i'm no good at backstories

[geekintheground]

i really love D&D, but usually im more of a "mechanics and gameplay" kind of person. thats not to say i dont enjoy the roleplaying aspect, i've just never been very good at coming up with a character concept and sticking to it.

that being said, i AM working on it and practicing, but backstories still give me a LOT of trouble. so i've come to the playground for some ideas. we're playing pseudo-3.P (my DM is allowing pathfinder on a case by case basis), race is 3.5 warforged, class is pathfinder warder with sworn protector archetype. i did have one idea. i was sent on an exploratory mission with a battalion of other warforged, but when we encountered true danger, i panicked and fled. i was ashamed of my cowardice and now roam the land until i either rust or redeem myself. but i was curious what other ideas i could find from people who were actually good at this kind of thing XD

[denthor]

backstories are not as hard as you think they are.

Look at you skill selection if you have gem cutting how did you get the skill? This is also a NPC hook for your dm

One of my backstories is:

Holly was German she was a wild child but her family had some cash and sent her away to be trained at an Italian fighting school. Holly starts play as 1st level fighter. Being a fighting school that normally does not accept women she was trained to trip her opponents.

Weapon selection whip net halbred. second line fighter. I created this character as a way to prove that a worthless character could be effective.

Holly being a wild one was also a drunk however the bars she attended were the type that smelled of urine since the patrons would relieve on the walls.

This led to in game problems she liked to solo duel matter of honor for her school. so gambling occurred around her she was Cg/n most of the people around her were CN/NE/CE.

As the game went on she made npc contacts with the thieves guild she became really dependent on the spell dark vision. The party kept going underground for some reason. Holly ended 6 fighter 4 thief 4 mage game came to an end.

[Honest Tiefling]

1) Stick with a simple backstory, and make it a little more complicated each time. Not everyone needs a super complicated story, so if you feel no inclination to one, fine. Not everyone is a super special snowflake, sometimes you have ordinary people do extraordinary things.

2) Perhaps I am reading into things, but do I read that you have an issue with sticking with the concept of the character as written? If I am correct, then you are not alone, for many people find it easier due to the DM style or other characters to do something a little differently then they have planned.

If this is correct, I suggest speaking with your DM. I have never met a good DM that didn't mind minor changes (or sometimes major changes, when brought up out of the session and for good reason) to the backstory. Sometimes improvising the backstory works just fine. For instance, you find out that your group is fighting undead with a undead smiting paladin. Why not work in that your village was founded by an Undead Hunter, and your current circumstances make you curious about the paladin and the famous founder? It's common ground without overshadowing or dominating the story.

[flappeercraft]

Well you can always pull a Saitama and have the crappiest backstory but compensate with at least decent roleplaying

[MHCD]

First, there's nothing wrong with whst you're doing. One of my favorite things about this game is as long as everyone is having fun, people are playing the right way.

But if you want some help, the 10 Minute Background (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?91813-10-Minute-Background) is a great tool.

An even simpler version:

Think of a couple things that make your character who they are.

Think of an area where your character needs growth.

Think of a way your character can help others grow.

Think of one or more big hopes or goals for your character.

Think of some people your character knows.


Jimmy the Rat is a lowlife scoundrel who'll sell you out for a copper, then leave a knife between your shoulderblades just to be safe - but you wouldn't be so quick to blame him if you grew up where he grew up. He has a long scar across his left cheek and is better with a throwing knife than Robin Hood is with a bow.

While he's a cynical son of a gun who doesn't trust anyone, has no real allies, and considers most laws "loose guidelines" at best, a careful eye would find him sharing bounties with lame beggars on the streets, playing cheerfully with orphan children ('cause Uncle Jimmy knows the world is hard enough already), and flirting with poor old ladies just to brighten their day.

Though he has never told a soul, his greatest dream is to open up a cozy little B&B in the country and call it James' Place. He has been setting aside spoils and loot for a while, but it's hard growing a nest egg while covering increasing adventuring costs. If only he could go out on one big score...

Though he has a reputation for being a cold, traitorous thief and bounty hunter among the local adventurers' guilds, everyone in the Berger Street Slums loves him. The prettiest girl in toen, tavern lass Melissandra, denies his advances, and her boyfriend, Big Francis is not too fond of Jimmy. Captain Smith in the town watch knows Jimmy is likely a net positive force for good in the city, and lets some of his methods go "unnoticed" in exchange for fishing violent gang members out of the slums.

[2D8HP]

It's all 'bout word count, and packing in angst and tragedy.

I keep harping on this, but it's frustrating.

As I said before, I've never seen any back story histories ever actually used, but most DM's demand them.

I've seen a DM who specified "no evil" PC's accept players as far as I can tell based on word count, including another player who's PC was a Cleric of a "God of Murder", and since I actually read the back stories the other players submitted, it was obvious to me that despite "Chaotic Neutral" being on the character sheet (with quotation marks!), that the PC was evil.

The "campaign" ended very shortly after it started when the DM quit, after the players actually played the characters suggested by their PC's back-stories.

He selected the menagerie of PC's, and had he actually bothered to read the back-stories he demanded he should have guessed how the PC's would have acted, and since all the PC's selected had the longest back-stories it was obvious to me that he just looked for length.

I know that the more text I submit the better my chances of acceptance is.

As an experiment, I submitted the same back-story to two different DM's, one with a few extra paragraphs tacked on at the end that really added nothing to the story

Guess which one got accepted.

For a PbP at this Forum I once submitted this:


Mournblade Stormwind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22012883#post22012883)

Though he'd "lived", if you could call it "living" for years, growing soft in this city of men, Mournblade remembered the forest.

Mournblade loved the forest.

The sound of the wind, the river, the birds.

And foot steps.

He loved his family as well, but he always felt the call of the forest, where he could live without speaking, and be still.

And listen.

And wait.

For his prey.

He told himself he hunted to feed his family and neighbors, but deep inside he knew that wasn't true.

He needed the sounds of the woods, as well as the quiet.

And to watch

And to listen.

He heard the woods burning.

He had lived through forest-fires before, but this was different. There had been no lighting. And he heard screaming.

Elf screams!

In an instant from so still he would appear to be part of the woods, he became quick as a deer running from a couger, and he ran towards home.

Towards his family.

Towards everyone he knew.

He saw the burned bodies.

And the arrows.

And something else.

A banner.

Men's banner.

Mournblade knew then that he would leave the woods.

He had a new prey.


Mournblade Stormwind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22012883#post22012883)
Curses cruel fate:

CURSE YOU, CRUEL FATE!

His misanthropic nature is simply the outward manifestation of a deep-seated insecurity, resulting from the internalization of the notion that he is apart from others and always will be, that he somehow stands alone, and that no one will ever truly understand the incredible, titanic struggle within himself, nor will he ever truly be able to relate this to another person, no matter how close they become.

His behavior and affectations are, in large part, due to this deep-seated need for understanding and acceptance.

And yet, who can truly claim to understand or know him?

Of course, he does what he must do to survive, but there will always be that shadow of self-doubt. The kind of doubt that can usually only be expressed during brooding internal monologues while he crouches, hunched and ready to leap at a moment's notice, as the rain pours down his hooded and implacable face.

THERE WILL BE A RECKONING!

You gotta' have the rain. That makes the scene


The PC was accepted.

I rest my case.

[exelsisxax]

Personally, I don't bother with backstory at all. It is not truly important, people are just trained to think of character building that way. You should focus more on developing your actual character. If you can't state it as present tense, it probably doesn't matter. Nobody cares if you can from village nowheresville after the Plague of Mediocrity. If it has an impact on character, just skip to the end and describe that. Backstory too often just becomes a horrifically inefficient characterization mechanism at best, and at worst becomes a sort of trap, setting up boundaries rather than opportunities for roleplaying, and too often people use the existence of a backstory as a scapegoat to avoid actual roleplay.

[Doctor Awkward]

i really love D&D, but usually im more of a "mechanics and gameplay" kind of person. thats not to say i dont enjoy the roleplaying aspect, i've just never been very good at coming up with a character concept and sticking to it.

that being said, i AM working on it and practicing, but backstories still give me a LOT of trouble. so i've come to the playground for some ideas. we're playing pseudo-3.P (my DM is allowing pathfinder on a case by case basis), race is 3.5 warforged, class is pathfinder warder with sworn protector archetype. i did have one idea. i was sent on an exploratory mission with a battalion of other warforged, but when we encountered true danger, i panicked and fled. i was ashamed of my cowardice and now roam the land until i either rust or redeem myself. but i was curious what other ideas i could find from people who were actually good at this kind of thing XD

In the back of the first edition of the Player's Guide for the 7th Sea tabletop RPG, there was a list referred to in the community as "The Twenty Questions." That game was very heavily reliant on the roleplaying of the player characters, and to this day I find it to be one of the most helpful guides for working up an interesting character, regardless of the system. I'll post it here, unedited from the original text. Virtually all of the advice listed under each question is sound, even the things that seem setting specific.

The goal here is to understand your character's personality. Once you understand it, the trick to coming up with a backstory is answering "Why are they like that?" What happened in their life to them that way?


To better understand your Hero’s personality, take a moment to look through and answer the questions below. By the time you are finished, you should have a much clearer idea of the Hero you want to play.

1. What country is your Hero from?

This question gives you a foundation upon which to build. When you understand your Hero’s culture, you will begin to understand your Hero. Imagine how his environment helped shape his personality. Your homeland stays with you no matter where you go.

2. How would you physically describe your Hero?

First off, is your Hero male or female? Théah doesn’t have as many prejudices as Europe did in the 17th century, but women can expect raised eyebrows when accepting challenges on their own behalf and performing other such “manly deeds.”

Aside from sex, how does your Hero look? Start at the top of his head and work your way down to his feet. Focus on the things that reflect his personality and the way he is treated by others. Which is more interesting – the fact that your Hero is blond, or that he wears his hair in a single braid and scents it with contraband Crescent lotions?

Build and height are also important in determining how others see your Hero. The average height in modern Théah is about 5' 6?, although certain nationalities are a bit taller or shorter.

3. Does your Hero have recurring mannerisms?

An accent, a nervous habit, or a peculiar expression of speech can serve as shortcuts to developing a personality.

Too many can turn a character into a clown, so pick one or two and run with them.

4. What is your Hero’s main motivation?

What keeps your Hero going when his ship has been sunk and he’s marooned on an island? Is it greed, love, or revenge? Perhaps the Hero dreams of freeing his homeland from foreign occupation or hopes to find a younger sister who was carried off by pirates.

5. What is your Hero’s greatest strength? Greatest weakness?

Is your Hero really good at one particular thing? Maybe he’s a master navigator and can guide a ship through the blackest night with only his wits to work from. On the other hand, does your Hero have something he’s terrible at? Maybe animals don’t like him, or he’s nervous around ladies and blurts out less than intelligent comments. A Hero with no strengths is difficult to keep alive; one with no weaknesses is difficult to sympathize with. A Hero with both strengths and weaknesses has a more balanced personality and will develop into a richer roleplaying experience.

6. What are your Hero’s most and least favorite things?

The secret of the soup is in the details. Does your Hero hate eggs? Perhaps the glistening sickly yellow of the yolk disgusts him. Maybe he has a favorite breakfast that he eats every morning, such as a cup of tea and a slice of toast spread with apple butter. Maybe it’s not a food that your Hero loves or hates but a particular sight or smell? Some people find great solace in the sight of the stars above them, while others aren’t happy unless they can smell the salt spray of the sea. This is a grand opportunity to add a touch of poetry to your Hero’s soul.

7. What about your Hero’s psychology?

Is it hard for him to restrain his anger or hatred? Does his passion always get the better of him? Maybe he thrives on the rush of adrenaline that battle brings with it and disturbs his comrades with his laughter during a fight. Does a particular song bring him to his feet stomping and clapping? What song or play brings tears to his eyes?

8. What is your Hero’s single greatest fear?

It is a rare person that fears nothing at all. Even the greatest warriors may have a fear of heights or dread growing old. If your Hero is terrified of dying of old age and hears a rumor about a fountain that brings eternal youth, might he not search the world for it, even if the rumor came from an unreliable source? Sometimes a man’s fears propel him to his greatest achievements.

Of course, many people fear simpler, more physical things than old age. Some have a dread of snakes or spiders, others have a horror of worms and slimy things, and a number of people experience panic attacks in dark, narrow places.

9. What are your Hero’s highest ambitions? His greatest love?

When your Hero dies, what does he want people to say about him? Does he want to be remembered forever for his poetry? Maybe he hopes that tales of his battle exploits will outlive him. Maybe he just wants a small house and a loving wife, but ridiculous fortune keeps obligating him to go on one adventure after another. Perhaps he dreams of glory and a kingdom of his own, or a country reunited by his hands.

If he could live forever, what would he want to spend eternity doing? Sailing? Wooing beautiful women? Cataloging the artifacts left behind by the Syrneth? Whatever his greatest love is, your Hero will take every opportunity to indulge in it.

10. What is your Hero’s opinion of his country?

Is your Hero a die-hard patriot, blind to the flaws of his countrymen, or is he a man without a country, having grown tired of his homeland’s foolishness long ago? Most people are somewhere in between, neither hating their country nor believing it can do no wrong.

11. Does your Hero have any prejudices?

Is there a group of people that your Hero immediately turns up his nose at? Perhaps he can’t stand the smell of “those filthy peasants”, or maybe a Vodacce Fate Witch killed his brother. There may be no reason for the Hero to hate this group, but he believes there’s one. Traumatic childhood incidents can lead to a lifetime of hatred and prejudice that the Hero may never get over. For the sake of party unity, it’s a good idea to hate a group that you know none of the

other players want as characters.

12. Where do your Hero’s loyalties lie?

Does your Hero loyally serve a certain noble? Maybe his loyalties lie with his family or his spouse. Perhaps his first concern is looking out for himself, or maybe he serves a greater cause.

13. Is your Hero in love? Is he married or betrothed?

Is there someone who makes your Hero’s heart beat faster? Perhaps he is already married to the love of his life. If so, do they have any children? How old are the children? Maybe he’s just betrothed to be married sometime soon, and the happy (or unhappy) event has yet to take place.

14. What about your Hero’s family?

Decide on a family name. Then talk about your Hero’s early childhood. List events that would have occurred before your Hero would even be able to remember them. Some of these events may be influencing your Hero’s life without him knowing it. Also, consider the family’s social standing. A Hero from a rich family will certainly have a different outlook than a Hero from a poorer family.

15. How would your Hero’s parents describe him?

This question reveals much about both your Hero and his relationship to his parents. Answer this one in the voice of your Hero’s mother, then go back and answer it again for your Hero’s father. You may come up with two very different answers.

16. Is your Hero a gentleman or gentlewoman?

Being a gentleman or gentlewoman means that your Hero attempts to follow the code of chivalry. Your Hero’s word is his bond. Of course, there are those who see you as foolishly old-fashioned, but there’s always the possibility of having a moon-eyed damsel or handsome young poet fall in love with you.

17. How religious is your Hero? What sect of the Church does he follow?

Religion is, for many people of Théah, their deepest passion. The Church of the Prophets has been the greatest power on the planet for over a thousand years, and for all the bureaucracy it has a number of redeeming qualities. It fosters learning and education, provides hospitals for the poor and needy, and is a great source of comfort for many people in their hour of need. True and honest men are often attracted to the Church for this reason, and they are more than willing to help it perform its good works.

Of course, there are many who see the Church’s actions as evil. They look at the Inquisition and the Crusade as prime examples. They hate the things the Church stands for and would love to see it fall. Then there are those people in the middle, who either don’t worry about the Church since it doesn’t affect their daily lives or believe in a religion that is a variant of what the Church preaches (such as Objectionism or the Ussuran Orthodox Church). These men try to live out their lives with as little official contact with the Church as possible, either out of fear, or lack of interest.

18. Is your Hero a member of a guild, gentleman’s club, or secret society?

Contacts are important, and they can be made through these organizations. They are a source of adventures and information. From a roleplaying perspective, many tangible benefits come from being a member of these organizations. Perhaps your gentleman’s club buys a communal copy of the latest archæology journals, or serves tea and biscuits every morning to members. The clubs your Hero joins also influence the type of people he meets. You find a very different crowd of people in the Rose and Cross than you do in Madame Josette’s Gentlewoman’s Society.

19. What does your Hero think of Sorcery?

Not all people with Sorcery like it, and not all people without Sorcery hate it. It sometimes alienates people, and the Church preaches against it; some people will dislike you for no other reason if you possess it. On the other hand, some who lack Sorcery look at the power it brings its bearer and long desperately for magic of their own. They tend to purchase any runic items they can get their hands on, and sift through Syrneth ruins seeking mystic secrets lost to the world.

20. If you could, what advice would you give your Hero?

Take a good, long look at the other questions before you answer this one. Speak to your Hero as if he were sitting right in front of you, and remember to use the proper tone. You’ll want to make certain your Hero actually listens to you when you give him this free advice.

And finally, don't worry about being original, especially if you are just starting out. Borrow from anything that you've read in the past and liked.

[Zaq]

I firmly believe that what's in your backstory is like maybe 1% as important as your personality at the table. I used to write at least a couple of pages of backstory for most of my characters, but honestly, I basically don't care much anymore, and it hasn't hindered my roleplaying at all.

What really matters is what your character is doing here and now. And if they have at least a small bit of motivation or something resembling goals for the future, that's good too. But we (and even YOU) don't truly need to know the name of every instructor they ever had, or the professions of all of their siblings' in-laws, or how many people they ever kissed, or anything like that.

And if you're worried about "but what if that becomes relevant, like if an NPC asks where I'm from or where I learned swordplay?" Well, then you make something up. Doesn't mean that your character is necessarily lying (unless you're trying to deceive, in which case, roll Bluff)—the thing to remember is that this is your character, so canon is what you say it is, regardless of whether or not you wrote it down first. I mean, if you get really crazy ("I learned magic when I slew Boccob, god of magic, and ate his heart!"), the GM can be within their rights to rein you in a bit, but if you're not going intentionally over the top, it's entirely reasonable to make things up as you go. Many of my favorite D&D characters (mine and my friends') have started out with an extremely limited backstory that got retroactively fleshed out over months of gameplay.

Is backstory always bad? Of course not. If your backstory helps explain or helps solidify what you're like at the table, then that can be valuable. And backstory elements that come up in actual play are valuable as well (the classic example being something like "my character cares about food and its presentation because he <used to be a chef / was a cook in the army / has a hobby of learning how to make exotic food when he's not murderhoboing through a dungeon>"). Do you need to give us pages and pages about what kind of army food your former army cook made? No, that would be silly. But it's entirely reasonable to mention that your background as an army cook is why you always volunteer to handle dinner when the group makes camp. And here's the thing—you can ad-hoc that on the fly! You don't have to have written down that you were an army cook. If you assert it and stick to it, then it's true—and it might even lead to other character development, perhaps by making you think about why you were in the army or under what circumstances you ended up leaving, if that's relevant to what's happening here and now at the table. Or not. The point is that it isn't a big deal.

tl;dr: Personality and current motivation matter, but backstory only matters insofar as it influences what you're doing at the table, and you can ad-hoc that after the fact if you want. Backstory < PRESENT-story.

[geekintheground]

thanks for all the advice and stuff guys! its been really helpful! im getting a much better idea of what to do...

[stanprollyright]

I'm kind of a D&D racist, so I'm of the opinion that you gimped yourself with your race choice. I find it much easier to both RP and write backstories for humans and other core races, as opposed to strange monstrous races. The less human you are, the more you seem like some weird alien. For example, I have plenty of frame-of-reference for a regular humanoid who grew up poor in the city or whatever, but I have no idea what it's like to live in the Elemental Plane of Chaos.

As a warforged, do people try to kill you in every city you enter because you look like a monster? Or do people generally know what a warforged is? Regardless, people will likely be a afraid and unaccepting of you pretty much wherever you go. Do warforged form their own communities? What are they like? How does nobody having to eat or sleep affect their culture? The "human experience" can be adapted into the "halfling experience" or the "elven experience," whereas you can read through all the lore you want, but it will barely scratch the surface of "the warforged experience."

[RoboEmperor]

I like to play a fully nude sorcerer with 0 items. I make up a back story that justifies that, usually something along the lines of making a deal with a demon/devil/chaos entity.

So...
1. What you want your character to do
2. Make a backstory to give it an excuse to do that.

Demon Enslaver? He was a power hungry monster who was ousted and out to show everyone they're fools not to use demons.
Stone Cold Killer Assassin? Trained to kill, was betrayed like 3 times, now hates everyone and kills without hesitation.
Big Breast chasing pretty boy? His mother died, and he yearns to suckle on those big breasts, and the women he flirts with are a replacement for his oedipus complex.
Robot Killing Machine? He was built to kill the world, but was shutdown before put to action. Due to age he lost most of his fighting programming, but adventuring slowly reawakens it.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Personally, I don't bother with backstory at all. It is not truly important, people are just trained to think of character building that way. You should focus more on developing your actual character. If you can't state it as present tense, it probably doesn't matter. Nobody cares if you can from village nowheresville after the Plague of Mediocrity. If it has an impact on character, just skip to the end and describe that. Backstory too often just becomes a horrifically inefficient characterization mechanism at best, and at worst becomes a sort of trap, setting up boundaries rather than opportunities for roleplaying, and too often people use the existence of a backstory as a scapegoat to avoid actual roleplay.
I agree with this. Backstory should naturally give rise to characterization in the now, at the start of the campaign. If your character wouldn't mention it, leave it blank. You should reveal your backstory primarily through dialogue at the table. The way your character reveals information about themselves is very important.


RE: Helping the OP.
Typically, I have an idea of the kind of character I play, and build some basic elements to suit that. For example:
- My StP erudite is educated in psionics and magic.
- Naturally, you expect him to be from a society that supports such relatively advanced education, therefore he is from a developed city with a university.
- Naturally, you expect that society to have strong influences from other magical traditions (this is assuming a typical society develops either psionics or magic, not both).
- Cities that trade a great deal typically have a mix of cultures.
- Therefore, my erudite hails from a primarily psionics-using Hanse-style independent city, and said city trades a lot with arcane magic-using dwarves.
- As a natural consequence of trading with dwarves, the main trade goods are ores and metals.
- My character's parents are tax collectors in the Ore Harbour.

I haven't done anything except make some fairly obvious leaps of thought, from the basic idea "Erudites are Educated".

Later on, I - as the group's resident optimizer - took charge in a fight, after the previous fight had gone rather badly. The DM prompted me to come up with a reason for my character to be good at combat tactics (beyond having the highest INT), hence there's another point:
- The city's university is part of/affiliated with/descended from the academies that educate the city's captains and generals. Although StP training does not prepare you to be an officer (on deck or on land), there is some cross-fertilization.

I hadn't come up with this yet, but it follows naturally from what I was doing anyway (explaining/encouraging flanking) and my character's already established backstory, and gives me a better idea of how I'm going to play this character in the future.


To borrow a phrase: no backstory survives confrontation with the table. Don't built a highly specific (=fragile) backstory, build a versatile one, that keeps your core concept intact, no matter the campaign it's dropped into.