Message no. 1

From:	Achille Autran aautran@******.obs-nancay.fr
Subject:	Characters' background (Was Re: Questions on questions...)
Date:	Thu, 22 Jul 1999 16:31:00 GMT

Well, back to an older topic...

I'm amazed that nobody ever posted something like this: we don't create
background from scratch or by answering a list of questions, we just play
the characters youth and/or *before the campaign* years, as full-length,
solo scenarios (often more than one are needed). I use "we" because this is
not limited to SR, where I'm the GM: it works wonderfully with any RPG.

More details: PC creation and campaign building are tightly linked. I ask my
players what kind of characters they wish, very broadly (more "where do you
come from" than "decker, rigger ?"), then I choose the campaign general
orientation, and major actors involved in it.
Next step: fleshing out the PCs, as they should be at the end. This include
choosing personnality, edges and flaws, that kind of stuff.
Then, I can create the NPCs involved in the character's past, and the major
events that leaded him into its actual state. And I let him play in this
environment, keeping track of time.

Main advantages:
- I can start setting up plot NPCs and infos, that will matter
in the future campaign, but through improvisation, the player provides me
with many hooks than I can also use later to imply him (and that's very useful.
IMO, the hardest thing in SR is to have characters really involved in the
scenario).
- It's fun. Playing a scared child or an ambitious expert accountant, is
reffreshing and gives the SR universe new POVs. Anyway, these sessions are
most often pure role-play ones.
- The background and personnality are deeply engraved. I had a PC buried
alive for 2 days (with a tube to breath), it changed his vision of the world.
Really. (No, he didn't become blind :-) )

Disadvantages:
- It's LONG, very, very, long. One to three nights for each character...
- It works better with non-standard campaigns, I mean when PCs are not plain
shadowrunners. Currently, PCs are Tir-na-nOg elves (well, part of them), and
game is politics-full. What PCs are is part of the plot, and their past is
very important.

Wow, I should stop now, nobody will ever read all that text.

Achille Autran

P.S.: forgive my english. Have you spotted the .fr ?