Based on where you sit on the spectrum of ‘board gaming vs. make believe’ the depth of each character’s three-dimensionality matters a little or a lot. Those closer to the board gaming end of RPGs have a smaller (or even no) need to flesh out their lives & personalities. That is, if your primary aim is really to just have ‘dungeon crawls’, this hardly fits. (If you play Monopoly, it makes no sense to make Mr. Thimble into a real person.) But if you play closer to the Make Believe end of the spectrum, then this certainly matters. In this case, the need for some type of backstory exists. Most play somewhere in between the extremes, and so its value varies.
My own style is further on the Make Believe end, and so a deeper narrative of each character matters significantly. But I also generally eschew having players generate long tales (backstories) with events that lead them to the conventional starting place of each campaign.
Instead, I’ve found real value in changing the structure of backstory-creation by getting the core desires of the players in more/less a bullet-point list, talking through these facets to make sure we’re on the same page, and then to construct the dynamics needed to accommodate that desire. Then, instead of starting at the standard “beginning of the campaign age” (commonly young adult), we do multiple 1:1 sessions starting in their childhood and moving into that starting age. The events and choices they make are real, and cause/effect is still alive (that is, they are not bulletproof against dangers).
This pays off in several ways. It makes their ‘backstory’ feel far more real for them. The people, places, & events in their world are more tangible, more relatable. Instead of, “I have a sister that I’m close to,” we role play that relationship with the passing years. The players get to observe the effects of their actions in these formative years, and more keenly feel the events as they transpire.
For example, in my newest campaign one of the players wanted to be an urban thief. And so we started his character at age 8, talking thru the hardships in and out of his city. We moved through a few years until his first theft (a scrap of bread) and continued through his adolescence. We played through his character’s days of hunger and need to steal anything he could to feed himself and his mother & little brother. We invested hours into his foray into serious thefts, knowing that his character could get caught/killed even as a 14 year-old. Rather than a written backstory, we constructed his youth with played-out events. This has a far greater effect on the player’s mind. The people he knows feel more real to him, & the many risks he took stay with him.
Using this model is also a more organic way for the players to get a solid feeling for the world by having them live out the passing years rather than the GM simply giving them a summary of it. That’s especially valuable for GMs and players who are not accustomed to each other or a new setting.
I’ve found that the more hours spent in these (largely) “backstory-replacement” sessions, the deeper the players feel connected to their characters. We also find value in using a shared document (in the cloud) where details are explored & questions get answered in between the sessions.
Again, this would only make sense for you if your style is to have a stronger Make Believe (rather than miniature wargaming) RPG style. If that’s your goal, I highly recommend trying this instead of extensive (‘bloated’) backstories.
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