D&D 5E Players railroading dungeonmasters

[Emerikol]

This would never happen in one of my games. I absolutely want the players though to have backstories. I want them to state what sort of character they want to play and then I will help them fit it into the campaign world. If it doesn't fit, we save that idea for another campaign world or we figure out some innovative way to fit it into the world. So the creation of a backstory is something we do together. Often I will run a couple campaigns in a given world before starting a new one. Yeah I like world building. So the second time around the PCs can make a backstory more easily.

An example of an oddball case would be a warforged. Someone wants to play a warforged but I don't have any warforged in my world. So one idea to suggest would be is he willing to be something constructed by a wizard and given sentience. Maybe the PC has no memories before his creation. Maybe behind the scenes the transfer process removed his memories and they might come back. Maybe the wizard is his father who transferred his dying son's soul into the machine. As a DM, I could come up with some ideas on how to make it work.

 

[Emerikol]

I haven't watched the video, which seems like clickbait, but for my current game I moved away from long backstories in the sense that I told my players, they could create whatever kind of backstory they wanted, but to keep in the mind the game itself will begin far from their homelands and it is highly unlikely they would every go back in-game, so the backstory should be their motivation for adventures and travel, not necessarily the source of their specific goal.

So I ended up with

• a tiefling ranger, escaping the evil legacy of her family
• a half-orc barbarian, last of his people, who is interested in becoming "civilized" but knows he can't do that among the imperialistic bigots who wiped out his people.
• a gnome bard who left his secluded forest community because of an obsessive curiosity
• a human druid and former shady barrister who after years hiding out from organized crime in the woods is seeking his estranged husband who fled to the lands where the campaign will take place.

This is good. The sort of short synopsis that a DM can build around. I do not always keep my PCs backstory out of the picture though. I sometimes ask them if they want their backstory to matter a lot in their character lives or not.

 

[Emerikol]

So part of what I'm seeing here is also the methods of how some DMs treat their games and their worlds... especially with regards to how game mechanics reflect the characters and the world. And that appears to be impacting whether or not backstories are encouraged and/or used for plot fodder going forward.

Good points.

I tend to be the opposite. I build the world around the rules so that it makes sense. What would be the natural outcome of these rules being the physics of the world.

As for your 200 year old elf, I have two choices. I have to have a reason elves do so little for 200 years before starting out their lives or I need to change that number. I also have to explain how elves being so long lived are not all 20th level or at least a lot of them. Now I can culturally explain things so that a PC just goes against his culture. Perhaps elves are flighty and don't stay focused so in general they don't tend to advance very quickly in doing anything. That wouldn't be my answer but it is an answer. The PC can always be an exception in that cultural sense.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Good points.

I tend to be the opposite. I build the world around the rules so that it makes sense. What would be the natural outcome of these rules being the physics of the world.

If I'm remembering things you've said previously in other threads correctly... you also are a DM who has very slow leveling, correct? If I'm not mistaken in that, your style does help illustrate a way to ameliorate that disparity between mechanics and story. If characters do not level up until after like a year or more of in-game (and even out-of-game) time... it becomes easier to make the narrative fit the board game. Slowly gain new mechanics after months and months (if not years and years) of adventuring (and which I'd imagine might even potentially have the training or researching of those mechanics possibly reflected in the story itself) makes it easier to come to terms with it in the story.

 

[hopeless]

In a game I recently left I ran a malformed wood elf cleric whose back story was simply she was travelling to answer a call for aid from her son.
My DM then decided to kill off that son and prevent my character finding closure by locating his remains despite him having his captured bandits claim they killed all of the guards.
Once that adventure was over he claimed we were recalled to the port at which I pointed out the adventure wasn't over as we was supposed to be helping the village and there were still bandits in that forest and that Fiend had to have come from somewhere. But no he claimed this introductory adventure had nothing to do with his campaign.
So if it has nothing to do with the campaign why involve a character's backstory?!
I ended up running the next game so used the opportunity to rewrite her back story revealing she had been banished from another world and was seeking a way back to check on the family who asked for her aid.
Unfortunately all that did was make him shift his game setting to the same one I was using for mine.
And that's why I quit because I shouldn't have bothered changing anything just run my adventure in the village he discarded as worthless to demonstrate how wrong he was.

So don't talk to me about Player's railroading DMs because I had the devil of a time trying to get them to provide background details for my game and in return when I was the player was left wondering why I even bothered trying!

 

[Stormonu]

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:

View attachment 133703

Yeah, players who can’t remember NPC names five seconds after they’re said, “we go to that place that had a dragon”, and jumping the BBEG two words into his monologue.

Street runs both ways, kid.

 

[iserith]

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....

I care about what you've got to say about your character - when we're playing the game. Similarly, I expect you to care about what I have to say about the setting, again, when we're playing the game.

I don't expect you to read my setting notes prior to the game and I won't be reading your backstory either. But I will listen to it, if it's no longer than a Tweet. If it's amusing, I may even be able to retain it. Otherwise, it's on you to make it relevant in the game setting when appropriate and to show us who the character is when we play.

I'm far more interested in characters' personal characteristics (personality trait, ideal, bond, and flaw) and how the players demonstrate these during play than a full-on backstory. I want to know what they do and how as I present the setting and the opportunities and dangers therein. If a player wants to add color as to why due to backstory, that's just fine. I don't need to read that beforehand though.

 

[el-remmen]

I do not always keep my PCs backstory out of the picture though. I sometimes ask them if they want their backstory to matter a lot in their character lives or not.

Oh, in the past I favored longer and involved backstories, but like the makers of this video, I grew increasing frustrated with the idea that characters arrive fully formed, and found everyone could participate to build and "reveal" backstory as the game progressed in reaction to what was happening and it felt more cooperative and cohesive. And things from the "simple" background still come into play.

• The druid found his estranged husband but found out he is helping shady bandits that might be slavers
• The bard's "obsessive curiosity" began to evolve into a thirst for power
• The tielfling has begun to learn that maybe her family's influence goes further than she thinks
• The barbarian is learning to read.

I should note that the tiefling player did write like a three page background and I read it and took some elements to work in (broadly), but she knew it was not required, nor would it mean that more detail meant more facetime in the game over (for example) the barbarian who simply told me in two sentences what his deal was. Both players seem to be having a great time.

 

[Blue]

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....

While said with a mastery of snark, I have to agree - exposition from the DM over the campaign will greatly exceed even an overgrown three or four page background. The players are expected to understand that lore as it applies and to care about the world. A DM rejecting doing that in return if it's more than two paragraphs, a tweet, or three words show no reciprocity - it's a DM showing with their actions "my story is important and yours is not".

DM & players need to work together. If that means spending ten minutes per player once a campaign reading a backstory and discussing it with the player to make it fit, so be it. Especially if that gives the DM hooks and ideas - it's not the generic townsperson that has been kidnapped, it's your sister.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

As long as the backstory makes sense in the context of the world, then I don’t care. I can use it if I want. I probably wouldnt allow a gunslinging cowboy from another dimension in my high fantasy game, for instance.