I have spent hours deep diving into the lore of the Kenku in Dungeons and Dragons. I am interested in role playing the curse and have read copious threads from those who have role played them. I wanted to play a rogue and lean into their greedy self-serving nature (without being a dick to the party of course). I have an idea for the backstory but it needs tweaking and I hoped to find help in this community. [Also I plan to get into the Arcane Trickster at level three.]
Rat Scratch grew up in the slums of a big city with her flock, who were scavengers that struggled to survive. An opportunity arose when a wealthy merchant offered to hire them for a job to steal ledgers from a rival merchant, and pay them handsomely if they succeeded. While making an escape with a forged copy of the ledger and a list of contacts, the Kenku are caught by the city guards, who question what they are doing and what the documents were. They tried to lie a way out but were unsuccessful. Rat Scratch pipes up before arrest, telling the guards that she will reveal their employer if they let them off the hook and return (most) of the stolen or forged goods. The guards eventually except the bribe, and Rat Scratch reveal the identity of the merchant by repeating his instructions for infiltrating the home of his rival. The guards are intrigued and let the Kenku go, preparing to investigate the merchant. The merchant, upon learning of the betrayal, uses his wealth and position to sway the guards back to his side during the investigation, using the forged documents to accuse his rival of illegal actions. He turns them back against the Kenku, forcing them out of The city and losing their opportunity for a better life. Rat Scratch was then cast out and forced to wander as a vagabond by her flock, and looks for any beacon of hope to pull her out of the life of begging and misery she has found herself in.
That’s what I’ve got. No matter what I write, the backstory never sounds good, and I always feel like it’s not complex or interesting, but it also feels stupid and I can’t enjoy the character. What should I do? If you suggest an overhaul let me know what it is and how I can make it work. I am really invested in this character but am never satisfied with her story. Please help!
I like the idea, and love Kenku in general, but I wonder if the problem is you're trying to be too specific?
I often find that backstory works best when you boil it down to the key points and then let the character and your DM inform the specifics later, as the backstory may not even come up in a campaign, or your DM might like to integrate it as a surprise so sometimes too many specifics either in general or around one particular part can make that harder.
The key features to me in the backstory are that your character belonged to a family/gang but were cast out after betraying a client to escape the law, and that Kenku are probably unwelcome in their home city as a result. The components to this are the city (and its guards), the merchant client, the target merchant and your flock.
You might also try writing the backstory a little like a novel, for example (and I'm not much of a writer):
It was a good job, or so Rat Scratch thought at the time. The scowling guard captain disagreed. In panic, Rat Scratch mimicked the only phrase she could think of, in the voice of an imperious merchant, "Armand Mountebank is a cheat and a liar, and you're going to help me prove it. Break into his home and get me his ledger, and you'll be handsomely rewarded". This got the captain's attention, "Who paid you to do this? If you take me to them, I'll be lenient".
It was a good deal, or so Rat Scratch thought at the time. Turning on her employer to save her flock from prison, that wasn't a choice at all. But money is more powerful than justice in Neverwinter, and with her flock banished from the city, and she no longer welcome among them, life became ever more difficult. Though her quick wits got her into this mess, maybe they could get her out of it again, someday?
You don't necessarily need to setup your backstory this way, it can just be a fun way to visualise your story, or look at it in a different way.
Personally I think what you've got is plenty complex and interesting; a backstory doesn't need to be exhaustive, it should inform a little about your character and where they came from, alongside the various other bits and pieces like their alignment, personality traits, bonds and flaws, and serves as a hook that you and your DM can tie into the campaign (or not).
I'm also a real sucker for more "mundane" stories of betrayal and corruption as a background; not every character needs to be the secret bastard offspring of a demon lord, or heir to a kingdom, and a more grounded story lets you rise to the occasion in your adventures, doing things that your Kenku never dreamed they'd be doing.
Hopefully something in my meandering train of thought is helpful; I'm no expert, but my advice is keep it simple to start, as you can always add detail later.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Have you talked to your DM or any of the other players? I had only half my backstory for my Kenku when we sat down for session 0. The rest was fleshed out by deciding how she met and connected with the other players in the campaign. So far, it's been a lot of fun with the paladin giving her one set of advise and the bard pretty much telling her the exact opposite.
I basically do two things for backstories, an outline of their backstory and particular scenes that characterize it. I don't typically actually write them out, but I almost always create both for every character. The outline is very vague, allowing it to be filled in as the situation demands. The scenes are usually pretty complete, and are the sorts of things that would stick in the character's memory, but also the sort of thing that could easily be slotted into most settings or crossed with other characters.
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I have spent hours deep diving into the lore of the Kenku in Dungeons and Dragons. I am interested in role playing the curse and have read copious threads from those who have role played them. I wanted to play a rogue and lean into their greedy self-serving nature (without being a dick to the party of course). I have an idea for the backstory but it needs tweaking and I hoped to find help in this community. [Also I plan to get into the Arcane Trickster at level three.]
Rat Scratch grew up in the slums of a big city with her flock, who were scavengers that struggled to survive. An opportunity arose when a wealthy merchant offered to hire them for a job to steal ledgers from a rival merchant, and pay them handsomely if they succeeded. While making an escape with a forged copy of the ledger and a list of contacts, the Kenku are caught by the city guards, who question what they are doing and what the documents were. They tried to lie a way out but were unsuccessful. Rat Scratch pipes up before arrest, telling the guards that she will reveal their employer if they let them off the hook and return (most) of the stolen or forged goods. The guards eventually except the bribe, and Rat Scratch reveal the identity of the merchant by repeating his instructions for infiltrating the home of his rival. The guards are intrigued and let the Kenku go, preparing to investigate the merchant. The merchant, upon learning of the betrayal, uses his wealth and position to sway the guards back to his side during the investigation, using the forged documents to accuse his rival of illegal actions. He turns them back against the Kenku, forcing them out of The city and losing their opportunity for a better life. Rat Scratch was then cast out and forced to wander as a vagabond by her flock, and looks for any beacon of hope to pull her out of the life of begging and misery she has found herself in.
That’s what I’ve got. No matter what I write, the backstory never sounds good, and I always feel like it’s not complex or interesting, but it also feels stupid and I can’t enjoy the character. What should I do? If you suggest an overhaul let me know what it is and how I can make it work. I am really invested in this character but am never satisfied with her story. Please help!
I like the idea, and love Kenku in general, but I wonder if the problem is you're trying to be too specific?
I often find that backstory works best when you boil it down to the key points and then let the character and your DM inform the specifics later, as the backstory may not even come up in a campaign, or your DM might like to integrate it as a surprise so sometimes too many specifics either in general or around one particular part can make that harder.
The key features to me in the backstory are that your character belonged to a family/gang but were cast out after betraying a client to escape the law, and that Kenku are probably unwelcome in their home city as a result. The components to this are the city (and its guards), the merchant client, the target merchant and your flock.
You might also try writing the backstory a little like a novel, for example (and I'm not much of a writer):
You don't necessarily need to setup your backstory this way, it can just be a fun way to visualise your story, or look at it in a different way.
Personally I think what you've got is plenty complex and interesting; a backstory doesn't need to be exhaustive, it should inform a little about your character and where they came from, alongside the various other bits and pieces like their alignment, personality traits, bonds and flaws, and serves as a hook that you and your DM can tie into the campaign (or not).
I'm also a real sucker for more "mundane" stories of betrayal and corruption as a background; not every character needs to be the secret bastard offspring of a demon lord, or heir to a kingdom, and a more grounded story lets you rise to the occasion in your adventures, doing things that your Kenku never dreamed they'd be doing.
Hopefully something in my meandering train of thought is helpful; I'm no expert, but my advice is keep it simple to start, as you can always add detail later.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Thank you so much! I hadn’t thought about it that way and after hearing the way you worded it, it does sound better.
Have you talked to your DM or any of the other players?
I had only half my backstory for my Kenku when we sat down for session 0. The rest was fleshed out by deciding how she met and connected with the other players in the campaign. So far, it's been a lot of fun with the paladin giving her one set of advise and the bard pretty much telling her the exact opposite.
I basically do two things for backstories, an outline of their backstory and particular scenes that characterize it. I don't typically actually write them out, but I almost always create both for every character. The outline is very vague, allowing it to be filled in as the situation demands. The scenes are usually pretty complete, and are the sorts of things that would stick in the character's memory, but also the sort of thing that could easily be slotted into most settings or crossed with other characters.