>
> To be honest, I groan whenever a player starts in one of my games
and
> hands me several pages of background. This means that I have to
not
> only read it, but remember it and incorporate it into the game.
This
> doesn't even touch on four sessions down the road when the player
> says "hmm... this isn't quite working out." I prefer that players
> come up with a very basic background (a paragraph), and build on it
> as play progresses. This makes retention a lot easier, ensures
that
> the background fits with the direction that play's going, and
> eliminates alot of extra junk.
>
I can sympathize with your position, but do understand that for some
people (raising my own hand here), it is not possible to so much as
choose a name for a character without starting to create back story.
Obviously the player shouldn't impose too much detail on the
narrator, and has to adapt to the narrator's campaign, but if the
character has any character there are bound to be questions, and the
answers to those questions create more questions, and, well, it
always just keeps growing. It isn't really a matter of choice.
No question though, players with this affliction owe it to the
narrators, who have a lot of work to do already, to keep the amount
of actual reference points to a minimum. This is an advantage of the
100 words, you can say "If it is important enough that you want it to
be absolute fact, put it in the 100 words."
-Bryan