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Funky Goose
2011-10-31, 10:27 AM
Hiyas, I'm trying to put together some characters for an upcoming sandbox style game, and I want the characters backstorys to have some meaning in the plot of the game. Basically, hooks such as Family members, friends, Important Items like family heirlooms, and stuff along those lines. Anything that can give a nice juicy plot hook for the PCs to bite onto. Any ideas for how these can be added to the plot or setting of the game without seeming too jammed in? (also suggestions for backstory hooks would be nice!)

I often find that trying to add these story based elements to characters can go unnoticed by the PCs, who often choose to act completely against what they said their guys would do in those situations (example, a Cleric worshipping a god of nature setting light to a forest in order to *maybe* cause a distraction when sneaking into a tower) so I am also looking for advice on how to rule for these type of actions, should I outright disallow it? Or should I encorage them to at least be consistant in their alignments (I honestly dont care if I'm DMing a CE party or LG, but swapping between the two is getting tiresome... :smallsigh:)

TL;DR
How can backstorys can be added to the plot of a game well, and how to deal with coin flip Alignments?

bloodtide
2011-10-31, 11:16 AM
In general you want backstories to fit in nicely. The trick is to make the backstory nearly the focus of the adventure. A lot like fiction where 'everyone and everything is related'.


Some players don't follow 'just words' type backstories very well. So if you have the monster that killed the PC brother or a adventure full of gold, the player might well pick the adventure. Some players don't see any 'reward' for following a back story, they would much rather adventure. And even if a player wants to follow the back story, they might want to wait a bit for any reason and not just have the DM force them into it.

A good way to get them to follow a backstory though, is greed. Greed is universal. If the PC will get something out of it, they will do it.


Alignments. You might want to consider your PC's 'unaligned' for the first game or two until you see how they act. If they act out of alignment, just talk to them about changing it.

For the god part though, I'm very strict. My gods watch everything. So the PC would get a divine warning at least, maybe worse.

You should never disallow something, but make it clear that actions can and will change their alignments.

Irish Musician
2011-11-01, 12:13 PM
Yes, don't ever say no im a campaign. Well, sometimes you can say no in a campaign, but use 'No' very sparingly. Let them do most of what they want in the world. But like Bloodtide said, let them know there will be consequences for their actions. If someone kills a villager in cold blood, they might go from good to unaligned, or unaligned to evil. They need to know that, while they may be able to do whatever they want, there will be consequences, maybe even beheading and the like, if they get too bad.

For people who don't stay to their backstories, tie them into the plot and get them directly involved with their backstories. That is what we do if PC's get to bored with the stories. So yeah, thats my 2 cents.

Conners
2011-11-02, 09:20 AM
I highly recommend weaving the backstories thoroughly into what your PCs are going to do. Such as the BBEG killed their puppy, but was really their father/whatever. Unless, of course, the adventure doesn't matter, and it's about your PCs entirely. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12145037#post12145037)