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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 5155992" data-attributes="member: 40522">I agree with this stance to a degree. Not only is your background dependant on the particulars of the setting, but often, most of it just doesn't matter over the course of the campaign. Just as I wouldn't expect to be able to walk into a city and have an in-depth conversation about life with all 10,000 of the NPCs that live there, I don't think that a DM is ever going to use the dozen or so members of my character's family or extended family as campaign material. Honestly, I feel like detailing a dozen family members is time that can be better spent.Why isn't it sufficient to say that my character came from a large family that he mostly gets along with? If the DM wants to use them for something, let him detail the family member he wants to use for an adventure hook--the DM can tailor that NPC to his exact needs, and besides, we don't get to pick our own family in real life. I don't see how it makes the game worse for me to tell the DM the general situation and let the DM detail my family for me if he sees fit to do so.There is also the "information dump" situation to consider. In most stories, you gradually learn about characters in increasing detail over the course of the narrative. Have you ever read a novel or watched a movie where the first thirty pages or ten minutes or so tell you everything you supposedly need to know about a character to enjoy the story? It's usually pretty boring because it doesn't feel like anything is happening. It feels like homework, not exposition.On the other hand, consider the opening of Peter Jackson's the Fellowship of the Ring. They give you a brief snapshot of the world at the time the movie opens. They tell you what happened in the ancient past and abbreviate it into "bullet points," then jump directly to the Shire and let the story start. In that opening sequence, they don't tell you a single thing about Frodo Baggins, the Baggins family, Bag's End, what Frodo's hopes and dreams and desires are. You discover them over the course of the story, as he goes on adventures.Or consider any of the Star Wars movies. They give you an opening crawl of perhaps a minute or so, then jump right into the action.Can you imagine a biopic on Frodo Baggins or Aragorn as the opening of the Lord of the Rings? More importantly, can you imagine that you're going to care about a blurb on the main characters before the narrative begins? In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's adventures are notable precisely because he's a farmboy with nothing interesting going on at home. Could you imagine being asked to describe the thrilling details of life on a moisture farm for a page before being allowed to play such a character?This is what ultimately matters. Some players enjoy this amount of detail. Some don't. Ultimately, there is no "right" answer, only one that is right for your group and your players. I don't think that you're playing the game "wrong" if you don't enjoy the same things about it that I do, or have the same opinions about what makes a good narrative as me.</blockquote>

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