As a Dungeon Master (and a player), I love when my players (and me!) can fit their backstory into three sentences or less. They get more room for development, aren't stuck in a past the other players don't know, are more invested in plot lines that don't revolve around them, and, hey, the simple "half-orc barbarian exiled from his clan for weakness, out to prove himself" will really get the chance to emphasize his past, while nobody wants to work through a 5-page epic backstory. Plus, then the player really emphasizes the personality of the character to make him unique, and isn't focused on explaining her past. I was wondering if other DMs agree, or if they actually prefer players showing up with their little novels. So, what do you think?

EDIT: Thanks for your opinions! I agree, the poll should definitely have a third option for "one or two paragraphs" which seems to be the sweet spot for most of us.

About Critical Role, the reason I think it works is (I think it was Sam who said this, but I could be wrong) that they start with what's silly and fun about their characters and let the deeper stuff develop as they go. I think it's probable that the characters' backstories started simple and got more fleshed out as time went on. The problem isn't long backstories, the problem is backstories as a substitute for personality.

I also agree the player can and should know more details about her backstory than she gives to the DM...things like quirks or stories (how'd she get that scar). There's a saying that for every piece of world building an author writes, she should have ten that she knows but leaves out, and I think that's very applicable here.

This blogpost seems relevant here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/573-character-creation-and-the-importance-of

As a GM, I want my players to give me lots of ways I can hook their characters into my plots. That can be done in three sentences, but not in three [i]good[/i] sentences.

Don’t make me read your 10k word fan fiction, but do give me some good material to work with. It’s not my job to do all the work for your character, especially when I have three or four other players to think about.

The poll options are quite polarising.

3 sentences or less is absurd for a backstory in my opinion, but I'm also not reading 4-6 incredibly long backstories either.

I encourage my players to think about the 5 W's (Who, What, When, Where, Why) that define where their character is at now when writing backstories, and that a good backstory can be done in a couple of paragraphs. When I write a backstory, I put the basic background stuff (where they're from, who they are/were, when), and in the second paragraph I explore the why and the what. What happened to them that made them decide to become and adventurer, and why did it make them want to leave their old life behind.

I've got one character in my group right now who is really keen on the idea of "front story" after reading the article about it on here, and that's really cool because the current story that we are all a part of is shaping his character, so he's really invested in where we are now, which makes my life easier.

TL;DR - Poll is silly, a middle ground is best IMHO

I was concerned about this when submitting a character for our upcoming game. The DM was very much on the 'more is more' side but I wanted to reign in the potential for a flood of information. Especially since I didn't want him stuck with that level of back-story from every player, or basically nothing from everyone else and a novel from me.

I decided if it could fit on one page in a D&D book it wasn't too much to read.

As a DM, I've found that Players having a good backstory for a Character is invaluable.

If you doubt that a complex, well-designed, backstory can be of use to a creative DM, I suggest you watch the ongoing saga of campaign #2 of Critical Role - where I suspect that a good 50% of the adventure is generated purely out of the Characters' backstories ( which in no way fit into 3 sentences ).

Frankly, if a DM ( even me ) says they don't have time, or can't be bothered, to read Character backgrounds in their campaign ( or just doesn't ), I'd be concerned that either a) they're too damn lazy to do so ( in which case, what sort of half-assed under-prepared campaign can I expect out of them? ) or b) they don't think that the personality, history, and goals of the Characters in the adventure matter to how the story will unfold ( choo-choo! everyone get on the narrative railroad! ). There may be other explanations - but I'd be very wary of either of those states being true.

On the flip side, a Player spamming out 10K words of Character history details that never get used or referenced is useless.

Having recently become a Player in a campaign again ( yay! ) as well as DM'ing my own campaign still, and referencing that article that ftl linked to which talks about frontstory, I've been experimenting with what I've been dubbing sidestory, and I think it's working well enough that I'm going to suggest it to my Players as well.

Essentially, jot down no more than a paragraph: a little basic history, 1-2 sentences about personality, and some personal goals ( personal goals are simple to make, and are DM gold ). Then - using the example in that article - when they discover that the rogue they killed had been trying to find the assassin that had killed her family, they are free to make a choice about how that Character will react in the moment ( as in the frontstory approach ), but they also retroactively determine the reason for their reaction in the past events of the Character.

This is kind of like the Character having a complex backstory, but the Player is discovering it along with everyone else. 

I'm finding that it makes for much more interesting Characters, much faster ( as opposed to having to have run through 2-3 major adventures before they develop a decent personality, as in the frontstory approach ), but it means that only aspects of the Characters' pasts which are relevant get developed, whereas irrelevant never-used details ( such as  the name of their childhood pet ) might be buried in that 10K word monolith of a backstory.

It also helps ensure that their current choice, and future ones, are consistent - whereas with a "blank slate" approach Characters can be wildly inconsistent from situation to situation since the Character has no motivation or guide other than what the Player thinks is expedient in the moment.

I think it is an approach that manages to capture the best of both worlds: initial brevity, and a rich Character personality - all while being pretty damn efficient at creating only the needed elements of the Character backstory. It just takes a little more Player thought about their Character's choices, in the moment.

I would say keeping a relatively short backstory (a paragraph or two) is about right. That being said, it would probably be worthwhile to formulate an extra paragraph for personality and quirks. Beyond the four major points put forth for your background, I have been thinking that keeping track of other minor details will help flesh out the character more and help keep their behavior consistent. This can be little things like "what dreams and aspirations does my character hold?" or "what are some deeply held fears of my character?" Other things like minor physical characteristics could help make the character feel more robust without making a backstory too long: "is my character left or right handed?" "does my character have any unique scars or birthmarks?" "what style of clothing does my character like" 

The answers to these questions would be no more than a word or a sentence, but adds a bit of flavor to the character without dragging on your backstory. 

The number of paragraphs in a character's backstory should not exceed that character's proficiency bonus. There is an art and a skill to being concise.

I feel like a lot of people either mix up or interchangeably use backstory and lifestory. A “good backstory” must answer these questions (or at least set the groundwork for them to be answered)

• Who are you?
• Why do you act the way you do?
• Why did you become an adventurer?

That’s it! You can include a funny quirk they have and mention who raised them after their parents died if you really want, but those are just cherries on top.

Having said that, it’s not wrong to write a super long backstory, but try to keep in mind that, unfortunately, almost no one besides you will ever read it and even fewer will actually care about what they read (as much as you do). It is a sad yet true fact that a long backstory is a pain to read when the reader is not invested in the character. Also, having the only or best description of your character be super long it makes it hard give a brief description of your character when someone casually says, “Tell me about them.”

I'll never forget the look of bewilderment and I-didn't-sign-up-for-this on my friend's face when he asked me how my character creation was going and I excitedly pulled out my three-page backstory.

I am a firm believer that, regardless of the length of the 'real' backstory, a shortened version should be available which summarizes everything. It can be a few sentences or some bullet points. Bullets are easier, simpler, result in longer lists, and can absolutely ignore a max limit. Sentences flow more naturally, but are more work to create and sometimes require the reader to read between the lines or use insight to glean all the details.

I do my best to keep my own summaries to 3-5 sentences. I don't always succeed and I’m getting really good at ‘cheating’ by using cleverly using colons or having long sentences, but I actually found my self-imposed maximum to be helpful to my character creation process because it makes me to determine what was truly important about the character. Since it forces me cram a lot of details inside a small space, I'm able to easily and quickly give others a rundown of my character.

I think it really depends on the player and the DM.

Who else has seen extremely long backstories, but the character has zero personality?