PC background why you're WRONG if it's too detailed

[MadBear]

1st, I apologize my actual post isn't nearly as confrontational as the title. I personally find that when creating a PC backstory, less is generally more. That way unnamed friends/allies/acquaintances can pop in and flesh the story out more.

I'm curious how much time/effort you put into your level 1 PC? Do you fill in their complete family history, every relationship you've ever had, and every conflict they've witnessed? Or do you have a fairly simple backstory to start, and flesh it out over the course of the campaign, so that you can put in details that fit in with the story?

Kinda curious what level of depth background you use?


Ex. Tuu Silverfang

Background: Grew up in a local gang that committed petty crimes, such as a racketeering scheme over Squalls End, & Mudvale. The leader of the gang Trip, decided to take a job transporting and selling dwarven slaves for a group of drow. After joing the brief failed coup, everyone not on Trips side was killed except Tuu, who is now on the run from the gang.

That is an example of a typical background that my players and I tend to give our PC's. Is your experience the same? Do you do more? Less?

[Solusek]

One or two paragraphs is about what I like to come up with for a backstory. A few names maybe, and an idea of what I was doing before the adventure started. Usually I flesh out the character in my head more over the first few months of gameplay once I get a better idea of how the campaign is going and what will fit.

I don't think the DM even cares about PC backstory, though, so I do it just for myself to give me some direction playing the character and in case call backs to family or life before being a hero come up in the game.

Your example backstory is pretty close to how I would do it. I would probably also include if he has any immediate family and what their relationship is too. Everyone has (or had) a family, and it is really awkward if the situation comes up in game and you don't know the answer to parents or siblings for your character.

[Aett_Thorn]

Our DM is pretty good about working with your backstory to provide different adventure and plot hooks along the way - sometimes just for your character, but some can affect the whole party. As such, I like to give a fairly decent background, but leave plenty of room for the DM and I to work together to flesh it out over time.

[Laserlight]

Depends to some extent on the campaign. If you're going to be the vigilantes fighting crime and conspiracies in Not-Venice, then yeah, you probably need some relationships and affiliations. If the campaign concept is that you get whisked off to Ravenloft / the Underdeep / etc and your whole goal is escaping and preventing it from happening again, then not so much.

Note also that there's what the DM needs and what the player needs.

DM version: "My character is a high born noblewoman with the right of high justice. The paladin is her cousin from a minor branch of the family. The ranger is her grumpy old family retainer. She is interested in romantic trysts with men and women; in arcane lore, particularly if it's forbidden; and in dragons, particularly blue dragons."

My version, at the beginning, was about twice that long. Over the months I developed it, so I know now why she has abandonment issues and how that lead to her religious devotion and what happened when she met her god, and why she's such a trollop, and why she was so horrified when she met a flesh golem, and so forth and so on. But there's no point in writing it up; I know it and nobody else needs to read it.

[Trustypeaches]

The history you create through play will always be more interesting than whatever you write out beforehand.

[Twigwit]

There's an old writer's rule I apply to my PC's: "the most interesting thing in their life should be what's happening in the narrative." The idea is that a backstory reliant PC is either going to have that backstory ignored in favor of the the ongoing story, or the DM bends over backwards to make that background continually relevant, which is something he can't do for all the players. Either it makes my guy seem like what he's doing is boring in comparison or my character eats more attention than he deserves. My bugbear is PC backstories with entire character arcs within them. Isn't the point of playing these characters is to see them grow? His backstory should be the genesis for that growth, it shouldn't be a miniature novella featuring my guy.

[DeadMech]

I enjoy writing and I don't think improvisation in front a crowd is anywhere near my strongest skill. So I tend towards the more verbose side of background writing. I like to have an idea of what my character is before I step into their shoes.

At the very least I like to know what their family was like or at least the people closest to being family. The things people experience and learn in their early life are quite important to who they become later. Sometimes they conform to those standards, sometimes they don't but regardless that environment was instrumental.

And yes I don't have to put all my thoughts on a character down on paper but I don't see it as harming anything either. Either the dm and the other players read it and thus gain an understanding of the character and learn potential ways to influence them in the story or they don't. Even if they don't it lets me understand the character as the living breathing person.

I know full well my latest DM has no intention is reading the 2 page handwritten background I prepared. And apparently everything at my table thinks I have freakishly small writing. But that's why I employ something I do feel skilled at. I summarize it.

Actually for one thing I can think of a reason I should put as many thoughts as I can down on paper as I can. The more ways you interact with a piece of information the better you will remember it. So thinking about it, writing it, reading it, speaking it, and listening to it cement it into your mind. Which helps with consistency.

[ad_hoc]

Echoing what other people have said.

1. Don't try to be the protagonist. That's selfish and rude.
2. Your character is inexperienced and weak. Writing them differently will cause conflict at the table.

The PHB backgrounds are fantastic. XGtE has great suggestions on adding to backstory. SCAG has a great list of deities too.

[Gastronomie]

The one thing I need is motivation: a reason for my character to risk his life fighting monsters rather than living the normal life. If motivation requires backstory (which it often does), I will fill it in while trying to keep it simple.

If it's a long campaign, however, I will add depth to said backstory, because the DMs I play with are darn good at incorporating the ideas I presented there into the story.

[Sigreid]

As a DM I just want to know what you were before you were here, why you are here, what your intended goals are. And that's about all I'll provide as a player. To me it's just a pond to through my hooks into or for other people to throw their hooks into.

[MaxWilson]

That is an example of a typical background that my players and I tend to give our PC's. Is your experience the same? Do you do more? Less?

I think that is an excellent amount of backstory. Succinct but plenty of hooks; plenty of room to grow as well. Easy for other players to remember.

Your backstory should never be more interesting than what happens in play, but the one you wrote there is just perfect. Mine tend to be a little bit shorter than that and not so tragic.

I'm also influenced by DramaSystem in wanting to build in relationships with unfulfilled emotional needs. E.g. "Sparrowhawk is a soldier from the Border Rangers. He's been in love with his best friend Eladriel his whole life but she isn't really into romance. He also wants to support his widowed mother to live comfortably but she is too independent to accept help, and relies on her sewing income instead."

[Astofel]

Four to five sentences to sum it up is really all you need. For instance, a character I made for a one shot (kobold arcane trickster) has the following backstory:
He was the sole survivor from his clan of an attack of hobgoblins. He fled to the city and lived on the streets until he met a wizard who began training him. The wizard was called away on an expedition to a newly discovered continent, but never returned. My character now follows in his footsteps to finish what his master started.

I wrote a lot more than that when I was first coming up with the backstory, but that's just how I am. Players should write however much they want, but if they can't summarize it into a few simple sentences then it's probably too much.

[R.Shackleford]

I prefer a background to be short n sweet so that the DM and player can mold the game around it.

A DM can throw in a long lost friend (turned enemy perhaps) and it can fit right in.

This is my preference as a player and as a DM. This way the story can be tailored to fit the players and not so generic.

One time my character's uncle dropped by. The DM passed me a note earlier saying that my character would know not to trust him. I played it off like he was my favorite uncle and all that and the party was surprised later when i suggested we skip town and get the heck away from him. We ended up in a copper mine fighting some clockwork-oozes... Good times.

[Mr.Spastic]

I think that the core effect of a backstory is that it has to explain how you got to the level that you are playing at. If you are starting as a level 5 fighter your backstory should include a few adventures. I would even go so far as to give you a title that you have received from the local populace. You could be Brottor Skullbasher, known for you prowess with a warhammer. If you start at level 1 you probably have learned the basic skills of your class but haven't gone on many adventures. You could be a wizards apprentice investigating the disappearance of your master. You've had some training but you haven't done anything really noteworthy. Or you could be on the run for accidentally catching the town on fire. The point is that a level 1 character won't be known around town as The Great And Mighty Bob who has killed five dragons.

In terms of details, I try to have my players leave me some room for mystery but otherwise they can be as detail as much or little as they like. Most of the time they create their class background and adventuring reason. I have a character in my game, Brottor Bloodanvil, whose backstory says they he is chasing after a magic anvil that is the symbol of king of the dwarf kingdom. Find the Anvil and he becomes king, simple. He got his Fighter training by joining the military and that part is kind of not detailed but gives me room to make npcs that he would be familiar with. The kicker is that the anvil was stolen by a group of assassins that killed the last king and nobody knows who they are. This gives me room to create a fun late game villain, Dragon Cultists seeking treasures for their patron.

[guachi]

I like the background provided by the OP. If a PC is 1st level there's only so much you can give. I like that it provides reason to be adventuring. It provides hooks, if needed. It provides a brief summary of the PC's Background (I assume Criminal). In addition, a background can give a summary of what the PC is the class that he is.

I like to think of a background as sufficient if it provides about as much information as you'd get about a character on a new TV show. Much of the background ends up being made up as needed as the series goes along.

[Tubben]

I never have an background and history for my chars.
I build them while playing. I choose what i want them to be while playing and not before.

Works for me since 27 years.

[Lord Vukodlak]

I'm personally a fan of a couple paragraphs with a few hooks that I as a DM can use or the PC. I also like some back and forth. The following example is longer then normal but in Nigel's case he was middle age before he began adventuring.

Nigel Reinhart was born in 2364:2E to Rupert and Victoria Reinheart. He was raised in the city of Sivile. His father worked as a city administrator handling the day-to-day tasks the nobility couldn’t be bothered with. His mother Victoria died when he was very young and he has few memories of her. Growing up Nigel’s primary interest was in his books and he spent much of his time reading. Rupert was a rather distant father and often left Nigel in the care of his aunt Sylvari (from his mother’s side) a half-elven sorceress who thought that little boys should be out playing and getting into scraps. She believed if he didn’t get his head out of the books once and a while he’d grow up and become a wizard or worse a politician so she'd often lock him out of the house until sun down. It was on one such occasion at age twelve he ended up being chased up a lamp post by a small mean dog until he was rescued by a girl his age named Joyce. However whenever Joyce told the story it was always a huge dog and Nigel was the hero not her.

During his teenage years he went through a rebellious phase becoming a bit of a hoodlum. With his gang of friends, Thomas, Phillip, William, Randall and Joyce they engaged in petty theft, vandalism and one count of Goblin tossing. (grabbing a goblin and tossing him through a store window).

This phase came to and end one dark summer night, while vandalizing an old mausoleum they were attacked by ghouls. Thomas and Phillip were set upon first once paralyzed the ghouls disregarded the others and began to feed. William, Nigel and Joyce managed to pull Randall to safety and escape the mausoleum but he latter succumbed to his injuries and died. Afterwards Joyce joined the church in penance and Nigel returned to his studies eventually attaining the position as head librarian in the City’s grand library. As for William… he went down a darker path.

For the next twenty years, Nigel led a rather quite and peaceful life. The only moments that could be called exciting was a few times he helped various adventurers in there research. Sometimes to find some lost McGuffin or place but usually in how to handle the monster of the week.

It was in his forties that he met the aged mage Medivar. The wizard was a frequent visitor to the library and always in need of some research material. One day he asked Nigel if he’d like a permanent job as his research assistant promising to teach him real magic. Nigel politely declined he was quite happy with his current position and learning magic beyond the theoretical didn’t interest him. Medivar then offered him more then twice is current salary so naturally Nigel agreed.

Medivar was researching magic into the manipulation of time. Nigel believed the aged wizard was searching for a way to restore his youth but the wizard never directly shared the purpose of his research him.

Nigel also worked with another apprentice of Medivar Judith a young woman far more interested in learning real magic then himself but far less interested in the lore and theoretical side of it. Then little more then year before the start of the campaign there was an explosion. Something went wrong in the lab and in a near blinding flash Nigel saw Medivar age centuries in a matter of seconds. Grabbing whatever research materials and regents he could he fled before the mage’s tower collapsed.

Nigel quickly found he’d been contaminated by whatever magic Medivar was experimenting with and was de-aging at an accelerating rate. After six months he’d physically regressed to his early twenties. Using the research and regents he took from the tower Nigel was eventually able stabilize his condition to the point that he de-aged at the same rate other people aged normally. But by that point he was physically no older then thirteen by his own estimation.

He added "the 2nd" to his name to pass himself off as his own son. and needing, research material and resources to cure himself, Nigel used his apparent age to pass himself off as a child genius and progeny to attain a job an Arcane advisor and researcher, He caught the attention of Baron Pondraco-de-Manilla who hired Nigel for an expedition where he meets the party..
Nick name Guide
Aunt Sylvari: Niggy
Old Gang: Shiv
Judith: Fuddy-Duddy
Medivar: Mr. Reignheart


The names and dates were originally just brackets which I filled in later once I got more info from the DM. Of important note in the campaign setting he is in, researching life extension magic though arcane means is a crime.

I left a few plot points, a couple the DM picked up on. Such as finding out he fathered a child with Joyce before they parted ways.

Now for a more typical one this came from a pathfinder campaign.
Example 2

Alderac Overhill was born a slave in Chillax. He grew up working in the kitchens but when he showed latent talent in unusual magic. (ie the summoner class). His master took steps to ensure those powers were developed, so he could show off to the other nobles at what a talented Slip he had.

This afforded him better treatment, better food and it spared him the master's son who delighted in making the lives of the slaves more difficult. He eventually used his master's favor to obtain permission to take a wife and start a family. For a while he was happy but then one day while his pregnant wife was carrying the mistress's three century old porcelain tea set back to the kitchen the family's son (twenty-one) thought it be fun to trip her going down the stairs. The dishes of course shattered, for failing to watch where she was going the mistress had her beaten, and the maid later died of her injuries. The master of the house 'comforted' Alderac he could find another girl to replace her or two.

Instead one night Alderac stole the house keys, locked the family in their rooms and set fire to the house and watched it burn to the ground. He then fled Chillax running all the way to the River Kingdoms where he hooked up with a group of Adventurers looking to explore the Emerald Spire...

This one is much shorter because Alderac is much younger.

This one is for a campaign that never happened.
Example 3
History Gunn was never quite like other goblins he was born with a horribly deformity a fully developed sense of taste this might have led to his eventual starvation if he hadn't taught himself how to cook. However he was eventually caught studying a cook book and expelled from his tribe for reading and into the neighboring cavern where the tribe's Hobgoblin overlords lived. After a series of many beatings they taught him how to read so that he might actually use those cook books he simply stared at and guessed how things went based on the illustrations.

After a few years of beatings and cooking meals for his Hobgoblin overlords the entire tribe was wiped out by a group of adventurers. Gunn attempted to hide in a cupboard but the chain around his neck leading to a post gave away his hiding spot. However the half-orc of the group a gunslinger named Borfang took pity on him and made Gunn his personal Valet. From Borfang, he learned the discipline of the gunslinger.... well the skills of a gunslinger anyway and eventually set off on his own to be an adventurer, which concludes the first thirteen years of his life.

Personality: Having suffered years of abuse at the hands of his fellow and usually larger goblin cousins Gunn has lost his taste for inflicting it... but only after it was pointed out the Bugbear and Hobgoblin game of "goblin conkers" was quite similar to the game "rabbit conkers"

Gunn maintains his goblin love fire and explosions in addition to a ravenous hunger though his tastes now demand both quality and quantity. So he adventures to find new and exotic foods and good excuses to blow things up that will earn him praise rather then scorn.

His weapon whom he calls Herbert (though it actual name is Bob).

[cyberfunkr]

I'm of the mindset that all the backstory needs to do is tell everyone WHY you're at this point in your life.

Now for some that can be quite simple. For other characters it can get pretty deep.

I generally have a few paragraphs for each one. For instance, my Monk is on a vision quest; a pretty straightforward concept. But my Hexblade has much more detail about how his patron found him, what they hope to achieve, etc. My Arcane Trickster was shanghaied and is now a pirate.

A lot of it is just so I know how to portray the PC.

[kamap]

I mostly write quite long backstories, but it isn't filled with awsomeness and the like, its about small things and some bigger things that happened in his life that lead up to the point why the character went into adventuring or a hook to let the character connect with the rest of the group. a rogue looking for a group to travel with because he needs to leave the city since he pissed of the wrong person. A sorcerer that feels trapped in his little town and goes on a live of adventuring.

For anyone interested this is the background story I wrote for our new campaing I also record every session and make a chapter out of it.
The whole story can be found here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?567280-(Campaing-written-as-a-story)-The-conspiracy-and-its-exploits#post23319886)

So you want to know what made me go into adventuring.
If you can stay awhile and listen I'll tell you a tale about why I became an adventurer.
Let’s start with how my parents met.
It was a sunny spring day, my dad was taking a stroll through the woods looking for berries cause he does enjoy his berries.
It so happened that my mother also enjoys berries and she was picking big baskets full of them to make pie, jam and the like.
My mum was humming a little tune which my dad heard from a distance, so he followed his ears and nose.
By then my mother and the baskets she was carrying where giving of an enchanting smell or so my dad always tells us.
They got to talking and sharing stories and berries and from one thing came another and they got married.
Then I came along, together with some brothers and sisters, we were a rambunctious lot.
So to make this part of the story very short, my father was an elf and my mother smelled of berries.
Incidentally this is the answer I give when people are being annoying or asking stupid questions about my parentage, it leaves them puzzled and they stop bothering me.

Our house was always filled with singing or some instrument being played, both mother and father liked to sing and played instrument. Some of us enjoyed singing along and with time also learned to play musical instruments I'm good on the viol or so my dad always tells me. Musical talent apparently ran in the family cause both my mother and father remembered doing the same with their parents and siblings.

While we were growing up our parents regaled us with tales of our many greats grandfather how he was a wizard and did all these amazing feats.
About how he died holding his own against a shadow dragon that wanted to burn down an elven settlement.

When I got older strange things started happening around me, bullies who made fun of us because we were different, suddenly fell asleep or found themselves with soiled clothing.
If my younger brothers and sisters were scared or sad and needed comforting, a beautiful song could be heard but the source of it never found.
One time I came across some bullies who had cornered someone when I went to intervene, I came closer and noticed that they had cornered one of my younger brothers and had been beating him. They started taunting me that I couldn’t help my brother cause I was alone and they had us outnumbered and continued beating him right in front of me, while the leader kept me at bay and was laughing right in my face.
That got me so mad and pissed off I started kicking and punching him , it looked like one of my punches struck him with lightning, he jumped away from me with fear filled eyes turned around and ran.
This turn of events threw the others for a loop and one of them started advancing on me I picked up a rock and threw it at him, to my amazement a bolt of fire was following in its wake both missing him by an inch. After that episode me and my siblings where never bullied again.
During that exchange I also lost the need to blink.
One evening I was approached by my granduncle.
He wanted to tell me more about my so many greats grandfather.
Something our parents couldn’t tell us cause they didn’t know.
Because of my grandfather’s sacrifice his line was blessed with the powers of the dragon he helped conquer, the blessing was that in every generation to come, at least one shadow sorcerer would be born.
An enchanted tome that records every sorcerer born to his line was entrusted to his first son who became a sorcerer upon receiving the book. The book would be updated when one of his descendants started showing signs of being a sorcerer and my name had recently been added to the book.
My uncle gave me his necklace it had a gleaming crystal hanging on it which he called an arcane focus, it would help me direct my powers and told me that I should never take it off, till I had one of my own.
He showed me a few simple tricks to control and direct my powers.

For the first time I could deliberately do the strange things happening around me and I now knew why they had been happening around me, I was a sorcerer.

He told me that when I was older he would train me and if there were more sorcerers in my generation that we would all train together.
It was also made clear to me that I should keep all this secret to anyone except my parents and that if I ever do marry I should tell my partner cause there should never be secrets between partners.
I was cautioned though to not tell my parents right away but wait till I was older when I knew more about being a sorcerer and what it meant to me.
He warned me that something in us sorcerers calls to a lifestyle of adventuring and danger, it wasn't an easy lifestyle but it could be very rewarding.
He himself had experienced the call and had lead an adventuring lifestyle till he lost his lower leg and knee due to an infected wound from an arrow and had to retire from adventuring.
Next he told me that if I was serious about adventuring I should start saving some money cause he and the others could only help me so much and starting an adventuring life wasn't really cheap.
Over the years my granduncle helped to hone my skills and helped me prepare for that adventuring lifestyle he liked to talk about.

When I grew older I started realizing my granduncle was right and I felt trapped in our little town.
So I had a plan to make some money by doing something that I loved.
A few years ago when I was little Someone who was travelling through our town played music on the street and people gave him money to show their appreciation. No one but our family really knew that we liked singing and playing music, it was something our family did together.
So people who knew me where surprised to see me at the market square singing, playing music and doing little magic tricks or telling stories but they did enjoy it and soon I became a fixture there.
When the weather grew colder I was invited to set up shop so to speak at the small inn of our town.
It was a good deal, they had more clients, I was out of the cold and always had a free meal and drinks.
My parents loved the fact that I could make a living from something I enjoyed so much.
One evening I was heading home from entertaining the guests of our local inn when I was approached by a young lad who introduced himself as one of the servants to a noble that lived about a day’s travel away.
He was there to hire me to be part of the entertainment during a party the noble was throwing to celebrate his daughter turning eighteen.
I was thrilled that my name was known to a noble and the pay wasn’t bad either and it would help me reach my goal of having saved enough to start adventuring that much sooner, so I agreed and the next day we set off to the noble’s estate in an expensive looking carriage.
When we arrived I was told I could lodge with the servants and have my meals with them, the party was to be held in two days’ time so I could explore the estate a bit and get to know the rest of the people who would be entertaining the guests. There where, dancers, fire-eaters, jugglers, singers and musicians. I was the only one though that had some grasp of magic which I used to better my performance, like signing a duet on my own or instead of another voice another instrument could be heard.
When the day of the feast arrived a whole bunch of noble’s from around the country gathered most of them seemed rather normal people the only difference being that they were wealthy and had a title.
There was one though that I disliked from the moment I saw him exit his carriage, he acted like everyone else was dirt beneath his feet and weren’t worth his time, I noticed that most of the nobles avoided this man as well, a quick hello and a handshake or curtsey and they scampered away to somewhere else.
During the banquet a servant girl politely asked the pompous arse if he wanted some chicken, the prick started ridiculing her saying that chicken was for common folk and how she could be so stupid to ask someone of his standing if he wanted some chicken.
With all the noise and other distractions no one saw me cast a few simple spells when the next dish was served.
It was hard to keep from laughing when he took a bite and instead of tasting deer it tasted like spicy chicken, he spit it out on to his plate and hollered at the servant who had just served him, why he had gotten spicy chicken when everyone else had gotten deer, to wash away the taste he took his glass of wine and drank from it, which then promptly got spit back out cause that tasted like spicy chicken as well.
He demanded that the one in charge of the wine and food be brought to him so that they could taste what awful swill they were serving.
Little did he know that I would make certain that for anyone else it would taste normal and only for him everything would taste like spicy chicken.
When he was told that his deer and wine tasted like they should he again took a bite which he promptly spat back out and now he grabbed a glass from someone next to him, luckily I was quick enough to make sure that drink tasted like Spicy chicken.
People close to him where having a hard time schooling their faces trying to hide the fact that they found the fact that everything tasted like spicy chicken for the pompous bastard was hilarious.
I kept a close eye on him and every time he tried to eat or drink something I would quickly change the taste. He didn’t eat or drink much during the banquet.
When the tables where cleared away and the dancing began the people who took care of the entertainment could go eat in the kitchens.
There I came across the servant girl that got chewed out by the chicken hating noble and told her that he was in the wrong, not her.
I also told her that payback is mostly best served cold but it could also be served like spicy chicken. She got the hint and thanked me for putting that whiny pompous prick in his place.

Little did I know that our conversation was overheard by one of his servants who tattled on me. Since nobles have more money and standing and he was an important figure that the one hosting the party wanted to keep as a “friend”. I was unceremoniously sent packing with no pay and no escort home, the guards who escorted me out of the estate where apologetic cause they didn’t like the man either and had a good laugh but they had to do their job.
After an uneventful long trip home, everything went back to normal until a few days later the same servant girl that was serving the spicy chicken came by and gave me a money pouch, a letter and the recipe for the spicy chicken.
The letter was from her mistress who happened to be the mother of the birthday girl. She thanked me for my services and gave me a little extra for providing entertainment beyond the scope of my contract, she didn’t came right out and said that she enjoyed seeing that pompous prick getting some comeuppance but if you read between the lines that’s what it boiled down to, reading further between the lines, no one really liked him but since he was important for trade and the like he was tolerated, as token of her appreciation she included a shard of obsidian that always feels warm to the touch, so I could more easily remember how it warmed her heart to see someone defending a simple servant girl.
Not long after I had saved up enough gold and I told my parents about being a sorcerer and what that entails.
The talk lasted all day and went deep into the night but eventually my parents knew I just couldn't stay and had to go find my place in the world.
After a tear filled goodbye and with promises to stay in contact, my granduncle and I set out to our next destination.
When I voiced my concern that it would be hard for him with his one leg and all, he just looked at me hobbled to the shadow a tree was casting on the ground and he just disappeared, he reappeared out of the shadows some distance away.
He laughed when he saw my awe struck face and told me that I would be able to do the same later on when I had some more adventuring under my belt.
We met up with some people which I soon learned where members of our family or trusted friends who knew about our secret.

They had horses for us and we continued our trek, while travelling we got to know each other and I learned I was the third sorcerer of this generation.
It wasn't unheard of but didn't happen very frequently, off course the more children there were the chances of there being sorcerers also grew.
After a few days we reached a mountain and were led to a cave that was hewn out of the side of that mountain.
It was explained that only relatives with the gift could see the entrance and come in here easily.
Others without the gift could be brought in trough the illusionary mountain wall and into an antechamber from here two tunnels led off .
One went to the guest quarters, the other connected to a circular room with a pedestal in the middle with a thick tome resting upon it, around the outer rim of the room where roughhewn stone seats.
The heavy tome on the pedestal contained all the names and some more information about every sorcerer in our extended family.
Passed this room we came to our quarters, there was plenty of room for all of us and enough food to last a while.
A few actually lived here and helped guard the cave and tome lest it fall in the wrong hands.
If we needed to reach other sorcerers in our family we could send messages here and they would be relayed to the right persons, if we needed help or a break from everyday life or just wanted to stop on by, we would always be welcome and have a safe haven.
For a while our days existed of training, talking and getting to know each other and when they thought we were ready, they told us it was time to go out and make our mark on the world.
As parting gifts we were all presented with a finely crafted staff and two daggers with focus crystals inlaid in their handles and a signet ring that could be used as an arcane focus thanks to the crystal that was worked into its design.
The staff resembled the one our ancestor used and made a fine walking and whacking tool, the daggers were off course easier to wield and were good backup weapons.

The signet ring would allow others that knew of us and family members that couldn't make the gathering to recognize us and if we ever needed to be sneaky with our casting this was the perfect tool for it.
The multitude of arcane focuses was so that we wouldn’t have to rely on only one like our grandfather.
I handed my granduncle his necklace back and thanked him for letting me have it as long as I did.
We also got a token that appears beside the book every time a new name is added. These tokens apparently come from the shadowfell, we don’t really know if they are gifts from the raven queen, another entity from the shadowfell, something else entirely or a combination of these things, we also don’t know why or how but this has been happening since the beginning and there no problems have arisen so far.
For some people the tokens do nothing and are just a keepsake, for others they morph into weapons, books or tools. Mine turned into a black leather bound book, which was filled with all kinds of strange symbols and some text that was hard to make out. The others told me that I could embrace what the book had to teach me or never bother with it.
After a good night’s sleep filled with peculiar dreams like something was trying to communicate with me I awoke with a feeling I should take a shield and armor with me.
So I grabbed some from the armory after asking if I could and then we all set out to make our mark on the world or go back to our normal day lives for the retired adventurers amongst us.
While traveling and looking for adventure I came across an old man that stood beside his broken down wagon.
When asked if he could use some help he responded in the positive but also mentioned that he couldn’t really repay me for my kindness.
I ensured him that payment wasn't necessary but if I could catch a ride with him into the nearest town I’d be grateful.
While working on fixing his wagon that had a busted wheel we got to talking and the topic of magic and wizards came up.
So I told him a little about my ancestor and that I was interested in magic in all its shapes and forms.
After fixing his wagon we set of to the nearest town, near evening after an enjoyable leisurely ride spent talking, telling stories or playing some music we reached the nearest town and we went our separate ways. I went searching for an inn to fix myself a free meal and lodging, for someone with my skill set it was rather easy to find free lodging and food, you only had to entertain the other guests of the inn with a song, some music, a daring story or a magic show, depending on the town you might even earn some extra coin as well.
Late in the evening sitting down to a free meal I had some time to study the book. The strange symbols and text still mean nothing to me, though I feel a connection to the book. Since then I have found a few more interesting things about the book.
It will always find its way back to me, I’ve lost it once during a scuttle with some ruffians. To my surprise it was laying on the bedside table when I woke up the next day.
Another handy feature of the book is that it has a few blank pages at the end that I can write on and the next time I open the book those pages are blank again.
So when I have nothing better to do I write down my thoughts and train my writing skills, so I can accurately report on my adventures.
It helps to keep my thoughts in order and lets me see where I could tweak a story I'm working on, change the lyrics of a song but enough it’s getting late.

So let’s close you up and go to sleep, you weird book.

[Slingsby]

I tend to write a couple of paragraphs, so more than strictly necessary in a sense. But I think length or even detail isn't necessarily the problem - it's more when backstories pre-empt the plot and shut down options for the actual campaign that problems emerge.

"I am sworn to hunt down and kill Very Specific Random Baddie. I have no friends and all of my family are dead." can cause the DM and the campaign a bigger headache than a detailed description of a character's upbringing that simply explains how she became an adventurer.

[Edenbeast]

I think 5e character creation kind of facilitates the "keep it short" backgrounds that in general are adequate, especially at first level. I do have a tendency to elaborate more, usually a few paragraphs, but I've written up backgrounds that were 3 pages. In my mind, when you start at higher level, you have already adventured a bit, visited some interesting places and made some potential recurring enemies. That aside, one of the most inspiring character creations I've done were in home-brew worlds, where the overall design was the DM's work, but the players were asked to create their home town/region that the DM would then give a place in his world. More detail is never wrong, especially if you have a creative DM. With one of those backgrounds I had so much fun writing it up that I eventually turned it into my own campaign setting :smallsmile:

[MaxWilson]

"I am sworn to hunt down and kill Very Specific Random Baddie. I have no friends and all of my family are dead." can cause the DM and the campaign a bigger headache than a detailed description of a character's upbringing that simply explains how she became an adventurer.

Just as long as that detailed description is for your own private enjoyment and not something you expect other players or the DM to be familiar with.

[Astofel]

To expand on my previous post, as a player I like writing long backstories and as a DM if you give me one I'll read all of it and probably enjoy that you went to that length for my humble game, but all I really need is a few key sentences. A lot of the longer backstories that have been posted here is info about small details and character traits that only really matter to the player, not the DM.

As a point of comparison, here's the full-length backstory I wrote for the one-shot I mentioned earlier

As a child and young adult, Nidhiki lived with his clan in a network of tunnels dug beneath the hills He always had a knack for being sneaky, and he knew the tunnels' secret twists and turns and fake walls and dead ends better than anyone. Perhaps that was why he was the sole survivor when the tribal Empers attacked.

All the kobolds' tricks and traps couldn't stop the horde, and those who were not slaughtered were taken as slaves, all except Nidhiki. Alone, he made his way to the nearest city in the hopes of finding a means of survival. Alas, the city folk had no sympathy for a lost kobold, and so Nidhiki ended up scrounging for scraps in an alleyway.

It just so happened that the alley Nidhiki chose was outside the home of a human wizard known as Lee Khanh. Lee discovered the kobold, and noticed his potential as a student. He took Nidhiki under his wing, and began teaching him the ways of magic. Unfortunately, before Nidhiki's training could be completed, Lee was sent across the sea to explore the new frontier. Months later, Nidhiki got the letter telling him Lee wasn't coming home.

Despite his inexperience, Nidhiki decided to finish what his mentor couldn't. Travelling to Redrim, he too set out across the sea, hoping to find what lay undiscovered in the primal frontier.

Even I would say that's probably too much for just a one-shot, but I like writing backstories so that one exists now.

[Arkhios]

I'm firmly in the band-wagon of players who like to flesh out their characters' backgrounds, and formerly I did actually write rather long backgrounds for my earliest characters. Still do it sometimes, but more recently I've been told that DM's can't be bothered to read them through (which is sad, but I admit it's probably not entirely worth it) so I've begun to write a short versions out of the longer ones (but I keep the long ones as well, if for some reason my DM or I wanted to check out some specific details from the past). Into the short version I try to summarise who my character is, and what they appear to be like from the point of view of a random bystander.

In the longer version, I usually write up a paragraph or two about where the character is coming from, what are their motivations to become adventurers, and what makes them tick. That's about it.

In 5th edition, regardless of how long it has been around, I've only managed to play one character for a long period of time, and to develop his personality and background in more depth, which is a shame, but then again, it also means I've had more time to invest on his character development as well, so it's not too bad after all.

I've spoken about the character in here fairly recently a couple of times already, so people might not want to hear the specifics again :smallredface: :smallbiggrin: (though, feel free to ask if you're interested afterwards).

For this character, I have written quite a detailed background, but I have a fairly good reason for that too. As I've said before, the current character is a direct descendant in eighth generation of a character I played during the D&D Next playtest (the playtest campaign was set in the past of the same setting we are playing in right now). So, it made sense to me and my DM to flesh out how many relatives my character has had since the ancestor's days, because it does help out to flesh out the current character as well. The "originator" of his extended family was a remarkable person and his deeds have been taught by generation after generation so they do affect my current character's background.

I used a random table from somewhere to determine how many siblings and children the original character had and, as luck would have it, it turns out the current character has like, 7 paternal aunts and uncles -- not to speak of his maternal side -- so if my character was to die permanently, I could continue the family's legacy with one of his potential cousins :D

[Mordaedil]

I prefer long detailed backstories, but I also like to summarize them briefly, as they can become difficult to peruse for useful information.

Usually if I can provide useful visual imagery to the backstory, that helps keeping it fresh in mind for use later. It also is there to allow the DM to use as "knives" as per the knife theory.

Detail I usually put in my backstory are people of significance, such as teachers or masters for my class, if any, my parents and siblings, and childhood associates if any of relevance. Also included are at least one formative story about my hometown and why I decided on my path and why I became an adventurer.

Anything else is excessive flesh and usually can be safely omitted.

[Glorthindel]

My base rule is that the most important events in a characters life should be what occurs at the table.

Backstory things are there to inform the characters behavoir and maybe to act as a prelude and explain why the character has been drawn into the events that will occur at the table. Any fantastical events or heroisms that would overshadow the events at the table, and turn them into a sequel to "badass characters main story" are out.

[Zalabim]

I tend to write a couple of paragraphs, so more than strictly necessary in a sense. But I think length or even detail isn't necessarily the problem - it's more when backstories pre-empt the plot and shut down options for the actual campaign that problems emerge.

"I am sworn to hunt down and kill Very Specific Random Baddie. I have no friends and all of my family are dead." can cause the DM and the campaign a bigger headache than a detailed description of a character's upbringing that simply explains how she became an adventurer.
"Yeah, yeah. Six-fingered man killed your father. Great. But you still gotta eat, right? So, you in?" All I'm saying is that even a brief, single-focus backstory can work if you play it right. There's also a wrong way to do it, of course.

[Millface]

My players back stories tend to be about a page in length. Some describe relationships and past events, but only if they're relevant to the character's current motivations. That's the key. I only need information that's relevant to how your character will currently act in the present. Examples would be if your character wants to avoid a certain city because of bad blood with the thieves guild/city watch/insertfactionhere or if you're distrusting and jaded because you were betrayed by a lover/friend.

These are things I can use as hooks, and they're encouraged. Extraneous detail is aggravating, though.

[Laserlight]

"Yeah, yeah. Six-fingered man killed your father. Great. But you still gotta eat drink, right? So, you in?"

And that's how Inigo ended up working for Vizzini.

[Keravath]

My backgrounds vary from a couple of character traits to a few sentences to something longer. Here is a sample of a typical, somewhat cliched background from a recent character who was considering either vengeance paladin or hexblade warlock as his path in life after the events in his youth.

"Terror. No one knows what it feels like until they stare it in the face. Loss. Hopelessness. Having your father throw you and your sister into the root cellar while yelling in a whisper to stay quiet and then drag the clothes chest on top of the door. The muffled screams from outside the house, the hoarse grunts and yells of what can only be orcs. The slam of the front door. Struggling to keep your sister from crying and screaming while peeking through the knots in the floor boards to get a glimpse of what is going on. Your father, glaive in hand, stabbing at the orcs as they rush through the door, overwhelm him, kill him. Your mother's screams from the bedroom. Suddenly ended. Loud stomping, smashing, breaking, searching. An eye peering through the knots into yours while you pray for the shadows to hide you. A crackle and glow, the smell of smoke, irritated yelling and more stomping as the orcs leave. Crackling and glowing, hissing of flames growing louder. Scrambling in the dark, searching for the entrance to the tunnel that was dug last year but which we were told never to enter. Coughing in the growing smoke. Struggling to move the barrel of water and sacks of potatoes in front of the hole near the base of the dirt wall of the cellar. Pushing your sister in front, scrambling through the wet dirt, past the infrequent wooden supports hoping the tunnel won't collapse. Reaching the end where the tunnel turns upward, climbing the sparse hand and footholds, struggling to move the rocks that cover the exit. Cautiously emerging into the dark woods, your home engulfed in flames a hundred feet away, shadows of orcs cast upon the trees and other nearby houses. Screams and shouts from throughout the village. Creeping deeper into the woods, helping your sister who appears barely capable of movement, eyes wide, your hand leading her forward the only reason she is moving at all. Stop by the brook. Take shelter in the logging cabin. Panic, confusion, fear, doubt, sorrow, what to do? The following morning, cautiously return to the village. Orcs are gone. Bodies litter the streets, food storages and houses looted. A handful of other survivors emerge from the ruins. We gather supplies and head for the nearest town. It must surely be safer than here but I vow that the orcs will pay. They will all pay.
I was thirteen. I had only just started training with some warriors in the village. I wasn't strong. I was moderately dextrous but I was very convincing. My sister was taken in by a baker who could use the extra help in the kitchens. I lived at the barracks helping the town guard, learning to use weapons, a quarterstaff and glaive like my father, bows, swords and shields. I improved. I learned. I helped on patrols in the city and in the countryside against bandits. I considered taking the Oath of Vengeance to fulfill my vows but, on one of these patrols, I took an odd black dagger from one of the bandits we had defeated. It somehow appealed to me in particular and reminded me of how the shadows had seemed to cloak my sister and I when we cowered in the root cellar. I kept it. I still have it. I still don't know what it is .. it is just a dagger. However, through it the shadows have seemed to speak to me, have offered to aid me in my vows, show me how to harness my force of will and personality to become an even better warrior to fulfill my vow against evil. I've accepted the offer and won't turn back."

However, this leaves lots of room for NPCs and other past development while capturing the life altering events that lead to the characters primary choices before becoming a PC.

[Edenbeast]

My players back stories tend to be about a page in length. Some describe relationships and past events, but only if they're relevant to the character's current motivations. That's the key. I only need information that's relevant to how your character will currently act in the present. Examples would be if your character wants to avoid a certain city because of bad blood with the thieves guild/city watch/insertfactionhere or if you're distrusting and jaded because you were betrayed by a lover/friend.

These are things I can use as hooks, and they're encouraged. Extraneous detail is aggravating, though.

But there could be an old rival they once defeated. The rival survived without the character knowing about it, and then suddenly pops up in <insert city name>. Here, there was no relevant information on how the character currently acts, but whatever is in the background can always be of use when it sounds interesting and fits in your campaign.

[Slingsby]

"Yeah, yeah. Six-fingered man killed your father. Great. But you still gotta eat, right? So, you in?" All I'm saying is that even a brief, single-focus backstory can work if you play it right. There's also a wrong way to do it, of course.
Oh, totally! Wasn't trying to suggest short backgrounds are a problem either. Just trying to make the point that detail isn't the problem here - the important thing is for a player's background to support the campaign (or at very least not get in the way of it).

[Sigreid]

I guess the real line for me is as a DM if you write more than a few sentences, I'm not going to read it anyway. As a player, I graduated school too long ago to want to treat it as a creative writing assignment the DM probably doesn't want to read anyway.

[GlenSmash!]

I choose Personality Traits, Bond, Flaw, and Ideal. Then I decide why that guy became an adventurer.

Current character is Mercenary Veteran, He was the sole survivor when his company was attached by Hill Giants. Been adventuring ever since.

[KorvinStarmast]

1st, I apologize my actual post isn't nearly as confrontational as the title. You ought to apologize for the rude title.

Your opinion is just that, an opinion. The length of back story is utterly table dependent.
What is needed and desired is worked out between DM and player(s).

Your assertion that your opinion is a general rule is both arrogant and tone deaf.

That said, a few of the points made in this thread about "make sure the back story accounts for class, background, and why the heck am I adventuring" are spot on.
How much writing that calls for will vary with the people involved.

I also like the point being made of "the adventures you are about to embark upon are the new most interesting thing in our life" ... that's a good mind set to have.

In one of the other threads about this, backstories, I presented the same backstory ground in both a longer and a shorter version in the same post to illustrate a point someone else had made.

[MadBear]

You ought to apologize for the rude title.

Your opinion is just that, an opinion. The length of back story is utterly table dependent.
What is needed and desired is worked out between DM and player(s).

Your assertion that your opinion is a general rule is both arrogant and tone deaf.

That said, a few of the points made in this thread about "make sure the back story accounts for class, background, and why the heck am I adventuring" are spot on.
How much writing that calls for will vary with the people involved.

I also like the point being made of "the adventures you are about to embark upon are the new most interesting thing in our life" ... that's a good mind set to have.

In one of the other threads about this, backstories, I presented the same backstory ground in both a longer and a shorter version in the same post to illustrate a point someone else had made.

speaking of tone deaf, I'm apparently incapable of telling if your reply is genuine or satire, and that in and of itself has made me chuckle.

[Legendairy]

As a DM, whatever gets the player attached to their character and makes them want to play it even more. I have a group now with people who give me a few pages and others who give a couple sentences at best. It’s all about what would make YOU the players have more fun, I can work with just about anything.

As a player it depends on what the dm wants, but generally like to have a pretty flushed out backstory, for me that helps me connect, and I try to give a ton of hooks in it as well.

As a dm naming events and npc’s doesn’t give me less to work with just makes it so I can’t name them, which I’m perfectly fine with.

[CosmicHobbit]

As a DM, whatever makes the player most comfortable. The only real requirement I have is that it ends with them being in the same area as the rest of the party, which I assume is pretty standard.

As a player? I usually establish a motive for adventuring, maybe a brief history of my character, plus whatever the DM wants. I don't say, "I met a smuggler, a thief, and an assassin, all of whom I kept ties with," I say, "I made a few criminal contacts."

After that, most background is done through backstory. I didn't go into the game knowing my character made chests out of meat for dinner every Saturday, I just mentioned it in passing while playing the gam and it became canon.

[KorvinStarmast]

speaking of tone deaf, I'm apparently incapable of telling if your reply is genuine or satire, and that in and of itself has made me chuckle. Gaul was divided into three parts.

If the post got a chuckle out of you, then all was not lost. :smallcool:

[Felyndiira]

I think it depends on what you're going for with the character, and what aspect of your characters you want to convey to the DM.

For example, let's say your character is racist against elves. If you simply want that to be a fun character trait that can cause some interesting scenes at the table, then you just need to state it in five words and that would be enough. However, if you really want your character to embody and explore this idea of racism, that's when you need to lengthen the backstory - what sort of environment produced the character's racist views, how it was reinforced or downplayed by her experiences, and so forth. This sort of exploration gives you a direction for the character trait; when is your her prejudice soft and roundabout, and when does she lose it and break into a tirade? When does she act with smug superiority, with hostility, or with apprehension and fear? The more you go into the circumstances of this, the more of an understanding

Not all character traits should be explored in that fine of a detail, though. Sometimes, I'm fine with my pirate just being a pirate, because pirates are cool, tricorns and long jackets are awesome, and saying "Yarr" every so often is amusing to the other players. So, I'll just write "she's a pirate" on my backstory and leave it at that. Othertimes, I just watched an interesting documentary about Somalian pirates and really want to incorporate this newfound knowledge into my character's identity, so my background becomes filled with the "why"s and "how"s of a pirate life, because that cool little quirk just became an important element that I want to really explore in-game.

I believe that length alone is irrelevant. There is no such thing as a "right" length or a "wrong" length; it all depends on what sort of information you really want to convey to the DM. If you need to really explore your character's religion or philosophy, you probably need a longer backstory to do so. If you want to play a fun and boisterous bruiser with hammy, entertaining lines, then a shorter backstory is more fitting.

There is such a thing as too long, though, and a lot of people focus on what I think are unnecessary information. The GM probably doesn't care about your interest in the Haste spell unless if you somehow really want to explore the socio-economic consequences of the spell. Something like "I became a monk because..." can be interesting if you really want to explore the idea of monks, but if you're just using it to justify taking the monk class, then you might as well condense it down. Your character being a rabbit tamer, her favorite flavor of shaved ice, or her love for square sign designs are also things that are probably not important and can just be bullet-pointed.

So, yeah, it's all dependent on what your vision for the character is, which may be eight pages leading up to a philosophy or just a single motivation and some hooks.

[MadBear]

I think it depends on what you're going for with the character, and what aspect of your characters you want to convey to the DM.

For example, let's say your character is racist against elves. If you simply want that to be a fun character trait that can cause some interesting scenes at the table, then you just need to state it in five words and that would be enough. However, if you really want your character to embody and explore this idea of racism, that's when you need to lengthen the backstory - what sort of environment produced the character's racist views, how it was reinforced or downplayed by her experiences, and so forth. This sort of exploration gives you a direction for the character trait; when is your her prejudice soft and roundabout, and when does she lose it and break into a tirade? When does she act with smug superiority, with hostility, or with apprehension and fear? The more you go into the circumstances of this, the more of an understanding

Not all character traits should be explored in that fine of a detail, though. Sometimes, I'm fine with my pirate just being a pirate, because pirates are cool, tricorns and long jackets are awesome, and saying "Yarr" every so often is amusing to the other players. So, I'll just write "she's a pirate" on my backstory and leave it at that. Othertimes, I just watched an interesting documentary about Somalian pirates and really want to incorporate this newfound knowledge into my character's identity, so my background becomes filled with the "why"s and "how"s of a pirate life, because that cool little quirk just became an important element that I want to really explore in-game.

I believe that length alone is irrelevant. There is no such thing as a "right" length or a "wrong" length; it all depends on what sort of information you really want to convey to the DM. If you need to really explore your character's religion or philosophy, you probably need a longer backstory to do so. If you want to play a fun and boisterous bruiser with hammy, entertaining lines, then a shorter backstory is more fitting.

There is such a thing as too long, though, and a lot of people focus on what I think are unnecessary information. The GM probably doesn't care about your interest in the Haste spell unless if you somehow really want to explore the socio-economic consequences of the spell. Something like "I became a monk because..." can be interesting if you really want to explore the idea of monks, but if you're just using it to justify taking the monk class, then you might as well condense it down. Your character being a rabbit tamer, her favorite flavor of shaved ice, or her love for square sign designs are also things that are probably not important and can just be bullet-pointed.

So, yeah, it's all dependent on what your vision for the character is, which may be eight pages leading up to a philosophy or just a single motivation and some hooks.

To me, this raises a good point about the difference between personal motivation and backstory, and what I give the DM.

There's a 0% chance any DM I have would read 8 pages worth of backstory. On the other hand, if I wrote 8 pages of backstory, that'd be specifically for me and to help me flesh out my character.

[willdaBEAST]

My personal approach in writing a backstory is to:

-Think of a defining moment/environment that shaped the character and understand how that might affect them.

-Give them a reason to adventure and connect that to some overall aspiration. Do they want to be a master swordman, have songs sung about their heroics, or do they want to take over the world?

-Ideally connect them to another party member in some way. At the very least give them a reason to travel with a party.

-Think of an arc this character can take. How might adventuring change them?

For example, if they're naive and idealistic, how might a place like Chult or Barovia affect them? If they're selfish and controlling, how are they going to respond when someone(BBEG) makes them feel powerless? I like to try to show growth from a character, or have their personality respond to what happens in the campaign.

As a DM, I don't mind if the backstory is long (2 of my players gave me 4 pages), I care primarily how easily I can connect that backstory to the overall campaign. If it's too specific and self-contained, it's going to be a challenge to incorporate it into the overall story. Details allow me to tailor character specific handouts like a letter from their family or have them run into someone from their past in a place that makes sense.

[Beleriphon]

If you can't sum up a character backstory in the same space it takes to write a novel synopsis on a dust jacket, its not worth using. I'm a fan of the Fate setup where the idea is at the start of the game you decide with the other players how their characters now your character. You can go as far as the Dresden Files RPG (classic, no Accelerated) and actually give the character sheet to another player and let them decide how their character met yours, but I can see that not working for some groups.