Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 3028035" data-attributes="member: 22779">IMNSHO, I think it is a mistake that many DM's make, to front end load information for the players.&nbsp; I know that I am guilty of this.&nbsp; And I've seen other DM's do it too.&nbsp; It's something to remember that the campaign will last for a while.&nbsp; You don't have to get it all right now.&nbsp; Hopefully the players have a year or so to absorb things.&nbsp; Dish it out in bite sized chunks fairly frequently rather than a big plateful right off the bat.I've come to the opinion that character background is what you do for the first four or five levels.&nbsp; After that, the campaign really starts.&nbsp; Start off the PC's as more or less blank slates and then let them fill in more of their background as they wish.&nbsp; If something in the game speaks to them and they ask if they can change their background to reflect that, allow it.&nbsp; In my above example, if one of the PC's decides that his character has family ties to one or the other group after learning about this, go for it.Too many times, character backgrounds are either created entirely open with almost no ties (I'm particularly guilty of this) or incredibly detailed to the point where if you act upon that background as a DM, you wind up forcing the game to revolve around one PC.&nbsp; Instead, allow an open ended background but make it clear that adding to that background is fine.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 3028035, member: 22779"] IMNSHO, I think it is a mistake that many DM's make, to front end load information for the players. I know that I am guilty of this. And I've seen other DM's do it too. It's something to remember that the campaign will last for a while. You don't have to get it all right now. Hopefully the players have a year or so to absorb things. Dish it out in bite sized chunks fairly frequently rather than a big plateful right off the bat. I've come to the opinion that character background is what you do for the first four or five levels. After that, the campaign really starts. Start off the PC's as more or less blank slates and then let them fill in more of their background as they wish. If something in the game speaks to them and they ask if they can change their background to reflect that, allow it. In my above example, if one of the PC's decides that his character has family ties to one or the other group after learning about this, go for it. Too many times, character backgrounds are either created entirely open with almost no ties (I'm particularly guilty of this) or incredibly detailed to the point where if you act upon that background as a DM, you wind up forcing the game to revolve around one PC. Instead, allow an open ended background but make it clear that adding to that background is fine. [/QUOTE]

Verification