Character Backgrounds

Ah, character backgrounds. Some people love them, some hate them. Some players write a detailed background; others may give you a brief paragraph and only after you threaten dire harm to the character. A detailed background often implies a range of experience that a starting character should not have. It can often pin down facts about the character that cannot be changed. On the other hand, a sparse background often fails to tie the PC to the campaign world. It does not let you know why they are adventuring or what they hope to accomplish.

 

I am a fan of character backgrounds because I use them to help flesh out the campaign world. The players get a chance to contribute elements to the campaign that they would find interesting. 

 

In asking players for character backgrounds, I have tried to strike a middle ground. Players only need to give me a small amount of information, but they must answer particular questions. The answers provide details about the campaign world and the PCs place within it. Most importantly, the answers provide hooks for adventures.

 

For the last several campaigns I have used a standard format to gather background info on the characters. Here is what I gave to the players for Hell on Earth: Reloaded: The Worms' Turn:

 

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As always, you need a written character background with the following elements:

• Why you ended up in the refugee camp outside of Junkyard and why you've decided to undertake a dangerous mission.
• A brief description of your character concept
• One Friend
• One Foe
• One Location
• Your worst nightmare
• Three Character Goals or Motivations. Traditionally, these would be short, medium, and long-term goals; but any three goals or motivations will do.

Friends and Foes are usually people (normal, mutant, or Harrowed), but it could also be an organization, a dragon or other monster, or a supernatural entity.

 

A Location could be a place you know well or a place you want to visit before you die a horrible screaming death. The place could be real or legendary.

 

Your worst nightmare is a Deadlands thing and is important for Harrowed characters.

 

To remember the world before the bombs, your hero is probably 23 years old or older.

If you don’t provide the GM with a written character background, then you receive 0 XP every session.

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Players can give me a standard essay with paragraphs that more or less tells a story about their character. Players can also just fill out the answers right on the sheet and give it back to me.

 

Once I receive a character background, I enter the information into my OneNote notebook under a section called “PC Background”. During session prep, I will review all of the plot hooks that the players have given me to see if they can be used. The key to the character back stories is finding a way to insert all of this information into the campaign world.

 

I will often try to foreshadow plot hooks. For example, in our recent Totems of the Dead campaign, a character had a background in which a friend had supposedly died. The player indicated that the friend was still alive, but their PC was under the assumption that their friend was dead. During an adventure against a necromancer, an NPC revealed that the friend had recently visited the necromancer and had inquired about the PCs long lost mother, also presumed dead. (Yeah, most players write tragic back stories for their characters.) Further investigation revealed that the friend was last seen heading southeast, which was the general direction of the PCs home village.

 

Another character had a background that listed a shaman as a friend and a sacred mountain as a location. Over a couple of sessions, I told the player that his character was having unsettling dreams about war and fire and bloodshed on the mountain. I placed the sacred mountain near the first PCs home village.

 

The party opted to head southeast to find out what was going on with both of these plot hooks. This led to several sessions of as the PCs resolved these situations.

 

Other times, I just drop a hook on the player’s head. One player had an Atlantean slaver with a horseless war wagon powered by some infernal device as a foe. The slaver had driven his wagon into the character’s village, and killed or enslaved the PCs tribe. (Yeah, most players write tragic back stories for their characters.) At some point during the campaign, I just announced that the slaver and his war wagon were in the immediate vicinity, collecting more slaves. Naturally, the party girded for war and went to extract revenge.

 

In any case, character backgrounds make my role as a GM easier. Backgrounds give me readymade hooks and plots. I just need to be sure to weave them into the campaign, so that the NPCs and locations provided to me are just other things that the PCs encounter as they wander, sack, pillage, loot, and cause general mayhem in the campaign world.

Hell on Earth Reloaded: Campaign Journal Session 2

Real World Date: March 26, 2016 

Campaign World Date(s): July 5, 2097

 

The Team

Groot is an expert driver and scavenges the atomic wastelands in a pickup truck. While scavenging a ruin somewhere in the Wasted West, he picked up a mutation. He now has an arm that looks like a gnarled tree branch. Played by Jacob. (Played by Steven this session.)

Jet Li is a master of Kung Fu fighting with a signature "Ka-Doosh!" power. At some point during his wanderings across the atomic wastelands, he picked up a mutation and now his skin has a metallic sheen to it. Played by Heath.

Mad Max is a Harrowed road warrior with a motorcycle. He tangled with a supernatural horror at one point and is now slightly nervous about things that go bump in the night. Played by Justin.

Martell is a young child with a completely bald head. He is just beginning to tap his syker abilities. Played by Keanu.

Solomon is a templar. Sometime in the past, a fearsome creature nearly ripped off Solomon's leg and now he walks with an obvious limp. Played by Jeremy.

Tituba is a stunningly beautiful witch and a descendent of Mina Devlin. Played by Miranda.

Tom has wandered the Wasted Waste for years working as a hired gun. Like some other members of the posse, he played too long in the radioactive sandbox and now has a mutation: he has aged prematurely. He has strangely wrinkled skin and unnaturally looking gray hair.  Played by Thomas.

 

Readin' the Sitch

 

The posse has travelled north from their current home in the city of Junkyard. They had two missions:

·         Go to the ruins of the city of Logan. Gather intel on the Hellbore, a huge mining machine used by the Combine during the Harvest War. Junkyard was offering a nice reward for this mission. 

·         Enter the Saltmarsh Deadland to find a crashed plane full of weapons and ammo. They would be rich if they succeeded.

The posse had just finished a fight with a band of walkin' dead, defeated a fiery ghost that haunted the Hellbore, had taken photos of the interior of the Hellbore, and fought an automaton controlled by an undead rotting human head. Just as they thought the worst was over, a Combine force emerged out the old tunnel that the Hellbore had drilled.

The Tell

Fight against the Combine

·         The Combine forces emerged out of the tunnel. They had two prisoners, naked and bound. One was a child with a completely bald head: probably a syker. The other was a man, with strangely wrinkled skin and unnaturally looking gray hair: obviously a mutant.

·         There was a brief firefight. The posse killed the Red Hat, the commander of the Combine forces. With the loss of their leader, the Black Hats retreated back into the tunnel.

Interludes

·         The posse set to work repairing Groot's truck and Max's motorcycle. The two prisoners introduced themselves and told the posse about themselves.

·         Tom was a combat medic before the war. After the Boom, he met Matthew Baxter, who became a close friend. Together they worked on rebuilding civilization, on returning things to how they used to be. Unfortunately, General Maxie Podrax, a particularly nasty individual, captured both Tom and Matthew. They were separated and Tom has not seen Matthew since. He hopes to find and free his friend. Then they can go back to rebuilding the world.

·         Martell has a twin sister, older than him by mere minutes. General Caruso, a cruel man and an officer serving the Combine, had taken the siblings under this care. One day, Martell's sister disappeared. His greatest desire was to find his sister.

·         Combine forces took both Tom and Martell into a cave system. After several days of marching underneath the earth, they emerged out of the tunnel at the ruins of Logan.

Through the Ghost Storm

·         The posse debated as to whether to return to Junkyard to collect the rewards or proceed to the Saltmarsh Deadland, which was on the way to Junkyard. In the end, the posse decided to investigate the cache of arms and ammo inside the Deadland.

·         Groot, Jet, Tituba, Tom, and Solomon piled into Groot's truck. They would drive through the Ghost Storm first. Max and Martell would follow on the road warrior's motorcycle.

·         Groot gunned the engine and drove into the Ghost Storm. He and the others experienced the visceral thrill of a Ghost Storm. It felt like their insides were being pulled apart. They made it through, but a couple of posse members were exhausted from the ordeal.

·         Before Max could follow on his bike, the manitou that powered Max's body with unlife decided that now would be a good time to possess the host's body. A test of wills followed and Max lost. With a hateful chuckle, the manitou turned the bike away from the Ghost Storm and headed south with Martell.

Fight against the Swamp Leviathan

·         The posse had little time to dwell on their experience in the Ghost Storm. The road they were on had disappeared, being replaced by a brackish swamp. Suddenly, large black tentacles emerged from the water and attacked the truck.

·         An epic fight commenced as more and more tentacles emerged from the swamp. Two strangers on a skiff entered the battle, casting spells against the tentacles. Their spells looked very similar to those cast by Tituba. Soon, the last of the tentacles was sliced in half and whatever creature the tentacles were attached to retreated.

The Saltmarsh Coven

·         The two strangers from the skiff approached. They stared in amazement at Tituba. They said that she was a more beautiful twin of the coven's leader, Betty Lou Devlin. When they had a moment to recover, they introduced themselves as Amy and Stacy.

·         The pair said that Betty Lou hated men with a passion. She had recently turned against the male members of the coven, invoking a ritual that turned all of the males into beast men.

·         The posse realized at this time that Max and Martell were not with them. The posse debated as to whether to brave the Ghost Storm again and go in search of Max and Martell, or proceed with searching for the crashed plane with its supply of guns and ammo. They decided to find Max and Martell. The road warrior had the palmcorder with the images from inside the Hellbore. That palmcorder was vital.

The Road Orcs, Part 1

·         The posse walked through the Ghost Storm and again experienced what it felt like when a thousand screaming souls try to rip out your heart. They emerged mostly intact. Once on the other side, they spotted a skid mark from Max's motorcycle that indicated he was headed south.

·         Somewhere down the road, the posse crested a hill and saw a large group of armed mercenaries blocking the only bridge available for at least a day's ride in either direction. A dozen or so cars, trucks, and motorcycles were parked near the bridge. A trading convoy was stopped several hundred yards from the bridge. It looked like the leader of the convoy and the leader of the raiders were talking in the space between the two groups. They also saw an animated Max and a crying Martell near the bridge. Max seemed to be in negotiations of his own.

·         Groot gunned it and made for the bridge. As they approached, Jet made multiple eye contacts with the leader of the raiders. It was Four Eyes, a mutant with four eyes, who was a lieutenant in the Road Orcs gang. Four Eyes immediately called out for the Road Orcs to take Jet dead or alive.

·         Tom had snuck down on his own and hidden in some brush. Once he heard Four Eyes yell, Tom sent a fire arrow into the nearest vehicle. The fire ignited the Spook Juice in the fuel tank. A nice explosion followed, which set off explosions in the vehicles next to it. A chain reaction followed as more than a dozen trucks and motorcycles went up in flames.

·         It was at this moment that the manitou lost Dominion over Max. Now his normal (abnormal?) self, Max grabbed a screaming and crying Martell, hit the gas, and flew north up the road. Tom dove back into the truck. Groot gunned it, turning his truck around, and followed the road warrior north. The Road Orcs, stunned by the destruction of so many of their vehicles, did not pursue.

The Road Orcs, Part 2 (or The Capture and Death of Four Eyes)

·         Jet and Red Fang, the leader of the Road Orcs, had vendettas against each other. The posse thought it would be a good idea to capture Four Eyes and find out where Red Fang was lairing.

·         The other posse members strapped Jet to the hood of the pickup in hopes of convincing Four Eyes that the kung fu master was their prisoner. They drove back to the bridge and convinced Four Eyes that they wanted the bounty for Jet. Four Eyes was happy with the capture of Jet and offered the posse the reward: 200 bullets and a days worth of Spook Juice. He ordered a truck brought forward with several jerry cans of fuel.

·         As Four Eyes grabbed Jet, the kung fu fighter slipped out of his bonds and punched Four Eyes right between his four eyes, knocking him out cold. The rest of the posse then hustled the unconscious mutant into the back of the truck.

·         Tom had snuck up on the truck carrying the Spook Juice. He killed the driver, grabbed control of the truck, and sped off to the north. Groot flipped off the Road Orcs, did a U-turn and followed. Max pulled off a spectacular maneuver with his motorcycle, leaving a number of Road Orcs in awe. A fusillade of shots followed, but the posse made good their escape.

·         Tituba used her feminine wiles, and a little bit of witchcraft, to try and convince Four Eyes to give up the location of Red Fang.  Four Eyes pronounced his love for Tituba but just couldn't give up the location of his boss. Then Tituba planted a kiss right on Four Eyes' mouth. She did so at the same that Max showed his stomach wound to the Road Orc, which caused Four Eyes to throw up a little in Tituba's mouth. Tituba's sacrifice was worth it, however. Four Eyes was now totally enslaved to her and the mutant declared that Red Fang was in Road Kill Alley, discussing some big plans with Mercy Devlin. Four Eyes didn't know what those plans were, but they must be important enough that Mercy would deign to cooperate with a man.

·         As soon as Four Eyes finished his confession, Tom shot an arrow right through the mutant's skull.

The Storm

·         The posse saw a storm approaching. Any storm in the Wasted West was bad news. They immediately scrambled for cover as Black Rain washed down on the land.

·         Max and Tom ended up in a small cave together. The manitou decided now would be a good time to take over Max. The road warrior lost the test of wills. The manitou, now happily in charge of its flesh puppet, had plans for Tom . . . .

And that's where we stopped for the night.

Vehicles

Vehicle	Spook Juice (in days)	Notes
Groot's Truck	2
Max's Motorcycle	2
Tom's Truck	2	Stolen from the Road Orcs

 

XP

Answer the following questions. 1 XP is earned for every yes answer. Min of 1, Max of 3 XP per session.

Did we successfully complete a Mission, overcome a major NPC or monster; or scrounge up a big, fat pile of Scrap from the pre-Apocalypse world?	Yes. Swamp Leviathan, Four Eyes.
Did we create a new Mission by learning something new and important about the world or a PC?	Yes. Two interludes.
Did we lower the Fear Level of an area?	No

2 XP earned.

Tituba gains an Advance!

Character	Old XP	XP Earned	New XP	Raisin' Hell
Groot	2	2	4	·         1 Mutation: arm like a gnarled tree branch (Brawny Edge) ·         1 Heart Attack ·         1 Scar: horrible, disfigured skull (-1 Charisma)
Jet Li	22	2	24	·         1 Mutation (VotWW): metallic sheen to skin (+1 die bump Vigor) ·         1 Memento
Martell	0	2	2
Max	22	2	24	·         Harrowed: death wound = hole in the stomach ·         Harrowed: Dominion = -1 ·         Paranoid (Yellow Hindrance, VotWW) ·         Mark of Fear (-1 Charisma)
Solomon	22	2	24	·         Lame Hindrance (VotWW) ·         1 Heart Attack
Tituba	9	2	11
Tom	20	22	22	1 Mutation: Elderly (VotWW)

 

Hell on Earth Reloaded: Campaign Journal Session 1

Real World Date: March 12, 2016

Campaign World Date(s): July 4, 2097

 

The Team

Groot is an expert driver and scavenges the atomic wastelands in a pickup truck. While scavenging a ruin somewhere in the Wasted West, he picked up a mutation. He now has an arm that looks like a gnarled tree branch. Played by Jacob.

Jet Li is a master of Kung Fu fighting with a signature "Ka-Doosh!" power. At some point during his wanderings across the Wasted West, he picked up a mutation and now his skin has a metallic sheen to it. Played by Heath.

Mad Max is a Harrowed road warrior with a motorcycle. He tangled with a supernatural horror at one point and is now afraid of things that go bump in the night. Played by Justin.

Solomon is a templar. Sometime in the past, a fearsome creature nearly ripped off Solomon's leg and now he walks with an obvious limp. Played by Jeremy.

Tituba is a stunningly beautiful witch and a descendent of Mina Devlin. Played by Miranda.

 

Readin' the Sitch

Mission: Recon the Hellbore

·         Out of desperation, the team has decided to take up a mission for the town of Junkyard. They've decided the rewards are worth it. First up, there's two weeks of canned rations—the good stuff, not the recycled gunk served up in the camp food lines. Second, and more importantly, if they complete the mission, there's Junkyard citizenship. It’s nothing to scoff at, especially with food and resources in the camps and shanty towns continually in such short supply.

·         They met with Ike Taylor, the mayor of Junkyard. He explained that during the Harvest, the Combine used a Hellbore, an enormous digging machine, to burrow under the Rockies to flank Junkyard from the north up around the town of Logan. A huge army emerged from the tunnel and started marching towards Junkyard. Fortunately, Junkyard was alerted to this in time to react. The town had a MOAB bomb squirreled away, and Ike ordered it dropped on Logan. The innocent people of the town would be collateral damage, unfortunately.

·         Ike wants the team to go to the site of this tunnel and determine if the Hellbore is still there. He warned the team that he had sent scouts into Logan previously and none had returned. Ike didn't know what was in Logan, but he advised the team to be prepared for anything.

·         Ike gave the team a palmcorder complete with a map to where they need to go. Once there, the team was to use it to record the area, as well as get some interior shots of the Hellbore. If they bring back this information, the food and Junkyard citizenship are all theirs.

Mission: Get Rich or Die Trying

·         The team had another reason to travel north. In one of his scavenging hunts, Groot had found a journal from a sky pilot, now presumably dead. The journal stated that the pilot's plane had passed through the ghost storm at Saltmarsh and crash-landed inside the Deadland. Only half of the 8 man crew survived the ghost storm and the crash. 3 out of the remaining crew died walking out of the Deadland through the ghost storm. The pilot seems to have quickly lost his mind after this ordeal, as the journal turns to gibberish shortly thereafter. The plane was full of ammunition and weapons for the Harvest War. The team would be rich if they could recover it. Of course, there's a good chance that they could all die.

 

The Tell

Fight against the Walkin' Dead

·         The team rolled into the ruins of Logan in Groot's truck and Max's motorcycle. They were promptly ambushed by walkin' dead.

·         Groot was unnerved by the sight of the undead and had a heart attack. Then he took a head shot that ripped open his skull. Luckily, Max grabbed the missing skull piece and slapped it back on Groot's head. Groot survived the wound, but now his head is horribly disfigured. [Justin played the Hot Iron and Whiskey Adventure Card].

·         Tituba dropped the leader of the walkin' dead with one well placed magic bolt to the head.

·         After the combat, the team performed CPR on Groot and managed to restart his heart. There's was nothing they could do for his gruesome head wound, though.

Interludes

·         Solomon, Tragedy. Lost his daughter Ripley recently. Frederick the priest took Solomon and Ripley under his care. He inspired Solomon to become a Templar. While Solomon was away, Ravenites attacked Frederick's church, killing the holy man, and kidnapping Ripley.

·         Tituba, Victory. Has a sister named Mercy, who ran a town called Road Kill Alley. Tituba was supposed to take over a town called Dead Man's Mark. Something happened, though, and Tituba ended up as a refugee in Junkyard.

·         Jet Li, Tragedy. Jet had a friend, "Kung Pao". The two survived the Fall due to being in the freezer at the Chinese restaurant where they worked. They lived on frozen food for several weeks. A man named Angus Bond recently killed Kung Pao.

·         Max, Love. Before the Fall, Max had a girlfriend, Crystal. They were both mercenaries and assassins, and they were hired to kill the Pope. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, someone popped him instead. As he lay dying, the ghost bombs hit. He's wandered the wasted west for 16 years, hoping to find Crystal.

·         Groot, Desire. Sticky Bob stole a steering wheel named Charlie from Groot. The steering wheel supposedly talked to Groot and made him a better driver. Groot wants to find and kill Sticky Bob, and get Charlie the steering wheel back.

Scavenging Logan and Exploring the Hellbore

·         The team scavenged the ruins of Logan. Jet Li found a memento, a golden, plastic cat with an arm that waved up and down. It brought back happy memories of his time before the Fall as a Chinese food delivery driver. [A Memento acts as a one-time Benny that the PC can save and play when necessary.] 

·         The Hellbore sat about 100 yards away from the tunnel it had created. Its nose consisted of huge grinding drills which gleamed dully in the sunlight. The Hellbore measured at least 100 feet in diameter and about 100  yards long. Along the flanks of the huge cylinder were large tank-like tracks designed to drag it through the earth’s crust. The team could see windows at the very top of the Hellbore.

·         Jet Li scampered up the Hellbore, then lowered a rope for the rest of the team. With a mighty Ka-Doosh!, Jet smashed in one of the windows. He was greeted by a terrifying sight: a ghostly, fiery, screaming apparition.

·         Jet was not impressed by the ghost. Solomon, on the other hand, took one look at the fiery creature and promptly dropped from a heart attack. Groot reacted quickly and punched the Templar right in the middle of the chest, starting his heart back up. Solomon rose and slew the creature in one blow with his Templar sword.

·         The team found themselves in the control room of the Hellbore. They recorded images with the palmcorder. They were reluctant to explore the rest of the machine due to Combine devices tending to explode.

Battle with an Automaton

·         The team heard a "clank, clank, clank" sound from the outside. Looking out the window, the team saw a large, metal, mechanical, roughly humanoid shape approaching the Hellbore. On the top of the machine was a clear plastic bubble that held a rotting human head with red glowing eyes. Max was so terrified of the thing that a streak of white appeared through his hair. [Max failed his Fear Check, then rolled the Mark of Fear on the Fright Table.]

·         The team engaged the automaton. Things looked grim for the party until Groot rammed his truck into the unholy machine, destroying it. This activated the automaton's self-destruct mechanism. A huge fireball engulfed most of the party.

·         As the debris was clearing, the team saw a group of humans emerging from the tunnel. They were wearing distinctive black and red helmets. Combine forces!

·         And that's where we stopped for the night.

·         Groot - 2 Wounds

·         Max - 2 Wounds

XP 

2 XP earned. Tituba earns 9 XP (!?@#$%) due to being a power spanking Munchkin and playing "The Hard Way" adventure card, which turned her 7 Bennies into XP.

Tituba gains an Advance!

Character	Old XP	XP Earned	New XP	Raisin' Hell
Groot	0	2	2	1 Mutation, arm like a gnarled tree branch (Brawny Edge), 1 Heart Attack, 1 Scar (-1 Charisma)
Jet Li	20	2	22	1 Mutation, metallic sheen to skin (+1 die bump Vigor), 1 Memento
Max	20	2	22	Harrowed, Paranoid (Yellow Hindrance, Mark of Fear (-1 Charisma)
Solomon	20	2	22	Lame Hindrance, 1 Heart Attack
Tituba	0	9	9