Campaign Start - Character Questionairre

[Myrlyn]

I'm about to start a new campaign with the group I play in, and I'm GM'ing a Champions campaign for the first time in a VERY long time. I've got everything I need save one thing - A nice questionnaire for my characters to fill out regarding their characters. Obviously I can compose my own, but I'm wondering what sorts of other information more experienced GM's might ask their characters to provide prior to the start of a campaign. Some thign I'm already thinking of include:

• Work Schedule: What sort of hours does the character put in on average during the work week. What days of the week do they work? What time of day/shift?
• Living Situation: Does the character live alone? With family? Do they have a roommate?
• Address: Where in the campaign city does the character live (borough and street address). My campaign is set in Millennium City, and I've provided details on the city layout and map.
• Social Life: Who are the heroes friends? Love interests? Are their relationships long lasting? Or are they a player or drifter with few permanent ties? Where does the hero spend their down time and what sorts of social activites do they engage in?
• Hobbies/Interests: Pretty straight forward.

What other things would you want your players to think about and provide details of before the start of a campaign? If anyone does have a full questionnaire they ask players to fill out, can you post the questions here for me?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[jtelson]

I would start by talking to your players about what level of detail/effort they're willing to provide. From there decide what the minimum level is that you'll accept and then go from there.

I've actually had a Shadowrun campaign be stillborn because one of our group refused to create a character with the level of detail I requested. In his defence I asked for more detail than the players were used to, in mine I didn't think Family, Friends, Home, Hobbies, Likes, Dislikes, Hopes & Fears was too much to ask.

[aylwin13]

RDU Neil came up with a short list of questions that deal more with the meta-game (how the player will play the character), instead of the characters and story, but I think it's still pretty useful. The thread is here.

[Cancer]

We have a few campaigns where there's a higher emphasis on roleplaying and "in character" actions, and there's some pretty detailed "personality test" questions in the battery that comes with those. For a typical Champions you probably don't need that level of character definition, though.

[death tribble]

One useful question is if the character is fighting crime, Why are they doing so ?

[Pariah]

I did a questionnaire for players to fill out at the beginning of a campaign several years ago. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of it. I know I still have Lord Mhoram's responses somewhere....

[gojira]

A long while ago, I read through one of the Vampire books that had a really good list of about 20 questions for new characters. Because book gaining super powers and becoming a vampire are transforming events, the types of character questions tend to be similar.

Basically, two things: what was the character like before gaining super powers, and how do his new powers affect or transform him or her physically, emotionally and spiritualy.

1. What was your character like growing? What about his or her parents and siblings as a young child?

2. Where did he or she attend school and what was it like for them? What about college, did the character go to college?

3. Describe the character's life after leaving school? Did he or she have one job or several? Did the character travel around a lot or largely stay in one place?

4. What about love interests, personal relationships, etc? Does the character have any childern?

5. How, when and where did the character gain super powers?

6. What does the character feel about his powers? Is he or she happy? Sad? Appalled?

7. Describe the character's powers? What do they actually do?

8. What sorts of situations does character feel most comfortable in? What are his or her strenghts?

9. What sorts of situations does the character not handle well? How might they deal with such a situation? Describe one such situation and how the character might attempt to deal with it.

10. Your character is waiting for a bus. What super powers does he or she have at that moment? Do any powers need to be turned on? Are the powers apparent to others waiting at the same bus stop?

11. Does the character look any different from a normal person when their powers are active? How about when the powers are not active.

12. Does the character have any special vulnerabilities? Sunlight? Kryptonite? Bullets? Small furry animals?

13. Does the character fight injustice? Why? What does he or she feel that make them do it?

14. Did the character fight injustice before he or she got powers? If this is a change, then why did the character change?

15. Describe your character's social life as it is right now? Do people know he or she is a superhero? Does the character have an active social life or have they withdrawn from the world?

16. What about press and media coverage? Does the character seek it out, or avoid it? How would they react to a surprise reporter thrusting a microphone towards their face?

17. Does the character have any special friends or enemies in the superhero world?

18. What about outside of superheroes, does the character have any special friends or enemies who do not have super powers themselves?



Stuff like that. Don't forget about the character besides their powers. Powers are easy, try to find out who the person is.

[Mike W]

I use a version of a questionaire that breaks down something like this:

1. origin/background

at least 10 years or since you turned 16, whichever is longer

cursory details are enough for things that won't come up in game but be specific about anyone/anything that will actually show up in game or on your character sheet in some way(e.g. - justification for skills)

2. general personality/values/beliefs


3. physical description


4. character abilities

NO numbers allowed. Describe in words only.

5. who do you know?

who likes you?
who doesn't?
Why?

6. Motivation

Why does your character run around in spandex and beat up bad guys?


7. Goals

What are your character's plans for the next few months? the next few years?

By the time they finish this, they have 3-5 pages of stuff to work with and building characters is easy. We know who their hunteds are, who their contacts are, their obvious psych lims, and have a general idea of what their character can do, so it's a matter of taking the written out power descriptions and the campaign power scale and slotting them in. This also tends to help them feel like they are as powerful as they should be - provided of course that they aren't trying to build a 700 point beast on 350 or something like that. As a GM, this also gives me chance to immediately start plotting how I'm going to use their enemies and what I intend to put them through.

[bubba smith]

I use a version of a questionaire that breaks down something like this:

1. origin/background

at least 10 years or since you turned 16, whichever is longer

cursory details are enough for things that won't come up in game but be specific about anyone/anything that will actually show up in game or on your character sheet in some way(e.g. - justification for skills)

2. general personality/values/beliefs


3. physical description


4. character abilities

NO numbers allowed. Describe in words only.

5. who do you know?

who likes you?
who doesn't?
Why?

6. Motivation

Why does your character run around in spandex and beat up bad guys?


7. Goals

What are your character's plans for the next few months? the next few years?

By the time they finish this, they have 3-5 pages of stuff to work with and building characters is easy. We know who their hunteds are, who their contacts are, their obvious psych lims, and have a general idea of what their character can do, so it's a matter of taking the written out power descriptions and the campaign power scale and slotting them in. This also tends to help them feel like they are as powerful as they should be - provided of course that they aren't trying to build a 700 point beast on 350 or something like that. As a GM, this also gives me chance to immediately start plotting how I'm going to use their enemies and what I intend to put them through.

this sonds right

[Pariah]

Here's a questionnaire that Lord Mhoram had us players fill out at the beginning of a campaign some years ago. All characters, in addition to being superheroes, were students at the University of California-San Angelo, which accounts for a couple of the unusual questions.

Hero Name:

Real Name:

Age:

Major:

Why that major?

Why am I in San Angelo?

Why am I a superhero?

Where do my superpowers come from?

What do I do for fun?

Significant other?

Family in the area?

How is college being paid for?

I had a lot of fun filling this out because it made me really think about my character's motivation and history. It made it easier for me to role-play him later on. (Alas, the campaign didn't last as long as many of us had hoped....)

This survey is a little too specific to use in just any campaign, but it was perfect for that one. GMs can use this as a basic outline for a campaign questionnaire, changing questions to suit their own campaign as needed.

[Myrlyn]

Thanks for all of the help guys! I started the campaign this weekend, and borrowed from some of the ideas here as well as a starter questionnaire that I think originally came from RDU Neil. The discussion between my characters went very well as they tried to figure out what kind of roles they would play on the team, and how their various powers/disadvantages, etc. might play out together. I think it set a very good tone for the start of things.

I'm running "Shadows of the City" (updated to 5th ed. r) as the first adventure(s) for the group. So far so good.

Thanks againf or all of the feedback!

Keith

[Vann the Red]

As I recall, Hudson City Blues had some interesting similar questionnaires for players. Especially appropriate for a DC campaign, I'd think.

Vann

[Myrlyn]

That might have been the initial inspiration for all of this Vann.. I'll have to go back and check it out again.

Keith