Information Control Between Players

You just made your favorite character ever. The backstory is great, the abilities you picked are perfect, the character is dynamic and has a rich personal history that you are certain is a stroke of genius. What is the first thing you do? you brag to the other players and proceed to recite your complete backstory so they can bask in the glory of your new character. What harm could it possibly do? its not like they weren't going to find out about your character anyway. Plus, you worked so hard so you want someone to know it so you can get the praise your hard work deserves.

Unfortunately, by doing this you have deprived your fellow players of really enjoying the character you have created. They will not be surprised by anything you do that fits that backstory. Furthermore they will react much less realistically when your secrets are revealed in game. Also, they now have expectations as to how your character will behave and will apply their own interpretation of your backstory to your choices. I'm sure any player who has engaged in this behavior has heard "but thats not what someone with your backstory/personality/alignment would do". By giving your characters personality and history away as out of character knowledge you have fundamentally changed the way the party will act towards you, whether they know it or not.

as cliche as it is, Out of game knowledge is like the parable of the caves: what has been seen cannot be unseen. To put it another way, once you know something you can't make decisions without using that knowledge. Try as they might, most players cannot pretend like they don't know that your character is lawful evil, or that he seeks to bring down the government, or that he made a deal with the devil, or that hes secretly a justiciar, or a paladin in hiding, or that he's the true king, etc.

Which brings me to information control. When you make a backstory it is imperative that it stay between you and the storyteller if you really want it to have any bearing on character interactions of the party. This includes not explaining why your character does things out of character. When you are doing something strange that the party will question, don't hit the pause button and utter the phrase "out of character: the reason I am doing this is X". I hear this all the time, and by informing the party so completely you've deprived the campaign of important roleplay/storyline elements.

Remember that in real life people do not walk around telling total strangers their life story. So by telling your character's life story/explaining their actions to the other players you have decreased the likelihood that they will play out their character forming a relationship with yours. Why would they, they already know for strategic purposes everything they need to know about the character. Even if the characters act as if they don't know what you've told them, the fact that the player knows it will decrease the amount of character interactions that will come up during morally ambiguous situations and emotionally charged milestones and setbacks. Furthermore, lets not forget that revelations about a character's backstory are a huge source of material for storytellers and can be adventure hooks / major events in and of themselves. The spoiling of these mysteries can take a lot of the suspense and fun out of a campaign.

Also knowing the ins and outs of your character may cause other players to change the way they play their own character to make interactions flow more easily, preempt you going against the party, or to purposefully do something they know will piss off your character and cause a conflict. All fueled by out of character knowledge they will swear up and down they aren't using to make these decisions.

Therefore I suggest restraint, build a great backstory and personality for your character and keep it to yourself. let the other characters get to know yours as if they were a real person and you will have the opportunity to show them the great character you've made. Believe me if they get to see your traits and secrets come out at key conflict points or during important storyline events, it will have them talking more than if you recite your backstory like an epic poem.

So in closing do yourself, your fellow players, and your storyteller a favor and limit the amount of out of character knowledge you give your fellow players. I think you will find a bit of uncertainty and the knowledge that everyone has secrets will enhance your playing experience.