I am starting to plan out a new campaign, and I really want to try to tie major story arcs to PC backstories. I have a couple of arcs that I think would work well with the overall story of the whole campaign, but I would need to get one or two players to include some details in their backstory. Example, the party starts off as new recruits in a militia, if one player was forced to join the militia because they were convicted of committing a crime, we can have an arc where the players show up to a town and that player is actually a folk hero (think of that episode of Firefly Jaynestown).
Is this something you have experience with? How did you go about working with the player? Is this a form of railroading?
It has been my experience that players are often enthusiastic about including minor things into their characters’ backstories. It sometimes gives them a sense of inclusion in the greater world. If you address them all individually they could each even think that you have approached them as special. Just make sure that they are minor changes, you don’t want to highjack your players’ characters.
Usually I go the other direction, a player says they were forced in, and I use it as an opportunity for a jaynestown type thing. Thst said, for what you are trying I’d suggest one of two things. After they turn in backstories, work them the players to tweak them slightly to fit better into your plans, assuming it can be done with a minor tweak e.g. a name change, a location change, an extra person added in.
Otherwise, you can throw it out to them as an option. “Make you backstories, but if you give me some control over them, I can promise you some cool story options down the road.”
Either of those (and there may certainly be more) can let the player’s have a choice and still let you work things into ideas you have.
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Hi gang, first time poster in these here forums.
I am starting to plan out a new campaign, and I really want to try to tie major story arcs to PC backstories. I have a couple of arcs that I think would work well with the overall story of the whole campaign, but I would need to get one or two players to include some details in their backstory. Example, the party starts off as new recruits in a militia, if one player was forced to join the militia because they were convicted of committing a crime, we can have an arc where the players show up to a town and that player is actually a folk hero (think of that episode of Firefly Jaynestown).
Is this something you have experience with? How did you go about working with the player? Is this a form of railroading?
It has been my experience that players are often enthusiastic about including minor things into their characters’ backstories. It sometimes gives them a sense of inclusion in the greater world. If you address them all individually they could each even think that you have approached them as special. Just make sure that they are minor changes, you don’t want to highjack your players’ characters.
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Usually I go the other direction, a player says they were forced in, and I use it as an opportunity for a jaynestown type thing.
Thst said, for what you are trying I’d suggest one of two things. After they turn in backstories, work them the players to tweak them slightly to fit better into your plans, assuming it can be done with a minor tweak e.g. a name change, a location change, an extra person added in.
Otherwise, you can throw it out to them as an option. “Make you backstories, but if you give me some control over them, I can promise you some cool story options down the road.”
Either of those (and there may certainly be more) can let the player’s have a choice and still let you work things into ideas you have.