Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

Whatever happened to Orinoco?

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

That makes sense to you, and a fair amount to me, because we both have analytical minds; we are in the habit of looking for the forces that create the societies we inhabit, and we will ask such questions about fictional societies. Or perhaps I should say that we have didactic minds. Early science fiction was written in that style. But the twentieth century saw the invention of indirect exposition by Rudyard Kipling and its adoption by John Campbell as the obligatory literary style for Astounding Science Fiction; sf readers have become accustomed to reading about a society and picking up the hints as to how it came to be.

Of course, for a game book, didacticism is in order. But what players need to have explained is the visible surface of the society, not the how-it-came-to-be.

Bill Stoddard

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

A nasty outbreak of simulationism. We did what we had to do.

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

Or one book if that's publishing reality, but divided into sections so that you can keep the spoiler stuff out of the players' section. If the campaign involves, say, the surprise appearance of hitherto-unknown dark elves, don't put rules for the dark elf race template in the player section, or have the captain of the guard in town described as "truly comes into his own during the fight against the dark elves".

Also, the players need flavor as well as the GM, not just crunch.

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

That's an intriguing idea. "Mankind has always lived on hundreds and hundreds of different planets. There has never been any warfare in space. Weapons of mass destruction have always been effectively banned. There has never been an inhabited planet called 'Earth', nor 'Mayflower', nor 'New Aachen'. The Empire has always been a bunch of hard-nosed, steely-eyed party-poopers."

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Bill Stoddard

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

I think that Flat Black seems to attract people with those sorts of minds, and I suspect that a lot of backstory now exists because players asked Brett uncomfortable questions. I must apologize I'm afraid for my part in it.

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

Don't blame yourself. Nitpicky players have been busting my nuts over trivia in FLAT BLACK since 1990, at which time you were probably in grade school. Tony P and David Boff have each caused more than ten times as much grief as you. And then there's Phred, and Marq. Not to mention Icelander.

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

Cross-referencing back to a discussion a couple of weeks ago, this is a large part of why I like game systems with lots of fiddly little details on the character sheet as opposed to broad descriptive terms: the minute particulars inspire me to think of clever story elements that I would never had thought of had things been left vague.

Re: Cool Backstory Syndrome
 

I guess the other option is to very deliberately grind off the backstory:
"No-one remembers what the war was about, or when it started, only that it was terrible. The last recruiting parties came around in your grandfather's day, and it was in your father's time that we last had contact with the city up river. First the war, then the plague and the famines ... we barely survived. It may be that we are the only ones..."
(They're not, or it wouldn't be much of a game world, but it's a good way to keep the PCs ignorant and dependant on a small home base. Also, to give them projects where their adventures have a visible effect on their home community)