My current character has amnesia so doesn't remember her backstory at all. She is working as bartender in Icewind Dale. Her motivation for adventuring is sheer boredom and the fact that she needs good stories to attract customers and keep them drinking. She just throws her apron on the bar, says she's taking a personal day and comes back months later to resume her duties.
I have a tiefling monk who was raised from infancy in a monastery. He was scorned, reviled, and mistrusted by all but one single cleric. While he was being trained to become a healer, an encounter with a feverish paladin (who tried banish him "back to the foul depths"), that ended when he accidentally set said the paladin's holy symbol ablaze. He was sent to learn discipline from the monks, and that worked somewhat until he was caught eating the flesh of a sheep killed by a wolf (the order discourages the eating of meat, and particularly of any meat killed in violent manner).
He left the island on the first ship he could secure passage on, with the intent of finding "the opposite end of world".
His alignment is (as I describe it) opposional neutral. He was raised to be good (as a healer) and controlled [lawful](as a monk), but he believes he cannot escape the evil and the chaos in his blood. He walks the fine line of between who he wishes to be (good), and the creature the World makes him out to be.
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Just a old, crazy Dungeon Master building a realm one brick at a time...
currently playing a tired kinda old inventor who only goes on adventures because their adopted kids (represented as low level side kicks) wanted to go on adventures with the parent.
Cleric, whose goal is to compile a massive tome ‘nature documentary’ about the undead, how to classify, study, and kill them, and all their different types.
Forgot to mention: He’s only doing it because his order wanted to get him out of the way as long as possible due to his complete incompetence when it comes to matters of religious bureaucracy, but he doesn’t know that or care, and throws himself fully into his mammoth task.
A wizard shackled by debt from a crappy wizard school. He goes adventuring to pay it off because he can't get a job with his degree and finds that adventuring is more educational than higher education ever was.
A wizard shackled by debt from a crappy wizard school. He goes adventuring to pay it off because he can't get a job with his degree and finds that adventuring is more educational than higher education ever was.
My Thri-Kreen Druid character was motivated to adventure when he came across a Wilden (Another PC in the group) who was accidentally teleported to the plane from the Feywild and couldn’t get back to his home plane. As a Druid with a great respect for the great nature of the Feywild vowed to help the Wilden get home. So he left his life of isolation in the woods to find a way to do so.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Wizard who has left his school of magic to travel the world, tells everyone he is the best and most intelligent wizard around, aced all his exams and was the best pupil the school had ever had. None of this was true (wisdom of 7, intelligence of 17). He was obsessed with learning because deep down he knew his own fabricated history was a lie. It also worked so os well with the campaign the secrets of which the DM purposely kept hidden from us until the end of session 3.
Campaign was a groundhog day one that I was part of (and have since borrowed and twisted to turn into my own campaign), session 3 we got to the end of adventuring day 1, and promptly suffered a TPK, we then woke up to discover it was the morning of the same day and all our equipment had been reset. We spent 2 1/2 years game time in that town living out the same 24 hours going from levels 1-16. My player started out as Lawful Good, convinced he was telling the truth, then, started to realise that the behaviour he had thought was affirmation of his talents was actually his teachers and fellow pupils laughing at him so he started thriving to find knowledge. This, combined with the daily reset of the town meaning that player and NPC deaths where reset at the end of the day, meant that he started caring less and less about life and became obsessed with gaining knowledge. Finally after 18 months of playing time the day came when he decided he needed to know what pregnancy looked like, from the inside, he spent 3 weeks (game time) casting sleep on the same women, slowly dissecting her body, experimenting on the 6 month old baby and making that last step to lawful evil. None of the other players or characters knew but the last few months of the campaign when the party had learnt how to end the curse and have the town restored back to normal, he worked against them to stop them doing that because he hadn't learnt all there was to learn from the inhabitants of the town yet. In the end became a second BBEG of the campaign.
So yes what initially i thought would be a throwaway fun little backstory idea I could grow and play with as my character developed into the campaign became instead a key part of the plot of the campaign and allowed me to tell a really compelling, believable, story of a person's descent into evil, while being fully able to defend and explain every step he took along that path. I still remember the moment the other players realised what I had become we spent about 4 hours me explaining to them every action that had happened, both in front of them, but also days I had spent to myself taking advantage of the town and the situation and the ways I had kept them from finding out.
Oh, another one that isn't mine (a friend played this one) but that EricHVela's last line reminded me of:
A rich old mind who had always wanted to be a heroic adventurer, especially a paladin. He finally decided in his old age to give it a go, and he literally paid an Order to take him in and make him a paladin. Turns out over the campaign he really developed into quite a good example of a paladin and made a lot of sacrifices along the way, but he was definitely played as a silly, clumsy old man the majority of the time.
Ronin Soga Terunari is the betrayed tiefling paladin of Tal’shima City and self-proclaimed "Devourer of Evil." He was once the most powerful and influential samurai in Tal’shima, but has since been exiled from the city after being exposed as a practitioner of black magic and especially ritual cannibalism. He does not consider himself to be evil, but rather portrays himself as a tragic hero in bright silver armor. He now seeks to reclaim the city by exterminating the current officials and rulers, and reclaiming military control with his own army of monstrosities that he seeks to put under his command. He also believes that the woman he loved and left behind, despite her role in bringing him to justice, still loves him and was deceived by the jealous leadership of the city. He has sworn that “his lady” will return to his side, or he will consume her as well...
More than a little dark, but he makes for an interesting character!
The only person who knows where the party's loot was stashed has been kidnapped.
Rescue mission! (...or just "find, interrogate, and abandon the captive once the location is known" mission. They gave serious consideration to the second option and actually went into the quest with that intent.)
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
So, this thread is to share the motivational element of your characters backstories, but twith one caveat - we'll have no clichés, like "my parents were killed and now I seek revenge!", or "I am adventuring for the glory and the treasure", no thankyou, keep that stuff outta here.
I want to hear about your adventuring chef who is searching the world for the perfect ingredients to make her all-new bbq sauce, and isn't picky about what she tries to cook with - it's results that matter, who cares if it's made of goblin?
I want to hear about your incredibly stupid character who was tricked into believing that to travel the world for the rest of his life would get him into university - just don't come back until you're dead!
Tell me your best alternative adventuring motivators! no clichés allowed!
Down on your luck, and we’re living on your brothers couch/rug (depending how rich). But, he and his wife got divorced, and with him having to find new lodgings, and blaming you, you had no where to turn: it was either this, or enlist in the city guard.
Moriel is a high elf wizard,he lived in evermeet in his entire life,enjoying all it could give him and a stable job,however after 20 years of work,he decided to take a vacation,after all,if not now? Then when?
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My current character has amnesia so doesn't remember her backstory at all. She is working as bartender in Icewind Dale. Her motivation for adventuring is sheer boredom and the fact that she needs good stories to attract customers and keep them drinking. She just throws her apron on the bar, says she's taking a personal day and comes back months later to resume her duties.
I have a tiefling monk who was raised from infancy in a monastery. He was scorned, reviled, and mistrusted by all but one single cleric. While he was being trained to become a healer, an encounter with a feverish paladin (who tried banish him "back to the foul depths"), that ended when he accidentally set said the paladin's holy symbol ablaze. He was sent to learn discipline from the monks, and that worked somewhat until he was caught eating the flesh of a sheep killed by a wolf (the order discourages the eating of meat, and particularly of any meat killed in violent manner).
He left the island on the first ship he could secure passage on, with the intent of finding "the opposite end of world".
His alignment is (as I describe it) opposional neutral. He was raised to be good (as a healer) and controlled [lawful](as a monk), but he believes he cannot escape the evil and the chaos in his blood. He walks the fine line of between who he wishes to be (good), and the creature the World makes him out to be.
Just a old, crazy Dungeon Master building a realm one brick at a time...
currently playing a tired kinda old inventor who only goes on adventures because their adopted kids (represented as low level side kicks) wanted to go on adventures with the parent.
Check out my homebrew subclasses spells magic items feats monsters races
i am a sauce priest
help create a world here
A knight who was forced to retire from the army finding a new way to protect his town.
a 5th child of a noble who has decided to make his name his own way
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
Forgot to mention: He’s only doing it because his order wanted to get him out of the way as long as possible due to his complete incompetence when it comes to matters of religious bureaucracy, but he doesn’t know that or care, and throws himself fully into his mammoth task.
◎
Real Estate Agent Warlock clearing out dungeons, selling them to other monsters. Rinse and Repeat.
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A wizard shackled by debt from a crappy wizard school. He goes adventuring to pay it off because he can't get a job with his degree and finds that adventuring is more educational than higher education ever was.
That would explain why he’s at first Level
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
My Thri-Kreen Druid character was motivated to adventure when he came across a Wilden (Another PC in the group) who was accidentally teleported to the plane from the Feywild and couldn’t get back to his home plane. As a Druid with a great respect for the great nature of the Feywild vowed to help the Wilden get home. So he left his life of isolation in the woods to find a way to do so.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
Wizard who has left his school of magic to travel the world, tells everyone he is the best and most intelligent wizard around, aced all his exams and was the best pupil the school had ever had. None of this was true (wisdom of 7, intelligence of 17). He was obsessed with learning because deep down he knew his own fabricated history was a lie. It also worked so os well with the campaign the secrets of which the DM purposely kept hidden from us until the end of session 3.
Campaign was a groundhog day one that I was part of (and have since borrowed and twisted to turn into my own campaign), session 3 we got to the end of adventuring day 1, and promptly suffered a TPK, we then woke up to discover it was the morning of the same day and all our equipment had been reset. We spent 2 1/2 years game time in that town living out the same 24 hours going from levels 1-16. My player started out as Lawful Good, convinced he was telling the truth, then, started to realise that the behaviour he had thought was affirmation of his talents was actually his teachers and fellow pupils laughing at him so he started thriving to find knowledge. This, combined with the daily reset of the town meaning that player and NPC deaths where reset at the end of the day, meant that he started caring less and less about life and became obsessed with gaining knowledge. Finally after 18 months of playing time the day came when he decided he needed to know what pregnancy looked like, from the inside, he spent 3 weeks (game time) casting sleep on the same women, slowly dissecting her body, experimenting on the 6 month old baby and making that last step to lawful evil. None of the other players or characters knew but the last few months of the campaign when the party had learnt how to end the curse and have the town restored back to normal, he worked against them to stop them doing that because he hadn't learnt all there was to learn from the inhabitants of the town yet. In the end became a second BBEG of the campaign.
So yes what initially i thought would be a throwaway fun little backstory idea I could grow and play with as my character developed into the campaign became instead a key part of the plot of the campaign and allowed me to tell a really compelling, believable, story of a person's descent into evil, while being fully able to defend and explain every step he took along that path. I still remember the moment the other players realised what I had become we spent about 4 hours me explaining to them every action that had happened, both in front of them, but also days I had spent to myself taking advantage of the town and the situation and the ways I had kept them from finding out.
Very Don Quixote de la Mancha!
Not all who wander are lost.
Ronin Soga Terunari is the betrayed tiefling paladin of Tal’shima City and self-proclaimed "Devourer of Evil." He was once the most powerful and influential samurai in Tal’shima, but has since been exiled from the city after being exposed as a practitioner of black magic and especially ritual cannibalism. He does not consider himself to be evil, but rather portrays himself as a tragic hero in bright silver armor. He now seeks to reclaim the city by exterminating the current officials and rulers, and reclaiming military control with his own army of monstrosities that he seeks to put under his command. He also believes that the woman he loved and left behind, despite her role in bringing him to justice, still loves him and was deceived by the jealous leadership of the city. He has sworn that “his lady” will return to his side, or he will consume her as well...
More than a little dark, but he makes for an interesting character!
Not all who wander are lost.
Current one is preparing for the eventual confrontation with the being he was almost sacrificed to (though he'd prefer to avoid it completely).
Next one I play will probably have took a wrong turn home, got hopelessly lost, and just kind of bumbled into the adventure.
Something I saw:
The only person who knows where the party's loot was stashed has been kidnapped.
Rescue mission! (...or just "find, interrogate, and abandon the captive once the location is known" mission. They gave serious consideration to the second option and actually went into the quest with that intent.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
gambler background:
my character lost a bet.
Blank
Down on your luck, and we’re living on your brothers couch/rug (depending how rich). But, he and his wife got divorced, and with him having to find new lodgings, and blaming you, you had no where to turn: it was either this, or enlist in the city guard.
Blank
Moriel is a high elf wizard,he lived in evermeet in his entire life,enjoying all it could give him and a stable job,however after 20 years of work,he decided to take a vacation,after all,if not now? Then when?