Background Events?

[Hoihe]

I would absolutely LOVE this on any of my characters!

This is the type of thing that makes a world feel alive! D&D is a game that makes you adapt and overcome things the DM thinks up to throw at you. What fun is it if you always know what is going to happen next? Having to have everything cross checked with a DM ruins the spirit of the game.

So bring it on! I hope this type of thing happens more often!

Problem:

P&P DnD you pick your DM and have a strong sense of tone and preferences going in, and the DM will keep to that.

A random DM without sufficient consultation with a player might force a much different tone and sense than the player considers enjoyable.

Furthermore, some backstories are intentionally made dark/bad to contrast with a better life a character acquires on the server, and the player plays explicitly for that sense of contrast. Randomly, without permission from the player, shoving that bad past into the present can ruin the enjoyability of the character.


It is utterly vital that there's ample consultation between a DM wanting to use some characters' background and the player, and that consultation should clearly include the intended tone and approach.

[Requiem]

Thumbs up from me, great idea. I personally agree with all the sentiments expressed above.

Not all characters wear their histories on their sleeve and some never find the right moments to reveal such. Idle campfire chat does a well enough job portraying character personalities. However, getting to learn a little more of each other's history and perhaps even a glimpse into some prior defining moments for said character? In my own opinion, that helps turn another's character you know only by personality into an identity your character can relate with (for better or worse ).

[Zaelphion]

I would absolutely LOVE this on any of my characters!

This is the type of thing that makes a world feel alive! D&D is a game that makes you adapt and overcome things the DM thinks up to throw at you. What fun is it if you always know what is going to happen next? Having to have everything cross checked with a DM ruins the spirit of the game.

So bring it on! I hope this type of thing happens more often!

Problem:

P&P DnD you pick your DM and have a strong sense of tone and preferences going in, and the DM will keep to that.

A random DM without sufficient consultation with a player might force a much different tone and sense than the player considers enjoyable.

Furthermore, some backstories are intentionally made dark/bad to contrast with a better life a character acquires on the server, and the player plays explicitly for that sense of contrast. Randomly, without permission from the player, shoving that bad past into the present can ruin the enjoyability of the character.


It is utterly vital that there's ample consultation between a DM wanting to use some characters' background and the player, and that consultation should clearly include the intended tone and approach.

I mean, I guess you can simply opt out if you dont like any or something of it.
I guess Foresight didnt mean to force anybody into anything.

[Rooftops]

I would absolutely LOVE this on any of my characters!

This is the type of thing that makes a world feel alive! D&D is a game that makes you adapt and overcome things the DM thinks up to throw at you. What fun is it if you always know what is going to happen next? Having to have everything cross checked with a DM ruins the spirit of the game.

So bring it on! I hope this type of thing happens more often!

Problem:

P&P DnD you pick your DM and have a strong sense of tone and preferences going in, and the DM will keep to that.

A random DM without sufficient consultation with a player might force a much different tone and sense than the player considers enjoyable.

Furthermore, some backstories are intentionally made dark/bad to contrast with a better life a character acquires on the server, and the player plays explicitly for that sense of contrast. Randomly, without permission from the player, shoving that bad past into the present can ruin the enjoyability of the character.


It is utterly vital that there's ample consultation between a DM wanting to use some characters' background and the player, and that consultation should clearly include the intended tone and approach.

*Yawns and bumps the record player*

It's only a problem for you and perhaps a very, VERY small portion of the player base.

You can always opt out of an event.

You aren't FORCED to participate.

If you have so little of faith in the DM team you can always choose to play somewhere else.

[springdryad]

This is a great idea and I support it.

I would personally love to have a background event for my character.

[DM Foresight]

First off, i'm really happy to see after having woke up for the day how interested each and every one of you are in this topic, it brings me joy to know this idea is something everyone wants to see, and without further ranting ill answer some of these questions you have all presented to me.

I fear such has a high potential of hijacking RP.

Character has some fun routine. Cue background complications coming up and unless they dedicate their entire playtime to it, the player is breaking character.


Random has the above danger at least. Keeping it request based rather than a lottery will protect people from having their RP hijacked by something they only meant to be a shaping event of the past, while enabling those who don't mind such to do their own thing.

I understand your point of rp hijacking, but really it comes down to the background event in question, not all stories will be so ground breaking that the character would be forced to devote every waking moment of there gameplay to that event and its happenings, and just like in real life sometimes you just gotta live day to day while dealing with things that come up in your life and this goes for player characters aswell.

On the subject of request based and lottery based, well to be honest I plan to do both, and how I plan to do both is just this. Anything major in your background that would largly effect your gameplay would be considered a request event that I will sit down and talk with you about, what do you want out of it? how would you like to go about doing the event? whom do you want involved? what are the best times to do such a event? is it something that should span over a few mini events, or just one large one? Etc, the list of questions go on, but the point is simple, we will hammer out the details about it first.

Now as far as lottery events, well im going to post for requirements for backgrounds, and enable you all to make the active choice to be included by placing a tag on your background title, if I end up having freetime and see one of these lottery characters online perhaps I will drop in randomly spruce up your gameplay based on something minor within your background.
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I fear such has a high potential of hijacking RP.

Character has some fun routine. Cue background complications coming up and unless they dedicate their entire playtime to it, the player is breaking character.


Random has the above danger at least. Keeping it request based rather than a lottery will protect people from having their RP hijacked by something they only meant to be a shaping event of the past, while enabling those who don't mind such to do their own thing.

I'm all for this, and i admire the idea. Also i would yearn for character development supporting events.
Normally i keep missing 99% of all DM events because i'm a european player with a strict RL who can't play when it's night in Europe.

But i see the same danger as Hoihe, keeping a chacter develoment plot random holds the risk of people hijacking or even crashing into a plot without having shown any interest in your character before. So i would say i would love a character development plot, where i can decide together with the DM, about who atteneds, depending if the other characters know mine or if they pay them any attention at all if there's no event going.

Also time is an important factor for me. It would need a DM who can make early european friendly times and who is able to schedule a day and time reasonably with all the players involed.

@ DM foresight

Is that doable for you?

There is the issue of player time zones and availability, and this is something to address, is it doable for me to run a background event for you event though you play at differant times? well yes it can be done, most weekends im completely free and have nothing better to do that game, work is done for the week, my everyday tasks are completed, so if you happen to play when its 1 AM my time, thats not a big deal for me if we schedule the event.
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I am really digging this!
Agreeing with all of the above, the tone of the game and so much of our characters revolves around their origins and those are the best moments and can really flesh out the Character.
I left so many open hooks in Lyl's background for that kind of eventuality and Cattilandra's RP specifically rooted in her back story.
When i first found BG and made Lyl i thought that was the everyday norm and i here partially because of this layer that 'normal' mmos just don't have for me.
Yay!

I would also like to add to what Hoihe wrote:

Keeping it request based rather than a lottery will protect people from having their RP hijacked by something they only meant to be a shaping event of the past, while enabling those who don't mind such to do their own thing.

While i'm not loving the term 'hijacking rp', player disappointment or loss of motivation from big unexpected changes to the char's rp are understandable as well. And i do believe that it being request based or otherwise agreed upon between the player and the DM will be good for the server. Matching these expectations helps both sides take each other's input in a better way.
Now i say expectations, i don't mean spoilers or meta-gaming the plot before its even in game. Rather it means:
For the DM to level what is the general idea of the plot ('That gang that was on her tail is coming closer' or 'Lets take that part about your father and do something horror-action with major consequences'.
For the player it means they could weigh on certain things ('its pivotal my pc won't meet her long lost brother in at least some time', or 'This is a part i'd rather leave in the past') and and weigh in on it from their character side ahead of time, preferably while approving the background ('those pirates who stole her pickles are there to amplify her existential crisis and they are all inspired by greek philosophers).

Once again, Yay!

This is totally understandable, and is another example of why I will be doing requested sit down events where we hash out the details about what you want out of the event, this way your getting the parts of your background you always wanted to see out into the world.
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I love this idea, and it would actually probably get me to sit my lazy butt down and actually write out a proper bio for Barry... And all my other characters (Except Ulfrikr, he's got one!). In my PnP games I love it when my character's background shows up to smack me in the face and would love for that to happen IG too!

I love this post, and this is a very good reason why I want to do this for you guys and gals. I'm sure many people think of backgrounds as just extra, why should I worry about it? i mean its all ooc knowledge anyway right? well when it could effect you in game through a event its not entirely ooc information anymore is it? this could lead to characters that are more filled out, and have a large amount of history behind them that not only could help a player connect to the characters they play, but also help to introduce that character to others so everyone can enjoy it. There are plenty of good character concepts that just die because of the inability to merge them into the server, this can help with that.
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I would absolutely LOVE this on any of my characters!

This is the type of thing that makes a world feel alive! D&D is a game that makes you adapt and overcome things the DM thinks up to throw at you. What fun is it if you always know what is going to happen next? Having to have everything cross checked with a DM ruins the spirit of the game.

So bring it on! I hope this type of thing happens more often!

Problem:

P&P DnD you pick your DM and have a strong sense of tone and preferences going in, and the DM will keep to that.

A random DM without sufficient consultation with a player might force a much different tone and sense than the player considers enjoyable.

Furthermore, some backstories are intentionally made dark/bad to contrast with a better life a character acquires on the server, and the player plays explicitly for that sense of contrast. Randomly, without permission from the player, shoving that bad past into the present can ruin the enjoyability of the character.


It is utterly vital that there's ample consultation between a DM wanting to use some characters' background and the player, and that consultation should clearly include the intended tone and approach.

This is understandable, but as of now this it my project, so you will always be dealing with the same DM in regards to player backgrounds for the time being.
This is also where we would talk it out before scheduling the event.
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I have a good vibe about this idea ladies and gents so im going to place what I deem accept to be considered for a player background event.

1. accurate lore, We are a lore based server on a specific timeline, if your background does not line up with that, im sorry but you cannot be included. I would deem background disqualifications to be.... Imaginary homeland, false character titles, from another world that does not exist etc... basically if I cant find it in dnd or server lore, well we cant do it.
2. Lack of information, The backgrounds to be submitted MUST BE flushed out, after all this is for you guys and gals, if you don't have enough information in your backstory theres nothing I can do, if your going to submit a request I ask that you make sure your background is flushed out.
3. snowflaking, Some things are acceptable, BUT you are not a god reborn in human form, you do not control the power of the tablets of fate, you did not kill a lesser deity and gain their powers, etc..... Im not going to consider any background that displays anything like this.
4. Joint backgrounds, If your background is tied to someone elses I will need both approvals for a event request, I will not run a background event that effects other player characters if they are not even aware of it. or simply not interested.
5. Background conduct, I will not accept anything that is based on sexuality or anything similiar to such, this is a pg server, keep the content around pg and we are good, don't and I will refuse the request.
6. Player involvement, These events are to be designed for you are your own, the people you play with, not just for yourself, so I require a minimal of 4 others to join you on your background journey, and a max of around 10. (though exceptions can be made in certain situations to go above 10 total.) if you cannot meet the requirements I may have to deny the request.
7. Discord sit down, if your request is accepted we will hash out the details, I would like to do this over discord as I can save the messages to plan for the event using the information you wrote to me. this will allow me to filter the wants, and dont wants out for the event so that each and every person gets closer to there desires.


Im sure before we go live with this the list of rules will expand for the betterment of the idea, but until then these are the current rules.
As I said above this is my project only for the moment, so when the time comes to go live with this idea all requests will be sent to me DM foresight and not the entirety of the dm team, we all do alot of work and I do not wish to flood there inboxes with requests that should only be for me.

Finally anymore questions?

Your friendly flaming rabbit,
DM foresight.

[kersplunk]

I am 100% in favor of these, and couldn't agree more with the sentiments posted here about DM-driven background events really tying a world together and breathing even more life into PCs.

[Omega07]

Really good initiative. When I was on the team I thought often that the background event idea is an amazing way for engagement between players and the DM team to create a symbiosis of amazing stories.

The only constraints or limitations that I can see is the timezone factors between DM's and players. Another factor is how deep the event is can the interaction/change happen in one event or several?

Though personally, I would advocate for another DM in another timezone to accomodate a wider audience.. Unless you dont sleep foresight

I would love to see what creations and outcomes happen as a result of this!

[DM Foresight]

Ok so im going to let this post go until tomorrow and after that ill be writing up a completed list of background rules that I will place in the dm events page for everyone to read. at the point ill start reading requests and accepting a few plots for next weekend.

[gedweyignasia]

I absolutely love it!! This is going to be great.

[Almarea90]

I absolutely love the idea.
A big part of my RP is listening to other people stories, therefore I am looking forward not only to see my own background come to life but also to see in game what the other players have created.