Character Background Generator Ideas [Archive] - Wizards Community

Character Background Generator Ideas [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Dark Voivode
06-11-05, 02:32 AM Since Mutt's (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=6416049#post6416049) isn't doing all that well, I figured I'd move on to the next serious post.

I'm putting together a character background generator of epic proportions for D&D along the same lines as Task Force Games' Central Casting: Heroes of Legend. For those of you not in the know, the now defunct company put together a generic background generator book that covered everything that happened to characters from birth to the beginning of their adventuring career. Some of the things didn't fit the flavor (dying and being reesurrected with another soul alongside yours, for example). Some of the things were just too harsh (penalties for allergies and injuries that would make the heartiest adventurer sit one out).

So, what I'm putting forth here is a general "What would you like to see in a book like this?" thread. Since we're not allowed to post "wish list" threads to the New Releases board, I have to post it here. :P Seriously, what should be in here? I'm thinking of things from being born on a holy day, to fighter feats for military service, to bonus skill points for apprenticeship. With the release of the DMG II, I'm planning on seeing what in there might be incorporated as well.

Thanks in advance.
braindead345
06-11-05, 03:34 AM I'll break down my suggestions by catagory.

1. Birth info:
Parents marital and social status.

Orphan status rules

Siblings (if known): #of sisters, #of brothers, ranking in birth order. Special (twins, etc)

Where were you raised?_______________ city, town, village, clan (mobile), institution (orphanage, church, abby, etc)

Person(s) responsible for raising you (parent, grandparent, institution, other)

2 Training

Apprenticeship: none, squire, craft or trade, religious training, other (school/military).
Name of master:_________________ status achieved (fully qualified, incomplete, failure)

3. Legal status (before adventuring)

Citizenship: Land owner, full citizen, legal resident (including native born that have not fulfilled requirements for full citizenship example: military service or reaching a certain age), slave, criminal (citizenship revoked).
If criminal give details to the nature of the crime:______________________

4. Physical description
Age, weight, height, hair, skin, eyes, race, physical markings (scars, tattoos, etc)
Deformities and abnormalities table ranging from None (80% of the time) to midgets, huchbacks, those with missing fingers/toes, deafness, blindness, etc Additional table for unusual boons (keen hearing, sharp eyes, precognition, etc). Rules of playing deformed characters (base speed of a character with a peg leg? Combat rules for these with only one eye. Rules for adapting to the deformaty.

5. Psychological evaluation
Algnments explained with a subsection on conflicting alignments within a party.
Reason for adventuring______________________
Abnormal fears? (heights, confined spaces, water, dark, etc)
Hatred table (degree of hatred for certain species or groups)
Rules for overcoming fears & hatreds. Gaining control of the anger.

6.History (background story) guide/suggestions
Cilveran
06-11-05, 03:52 AM Oooooh, nice initiative :) Will follow this thread with interest =)
Dark Voivode
06-11-05, 04:55 AM I'll break down my suggestions by catagory.

1. Birth info:
Parents marital and social status.

Orphan status rules

Siblings (if known): #of sisters, #of brothers, ranking in birth order. Special (twins, etc)

Where were you raised?_______________ city, town, village, clan (mobile), institution (orphanage, church, abby, etc)

Person(s) responsible for raising you (parent, grandparent, institution, other)

Check. Got that section primarily done.

2 Training

Apprenticeship: none, squire, craft or trade, religious training, other (school/military).
Name of master:_________________ status achieved (fully qualified, incomplete, failure)

Check. Got a good amount of info put together on that. Should apprenticeship be mandatory? You get trained no matter what?

3. Legal status (before adventuring)

Citizenship: Land owner, full citizen, legal resident (including native born that have not fulfilled requirements for full citizenship example: military service or reaching a certain age), slave, criminal (citizenship revoked).
If criminal give details to the nature of the crime:______________________

Hmm... Interesting first part of that. What makes you a citizen. Neat idea, thanks. Working on event charts for the slavery/criminal thing.

4. Physical description
Age, weight, height, hair, skin, eyes, race, physical markings (scars, tattoos, etc)
Deformities and abnormalities table ranging from None (80% of the time) to midgets, huchbacks, those with missing fingers/toes, deafness, blindness, etc Additional table for unusual boons (keen hearing, sharp eyes, precognition, etc). Rules of playing deformed characters (base speed of a character with a peg leg? Combat rules for these with only one eye. Rules for adapting to the deformaty.

Check. Got good charts lining up for that.

5. Psychological evaluation
Algnments explained with a subsection on conflicting alignments within a party.
Reason for adventuring______________________
Abnormal fears? (heights, confined spaces, water, dark, etc)
Hatred table (degree of hatred for certain species or groups)
Rules for overcoming fears & hatreds. Gaining control of the anger.

I'm not really dealing with alignments here. Mainly, it's personality traits (cleanly, hedonist, vengeful, etc.) I'm also working up charts for abnormal behavior like psychoses, phobias, and extreme hatreds. I also figured I would put allergies here but with a lesser effect than what I've seen elsewhere.

6.History (background story) guide/suggestions

Now, I do have a lot of miscellaneous event stuff I'm thinking about. Romantic encounters, horror events, wartime, imprisonment, enslavement, deific encounters, races specific events (human, elf, halfling, gnome, dwarf, orc, halfbreed and monster), age specific events (seperated into 1-12 for youth and 13-15 for adolescence with one adulthood event taking place before the character becomes an adventurer), exotic events and more.

Thanks for the interest so far.
J Milburn
06-11-05, 05:08 AM There is already a book with something like this in, namely the hero builders guidebook, but that allows no bonuses and penalties for different histories and was easily the worst book i have ever read published by wotc.

Be careful with this though, there is a fineline with letting your history play a part in your game and people getting insane bonuses for there history and your first ideas seem to suggest some pretty bonuses. and i can see one player in myt party getting the wrong idea about this...
J Milburn
06-11-05, 05:16 AM actually, braindead, you have about summed up that entire book. all else there is is running through character creation, some very obvious character concepts, a list of names and advantages and disadvantages for each character class combo missing out alot of important ones. rubbish book. sorry, i really wanterd to share my experiances.
Dark Voivode
06-11-05, 05:28 AM J Milburn: I understand your pain (WotC should issue a formal apology for that book) and your concerns about player abuse. I am attempting to make it extremely difficult to get more than skill points and maybe the equivalent of a regional feat, but someone's dice can always break the tables. Someone once said "The laws of probability go out the window the second you pick up the dice."

I want it to be fluffy with a little bit of crunch. Like a big thing of cotton candy with a packet of Pop Rocks tossed over it. :D That's why I brought the idea here. I figure with some good people helping me out, I can keep it from being "Build an Uber Character, then add a class to it" and still have people saying, Gee, my character has more personality than me." :P
J Milburn
06-11-05, 05:36 AM **deep breaths**

ok, im good now. i think one thing that is important is to remember that most characters should be outcasts. Why else are they going to leave theyre hovel and go and kill things that live in caves? So the tables shoulkd reflect this. extreme backgrounds involving war and betrayal should be the norm. If the worst thing that the character ever saw was a cat tormenting a blackbird, they are not going to have the nerve to ever plunge a sword into someone.
Dark Voivode
06-13-05, 10:49 PM I was thinking of including modified versions of the Background tables for UA. How does that sound?
Aurelius_Shadowstryke
07-13-05, 03:30 PM Hi there.

First of all, let me just say I think this is an excellent project, as I spent a lot of time looking for the Central Casting books a while back. They were slightly OTT in some cases, but with a little DM intervention you could get some decent backgrounds out of them (especially good for new players, or those who are no good at creating backgrounds, or for the DM with lots of NPC's to create!)

I would suggest Class specific adult encounters that could be tailored by the DM in order to lead the party together for the first adventure (e.g. a Fighter being recruited by the local guard to perfom an unspecified mission, or a Cleric being sent to an unspecified village to deliver a message to the local priest, etc.) This can be the most troublesome part of the first adventure, and a table such as this could be of great use.

I can't think of anything else just yet, but I'll certainly check back on this thread and if I think of anything else I'll let you know.
Dark Voivode
07-13-05, 04:16 PM Hi there.

First of all, let me just say I think this is an excellent project, as I spent a lot of time looking for the Central Casting books a while back. They were slightly OTT in some cases, but with a little DM intervention you could get some decent backgrounds out of them (especially good for new players, or those who are no good at creating backgrounds, or for the DM with lots of NPC's to create!)

I would suggest Class specific adult encounters that could be tailored by the DM in order to lead the party together for the first adventure (e.g. a Fighter being recruited by the local guard to perfom an unspecified mission, or a Cleric being sent to an unspecified village to deliver a message to the local priest, etc.) This can be the most troublesome part of the first adventure, and a table such as this could be of great use.

I can't think of anything else just yet, but I'll certainly check back on this thread and if I think of anything else I'll let you know.

This is an excellent idea. I'll do my best to incorporate this. I found the Adult event tables too problematic anyway. You're adventuring age, so your adult event should be tied in to moving you toward the rest of the party.

Thanks for digging so far down in the board to revive this thread. I figured no-one had much interest in this idea other than the three that posted here. Good to see we're not alone.
DwarvinJedi
07-13-05, 07:45 PM Interesting, especially considering I was going to run a game that all the things that YOU couldn't decide, you can't decide(race, where you were born, what your parents were like, and such, stats(to a certain extent, I am allowing minor custumization, i.e working out a lot will give you more STR and such)) I am interested in seeing your chart.( I might make an Eberron specific one, I will post it if I do)
Dark Voivode
07-14-05, 12:25 PM Interesting, especially considering I was going to run a game that all the things that YOU couldn't decide, you can't decide(race, where you were born, what your parents were like, and such, stats(to a certain extent, I am allowing minor custumization, i.e working out a lot will give you more STR and such)) I am interested in seeing your chart.( I might make an Eberron specific one, I will post it if I do)

I wish I were just making a simple chart. We're looking at close to 300 pages worth of material. However, when I'm finished I will let everyone know, and I'll even work with you to alter it to fit your campaign setting. Cause I'm cool like that. :coolcthul
Aurelius_Shadowstryke
07-14-05, 03:44 PM Well, I thought an good idea like this deserved more attention than it seemed to be getting and, besides which, I liked it myself.

Obviously you've been a very busy man recently. I mean 300 pages!! Is that what you have so far, or do you mean this is what the total is likely to be? Not that I'm complaining since the more details the better IMO.

Have you considered getting someone to make a program of this (or doing it yourself if you have the time and necessary skills)? I'd volunteer myself except for the small problem of being unable to program my VCR, never mind a computer program!!

Seriously though, keep up the good work. I know a few people who would be interested in this project.

Just remember this:

No Human is ever alone
And no Dwarf is an island
No Elf is solitary
But we Gods always stand
Alone.
:D
Dark Voivode
07-14-05, 06:07 PM If I could find someone to turn it into a program I'd be ecstatic. Anyone with the skills want to volunteer for hours of coding? :D

Actually, I'm only about 50 pages into it. 300 is an estimate of the finished product. We begin intensive work sessions this August. After that, We'll have to see what's left to be done.

It'll be very skill-oriented. Meaning that most of the benefits from your background will be miscellaneous modifiers to your character's skills. I'm being stingy (sp?) with the feats. :P
Dark Voivode
12-02-05, 12:35 AM Just wanted to give everyone an update as to the current status of this project. I've come to a major stalling point that no-one seems to want to work on, so I've decided to throw the floor open to everyone here.

Racial Background Tables. Namely, what happens to a character in their early years (youth and adolescence) that might be tied specifically to their race.

What I'm looking for is ideas for events which took place in the character's life that helped to either shape who it is, or could become an interesting plot device, or even just a simple anecdote. I need these ideas for Orcs, Kobolds, Halfbreeds, Monsters (Githyanki, Quaggoth and other mainly humanoid races fall into this category as well), Planetouched, and Taur-like races (lower half animal, upper half humanoid).

I also have a race devoted to the god of war that have an ingrained hatred of magic, so that's something to look at if you so choose.

If anyone has any ideas that might be helpful in this scenario, I'd be more than happy for your help. I'll even give you a mention in the credits when I put the thing up.

Thanks in advance for any and all help. If this works out decently, I may throw open a few other areas of the book for general discussion here.
The Grig Fiddler
12-11-05, 04:17 AM I was thinking and for the outcast type races:Orcs, kobolds,etc. the biggest childhood event would be the ones leading to them leaving their societies.
An orc is spared by a cleric as a child from that day on he has more compassion and is outcast when he spares or tries to spare a child.
Or a kobold tired of the weak cowardly leadership of his/her tribe strikes out for better things. A character born into an abusive family and soon begins to hate his race. I guess what I was figuring is that the easiest way to come up with childhood events would be to focus on the reason for adventuring.

Sorry if I misunderstood what you were asking.
Dark Voivode
12-11-05, 03:02 PM No, that's actually very good. Events that lead out of the home environment are always a good thing as well. Those I can actually use for adulthood events that push the character towards adventuring; towards pulling the party together. Thanks for your help. :cool:

For childhood and adolescent racial events I'm leaning more towards knowledge gleaned from time spent amongst their respective races. Examples would be like Training in Hammer and Axe for a dwarf means the character starts play with Weapon Focus in those two weapons (I consider WF to be a petty enough feat to allow as a freebie). Another would be an Elf having an appreciation for the music of his people and gaining a +2 misc modifier towards Perform. Little tweaks like that.

Any other suggestions? I'm willing to listen to most any idea. I'm sure I can find a place for it somewhere in the book.
EpicEvokerElf
10-30-06, 05:54 PM Examples would be like Training in Hammer and Axe for a dwarf means the character starts play with Weapon Focus in those two weapons (I consider WF to be a petty enough feat to allow as a freebie).

Weapon Focus is NOT petty! It the prereq for SO many other feats. 2 free WF's is like a free level of fighter or summat. Really good! Super overpowered!:OMG!
Dark Voivode
01-26-07, 06:42 PM Weapon Focus is NOT petty! It the prereq for SO many other feats. 2 free WF's is like a free level of fighter or summat. Really good! Super overpowered!:OMG!

My group can't seem to find this huge list of feats you seem to be implying exsists when it comes to Weapon Focus. Weapon Focus is a prereq for Weapon Specialization and maybe three more that we could find. Of course, we're using 3.5 rules, so that may be the difference here.

Does anyone know what all feats require WF? If the list really is extensive, perhaps I'll consider dropping it as a boon from the book.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dark Voivode 06-11-05, 02:32 AM	Since Mutt's (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=6416049#post6416049) isn't doing all that well, I figured I'd move on to the next serious post. I'm putting together a character background generator of epic proportions for D&D along the same lines as Task Force Games' Central Casting: Heroes of Legend. For those of you not in the know, the now defunct company put together a generic background generator book that covered everything that happened to characters from birth to the beginning of their adventuring career. Some of the things didn't fit the flavor (dying and being reesurrected with another soul alongside yours, for example). Some of the things were just too harsh (penalties for allergies and injuries that would make the heartiest adventurer sit one out). So, what I'm putting forth here is a general "What would you like to see in a book like this?" thread. Since we're not allowed to post "wish list" threads to the New Releases board, I have to post it here. :P Seriously, what should be in here? I'm thinking of things from being born on a holy day, to fighter feats for military service, to bonus skill points for apprenticeship. With the release of the DMG II, I'm planning on seeing what in there might be incorporated as well. Thanks in advance.
braindead345 06-11-05, 03:34 AM	I'll break down my suggestions by catagory. 1. Birth info: Parents marital and social status. Orphan status rules Siblings (if known): #of sisters, #of brothers, ranking in birth order. Special (twins, etc) Where were you raised?_______________ city, town, village, clan (mobile), institution (orphanage, church, abby, etc) Person(s) responsible for raising you (parent, grandparent, institution, other) 2 Training Apprenticeship: none, squire, craft or trade, religious training, other (school/military). Name of master:_________________ status achieved (fully qualified, incomplete, failure) 3. Legal status (before adventuring) Citizenship: Land owner, full citizen, legal resident (including native born that have not fulfilled requirements for full citizenship example: military service or reaching a certain age), slave, criminal (citizenship revoked). If criminal give details to the nature of the crime:______________________ 4. Physical description Age, weight, height, hair, skin, eyes, race, physical markings (scars, tattoos, etc) Deformities and abnormalities table ranging from None (80% of the time) to midgets, huchbacks, those with missing fingers/toes, deafness, blindness, etc Additional table for unusual boons (keen hearing, sharp eyes, precognition, etc). Rules of playing deformed characters (base speed of a character with a peg leg? Combat rules for these with only one eye. Rules for adapting to the deformaty. 5. Psychological evaluation Algnments explained with a subsection on conflicting alignments within a party. Reason for adventuring______________________ Abnormal fears? (heights, confined spaces, water, dark, etc) Hatred table (degree of hatred for certain species or groups) Rules for overcoming fears & hatreds. Gaining control of the anger. 6.History (background story) guide/suggestions
Cilveran 06-11-05, 03:52 AM	Oooooh, nice initiative :) Will follow this thread with interest =)
Dark Voivode 06-11-05, 04:55 AM	I'll break down my suggestions by catagory. 1. Birth info: Parents marital and social status. Orphan status rules Siblings (if known): #of sisters, #of brothers, ranking in birth order. Special (twins, etc) Where were you raised?_______________ city, town, village, clan (mobile), institution (orphanage, church, abby, etc) Person(s) responsible for raising you (parent, grandparent, institution, other) Check. Got that section primarily done. 2 Training Apprenticeship: none, squire, craft or trade, religious training, other (school/military). Name of master:_________________ status achieved (fully qualified, incomplete, failure) Check. Got a good amount of info put together on that. Should apprenticeship be mandatory? You get trained no matter what? 3. Legal status (before adventuring) Citizenship: Land owner, full citizen, legal resident (including native born that have not fulfilled requirements for full citizenship example: military service or reaching a certain age), slave, criminal (citizenship revoked). If criminal give details to the nature of the crime:______________________ Hmm... Interesting first part of that. What makes you a citizen. Neat idea, thanks. Working on event charts for the slavery/criminal thing. 4. Physical description Age, weight, height, hair, skin, eyes, race, physical markings (scars, tattoos, etc) Deformities and abnormalities table ranging from None (80% of the time) to midgets, huchbacks, those with missing fingers/toes, deafness, blindness, etc Additional table for unusual boons (keen hearing, sharp eyes, precognition, etc). Rules of playing deformed characters (base speed of a character with a peg leg? Combat rules for these with only one eye. Rules for adapting to the deformaty. Check. Got good charts lining up for that. 5. Psychological evaluation Algnments explained with a subsection on conflicting alignments within a party. Reason for adventuring______________________ Abnormal fears? (heights, confined spaces, water, dark, etc) Hatred table (degree of hatred for certain species or groups) Rules for overcoming fears & hatreds. Gaining control of the anger. I'm not really dealing with alignments here. Mainly, it's personality traits (cleanly, hedonist, vengeful, etc.) I'm also working up charts for abnormal behavior like psychoses, phobias, and extreme hatreds. I also figured I would put allergies here but with a lesser effect than what I've seen elsewhere. 6.History (background story) guide/suggestions Now, I do have a lot of miscellaneous event stuff I'm thinking about. Romantic encounters, horror events, wartime, imprisonment, enslavement, deific encounters, races specific events (human, elf, halfling, gnome, dwarf, orc, halfbreed and monster), age specific events (seperated into 1-12 for youth and 13-15 for adolescence with one adulthood event taking place before the character becomes an adventurer), exotic events and more. Thanks for the interest so far.
J Milburn 06-11-05, 05:08 AM	There is already a book with something like this in, namely the hero builders guidebook, but that allows no bonuses and penalties for different histories and was easily the worst book i have ever read published by wotc. Be careful with this though, there is a fineline with letting your history play a part in your game and people getting insane bonuses for there history and your first ideas seem to suggest some pretty bonuses. and i can see one player in myt party getting the wrong idea about this...
J Milburn 06-11-05, 05:16 AM	actually, braindead, you have about summed up that entire book. all else there is is running through character creation, some very obvious character concepts, a list of names and advantages and disadvantages for each character class combo missing out alot of important ones. rubbish book. sorry, i really wanterd to share my experiances.
Dark Voivode 06-11-05, 05:28 AM	J Milburn: I understand your pain (WotC should issue a formal apology for that book) and your concerns about player abuse. I am attempting to make it extremely difficult to get more than skill points and maybe the equivalent of a regional feat, but someone's dice can always break the tables. Someone once said "The laws of probability go out the window the second you pick up the dice." I want it to be fluffy with a little bit of crunch. Like a big thing of cotton candy with a packet of Pop Rocks tossed over it. :D That's why I brought the idea here. I figure with some good people helping me out, I can keep it from being "Build an Uber Character, then add a class to it" and still have people saying, Gee, my character has more personality than me." :P
J Milburn 06-11-05, 05:36 AM	deep breaths ok, im good now. i think one thing that is important is to remember that most characters should be outcasts. Why else are they going to leave theyre hovel and go and kill things that live in caves? So the tables shoulkd reflect this. extreme backgrounds involving war and betrayal should be the norm. If the worst thing that the character ever saw was a cat tormenting a blackbird, they are not going to have the nerve to ever plunge a sword into someone.
Dark Voivode 06-13-05, 10:49 PM	I was thinking of including modified versions of the Background tables for UA. How does that sound?
Aurelius_Shadowstryke 07-13-05, 03:30 PM	Hi there. First of all, let me just say I think this is an excellent project, as I spent a lot of time looking for the Central Casting books a while back. They were slightly OTT in some cases, but with a little DM intervention you could get some decent backgrounds out of them (especially good for new players, or those who are no good at creating backgrounds, or for the DM with lots of NPC's to create!) I would suggest Class specific adult encounters that could be tailored by the DM in order to lead the party together for the first adventure (e.g. a Fighter being recruited by the local guard to perfom an unspecified mission, or a Cleric being sent to an unspecified village to deliver a message to the local priest, etc.) This can be the most troublesome part of the first adventure, and a table such as this could be of great use. I can't think of anything else just yet, but I'll certainly check back on this thread and if I think of anything else I'll let you know.
Dark Voivode 07-13-05, 04:16 PM	Hi there. First of all, let me just say I think this is an excellent project, as I spent a lot of time looking for the Central Casting books a while back. They were slightly OTT in some cases, but with a little DM intervention you could get some decent backgrounds out of them (especially good for new players, or those who are no good at creating backgrounds, or for the DM with lots of NPC's to create!) I would suggest Class specific adult encounters that could be tailored by the DM in order to lead the party together for the first adventure (e.g. a Fighter being recruited by the local guard to perfom an unspecified mission, or a Cleric being sent to an unspecified village to deliver a message to the local priest, etc.) This can be the most troublesome part of the first adventure, and a table such as this could be of great use. I can't think of anything else just yet, but I'll certainly check back on this thread and if I think of anything else I'll let you know. This is an excellent idea. I'll do my best to incorporate this. I found the Adult event tables too problematic anyway. You're adventuring age, so your adult event should be tied in to moving you toward the rest of the party. Thanks for digging so far down in the board to revive this thread. I figured no-one had much interest in this idea other than the three that posted here. Good to see we're not alone.
DwarvinJedi 07-13-05, 07:45 PM	Interesting, especially considering I was going to run a game that all the things that YOU couldn't decide, you can't decide(race, where you were born, what your parents were like, and such, stats(to a certain extent, I am allowing minor custumization, i.e working out a lot will give you more STR and such)) I am interested in seeing your chart.( I might make an Eberron specific one, I will post it if I do)
Dark Voivode 07-14-05, 12:25 PM	Interesting, especially considering I was going to run a game that all the things that YOU couldn't decide, you can't decide(race, where you were born, what your parents were like, and such, stats(to a certain extent, I am allowing minor custumization, i.e working out a lot will give you more STR and such)) I am interested in seeing your chart.( I might make an Eberron specific one, I will post it if I do) I wish I were just making a simple chart. We're looking at close to 300 pages worth of material. However, when I'm finished I will let everyone know, and I'll even work with you to alter it to fit your campaign setting. Cause I'm cool like that. :coolcthul
Aurelius_Shadowstryke 07-14-05, 03:44 PM	Well, I thought an good idea like this deserved more attention than it seemed to be getting and, besides which, I liked it myself. Obviously you've been a very busy man recently. I mean 300 pages!! Is that what you have so far, or do you mean this is what the total is likely to be? Not that I'm complaining since the more details the better IMO. Have you considered getting someone to make a program of this (or doing it yourself if you have the time and necessary skills)? I'd volunteer myself except for the small problem of being unable to program my VCR, never mind a computer program!! Seriously though, keep up the good work. I know a few people who would be interested in this project. Just remember this: No Human is ever alone And no Dwarf is an island No Elf is solitary But we Gods always stand Alone. :D
Dark Voivode 07-14-05, 06:07 PM	If I could find someone to turn it into a program I'd be ecstatic. Anyone with the skills want to volunteer for hours of coding? :D Actually, I'm only about 50 pages into it. 300 is an estimate of the finished product. We begin intensive work sessions this August. After that, We'll have to see what's left to be done. It'll be very skill-oriented. Meaning that most of the benefits from your background will be miscellaneous modifiers to your character's skills. I'm being stingy (sp?) with the feats. :P
Dark Voivode 12-02-05, 12:35 AM	Just wanted to give everyone an update as to the current status of this project. I've come to a major stalling point that no-one seems to want to work on, so I've decided to throw the floor open to everyone here. Racial Background Tables. Namely, what happens to a character in their early years (youth and adolescence) that might be tied specifically to their race. What I'm looking for is ideas for events which took place in the character's life that helped to either shape who it is, or could become an interesting plot device, or even just a simple anecdote. I need these ideas for Orcs, Kobolds, Halfbreeds, Monsters (Githyanki, Quaggoth and other mainly humanoid races fall into this category as well), Planetouched, and Taur-like races (lower half animal, upper half humanoid). I also have a race devoted to the god of war that have an ingrained hatred of magic, so that's something to look at if you so choose. If anyone has any ideas that might be helpful in this scenario, I'd be more than happy for your help. I'll even give you a mention in the credits when I put the thing up. Thanks in advance for any and all help. If this works out decently, I may throw open a few other areas of the book for general discussion here.
The Grig Fiddler 12-11-05, 04:17 AM	I was thinking and for the outcast type races:Orcs, kobolds,etc. the biggest childhood event would be the ones leading to them leaving their societies. An orc is spared by a cleric as a child from that day on he has more compassion and is outcast when he spares or tries to spare a child. Or a kobold tired of the weak cowardly leadership of his/her tribe strikes out for better things. A character born into an abusive family and soon begins to hate his race. I guess what I was figuring is that the easiest way to come up with childhood events would be to focus on the reason for adventuring. Sorry if I misunderstood what you were asking.
Dark Voivode 12-11-05, 03:02 PM	No, that's actually very good. Events that lead out of the home environment are always a good thing as well. Those I can actually use for adulthood events that push the character towards adventuring; towards pulling the party together. Thanks for your help. :cool: For childhood and adolescent racial events I'm leaning more towards knowledge gleaned from time spent amongst their respective races. Examples would be like Training in Hammer and Axe for a dwarf means the character starts play with Weapon Focus in those two weapons (I consider WF to be a petty enough feat to allow as a freebie). Another would be an Elf having an appreciation for the music of his people and gaining a +2 misc modifier towards Perform. Little tweaks like that. Any other suggestions? I'm willing to listen to most any idea. I'm sure I can find a place for it somewhere in the book.
EpicEvokerElf 10-30-06, 05:54 PM	Examples would be like Training in Hammer and Axe for a dwarf means the character starts play with Weapon Focus in those two weapons (I consider WF to be a petty enough feat to allow as a freebie). Weapon Focus is NOT petty! It the prereq for SO many other feats. 2 free WF's is like a free level of fighter or summat. Really good! Super overpowered!:OMG!
Dark Voivode 01-26-07, 06:42 PM	Weapon Focus is NOT petty! It the prereq for SO many other feats. 2 free WF's is like a free level of fighter or summat. Really good! Super overpowered!:OMG! My group can't seem to find this huge list of feats you seem to be implying exsists when it comes to Weapon Focus. Weapon Focus is a prereq for Weapon Specialization and maybe three more that we could find. Of course, we're using 3.5 rules, so that may be the difference here. Does anyone know what all feats require WF? If the list really is extensive, perhaps I'll consider dropping it as a boon from the book.