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Chris - that is absolute GOLD!!! Love it.

As I eluded to upthread - I ask the players to somehow tie in something on the map to something of their background/culture/calling.

But your questions of tying in their stories to the actual NPCs of the campaign, and the storylines, by giving some background and direct questions is pure gold and brilliant. I especially like the one posed to the dwarf character - about how they are indebted to Gloin/Oin. I think many players (mine as well) who play dwarves, don't truly stop to imagine just how much they owe to these two (among the other from The Hobbit) for liberating their birthright home and legacy of their culture. It should bring some perspective anytime you are having an encounter with one of them - such as the opening scene in The Marsh Bell.


If/when you get time, do you mind providing some of the answers they provided to these? Just curious. You have given me ideas for upping my own game with these sort of "director" cues.

Robert

Indeed, this is brillant, and does not deserve to be lost in a random thread. If you provide the answers that your players gave, maybe you could create a full thread just for that?

Chris, you are a genius.

If you don't mind, I would like to start using this method of Interview backstory creation in my own groups.

And I might even (in a month or so, once finals are over) make a pdf containing tables of questions for backstory creation. If that is ok with you that is? It would be a free pdf put up for download for all players.

bartol91 wrote: And I might even (in a month or so, once finals are over) make a pdf containing tables of questions for backstory creation. If that is ok with you that is? It would be a free pdf put up for download for all players.

Great idea.

Food for thought - for those wanting a more immersive character creation process - that builds the whole fellowship together at one, take a lot at the character creation process for SMALLVILLE RPG. The game is okay and fun, but the character creation process is by far the coolest aspect of the game. It allows the players to link all of their characters together in some way, create places of interest and create NPCs that each other player can draw links to.

This works well in games where all the characters are meant to be together - as it is for a TV series or even a game like TOR when the ideals of a FELLOWSHIP are a staplepoint.

{EXAMPLE for those who liked the show Smallville} Clark makes a place of interest (Barn) and draws a line to it marking it as his home. Chloe creates a place (coffee shop) and draws a line to it marking it as her home. Lana decides to draw a line to the same coffee shop noting its where she hangs out. Lex draws a line to Clark marking him as his best friend. Lois creates an NPC (Jimmy Olsen) and marks him as her photographer. Chloe draws a line to the NPC that Lois created, (Jimmy) and marks him as her love interest). Clark draws a line to Lois and marks her as his love interest. This continues for finite number of steps until each person has lines drawn to 2 NPCs, 1 place of interest, and each other.}

Robert

Yusei wrote:If you provide the answers that your players gave, maybe you could create a full thread just for that?

Sure! I'll start a separate thread later, and include some of the answers from my players. I'll add some ideas on how to formulate good questions too, and some specific TOR resources that I found helpful.

bartol91 wrote:If you don't mind, I would like to start using this method of Interview backstory creation in my own groups.

And I might even (in a month or so, once finals are over) make a pdf containing tables of questions for backstory creation. If that is ok with you that is? It would be a free pdf put up for download for all players.

By all means, go crazy. I've got no claims of ownership on this approach. There's a few games that use player-directed questions as a fundamental GM technique (Apocalypse World and its descendants jump to mind) - all I've done is apply the idea to TOR character creation.

Chris, please expand on the questions and answers. Your examples should produce numerous little and not so little story hooks.

SirKicley wrote: Food for thought - for those wanting a more immersive character creation process - that builds the whole fellowship together at one, take a lot at the character creation process for SMALLVILLE RPG. The game is okay and fun, but the character creation process is by far the coolest aspect of the game. It allows the players to link all of their characters together in some way, create places of interest and create NPCs that each other player can draw links to.

This works well in games where all the characters are meant to be together - as it is for a TV series or even a game like TOR when the ideals of a FELLOWSHIP are a staplepoint.

I love the Pathways system of character creation in the Smallville RPG, but I never thought of using something similar to build a fellowship of player-heroes in TOR. That would be an interesting project!

Hmm... Start with a watermarked map of Wilderland and let each player write his name on an edge and put a square around it. In turn, each player will draw a diamond around their home town and draw an arrow from their name to the location. On the line, they can write "home land" or something similar. Then, they can narrate something about their home or perhaps read their chosen background or Calling. Afterwards, the Loremaster can allow each player to write the name of a Loremaster character that is important to them on the map and circle it. Again, they should draw an arrow to the character and write a short statement on the line such as "an old friend" or "owes me a favour" or "killed my uncle," etc. They should narrate about their relationship. More diamonds and circles could be added to the map, but the most important arrows drawn will be to connect each of the player-heroes. The Loremaster will play an important role in this process as he directs everything and asks questions such as Chris suggested to spark their creativity. Afterwards, he will have a map full of locations, characters, and statements to give him ideas for adventures to come. (Maybe I'll develop this some more.)

I also am finding this game hard to understand. I am new to role-playing games and my girl friends and I have played Hack Master and Savage Worlds and those games seemed a lot more straight forward.

LiMaYa wrote:I also am finding this game hard to understand. I am new to role-playing games and my girl friends and I have played Hack Master and Savage Worlds and those games seemed a lot more straight forward.

What gives you the most trouble? You have a foreign full of TOR fans who would love to try to explain it to you!

Mordagnir wrote:

LiMaYa wrote:I also am finding this game hard to understand. I am new to role-playing games and my girl friends and I have played Hack Master and Savage Worlds and those games seemed a lot more straight forward.

What gives you the most trouble? You have a foreign full of TOR fans who would love to try to explain it to you!

I feel a lot of it is my fault because my native language isn't English (Chinese) and the game isn't very math heavy so I have to read a lot, reread. I just am not sure how the game is supposed to play. In Hack Master or Savage Worlds, it's easy, you go out and kill stuff.