Character arcs - Part 1: Character backgrounds

Before we start off, I just wanna say, as a pre-topic sort of babble ... I'm not gonna lie, this article was started months ago, and I had kind of given up on the whole blog thing but I decided to kick myself in the butt some and try to pick up where I left off!

Alrighty, on with it!

Partly because I can be incredibly undecisive, partly because I honestly don't know how to muster a readership above 10, I decided to turn to Twitter and ask "What should this not-so-sober blogger talk about next?" The results?

I guess that means I'll be writing about character arcs. And as much as I'd love this to be a simple, straightforward affair detailing steps to great character arcs like the perfect GM's cookbook, it won't be.

Full disclosure, I'm partially speaking out of my ass since for the last few ... years? I've been doing mostly Adventure Paths and while they're awesome, I haven't leveraged them to create full character arcs. I had plans, but my plans go awry often.

Alright! We all on the same page?

Perfect!

Time to get started on ... character backstories.

(Thought I was gonna say "arc" didn't you?)

Why backgrounds?

I can understand the disappointment of going so far ... back, but I've got my reasons! Sure, I could be talking about character arcs and how to build them and how arcs can interact with one another, and I will -- LATER!

Before we get to that, thought ... let's consider what the foundations of a character arc is, where it actually comes from. While arcs may directly stem from your story, often, their roots can be found in a deeper, darker section of your game: character backgrounds.

What do I mean when I say "character background"?

For me, it's everything of interest that happens before the game starts. And I know "of interest" is very subjective, but if you think something too uninteresting to include it in your background, I'm unlikely to go out of my way as a GM to say "OOOOOH! So your parents worked a lot huh? Well, ok, you were babysat from age 4 to 6 by a lady called Huguette Donovan and she today is asking for YOUR help."

Like, sure, there may be some context and some tables where this may be fine and fun, but generally speaking, there will be other, more interesting, valuable things in my player's backgrounds that I can use before making up Mrs Huguette.

Also, "before the game starts" can be a little ambiguous. Sometimes, game will start at higher level, sometimes players come together on session 0 to make a shared background, sometimes stuff is made up on the fly later. By "game," I mean "in-game game." The old azione!

If my intro starts on 17 of Erastus at noon, something happening on the 17 of Erasmus at 10 can be part of a player's background!

Alright, we're all set on definitions? Cool, cool, cool. Let's move on to types of backgrounds! When I think of background I think of ...

• the absence of background;
• individual character backgrounds
• interwoven backgrounds; and
• team backgrounds

At any given table you may have, yep, you guessed it, all of the above!

Just like you and I may have different expectations of what's a good background, other players will have a different view on the question. Regardless, these backgrounds often weigh in on why characters act a certain way or why some things are important to them even if the rest of the team frankly doesn't give a single shit.

The absence of background

... or make shit up as you go!

There's probably a time and a place where this kind of character just works. I know a lot of folks like the idea of not being "tied down" to a background and being able to discover and make it up as they go. Coming to the table with a blank canvas can be a lot of fun: waiting to paint it with whatever your GM or other players throw your way.

However, I see a few caveats to this:

• Players not willing to fill in the canvas. If you want to create character-specific arcs, it'll be a whole lot more difficult if you cannot go dig into the hook-rich soil that is a background, mostly if your players are not reactive to the suggestions you may have for them.
• It puts more pressure on the GM and other players to 'feed' you with suggestions.
• It can leave you feeling left out or frustrated if other players get their own personalized character arcs or even gear and you're much less likely to get one yourself.

Some players will live well with that because that's the kind of experience they want, but I think it's important to be mindful of the GM's expectations. Sure, those be can (and SHOULD) be discussed at Session 0, but it doesn't always happen so just keep that in mind!

Individual character backgrounds

... or every person for themselves!

Most groups I've been in, this was the standard practice. I say 'was' because in the past few years, I've seen a lot more of 'interwoven' background. Just so we're clear, no matter how connected your team's backgrounds are, there are usually going to be components of individual character backgrounds, which, you know, is great for creating individual character arcs!

This is the most standard kind of background where in a sentence or 12 pages, a players elaborates on as many (or as few, to be honest) points as they want, such as:

• Who is their family?
• How was their childhood?
• Where are they from?
• Do that have strong ties to any communities?
• Have they traveled a lot?
• How did they pick up their character class?
• Did they have a mentor?
• Are they a religious person? Why, why not?

It can go in so many directions! Honestly, as a GM, you better expect the backgrounds to receive to be all over the place and give you a different amount of material. Not everyone is as verbose, after all!

Remember that there's actually no shame in asking for more information and that most players will actually gladly provide it! A lot of players get very passionate about their characters, so asking them questions will help them explore new facets of a character, and may help you build a story arc down the line.

While individual backgrounds can be great, on their own, they come with their own set of caveats:

• They may not cover what you hope for them to cover and still be incredibly long, or focus on elements that you have a hard time including in your campaign
• Some backgrounds are so detailed and tight that it's hard to find wiggle room as a GM and pull elements so that you can tie it in a story arc later (not gonna lie, I've been that player once or twice!)
• Because backgrounds like this focus on a single character at a time, they usually don't create a very cohesive party of individuals and finding a reason and ways for them to come together can be grueling for the GM, mostly if the players act like their solo background is more important than the story the GM is trying to build with everyone at the table.

There are ways to alleviate concerns related to backgrounds that may otherwise appear narrow or focused, or sometimes just too long. One of the things I do, to make sure I have the answers I need to build the story, is send out a questionnaire. When I feel extra fancy, I make this an in-game thing, but it's not always possible.

Don't let players deter you by saying "I don't know" to answers (their character would generally know, I assume, who they consider their mentor) or by saying "I already wrote this in my background", like, look pal, I want a cheat sheet, shush.

There's probably a lot to be told on how to build backgrounds and tools that help, but if I get into that, we'll be in 2022 before I actually hit "Publish" sooooo ... moving on!

Interwoven backgrounds

... or "I know this guy and that guy, but who the fuck are you?!"

I wasn't really sure what to call that kind of background. They come into several flavours, but generally speaking it's when a single character may know one other character from one place, and another character from another place.

If you do this for all the characters at the table, this means that they could very well all have connections before the game start, without having created a full team background.

I see the blank veil over your eyes, confusion has been cast.

Let me throw an example your way and see if this helps. Your team is ... Anna, Loren, Mischa, and Patrick. The following statements are true:

• Anna was born in the same village as Patrick
• Anna served in the military with Mischa
• Loren was engaged to Anna's brother
• Loren and Mischa once met at the baron's grand ball
• Mischa is childhood friends with Patrick
• Anna has never met Loren
• Loren has never Patrick

Yet, there are strong and weak connections between all the characters, meaning that if they're asked to work together for, say, a quest, they might actually find that they have plenty in common and this will get the team rolling.

There are several ways to create such backgrounds, but it does require more planning than having no backgrounds (of course!) or having simply individual backgrounds because you have to have a general sense of who everyone was at each point in one another's life.

Sometimes this comes up naturally in character creation "Oh we want to play brothers!" and sometimes it doesn't. With experience, some players may naturally gravitate toward these kinds of concepts and backgrounds to help the GM (although I wouldn't just count on that!)

But either way, there's no shame in asking or even suggesting stuff like "Oh, I see Hugo and Nadya both have an interest in Osiriani history, have you considered being part of the same expedition or having the same teacher?"

If you really don't know where to start, on place I found helpful at times is Pathfinder's background generator, most specifically the Relationship with Fellow Adventurers table:

If you're feeling super bold, you can also have each player draw another player's name so they each work together with one or two players to create linked characters.

The extra benefit of this kind of background is that character-specific arcs become interesting for more than one person at the table. Of course, a quest is a quest is a quest so players generally follow with arcs but when their character is also involved, even on the sidelines, because of shared interests or events, it makes the arc all that more powerful!

Team backgrounds

... or the "we're all in this together" school of thought

I'm not gonna lie, it's hard to make this kind of background really stick. I've seen it work, and when it does, it's really magical, but getting ALL your players to agree to the same thing can be tough. I'm not saying all characters should be exact copies of one another, of course, but when doing a team background, significant portions of their backgrounds should be shared. These can include:

• All attending the same school for several years
• All being from the same village (although this depends on the type of campaign but imagine a small group of villagers living for the same city)
• Having had the same job for an extended period of time
• All being siblings or from the same family

There are probably dozens of other scenarios, and of course, each character brings something to the overarching communal elements. Backgrounds like these don't appeal to all groups and may work better for certain campaigns than others (such as when you start in the familiar element, or, if they all start together in a very difficult situation).

While team background can be great, they also come with certain caveats:

• Not all players may feel as invested in the common background, and some may even feel this stifles their personality and individuality.
• You may need to adjust quickly if you find that the whole team does not respond to your hooks, which is more likely if they share large chunks of their background.
• Character arcs may be hard to plan initially because each character's motivations will become a lot clearer once past the initial scope of the background.

Personally, I love team backgrounds, but they're tricky for everyone involved so I rarely push for it, instead, I try to aim for some seriously interwoven backgrounds. When possible.

A note on length

There's no one answer for this, all GMs have difference wants and tolerances for the length of the background. If you're unsure about what kind of length to aim for ... ask your GM!

Alright that's all I got on backgrounds, I will tie this in to talks about character arcs whenever I get to writing the next article. Let's just hope it won't be in five months!

See you soon (hopefully LOL!)