I remember where I was when I heard that Seal Team Six had killed Osama bin Laden. I was sitting on my couch surfing the rpg.net forums, and saw a thread announcing it. I quickly hoped over to cnn.com, and informed my wife of the news, though she didn't believe me until I turned the TV from the jazz music channel to CNN. Similarly I recall where I was when the Iraq War started (in a bar for some lunchtime beer and burgers with co-workers), when the 9/11 attacks occurred (in a parking lot waiting for the same co-workers so we could excavate a 19th century cemetery), when the 2000 elections results were revealed, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Loma Prieta Earthquake, the Challenger disaster, the first televised night launch of a space shuttle, and a host of other major events in the history of my country, and in some cases even the world.

Where was your character when the Shinning Brotherhood stormed the Skull Palace of Kalkan and threw down the Dread Lich King? Or when the Storm of Storms shattered the Coast of Lin? How about when the Horde of Talgotha the Reaper was defeated in the Battle of Blood River?

History is not just a list of events with attached dates, it is the story of people and their actions and reactions to events that shape or define their lives. In some cases, the Challenger Disaster for example, most of the people impacted are spectators with only an emotional connection to the event. With others, such as the Loma Prieta Earthquake and Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of thousands or millions of people were impacted, and that impact reaches down for generations.

There are other, smaller special events that we all experience, birthdays, anniversaries, the deaths of loved ones, graduations, initiations, and personal moments of extreme significance. I still recall the day I first bought a role-playing game, and those furtive steps taken into a new world. Of greater import, there are the memories of when I first met my wife, our wedding, and when our son was born. These, along with the broader shared historical events, are what shapes our memories, our lives, and our histories. These should also be what helps define and mold our characters, bringing them to life in a way that simple numbers or a short back story cannot. This month we are going to look at some ways to bring these important events to life in your game, and help the players build the bits of history that make up their characters.

It would be helpful when building your character's history to make a timeline of his or her life. This would serve the same purpose as a written character background, but be easier for the GM to reference and be easier for some to create. In fact, instead of writing out a character history, you could do a timeline.

Shared Events

Shared events are those that all members of a society or culture take part in, from the highest king to the lowliest peasant. This is a good point to start when building a character timeline. In most games, all beings are born and pass through various stages of life before they become adults. Begin your timeline with the character's birth, noting the date and place. Somewhere on the page you should also put down her parents and siblings, though you don't need more than mere names at this point. From this point draw out a line, hopefully a long one, that will be your character's personal life history timeline. Leave room for more information and events to be added, as your character's story (and thus her history) is not over yet. As she has adventures add new events to the timeline.

Next, determine where to place the shared events that help define the character's life. Every culture has coming of age moments, often associated with some sort of ceremony or ritual. Likewise, professions also have these moments to mark the accomplishments and growth of their members. Was your character apprenticed, made a journeyman or a master of her profession? Perhaps she was squired and knighted? For more modern games, the shared moments would be graduations, the passing of professional exams, or even the first hiring in her chosen career. Military characters should note when they enlisted, graduated from boot camp, and completed their training in whatever specialization they have been picked for.

Other moments of passage may be more personal, but still shared with most of her culture. Was she engaged and married? Bought her first horse, farm, or house? Handed her first sword, became ennobled, or otherwise raised from one level to another. Mayhap she was a wandering sell sword who fought alongside other mercenaries, eventually saving a king on the field of battle and was knighted by his hand amidst the carnage. Even the roguish thieves of fantasy gaming have these moments when they join the local guild or become 'made men'.

All these provide not just points on a line, but also places to expand on the character's background. If she was an apprentice, who was her master and where was he located? What was the name of the mercenary company she served under and the king who knighted her? Beyond mere names, a few notes about their relationship with the character and how the character feels about them would be in order.

Communal Events

These are events that impact a large number of people, and are generally what most would consider historical in nature. Let us assume that your character is somewhere in her mid-twenties. That is over two decades of important events that affect not just her, but her whole community. When you have come to this point you need to get with the GM and the other players. You should make note of what the setting has for important events of the recent past, as well as what your fellow players have created for their own character's timelines. The battle your mercenary turned knight fought in was no doubt an important event, one that other character's might have participated in, or maybe merely heard of. Don't shy away from noting events that your character never took part in. These serve as an important cross over with the other characters, as they may have been there or been impacted by that event. Keep in mind some of the events mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this article and use them as inspirations for your character's timeline. As with other points on the line, expand with a few notes as to why this event is important enough to be on the timeline, as well as any details that relate the event to the character.

Personal Events

Personal events are the idiosyncratic histories of an individual. They may share some aspects with others, but they are intrinsically tied to that character's life and personal history. A first kiss, a great success or failure, even the first time he killed a man, these are things that are very personal to a character. Using these to help flesh out a timeline can lead to further information about the character and her life. Remember to list personally memorable or important events, such as births, deaths, tragedies, and triumphs. Who was the bandit he killed when traveling the Kings Road from his village to the nearest town? Who did she feel about it? Was it purely self-defense, or did she have other motivations? What has become of the stable boy at her father's keep who she stole kisses with on warm summer nights? Maybe he is still there, but now her father's master of horses, or maybe he has set out to wander the world as an adventurer himself. Perhaps, the GM will make him the leader of a rival group of adventurers, providing a greater conflict than we both want the McGuffin.

In the end, by using character timelines to build PC backgrounds, you produce two histories. One is a personal history of the character, but the other is the shared histories that touch all the party members and help create some of the common bond that a group of co-workers or friends share. I would like to see what you, my readers, produce using the character timeline method, just post them to the thread attached to this article, or PM them to me.