Write it for yourself - not for me (me being the GM)
I read them, but I don't pretend to any intention of using them. Backstories - to my mind - are player tools, to help build their characters personality, drive their goals, root them in the world. But I don't care about them, unless they touch upon the lore in some significant way.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
The way I make my character backstories is with a built in motivation, like owning someone your life or attempting to fix something in the past. Then, I make sure it’s appropriate for its level, if not I just tone it down or up, but in a way that fits with your theme.
It’s good to have a long backstory if it gives hooks your dm can use and gives you a more accurate way to role-play your character, but it’s also a good idea to see if you can summarise your backstory into a single paragraph so that you and your dm can get the gist of it.
The tone is also important, as if you don’t plan specifically for the tonal differences to be a part of your character, it’s going to be jarring for an arcane trickster crow with a purple birthday hat to be in the Dark Sun setting.
Finally, sometimes it just takes a long time for your character concept to finish in the oven, for example, one of my first characters was a duel wielding champion/rouge multi class with a homebrew race and basically no backstory. Now, she's a reflavored Yaun Ti samurai fighter and focused on duelling with the shield reflavoured as her katana's scabbard who roams the roads duelling others for her honour.
The primary quality of a backstory:
I read them, but I don't pretend to any intention of using them. Backstories - to my mind - are player tools, to help build their characters personality, drive their goals, root them in the world. But I don't care about them, unless they touch upon the lore in some significant way.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
imo good backstory
1. Don't contradict dm worldbuilding
2. Reasonable for character level, no lvl 1 son of asmodeus with feats behind his back and lvl 10 yesterday peasant
3. Short, (even if you have many ideas how expand it) first version presented for DM should be short
4. have reason to take part in adventure
5. have enough to cooperate with party both in rp and combat
The way I make my character backstories is with a built in motivation, like owning someone your life or attempting to fix something in the past. Then, I make sure it’s appropriate for its level, if not I just tone it down or up, but in a way that fits with your theme.
It’s good to have a long backstory if it gives hooks your dm can use and gives you a more accurate way to role-play your character, but it’s also a good idea to see if you can summarise your backstory into a single paragraph so that you and your dm can get the gist of it.
The tone is also important, as if you don’t plan specifically for the tonal differences to be a part of your character, it’s going to be jarring for an arcane trickster crow with a purple birthday hat to be in the Dark Sun setting.
Finally, sometimes it just takes a long time for your character concept to finish in the oven, for example, one of my first characters was a duel wielding champion/rouge multi class with a homebrew race and basically no backstory. Now, she's a reflavored Yaun Ti samurai fighter and focused on duelling with the shield reflavoured as her katana's scabbard who roams the roads duelling others for her honour.
IMO one of the qualities of a good backstory is brevity.
"A Weird Potato" is your username and your signature, not your idea of a backstory with brevity. I get that now.
Cool. If anyone wants examples of some of my backstories there’s a bunch in here.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/story-lore/118709-three-sentence-backstory