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Message: <blockquote data-quote="irdeggman" data-source="post: 5380008" data-attributes="member: 16285">I concur with carborundum's caution.When providing a backstory for a PC you are essentially making the character's class and at least some skills and feat choices.What I do is provide the setting - background for the world and very broad guidelines for the "types" of characters that fit.Things like "no evil PCs" are generally a staple in my games.I then ask each player to provde me with a character history that explains how he became what he is (rough explanation of class, skill and feat choices should be able to be discerned from the write up).I then provide then xp based on the completeness of the history (and creativity).I then "tweak" the history somewhat to fit in with the game I'm running. I sometimes insert how 2 PCs know each other, etc. Just things to help them better fit into my overall story arch.For example I recently ran the Age of Worms.I told my players that they will be progressing up to epic (or at least near epic) level by the end of the adventure path, that there are a lot of undead as the story progresses, that it is extremely deadly (so some PC deaths should be expected), the city they are starting in, the books allowed to develop characters with.I told them that they all start out dirt poor and desparate to get out of town and that they need to include something in their history as to how they got that way, if the PC was not from the town originally.Excerpt from my starting information:2.    Characters start with 1,200 xp (second level plus some).  If a character has an item creation feat they can create some items using this xp pool. Subtract any material costs from the starting wealth below. Also, if you want to “convert” some of this xp to starting funds in order to purchase more/better equipment you may do so at a rate of 2gp/xp.  You can spend xp such that your character is actually below 1,000 if desired. The character will then be a 1st level character though.  During the course of this Adventure path PCs will advance to 20th level (perhaps to epic level depending on how things go and their mortality rate {insert DM evil laugh}).3.    PCs start with 950 gp with which to purchase gear. Standard gear is considered “free”.  See later for “standard gear”. The restriction on having no single item worth more than 25% of this amount does not apply. That is, you may spend all of this on a single item, if desired.  Spend your money – PCs will be starting with essentially no cash on hand (limited to 10 sp in cash). This is one of the “incentives” for PC involvement in the adventure. Spellcasters that have a spell component pouch (5 gp in the PHB) don’t need to keep track of spell components, except for costly or rare (as in very unique) ones, divine focuses or focuses that wouldn’t fit in the pouch. For initial equipment, everything is available and “book” value.  This won’t always be the case, however. Diamond Lake is a “poor” community and stock is limited so don’t always count on being able to buy what you want.4.    Wizards start with an additional 2 spells known per class level (half of the player’s choice and half of mine) reflecting things learned over the past.13.    Write up a character history detailing what made your character the way it is. Include what motivations he/she has and touch on the skill and abilities the character has. Not all skills need to be touched on, but any with high ranks (say 4 or more) should be since the character has obviously placed a lot of emphasis on them. I award an xp bonus for a good write up. This write up serves several purposes. It helps me place the character in the scheme of things, it gives me ways to ensure the PCs are interrelated in some manner, it gives a focus for role-playing and of course it provides the evil DM with built in ways of tormenting the character.14.    PCs can not be of Evil alignment. The adventure path is about an epic struggle against the forces of evil, so an evil PC is quite likely to “change sides” and while that might be fine for the PC it is bad for the story (and other PCs).</blockquote>

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