A new Dungeons & Dragons campaign approaches. You’re excited to run it. You’ve got big ideas. But then one comes to you with a 5-page backstory written up. They haven’t even heard your campaign pitch. How do you handle it?
Some players like writing backstories in great detail. It’s fact. But most game master advice leans towards encouraging light backstories. After all, what’s in front of a character (the campaign) is more important than what’s behind (their backstory). I tend to agree. But I think we’re also missing a golden opportunity when we dismiss big backstories altogether. Because another challenge game masters face is getting players to give a shit about their world. We put a lot of time and effort into worldbuilding and most players could care less. Yet the player with big backstory ideas is offering up exactly how to hook them into your world and campaign.
Engage Their Excitement
First off, the player is excited about their ideas. Don’t dismiss, engage! If we game masters can’t read 5 pages of backstory, how can we ask players to care for hours on end about what we’ve built? Often week after week. Year after year! So engage. Read it. Talk about it. Ask questions. Genuinely share in their excitement.
Collaborate to Make It Fit
Once you’re sharing in their excitement, it’s time to make it work for what you have in mind. This isn’t auditing their backstory and handing them a list of requirements for what to change. It’s a back and forth collaboration. Incorporate ideas from the backstory into your setting. At the same time, offer up information about the setting to help tweak or change anything that might be at odds with what you’re planning.
The mysterious mentor…would they be from the swamps of Amystere or the dwarven city of Hammerdawn? Great! Maybe they even lead a faction…
Now you mention a local wizard’s college. The setting I’m working with only has the royal academy because use of magic elsewhere is outlawed. Would an apprenticeship with a hedge wizard work instead?
When a player is excited with big backstory ideas, they’re showing you exactly how they want to engage. Meet them where they’re at and share in that excitement. Collaborate to hook them into what you’re building while allowing them to influence it. Find where they’re excited about your world and double down. It’s the best of both worlds.
Game on.