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Bacon Battalion RPG My witch, Claudette Morellas, was born to a branch in a lower noble family in the capital city of Absalom. She moved to a castle along the gulf shore to live with an older handmaiden and bodyguard when her father, a local adventurer had left to assist guards with orc invasions from the southern most country. Her mother died mysteriously in the night, quietly and without warning and the grief left her father, crippled by war, a great deal colder. She spent the time taking care of him and fulfilling her duties as the matriarch to her family at the young age of twelve. After some time learning of her touch from her healing patron and her thrush familiar, she was rewarded with the power to heal supernaturally. Her handmaiden seeing this, took it upon herself to train her in alchemy. Knowing it would aid her in her altruism. Once her father passed, she left her home to help those she could find. Leaving her inheritance, her alchemy teacher, bodyguard, and betrothed to seek greater understanding of her powers as a Hedge Witch. Hoping to find a cure or reason for the untimely death of her mother, and for any other person taken before their time.
"And here we can see the mother carrion crawler and her young. It's the dry season and corpses are rare as adventuring parties remain in taverns, avoiding the noonday's heat. It is a perilous time for her and her kits, and if she doesn't find a peasant soon, she will have only once choice... she will devour her own." :)
Now I want to watch wildlife documentaries about fantasy creatures. Like seriously, we put all this effort into our characters and settings... why not the creatures getting some love? :)
Bacon Battalion RPG if we are all getting a go... " the small hob goblin sneaks through the bushes, spying on the low level party. Suddenly, he strikes out- murdering their magic user which for some reason was sitting at the front. The barbarian strikes with his brutal chair leg- he sold his axe for a door. He smacks the their behind him instead- the their falling backward, killing the bard behind him as his snide falls out of the sheath it was in- a long sword sheath . The barbarian is now left by himself, and does what any logical barbarian would do, try and use healing magic. The barbarian is then stabbed through the hearts, and collapses in a puddle of blood. This is what we call the hobgoblin. He is now charged with bringing the bodies back."
Question links for the lazy. 1. Where was the Character Born? (2:52) 2. Who are their parents? (6:38) a. Are the parents/family still alive? (8:20) 3.What was your character doing before the adventuring life? (10:00) 4. Why did your character leave their previous life? (13:01) 5. What did your character leave behind? (15:01) 6. What does your character want? (motivations) (16:53) As he says in the video, each of these questions spawn more and more specific questions, which can either be explored before play or left as a mystery within the game space for the game master and fellow players to discover together. This is definitely one of my favorite tutorials for character creation out there. Think of the character, not the class, instead of vice versa.
Thank you for doing this! It's amazing. How to cut a tutorial from 20 mins down to 7 sentences lol. I appreciate your effort here and I'm glad you like the video!
Bacon Battalion RPG When someone makes a helpful comment like this, you should pin it to the top, I believe you're able to do that. This would prevent the need to scroll through comments.
I didn't have much luck in finding good D&D games due to bad DMs which I posted about on another Vid. This one is about my Favorite Character and I pretty much used a similar approach to the one in this video when I made but this is also how my DM ruined him for me. 1) Place of Birth Unknown (Per DM rules as he hinted at all the characters would be linked to some Dark Deity who banged a lot of woman. 2) Assumed to be traveling Merchants as was rescued by traveling monks trying to defend a group of travelers being attacked by bandits. Being the only survivor with no known living relatives the monks took in the toddler with them. 3) Character spent his life living in mountain monastery being raised and training with the monks. 4) Like all the ofter character they got a summons from an important individual in the Kingdom. 5) He left behind the quiet remote monastery to the big city. 6) Character had always wanted to explore and spent a lot of time sneaking out to exploring the local mountains(had high stealth/climb/survival skills) but for some reason the monks would never let him join their trade expeditions to nearby towns for supplies. So he jumped at the chance for the invitation. I envisioned the character as more of the Asian movie monks with slightly supernatural powers along with expert hand to hand fighting skills and ability to grab anything as an improvised weapon. To do it I made a multiclass monk, it's been a long time since I played so I'll probably get a few names of things wrong but from what I recall it was a Monk/Ardvent(Psionic Class) as we started at level 3. Being someone who likes to dive into the rules of any game I play, I understood monks suffer from MAD and in general reference from a lot of people I've talked to in online chats and forums the monk is one of the weakest classes unless done in curtain ways in which case he can be fairly decent but still won't measure up against a decent builds in most other class not even bringing in the MIN/MAX setups. Anyway I mapped out how I wanted the character to work up to level 15 because the DM implied he had a long term campaign lined up. I knew there was issues right at the start when the DM demanded I lose most of the gear I bought at the start of the game because he claims my character lived a "sheltered" life and wouldn't know what to get like the 100 foot or rope and climbing gear typical adventures might use to explore caves and dungeons. My reply was my character grew up in the mountains, had high climbing skill which I put points into so it's not unreasonable for him to think scaling difficult terrain would be common. He begrudgingly let me keep only 20 feet of rope?!? My character also bought a ton of other items like can-trips, marbles, and etc (don't recall what else). My argument was, ONE I'm a monk and don't really "need" much, and TWO I'm basically a rural kid in the city with more money than I ever seen and I've course I'm gonna buy up a bunch of nick knacks at the local shops as both souvenirs and was probably talked into buying much of it by a merchant who saw him as an easy mark. Out of Character we were given funds equal to what a level 3 should have so everyone could equip but momks don't need much so I had no real plans for the stuff I just figured let's buy as much as we can reasonably carry and see if it comes in handy which I figure would be similar to my characters line of thought. Plus most of it was cheap anyway. But the DM telling me what my character could and could not do right from the start really rubbed me the wrong way. It got worst along the way when at later levels he told me I couldn't take curtain feats which we key to the synergy of my character's theme and is failing to understand how Psionic Classes work completely stripped my character of his full potential despite the fact that it was key to the party's survival since my character was the ONLY one with any healing abilities in our group. And the Psionics don't have very good healing choices to begin with. It was original a combination of using my own life force to heal while having another ability that was a self heal. I was on the verge of quitting but the group disbanded before that happen because other players stopped logging in on game night (playing online using TS as Chat and a D&D Map Program), probably due to him meddling with their characters as well. ... D&D has always interested me but never had any luck finding a good group. I know my personality tends to be that of Ruler's Lawyer due to my time with wargaming. But with D&D I don't know all the supplemental materials that well and every time I played I went for a theme of a character while trying the keep his stats such that they could hold their own. I was never the strongest in the party and in 2 cases (one above included) I was easily the weakest person in the party due to DM house ruling how my abilities worked because they assumed I was trying to do some crazy MIN/MAX cross class OP trickery since they didn't know the rules that well. At this point sadly I'm so leery of it because I can recall exactly all the campaigns I've played(which wasn't many) and the reasons each fell apart. Videos on the types of bad DMs are like a listing to me of each of the campaigns I played in. I can't imagine myself ever giving it another try, but I still like to watch from the side lines viewing all the interesting stories and fun I know I'll never have. EDIT: Even though it's been like 2-3 years while watching other videos I remembered that since the Monk Char was done online and I backup most stuff I should have his stats somewhere, took about 5 minutes to locate and here is the general list of them. It's clearly not a char trying to min/max or go OP since I don't even have a stat over 16 yet the DM though I was. We used point buy system for char creation which is what points refer to as I just copy paste this stuff from the txt file I was using as my char sheet during character creation. The stats as we went to level 5 were tracked in the D&D table app we used and couldn't find any list of those since stopped after level 5 because half the group stopped showing up, started with 6 players too. Level 2 Monk / Level 1 Ardent (Lvl 3) HP 23 Stat/Points/Mod Str 14 6 +2 Dex 14 6 +2 Con 12 4 +1 Int 12 4 +1 Wis 15 8 +2 Cha 8 0 -1 Init + 2 (Dex 14) Fort +5 (Con 12) Reflex +6 (Dex 14) Will +8 (Wis 15) AC 10 +2 DEX +2 WIS = 14 Touch AC 10 +2 DEX +2 WIS = 14 BAB +1 (Flurry -1/-1) Attacks Attack Dmg Critical Range Increment Crossbow, light +3 1d8 19-20/×2 80 ft. Quarterstaff +3 (+1/+1) 1d6/1d6+2 ×2 Unarmed +4 (+2/+2) 1d6+4 I had Weapon Specialization Unarmed +2 Dmg feat which is why I got +4 instead of just STR boost on my unarmed.
D&D itself could be soundly argued to be a numbers game, the rules only suggest that you *might* want to roleplay and nothing in the rules enforces roleplaying. Other games could definitely be said to be roleplay focused, but D&D is perfectly functional and whole as a dice game. Of course for most of us it is greatly enriched by roleplaying. But we shouldn't dismiss those who want to play it as a dice game.
@@Sanctor95 yeah I was going to say. A mathematician made d&d not a writer. More power to you if you appreciate rp more than the g, but it's about something different for every table.
How players actually make their character: - What class are they? This pretty much defines 93% of the personality/backstory/race of the player. - What weapon are they using? Is it big with lots of numbers? The more the better. - Is their wardrobe really fashionable? If not just wear lots of black. Now just take a running start and insert yourself into whatever the setting is as hard as possible and you'll "win".
I used to play like that, numbers, numbers, numbers. That was 25 years ago. Now I more interesting in creating a fictitious person living and function in a fictional world.
My character is the soul of a powerful lich who has been sealed into a corpse. The seals are made of strange, black, stretchy substance that wrap around his chest and limbs and head. The substance is what we today call, trash bags.
I know it's not the point, but as someone vary new to Role playing, the character you made in 20 minutes seems miles better then what I can make in an hour, definitely gonna remember these questions for my next characters.
And so it shall feel that way for some time - until you get used to the idea of how to do it, until those questions become second nature. Don't stress, I've been doing this for 20+ years. We can however all get to the place where it seems 'easy'.
Don't worry about it. Be the character that happens at the table. Backstories only get busted. Amnesiacs make the best D&D characters, especially if they never try to regain their memories. Just kill the monsters, loot the corpses, and burn down the tavern.
I'd also say to not be afraid of cliches. You aren't trying to write an award winning novel, and cliches exist because they are fundamentally interesting. Also, the DM _probably_ isn't going to delve too deep into your backstory -- it depends, but since there will be at least another 3 or 4 players all with their own backstories, the main focus will often be on things happening in the world. I think a good DM should try to weave in character backstories (I like to do that) but as a player never count on it. Oh, also, it can be okay to be somewhat vague in your answers. Try to at least get a general idea of things, but for instance with the first question you don't have to specify the exact town and street on which you were born. Though I think that question is more focused about where you _grew up_ as that's usually more important than where your mother expelled you from her body. But the point is, you could focus on the type of place where you grew up: the slums, or a tiny forest village, or a noble's estate in a massive city, or in the sewers of that city, or in a dark and secret cult, or on a ship that sailed the seas and only dropped into port for brief resupplies.
Even if your character has some cliche elements they will still be more interesting then if you didn’t add back elements at all. Had a character who became an adventurer to do good and promote justice. Not simply because he was a good man but because of what he considered his greatest failure. In a low point of his life he he yelled at his son over something minor he shouldn’t have reacted so harshly to. His son ran off and got himself killed trying stop a pair of thugs. His motivation as a hero is to try to be man his son would have wanted him to be. This I turn provides other elements to his character such as a soft spot for children or that his personal guilt could be used against him. Even gave new elements to how he would would react to other characters. He would react protectively to younger of more innocent characters and would give a cold shoulder to more roguish characters because he sees the men how killed his son in them. Gives a starting point for a personality and for some ways the character good grow as a character for better or worse
@@rhiannonlamothe2769 Think about it: most people going on adventures (or just going through life, really) aren't all that special. Most people have had horrible things happen to them, which can be used in a backstory, but it's unlikely for your character to be "the chosen one."
@@robrockstar9648 Interesting characters DO interesting things. They don't spent hours telling you how interesting they are. Nobody, but nobody cares about other players' tropey back stories. They care about how you are gonna help them kill the hungry Owl bear with lasers attached to its nipples.
@@vincejester7558 Well *you* don't care, but don't tell people how they should play their games. If your fun is killer hobo mode killing and looting with a big "skip" to every lore scene, well so long as you find a DM and a group of people who are in for that, fine. But that's not what everyone is about. If you go at someone else's table and say "you guys are ridiculous trying to build characters with actual stories and psychological motives" well then just why ? Also having a good backstory giving you motives doesn't mean that you need to spill it at the first few minutes of the game. You can discover this progressively, and then other characters get to discover the reasons why yours tends to think/act like that in some situations. And that, for someone into it, is gonna be *real* interesting.
Well that's all this video is doing is helping people who maybe don't have answers, or who wouldn't think to have these answers. By having them it just means you know your character which is a good thing! :)
Frank Robins, Jr. oddly enough, in the campaign im in now, the first thing the dm did with me for character creation was essentially answering these questions
I had an answer to all but one of these- Motivation. I don't really know what my character wants yet, but I suppose just in action I will eventually develop this, as I've already got plenty of personality built up on their past- perhaps there'll be a focus on surrivival, or finding another tribe or party to call home: I guess for the moment he's as uncertain as I am, just searching for answers, and going with the flow of events until then.
I remember one of my most endearing characters, I wrote a ranger with a backstory of his family still being alive and well. I'd gotten tired of the PC "orphaned hero brigade" routine we got, where everyone had, one way or another lost their family. So instead, I went the other, he had both parents, and even grandparents still alive, brothers and sisters, aunts uncles and cousins. So why adventure? Well for one, to explore, to become a part of a legend that would be told and retold by his descendants, such as the stories he'd heard growing up. More pointedly, his town had bee a mining town, but after a war had forced increased production, the mine had finally petered out. His road to adventure was him intentionally departing to try and score the funds that would save his town, to help it change over to a more farm-based economy.
I had a ranger with a similar story; she was the seventh of eight children in a large farming community, most of whom she was distantly related to. She left her community to go adventuring because adventurers are too busy adventuring to need a dowry.
My friends and I are about to depart from our current adventure to a new one, and during our campaign a running gag started to occur that we just could not get rid of a villian called Gorgon. Every time we tried to guess who did what, even if completly unrelated, the list would be "Gorgon, person a, person b, etc, or Gorgon again!" And as we were thinking of adventures the GM suggested a sea ferring journey and I thought of a character to continue the joke: A failing pirate that would board local army ships so often and unsuccesfully, the sailors wouldn't even arrest him at a certain point, and joked whenever something bad happend that "It's Gorgon again!", a motto he embraced later. But the character wasn't much more developed than a joke, and this really helped me. Thank you.
I am absolutely enthralled by how you speak. Your cadence and voice lend themselves perfectly to this. This channel is like a cornucopia for me, since it interweaves my love of phonetics and linguistics with my interest in both storytelling, fantasy/science fiction, and D&D/role-playing. Thank you for putting effort into these very informative and engaging videos!
I am delighted that you feel this way about the channel! I owe my manner of speaking to my grandmother and mother who ensured that I spoke as they wanted me to speak. I am especially glad you like the videos!
I believe that this is a great guide on how to make a character feel real and that, if possible PCs should try to follow this process. In addition to these questions, there is another aspect of a character that I always include to help me and others understand the core personalities of a character: Flaws. Simply put, I always understand that no person is perfect and therefore needs to have something that they're probably not proud of. I base the core flaw that my characters have off of the 7 deadly sins: Pride, Gluttony, Greed, ect. Not to say that my or any character is the pinnacle of these flaws, but they should all have one that stands out from the others. E.G. If a character is gluttonous, that doesn't mean that they weigh 800 lbs and eat everything in sight, but it might mean that promise of a good meal might tempt them or that he or she might be easily killed via poison at a dinner party because he or she feels no sense of danger when he or she is in his or her most comfortable place even if there are known assassins after the party. There are other examples (obviously), so I'll just leave it there
We played in a medieval setting and I chose a squire (lower nobility). His key flaw was how constantly angry and butthurt he was (in-character ofc), this led to interesting interactions with the team and gradual changes.
I wasn't making a character for a game, but this still helped develop my character more! I'm using her in a comic I'm making and having fears and stuff are crucial to who I want her to be.
I made a backstory then saw this video and I had automatically thought of all of these questions. 1) A dwarven town full of smiths 2) Two normal dwarves. They are both smiths and still alive in my hometown 3) He was also a smith. However, he was incredibly weak, but smart and durable. He used his intelligence to hit it in just the right spots to make an amazing work of art. 4) Some dwarves in our town Battlesmith Artificers, these people were his friends, also smart and durable, but not strong. They left the town, but he decided to go with them, with his parent's permission, of course. 5) His parents and my town, and eventually my friends to gain... 6) Intelligence (Even though it's a 20) So my backstory is... I was born in a dwarven town full of smiths. My parents were Two normal dwarves. They are both smiths and still alive in my hometown. I was also a smith. However, I was incredibly weak, but smart and durable. I used his intelligence to make amazing works of art. One day some dwarves in our town to become Battlesmith Artificers, these people were my friends, also smart and durable, but not strong. They left the town, but I decided to go with them, with my parent's permission, of course. In going on adventures, I left my parents and my town, and eventually my friends to gain intelligence (Even though it's a 20).
I thought I was on the wrong channel when I saw your first video only had some 2,000 views. You give excellent advice to players and GMs alike! This video was very helpful for crafting my characters' backstories.
+Equeon 2000 views is in my opinion 2000 players and GM's hopefully inspired to tell better stories. We'd all like more views so thank you for your comment. I hope you get some awesome characters out of this :)
I was so happy when I watched this video and found that all my characters already had answers for these. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right.
I'm a brand new player who's struggling with many aspects of roleplaying and I'd just like to thank you for these videos. They are very helpful and I'll definitely be checking out others. My current character is very 2D but with these wonderful tips I'm sure I'll be able to fluff her up a bit!
Just played my first session with a new character today. 1. High on the icy slopes of an mountain in an isolated region of a cold northern clime. The clan's dwelling-place was a little way below the lair of the ancient white dragon Viserion that many generations of the clan of white dragonborn had venerated and paid tribute to. 2. Two warriors of the barbarian clan, her father a warrior of some note though not a figure of authority. a. Her parents and immediate family were slain along with most of the clan by the powerful adventurers who fought their way through the tribal camp on their quest to slay Viserion. 3. Growing up a barbarian warrior. Just on the cusp of adulthood when disaster struck, she had been hunting, fighting, surviving from an early age, in the custom of the clan - both to contribute to their survival in the harsh landscape and as a test of her own fitness to be a part of the clan. The strong survive. 4. Sora was away from the clan on a solitary hunting expedition when the attack took place, as were a handful of other tribesfolk. With the object of their worship and all senior figures in the clan slain, there was little left to bind them to that place or to each other. They went their separate ways. 5. Nothing besides many corpses. She carries the customs and mindset of her people with her, even into more civilised lands. Along with her father's greatsword and a tooth of the dead dragon which she wears as a pendant. She is still the feral child of a savage world and little has changed except that the slaughter of her people has instilled her with a furious rage. 6. Vengeance. I like her. She's fun, and already developing relationships with party members in a way that my much more serious character who died last session wasn't managing to.
while my characters usually vary strongly in the amount of backstory they have, I always try to leave some open ends in my characters past. sometimes it's something they experienced back as a child, sometimes it's something that literally made them go on this journey just recently. but I really like just having one or more little things in my backstory that I as a player don't even know. that way it's more realistic because many people don't know 100% why things in their life happened the way they did. it also gives me the opportunity to uncover those secrets along with my character which greatly improves my ability and the fun while roleplaying. and lastly, the GM is usually happy to have something to work with that instantly connects my character and gives them some sort of motivation or interest and be relatively free to do whatever they think fits their story most because I left it completely open and don't have any expectations whatsoever except "in think something really weird must be going on because why else would this thing have happened" ... sorry for this really long comment, I kinda suck at explaining things and even more so in English.
I'm joining a game for the first time and my DM sent me this to help me with my backstory. Some of the questions I had already answered in my mind, but I hadn't encorporated them in the written backstory itself. This was helpful, thank you.
@@vincejester7558 you could call it that, yeah. He didn't give me a specific set of rules (other than that is should work in the DnD universe) or an amount of pages. It was quite light hearted and I can enjoy writing from time to time, so it was nice to do.
@@robbe2000 Too many authors in D&D. I think players should save the backstories for themselves and their diaries. How much fun do you have going to the club with someone who is constsntly talking about themselves. Imagine how much worse it would be if they kept trying to convince you how cool and tragic they were all night.
@@vincejester7558 🤔 I'm not sure if I get what you're trying to say. The way we play DnD our so called tragic or cool pasts don't come up very often. I have to admit, I added one key experience that may have been a bit much, but I don't think it was ever mentioned during a session.
I'm going to be playing dnd for the first time this weekend and have been really struggling with inspiration. This video has really helped and I think I now have a character ready :)
I played my first evening of DND tonight and had an absolute blast!! I’m coming back to this video to leave you a comment to say thanks for the help. A few of your videos really helped me…thank you much love ❤️❤️
I have ran and played D&D for 17 years, and I still find these videos very informative. I love your world building videos, and find your character videos just as gratifying. Cheers, mate. Keep it up. :)
Really, great characters do make for great games. One of my proudest moments as a dungeon master was back in college, where I ran a game for three semesters straight. My 'dirty little secret' of it is that I really didn't do much in the way of long-term plans beyond an end goal for the story. Still, it was made immensely easier by having a few people in the group who knew the importance of a well-made character, and one that would evolve over time. I was careful not to make the story _about_ them, but they had room to have their arcs within the story. And to a degree, they inspired the other players to flesh out their characters as the game went on, and everyone got their moment to shine by the time the end rolled around, and they loved it. And I've had times where I've come up with some really fun characters to play and for others to be in a party with. So, from both the DM's side and the player's side, I do have to say that these kinds of questions are major. Even if you decide these questions aren't what interest you as the player, find questions that do inspire you and help you come up with a fun, engaging character. You'll appreciate it, and everyone else in the game will appreciate it, players and GM alike.
I am two minutes into this - and I hunted all over and have NO idea where the first episode to this series is, as it begins 'Welcome to another episode' ?? - and I love it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. There is another person out there who agrees that numbers can truly - get tossed. The dice and dice bag are lovely accessories. Now, give me your mind - your creativity. The storyteller lays out a skeleton, and the numbers are the flesh - but there is no pulse to bring the story to life if there are not three dimensional characters. They must have merits, flaws, and alignments. Their soul is in their personality and history. Are they believable and do they make sense? Are they consistent - or consistently inconsistent in such a way that makes sense? We do have behavior that changes from day to day in real life - that can happen in a campaign setting. Either way - enough rambling. I am eager to watch the entire video!
I run a new party and this is my first time being a gm so handing them these questions really helped me shape their campaign and give them a basis to role play with. Thabks!!!!
I love the focus on a story driven chaacter creation method. I appreciate the hell out of this, im going to throvv this video at some peeps vvho need the help... Numbers and dots are only there to support all the story for the character that should already exist. And you knovv? If the stats dont fully support the backstory, then theres more to think about on that backstory. ^.~ i just love the implications of having a backstory and then having to explain lackluster stats that ought not be... So much fun!
As a DM, I love how the backstory of characters helped shape my world. I'm still working on setting up and populating my world, and one of the players came to me and asked if he could be a Drow elf. So then whe had to sat down and cook up a reason for what a Drow was doing topside, and where the hell he came from and what happened to it's people. It resulted in this huge war between an uneasy alliance between elves and man to defeat the common enemy, the Drow, which in term resulted in an entire country with it's inhabitants banished to another realm. Step-by-step creating a background for a PC resulted in an alliance between man- and elvenkind, and the disappearance and anger of an entire (sub)race, plotting for revenge. In my opinion, that's pretty damn sweet!
this is amazing! how awesome an example of the power of this game when we just sit and ask questions! thank you for sharing! let us know how it goes as I think this sounds like a model game to watch!
That's so awesome to hear! And thank you for creating these fun and inspiring video's for us to enjoy and learn from. It'll be just a few weeks before I start off my very first campaign and already I can barely contain my excitement! ^^
A really useful set of questions; there might be some others one could add but answering these gives a core of a person to work with. Something I found useful and will share: To communicate the answers, for my last character I mocked up a Wikipedia page and gave it to the GM, using the real Wikipedia template as a guideline (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Biography and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Infobox_person). Because both the Wiki template and your video essay are about people I thought there were a lot of synergies, and the extra bits from the Wiki template add some interesting additional detail. Also, because a Wiki page is written as a public perception of a person it means you can imply and foreshadow things - like the answers to Q6 - while still leaving room for revealing these details in play (ie show don't tell).
Guys, he doesn't advertise this often but i by chance stumbled on his actual gameplay with friends and it is literally the best on the net if you don't mind that they don't have critical role kind of budget. I cannot recommend watching his Bacon RPG series (which started as pathfinder and ports to 5e) enough! They also play star/futuristic themes as well but thats not my thing. Once you see the chemistry and patience of him and his friends (some perhaps completely new players) you will probably have a completely different impression. You've got to watch them in action! I am completely unaffiliated with anyone on this channel and just want to spread the word. Browse his channel. Most episodes I've watched are 30 minutes or less in duration because i don't often have 2.5 hrs for watching other games. He edits out a lot of the math of calculating damage and (since that takes up most of the time in episodes) it makes the play time be concise and compelling. Highly enjoyable!
For years as a writer and a roleplayer, I had struggled to create a backstory that I have loved. Watching this video and using the questions has made me better at writing backstories. So thank you GM. Ill is sure to save this in my writing tips playlist.
+Durza Durza You are my hero! I agree! More publicity - that would mean more players and GM's having fun! Quick question - would it be better if it was all on one channel?
Hey, I have to thank you for this video. It helped a lot and decided to show my appreciation, I though I would share my characters background with you Name: Kelmir OsueWhere were they born: Kelmir was born near the volcano Igneote. In a small village at the base of the mountain near the gold mine. The mountain had a strong connection to the Elemental Plane of Fire. And because of this, the village and other villages surrounding it had the most Fire Genasi population. Though it is still underwhelming small compared to every other race.Who are there parents: Kelmir had several parents throughout his childhood. His biological parents are both Fire Genasi's. His father was an Eldritch knight and his mother was a Evocation Wizard. At the age of 5 they both died in a battle against an Adult Red Dragon. But his older brother, Coal Osue raised him for a few months before a man by the name of Pyre Kindle took them into an orphanage. Coal was not so thrilled but Kelmir was very excited to have a home once more. Coal was adopted when Kelmir was 7 and Kelmir was adopted by the age of 13. They ( yet to decide on the name ) kept him safe, gave him schooling and training further in being an Eldritch Knight and a Wizard like his father and mother.Before adventuring life: Kelmir was mainly training to be an Eldritch Knight since the age of 5. Having been very interested in it like those of the Knights in books and fairy tales. Although he wanted to also learn magic like Pyre's wife, Calida Kindle. So Pyre tried to train him for as long as he can in both. And by the time he was adopted he was nearly already a fighter. But still very much struggled in magic. And as Kelmir grew older with his adopted family he has gotten better in the ways of a fighter. Though magic he still had a lot to learn.Why did he leave his previous life: Kelmir now at the age of eighteen wanted to learn more about the world and after hearing many stories of his father and mother decided to try to follow there footsteps. And in doing so, means leaving home. But not before he was given a book about his family lineage.What he left behind: He left behind many friends, family, and teachers. But all of which respected his decision on his path. Knowing while they could teach him more. It might have been better off if he learned it hid way.What does my character want: What he wants is very simple. To live both the experiences that his biological parents had to go through. He does this with aid of a book. Though how he completes them is uncertain to him but he'll make the best of it when the time comes
You helped me a lot with this video, so i want to say "thank you for making it." I tryed so hard to make a good character this time - something better then before, but i struggeld and run in circles. With this 6 Questions of Yours i found a way out and also a character, who has the potential to be "my" character.
I know this video has been up awhile, but just recently began playing DnD with my 3 sons. I'm sure there are plenty of tweeks, but I'd love to share the backstory of a character that this video helped me create. This is the backstory of Dexter Häst.......THANKS so much. Dexter Häst and his brother, Manzana, were born and raised in Addenport. A region near the Adder bay on the continent of Khorvaire. His parents always taught him to be a positive, productive member of the community. That all changed when his father, Zendal, passed away due to health complications. Dexter and Manzana began delving into the art of thievery as an act of rebellion. Dexter realized that his short stature (2'9"), even among other Halflings, allowed him to hide much easier. As he reached adulthood Dexter was drawn to the lust of piracy. Dexter and his brother eventually joined a band of pirates to earn wealth and journey away from their homeplace. Dexter's mother, Lenara, lives on the outskirts of Adderport and cooks for many local villagers. After 22 years Dexter decided to leave because sharing the spoils of pirate life has grown tiresome. Manzana stayed behind with the pirates that frequent the region as to keep check on their mother. Dexter has vowed to gain enough wealth by any means necessary to purchase the Aerenal Islands
My list, with each question having a sub-question of “how can the DM actively incorporate it into the campaign?” Don’t make a weak answer; think of the consequences of each and how the DM can use each. If the answer doesn’t come up easily, it’s not a good character trait. Keep each answer specific enough for a timeline, but broad enough that the DM can work with you to dress it up and work with his world. For example, if you want to be a nobleman, let the DM help figure out your territory and your family’s title (Duke, Earl, Baron, etc). First up are the Hero’s Journey questions. 1. What was your childhood like? 1.A. How much of your childhood survived/still exists? 1.B. How/why did your childhood change? (If applicable). 2. Why did you join the party? 3. What is your combat style? (Consider basic plans for the class and multi classing). And the Kakashi questions: 4. What do you like? 5. What do you dislike? 6. What are your hobbies? 7. What is your dream/goal? 7.A. If you reach it, why will you stay with the party? Example: 1. A small seaside town. I helped fish for crabs in little box traps. 1.A. We got raided, and I saw at least one parent die. 1.B. I got captured and sold into slavery. I escaped after a few years. 2. I needed to get out of town, I wanted to return home, and in case the slavers caught up I wanted strong friends to protect me. 3. Evasive. A Jack of all trades, I can be mobile between enemies, use crowd control magic, or a couple targeted magic. However, this means I won’t have access to high level spells, making me more of a screen than a powerhouse. Willing to risk somewhat for a downed friend, but won’t stick my neck out. 4. Flavorful foods. Ever since trying good food, I try to help out in the kitchen. Never leave me alone with the spices, because I’ll either eat it all or turn your chicken into ultra spicy chicken. I also like traveling; besides my seaside town I was kept indoors, and seeing other biomes and wildlife is intriguing and beautiful. Finally, as a young teen who didn’t learn adult socialization, I’ll prefer to hang out and play with kids. If we are doing detective work through a town, I’d rather ask the kids playing in the street or selling newspapers; maybe they saw a fancy wagon come through, or heard a monster in a nearby alley. (Think Sherlock Holmes with his Baker Street Irregulars, at least the ones who are street urchins). 5. Overbearing authority figures; I shrink away from them. Staying alone in the dark; it reminds me of my time as a slave, and can be seen as mild claustrophobia. Slavery in general, but I’ll act if they’re children. Was never an upper crust, so dressing up and being fancy is uncomfortable, but might be persuaded if I’m promised a fancy dinner party with savory meat and desserts. 6. No real hobby. But I do try and become better friends with each party member. So I pick up an activity for each. A prankster knows I can be a partner in crime or have a prank war, the thief has a partner for gambling cons, the reader has a small book club, etc. 7. Return home and see the extent of the raid’s damage. 7.A. If severe, revenge (likely not to the death). If mild, catch up and try to find the other captured townsfolk. Once complete, try to stop more slavers as I journey with my new family/friends. After all, once I’ve helped make a wall and watch, I’ve outgrown my little town.
The 6 questions applied to my D&D character (I do not own the game yet and the character is purely just a concept): 1. My character was born in a village near where the story begins. 2. My father was a fighter who died in battle and my mother was a healer/nurse (the mother was still alive when the story begins). 3. My character was once a fighter for a previous team he cared deeply for, but they all died because he failed to defend him. He then became a doctor in the town. (Traumatic experience leaves him pessimistic, thinking his team will die the same fate, but he still heals the team). 4. He left the village because more and more dark forces attacked his town, and he joined to try to destroy the source, saving the town he cares deeply for. 5. My character left the village relatively the way it was, only difference between the village between the village he grew up in and the village now was increased attacks and faces growing older. My character simply wants do save his friends, family, and avenge the team that he was unable to defend so many years ago... (Motivation can change depending on character interaction and events).
I'm in the middle of the video, and you're providing a great backstory for this hypothetical character, no question! Condensing it all into less than a paragraph so the GM might read it... THAT'S what I need to know.
My favorite character that I've played in Pathfinder Society was a noble born whose village that his parents controlled had been pillaged and burned by raiders, and he along with a few other survivors were able to hide away. During winter, a "traveler" was walking through and asked for food and shelter, which there was very little left. The boy gave her his share of food that night and it turned out to be Fae who took the village of children into their care. They were raised in the feywild, albeit with an overprotective motherly figure (because mortals don't come back to life after dying in the fey world), but she knew that she would have to return them to mortal life. Two of my characters are from this ex-settlement, one which was a girl whom lost her and another is a Paladin who was told stories of honor and glory from Paladins. Fey Foundling is a fun Feat to play with. I only wish drawbacks were allowed, because of Taken by the Fey.
I am a Game Master myself. I have started to answer a few of these questions in that I worked out the genealogy of my kingdom's monarchy. Yet, you have also given me a lot more to work with for my NPCs to be better developed. This is so cool. I will also be using it as part of a template for the pre-gaming interview. I may even have my players watch this video. I've subscribed. Excellent work.
-What I do is first pick a race and class. (Lizardfolk Barbarian totem) -then I'll roll my dice to see what kind of scores I get. (this is really important) -By this point I'll have a general idea of what I want from a character so then pick a background befitting of my character. (Outlander/tribal marauder) -For my Barbarian I rolled two neg stats an 8 & 7. I decide to make his INT an 8 to describe a methodical, slow speaking, thinker who because of his very tribalistic roots may not know of "common pratices" or what money is outside of money to give to the shrine. however it shows his depth of knowledge relating to HIS culture (like the tale of the first of their clan draped in a radiant light and granted a weapon by a serpent longer than the sea's horizon with wings as white as the clouds above). Meanwhile his 7 went into his charisma as I wanted to make him brutish, blunt as a rock, pragmatic, and uncharming. -If by this point you're still having difficulty with making a character, I like to look at what languages are available to you through your background or your class. I like to use these to create familial or mentorship like scenarios. Example 1: my Arakocra monk knows dwarvish because after 5 months starting his adventure his wings were badly injured while climbing the mountainous forest. He was rescued by Dwarven Monks who lived in a monestary within the peaks. Impressed by their nimble movement he began to mimic their actions in their physical arts and pushing his body till it nearly tore when one of the masters saw a kinship of Dwarven stubborn pride in him and taught him their ways. so during his 2 years of recovery and rehab he had progressed well into the basics and was versed in Dwarvish. Example 2: A self loathing, superiority complex, driven Female Hobgoblin Samurai who can read, write, and fluently speak Elvish without an accent. Happens to be quite fond of poetry and knows about elvish literature. She was originally a high elf reknown for her beauty, however a curse was placed upon her for her vanity as she now tries to live with her new form and perhaps find a cure to her solution.
I just had to write my very first backstory, and I subconsciously included all these questions in it. Granted, I've been a writer for 19 years, so I imagine that helps. Good video, thank you.
Do you mean Quetzalcoatl the cultural hero of the Aztec. I'm sorry I have been studying Aztec mythology and culture for at least 4 years now and I am still finding more interesting things to learn. Quetzalcoatl is anything but a "demon", the Aztecs had gods and monsters but not nessisarily demons, but gods could be benevolent or malevolent and the Aztecs were very interested in ideas of duality. Quetzalcoatl represented the absolute of benevolence, moral integrity, and wisdom as contrast to his evil twin brother Tezcatlipoca who represented malevolence, cruelty, and sorcery.
The distinction of "demon" is one that I think he was filtering through the lens of the "missionaries in 18xx" character concept he was talking about. Most non-Christian religious figures in those times (or any time prior) would have been regarded as such (at least to Christians themselves). I hope this helped.
Okay, it's an old thread... and (as usual?) I'm late to the party... BUT a distinction should be pointed out here. In the vid' even that he referenced "demons" and Aztec myth'... He was referencing through the ideology of the Game scenarios from Call of Cthulu (based mostly from H.P. Lovecraft/Necronomicon sources)... So it's not going to be much in the lines of accurate or precise about Aztecian mythos, outside of a relative notion that there was something to source the "old stories" you might here in South America from "actual" creatures of one variety or another in the Lovecraftian (or related) texts... This is more relevant to creating a character who might know of the Aztec's, but the player doesn't have to... so if you do, you can only help a game you're thoroughly involved in. (like answering questions where the GM "gets stuck" in explaining something... or where your knowledge can add bredth and depth to the story or scene at the time.) There's also plenty of fun to be had, sticking the GM "on the spot" from time to time... if you like watching him/her squirm. :o)
Brilliant. I'm about to join a LARP for the first time. This made it incredibly easy to come up with a well thought out and rather lengthy backstory! I was so worried my character would be 2 dimensional. I hadn't even gotten through all six questions before I was inspired to write such vivid and vital details of my characters history. Thank you so much!
My biggest advice for Charakter creation is to go with the flow. Start somewhere, ask a bunch of questions, and see where you end up. especially if you already have a general idea. Watch pen and paper channels for inspiration, but don't just copy a character from them. instead ask: what would my character do in this situation. And don't be scared to re-write your character if you find out it didn't work out. make a sticky note in your PnP folder and pull it out when the time has come.
I used this to create my white witch healer build for the Pathfinder system, and it turned my character from a shy witch with a desire to help others and stand apart from her witch allies into something so much more than I thought it could be. Thank you.
This video was exactly what I needed. I have a few years of experience being a GM, and am finally getting the chance to play a character of my own. I got so stuck in the numbers and the stat blocks that it took an odd comment from dinner with friends to remember that I needed to have perspective, to know who my character was. This video helped me lose myself in the creative process and come up with a character I feel proud to play as (someone who I can see beyond the numbers). Thank you again!
This is what I used for all my character creations, and learned from media studies at college (UK). It is so useful and now I'm a Dm I encourage my players to use the same method. All in all, as a player and DM, these questions have helped me flesh out some amazing PC's and NPC's people seem to love.
canoe-dle xD writing that into my dad joke book xD Your videos have really helped turn my game group into a role-playing group which is infinitely better. Thanks so much.
I love coming up with backstories for characters more than playing the game itself. I also really like if 2 or more players collaborate to have their characters included in each other's backstories. Not necessarily siblings or relatives, but even something as small as they both lived in the same city, one as a low class street urchin, one as a high class adventurer, and during a particularly bad storm one night the adventurer ends up finding a lost child who happens to be the sibling of the urchin and upon returning the child to their home the two meet and form some sort of friendship. Kind of a shoddy premise, but that was 5 minutes of minor ideas. I usually take hours or even days, and many many many iterations.
I haven’t watched it yet but here is a couple important questions off the back that’s important for personality and backstory *Why?* and *how?* Why does a character.... Why did this affect a character this way? Why did a character do what they did? Why do they feel this way about another character? How did this affect a character? How did they react to...? How does the character affect the story? How does the relationship develop between characters?
Your videos are fantastic and really helpful. I've played 2 campaigns before. In both of them, I made very standard, min-maxed characters with no real character (pardon the pun). I thought it was going to be epic but it was just boring. Since watching your videos, I've created a character for my new campaign. This time, I focused on his backstory, motivations and personality. Then I just put the numbers where they made sense for him rather than what I thought was strongest. I'm really happy with the result and it's actually reinvigorated my excitement to play again. He just feels more real, fleshed out and interesting. Thank you.
The most important purpose of a back story is to shape how your character plays. The most catastrophic character I have ever seen was made by a friend who wrote his character as a natural werewolf unaware of his heritage who became a monk archer that later worked for a shady intelligence agency. His back story characterized him as a friendly and helpful guy. The big problem is that the player did not play that way or play with respect to the backstory aside the werewolf bit. He was unapologetic when he kept accidentally shooting allies when he shot into melee combat. He had nothing to say when his employers were revealed to be bad guys. He made no effort to befriend other party members and showed more sympathy to beasts and werewolves than his own companions. During a celebration marking the end of a major arc arc, the player decided to make a big show by having his character unexpectedly turn into his wolf form for the first time. The player expected to make a show by making everyone alarmed but sympathetic as his character ran away and leap out the window into the wilderness. Instead, he was quickly shanked and arrested because he did this in the middle of a crowded room full of paladins and incident bystanders on the second or third floor of a castle. His character was removed from the game. He wasn't a malicious player - he just didn't know how to roleplay a dramatic character. Before he did this stunt, he asked me for advice about his character's backstory. I told him that a backstory is meaningless if it doesn't influence how the character is played. Being a werewolf doesn't make a character deep and interesting. What makes them interesting is how the character is played around it.
I'm not sure how to find a group, in my case it was a group of friends from high school that wanted to get together and play. Good luck to you friend, it has been really fun so far and I suggest trying to find a group if you can!
I havent yet had the chance to play, but I have been working on a few characters so that I have some options already available. Of course I can tweak them if need be, but anyway I just wanted to say thank you for the videos and the work you've put into them! They have helped me have a much better idea how to make my first game, and those after, more enjoyable for me and my friends. I have enjoyed working on character creation so far and this video has done a lot to help me remember some simple points to make a great story for present and future characters. Thank you once again, and I look forward to seeing more content from this channel.
Other Pro Tip: Write your backstory in FIRST PERSON. It helps you invest in a realistic character because it makes you (as the player) think and feel what the character does.
One of my favorite characters I made by asking question 1. I had a concept for a middle-aged elf wizard divinator and randomly asked myself where she was born because she felt a bit bland. I randomly decided Neverwinter, because it was one of the few dnd lore things I knew about, and then did a deep dive into what Neverwinter was like in the few hundred years my elf had been around. And well, she's lived through some shit, because Neverwinter is a hellscape where all the crazy shit has happens. So now she is desperate to control the outcome of the future to make sure another calamity doesn't fall on her head and will go to great lengths to make sure any prediction she has about the end of the world won't happen.
To be honest i wasn't creating a D&D or a roleplaying character at all but i was stuck with my writing and the backstory of my main character (which may be odd, but i had a real lock on it) but as it turns out i just only needed the right questions to think in the right order, delivered with a good thought process to find out whats the backstory about. Thank you! Now i have it all figured out and i can continue to write.
This has been a huge help with my writing for my stories, I've shared this knowledge with other writers and see they really liked the help so I thank you and I hope to share your vids around.
I really like your videos on character creation and all the jam that's around it. I'm not a role-player myself (yet), cause I don't really have many people around me who would be interested in that kind of stuff, but I'm moving soon-ish, and I'm planning to join an RPG-circle then. But that's not primarily why I love your videos. I love them because you don't need to apply them only to RPG-characters. I'm planning to go into videogame development later on, so I relish in every advise on world-building I can get. And I'm also currently creating OC's for a webshow I'm watching, and those videos are really helpful for immersing them in that fictional world as much as possible. So, although I really like the RPG-aspects, I enjoy how adaptable your advice is. Plus, the videos are enjoyable to watch. Go on doing what you do, I'll keep watching. ;)
I really enjoy making back stories for my characters. When I ask my players for character back story they all look at me like I've just hit them between the eyes with a hammer. They don't even realize how much more fun they have playing as a character vs playing the character. I've been following your campaign creating series and plan on adding parts of the character back stories into the sessions this time. I expect it will make playing that much more fun. Thank you for all the work you put into your videos, it is much appreciated.
This video is helpful, even if you already ask yourself most or all the questions, the in depth discussion of each question helps you think more about the details
I have actually been mulling over how to make a character's backstory for a few days now, I am going to use the advice in this video and see how it turns out. Thanks for the help!
+Bacon Battalion RPG I hope you don't mind, I finished the questions and I was going to pop them on here for you take a look. I filled this out for a Vampire the Masquerade Character (and tweaked a few questions slightly to fit).THE SIX QUESTIONS for Adam Lombardo, Lasombra Antitribu 1. Where were you born? New York, New York on August 15th, 1981 2. Who are your parents? Dad: Paulie Lombardo, a mob enforcer. He was killed when a drug deal went south. Adam was 5 when his father was killed. Mom: Bev O'Leary - A Catholic girl from Boston, she came to New York to attend the Juilliard School to study acting. After Paulie died, she moved back to Boston to raise her son with the support of her family. 3. What were you pre embrace? Adam went to college and took business courses, specializing in finances. He got a job at a corporation in their accounting department and was whiling away his life at a desk. One night at a bar, he met Kevin O'Leary, an old associate of his dad's that realized who he was when he introduced himself. Kevin lured him in with stories of his dad, and the good ol' days, and started talking about how a good numbers man was always one of the most coveted guys in the mob... They needed people who knew how to shuffle their money around to make it legitimate. Before he knew it, Adam found himself moonlighting as a mob money launderer... and he didn't want to stop. The money was too good. Despite the fact that he was brought in for his knowledge of accounting, Adam found himself moving up in the organization. There were two reasons for that, one was fact that his old man was a loyal man to the crew and died for it, which bought him some respect. Two was he was a natural leader, and instinctively knew how to get the men to do what needed to be done. He leveraged these and the fact he was funneling clean money into the organization to muscle his way up to being a Capo with a crew of his own. 4. Why were you embraced? Adam's sire was in the bar when Kevin started wooing Adam to be part of the organization. She marked his rise with great interest, and noticed a great many qualities that would benefit him as a Kindred, and would bring honor to her name. 5. What did they leave behind? His mother, his girlfriend Catelyn, who he didn't want to contact in his early days of hunger. He also lost his day job 6. What does your character want? Power. He wants enough power so no one can ever force a choice on him like becoming a kindred was forced upon him. He wants to rule over his domain as he sees fit.
This is super cool. I would only add one question to each of these points - which maybe you already did in your head, but which isn't clear here: How did he feel - at each point. Item 6 hints that he he was forced to become a kindred. Yet he seems like an opportunist who will use anything and anyone to get his own way. So to perhaps help you make this character come alive I'd answer that question too: How did he feel when: His dad died, when he met Kevin, when his mother discovered he was working for the mob like his dad (if she did or didn't). How did he feel about leaving Catelyn. He obviously liked her - hence not returning to her - but tell us his emotional story and that will help cement in our minds just what kind of person he is. Overall though, this is a great backstory. Plenty of material here for a GM to work with, and plenty for you to play with!
+Bacon Battalion RPG Great questions, I spent some time to try and incorporate a bit more of his emotions into his backstory, with some limited success perhaps, but at least it is present now. I have a link to the PDF of what I ended up with if you are interested in taking a look! Thanks again so much for taking a look at my answers and giving me more food for thought, you are awesome! drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ksXi9CnRyIOENsX2FRS1JEN2M/view?usp=sharing
I really appreciate this content. I am quite new to D&D and am starting to run a game for some of my friends who have never played before. This really gives me clear points for them to create backstory to help bring them into the world that I have started creating. Thank you very much for your time knowledge and passion for this art.
Only a pleasure! Welcome to the table! Feel free the share the vids with your friends, I can only hope they'd help you have an awesome game! Let us know how it goes?
I'm going to be including this list as a suggestion for character creation in all of the games I run from now on, not to mention using it myself. Incredibly helpful video.
This is brilliant; and I will share this with all my players. The are so many hooks created this way, as well as giving the player many chances to become involved in their own characters.
I'm actually a big advocate of leaving things open-ended. As far as backstory goes, that means having un-solved mystery in there. Which question are they trying to find an answer to? You can slot that mystery into nearly any of these questions besides the obvious last one. "My character doesn't know who their parents were, they grew up in a temple - but that's exactly what they're adventuring to find out." Personality-wise, have one, central character trait that your character embodies, but then let most of the subtleties "grow in" organically. Let the character decide, and then with cooperation from the DM you can generally work something into your backstory to facilitate it. See also, Sam Riegel semi-discovering his Goblin character hates water, and then having it penciled-in that the thing that turned said character into a goblin involved being drowned.
The problem is that yes, it can be a mystery. However it is also impossible to seperate from "I didn't care to make something up". It will either be something the DM have to make up themselves (and possibly change the whole idea of the way you RP), or it will just be another orphan and no one explore that part. If you don't want to make it another orphan, you are going to have the flesh that out and just RP as if you have no idea what you just wrote.
Want more tips, guides and insight into being a great game master or role player character? check out our channel. How to be a Great Game Master: ua-cam.com/users/HowtobeaGreatGameMasterChannel
Bacon Battalion RPG My witch, Claudette Morellas, was born to a branch in a lower noble family in the capital city of Absalom. She moved to a castle along the gulf shore to live with an older handmaiden and bodyguard when her father, a local adventurer had left to assist guards with orc invasions from the southern most country. Her mother died mysteriously in the night, quietly and without warning and the grief left her father, crippled by war, a great deal colder.
She spent the time taking care of him and fulfilling her duties as the matriarch to her family at the young age of twelve. After some time learning of her touch from her healing patron and her thrush familiar, she was rewarded with the power to heal supernaturally. Her handmaiden seeing this, took it upon herself to train her in alchemy. Knowing it would aid her in her altruism.
Once her father passed, she left her home to help those she could find. Leaving her inheritance, her alchemy teacher, bodyguard, and betrothed to seek greater understanding of her powers as a Hedge Witch. Hoping to find a cure or reason for the untimely death of her mother, and for any other person taken before their time.
Important questions for backstory:
Where did you come from?
Where did you go?
Where did you come from, Cotton-eye Joe?
Well, I've been married long time ago
He came to town like a midwinter storm
*slow clap in back ground*
STI song lmao
he came into town with a big Iron on his hip ;)
I feel like you should narrate wildlife documentaries...
+Pi-hilist In a way the Pathfinder videos are like narrating wildlife lol. Thank you so much appreciate the compliment.
+Bacon Battalion RPG Wait! You should make Monster Manual documentaries! Lol
"And here we can see the mother carrion crawler and her young. It's the dry season and corpses are rare as adventuring parties remain in taverns, avoiding the noonday's heat. It is a perilous time for her and her kits, and if she doesn't find a peasant soon, she will have only once choice... she will devour her own." :)
Now I want to watch wildlife documentaries about fantasy creatures. Like seriously, we put all this effort into our characters and settings... why not the creatures getting some love? :)
Bacon Battalion RPG if we are all getting a go... " the small hob goblin sneaks through the bushes, spying on the low level party. Suddenly, he strikes out- murdering their magic user which for some reason was sitting at the front. The barbarian strikes with his brutal chair leg- he sold his axe for a door. He smacks the their behind him instead- the their falling backward, killing the bard behind him as his snide falls out of the sheath it was in- a long sword sheath . The barbarian is now left by himself, and does what any logical barbarian would do, try and use healing magic. The barbarian is then stabbed through the hearts, and collapses in a puddle of blood. This is what we call the hobgoblin. He is now charged with bringing the bodies back."
1)What is your name?
2)What is your your quest?
3)What... is your favourite color?
...what's the maximal speed of a swallow...? ;-)
African or European?
I dunno?
Aaaaaaaaaahhh
Also important question especially the third one
Question links for the lazy.
1. Where was the Character Born? (2:52)
2. Who are their parents? (6:38)
a. Are the parents/family still alive? (8:20)
3.What was your character doing before the adventuring life? (10:00)
4. Why did your character leave their previous life? (13:01)
5. What did your character leave behind? (15:01)
6. What does your character want? (motivations) (16:53)
As he says in the video, each of these questions spawn more and more specific questions, which can either be explored before play or left as a mystery within the game space for the game master and fellow players to discover together.
This is definitely one of my favorite tutorials for character creation out there. Think of the character, not the class, instead of vice versa.
Thank you for doing this! It's amazing. How to cut a tutorial from 20 mins down to 7 sentences lol. I appreciate your effort here and I'm glad you like the video!
No problem. I have a lot of time on my hands currently, so I'll probably be doing it for some of your other videos.
Bacon Battalion RPG When someone makes a helpful comment like this, you should pin it to the top, I believe you're able to do that. This would prevent the need to scroll through comments.
***** Darn Skippy! 😊
I didn't have much luck in finding good D&D games due to bad DMs which I posted about on another Vid. This one is about my Favorite Character and I pretty much used a similar approach to the one in this video when I made but this is also how my DM ruined him for me.
1) Place of Birth Unknown (Per DM rules as he hinted at all the characters would be linked to some Dark Deity who banged a lot of woman.
2) Assumed to be traveling Merchants as was rescued by traveling monks trying to defend a group of travelers being attacked by bandits. Being the only survivor with no known living relatives the monks took in the toddler with them.
3) Character spent his life living in mountain monastery being raised and training with the monks.
4) Like all the ofter character they got a summons from an important individual in the Kingdom.
5) He left behind the quiet remote monastery to the big city.
6) Character had always wanted to explore and spent a lot of time sneaking out to exploring the local mountains(had high stealth/climb/survival skills) but for some reason the monks would never let him join their trade expeditions to nearby towns for supplies. So he jumped at the chance for the invitation.
I envisioned the character as more of the Asian movie monks with slightly supernatural powers along with expert hand to hand fighting skills and ability to grab anything as an improvised weapon. To do it I made a multiclass monk, it's been a long time since I played so I'll probably get a few names of things wrong but from what I recall it was a Monk/Ardvent(Psionic Class) as we started at level 3.
Being someone who likes to dive into the rules of any game I play, I understood monks suffer from MAD and in general reference from a lot of people I've talked to in online chats and forums the monk is one of the weakest classes unless done in curtain ways in which case he can be fairly decent but still won't measure up against a decent builds in most other class not even bringing in the MIN/MAX setups.
Anyway I mapped out how I wanted the character to work up to level 15 because the DM implied he had a long term campaign lined up. I knew there was issues right at the start when the DM demanded I lose most of the gear I bought at the start of the game because he claims my character lived a "sheltered" life and wouldn't know what to get like the 100 foot or rope and climbing gear typical adventures might use to explore caves and dungeons. My reply was my character grew up in the mountains, had high climbing skill which I put points into so it's not unreasonable for him to think scaling difficult terrain would be common. He begrudgingly let me keep only 20 feet of rope?!? My character also bought a ton of other items like can-trips, marbles, and etc (don't recall what else). My argument was, ONE I'm a monk and don't really "need" much, and TWO I'm basically a rural kid in the city with more money than I ever seen and I've course I'm gonna buy up a bunch of nick knacks at the local shops as both souvenirs and was probably talked into buying much of it by a merchant who saw him as an easy mark.
Out of Character we were given funds equal to what a level 3 should have so everyone could equip but momks don't need much so I had no real plans for the stuff I just figured let's buy as much as we can reasonably carry and see if it comes in handy which I figure would be similar to my characters line of thought. Plus most of it was cheap anyway.
But the DM telling me what my character could and could not do right from the start really rubbed me the wrong way. It got worst along the way when at later levels he told me I couldn't take curtain feats which we key to the synergy of my character's theme and is failing to understand how Psionic Classes work completely stripped my character of his full potential despite the fact that it was key to the party's survival since my character was the ONLY one with any healing abilities in our group. And the Psionics don't have very good healing choices to begin with. It was original a combination of using my own life force to heal while having another ability that was a self heal. I was on the verge of quitting but the group disbanded before that happen because other players stopped logging in on game night (playing online using TS as Chat and a D&D Map Program), probably due to him meddling with their characters as well.
... D&D has always interested me but never had any luck finding a good group. I know my personality tends to be that of Ruler's Lawyer due to my time with wargaming. But with D&D I don't know all the supplemental materials that well and every time I played I went for a theme of a character while trying the keep his stats such that they could hold their own. I was never the strongest in the party and in 2 cases (one above included) I was easily the weakest person in the party due to DM house ruling how my abilities worked because they assumed I was trying to do some crazy MIN/MAX cross class OP trickery since they didn't know the rules that well.
At this point sadly I'm so leery of it because I can recall exactly all the campaigns I've played(which wasn't many) and the reasons each fell apart. Videos on the types of bad DMs are like a listing to me of each of the campaigns I played in. I can't imagine myself ever giving it another try, but I still like to watch from the side lines viewing all the interesting stories and fun I know I'll never have.
EDIT: Even though it's been like 2-3 years while watching other videos I remembered that since the Monk Char was done online and I backup most stuff I should have his stats somewhere, took about 5 minutes to locate and here is the general list of them. It's clearly not a char trying to min/max or go OP since I don't even have a stat over 16 yet the DM though I was. We used point buy system for char creation which is what points refer to as I just copy paste this stuff from the txt file I was using as my char sheet during character creation. The stats as we went to level 5 were tracked in the D&D table app we used and couldn't find any list of those since stopped after level 5 because half the group stopped showing up, started with 6 players too.
Level 2 Monk / Level 1 Ardent (Lvl 3) HP 23
Stat/Points/Mod
Str 14 6 +2
Dex 14 6 +2
Con 12 4 +1
Int 12 4 +1
Wis 15 8 +2
Cha 8 0 -1
Init + 2 (Dex 14)
Fort +5 (Con 12)
Reflex +6 (Dex 14)
Will +8 (Wis 15)
AC 10 +2 DEX +2 WIS = 14
Touch AC 10 +2 DEX +2 WIS = 14
BAB +1 (Flurry -1/-1)
Attacks Attack Dmg Critical Range Increment
Crossbow, light +3 1d8 19-20/×2 80 ft.
Quarterstaff +3 (+1/+1) 1d6/1d6+2 ×2
Unarmed +4 (+2/+2) 1d6+4
I had Weapon Specialization Unarmed +2 Dmg feat which is why I got +4 instead of just STR boost on my unarmed.
Thank the Lord that someone finally understand D&D isnt about numbers.
...indeed...
...not only D+D...
...i.m.h.o. numbers (and dices) are vastly overrated in ANY P+P-R.P.G...!
D&D itself could be soundly argued to be a numbers game, the rules only suggest that you *might* want to roleplay and nothing in the rules enforces roleplaying. Other games could definitely be said to be roleplay focused, but D&D is perfectly functional and whole as a dice game. Of course for most of us it is greatly enriched by roleplaying. But we shouldn't dismiss those who want to play it as a dice game.
New name for D&D: Dice *and Dialogue*
@@Sanctor95 yeah I was going to say. A mathematician made d&d not a writer. More power to you if you appreciate rp more than the g, but it's about something different for every table.
@@colinsmith1495 Thats good... This is really good lmao
How players actually make their character:
- What class are they? This pretty much defines 93% of the personality/backstory/race of the player.
- What weapon are they using? Is it big with lots of numbers? The more the better.
- Is their wardrobe really fashionable? If not just wear lots of black.
Now just take a running start and insert yourself into whatever the setting is as hard as possible and you'll "win".
guess it depends on who you play with
I used to play like that, numbers, numbers, numbers.
That was 25 years ago.
Now I more interesting in creating a fictitious person living and function in a fictional world.
My character is the soul of a powerful lich who has been sealed into a corpse. The seals are made of strange, black, stretchy substance that wrap around his chest and limbs and head. The substance is what we today call, trash bags.
Questionable Life Choices plastic!
@@bettycharms Polyethylene, I.e plastic, i.e garbage bags lmao
These are the types of things that separate Role Players from 'Roll Players'
adrien ennis 😂
*TRUE*
1 - Unknown
2 - Dunno
2a - N/A
3 - see character class
4 - N/A
5 - N/A
6 - that's easy: to *level and loot*
Who cares about D&D anymore, I want to hear how the story of Elizabeth ends!!!
Given this is a Call of Cthulhu game, probably on a slab in a morgue or a sanitorium.
@@oz_jones 🤫 SPOILERS
I know it's not the point, but as someone vary new to Role playing, the character you made in 20 minutes seems miles better then what I can make in an hour, definitely gonna remember these questions for my next characters.
And so it shall feel that way for some time - until you get used to the idea of how to do it, until those questions become second nature. Don't stress, I've been doing this for 20+ years. We can however all get to the place where it seems 'easy'.
You'll start to see traits in other characters from movies and what not, and say, dude that's awesome, but what if...?
Don't worry about it. Be the character that happens at the table. Backstories only get busted. Amnesiacs make the best D&D characters, especially if they never try to regain their memories. Just kill the monsters, loot the corpses, and burn down the tavern.
@@vincejester7558 That's not really my playstyle but to each their own.
I'd also say to not be afraid of cliches. You aren't trying to write an award winning novel, and cliches exist because they are fundamentally interesting. Also, the DM _probably_ isn't going to delve too deep into your backstory -- it depends, but since there will be at least another 3 or 4 players all with their own backstories, the main focus will often be on things happening in the world. I think a good DM should try to weave in character backstories (I like to do that) but as a player never count on it.
Oh, also, it can be okay to be somewhat vague in your answers. Try to at least get a general idea of things, but for instance with the first question you don't have to specify the exact town and street on which you were born. Though I think that question is more focused about where you _grew up_ as that's usually more important than where your mother expelled you from her body. But the point is, you could focus on the type of place where you grew up: the slums, or a tiny forest village, or a noble's estate in a massive city, or in the sewers of that city, or in a dark and secret cult, or on a ship that sailed the seas and only dropped into port for brief resupplies.
Even if your character has some cliche elements they will still be more interesting then if you didn’t add back elements at all. Had a character who became an adventurer to do good and promote justice. Not simply because he was a good man but because of what he considered his greatest failure. In a low point of his life he he yelled at his son over something minor he shouldn’t have reacted so harshly to. His son ran off and got himself killed trying stop a pair of thugs. His motivation as a hero is to try to be man his son would have wanted him to be. This I turn provides other elements to his character such as a soft spot for children or that his personal guilt could be used against him. Even gave new elements to how he would would react to other characters. He would react protectively to younger of more innocent characters and would give a cold shoulder to more roguish characters because he sees the men how killed his son in them. Gives a starting point for a personality and for some ways the character good grow as a character for better or worse
"Oh, you're character is super special and has a prophecy to fulfill? How unoriginal!"
If they weren't special; why would I be telling their story?
@@rhiannonlamothe2769 Think about it: most people going on adventures (or just going through life, really) aren't all that special. Most people have had horrible things happen to them, which can be used in a backstory, but it's unlikely for your character to be "the chosen one."
@@robrockstar9648
Interesting characters DO interesting things. They don't spent hours telling you how interesting they are. Nobody, but nobody cares about other players' tropey back stories. They care about how you are gonna help them kill the hungry Owl bear with lasers attached to its nipples.
@@vincejester7558 Well *you* don't care, but don't tell people how they should play their games. If your fun is killer hobo mode killing and looting with a big "skip" to every lore scene, well so long as you find a DM and a group of people who are in for that, fine. But that's not what everyone is about.
If you go at someone else's table and say "you guys are ridiculous trying to build characters with actual stories and psychological motives" well then just why ?
Also having a good backstory giving you motives doesn't mean that you need to spill it at the first few minutes of the game. You can discover this progressively, and then other characters get to discover the reasons why yours tends to think/act like that in some situations. And that, for someone into it, is gonna be *real* interesting.
Though I didn't watch this during character creation, I am glad that I had the answer to all six questions for my character.
Well that's all this video is doing is helping people who maybe don't have answers, or who wouldn't think to have these answers. By having them it just means you know your character which is a good thing! :)
Same here, for all characters I've created over the past 20 years.
Frank Robins, Jr. oddly enough, in the campaign im in now, the first thing the dm did with me for character creation was essentially answering these questions
I had an answer to all but one of these- Motivation.
I don't really know what my character wants yet, but I suppose just in action I will eventually develop this, as I've already got plenty of personality built up on their past- perhaps there'll be a focus on surrivival, or finding another tribe or party to call home: I guess for the moment he's as uncertain as I am, just searching for answers, and going with the flow of events until then.
Yeah me too
I remember one of my most endearing characters, I wrote a ranger with a backstory of his family still being alive and well. I'd gotten tired of the PC "orphaned hero brigade" routine we got, where everyone had, one way or another lost their family. So instead, I went the other, he had both parents, and even grandparents still alive, brothers and sisters, aunts uncles and cousins. So why adventure? Well for one, to explore, to become a part of a legend that would be told and retold by his descendants, such as the stories he'd heard growing up. More pointedly, his town had bee a mining town, but after a war had forced increased production, the mine had finally petered out. His road to adventure was him intentionally departing to try and score the funds that would save his town, to help it change over to a more farm-based economy.
I had a ranger with a similar story; she was the seventh of eight children in a large farming community, most of whom she was distantly related to. She left her community to go adventuring because adventurers are too busy adventuring to need a dowry.
My friends and I are about to depart from our current adventure to a new one, and during our campaign a running gag started to occur that we just could not get rid of a villian called Gorgon. Every time we tried to guess who did what, even if completly unrelated, the list would be "Gorgon, person a, person b, etc, or Gorgon again!" And as we were thinking of adventures the GM suggested a sea ferring journey and I thought of a character to continue the joke: A failing pirate that would board local army ships so often and unsuccesfully, the sailors wouldn't even arrest him at a certain point, and joked whenever something bad happend that "It's Gorgon again!", a motto he embraced later. But the character wasn't much more developed than a joke, and this really helped me. Thank you.
"That's an old film from the 90s."
I feel attacked.
zis playce is cuuuurs't!
8 years later and this video is still helping people make amazing characters
Truly impressive
I am absolutely enthralled by how you speak. Your cadence and voice lend themselves perfectly to this. This channel is like a cornucopia for me,
since it interweaves my love of phonetics and linguistics with my interest in both storytelling, fantasy/science fiction, and D&D/role-playing.
Thank you for putting effort into these very informative and engaging videos!
I am delighted that you feel this way about the channel! I owe my manner of speaking to my grandmother and mother who ensured that I spoke as they wanted me to speak. I am especially glad you like the videos!
I was a bit traumatised when he said the entire world revolved around us because he sounds like the narrator from The Stanley Parable
I believe that this is a great guide on how to make a character feel real and that, if possible PCs should try to follow this process. In addition to these questions, there is another aspect of a character that I always include to help me and others understand the core personalities of a character: Flaws. Simply put, I always understand that no person is perfect and therefore needs to have something that they're probably not proud of. I base the core flaw that my characters have off of the 7 deadly sins: Pride, Gluttony, Greed, ect. Not to say that my or any character is the pinnacle of these flaws, but they should all have one that stands out from the others. E.G. If a character is gluttonous, that doesn't mean that they weigh 800 lbs and eat everything in sight, but it might mean that promise of a good meal might tempt them or that he or she might be easily killed via poison at a dinner party because he or she feels no sense of danger when he or she is in his or her most comfortable place even if there are known assassins after the party. There are other examples (obviously), so I'll just leave it there
well said
We played in a medieval setting and I chose a squire (lower nobility). His key flaw was how constantly angry and butthurt he was (in-character ofc), this led to interesting interactions with the team and gradual changes.
as an Irish DM I just wanna say I really liked that little idea at the beginning of the video, very cool
"2000 views and counting"
my, have you grown.
I wasn't making a character for a game, but this still helped develop my character more! I'm using her in a comic I'm making and having fears and stuff are crucial to who I want her to be.
Same
I made a backstory then saw this video and I had automatically thought of all of these questions.
1) A dwarven town full of smiths
2) Two normal dwarves. They are both smiths and still alive in my hometown
3) He was also a smith. However, he was incredibly weak, but smart and durable. He used his intelligence to hit it in just the right spots to make an amazing work of art.
4) Some dwarves in our town Battlesmith Artificers, these people were his friends, also smart and durable, but not strong. They left the town, but he decided to go with them, with his parent's permission, of course.
5) His parents and my town, and eventually my friends to gain...
6) Intelligence (Even though it's a 20)
So my backstory is...
I was born in a dwarven town full of smiths. My parents were Two normal dwarves. They are both smiths and still alive in my hometown. I was also a smith. However, I was incredibly weak, but smart and durable. I used his intelligence to make amazing works of art. One day some dwarves in our town to become Battlesmith Artificers, these people were my friends, also smart and durable, but not strong. They left the town, but I decided to go with them, with my parent's permission, of course. In going on adventures, I left my parents and my town, and eventually my friends to gain intelligence (Even though it's a 20).
I thought I was on the wrong channel when I saw your first video only had some 2,000 views. You give excellent advice to players and GMs alike! This video was very helpful for crafting my characters' backstories.
+Equeon 2000 views is in my opinion 2000 players and GM's hopefully inspired to tell better stories. We'd all like more views so thank you for your comment. I hope you get some awesome characters out of this :)
Equeon i
Up to 54000+ views already.
207k now
I was so happy when I watched this video and found that all my characters already had answers for these. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right.
Awesome! Must be a pleasure having you in the group - as so often those answers cannot be found on character sheets.
I'm a brand new player who's struggling with many aspects of roleplaying and I'd just like to thank you for these videos. They are very helpful and I'll definitely be checking out others. My current character is very 2D but with these wonderful tips I'm sure I'll be able to fluff her up a bit!
Just played my first session with a new character today.
1. High on the icy slopes of an mountain in an isolated region of a cold northern clime. The clan's dwelling-place was a little way below the lair of the ancient white dragon Viserion that many generations of the clan of white dragonborn had venerated and paid tribute to.
2. Two warriors of the barbarian clan, her father a warrior of some note though not a figure of authority.
a. Her parents and immediate family were slain along with most of the clan by the powerful adventurers who fought their way through the tribal camp on their quest to slay Viserion.
3. Growing up a barbarian warrior. Just on the cusp of adulthood when disaster struck, she had been hunting, fighting, surviving from an early age, in the custom of the clan - both to contribute to their survival in the harsh landscape and as a test of her own fitness to be a part of the clan. The strong survive.
4. Sora was away from the clan on a solitary hunting expedition when the attack took place, as were a handful of other tribesfolk. With the object of their worship and all senior figures in the clan slain, there was little left to bind them to that place or to each other. They went their separate ways.
5. Nothing besides many corpses. She carries the customs and mindset of her people with her, even into more civilised lands. Along with her father's greatsword and a tooth of the dead dragon which she wears as a pendant. She is still the feral child of a savage world and little has changed except that the slaughter of her people has instilled her with a furious rage.
6. Vengeance.
I like her. She's fun, and already developing relationships with party members in a way that my much more serious character who died last session wasn't managing to.
while my characters usually vary strongly in the amount of backstory they have, I always try to leave some open ends in my characters past. sometimes it's something they experienced back as a child, sometimes it's something that literally made them go on this journey just recently. but I really like just having one or more little things in my backstory that I as a player don't even know. that way it's more realistic because many people don't know 100% why things in their life happened the way they did. it also gives me the opportunity to uncover those secrets along with my character which greatly improves my ability and the fun while roleplaying. and lastly, the GM is usually happy to have something to work with that instantly connects my character and gives them some sort of motivation or interest and be relatively free to do whatever they think fits their story most because I left it completely open and don't have any expectations whatsoever except "in think something really weird must be going on because why else would this thing have happened"
... sorry for this really long comment, I kinda suck at explaining things and even more so in English.
brilliant
Oioi
I'm joining a game for the first time and my DM sent me this to help me with my backstory. Some of the questions I had already answered in my mind, but I hadn't encorporated them in the written backstory itself.
This was helpful, thank you.
Thanks for the comment and thank your DM for us. Let us know how your game goes :)
Written backstory? like a homework assignment? How many pages were you required to fill? Did you need footnotes and bibliography?
@@vincejester7558 you could call it that, yeah. He didn't give me a specific set of rules (other than that is should work in the DnD universe) or an amount of pages. It was quite light hearted and I can enjoy writing from time to time, so it was nice to do.
@@robbe2000 Too many authors in D&D. I think players should save the backstories for themselves and their diaries. How much fun do you have going to the club with someone who is constsntly talking about themselves. Imagine how much worse it would be if they kept trying to convince you how cool and tragic they were all night.
@@vincejester7558 🤔 I'm not sure if I get what you're trying to say. The way we play DnD our so called tragic or cool pasts don't come up very often. I have to admit, I added one key experience that may have been a bit much, but I don't think it was ever mentioned during a session.
I'm creating my first d&d character and this definitely helps me to get started thanks!
This guy is very talented. You can see the smarts in him.
I'm going to be playing dnd for the first time this weekend and have been really struggling with inspiration. This video has really helped and I think I now have a character ready :)
I played my first evening of DND tonight and had an absolute blast!!
I’m coming back to this video to leave you a comment to say thanks for the help. A few of your videos really helped me…thank you much love ❤️❤️
I have ran and played D&D for 17 years, and I still find these videos very informative. I love your world building videos, and find your character videos just as gratifying. Cheers, mate. Keep it up. :)
Holy shit man, I have pretty much these EXACT questions as a handout I give to new players.
I approve :)
David Folsom Is it "pretty much" or is it EXACT?
Language
Me: *handing In my 16 chapter backstory*
Dm: you know this is a one shot right?
Me: yeah that's why I just handed you the cliff notes.
Dm: >:/
Really, great characters do make for great games. One of my proudest moments as a dungeon master was back in college, where I ran a game for three semesters straight. My 'dirty little secret' of it is that I really didn't do much in the way of long-term plans beyond an end goal for the story. Still, it was made immensely easier by having a few people in the group who knew the importance of a well-made character, and one that would evolve over time. I was careful not to make the story _about_ them, but they had room to have their arcs within the story. And to a degree, they inspired the other players to flesh out their characters as the game went on, and everyone got their moment to shine by the time the end rolled around, and they loved it. And I've had times where I've come up with some really fun characters to play and for others to be in a party with. So, from both the DM's side and the player's side, I do have to say that these kinds of questions are major. Even if you decide these questions aren't what interest you as the player, find questions that do inspire you and help you come up with a fun, engaging character. You'll appreciate it, and everyone else in the game will appreciate it, players and GM alike.
I am two minutes into this - and I hunted all over and have NO idea where the first episode to this series is, as it begins 'Welcome to another episode' ?? - and I love it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. There is another person out there who agrees that numbers can truly - get tossed. The dice and dice bag are lovely accessories. Now, give me your mind - your creativity. The storyteller lays out a skeleton, and the numbers are the flesh - but there is no pulse to bring the story to life if there are not three dimensional characters. They must have merits, flaws, and alignments. Their soul is in their personality and history. Are they believable and do they make sense? Are they consistent - or consistently inconsistent in such a way that makes sense? We do have behavior that changes from day to day in real life - that can happen in a campaign setting. Either way - enough rambling. I am eager to watch the entire video!
I absolutely adore your way of speaking. You manage to make those topics so interesting and flavourful.
+xXSenSenSenXx My English teacher - Mrs. McMichael - thanks you. And I thank her :) Glad to keep it interesting.
I run a new party and this is my first time being a gm so handing them these questions really helped me shape their campaign and give them a basis to role play with. Thabks!!!!
Awesome! Let us know how the campaign goes?
Bacon Battalion RPG Why of course no problem. Hopefully I won't fumble through it to bad...
I love the focus on a story driven chaacter creation method. I appreciate the hell out of this, im going to throvv this video at some peeps vvho need the help... Numbers and dots are only there to support all the story for the character that should already exist.
And you knovv? If the stats dont fully support the backstory, then theres more to think about on that backstory. ^.~ i just love the implications of having a backstory and then having to explain lackluster stats that ought not be...
So much fun!
As a DM, I love how the backstory of characters helped shape my world. I'm still working on setting up and populating my world, and one of the players came to me and asked if he could be a Drow elf. So then whe had to sat down and cook up a reason for what a Drow was doing topside, and where the hell he came from and what happened to it's people. It resulted in this huge war between an uneasy alliance between elves and man to defeat the common enemy, the Drow, which in term resulted in an entire country with it's inhabitants banished to another realm.
Step-by-step creating a background for a PC resulted in an alliance between man- and elvenkind, and the disappearance and anger of an entire (sub)race, plotting for revenge. In my opinion, that's pretty damn sweet!
this is amazing! how awesome an example of the power of this game when we just sit and ask questions! thank you for sharing! let us know how it goes as I think this sounds like a model game to watch!
That's so awesome to hear! And thank you for creating these fun and inspiring video's for us to enjoy and learn from. It'll be just a few weeks before I start off my very first campaign and already I can barely contain my excitement! ^^
The style of your presenting and the way you raise points and ideas is really good. Great job.
A really useful set of questions; there might be some others one could add but answering these gives a core of a person to work with. Something I found useful and will share: To communicate the answers, for my last character I mocked up a Wikipedia page and gave it to the GM, using the real Wikipedia template as a guideline (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Biography and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Infobox_person). Because both the Wiki template and your video essay are about people I thought there were a lot of synergies, and the extra bits from the Wiki template add some interesting additional detail. Also, because a Wiki page is written as a public perception of a person it means you can imply and foreshadow things - like the answers to Q6 - while still leaving room for revealing these details in play (ie show don't tell).
Guys, he doesn't advertise this often but i by chance stumbled on his actual gameplay with friends and it is literally the best on the net if you don't mind that they don't have critical role kind of budget. I cannot recommend watching his Bacon RPG series (which started as pathfinder and ports to 5e) enough! They also play star/futuristic themes as well but thats not my thing. Once you see the chemistry and patience of him and his friends (some perhaps completely new players) you will probably have a completely different impression. You've got to watch them in action! I am completely unaffiliated with anyone on this channel and just want to spread the word. Browse his channel. Most episodes I've watched are 30 minutes or less in duration because i don't often have 2.5 hrs for watching other games. He edits out a lot of the math of calculating damage and (since that takes up most of the time in episodes) it makes the play time be concise and compelling. Highly enjoyable!
I'm the DM for 2 different parties, and I'm about to go create 600 some NPCs using this. Thanks for the inspiration and words of wisdom.
Robin Payne how did it go?
For years as a writer and a roleplayer, I had struggled to create a backstory that I have loved. Watching this video and using the questions has made me better at writing backstories. So thank you GM. Ill is sure to save this in my writing tips playlist.
Both channels connected to this guy deserve way more publicity. Great, great, GREAT videos.
+Durza Durza You are my hero! I agree! More publicity - that would mean more players and GM's having fun! Quick question - would it be better if it was all on one channel?
I dunno, the separation is nice in my opinion. Its nice being able to say "Okay, PC's go to this channel, and DMs go to this one!" But that's just me.
Thank you - opinion noted and added to the pool!
Bacon Battalion RPG Glad I could help!
Hey, I have to thank you for this video. It helped a lot and decided to show my appreciation, I though I would share my characters background with you
Name: Kelmir OsueWhere were they born: Kelmir was born near the volcano Igneote. In a small village at the base of the mountain near the gold mine. The mountain had a strong connection to the Elemental Plane of Fire. And because of this, the village and other villages surrounding it had the most Fire Genasi population. Though it is still underwhelming small compared to every other race.Who are there parents: Kelmir had several parents throughout his childhood. His biological parents are both Fire Genasi's. His father was an Eldritch knight and his mother was a Evocation Wizard. At the age of 5 they both died in a battle against an Adult Red Dragon. But his older brother, Coal Osue raised him for a few months before a man by the name of Pyre Kindle took them into an orphanage. Coal was not so thrilled but Kelmir was very excited to have a home once more. Coal was adopted when Kelmir was 7 and Kelmir was adopted by the age of 13. They ( yet to decide on the name ) kept him safe, gave him schooling and training further in being an Eldritch Knight and a Wizard like his father and mother.Before adventuring life: Kelmir was mainly training to be an Eldritch Knight since the age of 5. Having been very interested in it like those of the Knights in books and fairy tales. Although he wanted to also learn magic like Pyre's wife, Calida Kindle. So Pyre tried to train him for as long as he can in both. And by the time he was adopted he was nearly already a fighter. But still very much struggled in magic. And as Kelmir grew older with his adopted family he has gotten better in the ways of a fighter. Though magic he still had a lot to learn.Why did he leave his previous life: Kelmir now at the age of eighteen wanted to learn more about the world and after hearing many stories of his father and mother decided to try to follow there footsteps. And in doing so, means leaving home. But not before he was given a book about his family lineage.What he left behind: He left behind many friends, family, and teachers. But all of which respected his decision on his path. Knowing while they could teach him more. It might have been better off if he learned it hid way.What does my character want: What he wants is very simple. To live both the experiences that his biological parents had to go through. He does this with aid of a book. Though how he completes them is uncertain to him but he'll make the best of it when the time comes
You helped me a lot with this video, so i want to say "thank you for making it." I tryed so hard to make a good character this time - something better then before, but i struggeld and run in circles. With this 6 Questions of Yours i found a way out and also a character, who has the potential to be "my" character.
Me: Watches on Thanksgiving
GGML: Can I start off by saying "thank you..."
Me: 😲
Came in expecting great advice. Not disappointed. 👍
I know this video has been up awhile, but just recently began playing DnD with my 3 sons. I'm sure there are plenty of tweeks, but I'd love to share the backstory of a character that this video helped me create. This is the backstory of Dexter Häst.......THANKS so much.
Dexter Häst and his brother, Manzana, were born and raised in Addenport. A region near the Adder bay on the continent of Khorvaire. His parents always taught him to be a positive, productive member of the community. That all changed when his father, Zendal, passed away due to health complications. Dexter and Manzana began delving into the art of thievery as an act of rebellion. Dexter realized that his short stature (2'9"), even among other Halflings, allowed him to hide much easier. As he reached adulthood Dexter was drawn to the lust of piracy. Dexter and his brother eventually joined a band of pirates to earn wealth and journey away from their homeplace. Dexter's mother, Lenara, lives on the outskirts of Adderport and cooks for many local villagers. After 22 years Dexter decided to leave because sharing the spoils of pirate life has grown tiresome. Manzana stayed behind with the pirates that frequent the region as to keep check on their mother. Dexter has vowed to gain enough wealth by any means necessary to purchase the Aerenal Islands
My list, with each question having a sub-question of “how can the DM actively incorporate it into the campaign?”
Don’t make a weak answer; think of the consequences of each and how the DM can use each. If the answer doesn’t come up easily, it’s not a good character trait.
Keep each answer specific enough for a timeline, but broad enough that the DM can work with you to dress it up and work with his world. For example, if you want to be a nobleman, let the DM help figure out your territory and your family’s title (Duke, Earl, Baron, etc).
First up are the Hero’s Journey questions.
1. What was your childhood like?
1.A. How much of your childhood survived/still exists?
1.B. How/why did your childhood change? (If applicable).
2. Why did you join the party?
3. What is your combat style? (Consider basic plans for the class and multi classing).
And the Kakashi questions:
4. What do you like?
5. What do you dislike?
6. What are your hobbies?
7. What is your dream/goal?
7.A. If you reach it, why will you stay with the party?
Example:
1. A small seaside town. I helped fish for crabs in little box traps.
1.A. We got raided, and I saw at least one parent die.
1.B. I got captured and sold into slavery. I escaped after a few years.
2. I needed to get out of town, I wanted to return home, and in case the slavers caught up I wanted strong friends to protect me.
3. Evasive. A Jack of all trades, I can be mobile between enemies, use crowd control magic, or a couple targeted magic. However, this means I won’t have access to high level spells, making me more of a screen than a powerhouse. Willing to risk somewhat for a downed friend, but won’t stick my neck out.
4. Flavorful foods. Ever since trying good food, I try to help out in the kitchen. Never leave me alone with the spices, because I’ll either eat it all or turn your chicken into ultra spicy chicken. I also like traveling; besides my seaside town I was kept indoors, and seeing other biomes and wildlife is intriguing and beautiful. Finally, as a young teen who didn’t learn adult socialization, I’ll prefer to hang out and play with kids. If we are doing detective work through a town, I’d rather ask the kids playing in the street or selling newspapers; maybe they saw a fancy wagon come through, or heard a monster in a nearby alley. (Think Sherlock Holmes with his Baker Street Irregulars, at least the ones who are street urchins).
5. Overbearing authority figures; I shrink away from them. Staying alone in the dark; it reminds me of my time as a slave, and can be seen as mild claustrophobia. Slavery in general, but I’ll act if they’re children. Was never an upper crust, so dressing up and being fancy is uncomfortable, but might be persuaded if I’m promised a fancy dinner party with savory meat and desserts.
6. No real hobby. But I do try and become better friends with each party member. So I pick up an activity for each. A prankster knows I can be a partner in crime or have a prank war, the thief has a partner for gambling cons, the reader has a small book club, etc.
7. Return home and see the extent of the raid’s damage.
7.A. If severe, revenge (likely not to the death). If mild, catch up and try to find the other captured townsfolk. Once complete, try to stop more slavers as I journey with my new family/friends. After all, once I’ve helped make a wall and watch, I’ve outgrown my little town.
This really has made creating (and presumably playing) my character MUCH more fun! Thank you!
Bacon...what happend at the temple, don't let me hanging man, you can't do this to me :'(
The 6 questions applied to my D&D character (I do not own the game yet and the character is purely just a concept):
1. My character was born in a village near where the story begins.
2. My father was a fighter who died in battle and my mother was a healer/nurse (the mother was still alive when the story begins).
3. My character was once a fighter for a previous team he cared deeply for, but they all died because he failed to defend him. He then became a doctor in the town. (Traumatic experience leaves him pessimistic, thinking his team will die the same fate, but he still heals the team).
4. He left the village because more and more dark forces attacked his town, and he joined to try to destroy the source, saving the town he cares deeply for.
5. My character left the village relatively the way it was, only difference between the village between the village he grew up in and the village now was increased attacks and faces growing older.
My character simply wants do save his friends, family, and avenge the team that he was unable to defend so many years ago... (Motivation can change depending on character interaction and events).
I'm in the middle of the video, and you're providing a great backstory for this hypothetical character, no question!
Condensing it all into less than a paragraph so the GM might read it... THAT'S what I need to know.
Totally honest I've been watching these videos non stop and it's really pacifying my anxiety. Just a soothing voice and good information
My favorite character that I've played in Pathfinder Society was a noble born whose village that his parents controlled had been pillaged and burned by raiders, and he along with a few other survivors were able to hide away. During winter, a "traveler" was walking through and asked for food and shelter, which there was very little left. The boy gave her his share of food that night and it turned out to be Fae who took the village of children into their care. They were raised in the feywild, albeit with an overprotective motherly figure (because mortals don't come back to life after dying in the fey world), but she knew that she would have to return them to mortal life. Two of my characters are from this ex-settlement, one which was a girl whom lost her and another is a Paladin who was told stories of honor and glory from Paladins.
Fey Foundling is a fun Feat to play with. I only wish drawbacks were allowed, because of Taken by the Fey.
I am a Game Master myself. I have started to answer a few of these questions in that I worked out the genealogy of my kingdom's monarchy. Yet, you have also given me a lot more to work with for my NPCs to be better developed. This is so cool. I will also be using it as part of a template for the pre-gaming interview. I may even have my players watch this video. I've subscribed. Excellent work.
-What I do is first pick a race and class. (Lizardfolk Barbarian totem)
-then I'll roll my dice to see what kind of scores I get. (this is really important)
-By this point I'll have a general idea of what I want from a character so then pick a background befitting of my character. (Outlander/tribal marauder)
-For my Barbarian I rolled two neg stats an 8 & 7. I decide to make his INT an 8 to describe a methodical, slow speaking, thinker who because of his very tribalistic roots may not know of "common pratices" or what money is outside of money to give to the shrine. however it shows his depth of knowledge relating to HIS culture (like the tale of the first of their clan draped in a radiant light and granted a weapon by a serpent longer than the sea's horizon with wings as white as the clouds above). Meanwhile his 7 went into his charisma as I wanted to make him brutish, blunt as a rock, pragmatic, and uncharming.
-If by this point you're still having difficulty with making a character, I like to look at what languages are available to you through your background or your class. I like to use these to create familial or mentorship like scenarios.
Example 1: my Arakocra monk knows dwarvish because after 5 months starting his adventure his wings were badly injured while climbing the mountainous forest. He was rescued by Dwarven Monks who lived in a monestary within the peaks. Impressed by their nimble movement he began to mimic their actions in their physical arts and pushing his body till it nearly tore when one of the masters saw a kinship of Dwarven stubborn pride in him and taught him their ways. so during his 2 years of recovery and rehab he had progressed well into the basics and was versed in Dwarvish.
Example 2: A self loathing, superiority complex, driven Female Hobgoblin Samurai who can read, write, and fluently speak Elvish without an accent. Happens to be quite fond of poetry and knows about elvish literature. She was originally a high elf reknown for her beauty, however a curse was placed upon her for her vanity as she now tries to live with her new form and perhaps find a cure to her solution.
I just had to write my very first backstory, and I subconsciously included all these questions in it. Granted, I've been a writer for 19 years, so I imagine that helps.
Good video, thank you.
Do you mean Quetzalcoatl the cultural hero of the Aztec. I'm sorry I have been studying Aztec mythology and culture for at least 4 years now and I am still finding more interesting things to learn. Quetzalcoatl is anything but a "demon", the Aztecs had gods and monsters but not nessisarily demons, but gods could be benevolent or malevolent and the Aztecs were very interested in ideas of duality. Quetzalcoatl represented the absolute of benevolence, moral integrity, and wisdom as contrast to his evil twin brother Tezcatlipoca who represented malevolence, cruelty, and sorcery.
The distinction of "demon" is one that I think he was filtering through the lens of the "missionaries in 18xx" character concept he was talking about. Most non-Christian religious figures in those times (or any time prior) would have been regarded as such (at least to Christians themselves). I hope this helped.
Yeah I understand
Okay, it's an old thread... and (as usual?) I'm late to the party... BUT a distinction should be pointed out here.
In the vid' even that he referenced "demons" and Aztec myth'... He was referencing through the ideology of the Game scenarios from Call of Cthulu (based mostly from H.P. Lovecraft/Necronomicon sources)... So it's not going to be much in the lines of accurate or precise about Aztecian mythos, outside of a relative notion that there was something to source the "old stories" you might here in South America from "actual" creatures of one variety or another in the Lovecraftian (or related) texts...
This is more relevant to creating a character who might know of the Aztec's, but the player doesn't have to... so if you do, you can only help a game you're thoroughly involved in. (like answering questions where the GM "gets stuck" in explaining something... or where your knowledge can add bredth and depth to the story or scene at the time.)
There's also plenty of fun to be had, sticking the GM "on the spot" from time to time... if you like watching him/her squirm. :o)
And here I was coming just to argue pedantically that Brazil is the wrong place to search for Quetzalcoatl. =P
Brilliant. I'm about to join a LARP for the first time. This made it incredibly easy to come up with a well thought out and rather lengthy backstory! I was so worried my character would be 2 dimensional. I hadn't even gotten through all six questions before I was inspired to write such vivid and vital details of my characters history. Thank you so much!
My biggest advice for Charakter creation is to go with the flow. Start somewhere, ask a bunch of questions, and see where you end up. especially if you already have a general idea. Watch pen and paper channels for inspiration, but don't just copy a character from them. instead ask: what would my character do in this situation. And don't be scared to re-write your character if you find out it didn't work out. make a sticky note in your PnP folder and pull it out when the time has come.
I used this to create my white witch healer build for the Pathfinder system, and it turned my character from a shy witch with a desire to help others and stand apart from her witch allies into something so much more than I thought it could be. Thank you.
This video was exactly what I needed. I have a few years of experience being a GM, and am finally getting the chance to play a character of my own. I got so stuck in the numbers and the stat blocks that it took an odd comment from dinner with friends to remember that I needed to have perspective, to know who my character was. This video helped me lose myself in the creative process and come up with a character I feel proud to play as (someone who I can see beyond the numbers). Thank you again!
This is what I used for all my character creations, and learned from media studies at college (UK). It is so useful and now I'm a Dm I encourage my players to use the same method. All in all, as a player and DM, these questions have helped me flesh out some amazing PC's and NPC's people seem to love.
This has helped me ease my new players into there back stories, this is a gods send. Thank you
canoe-dle xD writing that into my dad joke book xD
Your videos have really helped turn my game group into a role-playing group which is infinitely better. Thanks so much.
Oh that's what he said. I give it a belated groan.
I love coming up with backstories for characters more than playing the game itself. I also really like if 2 or more players collaborate to have their characters included in each other's backstories. Not necessarily siblings or relatives, but even something as small as they both lived in the same city, one as a low class street urchin, one as a high class adventurer, and during a particularly bad storm one night the adventurer ends up finding a lost child who happens to be the sibling of the urchin and upon returning the child to their home the two meet and form some sort of friendship. Kind of a shoddy premise, but that was 5 minutes of minor ideas. I usually take hours or even days, and many many many iterations.
Where is you?
Who is you?
Why is you?
I haven’t watched it yet but here is a couple important questions off the back that’s important for personality and backstory
*Why?* and *how?*
Why does a character....
Why did this affect a character this way?
Why did a character do what they did?
Why do they feel this way about another character?
How did this affect a character?
How did they react to...?
How does the character affect the story?
How does the relationship develop between characters?
Your videos are fantastic and really helpful. I've played 2 campaigns before. In both of them, I made very standard, min-maxed characters with no real character (pardon the pun). I thought it was going to be epic but it was just boring. Since watching your videos, I've created a character for my new campaign. This time, I focused on his backstory, motivations and personality. Then I just put the numbers where they made sense for him rather than what I thought was strongest. I'm really happy with the result and it's actually reinvigorated my excitement to play again. He just feels more real, fleshed out and interesting. Thank you.
This was incredibly valuable in filling in some critical information about my next character. Thank you so much!
The most important purpose of a back story is to shape how your character plays.
The most catastrophic character I have ever seen was made by a friend who wrote his character as a natural werewolf unaware of his heritage who became a monk archer that later worked for a shady intelligence agency. His back story characterized him as a friendly and helpful guy. The big problem is that the player did not play that way or play with respect to the backstory aside the werewolf bit. He was unapologetic when he kept accidentally shooting allies when he shot into melee combat. He had nothing to say when his employers were revealed to be bad guys. He made no effort to befriend other party members and showed more sympathy to beasts and werewolves than his own companions. During a celebration marking the end of a major arc arc, the player decided to make a big show by having his character unexpectedly turn into his wolf form for the first time. The player expected to make a show by making everyone alarmed but sympathetic as his character ran away and leap out the window into the wilderness. Instead, he was quickly shanked and arrested because he did this in the middle of a crowded room full of paladins and incident bystanders on the second or third floor of a castle. His character was removed from the game.
He wasn't a malicious player - he just didn't know how to roleplay a dramatic character. Before he did this stunt, he asked me for advice about his character's backstory. I told him that a backstory is meaningless if it doesn't influence how the character is played. Being a werewolf doesn't make a character deep and interesting. What makes them interesting is how the character is played around it.
I'm about to create my first character for my first campaign tonight, and this has been amazingly helpful. Thank you so much for making this video.
Squiggs 【Glitches - ROM Hacks - Speedruns】 so what is done to find or join a campaign? I've been looking for a place to start.
I'm not sure how to find a group, in my case it was a group of friends from high school that wanted to get together and play. Good luck to you friend, it has been really fun so far and I suggest trying to find a group if you can!
I havent yet had the chance to play, but I have been working on a few characters so that I have some options already available. Of course I can tweak them if need be, but anyway I just wanted to say thank you for the videos and the work you've put into them! They have helped me have a much better idea how to make my first game, and those after, more enjoyable for me and my friends. I have enjoyed working on character creation so far and this video has done a lot to help me remember some simple points to make a great story for present and future characters. Thank you once again, and I look forward to seeing more content from this channel.
This guys voice is so soothing. Also very helpful.
Other Pro Tip: Write your backstory in FIRST PERSON. It helps you invest in a realistic character because it makes you (as the player) think and feel what the character does.
This comment is so criminally underrated because I just tried to do this and sweet Jesus it worked like a charm
My friend, who's a gm, just sent me this video. I was having difficulty in creating my character. This video is amazingggggg
Great pointers and great examples - talking it through was super helpful - thank you!
One of my favorite characters I made by asking question 1. I had a concept for a middle-aged elf wizard divinator and randomly asked myself where she was born because she felt a bit bland.
I randomly decided Neverwinter, because it was one of the few dnd lore things I knew about, and then did a deep dive into what Neverwinter was like in the few hundred years my elf had been around. And well, she's lived through some shit, because Neverwinter is a hellscape where all the crazy shit has happens. So now she is desperate to control the outcome of the future to make sure another calamity doesn't fall on her head and will go to great lengths to make sure any prediction she has about the end of the world won't happen.
To be honest i wasn't creating a D&D or a roleplaying character at all but i was stuck with my writing and the backstory of my main character (which may be odd, but i had a real lock on it) but as it turns out i just only needed the right questions to think in the right order, delivered with a good thought process to find out whats the backstory about. Thank you! Now i have it all figured out and i can continue to write.
I honestly rewatch this video every time I create a character, it helps me be more creative every time!
Sir, you are a gentleman and a scholar and this video will make me a better role-player.
Thank you for this great content
This has been a huge help with my writing for my stories, I've shared this knowledge with other writers and see they really liked the help so I thank you and I hope to share your vids around.
I appreciate all the help you gave. You mentioned that you grateful for the 2k views but now you have half a million. Well deserved!
I really like your videos on character creation and all the jam that's around it. I'm not a role-player myself (yet), cause I don't really have many people around me who would be interested in that kind of stuff, but I'm moving soon-ish, and I'm planning to join an RPG-circle then.
But that's not primarily why I love your videos. I love them because you don't need to apply them only to RPG-characters. I'm planning to go into videogame development later on, so I relish in every advise on world-building I can get. And I'm also currently creating OC's for a webshow I'm watching, and those videos are really helpful for immersing them in that fictional world as much as possible.
So, although I really like the RPG-aspects, I enjoy how adaptable your advice is.
Plus, the videos are enjoyable to watch. Go on doing what you do, I'll keep watching. ;)
I really enjoy making back stories for my characters. When I ask my players for character back story they all look at me like I've just hit them between the eyes with a hammer. They don't even realize how much more fun they have playing as a character vs playing the character.
I've been following your campaign creating series and plan on adding parts of the character back stories into the sessions this time. I expect it will make playing that much more fun.
Thank you for all the work you put into your videos, it is much appreciated.
This video is EXACTLY what I have been looking for in regards to information on making great backstories! Simply amazing!
This video is helpful, even if you already ask yourself most or all the questions, the in depth discussion of each question helps you think more about the details
I have actually been mulling over how to make a character's backstory for a few days now, I am going to use the advice in this video and see how it turns out. Thanks for the help!
+Rick Cope Let us know! Sometimes just a few questions well answered and spark a huge backstory!
+Bacon Battalion RPG I hope you don't mind, I finished the questions and I was going to pop them on here for you take a look. I filled this out for a Vampire the Masquerade Character (and tweaked a few questions slightly to fit).THE SIX QUESTIONS for Adam Lombardo, Lasombra Antitribu
1. Where were you born? New York, New York on August 15th, 1981
2. Who are your parents? Dad: Paulie Lombardo, a mob enforcer. He was killed when a drug
deal went south. Adam was 5 when his father was killed.
Mom: Bev O'Leary
- A Catholic girl from Boston, she came to New York to attend the Juilliard School to study acting. After Paulie died, she moved back to Boston to raise her son with the support of her family.
3. What were you pre embrace? Adam went to college and took business courses, specializing in finances. He got a job at a corporation in their accounting department and was whiling away his life at a desk. One night at a bar, he met Kevin O'Leary, an old associate of his dad's that realized who he was when he introduced himself. Kevin lured him in with stories of his dad, and the good ol' days, and started
talking about how a good numbers man was always one of the most coveted guys in the mob... They needed people who knew how to shuffle their money around to make it legitimate.
Before he knew it, Adam found himself moonlighting as a mob money launderer... and he didn't want to stop. The money was too good. Despite the fact that he was brought in for his knowledge of accounting, Adam found himself moving up in the organization. There were two reasons for that, one was fact that his old man was a loyal man to the crew and died for it, which bought him some respect. Two was he was a natural leader, and instinctively knew how to get the men to do what needed to be done. He leveraged these and the fact he was funneling clean money into the organization to muscle his way up to being
a Capo with a crew of his own.
4. Why were you embraced? Adam's sire was in the bar when Kevin started wooing Adam to be part of the organization. She marked his rise with great interest, and noticed a great many qualities that would benefit him as a Kindred, and would bring honor to her name.
5. What did they leave behind? His mother, his girlfriend Catelyn, who he didn't want to contact in his early days of hunger. He also lost his day job
6. What does your character want? Power. He wants enough power so no one can ever force a choice on him like becoming a kindred was forced upon him. He wants to rule over his domain as he sees fit.
This is super cool. I would only add one question to each of these points - which maybe you already did in your head, but which isn't clear here: How did he feel - at each point. Item 6 hints that he he was forced to become a kindred. Yet he seems like an opportunist who will use anything and anyone to get his own way. So to perhaps help you make this character come alive I'd answer that question too: How did he feel when: His dad died, when he met Kevin, when his mother discovered he was working for the mob like his dad (if she did or didn't). How did he feel about leaving Catelyn. He obviously liked her - hence not returning to her - but tell us his emotional story and that will help cement in our minds just what kind of person he is. Overall though, this is a great backstory. Plenty of material here for a GM to work with, and plenty for you to play with!
+Bacon Battalion RPG Great questions, I spent some time to try and incorporate a bit more of his emotions into his backstory, with some limited success perhaps, but at least it is present now. I have a link to the PDF of what I ended up with if you are interested in taking a look!
Thanks again so much for taking a look at my answers and giving me more food for thought, you are awesome!
drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ksXi9CnRyIOENsX2FRS1JEN2M/view?usp=sharing
I really appreciate this content. I am quite new to D&D and am starting to run a game for some of my friends who have never played before. This really gives me clear points for them to create backstory to help bring them into the world that I have started creating. Thank you very much for your time knowledge and passion for this art.
Only a pleasure! Welcome to the table! Feel free the share the vids with your friends, I can only hope they'd help you have an awesome game! Let us know how it goes?
I'm thinking of playing d&d at a local store these vids have really helped me with how I should think
This was the most helpful ad for The Mummy I've ever seen!
Which happens to be one of my favorite top 10 50 films!
I'm going to be including this list as a suggestion for character creation in all of the games I run from now on, not to mention using it myself. Incredibly helpful video.
Glad you like it!
Great GM Live is probably the best English teacher I’ve ever had
This is brilliant; and I will share this with all my players. The are so many hooks created this way, as well as giving the player many chances to become involved in their own characters.
Coming back to this every time I onboard new players in my games. Great content!
I'm actually a big advocate of leaving things open-ended.
As far as backstory goes, that means having un-solved mystery in there. Which question are they trying to find an answer to?
You can slot that mystery into nearly any of these questions besides the obvious last one. "My character doesn't know who their parents were, they grew up in a temple - but that's exactly what they're adventuring to find out."
Personality-wise, have one, central character trait that your character embodies, but then let most of the subtleties "grow in" organically. Let the character decide, and then with cooperation from the DM you can generally work something into your backstory to facilitate it.
See also, Sam Riegel semi-discovering his Goblin character hates water, and then having it penciled-in that the thing that turned said character into a goblin involved being drowned.
The problem is that yes, it can be a mystery. However it is also impossible to seperate from "I didn't care to make something up". It will either be something the DM have to make up themselves (and possibly change the whole idea of the way you RP), or it will just be another orphan and no one explore that part. If you don't want to make it another orphan, you are going to have the flesh that out and just RP as if you have no idea what you just wrote.