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How much back story for a low-level PC?
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<blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5212580" data-attributes="member: 3820"><p>I feel like I should vote for the "------" divider line in the middle of the poll because my answer is Other.</p><p></p><p>Since I game with people that I hang out with in non-gaming contexts, 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. But it depends on who's running, who's playing, what the character is like, and so on. When I run, sometimes I'll get a writeup of a page or so, depending on the player, and I enjoy that, so I don't "prefer" something shorter. Sometimes it's just a few sentences like "Then the vault that he was assigned to guard fell off the side of the building, so he went looking for something new to protect and wound up joining the Battlemen," and that's fine with me too, so I don't "prefer" something longer. I <em>use</em> backstory, though. It's not required of my players, but I look at it as a way for them to tell me what they think is interesting, and we'll go from there.</p><p></p><p>Also, playing through preludes: I'm not sure how that would count as a vote. It's a WoD trick that I will also use elsewhere: get together with individual players ahead of time if feasible, play through an hour or two of various backstory events prior to the game. Again, not required, but I do enjoy it when it seems appropriate, and I'm not sure how it counts.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Barastrondo, post: 5212580, member: 3820"] I feel like I should vote for the "------" divider line in the middle of the poll because my answer is Other. Since I game with people that I hang out with in non-gaming contexts, 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. But it depends on who's running, who's playing, what the character is like, and so on. When I run, sometimes I'll get a writeup of a page or so, depending on the player, and I enjoy that, so I don't "prefer" something shorter. Sometimes it's just a few sentences like "Then the vault that he was assigned to guard fell off the side of the building, so he went looking for something new to protect and wound up joining the Battlemen," and that's fine with me too, so I don't "prefer" something longer. I [I]use[/I] backstory, though. It's not required of my players, but I look at it as a way for them to tell me what they think is interesting, and we'll go from there. Also, playing through preludes: I'm not sure how that would count as a vote. It's a WoD trick that I will also use elsewhere: get together with individual players ahead of time if feasible, play through an hour or two of various backstory events prior to the game. Again, not required, but I do enjoy it when it seems appropriate, and I'm not sure how it counts. [/QUOTE]
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How much back story for a low-level PC?
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