I discourage character backgrounds of more than a few sentences. I like watching the player reveal the character in play. I think the results are more interesting that way. When you are sitting around thinking about what kind of character you would like to play; You think about what that character looks like, what they sound like, what kind of equipment they have and how they respond to certain situations. If you don’t have time to think and have to just react, then I think the bits of our brain that we don’t have any control over get to have more of a say. Those happen to be the bits, I think, that are way more interesting than the bits that want to be cool, or are afraid to suck. You don’t have time to shut down an idea that might not work and is a little risky. You just do it.

Some brain researchers studied freestyle rappers. They put them in a brain scan and had them recite a previously memorized set of lyrics. The part of the brain that inhibits behavior lit up. When they had those same rappers do freestyle lyrics, that part of the brain more or less shut down. It’s hard to be creative when you have the inhibitory parts of the brain going, when you get ambushed, so to speak- that’s when you get to surprise yourself. I am in favor of that.

I put my players in unusual situations and step back to see what happens. I don’t script encounters too much unless I am giving them clues or a tidbit of setting information. I find that by stepping back and being as open as I can to whatever it is players are going to do, everyone at the table has a more enjoyable experience.