Backstory, how much is too much/little?

[Legendairy]

So in another thread a few of us discussed briefly (we didn’t want to derail it too much), how much backstory is wanted from a dm, so I have two questions, this is for grins and giggles.

#1 as a Dm: do you prefer a longer backstory full of plot hooks and story, you can add into your campaign. Or would you rather have a sentence or two about the character that gives you more freedoms to play with the characters story?

For me I like a player to put forth a fair amount of effort, imho they attach themselves better to a character when they write a longer story. I tend to favor the players (horrible DM I know) who put more effort. With that said though, our group is consistent, same group of people and a weekly game.

#2 as a player: how much effort do you prefer to put into your story? Do you like your dm to take extensive liberties or would you rather give them a roadmap of your character to help them include it and whatnot?

As a player I like to write a lot, depending on level of course. It helps me to role play the character if I’ve put a lot into the story, gives me insights on how to play them going forward.

[NRSASD]

1. Some detail is nice, but I prefer a firmer concept over quantity of backstory. If I know you're a gnomish bard who walked away from a comfortable life as a tinkerer because you were raised on the tall tales and grand stories of Uncle Biddlenock, Vagabond Extraordinaire, that's all I really need to know. It gives me a contact, a motive, and a firm attachment to the world. Bonus points if your backstory interweaves with another player's!

2. As a player, I like about the same. I'm playing to discover my character, to watch them grow over the course of their adventuring career. I keep my backstories short and succinct for that reason.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Anything that doesn’t give me enough to meaningfully connect the character to the world or the party is too little.

Anything that is too prohibitively enmeshed or specific to connect to the world or the party is too much.

Yes, that means a backstory which is “too little” can be longer than one that is “too much”—it’s about useful specifics, not length.

[strangebloke]

Anything that doesn’t give me enough to meaningfully connect the character to the world or the party is too little.

Anything that is too prohibitively enmeshed or specific to connect to the world or the party is too much.

Yes, that means a backstory which is “too little” can be longer than one that is “too much”—it’s about useful specifics, not length.

Stole my line.

"My dad was part of the silver star. He went on these grand werewolf hunts, except... One time he didn't come back."

That's useful for me as a DM, assuming that the silver star is an organization I made up.

"I grew up on the village of Sawyer's bucket, with my five friends darry, linden, grocery, baguette... Baguette killed the mad dog with a fire poker, saving darry from an awful fate... 'friends after what makes line wothth living!'... And then I was left alone, the only survivor of the village I once knew, my only ally in the world being the archwozard crem."

This is completely useless to me.

[Finback]

It also depends on your players. Some people aren't that good at coming up with stuff, so for them, I will pitch ideas to explain how they got their class features, etc. while another player will have a short novella which I can lift great idea elements from.

Personally, I like more, but can help build more for players who bring less.

(Case in point: we had for a short period a player with a Zendikar merfolk rogue/arcane trickster. I would give her ideas about why she left the sea, what her motivations might be, and those seeds were what inspired her to fill in more of the gaps between those. Likewise, we recently had our wizard's player go overseas and suddenly show up again - so luckily, we were right in the story where the PCs were fighting an ulitharid (the horizon walker ranger was a gith, so had been sent to find one). It was easy enough to have her appear in a narrative - ulitharid opens getaway portal, and the wizard comes crashing through, fighting a slaad*) - I asked her if she had ideas for how she got to that point (from where she was last in a monastery). She didn't have any ideas, so I pitched, "ok, so how about while meditating, you ascended to the astral plane, but when you were disturbed - instead of returning to your body, your body returned to YOU, trapping you there" - she loved this idea, so now it's the new canon).

* made for fun. "The enemy of our enemy is our friend, right?!" *slaad rips a huge hole in the ranger* "FOOTNOTE: NO WRONG BAD"

[Legendairy]

I would definitely encourage the players to keep open communication with the dm when making a backstory. My players usually ask about the world/orginizations/slums that type of thing so they can name them in their story. Again, personal experience, but I have seen my players eyes light up when a person/place/thing from their story makes its way into the game at a random time.

As a player, the more fleshed out the story and the more attached it is to the campaign world the better FOR ME to get into the role and actually understand why he/she has the ideals/bonds/flaws that I picked. Working with the dm along the way to make sure it completely ties into the narrative that they have set up. I don’t expect my story to come into play but if it does neat!

[Amdy_vill]

i general make a back story as simple as possible(no place real name ect..) then bounce it back and forth with my DM till we get specifics. example

Me:I am a teifling wizard who ran away with his wife from a middle to high class family he worships an evil god.

DM: you would be from the Spire your wife would probably be from a merchant family. you would probably be in a arranged marriage. the worship of the evil god and the use of magic are probably why you ran away as in this world teifling hate that.

Me: I am a teifling wizard who ran away from home with his wife after it was found out that we were wizards. I am from a rich noble family from the spire. ect..

rince repet

[KorvinStarmast]

Here's an example from a now dead character. The DM asked that we sort of fit into the world; he was running us along the Sword Coast. This folded in class, background, and why he's in Waterdeep looking to join an adventuring party. In this particular case, the DM didn't mind us thinking up potential plot hooks for later; as it worked out, our bard's back story ended up having a serious plot hook at about sixth level. There were wanted posters with his name popping up; we got some "guilt by association" encounters. A delegation of moon elves had a bounty on his head. We did not, by the time the campaign ended due to RL, run into any of the pirates though the DM had included Sttelfinger's raids, and rumors of piratical activity, in some of the rumors we picked up in taverns or when dealing with merchants.

-------------------

Korvin Starmast(life domain cleric):
Mother died in the violet plague. On my third trading voyage, Father was killed by the pirate Rustbeard while defending the good ship Windbreaker from attack. Rustbeard took our ship, since his had burned during the battle.

Salted Bart and Steelfinger mutinied, feeding Rustbeard to the sharks. It was justice, of a sort.
They put ashore those of us who wished to leave piracy to them.
I watched my seven shipmates slowly die from poisoned wine, which was Steelfinger's parting gift. I had no taste for wine; I prefer ale or grog.
I made for Mother's temple, the one in Scornubel where Father had met her. The high priest said I had potential, and so enrolled as a Cleric of Lathander. It was four long years of prayer and learning.

I felt a sailor's restlessness. I left the cloister to spread the Light.
Maybe I can heal a small part of this sick world.
Maybe I can find justice.
How I'll do any of that in this mad city of Waterdeep I'm not sure -- I'm not even sure how I got here. If a few other people are as restless as I am, there's no telling what we can change ...

---------------------------------

That same back story can be presented with less detail

Went to sea with father after mother died of horrible disease {sailor background} & {motive to later be life cleric} & Ship taken by pirates, father killed, castaway. Journeyed to temple {family connection} and was enrolled to study as cleric/priest. {Class / domain}. Left temple (background/sailor/restless) to adventure; hopes to one day avenge (or get justice for) death of Father {pirates Steel Finger and Salted Bart, if DM likes them as future plot hooks)}.

Cant find the ideals, bonds, flaws, and traits at the moment. The thing about tossing in future plot hooks is : work with the DM on that. Make it a collaborative effort.

[Jophiel]

A good background just needs to explain why you have your class abilities and why you're out risking being eaten by owlbears. That second part should contain a few potential hooks for the DM without being suffocating and forcing your DM's story ("I swore to dedicate every waking second to rescuing my sister from the Blue Marquis...")

[Laserlight]

I don't really care about your backstory; I care about your motivations.


Useless: My mother gave me over to nannies and guardians when I was nine days old, and I haven't seen her since; she has been busy with More Important Things.

Useful: I strive diligently to be perfect in the Five Virtues, although I don't consciously think of it as "trying to prove myself worthy of my mother's attention".

[Legendairy]

I don't really care about your backstory; I care about your motivations.


Useless: My mother gave me over to nannies and guardians when I was nine days old, and I haven't seen her since; she has been busy with More Important Things.

Useful: I strive diligently to be perfect in the Five Virtues, although I don't consciously think of it as "trying to prove myself worthy of my mother's attention".

Very valid, and something we bring up at our tables in session 0 or through communication. After I get the backstory if I can’t find a motive for future endeavors I just ask the player outright what the characters motives are, usually we will sit around and brainstorm and talk about it IF they don’t already have it.

[Metamorph]

As a DM I am always happy to have a huge amount of backstory. It helps to know the character (both dm and player) and i do not have to think about plot hooks and tell my players what happened in their past. I like to use their npcs and weave as much detail of their stories in the plot. (I also favor those who write something).

But depending on the style of writing you do not need much to get a rich backstory and a good guess of what are the motivations etc etc etc.

As a player i mostly write between one and three pages.

[GlenSmash!]

I think I was in that thread, here's my views again.

I pick a Background, Personality traits, Bond, flaw, and Ideal and decide why my character became an adventure. That last bit could take 3 to 5 small paragraphs. I've never had it even approach a page.

[Man_Over_Game]

I don't really care about your backstory; I care about your motivations.


Useless: My mother gave me over to nannies and guardians when I was nine days old, and I haven't seen her since; she has been busy with More Important Things.

Useful: I strive diligently to be perfect in the Five Virtues, although I don't consciously think of it as "trying to prove myself worthy of my mother's attention".

I feel like this is pretty wrong to me. I don't care what you tell me your virtues are. I'm your god, your foe, and your referee. If something's going to be motivating you, I'll figure it out after our first session. I'm probably railroading you into a basic plothook anyway, so it's not like your motivations are really needed until after that point.

On the contrary, though, having too much is going to make it hard for me to figure out what's relevant and what's not. I can't sift through 3 pages of backstory because you want to be interesting and make all of it relevant. If there's 5 players, that's 15 pages I have to track at all times, not including anything random I decide to throw in there.

Give me half a page that's organized like a list.


Lived with Nancy. After raiders came and took our women, they left the children behind. I was rescued by Shorden, who trained me to be a vigilante wizard. He helped me get contacts in Luskan for more work, including Corporal Donahue.

Nancy: Mom, nice, naïve. Captured by barbarian raiders.
Shorden: Wizard, grumpy, paranoid. We had a falling out because I stole something I needed for a job. He's currently in Luskan.
Donahue: Warrior, succinct, commanding, stressed out. He gives me work when his forces aren't enough, and they generally aren't. Good guy, just demands that people do what's expected.

You make me a list like this, and I guarantee all of these things will become relevant. I can already tell that this guy has a troubled past, and is willing to do whatever it takes to put bad guys in the ground. He's also willing to work with superiors who might give him a bad attitude. You don't need to spell out all of your motivations, I just need a list of the stuff I won't be able to figure out on my own. The only motivations I care about you telling me about are things that are not really inherently obvious (like how you zealously worship Bane but you keep it a secret).

Basically, I need a tool. A list of notes. If you give me several pages, I'll be making the same thing for me to refer to anyway, except when I do it, there's a bigger chance of me leaving something out.

[Sariel Vailo]

I would make one page i have made longer backstories like 3 pages but no dm has ever used my long ones so ive went and did small and concise. I prefer long ones both as a player and dm.

[Sigreid]

Tell me why you're in town and what you want out of life.

[Temperjoke]

I like to have a basic summary of my character's life and past to be able to explain who he is and how he got to that point where the adventure begins. I might think up more elaborate details, but that would be more headcanon, saved for if the DM needs more elaboration later in the adventure.

[KorvinStarmast]

Tell me why you're in town and what you want out of life.That's not a backstory, that's a pickup line. :smallbiggrin:

[Legendairy]

That's not a backstory, that's a pickup line. :smallbiggrin:

My thoughts exactly. lol.

[Sigreid]

That's not a backstory, that's a pickup line. :smallbiggrin:

In a way it is because I'm going to use that in tossing out my plot hooks to see which ones the party wants to follow. Much beyond that is just noise to me that I'm probably not going to read anyway.

[to a mouse]

It also depends on your players. Some people aren't that good at coming up with stuff, so for them, I will pitch ideas to explain how they got their class features, etc. while another player will have a short novella which I can lift great idea elements from.

Personally, I like more, but can help build more for players who bring less.


Heartfeltly agree there, always start off with some ideas for the setting, like to borrow from some authors for ideas as a player of DM ,one being a long term favourite the writer Cormac McCarthy "The Orchard Keeper" and the description of the Green Fly Inn. Let the player impose themselves into a setting with a NPC or the player with another and let them role with it, pun intended if you read his writing on the Inn.

[Kane0]

https://media.giphy.com/media/1zlZtFT4TmiC4/200w.gif

But in all honesty, one sentence is enough and one paragraph is about the most I want to either read or provide.

[Asmotherion]

Depends on the Style of game we're playing.

If we're going for a one-shot, I don't expect the players to give me a complete backstory of how they grew up, or their ideals on politics and phylosophy on magic and each deity. I just want a fast "let's roll characters, and we'll fill details as we play". We play faster, this way. If someone has a clear idea of what his character is, he can role play it. Those that don't, find their roles in the world, as they play.

In a campain, I prefear to have a clear picture of the character's backstory; give them a clear idea of who they were, and who they want to be, as well as something to expect. I like working with them, so that we come together to a result they like; This way, they commit to the character.

[Blacky the Blackball]

We always play starting from first level, so it's kind of assumed that the characters are young and inexperienced and extended backstories full of prior adventures wouldn't be a good fit.

Having said that, we don't really go for backstories. When I create a character I normally have a reasonable idea of how and why they became an adventurer in my head - but it stays in my head. Bits of it may influence how I play my character, and bits of it may come out incidentally during conversation; but I don't write it down and present it to the DM (or worse - to the other players) as something they're expected to know and care about.

We're currently playing OotA and as far as I know, the backstories of the characters are (It's my turn to DM, so none of these are my character):

1) Water Genasi Knowledge Cleric of Deep Sashelas - After completing her vows she was eager to leave the ocean and travel the world in search of knowledge and wisdom, so she did.
2) Triton Oath of the Ancients Paladin - He was assigned to the cleric as a protector to look after her on her travels. He's glad to be away from boring guard duties.
3) Protector Aasimar Drunken Master Monk - I wander drunkenly from place to place doing good deeds where I can.
4) Tiefling Shadow Sorcerer - She's not revealed any background information as yet, but we've only played one session of this campaign so far.

We've not needed any kind of excuse for why these four happen to be in the same place at the same time and are working together, because the adventure provides it for us.

That's about average for the amount of backstory we give our characters. We might have more details in our heads but a sentence or two is usually about as much as we tell everyone else.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Although I love to write elaborate backstories for my characters, (I just love to write, actually) I've found it's best to find out what the DM wants, and write that. If they just want my character sheet to have personality traits, ideals, bonds, flaws, and shoe size, fine. Give 'em what they want. If they want my character's life story and his family archives... okay, challenge accepted. I might not have the whole thing ready next game session, but I can get you the first chapter, is that alright?

The correct answer is always: write what the DM wants/needs for their campaign. Unless it's too much homework, then you might be at the wrong table.

[dmteeter]

As a DM all i need out of your backstory is a person, place, or thing that motivates your character to be an adventurer.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a campaign starts at first level and some dipstick comes to the table with a backstory that is full of insane feats that his character is not even close to high enough level to complete.

As a player before i write my backstory i usually ask the DM about their world and then i try to write up a paragraph or so of how my character fits into that setting.

[Callak_Remier]

I usually wait to implement my back story once I have a better understanding of the world

[strangebloke]

What I ask for from my players.

Public (accessible to other players) Backstory

Race:

Age:

Appearance:

Family/Guardians:

Background/Occupation:

Associations(groups or persons you would be known to associate with):

General/Other:

Secret Backstory:

Greatest Fear:

Greatest Regret:

Something your character doesn’t know about themselves (IE, who their father is, or why their brother left town):

History:


It gives me everythhing I could really care to know in a format I can easily search through when I decide that for whatever reason I want to know the name of their aunt.

[guachi]

Echoing others, too much backstory is backstory that adds nothing to the game.

Think of your story like the backstory of a character on a TV show.Much of a character's backstory is created as needed as the show goes along.

My favorite campaign from forever ago I knew my PC was a young herald to the king. My parents were still alive. I grew up in or near the capital city. I wanted to be a diplomat and travel and serve my kingdom. I was young and enthusiastic.

What were my parents' names? I didn't know.
Where did they live? Aside from 'near the capital' I didn't know.
What were their professions? I didn't know.
Did I have siblings? I didn't know.
Did I have an old girlfriend? I didn't know.
Did I have friends? I didn't know.

None of the questions I didn't know the answer to were particularly relevant. All I really needed as a background was why I was adventuring and what my motivations were. Just saying "herald to the king" made the DM's life easy as he funneled many stories through the king to me and the other PCs were game to go along.

[FrancisBean]

The correct answer is always: write what the DM wants/needs for their campaign. Unless it's too much homework, then you might be at the wrong table.

Probably the best answer available. My current game as a player, I wrote about 10 pages, complete with colorful vignettes to illustrate the points. I didn't list a single one of the traits / bond / flaw / ideal set, I just created as real a character as I could, with a rich personality background which told the DM everything he could want to know about how the character would react. Which is exactly what this DM wanted.

Two campaigns before that, the entire backstory was "feeling guilty over some unexplained youthful failure resulting in the death of a sibling, he wants to be the greatest master of teleportational magics the world has ever known. And doesn't much care how he does it." Again, exactly what was wanted.

(The intervening campaign, the DM asked for detailed backstory writeups, and I have him 3-5 pages. I got back a "well, I didn't really read all of that, so I'll just wing it." With the mis-matched expectations, it was one of the most miserable gaming experiences of my life.)