably going to believe in one of the
gods at the very least now you just have to go back in Earth's early history
where you've got say the Egyptians or the Romans where there's pantheon of
gods to worship they still worship them they still believed in the men they
still went through their little rites and rituals even though they may have
been skeptical about their existence they still did it
so something that your players should be aware of if your world has a lot of gods
is that is something to look into if your setting is science fiction or
post-apocalyptic well now it starts to become an even more interesting question
if there isn't a system through which the
deity might directly influence the game well then it becomes a character point
had become something that the character does out of decision rather than
anything else and that for me makes it even more interesting and more poignant
so religion is a very good motivator for a character background and of course we
use the GM from a questing post perspective
well religion just becomes this wonderful Pandora's box that can be
opened up where there's gods fighting with one another and they need the
players help or there aren't gods or gods are disappeared or you you get the
idea there is a general wonderful amount of plot lines that come out of deities
and then number 10 number 10 is a particularly tricky one because the
players are going to immediately say oh oh I don't know it's your your game
number 10 is what is your character's goal for the future a lot of people
don't even know what their goal is for their own personal future here on planet
earth let alone for their character but with the character one has the ability
to project and say well I would really like my character to become a hero or I
like my character to become recognized as the greatest starship captain in the
galaxy I'd like my character to become
recognized as one of the most powerful woman and business
I want my character whatever the case might be by having that kind of goal it
gives the player something to refer to every now and again when they're going
back to their character sheet but it also gives you an opportunity as the GM
to set things up to make sure that what they want actually happens this is a
game about escapism and getting away from the real world and where our
fantasy is truly can come true so why not well why not make it happen for the
player that they carries to get to the pinnacle of their career or maybe put
them in the exact opposite position first if you're a really good Jim and
then later on as they continue to struggle against the system they rise
and finally get to the point that they want to be so asking the player what is
your character's goals for the future there's a really powerful narrative tool
that you can use for later on and that will invest them even more in their
character and with those 10 questions in my opinion you should have
a character backstory that contains enough bits and pieces that the player
becomes invested in the character and that you as the GM have got enough
threads that you can start to weave that character backstory into your grand
narrative into your master plot and have it play out in such a way that it will
be satisfactory to both you and to your player at least those are my thoughts
well until next time if you haven't shared our videos with your fellow
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