For most people, backstory is decoration, the characters are there to “walk through” the story, not be a major player in it. This links totally into my thoughts on play “not for players” and fear of player input.

From the posts I’ve read on DitG, I can tell where you’re coming from, but I don’t remember seeing one post that spells it out (as much as possible, anyway).

I don’t think this is something that can continue to be shoveled off into the “good GM” pile, either. RPG designs can step up and address this issue (strong connection of character to situation) directly with clear writing and/or embedded systems.

I don’t agree with your point, Martin, that an established setting limits creativity. But that’s not entirely on topic so I’ll hold off for now.

You’re absolutely right about the “good GM” pile: there are a ton of tricks, techniques and ways of approaching gaming that are in that pile, when they should be in the rules (or at least accessible to more people).

No full on essay about player input- yet. Throw some ideas my way and I’ll try to better organize something about it.

But yeah, generally all those techniques that people have summed up to the magic of “good GM’ing” or “style” really are the same kinds of things I was talking about analyzing and utilizing artistically.

Chris

It’s from back in April: Player Empowerment.

Disadvantages: It’s harder to integrate into hard-and-fast published settings. It’s also tricky to design adventures at times, but this can be passed on as challenges to the characters, like figuring out how to cross the ocean with the hydrophobic dwarf.

Advantages: All the players feel that the game is more personal, that they’ve had some stake in creating the world and the story. As such, they give more to the game and pay more attention to the other characters’ hot buttons. It also encourages the sharing of secrets in character, which can be amazing scenes to play out.

Some systems already encourage character backgrounds – Cyberpunk’s Life Path comes to mind, as do DNPCs and vulnerabilites in Champions. Why not do it for every game? I’ve used character backgrounds in about 80% of my games, and it’s worked out really well. It gives a richer environment for the story to grow – it makes the world more vivid for the characters and for the players.

Also, if you’ve got the skills and know your players well enough, you can also use hot buttons on the =Players= to motivate them in certain directions. That can be really interesting, but potentially a game-ender. A friend of mine does it really well, but he honed his talent by running LARPs for years where the line between player and character can sometimes blur…

I’ve never tried pushing the players’ buttons in the way that you describe, though I’ve read about it (most GM advice books/chapters touch on it at some point). It seems like it could be easy to take something like that too far — but if you struck the right balance, with the right group, I bet it would be intense.