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Thread: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
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2019-09-04, 10:24 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
- Location
- FL
- Gender
Amusing Red Herring Backstories
So a friend of mine was sharing a backstory he is running. It is based on the idea of the “man who knew too little” movie with Bill Murray. His character has people following him and events that transpired around him with great...but totally irrelevant to him...circumstances. He keeps getting investigated for crimes he was near, but not a part of. Things like that. To the point that other players believe he is a criminal mastermind. He isn’t. It is quite funny to listen to them play since he told me this. They play on ps4 chat.
So what I am curious is does anyone else have some funny red herring backstories. Something that makes everyone think you are something you aren’t. Or something that has created some amusing hijinks.
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2019-09-04, 06:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2005
- Location
- Santa Barbara, CA
- Gender
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
Not in my game, but one run by one of my other players before I joined the group...had their mage by named Elminster Jr. ... yes in FR. And the kicker was his dad was a farmer...so it was "No, not that Elminster" on a regular basis (the joke still being a regular part of that table's humour when I showed up)
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2019-09-04, 07:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Gender
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
Its probably more of an idea, but I'd just love to walk in with a character with a complete edgelord appearance, all black and everything.....then proceed to be sociable, friendly and good person who just so happens to come from a culture that sees black as an inherently "heroic" and "courageous" color for some reason. and whenever they are asked they say "no, I don't want revenge on anything, why would I?"
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2019-09-05, 10:56 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2014
- Location
- A Room Between Rooms
- Gender
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
My friend had an idea that never actually made it to a game, but he planned on playing a hyper-intelligent cow without telling anyone he was just a cow that could talk with mental powers (mutants & masterminds, so completely withing the system to make). He planned on giving just enough of a description to accurately describe a mundane cow but not give enough detail for people to make the connection; moves on all fours, has short white fur with some brown patches, long round ears coming out of head, tail, etc... The plan was to do cow-like things every so often and see when people would finally connect the dots.
I would have liked to see this in play...
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2019-09-06, 07:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2018
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
Contract vampirism, and he can play Bessie.
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2019-09-09, 03:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2010
- Location
- X/Z 12,550,821
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
Sometimes, I have strong opinions on seemingly inconsequential matters.
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2019-09-09, 05:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2008
- Gender
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
I played the inverse of the cheerful looking edgelord a character who was blessed by the sun god, and looked the part: Tall, powerful, blond, beautiful, knight in shinning armor type. You cold not ask for a more stereotypically heroic looking man.
The thing was, as soon as he opened his mouth it became immediately clear that he was a whinny emo stereotype. He was incredibly miserable and expressed it by complaining bitterly about every. Little. Thing.
The party mostly put up with him because he was a bamf warrior and healer as well as a completely selfless person (and it was hilarious ooc), but gods did his peers get tired of his whining.I consider myself an author first, a GM second and a player third.
The three skill-sets are only tangentially related.
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2019-09-09, 10:29 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2005
- Location
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
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2019-09-10, 04:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
I had a 5e Warlock that sort of played with the "cheerful edgelord" theme. The character himself aspired to Edgelord status but when doing research to "find a dread master worthy of pledging my dark soul to the service of" a mistranslation of an old text resulted in him swearing the pact of the Archfey rather than the fiend.
By the time of the game's start he was in complete denial of this, insisting that his bright glittery spells were in fact magic of the blackest sort. "Why is your Eldritch Blast a rainbow?" ".... seven colors in a rainbow, seven deadly sins, coincidence? I think not!" He had pact of the chain as his pact boon, so he had his sprite familiar wore a what was basically a cheap Halloween devil costume and called her Lilith despite her insistence that her name was Lilly.
He also tried to paint the parties missions into an dark and edgy light. "I'm not "Saving" the peasants, no it's just that being eaten by zombies is.... too merciful, yes, that's it, their punishment must be more severe. So, since life is pain, what could be crueler a fate that ensuring their lives are as long as possible? Y-yeah, that's it, see how totaly dark and brooding I am?"
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2019-09-10, 06:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2005
- Location
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
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2019-09-10, 08:43 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- Sharangar's Revenge
- Gender
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
Complete with different-colored eyes?
"Dude, you have one green and one blue eye?!?!?"
"Yeah, I blame my parents for that. If my dad had married his childhood friend Suzy Rosewood instead, I'd probably have two brown eyes. What are you gonna do?"
I had a version of this, where his name actually was "Edgelord", since his parents were minor lords over a fief by the edge of the forest. His name was Darke, his sister was Sharpe, and both of them went by their middle names (Steve and Cecily), and lived in mortal fear that someone would discover the secret of their true names. My version didn't dress like one, though.Warhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
My Spelljammer stuff (including an orbit tracker), 2E AD&D spreadsheet, and Vault of the Drow maps are available in my Dropbox. Feel free to use or not use it as you see fit!
Thri-Kreen Ranger/Psionicist by me, based off of Rich's A Monster for Every Season
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2019-09-10, 11:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Gender
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
See, my version of parodying the word Edgelord would be to make an Edge Kingdom. with Edgebarons, Edge Earls, Knights and so on with an Edge King ruling over it all, complete with the commoners being Edge Peasants. the weird thing is, the higher you go in this kingdom, the less happy you get, so the Edge Peasants are the happiest people in the world, but because all the rulers are Edgelords they don't get corrupted trying to think of their own happiness because they are too busy enduring the suffering of rulership and thus constantly work to make their subjects lives the best they can so they can complain about how much they are suffering about it. These complaints are spoken out loud at court and the Edge King must evaluates how much the lord is suffering for their people so that they can entrust them with more responsibility.
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2019-09-10, 08:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Location
- Dallas, TX
- Gender
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
I have the reverse -- a backstory that affects the game, but nobody except the DM knows about it. My Ranger is a big man -- 6'6". In his early life he was a bully. He eventually was taught why that was bad, and now hates all bullies, and anybody who would pick on somebody smaller than himself.
He *always* attacks the largest creature among the enemies. I have no idea if anybody in the party has realized this, but I'm certain that even if hey have, they have no idea why.
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2019-09-10, 09:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Australia
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
Only sort-of on topic, but relates more to the stories told so far.
I had fun with a Paladin, Nymphadora Spellmason (Yes, one of *those* Spellmasons from Cauldron.
Emphasis on good rather than law. Generally laid back in the way that someone who's genuinely sure they are on the right path to their best destiny. She went of on "Crusade" fighting the forces of evil with the army where she...
did logistics. Not a Palidunce by any stretch, her high charisma and Wisdom meant she was most useful making sure the army had food and arrows and tents and stuff
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2019-09-11, 03:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2018
Re: Amusing Red Herring Backstories
I've played the polar opposite of this.
I had a warlock (this was in 3.5 before there were different types, but in 5e terms he'd have a fiend pact) who got his powers because his grandmother was a succubus. He didn't have enough demon blood in him to be a cambion, but he had inherited the demonic powers and he was so embarrassed about this family secret.
He was painfully sunny and cheerful, and always dressed in bright colours and the latest fashions. He was an incurable romantic and strived to be heroic and chivalrous and more than anything else wanted to be a paladin.
Except, of course, that his powers were all really sinister in nature, being able to fire bolts of hellfire; summon swarms of bats; raise undead; etc. He used his powers only for good, but was constantly embarrassed by the way his powers worked and kept trying to apologise for them or explain that although bats and spiders (and zombies!) had a bad reputation they were totally misunderstood and there was nothing inherently evil about them.
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2019-09-11, 07:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Australia