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Stairc's Character Questionaire

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Stairc's Character Questionaire Empty Stairc's Character Questionaire

Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Mon Sep 09, 2013 5:18 pm

I've been asked by a lot of players and DMs about how I start planning a campaign. Normally I point them to Chris Perkins' "The Dungeon Master Experience" articles, but remind them that a good campaign is built around great characters. In order to spice up the character creation process, I send this questionaire out to all prospective players in a campaign. These questions are meant to inspire the player to invent interesting answers and think more deeply about their characters than race, level and abilities. I've found it very helpful as a starting point in the ongoing character development process before a campaign.

A lot of players write backstories for their characters, but there is a specific kind of information that is very useful to GMs when designing adventures around the player characters. GMs get the most out of knowing motivations, significant characters in the PC's life, important organizations and locations and other information as well. This questionaire is also designed to provide the GMs with useful information above and beyond most standard backstories. I've found it even more helpful for that reason.


1) What makes your character get out of bed in the morning?
 
2) What keeps your character awake at night?
 
3) What would your character dive into fire to obtain?
 
4) What does your character think he or she wants more than anything?
 
5) What does your character actually want more than anything?
 
6) Who is the most important person in your character’s life? Why? Describe the most important moment in your character’s relationship with that person.
 
7) What is the most important place in your character’s life? Why? Describe the most important moment your character ever spent in that place.
 
8] How would you summarize your character in 1 sentence?
 
9) What do you, as a player and artist, hope to gain by playing *this* character?

10) What's a distinctive visual feature that makes your character stand out? Such as a vicious scar across a man's throat that makes him talk in a rasping voice, or the emblem of a white lion set into his ever-present armor.

11) How are your values connected to your character’s values?

12) What secret would your character least like the world to know?

13) What is the most important organization to your character’s life? Why? Describe the most important moment in your character’s relationship with that organization. Some possibilities include a church, a guild or a political council. Feel free to create the organization yourself, or use one of the existing organizations within the world (information on that will be included in the campaign options).
 
14) How are at least two ways your character might change by the end of the campaign? For example, playing a dark character that develops guilt and seeks to make amends (redemption plot), playing a young innocent excited for adventure that could end up disillusioned (maturation plot), or a character numbed by loss that learns to trust friendship again (resurrection plot).
 
15) Why do you, as a player, want to play in this campaign? What are your favorite parts of roleplaying?
Stairc -Dan Felder
Stairc -Dan Felder
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Stairc's Character Questionaire Empty Re: Stairc's Character Questionaire

Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Tue Dec 02, 2014 8:02 pm

Here are some examples of the Questionnaire being filled out for my own campaigns. Often it's good for a GM to provide feedback on the initial drafts, either asking for more detail in specific sections or clarification if any areas seem contradictory. Here are two final drafts of characters used by players in one of my campaigns.

Cyrus Mori (Played by Nehiel)

Nathan Skye (played by Lapis Lazily)
Stairc -Dan Felder
Stairc -Dan Felder
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Gender : Male
Posts : 3099
Join date : 2012-07-19

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