DEVELOPING A PERSONA




Not everyone has a detailed persona, but it is a good idea to know a bit about your period self.

1. What is your name?
a. How did you get your name?
b. Is there an English translation or equivalent?

2. Where are you from?

3. What part of the country do you live in?
a. Are you [from a city, a village, a manor, a farm?
b. What kind of building do you live in?
c. Can you describe living in general in this place?

4. When are you from?
a. What year is it?
b. When were you born?
c. What is your elation in life?
d. Are you a noble. peasant, or other?
e. Are you wealthy, poor?
f. Is this likely to change?

5. With whom do you live?
a. Are your parents alive?
b. Do you have brothers and sisters?
c. Are you married?
d. At what age do people get married?
e. Are there people in you household who are not related to you (guests, retainers, servants, fosterlings, friends)?

6 What do you do?
a. Do you have a "job"?
b. What are your daily responsibilities?
c. How do you get "paid'?

7. What do you wear?
a. How do you obtain or money your clothing?
b. Is what you have on your everyday garb?
c. How does it differ from your other garb?
d. Do you wear underwear: what kind?
e. How do you care of your clothes?
f. do you have many clothes?

8. What do you feel?
a. What is your typical daily menu?
b. Does your menu change during the year?
c. How and where do you gel what you eat?
d. How is your food cooked and preserved?
e. How is it served? (table manners and dining customs)

9. What do you do for fun?
a. What entertainment is available to you?
b. Do you provide entertainment for others? How!

10. How were you educated?
a. What language(s) can you speak?
b. Can you read or write?
c. Did you go to school? What subjects did you study?
d. How did you learn to do your work?
e. Who taught you?

11. How do you keep clean?
a. How often do you bathe?
b. What preparations must be made to your bath?

12. How were you involved with or affected by warfare?
a. Do you, personally, fight?
b. Under what circumstances?
c. What armor is worn?
d. What weapons are used in your time and place? (Answer this even if you do not fight.)
e. How do people in your time and place get weapons and armor '

13. What kind of medical care was available to you?
a. Who provides your medical care?
b. Do you supply medical care for others?

14. What kind of legal system do you live in?
a. Who make the laws?
b. What happens to those who break them?
c. How does this affect you?

15. Have any events had a profound effect on your life (This is your chance to dazzle 'em with dates!)


A More In Depth Look At Your Persona




1. How do you tell time?
a. When does the day start - (dawn, midnight, etc.)

2. Who is your overlord?
a. His title, name of estate/castle and your duties to him?
b. Who is your ultimate overlord?
c. Is he/she popular with the class you are a member of?

3. Where do you live?
a. Name the county or province you live in.
b. How far is it to the capital city? (In miles or unit of
measure your persona would have used. )
c. Have you ever been there?

4. What did you have for breakfast today?
a. What are the religious restrictions on your diet?
b. What spices do you use (consistent with your pocketbook)?
c. Are they imported?

5. What is the basic unit of money?
a. How much does a loaf of bread cost?
b. If you own one, how much is a riding horse?
c. How much did your home cost?

7.How do you support your lifestyle?
a. do you work at a trade?
b. Do you belong to a guild?
c. What is your rank (does your work merit this rank?)
d. Should you belong to a guild - (i.e. would you have been required to be a guild member to practice what you do ? )
e. For the gentry - where does the money come from?
f. Monopolies on certain trade?
g. Which ones and how did your family obtain them?

8. Education?
a. Can you read and/or write?
b. More than one language?
c. Which ones?
d. Why did you learn them?
e. How did you learn? (Taught at home, church school, etc. )

9. Lifestyle
a. What is your favorite drink?
b. Is it imported?
c. Can your persona afford it in the quantities you drink at an event?
d. How much does the drink cost vs. your income?

10. What wars have there been in your lifetime where you have lived?
a. How did they affect you (i.e. Lost your land, starved for a while, etc. )
b. Did your country win or lose them? How did this affect your family.

11. What diseases have you had?
a. What was the method of treatment?
b. How many of your brothers and sisters died in infancy?
c. What "mythical" creatures do you believe in?

12. Do you have servants?
a. How much are they paid?
b. What are their Jobs?
c. What are the arrangements with them - do they live in, are they serfs, etc.

14. What would you be doing on an average day? Assume that your country is at peace and your are at home. If you are a military man, describe what you would be doing at your garrison or military "base".

15. How many generations of your family would your persona really have been aware of? Most 20th century people can't get back farther than 3 generations.

16. Are there laws regarding what you wear?
a. What are they?
b. Were they commonly followed?
c. Would you have been allowed to bribe your way around the laws?
d. If not money, what do they get?