Background Events?

[DM Foresight]

Hello everyone, I have opened up this topic under general to get some feedback from you guys and gals on a planned style of events i'm thinking about bringing to the table.

First off, when I played my own characters on the server back in the day, I loved those few moments when backgrounds came to life, when I was able to see the things that I or others wrote slam into the populace in the form of a defining event presented to the playerbase, and allowing me and others to see and feel the plot hooks, and struggles, that no one seen coming hit the light of day. For me being able to explore the backgrounds of players I rped with on the daily was the pinnacle of fun for me, and knowing later when the event is over, our characters might grow together because of it was very satisfying.

Its just this that I wish to bring to you all, I would like to start hosting background based events for those of you around the server, After all... we have a entire section of the forums dedicated to just this, Character backgrounds. Your stories, the history of your characters some amazing stuff to read, and there is real talent out there for writing, but at the end of the day what is a background page atm? well.... for most of them unfortunately its just a fun read, because 90% of it is out of character knowledge, But perhaps we can change that. What if randomly your stories came to life? What if suddenly you find yourself talking to the long lost brother your background says mysteriously went missing 6 years ago, or perhaps that one dark secret you wrote about comes to visit you one day? And then again not all stories are about loss and death. Perhaps you get a letter from your parents after 5 long years of traveling the world, how did they know were to find you? Mom says shes coming to visit and is bringing cupcakes! How will you break the news to your parents that your not in fact a virgin priestess of Illmater like you always told them, and instead are a bar hoping, drunken warrior adventurer that faces danger each and everyday!

Regardless of the background story, the point is, its ours, we own it, it came from our creativity, and just like any artist, we all want our work to be admired, even if for but a moment.

So what do you guys and gals have to say? pros and cons? Lets hear it Bgtscc.

your friendly flaming rabbit,
Dm Foresight.

[sweetlikesplenda]

I am all for it. Ive seen a lot of work go in to the background writing for PCs, posted on the forums. But, not everyone reads or can remember what they read, before the posts get buried in to the other background posts. And not everyone gets a chance to bring up those stories IG to other PCs. So, not only will it allow those stories to be further played out, but also help players to feel like their PCs are more alive, a part of the world, and have more meaning.

*Thumbs up*

[Hoihe]

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.

[Darkcloud777]

I for one am all for this! I have been trying to get Phoenix company to bring player driven plots involving player development. Which in 99 percent of the time stems from backgrounds. I will ask my group to work up backgrounds and I will submit them to the DM Team. If any strike the team as interesting I am also 99 percent sure the group would love to help develop it with DM involvement.

[K'yon Oblodra]

I absolutely love the idea!

Basically why it's awesome you already described very very well and I can only agree. To me it's the central point of RP, one time Events are of course interesting but bringing the character closer to our brethren by having more interaction with their background stories just ah honestly I think I am not able to describe it any better than you already did so I'll leave it at that XD.

Looking forward to seeing you < 3

Cheers K'yon

[Miyuki]

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?

[Zaelphion]

I love the idea, especially because so much people around here put so much care in their characters' backstories.

In general, I think that the whole server could be going on player material, not only backgrounds but politics, war and such.

So you have a big YES from me, I am interested to see how the choice will be made and if there will be some sort of interaction between the player and the DM before the event to clarify some details and make sure that the backstory is accurate when portrayed in game.

In general, you will always have approval from me when proposing more player based content.

[InsomnesCanis]

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!

[gjallahorn]

I love the idea, especially because so much people around here put so much care in their characters' backstories.

In general, I think that the whole server could be going on player material, not only backgrounds but politics, war and such.

So you have a big YES from me, I am interested to see how the choice will be made and if there will be some sort of interaction between the player and the DM before the event to clarify some details and make sure that the backstory is accurate when portrayed in game.

In general, you will always have approval from me when proposing more player based content.

Sums it up pretty nicely

Fantastic idear

[Druchii]

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?

Ah another GMT player with my pain for game time. Pity you are a Surfacer

As to the idea. Also think it's great but so long as there's communication before hand to avoid disappointments on any side. To be honest it's always sensible to discuss and plan things and I would be surprised if this didn't just happen anyway.

The above is just what seems wise when dealing with multiple people with different views and priorities. I personally would not care if my character's sociopaths brother came to kill him in the middle of my scheming. I am laid back like that but not everyone else is. The main issue I would worry about is events happening off the cuff when people are tight for time. So again another reason for a bit of ooc setup talk.

Foresight is right though. I left plot hooks in my character bio for stuff like this so I am hardly going to be on the Against team. Why did any of you write plot hooks if they weren't meant to catch a DMs fancy and lead to something?

Just saying

[AsuraKing]

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!

[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!

[MissClick]

Hello everyone, I have opened up this topic under general to get some feedback from you guys and gals on a planned style of events i'm thinking about bringing to the table.

First off, when I played my own characters on the server back in the day, I loved those few moments when backgrounds came to life, when I was able to see the things that I or others wrote slam into the populace in the form of a defining event presented to the playerbase, and allowing me and others to see and feel the plot hooks, and struggles, that no one seen coming hit the light of day. For me being able to explore the backgrounds of players I rped with on the daily was the pinnacle of fun for me, and knowing later when the event is over, our characters might grow together because of it was very satisfying.

Its just this that I wish to bring to you all, I would like to start hosting background based events for those of you around the server, After all... we have a entire section of the forums dedicated to just this, Character backgrounds. Your stories, the history of your characters some amazing stuff to read, and there is real talent out there for writing, but at the end of the day what is a background page atm? well.... for most of them unfortunately its just a fun read, because 90% of it is out of character knowledge, But perhaps we can change that. What if randomly your stories came to life? What if suddenly you find yourself talking to the long lost brother your background says mysteriously went missing 6 years ago, or perhaps that one dark secret you wrote about comes to visit you one day? And then again not all stories are about loss and death. Perhaps you get a letter from your parents after 5 long years of traveling the world, how did they know were to find you? Mom says shes coming to visit and is bringing cupcakes! How will you break the news to your parents that your not in fact a virgin priestess of Illmater like you always told them, and instead are a bar hoping, drunken warrior adventurer that faces danger each and everyday!

Regardless of the background story, the point is, its ours, we own it, it came from our creativity, and just like any artist, we all want our work to be admired, even if for but a moment.

So what do you guys and gals have to say? pros and cons? Lets hear it Bgtscc.

your friendly flaming rabbit,
Dm Foresight.

This is a lovely idea, Foresight. I support it wholeheartedly.
To echo of other responses, I'd love to see the creativity of our community and their stories brought to life.

[gotesu]

Joining the choir of enthusiastic anticipation

I think it's a great idea, in general character tailored events that might not only bring up deep backgrounds but also challenge them on their personalities' soft/strong points and create character development storylines.

Thank you!

[Winterborne]

Having myself been involved in a background event for my character and having participated in two for other characters a few years ago, I can say they have been the most impactful RP I've had. I am all for more of these.