Questions for Out of the Abyss

[Waifu Collector]

I’m doing my first book campaign (all of the other campaigns I’ve been in have been completely from scratch). We decided between Out of the Abyss or Waterdeep Dragon Heist. We decided for the former. I’m going to play a Tiefling Paladin for it.

I just have a simple question: Will character background have much of an effect on the story? And should I make a backstory to begin with?

[djreynolds]

There are many ways to tie in the story, and have all players start at "area A"

Honestly, it may only matter in terms of knowledge of the under dark and some its areas.

So for a tiefling paladin I might have something, as this is an odd paladin.

How did the spawn of a devil becomes a paladin, just might come up?

[Telok]

1. Will the DM read at least three sentences of it?

2. Will the DM ever use or reference the background & traits on your character sheet?

3. Will your DM ignore it and say "you learned this thing when you went to paladin school and got trained in etiquette and honor"?

If yes-yes-no then background = ok

[Unoriginal]

I’m doing my first book campaign (all of the other campaigns I’ve been in have been completely from scratch). We decided between Out of the Abyss or Waterdeep Dragon Heist. We decided for the former. I’m going to play a Tiefling Paladin for it.

I just have a simple question: Will character background have much of an effect on the story? And should I make a backstory to begin with?

Depend how willing the DM is to personalise the module and make it their own. If you bother to write a background, it'll at least impact how you play the character.

[Strifer]

In my experience the background in written modules is mostly to help the player get into character. It can create some awesome role play moments and flesh out a good starting point.

Most modules have 'their own world' en especially Out of the Abyss will throw some stuff at you that will chance your character. Simply because most LVL 1 chars have no experience with demons. This offers some great synergy with your choice of Paladin and depending on the outh you plan to take on your experience.

[Randomthom]

Having run OotA for the last year-or-so, who your character IS is far more important than who they were & what came before.

Your group may vary of course, mine are quite RP-lite. There are opportunities for RP and lots of time to build up relationships with a large cast of NPCs but it is almost always secondary to basic survival. I've found that the nature of travel in the underdark lends itself well to a nova build combat-wise as your DM is unlikely to want to throw a 5-encounters-a-day adventuring day at you every day on a 3-week long trudge across the underdark. Again, YMMV here though depending on your DM and their preference to hand-wave or challenge you.

tl;dr
Circumstances necessitate that background matters less than your ability to cooperate and survive. There is little room for backstory to weave into the campaign though your infernal heritage could be relevant in some manner.

[RSP]

Backgrounds, in terms of character creation, matter in OotA. For instance, having an Outlander can help with survival, being a Noble may still get you a better degree of treatment or meetings with the local lords, etc.

For what made your character who they are today, a fleshed-out, written backstory certainly helps, at least in my opinion.

Either one depends on your DM for how much it matters in terms of playing the game, but either one will also help you know your character better.