Pretty simply question.

Do any of you give experience points if a player writes a character backstory? And, if so, how much?

I almost always give an extra 5XP for a a decent backstory.

I haven't, but I'm going to start. Fleshed-out backstories give me more stuff to work with as a GM, and 5XP seems like a small enough amount to reward that effort without disadvantaging the ones who don't have the time or creativity for it.

My players come up with great backstories one way or another, so no, I don't.

While I don't expect it from my players, I don't really reward it, either. They get something out of it, too. Besides, in this system, Motivation and Obligation essentially build a backstory for them.

Naah, I reward them in-game instead by incorporating their backstory into the game throughout the sessions.

(and honestly, a good backstory is almost required anyway, so rewarding them for something they should do anyway is like giving them bonus XP for picking a race)

Interesting. I did this in other systems, but not with FFG Star Wars. This was not by design. I guess my group and I just forgot since FFG Star Wars has motivation, ambition, obligation, etc. already built into character generation.

Regardless, this would be my two cents. Certainly encourage and support your players, only if they wish, to writeup background stories. Be clear it's strictly optional. Players can certainly come up with some great ideas for their characters that will provide the GM with juicy options in the game. Certainly don't discourage your players from investing time and thought into their characters.

I wouldn't award any bonus XP just for writing a background story in this system. But, as per the F&D core rulebook, a GM may award 5 XP, or even 10 XP on a rare occasion, to a player who roleplays towards his character's motivation. So, as a GM you can be clever and pull from a player's background story writeup (e.g. a villain NPC, location, and/or event) and insert it into your game session.

When the player recognizes his background writeup material in your game and role-plays accordingly, that's only when I'd award the bonus XP. Perhaps you could even have this ready for when the player's morality, obligation, etc. triggers to be extra interesting and/or nasty.

Anyone adding any fluff content to the OP site receives xp rewards in our campaigns. Backstories, short stories, narrative recaps of the previous session, etc.

I've done it with 5xp for backstory and also an additional 5xp each session for recaps. I find it very helpful, as a GM, to have the players take up some of the burden of crafting the world. Gives me more to play with and integrate into the campaign.

The session logs help too. It gives insight into what the players remembered most from each adventure. My players all write sessions logs as in-character journal entries, so it also helps me get insight into what a character is thinking about the adventures so far. So you can bet I'm going to also give them some XP for that as well.

Do any of you give experience points if a player writes a character backstory? And, if so, how much?

Nope. Although PC backstory is an integral part of the game, I neither require it in written form nor incentivize its creation with character benefits.

I expect a backstory... even brief. I prefer an email with it, though a hardcopy will work. I expect us to work on it together, but have accepted late night inspiration from creative players. Two of them are also game masters, so they always provide way more detail than I could ever use (for both of them a 10 page backstory is not uncommon... and I always get more than 5 pages). I have learned to discourage novellas from my prolific writers. The others are better at talking it out amongst themselves and interconnecting all the dots that the two prolific guys leave out. It works pretty well (aside from one being strongly against learning any new rules for anything).

I have also learned to ask for specific details on locations and people they know in those locations. Nothing difficult, just the same basic things I would use for an NPC (attitude, basic appearance, relationship).

I will say, I am lucky to be in the group I have... I do not reward additional XP for anything (neither do the other GMs) and if someone can't make it we play a board game so no one misses the storylines. We are there to have fun with each other, and to participate in a story to the best of our ability in whatever role we happen to be in that night. Long ago, we decided we don't do bonus XP in any form. No one gets their feelings hurt if someone else got awarded... because we eliminated that part and everyone is happy. If we need to push progression, we will hand out bonus experience for completion of a chapter of a storyline. But that has even gotten to be a rare thing... and I admit, as a player with some long-in-the-tooth characters, I miss the young characters with the training montages...