Dear player,
You are about to undertake an important phase in determining the personality of your role-playing game character. The character's background is one of the elements, which accompany the character from the very start to its final destination.
Every character has a time and place in which it was born. It has people, who raised it, and events, which shaped it as it went through them. All of these will effect the character's choices during it's adventures.
When you are given the opportunity to build the character's background, you are given the ability to create the people, the places and the events which lead the character, from the day it was born, to it's first adventure.
There are a number of approaches for building a character. You can start from day 1, and build your character chronologically from birth to its meeting with the group and it's first adventure. Or, you can start with the group, and build your way backward. A third option is to work like a puzzle, and place various events in the life of the character.
We will divide this document into three parts - the design of people, the design of places and the design of events. A forth part will be dedicated to the design of those elements mentioned above that should be included into the character's background.
THE DESIGN OF THE CHARACTERS
The characters you will need to create are those which are directly linked to your character, and had influenced it. Under this come parental figures and strong family ties, as well as mentors and close friends. Also characters who had indirect effect on your character's life and the choices it had to make, like a murderer who killed your character's brother, or a king who took high taxes, forcing your character's family into poverty.
If you are writing the character in a chronological order (from birth to the party), it is essential to note the final desired result in mind when planning the events. It might be a good idea to make a few characters, because they tend to go on a path of their own if planned that way (which is kind of good).
Non-player characters should be created in the same way, but you don't have to assign statistics to their makeup.
THE DESIGN OF PLACES
All characters spend their lives in at least one settlement. A settlement is a large arena, and can contain other places in which the character spent its time (the palace, the tavern, the jail, the church).
The important places are, as always, those, which had direct effects on the character's life. It is encouraged that you have a good feel of those places, and make maps of them for future reference. This includes both indoor and urban locations as well as the outdoors. Apart from the map you will need a short history of the location, and a firm understanding of how it effected the character.
THE DESIGN OF EVENTS
An event is anything that happens to the character and changes it in some way. One of the most important parts of background creation is the events the characters underwent. In essence, the events are comprised of characters and locations.
Eventually, the events are those which drive the character away from it's normal life and into "adventuring". Since the events eventually lead the character into the desired vocation, they should be designed carefully. Example of events can be the murder of a drunk, a hanging, or a war between cities or states.
A driving event is the event, which eventually causes the character to become an "adventurer". It can be a positive event (the character finds its vocation) or a negative one (being driven out of the city by an unjust police). In any case, it should be an event with strong emotional consequences.
Generally speaking, a character will be more interesting the more events it undergoes.
DETAILS WHICH MUST APPEAR
Every character has a background, albeit it can be a pretty boring one. All characters thus should have in their background the following details:
a) parent or mentor
b) place of inhabitance
c) family status
d) social status
e) driving event
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