DM "adding" to your PC's background?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've found that this is largely a reaction to a string of DMs who can't help but look at your character's history and living family members as targeting lists.

A heavy-handed DM can make anything suck. But where would Superman be without Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen to rescue, or fears about someone targeting the Kents back in Smallville?

Orphanman would be a lot less interesting than Superman. Players closing off the possibility of plots revolving around NPCs and institutions that they care about are really cutting out a lot of possibilities for engaging adventures.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think GMs should be free to create plots that are separate from the characters. It's really hard to write a plot that's relevant for four or five completely different individuals, whose characters and backgrounds were all created separately from each other.

It's also really hard for DMs to keep creating plots about brand new NPCs and situations that the players will endlessly care about:

"Oh, another princess needs rescuing? OK, I guess."

I'm not sure who wins there.

Secondly, who said that every plot applies to every player character equally every time? Rotate through the characters and institutions. Since we're not dealing with a tribe of brooding loners who form no emotional connections to each other, the whole party should be happy to help rescue the cleric's family farm or help the paladin do well at the jousting tourney and impress his beloved.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's also worth noting that a DM shouldn't just use these characters as cannon fodder. The relatives and friends and sweethearts should also be patrons for adventures, sources of information and other resources.

Don't JUST use their baby sister as dragon bait -- she should also be the one who knows all the gossip and, through her mooning over every minstrel who comes through town, know lots of rumors about what's happening beyond the local area.

Dad shouldn't just be (later on) the evil general at the head of an army of humanoids: He should also be the NPC who helps connect the player characters with military NPCs for aid or maybe for patronage.

Then, when they become a hostage or a villain, they're a character who's always been part of the campaign, rather than just Robin, the Boy Hostage.

 

[The Shaman]

Often, when I am starting a new campaign, I will ask my players to give me one (or more) background elements specifically for me to screw with. This way, the player gets to have some say in the gotcha that his character is going to suffer, as an incentive to buy into it.

Why does there need to be a "gotcha" in the character's background at all? Don't the adventurers makes friends and enemies after the game starts?

 

[Gilladian]

As a DM, I've been trying to think outside the box for some new ideas (always a bad idea) and I was browsing through my players' PC's bios. They're great, but there's some holes like missing info about family background, where received training etc.

I guess many of you are the same, or do you always have detailed backgrounds in D&D? But anyways let's get to the point: What if I fill in the missing pieces as a surprise-element for a plot and suddenly a long-lost brother appears or mom is kidnapped or a rich uncle gives his niece a sizeable donation?

Of course this varies according to players, but is your view? How would you feel? Can't write anymore w just one hand....

Without having read all the other replies, my take is that the DM should NOT change the PC's background without his permission (ie if the player says his barbarian fighter was raised by wolves after being orphaned, then no siblings should appear unless they're wolfweres).

However, if the PC has NOT answered a question about his background (ie he mentions that his noble mother died after he was born but never mentions who her family was) then the DM has a free hand to indulge in plot-manipulation. And if the player doesn't know the campaign world very well, and thus doesn't map a detail to a campaign specific locale, the DM can select it (ie a wizard went to "a famous elven school of wizardry" can become the school in the town the PCs drop in on during their cross-country ramblings).

In other words - the PCs background is his to outline. The results of that outline are the Dm's to apply.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Why does there need to be a "gotcha" in the character's background at all? Don't the adventurers makes friends and enemies after the game starts?

No. They never do.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

A heavy-handed DM can make anything suck. But where would Superman be without Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen to rescue, or fears about someone targeting the Kents back in Smallville?

Like Star Wars, this is a story, not a game.

Why does there need to be a "gotcha" in the character's background at all? Don't the adventurers makes friends and enemies after the game starts?

That's part of the shared experience.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Count me as another for "Filling in blanks": a good background can provide not just a basis for the player to shape his PC's behavior, but also for the DM to put into the game elements by which the player can have his PC react in accord with his personality. If your PC is on the run from the Prince's men, you should welcome the chance to 1) kill a few, 2) be pressured into running further, 3) redeem yourself in the Prince's eyes, 4) overthrow the Prince, 5) find out the REAL reason you're getting chased, or 6) MAJOR PLOT TWIST!

 

[Neonchameleon]

How not to do it: On a night you don't remember, your mid-ranking PC went mad and invited the bad guys into the stedding through a magic ritual. It only took you and them to take over the whole place and corrupt it, turning almost everyone evil.

Yes, this has happened to one of my PCs. Worst Changeling Storyteller ever (we also had three DMPCs for a party of three in that campaign).

 

[Glade Riven]

When I create a character, the background I write is loose and intentionally filled with plot hooks for a DM. So if I was a player in your group, I'd be encouraging it.