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<blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5476114" data-attributes="member: 3820">I always look at the conflict between contacts made during the game and contacts made during the period of a character's life before the games started as... not a conflict at all. In-game contacts are sausage. Background contacts are peppers. Having sausage on your pizza does not mean that peppers are an unworthy addition; having peppers does not mean we cannot have sausage. We like pizzas with both. Seriously, I just got done running a session in which one of the players, the group wandering around her home town, asked me directly &quot;Do I find anyone I know from way back when?&quot; That's what she likes -- ever since I ad-libbed her meeting an old quartermaster acquaintance, she really likes the back-and-forth of my suggesting an old relationship she would theoretically have, and she in turn interpreting how she'd act with this as part of her experience. (In this case, she discovered a weaponsmith who'd forged her coming-of-age blade, a sword she liked so much that her arms-dealing family forged a generous relationship with said smith.) The game is constantly getting sidetracked from anything resembling a &quot;main plot&quot; -- but each sidetrack is something that comes out of specific character issues, enhanced by background elements the players gave me, and everyone's enjoying the hell out of it.Dropping surprises into the backstories of characters is a tricky business, though, and I think it has to be utterly thematic -- which is to say, it has to be in keeping with what the player considers in the themes of his character. So, for instance, I know introducing a foppish but clever cousin modeled on Lord Rochester from Plunkett &amp; Maclane, and an attendant intrigue surrounding said cousin, is absolutely fine with a player who's specifically from a large, extended House with a lot of family squabbles and intrigues. If I consider surprising a player, I know it has to be a surprise that makes the player say &quot;I hadn't thought of that, but it's so perfect for my backstory.&quot; Those are harder to craft, but they're the ones that keep giving.I know in the initial post you say &quot;yes, it depends on the players, but&quot; -- yet I'm not sure that there is a &quot;but&quot; that supersedes the technique depending on the players. It really does come down to that, every time.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Barastrondo, post: 5476114, member: 3820"] I always look at the conflict between contacts made during the game and contacts made during the period of a character's life before the games started as... not a conflict at all. In-game contacts are sausage. Background contacts are peppers. Having sausage on your pizza does not mean that peppers are an unworthy addition; having peppers does not mean we cannot have sausage. We like pizzas with both. Seriously, I just got done running a session in which one of the players, the group wandering around her home town, asked me directly "Do I find anyone I know from way back when?" That's what she likes -- ever since I ad-libbed her meeting an old quartermaster acquaintance, she really likes the back-and-forth of my suggesting an old relationship she would theoretically have, and she in turn interpreting how she'd act with this as part of her experience. (In this case, she discovered a weaponsmith who'd forged her coming-of-age blade, a sword she liked so much that her arms-dealing family forged a generous relationship with said smith.) The game is constantly getting sidetracked from anything resembling a "main plot" -- but each sidetrack is something that comes out of specific character issues, enhanced by background elements the players gave me, and everyone's enjoying the hell out of it. Dropping surprises into the backstories of characters is a tricky business, though, and I think it has to be utterly thematic -- which is to say, it has to be in keeping with what the player considers in the themes of his character. So, for instance, I know introducing a foppish but clever cousin modeled on Lord Rochester from Plunkett & Maclane, and an attendant intrigue surrounding said cousin, is absolutely fine with a player who's specifically from a large, extended House with a lot of family squabbles and intrigues. If I consider surprising a player, I know it has to be a surprise that makes the player say "I hadn't thought of that, but it's so perfect for my backstory." Those are harder to craft, but they're the ones that keep giving. I know in the initial post you say "yes, it depends on the players, but" -- yet I'm not sure that there is a "but" that supersedes the technique depending on the players. It really does come down to that, every time. [/QUOTE]

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