Cool Backstory Syndrome

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by martinl

The real problem with most "cool backstories" is they ae used to bludgeon the players with either "listen to my cool story, regardless of if you are interested in it," or "I've got a secret nananananana."

I agree that both of those are bad approaches. The proper attitude to backstory is to sit on it and smile to yourself, either because you're waiting for your players to get the joke or because you know they aren't going to. Either of which is fun.

I had a tremendous amount of fun running my "hidden supers" campaign Gods and Monsters, set in 1925, with cameos by nearly every important figure from popular culture, from Lord Blakeney (on a visit from the African jungle where he had been raised by apes) to Tommy Walker (whom the PCs saved from psychogenic blindness and deafness). I think the players got around half the references.

Bill Stoddard