One thing that some other reviewers evidently seemed concerned about was that the book didn't specifically numerate and address RPG types other than fantasy RPGs, such as Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder. Although, for me, when I think of RPGs, I think of Fantasy RPGs, I also realized that the character exploration exercises that James D'Amato details in the original book could easily be used for other genres with the application of the slightest bit of imagination. Evidently, others thought this would be a bigger hurdle.
D'Amato addressed this concern in the next book in the series, The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide, including chapters that specifically address Sci-Fi, Horror, X-Punk (covering genres that end in punk, such as Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Dieselpunk and the like), in addition to Fantasy... along with a sort of generic chapter that had exercises that could very easily be used for any genre.
Addressing that criticism in the next book didn't change the original version of the Backstory Guide, however, so The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition is here to right that wrong. Like the Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide, this version has chapters for Horror, Sci-Fi, X-Punk and a chapter easily used for all genres. In addition, The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition has chapters for Superhero and Western genres, as well. However, at multiple places in the book, it points out that even exercises inside of one of the specific genres could be applied to other genres. Several of these references even give examples of ways you could use them as such.
The exercises found within usually don't require anything more than some common 20 sided dice or a standard deck of playing cards, but you could also just sort of choose randomly or even select the option you want. This is your character's background, so you can use your book how you please. To that end, there are some point-based exercises that ask you to assign the numbers 1-5 to each of five categories, with 1 being the most important aspect and 5 being the least important aspect. If that sounds confusing, let me give the example of a superhero's suit, with its five aspects: Protection, Utility, Secrecy, Readiness and Message. The book asks you to assign each of these a unique number 1-5, but 1s can be quite overpowered and 5s can be actually detrimental to your character. If you tried to spec out costumes of familiar characters such as Spider-Man and Batman, they wouldn't fit into the 1-2-3-4-5 setup. I say that to simply suggest that a GM may want to allow for something other than completely unique values for each category, perhaps with a point-buy sort of system. Remember that a lower number of total points means a stronger, more overpowered character (a pool of just 5 points could only result in all 1s, which would be the most powerful describable under the system, in the case of the superhero costume)... and a high number means a weaker, more underpowered character (a pool of 25 points would only allow for all 5s, which would result, in this case, in a costume that doesn't actually do anything, is always a part of you, but requires that you travel to a remote location, such as your hideout, to activate it and, when activated, makes you more vulnerable in some way than you would otherwise be. However, allowing a point-buy with 16-17 points would make for a more realistic character. (I would place Batman as a 16, with Protection[2],Utility[2], Secrecy[3], Readiness[5], Message[4].) Protection of 1 would have given him nigh-invulnerability, with no noticeable design, while Utility of 1 would have given him the ability to travel through space and do pretty much anything, regardless of the constraints of physics or logic. Cartoon versions of Batman might be a 2/1/3/5/4, but for movie and comics, I stick with my above evaluation.
In the end, how much you get out of The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition will depend on your ability to be at least a little creative. The exercises and prompts give you fill-in-the-blank setups for enriching your character's depth and complexity, but if you're creative, this can provide a spark that will lead you much further than just the prompt itself. Essentially, this book can help work through or past your "writer's block" when it comes to your character's backstory, by starting you thinking about things related to your character that you might not have ever considered without the prompts.
If this sounds intriguing to you and you play RPG games and want to be able to create richer backstories... or if you're doing some creative writing and want your characters to seem a little less two-dimensional, I would highly recommend picking up The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition. If you already have the previous edition, however, this becomes a tougher call. At 336 pages, compared to the original's 272 pages, you get almost 25% more content in the Expanded Genres Edition. If you have someone who covets your existing copy, you could gift it to them and pick up the Expanded Genres Edition. However, since this version contains all of the content from the original version, augmented with the addition of the new genres, if you get the Expanded Genres Edition, then it's a bit pointless to have the original one. Even if you only concern yourself with the Fantasy genre, there is additional content (in the other chapters) that could be applied to the Fantasy genre, so it's not simply a matter of Fantasy versus multiple genres.
In closing, I'll leave it at: Highly recommended, especially if you don't have the original.
