No Backstory

[turtleant120]

When DM'ing a group of friends I asked them to write a little backstory for there charecters so I could base a few quests off there individual histories. This was before the third session that we had played with these charecters and I figured that they would find it fun too give there charecters flavour.
Not such a bad request right?
Wrong.
One player said he would and then didn't, another player simply stated that he didn't want to, but number 3 was the worst.
Not only did he refuse to make a backstory but told me it was a dumb idea and that I was "getting to into the game". Then he left the table and whent and played WOW.
Needless to say the game fell apart which really stinks because its really hard to find a group around here, what with me living out in the boonies and the nearest game store an hour and a half away
Has anyone else had this kind of problem?

[Renegade Paladin]

Award XP for character backgrounds. It's what we do, anyway.

[The Orange Zergling]

Not only did he refuse to make a backstory but told me it was a dumb idea and that I was "getting to into the game". Then he left the table and whent and played WOW.

Isnt that the point of D&D?

[Jannex]

Not only did he refuse to make a backstory but told me it was a dumb idea and that I was "getting to into the game". Then he left the table and whent and played WOW.

Why did this guy even bother to play a game where you socialize with other people and pretend to be a fictional character in the first place? WOW is probably more his speed--roleplaying games require, you know, roleplaying. Did his character even have a name, or was he just "Fighty McSlashypants"?

Ugh. I feel your pain.

[AmoDman]

Did his character even have a name, or was he just "Fighty McSlashypants"?

Little inventive for a WoW player, don't ya think? I'd say he probably had "Tank A", "DPS Whore", or "Primary Healbot" .




*Disclaimer: Just a joke, I've enjoyed WoW too

[Dark]

"my fighter" is good enough for a name :)

I'd recommend continuing the game with two players. Leave out the guy who doesn't want to play. And if they don't want backstories, then don't try to force them. For one thing, you can role-play without -- just assume the characters are travelers from another country. And for another thing, if the alternative is not playing at all, then take what you can have. Straight-up fighting games can be fun. I've cleared many a dungeon of Skaven in Advanced Heroquest :)

If you want to keep the third player around, and he really doesn't like roleplaying, then perhaps you could try some boardgames.

[Renegade Paladin]

Honestly, I say ditch those losers and play online. We've got loads of play-by-post games running here, I'm in a couple at another forum (which is why I don't get into it here), and I can recommend some good chat-based games if play by post doesn't strike your fancy.

[The_Blue_Sorceress]

Well, first let me say that the guy who ditched your group was a real jerk. You don't need to bother with jerks.

Second, if your players don't want to come up with a backstory, don't make them. Let them play for a few sessions, develop a feel of their characters through play, and then ask them for a little detail on their backgrounds. Play a few more sessions where backstory is less relevant while you work out some side plots based on what they gave you, and then introduce said side plots when you're ready. I usually have my players start out this way, because then the options for the campaign are open, there are no immediately contradictory backstories, and my life as the DM is much easier. I also prefer to go about making a character this way as a player, because I like to develop my characters' personalities as I go. You can say your character is one way, say that they're a brave, heroic sort, but in my experience players often fail to have their characters live up tho the descriptions and backstories they give them before play begins.

Alternatively, you could just make up backstorys for them, though in my experience that doesn't always go over as well as the former option, or you could sit down with the players before game and hash it out with them so that they can't just flake out on you. It may be that your one player that said that he would come up with a backstory had some good ideas, but wanted to run them past you before he got his heart set on them, or maybe he just can't come up with anything he feels is very good, or that suits the class/race/alignment combo he was thinking of playing. My advice, in a nutshell, is to talk things over with your two remaining players, and go from there.

-Blue

[Kiero]

Different people game for different reasons. If you're going to play with them, you need to accomodate that reality. Not everyone plays for deep immersion or identification with their character. Some just like to blow off steam tossing some dice and killing stuff, or playing around with their chosen character build, or many other alternatives.

Some people like to develop their characters in chargen, others prefer to do so in play. Usually that's a continuum, rather than two polar opposite positions. This is a long-standing bone of contention over which is "better", I just say they're different preferences.

For some people the character comes alive in play, and no amount of backstory aids that. For others writing backstory helps them get a grasp on who this person might be.

Me? I've come full circle, I don't want extensive backstories of stuff no one is likely to read or care about. Indeed I prefer a solid concept over some fiction about stuff that didn't take place in play.

[Black Swan]

Agreed with Kiero. Maybe they've just played with too many DM's who used thieir characters' backstories and fictional families as plot hooks. If I had to save a long-lost relative every few adventures because the DM liked fishing for plothooks that way, I'd start making sure every character I played was a restless wanderer who had no friends, no family and nothing to tie them to anything.

[Kiero]

Well, there's using it as a hook, and using it as a knife to twist into players at each and every turn. Hooks are good if that's why you wrote a backstory, knives, not so much.

[daggaz]

Some people just really really dont want to write, either. Maybe they are bad at it, or afraid/insecure, maybe they just suck at grammar and spelling. Dont try and force it on them, tho I admit your players could have been a bit more accomodating as well.

[Kiero]

Some people just really really dont want to write, either. Maybe they are bad at it, or afraid/insecure, maybe they just suck at grammar and spelling. Dont try and force it on them, tho I admit your players could have been a bit more accomodating as well.

Or maybe they just don't enjoy it. Hell I don't enjoy number-crunching, so I can understand that.

[CharPixie]

If someone doesn't want to write backstory, see if they'll sit down with you at some point and work on it in person. I've found that my players have always been reasonable about it, and eventually even the ones I end up sitting down with will, for another campaign, write me backgrounds.

Also, consider asking for a one or two paragraph backstory; if they know they don't have to write several pages, they might be more willing.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I'd recommend continuing the game with two players. Leave out the guy who doesn't want to play. And if they don't want backstories, then don't try to force them. For one thing, you can role-play without...

Exactly. What's important to the game is who you're character is, not who he or she was. A backstory might make for an interesting read and might provide a couple of future plot-hooks. But when you start playing the game, to what extent does it really matter why your dwarf fighter is a one-eyed halfling-hater so much as your dwarf is a one-eyed halfling-hater.

(...I need to come up with better examples... )

[Roland St. Jude]

Or maybe, and this has nothing to do with your players really, they just don't want to write a story. For many, writing a story is right up there with public speaking (as something they have a phobia of) and work/study (which they do for a living and don't want to do in their leisure time).

Your players "objections" seem different than this, but for folks who just don't want the extra work, you can make them tell you the story. Have an NPC ask the character what his background is, make the usual character background questions come from an NPC, in-game, and part of the adventure. Perhaps the person hiring the party wants to get to know them better before trusting them. Perhaps they need to chat up a specialty merchant or contact who insists on this kind of thing before dealing with strangers. Or make their background work for them, ask them, "do any of your characters have any experience...weaponmaking...woodlands...religious festivals" and let it give them a bonus to their skill check or just some extra information benefit if they say "yes" and decribe it for you. Admittedly, you're tricking/bribing them to build a backstory, but you're doing it in small pieces as the game is going along.

Or just ask them out of game the kinds of things you'd want in a background story. Where did your character grow up? Are his parents still alive? On good terms? What do they do?

And as said above, it's nice to have character backgrounds to work with, but it isn't necessary. I'd say just play for a bit with the two who are more reasonable and see if you can help them develop who their characters are now and build where they came from as you go along.

[clericwithnogod]

I enjoy creating a backstory for my characters...how much of it I like to share with the DM depends upon the DM though.

Some DMs ask for backstories, but require them to be so banal as to be torture to write and others take a perverse glee in using your backstory as a way to torture you.

When DMing, I like to get a backstory and character sheet before starting so I can work bits of it into the fabric of the campaign. If a character is an outcast from a noble house, I'll try to place his family someplace. If he has a god or religion he wants to follow, I'll try to find a way to fit it into the campaign pantheon or social structure. If he's a fugitive from the law, I'll try to come up with an appropriate city or town (or create one to match the circumstances the player comes up with) where he is wanted.

But sometimes things just don't fit and some campaigns just don't handle the "he's the only one of his race and/or came here on a spaceship" character well.

For both backstory and character creation, as player and DM I prefer to work it out prior to the first session to avoid wasting game time. By the time you've worked through a backstory and character creation, you have a pretty good idea of whether you'll be able to play nicely together. It also allows players to create characters with secrets the rest of the party doesn't know more easily.

[Emperor Tippy]

What level were they starting at?

I despise DM's who want a real backstoy at level 1. But if your starting at level 10 well you should have a backstory.

[turtleant120]

My internet had a fit when I went to post this topic so I didn't relize it was here.

Thanks for all the tips but keeping the group together isn't possible. Two of the players left for the army and the other has moved to Michagan.

edit: there starting at level 6 so we could play Red Hand of Doom.

[Bouldering Jove]

Elaborate character histories, basically small works of fiction starring the player's character, I see no point in. All they do is supplant the function of the actual campaign. What I do want from my players, however, is a backstory that explains why they're an adventurer. "Small town background, wanted to see the world" is sufficient. For the purposes of the campaign, neither I nor the player needs an elaborately crafted set of events, just a basic character sketch to start roleplaying with. Interesting, deep characters will emerge from the decisions they make over the course of the game. Endless preplanned detail tends to just get in the way.

[Viscount Einstrauss]

I require at least some backstory, and any player that dislikes that can dislike it from outside the house, if you catch my drift. I run D&D more like a cooperative story then a game, and that's how I like it. If I were to run it the other way, I wouldn't like it. Thus, I would never DM it and the players would need to find someone else anyway.

Of course, I don't require anything deep or meaningful. But if they DO go to lengths to make a great backstory, I'll include it in the game, usually as a sidequest that can net the player it's based around something cool in the end. Thus, everyone tries to make the coolest character with the most story potential.

[Thiel]

In the group I play in you have to be able to answer three questions about your character:
Where do he/she come from? Why are he/she an adventurer? and lastly, what did he/she do before?
It should take no more than three or four lines to answer them.

[JadedDM]

I did have a problem once where a player would not submit a backstory for his character. I got around that by making this rule: Until you turn in the backstory, you don't get to play. Simple as that. If the player arrives without a backstory, then I tell him to try again for next week.

[Tobrian]

Isnt that the point of D&D?

On the danger of making myself unpopular i'd say it's the point of character creation in many games like Star Wars, GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, World of Darkness, Kult etc. Not neccessarily in D&D... something called character background or development was practically nonexistant or at least heavily optional in AD&D, and frankly D&D d20 has moments where they try to pretend that the game is about more than just class, race and level, and they publish supplements about making your characters and villains more interesting and rounded but frankly...the game does not require you to create any backstory for your character beyond "grew up became an adventurer" or "want to get revenge on monster race X". Similarly, the generic adventurer is never married, doesnt even have a permanent home, has no family or siblings or other attachments that could get in the way of dungeon crawling.

I've the same problem with several of my players in my D&D group, although it's not this drastic. Two of them seem generally desinterested in writing anything about their character's background; one flat-out refused to come up with anything, another said he needed to know more about the game world first before he could come up with anything for his fighter (oh come on, he's a mercenary), anf the third (he plays a lot of computer games too) at first didnt come up with anythiung more complex beyond a basic "I want to play a gnome alchemist/sorcerer" idea but ignored all my attempts to coax him into making up some background for his character's family ("they died") and the teacher he is apprenticed to. Now suddenly last session he handed me a page of character background, only he has decided to completely rewrite the character (at level 9!), kick out the alchemy stuff he never used (not my problem if he doesnt show interest) and give his sorcerer a mysterious dragon or half-dragon teacher who for unknown reasons tutored him when he was young and then mysteriously disappeared. Eh. I'm smelling a rat. A Dragon Disciple sized rat. I definitely outlawed that PrC in my campaign, grrr. But that player is really into dragon power since he read that sorcerers have dragon blood (and told him it could as well be fey or demon blood, and the whole thing is a rumour anyway, but he ignored it). So there you have it, a "background" story that really isn' one, but is only geared towards explaining the characters class and sneaking in some dragon or half-dragon NPC mentor.

My advice: Come up with a questionnaire, similar to the ones in the GURPS, Mage, Vampire or Vampire Dark Ages rulebooks for example. It forces the players to think about "minor unimportant" things like, does my character have siblings, where are they, did he like them, did he have an apprenticeship before he want out into the world as adventurer, is he religious and devout or not, what's his personal world view, does he have likes, dislikes or phobias, does he have embarrassing secrets? Did he have a pet when he was smaller? Is he ascetic or does he like to eat nice things if he can afford them? Does he have scars (beyond those who only exist to make him look cool), a neighing laugh, jug ears, a good singing voice without being a bard? Does he have an ear ring, wear an amulet, what is it's story? Did he buy his sword, or was it a family heirloom ,or did he take it off the first guy he ever killed on a battlefield? What kind of women/men/elves/orcs/goats does he want to get into bed/drag behind the bushes?

Stuff like WoW is the scourge of roleplaying. Characters in a standard computer game or MMORPG do not have to have their own personality, because they're simply a stand-in for the player to move around the virtual world and use the character's stats to solve quests someone else has written, without being expected to come up with his own motivations for doing anything. The only motivation for doing anything in a computer game is because you want the XP and "solve" the story. Characters in a team are pretty much exchangable, they're there for their special powers, nothing else.

If that guy rather wants to mine gold and quest for epic armor to put on his virtual Ken doll, I'm afraid my answer is: Let him. Play without him, then make sure he's present the next time when you and your friends talk about your latest cool adventure and how the half-orc fighter among yourselves.

Or look for a Play-By-eMail or play-by-chat game on the internet.

Elaborate character histories, basically small works of fiction starring the player's character, I see no point in. All they do is supplant the function of the actual campaign. What I do want from my players, however, is a backstory that explains why they're an adventurer. "Small town background, wanted to see the world" is sufficient. For the purposes of the campaign, neither I nor the player needs an elaborately crafted set of events, just a basic character sketch to start roleplaying with. Interesting, deep characters will emerge from the decisions they make over the course of the game. Endless preplanned detail tends to just get in the way.

Personally I like "elaborate character histories" for my own characters, I don't "preplan" them , they just... happen. They just grow in my head while I create the character, or during the first few sessions. Well, not for each and every character but for most of them. They're character background stories, as opposed to character life stories which are created by what happens during the course of the campaign.

But I disagree that deep characters will automatically emerge just because stuff happens to them. I've seen characters that havent changed on iota even after they've run through a long campaign. Dealing with present events like slaying monsters does not neccessarily mean a player will come up with anything new, on the contrary, who needs the past when you can level up?

I've seen gamemasters express the prejudice, sometimes without consciously realizing they're doing it, that if a player comes up with "too much backstory" it only gets in the way of the gamemaster's glorious campaign so it must be discouraged, or that any player inventing backstory NPCs or an old schoolyard nemesis of his character's is secretly trying to undermine the campaign and "dictate" events and NPCs to his gamemaster. Meh. Nonsense. I hate PCs with no better background story than "I'm an adventurer, I want to solve the quest"... because it's the player's motivation, not the character's.

Having a rich backstory with deetails and plot hooks is not the same as making up a backstory and motivations that mean the character is incompatible with any story other than the one his player secretly wants to play... I've seen such a player once, but usually you can spot them from a mile away. They're not even interested in playing, they just want to talk about their cool character (usually a lone wolf type of guy). They should write a story about it.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I require at least some backstory, and any player that dislikes that can dislike it from outside the house, if you catch my drift. I run D&D more like a cooperative story then a game, and that's how I like it. If I were to run it the other way, I wouldn't like it. Thus, I would never DM it and the players would need to find someone else anyway.

There are plenty of stories where there is no history for the characters involved. The focus of the story is on the events contained within that story, not what happened before. A character background is not required to tell a story.

I don't recall learning any real details about Sam Spade's past in The Maltese Falcon. I believe the only backstory for Dorothy Gale in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was "farmgirl from Kansas that lives with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry."

How about The Matrix? What do we know about Neo other than he was a hacker?

Some stories even thrive on character ambiguity to such an extent that any character background is "too much information" and interferes with the theme and mood of the story. (This is particularly true of a story where a character is supposed to be a sort of Everyman, though that would be understandably rare in a D&D setting.)

[Tobrian]

There are plenty of stories where there is no history for the characters involved. The focus of the story is on the events contained within that story, not what happened before. A character background is not required to tell a story.

Of course. Basically any plotdriven game where the focus is not the individual characters but on the task that must be completed doesn't need extensive background at all because the characters are interchangable, only their skills matter. You usually get this in team-based games, where the characters are secret agents or mercenaries, and the story itself is a one-shot short adventure. The plot exists externally from the characters.

Then there are storydriven games where the plot drives the story forward, but the characters' histories are more intimately entwined with the background plot and contain important clues.

And of course character-driven drama that centers on the characters and their relationships and actions, where all plot derives from the character's story. Personal quests for example. Jane Austen novels.

It really depends on what sort of game the GM is running. But in general, unless it's a beer-and-pretzels game, coming up with some background can never hurt, otherwise many players just take the lazy route and play a cardboard cut-out.

I don't recall learning any real details about Sam Spade's past in The Maltese Falcon. I believe the only backstory for Dorothy Gale in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was "farmgirl from Kansas that lives with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry."

How about The Matrix? What do we know about Neo other than he was a hacker?

The Matrix used every cyberpunk cliche in existance. Neo being a pale nerd hacker with no life told you everything you needed to know about him.

I'm not sure if I've seen the Maltese Falcon... I think so, but it was years ago. But if Sam Spade is the sort of Film Noir detective type I vaguely remember, again you don't need a backstory beyond "drink, smokes, was once burned by a woman" because his character concept is iconic, not original.

Wizard of Oz is basically a fairy tale. In fairy tales, protagonists usually have things done to them instead of acting on motivations of their own. Yes, before you say something, I know such characters do things, solve quests, overcome the villain, but its usually purely reactive. They fall into a rabbit hole, or a twister drops them into a strange land, or they are given a task to complete, but it's without their own volition.

If the story goes on a bit longer (the miniseries 10th Kingdom for example) then the characters's backstory is revealed piece by piece. But it's already been set down in the script before the movie was made

But if you're a roleplayer or a writer, you need to have some idea of who the character is.

[Macrovore]

Wizard of Oz is basically a fairy tale. In fairy tales, protagonists usually have things done to them instead of acting on motivations of their own. Yes, before you say something, I know such characters do things, solve quests, overcome the villain, but its usually purely reactive. They fall into a rabbit hole, or a twister drops them into a strange land, or they are given a task to complete, but it's without their own volition.

that's what a lot of campaigns are based on, though.

[kamikasei]

How about The Matrix? What do we know about Neo other than he was a hacker?

He helped his landlady carry out her garbage.

[Bouldering Jove]

Personally I like "elaborate character histories" for my own characters, I don't "preplan" them , they just... happen. They just grow in my head while I create the character, or during the first few sessions. Well, not for each and every character but for most of them. They're character background stories, as opposed to character life stories which are created by what happens during the course of the campaign.

To better articulate what I mean: if it can be legitimately called a "story," in the sense of a short work of fiction with narrative structure and all, I think it's unsuitable for most newly created D&D characters.

But I disagree that deep characters will automatically emerge just because stuff happens to them. I've seen characters that havent changed on iota even after they've run through a long campaign. Dealing with present events like slaying monsters does not neccessarily mean a player will come up with anything new, on the contrary, who needs the past when you can level up?

I didn't say depth automatically emerges, just that it emerges from play. How someone envisions a character doesn't matter if they don't realize it in that character's actions.

I've seen gamemasters express the prejudice, sometimes without consciously realizing they're doing it, that if a player comes up with "too much backstory" it only gets in the way of the gamemaster's glorious campaign so it must be discouraged, or that any player inventing backstory NPCs or an old schoolyard nemesis of his character's is secretly trying to undermine the campaign and "dictate" events and NPCs to his gamemaster. Meh. Nonsense. I hate PCs with no better background story than "I'm an adventurer, I want to solve the quest"... because it's the player's motivation, not the character's.

That prejudice can be well-founded if the player has an expectation that backstory components will be worked into the campaign, instead of them being merely possibilities for a GM to explore. Generally, the adventuring campaign should be where the story begins; what came before just adds texture and tone to the personalities involved. If elements from before become major plot points of the present, then the story really started well before the first game session, and yes, a player may end up dictating events or becoming disappointed when they have no say over what they feel they created.

Having a rich backstory with deetails and plot hooks is not the same as making up a backstory and motivations that mean the character is incompatible with any story other than the one his player secretly wants to play... I've seen such a player once, but usually you can spot them from a mile away. They're not even interested in playing, they just want to talk about their cool character (usually a lone wolf type of guy). They should write a story about it.

A character with lots of backstory details and plot hooks can be obtrusive without being completely incompatible. If the player has created NPCs that come up in a game session, it's impossible for a GM to perfectly capture how that player envisioned them, and so there becomes a tension between how the player and GM think things should be.

This isn't to say this will always happen, because a good group can talk about and work through these issues without a fuss and with everyone satisfied, but why create the potential for problems in the first place? Even if the plot hooks from a character's background are fascinating, playing them out means spotlighting one character above the others. Do they really add something to a campaign that GM-created plot can't?

[Dervag]

What level were they starting at?
I despise DM's who want a real backstoy at level 1. But if your starting at level 10 well you should have a backstory.

What do you define as a 'backstory'?

I'd say that a level one character should have a basic background (place and class of origin, family status, etc.), and one or two major events that illuminate aspects of the character (eloped with significant other, performed some great feat of courage, etc.).