Sometimes RPG groups have a problem with getting the right kind of characters together for an adventure. Whether it's people wanting to play lone wolves that are too cool to care, someone making a chaotic neutral character that will just go goblin mode, or just a PC that doesn't know how to tie their backstory to what's going on, it can be a challenge for the group and the GM to tie everyone together to just go and do what they planned for the adventure to be. But, there is a neat solution to that - starting backstory bonuses!
Recently, our GM started a new EvWoD game with us - To Build a Fyre (which will probably air sometime in 2024, here is the rough game pitch). It was a modern game set in a dome city deep in the antarctic ocean. The game had a lot of moving parts, key NPCs and big mysteries to investigate. But in order to ensure that the PCs were actually invested in the premise and were proactive about looking into those mysteries, everyone had to have hooks and leads to follow out of their own volition. They needed reasons to go on a multi-year contract to the Antarctic, to interact with various NPCs, to care about what's going on. The game didn't have space for lone wolves, wallflowers or some really out there concepts like a benevolent cult leader demon that is building a figurative Noah's Arc to let their followers Heaven's Gate into a peaceful afterlife.
So our GM came up with a clever solution to it - starting backstory bonuses. Basically, the game came with 11 different hooks and plots to choose from that would define some part of the character's backstory, give them a lead to follow, as well as give them a bonus to their starting character based on that backstory. You could for example been invited to Atlantis Zero by the Conspiracy of the Lotus, a shadowy organisation that is trying to exert more control over the city. Your starting bonus would be a minor magical artefact they gifted you, and your first order of business would be to reach out to them and get initiated into the society proper to learn what schemes they expect you to help them with. Or you could have been a part of a PMC group sent by a billionnaire to extract his son from the Atlantis Zero prison, but you got attacked on the ice shelf and are the only survivor of your squad - you have a good deal of military gear, but now you have to figure out how to get that kid out by yourself. Or maybe you were helping a three letter organisation and their alien friend find their missing counterpart that has crash landed in the area. Now you have an alien to help you infiltrate the facility, but you also need to take care of them.
Since everyone needs to take one of those backstories, you will know everyone will have some kind of hook to the place right at the start and by having those backstories inform the characters being made you know you will at least have some kind of PC that fits the setting. Plus, players always like getting a little bit extra, so they will be glad to take the bonuses that come with these!
If you run the same adventure / module / etc. for multiple groups, you can also plan your stories knowing where the players will be coming in from. You might not have every backstory represented, but if every one of them leads into your story proper or to the other stories, you will be able to pick up and play that adventure more easily without having to figure out yet another reason to tie your new PCs into the story.
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