Great Character Backgrounds: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

 

Could you do me a favor? Take a moment and think about a person you probably know very well: your Gamemaster. Consider the hours and the effort he's put into learning the system, world-building, mapping, plot, character development, and just plain running the game itself. Now ask yourself, what could I do to thank my wonderful GM for all the work she's done to ensure that I have a fun evening once a week? Sure, you could take him out for a few drinks, send her a thank-you card, or just offer to pay for pizza the next time around, but I think there's a better way - or at least one that's more in keeping with what you received from him in the first place. Best of all, the alternative doesn't cost you a dime. That gift, of course, is an interesting, well-crafted background for the next character you decide to run.

Could you do me a favor? Take a moment and think about a person you probably know very well: your Gamemaster. Consider the hours and the effort he's put into learning the system, world-building, mapping, plot, character development, and just plain running the game itself. Now ask yourself, what could I do to thank my wonderful GM for all the work she's done to ensure that I have a fun evening once a week? Sure, you could take him out for a few drinks, send her a thank-you card, or just offer to pay for pizza the next time around, but I think there's a better way - or at least one that's more in keeping with what you received from him in the first place. Best of all, the alternative doesn't cost you a dime. That gift, of course, is an interesting, well-crafted background for the next character you decide to run.

I think most of my fellow experienced GMs would agree that when planning a new campaign, nothing is more refreshing than receiving an inventive background just dripping with plot hooks, just as nothing ruins your day quicker than getting a bad one. As I've said in earlier articles, backgrounds are probably the best motivational tool in a GM's repertoire because the good ones are practically guaranteed to contain plot hooks the PCs can be assured of following. Yet, this approach can become extremely frustrating because character backgrounds are one of the few aspects of your game you have no control over. You can give your players all the ideas and suggestions you want in the hopes they'll come up with the sort of thing you wanted to see, but the simple fact is you're never going to know until you actually have the characters in your hands. By that time, it's sometimes too late.

Fortunately, there is hope. Writing a good and useful background - or ensuring you get them from your players - is simple if you know what you're doing. This article aims to provide GMs and players with a few tools to help. First, I'll give GMs a few pointers on how to encourage good background writing from their players. Then, I'll offer a few suggestions for players on how to hold up their end of the bargain.

GMs: the key to getting good backgrounds from your players is communication. When you first announce the game you are running and put out your call for players, you should also announce your expectations for character development. Does your plot dictate, for whatever reason, every character have a well-developed childhood and a concrete rationale behind how he acquired each and every one of his skills? You'd better tell them now, because otherwise they won't think it's as important as you do. Also, try to give them an idea of the length of background you're looking for, so you don't receive paragraph-long ones when you're looking for a length of several pages, and vice versa. Or maybe you don't think they need backgrounds for this game and don't want to waste time wading through them. Whatever option you choose, make sure to be clear about what you're looking for. Putting it in writing and giving it to your players couldn't hurt, because it gives them a set of concrete guidelines to look back at.

Don't be afraid to put your foot down about this. In fact, the best way to encourage good background writing from your players is to be strict about them. Make it clear that if your players can't deliver a background to you by the first session of the game, they won't be playing until they do. Don't be afraid to reject (or ask for the revision of) backgrounds that don't live up to your expectations, either. The flip side of this strictness, however, is a willingness to work with your players to be sure they live up to your expectations. Take the time to sit down with them, discuss any problems you might see with their background or suggestions for how they could improve it. This also has the added benefit of allowing you to slip in little plot hooks and other tidbits that might make your job easier later on in the game.

At that point, however, the GM's job in the background-writing arena ends and the player's job begins. So what's a simple gamer to do when confronted with this amount of responsibility? In my view, good backgrounds aren't that hard to write. In fact, they can come about simply by paying a little attention to the following five extremely non-scientific categories of the characteristics of a good background:

Effort
I'd hope I made this clear earlier in the article, but don't blow off writing a background when the GM asks for it. Even if you don't feel like your character is interesting enough to warrant a full background or you aren't a good writer, I can guarantee your GM will appreciate it if you just make the effort to fulfill the expectations. (Besides, as a writer I can tell you the best way to produce good work is simply to sit down and do it, without worrying about whether it's good or what others might be thinking.) A good rule of thumb is to approach writing a background with the same amount of effort you would normally put into a session of the game. If it's a straightforward "beer-and-pretzels" type game you can probably get away with dashing off a few paragraphs and handing them in, if you have to write a background at all. If, on the other hand, the game requires a high degree of mental engagement from all of its players, all the time, you should seriously think about sitting down for a few hours to give the writing process your full attention.

Consistency
It's not necessary for every character or every background to be amazingly original. Perfectly good, even great, stories can be told using stock characters or ideas that have been "done to death" - after all, cliches got to be overused because they work. What is necessary is your background be consistent with the way you play the character, with the plot the GM has created, and with the larger framework of the game itself. The purpose of the character background is not only to let the GM know where your character has been and what she's done - it's also to give you and the GM an idea of what the character is like and how she'll fit into a normal gaming session. Because of this, it's important to give the GM (and yourself) an internally consistent worldview and a sense of the character's personality through what you write. There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest one is to try writing your backgrounds in first person as opposed to third person ("I was born in the north" rather than "Torsh the orc was born in the north"). Include peculiar word choices and metaphors, speech patterns, and anything else that makes your character distinct. When you force yourself to write in a character's voice, the same way you would try to roleplay in that voice during a session, it can unlock all sorts of secrets about that character you didn't even know where there.

Detail
Some GMs hate getting really long backgrounds from their players. I, for one, love them. The more a player gives me to play around with, even tiny details that don't seem to have any bearing on anything, the easier it becomes for me to work them into the story and create a plot. If your GM is of a similar persuasion as me, go nuts. Think up things like names and personalities of important figures in your character's past and anecdotes from your character's childhood and young adulthood and write them into the background. Just keep on doing this until you get bored and you don't think you have anything to say anymore, then edit it down so it fits together (thus fulfilling the "consistency" requirement). Even if they don't like long backgrounds, you can still slip in one or two paragraphs of solid detail like this, and your GM will probably thank you for it.

Cooperation
Another hidden purpose of backgrounds is to give the characters a reason to be together. This means you should talk to your fellow players as all of you are in the process of writing backgrounds, and work together to create reasons to cooperate. Mainly this extends to making sure your character doesn't conflict with others to the point of interfering with the game - if there are a bunch of elves in the party, you'd better be sure you don't decide to have your character hate elves. But if you really go crazy, you could work with one or more of your fellow players to write a shared background. Make your characters siblings, best friends, lovers, a mentor and a student, whatever - just give them a reason to work together and know each other already. It's a little extra work, but it results in a group of PCs with built-in reasons to cooperate. GMs love that.

Loopholes
This is the number one thing that makes me smile with glee: when I receive a background and declare it as "excellent." The best kinds of backgrounds are the ones that are detailed, yet vague (if that makes any sense at all). They're the ones that give you a good sense of the character, yet leave enough wiggle room the GM can fill in any gaps that might present themselves. Don't write a background that's airtight, so everything in your character's life has some sort of concrete explanation. Instead, leave some things open for the GM to fill in. If mysterious men in dark robes destroyed your character's village, it's okay and even good to say you don't know who those people were - the GM can think about it and tell you that later on when he presents you with a plot hook based on the unresolved experience. (Alternatively, if you have some ideas, you might "break Rule Zero" and inform the GM of those ideas.) This requires putting a lot of trust in your GM, but trust me - it'll pay off in the end when you find your character (and your background) at the epicenter of an amazing, epic plot line that grew out of the loose ends you didn't tie up beforehand.

If all goes well, after you take these elements into consideration you should be well on your way to writing a background that will make your GM weep in gratitude. If you've got any other ideas for how to accomplish this task, go ahead and enter them in that little comments window at the bottom of this page. Happy gaming!

This is very good article. It is always good way to reward good backgrounds as fast as you can. For example, in GURPS I could give few character points for background. It has to be controlled tightly so that player with better skill at writing doesn't get easily better bonuses. I mean that, for example, One of my non-roleplayer friends would be very good at writing backgrounds, because he writes poems and stories (they are also good ones) for fun and he is exellent at philosophy and our mother tongue and also very good at psychology (actually he is very good at almost all of the academic subjects). That kind of friend could usually easily create good backgrounds without so much effort as my other friend who is lazy, not-so-good at almost everything and so on.

So I think rewarding the effort your players spend at backgrounds of their characters, but you have to be cautious when awarding them, because otherwise it could break the balance.

This is indeed a VERY informative, and often neglected, article about an important part of roleplaying. I myself started finding players for a campaign yesterday, and have already had a few run-ins with characters who don't like to write backgrounds...

On the other hand, if some of your characters don't like to write or are absolutely terrible at it, build a story along with them, type it up with a few revisions, and see what they think of it, provided you have the time to do so. Plot lines from character pasts are usually the best I've ever known - no character has ever felt the plot drift away from him because we were searching for a PCs sister, because they all know the wheel will come around to their own stories and pasts.

I want to thank you for not neglecting this part of roleplaying, and opening it up for many serious gamers to see. Be aware - my gamers *WILL* be reading this in the next day or so.

Many Thanks,
Willing GOD and SATAN.

Like VMB, I have found it productive to give awards for character backgrounds. However, this is more in the realm of a flat bribe--every background submitted gets the same award. In D&D, the award takes the form of XP; in GURPS, of character points.

Nice article, gamerchick. Keep 'em coming.

I also like the flat reward for character generation; at least that is what my players believe. If some one writes a background that makes me cry I usually inform that player to add a few EXPs on the side (without informing the whole world, of course).

I'd have to agree...background is the most overlooked way to start out a good RPG character. A well written article.

Good lord this was an incredibly timely article. I've been playing Shadowrun on and off for three years with a charager I've been using seven years before hand in various games. Last week i was informed I'd have to write a history for this character for a brand spanking new GM thats joined my favorite group recently.

I have until thursday and I've been drawing blanks until stumbling across this. I think its time to go write for my poor little self contradictory insane asylum excapee :p

Perspective might be an optional addition to Effort, Consistency, Detail, Cooperation and Loopholes.

Perspective is the point of view that the background is written from. For me, backgrounds are usually from the PC's point of view, rather than from the omniscient point of view. This means that the background describes what the PC believes about himself and what he believes happened to him in the past; he may be wrong, deluded or missing information. For example, a PC's background might say that the PC was the king of a powerful nation. If the background is from the omniscient perspective, the GM is stuck; the PC was actually a king or the GM must insist that the player change the PC's background. However, if the background is from the PC's perspective, the same background could result in the PC learning during the game that he is actually delusional.

Declaring that backgrounds are always from the PC's perspective is actually quite useful. Besides giving the GM great leeway to warp a PC's background by adding more details previously unknown to the PC, it also allows the player to play the PC to discover his "true" background, rather than to pretend to discover unknown details that he has written into the PC's background. It also prevents the player from accidentally scripting future events, NPC reactions and rewriting the game world. That powerful king PC might discover later that, compared to the rest of the game world, his kingdom is weak, not strong, like he supposed. Names and places can be more easily fit into the game; a PC background might mention a place by one name (a local name) while most of the rest of the game world refers to it by another, more widely used name.

Usually, the GM chooses the Perspective that will be applied to all PC backgrounds in his game.

Consistency and Loopholes touch on Perspective to some degree.

Good ideas dmhoward, especially the part about PCs accidentally scripting future events.

I generally prefer a sparing background that gets fleshed out more as we go along - bluebooking on email 'tween games. 3 or 4 paragraphs maximum in the initial outlay. Armchair DMs who script tedious and intricate backgrounds whose machinations exceed anything that the actual gameplot could provide, and whose highlights demand nuanced performances that no drunk player with a facefull of Cheezies can't pull off - it's just a lot of wasted time.

Putting a cap on those background lengths helps players keep the writing tight and relevant - without tossing in everything but the kitchen sink. We can flesh out more as we go along. Rather than reciting a laundry list of events and hurts, I like to have players share vignettes of formative moments in their PC's lives.

I loved this article solely because my DM would love it. I've been looking for something like this.

I feel there is a very good point to this article and I allways appreciate it when someone else emphasises detailed role playing over the 'I have a 7/6 Fighter/Thief' mentality. While that's allright if you don't want to emphasise background story and just want to screw off but most of the time that is not how I run games.

Other things that I have had players do for bonus freebie points in White Wolf, this could also translate to extra character points in GURPS or extra XP in d20, etc., is to create a journal that is written in character of the group's exploits, detailed notes out of character of the happenings in game, etc.

I really liked this article Gamerchick it's a refreshing thing to see in a day when hack & slash is becoming more mainstream.

As a note to players and GMs of 3rd Ed D&D, there is a great product called the 'Hero Builders Guidebook' that aids in detailing the backstory of a character. It is essentially geared toward D&D but really it could be used with any fantasy game or other genre with a little bit of work. I reccomend it for people who like depth to their characters, though it is a bit overpriced and I'm not sure if it's still in print from Wizards. If not it is available on certian peer to peer file share groups, I got mine from Kazaa.

Hmm... I just realised, that as a player I automatically write a background for my DM, but as a DM I never insist on my players writing backgrounds for their characters. Not Fair. This must change ! I think an xp bribe is in order, the better the background, the bigger the bribe.

Uh just one thing. I have come across a lot of backgrounds in the games I have played, especially online games. Many of them are very similar and melodramatic. I wish players could be a bit more creative. For example, too many of them had the pc as an orphan child, parents mysteriously wiped out by an armed group, trained by a lone wandering hermit., now anxious to avenge their family. Cmon guys ! encourage your players to do better.

Mohammed wrote:
::I have come across a lot of backgrounds in the games
::I have played, especially online games. Many of them
::are very similar and melodramatic. I wish players
::could be a bit more creative. For example, too many
::of them had the pc as an orphan child, parents
::mysteriously wiped out by an armed group, trained by
::a lone wandering hermit., now anxious to avenge their
::family. Cmon guys ! encourage your players to do
::better.

Heheheh. Don't I know it. I call it "the Conan syndrom" (aka. "Hey, you killed my parents!"). Although the "abused girl becomes swordwoman" cliche was very prevalent in "feminist" fantasy by authors from the Marion Zimmer Bradley circle for a time.

I've met these characters time and again in freeform online chatrooms. D&D, gothy Vampire:tM, no matter. Those players create Mary Sue characters steeped in personal tragedies, demanding attention from everyone else, but not allowing anyone to actually solve their problems. If they did, more tragedy would instantly spring up, simply because there was no GM to put a foot down and curb their excesses.

A funny article in regard to this topic appeared on www.skotos.net; the non-framed version can be found here:
http://www.skotos.net/articles/Mummers07.shtml

Hi Memehunter,

Thanks for your response to my post, and thanks for the link to the excellent Skotos site. I have added it to my favorites.

While thinking about this problem, the victim who builds their entire existence around their grievance, I thought of a good way to deal with such players. Simply remove their grievance ! This can be done in a number of ways. The player could find and kill the person who has done them wrong, or they could be proven innocent if falsely accused etc etc.

This will actually lead to a very interesting situation, and an excellent opportunity for roleplay for the player. How will he/she respond ?

(1) Will the player be able to respond and find a new direction for their player.

(2) Will they drift aimlessly, in which case you could introduce some malady to the player, alchoholism or depression

(3) will the player seek to recreate the cycle of victimhood and try to find a new grudge against the world. This is close to madness, and will probably end up in the player either getting killed, or becoming the opressor himself. In any case, it can be used for some interesting plot scripts.

This actually mirrors a real psychological problem in life, and is sometimes used as a device in plots for novels or films. The guy who actually achieves his ambition. Will it make him happy and allow him to move on, or will it leave him feeling hollow and destroy him ? Its up to him.

Just to make it absolutely clear, In my last post above I was not suggesting that you mess with your players mind to see what he/she will do!

A player is bound to get upset if you remove the basis of their character. I only suggest you do something about it if its becoming a problem in your campaign. Even then, you should do it in a gentle fashion, and help the player find a new basis for their character, give them some suggestions, help them think through the consequences.

That way you can help them enjoy the game and improve as a player, rather than annoy them and drive them away from your game ,

:=)

I love character backgrounds...writing them and reading others that are gaming w/ me. I don't think you should force the players to do so. Extra XP for those who do, slower leveling for those who don't.

Artwork is also great for helping others to visualize your character. I also like to keep a character journal that records what happens each time we game. It cool to read each gamers different perscpective and recollection of what happened in the game (via email).

You two are like the bloody plague...

What an outstanding article. I, as a player, wholeheartedly agree with Gamerchick. Whenever making a PC, i tend to sit down and write 3-4 pages of material, usually involving a 1-2 page story with the character as the star, then background info, personality, quirks, appearance, equipment, et al. I LOVE sitting down and really fleshing out my PC, and my DM really appreciates the hard work. I just realized, like some of you, that although i sit down and make an extensive background, i hardly expect anything in return from my own players... strange, eh? Maybe i'll institute the bribe into my games.

I also agree that the "tortured, abandoned swordsman or -woman seeking revenge" is a little cliche', eh? Also, if i see another girl character who had to kill her father after he raped her / her mother, i'll puke. Same goes for the orphaned swordsman, wandering around, looking for his parents' killers. Gag me. Hasn't anyone in the fantasy world grown up with normal parents? Oh well. Happy hunting, folks.

Excelsior!

Excelsior indeed.

But I've got to disagree. True cliches are rather tiresome, but they get to be overused because they're effective story telling techniques. But I find, if you put a little slant on things, it makes it interesting.

(See the whole goblin baby diatribe in When The Moral Compass Goes Haywire!)

That is true, olly. but, see, i have this player in my group who has used the same character archtype from day one, from Vampire to Heroes Unlimited to DnD. It's the "abused power-grrl" type who is a big, bad chick. While this is fine, i just wish she had a little variety. Problem is, she is my girlfriend, and i really can't say anything too bad to her, because she is sensitive about it. She plays the type of character pretty well, just every now and again, i'd like a little variety, that's all. Any ideas on how to help her create a more interesting character without risking the wrath of a scorned girlfriend? Until then ...

Excelsior!
*i do believe this will be my new catchphrase for all occasions...that is if Stan Lee doesn't sue my butt off first.*

I don't think it's Stan Lee you need to worry about but the Marvel legal department are a pack of rabid wolves.

My friends and I, sense we are writers one and all tend to shy away from the cliches in favor of more mundane backgrounds. That is not to say that at one time in our gaming lives, or lack of any other life I should say, we had the tragic and overused backgrounds but I do believe we have matured. Well, maybe matured is the wrong word to use when describing my friends and I. The pronstar in Mage comes to mind.....

Or pornstar, whatever, you knew what I meant.

There was also the psychotic axe murderer who was carried over from my old Hunter game. She was awesome, she had a 5 apperance but a fear of water so she never bathed. She was cool. Crazy and kinda scary, but cool.

So yeah. Mature is not the right word.

Well Oni, here's my opinion...

Girls are insecure...ALL OF THEM...about something. Often the only ways they confront their insecurities is in an INDIRECT manner. Perhaps by gaming the redundant amazon PC, she is playing the role of a person whom does not possess the same insecurities that SHE has in real life.

P.S. - This is NOT a sexist statement. So to anyone who wishes to construe my opinion in an attempt to discredit my wisdom...allow me to give you a preemptive SHUT-UP!

Oh, and GC, the articles about the all girl groups were awesome. I have seen the things you described in the girls I game with. The axe murder was my girlfriend Emmi's character. But she's strange so she's not a good example.

So, guys aren't insecure? That's why game nerds usually play big strapping guys who all the chicks dig. I get it now, I allways wondered about that pahnomane.

The chicks I play with usually play somehting interesting or true to form. Like the chick who played a Black Fury warewolf in a White Wolf crossover game I ran and a Wookie in Star Wars.

I'm not quite sure where I was going with that.

Eater:

I seldom play big, strapping guys. I usually play fighters, and the highest scores i assign are DEX and INT. Can't pass up the inherent usefulness of a scad of skillpoints at first level. Actually, i'm kicking around an idea of a gnomis wizard named Boddynock Bootlegger....a wizard on the run from a loan shark. He's CN and a total whackjob ... views himself as a Small-sized Indiana Jones, complete with floppy hat. I'm still struggling with an interesting background, but i think he'll be a fun character to play. Until then ...

Excelsior!

Oni,
That sounds like the kind of characters that I either play or see in my groups. But I have seen many players in my day and the more insecure the guy the more rediculously cool the character.

I never said guys weren't insecure...

It was implied that it was a fault exclusive to women, however. I felt it was my genteel duty to defend their honor.

you mean "GENITAL"

Well, that depends on how you look at it.

::adopts light british accent to sound more cultured::

To someone with only low brow humor among your repitior I can see how you would misunderstand my intentions.

::drops accent and sounds wholly american::

Genital would be pretty funny there, though.

Here I was...trying to give GOOD advice to Oni, and you have to give our conversation the preverbial WEDGIE.

*digging in crack*

Now...ugh...now, poor Oni may NEVER overcome his problems, and its all because of you.

See?
I'm trying to be a gentleman and what do you do? You start rooting around in your own ass crack.
Barbarians, every one of you.

YOU GAVE ME THE WEDGIE! CAN'T YOU READ ^

To get back on topic (and not because I was chasticed by Morbus, I swear) we'll put the whole wedgie business aside for now and get back to Oni.

I like the way 3rd Ed makes people want to play characters with a descent Int or Cha. In 2nd there was no real reason to have an Int or Cha higher than 9 or 10. Unless of course you were playing a mage or a pladin.

*activating "homey-don't-spell" software*

uhh...OH YES, I believe it was an attempt to prevent some people (power-gamers) from dicking on certain stats they felt were unimportant.

Homey don't spell? I meant descending stats. As in lowering them. My friends and I had a house rule where once you rolled stats you could subtract 2 from one stat to add 1 to another. So I was one of those min-maxers who would play a fighter/thief or something with 18 Str, Dex and Con and 9 or 10 in Int, Wis and Cha.

That was on the rare occasions where I rolled stats that allowed that much min-maxing. I once had to play a character with a 4 Cha because of that. It didn't really fit the concept that I had in mind. He was supposed to be a sneaky backstabber who could hold his own in a fight if need be b ut he turned out to be a royal asshole as well. He was fun but he died after only a few sessions for missing a dungeon trap. I wasn't too mad though, that game had a high attrition rate.

Whoa there, Mystic...don't use me as a crutch to avoid Eater's verbal recriminations! ;)

Besides, me don't need no help. Me am berry smart am are ready to fix problems on me own. YAR!

Oh well, i'll be quiet now. Have a very good Christmas holiday all!

Excelsior!

*btw, what kind of stats do you think Santa would have? I vote for 17 STR, 13 DEX, 17 CON, 10 INT, 13 WIS, 15 CHA. Ya know, for a fat guy, he's pretty strong. Ya know. To keep those dastardly elves in line and all. And to beat the stuffing out of the reindeer. And stuff. Ok, me am bye now!*

Cripes. I just posted the same damn message 5 times. Jesus Mary Jumpin' Jehosaphat!!!!! Sorry 'bout that, my 'puter went hay wire. :(

As punishment, i will take back all my gifts for Christmas and return them, insted buying myself a meat tenderizer, with which i will continuoulsy pound my head until sweet death takes me or i lose consciousness and die from blood loss. The shame!!!

Excelsior! And farewell, cruel world! Oh thy slings and arrows are too much to bear for thee! Thou hast a cruel sting, and thine poison is bittersweet! Ado!

yeah, whatever...bye!

*offers brass knuckles*

Keep your brass knuckles......you'll need them to get ahold of any battteries after Christmas.

What's everyones problem with L!?!
No L...No L, what'd thee letter do to you?

I

AM

SANTA

CLAUS!!!

HO HO HO!!!!!

Forgot the sig.
been doing that alot lately.
Jollily yours,
Theo

Theo,
You forget that Snata is an arcane spell caster of legendary proportions. Sure he's an overweight old man but he is also ageless with the ability to cause reindeer to fly as well as his sleigh. His scrying magic is some of the best on the planet as he kan keep an eye on all the children in the world year round. He has many powers as well, like transubstantiation and telepathy. Siant Nicholas/Kris Kringle/Santa Claus, in my opinion is one of the most powerful, living spellcasters on the planet.

Just a thought.

(This is me scoring points with the fat bastard for next Yule)

Man, why did I say Theo??????? That was for Oni, sorry guys.

Interesting you should say that, Oni. There seems to be two schools of thought on elves. The first is that elves are tall, reedy, handsome characters, possessing wit, charm and grace in ample amounts. The second is that elves are short, fat toymakers, who enjoy being bossed about by an overweight bearded man with a cookies and milk complex.

Speaking of overweight people, I was pondering the other day... What alignment is Homer Simpson?

I'd say chaotic good. Any thoughts?

more like...chaotic good donuts...

Hmmm, a true quandry, eh? Well, the alignment of the yellow-skinned donut destroyer is certainly complicated, however, I throw my vote in for Neutral Evil. He is rather ambivalent about others' suffering and whatnot, and does display a rather *harsh* attitude with his offspring. But is Homer truly evil in nature? It depends on how you interpret his "me first, you last" outlook on life. By placing his needs above everyone else, does he transcend into the truly evil realm? In a way, all of us place our needs paramount to others', to a certain degree. But truly, are Homer's crimes so heinous that he merits a NE alignment? This, dear readers, is a question best left to wiser ones than I. Which includes everyone with brain stem activity. Adeiu, fellows.

Excelsior!

I would go with Palladium's (eek) alignment called...Unprincipled-Selfish

Homer is chaotic neutral because he lacks the intelligence to hold any constant behavioural patern (other than being a lazy bum) and lacks the insight to actually care about others while also lacking the will power to actually opress other people.

Basicaly he's just a lazy dumb ass without a clue.