Please, never do this with your D&D backstory

D&D backstory horror stories abound; today we talk about mine. And we'll discuss how to make a good backstory for your D&D character, too!

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[minimalbstolerance]

Personally, the best character background I ever saw was this guy who expertly trolled his DM with his backstory, but did it so well the DM wasn't even mad.

Basically, on the surface, it looked like a typical terrible "if all this has happened to you why are you still Level 1?" backstory. The player turned in a seven - page chronicle about a brave paladin who's vanquished monsters, killed dragons, destroyed dark Lords, rescued princesses, etc, etc.

Then, right in the last paragraph of this epic, the player puts "My character is that guy's brother. He became an adventurer because he got fed up with his mother continually nagging him "Why can't you be more like your brother, Nigel?"

[darkfalcon]

I made a rogue with a "secretive" background ("I don't want to talk about it" was his regular response when he was asked), but I told my DM about it. His background was that his guild kicked him out after he royally screwed up his first heist (canonically rolled all Nat 1s), so much so that it's legendary within the guild, but isn't well known outside of the guild; and now he's adventuring to pay the bills.

[AraiiarA]

One of my favorite backstories was of a level 1 rogue who was a forgotten god. He was a human thief who was so good that he stole the divinity of one of the deities and he became the god of thieves. He got so bored as a god that he stole himself from history so no one remembers him, and he gave up on his divinity and became human again.

In reality he's just a lunatic level 1 human rogue but he genuinely believes all of that.

[CaptainRhodor]

I once played at a table with a rogue who was the dark, broody, mysteriously edgy type who sat in the dark corner with a dark hood on and never talked to anyone. The catch?

Never talked to anyone because he had a lisp and a stutter, and hid in the corner so he would be overlooked to avoid conversation XD

[neutronjack]

I generally use the, "I am the third son from a moderately wealthy merchant family. I had a happy childhood, receiving an education with my siblings and learning the family business. Unfortunately, being a third son, I will not inherit the family business, so I must venture out and seek my own fortune."

[iceblaze]

I had a PC with a Smith backstory once. His reason for adventuring was searching rare ores and learning the smithing styles of different races

[rickybrooks]

Note for fellow DMs - don’t use all characters’ connections as negative plot fodder (“you enter your house and find your parents/mentor/spouse murdered/kidnapped”).

There are plenty of positive ways to use a player’s backstory so that they will be incentivized to actually have connections instead of making friendless orphans over and over.

[Jbrowni]

Ah, that was my second campaign, when I thought “I got it”.
Half-elf, Ranger, Archie Sureshot. Entirely unmotivated by the going ons of the party, split off and went into the forest to find whatever he may. He was then quickly tripped and devoured by 2 gnolls

[dahelmang]

It could work for your rogue to be a master assassin from a small town where the thieves guild had three people. Everyone there was scared of you, but now you are a small fish in a big pond.

[varasatoshi]

Brooding rangers and rogues are alright if you play them correctly.

Aragorn is brooding in the tavern and acting suspicious and menacing until Frodo fumbles and exposes himself, then he pulls him out and takes him to the room, interrogates him, then starts to help him.

[ThievingDuo]

My first time playing was with a DM who was like "This is not just a sandbox game, it's the whole god damn beach. So build your castles and let me detroy them so you can rise from the muddy remains and make an epic story together" so he sat down with all of us to talk what we wanted to have in our backstories. I think that taught me very well how to write some, cause my first ideas were certainly not the greatest. :))

[xxeroc]

I think my favorite back story was a Druid Dragonborn, he tried to do a ritual to turn himself into a red dragon but failed and is now a dragon born and his motivation for adventure was just to find a cure

[michaelwells]

If you want your character to have already been well travelled before level 1 that’s fine. Remember there are other kinds of adventure that don’t involve fighting that you may have embarked on.
My current character for example was an archeologist and hired adventurers to escort him on his expeditions in his backstory. He was basically an NPC escort quest lol

[jackielinde]

DMs/GMs, be careful when putting one's foot down on players who may have legitimate reasons to play either "The Lone Wolf" or "This is what my character would do" cards. There are going to be times, and many often created by you, where a player is correct in putting their character's foot down for something contrary to what the group wants to do. In the current campaign I'm in, the DM had all of us do personal missions after completing the first adventure. This was to show the different characters different aspects of how the world was breaking. My character and my nephew's character were sent to my character's hometown because of issues within her church and her order. (She's a Paladin of Vengeance and part of a holy order.) At the end of the personal mission, we found evil had made its way into the church and was using the order to murder another friendly deity's people in secret to weaken that god. And a member of my family was trying to stop it. This created conflict when it came time to reunite the party, because most of the party wanted to go fight undead in another town, where my character had several personal stakes that would stop her from leaving. So, yeah, while the rest of the table was understandably frustrated when I played the "This is what my character would do" card, it was totally in line with what that character should and would do: Stick around to fix the order, help defend the innocents, and make sure their sister wouldn't die. Yeah, we didn't solve everything, but in two sessions, we found out there was a resistance movement trying to fix the church, how good people were being turned, and captured the head of my character's order for the resistance movement. It didn't solve everything wrong, but it put a big enough dent that my character could walk away for a little bit and not feel guilty about it.

[scottwalker]

"My character got tired of plowing a field for a living." Background done. If you really need one, remember Brevity is king.

[WarrickRanger]

Best backstory I ever came up with: a half-orc monk who was raised in a monastery by his loving human father and orc mother who were happily married. He became an adventurer because his parents wanted him to see the wide world and interact with people to broaden his horizons. No tragedy, and I get to play him a little naive because he assumes everyone is essentially good; he chooses compassion first and violence as a last resort.

[htenerf]

My favourite PC backstory was my Dragonborn from a normal small town family who had a normal life and wanted to go seek adventure. And my DM just offered. “I see your characters wisdom is low. Would it be alright if that’s what he THINKS?”
Best thing ever. His mom was a major quest giver for our party who was… neutral evil at best. And without fail any checks to detect that maybe my home life wasn’t what it seemed I’d roll Nat 1s” it was an amazing backstory that has prompted me to do more with my characters ever since.

[ATeyken]

Here is a secret, you can talk to you players about it.
In a normal voice.
No need for yelling.

It would probably go like this:
You: "I have a hard time seeing your farmer engaging with the story I am trying to tell, can you tell me why your character would engage with this adventure"
Player: "I hadn't thought about that angle, let me come up with something or just change the story"

If you try to play WITH your players and include them in the process everything goes a lot smoother.
This goes for life in general, if someone does a thing you don't like, try telling you why is bothers you and ask why they do it, instead of just getting angry or frustrated.

[jordanw]

With my players, I've learned that they just want to do an adventure. I've tried in a few campaigns to mold it around their characters, but it's always been difficult to tease out info. So now I'm running a pre-written module, and pepper in pieces that touch on their background. Much less heartache for me when they don't get invested in my homebrew setting... They can just do save Faerun from whatever. We're all having fun now, and I'm no longer anxious when game night comes along.

[meece]

My favourite character I played was a 98 year old lady who escaped from an old people's home because she was bored, taking herself out of retirement from adventuring. I attributed her lack of levels to her simply being rusty in her old age and getting back into the swing of things. Her class? Rogue. She used her slight of hand expertise to sneak cookies into the pockets of characters she thought weren't eating enough 😂