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

Nytmare · Nov 15, 2017

shidaku said:
But really if I can't motivate players with my plot hooks, killing their friends won't help any.

I'd imagine that when it happens at the bad end of the spectrum, it's usually less as a means of motivation and more just knee jerk trope usage.

I wouldn't want to venture a guess as to what the percentages are, but how many movies have you seen where if they bothered to write a character as having a parent or a child or a loved one or a pet, you can be almost certain that said loved one is going to be threatened with death or killed in the last act of the movie.

Salamandyr · Nov 15, 2017

I've done a lot of different ways of doing backstories over the years. Now I just say...a player can have as much back story as they want, and I promise not to pay attention to it.

Sunseeker · Nov 16, 2017

Nytmare said:
I'd imagine that when it happens at the bad end of the spectrum, it's usually less as a means of motivation and more just knee jerk trope usage.

I wouldn't want to venture a guess as to what the percentages are, but how many movies have you seen where if they bothered to write a character as having a parent or a child or a loved one or a pet, you can be almost certain that said loved one is going to be threatened with death or killed in the last act of the movie.

Maybe. I mean Luke went and joined the Rebellion because the Empire burned his family to death. I mean, the Empire is cruel...but that feels a lot more like the DM (George Lucas) being unnecessarily cruel to one of his players just to get them to go down the railroad.

Or like when Saruman burns down the Shire. It doesn't serve any real compelling story purpose. It's just kinda mean.

Nytmare · Nov 16, 2017

shidaku said:
Maybe. I mean Luke went and joined the Rebellion because the Empire burned his family to death. I mean, the Empire is cruel...but that feels a lot more like the DM (George Lucas) being unnecessarily cruel to one of his players just to get them to go down the railroad.

Yeah, but there's a difference between an author having a bad thing happen to a character in a novel or screenplay and a DM interpreting that as "Killing every NPC that is loved by a player character makes for good story telling!"

Caliban · Nov 16, 2017

There is a difference between having stuff happen "off screen" and having it play out during a game. Presumably if it happens during a gaming session, the PC's have a chance to effect the outcome, and whatever happens will have a greater significance and emotional impact because the PC is actively involved.

But it does require a certain degree of trust between the players and the DM - if it is an adversarial relationship, then the impulse is to preemptively kill off all your relatives and be an orphan so your DM can't use them against you. (Or it may just be a lack of imagination. You don't have to come up with a name for your mother if she's been dead for 10 years...)

If you trust the DM not to use your characters friends and family as a cheap plot device, and you know your character may become more directly involved in the campaign plot lines if you give the DM some material to work with, then that's incentive to create a more detailed background full of not-dead relatives and associates for the DM to use.

Thats for people who enjoy that sort of thing. Nothing is wrong with just wanting to be a morally challenged barbarian who kicks down doors, kills monsters, and takes their stuff. Different people enjoy the game in different ways.

Shasarak · Nov 16, 2017

shidaku said:
Maybe. I mean Luke went and joined the Rebellion because the Empire burned his family to death. I mean, the Empire is cruel...but that feels a lot more like the DM (George Lucas) being unnecessarily cruel to one of his players just to get them to go down the railroad.

It gets worse then that; the DM turns the BBEG into his father and his girlfriend into his sister!

Caliban · Nov 16, 2017

shidaku said:
But really if I can't motivate players with my plot hooks, killing their friends won't help any.

It can be a stress reliever though. "One shot my arch-lich during his monologue with your broken ass characters will you? ...well little cousin Timmy's gonna pay the price...OP power gaming munchkins..."

Sunseeker · Nov 16, 2017

Caliban said:
It can be a stress reliever though. "One shot my arch-lich during his monologue with your broken ass characters will you? ...well little cousin Timmy's gonna pay the price...OP power gaming munchkins..."

I've had one encounter one-shot by high-level PCs, it was quite sad. Though I think it'd be funnier if cousin Timmy turned out to be the BBEG.

Shasarak said:
It gets worse then that; the DM turns the BBEG into his father and his girlfriend into his sister!

Simple, time travel and a sex change.

Actually, I misread that as turning the BBEG into his father, girlfriend AND sister.

Shasarak · Nov 16, 2017

shidaku said:
Simple, time travel and a sex change.

Actually, I misread that as turning the BBEG into his father, girlfriend AND sister.

Ha, that would be a story alright! I remember one with a time traveling Pie.

The Crimson Binome · Nov 16, 2017

Caliban said:
If you trust the DM not to use your characters friends and family as a cheap plot device, and you know your character may become more directly involved in the campaign plot lines if you give the DM some material to work with, then that's incentive to create a more detailed background full of not-dead relatives and associates for the DM to use.

Even that assumes you want the DM to contrive plot around your character, as though your character was some sort of protagonist in a story. For those of us who prefer to consider our character as an actual person living within that world, rather than a mere narrative construct, both types of intervention are equally bad. Whether my family is killed, or whether they win the lottery and gift me a +3 sword, anything that happens to them because I'm a PC is equally unwanted.

Orphan PCs serve to ward off the well-meaning DMs who simply don't understand that point, as well as the malevolent DMs trying to make you suffer for the sake of art.

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

Nytmare

David Jose

Salamandyr

Adventurer

Sunseeker

Guest

Nytmare

David Jose

Caliban

Rules Monkey

Shasarak

Banned

Caliban

Rules Monkey

Sunseeker

Guest

Shasarak

Banned

The Crimson Binome

Hero

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