Meta-Backgrounds

[Houston GM]

Re: Meta-Backgrounds

 

A meta background is basically the thinking that went into the character's creation' date=' beyond the character's backstory, which most of us do.[/quote']

I'm about to rotate out of the GMing for several months for the group I'm in. A couple of the players are going to take a turn at GMing, so I've been starting to work up characters.

 

Campaign #1 has been described as "a cross between Rainbow Six and Ghost in the Shell. My initial thought was to make a character with the basic powers of Jonesy, the dolphin from Johnny Mnemonic (the Gibson short story, not the movie). As I considered the powers, I decided that someone with Jonesy's powers should have the ability to eavesdrop on radio signals. As I began to look at the powers involved, I decided that I couldn't do justice to both concepts without making the character into a one-trick pony, so I decided to just go with someone able to eavesdrop on radio signals.

 

I decided that I wanted the character to have a girlfriend (DNPC) with some useful skills. I remembered a quote from the Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook that says (roughly paraphrased):

"She'd been in the war, and had ended up having one arm and both legs replaced. That's probably why she was such a great netrunner. When she wasn't in the net, she felt like she was doing time in a half-alive body. Great looking half-alive body, though."

 

I also decided that I wanted him to have a group contact that was his old military buddies. Since he'd been in the military, that explained where he'd gotten his special implants. Therefore, it made sense that the entire group had similar skills that lent themselves to high-tech urban warfare. They'd also all have some basic military skills.

 

At that point, I had enough information to start writing up a background for Mike "Ham" Hammond.

 

 

Campaign #2 sounds like it will be a standard Champions campaign, but no other details have been given.

 

A long time ago I had an idea for a character that was named White Knight due to Sfx, not personality or personal code.

 

I decided that I wanted to make a brick, but one that was flexible in combat and useful out of combat. I also wanted to give him the essential skills that a competent hero should have (inspired by a thread on these forums). I gave him good base stats, including good PRE. I gave him some PRE-based skills to use for investigation outside of combat. I gave him some "brick tricks" powers to give some flexibility in combat. Instead of normal armor, I decided that he formed a white exoskeleton around himself. Without the exoskeleton, he'd be a big, muscular, good-looking and charismatic guy.

 

I was reasonably satisfied with the character, but suddenly I had the thought .oO(How does the White Knight proactively fight crime?) Then I glanced at his skills and saw Streetwise, Acting, Persuasion and Conversation. Then it hit me: in his Secret ID he gets hired as a freelance thug/enforcer/henchman. This requires a certain level of non-heroic actions, but it gave me a strong flavor for his personality.

 

All of my players tend to shun character disadvantages like DNPC or Hunted, because they don't want them used against them. I decided to buck the trend and make disadvantages (plot hooks) that I would enjoy having used.

 

In order to give the new GM loads of plot-hooks to use with White Knight, I decided that I wanted White Knight to associate with the "wrong-type" of girlfriend. He has a series of short-term (or on-again-off-again) relationships with metahumans, many of them villainesses. Collectively, these provide his DNPC of the week. He's also stalked (Hunted) by his ex-girlfriends, and by women who were so much trouble that even he refused to get involved with them. He attracts the wrong type of women, and is attracted to them.

 

Since he can work for villainesses as a henchman in his Secret ID, he can end up getting involved with them in his Secret ID. This can lead to "My Super ex-Girlfriend" moments after the breakup.

 

When dating heroines, he has to hide his day job, since most would be opposed to him working (and breaking the law) as a henchman.

 

With a background like that, the character disads wrote themselves. Instead of struggling to come up with 150 points in disads, I easily came up with 205 points.

 

This gives me a competent combat brick with the ability to go undercover for investigations. Top it off with a train wreck of love life for drama and humor.