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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bawylie" data-source="post: 7420996" data-attributes="member: 6776133">Maybe not exactly what you’re looking for but...Any history or backstory in my games have to be explainable in three or fewer sentences. In fact, the less I explain the better. And I don’t use precise timelines either - it’s always “aeons ago” or “in the elder days” or “in the beginning.” Even recent history is “some few years ago.” And if I’m naming historical events, I try to pick something evocative that is light on specifics. So you’ll hear something like “In the years after the Heavensfall wars, the demon rebellion spilled across the mortal realm like a bloodstain.” That’s the opener, then I outline some of the color to give a sense of what things were like. Then I hit the conflict or situation that relates to the players’ current situation. Essentially I’m relying or storytelling conventions to relay history. One, because it’s more interesting and memorable that way. Two, because a history can over-explain something and suck all the romantic mystery and nostalgia out of it. (Consider literally any prequel).If I end up needing a timeline, there aren’t dates per se. Just these sorts of events laid out in basic chronological order. Doing it this way leaves me space to fill in other stuff I might want or need, or to explore any given time in greater detail. Sort of like saving a seat for later. I don’t like spending too much time on background or backstory because I prefer to spend my time and efforts mostly on playable content instead. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" /></blockquote>

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