Many many moons ago, I had an WEG Star Wars web page with a whole bunch of GM materials for public consumption. Of everything I had, this document was probably the best thing in my bag of tricks. Since my page is long gone, I thought I'd dig the document out and post it here for you guys. Just answer the questions (or as many as you can) and BOOM - instant background!

Enjoy!

- The Basics -
01 - What is your full name?

02 - List any and all aliases used. (How long in use? Why?)

03 - How old are you?

04 - Where were you born?

05 - Do you have any relatives and how close are you?

06 - Describe your parents, including current status.

07 - Where are these relatives now?

08 - What was/is your families social status (Poor? Well-to-do? Wealthy?)

- Background -
09 - What is your level of education?

10 - Where did you study?

11 - Do you hold any degrees?

12 - What jobs, positions, or titles have you held? (When? Where?)

13 - Did you ever serve in the military?

14 - Do you have a criminal record? (Why? Are you still wanted?)

15 - Where do you live now?

16 - Where did you spend most of your life?

17 - Name two notable places you've visited

18 - Are you or have you ever been married or romantically involved? (With who?

19 - Describe a significant event from childhood and/or adolescence.

20 - Describe a significant event from adulthood.

21 - Did you know or know of other characters (either PCs or NPC) prior to beginning this campaign?

22 - How do you describe your lifestyle?

23 - Do you have any enemies (who?/why?)

24 - What conflicts might arise due to your past?

25 - Do you have any friends or contacts? (where are they now?)

26 - Do you have any dependents?

27 - Do you have any pets?

28 - What are your hobbies?

29 - What awards and honors have your received?

30 - List a couple of your favorite music/bands.

31 - List a couple of your favorite foods/drink.

32 - List a couple of your favorite equipment/vehicles/toys

- Personality -
33 - List three physical traits.

34 - List three positive (or 'good') mental traits.

35 - List three negative (or 'evil') mental traits.

36 - List three social traits.

37 - Any quirks and habits, both good and bad?

- Outlook on life -
38 - What are your short term goals?

39 - What are your long term goals?
40 - What are your companion's goals (both long and short term)
41 - What are your hopes and fears?

42 - What is it that drives you?

43 - Do you have a religion or believe in a mystical energy? (what are the disciplines of your faith?)

44 - What would you like to be doing in 5 years?
45 - Were do you see yourself in 10 years?

46 - How do you see yourself?
47 - How do other see you?
48 - In a short paragraph tell of your most vivid memory:

- Bonus Questions -

49 - What is a secret that your character may or may not know?

50 - What is you greatest failure ? (and how do you see it)

Wow! Very useful, especially for new gamers, but I can see this as a way for anyone to get in quickly. Of course though, I demand the final two steps!

E

49 - What is a secret that your character may or may not know?

Next!

50 - What is you greatest failure ? (and how do you see it)

Ew, this reads like a job interview. I don't hate my players that much.

Too many questions, in my opinion. I wrote a blog thing about this a while ago, trying to have only a couple questions, but get a bit more into them. http://carrotstickheroes.blogspot.com/2012/02/trying-to-flesh-out-characters-from.html

Depends on the group I suppose, my bunch wouldn't even look at the list let alone actually answer them. I can usually get some character background and such if I offer a small xp bonus for anyone who provides me with a certain amount of info, but even then not everyone bothers.

E

Yeah, I think a GM needs to be pretty **** comfortable with his group before handing them something like this. Most players are probably going to get very discouraged from playing the game if this is the first thing they see.

Well this is fantastic. Not sure how the 'vets' will like this but it's a great resource for us beginners. I doubt I'll follow it to the number but it gives me ideas of character creation I hadn't thought of.

I think this a great list and tool. Great work. If players balk at this, they should be playing a board game. Really, it is not like they have to use all of it, it is just great for generating ideas and getting the creative juices flowing.

Thing is, you don't have to answer all of them. Pick and choose as you see fit. I just filled it out for my Princess turned Smuggler and wound up discarding 10 or so questions that just weren't germane to her background. However, what I did use filled in some insight to the character I hadn't considered - she's an imperial supporter, dislikes the Jedi and is secretly an adrenaline junkie. That's three facets I didn't consider when building her originally.

So yeah, it is a lot of work, but I think it's worth it - but then I've always been an overachiever when it comes to my characters. (:

It is a darn good and detailed list. A bit lengthy for some players, but a really good idea provoker for others.

I just finished a resume writing class today, and this looks really similar to the kind of questions you might get asked for a job interview. Useful, but would get exhausting to try to do them all in one go.

I agree that this is a lot to answer. Certainly it is more than I want to answer before play. However asking each player to pick ten or so questions from the list and answer them about their character would go a long way to helping establish new characters as people.

I have given short character questionnaires to players before, likewise similar campaign style and focus questionnaires, when the players will go along they are very useful.

If the players all want to play Sith-hunting Jedi-wannabes there is no point in writing an adventure about fine arts forgery and smuggling among the Coruscant elite.

Many many moons ago, I had an WEG Star Wars web page with a whole bunch of GM materials for public consumption. Of everything I had, this document was probably the best thing in my bag of tricks. Since my page is long gone, I thought I'd dig the document out and post it here for you guys. Just answer the questions (or as many as you can) and BOOM - instant background!

Enjoy!

- The Basics -

01 - What is your full name?

02 - List any and all aliases used. (How long in use? Why?)

03 - How old are you?

04 - Where were you born?

05 - Do you have any relatives and how close are you?

06 - Describe your parents, including current status.

07 - Where are these relatives now?

08 - What was/is your families social status (Poor? Well-to-do? Wealthy?)

- Background -

09 - What is your level of education?

10 - Where did you study?

11 - Do you hold any degrees?

12 - What jobs, positions, or titles have you held? (When? Where?)

13 - Did you ever serve in the military?

14 - Do you have a criminal record? (Why? Are you still wanted?)

15 - Where do you live now?

16 - Where did you spend most of your life?

17 - Name two notable places you've visited

18 - Are you or have you ever been married or romantically involved? (With who?

19 - Describe a significant event from childhood and/or adolescence.

20 - Describe a significant event from adulthood.

21 - Did you know or know of other characters (either PCs or NPC) prior to beginning this campaign?

22 - How do you describe your lifestyle?

23 - Do you have any enemies (who?/why?)

24 - What conflicts might arise due to your past?

25 - Do you have any friends or contacts? (where are they now?)

26 - Do you have any dependents?

27 - Do you have any pets?

28 - What are your hobbies?

29 - What awards and honors have your received?

30 - List a couple of your favorite music/bands.

31 - List a couple of your favorite foods/drink.

32 - List a couple of your favorite equipment/vehicles/toys

- Personality -

33 - List three physical traits.

34 - List three positive (or 'good') mental traits.

35 - List three negative (or 'evil') mental traits.

36 - List three social traits.

37 - Any quirks and habits, both good and bad?

- Outlook on life -

38 - What are your short term goals?

39 - What are your long term goals?

40 - What are your companion's goals (both long and short term)

41 - What are your hopes and fears?

42 - What is it that drives you?

43 - Do you have a religion or believe in a mystical energy? (what are the disciplines of your faith?)

44 - What would you like to be doing in 5 years?

45 - Were do you see yourself in 10 years?

46 - How do you see yourself?

47 - How do other see you?

48 - In a short paragraph tell of your most vivid memory:

I'd just like to say that I ran two of my players through some of your questions tonight and it was just what we needed, thank you!

Ew, this reads like a job interview. I don't hate my players that much.

LMAO.. that was great. I love it.

I think I'll adapt the questions to something like this...

1. What is it that Drives you to Act?

2. Why did your character become the Profession you have chosen?

3. What is your secret?

4. Who or what do you fear and/or hate? and of course... why?

5. What do you love? and why?

6. Do you Believe in the Force?

7. How do you (your character) Feel about the Galactic Empire?

8. If you go by a non-birth name how did you come up with your name?

9. List 2 short term goals, and one long term goal.

10. Why are you with the group you are with? How did you meet them?

11. Name 3 planets in the Galaxy you have been to? What happened on those planets? (please make up your own name for some if you wish)

12. If you have any significant physical characteristics, what are they?

13. What are you Loyal to?

14. Name 1 Criminal Syndicate you have run afoul of? (please make up your own name if you wish)

15. When you make your presence known and others witness you, what do they See?

16. What is your name?

I think those are good questions to ask... and I figure if players can answer at least half before the game starts, and the others by session two or three, then everything is good. Having more answered before the first game would make designing adventures easier, as they would give me something to work with.

Another hit out of the park Desslok, loving it. Now if it could get my players to use this.

*after hours of chanting* Rise thread, RISE! Come back to the light for all to see and relish in your goodness!

Sorry I was looking for this tread so I can use it to flesh out my Black Crusade Apostate and decide that it needed resurrected.

Wow. How to abuse your players AND ruin any chance of interesting characters in one easy tool.

* Improv will tell you that ideas which are over thought suck. The responses to this questionnaire will either be over thought drivel or they'll be trite responses from players who don't want to waste time filling in the form.

* Narrative games suffer badly if players don't have the freedom to create on the fly and this level of background severely limits it. Play to find out what happens - don't ruin the excitement by Pre-codifying everything.

* The best roleplaying moment come from finding out what matters to a character - and they are best if discovered together with the player. You want to find out which s more important to a character, his mother or his ship? You give him an in game dilemma and sees how it plays out. You do not give the player a questionnaire ! Also flashbacks are a brilliant tool. As a GM you can flashback to scenes - in fact you can frame any scene you want. That most interesting childhood moment could have been a great roleplaying moment.

* Also, the most interesting moments of your chracter's lives should be the moments you are playing through. You never want to be trying to recapture former glories. If something really interesting happened to the character before, why aren't we playing through that.

Finally your players will either hate you for giving them unnecessary homework or will love the chance to produce narrative back door Demi-gods.

Yes, background details ARE important, but they are a framing tool. Past a certain point they don't add to the game - they actually detract, and this list has slipped well past that point.

Wow. How to abuse your players AND ruin any chance of interesting characters in one easy tool.

Fine. Don't use it.

I've used this form a lot over the last many years, and it's really been helpful in filling out a character. It may not be for every campaign, but for a role play heavy one it can be a really nice tool. I usually try to write the answers out in the voice of the character, which really helps me get into their head.

I would never make a player do it, but provide it as a good option for character building.

Wow. How to abuse your players AND ruin any chance of interesting characters in one easy tool.

Fine. Don't use it.

I like Desslock's list, I think it needs just 5(ish) questions not 50(ish).

I also like Rookie's reply as it makes me think about the whole building a storey. Being able to ad-hoc build upon who the character is will allow the player and the GM to get to know the character together.

Thanks both for some cool ideas to think about.

Wow. How to abuse your players AND ruin any chance of interesting characters in one easy tool.

Wow, How to make sure your advice goes unheeded in one easy opening sentence.

Sounds like a great tool. The players at least have some questions to help think about the character abit deeper than some random numbers. It is a "role" playing game. Knowing who you are playing is a bit important, "from a certain point of view"

Wow. How to abuse your players AND ruin any chance of interesting characters in one easy tool.

I have used something like this before... and the earth did not come crumbling down. Actually it is pretty similar to the questions you find for novel and screenwriter books. That is where i got my list.

I think it depends on your players. I have players who have a few different levels of involvement, the ones that are not as interested in making it up, I usually assist and talk to them about it. My players who enjoyed it did not run away with crazy things. They know they need to confirm anything out of the ordinary so it was not a problem.