background generator (dice powered)

[Wraithy]

this thread is dedicated to those characters out there who are made in a rush and whos creators don't have time to engineer a backstory for.
(i am not one of them)
the idea of this generator is that by rolling something like 3d100s (or 6 depending on how you look at it) you can create the bare bones of a backstory for your character.
there would be one section for each of the undecided number of d100s (eg: 1 for upbringing, 1 for why they left home etc.)

i'll start off at section D because i might have to add earlier sections later.
D is for why they left home
D1: their village was destroyed by (roll for a 20, then take that result as the lvl encounter in the DM guide which destroyed your village, roll on that table for the specific encounter)
D2because there was a plague in their village

if you add another section please tell me what it represents.

i'll post the finished result on homebrew for future generations of lazy people (gawd blessem)

[factotum]

Why do you need d100s for each section? Seems unnecessarily complex. Even having three d20s would give eight thousand possible random backgrounds, which ought to be enough for any campaign!

[Tengu]

Something like this?

[Citizen Joe]

[BITTER][SARCASM]
So 1-50 village destroyed by orcs, 51-100 village destroyed by plague. Roll 2d10 to determine the level of the creature that killed father and mother... etc.
[/SARCASM][/BITTER]

Do we really need twenty thousand ways to say everyone you ever knew is dead? How about something novel like living parents? Happy childhood?

[factotum]

He only actually gave 2 possible options for the "why did they leave home" section. You can suggest your own that doesn't involve everyone being dead, you know. (Plus one of the options ought to be "The NPC is still at home--it's his home the PCs are traipsing into!).

[PlatinumJester]

I thinks it's a great idea. I for one can't be bothered to make up a back story (due to various distractions).
Also Tengu, I know it's already in a book but if I were to buy another book I would probably get Book of Vile Darkness or something equaly cool.

[FdL]

Yeah, people, as Tengu pointed Hero Builder's Guidebook does this. And if you're lazy enough to do it manually, there's the tables for eTools, which generates all with a click. So I advise the OP to stop working on that.

Plus IMHO it's not such a good way to generate the background for a character. Only to get some ideas, or maybe defining things that don't have a lot of weight in the story.

I just think it's a little too lazy to have it automatically generated. Thing is, if you don't take the time to build a coherent background for your character it won't feel like a real character.

[Wraithy]

yeah i origionally meant for people to add other reasons etc. only 20,000 ways? why not 200,000? it was just a suggestion.

thanks for pointing out the book, i've never seen that one in any of the shops i go to.

[PlatinumJester]

Well you didn't see it in the shops because you buy your books on - line

[DraPrime]

A certain guy called Artmonkey made this article. It still involves rolling dice, but it's very simple. At the bottom of the article there's a link that shows an example a character background created using the methods in the article.