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<blockquote data-quote="univoxs" data-source="post: 8387243" data-attributes="member: 6668320">It think of history for the howebrew worlds I have created as window dressing. There isn't all that much behind it but its there to give the illusion of depth (which is what Tolkien wrote all those histories for in the first place). I use history a lot when I create game, whether playing in my own world or a campaign setting. I am running a 5e in the Dalelands right now and having been away from Faerun for such a long time, I really had to bone up on the history of what happened in the region over the last couple hundred years. Having all that stuff in my head allows me to do a lot of detail filling on the fly for when the characters ask questions or go in a direction I wasn't expecting. &nbsp;Where using history can backfire is the fact that players probably don't know this stuff. In a game set in the &quot;real world&quot;, I set up a situation where the characters seeing a cross styled in a certain way gave context to their situation, which there characters would recognize but the players did not. Giving the players a knowledge check in order to receive the context can just turn into them rolling dice to receive a history lesson. And while the lesson may be germane, it may require an inordinate amount of explanation.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="univoxs, post: 8387243, member: 6668320"] It think of history for the howebrew worlds I have created as window dressing. There isn't all that much behind it but its there to give the illusion of depth (which is what Tolkien wrote all those histories for in the first place). I use history a lot when I create game, whether playing in my own world or a campaign setting. I am running a 5e in the Dalelands right now and having been away from Faerun for such a long time, I really had to bone up on the history of what happened in the region over the last couple hundred years. Having all that stuff in my head allows me to do a lot of detail filling on the fly for when the characters ask questions or go in a direction I wasn't expecting. Where using history can backfire is the fact that players probably don't know this stuff. In a game set in the "real world", I set up a situation where the characters seeing a cross styled in a certain way gave context to their situation, which there characters would recognize but the players did not. Giving the players a knowledge check in order to receive the context can just turn into them rolling dice to receive a history lesson. And while the lesson may be germane, it may require an inordinate amount of explanation. [/QUOTE]

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