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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 5998649" data-attributes="member: 67">Lesson 15: Encourage your players to develop background as you go.Some players love to create elaborate backgrounds for their characters before the first session ever starts.  These players are great, because they provide all kinds of hooks for you to play off of right from the start—you should definitely take advantage of that (don't forget to <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?316091-Full-time-DM-Part-time-Prep&p=5768802&viewfull=1#post5768802" target="_blank">write those hooks down and put them in the box!</a>).For some players, however, this type of "work" is like pulling teeth (and not in the fun way).  That's okay.  Some players like to get to know their characters as they play them, after all.Now, there is an instinct, while DMing, to view the creation of serendipitous background information on the fly as an abuse of the game.  Certainly, some players will try to abuse such a system.  And yet...I recommend that you quell that instinct.You shouldn't be trying to squash such creativity—you should encourage it.First of all, there's no such thing as a serendipitous background.  Backgrounds exist to become relevant in a game.  Furthermore, every time a player introduces a new background element to your game, it is an opportunity for you to reintroduce it later (as, you know, a hook)!Furthermore, it encourages your players to think about how their characters fit in your world constantly.  That helps them invest in your setting, which is crucial when you aren't doing that much prep for it!So what if the bit of background seems entirely out of character?  Opportunity!  Remember that people are complex and work with (and possibly also against) the player to determine how and why this apparent contradiction came about (not necessarily on the spot).  And definitely make a note of it, so it can come back to haunt the character later.So, now that we can see reasons for encouraging this type of thing, how do you encourage it?  The method is up to you, but ought to be fairly minor (if you expect to see it happen frequently).I would suggest granting a floating circumstantial bonus to a relevant check whenever the player applies a known background element or comes up with a quick description of how some previously unknown bit of background might affect the current situation.  Then, of course, I would immediately write down that potential hook for future use.By "floating," I mean unattached, but finite. Without the finite limit, you could find that the more creatively abusive players will not only effectively have a +whatever bonus to all checks, but also take up most of the session getting it! Give the players a number of them for use in an adventure, session, adventuring day, encounter, or whatever other unit of time you think is appropriate and let their creativity determine when and how to assign them. All of a sudden, backgrounds become easy to generate, endlessly complex, and always relevant.</blockquote>

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