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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 5212626" data-attributes="member: 2205">LOLwut?!  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/worried.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":-S" title="Uhm    :-S" data-shortname=":-S" />  Chip on your shoulder much?To add to my previous post, the most useful backstory I've seen is what ties the characters in the group together.  Traditionally, backstory is something that the players do off on their own, and it has the opposite effect; it creates wedges between the characters that makes it more difficult for them to play well together.  Of late, I've been using a method that creates short backstory vignettes that create ties between characters, and I've been so impressed with the results that it's now a requirement of all chargen sessions I ever run from now until forever.Also, I really liked weem's (at least I think it was his) idea of focusing more on the foreground than the background.  I.e., not yoru family and your whole past life.  What were you doing last night?  What were you doing a couple of hours before the session starts?If you think about it, plenty of beloved characters in literature and film don't really have much backstory when they get started, and for that matter, plenty of them never really get that much developed for them over the entire course of their careers, except in vague, handwavey terms, and it doesn't make those characters any less enjoyable or fun to read about and watch.  Why wouldn't the same principle apply to RPG characters?</blockquote>

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