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MikelaC1
2013-07-25, 05:54 PM
Every new game sees the DM asking for a backstory for the PC. Now as a DM on this board, I have my own use for this backstory, but I am wondering how other DMs evaluate them.
Do you use them to establish a compatible party? Do you use it to establish hooks to be used later? Personally, I don't, my aim with a backstory is two fold. First of all, I like to see that the player has actually created PC with a personality and a life, as opposed to a collection of numbers and feats. To see if the person has a reason in their story for a particular feat or flaw. I would also like to see the person's posting style. If the person is willing to put forth the effort to make a whole story, I see them as more likely to continue with the game, as opposed to someone who just took my Big16 as mathematical exercise to see what they could squeeze out of it.
How do other DMs use it?

Yukitsu
2013-07-25, 05:58 PM
I use character back stories to adjust the tone and pace of my campaigns to a certain degree. I like to use them to make adventure hooks more personal to the characters, and make sure that the actual plot is one that is directly compelling to the characters, or at the very least to make sure that the players feel motivated to give it a try.

The exception is in horror based campaigns (which I love DMing, but my players can't stomach) In those, the back story is largely less relevant, but I do use it to fish for potential scares for that character, though really I try to play to the player's fears.

JusticeZero
2013-07-25, 07:30 PM
I mostly use them to generate important NPCs as contacts and the like.

jedipotter
2013-07-25, 07:35 PM
I use them to get role playing characters, not just stat blocks. They also make something to build off of in the game.

valadil
2013-07-25, 09:43 PM
I'm mostly in it for the hooks. Not just the ones the players deliberately write up, but anything that was left unresolved. Abusing their friends and loved ones is also fun, but don't overdo it or your PCs will all be orphans with no loved ones.

I also mooch NPCs. I've found that players are more enthusiastic about content they wrote. They see me use the blacksmith they wrote up and they think it's awesome that I thought that blacksmith was cool enough to include in my story. This gets them more involved in the session, and gets them more involved in their next backstory since they know I'll actually use things like that.

On a more subtle level I look for what makes the PCs tick. If I can figure out how to piss them off, I know exactly what traits my villains will embody. For instance, the wizard in my thieves guild game turned to a life of crime after being disowned by his family for cheating at wizard school. Later the players were asked to rig a horse race between some nobility, and lo and behold they were working for the wizard's family so his little brother could win the race, shaming the rest of the nobles. The wizard blew up when he realized this hypocrisy. It was the most intense roleplaying I ever got out of that player.

Finally, the backstories get the players in character. I've never liked being told to introduce myself to the party before I've even met the character. Makes for a bland first impression. If the players have spent a little bit of time pretending to be the character for long enough to write up a backstory, they're in much better shape to introduce themselves and start the game. Once the backstory is written, there's not much for me to do in this respect, so it's more of a passive use.

supermonkeyjoe
2013-07-26, 04:46 AM
I use all the NPCS listed in the backstory as targets for the BBEG to kill and all locations mentioned as places to be burned down

In reality I tend to use it to give the PCs a motivation to be adventuring apart from "get loot to buy stuff to get more loot" a villain that touches on several of the PCs backstories tends to be a bit more interesting for the players.

prufock
2013-07-26, 10:07 AM
Do you use them to establish a compatible party? Do you use it to establish hooks to be used later? Personally, I don't, my aim with a backstory is two fold. First of all, I like to see that the player has actually created PC with a personality and a life, as opposed to a collection of numbers and feats. To see if the person has a reason in their story for a particular feat or flaw.

All of the above. I only ask for backstories for long-term campaigns, not for one-shots or short-term (5 sessions or less). The backstory doesn't need to be extensive, a paragraph or two is plenty. I like them to give me a few words that describe their character in brief as well.

Jay R
2013-07-26, 11:20 AM
The background helps me create NPCs that they already know, plots they are more likely to want to jump into, and difficulties that they won't want to run away from.

Dienekes
2013-07-26, 01:32 PM
I like tailoring my stories to my players. If one of them makes a half-elf who aligns himself more with his human side, but has a vicious elf loving brother. Well then the leader of the elven uprising that used to be someone completely different is now his brother.

When another character lost his family by backstory, I may have a child about the same age as the one he lost who needs to be protected.

When another is the possible bastard son of a gang leader, well guess who just had a hit placed on him. Forcing the PCs to either let the events take place, or hinder and align themselves with a well known criminal.

Actana
2013-07-27, 09:18 AM
I have a rather large dislike for traditional "backstories". More often than not, I get a badly written try at an amateur novel that tells me nothing about the character. Most things in a backstory do not, and will not matter in a game. Backstories often place way too much emphasis on creating a tone for a story that has already been told for the character - I used to do the same thing. Training in a monastery with a monk? I do not care to know what kind of things they trained, or how he felt while he was carrying the buckets of water over his head, or how his master disapproved of him when he failed a certain test...

Unless it matters to the character. These days, I ask my players to give me a brief rundown of the character's general life, as well as the things that shaped the character into what he is this day. The things that are important to the character and to his story that will be told, not the one that has been already. I used to like the 10 Minute Background, but it feels rather forced to fill out sometimes, as if I had to think of 3 different NPCs of secrets for the character. Sometimes the character just doesn't have that many secrets or goals.

Games like FATE or TROS do characterization and backgrounds well with the Aspects and Spiritual Attributes (both of which I've homebrewed for personal use in D&D). Aspects tell me the important parts of the character, his past, relationship and possessions, and Spritual Attributes tell me what he and the player cares about on a mental level. These things give me precise tools to knowing what the character and the player wants, and it provides for better plot hooks and characterization than any backstory I've seen.

WeLoveFireballs
2013-07-27, 11:39 AM
Most of the time a character with a backstory is one the player is going to be more emotionally invested in, which just makes RPing better in every way.

Scow2
2013-07-27, 12:15 PM
Most of the time a character with a backstory is one the player is going to be more emotionally invested in, which just makes RPing better in every way.

Until that character gets hit by a Crit in the first combat.:smalltongue:

Vitruviansquid
2013-07-27, 12:33 PM
If I had to DM an epic campaign for strangers, such as in a PbP game, I would probably ask them to write an extensive background character before we start in order to get a sense of their writing style and screen out people who don't seem very dedicated to the game.

If I'm DM'ing an episodic kind of game where players can drop in and out, or a game for friends, or if I'm playing a game, I don't really like to do the whole backstory stuff. At most, I'd want a few sentences summary of my players' past life, or provide a few sentences worth of summary for my character's life, and have it be kept short, simple, and sweet. This is because I prefer to have games where the players' characters change in response to events in the game, and I find that detailed backstories often force players to feel like they need to always be playing to that backstory.

tasw
2013-07-27, 01:39 PM
I usually give a background of the history of the area the game is in and some info about the world at large then say, so now you know your in rockville, and whats been going on lately what are you doing here? Are you local, traveling, etc etc and thats the backstory I want from characters.

I have no interest in reading multi-page fan fic.

Baron Of Hell
2013-07-27, 08:35 PM
I use back stories for plot hooks. I also ask for things like goals and what they hope to find and do.

There are times where a DM will ask for a novel in back story and never use any of it or drop from the game before it started. Nothing I love more than spending hours or days coming up with something and then have none of it matter.