Am I strange for wanting backgrounds?, A GM checks against his peers Options

[Penta]

Okay, just because.

I very rarely am a player of Shadowrun, of any edition. Or, honestly, of any gaming system - I find I have more fun with pen and paper RPGs, especially since I do them online primarily, as a GM.

Now, as I GM, I have certain quirks. The group playing with me in the IC section here on Dumpshock can attest to these. (They've been real troopers in dealing with their GM's oddities, I'll say that much!)

Among them, most prominently: I'm huge on character development and world-building. I will take the 20 questions or whatnot as a frame, a skeleton, of character development, but I often insist, crankily I suppose, on seeing actual backgrounds. To explain skills and gear, yes, but also just to develop the character, make them something more than stats. (In return, I as a GM usually have at least something sketched out for major NPCs that recur, and I'll frequently do a lot of research IRL just to make my game worlds have more of a feeling of reality to them.)

Not because of anything in particular, but just generally, I'm wondering - how odd is that?

It feels, off-hand, like I'm a rare GM for doing that...When, maybe because I come with MUSHes and MOOs as my RP background, it feels like a character is woefully incomplete with just the stats done and maybe 20 questions.

How many other GMs out there are like that?

[Draco18s]

As a player with poor story telling skills I often times have trouble naming my characters, much less writing a background for them.

[Blade]

When I GM in a campaign, I require each player's background before starting the campaign. I can let them change things a bit after the first sessions if they feel like they need to correct something, but they have to start with a background.

[otakusensei]

I like a good back story, but I can't require it. I tend to play up back story that is provided and give rewards (a community world building "bounty") for players that provide detailed and useful back stories and NPCs. I do the same for art, both written and visual. I started writting up weekly "wrap ups" for our games; news reports, shadowy first person perspective stories or simple fact sheets. These seemed to give players an additional connection to the world that they don't necessarily get in the heat of the game. As they became more interested in their characters I started seeing more collaborative work and more invested players. That wasn't from everyone mind, but the experience for all is improved if I can get just a few players really into what they are doing.

For my characters I tell GMs it takes me roughly 3-6 months to make a character. The math and stats are done in the first week generally. They get tweaked over the course of the design, but I also do the 20 questions and start to write the back story of the character as well. I'm currently in three SR games with detailed characters; a rebuild of a 3rd ed character that I played for a few years, updated 7 years and returning from a trip into space a little bit harder and a lot wiser; a technomancer on a mission to find what was trusted to him and lost during his traumatic emergence; finally an adapt former company man turned Imperial guard who has voluntarily taken the blame for a crime iand fled to Seattle in order to protect the secrets of his charge.

I can put together a character in a half hour and play it no trouble, but I frequently find myself rehashing some other character or focusing more on the design than the character. I know not everyone gets into it as much as me, and I have yet to have a GM really tear into my back story, but that's fine. I frequently keep a running fiction going and fill the downtime with my own writing.

I'm also starting up an online game via Skype that I hope will provide a written log and bridge for some of the players I know who like this style of constantly developed character.

[crash2029]

As a player I like to have a good background for my characters. It gives me a baseline for judging reactions. As a GM, however, I realize that not everybody likes to come up with backstory. Therefore it is not required. Although they had better have an answer when I ask them why their character runs the shadows.

[otakusensei]

As a player with poor story telling skills I often times have trouble naming my characters, much less writing a background for them.

I noticed some of the spam I get include some pretty decent or interesting names. I made a list of them and update occationally if you want to farm it:

http://docs.google.com/View?id=df5g6dkw_49cm89p5

Acts as a great GM resource to cut back on the number of people named "Dave" or "Joe" you have to come up with on the spot.

[Karoline]

As a player with poor story telling skills I often times have trouble naming my characters, much less writing a background for them.

Personally I have no trouble coming up with a background that is a couple pages long, but I have trouble thinking up a name without going to one of those baby naming books/sites.

I for one like having an idea of where my character came from and such, but I'm going to throw out that when doing a more detailed background, I prefer using karmagen, because karmagen gives you more lineancy to grab a handful of 1 and 2 point skills to represent 'Jane was taught the piano as a child' or 'always enjoyed drawing' or 'liked to write simple programs' or whatever. Basically things I don't expect to really come up in play, and don't feel bad because it is only a couple of points of karma as opposed to several BP. Same with specialties.

Karmagen rant aside, yeah, I like having at least some basic level of background for my characters. Some of the 20 questions I'm not very fond of, but that has more to do with a limited personal background in SR (I don't know all the important events my character may have lived through, I don't know which megacorps my character might like because I don't really know anything about the corps).

[pbangarth]

I love detailed back stories, and ask for them when I GM. Almost always I get some great hooks for side stories, or even a main story arc from the backgrounds.

[X-Kalibur]

As a player with poor story telling skills I often times have trouble naming my characters, much less writing a background for them.

My problem is similar but different. I can write up a several page background and get totally stumped by the time I realize I still haven't named the character.

[Godwyn]

I always ask for characters to provide a background. However, I try to never make it set in stone. Background writing is a finicky process, and I find it hard to have everything 100% to my satisfaction before the first session that character appears, so I find it hard to hold players to a higher standard.

I also do not mind a background that is lacking for players that play their character well. Some players know the concept they want, and how they want to play the character, but get stumped on how the character got that way. When they are willing to let the background develop through interaction with the group and the world, it often generates a better character.

[Bignaffer]

when running pretty much any system i require at least a simple background story and will take as much as i can get.

as a player i will typically write the frame work of a background before starting my character and mold the two together to make everything mesh.

[SQLCowboy]

I always ask for at least an attempt at a background when I GM. If nothing else, I'll sit with the player or email back and forth to get an idea of where the character is coming from and what his or her goals are. That allows me to better tailor the campaign to the characters and make them feel part of the world. The more background someone gives me, the more I can do with it.

[Garou]

I search for character names at babynames.com. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) seriously.

[Khyron]

As a player, I always write up, or at least think up detailed backgrounds for my characters, and not some mary sue crap either. Just valid reasons why they're doing what they're doing at this given time, why they've turned to running rather then being legal and so on. As a GM, I did actually require my players to do the same and used that to add flavor to the game, though not the stereotypical act of making sure all distant family members of the PC's are kidnapped or killed by BBEG/Corpsec/evil wizard/ect. I prefer the more subtle flavor of maybe the PC receives a Christmas/birthday gift from a mentioned family member, or they run into that guy he was friends with back in his knight errant training days. And so on.

[Tymire]

Bah why spend time with names? They should change every other mission.

[X-Kalibur]

Bah why spend time with names? They should change every other mission.

Now you need to come up with even MORE names for all your alternate identities. And make sure you don't mix them up.

[Sengir]

Well, I think our current GM pays not enough attention to background...more power to people like you

[Angry Ork]

As a player, i usualy come up with a paragraph or two that gives an overview of my characters, usualy giving as much info as one might give a newly met team member, then introduce more personality and quriks over the course of the campaign

[DireRadiant]

Personal Preference

BG > CS

[Caadium]

Personally I have no trouble coming up with a background that is a couple pages long, but I have trouble thinking up a name without going to one of those baby naming books/sites.

I echo that thought completely.

[nezumi]

I actually made a three page interview questionaire for all new D&D characters when I was running the Other Game. I require backgrounds for all my Shadowrun PCs (funny enough, Shadowrun players never seem to need any sort of prompt - I say write a background and they do) and I reward them with 1-5 karma for it. I more often have to tell people to STOP writing so much than vice versa.

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

Now you need to come up with even MORE names for all your alternate identities. And make sure you don't mix them up.

Just make a program containing the TOP 20 names given to babies this year and the TOP 20 names of products bought at stuffer shack. Make a randon selection of baby name + item to give you a name.
Then you can have names like: John Doritos, Allan Budweiser, Michael Adult Dipers, etc...

[Rotbart van Dain...]

I more often have to tell people to STOP writing so much than vice versa.

Well, if people enjoy wrinting that much, they can write an abstract, too.

Most of the time, the useful information about a character should fit on a single page at normal font size.

[Warlordtheft]

I ask for one, but don't get upset when I don't get one (or a copout of one by taking amnesia or a similarly low effort back ground). One thing I do require is that they describe (brief or not) how they met their contacts, and how they relate to them.

[X-Kalibur]

Just make a program containing the TOP 20 names given to babies this year and the TOP 20 names of products bought at stuffer shack. Make a randon selection of baby name + item to give you a name.
Then you can have names like: John Doritos, Allan Budweiser, Michael Adult Dipers, etc...

Funny as that sounds, it's not a terrible idea at all.