Who to deal with players who put alot of effort into thier b

[black1blade]

I'm going to start running my basic fantasy campaign in a few days and most of the players have finished their characters. The combat focused player, who doesn't normally role-play, has put loads of effort into his paladin type fighter. Any way he's put loads of effort into his back story. We've agreed that he has a few relatives but he can't just keep having clones of sir Gavin spawning everywhere. So how should I deal with it if he dies?
Also he's added a lot of info about the order he joined and I'm fine with fleshing out a part of the world with a few modifications but is it a bad thing letting my players shape the world to such an extent?

[shadowmane]

I play with a group of kids between the ages of 8 and 13. When one of the kids throws out some information on their character, I write it down and run with it. Who am I to quench their imagination? I simply provide the sandbox world for them to run around in, with a few plot twists thrown in for fun.

I say, if the guy is willing to put that much effort into it, reward him for it. Just remember that those that haven't put that much effort into it have to have fun as well.

[Hywaywolf]

Keep in mind that with an elaborate backstory the players don't only get benefit from it. Did they leave town ahead of a posse at some point. Were they kicked out of the monastery? Did they steal pies from windows when they were kids. etc. Then if so, they could be sitting in the tavern some night and a armored man might point at them and say, "you are wanted in the town of mayfaire for pilfery!" Or a clerk in a store might point at you as you walk in and say, "Oh no, Pie thief. get out of my store." Or a cleric confronts him about his poor behavior back in the monastery.

[dymondy2k]

I say Roll with it!! The back story is half the fun and many times it gives the player buy-in to their character that allows for them to better role play.

My daughter loves a good back story for her characters. One of her PFS characters is named Kiraa the Dragonslayer. She is a half-elf Paladin of Irori. She was left at the doorstep of an Irori Monastery as a child with only an Elven Curve Blade beside her. Here is the catch, the Monastery isn't filled with Human Monks.. Its filled with Minotaur monks, taught by Irori himself to use meditation and reflection to rise above the nature of their species. Its such a great back story, picturing these giant minotaurs raising this little half-elven child, coming to love her as one of their own.There is a bit more to it, with the mystery sword and becoming a paladin of a god not known to have paladins..

[seandon4]

Personally I like that stuff; if the player is willing to do the work, then why not? IMHO, the story/world is a group effort. As others have said, you can feed off the ideas and sometimes work them into the adventure. But yeah that kind of stuff usually helps with role play, which you say the player is not focused on. As for death, I've wondered about that myself, regarding players that put a ton of effort into their character upfront, given the chance of death at level 1. A smart player can get by with trickery and clever ideas, even only on 1 hit die. Otherwise one can houserule max HP at first level and use the negative hit point option, but that's about all one can do on the mechanical side.

[Hywaywolf]

Elaborate backstories are great, but judging from other posts Blackblade has made I think the problem is that the player wants to use his backstory to get additional bonuses and special privileges that the other players won't be getting. It is is possible, hell even likely, that I have misunderstood the original post. But at any rate, that's why I said if you are going to use an elaborate backstory to give your player benefits you have to expect that that same backstory is going to give you some penalties as well. Its a give and take world. Even if you are a goody two shoes and have been a great guy your whole life, there are going to be people in your past who think you got over on them because of special privileges and will someday want to get revenge if they ever run across you again.

[Dimirag]

The question here is: How to deal with the dead of a pc whose player had put a lot of effort in his background?
Easy: Deal it like with anybody else, if he dies he dies, I've seen the dead of lots of fully fledged characters, it's a game feature, those whom live without a background tend to feel "hollow" over time.
These kind of games have a high lethality rate so some casualties are expected. Make them create a new character, a church/temple brother send to continue his quest (if he wants to keep with a paladin). Or let him create a new background.
Also you can tell him to go step by step adding details as the game advances, if you won't give any background-related perks then let the players create their story as the game flows.

[Hywaywolf]

or you could have the party haul the corpse to a city large enough to have a cleric that can resurrect him. Give him a NPC to play until that task is completed. As a player I have had to do that before and it makes a pretty good story arc all in its own.

But it all depends on what kind of DM you want to be. There is no right way, just your way. Some DMs like to be like fixed roulette wheels that pay out all the time. Others are stingy misers. and plenty are all in between.

[seandon4]

or you could have the party haul the corpse to a city large enough to have a cleric that can resurrect him.

In a group I'm recently playing in, this is exactly how the GM handles it. It's a dungeon crawler campaign, so it's easy to insert a session or two where the group just travels to visit great clerics on the map. It makes for fun side adventures.

In addition to resurrection, it works for undoing polymorph and for restoring levels from energy drain as well, provided the group can dish out the money.

[bobtheoldcrank]

Plus don't forget that resurrection and polymorph removals and all that sort of thing keep treasure inflation down. If they run out of cash they'll have to hock some magical gear. If they can't come up with the dosh, have the cleric make them agree to undertake a quest in lieu of the extortionate payment...er, I mean "tithe" ... she charges to raise the dead.

The player-as-NPC tack works superbly in that context.