D&D General Lore contributions from players into a campaign

[Casimir Liber]

I remember DMing in the late 70s and early 80s (Basic D&D and AD&D) and the lore of a world was made solely by the GM and the players just made their PCswith backstories but little else (well, that's how we played it and the modules seemed to concur). Fast forward to the present and there seems to be greater scope and appetite for players to influence the setting they're playing in.

Curious what is the most interesting lore that DMs have introduced in their settings that were created by the players. Pondered this as a player created a Highland Minotaur (based on Scottish Highland cattle) as a character - noting they were distinct from a normal minotaur. So I introduced this, splitting minotaurs into Lowland and Highland lineages.

So keen to hear from other people.

 

[Clint_L]

Okay, so my home game is a heavily adapted version of Matt Mercer's Exandria, and a LOT of those adaptations have come from the players. For instance, one character introduced an entire nomadic culture as part of her backstory, and a major setting, to which the party is finally heading after almost two years of teasing. So those are examples of big details. They've also added gods, a playable race, major foes...the list goes on.

We even did a whole session in which we took turns DMing, usually a heavily modified version of the Fiasco rules.

In terms of small details, players are contributing lore all the time - a shopkeeper here, a new invention there, and so on. If a character walks into a tavern and asks who they see, I often reply with something like, "you tell me."

The older I get, the more interested I am in sharing the storyteller job. Games are more fun when I get to be surprised sometimes, too!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, man, so much.

Most of the lore around religions in my game is from my players taking the simple descriptions -- "goddess of writing" -- and fleshing that out into "destruction of the written word is the highest sin, literacy instruction is a sacred duty and, oh yes, the dead are mummified in written pages, to take the written world with them into the afterlife."

 

[Casimir Liber]

In terms of small details, players are contributing lore all the time - a shopkeeper her, a new invention there, and so on. If a character walks into a tavern and asks who they see, I often reply with something like, "you tell me."

The older I get, the more interested I am in sharing the storyteller job. Games are more fun when I get to be surprised sometimes, too!

Yeah, it's amazing we never thought of this 40 years ago!

 

[Krachek]

I remember DMing in the late 70s and early 80s (Basic D&D and AD&D) and the lore of a world was made solely by the GM and the players just made their PCswith backstories but little else (well, that's how we played it and the modules seemed to concur). Fast forward to the present and there seems to be greater scope and appetite for players to influence the setting they're playing in.

Curious what is the most interesting lore that DMs have introduced in their settings that were created by the players. Pondered this as a player created a Highland Minotaur (based on Scottish Highland cattle) as a character - noting they were distinct from a normal minotaur. So I introduced this, splitting minotaurs into Lowland and Highland lineages.

So keen to hear from other people.

DMs I met in the 80 era often have megalomaniac tendencies, or considered themselves misunderstood creator, so they were not likely to allow players influence into their perfect creation.

But actually I and others DM allow frequent players input into their world.

 

[aco175]

My group tends to unwittily create lore. They start talking about places and NPCs that I take what they say and go with it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My group tends to unwittily create lore. They start talking about places and NPCs that I take what they say and go with it.

"Wow, you guys managed to guess huge amounts of setting lore! Amazing!"

 

[aco175]

"Wow, you guys managed to guess huge amounts of setting lore! Amazing!"

Players

Me

 

[Reynard]

I am a shallow setting designer when it comes to campaign prep (shocker, i know). So when players contribute to that, it deepens the setting and gives them hooks into it. They care more, and I have to do less work. Win win.

 

[Stormonu]

DMs I met in the 80 era often have megalomaniac tendencies, or considered themselves misunderstood creator, so they were not likely to allow players influence into their perfect creation.

But actually I and others DM allow frequent players input into their world.

I'm not as much of a control freak about my homebrew world as I used to be. I do remember when I first wrote things up, I wasn't too keen on the PCs being involved in anything that might upset that "perfect picture" I had written down - mucking with borders, overthrowing evil lords in the nearby lands - I was determined I was going to get my stuff published and if the PCs invalidated what I had written, I was going to be upset.

Which was completely ludicrous - all this stuff was to help drive the PCs actions/reactions in the world.

However, there's been a lot of character activities over the years that ended up getting incorporated into it since I first put things together. It's hard to pinpoint any one specific example, but one of the ones I enjoyed was when a player designed a flamboyant mask-wearing pirate/wizard for one of my campaigns. It "turned out" that all the south sea pirates normally wore Mardi-Gras style masks, which the various likenesses (many based on likenesses of the Gods or demons) bore various enchantments to disguise or enhance different abilities when out operating.