So, me and 3 other friends are about to start a new campaign as Force sensitive bounty hunters. We just wrapped one up and one thing wished I would of done better as GM is help the players flesh out their characters a little more personality wise. We didn't really do a good job with that. I'm planning on doing a session 0 to help with that for this campaign, but I'm not really sure what to ask to get my players to think of their backstories in greater detail, how to make it interesting, and how I could relate that to the game. A list of questions to give the players while character creation is happening would be very helpful. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

For every Motivation, Obligation, Career, and Spec: Who, Why, When, Where, What? Try to get answers to all these questions. If you can't get them right away, it's fine, but you should encourage the players to flesh these out as they go. In some cases, not every single one of these is applicable or even useful, but they usually are.

Secondly, I would suggest that you encourage the player to pick 2 Motivations (and 2 Obligations, but this is a little bit looser. Sometimes it isn't worth it and doesn't really help). I have access to a very long list of types of Motivations, so I will often suggest that the players pick two primary motivations, and then consider picking an Improvement from the Engineer table and maybe a Drive from the Commander table or an Ambition if they don't already have one. I find that these will often help you as a GM and help the player get a better understanding of the character. Not entirely necessary, but I find it quite useful, particularly for my story-heavy play style.

If you are playing Heroic-level (which is what I prefer), they have a little bit more freedom to flesh out what they've done before, because by this point, the characters have had 10 sessions or so of experience (mechanical and narrative) under their belt. My take on RPG philosophy on this front is that the first session is when your life really goes off the deep-end, and that your life up to that time has been more-or-less normal. Then, in the case of heroic-level characters, they've had a fairly exciting life, but nowhere near as exciting as it's going to be.

For backstory, it should extend naturally from the Motivation(s) and Obligation(s). Alternatively, the Motivations and Obligations extend naturally from the backstory. Personally, I prefer starting with either a character concept or a backstory and then adding the Obligation and Motivations at the end of character creation, I find it works more fluidly that way.

On page 1 of chapter 2, there is a list of Generation steps. This is the order I usually go in: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 2, 8, 10.

For working on backstory, there are (in my opinion) two parts: Shallow Backstory ( why you are where you are when you are), and Deep Backstory ( w ho you are, where you're from, what you are and why you are what you are)

Random character trait generators are a good way to get creative juices flowing, but shouldn't necessarily be used to dictate your character traits. Same with random name generators. It is not infrequent that I use them, but I typically only use them to get the juices flowing. Same as random bounty generators or what-not (which might be useful for your campaign). I also do not recommend just rolling on Motivatio/Obligation charts unless the player is lacking a character concept and willing to go with pretty much whatever.

On ‎12‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 8:28 AM, 97Starvipper said:

So, me and 3 other friends are about to start a new campaign as Force sensitive bounty hunters. We just wrapped one up and one thing wished I would of done better as GM is help the players flesh out their characters a little more personality wise. We didn't really do a good job with that. I'm planning on doing a session 0 to help with that for this campaign, but I'm not really sure what to ask to get my players to think of their backstories in greater detail, how to make it interesting, and how I could relate that to the game. A list of questions to give the players while character creation is happening would be very helpful. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

I'll suggest employing what GM Chris of the Order 66 podcast calls "The Questions Three."

First Question: What Does Your Character Love? In short, what is the one thing in all the galaxy that is truly important to this character, and it doesn't have to be romantic love either. For instance, Han Solo loved the Falcon, while the Mandalorian has a paternal love for The Child. It should be something tangible, and something that the character would willingly make serious sacrifices for, as Anakin did for Padme in the prequels (much to the galaxy's detriment).

Second Question: What Does Your Character Hate? And I do mean hate with a capital H. Again, this really shouldn't be some high-minded concept, but something or someone that is tangible, though it also doesn't mean the character is going to fly off the hook and attack the object of that hatred on sight. The Mandalorian has a serious hatred for droids, only dealing with them when he absolutely must but never liking it. Leia hates the Empire, not only for what it stands for but for taking away her (adopted) family and homeworld, with Vader being the focus of a lot of that venom, even after the reveal of her familial connection to the man behind the mask.

Third Question: Why Is Your Character Involved? This one covers more of why the character is with the group, or at a certain location when the campaign begins. If the campaign is a bunch of Rebels fighting the Empire, why is that character fighting what is objectively a losing battle? If you're playing a tramp freighter crew (example: Firefly), why is your character part of that crew? Unless the PCs specifically start out not knowing one another beforehand, does your character have any connection to the other characters? WEG's templates were great at suggesting ways that different character archetypes could be connected with one another so that the tired cliché of "the party all meets in a drinking establishment" could be averted.

If you search online, there's a number of TTRPG personality questionnaires you can look at, and see what works best for you. 7th Sea (1st and 2nd edition) have a "20 Questions" approach that might prove useful to you, which can be tailored to better suit the Star Wars setting.

Also, don't be afraid to ask your players to give you a couple of short paragraphs providing a high-level overview of their character's backgrounds. You don't need them to go into intimate detail, but they should include things like early upbringing, what region of the galaxy did they hail from (or even a specific planet), one or two major events that helped shape who this character is today, and what pushed them to seek their fortunes in the larger galaxy.

Two questions I usually ask myself when making a character are:

1. What is something that my character would NEVER do?
What is that line in the sand that they will not cross? Do they refuse to ever kill? Or perhaps they won't ever use drugs? Or maybe they refuse to ever accept the help of anyone associated with the Imperial Scum.

2. What is the one thing that would make them break Question Number 1?
Most of the dramatic tension for characters, where their moral character is a significant element, is when that morality is tested. That's the entire focus of the Light/Dark temptation angle of the Force in SW, but it can apply to anything.

An example I always like to use is from the tv show Firefly. Simon Tamm, the doctor, is a pacifist at heart. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, and only wants to heal people with his medical training. But if you mess with River, he will go off on you. He will literally leap off of a catwalk, 15 feet in the air, onto your head, and you are a deadly bounty hunter, and he will not hesitate to do it. His love for his Sister is unquestioned, but it will push him to test other things he holds dear, when given a choice between the two. He will take up a gun and shoot at you, he will lie, he will steal, he will engage in espionage and basically break every rule he's ever held as worth following, if it is in the defense of River's health. And he will not think twice about it. That is the kind of detail, that helps to flesh out a characters motivations, and let a player get more into the head of the PC.

@Donovan Morningfire has good questions, that echo my two questions above.

Another question I would add is

What does your character want to accomplish? Discounting the crazy events of your campaign, if left to their own devices in life, what is their goal? Do they want to be a doctor on a frontier planet? Do they want to be a politician on Coruscant? Do they want to run a trade route with their Wookiee copilot and transport goods around the galaxy for fun and profit? People do things for a reason. They aren't "just a pilot", they became a pilot because of some driving motivation in their life. Perhaps the piloting they are currently doing at the start of your campaign is just a means to an end. Like they are simply a backup pilot on a tramp freighter, on a boring route between safe planets, but they dream of their own ship, and exploring the galaxy to see what's out there, and catalog it, because they are also a scientist. And so when they are given the opportunity with your PC party to grab at that goal, they take it. Maybe they are trying to save up money to pay off a debt for their family back home, who are indentured servants to a Hutt, or something similar. So the lucrative business proposition presented to them, is worth the risk. All of it ties back to a goal, and the player should take time to consider that.

This should help them when building the character too. Asking these questions, not only flesh out the character more, and help to inform the player on how to act given certain situational stimuli, (does he stay behind to help the villagers because he's the kind of person who can't leave people in danger? Or does he leave them to their own fate, because he isn't worried about anyone but those he cares for?), but it will also help to explain why a certain skill would have 2 ranks in it, and another has none. Because this is the kind of thing that was of interest, importance, based on the background, and thus, should be reflected with the skill investment.

1 hour ago, KungFuFerret said:

Two questions I usually ask myself when making a character are:

1. What is something that my character would NEVER do?
What is that line in the sand that they will not cross? Do they refuse to ever kill? Or perhaps they won't ever use drugs? Or maybe they refuse to ever accept the help of anyone associated with the Imperial Scum.

2. What is the one thing that would make them break Question Number 1?
Most of the dramatic tension for characters, where their moral character is a significant element, is when that morality is tested. That's the entire focus of the Light/Dark temptation angle of the Force in SW, but it can apply to anything.

Those are both pretty solid questions to ask when building a character, I will probably add those to GM Chris' Questions Three to make it the Questions Five.

What kind of game do the players want? Dont forget to include what kind of game you want to GM. You should find something that everyone will enjoy. Once you have that hten the above questions will be more relavent

Thank you everyone for the responses so far. You have given me a lot of resources and things to think about. We are planning on meeting on tuesday to discuss where we want to go with this. I'll give an update when we reach a conclusion on backgrounds and what type of campaign we decide to do.

I have a three question test that I use to flesh out their feelings on the Rebellion and the Empire.

1. Has your character ever KNOWINGLY offered aid to the Rebellion or the Empire? What happened

2. Did the recipient of the aid KNOW that it was you offering it?

3. If given the opportunity, would you offer aid again?

If the answer to all three of those questions is yes, then the character is for all intents and purposes a member of the Rebellion or Empire.

Also a big fan of the 3 questions Jerry Holkins asked his players at the start of The C Team.

1. What is your secret reason for joining The Party?

2. Who is someone you have wronged?

3. What is something you would kill to know/possess?