Character Development: Flashbacks
(This is a repost. This article was originally posted on August 9, 2008.)
We’re all familiar with the use of the flashback in literature, film, and television: The “current” narration fades out, showing us a sequence that establishes some event or events that took place in the past of the story. This device is used to provide important backstory (and, sometimes, to retcon, changing “what really happened” in the past).
I’ve seen relatively few people use the device in roleplaying games, but it can be an excellent method of character development. It makes a good break between the wrap-up of one major quest or story arc and the initiation of the next. It also makes a great filler on a night when one or two members of your group can’t make the game, but the rest want to play something.
At the beginning of the typical campaign, the player characters either already know each other, or they’re being brought together for the first time by a plot thread or through sheer coincidence. Hopefully each player already has in mind at least a basic backstory for his character, and sharing parts of these backstories may be a major aspect of the first few sessions, especially if the characters are just getting to know each other. Meanwhile, the game master has at least a rough idea of the recent past history of the various locations from which the characters originally hail.
Categories: Advice | Comments (2)
What are the Best 4e Ability Score Arrays?
I’ve been following an interesting thread about 4e ability score arrays at ENWorld. Poster 77IM calculated all of the possible arrays on a 22-point buy, and posted the list. Turns out there are 121 unique arrays, in case you were wondering.
Then the analysis began.
Categories: Philosophy and Rants, Player Advice | Comments (2)
Character Development: Quick and Dirty Backgrounds
Ever needed to sketch out a replacement player character or a major NPC when time is short? Want to add a little depth to that cult leader or the deputy mayor? Sometimes you just don’t have the time to dedicate to preparing a full, in-depth background — or you want to leave some room for a character’s background to grow and change as the game requires. Maybe you’re starting a new campaign, and you want something that will break the ice without tying the characters down with too many specifics before they all know each other.
By asking a handful of questions, you can generate a usable character, with a skeletal background, within 15 minutes.
Categories: Advice, Player Advice | Comments (3)
The Making of a Villain
Since I promised to share some stories about adapting and running with players’ ideas along the way, here’s a topical one. It’s about a superhero campaign I ran almost ten years ago, and how through sheer serendipity I ended up with a villain who became a recurring antagonist through much of its run.
The Enigma was never intended to be a recurring character. He was a fairly stock character — a “superhumanly-skilled normal” motivated, originally, by fame. His modus operandi was the theft of bizarre objects; his targets included the world’s largest ball of string, a symphony orchestra, and several hundred tons of green tea. And he’d leave his calling card, reading “It’s an enigma,” in anticipation of the inevitable question: Why?
The Enigma wasn’t a very dangerous guy. He could have been; he was a technical and scientific genius, a talented athlete, a well-trained thief, and pretty handy in general. But he wasn’t interested in causing outright harm. He was certainly no murderer. He was simply an audacious headline-grabber. I imagined the characters would hunt him down, confront him, and ultimately emerge victorious. The Enigma was a gentle sort of villain-of-the-week, a four-color-style antagonist to throw into the campaign early to help establish the high-heroic flavor I was after. This was at a time when dark anti-heroes were all the rage, but none of us wanted to play that way, so the Enigma would be a bit of insurance against it.
Categories: Adventure Design 101, My Campaigns | Comments (5)
Character Development: Hot Potato
Are your players starting to get predictable? Does your group include that guy who always plays a brooding loner with a katana, or a shining and virtuous knight? Do you want to shake things up a bit, but without being heavy-handed about it?
I have a character creation method I call the Hot Potato that I use when I feel a new campaign needs something a little different. Provided your players are reasonably mature, this method might work for you, too.
The basic idea is simple: Each player gets to write a part of another player’s background.
In its simplest form, you choose a player to start off the process. That player chooses another player, and states one fact about that other player’s background. This might be anything from “Your little brother disappeared mysteriously when you were ten years old” to “Your father was a stablehand in the Duke’s employ” to “Your favorite color is red”. Whatever statement is chosen is true for that character, and the player should work it into the character’s background and personality.
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