The RPG Pundit Talks Backstories & Other Storygaming Bullshit

It's the Pundit. You know he's not here to tell you how to pick out doilies for your sitting room decor. Time for a reality check, Fake Gamers.

While he talks about how you, as the Game Master, don't need to bother with the players' backstories I would go one step further and just forbid them entirely.

The reason is simple: the revealed pattern of behavior is that backstories are used to shoehorn narrative trope bullshit into what is not a medium of narrative storytelling, but rather a medium of liminal wargaming. That's why the backstory advice is bad; it's the propagation of a long-standing category error meant to push the pussification of tabletop RPGs. (Storytelling as a game is all about avoidance of facing reality as it is, using "because plot" and "because narrative" as justifications for enabling their delusions.)

The Pundit hits on how this should be handled: encouraging would-be writers to stop shitting up RPGs and actually write their damned stories- kick out the frustrated novelists. They have no excuse now due to the ease of independent publishing, so we can skip straight to cowardice and SJW agenda-pushing now for those who refuse to cease and desist.

And that doesn't bode well for Fake D&D and its fellow travelers in the hobby, which means that it's the way to go for Real D&D.