so you got a character

[flykiller]

I once had a pair of players decide their PCs had attended an IISS service school at the same time. On their own they came up with all sort of in-game in-jokes, stories, and the like. They even used that school term to claim acquaintance with a few NPCs.

chargen is over and you survived. one term one skill wide-eyed innocent or eight terms forty skills half-cripple, whatever, doesn't matter, he's great. but you want to make him BETTER.

what do you do to build up your character? jailbird family? sweetheart waiting at home? massive acquaintance network? cybernetic implants?

link to so you got a boat

 

[Enoki]

I don't know... There's always play him like you hacked somebody's on-line game account... :rofl:

 

[The Pakkrat]

My answer was both cybernetics and psionics, but in ways that did not make the character a combat god or a mentalist.

Then, after that mumbo-jumbo, add a relationship, either with another character, an NPC or a mate distantly off-camera.

Tack on some scars, physical, emotional, mental based on the chargen or through adventures.

Bet it all on the Vargr who does his business before the race.

Be the Steward to wind up the mousie toy meat delivery bot for the passenger Aslan.

Poke the Ancients artifact with a stick.

Dye your fur to match your gregariously outrageous, clashing and offensive ball gown at the Archduke's gala.

 

[creativehum]

For me, backstory elements only help me if they’re pushing my PC forward. I don’t want things distracting me from the adventure at hand, but pushing and pulling me further into it.

My PC having a sweetie back home, for example, is valuable to me as a Player if I’ve promised that I’ll be returning with a fortune. Now I’ve got a Universal Adaptor to pursue anything the Referee tosses in front of me as long as money is attached. That, to me, is very useful.

Backstory elements that bond the PCs are terrific, because they’ll inform decisions and entertaining bits as we get into danger and have to make decisions about how to proceed. Again, how do the backstory elements broaden the elements at hand for the shared experience of play at the table. That’s the stuff I’m looking for.

Depending on the adventure/campaign setting, I’ll work with the Referee for additional hooks. Some campaigns will be more focused than others in terms of the setup, so some of the following will work better or worse in different circumstances.

Note that in all of these I’m offering the Referee the chance to throw NPCs at me. None of them depend on me leaving the group and going off on my own. Instead, I can keep adventuring with the group, and new problems can come at us. This, too, is one of the litmus tests for viability for backstory elements: Does it provide grist for the mill for the Referee to throw trouble at me. If trouble is coming at me, there’s more to do! (I think this way whether I’m the Referee or a Player.)

• I am loyal to a noble family that is in trouble and will help them with information/resources/finding someone
• I’m on the lamb from criminals I owe too much money too. I’m either going to escape or get enough money to pay them back.
• I was wronged by someone and seek enough resources to make my own justice.
• I’m seeking the man who wronged me and he’s on a world nearby.
• My father passed on rumors of a fabulous treasure somewhere in the subsector
• I promised a brother-in-arms in my service I’d finish up some unfinished business for him
• A planetary government wiped out my people and I want to hurt them
• A woman I love has been captured and I’m seeking her
• I returned to my subsector after being away at war and it has been conquered in my absence

And so on.

All of these encourage and allow the episodic kinds of tales that work well for sandbox games like planet hopping across a subsector in Traveller. We don’t need to make them the “main” plot, and as long as we’re checking out new worlds and working to keep moving forward, the Referee can keep dropping bread crumbs to keep me moving along.

Now, depending on one’s point of view, these might not make a character “better” — as in more powerful or better resources. But, for me, already caught up in trouble makes him a better PC because that means more adventure[/]. And for me, that’s the name of the game. As far as I'm concerned, a Classic Traveller Player character coming out of character generation is already competent and capable, ready strike out and make his way through the stars. What more he acquires he'll acquire through grit and guile during adventures in evenings of play.