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<blockquote data-quote="Ryltar" data-source="post: 5409887" data-attributes="member: 19393">I guess that everyone agrees that PCs that have a reason to be involved in the story are a good thing. Still, I wonder how much of this debate in the end boils down to the level of motivation and/or the general disposition of your players? For example, in my campaign, I have one player that would best be qualified as a tag-along. He highly enjoys roleplaying his character, however, he just can't get himself to do a background writeup no matter how many times you ask. With this player (type), making up background as the campaign goes along would definitely fail as a concept, because it requires players to be proactive and provide the DM with ideas and input: 'Ooh, I know - that sign over there is the sign of a thieves' guild from&nbsp; my home city, which I was involved with back when ...'. Isn't going to happen anytime soon.Therefore, the most general suggestion I can give is: do what works for your players on a case-by-case basis. Have the ones that like doing that come up with backgrounds before the campaign starts, but also make it clear that you are looking for additional input to flesh out the characters at any given time. This may result in some very detailed characters, while others are 'mere shells', but in my experience, there is a kind of player that is happy just playing the game as it is. If you were to force a background upon them, that'd be a lot of work that (probably) would go to waste.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ryltar, post: 5409887, member: 19393"] I guess that everyone agrees that PCs that have a reason to be involved in the story are a good thing. Still, I wonder how much of this debate in the end boils down to the level of motivation and/or the general disposition of your players? For example, in my campaign, I have one player that would best be qualified as a tag-along. He highly enjoys roleplaying his character, however, he just can't get himself to do a background writeup no matter how many times you ask. With this player (type), making up background as the campaign goes along would definitely fail as a concept, because it requires players to be proactive and provide the DM with ideas and input: 'Ooh, I know - that sign over there is the sign of a thieves' guild from my home city, which I was involved with back when ...'. Isn't going to happen anytime soon. Therefore, the most general suggestion I can give is: do what works for your players on a case-by-case basis. Have the ones that like doing that come up with backgrounds before the campaign starts, but also make it clear that you are looking for additional input to flesh out the characters at any given time. This may result in some very detailed characters, while others are 'mere shells', but in my experience, there is a kind of player that is happy just playing the game as it is. If you were to force a background upon them, that'd be a lot of work that (probably) would go to waste. [/QUOTE]

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