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these days, you almost always get some manner of history, even if it's wrapped up in character development later on in the book or series. For nearly all role-playing games, the same is true, although in that particular medium, the history of the game has a chapter unto itself, and is an industry standard as far as RPGs go.

CAUTION: Do not dismiss this history!

Some brilliant game designer somewhere took a lot of time to put together the basic premise for the game, and the history behind it, and then spent hours scratching their head and their dogs or cats head trying to figure out best how to flush that history out so players and GameMasters would read it, understand it, and incorporate it into their game. I know how difficult this is, as I've had to write histories for RPGs before; I have a thousand different concepts for RPGs that haven't been done, yet, and I dread having to fill out the remainder of that history.

The history of the world typically lists the major turning points for the world, the major developments that have forced civilizations and worlds to re-think what they're doing, perhaps even to evacuate that place quicker than possible. History drives the current story of the game because of the races involved, the mechanics of the game, the necessity of certain classes over others, and on... so, whether you read the history or not, you're in the middle of it.

The best history I've ever had the pleasure to read is from the original Earthdawn RPG; RedBrick, Ltd. has carried that history into Earthdawn Classic and done quite a bit to upgrade it, though it was extraordinary as it was. Perhaps the next best history was in a game produced by the same original company as Earthdawn, but for a game never truly played by folks, and that's Renegade Legion. The history there describes in beautiful detail how the Human race went out into the stars and met all of these other races, and wars and famines and diseases happened, and now Humans are, pretty much, a sub-species in that game. Before a GM can really run Renegade Legion, so they may understand WHY Humans are now a sub-species, they MUST read the history of the game.

One MMORPG I can think of that has an extraordinary history is World of Warcraft; unfortunately, the good folks at Blizzard have not used that history, to their loss, and as a direct result there is much grinding to be done in the game, a lot of killing for loot and cash but no other good reason, and their game has become tedious as a result. This is what happens to games in which the GM does not update themselves on the history of the game from time-to-time just to keep things interesting for their players characters.

In conclusion, the setting of your world, and the history leading up to the current events of the game, are extraordinarily integral parts of the universe your players are trying to crawl into with their characters. Each is important to the point where it means the difference between keeping your players coming back game night after game night, or keeping themselves home, or in someone else's game, because they don't care if they show up to yours or not.

Learn more about this author, Paul Emerson.
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