A recent B/X Blackraiser mailbag question (https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2025/03/dear-jb-mailbag-21.html) has me thinking about the experience of writing #backgrounds for characters. A lot of players, myself included (on the rare event I'm a player and not a DM) find staring at a blank page while being asked to come up with a creative-yet-compatible character background an unpleasant experience. That's part of why the games I run typically don't involve writing backgrounds much; I encourage players to think about their character's relatives and youth but generally let the gameplay fill out the rest.
But we could do better. Questionaires are a bit annoying, too, but I think with some light effort they could be tailored to the campaign, cutting right to the important themes. Here's a couple simple questions that I think could work for my upcoming OSE-ish game:
- What does your family do? Are you following in their footsteps, or did you want to be something else?
- What was your upbringing like? Were you a troublemaker? A perfect son or daughter?
- Apart from other PCs, who were your friends and enemies/rivals? What families did they come from?
What simple questions would nudge players of your campaign into coming up with a modest bit of character-building that fits the story?
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