Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 5409963" data-attributes="member: 99">I've told the story here before of how we used to have big, multi-page backstories submitted for some of the PC's.&nbsp; Then, for an Eberron campaign I started, I instituted a rule:&nbsp; &quot;You get 100 Bonus XP if you submit a background of half a page or less.&nbsp; You get a 100 XP Penalty if you submit a background longer than that.&quot;The problem that I'd encountered which led me to that was conflicting backstories that carried over into play.&nbsp; And the longer the backgrounds were, the more chances for them to conflict.&nbsp; When Player A had background that said:&quot;It was only last summer when the Orcs of the Western Hills burned my village, murdered my parents and carried my little sister off into slavery.&quot;And Player B had a background that said:&quot;My father was a crusader against the Eastern Infidels and died fighting them.&nbsp; I've vowed to recapture his sword, which is my birthright!&quot;Then my campaign typically starts with this conversation:Player A:&nbsp; We go WEST!Player B:&nbsp; We go EAST!Player A:&nbsp; No, WEST!Player B:&nbsp; EAST!!etc.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.&nbsp; I absolutely LOVE incorporating character background into my campaigns.&nbsp; I do not plan gigantic plot arcs in advance and pretty much always base long term campaign goals on what the players want to do (they of course take into considerations the grand scheme of what other factions in the world are up to as well).&nbsp; So there is plenty of room for player input, so long as that player input doesn't cause inter-party strife.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rel, post: 5409963, member: 99"] I've told the story here before of how we used to have big, multi-page backstories submitted for some of the PC's. Then, for an Eberron campaign I started, I instituted a rule: "You get 100 Bonus XP if you submit a background of half a page or less. You get a 100 XP Penalty if you submit a background longer than that." The problem that I'd encountered which led me to that was conflicting backstories that carried over into play. And the longer the backgrounds were, the more chances for them to conflict. When Player A had background that said: "It was only last summer when the Orcs of the Western Hills burned my village, murdered my parents and carried my little sister off into slavery." And Player B had a background that said: "My father was a crusader against the Eastern Infidels and died fighting them. I've vowed to recapture his sword, which is my birthright!" Then my campaign typically starts with this conversation: Player A: We go WEST! Player B: We go EAST! Player A: No, WEST! Player B: EAST!! etc. 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. I absolutely LOVE incorporating character background into my campaigns. I do not plan gigantic plot arcs in advance and pretty much always base long term campaign goals on what the players want to do (they of course take into considerations the grand scheme of what other factions in the world are up to as well). So there is plenty of room for player input, so long as that player input doesn't cause inter-party strife. [/QUOTE]

Verification