Other Top Ten reasons why backstories are stupid (number 4 will shock you!)

[JayTee]

So how well did the clickbait title work?

More seriously (and in the interest of having an actual discussion about the relevance of backstories) I find myself caring less and less about writing a backstory for any particular character I make.

More often than not, the GM has their own plot in mind, and any plot hooks or interesting tidbits I include in my backstory take second stage to the GM's own story.

This isn't a bad thing, mind you, I can speak from experience that making a game world is hard work. Having to accommodate multiple other people's own character's backstories in to my setting is a lot of logistical work. Add the fact that sometimes a player will have to drop out, and you're screwed if you've built a big part of the setting around their backstory.

Additionally, character's backstory is supposed to inform you of who they are and where they came from, and what they are likely to do.

However, most backstories are generated in a vacuums, completely disconnected from the other players and in some cases even the setting itself. Gaming is, as a rule, a team based experience, and having a wildly disparate collection of characters can be fun if everyone can manage it (see: Ragtag group of misfits) but sometimes you have cases where you have heavily conflicting backstories and have to really reach to justify why some characters would work together.

Note that this isn't saying ROLEPLAYING is stupid. Roleplayig is fine and is one of the main reasons why most people game (even me, I enjoy character development and interactions, especially as a GM). However in most cases an elaborate backstory isn't needed for 99% of all roleplaying, just a few quick notes that help inform decisions.

What do you think? Do you bother with backstories? How often do they come up in your games?

 

[marshmarrow]

I like histories that coordinate with a character's personality, and as you said, influence them to do certain things.

What I look for in a bio of a character is not their life experiences, but their own reasoning for going along with the plot of the story. This may include events in their past, but I need to be convinced that your character isn't there simply because they blindly accept what others tell them to do.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

You make some good points, and I agree with your visions on when a setting is dependent on a character's backstory and how it could pose a problem. I also agree with the part about how conflicting characters (and their stories) working together make it harder for the players to justify why that's even a thing, tho IMO coming up with that is going to be part of the fun.

HOWEVER, I don't find backstories entirely pointless. Pin it on the fact that I study psychology but it's indubitable, we are made by our stories, molded by our experiences. A huge point in therapy (no matter what line of thought you follow) is understanding your patient's childhood experiences, because those are the experiences that will allow the child to develop their sense of self, of how they think, of how they cope with things.

Now taking it out of the psychology view and applying it back to role-play, my backstories may not be seen as important to the other players or the GM that much, but they are really important to me. Why? Because as a therapist does while figuring out what caused a symptom, me knowing what my experiences my character has been put through its life helps me determine an array of reactions and an array of quirks that those experiences assisted in developing as they grew up.
I have an idea of what things can trigger a crisis, of what things can trigger anger, because they may remind of those past experiences that may or may not be resolved in a bad way. These things leave 'scars' and for me as a writer, knowing these things help not just me writing this character as an actual person, but even help my fellow partners believe more in my character as an actual person, with their fears and their flaws, and their pet-peeves and their coping mechanisms...

I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to RP and it starts there, in the backstory.

And more! My narration style often includes some monologing. I have a tendency (not that much!) to when something does remind my character of a past situation I came up with, I refer to it briefly, to draw the parallels between what happened then and what's happening now, that way what could be seen as OOC in that one critical moment, in fact, it's not. But a throwback to something that had been hidden, perhaps.

IDK, this is how I do things and it works wonderfully, but to me. Other people may think I dedicate myself way too much to this (I mean, I do take a really long time on the CS's) and they're partially right, but this is also what makes it fun for me, dwelling in my characters to such a deep level and exploring their expressions and reactions to the fullest!

Heck, and if you manage to put them in a situation I did not prepare for, I'll be ecstatic! Because it makes me think even harder about these things for the reply!! I love every second of it +O+

So yeah, big recap.
Backstories may not be important to the setting as a whole, or to the GM or even the other players, but it helps me as a writer, know my character better and therefore write them better. Which I strongly believe also helps the other players perceive my character more realistically.
I don't think they're entirely useless, it tells me a lot about your character, maybe even more than you realize. (Yes, I do read every CS in every roleplay I join, multiple times even.)
I agree that is not very practical, however. It becomes more a matter of choice >w<

PS: The clickbait works really well ^^'

 

[JayTee]

I honestly wasn't expecting a full fleshed response like that. Glad to see some opinions being thrown around.

Yeah, I'm not about to say that (contrary to the thread title) backstories are inherently bad, especially if you enjoy writing them. Back when I used to make fleshed out backstories I used them to chart the path from where my character came from to where they are now.

As time went on, the inherently unstable nature of PbP games and their tendency to die quickly meant my backstories only started covering the bare basics, as it was too much work for too little return. Nowadays I do away with them entirely, preferring to have my character develop naturally throughout the RP.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

I honestly wasn't expecting a full fleshed response like that. Glad to see some opinions being thrown around.

I was inspired (More accurately, I am bored and can't sleep)

Yeah, I'm not about to say that (contrary to the thread title) backstories are inherently bad, especially if you enjoy writing them. Back when I used to make fleshed out backstories I used them to chart the path from where my character came from to where they are now.

As time went on, the inherently unstable nature of PbP games and their tendency to die quickly meant my backstories only started covering the bare basics, as it was too much work for too little return. Nowadays I do away with them entirely, preferring to have my character develop naturally throughout the RP.

Ohhh, I understand where you're coming from. I gotta say, it does sadden me every time I work really hard on the CS just for the RP to die before we actually do anything... Because I was dying to actually play the character! But, like I said this is a lot of fun and also kind of a guide for me so, if I dropped it all together I would be making things more difficult for myself ^^' (Would probably spend even more time on replies than I already do!)

I get your frustration. If this is what works for you, then proceed, but it wouldn't work for me.
Even worse, there's the possibility that this would make the reply process more massive, tedious and drain all of the enjoyment I get while writing out of it. I can foresee the repetitive movement of writing and re-writing, as I try to keep my 'standard', eventually killing my motivation for doing things all together, as my insecurities catch up with me, saying that I'm not good enough, making me despise what I'm writing...

The less time I spend on it, the better. I already take breaks every two hours to not get trapped into this cycle ^^'

Self-stem status: Awfully lacking

 

[Idea]

One thing I noticed with your complaints, while valid, is that they are misdirected. What your complaints really amount to is about the uselessness of the current use of backstories in the roleplays you've experienced, not a problem with the backstories themselves. Your two main complaints, that players often write disconnected pointless backstories and that GMs rarely make proper use of them, both come down not to a problem with having a backstory written by itself but rather a problem that steems from that exact point of view. In other words, the problems you see here come from people undervaluing the importance of backstories. Otherwise, GMs would make use of them more often and players would try to comform them better as well, thus solving the very root of your complaint. I thus believe that a change in attitude where we regard backstories less would only worsen the things you are complaining about and help them spread.

As a counter-proposal, since no real criticism should come without some alternative attempt at solving the problem, would be for GMs to take more care into how they construct the world and inspect the character's backstories. I realize this limits freedom, but that's kind of the point. Comforming to the world and creating an interesting backstory within it's confines both makes it so players have to at least have some awareness of the world and helps the GM integrate the backstories into the actual plot. It also forces some laziness out of some GMs, which often seem to me like they just skip over the character instead of actually reviewing it and may have them think about what is actually essential to keep.

Another thing I believe helps is planning. Now I realize I'm in the vast minority when I say this, but I just don't think "just winging it" is a sustainable strategy for anyone hoping for higher standards than a gag. And even in otherwise really freeform and meemy RPs, planning can lead to hype, proper storylines, having material to work with even when you don't have "the muse" and so on... It's a wonderful tool and all it takes to use it is talking about your character with others, something that should be intrinsically interesting. And if it isn't, then it's because you don't find your own character insteresting enough to talk about, time in which I recommend reviewing some choices.

Now to answer some of your questions, I always have backstories and try to incorporate them somewhat. It's hard to say how successful my strategies are because people often get caught up IRL and my RPs die before I can make do with the long-term material I have. An unfortunate disadvantage but one that may always be corrected with the right group. Nowadays, I employ somehting called the secret system, which is basically players PMing me certain parts of the CS instead of posting it, thus allowing them to keep it secret while not allowing them to just come up with it on the spot, which only leads to overconvenient twists.

Personally, I never skip a backstory for my characters. It always helps motivate and craft who they are, as well as fit them in context of the world, people and themes I want them to be looked through. I often set up other details with the backstory as well, many arc-related and I enjoy planning pre-established backstories with other players.

 

[Bone2pick]

I roleplay to tell and read interesting stories. The backstory/history/background of my character is their first story — their bedrock story. I prefer to do it justice. And I've never regretted doing so.

 

[CastoffCaptain]

I generally have a vague backstory which becomes clearer the more I RP said character. As in, the character tells me what has happened to them the further into RP I get. I almost ever know a character's full story upon first creating them.

 

[JayTee]

One thing I noticed with your complaints, while valid, is that they are misdirected. What your complaints really amount to is about the uselessness of the current use of backstories in the roleplays you've experienced, not a problem with the backstories themselves. Your two main complaints, that players often write disconnected pointless backstories and that GMs rarely make proper use of them, both come down not to a problem with having a backstory written by itself but rather a problem that steems from that exact point of view. In other words, the problems you see here come from people undervaluing the importance of backstories. Otherwise, GMs would make use of them more often and players would try to comform them better as well, thus solving the very root of your complaint. I thus believe that a change in attitude where we regard backstories less would only worsen the things you are complaining about and help them spread.

More or less. Backstories are only as valuable as their relevance, and people rarely, if ever, make them relevant enough to matter.

As a counter-proposal, since no real criticism should come without some alternative attempt at solving the problem, would be for GMs to take more care into how they construct the world and inspect the character's backstories. I realize this limits freedom, but that's kind of the point. Comforming to the world and creating an interesting backstory within it's confines both makes it so players have to at least have some awareness of the world and helps the GM integrate the backstories into the actual plot. It also forces some laziness out of some GMs, which often seem to me like they just skip over the character instead of actually reviewing it and may have them think about what is actually essential to keep.

I've found that the more robust a backstory a setting has, the more likely a character's backstory will incorporate some elements of it. Games like Exalted have huge amounts of setting detail vs, say, DnD or Mutants and Masterminds, but requiring a GM to come up with a whole books worth of setting detail for their game that hasn't been already published by the makers of the game is unreasonable.

Another thing I believe helps is planning. Now I realize I'm in the vast minority when I say this, but I just don't think "just winging it" is a sustainable strategy for anyone hoping for higher standards than a gag. And even in otherwise really freeform and meemy RPs, planning can lead to hype, proper storylines, having material to work with even when you don't have "the muse" and so on... It's a wonderful tool and all it takes to use it is talking about your character with others, something that should be intrinsically interesting. And if it isn't, then it's because you don't find your own character insteresting enough to talk about, time in which I recommend reviewing some choices.

No arguments here. Planning things out is usually a good thing.

Now to answer some of your questions, I always have backstories and try to incorporate them somewhat. It's hard to say how successful my strategies are because people often get caught up IRL and my RPs die before I can make do with the long-term material I have. An unfortunate disadvantage but one that may always be corrected with the right group. Nowadays, I employ somehting called the secret system, which is basically players PMing me certain parts of the CS instead of posting it, thus allowing them to keep it secret while not allowing them to just come up with it on the spot, which only leads to overconvenient twists.

Personally, I never skip a backstory for my characters. It always helps motivate and craft who they are, as well as fit them in context of the world, people and themes I want them to be looked through. I often set up other details with the backstory as well, many arc-related and I enjoy planning pre-established backstories with other players.

Thanks for your insight, really interesting seeing yours (and other's thought processes behind backstories.

 

[Idea]

More or less. Backstories are only as valuable as their relevance, and people rarely, if ever, make them relevant enough to matter.

Which is, again, a problem with how people go about things and not an issue with backstories themselves.

I've found that the more robust a backstory a setting has, the more likely a character's backstory will incorporate some elements of it. Games like Exalted have huge amounts of setting detail vs, say, DnD or Mutants and Masterminds, but requiring a GM to come up with a whole books worth of setting detail for their game that hasn't been already published by the makers of the game is unreasonable.

You don't have to come up with whole books, but I would argue that if your word is so loose that ANYTHING could show up in it, then it's unreasonable to ever expect it to work. That huge, detailed setting has to be made either way or there just won't be a setting- making it early is just taking that work and doing it ahead instead of hoping it magically comes to every single player (who unlike the GM who worries about everybody's experiences, tends to worry more about their own experience)

 

[Umbrie]

you don't need to develop the whole planet for the setting. but should at least have the primary "Questing Hubs" that you consider relevant. this can be anything from a collection of cities to a country or continent. all that matters is the area is important to the story you intend to tell. a lot of good writing involves boiling concepts down to their bare essence and refining from that point onward. you don't want to be like Tolkein where your backstory is so long that it overwhelms the readers.

 

[Elowyn]

Here I insert a link to the current rp I'm part of: Blood Moon [Characters]

I love how GM-san here posted a PROMPT and not the usual CHARACTER FORM which definitely gets old and tedious after a few rounds. So more to the point: the prompt allows some give when providing the backstory making it more free form and divulge-as-much-info-as-your-character-pleases type of deal. Which makes sense because some characters have more of a shadowy past than others. This prompt-style character creation also allows the role-player to get into the voice and begin writing from the perspective of their char.

 

[JayTee]

Which is, again, a problem with how people go about things and not an issue with backstories themselves.

More or less, which is why I posted the OP in the first place. Not sure where this piece of spaghetti is going, but we do seem to be in agreement, which is... good? Ish?

You don't have to come up with whole books, but I would argue that if your word is so loose that ANYTHING could show up in it, then it's unreasonable to ever expect it to work. That huge, detailed setting has to be made either way or there just won't be a setting- making it early is just taking that work and doing it ahead instead of hoping it magically comes to every single player (who unlike the GM who worries about everybody's experiences, tends to worry more about their own experience)

Oh sure, absolutely, having some basic fundaments to your world really help flesh it out. The problem is that most games I've seen thrown up on the boards only give you a vague overview of the general plot, which is open ended enough that you can justify almost any character that isn't totally insane.

Now, that's not a bad thing, but it will lead to generic or lack of effort backstories on the grounds that since anything is an option, putting effort into fitting the setting isn't very necessary.

Here I insert a link to the current rp I'm part of: Blood Moon [Characters]

I love how GM-san here posted a PROMPT and not the usual CHARACTER FORM which definitely gets old and tedious after a few rounds. So more to the point: the prompt allows some give when providing the backstory making it more free form and divulge-as-much-info-as-your-character-pleases type of deal. Which makes sense because some characters have more of a shadowy past than others. This prompt-style character creation also allows the role-player to get into the voice and begin writing from the perspective of their char.

This pretty clever, although it still smacks in to the problem of "Is the effort I put in to this going to be worth it?" Which is more a matter of having a reputation of being a reliable GM and having players who are willing to commit to the game and keep it going, more than anything else.

 

[Idea]

More or less, which is why I posted the OP in the first place. Not sure where this piece of spaghetti is going, but we do seem to be in agreement, which is... good? Ish?

Oh sure, absolutely, having some basic fundaments to your world really help flesh it out. The problem is that most games I've seen thrown up on the boards only give you a vague overview of the general plot, which is open ended enough that you can justify almost any character that isn't totally insane.

Now, that's not a bad thing, but it will lead to generic or lack of effort backstories on the grounds that since anything is an option, putting effort into fitting the setting isn't very necessary.

Like you said, we are agreeing on the overall problem, were we are disagreeing in, as I pointed out, is in the root. While you say that the root of the problem is in having backstories as part of a mandatory character sheet, and therefore the solution would be to elimate the backstory from it, I say that the issue is not in that there are backstories, but in the attitude in which players and GMs tend to approach the writing of backstories, and dare I say, or characters and roleplays in general is simply too dispassionate. I often say this, but the idea that roleplay is a hobby often gets too far. Roleplay a hobby, but it isn't just any hobby, it's a productive one. One ought to always put effort even if it's not immediately fun to, and in my opinion people too often forget or choose to ignore that- so naturally the quality and viability of the hobby that depends on that effort to work naturally drops.

 

[JayTee]

Like you said, we are agreeing on the overall problem, were we are disagreeing in, as I pointed out, is in the root. While you say that the root of the problem is in having backstories as part of a mandatory character sheet, and therefore the solution would be to elimate the backstory from it, I say that the issue is not in that there are backstories, but in the attitude in which players and GMs tend to approach the writing of backstories, and dare I say, or characters and roleplays in general is simply too dispassionate.

Uh, no? I pointed out in this post here that my overall apathy towards backstories stems from how the effort I put in to it is rarely worth it. Everything else in the OP is just me going over the reasons why it's not worth the effort, and asking everyone else's options on the matter.

I often say this, but the idea that roleplay is a hobby often gets too far. Roleplay a hobby, but it isn't just any hobby, it's a productive one. One ought to always put effort even if it's not immediately fun to, and in my opinion people too often forget or choose to ignore that- so naturally the quality and viability of the hobby that depends on that effort to work naturally drops.

This on the other hand, I pretty much agree with. Gaming being a hobby doesn't mean you can get away with low effort investments.

Well, I suppose it does, but it shouldn't.

 

[Idea]

Uh, no? I pointed out in this post here that my overall apathy towards backstories stems from how the effort I put in to it is rarely worth it. Everything else in the OP is just me going over the reasons why it's not worth the effort, and asking everyone else's options on the matter.


This on the other hand, I pretty much agree with. Gaming being a hobby doesn't mean you can get away with low effort investments.

Well, I suppose it does, but it shouldn't.

I suppose we are in agreement then? Well, this was a nice discussion, thank you for the trip

 

[JayTee]

I suppose we are in agreement then? Well, this was a nice discussion, thank you for the trip

No, no, this is the internet. We need to argue over a tiny and largely irrelevant detail until a mod comes in and locks the thread and bans one or both of us for a week.

You're not getting out of this just because we agree on something, damnit!

 

[Idea]

No, no, this is the internet. We need to argue over a tiny and largely irrelevant detail until a mod comes in and locks the thread and bans one or both of us for a week.

You're not getting out of this just because we agree on something, damnit!

Hmmm... alright

Everything else in the OP is just me going over the reasons why it's not worth the effort, and asking everyone else's options on the matter.

Why are you saying overpowered is not worth the effort you [insert insulting current internet slang that probably doesn't mean what it's being used for]

 

[JayTee]

Nice, haha.

EDIT: I like how you deliberately misinterpreted what I wrote to further add to the traditional internet argument.

 

[Elowyn]

This pretty clever, although it still smacks in to the problem of "Is the effort I put in to this going to be worth it?" Which is more a matter of having a reputation of being a reliable GM and having players who are willing to commit to the game and keep it going, more than anything else.

Thanks; i think that goes for 'most every roleplay.

 

[Blue Aisle]

Hmm, I am of the belief that personalities are heavily based on childhood experiences. That said, when I write backgrounds, it usually goes into detail about their early life. I make sure to talk about the dynamic of their families, because it is the foundation on which their personality is built. I usually keep the family's occupations, place they lived in etc, vague to fit in lore. The later stages of life can be hazed over most of the time, unless a traumatizing or deeply emotional event occurred.

Actually, I agree that backstories aren't worth much, especially when the GM is unlikely to work off it.

That being said, for my character to have a personality there needs to be a reason why they are like that. For example, a shy character might have been bullied in the past, or they are an only child who lived a very sheltered life. For me, the "backstories" are justifications of why they have the personality that they do.

 

[BackSet]

I've personally never had back stories that get in the way with each other and back stories that end up being plot important are usually cleared up with me first (when I'm a GM of course). In general I end up having more player driven roleplays and character driven rp roleplays than roleplays that are driven by a central plot so I guess it depends on the rp style.