DM-only backstory in modules
ThirdWizard
First Post
Crothian said:
Assuredly. But, I would blame the module before the DM for backstory information not easily accessable to the PCs.
Altalazar
First Post
I think a good backstory is essential - if the module doesn't have one, then the DM should make one. It isn't there to tell the tale to the players, it is there so the DM can properly put things in context, know motivations, etc.
And there is no law that says that the DM can't have some of that backstory revealed at a later time as part of the game. But that isn't necessary.
I've heard that some actors, when doing a role, do the same thing - they come up with elaborate backstories for their character so they know how to play the part. Stuff that will never be revealed to anyone, but that they need to know themselves so they can understand and really be the character.
And there is no law that says that the DM can't have some of that backstory revealed at a later time as part of the game. But that isn't necessary.
I've heard that some actors, when doing a role, do the same thing - they come up with elaborate backstories for their character so they know how to play the part. Stuff that will never be revealed to anyone, but that they need to know themselves so they can understand and really be the character.
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
Helps the DM keep a mental continuity and even if a group might not have the skills, personally, to divine the information (bard, cleric, etc.) and might not be of a high enough level, they may choose to spend whatever wealth they have to gain the information from another source.
Last edited:
Yes it does. If you walked into a movie that didn't make sense at all (with the occasional exception such as Mulholland Drive), you'd want your money back.Crothian said:
There's a reason why TV episodes, novels and theatre all make sense - because they suck as entertainment if they don't. Leave arbitrary "stuff happens" to real life...like valor, the better part of verisimilitude is knowing when to say "no" to it. Arbitrariness isn't much fun, and makes the players question why they're bothering in the first place when the plot doesn't make sense, or there apparently is no plot at all...the DM doing it is like a comedian doing a standup performance of in-jokes that only he gets.
I could go on, but I can't believe that there isn't concensus on this issue in the direction I'm pushing - as far as I can tell it's a no-brainer, and it must be some weird DM culture thing which is up against it.
rounser said:
Um, nope, no it doesn't. A module could be bad for any number of reasons, but giving the DM relevant and useful information can never be one of them.
rounser said:
Assuming that the backstory is competently done (i.e., makes sense, is consistent with the setting, and so forth), it cannot be "arbitrary". If it seems that way to the players, they're either not paying enough attention, or the DM isn't telling them enough (or both). Ultimately it's rarely essential that the characters know the back story, and if the players desperately want to know the DM can tell them out-of-game.
rounser said:
That would be because you're wrong in your initial assumptions (that "non-obvious backstory = arbitrary"), therefore leading you to a wrong conclusion.
Anax
First Post
rounser: Yes, but “backstory that the players might not discover” does not imply “doesn’t make sense at all”.
Look at Tolkien: Why was Tolkien’s work so powerful? At least in part, because of the enormous backstory he implied. Everything has a history in Middle Earth. He might not reveal what that history is in the course of The Lord of the Rings, but it’s there. He drops a lot of names. He sometimes goes into detail about the history of one thing or another. But, it’s not like the reader has the ability to cause that backstory to be revealed more fully.
And this doesn’t detract from the story, it adds to it. There’s a sense of history, and all is well in the world.
Other authors of speculative fiction do the same thing, in different ways. Some total hacks completely fail to do it (and that’s one of the reasons so much genre SF&F is so forgettable.) Backstory is the history of the world, and a good author will use the backstory to tie the current events together, and use current events to reveal the skeleton of the backstory, without ever having to do something as gauche as just coming out and telling the reader what happened.
So, it’s the same way with game backstory. You absolutely need to provide enough backstory to the DM for the DM to be able to see how everything ties together. If you do not, the DM has no way of knowing which things are important, or understanding their interrelationships. The best kind of backstory for an RPG is motivation: it is much much more important to be able to understand the motivations of a character, because that allows you (as the DM) to predict what the character would do in situations that the players thrust that character into. From the players’ side, that motivation may or may not be significant. It’s important that the NPCs actions are predictable, not random. It’s not necessary to know exactly what the reasons are, so long as you can predict.
For example: The players might find out that the magical defenses for a given keep are weaker on a given day of the week. This gives them great predictive power. Further checking might show that the same person is always in charge on that day of the week, so the players now know enough to predict that if that person is taken out of the rotation, it will cease to be any easier to enter the keep on that day. The players have no need to know that the reason this person’s magical defenses are weaker on that day of the week is that he’s secretly magically communicating with his lover on that night. But the DM should know this, because knowing about that relationship might be necessary to project the character’s motivations... If the PCs kill the lover, he’s going to be more than a bit upset, for example. If they walk in on him, they might overhear something. But in 9/10 cases, the players will never know anything but “Thursday night is the night to attack, they’re always weaker on Thursdays.”
In short: backstory provides the potential for verisimilitude: the appearance of truth. If you try to create verisimilitude through completely random means (say, wandering monster tables), people will quite easily detect that the events are random. (Humans are amazingly good at detecting patterns.) If you throw in a model of what creatures live in what biomes, then things start to get better. If you add intentionality to the mix (there are more bandits here than there... why do more people act as bandits in this place than this other place? Why more this year than last year?) you really need to have more idea why, because intentionality suggests things that may be investigated and changed by the PCs.
To provide a convincing appearance of reality to sentient beings, you’ve got to have at least a minimal idea of the answer to the question “why?”
Look at Tolkien: Why was Tolkien’s work so powerful? At least in part, because of the enormous backstory he implied. Everything has a history in Middle Earth. He might not reveal what that history is in the course of The Lord of the Rings, but it’s there. He drops a lot of names. He sometimes goes into detail about the history of one thing or another. But, it’s not like the reader has the ability to cause that backstory to be revealed more fully.
And this doesn’t detract from the story, it adds to it. There’s a sense of history, and all is well in the world.
Other authors of speculative fiction do the same thing, in different ways. Some total hacks completely fail to do it (and that’s one of the reasons so much genre SF&F is so forgettable.) Backstory is the history of the world, and a good author will use the backstory to tie the current events together, and use current events to reveal the skeleton of the backstory, without ever having to do something as gauche as just coming out and telling the reader what happened.
So, it’s the same way with game backstory. You absolutely need to provide enough backstory to the DM for the DM to be able to see how everything ties together. If you do not, the DM has no way of knowing which things are important, or understanding their interrelationships. The best kind of backstory for an RPG is motivation: it is much much more important to be able to understand the motivations of a character, because that allows you (as the DM) to predict what the character would do in situations that the players thrust that character into. From the players’ side, that motivation may or may not be significant. It’s important that the NPCs actions are predictable, not random. It’s not necessary to know exactly what the reasons are, so long as you can predict.
For example: The players might find out that the magical defenses for a given keep are weaker on a given day of the week. This gives them great predictive power. Further checking might show that the same person is always in charge on that day of the week, so the players now know enough to predict that if that person is taken out of the rotation, it will cease to be any easier to enter the keep on that day. The players have no need to know that the reason this person’s magical defenses are weaker on that day of the week is that he’s secretly magically communicating with his lover on that night. But the DM should know this, because knowing about that relationship might be necessary to project the character’s motivations... If the PCs kill the lover, he’s going to be more than a bit upset, for example. If they walk in on him, they might overhear something. But in 9/10 cases, the players will never know anything but “Thursday night is the night to attack, they’re always weaker on Thursdays.”
In short: backstory provides the potential for verisimilitude: the appearance of truth. If you try to create verisimilitude through completely random means (say, wandering monster tables), people will quite easily detect that the events are random. (Humans are amazingly good at detecting patterns.) If you throw in a model of what creatures live in what biomes, then things start to get better. If you add intentionality to the mix (there are more bandits here than there... why do more people act as bandits in this place than this other place? Why more this year than last year?) you really need to have more idea why, because intentionality suggests things that may be investigated and changed by the PCs.
To provide a convincing appearance of reality to sentient beings, you’ve got to have at least a minimal idea of the answer to the question “why?”
James Jacobs
Adventurer
Backstory to an adventure is very important, as is an NPC's history. These elements give the DM inspiration for running the adventure. The more information, the more the DM can pull from when the PCs start asking questions. If the DM likes an encoutner a lot, a detailed backstory allows him to expand the encounter in a manner that flows more logically with the adventure's themes. Backstory can also serve to inspire the reader into crafting his own adventures. And frankly, that backstory can make the difference between a dull read and an entertaining read—adventures should be fun to read, after all! I know I'm not the only DM out there who's enjoyed time spent reading an adventure he knows he'll never run.
Now, all that said... Backstory should NEVER be the focus of an adventure. It's the icing on the cake. If an adventure has an amazing backstory that takes up more than 10% of the adventure's entire length, the "adventure" is dangerously close to becoming a story (or in the case of some adventrues I've seen proposed to Dungeon, a novel!).
In any case, if a piece of backstory is particularly interesting to you as a DM, don't be afraid to give it out to the PCs as a reward for a particularly good Knowledge check or bardic knowledge check.
Now, all that said... Backstory should NEVER be the focus of an adventure. It's the icing on the cake. If an adventure has an amazing backstory that takes up more than 10% of the adventure's entire length, the "adventure" is dangerously close to becoming a story (or in the case of some adventrues I've seen proposed to Dungeon, a novel!).
In any case, if a piece of backstory is particularly interesting to you as a DM, don't be afraid to give it out to the PCs as a reward for a particularly good Knowledge check or bardic knowledge check.
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