Backstories... How Much is Too Much?

Creating characters is one of the most fun parts of an RPG. We get to look at all the different species choices, and all the different classes, powers, and abilities that are available, and slowly conjure this avatar we wish to inhabit out of the ether. It's an intoxicating process, and it's something both new players and old ones always seem to get excited over.

Part of that process is creating a backstory for your character, though. And this can be a... contentious topic, to say the least.

Page 7, the fifth branch of the 8th tree in the back yard...

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First Let's Talk About Length

There are two major considerations when it comes to one's backstory, but the first thing people usually think of is size. Not only that, but there seem to generally be two schools of thought on this matter. The first is that anything that is longer than a couple of paragraphs (especially if it's for a level one character) is overkill. The second is that you can never have too much nuance and detail, and as long as it helps you craft a more complete character, you should feel free to really let it rip!

For folks wondering where I sit on the spectrum... well, not only did I write a short story about my current Dark Heresy PC, but said story was turned into an audio drama by Vox in The Void (whom you should follow if you haven't yet). While I have yet to write an entire novel about one of my characters, though, I believe I've uploaded a backstory of roughly 8k words for a Changeling: The Lost LARP, as well.

With that said, however, I am not someone who believes that all players should be expected to write reams of text defining their characters and providing a lifetime of details to the Game Master. After all, we all have real lives, and not everyone has the time, energy, or desire to devote to writing intro stories for their characters. And even if you do have all three of those things, your Game Master might not have the time, energy, or desire to read a huge wall of text just to get a handle on your character.

And those are really the two most important questions when it comes to the size of your backstory. Because if the Game Master doesn't have time or interest in reading more than half a page or so, then players shouldn't give them more. And if players don't have the interest or ability to provide more than a brief snapshot of who their character is, demanding they produce more is going to kill their interest in the game.

So as long as the player wants to write it, and the GM wants to read it, it isn't too much. This scenario will vary wildly by individual, however, so make sure you talk to one another before game so you don't end up disappointed at your players' brevity, or frustrated because your GM isn't reading the story you created for this game.

Incidentally, if you're a Game Master and you find that getting players to write down a backstory is like pulling teeth, consider putting together a brief character creation document instead! You can find a good start for this at 10 Questions to Put On Your Character Creation Document!

Or, if you're a player champing at the bit to get your story together, remember that Specific Background Details Make Your Character an Organic Part of The World.

Second, The Content

The second question on this topic is something I've addressed before, but it would have felt like not acknowledging the elephant in the room to leave it out this week. In short, when is the content of your backstory too much for the game to support?

Listen here, whipper snapper, I was Raging before your edition was even born!

The flavor of your background has to match with the mechanics of the game you're playing. You probably didn't solo-kill a red dragon last week, or smite a god with your astonishing eldritch might before the campaign began at level 1... unless you did.

I talked about some of this in The 1st Level Badass, as well as Using The Limiting Bolt in Your Games, but it bears repeating that the key to matching your backstory to your mechanics is creativity, and communication with your Game Master.

For example, perhaps you were a great and powerful dragon slayer in your youth, but it's been years since you were on the trail and your skills have fallen by the wayside. Maybe you were a potent wizard who was utterly destroyed by your nemesis, but a contingency spell woke you up in a cloned body of your younger self that has a lot of your memories, but only a fraction of your old knowledge and powers. Perhaps you truly are the child of a god, but they have taken away your gifts and forced you to prove that you deserve them, Marvel's Thor-style.

Or your character could just be full of hot air, and they've been claiming to have done a bunch of stuff they didn't do because it bulks up their rep... a character concept I called The Big Name.

Whether you need an explanation for why a grandiose story doesn't have the oomph one would expect, or some explanation for why a simple, humble character enters the game with serious swinging power, just make sure that you think of a way for your content to match the context of where you find yourself in the game. If you can manage that, you're golden!

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