Many times, we as DM’s do not have the luxury of playing with a group of people we’ve know for a long time and are comfortable with. I happen to have that luxury, playing with a group I’ve known and have been friends with for over 20 years in some cases, and haven’t had to resort to alternate ways to find players.
So as a DM who’s running a game for a bunch of strangers, you’ve got very little to go on besides the small talk that goes on during character creation night and the pre-game pleasantries that are exchanged on game night. It’s a tough job to manage 6 or 7 different personalities when you aren’t too familiar with them. Also, player expectations for your game are something you should know and respect, as well as the reverse; players should know what kind of game you plan to run before they jump unto your table. With this in mind, I’ve created a small player questionnaire for you to hand out to your (potential) players.
Asking questions before the campaign starts is a must.
These questions aren’t meant to include everything you must know about a player, but they do have a very basic and general scope to them, things like how they view alignment in the game, to what food allergies they may have that you may need to be conscious of.
Although I don’t currently have a need to use it, I put it out there in case someone does have a need for it and hasn’t found one online. I hope it helps somebody out.
EDIT: I have updated the file to address a typo, and a misunderstood checkbox item that was addressed in comments below.
www. Newbie DM .com 
DrOct
October 28, 2009
On the whole I like it. Not sure though how I feel about the “no wives or girlfriends at the table” question though, just because it assumes that all the players will be male, which may be the case for a lot of people but is by no means something I think should be assumed. My current group has a female player, and used to have two, and I know a lot of other groups that include at least one if not more women. Perhaps changing it to “no significant others” or something like that? I get what the actual intent of the question is, but the way it’s phrased it seems to assume that women don’t play D&D.
newbiedm
October 28, 2009
You are correct, that wasn’t the intention.
It should have read “no non-playing significant others at the table”.
Wyatt
October 28, 2009
I tend to do something like this if I’m playing online in a new community. When you’re hosting a play-by-post in an unfamiliar forum, something like this is an extra layer of protection from, and understanding of, the less fortunate elements of the place that might be disagreeable to you.
Thunderforge
October 28, 2009
I play role-playing games (all systems) at university , so some of your questions wouldn’t apply (like pets). Additionally, we get a lot of players who are new to role-playing and would have no idea whether or not they like DM vs. PC games, for instance. I can’t see myself ever using this, but if it works for you, great!
Before each campaign, I do hand out to my players a modified version of the Ten Minute Character Background. It’s a quick way for the players to create a backstory in such a way that helps me figure out how the players view their characters and to give useful backstory plot hooks.
newbiedm
October 28, 2009
@thunderforge: Yeah, the questions are aimed more at people that have played D&D before, you are right. Also, keep in mind my particular demographic, 30+, married with kids.
The guy in my position is probably the one who would use this more I think, although that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.
I like what you linked to, but you are asking new players to RPG’s to think in character quickly, that’s not that easy to do… is it?
Thunderforge
October 28, 2009
You’re right about a different demographic. I suppose that it could be pretty easily changed for a university demographic if someone wanted to.
When I’ve given it out, only the most experienced players have been able to finish the Ten Minute Character Background in… well… ten minutes. That’s really my only concern with it: it’s poorly named. So I usually just ask players to bring it back to me next week, which works well enough for me since that gives them plenty of time to think. Even new players have been pretty responsive to that sheet and really like it, they just need some time to formulate an idea of who they are like.