But darth vadar was level 20+ by the end of revenge of the sith :). Look at the hobbit, there is really no backstory for The reader abiut Bilbo before a wizard comes knocking at his door and in fact Tolkien hadn’t written much in the way of backstory for the hobbit, most of his work came after writing the book when he expanded on the world he had written.
Darth Vader was lvl 20+ by the start of A New Hope already, but a) Luke wasn't and b) Vader's backstory is what happened to him and his mother before Qui-Gonn found him.
There's doesn't need to be a backstory for the reader, or rather the reader doesn't have to get the whole backstory written out as part of the actual story. The reader is there for the book, the moviegoer is there for the movie, and prologues are usually viewed as a bad thing in both. Why did Gandalf come knocking on Bilbo's door though? Because they had a backstory in common, that's why. Backstories for D&D characters are (should be) largely the same: they inform the player and DM about why and how the character finds himself in the context of an adventure and they might get referenced during or add a twist to that adventure, but otherwise they can mostly just stay in the background while the group deals with the real meat and potatoes.
Whether or not it was planned that Darth Vader was Luke's father before Episode 4, Luke certainly has backstory that's revealed in the first movie. It's a pretty cliche D&D backstory, too. His parents died tragically and he lives with his aunt an uncle. His friends have joined the Rebellion. His father was a great Jedi and a pilot in the Clone Wars. He used to bullseye womprats in his T16 and they're not much bigger than two meters.
It is commonly known how compelling and successful Solo: A Star Wars Story was. Maybe it’s ok to just deal with characters as they are in the story we’re trying to tell and not worry about what happened in the before times. If you want an adventure hook, make it up on the spot without a story behind it. We don’t need to hear the story of Ord Mantell, we just need to know that our characters spent some time between stories bonding.
I might be in the minority here, but I play D&D for frontstory, not backstory.
Eh. Rogue One is easily one of the better Star Wars movies and Darth Vader is the character he is because of his backstory. Luke being a scruffy nerf herder while Leia became a diplomat’s daughter, that’s backstory. Han needing to be rescued from being Jabba’s popsicle on display is because of backstory. That yellow lettering scrolling over the screen at the start of the movies? Backstory. The prequels may have done a shitty job of telling those backstories, but that’s the thing: you don’t really tell your character’s backstory during the campaign either.
But darth vadar was level 20+ by the end of revenge of the sith :). Look at the hobbit, there is really no backstory for The reader abiut Bilbo before a wizard comes knocking at his door and in fact Tolkien hadn’t written much in the way of backstory for the hobbit, most of his work came after writing the book when he expanded on the world he had written.
There is, however, hundreds of years of backstory for the dwarves.
Ah sounds very much like the Fourth doctor as played by Tom Baker!
A fine approach.
How did your DM handle that if it came up may i ask?
Was fine with it, as we got into the campaign he and I sat down and started fleshing things out a bit more once
A) it was clear this campaign was going to stick long term and the players where committed
and
B) When I had a better feel for my character, and the DM had a good feel for the kind of campaign we where actually running and how much he would incorporate backstory into it. I think it was about a year of real time that we addressed a few things.
I never wrote out a backstory though really, after 2 years I think I had a couple of bullet points and a short list of names on my character sheet, the rest was all in our campaign journal largely because I made most of it up on the spot. But my character went through a real personal journey.
I will also say that backstory depends on the campaign being run, if I am running out of the abyss or curse of Strahd a player who’s character has been kidnapped from the surface/transported from the material plane, really can write anything for a backstory. What matters more is how they feel and think and will react in different situations. As a DM I am never getting to actually exploring that backstory as part of the campaign.
As a DM I am never getting to actually exploring that backstory as part of the campaign.
That's fine and in my experience this is actually the norm, especially outside homebrew campaigns. It's fine because I don't think that's the point of a backstory anyway. The point is for the player to have a frame of reference to pass on to the DM and to have a bit of fun coming up with a tiny bit of story if they're so inclined. The DM doesn't have to add a whole line of sidequests to the campaign in order to do a deep dive into every character's sordid past, but it can be helpful for designing the main story to have an idea of how the characters are most likely to tackle problems and what their strengths and weaknesses may be, beyond the purely mechanical. The backstory serves the character and the campaign's storyline first and foremost.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
My current campaign I am winding my players brief and growing backstories through the narrative, however because I run a complete sandbox open world it is up to the players if they want to follow those threads, or instead become fixated with a funky tree I described with purple leaves just for flavour :).
But a serious point if you do wind your players backstories into the plot I have found from experiance it is best to build to it slowly If you consider a campaign running from level 1-20 then really levels 1-5 are the party forming and dealing with fairly low level threats, maybe with a bit of fore shadowing of things to come, I might give subtle links, an NPC mentioning a characters home town, a warlocks patron making some form of contact in a dream, or via another NPC. Just enough to make the players feel the presence of things. But I will say again I don't need pages of backstory for this, sometimes I will jus PM a player between sessions and ask them to answer a couple of questions.
But I am also a strong believer that the Player should never have knowledge the character does not in game, I am not talking about things that happen around the table, I run my games with an assumption that, unless the player specifically tells the table my player does not tell you about this thing, then all information gets shared around the campfire, in the inn over a drink or even just while traveling. If a Character knows there sister has been kidnapped but not who by, then I don't want the player coming up with that story I will decide the who and the why and let the player find it out the same time as the character does, it makes for more genuine and realistic reactions and helps with roleplaying.
The player has amnesia, and has all sorts of long lost relatives that follow them around all the time. These relatives also all happen to desperately need money. Because of their severe memory loss, they are a SUCKER for cons. You can do all sorts of stuff, you have just walked into the Mischief God DM candystore. Embrace your inner Loki.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
It is commonly known how compelling and successful Solo: A Star Wars Story was. Maybe it’s ok to just deal with characters as they are in the story we’re trying to tell and not worry about what happened in the before times. If you want an adventure hook, make it up on the spot without a story behind it. We don’t need to hear the story of Ord Mantell, we just need to know that our characters spent some time between stories bonding.
I might be in the minority here, but I play D&D for frontstory, not backstory.
Eh. Rogue One is easily one of the better Star Wars movies and Darth Vader is the character he is because of his backstory. Luke being a scruffy nerf herder while Leia became a diplomat’s daughter, that’s backstory. Han needing to be rescued from being Jabba’s popsicle on display is because of backstory. That yellow lettering scrolling over the screen at the start of the movies? Backstory. The prequels may have done a shitty job of telling those backstories, but that’s the thing: you don’t really tell your character’s backstory during the campaign either.
But darth vadar was level 20+ by the end of revenge of the sith :). Look at the hobbit, there is really no backstory for The reader abiut Bilbo before a wizard comes knocking at his door and in fact Tolkien hadn’t written much in the way of backstory for the hobbit, most of his work came after writing the book when he expanded on the world he had written.
There is, however, hundreds of years of backstory for the dwarves.
Forgive me but I LOVE DWARVES. Also Star Wars. Also just Tolkien in general.
Darth Vader was lvl 20+ by the start of A New Hope already, but a) Luke wasn't and b) Vader's backstory is what happened to him and his mother before Qui-Gonn found him.
There's doesn't need to be a backstory for the reader, or rather the reader doesn't have to get the whole backstory written out as part of the actual story. The reader is there for the book, the moviegoer is there for the movie, and prologues are usually viewed as a bad thing in both. Why did Gandalf come knocking on Bilbo's door though? Because they had a backstory in common, that's why. Backstories for D&D characters are (should be) largely the same: they inform the player and DM about why and how the character finds himself in the context of an adventure and they might get referenced during or add a twist to that adventure, but otherwise they can mostly just stay in the background while the group deals with the real meat and potatoes.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Whether or not it was planned that Darth Vader was Luke's father before Episode 4, Luke certainly has backstory that's revealed in the first movie. It's a pretty cliche D&D backstory, too. His parents died tragically and he lives with his aunt an uncle. His friends have joined the Rebellion. His father was a great Jedi and a pilot in the Clone Wars. He used to bullseye womprats in his T16 and they're not much bigger than two meters.
There is, however, hundreds of years of backstory for the dwarves.
Was fine with it, as we got into the campaign he and I sat down and started fleshing things out a bit more once
A) it was clear this campaign was going to stick long term and the players where committed
and
B) When I had a better feel for my character, and the DM had a good feel for the kind of campaign we where actually running and how much he would incorporate backstory into it. I think it was about a year of real time that we addressed a few things.
I never wrote out a backstory though really, after 2 years I think I had a couple of bullet points and a short list of names on my character sheet, the rest was all in our campaign journal largely because I made most of it up on the spot. But my character went through a real personal journey.
I will also say that backstory depends on the campaign being run, if I am running out of the abyss or curse of Strahd a player who’s character has been kidnapped from the surface/transported from the material plane, really can write anything for a backstory. What matters more is how they feel and think and will react in different situations. As a DM I am never getting to actually exploring that backstory as part of the campaign.
That's fine and in my experience this is actually the norm, especially outside homebrew campaigns. It's fine because I don't think that's the point of a backstory anyway. The point is for the player to have a frame of reference to pass on to the DM and to have a bit of fun coming up with a tiny bit of story if they're so inclined. The DM doesn't have to add a whole line of sidequests to the campaign in order to do a deep dive into every character's sordid past, but it can be helpful for designing the main story to have an idea of how the characters are most likely to tackle problems and what their strengths and weaknesses may be, beyond the purely mechanical. The backstory serves the character and the campaign's storyline first and foremost.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
My current campaign I am winding my players brief and growing backstories through the narrative, however because I run a complete sandbox open world it is up to the players if they want to follow those threads, or instead become fixated with a funky tree I described with purple leaves just for flavour :).
But a serious point if you do wind your players backstories into the plot I have found from experiance it is best to build to it slowly If you consider a campaign running from level 1-20 then really levels 1-5 are the party forming and dealing with fairly low level threats, maybe with a bit of fore shadowing of things to come, I might give subtle links, an NPC mentioning a characters home town, a warlocks patron making some form of contact in a dream, or via another NPC. Just enough to make the players feel the presence of things. But I will say again I don't need pages of backstory for this, sometimes I will jus PM a player between sessions and ask them to answer a couple of questions.
But I am also a strong believer that the Player should never have knowledge the character does not in game, I am not talking about things that happen around the table, I run my games with an assumption that, unless the player specifically tells the table my player does not tell you about this thing, then all information gets shared around the campfire, in the inn over a drink or even just while traveling. If a Character knows there sister has been kidnapped but not who by, then I don't want the player coming up with that story I will decide the who and the why and let the player find it out the same time as the character does, it makes for more genuine and realistic reactions and helps with roleplaying.
The player has amnesia, and has all sorts of long lost relatives that follow them around all the time. These relatives also all happen to desperately need money. Because of their severe memory loss, they are a SUCKER for cons. You can do all sorts of stuff, you have just walked into the Mischief God DM candystore. Embrace your inner Loki.
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I also do homebrew, check out my Spells and Magic Items
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons, even death may die"
Forgive me but I LOVE DWARVES. Also Star Wars. Also just Tolkien in general.
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I also do homebrew, check out my Spells and Magic Items
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons, even death may die"