Chaosmancer
Legend
@Chaosmancer You chose to defend the group you seem to want called "people who write backstories". I don't care if you are part of that group or not, but your choice to defend them without attempting to address the issue by dismissing a problem common enough within that group for @Coroc to mock it with his "good luck with that" comment in post 101 along with others from other posters over the last six pages of this thread makes it very clear that the problem in question of sheltering "self entitled jerks" (as you put it) within the group of "people who like to write backstories" is something that group should acknowledge within itself & put more effort into addressing rather than dismissing as an aberrant observation of specific individuals.
Given your desperation to find offense and continued insistence on dismissal rather than addressing the problem it looks like we are done here @Chaosmancer
If you want to walk away, feel free, but I'm still trying to figure out how this is a confusing stance.
Don't be a jerk.
Don't be a spotlight hog.
Don't cheat.
Don't try and hide cheating, spotlight hogging and jerkitude by writing a backstory.
These are not mutually exclusive, and they have nothing to do with writing backstories. I am not "dismissing the problem", people who act the way you have described are a problem, but they are not a problem because they write backstories.
I mean, why is it my responsibility as a person who writes backstories to police all jerks? Do I need to police the guy who buys the module and reads it ahead of every session so they know the secrets? I disapprove of that practice, but I also buy modules, because I am a DM and I find useful material in them. Do I need to police DMs who create DMPCs and lord over their players? I've created characters who have adventured with the party before.
Heck, do I need to police all people who hog the food and leave a mess at the DMs house? I went to a friend's house to game for months, ate there too, am I responsible for policing all people who do that?
The only claim I have made is you are conflating two communities as being the same just because they share one specific action. Writing Backstories. And, like them, dislike them, write them, have horrid expeirences of marysue overload with them... you can't blame everyone who writes a backstory because some people try and take advantage of it to cheat the game and hog the spotlight.