Role-playing a Background

[Beard in the Sky]

My group does the same thing when we have time. We have even done three and four hour solo sessions per character. I have come to the decision lately however that it is possible to put too much emphasis on background and roleplaying. My group is one that roleplays alot and comes up with some background regardless. For the Ravenloft game we are just finishing up, one guy wrote a six or seven page background. The problem is, when you emphasize background -too much- is that you have already had your character experience lots of things and go through changes and you haven't even played them yet. The biggest problem with this is that you can over-complicate a character and immediately during the first session, you realize you have no real handle on what you are trying to do.

What you are proposing sounds great and perfectly reasonable... I say go for it! I'm just pointing out that just like there can be too much combat, there can be too much roleplay and background. As is usually the case in life, a moderate mix of all the best things is good.

 

[trilobite]

My group does the same thing when we have time. We have even done three and four hour solo sessions per character. I have come to the decision lately however that it is possible to put too much emphasis on background and roleplaying. My group is one that roleplays alot and comes up with some background regardless. For the Ravenloft game we are just finishing up, one guy wrote a six or seven page background. The problem is, when you emphasize background -too much- is that you have already had your character experience lots of things and go through changes and you haven't even played them yet. The biggest problem with this is that you can over-complicate a character and immediately during the first session, you realize you have no real handle on what you are trying to do.

What you are proposing sounds great and perfectly reasonable... I say go for it! I'm just pointing out that just like there can be too much combat, there can be too much roleplay and background. As is usually the case in life, a moderate mix of all the best things is good.

I had only planned to do this as a sort of prequel to the game itself. I don't see having these background sessions after the game starts. But to tell the truth, I never considered it. Very Interesting. Kinda like a flashback.

 

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

That's right... It's always a question about measures. A dedicated character in a group with not so dedicated characters, fills up a lot of space. I tried this my self in an earlier game, and that was not fun... In my current game I designed a character who asspires to become a god. An ambition like that requires a lengthy background (or this is my opinion at least). What i'm saying is that ambition is dependant of background. Hach 'n' slash requires a minimum of thought (which is fun sometimes), ambitious play requires long hours of contemplation. This is how it functions in my game world...

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

I usually like to do group chargen in the 1st session, since it helps people get a feel for what everyone else is doing. In a mage game I ran a few years back, I also did brief 1-on-1 backgrounds with people during the chargen session, playing out histories, awakenings, that sort of thing. Generally, the people who had a better grasp of their characters & backgrounds got done with stats first, and went through their solo stuff while the others were finishing up. I think seeing what the others did helped out the new people a great deal.

Another suggestion- have the players detail the thing you want them to recognize, or have an emotional investment in. In the above example, have the PC detail the noble who killed his family, so that you don't have to say "oh, this the guy you hate". He'll know it, and you can say something more along the lines of "Count Evil Von Doom enters the room! Duh-duh-DUNN!!!"

Ahem. Well, you get the idea.