Time is massively compressed in the world of D&D. Over the course of a three hour play session in real time for example, we may cover the basic day to day routines of weeks or even months worth of character’s time as they travel the road together, camp at night, walk together and become friends, etc. During that time your characters would likely share stories and tales with each other, compare notes, brag about successes or lament about failures and generally get to know each other. We will not be roleplaying all this bonding time so to handle this I suggest the following:
As our adventure begins, I will be introducing you to the local area and show you where each of your characters basically have come from based on the backgrounds you have submitted as well as some information you may or may not already know based on those backgrounds. I will do this in front of the rest of the players such that little details about your background will be revealed to everyone as I explain your ties to the local area, where your friends and family may be, etc. As players I would like you to role play as if your character does not already know this about the other characters before you’ve actually met of course. On the other hand, it is good to know a bit about each player like this as it would likely be things that would come out over time anyway as you would travel and adventure together.
So, feel free to enjoy listening to what little tidbits about your past I work into the adventure and feel free to question each other about it further once your characters have met if you want to know more. A perfect time to do this might be during a lull in action while a rule is being looked up. Feel free to ask each other about each other’s pasts by saying things like, “so you were raised on a homestead near Red Larch? What was it I heard about your mother? What did she do?” When answering, just be careful not to elaborate too much and included details you expect me as the DM to suddenly incorporate into the game without asking. It’s a good idea to review your own backgrounds from time to time to remember what you sent me.
As the DM, I am striving to include elements from your personal back stories as often as possible to give you each personal goals to work on in addition to the larger group goals. I find that this gives everyone a much richer and rewarding gaming experience and I hope you’ll enjoy the effort I put into weaving your stories together.
Looking forward to playing soon!