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Amazed by all the thoughtful and interesting replies to this post! Well worth a read 👇

Many excellent replies here already, so I'll add one I've not seen: forgetting it's a podcast. Act with your voice and/or describe what your character is doing and feeling. We can't see you frown. If there's combat, describe where you go. You can't just go "there" on the map. Use your words!!!

Honestly your little Mothership mini campaign was a good balance. Entertaining, but also used the background and rules.

This thread is gold.

In @dicecompany.bsky.social 's Small Embers podcast, story threads built up over 86 prior chapters hit like an atomic freight train of revelations in the latest episode. Ch. 87 is a stunning, epic, mind-blowing payoff well worth the price of admission & then some. No cap. Is that still a thing? 😜

Lots of chat on here recently about whether writing/podcasting/creating is “worth it” Here’s my tuppence worth (on the uneasy balance of making something nice & being a bottomless pit of ambition) 👉 alexmorrison.co.uk/november-202...

Fascinating how sensitive people are to sound - poor audio, silences, crosstalk, sound FX/music, people eating/belching (seriously!) We hear you. We work hard to provide a clean, crisp audio experience - cutting crosstalk without losing a sense of real people having fun around a table 🎧🎲

Long runtime Unedited Bad audio quality Player attitude Intended to be watched rather than just listened to (This one is a very specific example) Changing game system mid-story

Oh I see we’ve chosen violence on a Friday. Cool. I’m gonna keep my head down to avoid any strays.

Ok, risky question, but… What really puts you off an Actual Play podcast?

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Not an exaggeration to say recording these were some of the most brain-melting hilarity and all-round terribleness we’ve ever done. And almost all were unable to get through without laughing at their own words. Wonderful!

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If the real world turns out to be a TTRPG, the system we're playing is called Dungeons & ________ (what)?

This episode was jaw-droppingly good. So many pay offs in such a short space of time.

One of my all-time favourite podcasts 👍

🚨 ALARM 🚨 Our Small Embers D&D campaign is BACK! This week, the gang get back together - and a mystery from Vander's past is resolved 🎧🎲👇

I think it’s fair to say the incomparable @richaargh.bsky.social has outdone himself with season 2. So much good stuff to come too.

🚨 ALARM 🚨 The premiere of Season 2 of The Tales of Kale Vala is OUT NOW Ever wondered what the Five Hells look like in Elestia? Wonder no more. 👹 dicecompanypodcast.com

I once had a player hand me a 4-ring binder of character backstory and notes. A bit OTT but at least it showed genuine engagement. I think for me the sweet spot is the Mortal Kombat character bio. Short and sweet, info dense.

It's too much if you and your GM don't both have fun from it. For me, I give a couple of paragraphs setting up the personality, some major and minor story beats as hooks, and quick references to prearranged relationships with other PCs. Good to go! The rest is emergent.

There is only one acceptable backstory: "I come from the North bearing my father's sword seeking vengeance after Orcs [or setting equivalent] massacred my village." I will not be taking questions at this time.

A sentence or two is enough. Good games provide a questionnaire anyway. Fill it and you're golden.

Too much? 6 sides of narrow lined A4 in tiny chicken scratch handwriting, as given to me in V:tM. Just right? 2-4 paragraphs and a bullet point list of key traits, interest and hooks. I'm not fond of totally blank slates, as player or GM.

There's the story of a PC who turned up with a massive, convoluted backstory, running to novella length, who got killed in the first encounter. 😬

Even the name triggers me as everything should be forward facing. If someone writes a long essay back story I tend to think some of ti should not be there and be getting decided in play. What relationships, desires and questions are in play and why. You can usually do it on a page .

Fully agree. You can always add to it with your GM as you go. I'm building stuff for @mamastrange.bsky.social s character now and that was just a couple of bullets that have now collaboratively expanded into something I think will be quite interesting

IMO a backstory shared with a GM shouldn't be more than a paragraph/a few bullet points and its primary purpose should be giving that GM excuses to mess with you. Have as much backstory as you want in your head, but it's up to you to introduce it to your fellow players if its important to you.

My VtM character's backstory got wildly out of control, and wound up a 253 page published novel. I gave the storyteller a 3/4 page summary of the highlights, lol

I not only agree, but that meme made me properly belly laugh and has now been stolen to attack my own players with 😁

Hot take: the game is the most interesting bit of the PC’s life. That backstory shouldn’t be that interesting. Have a couple of story books for your GM and a decent idea of where they are from and leave it at that. If you’re writing a novel, don’t make it about your PC.

You can't HAVE too much backstory. But nobody but you is obliged to listen to or be interested in it. Write it for yourself in however much detail you want; tell your GM the parts of it that you want to be relevant; let the rest inform your play without necessarily mentioning it. This is hard to do.

Your backstory only exists insofar as it is expressed through the choices your character makes and the actions they take. You can write pages of beautiful prose, but if it doesn't meaningfully affect your character in the game, then it doesn't matter. 1/*

It's not how much is too much. It's about "why are you writing this". Like, if you just love writing backstory for yourself, go for it! If it helps you dig in, go for it! If it makes the game richer for you, go for it! If your other players want it, go for it!

For me, as a GM? If it takes me more than a few minutes to read, it's too much. Players of course can write novels of backstory for their characters, but the game going forward is the only thing that matters, and I can't be expected to cater to incorporating every bit of some complex history.

I start with a very basic backstop and develop it as the campaign evolves. It has worked great so far.

A couple of paragraphs, preferably dramatic and interesting, max. The DM doesn't care what grades your PC got at uni unless that directly feeds into something like your old nemesis, why you dropped out to join a pirate fleet, became a master of swords, or moved in with a mer-person. 😜

Backstory is fine and it's a building block to help your character. That said, if your backstory is constantly taking too much time away from other players during a session, then maybe condense it during game time. You don't have to reveal it at once.

How much backstory is too much for a TTRPG player?

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I ran a campaign taking heavy inspiration from the movie Bright (not a fan of the story of the movie but loved the world 😅)

Deep breath. Neverending Story; The Fog; The Rats; Clangers; Weaveworld; Day of the Triffids; Deep Blue Sea; In The Mouth Of Madness; The Midnight Meat Train; Legend; Beastmaster; Poiltergeist; Pet Semetary; Ghost Story; Nr9therhood of the Wolf; Temple of Doom... ... and that's just this year or so

Strong "Stand By Me" vibes in our latest mini-series What book/movie/series has inspired your TTRPGs?

I love this - the opening of The Body (the Stephen King story that became the film Stand By Me)

There are several that live rent-free in my head. One is: "To be playful and serious at the same time is possible, and it defines the ideal mental condition." ~ John Dewey

"Some people see scars and it is wounding they remember. To me they are proof of the fact that there is healing." - Linda Hogan

This is in my wallet. I am not Catholic.

"We'd be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way out to the end." - Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas