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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
How much back story do you allow/expect at the start of the game?
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<blockquote data-quote="Caliban" data-source="post: 7278779" data-attributes="member: 284"><p>There is a difference between having stuff happen "off screen" and having it play out during a game. Presumably if it happens during a gaming session, the PC's have a chance to effect the outcome, and whatever happens will have a greater significance and emotional impact because the PC is actively involved.</p><p></p><p>But it does require a certain degree of trust between the players and the DM - if it is an adversarial relationship, then the impulse is to preemptively kill off all your relatives and be an orphan so your DM can't use them against you. (Or it may just be a lack of imagination. You don't have to come up with a name for your mother if she's been dead for 10 years...)</p><p></p><p>If you trust the DM not to use your characters friends and family as a cheap plot device, and you know your character may become more directly involved in the campaign plot lines if you give the DM some material to work with, then that's incentive to create a more detailed background full of not-dead relatives and associates for the DM to use. </p><p></p><p>Thats for people who enjoy that sort of thing. Nothing is wrong with just wanting to be a morally challenged barbarian who kicks down doors, kills monsters, and takes their stuff. Different people enjoy the game in different ways.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Caliban, post: 7278779, member: 284"] There is a difference between having stuff happen "off screen" and having it play out during a game. Presumably if it happens during a gaming session, the PC's have a chance to effect the outcome, and whatever happens will have a greater significance and emotional impact because the PC is actively involved. But it does require a certain degree of trust between the players and the DM - if it is an adversarial relationship, then the impulse is to preemptively kill off all your relatives and be an orphan so your DM can't use them against you. (Or it may just be a lack of imagination. You don't have to come up with a name for your mother if she's been dead for 10 years...) If you trust the DM not to use your characters friends and family as a cheap plot device, and you know your character may become more directly involved in the campaign plot lines if you give the DM some material to work with, then that's incentive to create a more detailed background full of not-dead relatives and associates for the DM to use. Thats for people who enjoy that sort of thing. Nothing is wrong with just wanting to be a morally challenged barbarian who kicks down doors, kills monsters, and takes their stuff. Different people enjoy the game in different ways. [/QUOTE]
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How much back story do you allow/expect at the start of the game?
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