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Trizap
2008-05-14, 11:27 PM
I'm fairly new to DnD, now I got all the rules and mechanics down, I don't need help with those, I understand the rules, and can I quickly learn any new ones.

my problem is different: I need a little help with the lore and backstory part of the game, the in game reasons, you know the flavor, the actual roleplaying.

in short, to use a metaphor: I know how the clock ticks on the inside, but I need some help designing the outside to make it look good.

don't get me wrong, I love roleplaying, and I'm creative, I just need help.

Nohwl
2008-05-14, 11:57 PM
one solution would be to play with a group that doesnt do a lot of roleplaying.

Ran_Endlathall
2008-05-15, 12:04 AM
Well, for the lore and backstory, there's the semi offical D&D backstory, but often you're looking at something new the DM's setting up for his campaign. Figuring out how to run a character at tabletop and on the boards is something that I've foind a lot of difference with as well. I'd suggest thinking about it like you would a novel, or a short story, motivations are usually easy enough to figure out once you know what your DM's world is.

Other than that, If you're looking to know a specific backstory for certain D&D campagins, like Forgotten Realms or Ravenloft, those vary greatly and core books are a good way to glance through what's been established and likely what events are going to be similarily based around.

I hope this helps a little.

xirr2000
2008-05-15, 12:07 AM
Well I'm assuming that you want to add roleplaying to your adventures? Or else follow the advice in the previous post. I guess first you have to create a campaign world in which your adventures take place, this will set the "flavor" of your D&D campaign. The lore and backstory of any campaign is totally up to the DM. If you need ideas you can refer to any of the well-known campaigns out there, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Ravenloft to name a few. A lot of people like to make their own, one of my favorites was a swashbuckling orc campaign where the whole campaign world was nothing but a bunch of islands.

Even in a pre-made campaign setting where your background and lore are already created tho you can still personalize it with whatever feel you want to add to your campaign. Want a samaurai feel? Jurassic Park? Campaigns dont even have to take place in a "real" world, they could be on some other plane of existence like the Astral. Planescape was a setting that relied on this heavily. Even setting what level you start at will determine the feel of a campaign.

I guess what I'm saying is there is no set "lore and background" for D&D. Hope I understood your question right and not just re-iterating basic campaign concepts here....:)

xirr2000
2008-05-15, 12:14 AM
And further more.....:)

Ok, so if you want a general run down of D&D lore as it is semi-described in the books you basically have some similar themes in every campaign.

Good Guys: Human, Elves, Dwarfs, Haflings (Hobbits), Gnomes (until recently they could be PCs)

Bad Guys: Pretty much everyone else including orcs, goblins, kobolds, most dragons, ogres, giants and whatnot.

Every campaign seems to have different deities they worship but a few stand out in my head no matter where I go in the D&D world:

Moradin - God of the Dwarfs
Llolth(sp?) - spider queen deity of the drow (evil elves)

Some of the good guys do not always act kindly towards one another.

Booya, there's your basic D&D lore in a nutshell :)

holywhippet
2008-05-15, 12:22 AM
Are you running a game as a DM or are you trying to handle your characters roleplaying? I'm assuming it's the latter since a newcomer is unlikely to be acting as DM.

Is the game world an existing setting (Forgotten Realms, Eberron (sp), Planescape, Ravenloft etc.) or a made up one? If it's the former, hit your bookstore and look for any novels written in that setting (ebay and amazon.com are good also). If it's the latter, try and draw some details from them.

For roleplaying your character, try to think of a past for them. Did they grow up in a happy family or were they an orphan? Did they grow up in civilised lands or in the wilderness? What alignment is your character, and why did they turn out that way? Why did they chose to become an adventurer? Why did they chose their class?

Trizap
2008-05-15, 12:39 AM
well I'll never plan to DM- I just pretty much need help with backstory specifically, thats all.

Trizap
2008-05-15, 12:41 AM
And further more.....:)

Ok, so if you want a general run down of D&D lore as it is semi-described in the books you basically have some similar themes in every campaign.

Good Guys: Human, Elves, Dwarfs, Haflings (Hobbits), Gnomes (until recently they could be PCs)

Bad Guys: Pretty much everyone else including orcs, goblins, kobolds, most dragons, ogres, giants and whatnot.

Every campaign seems to have different deities they worship but a few stand out in my head no matter where I go in the D&D world:

Moradin - God of the Dwarfs
Llolth(sp?) - spider queen deity of the drow (evil elves)

Some of the good guys do not always act kindly towards one another.

Booya, there's your basic D&D lore in a nutshell :)

hey...why not have a good goblin? or a kind ogre? or a wise giant? anyone ever thought abut that?

Trizap
2008-05-15, 12:44 AM
one solution would be to play with a group that doesnt do a lot of roleplaying.

No, no likey that, if a group is playing this game but doesn't roleplay, whats the point of playing it? you would be missing out on half the game there.

holywhippet
2008-05-15, 01:15 AM
hey...why not have a good goblin? or a kind ogre? or a wise giant? anyone ever thought abut that?

It's undoubtably been done. Drizzt Do'Urden is the classic example - a good drow elf.

The trick to roleplaying is to consider each situation and think "what would my character do". Say you come across some big men harassing a woman in a town. A lawful good type with ranks in diplomacy might step in and try to mediate while a LG type with no diplomacy might get the guards. A chaotic good type would probably just leap in and start swinging.

What you might try is generating a character randomly - roll dice for race, class, alignment (where applicable) etc. Then try to justify with a backstory the character you've just created.

Tempest Fennac
2008-05-15, 01:39 AM
Playing a character who's similar to what your like in real life to begin with could help. Alternatively, if you have time, joining a freeform RPing group would be helpful (HALO, AMEN and LAW are all groups which are active in the Town section on this forum). In regards to racial alignments, there's really nothing stopping you from ignoring those (they shouldn't affect gameplay that much unless your DM insists on sticking wit them for some reason).