Backgrounds: Character perception or Reality

[the Jester]

It's from the pc's perspective.

How else could the dm ever surprise him with a twist on his backstory?

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Darn that girdle of femininity!

No problem with Empire Strikes Back moments, though! ("No, Redgar, Mialee is your father!")

RC

 

[Trickstergod]

Character perspective. I like wiggle room. I also think it's more exciting for a player not to know certain things, and be surprised when they're finally made clear.

The events should more or less be clear, and things shouldn't differ too far beyond what the character would reasonably know. For example, a high Wisdom, high Intelligence cleric who gave his loyalty over to a king he believed was noble and just shouldn't come to learn that the king was anything but, as that high Wisdom and Intelligence should have seen through most of the b.s. Conversely, if it's a dumb as rocks knight who did the same, that'd be different. The actual events shouldn't diverge too wildly from what the PC could reasonably be accurate on. If the PC can pipe in and say "My character never would have fallen for that!," then it's a change that shouldn't be made to the background, and it should just be left as it was portrayed.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

For me, it varies. Sometimes I feel like writing something that is entirely subjective, sometimes I don't.

The issue of in-game GM revision doesn't really apply, because either way, I tend to have areas that are deliberately left unexplained and undetailed for just that kind of thing. That way the stuff that I've labored the most on and consider the most important stays more or less mine, and the things that I want to be surprised about later are clearly marked and left completely open for the GM, who will hopefully use 'em to surprise me.


I'll confess, though, that I don't really bother with elaborate backgrounds for D&D characters. For other settings, I'm usually willing to spend a lot of time putting together a background with lots of interesting hooks and details and funny stories. But the most I'll do for D&D is two or three paragraph's worth, largely devoted to answering the two big questions--where did the PC come from and why are they adventuring?--and that's all. The rest is vague or made up on the spot if the GM asks later. There are a few possible reasons why I do this.

It might be because we typically start new games at 1st level, and I figure that anything that happens between level 1 and level 10 is bound to be about a trillion times more interesting than what happened before level 1, so why waste time on writing about the boring part of the character's life?

And on top of that, I have an expectation of PC mortality in D&D that I don't have in other systems; it's so damn easy to end up with a dead character with no means of raising them that I don't want to invest more than an hour in working up a background for them. And really, half an hour is a more reasonable amount anyway.

--
also, i don't really identify with or even like fantasy settings that much
ryan

 

[random user]

Definately character perspective. I would be careful about changing stuff around as a DM though, and would put out feelers to the player to see how they feel about such things.

 

[Gez]

I think, under those circumstances, your player may have larger issues than the fact that you tweaked his background a little.

Even in D&D, with reincarnate, polymorph, and the infamous girdles of transgenderness ?

"See, before he was slain by these orcs, Mialee was a man known as Rogbert, and he was the friend of that druidess Vadania, who reincarnated him as an elven lass, so of course he changed name because Rogbert the Comely Elven Maiden just don't sounds right."

 

[Gregor]

I play a low level swashbuckler in one campaign and I decided to deviate from the traditional 3rd person overview of his past. Instead, since my character is a smartacus and enjoys reading and writing, I have him keep a journal in the game. Thus, the first entry in his journal is his 1st person perspective of what has happened in his life up to the first session. Its his personal reflection and a prologue to what will be his book he plans to publish. His journal should be joining the ranks of Enworlds Story Hour room soon.

Cheers,

 

[Hand of Evil]

I do the question, answer, question. I take the time befor ethe game and as my players questions of their characters, from the answers I will ask other questions and then write down information.

In the example above:
Q: Who are parents?
A: Wood cutter Adam and milk maid Eve.
Q: Are they still living?
A: No.
Q: What happened to them?
A: Orcs killed them.
Q: Where did this take place?
A: Garden of Eden
Q: Why are you still alive?


On and on. I have a few questions that are standard and the answers I get can give me thoughts and ideas for plot hooks. Such as the player returns to the Garden of Eden.

 

[Presto2112]

When character write backgrounds in your campaign, or when you write your character's background for a campaign; is the background reality or is it just the chartacters perception of those events?

For instance, the classical parents killed by orc. Where the characters parents actually killed by orc, or is that just what he believes?

Well, all a PC has is his or her perception, isn't it?

Actually I've had backgrounds written that were initially meant to be historical fact, only to have the DM turn it around on me.

Every character background I've ever written has been written for one purpose only... story fodder for my DM. Once the CBG is written, it is completely up to him how - or even whether - he uses the information I give him.

 

[orchid blossom]

My character backgrouds usually point out a few important people in the characters life, and how they feel about those people. I fully expect the DM to mess around with the background. Some of the people will be as the character percieved them, and some will be different. That's where the fun is.