I have been thinking more about the character concept that I made for my character, Sifa Celestine. After considering what you all had to say about my original character concept, I have decided that I need to change it. I aged the character up to the point where she’s middle aged. I then made her a single mother who has two adult children who have already left home to start lives and families of their own. Then I said that because she never married, and, with her children gone, she starts to feel bored and lonely and begins to spend more and more time in her garden looking after her plants.
Eventually she started talking to them and to her surprise they talked back.
What surprised her the most though was that she could actually understand them and have a conversation with them.
That backstory seems to stupid and boring though. There is no real excitement in it, no drama or trauma or anything like that and it’s not very long either. It’s basically the backstory of a lonely middle aged woman who discovers she can talk to plants and then goes on an adventure for some reason. I had this idea that she goes on an adventure to learn more about the powers she’s discovering she has, but that just seems like a stupid and boring idea.
I’ve been trying to make a character and a backstory that’s normal and not a total cringe fest like the last one but I’m really struggling because I feel like it’s either stupid or boring and when I try to make it exciting and full of lore and stuff, it feels like I’ve wrote the backstory of an edgelord.
How do you make boring backstories like this cool and interesting, without being cringe or turning your character into an edgelord?
There is no real excitement in it, no drama or trauma or anything like that and it’s not very long either.
Excitement comes from the game, not the backstory. There's plenty of space for drama. Trauma is overrated in backstory. Short backstories are underrated.
It’s basically the backstory of a lonely middle aged woman who discovers she can talk to plants and then goes on an adventure for some reason. I had this idea that she goes on an adventure to learn more about the powers she’s discovering she has, but that just seems like a stupid and boring idea.
That's neither stupid nor boring. It's a fine hook, and the game will be about how she interacts with the other PCs and all the NPCs you encounter... She'll develop relationships, and that will cause drama.
That's not a boring or stupid backstory. I think it's great. Sometimes the drama comes from the adventure. A good DM will find something that will give her something - maybe she meets an NPC and falls in love, maybe one of her children has a problem she must solve or there will be dire consequences. No need for for trauma when it comes to why you might be adventuring. To be honest the dealing with drama thing gets old. I have created two characters with deep seated issues for the past two campaigns and I'm getting tired of role playing that.
As a DM I welcome backstories without trauma because it gives me something different to work with during the campaign. I'm not always having to create villains. I have one character in a campaign I run who has a loving yet overprotective mother. It's fun to play and adds levity.
If it's a story, it needs to be written as a story. That might take more than the length of your average D&D backstory to get right, and more in general the same applies to all writing: it takes practice and there's a lot to learn about it. There are plenty of resources out there to learn from, a lot of them free. Look up instructional writing channels on YouTube, for instance. I'm no expert, but two key rules to good writing are to cut everything that's not needed and to show, not tell (there's some overlap between the two as well). So write your backstory and first focus on just getting it all down start to finish. You want a complete first draft, because otherwise you'll keep going back and forth between writing and editing and that's no good. Then look at what you wrote and apply these two rules (concurrently or one at a time, whatever works best for you). Show, don't tell means you don't tell the reader everything that's going on, you let the reader form their own impressions and conclusions from your writing: if you for instance say someone drops down on a couch, buries their face in their hands and sighs, you don't have to tell the reader they are tired and upset - you painted a little picture that shows it. Cutting everything that's not needed speaks for itself: if it doesn't add anything of value, it has to go. You can probably cut down your first draft by a third or more without losing anything meaningful, and your writing will be much better for it. That especially goes for lore dumps: they're frowned upon in all fiction writing, because they don't add anything to the story. Better to intersperse that info throughout the writing as needed than to dump it on the reader in one big clump of here's-what-you-need-to-know. Lore really has very little place in a D&D backstory, in my opinion. The backstory is about the character, not about the world. Leave that to the DM, or write it out as an informational piece separate from the backstory.
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Same. You don't need a massive background full of lore and plot hooks. You've got a great backstory, with multiple characters that could be used as plot hooks. If every character has massive amounts of backstory, it's difficult to weave them all together and make them relevant, so they're either going to get selectively or collectively ignored. Leaving room for a DM to tie pieces of plot lines together or to make suggestions is great. And background is supposed to be background, and inform motivations, but it doesn't have to actively tie into the plot of the adventure. There's absolutely nothing wrong with what you've written here. Remember when characters start out they're level 1! If they've had all that drama before, how are they only level 1?
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
It’s basically the backstory of a lonely middle aged woman who discovers she can talk to plants and then goes on an adventure for some reason.
That's the question you need to answer to make this seem less "stupid and boring" to you. And it doesn't have to be "children murdered, seeking revenge" or "home destroyed by war, seeking justice" kind of answers either.
I think the vibe you might want to aim for with Sifa is 'character in a Studio Ghibli film'. Lean away from trauma and towards wonder. She's a middle aged woman who raised her kids on her own, which already establishes her strength and independence. Now she's discovering she has strange powers, and with the children gone she's free to explore them. Perhaps the plants know her secret and have offered her clues to get her started.
Or maybe... let's circle back to those kids. If Sifa's secretly the daughter of a powerful fey, that means her kids share that bloodline, which means they could have powers and abilities too. Maybe they set out as adventurers first, and their letters back to mom help inspire her to adventure as well now that she realizes she has some tricks of her own.
The 'child of adventurers trying to carve their own path' trope is an old one, but how often do you see 'parent of adventurers' as a first-level character? That in and of itself would be a story gold mine, especially if mom's party crosses paths with the higher-level party her children are in...
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
- Her kids made her feel like her domestic lifestyle needed to change. Maybe they became adventurers and she got jealous, or maybe they wanted to stay with dad because he was more exciting, or maybe a quest hook hit their town and her timid response caused them to lose something that created a divide between them.
- She, or someone she knows, has always suffered from an illness nobody could cure. But the plants told her about a faraway herb that could cure it, if only she can get there and find it. Alternatively, she or someone she knows always wanted to taste a fruit from a faraway land, but couldn't make the journey because it's dangerous. EDIT: This is such a boring suggestion that I almost want to delete it. I'll leave it, but I ain't happy about it.
- The plants were the only friends she had left, and when it turned out she could understand them, she discovered they didn't like her either. Instead of fixing her personality she ran away.
"Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."
- Elmore Leonard
Other than your DM, who is really going to read any of your backstory? No one. You are going to TELL them your backstory. The best way to tell everyone at the table what your backstory is about is by revealing it during gameplay. Actions speak louder than words.
The only thing I'll add is don't think lacking trauma is really a bad thing. It's a crutch and is what brings the cringe. It can also be boring - How many heroes and quests are motivated because "bad guy killed everyone I loved"? It makes it too easy to avoid delving into psychology and what would really morivate a person to go on these quests and actually explore how people think. It's easy to kill Uncle Lars and Aunt Beru - it's much harder, and therefore much more satisfying, to genuinely motivate a character to get out into the wide world.
Trauma isn't a good thing these days - it's been used too much. Try and find a way to motivate your character without it. My character that I'm preparing did a pact with a dragon to save someone, and now has dragonblood. His people are very anti dragon and he knew if they found out, they'd reject him. So now he's left his people so he can find a[n honourable] way out of his pact and therefore he quests in the hopes that he'll find one. No real trauma there, but a motivation that changed his course abd gives him purpose.
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You shouldn't rely too much on backstory trauma to make your character 'interesting.'
The most interesting and eventful part of your character's life, IMO, ought to be the adventure itself, not what came before it. Especially if the campaign is starting at low levels.
That's not to say there's no place for trauma or tragedy in backstories but it's not a requirement to make an interesting character.
The "for some reason" part is exactly what I want my players to finish their backstories with. As a DM, I could tie that easily into whatever I needed. "The plants tell of a great danger coming...", etc. Sure, you could turn that into "The plants tell her one day that her children were brutally murdered by Krelk the warlord, and she vowed to accept the power of nature and grow into an unstoppable force that would avenge them" but then what happens when the DM plainly says "Ummm... there's no Krelk in my campaign?"
I don't think there is a right or wrong way to write backstory. Yours sounds good to me. I think the name can be misleading at times as well. Some people like to write backstory that is just that, a story, with narrative arcs and character history, etc. For myself, I prefer a paragraph of "life so far in about a hundred words" and then an outline of personality traits, goals, fears, etc. because I've found that's what works best for me. Unless your DM asks for specific bits (e.g., did your character have any siblings, etc.) just do what feels right for you in a way that helps you feel ready to play that character. I agree with the other comments that the drama will come as you play.
Yeah, the problem is you've made an origin story instead of a backstory.
For example, Spider-Man's origin story is that Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider. But Spider-Man's backstory is that Uncle Ben is killed. That's what motives Spider-Man to become a hero.
Yeah. murdered family member is the sort of lazy backstory that people often fall back on, and it doesn't seem like it would fit the vibe of this character.
So what if when she starts talking to her plants, one of them tells her something important that forces her to act?
Her children are starting their own families. What if there's something that her infant grandchild needs? Maybe it's born with a disability, and there's a certain rare herb that can cure it. One of her plants knows a clue to how to start looking for it.
Maybe one of her plants is one of the last of its species. It asks her to go out and seek for another individual of the species, so they can cross-pollinate and perpetuate the species.
Or the species is not facing extinction, but the fruit of this plant has magical properties, but only if pollinated.
Work with the DM. Maybe they have a plot hook they want to introduce to the party, and they can do it by having the plants communicate it.
The most important thing to have in your back story is WHY you became an adventurer, and WHAT happened that means that you won't run back to a safe home life when you see the death that happens around an adventurer - quite often caused by them.
The most important thing to have in your back story is WHY you became an adventurer, and WHAT happened that means that you won't run back to a safe home life when you see the death that happens around an adventurer - quite often caused by them.
I don't think a player necessarily has to provide that motivation in their backstory. The DM might have in mind an event in session 1 that propels the party into the adventure. But it's good for each PC to have an additional motive in their backstory, which can be used by the DM for plot hooks or side quests. That personal character motivation doesn't have to be so strong that they'd run into death for it, though, as long as the party motivation is strong enough.
Backstories for a starting character with a big zero next to the word "Experience" on their sheet should not have much, if any adventure in them. Backstories are where a character comes from and why they want to adventure. Your middle aged soccer mom suddenly learning she can talk to plants is a great starting point for a new character, all you need is a reason for her to start adventuring. An obvious option is that she wants to learn where these late blooming (pardon the pun) abilities came from, so she maybe does a little research and sets off into the world to learn more about her true origins.
As a general rule for a starting character backstory, I recommend asking yourself, "Would any of this traumatic edgelord drama [because that's exactly what you seem to think is required for any backstory] grant experience points?" If the answer is yes and your character has no XP, then chuck that stuff out. There is no such thing as a first level veteran, at least not in D&D. You're creating a character to develop by roleplaying them in a game that hasn't started yet, not writing a book about said character before you play them. If the game starts at a level above first, look at your backstory and instead ask "Has this character had the appropriate sorts of experience to be at this level and not significantly higher or lower?"
It sounds like your main issue is that you enjoy creating fully developed characters, which is what you do if you're writing a novel. D&D is not the process of writing a novel. You're confusing "backstory" with "the whole story." Creating your character's story by playing it out in the game is one of the primary points of playing a roleplaying game. If you want a character to be angsty, edgy, and traumatized then have something traumatic that happened in their past, preferably their very recent past if it's a first/low level character and then stop. They haven't recovered from that defining trauma. They have not avenged their slain lover, or gotten revenge on their abuser, or the warlord that murdered their village, or whatever. That's what you're supposed to do by playing.
Your plant lady is a great starting character concept. You can introduce her to a party without spending a half hour explaining her convoluted past. She talks to plants and she wants to figure out why she's special like that. Cool, maybe we can find something out about that on our adventure, grab your gear and let's get started.
Don't worry about backstory when you're creating a character: focus on their personality instead. Are they friendly, awkward, or grouchy? Cocky, stoic, or nervous? Do they love fighting, hate the undead, enjoy painting? That's the stuff that makes a character.
Han Solo is one of the most popular characters in Star Wars, but for years he was just a mysterious smuggler with no backstory. People loved him not because of his deep or complex past, but because he's impulsive and pragmatic and a little too confident for his own good. And when his backstory movie did come out, most fans didn't like it, and many felt it was unnecessary. They liked Han because of who he was, not what happened to him.
And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory. Unless they're tied in with the other players', or the DM wants to build the story around them, backstories are irrelevant. Beyond a short, simple summary like what you've got (which is perfect!) all they do is slow down the game to say "look at me!" Which is the last thing anyone wants in a cooperative storytelling game like D&D.
So, all that to say, your backstory is perfect! Leave it as is. Instead, start focusing on your character's personality, because that's what your fellow players are really going to love.
People, if somebody wants to write a backstory let them write a backstory. They're not writing it for you, they're writing it for themselves. It's fine. It doesn't affect you in any way.
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Han Solo is one of the most popular characters in Star Wars, but for years he was just a mysterious smuggler with no backstory. People loved him not because of his deep or complex past, but because he's impulsive and pragmatic and a little too confident for his own good. And when his backstory movie did come out, most fans didn't like it, and many felt it was unnecessary. They liked Han because of who he was, not what happened to him.
Han's backstory is that he owes Jabba money because he dumped his cargo because he was boarded. It's kind of important to the plot of Empire Strikes Back.
It's not a novel, but it's one sentence that's important to the plot and the character's motivations.
And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory. Unless they're tied in with the other players', or the DM wants to build the story around them, backstories are irrelevant. Beyond a short, simple summary like what you've got (which is perfect!) all they do is slow down the game to say "look at me!" Which is the last thing anyone wants in a cooperative storytelling game like D&D.
As a DM, I care about your backstory. I will try to weave it into the main plot. There is a concept in fiction writing of plot-driven vs. character-driven stories. D&D is probably mostly plot-driven, because a character-driven story usually focuses on a main character, and you don't want to favor one of your players too much. But you can include character-driven elements.
No, you don't introduce yourself and spend 20 minutes telling the other characters your backstory. But it comes up from time to time.
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Hi,
I have been thinking more about the character concept that I made for my character, Sifa Celestine. After considering what you all had to say about my original character concept, I have decided that I need to change it. I aged the character up to the point where she’s middle aged. I then made her a single mother who has two adult children who have already left home to start lives and families of their own. Then I said that because she never married, and, with her children gone, she starts to feel bored and lonely and begins to spend more and more time in her garden looking after her plants.
Eventually she started talking to them and to her surprise they talked back.
What surprised her the most though was that she could actually understand them and have a conversation with them.
That backstory seems to stupid and boring though. There is no real excitement in it, no drama or trauma or anything like that and it’s not very long either. It’s basically the backstory of a lonely middle aged woman who discovers she can talk to plants and then goes on an adventure for some reason. I had this idea that she goes on an adventure to learn more about the powers she’s discovering she has, but that just seems like a stupid and boring idea.
I’ve been trying to make a character and a backstory that’s normal and not a total cringe fest like the last one but I’m really struggling because I feel like it’s either stupid or boring and when I try to make it exciting and full of lore and stuff, it feels like I’ve wrote the backstory of an edgelord.
How do you make boring backstories like this cool and interesting, without being cringe or turning your character into an edgelord?
Thanks
XD
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Excitement comes from the game, not the backstory. There's plenty of space for drama. Trauma is overrated in backstory. Short backstories are underrated.
That's neither stupid nor boring. It's a fine hook, and the game will be about how she interacts with the other PCs and all the NPCs you encounter... She'll develop relationships, and that will cause drama.
That's not a boring or stupid backstory. I think it's great. Sometimes the drama comes from the adventure. A good DM will find something that will give her something - maybe she meets an NPC and falls in love, maybe one of her children has a problem she must solve or there will be dire consequences. No need for for trauma when it comes to why you might be adventuring. To be honest the dealing with drama thing gets old. I have created two characters with deep seated issues for the past two campaigns and I'm getting tired of role playing that.
As a DM I welcome backstories without trauma because it gives me something different to work with during the campaign. I'm not always having to create villains. I have one character in a campaign I run who has a loving yet overprotective mother. It's fun to play and adds levity.
If it's a story, it needs to be written as a story. That might take more than the length of your average D&D backstory to get right, and more in general the same applies to all writing: it takes practice and there's a lot to learn about it. There are plenty of resources out there to learn from, a lot of them free. Look up instructional writing channels on YouTube, for instance. I'm no expert, but two key rules to good writing are to cut everything that's not needed and to show, not tell (there's some overlap between the two as well). So write your backstory and first focus on just getting it all down start to finish. You want a complete first draft, because otherwise you'll keep going back and forth between writing and editing and that's no good. Then look at what you wrote and apply these two rules (concurrently or one at a time, whatever works best for you). Show, don't tell means you don't tell the reader everything that's going on, you let the reader form their own impressions and conclusions from your writing: if you for instance say someone drops down on a couch, buries their face in their hands and sighs, you don't have to tell the reader they are tired and upset - you painted a little picture that shows it. Cutting everything that's not needed speaks for itself: if it doesn't add anything of value, it has to go. You can probably cut down your first draft by a third or more without losing anything meaningful, and your writing will be much better for it. That especially goes for lore dumps: they're frowned upon in all fiction writing, because they don't add anything to the story. Better to intersperse that info throughout the writing as needed than to dump it on the reader in one big clump of here's-what-you-need-to-know. Lore really has very little place in a D&D backstory, in my opinion. The backstory is about the character, not about the world. Leave that to the DM, or write it out as an informational piece separate from the backstory.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Same. You don't need a massive background full of lore and plot hooks. You've got a great backstory, with multiple characters that could be used as plot hooks. If every character has massive amounts of backstory, it's difficult to weave them all together and make them relevant, so they're either going to get selectively or collectively ignored. Leaving room for a DM to tie pieces of plot lines together or to make suggestions is great. And background is supposed to be background, and inform motivations, but it doesn't have to actively tie into the plot of the adventure. There's absolutely nothing wrong with what you've written here. Remember when characters start out they're level 1! If they've had all that drama before, how are they only level 1?
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
There's a DDB article about "Forestory" and many YouTube videos about this topic. (I can't quickly locate the DDB article. YT was quite easy.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
That's the question you need to answer to make this seem less "stupid and boring" to you. And it doesn't have to be "children murdered, seeking revenge" or "home destroyed by war, seeking justice" kind of answers either.
I think the vibe you might want to aim for with Sifa is 'character in a Studio Ghibli film'. Lean away from trauma and towards wonder. She's a middle aged woman who raised her kids on her own, which already establishes her strength and independence. Now she's discovering she has strange powers, and with the children gone she's free to explore them. Perhaps the plants know her secret and have offered her clues to get her started.
Or maybe... let's circle back to those kids. If Sifa's secretly the daughter of a powerful fey, that means her kids share that bloodline, which means they could have powers and abilities too. Maybe they set out as adventurers first, and their letters back to mom help inspire her to adventure as well now that she realizes she has some tricks of her own.
The 'child of adventurers trying to carve their own path' trope is an old one, but how often do you see 'parent of adventurers' as a first-level character? That in and of itself would be a story gold mine, especially if mom's party crosses paths with the higher-level party her children are in...
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Agreed on needing the reason. Here's some ideas!
- Her kids made her feel like her domestic lifestyle needed to change. Maybe they became adventurers and she got jealous, or maybe they wanted to stay with dad because he was more exciting, or maybe a quest hook hit their town and her timid response caused them to lose something that created a divide between them.
- She, or someone she knows, has always suffered from an illness nobody could cure. But the plants told her about a faraway herb that could cure it, if only she can get there and find it. Alternatively, she or someone she knows always wanted to taste a fruit from a faraway land, but couldn't make the journey because it's dangerous. EDIT: This is such a boring suggestion that I almost want to delete it. I'll leave it, but I ain't happy about it.
- The plants were the only friends she had left, and when it turned out she could understand them, she discovered they didn't like her either. Instead of fixing her personality she ran away.
Leaning into what Pangurjan was written:
"Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."
- Elmore Leonard
Other than your DM, who is really going to read any of your backstory? No one. You are going to TELL them your backstory. The best way to tell everyone at the table what your backstory is about is by revealing it during gameplay. Actions speak louder than words.
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The only thing I'll add is don't think lacking trauma is really a bad thing. It's a crutch and is what brings the cringe. It can also be boring - How many heroes and quests are motivated because "bad guy killed everyone I loved"? It makes it too easy to avoid delving into psychology and what would really morivate a person to go on these quests and actually explore how people think. It's easy to kill Uncle Lars and Aunt Beru - it's much harder, and therefore much more satisfying, to genuinely motivate a character to get out into the wide world.
Trauma isn't a good thing these days - it's been used too much. Try and find a way to motivate your character without it. My character that I'm preparing did a pact with a dragon to save someone, and now has dragonblood. His people are very anti dragon and he knew if they found out, they'd reject him. So now he's left his people so he can find a[n honourable] way out of his pact and therefore he quests in the hopes that he'll find one. No real trauma there, but a motivation that changed his course abd gives him purpose.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
You shouldn't rely too much on backstory trauma to make your character 'interesting.'
The most interesting and eventful part of your character's life, IMO, ought to be the adventure itself, not what came before it. Especially if the campaign is starting at low levels.
That's not to say there's no place for trauma or tragedy in backstories but it's not a requirement to make an interesting character.
The "for some reason" part is exactly what I want my players to finish their backstories with. As a DM, I could tie that easily into whatever I needed. "The plants tell of a great danger coming...", etc. Sure, you could turn that into "The plants tell her one day that her children were brutally murdered by Krelk the warlord, and she vowed to accept the power of nature and grow into an unstoppable force that would avenge them" but then what happens when the DM plainly says "Ummm... there's no Krelk in my campaign?"
I don't think there is a right or wrong way to write backstory. Yours sounds good to me. I think the name can be misleading at times as well. Some people like to write backstory that is just that, a story, with narrative arcs and character history, etc. For myself, I prefer a paragraph of "life so far in about a hundred words" and then an outline of personality traits, goals, fears, etc. because I've found that's what works best for me. Unless your DM asks for specific bits (e.g., did your character have any siblings, etc.) just do what feels right for you in a way that helps you feel ready to play that character. I agree with the other comments that the drama will come as you play.
Yeah, the problem is you've made an origin story instead of a backstory.
For example, Spider-Man's origin story is that Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider. But Spider-Man's backstory is that Uncle Ben is killed. That's what motives Spider-Man to become a hero.
Yeah. murdered family member is the sort of lazy backstory that people often fall back on, and it doesn't seem like it would fit the vibe of this character.
So what if when she starts talking to her plants, one of them tells her something important that forces her to act?
Her children are starting their own families. What if there's something that her infant grandchild needs? Maybe it's born with a disability, and there's a certain rare herb that can cure it. One of her plants knows a clue to how to start looking for it.
Maybe one of her plants is one of the last of its species. It asks her to go out and seek for another individual of the species, so they can cross-pollinate and perpetuate the species.
Or the species is not facing extinction, but the fruit of this plant has magical properties, but only if pollinated.
Work with the DM. Maybe they have a plot hook they want to introduce to the party, and they can do it by having the plants communicate it.
The most important thing to have in your back story is WHY you became an adventurer, and WHAT happened that means that you won't run back to a safe home life when you see the death that happens around an adventurer - quite often caused by them.
I don't think a player necessarily has to provide that motivation in their backstory. The DM might have in mind an event in session 1 that propels the party into the adventure. But it's good for each PC to have an additional motive in their backstory, which can be used by the DM for plot hooks or side quests. That personal character motivation doesn't have to be so strong that they'd run into death for it, though, as long as the party motivation is strong enough.
Backstories for a starting character with a big zero next to the word "Experience" on their sheet should not have much, if any adventure in them. Backstories are where a character comes from and why they want to adventure. Your middle aged soccer mom suddenly learning she can talk to plants is a great starting point for a new character, all you need is a reason for her to start adventuring. An obvious option is that she wants to learn where these late blooming (pardon the pun) abilities came from, so she maybe does a little research and sets off into the world to learn more about her true origins.
As a general rule for a starting character backstory, I recommend asking yourself, "Would any of this traumatic edgelord drama [because that's exactly what you seem to think is required for any backstory] grant experience points?" If the answer is yes and your character has no XP, then chuck that stuff out. There is no such thing as a first level veteran, at least not in D&D. You're creating a character to develop by roleplaying them in a game that hasn't started yet, not writing a book about said character before you play them. If the game starts at a level above first, look at your backstory and instead ask "Has this character had the appropriate sorts of experience to be at this level and not significantly higher or lower?"
It sounds like your main issue is that you enjoy creating fully developed characters, which is what you do if you're writing a novel. D&D is not the process of writing a novel. You're confusing "backstory" with "the whole story." Creating your character's story by playing it out in the game is one of the primary points of playing a roleplaying game. If you want a character to be angsty, edgy, and traumatized then have something traumatic that happened in their past, preferably their very recent past if it's a first/low level character and then stop. They haven't recovered from that defining trauma. They have not avenged their slain lover, or gotten revenge on their abuser, or the warlord that murdered their village, or whatever. That's what you're supposed to do by playing.
Your plant lady is a great starting character concept. You can introduce her to a party without spending a half hour explaining her convoluted past. She talks to plants and she wants to figure out why she's special like that. Cool, maybe we can find something out about that on our adventure, grab your gear and let's get started.
Don't worry about backstory when you're creating a character: focus on their personality instead. Are they friendly, awkward, or grouchy? Cocky, stoic, or nervous? Do they love fighting, hate the undead, enjoy painting? That's the stuff that makes a character.
Han Solo is one of the most popular characters in Star Wars, but for years he was just a mysterious smuggler with no backstory. People loved him not because of his deep or complex past, but because he's impulsive and pragmatic and a little too confident for his own good. And when his backstory movie did come out, most fans didn't like it, and many felt it was unnecessary. They liked Han because of who he was, not what happened to him.
And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory. Unless they're tied in with the other players', or the DM wants to build the story around them, backstories are irrelevant. Beyond a short, simple summary like what you've got (which is perfect!) all they do is slow down the game to say "look at me!" Which is the last thing anyone wants in a cooperative storytelling game like D&D.
So, all that to say, your backstory is perfect! Leave it as is. Instead, start focusing on your character's personality, because that's what your fellow players are really going to love.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
People, if somebody wants to write a backstory let them write a backstory. They're not writing it for you, they're writing it for themselves. It's fine. It doesn't affect you in any way.
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Han's backstory is that he owes Jabba money because he dumped his cargo because he was boarded. It's kind of important to the plot of Empire Strikes Back.
It's not a novel, but it's one sentence that's important to the plot and the character's motivations.
As a DM, I care about your backstory. I will try to weave it into the main plot. There is a concept in fiction writing of plot-driven vs. character-driven stories. D&D is probably mostly plot-driven, because a character-driven story usually focuses on a main character, and you don't want to favor one of your players too much. But you can include character-driven elements.
No, you don't introduce yourself and spend 20 minutes telling the other characters your backstory. But it comes up from time to time.