
Disclaimer: This is a parody of bad roleplaying. It is not representative of the D&D community as a whole, or of any specific person. However, the author stands by this article as an unfortunate, yet accurate portrayal of certain D&D players. Whether they're horrible people or just ignorant, we all know who they are, and we all know what they deserve. You are either a hypocrite or a psychopath. You believe that it's totally fine to blackmail people, kill them anyways, and rob their corpses, so long as you never get caught. You are only playing D&D for the power fantasy. What is wrong with you? Do you find pleasure in pissing people off? Are you completely unable to sympathize with anyone but yourself? Do you delude yourself into thinking you're a good guy in a transparent attempt to justify your actions? Are you just an idiot? How to do get out of bed in the morning, knowing you're a complete blight on civilization, that everyone with more than two brain cells wants you dead, and that the people you call "friends" only care about you so long as it directly benefits themselves?
- Skill Proficiencies: Lying, Avoiding Consequences
- Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set that you'll never use because who cares
- Equipment: A key to the city (Crowbar), a set of extremely conspicuous midnight-black robes with scary cowl, and a belt pouch containing 15 GP, all stolen from someone you barely know yet somehow "deserved it". Yeah, right.
There are many types of horrible people, but you're a specific type of horrible person. Choose a Specialty from the table below:
d8 | Criminal Specialty |
---|---|
1 | Blackmailer, but they deserved it! |
2 | Burglar, but they deserved it! |
3 | Enforcer (kind way of saying murderer), but they deserved it! |
4 | Fence (Different way of saying "Sells stolen goods"), You'd better hold on to your stuff! |
5 | Highway robber, but they deserved it! |
6 | Hired killer (another kind way of saying murderer), but they deserved it! |
7 | Pickpocket, but they deserved it! |
8 | Smuggler (but since this is D&D there's other illegal things people smuggle. Like weap...oh, wait, those aren't illegal. Stolen goo...oh wait, there's no good registries to identify stolen goods, making smugglers kinda pointless. Yeah, you're a drug dealer |
You are part of a network of the worst people alive. In case the consequences of your actions actually catch up to you, you have bosses the whine to. And because D&D has been designed to feed into your power fantasy, it'll work every time. I hope I never have to meet you in real life.
Suggested Characteristics
See below
d8 | Personality Trait |
---|---|
1 | I always have a plan for what to do when things go wrong: blame the DM. |
2 | I am always calm, no matter what the situation. I never raise my voice or display any emotion whatsoever. I think that if I act professional, I always have the moral high ground. |
3 | The first thing I do in a new place is note the locations of everything valuable, before I even know who owns them. I don't care if it's someone's treasured family heirloom, I want money and I don't care how I get it. |
4 | I manipulate people into liking me, even though I'm a complete sociopath. |
5 | I don't believe anything anyone else says, because I am always right. |
6 | The only philosophy I care to learn comes from Star Wars. |
7 | I am overcompensating for something. |
8 | I'm also overcompensating for something. |
d6 | Ideal |
---|---|
1 | Honor, Whatever That Means. I willingly support other criminals in a bid to make the world a worse place for everyone but me. (Lawful) |
2 | Ego. Don't tell me what to do, or I'll make you suffer. (Chaotic) |
3 | Hypocrisy. I try and justify my crimes to myself by giving back to the community, even though I stole everything from that same community. (Good?) |
4 | Social Darwinism. I'm not even trying to justify my actions. (Evil) |
5 | Vanity. I don't care about anyone except those that directly help me. (Evil) |
6 | Writer's Cop Out. My ideals are too vague to mean anything, but hey, the book says my alignment's Good! (Good) |
d6 | Bond |
---|---|
1 | I have a bond I ignore. |
2 | I have a bond I ignore. |
3 | I have a bond I ignore. |
4 | I have a bond I ignore. |
5 | I have a bond I ignore. |
6 | I have a bond I ignore. |
d6 | Flaw |
---|---|
1 | Excuse to be a horrible person. |
2 | Also an excuse to be a horrible person. |
3 | Really, I have no idea how these don't impact alignment. |
4 | Not an excuse to be a horrible person, but I don't care. |
5 | What do you think, idiot? |
6 | Legitimately disturbing excuse to be a horrible person. Seriously: "An innocent person is in prison for a crime that I committed. I'm okay with that." Who writes this!? |
You're still a criminal, but you pretend not to be. You delude yourself into believing you working for a greater cause, when all you're really doing is stripping people of their privacy. You know everything about everyone, then only release the information that benefits you. You're a lot like a tabloid reporter, but with even less personal responsibility.
You are part of a network of the worst people alive. In case the consequences of your actions actually catch up to you, you have bosses the whine to. And because D&D has been designed to feed into your power fantasy, it'll work every time. I hope I never have to meet you in real life.

just pick criminal ://///////////////////////////////////////////
This is all of my friend's characters in a nutshell, "oh yeah its justified why I harassed an NPC(In an adult way), after killing her bandit family and taking her s@#$, she tried to kill us in an ambush", in all reality, they saw a bandit tower in the distance, in which they planned an attack, a scout of the bandits saw their plans, and the bandits planned an ambush, the fight was supposed to be fair, but, Problem Player was playing a busted barb, so he steamrolled the enemies and held the female leader captive
all im sayin is this background works for his characters.
Love the entire thing. Pure gold. Do other backgrounds please
I 100% agree
Thank you, finally someone gets it!
i love this background because i know a player that is exactly like this but hes more like a "Main character syndrome"
I do not understand why so many people downvoted this. This is my favorite background (if not for actually playing), and definitely one of the best homebrews out there, especially the part with key to the city. Though I would like to see a few different bonds, even if all of them are bad and pretty similar.
PS. I am a rouge character this time, but not with the criminal background, and I do not play characters this way at all, but I do know that some people do so it is very good to see this for me.
Love this
Truly made me laugh out loud. Thank you for this delightful romp.
I feel personally attacked.
dude your keyboards ok, right. . .
I'm literally crying laughing lmaooo. THIS IS AMAZING!!!
I've never had this misfortune of playing with somebody actually like this, but this was still hysterical to read.
Internet heritage post.
oh my gosh, this is amazing.
WHY? I mean it is bloody hilarious and the best thing I have ever seen but just why?
Who let the bard and dm co-write a background? /j
Either way great background man
relatable
holy shit, your not playing with a person your playing with an actually super villain.
So true