What's the least "main character" character you've made (or seen)?

Hey everyone!

Just had an idea for a character who would be the least main-character-energy guy I could envisage. Their backstory is that they're a barman who got good at throwing out drunken adventurers. Their name is Ted. They're a battle master with the tavern brawler feat, and they don't even own a sword - they just use what they have to hand.

I envisage narrating the intro in a tavern as a dark, brooding, cloaked individual who seems to cling to shadows and barely gives their name, having secretly told the DM to have them die in the opening round of combat so Ted the Barman can turn up and join the party after breaking a chair over the attacker.

Got me to wondering - I've seen all manner of characters that either have main character energy, or have carefully been curated to give just enough main character energy without trying to be the main character - what other characters are out there who are intentionally understated, who have been built to be the opposite of the main character, backstory-wise? Not just "I'm support, so not main character", but where their backstory is intentionally quite bland and basic so that they can become themselves in the story you're narrating in the game!

Ironically, your intro seem to be riddled with main character energy. You are essentially asking the DM to specifically set up an extra dramatic introduction involving a fake character’s death, thus making the entire start of the campaign focused on your character instead of the start of everyone’s gam. I do not think any DM should allow something so heavily coded with Main Character Syndrome - it is a distraction for the benefit of only a single player, starting the entire campaign on the wrong foot.

Speaking for myself, I have DMed for players with short, bland backstories akin to this. I think it is one of the worst things you can do to a DM.  Backstories are not just about establishing the character - they also provide the DM insight into what kind of plots that character/player might want to explore and provide knives the DM can twist to help drive the plot and make the character/player emotionally invested in the main story.  Having DMed for enough players that provided me little more than “I was a soldier doing basic soldiering” or “I was a spy who did simple spy things,” or the like, I would never turn around and do the same thing to a DM.

Obviously one should also not have a backstory that is too impressive for the starting level - but it is much easier on the DM for them to say “you need to cut some of this to make more sense” than it is for them try and get blood from the metaphorical stone of a backstory with no real content.  Always easier to ask someone to cut something than to fabricate something that does not presently exist. 

A cleric from a small town who had to leave that town because there wasn't enough money to keep up the Abbey he lived in. The dormitory wing he live in was at risk of collapsing and they sent the brothers and sisters who lived there out into the world. On his way to the next town he tried to save someone from a bear who turned out to be a wild shaped druid who was chasing a rouge because he wouldn't pay up his poker ante from losing soundly to druid.

The only "Main character" type player was the wizard, and she was playing as a joke. "I Milliandre the Majestic am so above this common drudgery." was what she said when she rolled on a table to see how bad her cooking was.

Man that was fun. Being nobodies was fun, too bad it only lasted 3 sessions.

Quote from ThorukDuckSlayer >>

Just had an idea for a character who would be the least main-character-energy guy I could envisage. Their backstory is that they're a barman who got good at throwing out drunken adventurers. Their name is Ted. They're a battle master with the tavern brawler feat, and they don't even own a sword - they just use what they have to hand.

(puts DM hat on) OK, cool. Why are they leaving the stability of a job they're good at to go adventuring, especially when their main contact with adventurers -- throwing their drunk asses out of his bar -- isn't a positive one? What about that lifestyle or career path would seem remotely appealing to Ted?

What you seem to be describing as "main character energy" is what I would consider the bare minimum for a workable backstory. Characters need a reason to risk their lives in dungeons fighting dragons, and everybody is the main character in their own story.

Quote from ThorukDuckSlayer >>

 

I envisage narrating the intro in a tavern as a dark, brooding, cloaked individual who seems to cling to shadows and barely gives their name, having secretly told the DM to have them die in the opening round of combat so Ted the Barman can turn up and join the party after breaking a chair over the attacker.

I'd suggest only attempting something like this in a one-shot, or with a long-running group that you have a significant level of trust built up with (i.e. Travis switching from Bertram Bell to Chetney really early in campaign 3 of Critical Role).

Also... what combat? Are you telling the DM there needs to be a lethal tavern brawl right from the jump in order to introduce your "real" character? What happens if one of the other characters dies too? Or is this just going to be a cut-scene kind of thing where the "fake" character gets attacked out of the blue and Ted takes out the attacker? Because that's probably just going to prompt a whole lot of plot questions from the rest of the party about who that guy was and who wanted him dead. It reads to me more like a plot hook that a cute way to intro a character.

All that said, there might be a way to Sean Bean in Ronin this, where the party answers a job ad and one woefully underqualified individual (your "fake" character) shows up and needs to be chased away before they get themselves killed, and then your "real" character replaces them. But again, that's probably better suited to a one-shot than a proper start of a campaign.

but where their backstory is intentionally quite bland and basic so that they can become themselves in the story you're narrating in the game!

I have to say that I don't think backstory has much at all to do with 'main character syndrome'. As someone who has been DMing for 8 years now, you don't need a bland backstory to avoid falling into the trap of acting like the main character. The best way to avoid MCS is to make an effort to help explore other people's characters and to boost them up when the spotlight is on them. 

If you want to make the least 'main character' ever? Be a hype man for the other players and PCs. I can't think of a single game that couldn't use at least one more of those than any already have. Far too frequently, I find that the number of hype men is 0, and players are very focused on their PCs; they don't look beyond their own noses. 

 Want to play a character with low main character energy?  Play a roadie.