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Early Peek at Backstories 201 (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-13 01:10:36
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Hello Patrons, I finished up my next video (still need to do subtitles). It's adding to my Character Backstories video I did in 2019. I plan to post it to the general masses Thursday morning, but you can watch it early. Hope you enjoy it.

Outside of that, the only notable thing I can think of is I can finally announce that Q-Workshop is making a Seth Skorkowsky Icons set of RPG dice. Essentially I'm working with them to have a dice set that looks cool to my particular tastes, fit my play style, and I also fully stand behind. We're currently finalizing the designs and negotiating some of my unusual requests (such as three D00 and no symbols instead of numbers on the faces. Ease of reading is essential). I can't say more about it until they announce more, but it's a fun process getting to work with their designers. After finishing this post, I'll by putting on my suit and posing for several Jack images for their artists to work with. Hopefully we'll have some finalized designs soon that I can share.

 I have zero doubts that my players will personally blame me for every single bad roll they have when using them, while giving me none of the credit for their good rolls.

That's it for now. Thank you all for you support.


-Seth

Files

Previews only

Backstory 201: 7 Tips & 1 Alternative for Crafting Effective Backstories - Playing RPGs

Here's 7 tips on making a great Character Backstory that both you and your Game Master can get the most out of, as well as an additional option I prefer that can be incorporated alongside or instead of writing a backstory out. __________ *DID YOU KNOW I'M A NOVELIST?* If you want to support my channel, or just want to read an action-packed Urban Fantasy about modern-day monster hunters and their sentient weapons, check out my four-novel Valducan series. They feature gun fights, sword fights, chases, monsters, and a smattering of horror. Audio book editions narrated by the badass R.C. Bray: https://amzn.to/3rehNnJ I also write pulpy Sword & Sorcery thief adventures in my Tales of the Black Raven series. It's 21 short adventures packed with action, intrigue, and daring heroics (You might notice Book 2: Sea of Quills not-so-subtly placed behind me). Audio editions read by R.C. Bray. https://amzn.to/3faj4cX And if you want a kickass and dark revenge story about a modern-day sorceress hunting for lost Carcosa, my novel Ashes of Onyx is available in print, ebook, and audio book: https://amzn.to/3sfh1IA If you enjoyed my stories, please leave a rating or review on Amazon, Audible, and/or Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4088554.Seth_Skorkowsky __________ *MY OWN PUBLISHED RPG ADVENTURES* A Mother's Love (Call of Cthulhu 7e): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/299661/New-Tales-of-the-Miskatonic-Valley--An-Anthology-of-Call-of-Cthulhu-Scenarios-set-in-the-1920s?affiliate_id=1017650 Mysteries on Arcturus Station (Mongoose 2e): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/350034/Solomani-Adventure-1-Mysteries-on-Arcturus-Station?affiliate_id=1017650 __________ *FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER* I mostly ramble about movies and random other things as they occur to me: https://twitter.com/SSkorkowsky __________ *I HAVE A PODCAST NOW* Check out the Modern Mythos Podcast where veteran RPG writer Jon Hook and I discuss gaming, especially Call of Cthulhu: https://modernmythos.libsyn.com/?fbclid=IwAR1_wArr3cKQhXj5GNv52s2Q-_gdM9yyq-0O-_dugpOYp3CsevyZiir5mBU You can find the podcast on YouTube as well (You should totally subscribe): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmk5Y_OheFJL7-Xgvx-REJA __________ *My Patreon* (Tip Jar): https://www.patreon.com/SSkorkowsky Special thank you to my 159 Patrons for their support and for helping me decide which thumbnail to use for this video as I found myself completely stuck on the decision. Guest starring Mike and Todd. 00:00 Intro 01:02 1 Provide Names 01:50 2 Make It Easy to Reference 05:05 3 The GM Has Final Approval 06:18 4 NPCs From the Past Aren't Static 07:53 5 The PC Should Continue Evolving 09:35 6 Tropes Aren't Bad 12:25 7 Link the Characters' Backstories 13:38 Buddies & Rivals 14:47 Ask a Survey of Questions 21:35 Closing

Comments

Anonymous

And just like that the Dice Gods have their human avatar…

Skemono

No symbols instead of numbers? So we won't get images of Jack or Mike like your Conan dice? Bummer.

Seth Skorkowsky
>>69684335

Sorry. With games where symbols are used instead of numbers (Conan, Star Wars, Alien, etc.) the symbols are fine. That's part of the game and they use special dice are made for that. But with most RPGs (and all of my favorites) it's only numbers required on dice. I personally hate regular RPG dice that either hide the numbers among a bunch of artistic designs, making them difficult to read in-game, or replace a (usually the highest) die face with a symbol or something. It drives me bats. There are dice that look good on a shelf and ones that are good for playing. My goal with them is they're good for playing. Given the current designs I'm seeing, they'll still look great, but ease of readability is one of my key requirements.

Skemono
>>69684335

No need to apologize. I was mostly kidding and basically agree with you. I have a D6 where one of the faces, instead of being a numeral or set of pips, is something like an asterisk / starburst design. Which is close enough to a single pip that any time I roll it I have to look at the opposite face to verify what number I actually got. So, yeah, readability is good and appreciated.

Anonymous
>>69684335

Tell me about it! I like a die to be instantly readable. I've banned those ones made to look like potion bottles and other items from my table.

Anonymous

Funny, a lot of the advice you give about making a PC are things that are built into the rulebooks for Mutant: Year Zero and Earthdawn, both games I've mentioned to you before. Just goes to show how good your advice is when it meshes with what I consider to be some of the gold standards of rpgs.

Seth Skorkowsky
>>69762138

Cyberpunk 2020 was the first game I played that spent time on backstories as part of character creation. Before that, I'd only played games that didn't do anything at all. We pretty much ignored it for a long time until we realized how useful backstories could be. We were always having trouble with "What's my motivation?" and other stuff that could easily have been cured had we just paid attention to the backstories. With Heroic games, characters are pretty much assumed to be heroes and their motivation is "be heroic" which worked well enough when we were young and just wanted to do dungeon crawls and kill monsters. Once we started getting into more story-focused campaigns, and games where the PCs were less heroic, less focused on how much money they could get to do a job, and alignment was a thing of the past, Backstory became much more important for us.

Anonymous

Who the character is is always so much more interesting than what the character is.