Backstory - How Not To

[Umbran]

What I ask from the players now is to come up with interesting character motivations but to either do so collaboratively so that these motivations are planned to coincide or else to be flexible enough to change some stuff so that we can make it all work together.

In setting up my current Deadlands game, the way to handle that was simple - I noted to the players that I intended to address interesting stuff in their back-stories, but I wouldn't guarantee when we'd get to it. Have back-stories that either can, or even require, you to wander around a bit ion order to address the issues within them.

 

[mattcolville]

I find backstory work to be a kind of...self-gratification...that distracts from the real work of character.

What I want to know is...who is your dude? What does he look like, what impression does he leave on people when he meets them? What motivates him, what does he want? What is he willing to do to get it? What does he believe?

You can use backstory to figure that stuff out, but I find that if you're doing a lot of backstory work it's in lieu of figuring that stuff out. And if you're working on character, backstory becomes somewhat superfluous.

 

[Umbran]

I find backstory work to be a kind of...self-gratification...that distracts from the real work of character.

Ah, you see, I think that real work of character kind of requires at least some backstory...

What I want to know is...who is your dude? What does he look like, what impression does he leave on people when he meets them? What motivates him, what does he want? What is he willing to do to get it? What does he believe?

Are we not the products of our past experiences? What motivates you, what do you want - you can assign traits, sure, but for real people they come largely from past experiences. Having a backstory lets you not just assign them, but derive them when you haven't specifically and explicitly stated them before.

But then, if you're not so much into the amateur theater aspect, this is perhaps less important.

 

[mattcolville]

Ah, you see, I think that real work of character kind of requires at least some backstory...



Are we not the products of our past experiences? What motivates you, what do you want - you can assign traits, sure, but for real people they come largely from past experiences. Having a backstory lets you not just assign them, but derive them when you haven't specifically and explicitly stated them before.

But then, if you're not so much into the amateur theater aspect, this is perhaps less important.

I think there's a difference between "that past which has influenced my character" and writing 3 pages of backstory including where he went to school and what he parents did and whether they got along.

You start with something like...he doesn't trust relationships, because that's interesting, it's informative, and then you decide it's because of his parents and you're done. You don't need to say anymore, you've said it.

I don't think detail is character I think character is character and detail is that which we waste time on because it's easier than character.

 

[Dedekind]

I don't like making a detailed history. I would much rather riff on whatever the DM puts in front of me. What usually complicates backstory development (for me) is that I don't know enough about the campaign world.

I will say, 10 years ago I would have been more interested. But I don't have the time to spend writing a detailed backstory which only might be used.

 

[The Shaman]

I have very little use for backstory or background.

As a player, my character backgrounds are very sketchy: "Arnaud is a decent swordsman who believes he could someday be a fencing master."

Sometimes the motivations may be a little more involved - for a D&D game many years ago I ran a halfling thief who wanted to start an exotic spell components supply business, frex.

My character is not searching for the sister he never knew. He is not looking to avenge himself on the orcs who killed his family. He's not the bastard son of some mucky-muck. He's just this guy, and the most interesting things in his life are ahead of him - that's his motivation for becoming an adventurer right there.

As a referee I pay very little attention to backstory. A character's relevant backstory begins on the second night of actual play with a recounting of the first night's events.

A player in my games should write as much or as little backstory as she wishes as a personal tool for running her character, but she should not expect me to draw from it during the game. I don't have plots, so 'plot hooks' are wasted on me, and I prefer that players don't write conflicts into their characters which project forward into the game - your character is going to make friends and enemies in short order, so instead of creating a revenge plot whole-cloth, take revenge on someone or something your character met in actual play. "I want to avenge my parents' death!" is nowhere near as interesting to me as, "I want to avenge [fill-in-player-character's-name-here] death!"

In my experience, players have far more stake in the experiences they share at the table than they do in stuff created as part of a character's backstory. Adventurers have skin in the game as a result of actual play unfolding, so I encourage the players to take their motivations from that experience.

 

[karlindel]

I like for players to have some background/story, as it helps them to roleplay their characters and determine their motivations. It also helps me in populating the world with things that their characters will find interesting.

I also think that the most interesting events should take place at the table. A background that never comes up is not nearly as good as a background that comes to life at the table. I have found that many players enjoy having things from their character's background come up in game, and so I try to incorporate such elements into my campaigns.

Also, backgrounds should be tied to the character's abilities and skills, explaining where they got training and why, what their current goals are (both short and long term), who they would go to in times of need (either people or organizations), and the like.

 

[Lanefan]

I prefer not to bother with character history except when it's necessary*. It saves a lot of time both for me and the players.

That said, if a player wants to do up a basic history (hometown, surviving family and what they do, etc.) I'm cool with that: either I can roll some stuff up for them if they want the chance of something exotic - e.g. you were in fact born on a different world than the campaign is set on - or they can do it on their own if they're willing to keep it relatively mundane.

* - such as when a wild magic surge in my game teleported a PC to his birthplace; we had to stop for a moment and figure out where his birthplace was...

Otherwise, for long-lasting characters most of the history comes through what they do in the game.

Lan-"in fact, I-as-character wasn't born on my original campaign world"-efan

 

[pukunui]

I've found that without backgrounds, characters end up being just a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper with no personality. I don't require pages and pages of background, but I like having something so that the character is less one-dimensional.

I also like to mine my players' character backgrounds for plot hooks so I can personalize the campaign in order to get my players more emotionally invested in it.

For my current SWSE campaign, I kicked things off with a character creation session. I told everyone that they had been Separatist mercenaries during the Clone Wars and thus all knew each other, and that they had been drifting around the Outer Rim for the past three years leading a very Firefly-esque life. I got them to build their characters together in hopes that it would improve their teamwork, since they normally just go off and build their characters in complete isolation with no thought to what anyone else is making (my group is not good at teamwork or party tactics). Most of them went along with that, but one of them wanted to play a Clone, while another wanted to play a Jedi ... but they managed to work it all out brilliantly. The Jedi lost his master during the Clone Wars (and I took that hook and made it so she hadn't actually died and was in fact the Jedi Master they would find fairly early on in the campaign) and had defected to the Separatists afterwards, while the Clone had refused to carry out Order 66 and had been thrown into the same prison as the Separatist PCs, and then they all escaped together during a prison riot.

During that session, I attempted to apply the Spirit of the Century character creation method, but the players got a little confused, so for all subsequent PCs that have joined the campaign (either new players' PCs or existing players' replacement PCs), I just require a paragraph or two of background covering where the PC comes from, who their family is, what they've been doing, whether or not they participated in the Clone Wars and so on.

The most important thing for me, though, is the character's psychology. I get each player to give me at least one thing their character Loves, Hates/Dislikes, and Fears, and at least one thing that Motivates them. I got this from GM Chris over on the d20 radio forums. So far, it's worked really well. It's given me lots of juicy hooks to work into the game (not just in terms of making someone a PC's uncle or whatever, but also in terms of presenting moral dilemmas and putting the PCs into awkward situations to see how the player reacts and so on).

Also, I don't require that the players reveal all their character's background to the rest of the players, so there can still be elements of discovery (at least for the other players) during the campaign.

At the very least, it gets my players to think about their character as a character and not just a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper. But I find that it also helps me personalize the campaign, which is a good thing.


If anyone's interested in looking at the backgrounds my players came up with for their PCs in my current SWSE campaign, you can check them out on my campaign log site: Absolut Dawn.

 

[thewok]

As a player, I enjoy writing backstories, giving glimpses into little bits of a character's past. As a DM, I enjoy reading them. I give xp bonuses for them, too, but I'm not judging on quality, so people who give me a few lines get the bonus, too.

I wrote up a backstory for my tiefling invoker that explained her background (Heaven's Weapon; she could understand and speak Supernal) and her first-level daily power (Angelic Protector). It wasn't the best story, but it wasn't meant as a novel. it also left a few hooks, such as living "family" (as a ward of the church, she wasn't adopted, but she has loved ones, as well as a twin brother, who is the party cleric).

I also have characters that I've fleshed out as time went on. My first D&D character ever, a human sorceror, has been fleshed out some and is now a major NPC in the world I created. The NPC has come about as a combination of the D&D character and the character I played in EQ and play in EQ2. My EQ/EQ2 guild is a major shadow organization in the campaign world, too, with a few differences.

I just relish story. I like reading, and I like being entertained. I enjoy writing, as well, and I guess I'm lucky that I have a DM (and group) that enjoys reading what I've written.