Disagree with the whole 'you can't have done that or you'd have levelled up' argument I hear a lot. I mean soldier is a valid background, it's not called 'military cadet' if you get my meaning. The rules during actual gameplay don't have to be the same as how things work in backstory. However, such a background should be dismissed for other reasons.
I like to replace "Parents" with "Family". Everybody has parents, but not everybody (especially D&D PCs) know them. Family however, can be just about anything; fellow street orphans, extended family guardians, institutions a character was brought up in. For instance, a Paladin who was orphaned at a very young age may say their "family" are the members of the religious order that took them in and trained them in their art.
Good point. My wife plays a half-elf ranger who never knew her parents. And, to our DMs surprise, does not care who they are at all. The fur trapper who found her in the woods and raised her is her father.
I decided my Dwarven Cleric PC's parents to die in a sickness outbreak that happened at their home country few years before the campaign, that causing her a crisis of faith and leading her to pilgrimage. But her twin sister and her aunt (and all her dwarven clan, but focusing on closest family members) are wating home for her to become stronger through her travels.
I tend to ask my players for three punchy paragraphs of backstory that cover pretty much the stuff in this video: Origin - Where are you from, family, race, that sort of thing. Training - How did the character learn to do what they do? Motivation - Why is the character going to buy into the campaign hook? Players are of course welcome to write more for their own benefit. As for actually _roleplaying_ a character (PC or NPC) at the table, the two key questions are: What does this character want? What _won't_ they do to get it? These two questions can expand to inform a character's behavior over the course of a whole campaign or shrink down to tell you what the character is going to do in a particular encounter.
I'm getting the impression that this is for characters in their late teens to roughly their 30s. What if you're trying to make an older character, like in their equivalent 40s-60s or so? Perhaps answering who your parents are/were is less important in comparison to... "Are/were you married? And to whom?" "Did you sire/birth/adopt any children? And who are they?" "If you didn't have any relationships or children, why is that the case? And does that effect your community?".
Parents and early life are still important to know to understand an older person, but you're right that someone older and/or more experienced should have more backstory details. I had a new player join the party at level 8, so I had him come up with three significant accomplishments that defined his character's career. All that said, you could easily put details about family life under "What were you doing before session one?" "Why did you leave?" and "What did you leave behind?"
The most important question here, with an older adult character is, "what changed?" or "Why are you adventuring NOW?" A more established/older character is unlikely to just give up their life and head out as an adventurer unless something dramatic or traumatic happens. Something invaded their farm/business and they're out to get it. Divorce leaves them free to pursue other goals. A child is killed anf they seek vengance. They are summoned back to an earlier profession (policing, assassination, etc) because they are "the beest guy for the job". What else?
@@Lionrhod212 mid-life crisis, head injury, drafted, prophesy, adventuring with family or friends, late bloomer, encounter with [insert] that changed worldview, change or threatened change in government, impulsive and found a cool weapon or item for adventuring. Off the top of my head. There's probably more.
@@Lionrhod212 A now-rich former associate blackmails them into taking up the old profession. The kids are all grown and can take over the business, so now it's time to pursue an old dream. A church or other holy entity has chosen them for service, but at a much older age than expected. Inborn sorcerous powers have manifested themselves not at adolescence but at maturity.
I'm making a character who was raised by pirates, his name is Rigs. 1.they were born on a dirty ship out in the depths of the sea. 2. he was found by the captain of the ship while on a raid, he was much more gentle than the others, but was still hard on Rigs, wanting him to take the role of captain when he inevitably passed. 2 1/2. he is not alive any more, he was slayed by another pirate by the name of Surgog the Giant who wanted to take control of the ship. 3.Rigs was just another pirate on that dammed ship, though he was protected by his farther, who gave him slightly better armour so that he was less likely to die on his first raid, other than that he also 'tried' to help the chefs, its the thought that counts. 4.he had to escape Surgog so that he wouldn't be killed, because Rigs was in the way of Surgog becoming captain. Although Rigs didn't want to be captain, he wanted to explore the land, clime mountains, fall though the sky and to steer people to the right path, as he knew not all pirates, bandits and outlaws are evil. 5.the crew of the ship was his family, he loved everyone on that ship, it didn't mater where you where from or race you where , be that human, goliath or goblin. He especially misses Nib-Wick, the ships head cook, for a goblin he was as old as they get (84 years), he was like a second farther to Rigs, and taught him how to use a knife and fork, a rare skill on that ship. 6. he wants to avenge his adopted fathers death, and he wants to see his family again, and he wants to gather enough gold so that his family can live a normal and happy life. That is my character.
Just finished a 16 page background on my Drow Wild Sorcerer, and glad I covered all these questions! It's incredible how writing down those details make a difference in RP and the depth of the game overall... It does not only become more enjoyable to play, but also serve as a guide to the characters actions, making them more coherent overall! A glance of my Drow's story: He was born in Eryndlin, in northern Upperdark, and remembers little from childhood or his parents, as Drow generally do not create family bonds. He was taken as a consort by one of the Matron's daughters and tutored by her uncle, a powerful wizard. He studied wizardry and worked as an acolyte (more like a servant, arranging books and cleaning ritual paraphernalia) in Lolth's temple. Eryndlyn was a relatively tolerant city in terms of religion, so he amassed a vast knowledge of other Drow religions, such as Vhaeraun's and Ghaunadar's. He became fascinated with everything related to the gods, and wished to see them, learning planar magic in hopes to see the gods in their realms. When his tutor got caught stealing magical artifacts from the house Matron, my character was wrongly implied in the theft, and banished from the city, condemned to roam and walk ceaselessly, learning everything he could from other planes and realms until the day Lolth or her priestesses recalled him to learn what he saw. Unfortunately for him, his pilgrimage took him by accident to the Far Realm, where he lost all his powers, knowledge and sanity, aging hundreds of years in a few minutes and becoming somewhat erratic, insane and scarred. The adventure begins with him trying to get a grip of himself and learning magic from scratch, not using his intellect anymore, but having to rely the chaotic energies infused by his presence in the Far Realm to perform magic. He seeks first of all to recover and heal, and to seek forgiveness in the eyes of his goddess.
See, I find the "I" vs "they" character language to do the OPPOSITE. Trying to act like the character is me or I am the character makes it feel MORE fake. A mask, a facade, a sham. Whereas a character outside myself is someone more real. Someone I'm trying to figure out. Like trying to read another person in a conversation. I am myself, I'm not some adventurer in a magical land. I can imagine that other person, I can say their lines, but I can't BE them, and trying feels awkward and wrong.
This was truly a massive help. This offers a much more wide-ranging approach to creating a character's backstory that I feel will produce much more organic and life-like characters than what I'd been making before.
My favourite character I ever played was from a small town. His father was a tailor and his mother an adventurer(wizard/scholar). Neither of his parents were dead, but his father lived back home and his mother was missing. He also had about 4/5 other siblings all with regular places in the world, except his little sister, who was following his footsteps in becoming an adventurer. I find that missing family members serve their purpose a lot better than dead ones, since they still allow you to have that dark bit of your character with an absence int he family, but also allow the DM to keep that hook for later.
The Mario Brothers were plumbers before the BBEG stole away Princess McGuffin. I love your videos, Guy! Your videos have structure, humor, and really useful content. I will continue to recommend your channel to my friends.
Congratulations, 504 likes, 0 dislikes at this moment. Revisiting this topic is important; in fact, I have your previous video on this bookmarked. Character creation can not be overstated, you only have one chance to make this creation interesting and you owe it to your DM, the party, and yourself to make someone memorable. This is a worthwhile exercise.
I LOVE my copy of Central Casting; Heroes of Legend book. Dozens and dozens of random tables that give you a backstory, flaws, bonuses, and help you create an interesting character from just rolling dice. It doesn't give you details, it requires you to connect the dots from event to event but that can be fun in itself.
My most recent character, Ambiguous Omen, is a Tabaxi Warlock, is a gambler. His parents may or may not be alive - he doesn't know; he was born under odd circumstances, with many Tabaxi women present, yet none of them admitted to giving birth... so he was largely communally raised. Of course, he's out adventuring for a Purpose; his wife died on the journey to the Sword Coast, and in his desperation, he prayed to whoever might be listening to get her back. Yog-Sothoth may well not have been the best suited, but he was the one who answered... :P
Excellent video as always guy. Knowing who your parents are (even if you didnt know them or did not get along with them) provides a wealth of knowledge to the true nature of who you are and as such makes for a richer, more interesting way of creating a unique character . Even if your character's parents died or they were an orphan, their outlook on life in their early years is defined by those around them. Things like social etiquette and unspoken observations within their social class like dress sense, hygiene, language, temperament, mannerisms, views on wealth or religion etc etc can make roleplaying a character far more interesting and personal. Just like real life your parent(s)/guardian/friends defined the foundations of your emotional, intellectual and social development as you grew up, ultimately defining who you are and how you handle the encounters you have in life, resulting in the person you (or character) are today. Its an important question every player should ask themselves about their character.
Another amazing video Guy! Always amazing advice and insight to gm's and players you are the reason people say my games I run are great and you always teach me to improve and ask my players how I can improve as well you are awesome!
Take random background features from the PHB. Consider your reaction to the result. Alter accordingly to get features you can role play. Build a short (1/3 to 1 page) story from that. I mad up a set of custom D12 for this style character creation process. Some interesting combinations result. Such as: Half Orc, LG, Druid, Entertainer.
If you actually want to randomise your character, a better way is to just take your Abilities in the order they were rolled and ask yourself what kind of character they suggest to you.
Gotta say this was definitely worth the watch, even prompted me to write up the rest of my character's backstory for this upcoming campaign. turns out being hunted by your parents 'enemies is a terrific reason for your character to have been in a traveling circus. that said im gonna go ahead and sub
I used Xanathar’s to help determine some aspects of my character’s backstory, and when I got to the parent section I wanted to avoid the typical orphan background. Guess what I rolled? It may be fate for some PCs to be orphans.
I think I prefer the format of the old six questions video, where they're gone over one at a time with the overarching story of the nurse trying to solve the curse. It was more organized, and easier to understand. Though this one is good too, like all your other videos. ^^
Yes absolutely. There is so much out there people like me can't find it all so dusting off old topics and putting a fresh layer of polish on is essential.
Thank you for this incredibly useful video! The six questions you've outlined are spot on. I've adopted these questions into a form for my new players, which allows them to delve deeper into their character's backstory without the need to write lengthy essays. It's a brilliant way to achieve a comprehensive understanding of their characters with succinct and focused responses.
I just finished watching what I think was the original video for this on the Great GM Live channel, that I feel bad for only now having found out about because of the video from yesterday where he was talking about stories from his game! I LOVE Guy's videos SO MUCH! They are truly helpful tools when dealing with all aspects of TTRPGs and the things that may or may not rise during play, sometimes before play! I also like seeing how perspective has changed from various things after a few years of playing more games and doing UA-cam videos!
I love the videos you put out they help me build characters with so much more depth to them, and make me want to polish out my current character I am playing
Enjoyable vide and one of your better opening skits! I could not help but think about the current version of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha during the vid. Some of the questions yu ask and answered remind me of RQ chargen which is designed to integrate the character with the history of the setting Glorantha. By the time the PC is finished you have a good idea just how they fit into their culture and society, what they value and who they are opposed to. The game - any RPG really - takes on so much more meaning when our character is a part of the fictional society.
I do enjoy seeing these older topics, allows me to give material to my players (PS: Could you perhaps start leaving links in the descriptions about other videos you mention in a video? It helps for a reference point if I need it).
I agree that living parents are a good thing for adventures. My Warrior was dismissed from the family but still send letters and money to them, since she wanted to come back one day. Since then, my GM used that to send me a letter that my brother was going down a bad passage and they needed a stronger person to talk some sence into him. During that Adventure my character now has more reason to help her group, that has helped her and gained back her citizenship in her hometown.
My character is a black furred tabaxi named Mahi’to. 1. He was born in a small town, travellers often went through of many races and backgrounds which he liked to look at. This developed into a hobby of his to people watch (and so he has insight proficiency as he looks into people’s body language and tone) 2. His parents are both white furred tabaxi who were adventuring together to find magical artifacts before having their child and settling down awhile 3. They left him at the age of 16 to continue their lives separate from each other, he has no idea where they went; but may find them again in his travels. 4. He jumped from job to job in different towns as his peculiar nature of staring at people and sometimes even asking them why they’re sad; often got him fired (a weird employee was bad for business). At one point when attacked by a thuggish man, he discovered his powers as a shadow sorcerer that explained his odd behaviours. 5. Making enough to barely travel around when needed and live in a bed with food and drink, he eventually found himself jailed for having his peculiar habits annoy the wrong person; a noble woman of a high status, which got him jailed in a city. 6. He hadn’t lost much physically, having no contact with his parents and little coin on him, but he has missed out on being able to get friendships from moving around, and he has grown self-loathing because of his personality being frustrating for him. 7. He wants to get rid of his shadow sorcery, cutting his ties to the shadowfell so that he can be a normal person, and believes maybe then he can be happy and accept himself (character development *should* lead to him learning to accept who he is along his journey but it depends on what the DM and other PC’s throw at the character for that to be the case)
Fantastic video as usual. As a writer I so often write my characters in the first person, that when I create a gaming persona, I actually like to write them in 3rd person. Not sure why that is. I've played the orphan before, and frankly it's boring. So much more fun to have parents and sisters and brothers to argue with over the state of the farm or the mercantile or whatever. In the most recent game I played, an internet 1 on 1 with my DM, I ran 3 sisters, all half elves born into a circus family. Having living parents, plus the entire circus as a "family" was a blast. And eventually my backstories created the ultimate weapon that took out the big bad, a sea kraken God.
Thanks for this. I've been working on a tiefling rogue/warlock and my backstory kept sliding into Edgylord territory. These questions really help me get past that block. Thanks
Thank you for the inspiration, firs time DnD player and was creating a character, and I was stuck. But initially 5 minutes in, after the origins, I knew what I wanted to do with my character as soon as you asked if the parents were alive and WHO they were. I didn't think what that would do for my character until you said it had everything to do with it, and it got my creativity cogs turning. Now I'm even more excited to play my first game next week!
I love backstories. Most of the times I make them pretty generic for a class-race combination but with a couple to a few twists here and there: Lately it was a half-orc who's a child of two half-orcs (cause it's basically the same genetically-wise as a human-orc offspring and gives the opportunity to have a half-orc without childhood trauma like 99% of them). A bit of generic approach is good I think. If the GM likes using backstories later in the campaign it's easier to tangle in the plot of a regular Joe without other players immediatelly knowing "aha, now we're into someone's backstory cause it makes no sense to anyone, and Billy there seems to know what's going on". And for generic backgrounds even said Billy may be taken by surprise cause there will be no crazy foreshadowing features long in advance like: "you go to the valley few dare to go, to visit the hidden sect of assassins who never meet anyone and Billy just happens to have escaped from such a place five years ago, but if it's the same place, ooooooh, no one knows (except like everyone at the table who know Billy's origins)".
I have a bit of a habit for playing characters from noble backgrounds, so I find using games like Crusader Kings 2 to workshop character ideas is quite useful. You don't have to copy verbatim from the game but it can give you a good idea how a character might develop and the things they may have faced throughout their life.
My parents are/were adventurers. My mother stopped in Dritsh long enough to have me, then offered (sold?) me to the childless baron and his wife. I was raised with the best available, pampered, until my thirteenth birthday when father introduced me to his no nonsense man-at-arms to turn me into a "man". Life got hard real fast. At twenty, I discovered the truth of my past and decided to search for my birth parents. Father was deeply upset, sons don't leave, they stay and support their aging family. Mother understood, but cried nonetheless as I left. I will return, a barony is nothing to scorn.
I'm planning to get my character pregnant but wondering what to do with the child afterwards. Taking it with me isn't really an option, and leaving it with the intended father isn't desirable, as he's a criminal who shouldn't be raising any child of mine. I could leave it with some noble though. Thanks for the idea. As an intent anyway. We'll see what happens. 😛
So on the bit about not liking when characters parents are dead. My current character's parents are dead, but it resulted in a certain character trait(which I'm a bit afraid of saying because one of the other players in the game may see this) a split personality. It(originally) is a coping mechanism for my character to deal with the loss of his parents. So while I do agree with parents being a alive is a good thing. As long as it actually affects the character, having no parents can be beneficial. Though its not like my characters parents died in a horrible gory way
For my tiefling Barbarian, Niaka 1) I was born in a large village that sees a lot of people passing through on their way to the larger cities. I often heard adventurers talking about their exploits at the inn and wanted to be like them. 2) I've never known my father; My mother is a human prostitute. We weren't rich but we were comfortable. I also have four half-siblings who I'm quite close with. 3) I was an assistant to a blacksmith in my mother's village, helping take care of my siblings 4) I joined a rebellion against a corrupt local lord. The rebellion was successful and I found I had a talent for smashing things and I wanted to see the world 5) I left my mother and siblings, leaving on bittersweet but good terms. I hope to return and see them again and tell them of my adventures 6) I desperately want to find love. Though my mother was a wonderful parent by herself, I want a partner to share my life with.
Omg this reminds me of the time the party discovered that someone had gone through their stuff and left spying devices. My character is very meticulous and generally neutral towards political stuff and morality. The dm told me he knew someone had gone through his stuff when he found that his papers were put back in the wrong order. I was suddenly so Genuinely angry my voice dropped an octave and went super gravely, which is something I try to do for Jummur but I have a hard time achieving usually. My neck also cracked at a perfect moment. I ended up surprising myself because I often have a hard time getting into character and this time I even managed to get his voice right.
This video has inspired me to revamp the background of one of my many yet-to-play characters, Mink Chando, the kobold rogue. Mink grew up in a pretty typical kobold household, staying safely in the den while the older kobolds went out to "gather" stuff to tinker and create with, enjoying the daily bowl of gruel, living the life. But born with the heart of a true dragon, Mink always wanted *more*. After his daily bowls of gruel, he would often sneak out of the den and observe surface-dweller life, the constant stream of people in the streets, the shady dealings in back alleys, the occasional breaking and entering. He wanted *that*. One fateful evening, as he was observing the hustle and bustle of surface life, he heard the town crier mention a giant sighting in the nearby area. Being the curious little scamp he is, he was there as soon as he heard it. In a clearing not so far from the town, there was the giant, amusedly banging his big stick against an only slightly smaller rock. And on the other side of that clearing, the side closer to the town, was our boy Mink Chando. He cautiously inched closer and closer to the giant to get a better sense of what he was doing, but he accidentally startled an already frightened group of small animals, causing them scatter, causing the giant to shift his focus Mink's way. This would understandably be terrifying, and a kobold's first instinct to fear is to run, so our boy ran. The giant started chasing him, so he jumped behind one of the few boulders in this clearing for cover, used Grovel, Cower and Beg, and the giant, being the lumbering oaf it was, tripped right on over that rock and fell head first into the ground, breaking its neck. The impact of the giant falling was enough to cause a small earthquake, so naturally people went to investigate. Mink, hearing the clamouring of the approaching crowd, knew he had to act fast if he wanted to be popular among the surface-folk, so still a in a bit of shock from the whole ordeal, our boy decides to Shark Tale the giant. Unfortunately for him, though, the crowd isn't composed of high jellyfish, but rather by rational, thinking adults. They see straight through his scheme. He gets the popularity, it just wasn't the kind he wanted. The townsfolk all think he's a big joke, he has disgraced his den further than they already were by just existing as kobolds, and so he moved exactly one town over to try a fresh start, armed with a new uncertain confidence that he can probably maybe do better than kill a giant to prove his worth to the town he left behind.
We actually did play a game where one of the characters was previously a general of the big bad's army, but he had his powers stripped and was exiled. He had special insight and connections in certain situations, and no shortage of people that wanted him dead, but he still started as a level 3 fighter in the campaign. The stripped power character might be a bit cliche but it is fun from time to time
I really like this kind of videos. I always seek new ways to flesh out my characters and to create interesting backstories. About the origins, I found out something interesting with one of my characters: I play an amnesic character (not because I didn't have an idea for a backstory, but because I had too many of them and I couldn't choose one XD) and recently, it seemed very difficult to play that character because I had no idea what he went through (I let the GM decide my character's backstory) before he "woke up" like two or three years before the start of the campaign). Last time I played this character, the GM introduced a NPC my character remembered and I LOVED this session, even if I was shaking. Until now, my character was only going where the wind or fate led him, content with what he had, but now he started to remember, he has a goal: finding out who he was, where he was born, if he still has a family, a home or anything to return to when the adventure is over. Just this little piece of information helped me know what my character wanted... no, needed. I'm looking forward to learning more about what my GM planned for him ^^
Heck being a plumber would actually be a pretty good excuse to get dragged into an adventure... (As the rest of the party could interrupt you while you're on the job while escaping through the sewers... Why would a plumber be in the sewers? Fixing the sewer pipes is his job. Why do you join them? They're running for their lives from something nasty and you are in danger too.(They need a guide to not get cornered and die, and you can't fend off whatever they're running from on your own...) Or heck, you could find a clingy McGuffin that some idiot flushed down the toilet...
I find that preemptively coming up with an image of what your origins are is a lot better than waiting for a group or DM to show you the world. For example my first character is a Lizardfolk barbarian of the Geckomodo tribe located on the southern coast. The waters are realitively warm year round and exist near naturally rocky cliff and surf. We travel to the warm cave springs before the winter sets in (if you’ve ever been in gulf coast during the winter you know what that’s like). Our main base for the rest of the year would either be located in glaves like say southern Mississippi. We have rival tribes of the Tree dwelling Tabaxi in the north and the Dragonborn tribes in the eastern mountains. All 3 tribes send Marauders (like myself) to raid the villages and win battles. Our culture centers on the word of mouth, carvings, our serpentine angel Krakulakutoa, and making use of every inch of whatever we slayed.
In the Nature vs Nurture idea, your environment is part of the nurture. Like if your parents dont have a lot of money and therefore dont eat much, your character is likely to be much more cautious with money than say a noble kid with all the money he could want
In our campaign, mine is the only character with a still living parent. My character is a half vampire, and daughter of the Vampire Queen. She's one of our recurring villains. I gave our GM a blank slate of what ever he wanted to do with my PC's father, with the only guide lines, he's human, my character is this old, so Dad would have to be at least that plus 20 or more, and he'd have to be good looking and charming enough to be in bed with the Vampire Queen for a one night stand. Noble night, traveling bard, evil wizard who makes Mom look like a saint, what ever he wanted to hit me with, should he choose to. So far, he has not, and given the nature of our campaign (a lot of dimension hopping), it's unlikely he will ever turn up.
Actually my most recent character’s backstory left it vague on whether the parents are alive or not, because they don’t know themselves, and I chose to leave it to the gm. I wanted their personal quest to find their family which went missing. This gives good character development for me in the future, gives my character a personal goal, and gives the gm more to work with
I love deep back stories because they help me make things for my players based around their back story or it will help the gm use some things from my back story or incorporate it or help the party understand my character
I gave my very first character a grown up and married child. I wanted him to have an anchor in his homeland. It made him and his 'worries' much more 'real'.
I know this video is a year old, but I wanted to thank you anyway! This video helped inspire me to write more for my first ever proper DND character, so thank you! I'm so excited to play!
I will continue to defend the dead family trope. It's a classic in storytelling, and I don't feel like it limits the character if you do a good job building them up. If your parents died at a young age, that means someone probably helped you survive, whether that's your aunt and uncle who raised you as if you were their own child, a gang that taught you to survive on the streets, a monetary that took you in, the barbarian tribe you ended up meeting up with, or whatever else you come up with. All of those give you several NPCs to go to, most of whom present even more complicated relationships than you might get with parents and their children. You don't eliminate NPCs from your past if you have a dead family, you just change who those NPCs are. Orphans also open things up for mysteries regarding the character's parents, especially if they barely knew their parents. If you know and love your parents, it's going to be unlikely that the GM will say "oh, your dad is Darth Vader" or "oh, your actually the demigod son of Zeus." Now if all your characters are orphans, consider changing it up. On the other hand, there are perfectly valid reasons to have a character who lost their parents, or who doesn't know where they came from, or whatever. Just think through the potential implications of your backstory, and make sure there is something there the GM can work with.
The problem isn't with being an orphan exactly, it's that players use it as a way to avoid making a backstory or to keep the GM from bringing family members (or guardians, community members, etc.) into the story. And to be fair, this is because many GMs will only use family members as hostages or kill them off A New Hope-style to get a cheap reaction from the PCs.
@@ThreadbareInc I've heard that argument made, but for all the orphan PCs I've seen at the table, that's never been the case. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I suspect that most people aren't trying to avoid having family brought in (a lot of people kind of like having their backstory come up, even if it's negative). Most either think it's the only way to have an impactful backstory, or they are trying to play to an archetype that requires them to be an orphan (and there are several of those). But I've only gamed with a handful of distinct groups, so my experience is probably not the universal norm.
I think messing around with the trope could be fun too. Maybe the PC is lying about them being dead to protect their family from harm as a double secret plot twist? Maybe their parents are bad people are horrible; and they don't want others to associate them with or think they're like the ""dead parents"". The PC's parents could also be on their deathbed and the start of the campaign, and the reason the PC traveling is to say goodbye to their family in hospice and attend their funerals. It would be interesting PC interaction watching their fellow adventurer going through a rough time in life aside from the party getting in trouble in dungeons and whatnot. Maybe a minor campaign villain is related to the PC and wants some stuff that's being willed to the PC after their family pass on.
I played an orphan who was taken in by a man who taught him to be a proper thief. DM kills off this substitute father in the first session, before the characters enter the scene. 🙄
I like using the characters name alot in that aspect that you recommend using the 'you' and 'I' did this or that. then again I feel i have a very vivid imagination, and so far I get many compliments on my character creation. Took me a good 5 years of playing to get to that point but still, it is now my favorite part of character creation is the story of them.
only three minutes in and I already agree. I hate when people refer to their character as "he" or "she" taking an active step to distance themselves from their character.
Just found this channel. Great video! Am sharing it with several of my players who always find it difficult to write ANY backstory. (It's like pulling teeth. Honestly, how hard is it to just answer if your parents are alive or not?!) :D
I believe that this is a remake of a previous video? Whatever, it's still fantastic writing advice that I adhere to when making a character to this day.
This just makes me think of my Kobold Tig Tag. 1, he was born somewhere around waterdeep. 2, he can't remember. 3, he was being a pick pocket until he met Telia who became his new mom. 4, his new mom left so he decided to go and find her father. 5, nothing. 6, He wants to find and kill Telia's dad as he tried to kill her and killed his granny. the fun bit. He has no idea who Telias dad is, all he knows is that he's a noble and has dragon blood.
A lot of these are built right into the character generation process in Star Trek Adventures, and each answer gives you a unique combination of character attributes and skills.
I kinda went the superman route but flipped. My real parents are unknown to me, but my pseudo father was a human hunter/trapper that found me, raised me & passed away, telling me about my possible origin on his deathbed.
These questions are 100% why I tell everyone that plays tabletop RPGs to play a White Wolf game (or at least read the game books). Who you were before session 1 is possibly the most important thing in the World of Darkness properties. Also: classes with favored enemies, why are X, Y, and Z your favored enemies.
I remember the first character who’s parents were both alive. A few months of roleplay later I find them sliced to pieces. Thanks a lot GM. (Seriously, thank you it made an interesting character arc about loss.)
The autumn glade was aflame of colors when I slipped into this life. The child-bearers were nominated and so I never truly knew which people made me for this lifetime. Instead, I was brought up in the community nursery like the great majority of my cousins. The glade is accessible in the winter for anyone who needs to feel the connection of their birth. I felt that pull to visit the glade but only after my body demanded to change into an adult who might one day be a child-bearer. The seasons were generous to us for a decade or two after my birth until the sea brought a Stranger to our shore. I was in an intense field test when the stranger walked into our glade and desecrated our birth sanctum. My return, filled with my joyous pride of passing my test, sliced the silence of horror and grief of my family. I fell to the earth and shed all the tears I had to push the truth away for just a moment. My heart screamed words I had never felt the need to utter before. Rage built up inside my body, inside my soul. I fled with four of my cousins to stop the Stranger. It was folly, it was terrifying, it’s a decision I would never change. The Stranger was quick and too strong for us and we lost three cousins before the Stranger made it to the sea and disappeared. I continue to search...
gotta say I always wanted to play the amnesia-loss-of-power kind of character, like a wizard that basically forgot his spells but the years of him practicing magic gave him the inherent powers of a low-level sorcerer, but it kind of feels like a gimmicky sidenote. It adds very little to the actual characterization other than giving the DM some plotpoints to involve at some point. Maybe I'll get around to trying it in an appropriate setting and see wether it's cool or just kinda stupid.
Amnesia for characters gets a bad rap because it's often done poorly but can be amazing. It's the sort of thing you need buy-in for though, because of the potential impact on the campaign and even other PCs. It's also trickier to tie the character into the group if they have no known connections to other PCs. However, with that buy-in, it can be great. I had a character who had amnesia, with a GM who was willing to go with it, and it was intriguing. I did some research on how amnesia actually works, to make it a bit less cliche, so, for example, my character had some anterograde amnesia in addition to the commonly-seen (in fiction, anyway) retrograde type. She couldn't form new memories (think '50 First dates'). Unfortunately, the campaign ended for rl reasons before I got to explore the character properly *sad kitty*.
It now occurs to me that I think my character and like, one other person in the current party I'm in might be the only one with living parents. (Although one other party member is a kobold and those are raised communally, so that really can't be helped.)
Personally one question that needs to be anwser about character backstory is "how would this specific character affect the story simply by existing", as a rule of thumb you want characters that don't affect the narative of the campaign by existing, one of the reasons why the cliche "lost heir" backstory is considered bad is that it'll always have massive impact on the narative no matter what the player does simply by being present and thus will devalue rest of the party(or create a total mess if everyone is a lost heir of something important for the story). In my opinion a good D&D (or any other RP for that matter) character should only really affect the narative thru their actions unless it's specifically agreed upon to explore the backstory of that character (or those characters in case of multiple related characters).
Never played tabletop as of yet, though my starter character idea is basically: "Half-elf, born in (Name) Forest. Father unknown; Mother never talked about him. Other elves hated that I was half-human, so Mother brought me to a human town to raise me. She knew bardic arts and taught me them as I grew up. Knowing full well how much Mother missed the elven forest, I bid her farewell as soon as I was old enough. Initially directionless after she left, I fell into a bad crowd and helped them with a few con jobs. After a slip-up, I got pegged for forgery and fled town a wanted man. Perhaps joining a band of adventurers can shake off my pursuers... perhaps even rid me of this accursed bounty?"
1: What is your name? 2: What is your quest? 3: What is your favorite color? 4: What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow? 5: I don't know... I didn't think I'd make it this far... 6: Um... How many roads must a man walk down?
One thing I discovered recently, is that there is a gap between what the player knows and what the character knows if, for example, you did choose to have your parrents dead, sometimes meaning that the answer to "what did I leave behind" is "nothing", there is room for you and the GM to elaborate on that even if you (the character) doesn't know it. Be warned, though, that leaving gaps in your background gives to GM free rain to, just spitballing here, make you the grandchild of a dragon who happens to be the CEO of the largest Megacorperation on the planet.
That's why i love the Xanathar's tables, because it adds randomness and sometimes it fits to your current backstory you thought about, and if you dont like something, you simply change it, but its like: Oh i roll 0 brothers, but i wish my character had 1" - So you can use it as a guideline.
The best part is that this works for a good bit of IRL decisions too. Sometimes you flip a coin or roll a die and realize that the choice you really want to make is exactly the opposite of what is randomly chosen for you.
I find it an interesting exercise to roll on random tables and then try to make sense of what they give me. I often find it difficult to come up with initial ideas, so I let the dice give me something to work with. if I can't make sense of it, or don't like it, I can then either alter it or scrap and reroll, sometimes even combine bits and pieces from two sets of rolls.
Maybe a bit cliche, but cit me a little slack as he's my first ever D&D character. A Tiefling Cleric whose parents were killed when he was just a baby. He was raised in a nearby temple by a priest who wanted nothing to do with what he considered to be a demon but was ordered by the temple's goddess to raise the child. My character has no knowledge of his parents beyond the fact that they were killed. Other potential family is a possibility, but that has been left to the DM's discretion. As he grew into adulthood, he decided it was time to leave the temple for the purpose of helping others. He wants to do good in the world, and his temple is in such a small village that he feels he won't make much of a difference there.
Play as a multiclassed bard/dragon sorcerer.
Bard because your dad was a bard.
And dragon sorcerer because your dad was a bard.
“You can’t have been the head of an assassins guild and murder of thousands at a low level.”
Sure I can. *Rolls deception*
*Or* if you just got really lucky and indirectly did so
But seriously though, how many kills could a drown soldier that's 250 years old and joins the party at level 11 have to his name?
@Elderon On a about 265,63059.
@@Viktor16161616 holy, this is a great idea. I'm so gonna make this my next high level char
Disagree with the whole 'you can't have done that or you'd have levelled up' argument I hear a lot. I mean soldier is a valid background, it's not called 'military cadet' if you get my meaning. The rules during actual gameplay don't have to be the same as how things work in backstory. However, such a background should be dismissed for other reasons.
I like to replace "Parents" with "Family". Everybody has parents, but not everybody (especially D&D PCs) know them. Family however, can be just about anything; fellow street orphans, extended family guardians, institutions a character was brought up in.
For instance, a Paladin who was orphaned at a very young age may say their "family" are the members of the religious order that took them in and trained them in their art.
Good point. My wife plays a half-elf ranger who never knew her parents. And, to our DMs surprise, does not care who they are at all. The fur trapper who found her in the woods and raised her is her father.
I decided my Dwarven Cleric PC's parents to die in a sickness outbreak that happened at their home country few years before the campaign, that causing her a crisis of faith and leading her to pilgrimage. But her twin sister and her aunt (and all her dwarven clan, but focusing on closest family members) are wating home for her to become stronger through her travels.
For a moment, i was really hoping your actual father would walk in
I tend to ask my players for three punchy paragraphs of backstory that cover pretty much the stuff in this video:
Origin - Where are you from, family, race, that sort of thing.
Training - How did the character learn to do what they do?
Motivation - Why is the character going to buy into the campaign hook?
Players are of course welcome to write more for their own benefit. As for actually _roleplaying_ a character (PC or NPC) at the table, the two key questions are:
What does this character want?
What _won't_ they do to get it?
These two questions can expand to inform a character's behavior over the course of a whole campaign or shrink down to tell you what the character is going to do in a particular encounter.
I'm getting the impression that this is for characters in their late teens to roughly their 30s. What if you're trying to make an older character, like in their equivalent 40s-60s or so?
Perhaps answering who your parents are/were is less important in comparison to...
"Are/were you married? And to whom?"
"Did you sire/birth/adopt any children? And who are they?"
"If you didn't have any relationships or children, why is that the case? And does that effect your community?".
Aye good point
Parents and early life are still important to know to understand an older person, but you're right that someone older and/or more experienced should have more backstory details. I had a new player join the party at level 8, so I had him come up with three significant accomplishments that defined his character's career. All that said, you could easily put details about family life under "What were you doing before session one?" "Why did you leave?" and "What did you leave behind?"
The most important question here, with an older adult character is, "what changed?" or "Why are you adventuring NOW?"
A more established/older character is unlikely to just give up their life and head out as an adventurer unless something dramatic or traumatic happens.
Something invaded their farm/business and they're out to get it.
Divorce leaves them free to pursue other goals.
A child is killed anf they seek vengance.
They are summoned back to an earlier profession (policing, assassination, etc) because they are "the beest guy for the job".
What else?
@@Lionrhod212 mid-life crisis, head injury, drafted, prophesy, adventuring with family or friends, late bloomer, encounter with [insert] that changed worldview, change or threatened change in government, impulsive and found a cool weapon or item for adventuring. Off the top of my head. There's probably more.
@@Lionrhod212 A now-rich former associate blackmails them into taking up the old profession. The kids are all grown and can take over the business, so now it's time to pursue an old dream. A church or other holy entity has chosen them for service, but at a much older age than expected. Inborn sorcerous powers have manifested themselves not at adolescence but at maturity.
I'm making a character who was raised by pirates, his name is Rigs.
1.they were born on a dirty ship out in the depths of the sea.
2. he was found by the captain of the ship while on a raid, he was much more gentle than the others, but was still hard on Rigs, wanting him to take the role of captain when he inevitably passed.
2 1/2. he is not alive any more, he was slayed by another pirate by the name of Surgog the Giant who wanted to take control of the ship.
3.Rigs was just another pirate on that dammed ship, though he was protected by his farther, who gave him slightly better armour so that he was less likely to die on his first raid, other than that he also 'tried' to help the chefs, its the thought that counts.
4.he had to escape Surgog so that he wouldn't be killed, because Rigs was in the way of Surgog becoming captain. Although Rigs didn't want to be captain, he wanted to explore the land, clime mountains, fall though the sky and to steer people to the right path, as he knew not all pirates, bandits and outlaws are evil.
5.the crew of the ship was his family, he loved everyone on that ship, it didn't mater where you where from or race you where , be that human, goliath or goblin. He especially misses Nib-Wick, the ships head cook, for a goblin he was as old as they get (84 years), he was like a second farther to Rigs, and taught him how to use a knife and fork, a rare skill on that ship.
6. he wants to avenge his adopted fathers death, and he wants to see his family again, and he wants to gather enough gold so that his family can live a normal and happy life.
That is my character.
Just finished a 16 page background on my Drow Wild Sorcerer, and glad I covered all these questions!
It's incredible how writing down those details make a difference in RP and the depth of the game overall... It does not only become more enjoyable to play, but also serve as a guide to the characters actions, making them more coherent overall! A glance of my Drow's story:
He was born in Eryndlin, in northern Upperdark, and remembers little from childhood or his parents, as Drow generally do not create family bonds. He was taken as a consort by one of the Matron's daughters and tutored by her uncle, a powerful wizard. He studied wizardry and worked as an acolyte (more like a servant, arranging books and cleaning ritual paraphernalia) in Lolth's temple. Eryndlyn was a relatively tolerant city in terms of religion, so he amassed a vast knowledge of other Drow religions, such as Vhaeraun's and Ghaunadar's. He became fascinated with everything related to the gods, and wished to see them, learning planar magic in hopes to see the gods in their realms. When his tutor got caught stealing magical artifacts from the house Matron, my character was wrongly implied in the theft, and banished from the city, condemned to roam and walk ceaselessly, learning everything he could from other planes and realms until the day Lolth or her priestesses recalled him to learn what he saw.
Unfortunately for him, his pilgrimage took him by accident to the Far Realm, where he lost all his powers, knowledge and sanity, aging hundreds of years in a few minutes and becoming somewhat erratic, insane and scarred.
The adventure begins with him trying to get a grip of himself and learning magic from scratch, not using his intellect anymore, but having to rely the chaotic energies infused by his presence in the Far Realm to perform magic. He seeks first of all to recover and heal, and to seek forgiveness in the eyes of his goddess.
See, I find the "I" vs "they" character language to do the OPPOSITE. Trying to act like the character is me or I am the character makes it feel MORE fake. A mask, a facade, a sham. Whereas a character outside myself is someone more real. Someone I'm trying to figure out. Like trying to read another person in a conversation.
I am myself, I'm not some adventurer in a magical land. I can imagine that other person, I can say their lines, but I can't BE them, and trying feels awkward and wrong.
I have a theory: he used the same skull for all four people. Proof? They were all missing the same front tooth.
Nah, it is a gap from passing around the family heirloom, the Incisor of Vecna.
@@MonkeyJedi99
that poor mother.
The missing tooth is just a symptom of strong family resemblance.
This was truly a massive help. This offers a much more wide-ranging approach to creating a character's backstory that I feel will produce much more organic and life-like characters than what I'd been making before.
My favourite character I ever played was from a small town. His father was a tailor and his mother an adventurer(wizard/scholar). Neither of his parents were dead, but his father lived back home and his mother was missing. He also had about 4/5 other siblings all with regular places in the world, except his little sister, who was following his footsteps in becoming an adventurer. I find that missing family members serve their purpose a lot better than dead ones, since they still allow you to have that dark bit of your character with an absence int he family, but also allow the DM to keep that hook for later.
The Mario Brothers were plumbers before the BBEG stole away Princess McGuffin. I love your videos, Guy! Your videos have structure, humor, and really useful content. I will continue to recommend your channel to my friends.
Congratulations, 504 likes, 0 dislikes at this moment. Revisiting this topic is important; in fact, I have your previous video on this bookmarked. Character creation can not be overstated, you only have one chance to make this creation interesting and you owe it to your DM, the party, and yourself to make someone memorable. This is a worthwhile exercise.
I LOVE my copy of Central Casting; Heroes of Legend book. Dozens and dozens of random tables that give you a backstory, flaws, bonuses, and help you create an interesting character from just rolling dice. It doesn't give you details, it requires you to connect the dots from event to event but that can be fun in itself.
My most recent character, Ambiguous Omen, is a Tabaxi Warlock, is a gambler. His parents may or may not be alive - he doesn't know; he was born under odd circumstances, with many Tabaxi women present, yet none of them admitted to giving birth... so he was largely communally raised.
Of course, he's out adventuring for a Purpose; his wife died on the journey to the Sword Coast, and in his desperation, he prayed to whoever might be listening to get her back.
Yog-Sothoth may well not have been the best suited, but he was the one who answered... :P
These are great tips for players! Gives the players more buy in to their characters, and usually they will have more buy in to the campaign as well.
Excellent video as always guy.
Knowing who your parents are (even if you didnt know them or did not get along with them) provides a wealth of knowledge to the true nature of who you are and as such makes for a richer, more interesting way of creating a unique character .
Even if your character's parents died or they were an orphan, their outlook on life in their early years is defined by those around them. Things like social etiquette and unspoken observations within their social class like dress sense, hygiene, language, temperament, mannerisms, views on wealth or religion etc etc can make roleplaying a character far more interesting and personal.
Just like real life your parent(s)/guardian/friends defined the foundations of your emotional, intellectual and social development as you grew up, ultimately defining who you are and how you handle the encounters you have in life, resulting in the person you (or character) are today. Its an important question every player should ask themselves about their character.
Another amazing video Guy! Always amazing advice and insight to gm's and players you are the reason people say my games I run are great and you always teach me to improve and ask my players how I can improve as well you are awesome!
Take random background features from the PHB.
Consider your reaction to the result. Alter accordingly to get features you can role play.
Build a short (1/3 to 1 page) story from that.
I mad up a set of custom D12 for this style character creation process. Some interesting combinations result. Such as: Half Orc, LG, Druid, Entertainer.
If you actually want to randomise your character, a better way is to just take your Abilities in the order they were rolled and ask yourself what kind of character they suggest to you.
Gotta say this was definitely worth the watch, even prompted me to write up the rest of my character's backstory for this upcoming campaign. turns out being hunted by your parents 'enemies is a terrific reason for your character to have been in a traveling circus.
that said im gonna go ahead and sub
I used Xanathar’s to help determine some aspects of my character’s backstory, and when I got to the parent section I wanted to avoid the typical orphan background. Guess what I rolled? It may be fate for some PCs to be orphans.
Yeh the d100 thing is'nt 50/50. If you roll on that table you have a higher chance of being an orphan
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I think this is a great video. Hashing up older things and expanding on them or modifying things seems like a great idea.
I think I prefer the format of the old six questions video, where they're gone over one at a time with the overarching story of the nurse trying to solve the curse. It was more organized, and easier to understand. Though this one is good too, like all your other videos. ^^
Yes absolutely. There is so much out there people like me can't find it all so dusting off old topics and putting a fresh layer of polish on is essential.
I misread "where were you born" as "why were you born". It was funny to me.
Because mum and dad did the hanky panky without the funny balloon
"Because dad plumbed mum"
14:50
More quality content from my favorite D&D youtuber! Keep up the good work, Guy. I always learn something new with each video you put out.
Thank you for this incredibly useful video!
The six questions you've outlined are spot on. I've adopted these questions into a form for my new players, which allows them to delve deeper into their character's backstory without the need to write lengthy essays. It's a brilliant way to achieve a comprehensive understanding of their characters with succinct and focused responses.
A plumber who falls into another world? Super Mario the DnD character?
ua-cam.com/video/Lg_oiXcyguo/v-deo.html
I just finished watching what I think was the original video for this on the Great GM Live channel, that I feel bad for only now having found out about because of the video from yesterday where he was talking about stories from his game!
I LOVE Guy's videos SO MUCH! They are truly helpful tools when dealing with all aspects of TTRPGs and the things that may or may not rise during play, sometimes before play!
I also like seeing how perspective has changed from various things after a few years of playing more games and doing UA-cam videos!
I love the videos you put out they help me build characters with so much more depth to them, and make me want to polish out my current character I am playing
Enjoyable vide and one of your better opening skits!
I could not help but think about the current version of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha during the vid. Some of the questions yu ask and answered remind me of RQ chargen which is designed to integrate the character with the history of the setting Glorantha. By the time the PC is finished you have a good idea just how they fit into their culture and society, what they value and who they are opposed to. The game - any RPG really - takes on so much more meaning when our character is a part of the fictional society.
I do enjoy seeing these older topics, allows me to give material to my players (PS: Could you perhaps start leaving links in the descriptions about other videos you mention in a video? It helps for a reference point if I need it).
I agree that living parents are a good thing for adventures. My Warrior was dismissed from the family but still send letters and money to them, since she wanted to come back one day.
Since then, my GM used that to send me a letter that my brother was going down a bad passage and they needed a stronger person to talk some sence into him.
During that Adventure my character now has more reason to help her group, that has helped her and gained back her citizenship in her hometown.
Yes!! Loved it, cant wait to rewatch with a pen and paper, I have a feeling itll finally help get my backstory done
My character is a black furred tabaxi named Mahi’to.
1. He was born in a small town, travellers often went through of many races and backgrounds which he liked to look at. This developed into a hobby of his to people watch (and so he has insight proficiency as he looks into people’s body language and tone)
2. His parents are both white furred tabaxi who were adventuring together to find magical artifacts before having their child and settling down awhile
3. They left him at the age of 16 to continue their lives separate from each other, he has no idea where they went; but may find them again in his travels.
4. He jumped from job to job in different towns as his peculiar nature of staring at people and sometimes even asking them why they’re sad; often got him fired (a weird employee was bad for business). At one point when attacked by a thuggish man, he discovered his powers as a shadow sorcerer that explained his odd behaviours.
5. Making enough to barely travel around when needed and live in a bed with food and drink, he eventually found himself jailed for having his peculiar habits annoy the wrong person; a noble woman of a high status, which got him jailed in a city.
6. He hadn’t lost much physically, having no contact with his parents and little coin on him, but he has missed out on being able to get friendships from moving around, and he has grown self-loathing because of his personality being frustrating for him.
7. He wants to get rid of his shadow sorcery, cutting his ties to the shadowfell so that he can be a normal person, and believes maybe then he can be happy and accept himself (character development *should* lead to him learning to accept who he is along his journey but it depends on what the DM and other PC’s throw at the character for that to be the case)
14:37 - this whole bit is hilarious 😂 "Because dad plumbed mum" oh God that's too funny. I swear down I have the sense of humour of a 12yr old lmao
Probably not your intention, but that was A GREAT Palpatine voice
Fantastic video as usual. As a writer I so often write my characters in the first person, that when I create a gaming persona, I actually like to write them in 3rd person. Not sure why that is.
I've played the orphan before, and frankly it's boring. So much more fun to have parents and sisters and brothers to argue with over the state of the farm or the mercantile or whatever.
In the most recent game I played, an internet 1 on 1 with my DM, I ran 3 sisters, all half elves born into a circus family. Having living parents, plus the entire circus as a "family" was a blast. And eventually my backstories created the ultimate weapon that took out the big bad, a sea kraken God.
Thanks for this. I've been working on a tiefling rogue/warlock and my backstory kept sliding into Edgylord territory. These questions really help me get past that block. Thanks
Thank you for the inspiration, firs time DnD player and was creating a character, and I was stuck. But initially 5 minutes in, after the origins, I knew what I wanted to do with my character as soon as you asked if the parents were alive and WHO they were. I didn't think what that would do for my character until you said it had everything to do with it, and it got my creativity cogs turning. Now I'm even more excited to play my first game next week!
You are realy ceeping up the uploading sketchual. I wish you the very best of gaming!
I love backstories. Most of the times I make them pretty generic for a class-race combination but with a couple to a few twists here and there: Lately it was a half-orc who's a child of two half-orcs (cause it's basically the same genetically-wise as a human-orc offspring and gives the opportunity to have a half-orc without childhood trauma like 99% of them).
A bit of generic approach is good I think. If the GM likes using backstories later in the campaign it's easier to tangle in the plot of a regular Joe without other players immediatelly knowing "aha, now we're into someone's backstory cause it makes no sense to anyone, and Billy there seems to know what's going on". And for generic backgrounds even said Billy may be taken by surprise cause there will be no crazy foreshadowing features long in advance like: "you go to the valley few dare to go, to visit the hidden sect of assassins who never meet anyone and Billy just happens to have escaped from such a place five years ago, but if it's the same place, ooooooh, no one knows (except like everyone at the table who know Billy's origins)".
This video helped me clarify some of the goals for my character. Thanks
I have a bit of a habit for playing characters from noble backgrounds, so I find using games like Crusader Kings 2 to workshop character ideas is quite useful. You don't have to copy verbatim from the game but it can give you a good idea how a character might develop and the things they may have faced throughout their life.
My parents are/were adventurers. My mother stopped in Dritsh long enough to have me, then offered (sold?) me to the childless baron and his wife. I was raised with the best available, pampered, until my thirteenth birthday when father introduced me to his no nonsense man-at-arms to turn me into a "man". Life got hard real fast.
At twenty, I discovered the truth of my past and decided to search for my birth parents. Father was deeply upset, sons don't leave, they stay and support their aging family. Mother understood, but cried nonetheless as I left.
I will return, a barony is nothing to scorn.
I'm planning to get my character pregnant but wondering what to do with the child afterwards. Taking it with me isn't really an option, and leaving it with the intended father isn't desirable, as he's a criminal who shouldn't be raising any child of mine.
I could leave it with some noble though. Thanks for the idea.
As an intent anyway. We'll see what happens. 😛
So on the bit about not liking when characters parents are dead. My current character's parents are dead, but it resulted in a certain character trait(which I'm a bit afraid of saying because one of the other players in the game may see this) a split personality. It(originally) is a coping mechanism for my character to deal with the loss of his parents. So while I do agree with parents being a alive is a good thing. As long as it actually affects the character, having no parents can be beneficial. Though its not like my characters parents died in a horrible gory way
For my tiefling Barbarian, Niaka
1) I was born in a large village that sees a lot of people passing through on their way to the larger cities. I often heard adventurers talking about their exploits at the inn and wanted to be like them.
2) I've never known my father; My mother is a human prostitute. We weren't rich but we were comfortable. I also have four half-siblings who I'm quite close with.
3) I was an assistant to a blacksmith in my mother's village, helping take care of my siblings
4) I joined a rebellion against a corrupt local lord. The rebellion was successful and I found I had a talent for smashing things and I wanted to see the world
5) I left my mother and siblings, leaving on bittersweet but good terms. I hope to return and see them again and tell them of my adventures
6) I desperately want to find love. Though my mother was a wonderful parent by herself, I want a partner to share my life with.
Omg this reminds me of the time the party discovered that someone had gone through their stuff and left spying devices. My character is very meticulous and generally neutral towards political stuff and morality. The dm told me he knew someone had gone through his stuff when he found that his papers were put back in the wrong order. I was suddenly so Genuinely angry my voice dropped an octave and went super gravely, which is something I try to do for Jummur but I have a hard time achieving usually. My neck also cracked at a perfect moment. I ended up surprising myself because I often have a hard time getting into character and this time I even managed to get his voice right.
This video has inspired me to revamp the background of one of my many yet-to-play characters, Mink Chando, the kobold rogue.
Mink grew up in a pretty typical kobold household, staying safely in the den while the older kobolds went out to "gather" stuff to tinker and create with, enjoying the daily bowl of gruel, living the life.
But born with the heart of a true dragon, Mink always wanted *more*. After his daily bowls of gruel, he would often sneak out of the den and observe surface-dweller life, the constant stream of people in the streets, the shady dealings in back alleys, the occasional breaking and entering. He wanted *that*.
One fateful evening, as he was observing the hustle and bustle of surface life, he heard the town crier mention a giant sighting in the nearby area. Being the curious little scamp he is, he was there as soon as he heard it.
In a clearing not so far from the town, there was the giant, amusedly banging his big stick against an only slightly smaller rock. And on the other side of that clearing, the side closer to the town, was our boy Mink Chando. He cautiously inched closer and closer to the giant to get a better sense of what he was doing, but he accidentally startled an already frightened group of small animals, causing them scatter, causing the giant to shift his focus Mink's way. This would understandably be terrifying, and a kobold's first instinct to fear is to run, so our boy ran. The giant started chasing him, so he jumped behind one of the few boulders in this clearing for cover, used Grovel, Cower and Beg, and the giant, being the lumbering oaf it was, tripped right on over that rock and fell head first into the ground, breaking its neck.
The impact of the giant falling was enough to cause a small earthquake, so naturally people went to investigate. Mink, hearing the clamouring of the approaching crowd, knew he had to act fast if he wanted to be popular among the surface-folk, so still a in a bit of shock from the whole ordeal, our boy decides to Shark Tale the giant. Unfortunately for him, though, the crowd isn't composed of high jellyfish, but rather by rational, thinking adults. They see straight through his scheme.
He gets the popularity, it just wasn't the kind he wanted. The townsfolk all think he's a big joke, he has disgraced his den further than they already were by just existing as kobolds, and so he moved exactly one town over to try a fresh start, armed with a new uncertain confidence that he can probably maybe do better than kill a giant to prove his worth to the town he left behind.
Great ideas! I'm going to ask my players to try answering these for my first campaign. Wish me luck :)
We actually did play a game where one of the characters was previously a general of the big bad's army, but he had his powers stripped and was exiled. He had special insight and connections in certain situations, and no shortage of people that wanted him dead, but he still started as a level 3 fighter in the campaign. The stripped power character might be a bit cliche but it is fun from time to time
I really like this kind of videos. I always seek new ways to flesh out my characters and to create interesting backstories. About the origins, I found out something interesting with one of my characters: I play an amnesic character (not because I didn't have an idea for a backstory, but because I had too many of them and I couldn't choose one XD) and recently, it seemed very difficult to play that character because I had no idea what he went through (I let the GM decide my character's backstory) before he "woke up" like two or three years before the start of the campaign). Last time I played this character, the GM introduced a NPC my character remembered and I LOVED this session, even if I was shaking. Until now, my character was only going where the wind or fate led him, content with what he had, but now he started to remember, he has a goal: finding out who he was, where he was born, if he still has a family, a home or anything to return to when the adventure is over. Just this little piece of information helped me know what my character wanted... no, needed. I'm looking forward to learning more about what my GM planned for him ^^
Heck being a plumber would actually be a pretty good excuse to get dragged into an adventure... (As the rest of the party could interrupt you while you're on the job while escaping through the sewers... Why would a plumber be in the sewers? Fixing the sewer pipes is his job. Why do you join them? They're running for their lives from something nasty and you are in danger too.(They need a guide to not get cornered and die, and you can't fend off whatever they're running from on your own...)
Or heck, you could find a clingy McGuffin that some idiot flushed down the toilet...
Really fun video, Guy! Thanks for sharing the personal anecdotes too. :)
Long time subscriber, first time commenter. I just wanted to say, you have really been hitting it out of the park recently. Great content
despite having seen the previous video, this has given me a new angle on which to see one of my characters backstories
I find that preemptively coming up with an image of what your origins are is a lot better than waiting for a group or DM to show you the world. For example my first character is a Lizardfolk barbarian of the Geckomodo tribe located on the southern coast. The waters are realitively warm year round and exist near naturally rocky cliff and surf. We travel to the warm cave springs before the winter sets in (if you’ve ever been in gulf coast during the winter you know what that’s like). Our main base for the rest of the year would either be located in glaves like say southern Mississippi. We have rival tribes of the Tree dwelling Tabaxi in the north and the Dragonborn tribes in the eastern mountains. All 3 tribes send Marauders (like myself) to raid the villages and win battles. Our culture centers on the word of mouth, carvings, our serpentine angel Krakulakutoa, and making use of every inch of whatever we slayed.
Great video all around!
Long time lurker here, I'd love to see more old topics revisited!
In the Nature vs Nurture idea, your environment is part of the nurture. Like if your parents dont have a lot of money and therefore dont eat much, your character is likely to be much more cautious with money than say a noble kid with all the money he could want
In our campaign, mine is the only character with a still living parent. My character is a half vampire, and daughter of the Vampire Queen. She's one of our recurring villains.
I gave our GM a blank slate of what ever he wanted to do with my PC's father, with the only guide lines, he's human, my character is this old, so Dad would have to be at least that plus 20 or more, and he'd have to be good looking and charming enough to be in bed with the Vampire Queen for a one night stand. Noble night, traveling bard, evil wizard who makes Mom look like a saint, what ever he wanted to hit me with, should he choose to. So far, he has not, and given the nature of our campaign (a lot of dimension hopping), it's unlikely he will ever turn up.
If your GM has a sense of humor, you have already met him but neither knew who the other was.
One of your best intros to date!
ah yes, my character who digs up all their family members' skulls so he's always got family nearby
Actually my most recent character’s backstory left it vague on whether the parents are alive or not, because they don’t know themselves, and I chose to leave it to the gm. I wanted their personal quest to find their family which went missing. This gives good character development for me in the future, gives my character a personal goal, and gives the gm more to work with
14:50 "dad plumbed mum"
I love deep back stories because they help me make things for my players based around their back story or it will help the gm use some things from my back story or incorporate it or help the party understand my character
I've subscribed. I love your videos man! Keep up the good work!
That was an awesome evil laugh!
I gave my very first character a grown up and married child. I wanted him to have an anchor in his homeland. It made him and his 'worries' much more 'real'.
I know this video is a year old, but I wanted to thank you anyway! This video helped inspire me to write more for my first ever proper DND character, so thank you! I'm so excited to play!
Handmade Christmas Wrapping Paper...that actually sounds really cool :)
I like it. Revising the older subjects would be nice to watch
I will continue to defend the dead family trope. It's a classic in storytelling, and I don't feel like it limits the character if you do a good job building them up. If your parents died at a young age, that means someone probably helped you survive, whether that's your aunt and uncle who raised you as if you were their own child, a gang that taught you to survive on the streets, a monetary that took you in, the barbarian tribe you ended up meeting up with, or whatever else you come up with. All of those give you several NPCs to go to, most of whom present even more complicated relationships than you might get with parents and their children. You don't eliminate NPCs from your past if you have a dead family, you just change who those NPCs are.
Orphans also open things up for mysteries regarding the character's parents, especially if they barely knew their parents. If you know and love your parents, it's going to be unlikely that the GM will say "oh, your dad is Darth Vader" or "oh, your actually the demigod son of Zeus."
Now if all your characters are orphans, consider changing it up. On the other hand, there are perfectly valid reasons to have a character who lost their parents, or who doesn't know where they came from, or whatever. Just think through the potential implications of your backstory, and make sure there is something there the GM can work with.
The problem isn't with being an orphan exactly, it's that players use it as a way to avoid making a backstory or to keep the GM from bringing family members (or guardians, community members, etc.) into the story. And to be fair, this is because many GMs will only use family members as hostages or kill them off A New Hope-style to get a cheap reaction from the PCs.
@@ThreadbareInc I've heard that argument made, but for all the orphan PCs I've seen at the table, that's never been the case. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I suspect that most people aren't trying to avoid having family brought in (a lot of people kind of like having their backstory come up, even if it's negative). Most either think it's the only way to have an impactful backstory, or they are trying to play to an archetype that requires them to be an orphan (and there are several of those). But I've only gamed with a handful of distinct groups, so my experience is probably not the universal norm.
I think messing around with the trope could be fun too. Maybe the PC is lying about them being dead to protect their family from harm as a double secret plot twist? Maybe their parents are bad people are horrible; and they don't want others to associate them with or think they're like the ""dead parents"".
The PC's parents could also be on their deathbed and the start of the campaign, and the reason the PC traveling is to say goodbye to their family in hospice and attend their funerals. It would be interesting PC interaction watching their fellow adventurer going through a rough time in life aside from the party getting in trouble in dungeons and whatnot. Maybe a minor campaign villain is related to the PC and wants some stuff that's being willed to the PC after their family pass on.
I played an orphan who was taken in by a man who taught him to be a proper thief. DM kills off this substitute father in the first session, before the characters enter the scene. 🙄
Thanks for the great advice! I'm going to refer my players to this just because I think everyone can gain something from this
May it be better to interpret the "where you were born" question as "where were you raised"?
Great video! Thanks for putting this together!
I like using the characters name alot in that aspect that you recommend using the 'you' and 'I' did this or that.
then again I feel i have a very vivid imagination, and so far I get many compliments on my character creation. Took me a good 5 years of playing to get to that point but still, it is now my favorite part of character creation is the story of them.
i would like more of such videos, the expended basics are very interesting to listen and for sure very educationall, Especially the examples you give!
14:52 OMG!!! That was HILARIOUS!!!
only three minutes in and I already agree. I hate when people refer to their character as "he" or "she" taking an active step to distance themselves from their character.
Just found this channel. Great video! Am sharing it with several of my players who always find it difficult to write ANY backstory. (It's like pulling teeth. Honestly, how hard is it to just answer if your parents are alive or not?!) :D
I believe that this is a remake of a previous video? Whatever, it's still fantastic writing advice that I adhere to when making a character to this day.
This just makes me think of my Kobold Tig Tag. 1, he was born somewhere around waterdeep. 2, he can't remember. 3, he was being a pick pocket until he met Telia who became his new mom. 4, his new mom left so he decided to go and find her father. 5, nothing. 6, He wants to find and kill Telia's dad as he tried to kill her and killed his granny. the fun bit. He has no idea who Telias dad is, all he knows is that he's a noble and has dragon blood.
This was extremely helpful. Thanks so much.
A lot of these are built right into the character generation process in Star Trek Adventures, and each answer gives you a unique combination of character attributes and skills.
I kinda went the superman route but flipped.
My real parents are unknown to me, but my pseudo father was a human hunter/trapper that found me, raised me & passed away, telling me about my possible origin on his deathbed.
At the end I just kept hearing "I am Inigo Montoya. You kill my father. Prepare to die" in my head. Great points for char building though!
These questions are 100% why I tell everyone that plays tabletop RPGs to play a White Wolf game (or at least read the game books). Who you were before session 1 is possibly the most important thing in the World of Darkness properties. Also: classes with favored enemies, why are X, Y, and Z your favored enemies.
I remember the first character who’s parents were both alive. A few months of roleplay later I find them sliced to pieces. Thanks a lot GM. (Seriously, thank you it made an interesting character arc about loss.)
The autumn glade was aflame of colors when I slipped into this life. The child-bearers were nominated and so I never truly knew which people made me for this lifetime. Instead, I was brought up in the community nursery like the great majority of my cousins.
The glade is accessible in the winter for anyone who needs to feel the connection of their birth. I felt that pull to visit the glade but only after my body demanded to change into an adult who might one day be a child-bearer.
The seasons were generous to us for a decade or two after my birth until the sea brought a Stranger to our shore. I was in an intense field test when the stranger walked into our glade and desecrated our birth sanctum. My return, filled with my joyous pride of passing my test, sliced the silence of horror and grief of my family. I fell to the earth and shed all the tears I had to push the truth away for just a moment. My heart screamed words I had never felt the need to utter before. Rage built up inside my body, inside my soul. I fled with four of my cousins to stop the Stranger. It was folly, it was terrifying, it’s a decision I would never change. The Stranger was quick and too strong for us and we lost three cousins before the Stranger made it to the sea and disappeared.
I continue to search...
gotta say I always wanted to play the amnesia-loss-of-power kind of character, like a wizard that basically forgot his spells but the years of him practicing magic gave him the inherent powers of a low-level sorcerer, but it kind of feels like a gimmicky sidenote. It adds very little to the actual characterization other than giving the DM some plotpoints to involve at some point. Maybe I'll get around to trying it in an appropriate setting and see wether it's cool or just kinda stupid.
Amnesia for characters gets a bad rap because it's often done poorly but can be amazing. It's the sort of thing you need buy-in for though, because of the potential impact on the campaign and even other PCs. It's also trickier to tie the character into the group if they have no known connections to other PCs. However, with that buy-in, it can be great.
I had a character who had amnesia, with a GM who was willing to go with it, and it was intriguing. I did some research on how amnesia actually works, to make it a bit less cliche, so, for example, my character had some anterograde amnesia in addition to the commonly-seen (in fiction, anyway) retrograde type. She couldn't form new memories (think '50 First dates'). Unfortunately, the campaign ended for rl reasons before I got to explore the character properly *sad kitty*.
It now occurs to me that I think my character and like, one other person in the current party I'm in might be the only one with living parents. (Although one other party member is a kobold and those are raised communally, so that really can't be helped.)
Personally one question that needs to be anwser about character backstory is "how would this specific character affect the story simply by existing", as a rule of thumb you want characters that don't affect the narative of the campaign by existing, one of the reasons why the cliche "lost heir" backstory is considered bad is that it'll always have massive impact on the narative no matter what the player does simply by being present and thus will devalue rest of the party(or create a total mess if everyone is a lost heir of something important for the story).
In my opinion a good D&D (or any other RP for that matter) character should only really affect the narative thru their actions unless it's specifically agreed upon to explore the backstory of that character (or those characters in case of multiple related characters).
Never played tabletop as of yet, though my starter character idea is basically: "Half-elf, born in (Name) Forest. Father unknown; Mother never talked about him. Other elves hated that I was half-human, so Mother brought me to a human town to raise me. She knew bardic arts and taught me them as I grew up. Knowing full well how much Mother missed the elven forest, I bid her farewell as soon as I was old enough. Initially directionless after she left, I fell into a bad crowd and helped them with a few con jobs. After a slip-up, I got pegged for forgery and fled town a wanted man. Perhaps joining a band of adventurers can shake off my pursuers... perhaps even rid me of this accursed bounty?"
1: What is your name?
2: What is your quest?
3: What is your favorite color?
4: What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
5: I don't know... I didn't think I'd make it this far...
6: Um... How many roads must a man walk down?
I've always written my backgrounds in first person. Only, seeing as nobody else does it this way, I thought I was doing it wrong.
I loved this video. I will be forwarding it to my players.
One thing I discovered recently, is that there is a gap between what the player knows and what the character knows if, for example, you did choose to have your parrents dead, sometimes meaning that the answer to "what did I leave behind" is "nothing", there is room for you and the GM to elaborate on that even if you (the character) doesn't know it. Be warned, though, that leaving gaps in your background gives to GM free rain to, just spitballing here, make you the grandchild of a dragon who happens to be the CEO of the largest Megacorperation on the planet.
That's why i love the Xanathar's tables, because it adds randomness and sometimes it fits to your current backstory you thought about, and if you dont like something, you simply change it, but its like: Oh i roll 0 brothers, but i wish my character had 1" - So you can use it as a guideline.
The best part is that this works for a good bit of IRL decisions too. Sometimes you flip a coin or roll a die and realize that the choice you really want to make is exactly the opposite of what is randomly chosen for you.
I find it an interesting exercise to roll on random tables and then try to make sense of what they give me. I often find it difficult to come up with initial ideas, so I let the dice give me something to work with. if I can't make sense of it, or don't like it, I can then either alter it or scrap and reroll, sometimes even combine bits and pieces from two sets of rolls.
Maybe a bit cliche, but cit me a little slack as he's my first ever D&D character.
A Tiefling Cleric whose parents were killed when he was just a baby. He was raised in a nearby temple by a priest who wanted nothing to do with what he considered to be a demon but was ordered by the temple's goddess to raise the child. My character has no knowledge of his parents beyond the fact that they were killed. Other potential family is a possibility, but that has been left to the DM's discretion. As he grew into adulthood, he decided it was time to leave the temple for the purpose of helping others. He wants to do good in the world, and his temple is in such a small village that he feels he won't make much of a difference there.