Backed Story
Backstory is a finicky, variable thing. I’ve had players show up with a small novel, with most of it focusing on their family and several past generations and almost no attention on the character themselves, let alone why they became an adventurer. Other players have their 1st level character performing numerous heroic deeds of legend in the past before the start of their campaign. Some backstories feel like the set-up to the campaign, as the player character has a well defined goal and quest that may not align with the plans of the Dungeon Master. The standard “I will not rest until I find the one-armed dragon that killed my family.” Which becomes awkward if the Dungeon Master is running Curse of Strahd.
Spending too much time on a backstory does feels potentially wasted. Low level characters are squishy and easily killed; devoting too much energy into their backstory and character arc is potentially unnecessary. Doubly so when playing with a new group, where you’re uncertain if everyone will mesh and be able to play together. You could spend an hour planning a masterful backstory only to have it cease to matter because the group implodes after the second session.
I’m playing in a Roll20 game right now and rather enjoying it. But my character is paper thin with very little motivation and backstory. In part because I assumed my Roll20 game would fail and I didn’t want to spend too much time on a one-shot. In fairness, I had attempted a couple games prior that never made it passed the first session.
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My sister is like that. A fresh character with ten pages of backstory and a family tree. She would write about a content, affluent sixteen (or equivalent) year-old girl with a life filled with adventure, romance and betrayal, but none of the wisdom that come with it.
That is fine for a setting like Tékumel, where clan-life is central to a character’s life and identity, and even still, new players start as a foreigner until they can adjust to the elaborate culture and social norms the players find themselves in.
One way I deal with that is to tell players to roll-up at least three characters and to choose which one they will play first. It forces players to spend more time rolling-up characters then to make elaborate backstories and to also remind then that the life of a murder-hobo is short and brutal. I also like to tell the players:
“For some players, the temptation to breath a lot of life into a fresh character is great. At this point, try to keep their background as simple and vague as possible. Keep their history a mystery. Let all that develop WITH the character and flow out as long as the character draws breath. Any unused ideas can be recycled for your next character.”