Bringing Them to Life

I'd like everyone to provide some sort of a base line of who their characters are and where they came from. I don't need pages and pages of prose -- though, as always, I will still welcome any and all such contributions -- but I do need something to work with. I need at least a paragraph, or maybe a few paragraphs that highlight as much of the following as possible:

• Where and when you were born.
  
• A few details about your family and parents (or the circumstances that left you as an orphan) and where growing up occurred.
  
• How adventuring came to your attention as a possible career (rather than some more sedentary lifestyle).
  
• Some near future and/or lifetime goals.
  
• How Waterdeep is now a part of your life (if you haven't been there the whole time).

Getting this done will likely require you to reference some of the 4E materials since Faerûn isn't exactly the place it used to be. If you don't have access to the 4E Forgotten Realms accessories (there are two of them) and want them, I should be able to get them to you without too much trouble. I can put at least those two books back in our Brave Assemblage Dropbox folder on request.

We're just a little under a week from starting this thing up.

I have some stuff from some people, some a little more detailed than others. I don't think Steven did a single "homework assignment" during his stint in the previous campaign, but I'm loathe to let him off the hook this time.

I'm not asking for pages and pages like under City of Splendors. I really need just the basics. I have no power to personalize plots if I don't know jack 'n' $#%& about your characters. If you're new to my style of DM'ing a campaign, you might find my style to be pretty different from other DMs. I never run a module as written, and often generate story and encounters from scratch. It takes a lot of extra time, but it increases my level of investment.

I don't expect the players to do or write as much as me, but things get woefully lopsided if I have background material for some PCs and none for others -- it makes it difficult to fairly include everyone in the story. If each player answers only the questions above, I will be content. I will always, always accept more than what I asked for, of course. Don't be afraid to shape parts of the story or the world with what you right, just strive for originality and try to use the very basic framework of the campaign setting.

As an FYI- We're starting up in Hammer of 1479 DR. That's the first month (still winter) of the year in which the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide picks up.