101 Character Development questions [Archive] - Wizards Community

101 Character Development questions [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
D.K.R.
05-23-04, 03:41 AM I played with a DM several years ago, back when 3.0 had just come out, and he sent all of us players this list of 101 questions to help develop a character and a history. It went from overly simplistic (name/age/race/etc) to extremely detailed ("In at least three complete sentences each, describe your character's relationship with his/her father, mother, grandparents, siblings, etc.)

There was XP awarded for each question, from 1/2 point for the stupid stuff (name/age/race/etc) to 1 to 5 points for other mediocre questions and up to 25 points each for the more involved questions. Answering all of the 101 questions, which involved like 200 or more answers because one question could cover multiple things like the above relative's relationship descriptions, would grant roughly 500 experience points total.

Now, I thought he had designed that questionnaire himself; but later, about a year and a half ago, I saw the exact same thing floating around online somewhere. It is certainly possible his had gotten out somehow, but this one included a copyright statement which did not belong to him; so either someone plagiarized him, or he had gotten it from that source.

Anyway, the whole point of this is I would like to find a copy of it, or of something very similar, and have been searching for a week or so and cannot seem to locate it. I recently started DMing a game, and all of the players are relatively new to roleplaying, and though they each have at least one or two other campaigns under their belts, it would seem none of them have ever spent any time developing a character, but have taken the 'video game' approach; they just min/max or maybe just even throw together a character at random, and play without concern for who the character is, or how they would handle a situation other than the 'smartest' approach, etc. So, to encourage them to start developing their characters, I want to give them something like this with a reward attached, specifically XP - so that they can spend a little time thinking about their character's past and attitudes and just develop a character to play, instead of having a set of statistic they are using.

So - anyone know of that specific questionnaire? If not, anyone have something similar? I would like it to cover the very basics all the way up to the extreme details of past and present, as well as future desires - long and short term goals, etc. I know I could write my own, and actually started to do so before I came here to post this. I figure why reinvent the wheel when I can just go ask if anyone knows where it is?

Thanks!
Trydan
05-23-04, 10:45 AM Hmm... perhaps you mean this one: The Original 100+ Questions Essay Test for Character Development (http://skitten.best.vwh.net/100questions.html)

Even if not, it might help.
ZARATHOS1972
05-23-04, 03:28 PM I don't have any knowledge of any lists, but the one in the link tryden posted looks like you could pare it down to a good list to start with.
I know in my campaigns, we encourage the creation of backgrounds. Backgrounds of some sort are required, and bonus experience is handed out based on the length and quality of the background. Usually anywhere from 50 (for a very poor one paragraph story), to 999 (for a very creative in depth background that covers his entire life up until the campaign starts). I usually also like to give one or two elements to be covered as a requirement. It helps some players get a start on a background without having to figure out where to start.
SolitudeSeraph
05-27-04, 12:26 AM Here you go (I didn't know if it was ok to post or not but...here goes)

Part 1: The Basics

1. What is your full name? Do you have a nickname?
2. How old are you? When is your birthday?
3. Where were you born? Where do you live now? Are you patriotic?
4. Who are/were your parents? (Names, occupations, personalities, etc.)
5. Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?
6. What is your occupation?
7. How tall are you? How much do you weigh?
8. What color is your hair? What color are your eyes?
9. What is your race?
10. To which social class do you belong?
11. Do you consider yourself to be attractive? Do others?
12. What is your style of dress?
13. Do you have any scars? Tattoos? Birthmarks? Other unique physical features?
14. Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?
15. Are you right- or left-handed?
16. What does your voice sound like?
17. What kind of vocabulary do you use?
18. List three quirks or other defining characteristics.
19. How often do you bathe? Do you wear perfumes?
20. What kind of facial expression do you commonly wear (dour glare, wry smile, etc)?
21. Do you use body language? How?
22. Do you have a commonly used saying?

Part 2: Growing Up

23. What is your earliest memory?
24. How much schooling have you had? Did you enjoy it?
25. Where did you learn most of your knowledge and skill?
26. How would you describe your childhood in general?
27. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
28. When and with whom was your first kiss?
29. Are you a virgin? If not, when and with whom did you lose your virginity?
30. Do you have a notorious or celebrated ancestor? Does that affect you?

Part 3: Past Influences

31. What do you consider the most important event of your life so far?
32. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
33. What is your greatest regret?
34. What is the most embarrassing or shameful thing ever to happen to you?
35. Do you have any secrets? If so, what are they?
36. What is the most evil thing you have ever done?
37. When was the time you were the most frightened?
38. Have you ever traveled outside of your country? If so, to where?

Part 4: Beliefs And Opinions

39. What is your alignment?
40. Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?
41. Do you believe in a god? If so, which one and why?
42. Do you believe in an afterlife?
43. What is your greatest fear?
44. What makes your character angry? Sad? Happy? Why?
45. Do you think people are basically good or basically evil?
46. What are your views on politics? Religion? Sex?
47. What are your views on gambling, lying, theft, and killing?
48. How far will you go to defend your beliefs?
49. How much do you value money?
50. In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any human being could do?
51. Do you believe in self-sacrifice for the greater good?
52. Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love?
53. Are you superstitious?
54. How much do you respect the beliefs and opinions of others?
55. How honest are you about your thoughts and feelings?
56. Do you have any biases or prejudices?

Part 5: Relationships With Others

57. Who is the most important person in your life, and why?
58. Who is the person you respect the most? Despise the most? Why?
59. Do you have a significant other? Who?
60. Do you have a lot of friends? Who is your best friend?
61. How do you relate to members of the same race? Class? Sex?
62. How do you relate to members of a different race? Class? Sex?
63. Have you ever been in love? If so, describe what happened.
64. What do you look for in a potential lover?
65. How close are you to your family?
66. Do you want a marriage, family, and/or children?
67. Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict?
68. Are you a listener or a talker?
69. How long does it usually take for you to trust others?
70. Do you hold grudges?
71. Do you tend to take on leadership roles in social situations?
72. Do you like interacting with large groups of people?
73. How well do you express yourself?
74. How quickly do you judge others?
75. Do you care what others think of you?
76. Do you have any enemies? How or why are they your enemy?

Part 6: Likes And Dislikes

77. What is your favorite pastime? Color? Food? Possession?
78. What are your preferences in arts and/or entertainment?
79. Do you smoke, drink, go whoring, or use drugs? Why or why not?
80. How do you spend a typical Saturday night?
81. What is your most cherished fantasy?
82. How long is your attention span?
83. Do you laugh a lot? What do you find funny?
84. Is there anything that shocks or offends you? If so, what?
85. How do you deal with stress?
86. How much athletic ability do you have? Artistic?
87. Do you like animals? Do you like children?
88. Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?
89. What are your pet peeves?

Part 7: Self Images

90. What is your greatest strength as a person? Weakness?
91. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
92. Are you generally introverted or extroverted?
93. Do you like yourself?
94. Do you have a daily routine? How do you feel if your day is interrupted?
95. What goal do you most want to accomplish in the next six months? Your lifetime?
96. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
97. If you could choose, how would you want to die?
98. What is the one thing you would like to be remembered for after your death?
99. What three words would you use to best describe your personality?
100. What three words would others probably use to describe you?
101. Why are you risking your life to adventure?
D.K.R.
05-27-04, 01:41 AM Thanks very much! I went ahead and made my own, if anyone is interested you can see it here (http://www.kargrafx.com/TheLand/viewtopic.php?t=4) (on the forums for my campaign).

Still trying to encourage more participation from my players; but I don't want to seem to be too eager for them to participate - I might get them to think I am some weird kindof person who thinks he lives in the fantasy world, you know? I had a DM like that once.
blood_of_the_ancient
06-01-04, 10:54 AM :bump:

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
D.K.R. 05-23-04, 03:41 AM	I played with a DM several years ago, back when 3.0 had just come out, and he sent all of us players this list of 101 questions to help develop a character and a history. It went from overly simplistic (name/age/race/etc) to extremely detailed ("In at least three complete sentences each, describe your character's relationship with his/her father, mother, grandparents, siblings, etc.) There was XP awarded for each question, from 1/2 point for the stupid stuff (name/age/race/etc) to 1 to 5 points for other mediocre questions and up to 25 points each for the more involved questions. Answering all of the 101 questions, which involved like 200 or more answers because one question could cover multiple things like the above relative's relationship descriptions, would grant roughly 500 experience points total. Now, I thought he had designed that questionnaire himself; but later, about a year and a half ago, I saw the exact same thing floating around online somewhere. It is certainly possible his had gotten out somehow, but this one included a copyright statement which did not belong to him; so either someone plagiarized him, or he had gotten it from that source. Anyway, the whole point of this is I would like to find a copy of it, or of something very similar, and have been searching for a week or so and cannot seem to locate it. I recently started DMing a game, and all of the players are relatively new to roleplaying, and though they each have at least one or two other campaigns under their belts, it would seem none of them have ever spent any time developing a character, but have taken the 'video game' approach; they just min/max or maybe just even throw together a character at random, and play without concern for who the character is, or how they would handle a situation other than the 'smartest' approach, etc. So, to encourage them to start developing their characters, I want to give them something like this with a reward attached, specifically XP - so that they can spend a little time thinking about their character's past and attitudes and just develop a character to play, instead of having a set of statistic they are using. So - anyone know of that specific questionnaire? If not, anyone have something similar? I would like it to cover the very basics all the way up to the extreme details of past and present, as well as future desires - long and short term goals, etc. I know I could write my own, and actually started to do so before I came here to post this. I figure why reinvent the wheel when I can just go ask if anyone knows where it is? Thanks!
Trydan 05-23-04, 10:45 AM	Hmm... perhaps you mean this one: The Original 100+ Questions Essay Test for Character Development (http://skitten.best.vwh.net/100questions.html) Even if not, it might help.
ZARATHOS1972 05-23-04, 03:28 PM	I don't have any knowledge of any lists, but the one in the link tryden posted looks like you could pare it down to a good list to start with. I know in my campaigns, we encourage the creation of backgrounds. Backgrounds of some sort are required, and bonus experience is handed out based on the length and quality of the background. Usually anywhere from 50 (for a very poor one paragraph story), to 999 (for a very creative in depth background that covers his entire life up until the campaign starts). I usually also like to give one or two elements to be covered as a requirement. It helps some players get a start on a background without having to figure out where to start.
SolitudeSeraph 05-27-04, 12:26 AM	Here you go (I didn't know if it was ok to post or not but...here goes) Part 1: The Basics 1. What is your full name? Do you have a nickname? 2. How old are you? When is your birthday? 3. Where were you born? Where do you live now? Are you patriotic? 4. Who are/were your parents? (Names, occupations, personalities, etc.) 5. Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like? 6. What is your occupation? 7. How tall are you? How much do you weigh? 8. What color is your hair? What color are your eyes? 9. What is your race? 10. To which social class do you belong? 11. Do you consider yourself to be attractive? Do others? 12. What is your style of dress? 13. Do you have any scars? Tattoos? Birthmarks? Other unique physical features? 14. Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses? 15. Are you right- or left-handed? 16. What does your voice sound like? 17. What kind of vocabulary do you use? 18. List three quirks or other defining characteristics. 19. How often do you bathe? Do you wear perfumes? 20. What kind of facial expression do you commonly wear (dour glare, wry smile, etc)? 21. Do you use body language? How? 22. Do you have a commonly used saying? Part 2: Growing Up 23. What is your earliest memory? 24. How much schooling have you had? Did you enjoy it? 25. Where did you learn most of your knowledge and skill? 26. How would you describe your childhood in general? 27. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 28. When and with whom was your first kiss? 29. Are you a virgin? If not, when and with whom did you lose your virginity? 30. Do you have a notorious or celebrated ancestor? Does that affect you? Part 3: Past Influences 31. What do you consider the most important event of your life so far? 32. What do you consider your greatest achievement? 33. What is your greatest regret? 34. What is the most embarrassing or shameful thing ever to happen to you? 35. Do you have any secrets? If so, what are they? 36. What is the most evil thing you have ever done? 37. When was the time you were the most frightened? 38. Have you ever traveled outside of your country? If so, to where? Part 4: Beliefs And Opinions 39. What is your alignment? 40. Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic? 41. Do you believe in a god? If so, which one and why? 42. Do you believe in an afterlife? 43. What is your greatest fear? 44. What makes your character angry? Sad? Happy? Why? 45. Do you think people are basically good or basically evil? 46. What are your views on politics? Religion? Sex? 47. What are your views on gambling, lying, theft, and killing? 48. How far will you go to defend your beliefs? 49. How much do you value money? 50. In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any human being could do? 51. Do you believe in self-sacrifice for the greater good? 52. Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love? 53. Are you superstitious? 54. How much do you respect the beliefs and opinions of others? 55. How honest are you about your thoughts and feelings? 56. Do you have any biases or prejudices? Part 5: Relationships With Others 57. Who is the most important person in your life, and why? 58. Who is the person you respect the most? Despise the most? Why? 59. Do you have a significant other? Who? 60. Do you have a lot of friends? Who is your best friend? 61. How do you relate to members of the same race? Class? Sex? 62. How do you relate to members of a different race? Class? Sex? 63. Have you ever been in love? If so, describe what happened. 64. What do you look for in a potential lover? 65. How close are you to your family? 66. Do you want a marriage, family, and/or children? 67. Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict? 68. Are you a listener or a talker? 69. How long does it usually take for you to trust others? 70. Do you hold grudges? 71. Do you tend to take on leadership roles in social situations? 72. Do you like interacting with large groups of people? 73. How well do you express yourself? 74. How quickly do you judge others? 75. Do you care what others think of you? 76. Do you have any enemies? How or why are they your enemy? Part 6: Likes And Dislikes 77. What is your favorite pastime? Color? Food? Possession? 78. What are your preferences in arts and/or entertainment? 79. Do you smoke, drink, go whoring, or use drugs? Why or why not? 80. How do you spend a typical Saturday night? 81. What is your most cherished fantasy? 82. How long is your attention span? 83. Do you laugh a lot? What do you find funny? 84. Is there anything that shocks or offends you? If so, what? 85. How do you deal with stress? 86. How much athletic ability do you have? Artistic? 87. Do you like animals? Do you like children? 88. Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan? 89. What are your pet peeves? Part 7: Self Images 90. What is your greatest strength as a person? Weakness? 91. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? 92. Are you generally introverted or extroverted? 93. Do you like yourself? 94. Do you have a daily routine? How do you feel if your day is interrupted? 95. What goal do you most want to accomplish in the next six months? Your lifetime? 96. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? 97. If you could choose, how would you want to die? 98. What is the one thing you would like to be remembered for after your death? 99. What three words would you use to best describe your personality? 100. What three words would others probably use to describe you? 101. Why are you risking your life to adventure?
D.K.R. 05-27-04, 01:41 AM	Thanks very much! I went ahead and made my own, if anyone is interested you can see it here (http://www.kargrafx.com/TheLand/viewtopic.php?t=4) (on the forums for my campaign). Still trying to encourage more participation from my players; but I don't want to seem to be too eager for them to participate - I might get them to think I am some weird kindof person who thinks he lives in the fantasy world, you know? I had a DM like that once.
blood_of_the_ancient 06-01-04, 10:54 AM	:bump: