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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6408257" data-attributes="member: 177">It seems like you are saying "no backstory" = "can't do anything but orc and pie".  I think that shows a narrow vision of the possible.  What I'm talking about isn't really specific to D&D.  I'm running Deadlands and Shadowrun campaigns - both classless systems.  So, it isn't like class is giving that information in my games either.  These games do have advantage/disadvantage systems to enforce some of such stuff if the players want, and as mechanical elements, those don't require an actual story - the mechanics say they have money, or say they have friends in certain sections of society.  We don't need to define how those come about if we don't want to.But, in any event, the NPCs aren't handed a dossier on each of the PCs, so that they know the backstory.  The world is a really big place, and to most people, the PCs will be strangers.  The NPCs react to however the characters present themselves at the time.  How are they dressed?  How do they behave?  That determines reaction.Neither do I.  I prefer to give the players what they ask for.  I'm using the backstory primarily to establish themes and plots - if they aren't interested in having those be tailored to them, personally, then I don't really need the backstory, and won't ask it of them.  In my Shadowrun game, for example, I have a player who is interested in unraveling what is going on in the game world, both short and long term.  He has no expectation that what is happening is connected to himself, personally - it can go ahead and just be the machinations of megacorps with whom he has no personal stake before play begins.  He's happy to just say his PC is interested, and once he's been involved in a couple of runs, he's wrapped up in things anyway, and needs no backsotry support to continue.I don't feel a need to touch them.  If I am not told he's the local bravo, or the son of a local noble, then he's just this guy.  That's okay.  People deal with folks they know very little about on a pretty regular basis.</blockquote>

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