Pre-game Questionnaire

[Avoraciopoctules]

I'm putting together a brief questionnaire for players in my games so we can both get a better feel for what the characters are going to be like before we start play. (Questions from http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/gami ... tions.html )
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1. Who does your character look up to? If there isn't anyone your character looks up to right now, was there someone in their past?

2. Is there anything your character regrets doing/not doing?

3. What would your character do if he/she suddenly became independently wealthy?

4. What offer would be irresistable enough for your character to betray his/her friends?

5a. What does your character feel trapped by?
5b. How does your character react to being trapped?
5c. What does your character fear being trapped by?

6a. What are your character's short term goals?
6b. What are your character's long term goals?
6c. Where does your character picture him/herself 20 years from now?

7. What would your character like to be remembered for after his/her death?

8. What is one task your character would absolutely refuse to do? (i.e. kill a baby, admit you were wrong, commit adultery, etc?)

9. Is there any race, creed, alignment, religion or the like against which your character is strongly prejudiced? Why?

10. Is there anything your character regrets doing/not doing?

11. What was the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for your character?
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Any ideas for changes or additions/subtractions from the list?

[MGuy]

Background: Family?
Do they still exist (alive dead?)
What do they do?,
Names?
Why do you adventure?
What are your goals?
Friends/Contacts? Do you know what they are? Do you have them?
List Character Quirks (they don't have to be enforced or given mechanics but if you have the players think about them something may click)

[Avoraciopoctules]

Background: Family?
Do they still exist (alive dead?)
What do they do?,
Names?

Perhaps something like:
12. What is your character's relationship with his/her family?

That compacts most of the above into the possible answers to a single question and allows for a player to give answers that widely vary in detail and length.

Why do you adventure?
What are your goals?

I think #6 has this pretty well covered.

Friends/Contacts? Do you know what they are? Do you have them?
List Character Quirks (they don't have to be enforced or given mechanics but if you have the players think about them something may click)

If phrased as questions, I could see something like the following:
13. Most people are part of some kind of social network. Does your character belong to such a community?
14. What sorts of things do most people notice about your character's appearance and mannerisms?

[Koumei]

Reminds me of a "Fleshing out your character" article in a Rifter, one of the few objectively useful things in the Palladium Megaverse.

[Orca]

Keep it simple. At least in my experience, 20 questions is too many - the results the GM got back clearly indicated that noone had thought much about all the answers they gave. A dozen questions, including subquestions, should be enough to get something useful.

[Maj]

Why do you adventure?

I cannot emphasize how important this question is.

I think #6 has this pretty well covered.

Maybe the goals part, but not the motivation part.

In our group, asking why a character adventures changes entire plot lines because the players have a guiding reason of why their characters are doing what they're doing. When they don't answer this question, the games tend to be hack & slash with no focused story because "following the main character around so the party stays together" isn't really a direction or motivation.

[Gelare]

7. What would your character like to be remembered for after his/her death?

How do you suppose aspiring liches would answer this question?

[Judging__Eagle]

three groups of three?

Goals
What do you want your character to do? have? be?

Biases
What do you like, fear, hate?

Aspect
What do you look like, act like, speak like?

[Guyr Adamantine]

7. What would your character like to be remembered for after his/her death?

How do you suppose aspiring liches would answer this question?

Undead and kickin'.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Keep it simple. At least in my experience, 20 questions is too many - the results the GM got back clearly indicated that noone had thought much about all the answers they gave. A dozen questions, including subquestions, should be enough to get something useful.

Where do you suggest I trim questions?

Why do you adventure?

I cannot emphasize how important this question is.

I think #6 has this pretty well covered.

Maybe the goals part, but not the motivation part.

In our group, asking why a character adventures changes entire plot lines because the players have a guiding reason of why their characters are doing what they're doing. When they don't answer this question, the games tend to be hack & slash with no focused story because "following the main character around so the party stays together" isn't really a direction or motivation.

Generally quite valid. However, this only applies if the character does adventure. In a game where you are a midranking officer in a company of Blood War mercenaries, a corporate security force defending a magical rift from shadowrunners, or a computer built into Facility 97, this doesn't fit as well as something more vague might.

I should certainly see if I can work the "Why" into the current "What" for question 6.

7. What would your character like to be remembered for after his/her death?

How do you suppose aspiring liches would answer this question?

I see 3 basic possibilities.

Either not remembered at all, remembered for being apparently mostly harmless in spite of joining up with Team Evil, or remembered for the horrible fates that befell any who dared attempt to mess with the phylactery when it was being built.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Here's an example using one of my current PCs.

I have stats and a portrait: http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.p ... tid=146781

I have a premise:

Xophtial is a Blood War veteran and a full member in good standing with the Stonereavers. She often acts as the commanding officer for small (5-30) bands of warriors (generally level 3-4), but takes solo troubleshooting work when she feels like a sort of vacation. Xophtial despises the idea of "fair" fights when life and death is at stake, and she generally seeks to seize a significant advantage of some kind before committing herself to battle.

Xophtial was originally a planar elf who lived relatively simply in Arvandor (assuming relatively bland background, but she was probably a militia member), but when the Theocracy attacked and destroyed the Seldarine for little discernible reason, she fled to Outland, having lost faith in the safety of serving the Powers, but still outraged at what she viewed as an atrocity beyond description. The Spire was much safer than the war-torn lands she fled from, and she survived and thrived working as a minor troubleshooter/hired muscle. Eventually, she found a growing company of warriors with grudges against the Theocracy, the Stonereavers. She signed on with them.

The Stonereavers needed more resources and experience, and made the decision to get these by participating on one or more sides of the Blood War. They worked with yugoloths more often than not, and have since done reasonably well for themselves. Currently, the Stonereavers have a large base in Outland, several thousand full members, and around 5 times that number of associates they refer work to and sometimes collaborate with. Recently, senior members such as Xophtial have started looking at the possibility of actively working against the Theocracy, but the Stonereavers are still primarily focused on amassing more allies and resources.

Now, I am given a questionnaire to flesh out my character with details that will give me a better feel for playing her and give the two other DMs in the game various plothooks.
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1. Who does your character look up to? If there isn't anyone your character looks up to right now, was there someone in their past?

The Stonereaver leadership and her original recruiting officer are Xophtial's primary role models. She also greatly respects the alchemists she studied with in order to develop the ability to make the demonblood potions that gave her fiendish powers. Finally, back when she was a hired thug in Outland, Xophtial got in over her head defending a train from a necromancer's army of zombies while the crew attempted to restart the magically heated bars that boiled water in the steam engine. She was saved by Aetheros, a mage who specialized in channeling the power of positive energy. Xophtial thinks he is cute, wise, and impressively powerful, and often talks to her closest friends about how "dreamy" that white mage she met all those years ago was. She has met Aetheros again a few times since then, and she is starting to think that she may have fallen in love.


2. Is there anything your character regrets doing/not doing?

Xophtial occasionally regrets her choice to seize fiendish power to bolster her own abilities when she realizes how it has twisted and distorted her mind and body. Though her personality and reasoning are mostly intact, she is definitely different now.


3. What would your character do if he/she suddenly became independently wealthy?

Hire a Yugoloth negotiator and mercenary band to supplement the Stonereaver forces. Try and convince a few allies to offer support, then immediately launch several raids against the material plane the Theocracy is based on, retrieving souls to use in further transactions.


4. What offer would be irresistable enough for your character to betray his/her friends?

The knowledge, power, and opportunity to take over a layer of the Abyss with a very high chance of success and a good chance of holding onto it for at least a year.


5a. What does your character feel trapped by?

Combat (and in some cases, social) situations where she does not have tricks in reserve. Xophtial is fairly comfortable facing danger, even if it is something that clearly outclasses her in one or more areas, so long as she has yet to fully commit herself. She feels in control of the situation if she downplays her abilities, knowing that she can reveal a new weapon or tactic when her current array seem insufficient. The idea that she has no capacity to alter the balance of power further is terrifying even when she seems likely to win the current fight, since it means that any observers just learned all her tricks.


5b. How does your character react to being trapped?

She panics and either flees or begs for a reprieve. Xophtial needs time to compose herself after a shock like learning that she is out of surprises. Fighting is fun, but she needs to be in certain state of mind to do it effectively. Terror is likely to incapacitate her, and Xophtial is very unlikely to keep struggling in a situation she sees as hopeless without special inspiration.


5c. What does your character fear being trapped by?

Xophtial is very worried about making commitments she feels she might not still be dedicated to in a few hundred years. She values her word of honor, though she has no problem pretending to be less than she is or casually lying. Thus, Xophtial is concerned when someone asks her to make a long-term promise and she is very careful in phrasing them.

In addition, Xophtial is worried that if she focuses on developing her personal power too much, she will lose sight of what is important and become as sickeningly unreasonable as some of the worse fiends she's met in the past. She fights this by consciously focusing on spending at least some of her time on hobbies, vacations, and exploring new ideas not directly related to advancing her own capabilities.


6a. What are your character's short term goals?

Acquire more power and allies for the Stonereavers. Secondarily, do the same for herself.

Try to maintain purity of doctrine in the Stonereavers

Locate Aetheros, proceed to awkwardly profess love and attempt to convince him that the two of them should team up more permanently.

Act to impede the expansion and reinforcement of the Theocracy's outposts on the Outer Planes.

Acquire the souls of at least a dozen Theocracy paladins


6b. What are your character's long term goals?

Take over a minor layer of the Abyss, then gradually try and shift its nature to something more moderate.

Reestablish an elven city in Arvandor

Cut off the Theocracy from the outer planes

Destroy the the Theocracy once and for all, ideally by turning its component factions against each other.


6c. Where does your character picture him/herself 20 years from now?

The ruler of a former abysmal layer she succeeded in shifting to Outland, and a general waging a brutal and costly war against the Theocracy with hordes of assorted allies.


7. What would your character like to be remembered for after his/her death?

Xophtial wants to end the Theocracy. She believes the multiverse would be a better, more beautiful and pleasant place if it were forever eradicated. If she dies, she wants to leave a legacy that will greatly aid in the effort to fight it.


8. What is one task your character would absolutely refuse to do? (i.e. kill a baby, admit you were wrong, commit adultery, etc?)

Inflict unnecessary harm on animals or other stupid (but not mindless) creatures. Xophtial is a gleeful sadist who revels in the suffering of others, but she feels too much guilt to enjoy tormenting creatures she can't convince herself deserve it. She is quite competent at the mental contortions necessary to justify an attack on most people, but if she sees something as innocent or truly precious, Xophtial finds it difficult to inflict any sort of harm on it even if that sets back her goals.


9. Is there any race, creed, alignment, religion or the like against which your character is strongly prejudiced? Why?

In addition to her obvious hatred of the Theocracy, Xophtial is exceptionally mean towards most fey. She claims that this is because she finds them frivolous and consistently rude, but the truth of the matter is that she simply finds the suffering of nature spirits to be incredibly delicious. Just being near one fills her with a desire to taste its fear and pain. Because of this, spending time with fey she can find no justification to hurt is actually a little painful for her, which often translates to brusque and harsh manners.


10. Is there anything your character regrets doing/not doing?

Ha. Duplicate question. Avoraciopoctules, you are lame.


11. What was the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for your character?

Shortly after she fled Arvandor, Xoptial was saved from a dire situation by a Curator named Aetheros, instigating a romance sideplot that will give me many opportunities to steal Marta's lines from ToS2 for my own amusement and possibly add drama to the story. This is covered in more detail in some of the above questions.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Now that I've filled out the questions once myself, this is definitely feeling a bit big, even when I discount the duplicate question. I definitely added depth to the character, but I should probably trim at least one or two more questions before I ask anyone in our group to fill it out. Any thoughts?

[mean_liar]

Telling the player to choose 5 to answer would tighten it up.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Aha! Yes, that should work quite well. It should help cut down on redundancy (in both answers and questions) as well. Thank you.