Backgrounds--Does your PC have one? Does it get used?

[Graybeard]

As a player, I always create a background for my characters. The DMs are good enough to use at least some of the things I put in the backgrounds as plot hooks or mini afventures for my PCs. As a DM, I require them for the same reason. My current players have given me a mixed batch of backgrounds. Some good, some not so much. The party had visited the family of one of the PCs quite often in my current game.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I always create backgrounds for my PCs and make occasional use out of the players backgrounds. If they are starting past 2nd level I insist on them having one, and it usually gets worked out in a discussion, what they want to play vs how the world is set up. It comes with a reason to travel with the party, and a few background relationships, more frequently with organizations then individuals.

I had one player who would write up 1-2 pages for each character, he was a powergamer, but liked his background stories and cultures.

The Backgrounds are more likely to shape the way the PCs react to things rather than come up specifically in play. Example -
2 pcs were raised by a tribe of barbarians owned by a dragon, one still worshiped dragons while the other ploted to kill them, sending NPC hunters after them, and making boots out of a Wyrmling. They were eventually supposed to return, but they didn't make it that far.

 

[EdL]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The more I know about the world/area background, the more likely I am to write a character background. Or I might just get inspired by some minor tidbit of info. Or not at all.

 

[Arkhandus]

As a DM, I rarely demand backgrounds, but I do always suggest or ask players to come up with some kind of background for their characters if they can. I don't always integrate the backgrounds into the campaign, but usually I at least make bits and pieces of the PC backgrounds come up or have some importance in the game. I usually make backgrounds matter at least somewhat, though, and I usually reward players a bit when they do come up with good backgrounds.

In my current DMing campaign, Rhunaria...... One PC is driven entirely by his background, and the rest of the PCs currently follow him around, though that wasn't always the case..... Another two PCs are searching for some answers related to their backgrounds, seeking to understand a few events in their past or why they have certain talents..... And the other PCs have little background or just nothing really useful or important in it, other than being the factor that drives them to wander and adventure with random folks. A few of them do have minor bits of background that will come into use later, as of my current plans.

I always make at least one paragraph of background for my characters, unless the game is simply a one-shot adventure with little background and little chance of growing into anything more. On average I create 2-3 paragraphs of background, but on occasion I've devised considerably more background. I also create 1-2 paragraphs of personality description and 1-2 paragraphs of appearance description, except, again, for one-shot games.

Lessee.....characters I've played in the past few years (I mostly end up DMing though)..... Vaeron Dunerunner, 4 paragraphs of background. Corvus Thoracius, one paragraph. Magnus Krieghelm, one long paragraph of background with room for more. Theodus Brightbeard, three paragraphs of background. Argus of the West Wind, one paragraph. Seruleus, two paragraphs. Alazphraxion, two paragraphs. Xerius Feldar, five short paragraphs of background. Donovan "Van" Gallagher a.k.a. "Panzer" (for Shadowrun), 1 long paragraph of personal background but 15 small paragraphs of background for his many NPC contacts. Corbin Reinhardt (also for Shadowrun), 3 paragraphs but also 3 shorter paragraphs for NPC contact backgrounds.

There are one or two that I've forgotten the names for, due to having lost their character sheets, and can't recall how much background I had for them, but one on the tip of my tongue had about 2-3 paragraphs of description and even a bit of background on his magic items and some NPC allies/contacts....wish I could remember his name or find his sheet. An earth genasi fighter in Forgotten Realms.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

When I GM, if the players don't come up with backgrounds, motivations, and goals for there characters, there's no game.

I don't need a ton of backstory, but i construct the campaign as a series of player-driven subplots that wind together and interconnect. Oh sure, there's NPCs off pursuing their own goals, but that's just there to make sure the PCs have someone else to butt heads with.

 

[demiurge1138]

I rarely get to play, so I relish the opportunity to make character backgrounds. They're fun. I usually write about a page, more about character history and personality than appearance (that's usually covered pretty quickly in game). And, due to a quirk in my own players, I generally write first-person. Like diary entries, short autobiographies, that sort of thing. And, since my DM is kind (or foolish) enough to offer XP for background information and other creative writing projects, characters that last a while tend to accumulate more background.

Of course, the backgrounds-for-xp exchange was something I started to bribe my players into giving me backgrounds. Because, as a DM, I like them. It gives me some sense of the character and plenty of possible locations/goals/NPCs to work with. And they tend to be interesting reading - I like to see how other people's creative processes work. Sure, I've gotten some memorably bad ones, but even those are entertaining.

Demiurge out.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Yes and Yes. Bigtime.

Consider Edena himself. He is a cleric of Odin; Edena is a norse cleric.
Well, what happens in Norse Mythology when you die? You go to Nifleheim, to eternal darkness and cold, as one of the Dead. Eventually, you fade into Nothingness. (In D&D, Nifleheim is in The Gray Waste.)
So, regardless of your alignment, regardless of your life, regardless of what you do or why, you are going to the Plane of Ultimate Evil, there to sit til Ragnarok as one of the Dead, not caring or moving, slowly fading away into oblivion.
Going to Valhalla by dying in combat only DELAYS this from happening. It does not STOP it from happening.

Odin showed up personally (his avatar) and took Edena for a little trip. He showed him Nifleheim and his ultimate fate.

Now you know why Edena is just a little nutty.
He has to get everything out of life he can, for life is all there is!

That is an example of background being a driving force for a character. And indeed, at first Edena was not driven by this background, for I chose Odin as his deity long, long before I knew anything about Norse Mythology (rueful look.)

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Trillirra was a Haldendreevan elven girl. The history of Haldendreeva I detailed in another post.
Needless to say, Trillirra's background made a big splash on how she behaved, and what she did!

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Evendell was an elf from old Delrune, before it became Haldendreeva. He was an innocent, country-bumpkin type elf, who only wished to be friendly and merry, and to heroically stop the enemies of the elves. His naietivity was his downfall ... at the hands of his fellow PCs.

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Osilovar was a generic paladin. But I took inspiration from the opera Siegfried (not the other three operas in the Ring Cycle, just that particular one.)
Siegfried was immune to fear. It was a partially psychological thing, partially magical. In any case, Siegfried never did discover fear for himself: in the end, as he lay dying, he learned fear for another.
Siegfried was also remarkably naive and innocent.

So Osilovar was free of fear, naive, and innocent. He, like Siegfried, loved to blow his horn.
Osilovar ALWAYS blew his horn before entering a dungeon, attacking a fortress, or attempting anything that could be interpreted as hostility.
I found a new use for the paladin's Lay On Hands ability: it worked real well for reaffixing your teeth in your mouth after they had been knocked out, because the horn had been whacked through them by your fellow, infuriated, party members. (Eventually, they just took the horn and jumped up and down on it like the Tasmanian Devil did to Daffy Duck's bagpipes)

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Vailante the Valorous was based on Dirk the Daring, from the Dragonslair Arcade Game.
Vailante also had an Intelligence of 6.
Nuff said.

 

[Steverooo]

I hate it when GMs insist you create a background for your PC, when you know nothing about their world... It is especially annoying when they tell you "No, that can't have happened, in my world; we're going to have to change that to..."

I also hate that the background that I created never gets used, except as a mine for NPCs to bedevil the party with... Hence, my "Standard Background".

My PC was a wanderer before he was old enough to walk. His parents were part of an Elven Monotheistic Religious Caravan, 4/5 of which were wiped out when he was five, including his Mom & Dad. Having no siblings, nor other relatives of note, he was raised by the Clerics until he finally came to the age of majority. Now free to wander on his own, he began his adventures and (did this and that).

I created this background in the 3e days, pre-3.5e, using The Hero Builder's Guide. There is even a plot hook (he was "born under a strange moon, in the Year of the Comet") which no GM has ever even bothered to pick up on.

Hence, since the background never makes any difference, anyway, I just keep re-using it. I see no point in creating a new one, as it never gets used save for character motivation, anyhow...

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

As a DM I love to have PC backgrounds to browse, but often don't use all of them. Even if not ploted, I think they make the characters more real. So, I've taken to bribing my players. In DnD they'd normally get extra point buy stat points for cooking up a background that fits into my campaign guidelines. Generally I like them to answer around half a dozen key questions... most of which will yield potential plot hooks.

I bribe them for 2 basic reasons. Firstly, everyone will make a background this way... who wants to miss out on more stat points? Secondly, if I don't use their background then I've already 'paid' for it, so they're not being cheated so badly!

The reward for cooking up an extra interesting background is that it will get used!

How much background I make depends on the DM for a particular game... some I know hardly use any of it, so I'll come up with something basic. Others make it an integral part of the game and I'll write a ton of material. I always like to have something, if for nothing more than helping decide where numbers and feats should go.

 

[Bagpuss]

Keep my background at the start to a minimum, (unless we arn't starting at 1st level) I tend to think more of his personality, than history. History then gets filled in through play, when other characters ask mine a question about his past those details get filled in.