DMs: What are your character pet peeves?

[The Shaman]

The patch between "no background elements of note" and "backgrounds of such import that the player expects the entire game to be about his background details" is quite wide. I roll around in it like a haystack.

I tried that; I ended up itchy and sneezing.

For us next week the order of business is trying to frantically prevent an assassination (while hoping the one they commissioned goes off smoothly) and deposing the local head of one of the Houses who's about to set the city at civil war. Admittedly, the players could have accidentally driven Bravadi Rovino into his warmongering state even if (a) one of them hadn't turned out to be the same young blade who slept with Bravadi's daughter and fled town, and (b) another hadn't been a member of House Rovino who's used her family contacts to get close to him, setting up the accidental drive into paranoia. But the backgrounds helped things move along in record time, and there was really nothing quite like the looks on the players' faces when I said "Scorpis looks at you in surprise, and then his eyes narrow in recognition."

Good times.

That's a player issue -- special snowflake syndrome -- not one inherent in having a background.

Agreed.

I urge players to keep their backgrounds simple so that I don't spend all my time shoveling the walk.

Even if all a player does is detail who is mentor is and why he's going out and sacking dungeons, it at least informs who a character will be to start off with.

Why rob banks? 'cause that's where the money is.

There's my motivation.

The argument that the poster to whom I responded made is that good backgrounds make good motivations. I don't believe that's necessarily true. I think good motivations come from good players, without regard to that bit of fanfic on the character sheet.