I know it's as cliche as 'the adventurers are approached by a mysterious stranger in a tavern' to start with this here, but I'm a pretty inexperienced DM, and my group has just finished the LMoP starter kit after about a year of fortnightly-ish sessions. None of us had ever played D&D before this, but I think we've somewhat worked most of how we like to play. However, I found that the 'roleplay' side of things always took a backseat for my players who tended to look at stats and min/max like it was a video game.
I've been wanting to do things a bit more ambitiously for our next campaign, so I've decided to homebrew it, and I think I've done it in a less conventional way (which might blow up in my face). I have a fairly well formed idea on how I'd like a very lengthy campaign to play out, heavily inspired by the 'Thief' PC games from the 90's, though I'm leaving room for side activities so not to railroad too much. So far I've written about four pages of back story for each of my players characters, mostly covering where it is they fit in the world I'm writing for them. I've encouraged the players to decide more about the personalities and temperaments of their characters, but their backstories I've filled with things I've asked them to keep secret from each other (until the truth absolutely must come out). I'm hoping these secret 'coincidences' will provide some genuine surprise between players.
For example, one character is secretly a refugee who was smuggled into the city by another characters father, who years later went missing. A separate character had been secretly mentoring anothers youngest sister in illegal magic, though both are unaware of each other until she is needed to be rescued from an arranged marriage. Etc.
Other 'secrets' I feel are impossible to keep due to meta-gaming, such as the fact that magic is illegal, though everyone is aware that one player is starting the campaign as a druid. One player is supposed to be a 'double agent' of the monotheistic state-approved religion, who is tasked to befriend 'pagans' and discover the location to their hide out, which might be easier to hide if it weren't for the fact that they are a Paladin.
I know its generally a no-no to write peoples characters for them, but did anyone have any experience with gameplay like this, where players are encouraged to work together but keep their cards close to their chest?
I've played in a couple campaigns where we didn't tell each other anything about our backstories out of character. It really depends on your group, but my experience was that keeping too many secrets encouraged conflict between players. Players would be more focused on their own personal goals than what was best for the group so there was a lot of party splitting. In one particularly bad session, "civil war" broke out in the party. When I started DM-ing, I originally didn't have a policy one way or the other, but my players who wanted their backstories secret would often whisper things and it was hard to keep track of everything going on. I started to see the same conflicts emerging in the party so I talked to my players and we decided to keep everything out in the open. They don't need to tell everyone all the details of their backstories, but I don't allow whispers anymore.
Basically, I would just suggest talking to your players and making sure even if things are secret, that everyone is on the same page.
My players did not OOCly tell each other anything about their backstories. They are learning it through in-game RP. And also some journal entries (each session is written up by one of the players as an in-character journal entry and some of the entries have IC backstory in them). It's no problem doing this as long as your players understand that it is part of the deal.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Most of my players have revealed their backstories slowly over the course of the adventure, as a real person would do. As they gain more of the groups trust, and trust the group in return, they have told a little more of their sometimes dark or troubled past. Nothing wrong with that at all.
My biggest concern (which you've acknowledged) is writing players backstories for them. To a large degree, this makes them YOUR characters, not your players, and in my experience that can make it hard for the players to be connected to their PC. Hopefully you won't encounter that problem. I would suggest you at least make the backstories with the players involvement, so they can tinker and flavour it to be their own. Best of luck.
...it just ended up never coming up, so in hindsight it was kind of a waste - played out exactly the same as a blank character with no background at all. So in hindsight it didn't work out.
Thank you for the info, everyone. Your experiences measure up to what I was concerned about, but it's encouraging!
One more question: I thought for a twist for the Paladin character (who is supposed to be a lawful good illegal magic hunter) it might be cool if he was a 'sleeper agent', like in say "Total Recall", and I'd slowly trickle out more of his true memories as the campaign goes on. it might solve the immediate problem of misaligned goals of the party, and give his character the opportunity to bond with the group before struggling with his true nature?
Most of my other players have already taken the things I've written and requested changes, which I've been more than pleased to implement, but I dunno how it would work for this one. It's hard to ask him if he'd be interested in this style of character since the novelty of it is not even knowing himself, but I thought it might be exciting?
If you’re looking to increase role playing, why are you writing the backstories? Seems like the way to get players to invest in their character and encourage role play is to let them make the character. They will be more interested in role playing someone they created. They will also be more likely to create something they like and want, and again, more likely to rp something if it’s what they like want.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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I know it's as cliche as 'the adventurers are approached by a mysterious stranger in a tavern' to start with this here, but I'm a pretty inexperienced DM, and my group has just finished the LMoP starter kit after about a year of fortnightly-ish sessions. None of us had ever played D&D before this, but I think we've somewhat worked most of how we like to play. However, I found that the 'roleplay' side of things always took a backseat for my players who tended to look at stats and min/max like it was a video game.
I've been wanting to do things a bit more ambitiously for our next campaign, so I've decided to homebrew it, and I think I've done it in a less conventional way (which might blow up in my face). I have a fairly well formed idea on how I'd like a very lengthy campaign to play out, heavily inspired by the 'Thief' PC games from the 90's, though I'm leaving room for side activities so not to railroad too much. So far I've written about four pages of back story for each of my players characters, mostly covering where it is they fit in the world I'm writing for them. I've encouraged the players to decide more about the personalities and temperaments of their characters, but their backstories I've filled with things I've asked them to keep secret from each other (until the truth absolutely must come out). I'm hoping these secret 'coincidences' will provide some genuine surprise between players.
For example, one character is secretly a refugee who was smuggled into the city by another characters father, who years later went missing. A separate character had been secretly mentoring anothers youngest sister in illegal magic, though both are unaware of each other until she is needed to be rescued from an arranged marriage. Etc.
Other 'secrets' I feel are impossible to keep due to meta-gaming, such as the fact that magic is illegal, though everyone is aware that one player is starting the campaign as a druid. One player is supposed to be a 'double agent' of the monotheistic state-approved religion, who is tasked to befriend 'pagans' and discover the location to their hide out, which might be easier to hide if it weren't for the fact that they are a Paladin.
I know its generally a no-no to write peoples characters for them, but did anyone have any experience with gameplay like this, where players are encouraged to work together but keep their cards close to their chest?
I've played in a couple campaigns where we didn't tell each other anything about our backstories out of character. It really depends on your group, but my experience was that keeping too many secrets encouraged conflict between players. Players would be more focused on their own personal goals than what was best for the group so there was a lot of party splitting. In one particularly bad session, "civil war" broke out in the party. When I started DM-ing, I originally didn't have a policy one way or the other, but my players who wanted their backstories secret would often whisper things and it was hard to keep track of everything going on. I started to see the same conflicts emerging in the party so I talked to my players and we decided to keep everything out in the open. They don't need to tell everyone all the details of their backstories, but I don't allow whispers anymore.
Basically, I would just suggest talking to your players and making sure even if things are secret, that everyone is on the same page.
My players did not OOCly tell each other anything about their backstories. They are learning it through in-game RP. And also some journal entries (each session is written up by one of the players as an in-character journal entry and some of the entries have IC backstory in them). It's no problem doing this as long as your players understand that it is part of the deal.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Most of my players have revealed their backstories slowly over the course of the adventure, as a real person would do. As they gain more of the groups trust, and trust the group in return, they have told a little more of their sometimes dark or troubled past. Nothing wrong with that at all.
My biggest concern (which you've acknowledged) is writing players backstories for them. To a large degree, this makes them YOUR characters, not your players, and in my experience that can make it hard for the players to be connected to their PC. Hopefully you won't encounter that problem. I would suggest you at least make the backstories with the players involvement, so they can tinker and flavour it to be their own. Best of luck.
I had a game where I had a secret backstory.
...it just ended up never coming up, so in hindsight it was kind of a waste - played out exactly the same as a blank character with no background at all. So in hindsight it didn't work out.
Thank you for the info, everyone. Your experiences measure up to what I was concerned about, but it's encouraging!
One more question: I thought for a twist for the Paladin character (who is supposed to be a lawful good illegal magic hunter) it might be cool if he was a 'sleeper agent', like in say "Total Recall", and I'd slowly trickle out more of his true memories as the campaign goes on. it might solve the immediate problem of misaligned goals of the party, and give his character the opportunity to bond with the group before struggling with his true nature?
Most of my other players have already taken the things I've written and requested changes, which I've been more than pleased to implement, but I dunno how it would work for this one. It's hard to ask him if he'd be interested in this style of character since the novelty of it is not even knowing himself, but I thought it might be exciting?
If you’re looking to increase role playing, why are you writing the backstories? Seems like the way to get players to invest in their character and encourage role play is to let them make the character. They will be more interested in role playing someone they created. They will also be more likely to create something they like and want, and again, more likely to rp something if it’s what they like want.