Ones and Zeros: WISH revisited

WISH revisited

September 15, 2002

How do you like to build character backgrounds? Do you think they are important or not? Do you prefer to write an elaborate background, or fill in later? Do you find character quizzes like the one in the ADRPG or related exercises like the round of questions in Everway character development to be useful?

This is a good one for me, since I'm at the character building stage for Rick's campaign. I'll describe my mental process in building my character submission and then outline what I think I'm going to do from here. I tend to write reasonably detailed backgrounds, but I like to leave some hooks for the GMs to fill in. Tom is a snapshot of how I work on the character creation process. The indented material is my inital submission to Rick. When I wrote it, I knew no more than 2 sentences about any other character

Thomas Burdon

The name came first. Looking back, it comes from Everway (Burden), Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton and Jack Burton.

Tom was born Jan 1, 1901, and so is 27 at the time of the game start. He is currently attending Arkham and paying for it by working as a custodian. His parents are dead and it's probable that the job is a sympathy thing involving someone in the faculty or administration who knew his parents, who come from an old Arkham family. Possibly, father was a professor?

This gives the age and family and job. The 1/1/1901 thing is borrowed from a comic book character named Jenny Sparks, who is supposed to be the spirit of the age, and who was born with the century. Tom is going to get in a lot of fights and deal with serious wierdness, so that fit. I wanted him to be poor since we had several rich kids in the group. I thought about making him a labor agitator, but the student/custodian seemed more likely to actually play with the rich kids. Plus, munchkin-like, I recalled that custodians might get keys! Since I don't know who the PCs/NPCs are, how exactly he got the job and what other connections he has to the university are left as hooks to be worked out with Rick at a later date.

Tom lied about his age and fought in Europe in the Great War, and was involved, somehow, in the Irish civil war shortly thereafter. He doesn't talk about it, but it's sorta clear that something happened over there that affected him strongly and he ended up back in Arkham.

Gotta answer this one for anyone who was of-age or near-age when the war started. Tom's a fighter, so he's gonna get into this one. The Irish civil war gives him something to do until about 1923, and lets me tie him to some history I'm particularly fond of. I'm likely to later tie it to Michael Collins and his death at a place called "The Mouth of Flowers", which is probably much more Buffy/Cthulhu-esque than the history books show. This also gives Tom some reason to believe in wierd shit happening.

I am imagining Tom as a trouble-magnet. He'll probably end up fighting with the Lincoln Brigade in Spain in a few years and may end up with the Flying Tigers in China.

If he gets out of Arkhamdale...

Played by Paul Darrow (although the Roger Moore in this photo looks interesting as well...)

We use Paul Darrow for Julian in House of Cards and he has a great presence. This young picture fits my mental image of Tom pretty well.

If we go with trouble-magnet, that sounds like a hero, which I know you were looking to not overload. I have more development to do (what's he studying? why? who does he know?). I certainly see a potential for class conflict with Astorbilt.

This is where I start looking at the next set of questions. From here, Tom is playable. I know who he is and what he would be like if the game didn't change him any. I need more. In some games I've created character background fiction. In some I create a dossier. Tom needs more family. He needs to know what he's studying. He needs to know how and why he's here. He needs to know what happened to his parents. All that. But at least some of it needs to be part of what gets revealed in play. If I resolve all the mysteries, then there aren't any left for Rick to hit me with... I like Tom. He'll be fun. That's what writing a background does for me. When I know I can play a believeable character and that I expect to have fun, then I've got enough background for now. I dunno the answers to the Everway and ADRPG questions. I've never developed a character that way.

.:Posted by Michael on September 15, 2002 10:28 PM:.