Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Details: I have heard about this the first time in a podcast (if I remember which I will add the name and URL) and a quick google will tell you that it is a technique described in the game 'The Mountain Witch'.
Instead of the GM telling the players a background story or describing a scene a player does it. This is done by the GM by telling either what a specific character perceives or how he reacts to a certain scene and asks the player why.
Usage in the session: The party was confronted by a group of mercenaries lead by a dragonborn. I told a player, who also plays a dragonborn, that he knows the leader and remembers him as shady, untrustworthy individual. And then I asked why his character did know him and where from.
Impact on our session:The result was way better than expected. The player did not only instantly tell a good story but also did the other players learn more about the background of that players character as well. He did such a good job that the others did not even noticed that he made it up on the fly.
The now established personal relationship motivated the player to some roleplaying which lead to more fun for everybody. In the combat that eventually followed the player insisted that he would battle the leader alone and an exchange of insults did take place which added flavour to the session we seldom had.
Thanks to the usage of Mountain Witch I had the best session as a GM for months and I think my players had a good time as well.
Advice: Even if the Mountain Witch is a great way create to instantly involve characters or to add elements to a scene you as a GM would not have thought of I would not use it too often. Why? Taken to the extreme it might get silly. Think of a dungeon delve where every group of enemies the party meets has at least one member which is personally connected to one of the characters. Which is more than implausible.
But if you use it maybe once per session and in a creative way this trick will definitely improve your game.
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