Hey guys

First time posting here. I hope this is in the right place. I thought about putting it in Story & Lore, but thought it made more sense here. Anyway...

I'm having trouble with the story I have to write around one of my players' characters.
First of all you should probably know all the players are new to D&D, while I have been a player for a few years but it's my first time as a DM (having lots of fun & surviving solely thanks to Matt Mercer, Matt Colville & Dael Kingsmill). I created a oneshot for them which turned into a campaign and we have just reached level 3. So far they have mostly been dicking about, which was perfect for the first few "tutorial" levels, but now I want to throw them in a rollercoaster of an adventure. They asked me to railroad them above average for the moment (which may change later on) and I have a good idea about how I want all their backstories to work out and how I want the first story arc to start.

Now on to the problem. One of my 4 players is playing a halfling Bard and wrote a backstory that comes down to a few elements:
- His parents are famed scholars, professors at the biggest university on the continent, and they have rejected him because he would rather spend time with stories than science.
- He is a romantic at heart, "because every hero has a love interest in the stories"
- He wants to be like the heroes in the stories he tells.

I like to write a part about each PC that says "going forward" where I loosely plan how their arc will pan out, ofcourse allowing for tons of changes depending on the PC himself, but I'm really having trouble thinking of anything. At one point they will visit his parents' university because of another PC her backstory, so he might encounter his parents then. But in what way? Redemption? Does he hear tell of an epic tale of some kind?

Any ideas would be welcome :) 

I'll tackle this from two different players and see if my approaches might help shed light:

I'm good with long or short back stories, I generally ask my players to jot down a few notes on what they want now, what motivated them to become an adventurer, and what they want to accomplish as a long term goal. Those 3 points are usually enough for even the most conservative of players, even those who don't prefer RP. It's also usually enough to give me some material to make things happen in game that feel personal. With my style of DMing being 60% improv and 40% planned, I am also able to adjust these things as the players/characters go through personal growth. Even with that information though, you can run into extremes where you get too much or too little information to make the personal story fit properly into the adventure you're playing in. 

I had one player who decided to write up a two page backstory and dropped it on me. I was impressed that he had such a creative mind, and it was well written. The problem I ran into was that he'd taken liberties to insert himself into the world in a very dramatic and impactful way. His back story included a family member who was trying to resurrect a diety, the destruction of a tribe, and an ecological disaster. While it was a very entertaining story, and one that created dozens of plot hooks, it also indirectly influenced the world beyond his backstory. If I were to allow it in it's entirety I would have had to redraw my world map, completely change the political situation in that part of the world, and introduce a diety that I hadn't put into the pantheon. I had to sit down and talk over his back story and make adjustments that both of us could agree on. 

I allowed the pantheon change, it was such a wonderful plot hook I couldn't let it go. I also allowed the destruction of his tribe, with a bit of fidgeting I could make it work without impacting the campaign's major story arc. I turned his family member into a cohort to the BBEG, giving her a role in the workings of the story arc. I actually decided that she was using the BBEG to further her goals in the resurrection of the diety. The missing tribe wound up becoming a thing of folklore in the area, campfire stories to scare children. Something some of the other party members may have heard of in their travels. I then let him loose on the game and watched how everything rippled through the web I had woven, making changes as the players acted. 

I had another player who simply gave me a few sentences about how her childhood crush had moved away when they were little and she wanted to find him. She played as a bard and had found herself part of a group that was going to be traveling about participating in competitions and adventures. It took me close to a year to finally pull more information out of her about what she wanted to do with her character. I had to toss encounters at her that touched on various aspects of life, helping the poor, vanquishing evil, gathering strange people together for a common cause, and helping the helpless. I touched on things like racism, elitist ideologies, differing ideologies in politics, religion and social status, and more. Each time I threw something at her I would take note of how she reacted and interacted with the situations. 

Eventually I learned how she played her character and found a way to build her personal story arc in such a way that she jumped at it with vigor. Starting with only; "I want to find my lost crush" I wove a tragedy that spans the world. She learned the npc was the Captain Commander of his clan's guards. So the player, a simple bard and adventurer, found herself in the presence of someone with great power. She also learned she was from an ancient bloodline that was connected to an artifact that could help her people. This artifact had a partner, which it so happens her lost love was blood heir to. They both took up their respective artifacts and roles, only to watch as the npc vanished from sight, being lost to her once again. She was honored to be able to help her people, but crushed at losing her love yet again. 

She learned then, both by researching lore and a magical connection through the artifacts, that the two were bound to a common destiny. They were to use the artifacts to save their people and the world from a terrible destruction. When this destiny was realized they both felt that they would be reunited. They are now working toward this goal. 

I would offer to use both talking to your player and asking bluntly: What do you want, what are you looking to achieve, what would you expect if you were to meet your parents again, etc. Yea you'll foreshadow a meeting, but you'll have more tools to work with to make it something memorable. I would also suggest using the player's reactions to situations in game to craft the meeting as well. Give it some time, gather your information, and then take time to put it all together in a wonderful tale that you will all remember. 

Wow thanks so much for typing that out. I'm definitely swiping your idea for the next time about asking the specific questions to players. And as for now, I'll ask the player aswel as hold off slightly on writing something to see how his character develops naturally. Thanks!

Glad to be of help. I wish you many wonderful games, and good luck!

For me, I would try to insert the bad guy or someone in that hierarchy to be a potential love interest, only to have them betrayed and heart broken eventually. Or they could turn them to the good side and save them from destruction.

I would build in the respected family side of things as a way to impact/interact socially in other large areas where people would know the name, but not necessarily the character specifically, so he would have a bit of cache.