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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5412391" data-attributes="member: 18253"> As real as what happens in play? Sure, it can be as real. Any background with setting implications (such as the destruction of a town for instance or the existence of an organization) needs to be approved by the ref, I would think, but the fact that it happened pre-game as background doesn’t make it any less real. Take an elf or dwarf who in standard settings might be 40 or 80 years old at start. That’s an awful lot of years in the world to not matter much when it comes time to start adventuring. As for a focus on literature or other fictional media, I use those as analogies. Those are media we are all familiar with and there are few players I’ve ever met who don’t keep some of that in mind while gaming. Sometimes analogies can help extend the conversation. It doesn’t follow that I actually heavily plot my games nor do I require players be always in-character. I just find it useful when they have a clear character concept and background helps. I also find it useful when they have interesting things in their backgrounds that can be tied into the world.   I wouldn’t say it is necessary but I would say it helps much more often than not. Let’s say you caught my attention with the paragraph below from this <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/298561-backstory-how-not-3.html#post5411701" target="_blank">post</a>:  To me, it seems to be claiming that backgrounds have no role or utility. That seems grossly overstated.</blockquote>

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