DND Entrance Survey [Archive] - Wizards Community

DND Entrance Survey [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Lluks
02-14-07, 03:20 PM Okay, so, one idea that I've thought about for a long time, and just recently used to great effect, is that of a brief survey to give players about their characters to help the DM make a campaign that truly satisfies them. It's given me tons of idea on how to tailor my campaign to their characters, and is especially helpful for DMs that love preparation and try to minimize the amount of improvisation they have to do.

So, here it is:
DND ENTRANCE SURVEY

Question one:

What does your character look like? (you may provide a picture instead of text)

Question Two:

What is your character’s personality like? (Include Alignment)

Question 3:

What does your character plan to do in my campaign?
(Be specific. In exchange for you letting me know ahead of time, I’ll do my best to accommodate your character’s lifestyle and wishes, while at the same time providing challenge and the possibility of failure. In extreme cases, I’ll discuss the goals with you for revision.)
Example: I just wanna fight stuff, I wanna slay evil, I wanna challenge authority figures, I wanna destroy cities, I wanna serve my deity, or some other, larger goal that may span several adventures.

Question Four:

How do you want others to view your character? (remember, your Charisma affects to what degree this is accomplished. Even with a Charisma of 6 you can still be “cool,” but people won’t praise you as much as someone with a Charisma of 25.)

Question Five:

How does your character react to other people? (Include how he reacts to pcs, and npcs.)

Question 6:

What does your character plan to bring to the group?

Question 7:

Does your character prefer to work alone, for the group, or with the group side by side?

Question 8:

When combat erupts, what does your character plan to do? Hiding or staying out of the way is fine, as long as there are some people who will fight. Be sure to list your character’s favorite tactics, and whether he likes ranged combat, melee combat, or anything else.

Question 9:

Where does your character like to spend most of his time? (for some, this may be just the dungeon or the town, but if you have a special theme, like ranger, you might want to list the forest or wherever is appropriate.)

Question 10:

How do you plan to develop your character? (are you going to multiclass, take prestige classes, key feats or abilities, and when will these come to play? If you’re going straight one class, what upcoming abilities or spells do you plan to make new or frequent use of?)
Example: I’m going to go straight cleric and focus on buffer spells and animate dead so I can build an army of magically-enhanced undead. At tenth level, I’m going to go back and forth between fighter and barbarian for four levels, getting better with a scythe, then go back to cleric and use righteous might so I can join my army in combat.

...Any comments or ideas for questions are appreciated.
Rickiel
02-14-07, 03:25 PM I like it. I'll have to use it someday. Then perhaps my players will cease with their desire to be evil looting-mad beings filled with hate and revulsion accompanied by a distinct lack of ambition beyond simple bloodlust. :)
alanholic
02-14-07, 03:43 PM Well, I dont know.. In my case I go on and rollplay de BG of evry player I have just to see what they have, that includes a battle, a lot of personality rollplay and desitions they have to make so i know what i really have ni the party..
Well, that my idea.
The other Idea is to make the player bring me a written BG, with some details of their character.. and I will see how they fit in my adventure..
Tho the idea you have is not a bad one.. maybe if you add the written BG in it, it will be better. so you can have a little history of that character
Chaos Theory
02-14-07, 03:55 PM As a DM or fellow player you really only need to know the first two about a character as they will be obvious to everyone involved.

The player should probably know the answers to these questions to help know what their guy(or gal) is going to do in a given situation. But as a Dm you really don't need to know.

Just roll with the punches
Seeker95
02-14-07, 04:00 PM I like this. I have also used the Hero Builder's Guidebook, asking my players to either roll for details, or supply there own in the same fashion. But your survey is good if you do not have the HBG.
bonethug0108
02-14-07, 05:52 PM Sounds good to me. Perhaps question 5 could be expounded upon a bit. Maybe like asking how they react to certain races, classes, or alignments, if they have a specific reaction to them at all.

All of them are good for a dm to know because it would help with building the story and allow you to focus on all the players because you know about them all.

No, it isn't necessary, as someone said, but I think it could add alot to the campaign. You shouldn't hold them to it, though. They should be able to revise it if they feel they want to go another way.

Though you should still allow for improvisation, as those are some of the funnest and funniest moments in the game.

Hope some of this helps.
Arrowhen
02-15-07, 01:41 AM I think the idea is a good one, but I'm not so sure about some of the questions...

Question one:

What does your character look like? (you may provide a picture instead of text)

This is a good first question. It's easier to come up with a description than a fully developed personality, so starting this way is a good way of easing the player into thinking about the non-mechanical aspects of their character.

Question Two:

What is your character’s personality like? (Include Alignment)

I think this question is far too broad. It's often difficult to meaningfully sum up a character's personality in just a few words and personalities can change over the course of a campaign in response to the situations the character finds herself in. A better (and easier both for the player to answer and for the DM to read) question might be: How would your character's friends describe her? How would her enemies describe her?

Also, alignment doesn't really have anything to do with personality.

Question 3:

What does your character plan to do in my campaign?
(Be specific. In exchange for you letting me know ahead of time, I’ll do my best to accommodate your character’s lifestyle and wishes, while at the same time providing challenge and the possibility of failure. In extreme cases, I’ll discuss the goals with you for revision.)
Example: I just wanna fight stuff, I wanna slay evil, I wanna challenge authority figures, I wanna destroy cities, I wanna serve my deity, or some other, larger goal that may span several adventures.

My answer would just about always be "He doesn't know what he plans to do in your campaign because he doesn't know he's in your campaign."

A better question (and a very important question to ask, imho) is: What do you, as a player, want to do in this game?

Question Four:

How do you want others to view your character? (remember, your Charisma affects to what degree this is accomplished. Even with a Charisma of 6 you can still be “cool,” but people won’t praise you as much as someone with a Charisma of 25.)

This seems more like the second half of question two, which would make the whole question: How would your character's friends describe her? How would her enemies describe her? How would your character want her friends/enemies to describe her?

This is a fun question, because it gets into the character's ideal self vs. her actual self.

Question Five:

How does your character react to other people? (Include how he reacts to pcs, and npcs.)

I don't really know how anyone would answer that. How do you react to other people IRL? I know for me the only honest way to answer would be "It depends on the person."

Also, I don't see why you're making the distinction between PCs and NPCs. Sure, everyone at the table knows who the player characters are, but how is a character in the game world supposed to tell?

Question 6:

What does your character plan to bring to the group?

Again, this seems more of a player question than a character question. Depending on how you start your campaign, the character might not even know there's a group to contribute to yet.

As a player question, it's perfectly valid. Although I've had enough bad experiences with lone-wolves in my games that I wouldn't even make it a question. I'd flat out say "You're free to play your character however you want, but I only run one game at a time. If you want your character to participate in the adventure I've prepared, you will make a character who can get along with the rest of the party."

Question 7:

Does your character prefer to work alone, for the group, or with the group side by side?

Again, a player question.

Question 8:

When combat erupts, what does your character plan to do? Hiding or staying out of the way is fine, as long as there are some people who will fight. Be sure to list your character’s favorite tactics, and whether he likes ranged combat, melee combat, or anything else.

I'm not sure why you're asking this one. Have you had problems in the past with characters not participating in combat?

I don't see why you need to know ahead of time what your PCs' tactics are going to be. Just plan reasonable encounters and have the opponents react appropriately to whatever tactics the PCs use. If they're good tactics, they'll survive and if they aren't, they won't.

Question 9:

Where does your character like to spend most of his time? (for some, this may be just the dungeon or the town, but if you have a special theme, like ranger, you might want to list the forest or wherever is appropriate.)

I suppose this one is OK, although how many characters like to spend most of their time hanging out in dungeons?

If you're asking what kind of adventures the player likes, this would probably be covered by question three.

Question 10:

How do you plan to develop your character? (are you going to multiclass, take prestige classes, key feats or abilities, and when will these come to play? If you’re going straight one class, what upcoming abilities or spells do you plan to make new or frequent use of?)
Example: I’m going to go straight cleric and focus on buffer spells and animate dead so I can build an army of magically-enhanced undead. At tenth level, I’m going to go back and forth between fighter and barbarian for four levels, getting better with a scythe, then go back to cleric and use righteous might so I can join my army in combat.

This question presupposes that all your players plan out 20 level "builds" for all their characters. (How many levels of Jedi did Luke plan on taking at the beginning of A New Hope?) If they do, I suppose that's fine, although isn't part of the fun of playing "builds" (as opposed to just building them, which is a different sort of abstract, tinkery fun) seeing the look on your DM's face when he says, "You took a level in what? And now you can do how much damage?"
Lluks
02-27-07, 04:04 PM Thank you everyone for the commentary. I will note that whoever pointed out the difficulty of responding to question two is right: While I wouldn't revise the question, if the player is having trouble, I found that asking them to list a character flaw, a character quality, and the standard emotion the character operates in helps a lot as a jump off point.

I.e: He tries to look for the bright side in every situation. Sometimes he gets tempted to steal when it doesn't look like any harm would be done. He is usually happy and friendly.

Counter I.e: He is fiercely loyal to his friends. He tends to rebel against authority. He is usually solemn and glum.

Or even: He is kind to children, especially orphans. He is very reckless, though, and picks fights even against bad odds. He is usually a combination of sadness and rage.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lluks 02-14-07, 03:20 PM	Okay, so, one idea that I've thought about for a long time, and just recently used to great effect, is that of a brief survey to give players about their characters to help the DM make a campaign that truly satisfies them. It's given me tons of idea on how to tailor my campaign to their characters, and is especially helpful for DMs that love preparation and try to minimize the amount of improvisation they have to do. So, here it is: DND ENTRANCE SURVEY Question one: What does your character look like? (you may provide a picture instead of text) Question Two: What is your character’s personality like? (Include Alignment) Question 3: What does your character plan to do in my campaign? (Be specific. In exchange for you letting me know ahead of time, I’ll do my best to accommodate your character’s lifestyle and wishes, while at the same time providing challenge and the possibility of failure. In extreme cases, I’ll discuss the goals with you for revision.) Example: I just wanna fight stuff, I wanna slay evil, I wanna challenge authority figures, I wanna destroy cities, I wanna serve my deity, or some other, larger goal that may span several adventures. Question Four: How do you want others to view your character? (remember, your Charisma affects to what degree this is accomplished. Even with a Charisma of 6 you can still be “cool,” but people won’t praise you as much as someone with a Charisma of 25.) Question Five: How does your character react to other people? (Include how he reacts to pcs, and npcs.) Question 6: What does your character plan to bring to the group? Question 7: Does your character prefer to work alone, for the group, or with the group side by side? Question 8: When combat erupts, what does your character plan to do? Hiding or staying out of the way is fine, as long as there are some people who will fight. Be sure to list your character’s favorite tactics, and whether he likes ranged combat, melee combat, or anything else. Question 9: Where does your character like to spend most of his time? (for some, this may be just the dungeon or the town, but if you have a special theme, like ranger, you might want to list the forest or wherever is appropriate.) Question 10: How do you plan to develop your character? (are you going to multiclass, take prestige classes, key feats or abilities, and when will these come to play? If you’re going straight one class, what upcoming abilities or spells do you plan to make new or frequent use of?) Example: I’m going to go straight cleric and focus on buffer spells and animate dead so I can build an army of magically-enhanced undead. At tenth level, I’m going to go back and forth between fighter and barbarian for four levels, getting better with a scythe, then go back to cleric and use righteous might so I can join my army in combat. ...Any comments or ideas for questions are appreciated.
Rickiel 02-14-07, 03:25 PM	I like it. I'll have to use it someday. Then perhaps my players will cease with their desire to be evil looting-mad beings filled with hate and revulsion accompanied by a distinct lack of ambition beyond simple bloodlust. :)
alanholic 02-14-07, 03:43 PM	Well, I dont know.. In my case I go on and rollplay de BG of evry player I have just to see what they have, that includes a battle, a lot of personality rollplay and desitions they have to make so i know what i really have ni the party.. Well, that my idea. The other Idea is to make the player bring me a written BG, with some details of their character.. and I will see how they fit in my adventure.. Tho the idea you have is not a bad one.. maybe if you add the written BG in it, it will be better. so you can have a little history of that character
Chaos Theory 02-14-07, 03:55 PM	As a DM or fellow player you really only need to know the first two about a character as they will be obvious to everyone involved. The player should probably know the answers to these questions to help know what their guy(or gal) is going to do in a given situation. But as a Dm you really don't need to know. Just roll with the punches
Seeker95 02-14-07, 04:00 PM	I like this. I have also used the Hero Builder's Guidebook, asking my players to either roll for details, or supply there own in the same fashion. But your survey is good if you do not have the HBG.
bonethug0108 02-14-07, 05:52 PM	Sounds good to me. Perhaps question 5 could be expounded upon a bit. Maybe like asking how they react to certain races, classes, or alignments, if they have a specific reaction to them at all. All of them are good for a dm to know because it would help with building the story and allow you to focus on all the players because you know about them all. No, it isn't necessary, as someone said, but I think it could add alot to the campaign. You shouldn't hold them to it, though. They should be able to revise it if they feel they want to go another way. Though you should still allow for improvisation, as those are some of the funnest and funniest moments in the game. Hope some of this helps.
Arrowhen 02-15-07, 01:41 AM	I think the idea is a good one, but I'm not so sure about some of the questions... Question one: What does your character look like? (you may provide a picture instead of text) This is a good first question. It's easier to come up with a description than a fully developed personality, so starting this way is a good way of easing the player into thinking about the non-mechanical aspects of their character. Question Two: What is your character’s personality like? (Include Alignment) I think this question is far too broad. It's often difficult to meaningfully sum up a character's personality in just a few words and personalities can change over the course of a campaign in response to the situations the character finds herself in. A better (and easier both for the player to answer and for the DM to read) question might be: How would your character's friends describe her? How would her enemies describe her? Also, alignment doesn't really have anything to do with personality. Question 3: What does your character plan to do in my campaign? (Be specific. In exchange for you letting me know ahead of time, I’ll do my best to accommodate your character’s lifestyle and wishes, while at the same time providing challenge and the possibility of failure. In extreme cases, I’ll discuss the goals with you for revision.) Example: I just wanna fight stuff, I wanna slay evil, I wanna challenge authority figures, I wanna destroy cities, I wanna serve my deity, or some other, larger goal that may span several adventures. My answer would just about always be "He doesn't know what he plans to do in your campaign because he doesn't know he's in your campaign." A better question (and a very important question to ask, imho) is: What do you, as a player, want to do in this game? Question Four: How do you want others to view your character? (remember, your Charisma affects to what degree this is accomplished. Even with a Charisma of 6 you can still be “cool,” but people won’t praise you as much as someone with a Charisma of 25.) This seems more like the second half of question two, which would make the whole question: How would your character's friends describe her? How would her enemies describe her? How would your character want her friends/enemies to describe her? This is a fun question, because it gets into the character's ideal self vs. her actual self. Question Five: How does your character react to other people? (Include how he reacts to pcs, and npcs.) I don't really know how anyone would answer that. How do you react to other people IRL? I know for me the only honest way to answer would be "It depends on the person." Also, I don't see why you're making the distinction between PCs and NPCs. Sure, everyone at the table knows who the player characters are, but how is a character in the game world supposed to tell? Question 6: What does your character plan to bring to the group? Again, this seems more of a player question than a character question. Depending on how you start your campaign, the character might not even know there's a group to contribute to yet. As a player question, it's perfectly valid. Although I've had enough bad experiences with lone-wolves in my games that I wouldn't even make it a question. I'd flat out say "You're free to play your character however you want, but I only run one game at a time. If you want your character to participate in the adventure I've prepared, you will make a character who can get along with the rest of the party." Question 7: Does your character prefer to work alone, for the group, or with the group side by side? Again, a player question. Question 8: When combat erupts, what does your character plan to do? Hiding or staying out of the way is fine, as long as there are some people who will fight. Be sure to list your character’s favorite tactics, and whether he likes ranged combat, melee combat, or anything else. I'm not sure why you're asking this one. Have you had problems in the past with characters not participating in combat? I don't see why you need to know ahead of time what your PCs' tactics are going to be. Just plan reasonable encounters and have the opponents react appropriately to whatever tactics the PCs use. If they're good tactics, they'll survive and if they aren't, they won't. Question 9: Where does your character like to spend most of his time? (for some, this may be just the dungeon or the town, but if you have a special theme, like ranger, you might want to list the forest or wherever is appropriate.) I suppose this one is OK, although how many characters like to spend most of their time hanging out in dungeons? If you're asking what kind of adventures the player likes, this would probably be covered by question three. Question 10: How do you plan to develop your character? (are you going to multiclass, take prestige classes, key feats or abilities, and when will these come to play? If you’re going straight one class, what upcoming abilities or spells do you plan to make new or frequent use of?) Example: I’m going to go straight cleric and focus on buffer spells and animate dead so I can build an army of magically-enhanced undead. At tenth level, I’m going to go back and forth between fighter and barbarian for four levels, getting better with a scythe, then go back to cleric and use righteous might so I can join my army in combat. This question presupposes that all your players plan out 20 level "builds" for all their characters. (How many levels of Jedi did Luke plan on taking at the beginning of A New Hope?) If they do, I suppose that's fine, although isn't part of the fun of playing "builds" (as opposed to just building them, which is a different sort of abstract, tinkery fun) seeing the look on your DM's face when he says, "You took a level in what? And now you can do how much damage?"
Lluks 02-27-07, 04:04 PM	Thank you everyone for the commentary. I will note that whoever pointed out the difficulty of responding to question two is right: While I wouldn't revise the question, if the player is having trouble, I found that asking them to list a character flaw, a character quality, and the standard emotion the character operates in helps a lot as a jump off point. I.e: He tries to look for the bright side in every situation. Sometimes he gets tempted to steal when it doesn't look like any harm would be done. He is usually happy and friendly. Counter I.e: He is fiercely loyal to his friends. He tends to rebel against authority. He is usually solemn and glum. Or even: He is kind to children, especially orphans. He is very reckless, though, and picks fights even against bad odds. He is usually a combination of sadness and rage.