Someone mentioned in a thread the other day that intrigued me. Basically it is better to play your background story rather than have it just be a story you wrote that took place before you started.
My first thought is that it sounded very cool. I wrote a great story for my current character and think very little of it has come out in game. It certainly shapes how I role play and I refer back to it from time to time but for the most part is something that the GM and I are aware of and little else.
How does one go about playing your background story? I suppose one could start with a very simple background and allow the campaign to be the major character shaper but that seems to me to lend itself to not having a backround. Do you write a short list of goals you want the GM to weave into the campaign just for you.
Any thoughts?
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How does one go about playing your background story? I suppose one could start with a very simple background and allow the campaign to be the major character shaper but that seems to me to lend itself to not having a backround.
I actually do exactly this. For instance, when I started my PFS fighter, all I was thinking (being somewhat new to the game) was building something I could play and get used to, but was at least a little interesting. So I started with the purely mechanical: guy with 13 INT, Combat Expertise, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, and a flail. I also wanted to try out the PFS "Day Job" mechanic, so I gave him ranks in Profession (baker) because I thought it was funny. I assigned him to the Andoran faction just for one of their trait options. I also made him a bit of an AC whore.
After a while, I got attached to the baking thing. I also got a feel for his temperament: serious, intelligent, and task-oriented.
Later, the new factions came out, and I switched him to the more neutral Grand Lodge faction.
Meanwhile, I kept running into languages I didn't know, so in keeping with his task-oriented intelligence, I used ranks in Linguistics to teach him any new language he encountered.
Eventually, a story emerged: born in Andoran, he grew up with a love of baking. However, being surrounded by Andoren ideologies, he was quickly trained for combat (something he was smart enough to excel at easily) and sent to join the Pathfinder Society in the interest of spreading FREEEEDOOOOMMM!!!!
But his heart wasn't really in it. There were LOTS of freedom fighters, and he felt like he was just a drop in the bucket. So he gave up the crusade and focused his attention on the people he was running around risking his life with: protecting them, and eventually feeding them. Along the way, he was fascinated with the intellectual stimulation his adventures provided, and become something of an amateur linguist.
Once that all solidified (somewhere around 6th level, I believe) I started taking it further. I took the Cosmopolitan feat to learn more languages and also make Linguistics a class skill. I continued to play him as someone who defends his teammates, rather than being a raging DPR machine. I spent 5PP to get a bakery in Absalom (and 2PP to get someone to administrate it while I'm away). And so on, and so forth.
In fact, I'm even making a new character out of the bakery's administrator. :D
When you say play it, do you mean run a prequel adventure about a boy (assuming your character is male) and RPing everything in your backstory? Cause there could be some seriously boring bits in there.
My current character spent years cleaning church and stable, and then a few more being a lackey for a knight, fetching and cleaning some more. I'll leave that to story telling rather than playing.
but if you mean RPing how these experiences were formative and take that into how you currently play him then Huzzah! Go for it sir! This is what brings a character alive.
From what I can tell, the Pathfinder APs do a pretty good job of motivating otherwise-commoners into being heroes. I generally wouldn't require a backstory for them at all - only introduce your character by roleplaying the campaign trait (assuming you've taken one), and it works as well as any character intro in real literature. After all, they're level one - not much has happened.
Granted that this is not an all-purpose solution...it works for me.
From what I can tell, the Pathfinder APs do a pretty good job of motivating otherwise-commoners into being heroes. I generally wouldn't require a backstory for them at all - only introduce your character by roleplaying the campaign trait (assuming you've taken one), and it works as well as any character intro in real literature. After all, they're level one - not much has happened.
Granted that this is not an all-purpose solution...it works for me.
Works for me too.
Generally backstory, to me, starts when you are born. The bits you RP if anything are the most recent formative moments immediately prior to the adventure starting. I don;t have a problem with that as such, but it means some one-on-one gaming which is not always practical.
Backstory should cover your character's life up until you start playing him/her. A good GM will allow your backstory to merge into the collaborative story. Trying to "play your backstory" on your own might well collide with your buddy "playing his backstory" in the seat next to you.
Bomar also had bakery in Absalom, went out of business though. Some fancy man adventurer opened bakery near Bomar's, stole all Bomar's lady customers. They said he had way with words and could listen to him talk all day. Now Bomar unemployed and broke, maybe time to move to Lastwall. Heard there was plenty of job openings there.
I like this idea too. It would be a good way to explain not only the individual characters, but the forming of their team. Personally what I'd do with it though would be pick 1 thread, common to all the characters and create a single event that then becomes a motivator for the first ACTUAL adventure. Ex:
In my current campaign the party is a bunch of relic hunters for a sect of Abadar. They're first level and in a couple weeks we'll sit down to our first adventure which is to go to a distant barony and inspect a local ruin.
I have backstory on ea character and how they individually entered the Archivist's Guild of Abadar, but to gather them together I just said: ... and then Guildmaster Bob gathered you together and sent you to Raveneszk to find a guide and explore the local ruin.
The guild's an extension of a university and as such has a lot of journeymen and hangers-on. So how did the characters (basically functionaries and students) come to such prominence to get picked for a mission?
I think it'd be cool to make a little challenge, or dungeon or something that answers this. 2 of the 5 characters BOTH selected the trait Rich Parents, and 2 other characters were already involved with those characters, so here's what I'm thinking:
The wealthy parents want their kids to do great things so as patrons the grease some palms and get their kids noticed. But the guild heads can't just throw a bunch of kids out into the wilds and say go get relics, so they devise a challenge.
The 5 party members meet in the library of the guildhall where they have been summoned individually. From there they meet each other and find some clues (footprints, a strange book lying open, whatever) that leads to a "dungeon" set up in the cellar of the venerable university. They defeat some constructs, beat a trap and a puzzle, eventually claiming the prize at the end. The final test is: as Archivists they SHOULD return their prize to the vault of the guildhall for study and preservation. If they don't they just leave in search of adventure taking the "Raveneszk" plotline as a parting gift. If they DO return it they pass the test and remain as members in good standing to the guild... but then they find out that the parents set the whole thing up. Potential source of angst? Time will tell...
Unfortunately I am not sure what the person whose line intrigued me meant per se just that I wanted to know more. Typically I write a pretty thorough backstory, that either explains why the character has taken to adventuring or explains the trait for the AP's tie to the personality I have alread formed.
Typically I also adapt my character durring play with what is going on. But I find that often this information is lost other than to serve my facny and on occaision a GM will utalize something from my past which is always nice.
I think the person was getting at letting the campaign be who your character really becomes and let it be a shaping element in your characters life as opposed to an established personality's further adventures.
I will see if I can search out the context of the post from another thread.
I 'like' to (but don't always) try to create a full enough back-story that the GM can make some basic assumptions about how my character will react to certain stimuli or moral choices.
From the 3.5 days I would write the basic story, where he grew up, what he was raised to do, what impact the endless war had on his youth, etc...
and then I would include a series of focus points. Opinions on races, countries, dragon-marked houses, political schisms, religions...
Essentially tell the GM where I see my character's prejudice lying, and giving the GM tools on how to motivate my character in a way that I would consider natural or organic.
Back on topic, I've never thought of 'playing' out the back-story, simply b/c we invariably start at low level and fragmented to a degree that would make playing it very tedious for everyone else around the table.
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Really depends on the players. Some groups cant be bothered to even keep up their player sheets let alone write up a backstory. Other guys deliver a 12 page manifesto. I used to be big on them myself but as time goes on I'm adopting the "backstory? Hell I am about make my backstory" philosophy.
Campaign can make all the difference as well. For an AP I don't need much backstory. If my GM is making a homebrew Ill probably want to make up something for them to use. However, one thing my current GM did for Kingmaker was come up with a questionnaire. It requested info like "what does the character think of X?" "Tell me about a few of the closest people to your character." It was about 20 questions some really short others a little longer. He has done a pretty good job of using that info with Kingmaker.
I get wary of the manifesto guys. I am fine with "I grew up a farm boy/soldier/student/thief now I am an adventurer." I heard a story one time a GM had a guy who gave him this packet of backstory. He didn't use it much for the campaign. The party made some bad choices and a few PCs ended up dead. The player corrected the GM by informing him he was in fact not dead. Page 7 of his bckstory said he was cursed by a hag to be killed only by a red dragon.
Keep it simple focus on the game is my advice. I mean if your past was great why leave it right? You may not have any choice which can be interesting too.