Player and Character Questions

by Alan De Smet

More GM tips

Characters tend to enter the game world as empty slates. Maybe the player writes up a twenty page history of his character's childhood traumas, but it's just words on paper. The player certainly doesn't know his character.

Play helps flesh out characters. After a few sessions you'll start learning about who the character really is. Does the character stick with his friends through thick and thin? Does he help people in trouble? Actual game play adds details to a character. Unfortunately many of the little details, the details that make characters human, don't usually come up in play. Details that can be useful. What does the character dream about? What did he think of his schoolmates? Who does he fantasize about?

Email is an excellent opportunity to collect these details. The answers will give you more tools to use and will give the players deeper insight into their characters. A week or so before a game session, email out a question. Attach some little reward to answering it (experience points, a re-roll during the next game, a vote on pizza toppings).

Let your players know that you are expecting short answers. No more than a few sentences. Too much information will drown you in responses and drain your players of energy. They'll be more like to take the time if it only takes a few minutes. You certainly don't want your players to start resenting the questions. After all, it's only a game.

Pick a mix of questions, some simple (What type of hat does your character wear?), some hard (How does your character feel about the war?). If you need particular information for a future plot line, ask several months in advance (Who is your character's dearest love? What does your character have nightmares about?). Find out what your players like (What is your favorite movie? What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now?), what they don't like (What popular television show do you hate?) and what they fear (What movie scares you the most?).

I suggest starting with simple questions. Give the characters a bit of time to grow in the game before you ask deeper questions.

Example questions

Here are some example questions. They're mostly drawn from a Deadlands game I ran in 2000, so many are Deadlands specific, thus the Wild West/Steampunk/horror theme.

If you're looking for more questions, definately check out Rich Taylor's 100 Questions. backup link

Questions to answer as Characters

• What is your character's moral code?
• What are your character's likes and dislikes?
• Who does your character look up to? If there isn't anyone your character looks up to right now, was there someone in their past?
• If your character could have any one law passed, what would it be?
• Has your character had sex? Will your character have sex?
• Dreams. How often does your character remember then? In color? Lucid? are there common themes? Does the same or similar dreams repeat?
• Why does your character have the name that he or she does?
• Who in the group has your character bonded with the most?
• Who in the group does your character like the least? Why?
• Is there anything your character regrets doing/not doing?
• What would your character do if he/she suddenly became independently wealthy?
• Who was the great love of your character's life?
• What was the nicest thing a stranger's ever done for your character?
• What is your character's greatest accomplishmen?
• What is your character's greatest failure?
• What is your character's favorite beverage?
• If your character a cat person, a dog person, or other?
• What are your character's religious beliefs?
• What offer would be irresistable enough for your character to betray his friends?
• What does your character think about were your group is now?
• Where was your character born?
• What is the most noteworthy aspect of each of the other player characters?
• What does your character like about each of the other player characters?
• What does your character dislike about each of the other player characters?
• What is your character's greatest fear?
• Being trapped:
  • What does your character feel trapped by?
  • How does your character react to being trapped?
  • What does your character fear being trapped by?
• Travel:
  • What's the furthest west, east, north, and south in North America your character has been? No details necessary, just rough geographic locations, so a very widely travelled character might answer Lost Angels, New York, Quebec, Mexico.
  • What is the most exotic place your character has been?
  • If your character could go anywhere in the world, where would he go? Why?
• Family:
  • Who were your characters parents?
  • What does your character remember most about his parents?
  • Which parent does your character feel closer to, his mother or father?
• The Future:
  • What are your character's short term goals?
  • What are your character's long term goals?
  • Where does your character picture himself 20 years from now?
• Deadlands specific:
  • Your character has lived in a world gripped in fear for 14 years. What is the most horrible thing your character has seen, and how did it affect him?
  • Your character has lived in a world gripped in fear for 14 years. What was the first creepy or supernatural thing he saw, and how did it affect him?
  • Most fellas wear a hat to keep the sun out of their eyes. Does your characater wear a hat? If so, what does it look like. Why did your character pick it? If not, why not?
  • Although it's easy to forget out here in the west, there is a civil war going on. People die every day. What does your character think of the war now, and has their perception of the way changed much over time? If they "favor" a side, which one? Don't go too deep into any service in the war or relatives lost or such, that's another question....
  • How has the war affected your character? Did they serve in the war? Which side? Did they lose anyone they cared about in the war? Did it expose them to new emotions? Whatever strikes your fancy, ramble on.
  • After seeing some of the supernatural, have your character's views of religion and the afterlife changed? How, or why not?
  • What is your character's horse's name?
  • What is your character's relationship with his or her horse, or horses in general? Why?
  • Ghost rock burns with creepy, viscous smoke and a piercing wail. What does your character think of it?

Questions to answer as Players

• What scene or adventure in the last few months of play creeped you out the most?
• In the last few months of play, in which scene or adventure your character really shine?
• In what scene or adventure in the last few months of play did you most easily suspend disbelief?
• What is your favorite role-playing game that we aren't playing right now? Why?
• What is your least favorite role-playing game that we aren't playing right now? Why?
• What genre of role-playing game (excluding the current one) would you really hate to play? Why?
• Thinking about your favorite past role-playing experience, what made it special?
• Thinking about your least favorite past role-playing experience, what made it unpleasant?
• Fiction (Replace __________ with "movie", "book", "television series" or some combination)
  • What is your favorite western __________? Why?
  • What is your favorite __________ ever? Why?
  • What __________ do you dislike, but most people like? Why don't you like it?
  • What __________ do you wish was a role-playing game? Why?

Dru Pagliassotti's Pregame Character Survey

The following questions are derived from those presented in the article "Pregame Character Survey" by Dru Pagliassotti. The article was originally at about.com, but they're idiots who regularly delete old content and sure enough it's now gone. You can see a copy of the article as it originally appeared here courtesy of the the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

• Does your character have any titles or nicknames? Did your character have any nicknames as a child?
• Why do you adventure - why have you chosen to risk your life as a career choice?
• What (if anything) would make you stop adventuring? (i.e., death of a loved one, physical mutilation, enough money to retire on, marriage, etc?)
• What are your political beliefs? (i.e., do you prefer democracy, monarchy, rule of the aristocracy, communism, anarchy, etc?)
• Who is your patron deity? Are you a devout worshipper? How often do you attend services or make sacrifices?
• Are you an extremely loyal member of any nonreligious cause? (i.e. a loyal servant of an exalt, devoted member of a guild or order, etc.?)
• Is there any race, creed, alignment, religion or the like against which you are strongly prejudiced? Why?
• What is one task you would absolutely refuse to do? (i.e. kill a baby, admit you were wrong, commit adultery, etc?)
• Is there anything you cannot do? (i.e. get close to people, handle money well, etc?)
• What is your greatest strength? (i.e. honest, loyal, brave?)
• What is your greatest shortcoming? (i.e. cowardly, drinks too much, lies?)
• What are your hobbies (collecting, jam sessions in a bar, dining out, etc) when you're not adventuring or training in your class skills? What would you do if you woke up with insomnia and had to find something to do all night?
• What is your motto or favorite saying?
• What is your favorite color?
• What kinds of clothes, jewelry, etc do you wear when you're not in armor or other "adventuring gear"? Do you have "a look"? Do you dress up (or down) to go out?
• What do you wear to bed at home? While adventuring? Where do you put your weapons, magic items, etc when you're asleep?
• What is your favorite food? Your favorite drink? Dessert? A particular cuisine?
• What is your favorite animal?
• Do you have a best friend (not a child or a lover) whom you'd protect with your reputation or life? Who? Why?
• What type of person would be your ideal mate?
• What habits of your friends annoy you most?
• What would you like to be remembered for after your death?
• Rate yourself with these traits on a scale of 0 (you barely, or do not, possess this trait) to 10 (you have great amounts of this trait): Calm temper, Cheerfulness, Courtesy, Curiosity, Forgiveness, Generosity, Helpfulness, Honesty, Loyalty, Optimism, Patience, Self-sacrifice, Valor, Wit