How much back story for a low-level PC?

[Shades of Green]

Level-1 D&D PCs are supposed to be young upstart, so there is no need for anything longer than a few sentences to a small number of paragraphs.

The other side of the scale is Traveller, where starting characters are, in most cases, experienced professionals, and the chargen system (especially in the Mongoose edition) can easily serve as the skeleton of at least a page or so of exciting background.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Through lots of experience, I find that Players/PCs are more interested in and attached to that little girl they rescued from the goblins during an actual game session than they are to any little girl they are supposedly related to through their pre-game back story.

Bullgrit

The difference is the little girl rescued during an actual game session is a group connection. It is usually great for the entire party and obviously is really important in building up the team and connecting all the players to their shared world.

Integrating some elements from the backstory into the game helps make the individual player feel more connected to their PC and how that individual fits into the world. It also give ways to put the occasional "spotlight" on one PC in a way that the DM can be fairly sure the player will appreciate.

 

[The Shaman]

For me, "back story" is what happened in the previous game sessions. Back story that supposedly happened before the first game session is of no interest to me.

Through lots of experience, I find that Players/PCs are more interested in and attached to that little girl they rescued from the goblins during an actual game session than they are to any little girl they are supposedly related to through their pre-game back story.

I agree with this post one hundred and ten percent.



Wait a sec . . . Quasqueton and I agree on something?! Sorry folks, but clearly the Apocalypse is extremely frigging nigh . . .

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

A lot of backstory that emerges is done over mealtime conversations or the like. I guess if you were to write it all down, then it might fit into a paragraph or two.

This is what it's like for our group. Some people write theirs out, but most backgrounds are conveyed conversationally. I voted "one paragraph" for both options even though most are non-written. As DM I just want a short paragraph worth of background that fills the gap from "commoner" to the start of the campaign and I write my character backgrounds similarly. Not adventurous stuff usually, just how we got to where we start.

Example: My current PC is an elven beastmaster ranger. After reading the players' guide for WotBS I really liked the idea of the griffon riders. I asked the DM if the Eberron griffon-rider paragon path was viable. Chose raptor to reperesent a young griffon. Then I wrote a backstory about a young elven refugee working at the griffon stables who saved and bonded with a struggling young griffon.

 

[Dausuul]

Couple-few paragraphs for both... one page at the absolute most.

As a DM, I don't want to read your eleven-page backstory any more than you want to hear me blather on for ten minutes about the historical background of the town you just entered. If you want to write it for your own personal edification, knock yourself out, but give me the executive summary.

As a player, I honestly am not that interested in my character's backstory. In fact, when I do have an extensive backstory I feel shackled by it; it ties me down and keeps the character's personality from evolving in unexpected directions. So I just sketch out one or two memorable events, add a point of origin and maybe a minor NPC, and roll with that.

For me, "back story" is what happened in the previous game sessions. Back story that supposedly happened before the first game session is of no interest to me.

Through lots of experience, I find that Players/PCs are more interested in and attached to that little girl they rescued from the goblins during an actual game session than they are to any little girl they are supposedly related to through their pre-game back story.

I'd give you XP if I didn't have to spread it around.

 

[The Shaman]

The difference is the little girl rescued during an actual game session is a group connection. It is usually great for the entire party and obviously is really important in building up the team and connecting all the players to their shared world.

The shared game-experience created in play with always, always take priority for me over something you wrote on your character sheet before play began.

As a player I write a short, sketchy backstory, just a few details which set up the character and I give my character a goal or goals to pursue. I spend very little time on character psyche, because that comes out in play.

As a referee, I don't use the adventurers's backgrounds as I don't craft plots or adventures per se. The events of the game make up the only meaningful backstory in which I'm interested. If a player wants his character to have a friend who's a baron, then he should make friends with a baron in actual play. If the player wants to engage in a vendetta, then make it a vendetta against a non-player character the adventurer meets in the game.

What happens at the gaming table is much more important than anything written by one player outside of the game. For me the ideal character background talks more about what the character will do than what the character has done.

 

[Mallus]

1-3 paragraphs, no more. They don't need to form a 'story'; they can just be a few descriptive sentences and tag lines meant to inspire me, kinda like Aspects in Spirit of the Century.

I wonder if I'm alone in this, but I don't stop writing backstory when play begins. I'm always fleshing out my character, sticking more fictional bits onto them, like "Hey, wouldn't it be interesting if Grod had a ex-wife!". Sometimes these relate back to actual play, other times it's just characterization for characterizations sake.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Then he's no longer low-level.

OK. Try another example. The character was the kid of a PC or main character. By the time he was born, Miles Vorkosigan had been through more than most real humans go through in their lives. (Victim of nasty chemical warfare, medical experiment, had his artificial womb stolen with daring rescue by his mother etc.) Or imagine Dawn Summers became a slayer when she hit 18...

 

[Nagol]

OK. Try another example. The character was the kid of a PC or main character. By the time he was born, Miles Vorkosigan had been through more than most real humans go through in their lives. (Victim of nasty chemical warfare, medical experiment, had his artificial womb stolen with daring rescue by his mother etc.) Or imagine Dawn Summers became a slayer when she hit 18...

If the character is the progeny of another PC, the backstory can be a single line (scion of XXXX, see history there).

The problem with this and the family legacy comment from Hobo earlier is the cross-over between player and DM domain. The player ends up defining elements of the world and their relationship to those elements usually in isolation from the DM and remaining players.

A secondary problem is the character's actions and experiences are at risk of being overshadowed by the defined backstory.

If the legacy is substantial, the player ends up defining aspects of the campaign setting. Of additional concern is a substantial legacy shouild have consequrences, potentially both positive and negative.

Those definitions and consequences work best in game systems that support or expect such detail -- Pendragon, Traveler, Hero, etc.

 

[coyote6]

For 1st level D&D characters, I haven't expected much backstory, and haven't cared too much -- though I got some, and used it (a lot). But other games have different expectations, because many don't assume the PCs are fresh off the farm nobodies, so I prefer more as a GM. As a player, I will usually think of a paragraph or two at a minimum (even for ultimately disposable D&D characters; I will often think of more for other games), just to keep myself from being bored & to give the alleged character some actual character.

So I voted -----.