How do I tie player backstories to the plot?

[MorningStar]

Hello! I'm a DM about to start a Pirate campaign, set in my own modified version of the Shackles.

I have most of the possible storylines set out and marked fairly well, but one place I am having issue with is the player backstories.

Basically, my issue is that I am unsure how to ensure that their backstories entwine with the plot. I love when backstory becomes significant for some current problem or quest. However, I have trouble ensuring a connection between two seemingly unrelated plots.

Here's an example:

One of my players has woken up on a beach. He was formerly a Devil general, but has woken up as a fresh human. What the player doesn't know is that his rebirth is part of a curse placed upon Mars, the god of war (who ascended from mortality in my setting).

Now this is interesting and all, but I am hard-pressed to find a good way to tie that in with piracy. After all, it seems like the two are quite unrelated.

I've considered just stealing from obscure media, but this is a bit too specific for anything I know of to work well.

I'm not asking for you guys to write this kind of thing for me, I was just curious as to whether you had any interesting advice or specific methods for this kind of thing.

[Lacco]

Hello! I'm a DM about to start a Pirate campaign, set in my own modified version of the Shackles.

I have most of the possible storylines set out and marked fairly well, but one place I am having issue with is the player backstories.

Basically, my issue is that I am unsure how to ensure that their backstories entwine with the plot. I love when backstory becomes significant for some current problem or quest. However, I have trouble ensuring a connection between two seemingly unrelated plots.

Here's an example:

One of my players has woken up on a beach. He was formerly a Devil general, but has woken up as a fresh human. What the player doesn't know is that his rebirth is part of a curse placed upon Mars, the god of war (who ascended from mortality in my setting).

Now this is interesting and all, but I am hard-pressed to find a good way to tie that in with piracy. After all, it seems like the two are quite unrelated.

I've considered just stealing from obscure media, but this is a bit too specific for anything I know of to work well.

I'm not asking for you guys to write this kind of thing for me, I was just curious as to whether you had any interesting advice or specific methods for this kind of thing.

My first idea would be: He's not first.

I also like when the backstory of my players somehow plays into the plot. Usually there are either direct ties (e.g. the character is the one the old prophecy talks about), ties through NPCs (e.g. the character is the child of one of major NPCs), ties through location (e.g. their homestead lies directly on the ley lines the enemies will try to capture), ties through history (e.g. the tomb with major artifact is actually their family tomb).

Oftentimes I just scour backstories of players for common ground, which I can use. So if one of them comes from a major noble house and another one's family feuded with a noble house, I will bind those together (if possible).

What works for me in this case is: there were others like him. Some of them basically decided to become pirate crew - and their captain might know more about the curse.

[Man_Over_Game]

Sometimes, they don't have to be connected in the sense that "He's a pirate because of his relation to the God of War", but that "His life of being a pirate eventually leads into his origin involving the God of War".

Perhaps his life on the seas leads him to a person or a clue, something that informs him of his true past. This all can be something that was preordained, perhaps by the Fates or even something more nefarious that could see into the future.

[Kyutaru]

One of my players has woken up on a beach. He was formerly a Devil general, but has woken up as a fresh human. What the player doesn't know is that his rebirth is part of a curse placed upon Mars, the god of war (who ascended from mortality in my setting).

Now this is interesting and all, but I am hard-pressed to find a good way to tie that in with piracy. After all, it seems like the two are quite unrelated.

I've considered just stealing from obscure media, but this is a bit too specific for anything I know of to work well.

I encourage you to read up on the material concerning the Demon Zombie Ghost Pirate LeChuck. It's not exactly obscure media either.

[Duff]

My general advice is *very* general

• You don't always have to have it planned in advance from the start
• Sometimes it's easier to have the PC bring their own past into it by giving them resources from their background they can call on
• It's often easier to introduce a smaller fry NPC than a big one. - Specifically, Don't make the "General in the army" important, make "This NPC's former commander/comrade/enemy" important
• A mystery item who's powers can only be unlocked by someone with he right background can work. Again, for the specific, maybe the magic ship was made as a warship. Turns out having the ring of a general of Mars gives a captain access to extra powers

[KineticDiplomat]

One of the best ways I’ve seen this done is through Passions (or oaths, or drives, or whatever) where the PCs outline four or so specific things they want to do as characters, with an emphasis on a degree of achievable specificity, and character advancement is tied to accomplishing those. The idea being that your players are both telling you what kind of game they want, helping build the world, have immediate character investment in the story, and are mechanically inclined to actually try to achieve what their characters want to achieve. This creates fertile ground for you as a GM.

For instance “I want to win the tournament of iron in Zjikstra to prove I’m the best swordsman in the world” tells you that the PC wants there to be a tourney in his story, has created out of whole cloth both that there is a Tournament of Iron and a city/state of Zjisktra that hosts it, and that his character is interested in proving to people he is the best swordsman in the world. You are now free to use this to tie in to the plot.

If another character wants to “ensure that the Sultan Abakan falls from power for what he did to my mother”, well, guess who is going to be intimately involved in the Tournament of Iron?

[Glorthindel]

One thing to remember is it is a two-way street - if the player wants you to entwine their backstory into the plot, they have to be willing to give a little on their backstory to enable that to be possible.

In my case, I usually ask players to leave holes in their backstory (things like place of birth, if their family was killed by monsters, exactly what monster, etc) that we can fill in together. For example, going with the "family killed by monsters", and I know Drow are going to be a big enemy down the line in my campaign, and that the party will never have the opportunity to encounter Sahaguin, if the character puts "family killed by Sahaguin", he is going to be **** out of luck, but if he agrees to leave the type of monster open, I can suggest Drow, knowing I can tie this into the campaign down the line.

This also slightly ties into my number 1 rule of character backstories - the most important events in the characters life must occur at the table. I will be honest, your players backstory worries me because the stakes are personally too high for the character (this character has had a full and rich life, and naturally reclaiming that life will be the singular most important thing to them, over and above any plot you can put in front of them). If you think of your campaign like a novel, the characters backstory should be the prologue leading into the main story that is the campaign, the campaign should not be a spin-off sequel to the main novel that is the story of the individual characters former life.

No matter how well you tie a backstory into the plot, in order for it not to seem too contrived (and for a single character to not look like the 'main character') there will be times when advancing the campaign will not directly impact the backstory plot (and may require them to actively shelve their personal goals for a time in order to prioritise the campaign goals), and in order to justify this, the stakes of the campaign must be higher than the personal stakes of his backstory.

[miken92]

Hello every body,
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[Pauly]

Not every character needs to have their backstory woven into the plot. Some heroes like Batman or Spiderman are defined by their back story and it drives the plot.
Other heroes like D’Artagnan, for example, the backstory only really give a starting point to the plot.
For some heroes the backstory is essentially irrelevant to the plot, apart from establishing who the character is. Dirty Harry for example.

If there us a natural hook use it. But don’t twist the plot to become a plot hook. It feels forced and unnatural.

With the example given, why dies the PC become a pirate? Well why did people become pirates in real life? Press ganged. Escaping from a cruel master. For the riches. Economic necessity. Tradition. Letter of Marque. Their buddies became pirates. To seek revenge. Religious zeal.
Use any of these that suit, and maybe Later find how to tie it back to the PC’s back story.

[Firest Kathon]

You should get involvement from the players beyond them simply posting their backstory. Ask the player what it has to do with becoming a pirate. Ask the player to give you some plot hooks. If course you get the final say in what will be used, but there is no need that you do all the work yourself .

He was formerly a Devil general, but has woken up as a fresh human. What the player doesn't know is that his rebirth is part of a curse placed upon Mars, the god of war (who ascended from mortality in my setting).

Now this is interesting and all, but I am hard-pressed to find a good way to tie that in with piracy. After all, it seems like the two are quite unrelated.

One think to consider is that the navy of the Empire of Cheliax is quite active in the Shackles...

[sktarq]

Well a few things come up.

What is this characters relationship with the church of Mars and or Mars himself...what could it be? Would the church consider this a blessing or foul hijacking of their gods power? Does his presence have an effect of the magic of Mars (perhaps only in certain circumstances? or certain types?) Now before you pick an answer think what those answers could drive various priests, the church as a whole, other churches (friends, others who ascended, foes), and the character himself to DO that would make good plot related stuff.

Next others who have been through the similar situations. do they meet? Do people think all are similar?

Was he human before becoming a devil and then becoming a fresh human? If so what was his first life like?

Are there any side effect of his demonic past? Do Devils hate him? Teiflings? Daemons? Would they if he/they only knew? Do they consider him a likely ally? Which of course begs the question of aasimars, good churches etc...Can he touch "devil only" stuff? These could give you opportunities. Could cut the party off from obvious solutions, give new options, or bring in a new faction to the problem at hand. He can also use his knowledge of those reactions to move groups. (the Church of Pelor hates him? Doesn't really understands him beyond being touched by the infernal? and he has an issue with a group of devil backed bandits...bluff the church into thinking he is aligned with them instead of opposed and wait for the church to do his dirty work for him)

There are also questions about what being a pirate means to him. Can you lure him with the call of the sea and always skipping ahead of danger and state forces? open opportunities for him to use ship handling skills, bury treasure (and make or use maps), and other piratical techniques.


Look for ways his background can give him chances to use skills, knowledge, influence without necessarily making him the centre key of a world spanning plots (which can feel unfair to other players with farmer-bill type backgrounds)

[Duff]

Perhaps another piece of advice...
You can have a wonderful, carefully plotted campaign and then character backstory occasionally touches, maybe in an important way
You can have characters with intricate backstories which you weave into a campaign

They're both able to give you a wonderful game. It looks a bit like you've got a carefully plotted game and are trying to add intricate backstories

[Knaight]

The big thing is to either not write a plot at all (my preferred method), or to wait until you have backstories then raid them for setting elements for a plot. That doesn't mean you can't have a really vague outline - though if you have one, it wouldn't hurt to give your players enough of the really vague outline as material to build a backstory around.

[Kardwill]

The big thing is to either not write a plot at all (my preferred method), or to wait until you have backstories then raid them for setting elements for a plot. That doesn't mean you can't have a really vague outline - though if you have one, it wouldn't hurt to give your players enough of the really vague outline as material to build a backstory around.

That's the method I use myself. We gather for "session zero", discuss a broad outline of what the campaign will be about, and then the players build characters together as a group, trying to insert their characters backstories into that frame. And then, I will use the plot points they chose for their characters as cues to build the campaign : Villains, organisations, locations, themes, troubles, even the entire premise of the game ("3 characters are part of this shadow council? Okay, the campaign's first arc will be about outsiders who try to break the council's unity, so they can bring it down and take its place")... That way, the game is built "around" the characters. And usually, the players' buy-in for these games is strong, since they feel that for once, their choices about who their PCs are is important. It's THEIR city that is endangered, THEIR missing sister who turns out to be the villain...

Trying to do character-centered stuff with a pre-written campaign will be difficult. By definition, the campaign already exists without the PCs and doesn't care about who they are. So you either need to give them many indications about what would fit right ("I'd like one of you to be Darth Vader's former apprentice") or be ready to make big changes to the core elements of the campaign to insert character backstories (Charlie is looking for his missing sister, abducted by the Empire? Okay, I'll write Vader out of the campaign, and use the sister, trained as an Dark Side Inquisitor, instead as the "masked Force-using villain". Which means I have to adapt those parts of the campaign too")