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Jbots
2019-05-30, 07:52 AM
Hi everyone
I'm not good at coming up with backstories for characters at the best of times and was wondering if anyone is able to help me out.

Kasdon Waggletop
Gnome wizard

(My aim is for him to become a necromancer)

My DM wants a back story and reason why he would be on his way to Saltmarsh (we are doing the "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" story line)

Any help would be awesome.

Jay R
2019-05-30, 09:05 AM
The difficulty you’re having is that you are trying to do it backwards. The backstory leads to who he is today.

I write my backstories while building the character. He has animal handling? Then he probably had a dog while growing up. This probably leads to a point or two in Knowledge(nature), since they would romp through the woods together.

So without knowing who Kasdon is, and what skills, abilities and feats he has, there is no way for us to create his backstory.

Clearly, we can’t describe his early life in a cave, if you already know he came from a city, for instance. There's no point discussing that he was bullied as a child, and so loves using Enlarge Person on himself, if he doesn't have Enlarge Person.

So tell us what his abilities, skills, feats, spells, and desires are, and how you like to play a character, and we can repeat them back to you in the form of a backstory.

-----

[I've stopped asking for back-stories from people with no interest in them. I had one player whose basic back story, for any character, was "I'm a fighter who likes to hit things."

I once insisted on at least a paragraph, and it came out something like this: "Forlong grew up watching the fighters at practice, and always wanted to join them. He considers his sword his closest friend, and always takes care of it. He's now looking for opportunities to use his fighting skills to help people."

I'm sure that if I had pushed him to do it, he could've written five pages of back-story that boil down to "I'm a fighter who likes to hit things." ]

Great Dragon
2019-05-30, 10:32 AM
The difficulty you’re having is that you are trying to do it backwards. The backstory leads to who he is today.

I write my backstories while building the character. He has animal handling? Then he probably had a dog while growing up. This probably leads to a point or two in Knowledge(nature), since they would romp through the woods together.

So without knowing who Kasdon is, and what skills, abilities and feats he has, there is no way for us to create his backstory.

Clearly, we can’t describe his early life in a cave, if you already know he came from a city, for instance. There's no point discussing that he was bullied as a child, and so loves using Enlarge Person on himself, if he doesn't have Enlarge Person.

So tell us what his abilities, skills, feats, spells, and desires are, and how you like to play a character, and we can repeat them back to you in the form of a backstory.

These are good points, and the bolded are what are needed, as well as what Background you've chosen for your Character. An Acolyte is different from a Sage, and so on.

What kind of Gnome? Forest? Rock? Deep?
Each one can affect his personality.

Another thing I wonder, since most Gnomes are portrayed as cheerful pranksters:
why does Kasdon want to become a Necromancer?

Is he fascinated by Death/Undeath?

Does he (secretly) want to control others, and the Undead are easy targets?

Is his ultimate goal becoming a Lich?


***
Since you (the Player) know that Kasdon is going into Saltmarsh, ponder why he would do that. Ask the DM what the Character would already know about Saltmarsh and events in play before arriving.

Is Kasdon a Sailor/Pirate? Getting involved is easy.

Is Kasdon a Criminal on the run for his "crimes" of Necromantic research?


Jay R: [I've stopped asking for back-stories from people with no interest in them. I had one player whose basic back story, for any character, was "I'm a fighter who likes to hit things."

I once insisted on at least a paragraph, and it came out something like this: "Forlong grew up watching the fighters at practice, and always wanted to join them. He considers his sword his closest friend, and always takes care of it. He's now looking for opportunities to use his fighting skills to help people."

I'm sure that if I had pushed him to do it, he could've written five pages of back-story that boil down to "I'm a fighter who likes to hit things."]

Like you, I no longer require a backstory, although I will gladly help anyone that wants to make one.

Segev
2019-05-30, 10:55 AM
Indeed, what is his Background? If you haven't chosen one yet, ask the DM if there are any in Ghosts of Saltmarsh; I know Tomb of Annihilation has two in it that help link player characters into the plot.

Elvensilver
2019-05-30, 02:20 PM
You only told us gender, profession race and destination! If I'd ask all given human males travelling to a big city with a common job I'd still have thousands of different personalitys and stories!
What kind of personality would you like to play/what personality traits do you default to when playing? It should be quite easy to come up with a story about a sadistic plotting gnome, who'd like everyone that ever wronged him to be eaten by their zombiefied families, but do you want to play that?
So, instead of just gender, race und destination tell us about some playestyle you could enjoy.

Kaptin Keen
2019-05-31, 05:17 AM
I have enormous difficulty imagining anyone being truly enthusiastic about death. The comic book villainy of necromancers is - to me, sorry if you feel differently - nothing short of moronic.

No, necromancers become necromancers for rational reasons. Maybe they realise that all the major lessons we need to learn are in history, and who knows more about history than the dead? Or maybe they realise all the great masters are long in the ground - but not gone, not for someone with the ability to converse beyond the veil. All the forbidden wisdom of the forgotten past is common knowledge to the inhabitants of ancient tombs.

This is what drives a necromancer. Looking through libraries for lost knowledge - and realising it's not really lost, just buried. To a necromancer, a graveyard is a library. Necromancers don't animate skeletons to have them fight - no, they're a handy tool for digging up more skeletons to question.

Mastikator
2019-05-31, 05:26 AM
All I know is he should call himself a neckgnomeancer

Segev
2019-05-31, 07:55 AM
I have enormous difficulty imagining anyone being truly enthusiastic about death. The comic book villainy of necromancers is - to me, sorry if you feel differently - nothing short of moronic.

No, necromancers become necromancers for rational reasons. Maybe they realise that all the major lessons we need to learn are in history, and who knows more about history than the dead? Or maybe they realise all the great masters are long in the ground - but not gone, not for someone with the ability to converse beyond the veil. All the forbidden wisdom of the forgotten past is common knowledge to the inhabitants of ancient tombs.

This is what drives a necromancer. Looking through libraries for lost knowledge - and realising it's not really lost, just buried. To a necromancer, a graveyard is a library. Necromancers don't animate skeletons to have them fight - no, they're a handy tool for digging up more skeletons to question.

Minionmancy is also its own motivation. No, not to fight, not necessarily, but as labor. It's cheaper and faster than construct-building (albeit with a ceiling that construct-building lacks in terms of numbers controlled), and when combined with command undead on intelligent targets, can get some unique abilities.

Necromancers also study death to defeat it: lichdom and other forms of undeath, not to mention fabled means of obtaining immortality, are all possible motives to study the subject.

Tragedy can create a necromancer: a madman who believes the zombie he raised from the corpse of his loved one is that loved one; a brother who captured the slaymate that spontaneously arose from his abused and betrayed younger sibling and who wants to regain a relationship via command undead (it acts like Charm); a lonely nerd who knows mind-controlling the living is wrong, so uses his magic to make the dead act like his friends; a heartbroken village wise woman who raises the corpses of her friends and family to take vengeance upon the orc tribe that murdered everyone she ever loved.

My own signature necromancer, Segev Stormlord, is in the "seeking immortality" and "fascinated by the study of the subject" camps.

Kaptin Keen
2019-05-31, 10:43 AM
Minionmancy is also its own motivation. No, not to fight, not necessarily, but as labor. It's cheaper and faster than construct-building (albeit with a ceiling that construct-building lacks in terms of numbers controlled), and when combined with command undead on intelligent targets, can get some unique abilities.

Necromancers also study death to defeat it: lichdom and other forms of undeath, not to mention fabled means of obtaining immortality, are all possible motives to study the subject.

Tragedy can create a necromancer: a madman who believes the zombie he raised from the corpse of his loved one is that loved one; a brother who captured the slaymate that spontaneously arose from his abused and betrayed younger sibling and who wants to regain a relationship via command undead (it acts like Charm); a lonely nerd who knows mind-controlling the living is wrong, so uses his magic to make the dead act like his friends; a heartbroken village wise woman who raises the corpses of her friends and family to take vengeance upon the orc tribe that murdered everyone she ever loved.

My own signature necromancer, Segev Stormlord, is in the "seeking immortality" and "fascinated by the study of the subject" camps.

Yes yes, there are many valid reasons - some slightly cliché, some slightly comic book villianous. And some quite good. Personally, I feel some of your examples come uncomfortably close to my 'too enthustiastic about death' limit to be believable. In the sound of mind, of course, the insane can be enthusiastic about anything. But again, personally, I'd not recommend playing someone insane - simply because I feel it ... grows boring, quite quickly. That's obviously subjective (as is the rest of it, btw).

Imbalance
2019-05-31, 01:07 PM
Simple. Kasdon is a metal head. He's on his way to the 'assault mosh' because he's hardcore like that.

TheYell
2019-06-01, 10:50 AM
I'm sure that if I had pushed him to do it, he could've written five pages of back-story that boil down to "I'm a fighter who likes to hit things." ]


The basis for a degree in the humanities. You were pushed to keep writing.


I agree the OP should offer more information about what they want to be playing, or we'd just be making a character they really dislike.

Zhorn
2019-06-01, 11:30 AM
First I must say; love the name of this PC
... but like the others have said, there's hardly enough details to make a backstory of the character.

To start with, pick out the skill proficiencies you want Kasdon Waggletop to have.
A reason why they have each of those skills is a good way to flesh out a backstory.

Select a background (usually done in combination with your skill selection)
That's the bulky part of your character's backstory. It should represent what your character did before becoming an adventurer. Maybe they're still doing that. Maybe not.

Roll tables are great, but don't feel you have to select at random, nor do you have to pick only from the lists provided. But they are still great for overcoming writer's block.
What's a Trait, Flaw, Ideal and Bond that you like for Waggletop? If the background you were looking at has an additional table, what's a good pick from there (or one of your own making?)

Lets look at XGtE for some more options:
page 58: Spellbook, Ambitions, Eccentricities
What type of spellbook does Waggletop have? Is it special, does it hold personal value, or is it something he can swap out for any other book?
Ambitions are great character building tool. Why does Waggletop want to be a Necromancer? What does he want to achieve with that power and what set him down that path?
Eccentricities don't need to be crazy, outlandish or incredibly obvious, but they are character defining. A minor twitch, a nervous habit, a grandiose way of greeting a new person, a tendency to over explaining simple details, a fascination about the composition of bat guano in different regions.

Still in XGtE, lets jump ahead a couple of pages to the This Is Your Life section:
Parents; how many raised you and how many are still alive? Did they approve of Waggletop becoming a wizard?
Birthplace/Childhood home: where and for how long?
Siblings: were their any? were their rivalries?
Bunch'o'roll tables for background and class: what looks good?
Life events: Take 1, take 12, or take any number in between.

Most character only need 1 or 2 things to be memorable, so don't feel you have to do EVERYTHING on the list, but if your ever stuck, pick two things, and then spend some time working out how they could be connected.