D&D 5E (2014) Players railroading dungeonmasters
- Thread starter tommybahama
- Start date
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
I want two things in your backstory, and if I don't like the details I have veto power but really it's "let's discuss and massage to where it's good for both".
It gives me plenty of material for character arcs. In my Masks of the Imperium campaign I've had the uncle one player dueled with, killed, and have to give up his noble title to escape justice for, was raised and is now a puppet of a baddie on the Council of Nobles. I'm just about to have the fact that the Wood Elf reservations are constantly feuding with giant tribes come to a head, and the Fell portals that the Order of Watchers paladin's knightly order guards about about to be opened. And that was just after traveling through the Feywild with their Eladrin bard celebrity, which helped but also left a bunch of wronged powerful fey knowing exactly who tricked them. All of those draw heavily from their backstories.
Players can easily overdo backstories. Full stop. But especially if running a module or your style doesn't build on them. But, if it does then a concise, well written/narrated backstory can be a mine of ideas for adventure and one that will instantly engage the players.
- Your call to adventure. What motivates you.
- Connections to the world.
It gives me plenty of material for character arcs. In my Masks of the Imperium campaign I've had the uncle one player dueled with, killed, and have to give up his noble title to escape justice for, was raised and is now a puppet of a baddie on the Council of Nobles. I'm just about to have the fact that the Wood Elf reservations are constantly feuding with giant tribes come to a head, and the Fell portals that the Order of Watchers paladin's knightly order guards about about to be opened. And that was just after traveling through the Feywild with their Eladrin bard celebrity, which helped but also left a bunch of wronged powerful fey knowing exactly who tricked them. All of those draw heavily from their backstories.
Players can easily overdo backstories. Full stop. But especially if running a module or your style doesn't build on them. But, if it does then a concise, well written/narrated backstory can be a mine of ideas for adventure and one that will instantly engage the players.
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
I have absolutely seen cases were players try to influence the game, at essentially a meta level, with backstories.
I have also seen backstories that are not intended to do so but are still too much, and end up just getting ignored, with the player themselves often forgetting about key details.
In both sets of cases, I have turned the backstory against the character in ways I found amusing.
I have also seen backstories that are not intended to do so but are still too much, and end up just getting ignored, with the player themselves often forgetting about key details.
In both sets of cases, I have turned the backstory against the character in ways I found amusing.
ccs
41st lv DM
Crits & stuff happens.
When it does I just file the sheet away in the folder. Then, sometime later, when I need a new character, the PC wakes up having had a disturbing dream & I'm ready to play again....
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ccs
41st lv DM
That's fine, I'll tell you all about it verbally.
But seriously, for those of you don't really care about what I've got to say about my character? How much are you expecting me to care about your world/story/adventure?
Hope you don't mid if I largely tune out after about 15 sentences....
Oh, and I hope you don't mind if I represent my character on the map with a board game token:
I've a couple of interesting backstories to riff off from my players for a short replacement from the main game adventure but most of my players give minimal backstory and their story grows out of the game but every week or two I like to ask a pc to fill in some detail about their pc usually when the party is camping for the night. I might ask a question or two then sit back and let the other players take over and they riff off of each other with amusing results.
Best backstory to main (2year) so far campaign has been the druid pc who was a city slicker out on the town and woke up to find he'd been roofied into being a druid. No nature skills or clue how ro survive in the wilderness, killed most animals the party encountered and hated the great outdoors to now a 9th level druid starting to understand and protect the environment. Has been some very amusing sessions as a result of a throw away one line response to the dm asking the player why he was a druid.
Best backstory to main (2year) so far campaign has been the druid pc who was a city slicker out on the town and woke up to find he'd been roofied into being a druid. No nature skills or clue how ro survive in the wilderness, killed most animals the party encountered and hated the great outdoors to now a 9th level druid starting to understand and protect the environment. Has been some very amusing sessions as a result of a throw away one line response to the dm asking the player why he was a druid.
Yeah I watched the video, it's arguing against a problem that only exists with problem players.
I LIKE when players give me interesting backgrounds. I dont mind if its not lengthy, a paragraph or two is fine, but it is also 100% okay to give me 10 pages of a backstory if thats what they wanna do. As long as it is interesting!
Now, a good background isn't about length really but it is about information. It should tell me, the DM, what sort of character they want to roleplay and where there interests in my world lie. It should tell me how they are connected to the world. It should tell the player what their motivation is, it should inform them of WHY they are doing what they are doing. It should help provide consistency to their roleplay which, imho, makes for a better experience for everyone at the table.
I have had a players background be a problem exactly once in my decades of running games. We were playing 13th Age and he wanted his player to be the son of the Emperor. Okay, cool, I discussed it with him and told him the Emperor had a ton of sons so while I'd allow this, it generally wouldn't give him any material in game benefits at least not at the start.
The issue became that, in play, everything he did he would try to tie to his characters backstory...regardless of whether or not it fit. Regardless of whether or not we were in a session which had been exploring some OTHER player characters connection to the world. He would try to steal the scene, steal the plot, steal everything and I frankly would not let him. But it got to the point it was making other players upset and taking away from their experience so eventually because of this (and a couple other issues) I had to ask him to leave. TBH he might have quit in a huff, it was years ago. Either way, he was gone and the game improved.
Again though, that was not an issue with backgrounds or players having elaborate backgrounds. It was an issue with a player wanting to run the show to the detriment of the party and story.
I LIKE when players give me interesting backgrounds. I dont mind if its not lengthy, a paragraph or two is fine, but it is also 100% okay to give me 10 pages of a backstory if thats what they wanna do. As long as it is interesting!
Now, a good background isn't about length really but it is about information. It should tell me, the DM, what sort of character they want to roleplay and where there interests in my world lie. It should tell me how they are connected to the world. It should tell the player what their motivation is, it should inform them of WHY they are doing what they are doing. It should help provide consistency to their roleplay which, imho, makes for a better experience for everyone at the table.
I have had a players background be a problem exactly once in my decades of running games. We were playing 13th Age and he wanted his player to be the son of the Emperor. Okay, cool, I discussed it with him and told him the Emperor had a ton of sons so while I'd allow this, it generally wouldn't give him any material in game benefits at least not at the start.
The issue became that, in play, everything he did he would try to tie to his characters backstory...regardless of whether or not it fit. Regardless of whether or not we were in a session which had been exploring some OTHER player characters connection to the world. He would try to steal the scene, steal the plot, steal everything and I frankly would not let him. But it got to the point it was making other players upset and taking away from their experience so eventually because of this (and a couple other issues) I had to ask him to leave. TBH he might have quit in a huff, it was years ago. Either way, he was gone and the game improved.
Again though, that was not an issue with backgrounds or players having elaborate backgrounds. It was an issue with a player wanting to run the show to the detriment of the party and story.
Li Shenron
Legend
I have always started a campaign at levels 1-3, so generally speaking yeah I am against long background stories.
In general, I think that too much effort spent on background is one possible indication that the player is more interested in scripting their character's story than to actually play it out in the game and maybe even that the player is unlikely to accept the inherent randomness of the game and resent and blame the DM when things won't go according to the player's own plans... Maybe the player really just wants to be a storyteller, in that case why not just asking the player to narrate the whole story of their character while everybody else listens, instead of playing a RPG?
A couple of things I particularly dislike, is having a young (in age or level terms) character with a background as long as a soap opera season plot, with more stuff happened before than what is probably going to happen during the campaign itself, and the other is having a background made up of blunt cheap turnarounds like "was brought up as a wizard then decided to switch to cleric but took a year off as a ranger then enrolled into a bardic college before striking a deal and becoming a warlock" only to explain their dumb mechanical combinations which were really only motivated by optimization.
OTOH the worst thing that can happen is when the DM themselves require their players to write up an extensive background and then completely ignores it... I have become VERY suspicious of DMs who ask such a thing, and I have learned to never ask it myself.
In general, I think that too much effort spent on background is one possible indication that the player is more interested in scripting their character's story than to actually play it out in the game and maybe even that the player is unlikely to accept the inherent randomness of the game and resent and blame the DM when things won't go according to the player's own plans... Maybe the player really just wants to be a storyteller, in that case why not just asking the player to narrate the whole story of their character while everybody else listens, instead of playing a RPG?
A couple of things I particularly dislike, is having a young (in age or level terms) character with a background as long as a soap opera season plot, with more stuff happened before than what is probably going to happen during the campaign itself, and the other is having a background made up of blunt cheap turnarounds like "was brought up as a wizard then decided to switch to cleric but took a year off as a ranger then enrolled into a bardic college before striking a deal and becoming a warlock" only to explain their dumb mechanical combinations which were really only motivated by optimization.
OTOH the worst thing that can happen is when the DM themselves require their players to write up an extensive background and then completely ignores it... I have become VERY suspicious of DMs who ask such a thing, and I have learned to never ask it myself.
Tonybro001
Explorer
I love a backstory because it shows that the player is engaged.
In my experience a starting character needs to answer at least the following questions:
1. Where are you from (pick a town / village or region form the map)
2. Why did you leave home? (what made you give up your old life for one of adventure)
3. Who are you leaving behind? (a family, a love, a bad reputation, an arch nemesis)
4. What are you searching for? (adventure, riches, the lost wand of take that you fiend)
This gives me enough to inject some of your backstory into the plot of the game.
I must admit that I have railroaded the GM on one occassion in almost 40 years. A husband and wife team were running a game of werewolf and sadly hadn't done their homework. A fellow player and I took copious notes early on in the game and essentially started driving the plot by correcting the GMs when they had forgotten what direction the game was supposed to be going in. It ended up being a great game that the players were all really engaged in and the GMs walked away really proud of how it had all gone down. If it's done with kindness and in the right spirit it can work sometimes.
In my experience a starting character needs to answer at least the following questions:
1. Where are you from (pick a town / village or region form the map)
2. Why did you leave home? (what made you give up your old life for one of adventure)
3. Who are you leaving behind? (a family, a love, a bad reputation, an arch nemesis)
4. What are you searching for? (adventure, riches, the lost wand of take that you fiend)
This gives me enough to inject some of your backstory into the plot of the game.
I must admit that I have railroaded the GM on one occassion in almost 40 years. A husband and wife team were running a game of werewolf and sadly hadn't done their homework. A fellow player and I took copious notes early on in the game and essentially started driving the plot by correcting the GMs when they had forgotten what direction the game was supposed to be going in. It ended up being a great game that the players were all really engaged in and the GMs walked away really proud of how it had all gone down. If it's done with kindness and in the right spirit it can work sometimes.
Yeah I have 0 problem if a player corrects a mistake I made. "Hey, I thought you said that the evil cult was after the macguffin and that impersonating the governor was just one step? Why aren't they going after it now?" It is helpful to keep me on the right course, correct me if I've forgotten, etc. I am human, after all. I wish more players would feel empowered to do so. In so many cases players have gotten used to pedestaling their DMs and I think the game is worse for it.
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