DM demands a backstory from all players

> DM demands a backstory from all players
> Write a ten page one, he sees no issue with it.
> As the campaign progresses, DM goes "Wait, what?!" again and again when I mention events and things from it.
> Turns out, he didn't actually read it.
> It was not the first time I've mentioned it either - I dropped those things pretty often during inter-party dialogues.
> Turns out, DM never reads those either, because he only cares about his own plot.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

> DM demands a backstory from all players
> Write a ten page one, he sees no issue with it.
> As the campaign progresses, DM goes "Wait, what?!" again and again when I mention events and things from it.
> Turns out, he didn't actually read it.
This is completely normal.
> It was not the first time I've mentioned it either - I dropped those things pretty often during inter-party dialogues.
> Turns out, DM never reads those either, because he only cares about his own plot.
what the fuck

LMAO HENDERSON SO EBIN

So he demanded back stories, but not for any reason to do with the game? Just to assign busywork?

What level were you? Hell 10 pages isn't justified at any level.

Keep it to 1 page, at max 2. Preferably just a few paragraphs with important people/events/places.

>Be DM
>Ask for a backstory of characters so i can get a small summary of how they work
>Get a 10 page backstory from this one fucking retard
>Already have 1-2 page long backstories from 3 other guys and an entire campaign still to prep up for
>Fuck if i am going to read your stupid fucking novel, i'll just skim through it for the important points
>He keeps bringing up un-important points of his story as if they matter in the big picture
>mfw I am at fault for not focusing solely on his overly long backstory according to him

Thats some bad high school teacher level bullshit right there

Damn dude, I never write more than three paragraphs as a rule, unless it's one of those special games where you get to work with the GM to determine a few places and people within the setting.

>ten-page backstory

Do you count character description as part of backstory because I sorta due so I write about a page max.

I have a feeling this is the case.

Not him but I do. If anything you should opt for character descriptions even shorter than your background story. And by that I mean a description should be like two-three sentences at most. Or better yet go for a picture.

Creativity is great and all, but no one wants to read two paragraphs of shit like "And across her moon-colored face and jade eyes, crimson-gold locks fall in deleciate tresses". When you can just say "She has green eyes and red hair".

>10 pages
>long

As a GM, all I ask for is a few bullet points for really important stuff. I am not likely to read much more than that. Since as a player I chafed at having to write much more than that, I think it's hypocritical of me to ask for more.

GMing is a lot of work, and I already have life stuff on top of that. You might get me through a single page of backstory if you're a good writer, have nice formatting, and keep it focused on things that actually matter to the game. Even that is really pushing it, so I'd advise keeping it down to a few short paragraphs at most. Err on the side of brevity.

Like imagine if you were trying to summarize a character like Superman to someone who never heard of him. How much space would you really need to get the important stuff across?

I don't give exact heights and weights, I'll say a bit taller than average or very short. I'll throw in a couple of descriptors to get a tone for my character, but by far most of what I write is going to be promptly forgotten by everyone unless it comes into play every once and a while. I won't write that they smoke a lot or drink a ton, because you will probably see my character doing those things in between or during adventures. They won't care if I write that I take trophies from the things I kill, I let it come up in play. At most a character description should describe what a character looks like at a glance, no more.

For an RPG character that certainly is.

The entire point of the campaign is *that's* the character's story. The backstory should be the framing device, not a chronology of his entire fucking life.

This.

>DM demands a backstory.
>Not seeing the red flag.

Your fault OP.

This could be reasonable but you've likely read a 200-400 page rulebook to get to this point.

Holy shit, do people still not get this?

Your backstory is a single page of short lines or even bullet points, detailing key people and events in your character's life.

Your backstory is NOT a dramatic novel, detailing exactly how you escaped from those bandits that one time when you were twelve.

You're roleplaying, you should be able to come up with something decent on the spot should it ever come up.

>Write a ten page one

He said backstory not a fucking novel.

>So user, tell me about your character, why did he become an adventurer and where he learned his skills.
"Ah, well, uhm, my character user McNeckbeard, name may change. He's a, uh, ranger who, uhm, ahh, basically has a wolf companion who, uhm, ahh, well, kinda basically was rescued by user when he was basically a puppy because uhm ahh he liked animals because he was from a farm. He's from, uhm, what's the place's name again. Basically the biggest, uhm, farmer area. His parents, uhm, died from bandit orcs, uhm, raping them. NO I MEAN RAIDING THEM. And then user basically became an adventurer because he, uhm, wanted to learn new, uhm, things and uhm travel and get money and basically fuck all the bitches. He also has a magic sword that basically is just a normal sword but magic"

>Do you count character description as part of backstory
Not him, but I don't.

Basic stats like age, height, and weight are not backstory to me. They're just numbers and can be easily scanned.

To make it easier on me, write it like this
>race: Human
>ethnicity: White, German descent
>age: 24
>height: 5'9''
>weight: 190 lb
>hair: brown
>eyes: brown

If you write it like this:
>Anonymous is an average white-skinned German in his prime, he stands about the average height of his race' and just under two hundred pounds. He has brown eyes and hair.
Then it counts as backstory because it takes attention for me to read it.

>you've likely read a 200-400 page rulebook to get to this point.
And I have to write up stories, characters, factions, monsters, locations, dungeon-maps, treasure drops, motivations, and statblocks every week for even the most basic possible adventures to keep my players from getting bored. GMing is a lot of work already, so I don't want to make it any harder than it needs to be.

Shut up or fuck off, ideally both in either order

>OK a backstory without reading it
>not asking for a cliffnotes version

No, GM defence force, your mental gymnastic bullshit won't fly this time.

hi OP, you still mad nobody cares about your novel?

If a guy shows up with a 10-page backstory then their "cliffnotes version" will almost certainly also be filled with banal crap no one should care about.

If the player was capable of picking out and presenting only the important details then he wouldn't have handed in a fucking short story.

This guy's right, you know.

>can't read the posters number

For you dumbo, I'm just saying that I'm not OP

Is this b8?

If a player shows up and clearly has the wrong end of the stick, you correct him.
You don't act like a passive aggressive little bitch and hope he reads your mind appropriately.

>That's too long, I'll need a short version
>If you can't do that, then I won't be able to include your backstory in

Was that really so difficult?

No, newfag.

see, it's easy: if a different user posts in a thread, the number of posters that have posted in the thread increases.

I'm calling you dumb because you didn't see that the number of posters increased when I replied to your first shitpost and you assumed that I am OP.

>22 different ip's

What am I supposed to do with this number?

Don't write ten pages. Nobody wants to read ten pages

Because the backstory, at least the one you give to the DM, should be the cliff notes of the backstory.

It's irrelevant whether or not OP's (likely embellished) DM is shit. The absolute maximum you should ever do is 2 pages. No one is going to read through half a dozen pages (usually filled with shit) for one character, regardless of the quality (usually shit).

Any prepared DM would ask you to do this just to ensure that you're not going to show up on the first day and answer every question about your character with
>idk

And when someone's clearly fucked that up, a good GM would tell them so and ask them to submit a short version.
If they refuse to do that or have repeatedly submitted novel sized backstories, then they either don't get their backstory taken into consideration or they get outright kicked, depending on how obnoxious/self entitled the player is acting.

What you DON'T do is claim everything's perfectly fine and ignore it, because that way lies being a doormat and/or passive aggressive asshole.

/Thread

Could be worse, like way worse
> DM demands a backstory from all players
> He demands a minimum of 5 pages, 10 font size
> My PC dies in the 1st session
> Have to reroll a new character and write another 5 pages
> Two other PCs die in the second session
> Mine dies in the 4th session
> 5 pages more
> Rinse and repeat twice more
> Realize he's a killer GM who must be fucking messing with us
> Reroll character, write 5 pages just with "He kills stuff" repeated over and over again
> GM "If you aren't going to take this seriously the door is that way"
>His face when we all leave at the same time

If this actually happened that gm should have his gm license taken away.

Sorry you're not hardcore enough.

Nah, I lied, we actually left with our third death, not our fourth

>thinks this is hardcore

I require all my players' backstories in at least 200 lines of iambic pentameter

NO! MY LIFE HAS BEEN A LIE!!!!

Fucking noobs, every story in my games has to be palindrome divided in haikus

>he doesn't require character backgrounds written in ancient Chinese in the eight-legged essay format

Go on, keep proving to us you've never actually played role-playing games.

And a few more pages on the main characters of your story is the straw that breaks your back?

>DM'ing
>ask my players for a backstory to their characters, nothing extravagant, but lay down some rules so we can get some decent fluff going
>at least 10 pages, it must be fluent, cohesive, and concise with little emphasis on unimportant details and should pertain to the topic of your character
>double line spacing, proper heading page, date posted and date completed included
>citations for character art in MLA format, character stats in Roman numerals, one secondary language of choice as a copy so we can deal with the bilingual nature of our group
>must be mailed by Oct 20th 2016, I will not accept unfinished work
>IN ADDITION, I would like you all to begin reading the player's handbook and write your thoughts out and staple it to your backstory, write 1-3 pages about it and read your fellow player's thoughts as well, be sure to build constructive criticism
>not a single one of them has completed it

Isn't the entire purpose to DnD to not do work? When did killin' goblins and shit become the next Tolkien novel?

Are you a teacher?

>Also could you get it penned in the lifeblood of your previous group to symbolise how you will carry the lessons and memories taken from your time with them while still being able to hurt them by moving on?

it is your responsibility as a player to devote at least 28 hours for every 1 hour of session time, if not you should drop this class

Finally a DM that knows how to DM!

I think you forgot about the font size m8 your players are too lazy to see loop holes.

>And a few more pages on the main characters of your story is the straw that breaks your back?
It's a matter of burnout. The more work I end up taking on, the faster that's going to happen. I want to keep the workload down to a level that I can reasonably sustain even when life doesn't leave me a lot of time.

And if you think it's so easy and I'm just a lazy GM, then I'd like to invite you to try out GMing yourself. Please try GMing so you can see what it's like. And if it turns out that you find it's super easy to sustain the effort no matter what life throws at you, then that's wonderful because we need more GMs like that.

He said MLA format, which requires 12 pt Times New Roman.

>ancient Chinese
>he thinks this is hardcore
I require all of my players to only write in Linear B.

>Linear B
>not Cuneiform

So what's it like DMing snowflake powerfantasies for a bunch of casual edgelords?

>GMing for once
>Want to run a roleplay-heavy, backstory driven game
>Tell my players to write up backstories for their characters
>My group has only done something like this once before so I tell them just a few paragraphs would suffice
>One player just mutters 'oh' and he's avoided me since
>Another player makes a show of refusing to write anything and quits right there
>Other two give me at least a page

Is this the norm? Did I just have bad luck here? I had no idea this was such an offense to some players.

My mistake

Generally speaking when asked for multiple pages that I don't expect anyone to read, I just write one and fill the rest with lorem ipsum. When somebody brings it up, I apologize for submitting test print accidentally and write the rest overnight. So far this got me two "elaborate backstory" characters, half a dozen small projects and one semester thesis.

>Holy shit, do people still not get this?
>it's the CURRENT YEAR

> Be DM
> ask players for a brief backstory so they can have some basis for character personality
> before starting first session ask everyone if they've got at least a basic plot point
> nope.avi
> everyone plays 100% self insert autistic murderhobos
near TPK 3 sessions in.
I ain't even mad

Sometimes the thinking on that is that they don't need to see it, but they do need to know that you thought it through. For the record, I think it's stupid as hell.

that sounds like a brutal creative writing class

>Write a ten page one
As a GM, fuck you.
I don't have time to read that shit.
Summarise it to 3 fucking sentences.

The rest is unacceptable, but expecting your GM to read your short story is not fair.

I'm a player in a game where half hte group is that.

So far it's just me and the computer hacker tag-teaming every mission because the other two players couldn't come up with characters with useful skills or compelling backstories.

Backstories are generally a waste of time.
Why anyone would play a game centered on them is beyond me.

Why even bothering adventuring if all I'm gonna do is explore my past while analyzing everyone else's? It's boring.

Backstories work best if you have some kind of even or person which can show up again later in the campaign.

A close family member went missing, an easily-recognizable villain burned down your homestead, you "got away" with some high-profile crime, you owe a debt to someone, etc.

I'm not seeing why you need one you could just make that up on the spot.

Plus those are terrible cliche examples.

>Backstories are generally a waste of time.
On one hand - it gives GM potential plot hooks and character motivation (read: new and exciting ways to fuck the PC over).
On the other hand - it gives PC reasons to know things beyond the stuff coming implicitly with their race / class choice (read: justifies minimaxing)

>Plus those are terrible cliche examples.

Seriously?

if your backstory contains "justification" for your PC to have items/knowledge/powers beyond what chargen provides you are a terrible player and should consider yourself lucky your group puts up with you

>Why even bothering adventuring if all I'm gonna do is explore my past while analyzing everyone else's? It's boring.

>BBEG kidnaps your loved one
>lmaohekilsthem
>lmaohefuckedurwaifu
>lmaougetknockedoutbyguyuowe
>lmaourhometowngotburneddown

Are you serious?
See:

I admit, I often enjoy writing long backstories for characters and it's not uncommon for even a level 1 character to have a 6-10 page backstory, especially if it's a character like who's lived for a century like a dwarf or an elf.

That's a GM problem, not a backstory problem

when I DM I demand my players have a backstory

I usually want anywhere between 3-6 paragraphs that helps describe where they came from, what their motivations are, and what their goals of the future are.

I generally skim over them and have run into situations where I have to ask players what they are talking about when they reference something specific in their backstory

I don't really see a problem with me not knowing the specific details of their characters (ex: color of their best friends hair who died when they were 10 leading to a deep sense of hatred for the gang/cult/race/government that was directly/indirectly responsible for his death)
but knowing the generals (ex: that he hates x group because his friend died) is probably a good idea

I have had people bitch at me before because I didn't remember minute details about their 10 page long backstory that they had some pre conceived notion of how their story would pan out and this very small detail was actually a clue to some greater thing that they want to happen later.

when I want a backstory I just want something general so that I know who you are. Please don't do 10 page writeups with very specific details.

Sounds like a crutch for GM's who can't develop plot hooks based on what they have for the group.

Not to mention its a surefire way to engage one PC while boring the shit out of the other PCs.

Because characterization is emergent from actually playing the game and dynamic around the table.

Backstories that are more than an elevator pitch are typically a wash outside of storygames.

from my experience yeah

it isn't because of reasons like either

its just because people are lazy fucks and failed 10th grade english so they can't be bothered to even attempt to put effort into creative writing. The worst players are the ones who are pissed that you are requiring backstory but want to play so they either phone it in and write a terrible piece just so they have it or write something that is ironically bad just to piss you off

Not him, but how is it terrible? I don't see how knowing what animals are in the surrounding area are because you decided your guys backstory was he hunts alot is bad. Nor do i see how having a dude that grew up on the streets knows a few low level connections in the underworld (mainly drug dealers and little shit) it makes their character unique and its one less thing i have to remember to make them roll for if it ever comes up.

A good GM will find a way to make one PC's backstory affect everyone.

Watch any decent television show. If you have a character with some sort of troubled past or issue, then it's almost certainly gonna get dredged up. And it'll have an impact on that character's friends or anyone else who's around them.

>Be player
>DM asks for backstory from all players so he know why we are who we are/who we will be in the near-ish future
>Jump on it, writing a 5-10 page backstory full of backstory,
>And I'm starting from day 1 nigga
>primary/secondary characters, places, a few important plots, motivations, aspirations, how they came to be here
>DM actually reads it all
>Adds relevant characters
>Incorporates the major backstory plot into future sessions
>Adds locations from backstory
>Uses some of my lore for his world lore
>All 3 players do this
>We have fun

Truly the greatest of times.

I found I can streamline this process by just asking my players for two MINOR NPCs from their past with one filling the role of future or current party ally and the other one the villain role.

>shit that never happened
Human beings are all drooling, self-indulgent apes and it's not possible for any group to be as cooperative and good as the one you've described.

Oh I agree user, we are definitely that bad at base. But when we all decide to put aside our differences and squabbles to stab orcs and grapple wyverns for 4-6 hours once every week or two, it's quite good.

I mean, we aren't without fault, not a single group member is, some of us can suck more then others at times, and these things are pretty easy to list, but hey, can't be perfect, just better then most.

>group
Yes. YESSSSSSS
Let the anger flow through you

>Ten page back story.

The sperg is strong in this one.

Side note from a gm's perspective on back stories.

One of my favorite games to run is the new WOD Changling. In particular the characters, The first group I introduced to this game I had make child characters, aged 10-15. The year was set in the mid 80s

After 2 sessions of some really freaky shit they kept getting picked off one by one. when the last of the 4 players "died" I handed out character sheets for their archetypes, each becoming Lost of a different type that meshed with their original character's personalities.

Then fast forwarded to the game proper with them escaping with little or no memories of their time in Arcadia around 2001 in earth years. Their backstories from Arcadia were randomly rolled and if they wanted to figure it out they had to figure it out themselves.

It was a pretty fun game 2 of the players didn't care too much about their own past in arcadia while the other two were trying to piece it together while the overarching plots rolled along.

What I'm getting at is character backstories are only really important to you. and getting too deep into them leads to melodrama 10 pages deep that doesn't matter. So keep it simple and sweet or as the GM don't let the players have complete control over it and make them work it into the story.