Xanathars character story tables are crazy

[moonfly7]

I rolled a random character on the xanathars tables, went with my lizard folk ranger beastmaster who has a skeleton companion.
Started rolling:
His mother gave birth to him among another race, rolled humans.
His mother died in child birth, ok good so far
Rolled orphanage, makes since
Rolled for child hood home, got mansion, ok, he got adopted. But the lifestyle of the people who adopted him is normal, so an old mansion, no longer rich
Rolled on another table, famine, both parents die at age 3, he's alone in this big mansion
Lives a normal childhood, has a few friends
Joins garrison to fight monster
Goes to war, gets small wound on left shoulder
And here's where it gets weird:
I roll goes into haunted abandoned mansion, roll see ghosts, roll get chased by demon twice.
Ok, child hood home is haunted and possessed.
Next roll is fiend warning of danger saves my life
Ok, demon is a chill bro
Roll wake up 3 miles from house for no reason one day
Ok, demon played prank
Find treasure map, must be the one that lead him to temple with skelly(named Indiana bones)
Was a smuggler for a bit, made friends with an adventurer and pissed of another, still wanted in a few places for smuggling
I roll marriage twice, meaning married, with a kid
On the weird stuff table it says my lover was secretly a silver dragon
Now married to adult silver dragon with silver dragon born daughter, age 19
Roll drank a potion once, DM chooses haste
It's decided his wife had him drink it on their wedding night for "fun"
Rolling for his daughter
She's a silver dragon born druid, since 19 only one life event
Apparently she's married
Roll her husband
Dark gnome gem stond cutter who was raised by elves, orphan like her dad
He is also 19
Roll one life event
They have a baby daughter
A pretty little gnome with solid silver hair, opal eyes, dark purplish skin, and sharp nails and teeth
End of the craziest backstory I've ever seen

[Imbalance]

I guess it's a matter of perspective. I mean, I see how those tables can be useful, but since I've been coming up with weird crap like that my whole life I just found them amateurish, weak. I'm not saying my ideas are better, it's just that those pages and pages of random nonsense are no competition for the crazy in my head. What's more, the deeper I get into this world of D&D and its community, the less insane I feel.

[Tanarii]

I mean, if you play an old character with 8+ life events and roll multiple 1-2% chance results, sure, it can get a little wierd. :smallamused:

I am curious: where did you got your age when your parents died?

[Sparky McDibben]

I feel like this isn't a fair assessment of the material. I've always had good success with the tables, and my wife uses them for her characters because she finds random rolling to be a fun activity.

Also, that's 7 life events. Your character has to be at least 41 years old, and per Volo's lizardfolk rarely live past 60. That puts him past 67 equivalent human years (assuming a human lifespan of 100 years). This poor schlub is one buff grandpa.

[Luccan]

The tables are intended to be inspirational. If you don't like your results, whether you just don't like it or you can't reconcile some of your rolls, you're encouraged to ignore them and make it up or choose another from the table. Also, as has been pointed out, if you're a fresh, young adventurer you shouldn't have that many life events.

[Mutazoia]

Try using the old "Central Casting: Heroes of X" background generators some time....Xanathar's got nothing on those....

[JackPhoenix]

At least you can't die during character creation... *cough* Traveller *cough*

[RickAllison]

I like those tables for creating general outlines for inspiration. They are an assortment of data points, it's up to the player to turn them into an interesting graph.

[moonfly7]

I feel like this isn't a fair assessment of the material. I've always had good success with the tables, and my wife uses them for her characters because she finds random rolling to be a fun activity.

Also, that's 7 life events. Your character has to be at least 41 years old, and per Volo's lizardfolk rarely live past 60. That puts him past 67 equivalent human years (assuming a human lifespan of 100 years). This poor schlub is one buff grandpa.


The tables are intended to be inspirational. If you don't like your results, whether you just don't like it or you can't reconcile some of your rolls, you're encouraged to ignore them and make it up or choose another from the table. Also, as has been pointed out, if you're a fresh, young adventurer you shouldn't have that many life events.

He's 45 actually. I actually love this, I blended them all together into one of my favorite backstories of all time. My house is our fall back point, with a cave lair of a dragon underneath, and a backup character in my daughter already their.
My DM helped amazingly. I love this story
Just wanted to share it.
I might just write it up as a short novelization if anyone wants to read it.

[Wyverntamer]

He's 45 actually. I actually love this, I blended them all together into one of my favorite backstories of all time. My house is our fall back point, with a cave lair of a dragon underneath, and a backup character in my daughter already their.
My DM helped amazingly. I love this story
Just wanted to share it.
I might just write it up as a short novelization if anyone wants to read it.

I would love to see it, I recently had the same thing happening in a roleplay, got that my character: Knew her parents; was born at home; has eight sibling; (my choice, is the oldest of the 9); grew up with a single father; mother got taken away for an unknown reason; had a modest lifestyle; lived in a mansion; had a few close friends and an ordinary childhood; She was often left alone and became a charlatan; and a warlock;

At the start of the adventure she had: lived 46 years (rolled 41-50, rolled a d10 to decide exact age); had 6 different life events; She stumbled into a haunted house (became a warlock there); Had a friend die (while experimenting with her powers); fell in love (with another charlatan); went on an adventure with her; got caught for counterfeiting official orders; had an encounter with a ghoul.

And that was before she went on her first official adventure.

[ImproperJustice]

I’ve used em a few times when stuck on creating a background or when I am in a hurry.

Funnily enough, it has given one of my longest running characters a very flavorful and enjoyable backstory that has provided a lot of motivation to adventure and garner enjoyment from the game.