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<blockquote data-quote="Nathal" data-source="post: 1287355" data-attributes="member: 1809"><p><strong>Character backstory vs. NPC backstory</strong></p><p></p><p>Is integrating PC backstory into the adventure as important, if not more so, than doing so for the NPCs? I agree using PC history can help when attempting to draw the adventuring party into the plot. Of course the GM needs to avoid obvious contrivance. If every adventure incorporated goals and motivations for *all* the PCs, above and beyond those most typical to adventuring, I fear the game would feel more like an episodic soap-opera. So, although I do consider individual PC goals, I find it more useful to tie NPC motivations directly into the background events (present and past), create a simple web of NPC interrelationships, then provide a story hook that makes the PCs the main obstacle to one or more of those NPCs' goals. </p><p></p><p>I agree on the point made about meta-plots. I think it would be tough to GM a game, for example, in the 3rd Age of Middle Earth, when everybody knows the most important events are not those of the PCs...unless they wish to play Frodo, Gandalf, etc. I avoid meta-plots by anticipating the goals and motivations of the NPCs without predetermining the outcome of conflicts between them, all the while assuming their chief opposition will inevitably be the PCs themselves...provided the players take the story hook(s) which would lead them into the thick of those relationships. </p><p></p><p>So I use PC motivations more sparingly, working such goals into the story perhaps as a sub-plot, never making something that one character cares about a principle goal of the adventure. Other levels of PC motivation I simply assume for all, such as a willingness for adventure, desire for treasure, repute, and so on.</p><p></p><p>Perhaps backstory is the wrong word for what I'm talking about, since I mean to encompass both history and current events. The history and current events are designed in my games to generate NPC goals which will serve as direct opposition to PCs own goals...those typically being seeking treasure, power, and repute. </p><p></p><p>Thoughts?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nathal, post: 1287355, member: 1809"] [b]Character backstory vs. NPC backstory[/b] Is integrating PC backstory into the adventure as important, if not more so, than doing so for the NPCs? I agree using PC history can help when attempting to draw the adventuring party into the plot. Of course the GM needs to avoid obvious contrivance. If every adventure incorporated goals and motivations for *all* the PCs, above and beyond those most typical to adventuring, I fear the game would feel more like an episodic soap-opera. So, although I do consider individual PC goals, I find it more useful to tie NPC motivations directly into the background events (present and past), create a simple web of NPC interrelationships, then provide a story hook that makes the PCs the main obstacle to one or more of those NPCs' goals. I agree on the point made about meta-plots. I think it would be tough to GM a game, for example, in the 3rd Age of Middle Earth, when everybody knows the most important events are not those of the PCs...unless they wish to play Frodo, Gandalf, etc. I avoid meta-plots by anticipating the goals and motivations of the NPCs without predetermining the outcome of conflicts between them, all the while assuming their chief opposition will inevitably be the PCs themselves...provided the players take the story hook(s) which would lead them into the thick of those relationships. So I use PC motivations more sparingly, working such goals into the story perhaps as a sub-plot, never making something that one character cares about a principle goal of the adventure. Other levels of PC motivation I simply assume for all, such as a willingness for adventure, desire for treasure, repute, and so on. Perhaps backstory is the wrong word for what I'm talking about, since I mean to encompass both history and current events. The history and current events are designed in my games to generate NPC goals which will serve as direct opposition to PCs own goals...those typically being seeking treasure, power, and repute. Thoughts? [/QUOTE]
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