Quote from: Kyle Aaron;970231Nowadays, you're technically a "veteran" if you were in a warzone once. This applies even if you weren't in a combat. You may have been in a firefight or two, or arrived as backup to someone towards the end of their firefight. Or maybe you just went out on patrol every day and had some locals give you the evil eye. But you're not Sergeant York.

Likewise, a 1st level fighter. You have 0xp. You have no experience in game terms. But they weren't just a town guard, that's a 0-level man-at-arms. They marched towards the sound of clash of sword on shield once, and they were perhaps in a shield wall. "I stabbed, but I don't know if my blade struck man, shield, or armour, among the din and clatter of the line of battle I couldn't tell. And then they broke and ran and many of the lads chased and cut them down. Afterwards we looted the dead. And this is how I got my 50-200gp of starting gear."

This doesn't need to be stated, really. And it's senseless to write up a background for someone who might fall in a ten foot pit and die. Nobody makes a film about the poor bastard who stepped off the boat on Omaha Beach and was machinegunned in the first three steps, or drowned in the water under the weight of his gear.

If you survive long enough to actually do something, then we're interested in your story. Don't be precious, if he dies you can roll up another one straight away and be playing again in ten minutes. The first adventure is your background.

Marry me.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;970231And it's senseless to write up a background for someone who might fall in a ten foot pit and die. Nobody makes a film about the poor bastard who stepped off the boat on Omaha Beach and was machinegunned in the first three steps, or drowned in the water under the weight of his gear.

There are actually lots of films about the guy who gets gunned down the first time he's in combat - My Boy Jack and Gallipoli are two that come to mind.

Not a big American genre though. Americans like winners, but you're an Ozzie so you should recall Gallipoli.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;970231This doesn't need to be stated, really. And it's senseless to write up a background for someone who might fall in a ten foot pit and die.  
 

This is the difference between someone who has come to play a game and someone who has come to share stories about their special little snowflake.

Thre is no legalistic, statutory way to prevent someone from being a jerk. In fact, such efforts just provide a framework to empower them. Without GM judgment to preview and permit beforehand, it's just another tool to exploit.

... and then we get into the next issue of drowning the reader in irrelevance. Further, people came to play, not watch the GM read or reference a novel. Adult Supervision makes all the difference.

This is why many old school players want to return to these highly empowered GMs. There's a desire to wave away all these "best practices calcified into tripwires" into some leader with guts to say the magical word, "No." If your table can handle more advanced play, to share and share alike, fantastic -- but it's still great to reserve a shepherd's crook to pull someone off the stage as necessary.

Quote from: Opaopajr;970329but it's still great to reserve a shepherd's crook to pull someone off the stage as necessary.

I now have an irrational desire to go to a large gaming convention carrying a shepherd's crook wearing a T-shirt that says on the front "Can't Say No?" and on the back "Crook for Rent".  Thanks, I guess.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;970332I now have an irrational desire to go to a large gaming convention carrying a shepherd's crook wearing a T-shirt that says on the front "Can't Say No?" and on the back "Crook for Rent".  Thanks, I guess.

If you start making Convention money, can we creat a franchise?

Quote from: S'mon;970283There are actually lots of films about the guy who gets gunned down the first time he's in combat - My Boy Jack and Gallipoli are two that come to mind.

Are they really about those guys or actually about everybody around them dealing with the situation?

Quote from: Opaopajr;970329Thre is no legalistic, statutory way to prevent someone from being a jerk.

"The rules can't fix stupid, and the rules can't fix asshole."

And most of the last forty years of bad D&D rules writing is the result of trying to break those two laws.

Quote from: S'mon;970283There are actually lots of films about the guy who gets gunned down the first time he's in combat - My Boy Jack and Gallipoli are two that come to mind.

Not a big American genre though. Americans like winners, but you're an Ozzie so you should recall Gallipoli.

Creating a simple background is equivalent to "making a movie" or thinking the character deserves one? Okay.

Quote from: Dumarest;970341Are they really about those guys or actually about everybody around them dealing with the situation?

Gallipoli is about those guys. The movie ends with the main character being cut down by a machine gun in a futile charge. It's like Black Adder with less jokes.

Quote from: Baulderstone;970382Gallipoli is about those guys. The movie ends with the main character being cut down by a machine gun in a futile charge. It's like Black Adder with less jokes.

Well, I like Blackadder seasons 2-4...

Quote from: Dumarest;970402Well, I like Blackadder seasons 2-4...

What right-thinking person doesn't?

I actually like the first season as well. It's not as sharp, but it is still fun.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;970358"The rules can't fix stupid, and the rules can't fix asshole."

And most of the last forty years of bad D&D rules writing is the result of trying to break those two laws.

At this point it might as well be labeled a Law of Social Physics, like Boyle's Law of Gasses for a gathering of pedants. I'm sure we can find social analogs to Time, Pressure, & Volume. Someone else can cook up the equation analogy.

Quote from: S'mon;970283There are actually lots of films about the guy who gets gunned down the first time he's in combat - My Boy Jack and Gallipoli are two that come to mind.p

I've not seen My Boy Jack, but Gallipoli had lots of combat before the end. Of course, another way to look at it is that Gallipoli represents one of those campaigns that fizzled because there was a TPK in the first session.

It was less story than propaganda, anyway. "Our gallant Aussie boys died, and it's all the fault of those English brewing tea on the beach." Fuck you, Charles Bean.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;970510It was less story than propaganda, anyway. "Our gallant Aussie boys died, and it's all the fault of those English brewing tea on the beach."

Sure - I liked how all the officers had their Australian accents surgically removed and replaced with English accents, in case the message wasn't clear enough that Australians were innocent victims of colonial exploitation.