The following is a questionaire I got off of a mailing list. It's rediculously long and I never require any players to fill it out or answer all the questions. However, I have often used it to help write really detailed backgrounds (one background made it to eight pages), so I offer it to you as an aide in character creation. For a text version of this document, you can click here.
Section One: Childhood ("Childhood," for the sake of expedience, is herein classified as pre-puberty.)
1. What was your childhood like? (Describe your parent[s], sibling[s], playmates, friends, etc. Are you from a broken home, were you an Army Brat, maybe a runaway vagrant? Who did you trust? Who took care of you?) Equally important for a Vampiric campaign, When was your childhood? Were you one of the first pilgrims? A slave in Alabama? The son of a prospector in California, 1849? Use the historical period you came from to shape your characters outlook.
2. What was your most terrible childhood fear? (Creepy old guy next door, monster under the bed, frequent beatings from your drunken mother?) How did you get over it? (If in fact, you ever did.)
3. What were your goals, your plans for your life? (Did you want to be a fireman, a doctor just like your father, a clown in a circus you were planning to run away and join any day now? Or were you the sort of child who didn't make plans, since you learned early on that dreams never come true? In a World of Darkness, it's a lesson most children learn early in life. Perhaps you were the exception?)
4. Thinking back, what is your favorite memory from your childhood? The one shining moment when everything was golden? (The look on your father's face when you made the honor roll? A long, lazy afternoon at a secluded fishing hole with your brothers? Listening to your Grandfather telling ghost stories when he took you camping? The look on that homeless bum's face when you doused him with gasoline and started throwing lit matches at him [In which case you're playing a seriously tweaked personality, and I hope you're either a Malkavian or playing in a Sabbat campaign!]?)
Section Two: The Teen Years
1. When, exactly, did you realize you were no longer a child? (Perhaps when a loved one died, or when you accomplished some great task you set for yourself? Perhaps you lived through a traumatic experience, after which the pleasures of childhood were no longer for you?)
2. How did you learn about the "Birds and the Bees?" (Yeah, you blush, but answer the question. Did your Step-Father sit you down one day for "the talk?" Did you get a clinical explanation at the hospital after you were raped? Was it a profoundly disappointing few minutes of fumbling in the back of your boyfriend's Chevette?) Describe your character's first sexual experience, and how he or she felt about it afterward. (Assuming you had one. Perhaps your parents were puritanical religious fundamentalists, or by some truly cruel twist of fate you met the embrace still wearing your chastity belt. Maybe you were just shy? It's your character, remember. Use your imagination, and don't play something you're not comfortable with.)
3. As you got older, did you keep in touch with your childhood friends? (Whatever happened to....? Maybe your family moved away, or you went to different colleges. Maybe your best girlfriend got a "little pregnant" and was sent off to live with her aunt in the next town-and never came back?) If you have, what happened to them? (Did that awkward boy down the block who had a crush on you end up a big-city lawyer? Maybe your first girlfriend is now the First Lady? Always good to know these things if your character is going to have Contacts or Allies. Or Enemies, for that matter.)
4. As a young adult, what became of your plans for life? (Did you abandon the dream of becoming a ballerina to marry your sweetheart? Did you give up Trade School to go to Paris to learn how to paint like you always wanted to? Did you become so disgusted with the world that you became completely cynical-or even idealistic? How did you Grow?)
5. Did you have anyone particularly special to you? (A dear friend, a beloved pet, maybe an old spinster aunt? Someone you cherished in any way? If the answer here is a No, then take a moment to think what kind of person you're creating. Even Hitler loved his dogs. Then again, depending on your circumstances, you may really have been alone in the world. The small-town-girl-goes-to-the-big-city-then-ends-up-a-cheap-crack-whore-enslav ed-to-her-pimp scenario could be one example.)
Section Three: Adulthood
1. What did you become? (It's almost never what one sets out to become. Did you become a doctor, an international terrorist, a housewife, or a porn star? Did you take a day job [just to tide you over] that became your career when you weren't looking?) More importantly, what did you think of what you became? (That is, were you happy? Ashamed of what you'd done with your life, often dreaming of what you could have done, could have been If Only....? Or did you spend much of your time in a bottle, trying very hard to not think such thoughts? Did you immerse yourself in your work, trying to accomplish something through dedication and diligence that might make up for your lack of courage earlier in life? Remember, when you answer, that it is a Dark, Dark World in which your hapless character is living.)
2. Did you garner a reputation for yourself? (Or were you just another face in the crowd? Perhaps, you became the foremost specialist in your field, either as a highly skilled surgeon, or as a really good hitman? Was your face on wanted posters for crimes you may or may not have committed? Did you earn a Nobel Prize, or did you just eke out a living as best you could?)
3. Were you alone? (Did you ever marry that pretty girl who was so sweet on you back in school? Or maybe you did, but found yourself a widower in less that a year. Did you socialize, maintaining a circle of friends to foster the illusion that you were cared for, or did you cherish your solitude, drawing strength from the silence that followed you through life?)
4. What attracted your sire to you? (Or, more simply put, what is so special about you that you warranted the "gift of life eternal?" Was he a Malkavian, and you were just in the wrong place when he decided to, er, reproduce? Was she a Sabbat, and you were just another body, meant to be used as cannon fodder? Or did he follow your work with interest, collecting your paintings or reading your research, until he finally sought you out to preserve your talent forever. Maybe your sire was a romantic interest of yours? Or an enemy, who thought the Embrace a fitting punishment for you? A close friend who couldn't let a little thing like cancer take you away from her?)
Section Four: Undeath
1. Describe your Embrace. (This could be anything from a mugging-like scenario, to a tender, sensuous experience, to a brutal Creation Rite. In any case, treat is as a standard Prelude, and Storyteller and Player should work it out together, no dice, just roleplaying to introduce the world's newest vampire to the rest of the world. Maintain an air of fear and confusion, as no matter how tender the act may be, the character is dying! Just a touch traumatic, that. Keep in mind the time frame, too, because this is where the big list o' questions makes a jump to present day, or whenever your campaign is being run, of course. The interim time, if there is any, you'll have to play by ear and fill in as you see fit.)
2. Describe yourself today. (Your appearance, apparent age, style of dress, distinguishing features, etc. Are you the six-fingered man? Do you always wear a particular color? Compulsively neat and well-groomed or filthy and smelly? If you're a Nosferatu, it's not enough to say that you're ugly and leave it at that. What do you look like? Are you scaly and blue, with needle-like teeth and beady eyes, or are you skeletally thin, with jaundiced yellow flesh drawn tight over your bones, giving you an almost mummified look? Use your imagination, as no two look alike! When a stranger sees you for the first time, what would he notice?)
3. What are your current goals? (To become an Archon? To achieve Golconda? To become Cardinal? Or to finally finish writing the Great American Novel? Do you love to live, or live to love? To sum it up: When the sun goes down, what gets you up out of bed/crypt/coffin/box/earth-meld?)
4. In all your years, from your earliest memory to this very day, what are you most proud of?
5. Likewise, what are you most ashamed of? Everyone has at least one skeleton in the proverbial closet.
6. Is anyone special to you now? Mentor, lover, friend, etc?
Section Five: Odds & Ends
1. What sort of political beliefs do you have? (Are you still a die-hard Patriot, convinced that any day now, Britain will reclaim her errant colony? Are you a dedicated anarchist? Or could you care less about politics?)
2. Does your character have any religious beliefs? (We're not talking True Faith here, just "How much of what you were taught growing up do you believe?" Were you raised a Moslem, or a Jew, or a Southern Baptist? None of the above? No religion for you? What about the whole "Caine was cursed by God, and now you're a vampire descended from Caine-how can you NOT believe in God?" argument? What do you think?)
3. Does your character have a sense of humor? (What kind? Ironic? Sarcastic? Dry wit or a passion for puns? Just as important, can you laugh at yourself?)
4. What's your favorite kind of music? Why?
5. Do you read much? (newspapers, paperbacks, textbooks, etc? If yes, what kind of stuff do you read? Do you read to learn, or to relax?) Watch much Television? (Does your character never miss the evening news, or do you just watch the X-Files? Perhaps you're a Ventrue who's a closet Beavis & Butt-Head fan?)
6. Do you have any interesting mannerisms? (Playing with your hair, chain-smoking, pacing, etc. Just so that when your character is possessed, the others may notice something different.)
7. What do you do when you're bored? Angry? Depressed?