Perhaps too late to the discussion but I’m surprised nobody said anything about player expectations, as in what the players expect from the game and setting whenever they hear certain keywords. This is the best source of input for the GM and a really good starting point to get the creativity of the whole group of players to start flying away in the same direction.
It’s really a simple method: pay attention to the player’s choices on their character sheet and ask them about those choices. Like, if a player choose to play a ranger elf, that player has already visualized ho elves are and why there are rangers among them, either if she’s the only ranger among them or the last elf in the setting. Or the opposite, both are excellent points to start a conversation. It’s like getting to know anybody after all, you will get that person talking a bit more if you ask them about him/herself than if you start making assumptions about that person and telling them about what you think of them.
(which ends up being cool if your assumptions stroke the ego of the player, as in “your character is famous for something he did, what is it?”. It ends up being ok if you make bad assumptions upon a bad dice roll, as in “you rolled a 5 on charisma, why does this NPC thinks what you just said was an insult?”. And it ends up being aggressive when you make assumptions that destroy player’s expectations, as (maybe) in “Who killed your sensei?”. It’s not like players can’t adapt and improvise something, but if you see them take a pause you probably put them on the spot because you just killed some expectations and now they have to readjust.)
Back to player’s choices: the trick to keep things under control (because believe me: once you start asking the players about how they envision this or that about their character they won’t stop talking) is to ask, oracle the dice if they fly too high and link whatever they say to another PC or NPC. Let’s go step by step:
-Ask the player about their character. If they choose a dwarf ask her how are dwarves like, what do they do for a living, what are they famous for, where do they live (it works best if players also create the important spots on the setting map). So far things may be just color until you ask the player how do they fare with other people - this question may create a whole front and make dwarves important to the story, especially if they don’t get along with strangers, are too rich or powerful.
-How powerful are they? If you think players are creating advantages or just going too far, oracle the dice, the higher the result the more truth there is in whatever they say. Just roll in the open so everyone can see if what the player said was true or just exaggeration proper of a dwarf. I forgot to mention that before asking anything to the players I explain them that whetever they create will be what their characters know which may or may not be actually true and would be up to them to find it out, if they want.
-Link everything: whenever a player is talking too much don’t be afraid to interrupt him and link whatever they said to another PC to give another player the chance to give you more input, building upon whatever has been said before. If one player says dwarves don’t get along with other people ask the one playing the elf what legends do they tell about Dwarves, get them to talk to each other to confirm and create more lore. Ask them how did they become friends (which is another good assumption, saves time and avoids PvP)
Meanwhile, listen. Everything can and will be used against them.
Bonds may be trickier, I tend to use a random table to give players some inspiration and let them detail those bonds further. It’s enough for each PC to have one bond with another PC until the whole group is linked. Each character also needs a bond with one front at least, or with the main villain. A shared hate can get them going as well as any common objective.
Perhaps the trick is to ask the characters for lore about themselves? Not sure if I should put it that way.
