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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 4460989" data-attributes="member: 40522">That's awesome and the exact same reason that I play. We all play RPGs for fun (I hope), and there's nothing in the world wrong with a beer-and-pretzels game as long as the players are all having fun. Over about the past five years, I've rgadually come to realize that the most "fun" type of D&D game to me is the classic huge, multilevel dungeon complex big enough to host an entire campaign. Not every game needs to be Macbeth or War and Peace--nor should every game aspire to be. Fun is the ultimate goal, not writing a novel. On the subject of character background... I actually refuse to make the classic ten-page character backgrounds for 1st-level characters. I'll do a half-page to perhaps one page at best, giving a broad picture of the character's childhood, training in their class, and why they chose to become an adventurer. Maybe a formative event, such as a family tragedy or a bittersweet romance, and a hook or two for the DM to incorporate into an adventure. That's it. I firmly believe that the current adventure is more important and should be more exciting than what once happened to the character long ago, and long, dramatic character backgrounds don't support that approach. As a DM, I flat-out tell people that I'm not going to read a biography longer than a page--and such players usually understand and condense their character backgrounds to the salient points.  Yeah, I've seen extremes on every side of conceivably every issue related to gaming. And although World of Darkness started this discussion... "sneering disdain" is about the most succint summary of the 4E-versus-3E threads of the past year as I can imagine. Most extremists of one play style as supreme aren't the sort of people that are worth listening to for very long. Anyone who tells me that I'm playing pretend the wrong way are usually missing the concept that not everyone has the same idea of fun. Why else would there be multiple versions of the same game, much less all the other games out there? But I do agree that some World of Darkness games (particularly Vampire) have a reputation for pretension and melodrama. Enough players fit the stereotype that it sticks.</blockquote>

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