4. Backstory

Take a look at the skills, characteristics, and the values you allocated to each. With a dash of imagination, you begin to get an idea of who this new character is. You might want to add notes on your investigator’s background and personality as you decide them. Who are they really? Where did they grow up? What is their family like? The more time you spend thinking about your character, the more developed their personality becomes, and the more fun you will have when playing Call of Cthulhu.

Each backstory entry (on the reverse of the investigator sheet) should be a short, pithy statement. Think about how your character appears to others and write a brief entry in Personal Description. What does your investigator believe or what is their outlook on life? Write a sentence to sum it up under Ideology/Beliefs. What mannerisms do they have? Write down annoying habits and the like under Traits. Don’t worry about filling every entry on the back of the investigator sheet—just two or three entries will be enough to get you going.

Example: Susan writes “Born and raised in New York,” under Meaningful Locations, “Never without my trusty pistol,” for Treasured Possessions, and “Science can explain everything,” for her journalist’s Ideology/Beliefs.