I have had 2 dms: one who ties our backstories into the every part of the overarching story, and one who put our backstories along the way but with minor significance(granted, 2/3 of our backstories were mostly empty for that campaign). What would a good middle ground be? I am having a hard time including relevant figures from my PCs' backstories without making these figures either incredibly powerful or incredibly important in the world. Any recommendations on how to include backstory plot points without over-inflating their relevance?

• Incorporate some form of downtime between major plot points where players can delve further into their backstory (side quests)
• Work with your PCs to create backstories that are tied directly into the campaign story that you are running
• Give the players basic background prompts that they can build on, but gives you a definitive thread that you have already prepped

When your PCs are low level you can include mentors, allies and current or former lovers as supporting characters without unbalancing the game.

Quote from fisbee >>

I have had 2 dms: one who ties our backstories into the every part of the overarching story, and one who put our backstories along the way but with minor significance(granted, 2/3 of our backstories were mostly empty for that campaign). What would a good middle ground be? I am having a hard time including relevant figures from my PCs' backstories without making these figures either incredibly powerful or incredibly important in the world. Any recommendations on how to include backstory plot points without over-inflating their relevance?

The trick is to include story hooks, not fully fleshed out plots. Keep your backstory small in scope, but include hints of things that your DM can spin into bigger stories (and maybe take those stories in directions you didn't expect)

Really, most 1st-level characters have no business even knowing incredibly powerful/incredibly important people. They're small-time heroes who haven't even had a real adventure yet. If your backstory involves kings and archmages and such, turn it around and ask yourself why those kings and archmages would even be wasting their precious time associating with a nobody? If you still can't conceive of your backstory taking place anywhere but a royal court or wizard's council or whatever, then simply scale back who the NPCs are that are important to your character -- maybe you saw the king once from afar, but you took your orders from a captain of the king's guard and weren't yet trusted to actually protect any member of the royal family, that sort of thing

To clarify, I am going to dm and I am trying to figure out how to hooks from the players' backstories into the world/plot. 

Are you running a module or writing your own campaign?

Quote from fisbee >>

To clarify, I am going to dm and I am trying to figure out how to hooks from the players' backstories into the world/plot. 

Oh! In that case, I find the easiest way to keep backstory figures manageable is to view them as potential side quest opportunities rather than trying to shoehorn them directly into the main plot. If there's a clear link you can use those NPCs to offer clues or hints, that sort of thing, or have them reflect whatever overall theme you've woven into the plot if you want to get really fancy with your storytelling, but they don't need to be central figures

javapiston 14: Making my own campaign(slowly).

AntonSirius: Thanks!