Backstories

[legomaster00156]

I suck at making character backstories. I really do. I always prefer to leap into the fray with my characters, with only a small idea of what they were before adventuring, and make things up from there. I would like to know if I'm alone in this sentiment.

[NM020110]

I wouldn't say so.

My method is to picture my character at <point of time>, typically right before the game's start. Following that, I work backwards to the character's origin (which may take a while due to the age of my characters...typically ~200 years, and going up to hundreds of thousands of years in age). Finally, I set aside the backstory that was just created and write forward from the origin to <point of time>.

Merging the two backstories will then produce the character's actual backstory, which will then be used to re-write the character.

This process usually finishes about three weeks after I start playing the character...

[Remmirath]

I prefer to do things that way as well, at least for very low level characters.

Once they reach a certain level, and certainly once they're high level, then I think up their backstory beforehand - but the way I look at it, low level (and particularly first level) characters are not likely to have done very much worthy of note before they begin adventuring anyhow, so I just come up with a few very basic things about them. Even for the higher level characters, I usually come up with more of a skeleton backstory to begin with and fill it in later.

I'm better at figuring out their personality as I go in the first couple of sessions than I am at plotting it out beforehand anyhow, and I find it difficult to come up with a backstory without also working on the personality (save perhaps for a simple list of events).

[Daftendirekt]

I suck at making character backstories. I really do. I always prefer to leap into the fray with my characters, with only a small idea of what they were before adventuring, and make things up from there. I would like to know if I'm alone in this sentiment.

That's what I do with most characters as well. I have an idea of what they were like or what they were up to beforehand, maybe a few details thought up, but otherwise I often come up with stuff on the fly, or after I've played for a few sessions and have a feel of where the character fits within the campaign as a whole.

[hoverfrog]

I love building a back story and tying it into that of the other characters.

[Urpriest]

I typically look at what the DM has said about the setting, and add to it. If there is a Druid grove and a nearby tribe of Orcs, then maybe the Druids raised an Orc child they found abandoned, teaching it their ways. If there is a secret order of assassins in a port city, then maybe someone worked their way up into the ranks after being a dock urchin.

[Popertop]

I'm with Urpriest, I need setting in order to write.

I don't want to feel like I'm just giving my character these
awesome stories, I want to feel like I'm earning it.

I generally have trouble writing a backstory and I also
have issues with the whole "how does the party meet and know each
other" thing. It really breaks verisimilitude for me how every
generic party gets along with no conflict. But really,
if adventuring parties were real, there would be lots of conflict,
I feel its very lazy to just act like everything is okay.

But I digress. I feel like a fish out of water if there isn't history
to draw upon: How people have acted over the centuries; the prevailing ideas; the customs; the level of competence in the general populous, etc.

[Devmaar]

I totally agree. I can come up with ideas for characters easily but as I'm a poor writer, I generally prefer to let the personality show in play, rather than writing it up before hand. As for background, I'll usually have a general idea of the character's past but I'll usually be completely unable to write a cohesive narrative of it.