James DAmato - The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition: Prompts and Activities to Create Compelling Characters for Horror, Sci-Fi, X-Punk, and More

The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide

Expanded Genres Edition

Prompts and Activities to Create Compelling Characters for Horror, Sci-Fi, X-Punk, and More

James DAmato

The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide

[T]his book is pure fun.Newcomers to the genre and returning heroes from past fellowships will find something in this for them.

HorrorFuel.com

Its not only a useful tool for building and fleshing out characters, its also written in an incredibly entertaining way, making it a fun way to get the creative juices flowing.

Gaming Trend

Its akin to a graduate school course in role-playing games.

Review Fix

The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book

The ideas are brilliant, the breadth of content, completely creative.

Borg

Innovative.

Nerdist

[This book has] lots of play value.

NPR Milwaukee

The Ultimate RPG Gameplay Guide

James DAmato is one of those rare storytellers who can not only make those delightful and unexpected choices that make the table laugh or their eyes go wide, but he has that second, rarer gift. When doing it, he can build upon whats already been established, weaving a little more and passing the tapestry to someone else to be inspired from.

Alan Linic, writer for Saturday Night Live and cohost of the tl;dm podcast

James DAmato is doing the coolest, most exciting, and original work in tabletop game design right now. If I were you, Id be getting this book in my hands as fast as possible!

Brennan Lee Mulligan, host of CollegeHumors Dimension 20 D&D RPG show

James has put together a great collection of ideas thatll appeal to a wide range of players, from newbies to old hands.

John Rogers, writer and showrunner for Leverage, The Librarians, and Jackie Chan Adventures

Dedicated to my spouse, Mel, who supported me through every crisis and showed infinite patience and kindness toward the dyslexic with ADHD who had to write a new book during their pregnancy.

In memory of our friend and colleague Peter Archer. I am so proud of the work we did together; I hope you will be proud of the work we had to finish without you.

Role-playing games are an interactive, fun way to spend time with your friends. A big part of the fun is getting to know everyones player characters (PCs) and seeing what happens to them as the game progresses. What will they do and why? You want to know more about themwhat are their ethics (will your robot have a moral compass?), what is their outward appearance (what is your superheros suit like?), and what is their motivation (what is keeping your horror protagonist in a clearly haunted house?)? With The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition, you can answer these questions and flesh out your PCs into fully realized people with dozens of entertaining questions and prompts that will pique your curiosity.

When I first created the original The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide in 2018, I wanted to give readers exercises and activities to develop PCsand hopefully enhance the entire RPG experience in the process. I was thrilled to hear that the book not only helped established players; it also welcomed new folks into the hobby, and even helped people doing creative writing get over writers block! This Expanded Genres Edition has more all-new activities perfect for creating characters in many types of stories: Fantasy, Sc-Fi, Horror, X-Punk, Superhero, and Western settings. Plus, the final chapter features entries that can fit into any genre, so you can find a genre for whatever game you are playing, giving you even more options for building out your characters.

How your PC handles a problem depends on what shaped the character into who they are. In these pages, youll find exercises that will challenge you to create a richer past for the PC youve brought to life. Youll find d20 chance questions at the beginning of each genre chapter (except for Chapter 8: All Genres), prompts that invite open-ended responses, and tables that feature various options for your characters traits.

You can complete these exercises on your own, but some might be more fun to do with your gaming buddies. Many of the exercises in this book will address your character as you, the way a game master might. Whenever the book asks about physical qualities or background details, were talking about characters and not you, the reader.

Whether you are looking to add some pathos to your half-vampire cyborg detective or figure out how your apocalyptic-punk lead can finally overthrow their oppressors, The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition will help you bring your beloved PCs to life in a creative and fulfilling way.

A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of analog game where players generate narrative through shared imagination. The core concept behind RPGs is similar to imagination games people play when they are young. Just like house, using dolls or action figures, and other simple games of pretend, these games call on players to inhabit a role and interact in a shared imaginary space.

Tabletop RPGs published in game manuals introduce structure to this process. Published RPGs, or role-playing systems , help players establish goals, track abstract information, and resolve conflicts. Rule systems and randomizers help adults make sense of what comes naturally to most children.

Everyone involved in an RPG is playing the game and is therefore a player . When I refer to players in this book, I mean everyone at the table. Traditional RPGs have specific structural roles that help the game function. Broadly speaking, the most popular meta roles are player character (PC) and game master (GM) .

In most games, the majority of people participating are responsible for controlling individual characters. For our purposes, these characters and the people who play them are PCs .

Narratively, PCs are protagonists. Players in the PC role are the primary authors of their story. PCs choose how their character thinks, looks, and acts. Because PCs interact with outside forces like other players and randomization, a player in a PC role cant control everything that happens to their character. However, a PC player always controls how their character reacts.

Many RPGs have a specialized role that controls any elements of the game that are not PCs. The title for this role varies, but here Ill refer to it as the game master (GM).

The GM is like a narrator, director, producer, supporting actor, and crew rolled into one person. Colloquially, we say GMs run the game. The GM is usually also the arbiter of a games rules. On top of that, the GM is also role-playing. They control the actions of non-player characters (NPCs), which function to support or oppose PCs in the story.