How much back story for a low-level PC?

[Bullgrit]

This poll is multiple selection so you can choose one answer as a DM and one answer as a Player. Please don't check more than one for each section. [Edit: sadly, just 6 voters into this poll and someone has already voted for more than one answer in each section.]

As a DM, how much back story do you prefer a Player to give you for a low-level PC?

As a Player, how much back story do you prefer to give the DM for a low-level PC?

Bullgrit

 

[Nagol]

As both a DM and a player, when I'm working with "grow into power" type games, the focus is on developing the character during play. A few tidbits that tie the character to the world are OK, but not strongly required.

How much backstory can a 16-18 year old have anyway?

 

[Neonchameleon]

What's the campaign? What's the system? And what's the background? Also, how entertaining is the writer?

 

[Neonchameleon]

How much backstory can a 16-18 year old have anyway?

If the 18 year old is named Harry Potter and the campaign starts after Book 7?

 

[ExploderWizard]

Don't really need any. If someone feels like writing up something for fun I will read it. Spending too much effort on a character that might die in the first session seems like a waste of effort.

 

[Bullgrit]

For me, "back story" is what happened in the previous game sessions. Back story that supposedly happened before the first game session is of no interest to me.

Through lots of experience, I find that Players/PCs are more interested in and attached to that little girl they rescued from the goblins during an actual game session than they are to any little girl they are supposedly related to through their pre-game back story.

Bullgrit

 

[IronWolf]

As a player I usually write-up a couple of paragraphs of background, possibly up to a page. Most of my characters tend to be from a long lived race - dwarf or elf - so I can detail out some of the early years. Usually the hardest thing is keeping things in check, as if the character is low-level he probably hasn't done a lot of heroic things just yet. So the background will cover family and probably at least one significant event that helped shape the character.

For me the background is more me getting a feel for the character and possibly keeping a core motivation in mind at the start of the campaign. Of course campaign events very well may cause the character to grow in a different path, but I like knowing the starting point.

The character background is provided to the DM of course. He or she can see fit to use what they want to haunt my character later in the campaign.

As I DM I do like to see at least a paragraph about the character, if the player wants to provide more that is welcome as well. The character background can be a wealth of plot hooks or ways to help bring things to life around the character as my current DM has taught me!

 

[IronWolf]

For me, "back story" is what happened in the previous game sessions. Back story that supposedly happened before the first game session is of no interest to me.

From the DM perspective, player or both?

Through lots of experience, I find that Players/PCs are more interested in and attached to that little girl they rescued from the goblins during an actual game session than they are to any little girl they are supposedly related to through their pre-game back story.

Very true. Backstory or not, events that actually took place in a gaming session do seem closer to the PCs.

 

[Nagol]

If the 18 year old is named Harry Potter and the campaign starts after Book 7?

Then he's no longer low-level.

 

[Vurt]

For me, after multiple decades playing the game and a bazillian personas come and gone in one form or another, a short, decently written backstory can really help me remember how to role-play a certain character.

A few sentences highlighting a couple of pivotal moments in the character's life can make the difference in terms of providing motive and direction for PCs and NPCs alike. There's "gruff barkeep", and then there's "gruff barkeep who's tired and fed up with being robbed every few months and looking for a way to do something about it."

Context matters.

That said, if my players don't want to provide me with a backstory, that's fine, it just means I won't be able to hook them into the game world beyond the adventure I'm running for everyone. But then typically they're the ones who show up just to roll dice and kill things anyway.