Character Story
…or Exploiting Character Details for the Good of All
Characters. More than in books, more even than in video games, characters are the driving force in every tabletop roleplaying game. Movies or books can be plot-driven. Video games can tie you to the rails of their story. But in TTRPGs, more than in any other medium, we open our narratives up so players can engage with them on their own terms. They can take our plotline, they can skirt it, or they can turn their backs and go in a completely different direction. This puts the collaborative in 'collaborative storytelling' in a way that's impossible in other art forms.
But this isn't just something for us GMs to complain about, it's also a powerful tool we can use to elevate the level of our campaigns. When we harness our PCs and their plot-wrecking urges, instead of merely accommodating them, it makes our stories better.
HERO was one of the early games to make a mechanic out of this. When you create a character in HERO, you gain character points by coming up with disadvantages. These are flaws in the character's backstory that can influence the ongoing campaign: enemies that chase hir or personality traits that make hir life difficult. GMs could use these plot elements to tailor the campaign to personalize it, investing the players in a way that simple participation couldn't.
While disadvantages are a powerful mechanic, they're not the only way we can draw in our players. Let's consider the issue today.
WHY SHOULD I EVEN CARE?
We've all been in campaigns where we couldn't make it to a session. The next time we went, it felt like it didn't make any difference to the story whether we were there or not. For whatever reason, our characters weren't engaged in the plot.
That's a huge problem. If it's systemic, it's the kind that can wreck an entire campaign.
So how do we consistently, conscientiously engage all of our players?
The answer? Character-based stories. I mean, there are other ways, don't get me wrong. But one of the most fundamental ways to engage your PCs on a personal level is to plan character-based stories in your campaign.
Now, if, when I say 'character-based story', it brings to your mind sweeping story arcs that focus entirely on a single player, slow it down there, chummer. That's a valid way to explore character stories in your campaign, for sure, but it's probably overkill. For one thing, a lot of players don't want an entire story centered on them. For another thing, a lot of players aren't interested in a story centered on one of the other players' characters. Finally, it can be hard to draw certain character types into stories that are focused on another character type. What is a rogue going do during the storyline focused on the cleric's quest to get herbs to heal beggars? If the rogue's player isn't a particularly strong roleplayer, ze's going to be bored for the entire session, that's what ze's going to do.
However, all adventures and most sessions have downtime, where different PCs tend to split up and do their own things. These segments are the perfect place to introduce brief interludes that focus on a specific character and a single aspect of hir life. 'Brief' is the key word: Presenting subplots in small, serial chunks keeps the one-on-one time short. By spreading them out over multiple sessions, it also gives the player more incentive to show up.
If you engage a PC when ze's on hir own like this, ze has the option whether to involve any of the other PCs in the story. Ze might want to; ze might want to involve the entire party. Letting the player be the one to make that decision, though, gives hir agency to tell hir own story, hir way.
MINING CHARACTER BACKSTORY
"That sounds amazing," I hear you say, "but I play 3rd edition D&D. There's no such thing as character background in 3.5!" to which I'd reply specifically, "Try out the Hero Builder's Guidebook Wizards put out way back in 2000," and more generally, "No problem! It's never too late to start building character!"
The most natural time to instigate backstory, of course, is when you're creating characters. If you don't use a PC Questionnaire in your new campaigns already, consider making one. It can be as simple as 3 or 4 questions about the character's birth and adolescence, or as complicated as you like (and your players will tolerate). When I make a campaign questionnaire, I call it '20 questions'. I have 10-15 multiple choice questions that give various options related to the world in which the campaign takes place. I like to add in one or two ranking questions that make the players think about their characters' priorities. I wrap it up with a handful of short-answer questions that ask about the character's state of mind or motivations. For incentive, I offer each player a reward for completing the test, and I keep each copy so I can use it later in the game for plot ideas.
Doing this lets the player (and me) get to know hir character before play. It also tells me where ze came from and what interests hir so I have some ideas about what kinds of things to throw at hir.
Even if you're already in the middle of a campaign, though, there are things you can do to investigate PC backstory. Savage Worlds has a brilliant mechanic they call Interludes. They explain them this way: "Interludes are tales the players tell in-character to roleplay, enhance a long travel scene, or reveal the backstories they've put so much effort into." (Savage Worlds Adventure Edition - 2018 printing, p.130, "Interludes") Basically, the player narrates, rules-free, either a minor pastime in which the character is engaged or an anecdote from hir life. Since they don't have any impact on the current story, there are no rolls nor rules involved--they simply illuminate the character's past or personality. The GM gets a bit of backstory on the PC, and the player receives a reward: in Savage Worlds, a Benny, although you can do similar things in other systems. Action Points. Temporary Hit Points. Whatnot.
If you don't like that, you can always ask questions more directly. When I ran a player's Metamagic Initiation in Shadowrun, I handed the player a form with blanks for two or three childhood details and a couple of old friends. (Can you tell I love pop quizzes? lol) I had everything I needed for his vision quest, and all I had to do was ask.
PERSONAL GOALS: THE ONGOING EPIC
Backstory isn't the only source you have for character stories, either. A PC's ongoing interests are often just as relevant or more than hir past.
I don't remember where I picked up the mechanic, but I tried out something new when I ran a Legend campaign a while back. Legend measures experience in terms of improvement rolls, mind you. I didn't award bonus improvement rolls based on roleplaying or story quests this time. Instead, I had each player write down a short-term goal and a long-term goal at the beginning of each session. A Short-Term Goal was something the character wanted to accomplish during the episode. The Long-Term Goal was something the PC was working toward, but wouldn't be able to finish in one sitting. These were things the character wanted to do, mind you, so "Kill 5 bad guys" or "Make 2 critical hits" wasn't going to cut it. They often turned out being stuff like "Find a way to turn this bear hide into armor" or "Make some extra cash for a new sword". At the end of each session, I went around to each player and asked, "Did you accomplish your Short-Term Goal, and if so then how? Did you make progress toward your Long-Term Goal, and if so then how?" If the player said yes and had a reasonable explanation, I gave one improvement roll. If not, I didn't.
Note that players would often admit, "No, I didn't," and that I seldom had to police the players' answers. When somebody made a silly claim, the other players usually jumped on them before I did. Basically, I let the players decide whether they got extra experience or not. It might not work in every group, but it worked really well for me.
However you choose to do it, though, it's helpful to your campaign to encourage your players to have personal goals for their PCs and to follow through on them. You get additional story ideas, your players get to flesh out their characters, and they get more to do during sessions. It's a win-win!
If you’d like to see an example of a PC Questionnaire, check out these examples:
So how do your players make their characters' lives interesting between adventures? What methods do you use to draw out information on your PCs? Let me know in the comments!
Game well, my friends,
Jonathan Andrews
