D&D General Background Vs. Backstory

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I do backstories on all my PCs, regardless of system. Thing is, I don’t care all that much what the GM thinks about it or uses it. Why?

Because- for me- the main function of the background is to give me a story that lays out certain character parameters. Quirks, formative events, motivations, etc. Those, in turn, help me make sure I am making character decisions in character. Think of it as a metaphorical helm.

Character backgrounds have helped me decide things like whether a PC would surrender or fight in a situation, whether or not a PC would participate in a challenge, and even the offensive spells, Feats or even classes a PC would choose.

To name but a few.

 

[Lanefan]

I agree with the OP: overly detailed backstories are a burden to the GM.

Only if the GM feels she needs to do anything with them other than read them once.

@Dannyalcatraz has it right: whatever backstory I dream up is mostly to inform me how this character got to be who and where and what it is, and give a base to play it going forward; and if that backstory never enters play beyond that, fine with me. That said, sometimes the backstory I dream up can - if the DM so desires - help fill in some minor setting details.

An example is the backstory I came up with for my Roman-culture wizard. I determined she'd done time in the Legions as a functionary and later a minor staff mage; what rank she reached; how she came to leave the Legions (long story!); and why she's now an adventurer. In process of doing this, with the DM's OK I came up with a bunch of info about the Legions - various commander names and capabilities, some history, roughly where the units she served in were at what time in her past, and so forth - that he can later use or not as he sees fit.

But now, it means that during play I can quite literally tell war stories in character and back them up with hard info that, should someone question my veracity (how dare they!), would be largely verifiable. The notes are already there for me to riff off of, which I'd never be able to do otherwise and keep it all consistent - my memory's not that good.

 

[Helldritch]

I do not like over complicated background from the players. Usually, a player will come with something impossible for his/her level (especially at level 1, the I killed an Ogre syndrome or whatever...). What I want however, is the Personality, Bond, Ideal and Flaws from their back ground. I allow Inspiration for playing these (especially the flaw). I put these on a plasticized sheet on which every characters are. White wolf had a great system for that, demeanor and nature. Come to think of it, it might be a good thing to add in D&D for allowing inspiration...

 

[Azzy]

I actually struggle to understand this.

Yeah, I don't get not doing this.

How does it work in a D&D game? What if players don't know the setting very well. How do they write a backstory that fits?

Discussion with the DM helps. For instance, I'm soon to run an Eberron campaign. All my players and me are new to the setting, I've read the entire Rising from the Last War book and can help them with questions with the setting that comes up. I've suggested to them to read the introduction chapter to get the gist of the setting, and they can go from there as they see fit. The Eberron book is great in that it active asks players to think about their characters in the context of the setting (like what were you doing during the Last War, how do you feel about Warforged, etc.) and how they fit in. But if thehe playrs want the cliff note version, they can just ask me, and I'll ask themm questions about their character. They can run their ideas by me and I can tell them if it fits and how to make it fit if is doesn't quite.

How do they write a backstory that's relevant?

The DM tries to make it relevant.

Almost every game I've ever played in has had the players backgrounds created on the spot during character generation, and sometimes they get further detailed in play. We talk about what the setting is and about what type of characters we want and then we make them to fit.

My group does a Session 0 (or mulltiple Session 0s, as needed), and we try to take care of things before gameplay.

I would be a little shocked if a player handed me a written backstory. What am I supposed to do with it?

Mine it for hooks and ideas to use in your campaign. They are adventure hooks just waiting to be used and exploited by an enterprising DM.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Discussion with the DM helps. For instance, I'm soon to run an Eberron campaign. All my players and me are new to the setting, I've read the entire Rising from the Last War book and can help them with questions with the setting that comes up. I've suggested to them to read the introduction chapter to get the gist of the setting, and they can go from there as they see fit. The Eberron book is great in that it active asks players to think about their characters in the context of the setting (like what were you doing during the Last War, how do you feel about Warforged, etc.) and how they fit in. But if thehe playrs want the cliff note version, they can just ask me, and I'll ask themm questions about their character. They can run their ideas by me and I can tell them if it fits and how to make it fit if is doesn't quite.

Just start them in a small village and have them learn about the world organically.

 

[reelo]

Two of the premisses of my games are:

"You play your character, not a screenwriter writing your character."
and also
"There is nothing that is supposed to happen."

 

[Azzy]

Just start them in a small village and have them learn about the world organically.

How about no.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

How about no.

ok

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't believe a character's history is something that is required to come forward in a campaign game itself. It CAN, absolutely, but it isn't the reason for its existence. As others have said, I think it helps players think of who their PC is and what is important to them and how they might react and behave when the game does start.

That being said... based upon the large amounts of people here on the boards that get themselves so deep in talking about game mechanics and whether things are balanced and whether they've bored seeing the same mechanics over and over again and why aren't there more player-side options being released (and the vitriol coming out of all of that)... I suspect many of the players here don't actually care that much about who their character is, but really only about what their character does. A character backstory doesn't matter, because nothing that has happened "off-screen" matters in the game. Which makes it not at all surprising that some folks in this thread find character backstory unnecessary or a waste of time or nothing more than a player wank-off session.

For some folks, their character's definition is "An warrior master with the glaive, which is why I'm a Human Battlemaster Fighter with Great Weapon Fighting Style, and the Sentinel and Polearm Master feats", rather than "A former cook on the Maiden's Smile naval vessel of the Sarvokian Empire who was accidentally thrown overboard and abandoned on a deserted island and have only recently returned to shore" (with then an additional four or five blocks of text talking about where they had gone and who them met before they grouped with the table right now.) One isn't better or worse than the other... but it's not surprising that people have opinions on what they feel is more important.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I like to do a brief backstory for my PCs, no more than two or three paragraphs. If I was playing in an OD&D style game (Gary Gygax's group apparently didn't name their PCs until 4th level, the death rate was so high) I wouldn't do this. But then I wouldn't want to play Gygaxian D&D, except as a videogame.