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When to Include Other Characters' Background
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Something I’ve personally struggled with forever is when it’s appropriate to include details in other characters’ backgrounds in plots.
You’d think this would be easy. Just page the person in question and ask, “Hey, I see your character did a stint in a mental institution in the past. Mind if I include the facility and maybe some of the staff as NPCs in my new plot?”
But I always find asking like that to be incredibly awkward. Like I’m intruding on something personal; this other person put some work in their BG and now suddenly I’m asking to use parts of it for my own stuff?! Sacrilege! This gets worse if I’m a fairly new player, or they are.
The weird thing is that I know that I, personally, love when other players do this with stuff in my character’s background, but for some reason I can’t make the mental connection between what I would like and what others would like on this issue.
This probably outs me as a neurotic mess, even worrying about this. Which maybe makes me perfect for the hobby!
So how about folk here? When do you think it’s appropriate to add details like this to plots? How do you broach the subject to the other players? Do you even do this, or am I some kind of weird freak for even thinking of spicing up plots with character background specifics?
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@STD i love incorporating it if I have access. I do ask first unless I’ve been given carte blanche to do what I wish. Usually people are super excited.
I prefer to make things personal at least for long term if I can.
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@STD I LOVE when this happens to me! Some of the best stories come from this sort of running and RP! I have done for others and had it done for me, and it’s always an amazing time!
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I have had 1 time where a background i wrote was incorporated proactively and even as a surprise by the ST and frankly it was amazing.
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Yeah +1 to feeling positive about people asking to link backgrounds. It feels very nice to know someone thought something you wrote into your story is cool and that they want to engage with you on it.
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I do admit, it’s a good feeling when someone reaches out to tie their BG to yours. You feel seen and valued as another player.
That said, there’s always risk with that if it’s someone you don’t know or have otherwise never interacted all that much with. But they could always turn out to be awesome.
…or not.
These days I tend to only tie my characters to people I already know.
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One of my favorite moments in GMing was when a character rolled particularly well and @tsar peeked at their background/secret and was like, “We should do this!” and then I wrote it into existence, and it became a wonderful moment of story for the player and then a hilarious running joke that we probably milked for far too long.
Long story short: I think it makes those backgrounds real, living stories and I say do it. I had the advantage of being a staff GM, so I didn’t have to page and ask, but I think if I received that page as a player I’d be so excited someone read my background and wants to make something of it!
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@STD Please please please!
I mean, YES. Love this. That said, it’s definitely something I like to…talk about, OOC, before it’s done. Just because the things in my PC’s background usually have specific thematic elements and just tossing them in without talking means that something might be made ‘canon’ that wasn’t what I’ve been RPing.
That said, it’s definitely hard for me to page to ask about this with others. Which is DUMB but true. I will try to at least ask about shallow things - hey, I notice you’re an X by trade, how would you like something that focuses on that - but the deeper stuff, I worry about stepping on toes.
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I feel like the only time I’ve ever seen anyone hesitate at this offer is if they had, like, issue with the specific GM and didn’t want to play in their plots in general. Overall, I feel like this is SUCH a universally beloved thing people can do.
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I usually trick my brain out of worrying about this by asking about it as a motivator for future play, rather than asking about having a previous point of connection specifically. Not everyone is looking to tie their characters’ past strongly to other PCs (usually me, tbh) but they might still be interested in developing a new connection. Either way I get to RP about the Thing more, which is the result I usually want anyway.
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I am all for tying PCs to other PCs. I’m not the most active of people on most mu* I am on but I’m 100% willing for people to tie into my characters. Be it ‘Hey! I saw this thing in your background it is a thing I have too. Can we know each other?’ or ‘Can I be Xtype of relationship with you?’ The only thing I hesitate, mildly, is spouse but even then I’ll give it the old college try.
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I’d love it if someone read the background of one of my characters.
I love running plots around backgrounds and exploring obstacles players want their chars to face.
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I admit I would be bothered if someone, without asking, wrote a shared detail into their background that was unavoidable. If I say my character went to Duke University, I’ll be annoyed if someone shows up with a background saying they were my character’s roommate at Duke University. Minus a discussion, ties to other characters’ backgrounds should be possible connections (we both went to Duke!) not required connections (we lived together for a year!).
It’s definitely always chill to ask, though, imo!
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Just wanted to specify my other comments were about utilizing written background things in STed plots.
I would never ever tie my pc to another via background w/o asking. I’m open to bg ties personally almost always but find people rarely ask. When I ask about a personal bg tie pc to pc I would say its received positively about 80 percent of the time which is pretty good.
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Yeah, I was also confused by the initial question. I think in general there’s enthusiasm for staff making use of PC backgrounds because we’ve already given those people a level of trust, at least to be in the stories they tell. It would never occur to me to include another PC in my bg without asking them (and if I was reviewing a background that mentioned another PC I’d check that they’d been consulted about it).
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@mietze said in When to Include Other Characters' Background:
Just wanted to specify my other comments were about utilizing written background things in STed plots.
I would never ever tie my pc to another via background w/o asking. I’m open to bg ties personally almost always but find people rarely ask. When I ask about a personal bg tie pc to pc I would say its received positively about 80 percent of the time which is pretty good.Oh, yes, I misunderstood - I didn’t realize the question was just as a GM. Yes, as GM of course.
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I love it when someone has read my PC’s background and picked something out that they would like to highlight somewhere, whether it’s in a simple scene or a big plot. I also love being a hook for other people, especially if they have had trouble getting involved in things before.
I think 9 times out of 10 if people are asked they say yes and are thrilled about it. There are always some people who are very protective of the things they’ve written and their PCs arcs and sure, that’s fine. But I think you’ll find most people would just be thrilled to know you found something interesting in their PC design.
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I love getting a little heads up from the staffer, and if it’s something like a mental institution, having them check in on what type of experience my character had there before including the details in the scene. Because like, if my character was in a hellhole of an institution in their BG, but the place is now suddenly professional and neat as a pin and all that (or vice versa) it’s going to throw me off pretty hard.
Other than the check-in and vibe-check, I’m with everyone else in that I love having my character’s BG tied into anything going on on-screen.
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@STD said in When to Include Other Characters' Background:
When do you think it’s appropriate to add details like this to plots? How do you broach the subject to the other players?
I’ve baked it into Silent Heaven that each player automatically gets at least one plot related to their character’s backstory. So that makes it easier for me to ask. Maybe you could give a little blurb in your policies or chargen about how “STs will periodically check your backstory to see if it’s relevant for plot and reach out to you for permission to include it. You don’t need to say yes.”
As a player, I used to be nervous about reaching out to incorporate details into other character’s backstories, but at this point I’ve done it so often that it’s no longer anxiety-inducing and it’s just another part of chargen. If someone says no, no skin off my back. If someone has a tirade, I’ve learned to stay away from them early on in my time there.
Additionally, I used to have anxiety when reaching out to staff, but I’ve done it so often and seen the whole gamut of responses that sending the first message becomes a normal part of the process.
My advice would be to do it a bunch until it feels normal, maybe even repetitive, but stop if that’s just giving you more anxiety.
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So long as you don’t make me write an essay detailing every breath my character has taken up until this point, I’m all for it.
