Character Backgrounding

What separates a good background from a adequate one, and what makes a great background?

I see a background as needing to answer three questions when I make one. Does a background create a motivation, an intent, and a history (MIH for short).

Motivation - what the character wants for the future. These are the long-range wants/desires.

Intent – How is the character planning on getting what they want/need/desire. How does the character react when trying to get wht they want, or get what motivates them.

History – the character's own little biography.

We'll take a look at each of these in reverse order.

For me, history is the ground that everything else is built on/around. This is how the character grew up, what were his or her earliest influences in life. Was he raised by wolves, was her family already superheroes or supervillains, or was the background just vanilla-normal? Every little thing here has an influence.

Intent is, for me, the most difficult to explain. Intent is what the character wants at the time he or she is in-game. This often is NOT what motivates the character. As an example, when StarWyng faced off with Masonry, her intent was to KILL him. Nothing else. That was her intent. When Dead-Bang goaded Notion and Soldier Futura, his intent was to get into a fight with one of them. It is the short-term wants/needs that the character has in that moment, and how this helps the character get their motivation. With Dead-Bang, the intent to fight was also a way to defuse tensions, and thus in a way bond slightly so that he is not alone in trying to reach his motivation.

Motivation – the big nebulous drive. What the character wants or is trying to get. Dead-Bang's motivation is to find the man that killed his girlfriend and kill him with his bare hands. He may not act like that is anything he is thinking about, but it IS the filter that everything is touched by, for good or ill, as, for example, his intent described above.

So now that we have a cursory look at these, let's take a look at some histories.

Yellowjakket - “You don't need to know my name or my life. All you need to know is I will do anything to stop crime in my city.”

This is about the shortest one I ever wrote, and you can infer a lot from it. 1) the character is very defensive and secretive, 2) she says she is ready to do “anything”, which might mean she is willing to kill if the situation warrants. This also gives us a glimpse at her history. Something has made her this focused and secretive in her past. She very obviously is a loner. Her obvious motivation is in the last sentence – stop crime. So although short, it does give us a glimpse at her personality and motivation, and hints at some possible traumatic event that focused her on this path.

Here's another -

StarWyng - “I was thrown here long before I knew what I was or even where I was from. I wanted a friend, and the darkness answered with a light, and a kindly voice asked if I would allow her to join me. I said yes and we were born. I do not know my past, it is broken and beyond N'shta and myself to recover in whole, but pieces may be possible. I know.... I am an Aerian, I am a Protector, I am a Pathfinder. I was trained to protect any who could not protect themselves, and to find Nictus, hunt Nictus, stop them. I hate them beyond my understanding. I don't know why. Maybe a piece of my memory will someday tell me....”

This one missed being good I think, and is only an adequate background. It is nebulous, but there is no real feel for anything other than “I hate Nictus”. The Protector and Pathfinder do give clues as to what the motivation might be, but in all I think this one could be re-written much tighter than it is a present.

and finally, here's one that really works in my opinion.

Morrow Project – “Started by Thaddeus Orson Morrow, the Morrow Project was initiated in 2025. James Gunn was chosen as the lead member of the project, whose mission is to re-write history and to prevent the destruction of the United States by stopping the rapidly escalating gang problem. If he can reverse the fall of Paragon City to the Council, the history of the United States may be re-written, and a whole civilization may not have to suffer palgues, famine, and strife.”

This works because we see the history (the project, the military background), the Motivation (re-write history ) and there is a definite intent for each mission Morrow goes on – is this helping the mission as a whole. Are these effects ones that will change history? There is so much here I can't begin to give it all word space.

You don't have to start any particular place with this, I am saying that for me, a good background needs these three pieces well thought out. This for Role-Playing purposes. The better the background, the more 'real' the character becomes.