u/wonderfulmeg

If your DM is named Meg and your group is trying (and failing) to schedule a session in May, stop reading here.

I'm DMing a new campaign for my group, and players finally got me all their character info and backstories after a great session zero! Purely coincidentally, two of the backstories are almost eerily related. This isn't the exact scenario, but similar enough for advice gathering:

• PC1: Her mother was gravely injured by a group of raiders, so she followed them out of town and slaughtered them all in her rage, including a young noble. She stole his ring as a reminder of what she'd done.
• PC2: He's a noble who was involved in some nefarious dealings, and his younger brother was trying to impress him and joined a raiding party. He got in over his head and was killed after attacking someone he shouldn't have.

So yeah, that's essentially what they both sent me, and I immediately noticed how it's possible that these two backstories could potentially be referencing the same incident. My main question is: would you tell the two players about this and all work together on aligning things? Or would you keep this as more of a surprise reveal later on? I obviously don't want to make it seem like I'm trying to write their stories for them, but I'd hate to show this to them now and they miss out on some drama later. Thoughts?