4.7 Background and Links

Characters can have background items and links listed on their character sheets. If you’ve ever written a character background with important events in the character’s past, made a list of the character’s NPC contacts, and so on, you know what kinds of things to list here.

There is one big difference between background items and links: background items are the domain of the player to give their character depth, whereas links are provided as tools for the GM.

If your character has a long-lost brother, and you list him in your background, the GM is not going to bring him up in play. The brother plays a role for who your character is, but he won’t be used by the GM for plot purposes.

If you list your brother under links, however, you are giving the GM the green light to have your brother show up in the game as an NPC. Or maybe you’ll find clues to his whereabouts. Or you may find his corpse. How the link is used is up to the GM (though you should feel free to make suggestions, of course). You can add or change background items and links later on as well, just make sure to inform the GM so that the GM can use the new links (or stop using ones you removed).

First, Zadie’s background. Her parents were scavengers, too. I’m putting them in the background section because I don’t want to deal with my character’s parents in the game, but they’re still alive somewhere and I might move them into links at some point.

Most of the stuff about her, however, I put down as links because I like my characters to be personally tied into the events of the game. I’m listing a younger sister, who’s a priestess somewhere; an unreliable band of smugglers who buy stuff Zadie finds; an old enemy named Locust who used to be her partner; and the fact that Zadie once uncovered the entrance to an old underground system in the wasteland.

I have no idea what most of these mean or what their details are. I’m leaving that up to the GM and our developing story. What I do determine (and tell the GM and other players) is that her vengeance passion is aimed at Locust, though I haven’t figuring out yet what exactly happened there.