>>96079832
>>96079858
So smallville pairs the background creation and diagram with choosing what your character did and the associated stats across their background leading up to play, but that can be split from the background thing.

each step is done going round the table, and each step has each player do 1-2 things. This means that while you might add an NPC to the board, other people get a chance to interfere with that NPC before your next "turn".

Smallville's steps in order are
>add new NPC, connect your PC and label the relationship.
>add new Location. Connect something you added to the board, to any other Extra and label the relationship.
>connect any existing NPC/location to anything else on the board, and label the relationship. connect your PC to a new or existing Extra and label the relationship.
>connect any existing Extra to any PC and label the relationship
>connect your PC to a new or existing Extra and label the relationship. Connect any existing Extra to any PC and label the relationship.
>Connect your PC to a new or existing Extra and label the relationship. Connect any Extra to any other thing on the board and label the relationship.
>Connect any Extra to anything else and label the relationship. Connect your PC to an existing Extra and label the relationship.
>Connect any Extra to any PC and label the relationship.
>Connect any Extra to anything else on the board and label the relationship. Label your PC's relationships with the other PCs.

where "connect X to Y and label the relationship" means define how X feels about Y, NOT vice versa.

which totals out to
>3 add a new thing and connect your PC to it
>2 connect your PC to a new OR existing Extra
>1 connect your PC to an existing Extra
>3 connect an existing Extra to any PC
>4 connect an existing Extra to anything
which means each player adds 3-5 things to the board and defines 13 total relationships, plus their relationships to each other PC.