How do you feel about DMs including characters from PCs'

>>54361628
I always like it, but it's better if they're not hogging all the attention. I had a character whose father was a rich merchant and the DM used him to offer various quests. It was cool.

>>54362431
That's pretty smart - it advances the whole story, not just one character. I would have thought it best to confine them to interactions with the character they know already, but this gives me ideas.

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>>54361628
On one hand, It can be really cool to have your DM actually weave characters from your backstory into the world, really make you feel like you're a part of something.
One the other hand, well I'll give you an example;
I was playing a ninja, with the shadow creature template. As part of his backstory he came from a clan a ninja's whom, under the ancient ninja bylaws, were forbidden from ever being seen by anyone outside the clan. So I wasn't. Ever. Not by enemies, not by the party, nobody, for the whole campaign. One of the other PCs had been gaining political sway, which is why the clan sent my character to keep an eye on him, and eventually decided to ally with him. I informed the party of this (I communicated through notes left to be found) and they went to meet with my character's sister, who was a big name in the clan. When they get there they enter a room and it's full of perfectly visible ninjas, including my sister who is described as a typical bubbly, big-titted anime girl who greet the party warmly and explains "Oh, psh, Onii-san's the only one who still follows those dumb traditions".
>mfw

>>54361628
>Player makes level 1 character
>Hands me three pages of backstory
>Kek
>Scrunch that shit up without reading it and throw it in the trash

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>>54365598

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>>54365598
But that made you the special snowflake Snakeyes, Should have pleased you to no end.

>>54365598
I think, actually, your DM was at least partially in the right. Unless your ninja clan is 100% self sufficient and excluded better than Shangri-la or El Dorado, having a caveat of never being seen by anyone outside the clan makes no goddamn sense. At the very least the clan should have liaisons who ARE allowed to be seen, to negotiate trade deals, or a working caste of farmers and tradesmen who are exempt. Otherwise you have shit like
>working in rice fields
>non-clan people are riding by, shit everyone hide!!

>>54366221
>working in rice fields
>suddenly, horsemen
>substitution.jpg
>Nothing to see but a paddy full of logs in clothes

>>54365999
I don't wanna be a special snowflake, I wanna make sense with the lore!
>>54366221
>excluded better than Shangri-la or El Dorado
That was kinda the idea, and it wasn't too outlandish. It was a small clan of like 50 people, living in a hidden mountain monastery, all trained in ninjutsu since they could walk, all of which can't be seen unless they're in direct sunlight, and can shift to and from the plane of shadows everyday.

>>54366335
That's actually closer to how I wanted it to go. If anyone managed to find the clan's home, they would just discover what looks like a suddenly abandoned temple, as everyone either planeshifted out, or was standing right next to them undetected.

>>54365598
If you played a gag character, why would you get upset when the GM ran with the gag?

Also, totally stealing that character idea, particularly communicating with notes.

I am hoping to do this soon. My characters are in the sandbox portion of Skt, so I want each character to have the spotlight for a little bit. One of my characters is the younger sibling of royalty who was sent away to become a cleric as to not compete with his brother to be the heir. His family hates him. Hoping to do a brief visit to his home, his family still hates him, he does some stuff to save the town, his family still hates him, but he temple of moradin in the town acknowledges and reveres him. At the same time, I'll drop plot hints that progress the overall story, and let him pick up a cool minor magic item tailored to his story.

I think overall having these things are great for world building and they establish npcs that the pcs can make into reoccurring allies if they like them.

>>54366375
>>54366412
But that's incredibly unrealistic, even if you go "lol ninjas."

You're saying that your ninja clan here is self sufficient in every way. They mine their own iron. They grow their own crops. They fabricate their own textiles and log their own trees. They raise livestock. And they do all this without ever interacting with anyone outside their clan and without ever being discovered.
Face it anon, your idea is unique but unrealistic, your GM salvaged it in the best way.

>>54361628

If you're not doing it you're squandering a valuable resource, IMO. If a player mentions something in their backstory, it's a sign that they're interested in it and want to explore it, so making use of it can be great for personally hooking them into events and stories.

There is a catch though- Don't kill them off meaninglessly. Too many GM's treat backstory characters as one shot 'murder for drama' tokens, which is so fucking wasteful it makes me cry. It's a cheap, easy option which disincentivizes people from making backstory characters at all and squanders any potential they might have had to add to the game.

The things your players hand you in their backstories are precious, valuable resources. Learn to use them well, rather than wasting them.

>>54361628
You either trust them, or you don't.

For me, it's an earned thing, I've had too many DMs just decided to add drhammaaaaaa via having someone show up to brutally murder them.

But if I trust the DM? Go for it.