Comments on: No one cares that you are beautiful and unique snow flake except your mom

By: Elena

Elena — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:37:40 +0000

I like detailed character bios, both reading and writing them. It helps understanding better the character, why he thinks how he thinks, why he acts how he acts, and also keep there everything I want to remember for the next plot. The siblings’ names, the birth city, even the first love if it is necessary. Yes, they will appear and be extended in the RPG threads, but in order to exist, they have to be noted somewhere first. And I see the character bio as a living tool, I update it with things I discover while writing the threads too.

A detailed bio means that the player is invested into the setting, understands it and wants a coherent character.

By: No One Cares That You are a Beautiful and Unique Snow Flake Except Your Mom, Part II- Show Don’t Tell and Star Wars « Wrathofzombie's Blog

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:37:25 +0000

[...] did a post last week talking about disliking pages and pages of back story from my players in my current [...]

By: Silveressa

Silveressa — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:17:08 +0000

Back stories can be fun but I see your point, trying to incorporate more then a half page worth of back-story for each player can prove taxing (especially if you have 4-6 players) and easily wind up taking over your campaign with all the potential sub plots.

I’ve usually preferred a half to 3/4′s a page of background story on average, the more players I have, the less background story I need/want from each player.

The key is finding the happy middle, and making sure to communicate your expectations to the players and give them ample motivation to meet those expectations but not exceed them.

By: wrathofzombie

wrathofzombie — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:30:06 +0000

@Philo- Well thankfully for this game everyone is cool with how it is laid out and it’s working fine.

I also am running a Firefly game and that one they all have a bit more of a backstory than my Swords and Sorcery game. But again it’s about 2-3 paragraphs (if they chose to write it up at all) rather than pages o’ shit.

By: wrathofzombie

wrathofzombie — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:28:13 +0000

I’m fine with that. I don’t mind a little backstory or notes to go on, I just don’t need pages. I’d rather it unfold around us so we can all enjoy it and have a good time seeing it take shape.

By: » Why play tabletops at all? role | playing

» Why play tabletops at all? role | playing — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:58:35 +0000

[...] That is just the start of the power of tabletops, though. What inspired this post was this article, and in case it’s not obvious, I couldn’t disagree more: the GM’s story is only one part of [...]

By: Philo Pharynx

Philo Pharynx — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:11:15 +0000

Perhaps you and your players should sit down and talk about the style of game that people want. If you’re running a grim’n'gritty OSR game and they want a immersive heroic fantasy game, then there’s a disconnect.

By: wrathofzombie

wrathofzombie — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 14:03:27 +0000

Your bear riding Dwarven princess shall be remembered in song for all time!

By: Lily

Lily — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:43:39 +0000

I’m sorry, but I have to say that my daughter really is a unique snowflake. And so was my dwarf princess…RIP.

By: Jez

Jez — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:12:33 +0000

I’m of two minds about it. for most games, yeah, I reckon so. But I’ve played a cracking campaign where I asked my three players to write 6 key scenes from their lives prior to the start of the game; we co-authored them really, and from working with them I was able to find a way to make the arch villain a really personal nemesis. They were all special snowflake characters, but it was a special snowflake kinda game and it totally worked. But that was a while ago, where we had the time to indulge in that kinda game. theses days it’s all throw downs and 3 hour sessions max. no room for snowflakes there.