Holy Epic Backstory, Batman!

[Jack Zander]

My DM required us to write a backstory for our Gestalt characters and this is what I wrote:

Ray grew up in the slums of Sharn. He was an orphan who made his living through thievery and charm. He only stole what he needed to survive and he had a guilty conscious when he did. This meager life left Ray without an education and his body was often weak from starvation, but he was nimble, and his body began to gain endurance from his poor diet.

One day, Ray stumbled across a gang of urchin goblins who were attacking a merchant for his cart full of food. Ray simply could not let this man be beaten by a gang of young thugs. He grabbed a rock and chucked it at the nearest one, knocking him out cold from a strike to the back of the head, then ducked and darted among some crates. The gang stopped attacking the merchant and began searching for Ray. He continued to shuffle behind new cover to keep his location hidden while he took them down one by one through sneak attacks. However, their hobgoblin leader was wary, and while Ray was taking out his gang of goblins, he anticipated Ray's movements and gave him a mighty blow with his fists, knocking Ray to the ground. The hobgoblin leader grabbed a discarded fire poker from a heap of refuse in the ally, and raised it point down to finish Ray. Ray pointed his finger at the hobgoblin and shouted, "You shall harm innocent people no longer!" and to everyone's surprise a beam of green energy sprung from Ray's fingertip and struck the hobgoblin square in the nose. Acid splashed across the gang leader's face and he cried out in agony as his flesh was burned. He fled the scene with his goblin gang exclaiming, "You have not heard the last of Grindash, urchin!"

Ray staggered over towards the merchant who was bruised from a stoning, but otherwise okay. "You are a very brave young lad. If you hadn't stuck up for me, my goods would have been lost, and I've got a family to feed. My name is Galiram Wardo. And who should i thank for my rescue?" the fairly young merchant said. Ray looked up shyly, and gave Galiram a shaky, "Ray." Galiram replied, "Here, you look starving, have some fruit and bread. Take as much as you like, you deserve it." He handed Ray some food. Young Ray was slightly confused. He was never offered as much food as he wanted before. The only time he would get offered food was when he went begging, and the most he would receive would be just a few stale crumbs. "I see you have a very special gift," Galiram said. "Here, let me take you someplace where you can practice and control your skills."

Galiram led Ray to the upper levels of Sharn. Everything was new to young ray, who had never dared to go outside of the slum district before. He was led to a house with glowing lights inside, and the door welcomed the two by name as they approached! "This is the home of Charl Kaens. A wise old sage who knows much of the arcane arts. He'll be able to teach you how to harness your power."

Ray was introduced to Charl. "Perhaps you've noticed strange things before? Random lights appearing out of nowhere? Blemishes on clothing appearing or disappearing? Hovering objects?" Ray nodded his head. This certainly wasn't the first time he had experienced supernatural activities. "You've got the blood of a dragon in your veins. Tell me boy, who is your father?" Ray looked down. "He is but a street urchin, sir. The boy has no family," replied Galiram. "I see," said Charl. "Very well, I shall take you in as my own son. Would you like that, Ray? You'll have food and clothing and I can teach you a very unique power you have inside of you? Of course in exchange you must promise me that you'll always use what I teach you for good and the betterment of society. Do we have a deal, Ray?" Ray's eyes widened in amazement. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to have a home to call his own.

As Ray grew in age, his magic grew in power. He learned a spell which would make his enemies as weak as he was, to even the field in case he was ever attacked. He also enjoyed a good prank, and harnessed the power to conjure a greasy coating on floors and objects. "There is something special about you, Ray," Charl said to him one day. "You learn your sorcery just as fast as any other student, and yet you haven't neglected your stealth skills you knew as a child either. Usually a person cannot learn two tasks at once. One skill must be forsaken for the other. You, however, seem to have no problem learning multiple things at once. I foresee a great destiny for you my boy. Make sure you always use your power for good. For if you are to fall to evil desires, there would be much harm you could bring to this world. And yet, if you stay true to the light, you just might save it instead. Come, you must be bored, cooped up in here all the time. Let me show you how to summon a friend." And so Ray called a magical beast to always stay by his side. A sneaky rat, a cunning scavenger, just as Ray was as a child. He named him Splinter, from the sliver of wood he used in the rat's creation process.

Ray would study his arcane arts during the day, but at night he would go down to the slums and protect innocent people from being mugged by gangs. Occasionally, he would wander across a street fight, where the gangs would gather together and force two poor urchins to fight each other for food. Ray couldn't take out an entire gang by himself, let alone several of them together, so he would wait in the shadows and watch, trying to formulate a plan. One night, he saw the scarred face of a familiar hobgoblin. From the shadows Ray shouted, "Grindash! You have gained pleasure from others suffering for far too long! I challenge you to fight instead of these innocent children!" Ray leaped from atop the building and into the center of the ring the gangs had set up. Grindash's terrible face smirked, for his scars left him unable to smile. "Far too long have I waited for my revenge on you, urchin! Now tonight, all here will witness your death!" Grindash charged into the ring, and Ray conjured a puddle below Grindash's feet. However, Grindash had trained vigorously every day since his last encounter, and was well prepared for any surprises. He held his balance and slowly moved through the grease towards Ray. Ray fired an enfeebling beam from his fingertip at Grindash and exclaimed, "Now you shall be as weak as I, bully!" But Grindash easily dodged as if he had a preternatural awareness and replied, "I don't think so, urchin!" Grindash rushed at Ray and gave him a mighty punch to the gut, which stunned Ray for a moment. Before he could comprehend what had happened, Ray was tackled to the ground, and Grindash was beating him in the face as the crowd cheered.

Just then, the crowd dispersed in fear. Grindash continued to pummel Ray, but was then pulled off of him by a strong guard of Sharn. Ray looked up and saw Charl in his blurred vision. "So this is where you have been running off to at night! You've been joining in these street fights, Ray. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am in you. That you would take all I have taught you and used it for self gain and evil. Guards, do not take mercy on this young man." Charl turned his back and walked away, and that was the last time Ray ever saw his kind foster father. He was thrown in prison for street fighting, right next to Grindash's cell.

Ray's year in prison was not a pleasant one. Grindash seemed to enjoy himself, for he had never had food every night and a blanket to sleep on. But Grindash got his pleasures from beating and taunting Ray when the two were allowed to go outside (which was seldom ever in the Sharn prisons). Eventually the two were let go, and Ray did not get a good farewell from Grindash nor from the guards. "If we ever cross paths again, it will be your last, urchin," both Grindash and the guards warned him. Ray was completely alone again in the world, and he realized that no one wanted his help, but he would strive to never stop doing good, even if the rest of the world was against him.

2.5 pages long. Wow, I didn't think I had written that much.

Anyway, how long does everyone usually make their backstories? DMs, how long do you prefer your PCs make theirs?

[Lord Greywarden]

When Playing my PC backstories range anywhere from a paragraph for some quickly thrown together characters up to what can only be described as a Novel for one character in an Amber campaign.

When DMing... I go to some effort to make certain there are backgrounds that can be exploited.

[vegetalss4]

nice, very well done. well expect for a little fact that have benn bugging me.
as you are from sharn i assume you live in eberron? if not ignore the rest of my post. you see in eberron having dragon blood in your weins is not something wich grants you magic, it is something wich gets your ancestor and all of their clan killed. however it is you game , and no offense meant.:smallbiggrin:

[Jack Zander]

nice, very well done. well expect for a little fact that have benn bugging me.
as you are from sharn i assume you live in eberron? if not ignore the rest of my post. you see in eberron having dragon blood in your weins is not something wich grants you magic, it is something wich gets your ancestor and all of their clan killed. however it is you game , and no offense meant.:smallbiggrin:

Hmm... It is an Ebberron campaign and I'm not too familar with subtle changes like that. I just figured the old sorcerer with exotic blood still applied. In any case, I'll talk to my DM and either make a slight edit, or have him use that as yet another hook for my character. Maybe that's why I'm an orphan. Thanks for the information!

BTW, this is a rogue/sorcerer gestalt character if you guys couldn't tell.

[Satyr]

Characters without a background are just numbers on a sheet of paper. The backstory is in many cases more important than the character's abilities and values, so developing a backstory is one of the most significant parts of character creation.

However, I think that the actual story should be condensed enough to be usable in the game, so it shouldn't be longer than a page or so and include some exploitable plot hooks. If the story becomes too long, it sometimes become a burden to read it (not all roleplayers are good authors and can write an enthralling tale.

When I run a game, I insist on a written background story and evaluate those, so that the players who invested more time and effort in their characters - or just had the most creative ideas - get a small bonus at the character creation - a handful of skill points or so.

[rayne_dragon]

I range from nothing to several pages, although lately I tend to single paragraph it, though the paragraph is what the 2-4 page version could be summarized as.

There's something about making up background as you go that's enjoyable too.

[UglyPanda]

I prefer a fleshed-out personality and meaningful (even if a bit short) backstory over a long backstory. While other players might read it, the only people who have to read it are you and the DM. Most of your interactions are going to be with people who don't know every detail of your character's life and are going to act as if your backstory doesn't exist. So, for your backstory to really count for something in my opinion, it has to inspire the character's current behavior, abilities, or just bizarre quirks.

Why is your character an orphan? If you say "born on the street" who took care of him as an infant?
So your character is this paragon of justice, why does he have this morality? What made him turn away from stealing when he relied on it so much in his early years?
Is this magic innate, or did he have to work hard and study (spontaneous or prepared)?
Why would Charl turn away from him? Your character was already a thief, it wasn't as if Charl was putting himself in any danger for continuing to harbor you.
He spent a year in prison, did this have any effect on him? What did he do after prison? He had no home, no money, never worked a day in his life, he had to do something once he left.

[FinalJustice]

Characters without a background are just numbers on a sheet of paper. The backstory is in many cases more important than the character's abilities and values, so developing a backstory is one of the most significant parts of character creation.

I disagree. Granted, some background is needed, even if it is 'I have amnesia' or 'I left the farm where I grew up searching for fame and fortune', but, apart from this minimum, I don't see it as mandatory. Sure, is really rewarding when players come up with good backstories and DM's know how to use them in benefit of the game, it's a win-win situation, and I fully agree with a 'reward the backstory' policy. But a character with an interesting personality and/or amusing quirks are also, for me, entirely valid and interesting characters. Hell, I can even put up with bland characters, since there's always a newbie who hasn't quite got the grasp, someone that created their chars in a hurry or is shy, etc... etc... They may get fleshed out ingame and become cool characters as well.

If I DM, which rarely, rarely happens, I let my players go loose. If someone gives me backstory, I try hard to make it worth, twisting my plans to include their plot hooks and etc... If a player just creates something little, I work with him to create some backstory, 'lend' part of my plot to his backstory or let it as it is, but make plans for fleshing out the character ingame. If said player is having fun by just being a character, throwing cool powers and dice around, I'm fine too.

[BRC]

I disagree. Granted, some background is needed, even if it is 'I have amnesia' or 'I left the farm where I grew up searching for fame and fortune', but, apart from this minimum, I don't see it as mandatory. Sure, is really rewarding when players come up with good backstories and DM's know how to use them in benefit of the game, it's a win-win situation, and I fully agree with a 'reward the backstory' policy. But a character with an interesting personality and/or amusing quirks are also, for me, entirely valid and interesting characters. Hell, I can even put up with bland characters, since there's always a newbie who hasn't quite got the grasp, someone that created their chars in a hurry or is shy, etc... etc... They may get fleshed out ingame and become cool characters as well.

If I DM, which rarely, rarely happens, I let my players go loose. If someone gives me backstory, I try hard to make it worth, twisting my plans to include their plot hooks and etc... If a player just creates something little, I work with him to create some backstory, 'lend' part of my plot to his backstory or let it as it is, but make plans for fleshing out the character ingame. If said player is having fun by just being a character, throwing cool powers and dice around, I'm fine too.
I think Personalities are more important than Backstories. A Backstory is where your character came from, but your not playing your character during their backstory, you are playing your character Afterwards. A backstory shouldn't be complete, it should be the exposition, it should give your character some motivation, and explain their personality than anything.

I'd rather have a PC who plays a character whois afraid of fire, the color red, and anything greedy, but just walked into a tavern one day with no backstory, than one who's village was destroyed by a red dragon when they were a little girl, and was then raised by a wandering wizard, and has two pages of epic story describing her life, and yet is played like anybody else.

Preferably, her village was destroyed by a red dragon when she was little, which is WHY she is afraid of things that remind her of that dragon, but just the personality is better than just the backstory. Because, you will use your backstory exactly once, in the first session. You will use the motivations and personality sculpted by that backstory every time you sit down.

[Blue Paladin]

As a PC, my backstories tend to grow the longer the campaign goes. As I get a feel for how my character is progressing, I also think about what might have happened in the past to make him that way now. Essentially, the character history grows both ways (forward in the campaign, and backwards as I flesh out the past).

As a DM, I don't require a backstory be written, just that the player has thought about it. Childhood, adolescence, present-day. At least two major events in each time frame, and I don't even have to hear them if the player doesn't want to tell me. If they do, they do so with the knowledge that I can use that info for future plot hooks. My players tend to do so; they like that certain events are "personalized" for them.

[TempusCCK]

As a PC, I tend to hae about a page of backstory written, you know, just the basic stuff, where he was born, what he did, how he became what he became, blah blah.

And I do the same thing as a DM, I find that this lays out a skeleton for which you can build character into as you need.

For instance, I started out a shipboard campaign as having a single Captain, and many crewmembers, wtih the PC's as the Elite fighting force of the ship. Eventually, a character I had only intended to be one of many officers became such a fun character for me to personally act out and one that the players enjoyed interacting with that he became the second in command without my knowing. The Captain, on the other hand, went from an aloof and generally amiable fellow to knowing every member of the ship by name and adventuring partner to the PC's, I mean, you start with basic personality traits and just kind of let it grow from there. Works out really well for me.

[Jack Zander]

Why is your character an orphan? If you say "born on the street" who took care of him as an infant?
So your character is this paragon of justice, why does he have this morality? What made him turn away from stealing when he relied on it so much in his early years?
Is this magic innate, or did he have to work hard and study (spontaneous or prepared)?
Why would Charl turn away from him? Your character was already a thief, it wasn't as if Charl was putting himself in any danger for continuing to harbor you.
He spent a year in prison, did this have any effect on him? What did he do after prison? He had no home, no money, never worked a day in his life, he had to do something once he left.

Good questions! Like another poster said here, I like to leave some questions unanswered for exploration later on in game.


Why is your character an orphan? If you say "born on the street" who took care of him as an infant?
This is one of those question's I've left open for now. I know that he knows his name is Ray, though his last name is unknown to him (he goes by Ray Kaens, the surname of his foster father). He may have had parents who were homeless and died of starvation, or perhaps he was raised by a gang, but they kicked him out once they realized he was too weak to make a good fighter. I'll answer this question later, and only if I need to.


So your character is this paragon of justice, why does he have this morality?
Call it an innate feeling. Perhaps some of his exotic blood is from a good aligned dragon or a celestial. It's certainly not from his hard life in the streets. It has to be nature rather than nurture.


What made him turn away from stealing when he relied on it so much in his early years?
Just as he had begged for food, he would see others beg for mercy when attacked by gangs. He realized that these people were just like him, trying to survive and make it in the world. When he did steal, it would only be a small loaf of bread or an apple from a vendor. He would try to steal only what he thought someone else wouldn't miss.


Is this magic innate, or did he have to work hard and study (spontaneous or prepared)?
Innate. He's a sorcerer, just as Charl is.


Why would Charl turn away from him? Your character was already a thief, it wasn't as if Charl was putting himself in any danger for continuing to harbor you.
Charl worked for years with Ray to get him to learn to control his powers in an attempt to turn him away from that life and to do good. When he saw that Ray was in a street fight, he thought Ray had squandered all that Charl taught him, and was disgusted in him for going back to the previous life he had come from. He wasn't concerned about his personal safety at all. Alternatively, maybe he wanted Ray to be kicked out, and to endure hardships for a little longer, so he could see what real criminals were like, and why the world needed help from him. After all, he already had a sense of justice before Charl taught it to him, and maybe he knew that seeing evil would only make him a better person. I'm leaving this one up to my DM in case I ever encounter Charl again and ask him why he deserted me.


He spent a year in prison, did this have any effect on him?
About the same effect as the streets had on him. While he now had food and shelter, he was confined most of the time and faced constant torment and abuse from his old rival. The biggest effect it had on him is that he is now afraid of guards. He doesn't view them as protectors of the peace, but rather as stingy bullies who care more about upholding the law than doing what is right.


What did he do after prison? He had no home, no money, never worked a day in his life, he had to do something once he left.
He became an adventurer. He decided to go ahead and continue to do the right thing. He left Sharn, and would protect caravans crossing roads, oftentimes without them knowing he was there. When he would save one, they would often give him a reward, and this is how he made his living for a while. Then eventually he met up with his current adventuring group where he made a career out of it.

Thanks. I rather enjoyed answering those.

[BRC]

I just had an awsome idea for a campaign, you have a party of Amnesiacs. However, they all have backstories. The trick, is that you have the players write each others backstories.

[Comet]

I just had an awsome idea for a campaign, you have a party of Amnesiacs. However, they all have backstories. The trick, is that you have the players write each others backstories.
I like the way you think.

Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of written backgrounds and such. I feel that writing your characters past and personality limits your actual roleplaying somewhat.
Y'see, when it's all in my head, I can make adjustments to my character without having to "retcon" some established parts of his write-up. When he actually has a write-up, this becomes more difficult, at least for me.

I like to improvise, adjusting my playstyle and character as to maximise the amount of fun for everyone. "It's what my character would do!" is one of the phrases I generally dislike to hear in a session.

Of course you can still change your character even if he has been written to a piece of paper. It's just that much less of a hassle when the only person that knows your character has been modified is yourself.

[Tequila Sunrise]

As a DM, I like my players to write short and concise histories; a page at most. Not that I don't like to read or that I don't use character histories in game, but I like to get to actually playing the game and let the characters evolve during play. As a player, I try to return the favor.

You do write well, though. Kudos!

TS

[bosssmiley]

2.5 pages long. Wow, I didn't think I had written that much.

2.5 pages? That right there is the functional definition of way too much backstory. In an RPG the story emerges *in play*. Anything beyond a one paragraph story that ends "...and that's how I ended up here" is just a discourteous infodump and belongs in a fanfic. Give your character 3 background plot hooks, 3 relationships with NPC (1 ally, 1 contact, 1 enemy), and get on with the game.


Anyway, how long does everyone usually make their backstories? DMs, how long do you prefer your PCs make theirs?

As answered above: 1 paragraph. A cultural origin, a couple of plot hooks, three connections to NPCs. Anything else is embroidered by me, the other players and the DM while we're playing the game. :smallamused:

Edit: another view (hat-tip: Jeff's Gameblog (http://jrients.blogspot.com/))


In my LATEST phase, I feel that character background should be 25 words or less, and the GM's world background should be 500 words or less. The GM may have more information, but all the PLAYERS get is 500 words or less.

After all, George Lucas only needed 83 words to introduce players to HIS universe.

93 words if you include

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

--oldgeezer, a.k.a. Gronan of Simmerya, a.k.a. Mike Mornard, a.k.a. Mister I Played In The Original Blackmoor, Greyhawk and Tekumel Campaigns

[only1doug]

I wrote something like 4-5 pages of backstory for a starwars character, with sufficient details of other characters that when the original PC turned to the darkside i just modified a fully detailed ex-mentor to bring in to try to redeem him.

Most characters i don't write anywhere near that much backstory.

I don't think i wrote any for my current character, just discussed a few items with the GM.

[Satyr]

I think Personalities are more important than Backstories. A Backstory is where your character came from, but your not playing your character during their backstory, you are playing your character Afterwards. A backstory shouldn't be complete, it should be the exposition, it should give your character some motivation, and explain their personality than anything.

I tend to expand 'character background' to all stuuf of the cvharacter which is neither equiupment or values, including personality. For me, there is no diversion of interest between the background and the personality because these are steadily influencing each other. For me, the imortance is that the players put their thoughts into theri character is what is important for me and this is what I mean to reward.
But still, brevity is a positive feature of any character description.

[Knaight]

Sometimes, but sometimes you need a longer back story, for example if you only have two players, and can focus more on the characters. That said, sometimes characters really do start on square one and shouldn't have any backstory at all that isn't provided by the GM(ie, a robot game that starts with the robots waking up on a conveyor belt headed towards a truck to be shipped off.) I usually have about a paragraph on backstory(a short one), a paragraph on personality(also short), and some bullet points on major personality features, important people, etc. So for example, for the OPs character it would be something like this(with made up details to fill stuff in):

Ray was born on the street as an orphan, and was adopted by a gang. He grew disgusted with the gang life, and rather than being saddened at being thrown out for not pulling his weight he took the opportunity to make a new start. He was adopted by a sorcerer named Chade, who noticed that he seemed to have a few more odd coincidences than natural. Chade threw him out of his house after Ray got in a street fight, and he was taken to Jail later. After he left he became more convinced in doing whats right, and disgusted with guards.

Ray is an altruistic person, with a bit of a silly side, although he also has a great many self doubts, and is rather sore about the topic of Chade, still holding a vivid memory of his rejection. The happy, optimistic side is basically a facade that managed to grow, and Ray can not handle solitude, and feels that he always needs to prove himself to somebody to make up for being thrown out twice.

*Wants to meet up with Chade, and ask why he refused to take him back in.
*Hates being lonely.
*Great many self doubts.
*Profound dislike of guards.
*Disgusted by gangs.

[AmberVael]

2.5 pages? That right there is the functional definition of way too much backstory. In an RPG the story emerges *in play*. Anything beyond a one paragraph story that ends "...and that's how I ended up here" is just a discourteous infodump and belongs in a fanfic. Give your character 3 background plot hooks, 3 relationships with NPC (1 ally, 1 contact, 1 enemy), and get on with the game.

Totally disagree.
This may be because I wrote about four pages for one of my more recent characters.

There are many styles to playing an RPG, and a backstory and information rich style is one I personally find far more interesting. It gives more weight to characters and their place in things, and for me it heightens the feel of a well crafted and powerful story. To me, it also makes the characters seem more real and developed.

[Jack Zander]

Ray was born on the street as an orphan, and was adopted by a gang. He grew disgusted with the gang life, and rather than being saddened at being thrown out for not pulling his weight he took the opportunity to make a new start. He was adopted by a sorcerer named Chade, who noticed that he seemed to have a few more odd coincidences than natural. Chade threw him out of his house after Ray got in a street fight, and he was taken to Jail later. After he left he became more convinced in doing whats right, and disgusted with guards.

Ray is an altruistic person, with a bit of a silly side, although he also has a great many self doubts, and is rather sore about the topic of Chade, still holding a vivid memory of his rejection. The happy, optimistic side is basically a facade that managed to grow, and Ray can not handle solitude, and feels that he always needs to prove himself to somebody to make up for being thrown out twice.

*Wants to meet up with Chade, and ask why he refused to take him back in.
*Hates being lonely.
*Great many self doubts.
*Profound dislike of guards.
*Disgusted by gangs.

Yeah, that's just about right, except I couldn't help but throw some storytelling into it so it became an interesting read rather than a list.

To me, it just feels like your backstory becomes another stat on your character sheet if you don't put some storytelling in there.

But I'll be honest, this is the longest backstory I've ever written, and the first one that I included direct quotes and dialog from NPCs in.


You do write well, though. Kudos!

Hey, thanks. Not the best thing I've ever written, but then again, it's only a backstory I slapped together last night. I haven't done any proofreading or editing to make it shine.


2.5 pages? That right there is the functional definition of way too much backstory. In an RPG the story emerges *in play*. Anything beyond a one paragraph story that ends "...and that's how I ended up here" is just a discourteous infodump and belongs in a fanfic. Give your character 3 background plot hooks, 3 relationships with NPC (1 ally, 1 contact, 1 enemy), and get on with the game.

I actually only have 3 plot hooks and relationships. I just decided to be really wordy with it rather than make a simple list.

[Prometheus]

That seems about the right length. The only thing I would say is remarkable about it is that it is more narrative and less autobiographical than most. Of course, I had a player who wrote that much backstory, and would periodically write more pages and pages more. She ended up with like 25 pages.

More important than the length of backstory, I believe, is what's in it. A cliche or un-descriptive backstory that doesn't leave much room for character development or DM hooks is worse than a paragraph that gets the creative juices flowing for the campaign.

[Fiery Justice]

I have found that though to a certain degree backstory is based on length of history and depth of background most of the length is based on Narrative-Biographical format. For instance, I can cram quiet a bit of useful, insightful information into three or four paragraphs and I could expand it into five or six pages. It all depends on your audience, in most cases thats your GM.

[acirruscloud]

The backstory I wrote for my current 4E character I ended up turning in as a 13 page piece of short fiction for my Fiction class. My professor loved it.

Her complaint, though, was that it didn't lend itself well to the short story format. She recommend I explore it in a longer, novel format.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

In a game of Shadowrun, one of the other players wrote up a 25+ page character bio, with a table of contents, formatted in LaTeX. The GM never got around to reading all of it, I don't think...

But that did get me thinking about what a backstory should, as a rule of thumb, include:
Character description
Plot hooks
Contacts
Character-defining moments
MOAR PLOT HOOKS

And that can take anywhere from a few paragraphs to 3 pages. But not 25.

[Jack Zander]

Ah, I forgot to give you guys a character description.

Luckily, I always take the easy way out with hero machine, so there are no more walls of text for that.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd109/sexaypattimon/Ray.jpg

[vegetalss4]

nice picture:smallamused:
i would like you to know that im glad you took the critic so well, i was afraid i came across as a jerk.