Character History Generators

[NorthSaber]

I saw a very short thread about character history generators on this
forum once, but can't find it now... So here's a new one! I was
talking with a friend today about characters and how so often players
put no effort into planning their histories and personalities - Gurps
helps with the personality part, but the history is often woefully
lacking.

Now, before you flame me and say "roleplaying should not degrade into
mere dice-rolling", note that a history generator such as this would
be mainly used for NPCs and PCs whose players would not otherwise
write up any history at all, and perhaps as an inspiration to others.
Seeing a ton of possibilities may spark new creativity (I know it does
for me).

***
So, my question is, which gaming system / supplemental book (or
website) has had the best character personality/history generation
system in your opinion? What would you have liked to see added or
changed?
***

I'm in a very generator-happy mood, and if I get something half-decent
created (unless there's a perfect generator somewhere out there
already), I'll be sure to post a link to it here if it's not against
any rules. I'm thinking either an excel sheet or a web page with
javascript... Those are the ones I know best that could do a generator
like that.

[Joachim Schipper]

Post by NorthSaber
I saw a very short thread about character history generators on this
forum once, but can't find it now... So here's a new one! I was
talking with a friend today about characters and how so often players
put no effort into planning their histories and personalities - Gurps
helps with the personality part, but the history is often woefully
lacking.
Now, before you flame me and say "roleplaying should not degrade into
mere dice-rolling", note that a history generator such as this would
be mainly used for NPCs and PCs whose players would not otherwise
write up any history at all, and perhaps as an inspiration to others.
Seeing a ton of possibilities may spark new creativity (I know it does
for me).
***
So, my question is, which gaming system / supplemental book (or
website) has had the best character personality/history generation
system in your opinion? What would you have liked to see added or
changed?
***
I'm in a very generator-happy mood, and if I get something half-decent
created (unless there's a perfect generator somewhere out there
already), I'll be sure to post a link to it here if it's not against
any rules. I'm thinking either an excel sheet or a web page with
javascript... Those are the ones I know best that could do a generator
like that.

Well, I've seen your message around here for a few days, and wondered what
to respond....

I am not familiar with a huge range of systems, but the one instance of a
'history generator' I saw was in D&D's Hero Builder's Guidebook. I looked
around Roleplayintips.com for a bit, but I was surprised to see there is no
such thing.

So, all in all, I am not much of a help. I'd appreciate a peek at any
'finished product', though... and I may be able to give some ideas, if you
tell me what genre/game/time period you are working at.

Good luck!

Joachim

[Peter Knutsen]

Post by NorthSaber
I saw a very short thread about character history generators on this
forum once, but can't find it now... So here's a new one! I was
talking with a friend today about characters and how so often players
put no effort into planning their histories and personalities - Gurps
helps with the personality part, but the history is often woefully
lacking.

In what way does GURPS help? It encourages players to gamble on
non-enforcement by heaping loads of behavioral (i.e. un-real)
disadvantages onto their characters. If the players win (i.e. the
mental disads are *not* enforced by the GM) then they get lots of
free points to the detriment of honest players. If the players loose,
the end result is that their characters behave in exaggerated,
ultra-stereotypical ways, resembling robots, or perhaps Hollywood
movie characters, rather than being as behaviorally complex as real
people.

Post by NorthSaber
Now, before you flame me and say "roleplaying should not degrade into
mere dice-rolling", note that a history generator such as this would
be mainly used for NPCs and PCs whose players would not otherwise
write up any history at all, and perhaps as an inspiration to others.
Seeing a ton of possibilities may spark new creativity (I know it does
for me).
***
So, my question is, which gaming system / supplemental book (or
website) has had the best character personality/history generation
system in your opinion? What would you have liked to see added or
changed?

I don't own any system that does create such histories for the characters.

But I think you're overlooking an important point, which is that a
character's history must relate to his abilities. If he has, as part
of his backstory, adventures in a desert enviroment, then he should
have some points in the Terrain: Desert skill. And stuff like that. So
it only really works if each backstory entry also gives the character
some skill points.

For that to really work out, you'd have to employ the method under a
system where skills are bought from zero. It will work really badly in
a system like GURPS where minimal exposure can "zoom" a character
gifted with high relevant attributes to "Master" skill level.
Basically any system that does Skill = Attribute + Training will have
problems here, which means 99.9% of systems in existence.


A random background system wouldn't have to be unbalanced, though. You
could simply do it with a point-based character creation system, where
you pay the effective cost of each background. So if an entry gives
you "Stranded in Japan, made quite an impression on the Japanese, and
learneed about their culture, put X points into Language: Japanese, Y
points into Etiquette: Japanese and Z points into "Reputation: Bad-Ass
Gaijin", then the player simply subtracts X+z points from his Skill
Point pool and Z points from his Perk Point pool, and puts those
points into the traits specified to the rolled entry. That way no
player is better off than any other player, due to "lucky rolls".

Once the player has spent so many points that further rolls are not
feasible, he simply spends the rest of the points, either manually or
else according to some standardized rule.

Post by NorthSaber
***
I'm in a very generator-happy mood, and if I get something half-decent
created (unless there's a perfect generator somewhere out there
already), I'll be sure to post a link to it here if it's not against
any rules. I'm thinking either an excel sheet or a web page with
javascript... Those are the ones I know best that could do a generator
like that.

I've long thought about creating such a system, even way back when I
GMed Quest FRP v2.1, but I guess I've not gotten around to doing it
because such a system would always end up wrong, either in always
producing standardized characters, or else in very often producing
totally unorthodox characters. I think unorthodox characters are a
very fine thing, normally, but they should not be forced upon newbie
players, and newbie players are the ones most likely to use a random
background system.

So my problem boils down to envisioning the general structure of a
background generation system that produces an appropriate (i.e. very
low, yet not zero) frequency of oddball backgrounds, with the rest
(the vast majority) being standard type backgrounds (which should all
have at least some adventuring relevance, since I also think it is
wrong to force newbies to play characters without adventuring-useful
skills).

[Richard Brown]

Post by Peter Knutsen

Post by NorthSaber
I saw a very short thread about character history generators on this
forum once, but can't find it now... So here's a new one! I was
talking with a friend today about characters and how so often players
put no effort into planning their histories and personalities - Gurps
helps with the personality part, but the history is often woefully
lacking.

In what way does GURPS help? It encourages players to gamble on
non-enforcement by heaping loads of behavioral (i.e. un-real)
disadvantages onto their characters. If the players win (i.e. the
mental disads are *not* enforced by the GM) then they get lots of
free points to the detriment of honest players. If the players loose,
the end result is that their characters behave in exaggerated,
ultra-stereotypical ways, resembling robots, or perhaps Hollywood
movie characters, rather than being as behaviorally complex as real
people.

I'm sorry but the problem you are describing is a bad roleplaying
problem not a Gurps problem. The exact same thing can hapen when
chosing aligments in D&D or Paladium, or any other mechanic. If a GM
fails to enforce a personality mechanic you can be sure that players
will take advantage of the lack of enforcement, while simultaniously
insisting on geting the advantages the mechanic offers. A D&D example
would be a PC who rapes and pilages but insists that because his
character sheet says Lawfull Good a Paladin's detect evil spell won't
show him as a criminal suspect. Likewise players who act like robots
or stereotypes when personality mechanics are enforced either aren't
very good at acting in character anyway or picked character
personalities they didn't like and are rebeling against being stuck
with something that they shouldn't have chosen in the first place.
Alternatively a player who runs his character as an extremely
exadurated steryotype may just be a big ham, in which case as long as
he has fun and isn't spoiling things for others let him ham it up.
With bad roleplaying and bad GM'ing any personality describing
mechanic will be a problem. With good roleplaying and GM'ing they can
for some people add to the experience. Whether or not you like them
is of course a mater of taste.

That said I personaly like the Gurps mechanic. I think alignment
systems where you have alignment A is always 1,2,3 and B is always
4,5,6 are too restrictive to creating a character personality with
Gurps I can create a character personality who is 1,5,9. More
specificaly in D&D a lawfull good character must obey the laws help
the inocent ect. but in Gurps I can make a kleptomaniac who feels
honor bound to help anyone who asks for it, or an honest law abiding
type who couldn't care less about anyone but his close friends. Also
if when creating a character in Gurps I feel stumped about what sort
of personality to give him I can just read through the mental
disadvantages till I find something (or a combination of things) that
looks interesting to play instead of using an alignment system that
doesn't encorage novelty at all. YMMV.

[Richard Brown]

Post by NorthSaber
***
So, my question is, which gaming system / supplemental book (or
website) has had the best character personality/history generation
system in your opinion? What would you have liked to see added or
changed?
***

I have only seen two random character history generators one was in
paladium RPG books the other in games by R. Talsorian games. The
Paladium version was basicaly family relasionships ie. parents alive
or dead and number of siblings. The R. Talsorian version had similar
for family but also had what level of wealth you came from, in adition
it covered past lovers and how they still felt about you and it
covered enemies and rivals and determining whether they were out to
humiliate you or kill you.

Post by NorthSaber
I'm in a very generator-happy mood, and if I get something half-decent
created (unless there's a perfect generator somewhere out there
already), I'll be sure to post a link to it here if it's not against
any rules. I'm thinking either an excel sheet or a web page with
javascript... Those are the ones I know best that could do a generator
like that.

I have never heard of a program to do this, but the R. Talsorian
version could be writen into software (it was presented as a
flowchart). The Paladium version was too short to be worth
translating to a program.

[mark4asp]

Post by NorthSaber
I saw a very short thread about character history generators on this
forum once, but can't find it now... So here's a new one! I was
talking with a friend today about characters and how so often players
put no effort into planning their histories and personalities - Gurps
helps with the personality part, but the history is often woefully
lacking.
Now, before you flame me and say "roleplaying should not degrade into
mere dice-rolling", note that a history generator such as this would
be mainly used for NPCs and PCs whose players would not otherwise
write up any history at all, and perhaps as an inspiration to others.
Seeing a ton of possibilities may spark new creativity (I know it does
for me).
***
So, my question is, which gaming system / supplemental book (or
website) has had the best character personality/history generation
system in your opinion? What would you have liked to see added or
changed?
***

Pendragon had a personality generator and a gaming mechanic to
encourage players to act in character.

AD&D derived good vs. evil and law vs. chaos alignments are appalling
as is the enforcement of such metaphysics in the game worlds whether
that's done in D&D, Runequest, WHFRP or any other role-game where
these constructs are given prominence. I think this destroys good
roleplaying by getting rid of character complexity.

Post by NorthSaber
I'm in a very generator-happy mood, and if I get something half-decent
created (unless there's a perfect generator somewhere out there
already), I'll be sure to post a link to it here if it's not against
any rules. I'm thinking either an excel sheet or a web page with
javascript... Those are the ones I know best that could do a generator
like that.

What do you want your generator for? One of Task-force games "Central
Casting - Heroes for Tomorrow" or "Central Casting - Heroes of Legend"
may be of help if you want to graft something generic and DnDish to
your game but many gamers I know would disdain anything that has so
many tables in it - claiming that tables are the antithesis of
rolegaming. Such people would say that a game-world needs enough
detail for the players to create a good background.

PC background depends on what players know of the game world.

How are clan, educational, class or caste, regional, religious,
racial, gender, ethnic and political differences important in the
game world?

Which of the above elements are detailed in the game background?

What is the PCs current occupation. What kind of education and
apprenticeship have they? What possible occupations are available?

Who are their family and close friends?

Have they any traits such as impulsiveness, an analytical frame of
mind, etc. Will a player play PC characteristics which go against
those shown by the player? Do you need to go as far as establishing
rules to do this (as in Pendragon)?

Elements such as clan, education, class, caste, regional details,
religion, race, gender roles, politics, ethnicity, family and
friendships can provide good rationales for framing the role-game by
generating story-lines and scenarios. Kill two birds with one stone,
provide the background and you have the hooks for your scenarios as
well as PC personality and history. Some good examples I can think of
the Middle Earth, Tekumel and historical gaming such as ancient China,
Japan, Egypt or India.

[Jeff Heikkinen]

mark4asp, worshipped by llamas the world over, wrote...
Just aout of curiosity, why are you responding to all these posts that
have dropped off most people's news servers? This one is nearly four
and a half months old.

[Joel Fischoff (Agent)]

Yes, I know this is a response to an old message.

But, have you looked at Central Casting? They have history generators for
fantasy, modern, and future-setting characters.


Joel