[Ravensfort] 100 Persona questions

Charley Atchley Charley at lcc.net
Fri Jul 27 17:36:45 PDT 2001


No problem. Use them at will. I said I used to have a longer list somewhere,
well, here it is mostly. I liked some parts of the new list, so I combined
them together. I am all for promoting of persona play. Are you on SweinNet.
We have been doing some on it. DSD keeps posting most of my stuff to
Ravensfort net, so you have probably seen those.

The main thing that I think most people neglect in persona development is
the fact that after about 600 CE the catholic church was very involved in
all society levels, all cultures and most politics. Royals and people of
high station were more apt to be devote followers than non-nobles. Most
peasant or serf class people only paid minimum lip service until after the
1400s and some saw it as just another taxing entity that was sucking them
dry. I also think most people have no clue how bad health care was and how
many myths were attached to it. I saw a statistic that in some places 70% of
all mothers died in child birth, and 45% of children died before age four.
Some fevers would wipe out a whole village. This really didn't change until
the late 1800s.

I told everyone I had a list of 100 questions, here they are.

1. What kind of a coin is in your pouch?
2. Whose face is on your coins?
3. How did you get your coins?
4. How do you explain lightning?
5. How do you explain hail?
6. How do you explain snow?
7. How do you explain rain?
8. Do you attach any religious significance to weather phenomena?
9. What does your priest say about the weather?
10. Where does your food come from?
11. How do you obtain you food?
12. What did you eat for breakfast?
13. What did you eat for lunch?
14. What did you eat for supper?
15. What fraction of your income goes to food?
16. Have you ever been to a feast?
17. What was served at the last feast you went to?
18. What fraction of your income goes to support of royals? (Taxes)
19. How many changes of clothing do you own?
20. How do you deal with the Catholic Church?
21. Do you like the local priest?
22. Do you have to give grain or livestock to the church?
23. Have any of your brothers or sisters taken holy orders?
24. How many times have you been conscripted?
25. How much geography are you aware of?
26. Have you ever seen a map of the known world?
27. Do you know about the directions? (North, south, east, etc.)
28. What myths do you believe?
29. What stories were you told when you were a child?
30. What toys did you play with as a child?
31. What games did you play as a child?
32. What was your birth order in your family?
33. Was birth order significant in your family?
34. How many brothers and sisters died as children in your family?
35. What did they die from?
36. What is a funeral like?
37. What is your death mythos?
38. How many mothers do you know that died during birth?
39. Who helped with your birth? (Midwife, nun, family member, etc.)
40. What musical instrument would you learn if you could?
41. Can you afford a musical instrument?
42. What musical instruments have you heard?
43. What color is your pottery? Where did you get it?
44. Have you ever seen a painting?
45. Have you ever seen a statue?
46. Have you ever seen a book?
47. Have you been to a fair?
48. What would be at a fair if you attended?
49. Have you ever seen a play?
50. Have you heard a bard?
51. Are bards revered or scoffed at by you?
52. When you travel, do you walk or ride?
53. If you ride is it on the horse or in a wagon, chariot or cart?
54. Can you fight form a horse, wagon, or chariot?
55. Have you ever seen a boat?
56. Have you ever seen a ship?
57. Have you ever been on a ship or boat?
58. Did you have to do manual labor on the ship or boat?
59. What is in your mug?
60. Where did it come from?
61. Did you spend a lot to get it?
62. What would you see if you went out your front door?
63. Can you write your native language?
64. Can you read your native language?
65. Can you write your Latin?
66. Can you read your Latin?
67. Can you count?
68. Can you do math?
69. Do you believe in astrology? What does the church say about that?
70. What physical phenomenon confuses you the most? (Think gravity, light
etc.)
71. Do you eat fish?
72. How would the fish be caught?
73. Do you eat grain? If so what?
74. Do you eat meat? How often? What kind?
75. Do you own a cook pot?
76. Can you cook?
77. What kind of fuel do you use?
78. What are your favorite summer, spring, fall, and winter activities?
79. What do you like the least about each season?
80. What is your duty during harvest?
81. Do you hunt? Are you good at it?
82. Are the roads around you safe to travel?
83. Are the roads in your area well maintained?
84. Do you live near a river?
85. Does it have bridges or fords?
86. Are the roads impassible during the year?
87. Have you ever seen a waterfall?
88. Have you ever seen a lake?
89. Have you ever seen the ocean?
90. Can you swim?
91. How often do you bathe?
92. How often do you wash your clothing?
93. Do you own metal?
94. How do you take care of it?
95. Where did you get it?
96. Do you own weapons?
97. Can you shoot a bow?
98. Where do you get arrows from, and how protective of them are you?
99. Have you ever been on a pilgrimage?
100. If you went on a pilgrimage, where would you go?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Sometimes human beings are very much like bees. Bees are fiercely protective
of their hive, provided you are outside it. Once you're in, the workers sort
of assume that it must have been cleared by management and take no notice;
various freeloading insects have evolved a mellifluous existence because of
this very fact. Humans act the same way.
- Good Omens, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman




More information about the Ravensfort mailing list