Re: Background?

> On your reference to D&D not giving you any background 
> well, it's there if you want it, and many, many people 
> do.  Ever heard of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, or
> Dragonlance?	They are all published D&D backgrounds.

:-) All published LONG after D&D (not AD&D) was already the well
established icon of RPGs.  

As a matter of fact I have the orginal Greyhawk supplement around here
somewhere....it had ZERO background in it.  It altered the armor class
system to the one in use today, added a lot of weapons and spells and a
few new classes...no background provided.  And again IIRCC this came out
quite a few years after D&D first hit the shelves in my neck of the
woods (Midwest back in those days).

I don't recall seeing many (if any) of the pre-generated backgrounds for
D&D until after the system had just about 'maxed-out' its possibilities.
 I think it was not long after the first ones appeared that they
overhauled the game and came out with AD&D.  BTW they should have
packaged it as 2nd edition, 3rd edition, etc. in a boxed set and charged
us all $59.99, we would all still be playing ;-))

But I have to agree that it sure does seem like alot of people out there
want pre-generated backgrounds.  I just hate to see this continued trend
of games being designed by (background) "writers" instead of (system)
"designers".  Everyone gets tired of the same background after awhile.	
But a good system can last a REAL long time.  Again, witness D&D/AD&D,
Squad Leader/ASL, and many more.

Thanks for the 'debate',
SC

PS As for "Point Blank"...who needs a background its based in WWII?  :-)