There's absolutely zero neccessity to write a page long (or worse, more) background story for each PC (which I utterly dread) or to inject and inflate so much of the player's own ego in their PC (doubly so).
A wonderful no brainer lesson can be learned from Classic Traveller RPG.
The first step is to look at the six basic characteristics: strength, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, education, and social level. By careful examination and consideration, the character can be given a rough personality... Almost any combination of traits can be justified in this way, and a hint of personality obtained.
(Traveller, Book 0, p.24)
The author goes on by giving several obvious yet rich enough examples.
- High strength, high endurance, low intelligence: a muscle-bound oaf of stage and screen.
- High strength and lower endurance: a smaller, wiry person whose power comes from skillful application of leverage rather than sheer muscle.
- High education, low intelligence, high social status: an overeducated noble with a string of degrees, but who has forgotten anything he might have learned.
- High intelligence, low education: a self-educated individual, likely to be driven to succeed, and highly motivated towards whatever goal he sets himself.
Adding this to the well-known practice to generate narrative through the PC's career in Traveller's character generation process, the player automatically obtains a vivid, fully fleshed-out, adventure-primed characters at the end of the procedure.
I am still a bit surprised that this insightful step did not make its way into the LBBs (in particular Book 1) or The Traveller Book, of which the primary focus is placed on the PC's careers and skills. Perhaps it's because this Book 0 was written by Loren K. Wiseman instead of Marc Miller himself.
