I'm curious - how open are you with other players with your character's backstory? Do you tend to keep your past a mystery, for only your DM and you to know about? Do you tell them all so you can exchange ideas? Or do you roleplay it - only saying what your character would say?

Some characters are proud of their past, others are ashamed of it. For some it can be an advantage to claim, for others a hindrance better kept hidden. I have no general rule or habit about this.

Usually, I only have a vague idea of a backstory and I figure it out during play.  I have some characters with huge backstories that have yet to be played.  I created them largely for the exercise.  Once the game has started, I will give a brief run-down to the character who asks.  Usually I will pass them a note, or in online play send a private message.  Getting the whole thing out of me will take a lot of work.  Even the DM doesn't get it unless they specifically ask.

Assuming that "I only say what my character says" covers cases of a character being secretive and reticent as well as characters Gastoning and bragging about their every accomplishment...

I usually try and keep big reveals for roleplaying purposes, but I enjoy talking about the game too much not to discuss character ideas with the DM/other players.  Sometimes suggestions get thrown out and I end up going "Y'know what?  That scans, and is cool.  Sure, that's a thing that happened", and sometimes I find out things about my backstory I did not write and never would've suspected simply because I let the DM to their job instead of trying to perfectly map out my character's entire existence from the start.  Mostly...whatever makes for the most fun, I suppose?

Depends If i am running a standard character (such as gust or bonfire) or a mystery character,whom relies on their nature being unknown (arryle,zenlos,erifnob).

Though did not really have much backstory to hide with arryle (they were born two weeks before they joined the party)

I am a fan of my character and everyone else's character as well. I like to give my whole backstory, granted I don't plan everything out, so there's room for improvisation. I also ask people about their character back stories as well. I am good at not metagaming, but I enjoy the meta irony. How else would you be able to have fun along with the other players about the ironic situations their characters get into without understanding the irony? How would you appreciate the tragedy of a moment if you don't know the tragic back story? We're all telling each other a collaborative story here for each other's amusement and how else could we enjoy the story without knowing the relevant information?

I mean, I'm also my group's chronicler. I write up the session summaries and I do my best to make it into interesting prose, rather than just a boring receipt, so it helps me do my job when I know all the juicy meanings and innuendos behind the characters. #TellMeYouPlayBardWithoutTellingMe

As I prefer characters with nothing interesting in their histories, there's not much to tell, but even if there was, I cannot imagine any of my characters walking up to another character and spilling out a life story unless that was some weird quirk that the character did to everyone, NPCs and BBEGs included.

Quote from EricHVela >>

As I prefer characters with nothing interesting in their histories, there's not much to tell, but even if there was, I cannot imagine any of my characters walking up to another character and spilling out a life story unless that was some weird quirk that the character did to everyone, NPCs and BBEGs included.

But what about the other players, out of character? How much do you tell them about your character? Physical description? Class? Backstory?

Depends on the character.

Historically, we told each other everything except in rare cases. I played an assassin once that I didn't want the other players to know was one, and we told them he was a thief. But that was really class, not background. I don't remember what I did with his actual background.

So as a player, however infrequent, I write a minimal backstory note that I flesh out as I learn about the game world.  To take an easy example, let's say I'm starting the game at level 1 with some sort of Veteran background.  All I know is that my character has some experience with violence, where at least he doesn't shrink from it (or maybe he does, but lets go with heroic stereotype).  As the game develops and the party explore the world, we may discover conflicts the PC participated in.  Maybe he was the sort of solid sort who "did his job" so whenever we're in a town with a veterans presence we'll get a degree of respect and hospitality from his former comrade in arms.  Or, maybe he's actually a war criminal or deserter and is adventuring either to flee whatever personal or community/authority reckoning he's due.  I don't know these things yet, because I don't really know the character between sessions 0 and 1, largely because I don't yet know the world nor have I seen the character really move and live yet.  So given that I tend not to engineer plot twists or counter agendas to the party on my own, but I will with the DM or the whole table if the need in the game arises after we've come to know the character.  Just a few hours ago in PBP, another player introduced a canal system into the PCs home city-state, as a way to explain some slang they were dropping in game.  I role'd with it, so to speak, and decided my scout/swordsbard/gambler spent some time early in life working alongside those canals before discovering the finer things in life as well as the MONEY that moves things on those canals, and so opted to become an adventurer/sorta professional wrestler.  We've been playing for months, and it hasn't come up yet, but it works, plus I was able to make an "Erie" joke, because canals.....

As a DM who is very dismissive of PC's showing up with definitive backstories on session 1, I'm a little jaundiced about characters having "secrets" unbeknownst to the party that could impact the party.   In my most active group, I have a character who unknown to the other characters has a hidden agenda, he's sorta involved in magical weapons espionage for a paranoid military state.  The players are all in on their characters naivety to this, and it's angle that could become a major arc in the story, or the characters just consider bungling along with the equivalent of N. Korea's CIA as their secret patron (sorta like the dupes of spies in the real world).  I got another character in that group, a half elven whisper bard with a courtier background, he just made third level, and just today I'll be asking him about his half elf parentage and how his home environment led him to find a savoir faire in the corridors of power, while also driving him to develop a manipulative, cynical power set to use in such environments (yes, this character is probably the closest among the party to be "on" to the weapon smugglers true goals).  We've been playing for months in fishing communities and arctic outposts, this aspect of the character hasn't come into play, but now arriving into a major city, it's probably time the game figures that out.  There's another character Dragonborn, who could have background that connects to my way overwrought  elaborate Dragon cosmology, but might not pending where we go.  

I'll also add all these background developments aren't so much assigned as developed collaboratively, sometimes with the whole table involved (I don't know anyone who doesn't want their character to have a story, but some aren't necessarily good at pulling out story on their own but appreciate being gifted ideas at table).  

I've been binging a lot of David Lynch lately, and I read an interview with an actor on one of his films who said, "You know, I came on with all these questions about my character, and the other people in scene and what the story was, and Lynch said, 'I don't know, my friend, let's find out."  I guess that sums up my preferred play style.

It all depends on the character.

As a DM who is very dismissive of PC's showing up with definitive backstories on session 1, I'm a little jaundiced about characters having "secrets" unbeknownst to the party that could impact the party. 

When I played years ago this was quite rare. The *characters* might have had secrets from each other but the *players* almost never did. Literally I'm the only one who ever did it, and that was only because we (me + DM) thought it would be fun if the players *and* their characters did not know my "thief" was an assassin -- since back in the day, assassins were evil-only, and when you're an evil character in a good party, that's a major issue. It worked out pretty well, though I think most of the players figured it out super early on and just played along (they all knew I thought assassins were awesome, back then, as a class).

The "keep my character a secret until play begins" thing kind of baffles me. It's not something my game group generally did.

As a DM, before session 0 I will talk to the players individual to get their full backstories (I expect no secrets to be kept from me and make that clear). We talk about how they want to keep secret from the other players, how these things might come out, what the implications might be, etc. then decide what they want to reveal to the other players in session 0.

As a player, I generally am completely open with sharing my character's backstory and motivations but expect the other players not to meta-game (the PLAYERS know my character's backstory, but THEIR CHARACTERS do not). I'm lucky to play with other experienced, mature players (mostly in our 40's and 50's with decades of RPG's behind us), so this has never been a problem.

In many cases, it's led to MUCH better roleplaying. My current character is a human kidnapped as a child by the Winter Court of the Feywild and was raised not to have a conscience even though it has gone against his nature. I made it clear at session 0 that that means he'd start out not being a very nice guy (chaotic neutral with a fey-like capriciousness), but that he would over time (due to experience with them and the evolving campaign) that he'd evolve to be chaotic good and loyal to them. Their knowing this made a huge difference in many cases - discussions of morality when we captured a goblin or freed a couple halfling prisoners from some orcs, another character explaining that the uncomfortable feeling I had was my conscience and that I should listen to it, etc. It also meant that my character could do something stupid (at least misguided) and everyone at the table understand that I, the player, didn't actually want to do it.

There are definitely time for secrets too - the rogue who joins the party because they are on a mission from their guild and aren't really there for the same reasons as the other players... but then later reveals the truth because they've developed trust with the others... the third son of a noble who was exiled from home because he started having magical abilities but the other players don't realize it until they visit that kingdom and a peasant calls that player "my lord." Those are fun surprises that wouldn't be AS fun if people already know.

Long story short - it really depends on what the secret is. To me the only RULE is that players should not be keeping secrets from the DM.

Quote from BioWizard >>

The "keep my character a secret until play begins" thing kind of baffles me. It's not something my game group generally did.

Ditto.  Especially if it's a DM and PC secret, then it's sort of like the player and DM are playing a mini game against the party ... which is weird (and probably unconsciously toxic, or toxic leaning).  And if it's just the PC trying to hold some secret that even the DM doesn't know, well a lot of DMs when that card of secret identity is played would likely say "No, no you're not."

Intriuge the whole party can be on in can be fun.  It's fun to have an "unwitting" character, it gives the player some dramatic irony space.  A lot of horror games are built around players knowing the tropes but the character don't.  But at the end of the day the game is best played collaboratively and there's way to be a mystery besides withholding info you've already decided.  This might be one of the few times JJ Abrams "magic box" theory of storytelling could come into play, but I'm not a big fan of that narrative philosophy.  

People hate when the DM does exposition for 15 minutes, why would players be any different?

When you the player is telling me what happened to your parents, I'm disconnected from the fiction, but when my character that has an emotional connection to your player sees your character break down in tears when we find someones dead parents, it's real.

And if it's just the PC trying to hold some secret that even the DM doesn't know, well a lot of DMs when that card of secret identity is played would likely say "No, no you're not."

I've literally never seen that in all my years of gaming. Not saying it doesn't happen... but I've not had it happen in any game I play. We never kept secrets from the GM. Anyone would did would, yeah, be told, "No you don't" when they tried to "reveal" their character's secret to the GM.

It's fun to have an "unwitting" character, it gives the player some dramatic irony space.  

Assassins again... this time in Rolemaster, I played a character who the players knew was a Nightblade (semi-magic assassin in that game), but the characters thought was, again, a thief. She was Lawful Evil. And yes, she *was* evil. But she was with the party for certain reasons, and was willing to keep her word to them (Lawful) on most things. They were fighting other evil guys she had no compunctions about killing and it mostly didn't bother them.

One player had a Lawful Good paladin named Sir Thomas. Well, Sir Thomas was super goody-two-shoes and should not have been adventuring around with a Nightblade. But the Nightblade has a very high "appearance" (she was a hottie), and the player RPed him has having a crush on the Nightlbade. As a chivalrous knight, he referred to her as "my lady," laid his cloak down over puddles for her to walk across (which she found silly but she humored him), and so forth. He was completely oblivious to her assassinations, and when presented with evidence that she was a lethal assassin, he insisted that this could not be true of such a fair lady. So when the rest of the party was ready to turn on her for being evil, Sir Thomas the paladin protected her and shielded her from their wrath because she was "a fair lady."

It was great RP, from a player who knew full well that the character was a ruthless evil Nightblade who would take contracts to kill people during down time, but the character never would hear a word against her and never believed it. That was super fun.

However, that was again a class thing, not really backstory. That Nightblade had very little backstory. She was a street urchin who got in with the guild by charming one of its older members, and he taught her to be a killer and some basic magic, and then she became a guild assassin. She joined the party on the guild's instructions because they were operating against the BBEG (he was horning into their turf). And that was it... like 3 lines. Every player knew them. The PCs did not (though as I say, eventually everyone but Sir Thomas figured it out).

I'm also very partial to games where the PC's start out knowing each other and have prior history together and that takes some sharing of information in Session 0.

"Oh hey, you're character is from Cormyr? I was thinking of making a Purple Dragon Knight. Maybe we know each other or traveled here to Waterdeep together."

It doesn't have to be super fleshed out or deep, but having a co-created anecdote or two makes the characters feel lived in and helps immersion for me.

I leave it allll out there #DDBStyle

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

Quote from BioWizard >>

The "keep my character a secret until play begins" thing kind of baffles me. It's not something my game group generally did.

 

Ditto.  Especially if it's a DM and PC secret, then it's sort of like the player and DM are playing a mini game against the party ... which is weird (and probably unconsciously toxic, or toxic leaning).  And if it's just the PC trying to hold some secret that even the DM doesn't know, well a lot of DMs when that card of secret identity is played would likely say "No, no you're not."

Intriuge the whole party can be on in can be fun.  It's fun to have an "unwitting" character, it gives the player some dramatic irony space.  A lot of horror games are built around players knowing the tropes but the character don't.  But at the end of the day the game is best played collaboratively and there's way to be a mystery besides withholding info you've already decided.  This might be one of the few times JJ Abrams "magic box" theory of storytelling could come into play, but I'm not a big fan of that narrative philosophy.  

Not holding Critical Role up as a standard, but I think how they go about it is the way a lot of players and groups expect things to go (assuming a group and DM who know each other and the campaign characters being created for being a long-term homebrew one): with some coordination about what everybody's going to play to avoid overlapping too much, but without knowing any of the others' characters' details; with fairly elaborate backstories the DM knows but the other players don't beyond what comes out in play (though it can vary, CR have had characters with connected backgrounds in both campaigns), that the DM can incorporate into the campaign; and with an expectation that everybody will create a character that will be willing to team up and play well with the others. It certainly doesn't have to go like this, but most online campaigns I've seen have a somewhat similar vibe and most campaigns with established groups and homebrew campaigns I've been part of have tended to do the same as well.  

Each time more of my current character's backstory is revealed, it is so rewarding after holding it back for so long. I'm playing a human fighter/warlock who was born a tiefling. Our party met for the first time at the start of the campaign so I had a while before my character would be ready to divulge this info. Long story short, it became relevant when one of our party members died and I needed to convince the rest of the party that a certain NPC might be capable of miracles (because they were responsible for transforming my character). In order to get the party to consider traveling to see this person, I detailed how this NPC changed my character forever.

This was not the first time I revealed this. Four of our party members were definitely surprised but one was already aware. That's because this player was playing a tiefling character. In the early chapters of the game, I would have my character sometimes act a little odd around the tiefling. Staring at her, mostly, because my character had never seen another tiefling since looking in the mirror in her childhood. When I decided I'd been acting weird long enough, I revealed my character's past to the tiefling in private and that led to an interesting dynamic between the two of us for a while until the rest of the party was clued in, as I described above.