Character Résumés

Do your players think writing character backgrounds is a chore?

Do you find it tedious to read pages of exposition that detail the minutia of a character's history?

Do your players' background write-ups fail to contain the information you wanted?

The solution is the Character Résumé.

A character résumé contains all the pertinent information a background write-up would, but presents it in a clear, concise format that makes for an easy reference in-game and during adventure planning.

You may provide your players with a list of information you'd like to see on the résumé, or hand them one-page printouts with blanks to fill in. Build off the concept of a regular CV to obtain information regarding the character's adventuring experience and qualifications. Then, throw personal information onto the list to learn things about the character that could open up roleplaying opportunities down the line.

Employment history, education, professional qualifications, awards -- these categories will determine the extent of the character's experience. If a character has encountered monsters, this is the place to fill in details. Players will sometimes try to pull a fast one on a DM by saying, "my character has done such-and-such before, so he knows that this-and-that is what should be done." Well, if such-and-such isn't on the character résumé, then doing this-and-that falls into metagaming.

Interests, memberships, marital status, citizenship, place of birth -- these categories reveal important details about the character that you can weave into your adventure and ingrain the character into your gameworld.

Of course, unlike a CV, wherein you strive to paint yourself in a positive light and omit information that would not help you get hired, a character résumé should be completely truthful and forthcoming.

A final note -- you could allow players to write backgrounds in addition to résumés, as some players enjoy writing narratives about their character.

Download my Character Résumé spreadsheet to view some sample résumés, and feel free to use the blank résumé provided on the third sheet.