How much back story do you allow/expect at the start of the game?

Mort · Nov 11, 2017

My answer used to be - as much as the player is willing to write, but that's changed.

Now I ask for no more than a short paragraph.

Thoughts?

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ccs · Nov 11, 2017

At least a short paragraph or two. And if a character is joining at higher than 1st lv. I expect a paragraph concerning each lv. Likewise if you're starting with any unique equipment.

Blue · Nov 11, 2017

I go in the opposite direction - we always do a session 0 for party/character creation. During this we work out at least thumbnail background as well as connection to multiple other characters.

As a DM, I want hooks. More things both overt and subtle that I can tie your character into adventures. Generic "I'm here to kill things and loot their bodies" need not apply. Here's an article about making a good number of usable hooks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/775caq/my_friends_and_i_have_something_called_knife/

I also enjoy player input on the setting. "Hey, the rogue just gave me a bunch about the guild he was in and the guard organization of the major city he was front. Fantastic!". "The barbarian just fleshed out details of his tribes beliefs and ancestor worship". These aren't directly backstory, but is details from players for me to incorporate which may touch on the question.

Mort · Nov 11, 2017

Blue said:
I go in the opposite direction - we always do a session 0 for party/character creation. During this we work out at least thumbnail background as well as connection to multiple other characters.

As a DM, I want hooks. More things both overt and subtle that I can tie your character into adventures. Generic "I'm here to kill things and loot their bodies" need not apply. Here's an article about making a good number of usable hooks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/775caq/my_friends_and_i_have_something_called_knife/

I also enjoy player input on the setting. "Hey, the rogue just gave me a bunch about the guild he was in and the guard organization of the major city he was front. Fantastic!". "The barbarian just fleshed out details of his tribes beliefs and ancestor worship". These aren't directly backstory, but is details from players for me to incorporate which may touch on the question.

That's one reason I actually only want a paragraph or less. Any more is generally done as a group.

I encourage the players to come up with a theme to tie the group together and help push the initial adventures forward.

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Caliban · Nov 11, 2017

I play AL - few people care about your backstory if it takes longer than 30 seconds to tell them.

The few home games I've played in over the last 5 years or so...the DM's haven't really cared much about the backstories. They have a predetermined series of events for the campaign and that's what is happening.

That doesn't stop me from writing backstories that range from a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages. I just don't expect anyone else to care about it.

As a DM, I like the players to come up with a backstory for their character as long as it fits within the context of the campaign world (no being responsible for world shaking events or deific interventions in your backstory). I'll try to use their backstory to create a personalized story arc for that character in the game, and tie it into the greater campaign story if I can. Sometimes it works better than others.

Blue · Nov 11, 2017

Mort said:
That's one reason I actually only want a paragraph or less. Any more is generally done as a group.

I encourage the players to come up with a theme to tie the group together and help push the initial adventures forward.

I go more for things that push the ending adventures forward. I run multi year campaign (last two completed were 5 and 7 years, current is 3.5 and going strong). To fill something like that I need to both have arcs for every character where they get spotlight - and backstory hooks are a useful tool for that - and multiple campaign arcs. The campaign arcs by the end don't look like anything from when they started*, but they are partially seeded from those hooks of the backstory. I usually start with about three or four campaign arcs, and by the end of the campaign I've figured out how to tie them together.

* "Started" - nothing I plan is "true" until it hits the table. So I revise what's the "big picture" as player interests are revealed and character actions occur.

Tony Vargas · Nov 11, 2017

Allow? Anything short of a novella, I suppose, would be tolerable.

Expect? Nothing - some players just want to see how the character developes, its backstory discovered as it comes up in play or player is inspired - others just don't care, the implications of chargen are enough, they may even expect the GM to fill it in at times ("oh, hey, where're we from, anyway?)...

Legatus Legionis · Nov 11, 2017

Arilyn · Nov 11, 2017

Blue said:
I go in the opposite direction - we always do a session 0 for party/character creation. During this we work out at least thumbnail background as well as connection to multiple other characters.

As a DM, I want hooks. More things both overt and subtle that I can tie your character into adventures. Generic "I'm here to kill things and loot their bodies" need not apply. Here's an article about making a good number of usable hooks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/775caq/my_friends_and_i_have_something_called_knife/

I also enjoy player input on the setting. "Hey, the rogue just gave me a bunch about the guild he was in and the guard organization of the major city he was front. Fantastic!". "The barbarian just fleshed out details of his tribes beliefs and ancestor worship". These aren't directly backstory, but is details from players for me to incorporate which may touch on the question.

I like this approach as well. I find a session 0 often gets players pumped for the following week. Also, taking some time with character creation to establish ties and hooks just makes the game better.

On the other hand, sometimes players with a sketchy or no background develop into the deepest characters, and others who arrive with a novella don't actually play to what was written. One of the longest and best campaigns we had was thrown together quickly. We were just going to use the characters for quickie, more shallow adventures as a break from our more "serious" group. They took over....The campaign was long, detailed, not at all shallow. We were planning on using published modules and adventures from Dragon magazine. I think we used two. The characters clicked, stories took off. It's still remembered fondly, and that was about 14 years ago.

That's what I love about this hobby. You never know how things will unfold.

Sunseeker · Nov 11, 2017

My players are free to write as much as they want. I on the other hand am under no obligation to read any of it.

All I ask my players to provide me is 5 important elements of their past, present and future. Just a simple list, so for example:
Past: (things they had that they still value)
Parents
Home
Sibling(s)
Pets
Farming

Present: (things they have that they have learned to value)
Loyalty
Honesty
Good Beer
Adventure
Pumpkin Spice

Future: (things that they want to obtain)
Wealth
Home
Family
Chickens
Clocks

They can be singular words as above, or short sentences. Such as "I want to obtain the special clock my Grandfather made."
This tells me WORLDS about your background without pages of fluff. Your grandfather made clocks. There was one clock that was "special" in some regard. You no longer have this clock. You may or may not know who has the clock or how to obtain it.

How much back story do you allow/expect at the start of the game?

Mort

Legend

ccs

41st lv DM

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

Mort

Legend

Caliban

Rules Monkey

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

Tony Vargas

Legend

Legatus Legionis

< BWAH HA Ha ha >

Arilyn

Hero

Sunseeker

Guest

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