[Twilight Time] Character Questions for Roleplayers

Tue Nov 29 07:40:16 EST 2005

November 29, 2005--Character Questions for Roleplayers
Volume 6, Issue 6

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Good morning!

I'm sorry it's been so long since the last issue. Due to various 
reasons I didn't get much work done with the site this summer. Things 
are looking up though, so for the moment at least I'm hoping to get a 
few more things done.

The current issue was inspired by a free pdf download I put up on the 
site. One of our most popular articles has always been our character 
questionnaire ( http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/2001/pcquestions.php ), 
which provides many possible questions for you to answer about your RPG 
character. Now, available from our "elements of character" page ( 
http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/plcharacter.php ) under the "Downloads" 
section, I've provided a free downloadable pdf of "365 Character 
Questions for Writers and Roleplayers." Yes, that's right, never run 
out of inspiration again--it includes a question for every day of the 
year, plus some variations and bonus inspirational photos.

On that topic, I think there are good and bad ways to use character 
questionnaires. That's where today's article comes in.

Best,
Heather

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Character Questions for Roleplayers

Many people have trouble fleshing out a roleplaying game (RPG) 
character. Or in general they don't have a problem with it, but by the 
time they hit their twenty-eighth character they're having trouble 
thinking of new and interesting questions to explore. That's where 
character questionnaires can come in handy.

However, there are some good and some not-so-good ways to use them.

Recently I saw someone complain that they'd given their players a 
character questionnaire, but that it was pointless because none of them 
had actually filled it out. I remember thinking, "of course they didn't 
fill it out. That isn't what a character questionnaire is for." Most 
people, if faced with the prospect of taking what is essentially an 
essay test regarding their character, would flee in terror or balk out 
of sheer stubbornness. There's no need to hand someone a long list of 
questions and have your players answer all of them. With the exception 
of a few basic necessary pieces of information, such questions are for 
inspiration--not mandatory question-and-answer sessions. And you only 
need to answer one to three of them to get everything you need--not 
five, ten, or twenty.

Free-Writing

First let me introduce you to a concept that many of you may be 
familiar with already, and that is second nature to any writer who's 
taken writing classes: free-writing. The idea is that you take a topic, 
a phrase, a question, or whatever, set a timer for as little as five 
minutes (or as many as 30), and free associate about that topic using a 
pen and paper (or a keyboard and computer). You don't worry about your 
grammar, spelling, or punctuation. You don't worry about whether you're 
even making sense or sticking to the topic at hand. You simply write. 
You preferably plan never to even show this piece of writing to anyone.

Why am I talking about free-writing? Because it's one of the best ways 
to get the most out of a character question or prompt. It sets your 
mind free to wander, without judgment, and come up with things that can 
surprise you. It helps to keep you from being constrained by the 
parameters of the original question, setting you free to explore all 
the little unanswered implications. You might even come up with 
something totally unrelated to the question you started with, which is 
just fine if it helps you to explore and flesh out your character. 
Treating a character questionnaire like an essay test is pretty much 
the opposite of free-writing. It makes people worry more about the form 
of what they're doing and whether or not its acceptable than about the 
material they're coming up with.

If the GM wants to see this material, any salient points can be 
summarized or re-written before they're given to him. He doesn't have 
to see the raw exploration.

Limit the Number of Questions

If you set out to fill out a huge questionnaire about your character, 
with the exception of a few die-hard people, most folks will never 
finish the job. And they might well be sick of their characters by the 
time they give up. They also might never start since the job looks so 
daunting.

Besides, there's simply no need to answer that many questions about 
your character. You don't need to know everything about him--you need 
to know representative details that give you a good idea of who he is 
and can inspire you to further imaginings later should you need more 
material. It also helps to answer a different set of questions for each 
character you play; it helps to give each one a unique flavor and 
focus.

There are two helpful ways to pick questions. You can deliberately pick 
one or more questions that inspire you and make you go "oh, wow, that 
gives me an idea!" However, another great alternative is to pick at 
least one question that seems boring and uninteresting to you. 
Sometimes you'll discover the most interesting and unexpected things 
about your character in this manner.

My personal recommendation is to answer at least one inspiring question 
and one that doesn't give you any immediate ideas. Then answer zero to 
three additional questions depending on how inspired you're feeling and 
how much material you get out of those first two questions.

Do not wear yourself out. Various famous writers have been heard to say 
that they prefer to stop at the end of the day in the middle of 
something, before they run out of ideas for the day, so that when they 
come back they do so with momentum and inspiration. The same can be 
true of answering character questions. Don't exhaust your character's 
background. Keep questions in reserve. You can always answer them 
later, over the course of your roleplaying game, when you want to 
explore your character further. This also allows you to explore ways in 
which your character has changed over the course of the game, and it 
helps to keep your character fresh, interesting, and surprising.

Resources

I prefer to provide as many questions as possible for players--not 
because I want them to answer all of them, but because I want them to 
have the freedom to find the questions that will most inspire them. I 
want them to be able to answer new questions for each character they 
play. For that reason, here are some character questionnaires available 
on the web:

Burning Void's character questionnaire: 
http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/2001/pcquestions.php

Burning Void's pdf book, "365 Character Questions for Writers and 
Roleplayers," under "Downloads": 
http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/plcharacter.php

Fiction Writer's Character Chart: 
http://www.eclectics.com/articles/character.html

The 100 Most Important Things to Know About Your Character: 
http://www.geocities.com/poetess47/100questions.html

Character Questions from WritingClasses.com: 
http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/106

Proust's Character Questionnaire: 
http://www.scripsit.com/questionnaire.html

(I'd like to acknowledge the blog "The Naked Truth" for some of these 
links: http://nmallory.exit-23.net/ )

Another source of interesting questions is "The Book of Questions":

http://www.burningvoid.com/review/2001/thebookofquestions.php

http://www.burningvoid.com/review/2005/bookofquestionsloveandsex.php

http://www.burningvoid.com/review/2005/boqbusinessethics.php

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