Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AaronOfBarbaria" data-source="post: 6857222" data-attributes="member: 6701872">Declaring the DM "not at all interested in my character's story" because they want that story to happen or be revealed during the actual play of the campaign, not in a pre-written form to read at their leisure is a bit extreme, no?I think there is a whole field of gray you've leapt past to get from the white of "DM read my canned backstory" to the black of "DM is interested in my character's story."Take me for example: I'm all about story as DM... but the story I am all about is the one authored by all the players and I together as the campaign unfolds - not the multiple-page write-up a player has written about only their character that also doesn't actually have anything to do with the story that will take place in the campaign (because I'm not going to take the time to read it, so I can't incorporate any of it). Similarly, I'm not going to hand each player any kind of back-story of the campaign they are about to play in and require them to read it - if it can't be given broad strokes in a couple sentences while preparing to play, and given more detail during the course of play, then it isn't relevant.Further, when it comes to background detail, I think it is important to note as a player the difference between a useful background detail and a background detail that is only going to result in high risk of disappointment:For example, if a player tells me that their character has family members that disapprove of their chosen way of life, that's a useful detail - I can easily build on that in any way that fits into the campaign as it unfolds during play, and have successfully incorporated the character's personal story into the shared story of the party.If a player writes a specific family member, or worse multiple, that disapprove of their chosen way of life and establishes personalities and other details of these supporting characters - I am then capable of portraying the NPC the player designed in a way that doesn't match what the player sees in their head, which results in the player being disappointed or feeling that I have "ruined" their character's back-story... and that's after I make sure that the campaign details line up with the player's back-story details, which means I have to actually plan ahead where I would normally be able to run the entire campaign by improvising after an established start point.</blockquote>

Verification