Building Fan Favorite PCs
How to Build a Strong Character Backstory, and Lessons Learned from the Second Project ECCO Printing
Character Creation 2.0: Building a Strong Backstory
From the King of the Chaos Goblins Himself, Shenuque Tissera
Every player comes to the table with an idea of who they want the character they’re playing to be, looking ahead to all the cool shit they’ll accomplish during the game. And while you will, of course, discover new things about your character as you play and interact with NPCs and other player characters, having a strong backstory is really the key for building a strong character narrative that might just make you a fan favorite. Below are my best tips to help you develop a backstory for whatever character you’re creating next, or even to strengthen a character you’re already actively playing in an ongoing campaign.
How’d You Get Here?
Ask what brought them to this point in their life. Everyone has a life story full of joy, mistakes, love (hopefully), heartbreak, disappointment, success—you get the point. We usually pop into a character’s life after they have already lived a decent chunk of it and have formed opinions about their world. Thinking about those standout moments in a person’s life is a helpful way for you to get to know who you’re playing. It’ll help you stay grounded in your character and help you connect with them on a deeper level.
It’s the Little Things in Life
Think about the innocuous moments in your character’s life. It’s these small moments and things that actually breathe personality into a character. If every morning your character wakes up and goes for a walk, then that’s something that’ll functionally happen within your game, and it also begs the question: what happens if they don’t? So write down some of the more subtle, seemingly unimportant ones, like what their morning routine might be, what’s their go-to order at their favorite restaurant, and what book they are currently reading. These small details will tell you a lot about a character. While it may never explicitly come up, what you learn from this exercise will impact the way you play your character.
Keep a Secret (or Two)
Consider what your GM/other players need to know and what they don’t. When sharing details about your character, you should only share the things that they would want other people to know. It’s okay to have secrets from your players and even your GM—as long as they’re comfortable with that kind of play. It may be helpful to let your GM know vaguely where you may be going, but when it comes to details about your player's life, it’s much more satisfying to hold onto important details rather than giving them out freely to everyone before the game has even started.
Define Their Day-to-Day
What is their job or hobby? If you’re playing a character that would have a job, then define that. Give them an opinion on it. Is this what they like to do, or are they unhappy about it? If this isn’t their passion, then what is? If this is what they love to do, then how do they feel when they see someone doing it poorly?
Remember Where You Are
Sometimes the world your character will inhabit won’t become well defined until after your session zero, but just about any TTRPG will have systems in place to give you a vague idea of your world even before then. If you’re playing Kids on Bikes, you’re going to be playing in a small town that you’re going to be biking around all the time. How does that impact your character? If you’re playing Orbital Blues, you’re a sad space cowboy trying to make ends meet in a hyper-capitalistic space society. Think about how your character interacts with and feels about their surroundings. Let this inform those other parts of your backstory that we talked about. Routines, jobs, and secrets are all impacted by the rich details your world has to offer. Never lose track of how the geography of your character’s life has impacted them.
Okay, my little chaos gremlins! Go destroy your GM’s lives by creating a monster of a character that they don’t expect!
- Shenuque
Project ECCO’s Second Print Run
Keeping Momentum for My First “Big” Game
It’s been 9 months since we crowdfunded Project ECCO and I am only just stopping myself from making a bad-taste pregnancy analogy.
It’s easy to ride the momentum of crowdfunding. Even easier to then ride the high of a successfully funded game. It can become more difficult, months down the road, as you continue pushing this thing you’ve created out into the world (okay that’s the last pregnancy bit!!!).
There’s been so many things to love about continuing to work on this game now that it is complete. Here are a couple feelings I’ve discovered lately:
Less frequent but more impactful wins
With crowdfunding, there is a new reason to celebrate almost every week. “We’ve hit our goal!” “We got featured!” “We’re doing a stretch goal!” In the months that immediately follow, you get to celebrate big milestones of creation: finishing the manuscript, getting edits back, layout completion.
Now, in the second print run, those wins come at random and after weeks or months of quiet. A few of my favorites:
We made an Actual Play! - Our Project ECCO season meant the world to me and I loved getting to explore a new way of playing with Brian and Abby.
I got to pay out the first profit share to collaborators! - Paying cool people that are also friends rules.
Stocking the game with brick and mortar stores - it means so much to me that the game is on shelves where people can pick it up and respond to it right away. It’s how I’ve discovered so many amazing games and I love to be creating that experience around the world.
PEOPLE PLAY THE GAME! - Did you know people might play the game you make?? Every time someone shares with me that they’ve played Project ECCO, my whole day is made. I’ve heard so many wild stories beyond what I ever could have imagined emerging from these pages.
Some of my favorites:
Some fun planner shots from our discord
Creating a shelf of stock in my apartment!
I love to feel like these copies are a more residential part of my home rather than just a transient guest like the 400 copies of Print Run 1 that went from one cardboard box to another.
Systems and Sustainability
Sustainability is one of those things that every game designer will warn you about. Hell, every artist will warn you of this. It’s an ongoing challenge to become more sustainable in my working/artistic practices but I think I’m getting there.
Creating systems around the continued support of Project ECCO has been a big part of this. As I mentioned, I now have dedicated shelves for stock of Project ECCO. It’s a small shift from Print Run 1 but one that has made my relationship with the process of quality checking, packing, and shipping much healthier.
I’ve also locked in a steady process for quality checking copies and sticking them with a character sheet (5-at-a-time is key*!). Giving myself more time for this process is also a big change that makes it much more manageable.
My digital management of community copy renewal and quarterly budgets has become second-nature because of having to learn as I went on Print Run 1.
One of the biggest ways to feel more sustainable in my work on ECCO is to surround it with other projects. This game has meant so much to me and is probably the piece of art I am most proud of but it is no longer my main focus. I have other games that I can’t wait to make and am spending more time on. I’m working on our next few seasons of My First Dungeon.
By building this variety of focus, coming back to packing a box of Project ECCO feels pretty damn good.
*sitting is also key
Upcoming Schedule
11/13 - Talk of the Table w/ Ned Donovan & Brian David Judkins of Encounter Party
11/14 - Episode 5 (Talkback on Patreon)
11/21 - Full Cast Talkback
Share The Twenty Sided Newsletter
If you see an interesting piece of content in this newsletter you can share it on Substack by selecting the text and choosing the “restack” option. Or just share the whole newsletter on social media.
Friends will love you and strangers will thank you!