I know what you meant. See post #77.Ahh.. yeah, I meant the back stories of player characters. I have no desire to open up a can of worms about player backstories.
I know what you meant. See post #77.Ahh.. yeah, I meant the back stories of player characters. I have no desire to open up a can of worms about player backstories.
My point was that if players of non-harmonious backgrounds can sit at a table for hours at a time for months to achieve a common goal (having fun playing RPGs), it follows that PCs can also put aside even vast, divisive differences in their backgrounds if they share a common goal.
Does the number of players in your group affect backstory expectations. I rarely DM for less than 10 players. Requiring them all to have a detailed backstory would be a nightmare to keep straight.
Oh my god! I wouldn't/couldn't DM for a group over 6 players—that's my maximum load (I prefer 4, but what can you do?). Even without backgrounds, that would be too much for me to handle.Does the number of players in your group affect backstory expectations. I rarely DM for less than 10 players. Requiring them all to have a detailed backstory would be a nightmare to keep straight.
Does the number of players in your group affect backstory expectations. I rarely DM for less than 10 players. Requiring them all to have a detailed backstory would be a nightmare to keep straight.
Oh my god! I wouldn't/couldn't DM for a group over 6 players—that's my maximum load (I prefer 4, but what can you do?). Even without backgrounds, that would be too much for me to handle.
Agreed. I run an after school club with 17 players. It's a very different experience from running a game for 3-4 players.I've done 8 before, but for every player you have above 6, the more sensible Gygax's advice in the 1e AD&D becomes. Like, above 8 you will definitely want a party Leader/Caller who is essentially assisting you in organizing the cacophony of competing player requests for your attention.
Does the number of players in your group affect backstory expectations. I rarely DM for less than 10 players. Requiring them all to have a detailed backstory would be a nightmare to keep straight.
You mean like "Load last autosave" in a videogame?
That's crazy!
Yeah, this one's bugged me forever.... the oddity of RPG mechanics never acknowledging skill atrophy.
Around here 6 PCs could mean anything between 2 and 6 players at the table, as I generally allow players to run more than one PC at a time (that way if one dies there's still the other to playI'd think it would have to. I won't run more than six PCs.
I'll go out on a limb here and guess you're not expecting much by way of lethality or character turnover in this campaign.I'm just gearing up to start a new campaign. (My group is about 3 encounters from the end of the Reign of Winter AP.) And although we've enjoyed the outgoing campaign, character motivation has been a difficult thing to establish.
So with that in mind the next game is going to have a few session zeros.
First up will be a group brainstorm for the campaign setting and style. I want as much player contribution as possible because I want to encourage as much player buy-in as possible.
After we've done that I'll dream up the broad strokes of the setting based on the brainstorm. I'll send a summary to the players.
Then we have a second session 0 in which we all sit around brainstorming characters. This will be a mix of mechanical character design and working out background stories. Each character will have to have 1 connection to another character in their background.
I'm looking forward to it and I think it will add a lot to the game for everyone.
I'll go out on a limb here and guess you're not expecting much by way of lethality or character turnover in this campaign.
* - which is a lot of the reason why I make them last as long as possible!![]()
Granted, that obviously doesn't work for every class or character, but the "level 1 character who's done extraordinary things pre-game" can work, if you ignore the oddity of RPG mechanics never acknowledging skill atrophy.
The way I did that once was with a long-retired ranger whose small wilderness village was wiped out in a raid. So Granny grabbed her staff and went seeking revenge.If you write a long & detailed backstory for your PC, how are you justifying the fact that she's still only level 1? How can you have a "veteran of the ogre wars" who is a Fighter 1, or a Gandalf-aged mage who is a Wizard 1, only to see them quickly jump to level 3 or 4 after a few skirmishes with kobolds and giant spiders?
Functionally there is no difference between player written background and backstory from a gm perspective. Both of them will be atedious tug of war that gets worse the more into writing it the player is. For example...
Gm: this is going to be a grim dark gritty raven loft campaign.
So in another thread- the issue of players and large amounts of PC backstory came up. I'm not a fan- for a few reasons.
1) I find most of it "dead weight" (as another poster put it). The player gets very involved in this backstory, but it involves all sorts of fictional elements that don't/won't fit in the game/campaign as a whole.
2) For things that may actually tie in- Trying to work these elements into the game, for 4-6 PCs is a PITA unless the game is very scripted/some sort of railroad.
3) It's usually just "Hey look at me, my PC is so awesome"
In certain specific circumstances and a very specific plot-I'm OK with it. For example- Several years ago, my Son (a young teen) wanted me to run a single PC game in Middle Earth for him (Summer time- his friends all had stuff going on for a multiplayer game). He's not a Tolkien Scholar, but loves the movies and the Lore presented (and my blabbering on about things that are in the books but not the movies). He wasn't comfortable writing up a story about his PC-he's never been much of a roleplayer or writer, so he asked me to. ughh, I knew roughly the idea of what I wanted to present- but asked him a few questions- what kind of character, any story elements he wanted to touch upon, bits of lore he wanted to explore. etc. So I came up with this for him- which was a short backstory to get him to the present
So if someone came to me as a DM with this type of story in anormal multiplayer game, I'd roll my eyes and ask them- what is it that are looking to accomplish? That's just fluff. Do you have any goals? And If I got that type of thing from every player...::gags:
Now- Instead I ask Players to bring that creativity to the table with BACKGROUNDS and explore that together through play.
Backgrounds are a very simple mechanic that takes the place of skills in 13th Age. essentialy its a one to several word description of your PC's background. You can take up to 3 backgrounds and you have 8 points (max 5 points in any one background) to assign to them.
examples
Pirate Reaver of the Black Coast
Keeper of the Library at the ends of the Earth
Street Thief
Cobbler
Cook
As elaborate or simple as you like.
DURING GAME PLAY- you use these backgrounds to mechanical benefit by being creative with them in the fiction. For example- "Well, My PC was a Pirate Reaver of the Black Coast..he's an ace with knots and rope, he should be able to make a quick fix on the rope ladder bridge so we can get across..." Then the DM might say, OK- Make a DC20 Wisdom check, you can add your background points (+your Wisdom Mod). Or maybe it's some kind of conversation where you are trying to convince a NPC of something. The backgrounds are not tied to any one ability score. I might use that Pirate Reaver background to convince that NPC Pirate Captain to take me to the Lich King's Island using CHA .
Now if the explanation you give makes everyone at the table roll their eyes and groan- yeah not gonna work.
IMO the experience of creating the PC's background with everyone around the table- discovering these things through play is way more satisfying for me as a DM AND for the players- I also find it opens up easier and appropriate ways to tie the PCs backgrounds into the story/plot going forward. I take notes on the way the backgrounds get used for future sessions.
I use this background system now in pretty much every session I run for any game.
For example...
Gm: this is going to be a grim dark gritty raven loft campaign.
Pc1 can I play a turtle?
Gm:yes but see grim dark raven loft
Pc1 shows up with ten pages of nonsense about how his tortle donataro is on a quest to avenge his family name after his father high king eliminated of water deep was disgraced by scheming backstabbing business partners.. oh and he wears a purple mask to match the purple grip on his quarterstaff. At every opportunity pc1 will remind someone "well on a role player and my character would.... " or try to call upon high king eliminster's name then argue with NPCs about it no matter how often the gm reminds him grim dark ravenloft so they don't exist and he was told.
Pc2 says "I'm an Everton style orc bard with cadet background. He shows up and dives into the grim dark ravenloft campaign where he discovers his character along with everyone else to fit the campaign as it progresses. . All is great.
Pc3 is also an Eberron type orc cadet bard but has four pages of msrysue fanfic about how he was wronged as a cadet and framed by corrupt superiors flto cover up their embezzling. He too says many of the same things as pc1 and never makes any attempt to join the grim dark ravenloft campaign or tie his pre written backstory to either the campaign or any other player no matter how many olive branches are extended to the party's second broken latch. Like pc1 he expects an 18 level ravenloft campaign about unethical human experimentation and the ramifications based loosely on an old racenloft module/supplement about that to significantly involve his corrupt boot camp instructors from $notbleepingravenloft