Background Bonus

[Edsel]

It has been a long standing practice in our games to award a few bonus points to player characters who have a fully fleshed out background. In the past this has generally been 2 points awarded for a background story of a page in length.

 

My next campaign is a really low-powered Dark Champions campaign (50 points + 50 Disadvantages). I have decided to give up to 5 bonus starting points for backgrounds this time around. However, I intend to layout specific guidelines about what I expect for a player to earn 5 points. Below is another excerpt from my campaign document.

 

--------------------------------------------

Character Background Bonus

 

Turning in a character background (also know as a back story) can gain you up to 5 bonus points. This is why the Hero Designer campaign rules (Vigilante.hdr) are set to allow 55 points of disadvantages. If you are awarded points for a good character background the points will be added as a custom disadvantage to differentiate them from XP.

 

How Do You Get All Five Points?

 

Just because you can get up to five points for your character’s background does not mean that you will get all five. Writing a background only ensures that you will get between one and five points. In a way you are working for a grade. If you do everything right you’ll get all five points. Below are the things I am looking for in your character background.

 

Making the effort to write a background in the first place is worth one point all by its self. No matter how dreadful you are at writing or how poorly written the background is you will get a minimum of one point for making the effort.

 

Working your disadvantages into your character story is worth a point. If you have a reputation, be sure to mention how you got it. If someone is hunting your character explain why they are. If you have psychological or physical disadvantages your story should mention how the character got them and how they impede him. If you have a Secret Identity explain how you have kept your identity secret or how you came to adopt your secret life. If the character has a public identity, explain how that is working. In short tell me about how the character gained his disadvantages.

 

Your character is bound to have some unusual skills or abilities. He’ll likely have some combat skills. He might have some cat burglar-like skills (Security Systems, Lockpicking, Climbing, etc.) explain how he came to learn such things. If he a pilot where did he get his flight training. If he is a stunt driver, how did he come by such skills? A background that coveys this information is worth a point.

 

Give a character quote. Most people leave this out of their character background but it can tell a lot about the character. The quote doesn’t have to be long, often a short sentence can convey a lot. The quote should not be overly long either, no more than a few sentences. Providing a rational quote for your character is worth a point.

 

Lastly, I reserve one point for homogeneity and quality. How well do all the parts of the background mesh. How well has it all been put together. I am not trying to rate things based upon the quality of your pros, after all not everyone is a good writer. In a word I will be looking for rationality.

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I am sure that many groups out there also do something similar. What are your house rules regarding character backgrounds?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Background Bonus

 

I want to play in your games...

[radioKAOS]

Re: Background Bonus

 

All good.

 

I expect at least that from my players. I think we all should.

[Edsel]

Re: Background Bonus

 

Well, Oklahoma City is only about a 10-hour road trip from Denver...

[ghost-angel]

Re: Background Bonus

 

yeah .... so you guys normally run 9 hour sessions? 'cuz that's about the only way I'm making the commute that far for a game.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Background Bonus

 

That's a pretty cool way of doing it. I usually gave free background skills but this method, being clearly outlined works well too.

[Steve Long]

Re: Background Bonus

 

We've often done similar things in games around here, and I think it's worked quite well. In some cases we've also been willing to give larger bonuses to players who put in some effort to help the GM develop his world. For example, if there's a kingdom over there that the GM hasn't done much work on, a player can detail it and submit his work to the GM for approval. If it's approved, he gets some extra XP (and the benefits of a de facto KS regarding that kingdom ).

[Sean Waters]

Re: Background Bonus

 

Sounds good and, importantly, consistent.

 

Being a cynical so and so I might be inclined to assign up to 5 background points rather than just hand them out, but that could just be me.

 

The other way (and I know others do something like this too) that I hand out extra points is by getting players to define quirks. Each quirk is worth 1 point, and you can have as many as you like but you only get a maximum of 5 bonus character points, which can be used as normal disadvantages or take you over the baseline starting level, as you see fit.

 

Quirks are mini-lims, psychological, social or physical (or pretty much any of the disadvantages). They never have any direct in-game effect and you never have to follow them, it is just stuff you do, role playing tools. They never cause damage directly and they never require the player to make a roll to avoid doing it. The point is you do do it, so unless you specifically tell me otherwise I am entitled to assume that you are doing it this way.

 

Examples might be Mulder's munching of sunflower seeds (I thought I'd go for the more socially acceptable quirk )

A character might always offer to shake hands with their left hand

A character might like spicy food

A character may dislike redheads

A charactcer might make a distinctive sound when they walk, slightly dragging their left foot.

 

I ususally ask of at least one 'like' and one 'dislike', and whatever else you want to fill in.

 

It is useful as it makes it possible for the GM to personalise the game to the PCs in little ways, and I always look at quirks (far more than the major disadvantages, which you've already earned substantial points for) when considering a roleplaying bonus XP award.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Background Bonus

 

Looks like a good system. I've done similar in past campaigns, as both a method of encouraging players to create detailed backgrounds, and rewarding players who'd do it anyway. Of course, next time I think I'm handing out an extra bonus award for players that work together to incorperate other characters into their background story (not necessarily directly, but in a way that the PCs meeting and forming a team of some kind is not only plausable but likely).

[keithcurtis]

Re: Background Bonus

 

Here's one I've used in the past:

_________________________

 

 

SOCIAL

Aliases

 

Occupation

 

Nationality

 

Home

 

Race

 

Class (Lower, Middle, Upper)

 

Motive

 

Group

 

 

 

PHYSICAL

 

Height

 

Weight

 

Hair

 

Eyes

 

Sex

 

Starting Age

 

Appearance

 

Age Group (Adult, Mid-Age, Old)

 

 

 

RELATIONSHIPS Who they are, how you feel about them, where are they.

 

Father

 

Mother

 

Relative 1

 

Relative 2

 

Relative 3

 

Relative 4

 

Best Friend

 

Greatest Influence

 

Greatest Love

 

Greatest Hate

 

 

 

SHORT ANSWER

 

Birthplace

 

Adolescence Place

 

Adult Place

 

Favorite Color

 

Favorite Music

 

Favorite Lit

 

Hobbies

 

Social Class Birth

 

Social Class Youth

 

Social Class Now

 

 

 

 

ESSAY QUESTIONS

 

How are you like the people of your Culture?

 

How do you differ from the people of your Culture?

 

Have you ever killed?

 

What was your Greatest Achievement?

 

What was your Greatest Failure?

 

What is your Lifelong Ambition?

 

Why did you choose your Occupation?

 

Other Notes

 

 

 

Keith "It's worth 1-5 points based on completeness" Curtis

[Trebuchet]

Re: Background Bonus

 

I came up with this questionaire for our Champions campaign. It wasn't intended so much to elicit solid answers to all the questions so much as get the players thinking about these things:

 

MidGuard Campaign Character Questionnaire

 

 

Character: __________________ Player: __________________

 

1) Where and when was your character born? Who raised him, if other than his parents?

 

 

2) Are his parents still alive, and if so where do they live?

 

 

3) Does he have any siblings or other close family members beyond his parents? If so, what are their names and how much older or younger are they than your character?

 

 

4) Does he have any DNPCs who are not family, and what is the relationship?

 

 

5) Who is his closest friend? Why?

 

 

6) What does he do in his off time to relax? Does he read, hike, swim, listen to music, etc.?

 

 

7) Is your character religious? If so, what faith/denomination does he follow? How serious about it is he? (Pays lip service only, goes only on Holy Days, goes every Sunday, etc.)

 

 

8) What’s his pet peeve?

 

 

9) What would your character be doing with his life if he had never had his powers?

 

 

10) What would your character do with his life if he were to lose his powers?

 

 

11) Does he have a significant other? If so, who? If not, why not?

 

 

12) If you had to describe your character’s personality in just one word, what would that word be?

 

 

13) Is there anything else you think the GMs should know about your character’s personality and motivations?

 

 

 

IMO Keith "Showing up the competition again" Curtis' is better.

[Shike019]

Re: Background Bonus

 

My DM before character creation gave everyone a questionaire and said "Fill it out as best you can". And when he didn't feel something was clear, he asked. He didn't give points for this though, it was expected. I ended up doing a timeline (as my character is 2500 yrs old), which helped with some of the stuff (like where he learned his abilities), greatest loves, family, etc. It worked out nice, but I did also fill out the questionaire. It really got me thinking about the character and how to "Get into His Head".

[Sean Waters]

Re: Background Bonus

 

For background I'll often ask a player if he has thought of a name for his character yet, so we know who we are talking about when we get into combat. If not, I assign a number.

 

 

 

 

What?

[Tech]

Re: Background Bonus

 

How Do You Get All Five Points?

 

Just because you can get up to five points for your character’s background does not mean that you will get all five. Writing a background only ensures that you will get between one and five points. In a way you are working for a grade. If you do everything right you’ll get all five points. Below are the things I am looking for in your character background.

 

Making the effort to write a background in the first place is worth one point all by its self. No matter how dreadful you are at writing or how poorly written the background is you will get a minimum of one point for making the effort.

 

Working your disadvantages into your character story is worth a point. If you have a reputation, be sure to mention how you got it. If someone is hunting your character explain why they are. If you have psychological or physical disadvantages your story should mention how the character got them and how they impede him. If you have a Secret Identity explain how you have kept your identity secret or how you came to adopt your secret life. If the character has a public identity, explain how that is working. In short tell me about how the character gained his disadvantages.

 

Your character is bound to have some unusual skills or abilities. He’ll likely have some combat skills. He might have some cat burglar-like skills (Security Systems, Lockpicking, Climbing, etc.) explain how he came to learn such things. If he a pilot where did he get his flight training. If he is a stunt driver, how did he come by such skills? A background that coveys this information is worth a point.

 

Give a character quote. Most people leave this out of their character background but it can tell a lot about the character. The quote doesn’t have to be long, often a short sentence can convey a lot. The quote should not be overly long either, no more than a few sentences. Providing a rational quote for your character is worth a point.

 

Lastly, I reserve one point for homogeneity and quality. How well do all the parts of the background mesh. How well has it all been put together. I am not trying to rate things based upon the quality of your pros, after all not everyone is a good writer. In a word I will be looking for rationality.

 

By this standard, I would almost always get 4 or 5 points from you. The reason for not getting 5 pts all the time is that most of my heroes don't use quotes. I generally have a quote arrive by playing the character over time. I have yet to create a character where a quote has already been arrived at when my character is first created.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Background Bonus

 

"Up the Arsenal!"

 

Do I get a point?

 

 

WHAT?

[Edsel]

Re: Background Bonus

 

By this standard' date=' I would almost always get 4 or 5 points from you. The reason for not getting 5 pts all the time is that most of my heroes don't use quotes. I generally have a quote arrive by playing the character over time. I have yet to create a character where a quote has already been arrived at when my character is first created.[/quote']

The quote, I hope, will give me as the GM some insight as to how the player views their own character. Which in turn gives me an idea about what will hopefully appeal to the player in the game. Sounds kinda metaphysical doesn't it.

 

I have no problem with a character's quote changing over the course of the campaign. In fact I believe that it probably will.

 

This house rule is more elaborate than our group has ever used before. I have been playing Champions since first edition and I think that I have followed a common path.

• When I was just starting out our characters rarely had any background.
  
• Next we reached the stage where the GM pushed for a background but that was it (no bonus).
  
• We then moved on to the point where the GM would give a 2 point bonus for a background of about a page or so in length (we've done this for years).
  
• Now I've moved on to this method (the 5 point plan).
  

[Sean Waters]

Re: Background Bonus

 

I've encountered background munchkinism before: a player who has a seven or eight page 'history' which, to be honest, I might read but will never remember, then uses it to justify doing pretty much anything.

 

I personally prefer a few solid hooks I can use and an understanding with the players that anything they have not defined I can make up. I need a temporary DNPC, their sister flies in from doing missionary work in Calcutta.

 

I want the player to have a mild phobia of spiders I'm going to use this once and never again? I remind them of that nighmare that had them wetting the bed for years.

 

I was kidding about the name thing, but not by that much of a margin.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Background Bonus

 

For background I'll often ask a player if he has thought of a name for his character yet, so we know who we are talking about when we get into combat. If not, I assign a number.

 

 

 

 

What?

:sigh: Ah, yes. The hardest part about a character. Rare is the case when I start with the name, but oh, it makes things easy. I think this is why a significant number of my backgrounds tend to be written in first-person (at least to begin with); that makes it easier to write before a name is picked out.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Background Bonus

 

:sigh: Ah' date=' yes. The hardest part about a character. Rare is the case when I start with the name, but oh, it makes things easy. I think this is why a significant number of my backgrounds tend to be written in first-person (at least to begin with); that makes it easier to write before a name is picked out. [/quote']

 

Ever played City of Heroes? Nuff said.

[radioKAOS]

Re: Background Bonus

 

:sigh: Ah' date=' yes. The hardest part about a character. Rare is the case when I start with the name, but oh, it makes things easy. I think this is why a significant number of my backgrounds tend to be written in first-person (at least to begin with); that makes it easier to write before a name is picked out. [/quote']

 

You mean a normal name, or a Super Hero name?

[CourtFool]

Re: Background Bonus

 

Any extra points for a character picture? Not personally drawn. No opposable thumbs makes most llamas dreadful artists but I like to steal something from the web.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Background Bonus

 

You mean a normal name' date=' or a Super Hero name?[/quote']

Yes.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Background Bonus

 

Any extra points for a character picture? Not personally drawn. No opposable thumbs makes most llamas dreadful artists but I like to steal something from the web.

Yeah, but don't you guys have grass spit art or something?