And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory.
This is... not true. In an RP heavy campaign, teasing little glimpses into your backstory is not only welcome, it's expected.
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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)
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
As a DM, I could do a lot with that backstory. As others have suggested, why does she have this ability? Was there a fey or druid in your ancestry? Why all the sudden do you have the capabilities of casting a 3rd level spell, which is gained at 5th level? Do your children have this too? Your grandchildren?
As a player, I think I would do something cool with it. Depending on what class you become, I might replace ordinary adventuring items with something that would be more familiar to a middle age woman who just started out. Knitting needles instead of daggers. Gardening shears or a sickle as a weapon. Motherly instincts left and right. But if the hook turned so your family was in danger, then it is 100% mama bear...
How do you make boring backstories like this cool and interesting, without being cringe or turning your character into an edgelord?
By letting them come out organically during play. Just drop things in to conversations that your character would say, then see where the conversation goes.
And to address the "there's no drama" comment - you are correct, there is no drama. Backstories are the boring stuff that happens before the interesting, dramatic story.
Character histories don't have to be traumatic or exciting or unique, they are just some help for you to play this character as a real person, with motivations and beliefs and attitudes.
And to me, a single mom with grown kids who has become bored is an interesting backstory for an adventurer. Someone who celebrates empty-nest by leaving home and taking on the most dangerous occupation they can. That sounds like someone with amazing courage and determination, but perhaps also someone with recklessness and little sense of self-preservation. An adventurer whose only motivation is "I'm bored" could be an amazing asset to a party, or a jackass who gets everyone killed. :-) Which is it going to be? Play and find out…
I agree with those who say OP’s story in this thread is a pretty solid back story. It gives lots of room for evolving the character. Boring at the start is OK. The most interesting thing to happen to your character should not have happened before you start playing.
And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory.
This is... not true. In an RP heavy campaign, teasing little glimpses into your backstory is not only welcome, it's expected.
Up to a point. Getting a few paragraphs about your history is one thing, but getting a JRR Martin novel's worth of biography tends to go over less well.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory.
This is... not true. In an RP heavy campaign, teasing little glimpses into your backstory is not only welcome, it's expected.
How about this addendum, no one cares about your backstory except what comes up at the table.
There's very little difference for the other players between someone who has comprehensively mapped out every day of their character's past and someone who can make up a particular event on the spot. Once you've played the character enough, those events weave together into a story, as long as you remember them all.
And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory.
This is... not true. In an RP heavy campaign, teasing little glimpses into your backstory is not only welcome, it's expected.
How about this addendum, no one cares about your backstory except what comes up at the table.
There's very little difference for the other players between someone who has comprehensively mapped out every day of their character's past and someone who can make up a particular event on the spot. Once you've played the character enough, those events weave together into a story, as long as you remember them all.
There are two ways it can come up at the table: you can bring it up, or the DM can connect events to it. If you want the latter to happen, you need to come up with it ahead of time, at least before the session.
Honestly, you have already avoided some of the major cliches such as 'I'm an orphan / I have amnesia / my entire family was wiped out,' so please don't be concerned. Trauma in backstories is far too overated, and in my own opinion, boring is far more interesting when a lot of people go down the trauma route. The most important things a backstory should cover are, who are you? Who are your parents? Where do you come from? What sort of life have you lived? Why did you leave to become an adventurer? What do you want? Those sorts of questions.
You have also avoided the mistake far too many make of having a Mary/Gary Stu backstory where they can kill 100 orcs all before they have reached lvl 2..... So good job.
As for what previous posters have said about 'no one caring' about your backstory. That really depends on who you're playing with. If you're playing with people who just want combat or to socialise with their friends while playing, then sure, your backstory is probably irrelevant, but find the right group and it can be very important. My most recent character (also my most adventerous to date) is an Eladrin Rogue who is currently 75 in eleven years (15 human) in the world we're playing in. He was kidnapped at a young age and sold into a life of crime and grew up as street urchin being forced to work for different gangs and criminal bosses. Think Oliver Twist. It had an immediate impact when the party met this elven kid who smelt of the sewers, looked emeciated and who was ravenous with hunger. Straight away everyone wanted to know where he was from and what had happened, and by the end of season 1 our female elf warlock had practically adopted him. As for motives, well, he was just ran out of town because of debts he owes so he wants to meet up with a new gang to look after him (the party), and perhaps, if he can, find his parents.
And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory.
This is... not true. In an RP heavy campaign, teasing little glimpses into your backstory is not only welcome, it's expected.
How about this addendum, no one cares about your backstory except what comes up at the table.
There's very little difference for the other players between someone who has comprehensively mapped out every day of their character's past and someone who can make up a particular event on the spot. Once you've played the character enough, those events weave together into a story, as long as you remember them all.
There are two ways it can come up at the table: you can bring it up, or the DM can connect events to it. If you want the latter to happen, you need to come up with it ahead of time, at least before the session.
In my current campaign, the only thing one player said about his backstory was he wanted to be sort of like Witcher, and get revenge for his father's death by a vampire. I started them at level 0 and used that to introduce his father's seneschal, who was a retired priest of Oghma, and who was killed by the vampire right in front of the PC. Adventures happen and they eventually get home to find his father killed and turned into a skeleton by same vampire.
Soon they will face that vampire as a party.... been a great hook!
I'd like to offer my input here, having been a DM and a player several times in the past few years. There was nothing inherently wrong with your original concept. Some might find it cliché, but in my opinion, that could only be true if your PC never grows or changes beyond their backstory. They should. It's much more rewarding if they do actually. Every standout PC from any streamed game is very different by the end of the campaign than who they were from the beginning. If you have a DM interested in it, they can take your exact original backstory and do something unique with it that can make it fresh. Maybe have the man from the arranged marriage appear and express that he also has no interest in marrying your PC. Or the family even. Maybe they don't care whether you marry their son, they are just using the insult to make your parents twist. There are endless possibilities if the DM is interested in helping you weave a fun and exciting story.
It sounds like you made changes to make some random internet people happy at your own expense. I would advise against that. They aren't at your table and as long as other players don't have a problem with your character (and really, they shouldn't), what matters is what you are having fun and that your character's backstory doesn't break something that the DM had planned.
To me, your original character should be something you work with the DM to figure out. As long as you are okay with allowing the DM some artistic license to make changes that might surprise you, you and the other players at the table can have an amazing time with it.
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.
This thread has weaved around a bit between lengths of backstories etc but in my opinion this is the answer OP is looking for. When reading the previous thread that I think lead to this one (and other OP threads) I thought the same thing, that TW appeared to be focusing more on all sorts of drama occurring in the backstory when I think most would agree the events in game should be the thrust of excitement, adventure, twists and turns else its not cooperative story telling its just one person writing a story. If you want to write big back stories that is your prerogative but the more in-depth and dramatic the back story gets the more it detracts from the adventure at hand (not to mention the harder it is for the DM to weave in narrative plot threads).
Single Mum Gardener Lady is a fine back story, the crucial things that make her interesting and not boring are how you play her in game and what happens, not what crazy things happened to her before any of her fellow adventurers met her.
I try to make sure that any backstory I write focusses on two important things:
1: How did I get here? - why is my character an adventurer, and not a blacksmith or running an alchemy shop?
2: What did I leave unfinished? - what plot hooks can my DM use to intertwine my backstory into the game?
You've got both of these points in your backstory, and that makes it a good one. Your character became an adventurer to fill the gap left by her children leaving home. A bit of elaboration on what the children went to do (EG one went to be an apprentice to a wizard and the other went into the big city to make a name for themselves) will give the DM some fuel for point 2, so the children can come up in the plot later (even if it's just the BBEG namedropping them to rile her up).
The biggest pitfalls of any character creation (that I've seen) is when players try to make characters that don't reflect their starting level or the lethality of the game. "My character is the chosen one/a god reborn/the best fighter in the world, and is also level 1". This sort of thing implies plot armour and such, and is a way players try to pre-write their adventure. I have made a "chosen one" character before, but I specifically made it that theirr prophecy was made by people who thought tieflings were chosen ones and who were very backward, and after leaving the forest he found that there was a lot more to the world, and the "chosen one" thing was all superstition, so now is unsure what to think. I made it clear to the DM that it's entirely up to them if anything happens with the prophecy (he was "destined" to save the forests, as foretold by scared elders clinging to any hope as their forest was cut down).
In short, any backstory which doesn't attribute powers to the character that they don't have, and doesn't give the DM nothing to go on (EG "my character remembers nothing") is a good one.
Something I've noticed about your many character backstories is that they're all very highly detailed, highly specific, high concept backstories. You always go into the little minutiae about everything and try to make your character interesting before the game begins.
You wanna know my number one tip for making an solid character backstory that doesn't frontload everything but gives a plausible starting point? Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Roll on the tables and build a skeleton of your character, then stop. Let the rest get filled in as you play so that your character grows into the game and the party.
A lot of your characters suffer from 'Single Player Syndrome'; like you're trying to be the most important person in the party or like you're protagonist of a single player RPG video game. When it comes to character backstories as a DM I find breadth of information is more useful than depth. I don't need to know how many years a PC spent suffering in the Pit of Longing, thrown there by her evil cultist stepmother. What I need to know is she was a prisoner of a cult, escaped, travelled around, now seeks revenge. Short, punchy, covers a lot of ground in few words.
There are two ways it can come up at the table: you can bring it up, or the DM can connect events to it. If you want the latter to happen, you need to come up with it ahead of time, at least before the session.
Having a backstory can also inform your actions during the game. You don't have to explicitly say out loud anything in your backstory ever, but as a player knowing certain things happened in your PCs past can affect their reaction to things that happen in the game.
And here's one tough thing I've learned playing D&D: no one cares about your backstory.
This is... not true. In an RP heavy campaign, teasing little glimpses into your backstory is not only welcome, it's expected.
How about this addendum, no one cares about your backstory except what comes up at the table.
There's very little difference for the other players between someone who has comprehensively mapped out every day of their character's past and someone who can make up a particular event on the spot. Once you've played the character enough, those events weave together into a story, as long as you remember them all.
There are two ways it can come up at the table: you can bring it up, or the DM can connect events to it. If you want the latter to happen, you need to come up with it ahead of time, at least before the session.
There is no problem with the character's backstory in terms of creating a history, but there is a problem with the character you've described.
To be an adventurer means that you'll do the most dangerous and undesirable work imaginable.
You will have acid spat in your face
You will be swallowed by a giant froghemoth and partially digested in its gut
You will venture into the arctic, or the mouth of a volcano, or mosquito infested swamps, and crypts full of spirits and ghouls
You will be roasted by dragon fire, then resuscitated, then burned alive again
You will be shot full of arrows and stabbed by many swords
You will fall into pit traps onto spikes, be shot with concealed crossbows
You will be betrayed, ambushed, chased out of town
You will speak with fiends and the undead
You will contract rare and fatal diseases
You have to enjoy killing things: if you don't take pride or otherwise enjoy it, this would be a crazy life to choose
Being an adventurer is one of the worst jobs that anyone could possibly imagine.
So why be an adventurer? This is the problem that Celestine currently has. There's just no plausible way for someone who has been a stay at home mother to decide to live an adventuring life without something bigger having happened in her past. She has no motivation to go on these awful missions.
Most characters need to meet one of the following requirements:
They need money, either because they love being rich or because there's something they need to buy, or they have an emotional connection to wealth
They are driven beyond reason to do good for the world/innocent people
They crave power/magic and this is a means to get to it
There are few motivations that work for a DM that don't fit one of those at a basic level. The DM needs to be able to offer the whole group of characters an easy hook to get them motivated to adventure. When you come to the recently burned village, the headwoman offers you 500gp to bring back the kidnapped children. Either you want to risk your life for the money, for the greater good, or because you think it will advance your life in some other way. Your character needs motivation in this way.
Question to ask yourself:
Why is adventuring preferrable to starting a herb allotment and using her powers there?
Why does she feel a need to pursue this?
My twist on the character would be to put her on the run: she tried a nice peaceful business, and the local crime syndicate extorted her for protection money. When she fought back against them, she ended up killing one of the enemies, who was the youngest son of the crime boss. She was forced to abscond during the night. But you know what? She found that she enjoyed the thrill of killing someone.
There's just no plausible way for someone who has been a stay at home mother to decide to live an adventuring life without something bigger having happened in her past.
In real life, there are countless examples of stay-at-home moms whose lives took radical changes of direction after the kids left the nest. It would be entirely plausible for one to become an adventurer in the right D&D setting.
That said, "on the run from two-bit mafia wannabes who tried to muscle in on her herbalism business" is a nice hook.
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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)
Something I've noticed about your many character backstories is that they're all very highly detailed, highly specific, high concept backstories. You always go into the little minutiae about everything and try to make your character interesting before the game begins.
You wanna know my number one tip for making an solid character backstory that doesn't frontload everything but gives a plausible starting point? Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Roll on the tables and build a skeleton of your character, then stop. Let the rest get filled in as you play so that your character grows into the game and the party.
A lot of your characters suffer from 'Single Player Syndrome'; like you're trying to be the most important person in the party or like you're protagonist of a single player RPG video game. When it comes to character backstories as a DM I find breadth of information is more useful than depth. I don't need to know how many years a PC spent suffering in the Pit of Longing, thrown there by her evil cultist stepmother. What I need to know is she was a prisoner of a cult, escaped, travelled around, now seeks revenge. Short, punchy, covers a lot of ground in few words.
I think part of this problem is that I am first and foremost, a storyteller and so I am driven to write these stories. It’s not that I want my characters to be the main character in every situation, but I find it hard to write stories for characters without writing them as “the hero”.
Though I do try hard to only make the the hero of their own story.
I don’t know. I think that maybe this is something that I need to overcome in order to grow as a player.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
There's just no plausible way for someone who has been a stay at home mother to decide to live an adventuring life without something bigger having happened in her past.
In real life, there are countless examples of stay-at-home moms whose lives took radical changes of direction after the kids left the nest. It would be entirely plausible for one to become an adventurer in the right D&D setting.
That said, "on the run from two-bit mafia wannabes who tried to muscle in on her herbalism business" is a nice hook.
I'm not sure we have real world jobs that are like adventuring...
You form part of a small team of completely inexperienced people
You have no backing, organisation or regular employment
You murder things for reward
You face beings of cosmic evil. Some of them are gods.
I suppose that in the right setting, if adventuring is seen as just another day job like becoming a lawyer or a a farmer (I guess Faerun is quite like this) then maybe it's perfectly plausible though! In my setting, adventurers are extremely rare (nobody in the world would even recognise the term, they would typically be seen as mercenaries).
Something I've noticed about your many character backstories is that they're all very highly detailed, highly specific, high concept backstories. You always go into the little minutiae about everything and try to make your character interesting before the game begins.
You wanna know my number one tip for making an solid character backstory that doesn't frontload everything but gives a plausible starting point? Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Roll on the tables and build a skeleton of your character, then stop. Let the rest get filled in as you play so that your character grows into the game and the party.
A lot of your characters suffer from 'Single Player Syndrome'; like you're trying to be the most important person in the party or like you're protagonist of a single player RPG video game. When it comes to character backstories as a DM I find breadth of information is more useful than depth. I don't need to know how many years a PC spent suffering in the Pit of Longing, thrown there by her evil cultist stepmother. What I need to know is she was a prisoner of a cult, escaped, travelled around, now seeks revenge. Short, punchy, covers a lot of ground in few words.
I think part of this problem is that I am first and foremost, a storyteller and so I am driven to write these stories. It’s not that I want my characters to be the main character in every situation, but I find it hard to write stories for characters without writing them as “the hero”.
Though I do try hard to only make the the hero of their own story.
I don’t know. I think that maybe this is something that I need to overcome in order to grow as a player.
Nah, you're doing fine. Be the main character in your own mind, if you want to. As long as when you're at the table you don't dominate the game or try to, it's not an issue.
Don't insist on following your own personal storyline over the main party goal
Make sure your character wants to follow the main party goal more than their own personal story goals (see my post above about character motivation)
Allow everyone equal opportunity to participate at the table
Ensure your character values and works well with other party members - that way collaboration is inevitable
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This is... not true. In an RP heavy campaign, teasing little glimpses into your backstory is not only welcome, it's expected.
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)
As a DM, I could do a lot with that backstory. As others have suggested, why does she have this ability? Was there a fey or druid in your ancestry? Why all the sudden do you have the capabilities of casting a 3rd level spell, which is gained at 5th level? Do your children have this too? Your grandchildren?
As a player, I think I would do something cool with it. Depending on what class you become, I might replace ordinary adventuring items with something that would be more familiar to a middle age woman who just started out. Knitting needles instead of daggers. Gardening shears or a sickle as a weapon. Motherly instincts left and right. But if the hook turned so your family was in danger, then it is 100% mama bear...
By letting them come out organically during play. Just drop things in to conversations that your character would say, then see where the conversation goes.
And to address the "there's no drama" comment - you are correct, there is no drama. Backstories are the boring stuff that happens before the interesting, dramatic story.
Character histories don't have to be traumatic or exciting or unique, they are just some help for you to play this character as a real person, with motivations and beliefs and attitudes.
And to me, a single mom with grown kids who has become bored is an interesting backstory for an adventurer. Someone who celebrates empty-nest by leaving home and taking on the most dangerous occupation they can. That sounds like someone with amazing courage and determination, but perhaps also someone with recklessness and little sense of self-preservation. An adventurer whose only motivation is "I'm bored" could be an amazing asset to a party, or a jackass who gets everyone killed. :-) Which is it going to be? Play and find out…
I agree with those who say OP’s story in this thread is a pretty solid back story. It gives lots of room for evolving the character.
Boring at the start is OK. The most interesting thing to happen to your character should not have happened before you start playing.
Up to a point. Getting a few paragraphs about your history is one thing, but getting a JRR Martin novel's worth of biography tends to go over less well.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
How about this addendum, no one cares about your backstory except what comes up at the table.
There's very little difference for the other players between someone who has comprehensively mapped out every day of their character's past and someone who can make up a particular event on the spot. Once you've played the character enough, those events weave together into a story, as long as you remember them all.
There are two ways it can come up at the table: you can bring it up, or the DM can connect events to it. If you want the latter to happen, you need to come up with it ahead of time, at least before the session.
Honestly, you have already avoided some of the major cliches such as 'I'm an orphan / I have amnesia / my entire family was wiped out,' so please don't be concerned. Trauma in backstories is far too overated, and in my own opinion, boring is far more interesting when a lot of people go down the trauma route. The most important things a backstory should cover are, who are you? Who are your parents? Where do you come from? What sort of life have you lived? Why did you leave to become an adventurer? What do you want? Those sorts of questions.
You have also avoided the mistake far too many make of having a Mary/Gary Stu backstory where they can kill 100 orcs all before they have reached lvl 2..... So good job.
As for what previous posters have said about 'no one caring' about your backstory. That really depends on who you're playing with. If you're playing with people who just want combat or to socialise with their friends while playing, then sure, your backstory is probably irrelevant, but find the right group and it can be very important. My most recent character (also my most adventerous to date) is an Eladrin Rogue who is currently 75 in eleven years (15 human) in the world we're playing in. He was kidnapped at a young age and sold into a life of crime and grew up as street urchin being forced to work for different gangs and criminal bosses. Think Oliver Twist. It had an immediate impact when the party met this elven kid who smelt of the sewers, looked emeciated and who was ravenous with hunger. Straight away everyone wanted to know where he was from and what had happened, and by the end of season 1 our female elf warlock had practically adopted him. As for motives, well, he was just ran out of town because of debts he owes so he wants to meet up with a new gang to look after him (the party), and perhaps, if he can, find his parents.
In my current campaign, the only thing one player said about his backstory was he wanted to be sort of like Witcher, and get revenge for his father's death by a vampire. I started them at level 0 and used that to introduce his father's seneschal, who was a retired priest of Oghma, and who was killed by the vampire right in front of the PC. Adventures happen and they eventually get home to find his father killed and turned into a skeleton by same vampire.
Soon they will face that vampire as a party.... been a great hook!
Hello TWForgeCleric,
I'd like to offer my input here, having been a DM and a player several times in the past few years. There was nothing inherently wrong with your original concept. Some might find it cliché, but in my opinion, that could only be true if your PC never grows or changes beyond their backstory. They should. It's much more rewarding if they do actually. Every standout PC from any streamed game is very different by the end of the campaign than who they were from the beginning. If you have a DM interested in it, they can take your exact original backstory and do something unique with it that can make it fresh. Maybe have the man from the arranged marriage appear and express that he also has no interest in marrying your PC. Or the family even. Maybe they don't care whether you marry their son, they are just using the insult to make your parents twist. There are endless possibilities if the DM is interested in helping you weave a fun and exciting story.
It sounds like you made changes to make some random internet people happy at your own expense. I would advise against that. They aren't at your table and as long as other players don't have a problem with your character (and really, they shouldn't), what matters is what you are having fun and that your character's backstory doesn't break something that the DM had planned.
To me, your original character should be something you work with the DM to figure out. As long as you are okay with allowing the DM some artistic license to make changes that might surprise you, you and the other players at the table can have an amazing time with it.
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This thread has weaved around a bit between lengths of backstories etc but in my opinion this is the answer OP is looking for. When reading the previous thread that I think lead to this one (and other OP threads) I thought the same thing, that TW appeared to be focusing more on all sorts of drama occurring in the backstory when I think most would agree the events in game should be the thrust of excitement, adventure, twists and turns else its not cooperative story telling its just one person writing a story. If you want to write big back stories that is your prerogative but the more in-depth and dramatic the back story gets the more it detracts from the adventure at hand (not to mention the harder it is for the DM to weave in narrative plot threads).
Single Mum Gardener Lady is a fine back story, the crucial things that make her interesting and not boring are how you play her in game and what happens, not what crazy things happened to her before any of her fellow adventurers met her.
I try to make sure that any backstory I write focusses on two important things:
1: How did I get here? - why is my character an adventurer, and not a blacksmith or running an alchemy shop?
2: What did I leave unfinished? - what plot hooks can my DM use to intertwine my backstory into the game?
You've got both of these points in your backstory, and that makes it a good one. Your character became an adventurer to fill the gap left by her children leaving home. A bit of elaboration on what the children went to do (EG one went to be an apprentice to a wizard and the other went into the big city to make a name for themselves) will give the DM some fuel for point 2, so the children can come up in the plot later (even if it's just the BBEG namedropping them to rile her up).
The biggest pitfalls of any character creation (that I've seen) is when players try to make characters that don't reflect their starting level or the lethality of the game. "My character is the chosen one/a god reborn/the best fighter in the world, and is also level 1". This sort of thing implies plot armour and such, and is a way players try to pre-write their adventure. I have made a "chosen one" character before, but I specifically made it that theirr prophecy was made by people who thought tieflings were chosen ones and who were very backward, and after leaving the forest he found that there was a lot more to the world, and the "chosen one" thing was all superstition, so now is unsure what to think. I made it clear to the DM that it's entirely up to them if anything happens with the prophecy (he was "destined" to save the forests, as foretold by scared elders clinging to any hope as their forest was cut down).
In short, any backstory which doesn't attribute powers to the character that they don't have, and doesn't give the DM nothing to go on (EG "my character remembers nothing") is a good one.
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Something I've noticed about your many character backstories is that they're all very highly detailed, highly specific, high concept backstories. You always go into the little minutiae about everything and try to make your character interesting before the game begins.
You wanna know my number one tip for making an solid character backstory that doesn't frontload everything but gives a plausible starting point? Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Roll on the tables and build a skeleton of your character, then stop. Let the rest get filled in as you play so that your character grows into the game and the party.
A lot of your characters suffer from 'Single Player Syndrome'; like you're trying to be the most important person in the party or like you're protagonist of a single player RPG video game. When it comes to character backstories as a DM I find breadth of information is more useful than depth. I don't need to know how many years a PC spent suffering in the Pit of Longing, thrown there by her evil cultist stepmother. What I need to know is she was a prisoner of a cult, escaped, travelled around, now seeks revenge. Short, punchy, covers a lot of ground in few words.
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Having a backstory can also inform your actions during the game. You don't have to explicitly say out loud anything in your backstory ever, but as a player knowing certain things happened in your PCs past can affect their reaction to things that happen in the game.
Or the DM can do the same thing you're doing.
There is no problem with the character's backstory in terms of creating a history, but there is a problem with the character you've described.
To be an adventurer means that you'll do the most dangerous and undesirable work imaginable.
Being an adventurer is one of the worst jobs that anyone could possibly imagine.
So why be an adventurer? This is the problem that Celestine currently has. There's just no plausible way for someone who has been a stay at home mother to decide to live an adventuring life without something bigger having happened in her past. She has no motivation to go on these awful missions.
Most characters need to meet one of the following requirements:
There are few motivations that work for a DM that don't fit one of those at a basic level. The DM needs to be able to offer the whole group of characters an easy hook to get them motivated to adventure. When you come to the recently burned village, the headwoman offers you 500gp to bring back the kidnapped children. Either you want to risk your life for the money, for the greater good, or because you think it will advance your life in some other way. Your character needs motivation in this way.
Question to ask yourself:
My twist on the character would be to put her on the run: she tried a nice peaceful business, and the local crime syndicate extorted her for protection money. When she fought back against them, she ended up killing one of the enemies, who was the youngest son of the crime boss. She was forced to abscond during the night. But you know what? She found that she enjoyed the thrill of killing someone.
In real life, there are countless examples of stay-at-home moms whose lives took radical changes of direction after the kids left the nest. It would be entirely plausible for one to become an adventurer in the right D&D setting.
That said, "on the run from two-bit mafia wannabes who tried to muscle in on her herbalism business" is a nice hook.
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)
I think part of this problem is that I am first and foremost, a storyteller and so I am driven to write these stories. It’s not that I want my characters to be the main character in every situation, but I find it hard to write stories for characters without writing them as “the hero”.
Though I do try hard to only make the the hero of their own story.
I don’t know. I think that maybe this is something that I need to overcome in order to grow as a player.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I'm not sure we have real world jobs that are like adventuring...
I suppose that in the right setting, if adventuring is seen as just another day job like becoming a lawyer or a a farmer (I guess Faerun is quite like this) then maybe it's perfectly plausible though! In my setting, adventurers are extremely rare (nobody in the world would even recognise the term, they would typically be seen as mercenaries).
Nah, you're doing fine. Be the main character in your own mind, if you want to. As long as when you're at the table you don't dominate the game or try to, it's not an issue.