Family Tree
Everybody knows a player like Wizard. These are the guys that will turn in a 20-page term paper when you ask, “Does your character have any family?” They’ll invent nations on a whim, keep cabinets full of fat 3-ring binders for “a few campaign notes,” and stop the adventure to talk to every…single…minor…NPC. (Especially the cabbage farmers.) My father-in-law is one such player.
Don’t get me wrong, the guy is something of an RPG mentor for me. I’ve learned a lot gaming with him over the years, from the proper method for setting up an ambush to the lyrics of authentic pirate chanteys. I’ve also enjoyed the living crap out of his characters’ letters home. (Reverend Sir. The wizard and the bard have discovered a means of creating bacon-scented fog. I once again request that you find some new assignment for my ministry….) But sometimes, perhaps around hour two of his peasant yeoman’s in-character debate with Random Nobleman #3 about the merits of democracy, I’ll find myself sitting there channeling the spirit of King Arthur.
I dunno, maybe I’ve grown too used to hack and slash in my years of dungeon delving. Maybe I’m an impatient millennial with video game sensibilities and a low tolerance for drawn out “talky scenes.” But as fun as a fully fleshed out character history can be, I tend to want that stuff to recede into the background. I like that it’s there, but I’d rather get on to the next scene than dwell on it, you know? Of course, that’s just my preference as a player.
How about the rest of you guys? Do you like to devote a lot of game time to exploring your character notes, or are you more a kick down the door and kill the monster type? And if you’ve got the opposite kind of player at the same table, how do you find the balance?
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I like to think there’s room for everyone at the table.
But there is also a time and a place for it.
Don’t halt a delve to debate politics, and don’t insult the king to fight his guards.
I would personally suggest that if the entire party doesn’t want to RP a conversation with a NPC, then a seperate time could be set aside for that…
If there are no rolls needed then all the easier.
Also, they should take care that discussing the merits of democracy isn’t considered treason in the kingdom…
A separate time should be set aside… What does that look like? Are you suggesting a one on one session or a play by post?
Play by posts are probably the most convenient for that sort of thing, especially with easy to set up services, like creating a subreddit or discord, for side Roleplaying when the game isn’t on.
One on one sessions are great too, but unless it involves rolling dice, it’s probably easier and more convenient to just play by post.
Either would work.
We mostly do one on one sessions since we play online through Roll20 and Discord.
Notes? What are those? can’t say i’ve ever bothered writing things down outside what loot we get, and how much xp gained from the session… i’ve always been terrible with names, and would probly even forget who’s who even with the information written down.
My backstories tend to be a bit simple: Who am I? What is it I do? What led me to take on the life of an adventurer? I care more for the future of things, and how can I work towards becoming the grand vision I had for my character.
So you’re the sort that invents a personality rather than a backstory? That’s a solid method.
And then there’s my cousin, Kevlar, the armorer…zzzzz
love the bored to drooling stupefaction of Thief.
Fear not! The presentation really picks up when Wizard addresses his half-elven relations. Lots of awkward pauses and innuendos there. I.E., “So it was some months after Miloriel, ahem, knew the green dragon Migoadack, who in after years was called Migoadack of the Late Child Support Check….”
Oh gosh, that just makes me think of the Dragons Burn comic, lol!
I really like role play. More than combat even, but it NEEDS to be relevant to the story, at least random meaningless combat still has all the things that are cool about combat. Random faceless bartender #45 just isn’t fun to talk to. The head villain in the department of all things kinda spooky and probably evil, he could tell you things you need to know. I think I hate it the most when someone tricks you into being interested in a character then having them fade off into the back-ground. Its like being cheated out of your attention.
You’ve got my interest on this one. Can you give me an example of what you’re describing? I mean, what’s it look like when “someone tricks you into being interested in a character?”
It usually happens when a very interesting npc gives the party a cool quest side, or makes a neat request. Being both cool and seemingly plot important hes a really cool npc to interact with and then poof. They only existed for that one bit. All that time speaking, listening, and caring is just gone in a blink. Not that npcs need to stick around for a long time to be cool, it just needs to be clear that that is the case before people start feeling like they’ve gotta start memorizing the name of new reacquiring character. I think stuff like this happening is sort a byproduct of the play-style at my table, were combat usually comes before roll-play and anything that is not directly pertaining to the adventure at hand is pretty much overlooked.
One of my favorite pieces of GMing advice is this: If the players are interested in something, make it interesting. There’s no telling what players will glom onto, and it behooves a GM to look out for those cues. Maybe the goblin sapper is more compelling than the majordomo. If that’s the case, let the former take center stage while the latter recedes into the background.
The Skype game I’ve got going on now divides things into two sessions (though our DM is on sabbatical this month to write down our adventures and turn it into book form). Our regularly scheduled Sunday Sessions are The Adventure, with the bulk of the puzzles and fighting. Most of the personal, backstory related roleplay, like bargaining with the Inquisition so they don’t slit my throat for having been possessed in the recent past, is done on the off days whenever we find ourselves online with the DM. In this way, we get as much Talky Roleplaying as we want, and we know exactly how much ‘prepare your spell list’ roleplay we’ll need to prep for in advance.
Do you find that your one-on-ones with the DM affect the rest of the game? I ask because I’ve always been of the opinion that the back story doesn’t matter unless you can somehow communicate it to the rest of the table.
It absolutely does. Because of these extra sessions, we have markings of some of the runes that the BBEG is using for whatever Plot he’s trying to fulfill (my guy thinks he’s trying to turn himself into a god, based on the exposition from my former ‘rider’). The Undine also has a very good relationship with some NPCs that gave us some absolutely lifesaving potions for free, I got some of my sanity back from spending time with my wife and kids, and I’m back to my old alignment of Lawful Evil (instead of Chaotic) because I submitted myself to my church for judgment, in these extra sessions.
Also, now I’m working -with- the Inquisition as part of their penance for me. Wizard Man is okay with how things have gone. Bolt Ace Undine is as yet unaware. Sometimes we do our own conversations, but make sure that the DM gets to see them after we’re done so he knows what transpired and how to promote further team building and character growth.
I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate with myself and say that not all games are as involved as the Skype Pathfinder game described above. In a…majority of chat room based games (notably World of Darkness based ones) you can spend days upon days delving into backstory and making character relations, but the only thing that actually matters is if a Storyteller is around to put your numerical gains onto your sheet, or to provide you with a tangible benefit. Otherwise, it’s just blowing smoke around.
Most of my gaming these days is done in the risky world of play by post. By risky I mean my chances of getting in a game are often not great because of the amount of competition and then the chances of that game surviving more than a month or two are pretty bad and then the chances of the game moving at a decent pace are unlikely. As such, while I might like to have an involved backstory and invent entire nations and such in the background with the GM’s permission, it’s an obvious waste of time so I don’t.
That said my backgrounds for characters is still usually three to five paragraphs long compared to a single paragraph being the average so…
I really am there largely for the roleplaying parts. I mean, I like all the other bits too (except puzzles because I am astoundingly bad at puzzles), but I can get into talking to the random NPCs and I’d honestly really enjoy spending a large amount of time just discussing stuff about backstories with other players.
That said, yes talking to every single NPC is ridiculous. But the problem isn’t that someone wanted to hear about the experiences, perspective, or potential hidden knowledge of a farmer. That’s perfectly reasonable. I mean, you probably shouldn’t if the GM gives you a completely caught of guard/dubious facial expression that tells you they’d rather you not, but otherwise that’s an interesting thing to do form time to time that will get everyone (who enjoys that kind of thing) more engaged in the world as it lends it verisimilitude. The issue is the completely insane behavior of attempting to talk to every single person the GM mentions exists or implies existing.
So yeah, I’d greatly enjoy that guy at the table even if I’m not quite at that guy’s level. I mean I have created a nation as part of my character’s backstory before but fleshing out the backstory was something I did partially during actual roleplaying as the game went on, not something I spent a few dozen hours on and set in stone waiting for someone to ask me about it. Anyway yeah, for the most part the setting of a roleplaying game is to me a world to explore and something to give context to roleplaying with the GM and other players. I’d have very little interest in a completely hack n slash game. (Heck I roleplayed to myself the time I played through a solo play version of The Lost Mine of Phandelver.)
Take me with a grain of salt here. Talking to “every single NPC” is hyperbole. In reality, it’s more an issue of one player wanting to indulge in conversation for the sake of conversation while other players would prefer to move on to the next group challenge.
*shrug* I’ve heard of people trying to talk to every NPC the GM mentions for reasons like assuming anyone mentioned is important to the game in some way and they don’t want to miss out on anything (whether this be clues about the upcoming dungeon, or quest hooks, or just important setting details they assume this NPC was specifically put in the world for).
In the case you mean, the players should probably try to compromise in some manner. Also clearly stating you opinions at the time is helpful. It’s a lot more useful to just say “Hey Jim, I’d like to move on to the fighty bits. Can we stop talking to the farmers now?” Or on the other side say, “Guys I know you like all the hacking and stabbing, but this is a roleplaying game and I would like to actually do a bit of that at the moment if that’s cool?”
I can relate with the competition thing. I’m part of an isolated group of about 20 people doing PbP (though fortunately it’s more like 10-12 active players because a lot are just there for the Discord chat it seems.) The problem is when you only have about 3 games taking 4-6 people, and little in the way of game-limits. Often winds up with the same 2-3 people taking up spots in most of the games, leaving a bunch of us with little in the way of games of our own. To exacerbate that, part of the application process for a lot of our GMs seems to be having backstories like Wizard’s up there, if you can’t tell them the name of your childhood next-door neighbor’s 2nd pet you’re probably out of luck. Personally, I’m not that good at backstory-writing, especially in games that do oh-so-often die within a month, maybe two, as things come up IRL.
This sounds like my high school experience with RPGs. I’d put in the hard work to imagine a character, write a back story, and understand a complicated system enough to build that character mechanically, only to find the game disappear after one and a half sessions. It drove me from the hobby for a long time, and actually made me a board gamer for most of college.
Oh yikes. I’m that guy. I try not to be overbearing with it and usually leave it as stuff other people can read if they’re interested, or as simple one-liners like going to visit family when they’re nearby.
I think it comes from me being too into it. I started as GM and then player (someone else wanted to give being behind the screen a go) so I was really invested in the world and stories, and very excited to play my character… I went so far as to create a 7-page backstory and a family tree and then moved on to little short stories and writing an in-character diary.
But hey it was infectious enough for other players to lay out their backstories as well.
The in-character diary is OK by me. In fact I tend to like all of the “I posted a thing to the forums” content. I’ve even been known to write one or two myself. My beef is when a player tries to cram that stuff into the spotlight during session.
You sound like a decent fellow, however, and so have avoided my wroth. GJ. 😛
I’ve made up simple backstories for characters I’ve generated in one-player videogames, does that count as excessive character notes?
Not quite. Laurel and our roommate have written over 100K words of fic about their SWTOR characters. I would describe that as “excessive character notes.”
It really depends on the character. I’ve adapted a few of the characters from my novel into Pathfinder characters, so they’ve already got backstories to use. Other characters don’t have really any backstory at all, and some tend to ‘grow’ a backstory as I make them.
Also, does it count if the GM adds to your character’s backstory in-game? My backstory for Irlana is the her parents were traveling merchants that died in an accident and she got lost in the forest where she was found and raised by an awakened boar. A couple of sessions ago, Irlana was told that she might have noble lineage. Haven’t gotten to really delve into that yet.
When the story naturally heads in that direction (read: it’s the GM who’s behind the steering wheel) then I think it tends to come off as a natural story progression. They’re all viable ways to play. It’s just about finding what’s fun for you and your group: in depth character exploration, pure hack ‘n slash, or something in between.
In this group’s case, it’s in between.
i’ve never really had it come up, though i usually try to invent at least a couple relatives/major figures in the characters life for the GM to use if they want.
the closest i’ve really gotten was a demigods Rifts campaign where me and another players both ended up as relatives of each other. (his character had Loki as a father. mine had one of Loki’s kids. so his character was my character’s ‘uncle’.)