The Woman in Black actually provides two great reasons to force the PCs to stay at the house.

1) It's their job. They have some task that must be completed at the house.

2) Some environmental event traps them there, like the tide and fog in tWiB.

Yeah i'm in the little to no backstory camp, too. A little bit of story and situation to hook into the initial game and then a lot of blank space.

GM: "why is your PC indentured to the evil wizard?"
me: "i don't know. the wizard must have done him some kind of favour, I guess.  It'll come to me."

On subject of character backstories - when I make one (usually I do, except rare cases when I am lazy), it's usually one - two pages, three tops. And that includes a list of NPCs important to the character, his foes, friends, colleagues, etc. etc.

Of course - if the character is lower level/lower competence, the backstory is usually a page tops.

And yeah, as a GM I work that stuff in usually - but there's no "entitlement" of working that stuff in for my players.

Quote from: Rincewind1;514763On subject of character backstories - when I make one (usually I do, except rare cases when I am lazy), it's usually one - two pages, three tops. And that includes a list of NPCs important to the character, his foes, friends, colleagues, etc. etc.

Of course - if the character is lower level/lower competence, the backstory is usually a page tops.

And yeah, as a GM I work that stuff in usually - but there's no "entitlement" of working that stuff in for my players.

I won't even read a back-story over a paragraph long.

Three pages? Hahahahahahahahahahaha. No.

Quote from: Aos;514817Three pages? Hahahahahahahahahahaha. No.

Right?  I would say that most of my adventure notes are three pages, with maps.

yeah, I'm a one or two page guy unless I'm sand boxing which requires a little more coverage. anyway, sorry for the thread derail.

Quote from: Aos;514837yeah, I'm a one or two page guy unless I'm sand boxing which requires a little more coverage. anyway, sorry for the thread derail.

No worries, I don't think this thread had anywhere to go so I don't mind the drift at all.

Miss out on backstories - your loss, wimps . As I said, the story itself is usually a page long tops, with npcs going in later. I like a good backstory as a GM, as it sends me a signal usually of what the player, and the character, will be interested in pursuing.

As for notes - I write as much as time allows me. Especially the descriptions of locations. It matters not to me if the players will go there or not - it's good training, and when they go in there, I'll need but a quick skim, to remind myself how the location's supposed to look.

And as a player? If a GM doesn't read my backstory, his loss. I need the backstory, to flesh my character out. Sure, I may reference from time to time to it, and if it's sandbox, I'll probably try to go back to my family for a visit or smth (unless, as in case with one of my mercenaries in WFRP, the backstory was "One day, being tired of life as a merchant after retirement, I left my fat wife and 12 kids to resume life as a mercenary".)

Then again, an important notion is the fact that I actually enjoy making the world, npcs and the plots - even if they won't see the light of game.

Change the name. It makes me think of

a. The Horror of Humphrey Dumpty House
b. The Horror of Humphrey Bogart House
c. Humphrey Bogart stars as Humphrey Dumpty perched precariously on the roof of his horrific house.

Quote from: _kent_;514874Change the name. It makes me think of

a. The Horror of Humphrey Dumpty House
b. The Horror of Humphrey Bogart House

Both 2 first ones sound like a good adventure. Humphrey Dumpty is such a terrible, disgusting thing.

Quote from: _kent_;514874Change the name. It makes me think of

a. The Horror of Humphrey Dumpty House
b. The Horror of Humphrey Bogart House
c. Humphrey Bogart stars as Humphrey Dumpty perched precariously on the roof of his horrific house.

As long as it didn't make you think of Mr. Humphries from Are You Being Served? we're okay, I think.  "I'm freeeeee, Captain Peacock!"