10 Ways to Help Create Epic Backstories for Your Players - How to be a great game master - #gm tips

Hello and welcome to this episode of how to be a great GM (Game Master). Well today we're looking at the question of how to help players create backgrounds (for their characters). Now it's an interesting question in the first place, how involved should you as the GM be in terms of creating character backgrounds with your players. Well more importantly I've had players who've been playing for many years, who've joined my table saying "oh I don't create backstories", "I'm not very interested in in backstories", "oh I'm not very creative", "not very good about it". You then as a GM are then stuck with the situation of having a player who doesn't have a character background, which is basically like well having a character no. It's basically like having a blank space and your novel - oldest character doesn't have any backstory because well they just don't. So something that you can do is to help encourage or to help create a character backstory for your players character. Now I must emphasize the importance here - that you are helping the player create a backstory. You are NOT creating the character backstory for your players character that is something that they have to do because if you do it they won't own it, they won't understand it, they won't have been part of that journey, that character won't be visceral to them. Whereas if you help them create it, if you guide them through the process of what they need to do then they will be more invested in their character backstory and they will more likely use it during the game - so these are my 10 ways in which I helped create backstory with my players so that their characters are a bit more rounded and so that I have something to work with when it's time for me to use the backstory in the eventual creation process so number one you need to explain to your players why they need a backstory and it's not just because you as a GM we're going to plunder it for adventures later on down the line it's because it helps to create more apathy or more empathy weren't not empathy more empathy with the character from the player's perspective if they know a little bit about this person's history they're more likely to care about that person they're more likely to behave more appropriately accordingly according to that person according to their background so a background is this really powerful arsenal of role-playing opportunities of guides of helping players who are not creative to become a little bit more interesting rather than just this generic unknown shadow moving around the world so the reason for a backstory is very important for a player and obviously for a GM it's vital and that's something to point out to the players is often they don't realize especially if they've never dreamed they don't realize just how much effort and how much work you need to put in to GM and having a backstory just makes it that much easier and that's something that's of value to you and of course should be of value to the player because they should want to help you make your game run better run easier and make your life a little bit easier if they don't it's time to question whether they should be in your playing circle to begin with number two you need to explore why the character became the class they did now this is a very difficult question because frequently frequently you ask this question of the player well why why did Dalila become become a paladin what was her motivation you've got as a bit of a backstory she grew up on a farm why did she become a paladin oh is it's a cool class and I wanted to play a paladin all right that's why you're playing a paladin but why did Delilah become a pattern what was her motivation this is a trick because if you asked real people in real life why they became an accountant or a doctor or a veterinarian or a neurosurgeon oftentimes they won't necessarily know the answer or was just a job so Delilah became a paladin because she needed to earn money and she thought while being a paladin was the easiest way to earn money and she didn't want to be a city guard because they're not as cool as paladins that in itself comes a story if if that thinking is there that Delilah had the choice of becoming a city guard or becoming a paladin and she chose to become a paladin this requires her to have a certain amount of faith it also requires her to have a certain amount of martial skill so that starts to speak to a back story now this is where you as the gym start to become the interrogator and motivator of narrative in terms of the character the backstory if you start to prompt these questions saying well obviously Delilah grew up did she grow up with brothers and she learned how to fight with a sword I mean what when did she first pick up a sword or how did she decide that she wanted to go into a combat career rather than becoming say a scribe or a librarian or something perhaps that might suit her temperament a bit better though she doesn't have a temperament well now we can start to work on things so it's about exploring the character then of course it's about exploring the family now there is a video on the other channel bacon RPG on YouTube if you're going to look for that where we ask eight questions to create the ultimate backstory players sometimes use it sometimes they don't and if they don't then this is a great opportunity for you at number three to ask about the characters family are they still alive what do they do what were they beforehand was mother of famous sell sword and father was an infamous Nancy who ran around on the stage and entertained kings and queens with his published behavior what was the family doing and how and why are they still doing it if they are still alive and if they aren't alive what killed them why did they die where they're buried those kind of questions it may seem to be irrelevant to the player myself I don't know they're there where's their point at the map and say well in which star system are they based you know where you say they there well where's there talk to me let's discover your family then you can ask about a childhood event number four is asked about her childhood event now childhood events shape things and we have good childhood events we have bad childhood events again these 10 questions you might not necessarily ask all ten but even if you asked just five of them you've already got more of a backstory than you had when the players said I don't have a backstory oh my I grew up on a farm and I wanted to become a star fighter and and it didn't happen so at least you're at the moving the right direction so you asked them about a childhood event ask them about a positive childhood event and a negative childhood event the positive childhood event oh you remember when father bought you that pair of shoes that you'd always wanted in the new wore them and they were fantastic and then the negative is remember when your favorite dog Pongo ate the goldfish and then died because the goldfish was inside the cat at the time uh whatever the case might be get them to write a positive and get those rides negative again it helps them to entrench their character in their mind but it helps you as the GM to remember to bring back Pongo as an undead zombie dog with a mutated goldfish inside its belly that every now and again emerges to suck on the players characters it allows you the latitude of adding in more story to your campaign so awesome about her childhood event number five what was the character doing just before session zero or before your first session what were they doing were they in a tavern were they in the bathroom were they riding a horse were they parking the starship that they came in on were they fleeing were they running were they wondering about the nature of the universe did they find an answer so what were they doing just before adventuring started and this is a good question to throw out to the entire party when they're doing character creation and if you haven't done it during character creation you can do it just before session zero describe to me what were you for doing and what were you v doing just before we start where where are you and then take it from there again it's about investing the player in their character it's about making sure that the player really really likes their character and wants to to know about their character a little bit more and in doing so obviously they like the characters they want you to play the character and they want to do things appropriately it's a nice knock on effect number six favorite item and where did they get it now in some systems I think it's and indeed fifth edition as a matter of fact there is a trinket page where you get to roll a d100 and there are a hundred different trinkets that have all got little things like a little brooch that moves around over time from one pocket to the other or a pen that will write your name automatically little simple things that in a high magic world are appropriate of course in a low magic world it might just be a doll that's been carved out of a whale's tooth and was given to the child when they were young and they've kept it with the merits ever since to theer's their favorite object so the idea of having them have some kind of object or item that they've brought with them from their childhood is fantastic for example when I moved to Japan I made sure that I brought my favorite things a few things anyway that I could fit into luggage and get past customs a few things with me from my childhood past and they've got a lot of stories attached to each one of them so the idea is again get them invested in something because then later on you as the GM here can have it taken away steal it destroy it or have it lead to something more important and traumatic than anyone could possibly have imagined or just have it as a conversation piece again just bringing back the character's history and making the character more real number 7 what's their view on the world now peasants starship captains aliens from the fifth dimension everybody has a view of their world do they think it's good do they think it's bad do they agree with current politics do they even know what the current politics are are they invested in say a financial institution do they care about the current emperor / King / ruler cat / hierarchy that's currently running Kingdom Dominion etc etc the world view can become quite interesting because it can lead to some dynamics within the party that weren't there before especially if you prod them on well you know that you're in the kingdom of X and that the ruler is quite insane what do you think about that what is your character think about that one character might think that it's perfectly normal the other character might think that it's the worst thing since sliced bread so the idea by asking them their worldview is just to prompt a position that they might come back to later on especially because if you're going to use the worldview question you can then load up adventures that's challenge that worldview or that push it in a certain direction if they're against the leader have them doing quests for the leader that forces them to realize that is actually not a bad guy if they are against the local mistress well maybe the mistress should tempt one of them into her bed chambers especially the one that she doesn't like or if you want to be even more devious she is the one that forces the character who hates her to capitulate and do something for her against that players characters will so that's an option so a worldview allows you to do that kind of wonderful stuff number nine and number eight is and as links to worldview what is their political leaning some people have no care about politics in medieval world a serf was a serf was a serf and they didn't really care who was king or who wasn't they just showed up at the rallies for the free food that got thrown at the monarch as they were led down to the traitors square so the idea is what is their political leaning in a science-fiction campaign do they support the federation are they against the federation what do they think of the Empire what do they think of the Republic all of those kind of questions allows you again to create a more rounded character for your player but also allows you as the GM to then add in little adventures that poke and prod at those questions which they may or may not have answered something that I should have mentioned the beginning of this video by the way is that you should get the player to write these answers down it's important so they can refer to them later now yes so that's number eight political leaning what is their political leaning and how will it all won't it affect them now again if you've got a world where anyone who supports this particular leader wears an armband of a certain color well that's even better because now the character starts to win the same armband and it starts to create all those wonderful little political stories that suddenly spring to life when you have opposing political opinion number nine is similar to number eight in number seven but different religion what is the religious view a lot of players that run around and fantasy games where there are gods all over the place say oh I'm an atheist really you're an atheist you have gods literally performing miracles on a daily basis even if you are in a slightly low level magic level world you still have priests who can use the power of gods to heal your character every time your character gets healed by some twit who puts their hand on you and sutures up that wound using divine magic and you're an atheist you don't believe in the gods that is in my opinion like someone who doesn't believe in electricity you just can't not I would create a very very very strong reason as to why the character doesn't believe in the gods or perhaps it's not doesn't believe in the gods in terms of I don't live there there it's just that I don't believe that they could influence us in any positive or negative way even that's pushing it a little bit when a local druid or a local priest can walk past and create water out of thin air so there is some skepticism that I have there when people say oh I don't worship a God on the other hand if you have a deity that manifests and that can control your destiny your character is probably going to believe in one of the gods at the very least now you just have to go back in Earth's early history where you've got say the Egyptians or the Romans where there's pantheon of gods to worship they still worship them they still believed in the men they still went through their little rites and rituals even though they may have been skeptical about their existence they still did it so something that your players should be aware of if your world has a lot of gods is that is something to look into if your setting is science fiction or post-apocalyptic well now it starts to become an even more interesting question if there isn't a system through which the deity might directly influence the game well then it becomes a character point had become something that the character does out of decision rather than anything else and that for me makes it even more interesting and more poignant so religion is a very good motivator for a character background and of course we use the GM from a questing post perspective well religion just becomes this wonderful Pandora's box that can be opened up where there's gods fighting with one another and they need the players help or there aren't gods or gods are disappeared or you you get the idea there is a general wonderful amount of plot lines that come out of deities and then number 10 number 10 is a particularly tricky one because the players are going to immediately say oh oh I don't know it's your your game number 10 is what is your character's goal for the future a lot of people don't even know what their goal is for their own personal future here on planet earth let alone for their character but with the character one has the ability to project and say well I would really like my character to become a hero or I like my character to become recognized as the greatest starship captain in the galaxy I'd like my character to become recognized as one of the most powerful woman and business I want my character whatever the case might be by having that kind of goal it gives the player something to refer to every now and again when they're going back to their character sheet but it also gives you an opportunity as the GM to set things up to make sure that what they want actually happens this is a game about escapism and getting away from the real world and where our fantasy is truly can come true so why not well why not make it happen for the player that they carries to get to the pinnacle of their career or maybe put them in the exact opposite position first if you're a really good Jim and then later on as they continue to struggle against the system they rise and finally get to the point that they want to be so asking the player what is your character's goals for the future there's a really powerful narrative tool that you can use for later on and that will invest them even more in their character and with those 10 questions in my opinion you should have a character backstory that contains enough bits and pieces that the player becomes invested in the character and that you as the GM have got enough threads that you can start to weave that character backstory into your grand narrative into your master plot and have it play out in such a way that it will be satisfactory to both you and to your player at least those are my thoughts well until next time if you haven't shared our videos with your fellow players and things don't don't feel bad about that just do it right now share the video that's all we ask from this video this week you don't have to like it you know to subscribe you don't have to do anything except share our video so that we can grow our ranks of players and GM's who enjoy a good story rather than anything else so until next time I wish you and yours the very happiest