D&D 5E Questions for adventurers

[Lanliss]

My players sometimes have issues getting their characters fleshed out, or have trouble communicating the characters to me. As a result, I have decided to have a questionnaire for new characters, to define a few character traits. Here are the ones I have so far, so you all have any more?

What dreams make your character happiest? Not necessarily what your character wants the most, but just a dream that puts a smile on their face.

What does your character have nightmares about?

Aside from money*, why is your character adventuring? (*except in campaigns where "money" is an acceptable answer, like an evil campaign)

Is your character racist against any race, or preferential towards any? Do they hate Dwarves, but consider Elves the paramount of trustworthiness?

What is your character's view on the gods? Doesn't believe in them? knows they are there, but dislikes them? Fervent follower, or reluctant devotee? Indifferent?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I don't really find any of the details those questions, excepting the question of why a character adventures, would provide to be important...

Have you talked with your group of players? Is this issue and issue in their opinions, or is this just something you wish your players would do but maybe they aren't interested in?

Do you use the background system from the rules? If so, why do you feel more details are needed?

I mean, I could answer all of your questions for all of the characters I've ever played... but unless you are going to specifically make the adventure focus on one of those details, like fulfilling my dreams, plaguing me with my nightmares, constantly testing my convictions regarding adventuring, forcing the character into situations where racism actually has consequences, and so forth, there is not really any reason to ask. And if you are focusing on those details, you are at heavy risk of making players specifically want to avoid having any answers - like the common phenomenon of a large number of player characters being friendless orphans because the players that make them have had a DM use the character's friends and/or family against the character and/or player (i.e. "Your character has a sister? She got kidnapped." or "Oh, your character looks after his ailing mother? Monsters ate her.") and didn't have a good time so they aren't going to let it happen again.

 

[Lanliss]

I don't really find any of the details those questions, excepting the question of why a character adventures, would provide to be important...

Have you talked with your group of players? Is this issue and issue in their opinions, or is this just something you wish your players would do but maybe they aren't interested in?

Do you use the background system from the rules? If so, why do you feel more details are needed?

I mean, I could answer all of your questions for all of the characters I've ever played... but unless you are going to specifically make the adventure focus on one of those details, like fulfilling my dreams, plaguing me with my nightmares, constantly testing my convictions regarding adventuring, forcing the character into situations where racism actually has consequences, and so forth, there is not really any reason to ask. And if you are focusing on those details, you are at heavy risk of making players specifically want to avoid having any answers - like the common phenomenon of a large number of player characters being friendless orphans because the players that make them have had a DM use the character's friends and/or family against the character and/or player (i.e. "Your character has a sister? She got kidnapped." or "Oh, your character looks after his ailing mother? Monsters ate her.") and didn't have a good time so they aren't going to let it happen again.

We use backgrounds, loosely, but this is more of a generalization. A broader version of "what would your character do in X situation?". The main reason I am planning this is to get more in depth on the characters, to allow me to build adventures that they might be interested in. Two of my three players are heavy on the Role, and will enjoy this kind of thing, and my last player always has trouble fleshing out his PCs beyond "Insert tragic backstory that kills all of characters family". I hope for this to help give him a nudge in finding his characters, and to provide a bit of depth to the characters in general.

My reasoning, though it may not be the same for everyone, is that simple questions like this help me find essential information that I didn't know about before. I mentioned this in my old(now wiped) world building thread, where people questioning my world helped immensely in fleshing it out, finding facets I didn't even know existed to be hidden.

 

[Caliban]

I ask my players to come up with things about their characters unrelated to adventuring:

What are your parent's names?

Do you have any siblings? If so, what are their names and how do you feel about them?

What hobbies does your character have?

Does your character have any enemies, anyone they hate, or anyone they have a special relationship with?


Then I try to have it come up in the campaign at some point. Hopefully something more inspired than kidnapping/killing members of their family to give them a revenge storyline.

 

[Scary]

I ask my players to come up with things about their characters unrelated to adventuring:

What are your parent's names?

Do you have any siblings? If so, what are their names and how do you feel about them?

What hobbies does your character have?

Does your character have any enemies, anyone they hate, or anyone they have a special relationship with?


Then I try to have it come up in the campaign at some point. Hopefully something more inspired than kidnapping/killing members of their family to give them a revenge storyline.

I like to flesh out my PC's and I also try to encourage other players to do the same. When I DM, I really like that the player either rolls or picks a place where they are from. Then I either have them read about the place online or if I have enough info in books (Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms), they then can maybe get an idea from reading about the area their character is from and create some history.


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[Shiroiken]

I love the Backgrounds and character development required by 5E. While I no longer play with them, I know quite a few players that would complain that they have to actually make the character be more than just a bunch of mechanics on a piece of paper. In general, I find that asking for flaws, bonds, traits and a general background/history is all I need to help integrate the PCs into the world.

Depending on the campaign, I sometimes don't care why someone becomes an adventurer (or even if they are), because the first adventure forces it on them. While I don't consider money to be an evil motivation (per the OP), I find it to be a bad one because the amount of money the average adventurer finds in their first couple levels would be enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. It's better in 5E since there is no expected wealth by level, so a DM can run a very low money game if they want.

Something that has gone missing from D&D over the decades is the inherent racial views of each race. Dwarves and Elves used to dislike each other, and everyone distrusted half-orcs. Each of the races had their own preferences and opinions of the other races, sometimes even being broken down by sub-race. I think it was 3E that pretty much did away with that as the baseline, and I find it to be a shame. The Legolas/Gimili friendship (not to mention Gimili's gift) loses a LOT of its impact if you don't realize how much distrust and bigotry there was between their races.

 

[Oofta]

For a long time I tried to do what you're doing because I thought I needed to convince my players that their PCs should have more depth. I had people fill out surveys, gave XP rewards for interesting backgrounds.

Ultimately what I found was that some people would create amazing backstories and others would always be "an orphan with no family or ties who just kind of decided to be an adventurer one day".

What I finally decided was that I'd encourage people to discuss their character's history with me if they wanted to, come up with a story if it was fun for them. If it wasn't, that's ok as well. Because a lot of people don't play for the same reasons I play; for every person that dreams about what it would be like to grow up in a fantasy world and builds a character based on that vision there's another that just puts some numbers on a sheet and has fun rolling dice. Neither way is right or wrong.

So by all means encourage your players to think about their characters. Ask them to flesh out the village or borough that they grew up in. Have them name people that influenced them (for good and ill) in addition to their parents. But if they aren't into it, accept and respect their choice.

 

[Scary]

I have considered the like/dislike between Elves and Dwarves, and I sometimes write a back story that the Dwarf and Elf grew up near each other and they became adventuring friends

 

[Scary]

For a long time I tried to do what you're doing because I thought I needed to convince my players that their PCs should have more depth. I had people fill out surveys, gave XP rewards for interesting backgrounds.

Ultimately what I found was that some people would create amazing backstories and others would always be "an orphan with no family or ties who just kind of decided to be an adventurer one day".

What I finally decided was that I'd encourage people to discuss their character's history with me if they wanted to, come up with a story if it was fun for them. If it wasn't, that's ok as well. Because a lot of people don't play for the same reasons I play; for every person that dreams about what it would be like to grow up in a fantasy world and builds a character based on that vision there's another that just puts some numbers on a sheet and has fun rolling dice. Neither way is right or wrong.

So by all means encourage your players to think about their characters. Ask them to flesh out the village or borough that they grew up in. Have them name people that influenced them (for good and ill) in addition to their parents. But if they aren't into it, accept and respect their choice.

I also look at languages the PC's get, even going back to AD&D / D&D 1e, the languages you know are what is available from the area you grew up. All the languages of the races are listed for both Greyhawk and FGR, so it is easy and way more convincing than the language table from the original DMG.

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[ccs]

Wether I'm a player or a DM, character details are important to me. Really important.
As a player I'll give you details. And I'll incorporate & share them in play.

As a DM? I expect you to give me some detail prior to play:
The minimum is: Name/class/race/gender/physical appearance/apparent age/real age/place of origin/reason why you're character is doing x, god(s)/patrons served.
More is appreciated, but how much more I leave to you as it varies by character. I will almost certainly ask for more details later, so be prepared or be able to improvise.... Just remember, the bards don't tell stories about boring people.

Now I'm going to answer these questions from the PoV of my current CoS character:

What dreams make your character happiest? Not necessarily what your character wants the most, but just a dream that puts a smile on their face.

Food & lots of it. Especially dessert. She eats as much as she can (about 3x her own bodyweight) & the dream ends as she dozes off in her favorite chair by the fireplace.
Source: Ongoing play.

What does your character have nightmares about?

Spiders. Specifically ones that are bigger than she is.
Source: This fear stems from one of her earliest encounters prior to CoS.

Aside from money*, why is your character adventuring? (*except in campaigns where "money" is an acceptable answer, like an evil campaign)

1) To find her older sister & return home. Source: From use in previous campaigns.
2) $. Especially magic items. So she can pay her pseudo-dragon patron for the magic he teaches her. Source: Initial backstory.

Is your character racist against any race, or preferential towards any? Do they hate Dwarves, but consider Elves the paramount of trustworthiness?

Nope.
Was initially scarred of orcs as she'd heard that more & more of them were being seen this side of the mountains. But she ended up leaving home before that became a real problem. And though she's still worried about orc raiders back home she's far away & can't do anything about it. Individually, now having faced far worse, she's not scarred of orcs. Source: Initial details of an earlier campaign.
She's not all fond of Satyrs as they kidnapped her older sister.... Source: Initial campaign.

What is your character's view on the gods? Doesn't believe in them? knows they are there, but dislikes them? Fervent follower, or reluctant devotee? Indifferent?

She says her prayers every night before going to sleep. But she's a long way from home & doesn't know if her gods can hear her.... Her patron can though, & the dwarfs can hear him, so hers probably can too. They're probably responsible for making sure she always has good travelling/adventuring companions.
Source: Ongoing play

Of course I'm one of those players who will happily tell you a very great amount of detail about my characters. And, unlike AaronOfBarbaria, to me the answers to these (and more) questions ARE important. Really important. They detail how I want my character to act/react & why. They also provide the DM with any # of hooks & details to play with - if they choose.
Knowing (and sharing) the details about your character is what separates them from just being a collection of stats & a mini on the table.
This is a ROLE playing game. Not a Roll playing game. Not a computer game that's misappropriated the term (unless they meant for that R to = Roll....). That means that the details you give your character are important. And, IMO, more so than your stats.