Most stories begin in a seemingly obvious place: the beginning. For tabletop games, such as the well known Dungeons & Dragons or my personal taste in Starfinder, this isn’t necessarily true. Yes, when you sit down at the table and the Game Master begins to set the scene and introduce the characters you’ve reached the beginning. But there’s something important that comes first.
Backstories.
The story may begin for the players as they sit down at the table, but their characters don’t suddenly poof into existence from nowhere with no history (usually). They come from somewhere, they have people who are important to them, and they have goals beyond what you bring to the table.
And as Game Master it’s your job to weave that together. Going forward, and unless otherwise stated, my Starfinder posts will deal specifically with the campaign I’m currently running. The story within, and the characters involved. For my campaigns, there’s a backstory form I give to my players. Five simple steps that help to craft a three dimensional person before they even sit down at the table.
Step One: Background and concept. These can be anything, the idea being that they’re the first things you think of to start building up who your character is. A high-concept overview. A list of significant life events. It could be a description. A personality profile. It can even be the name!
The goal here is to get an image in your mind that lets you start to filling with the finer details. I recommend five, but it’s a minimum that can easily invite more.
Step Two: Goals! Everyone has a reason for what they do. A drive that they work toward. And their goals don’t necessarily align with the larger story you’re telling, or even others in the group. This is important because that sort of conflict gives your story drama. Everyone should be on the same side, but that doesn’t mean they all want the exact same thing, and those different goals can make for some truly defining moments within your game.
I split up the goals into two categories: character and player. This serves an important role. One, I know how to hook the character. I know what will get their attention, and I can utilize it as a necessary carrot to bring a less eager character involved. Two, I now know what the player is looking for. This is especially important if their goal ties into character development, as it tells me which way to steer them, even if that seems counterintuitive to the character I’ve been presented with at the start.
Step Three: Everyone has something they want to hide. Secrets are a favorite of mine and something that just screams potential threads to be tugged at. Especially when laid out the way they are. There are three secrets I put here.
The first is a secret the character holds. Something they know that they don’t want others to know about. A mark of shame, something too important to be trusted to strangers. There’s a lot of room to play here.
The second is a secret about the character that they’re unaware of. Something that involves them and is looming in their future or from their past. This is the first secret a game master has to play with, a plot point and a bump to put in the road.
The final secret is my favorite. It’s a secret that the Game Master creates without the player’s knowledge. This is your chance to go through the full backstory and find something to really surprise people with. In my experience, this is best served to either tie the character into the greater plot in an unexpected way or to flip the script on something they thought they knew about their character on a personal level.
Step Four: Everyone knows someone in their life. Everyone has friends, and you’ve definitely made someone mad at you at some point in your life, even if you didn’t mean to. A life of adventuring doesn’t mean that you’ve put everything that came before behind you, and this is your chance to both ground the players in your world and to have a deeply personal arc with a satisfying villain.
Personally I like a few people in this, and with a little bit of work you can fill your entire campaign with these characters. I ask for two friendly people, and one antagonist. At least, of course. I never say no to more. I also encourage Game Masters to remember that just because someone is friendly, it doesn’t mean they’ll drop everything to help a player. They should have a life, goals and needs the same as anyone else.
Step Five: The final step is more a final flourish than any concrete building. It’s a place to breathe that final bit of life into the character you’ve created. What I like to see here are quirks or mannerisms. A small tick can go a long way if properly played. Another useful thing in this step is a memory. Something defining that happened in their past. A moment that truly matters. In the end, this step exists for context and flavor, so be sure to play with it.
These are the backstories I build. Future posts on my Starfinder campaign will show more about how these come into play in practice. Next up, an introduction of the cast before I dive into my first post on the actual campaign!
Let me know what you think of this structure for building characters, and if it’s any help to upcoming Game Masters who are looking to add a bit more story to their games.
Weaving Worlds 