Two Paragraph backstory is all that's needed. It only justifies who your character is and why they're with the group, plot hooks for the GM to utilise are appreciated. Anything else tends to be self-indulgant player wankery about how their character is no slouch at being a WIZARD and their parents weren't around as a child (maybe they're someone really important to the plot?!!?)
[QUOTE=cyclocius;47108875]Two Paragraph backstory is all that's needed. It only justifies who your character is and why they're with the group, plot hooks for the GM to utilise are appreciated. Anything else tends to be self-indulgant player wankery about how their character is no slouch at being a WIZARD and their parents weren't around as a child (maybe they're someone really important to the plot?!!?)[/QUOTE]
I think it ought to be as long as needed. Plot hooks shouldn't be forced and obvious for the DM to use. For example, you shouldn't write your character clearly seeking gold, or revenge or desiring a castle or glory. It's better to write off, such as, "His parents were killed at a young age by goblins," continue the whole background without mentioning anything about that, then the DM starting the session completely out of the blue, "You find a goblin wearing your mother's necklace". While the player may not have made that an important point in his character, the DM now has it to make a surprise quest that even the player didn't expect.
[QUOTE=cyclocius;47108875]Two Paragraph backstory is all that's needed. It only justifies who your character is and why they're with the group, plot hooks for the GM to utilise are appreciated. Anything else tends to be self-indulgant player wankery about how their character is no slouch at being a WIZARD and their parents weren't around as a child (maybe they're someone really important to the plot?!!?)[/QUOTE]
Well this particular game, our characters were supposed to be legendary evil, and no good legend can fit into two paragraphs.
[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;47108850]I created a two page backstory for a legendary half-orc hell bent on revenge in an undead campaign which never went through.
Still sorta angry about that tbh. Like, I put in a ton of work into making a backstory (which was mandatory), and it got cancelled before it even started.[/QUOTE]
I've recently had something similar happen to me. My friends and I have started a completely new campaign set in these mystical islands far from any other continent. Since the setting is all our own, my friend and I agreed that we would co-create the atmosphere, peoples, cities, and such together for the group.
I decided to write a "general" history of the setting, which ended up being 500 year history in 9 pages worth of writing. I was quite proud, made it all air tight and left a lot of what I felt were good plot hooks and creation of the "modern day" in the islands.
First thing my friend says to me when I show him and he reads it was, "I don't really see the point of all this, all that matters is what's going on in 'today' for the campaign".
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;47108923]I think it ought to be as long as needed. Plot hooks shouldn't be forced and obvious for the DM to use. For example, you shouldn't write your character clearly seeking gold, or revenge or desiring a castle or glory. It's better to write off, such as, "His parents were killed at a young age by goblins," continue the whole background without mentioning anything about that, then the DM starting the session completely out of the blue, "You find a goblin wearing your mother's necklace". While the player may not have made that an important point in his character, the DM now has it to make a surprise quest that even the player didn't expect.[/QUOTE]
Generally I use the "reasons to be in an adventuring party/whatever" for that. If the player says his family are land owners/distant relatives of a noble-born/have a family heirloom then those are clear indications for me as a GM to involve them in a story. Not in the first session (unless the players really want to fight off goblins that are attacking your land!), but they're more of an addition to a characters development rather than the crux of it. As has been said, character backstory is seldom referred to beyond the third or fourth session and the character becomes more of their own being. The occassional reference/allowing the player to pull on the threads in their backstory should be an option in most cases but they become more than what was handed to the GM on Day One.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;47108948]I've recently had something similar happen to me. My friends and I have started a completely new campaign set in these mystical islands far from any other continent. Since the setting is all our own, my friend and I agreed that we would co-create the atmosphere, peoples, cities, and such together for the group.
I decided to write a "general" history of the setting, which ended up being 500 year history in 9 pages worth of writing. I was quite proud, made it all air tight and left a lot of what I felt were good plot hooks and creation of the "modern day" in the islands.
First thing my friend says to me when I show him and he reads it was, "I don't really see the point of all this, all that matters is what's going on in 'today' for the campaign".[/QUOTE]
I've had this, the players stood in the halls of an Order of Knights surrounded by statues of Knights long dead and records of deeds. Some were relevant in a "Oh, related to this guy?" sense, others are pure flavour/figures of lore. One of the players asks a scribe for plot related information and then says to me "I'm sure there's loads of stuff here, but is any of it actually useful?"
Aaaargh.
All this talk about story.
As a DM you make a skeleton of a story, a blank book with a background. Plan some large engagements that require planning if you REALLY have to.
Let your players write in that book. You will have more fun telling them the story of the REGION through context rather than trying to tell them the story you envisioned, I promise you. It'll result in less stress on your half and less railroading.
For example, in Shadowrun I ENVISIONED this group of runners I'm playing with right now to eventually topple a corrupt government in south east asia.
They're on their way to destroy a dangerous cult that's been stealing experimental combat drugs which hulk people the fuck out - (which this group literally supplied them with unknowingly by taking a job from them) - and are now being forced into helping Ares unfuck the whole situation and Lofwyr is about to start breathing down their neck because they blew up a hotel in the middle of west berlin full of political representatives from all over the world.
So in 20 or so sessions my vision of "Jagged Alliance styled Shadowrun" was lost and replaced with "Call of Cthulhu sort of kind of but not really styled Shadowrun in East and West Berlin if the cold war never ended and east berlin turned into a slum where every street was full of people every day and market stalls and it's basically anarchy and west berlin was full of snobby assholes and ferraris"
And I'm still having fun with it and my players are constantly excited for every session and tell me all the time "Holy shit that session was fucking nuts and awesome."
So I guess the take away is this: Be flexible. You can't always tell YOUR story, but that's not what any table top is about, it's about collaborating and making a story with others. No other system represents this better than [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate_%28role-playing_game_system%29]FATE[/url]
If you're DMing to tell YOUR story then you're looking at things wrong.
[QUOTE=Foosili;47109476]
If you're DMing to tell YOUR story then you're looking at things wrong.[/QUOTE]
And, as I said in previous posts, if the players don't care about their own stories to fill in the blanks, what can be done?
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;47109507]And, as I said in previous posts, if the players don't care about their own stories to fill in the blanks, what can be done?[/QUOTE]
Make fun dungeoncrawls and interesting combat scenarios if that's what they want. Otherwise tell them you don't want to GM the kind of game THEY want to play, since you have different ideas of what is fun in D&D.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;47109507]And, as I said in previous posts, if the players don't care about their own stories to fill in the blanks, what can be done?[/QUOTE]
Nothing unless you're willing to step out of what you're currently doing. They only care about gameplay. I suggest taking a break from your current campaign and try to talk to your players about roleplaying and if they want to continue the campaign you're running. If they are more concerned with gameplay rather than story then run them through some lighter rules systems that are full of mostly useless things as weapons. Paranoia would be a great trial-by-fire way of doing this since you can really punish poor roleplay as part of the rules. (Even reading more than half the pages in the rulebook can be punished in game through instant death.) Not only that but it lends itself really well to one-off, single-session campaigns.
edit: If your players don't care about roleplay, they won't care about their backstory or your settings backstory.
[QUOTE=General;47106400]Has anyone of you survived to level 20 in DnD?
If so how long did it take?[/QUOTE]
I'm in a level 17, Mythic 6 campaign.
It's pretty interesting, right now we're doing the Test of the Starstone to see who will ascend and become gods for our next campaign.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;47107610]If I could find a new set of friends that are more focused on RP'ing and lore and storytelling, maybe hardly ever having a combat encounter, I'd join them but this is the cards life dealt me in terms of friends :v:[/QUOTE]
You could probably find some if you advertised online with very specific requirements. Truth is most people that sit around the VTT or real Tabletop aren't going to RP heavily because the environment is too active and fast for it.
If you really want to sink into RP you'll need to Play by Post (this will almost surely turn away any person that isn't seriously interested in heavy RP). No one would tolerate each person talking about their characters thoughts and feelings for 5 minutes over Skype or around the table -- even if they [I]were[/I] capable of explaining it in a flavorful and articulate way every time, which they won't be. Real-time environments just don't lend well to that.
Real talk, I would totes try and play with you guys if someone made a Roll20 campaign.
[QUOTE=cyclocius;47108875]Two Paragraph backstory is all that's needed. It only justifies who your character is and why they're with the group, plot hooks for the GM to utilise are appreciated. Anything else tends to be self-indulgant player wankery about how their character is no slouch at being a WIZARD and their parents weren't around as a child (maybe they're someone really important to the plot?!!?)[/QUOTE]
I tend to give my GM both a detailed (1 to 1.5 pages) backstory with a bunch of fluff on the character's past, what events drove them to where they are, etc., as well as quick version that briefly covers the key points. The long version is more for myself since it helps me figure my character out better (Plus I just enjoy making detailed backstories even if they're probably shit), but in the event the GM wants to look it over and take stuff from it for plot they have the option. I'll include plot hooks, but I try to weave them naturally in to the story without drawing obvious attention to them. But if they don't really care, they can just ignore it for the short version.
As a long time tabletop player, the best and most appreciated way of explaining a character is what Cyclo said, about 2 paragraphs, 4 at MOST if you feel like your character is a big deal and needs a deep history, coupled with a vocal description of how you feel your character acts, what his motivations are, etc.
That is entirely dependant on system though, for example in Blade of the Iron Throne theres a system called "assets" which are pretty much your traits. I chose to have a particularly high number of these compared to other party members, sacrificing stats for them. In this case, I basically made bullet points of each asset I had, and wrote a little 1-3 sentence blurb about how it applies to my character. For example, for an asset titled "Dreaded", I put something along the lines of
[quote]Dreaded: Rumor among the less enlightened folk tell of a warrior bearing the symbol of God, unwavering in his faith and unbroken by his wounds. Many in Albion know at least some variation of the tale, though many believe it a myth created by the Church to keep order among would be heretics.[/quote].
Other than that, the only background I've given any of the other players of the GM is how I've been roleplaying the character, alongside me taking a very short amount of time to basically explain how the character would interact with each party member and their values/goals.
It allows for a much more natrual and flexible character, as opposed to joe schmoe writing about how his elf ranger was a hero to his tribe and talking about how he's out for revenge because raiders killed his wife, only for that to be never explored cause it's super lame and for him to be curbstomped by some ogre looking for a snack.
Detailed character backgrounds are meaningless in the context of a game. Sure, write one if you really want one for yourself, but the only thing you should be bringing to the table character wise is the desired personality.
[QUOTE=No Party Hats;47111548]On: Character Background.[/QUOTE]
I always found a good way to do character background was to write about the event that caused your character to leave whatever they were doing and take up what they were doing now. Our group uses facebook to organize so we all did this on there in our "group" on facebook. It was a pretty elegant way of doing it tbh.
One thing I dislike doing a lot of the time is writing out a specific demeanour or moral alignment for my characters. I roleplay the way I roleplay, so I don't think flat out saying "my character is good" is really a helpful thing to me.
[QUOTE=Alsojames;47113406]One thing I dislike doing a lot of the time is writing out a specific demeanour or moral alignment for my characters. I roleplay the way I roleplay, so I don't think flat out saying "my character is good" is really a helpful thing to me.[/QUOTE]
I think it gives a good framework for challenging yourself to roleplay out of your comfort zone.
Otherwise you end up like my friend who usually just plays 'morally-gray rogue who only cares about himself' in almost every game.
I think better than alignment chart is myers briggs personality tests. It's pretty diverse, but generally a good indicator of character.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/BNXlun9.jpg[/IMG]
I've always wanted to run a game with musically talented people playing all bards and have them resolve the conflicts in the story by writing music and songs appropo to the situation.
are there any sites or something where i can be taught how to play, even just on a basic level?
i have no-one to teach me locally,
So is there any important things I should keep in mind if I want to create a campaign for D&D?
[QUOTE=Obvious Shizz;47116527]So is there any important things I should keep in mind if I want to create a campaign for D&D?[/QUOTE]
The Golden Rule: Have fun. If you don't like the rules, change them.
[QUOTE=Rats808;47116531]The Golden Rule: Have fun. If you don't like the rules, change them.[/QUOTE]
Platinum Rule: Just add lasers
Also don't plan an entire campaign out from beginning to end. Just plan the starting session, at most, and fluff out the setting, then let the players do what they want with what you've given them.
[editline]10th February 2015[/editline]
God damnit Elowin, now you've broken my automerge.
[QUOTE=_Maverick_;47116238]are there any sites or something where i can be taught how to play, even just on a basic level?
i have no-one to teach me locally,[/QUOTE]
What system? Cause the Pathfinder website is [URL="http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/gettingStarted.html"]here.[/URL] Idk about the rest. I only know 1st edition dnd, pathfinder and a tiny bit of mutants and masterminds. So I can't really help you there.
[QUOTE=elowin;47116543]Platinum Rule: Just add lasers[/QUOTE]
Diamond Rule: Just add Nazis.
[QUOTE=gufu;47116879]Diamond Rule: Just add Nazis.[/QUOTE]
Polonium Rule: Just add cyborg nazi mutants from the future.
Wooden Rule: Just make it a fun game about hunting down death cults led by a lich who kidnapped a fair princess, and somewhere along the way you beat the [I]shit[/I] out of a dragon.
Best if you include a spunky NPC side-kick, like an ineffectual bard, pseudodragon or fairie.
Would it be a taboo to shamelessly advertise an RPG I'm working on right now?
[QUOTE=Obvious Shizz;47116527]So is there any important things I should keep in mind if I want to create a campaign for D&D?[/QUOTE]
Despite the name don't plaster dragons everywhere. They lose the awesome factor when they're every 7th encounter. Exceptions are playing the old Dragon PC campaign, which I don't recommend playing without a lot of GM experience.
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