I'm new to D&D, and I haven't actually been in a campaign yet.
(TW, this might have subjects that some people aren't comfy with, like religious trauma, and missing persons for my character's backstory.)
I'm still making my character (I've had her for a loooooong time, but have never gotten a chance to use her or update her) so I'm trying to work on her backstory. This is where the problem is. I just got an account for this, and am using the mobile app to create my character right now. I'm glad for all the easy and accessible features, but I don't know much about D&D in its entirety.
I know a few things I want my character to have in her backstory, but I'm not sure how to write them to a way I like.
Her name's Brixis, and she's a Tiefling ranger. I know I want her to have some sort of religious trauma that caused her and her younger brother to run away from the church that they were living in, and had been living in for most of their lives, but I don't know about any religions in D&D. I know I could create one, but I honestly don't have enough braincells to do that. It could be a cult pretending to be a church with a real religion? I don't know. I'm just spitballing things out here, don't mind it.
I know that after Brixis and her brother find shelter in a town (I don't need help with the town, I can create small things like that.) and some time passes, her brother is gonna go missing. And... that's all I have so far! I know that the town is also gonna have a school, where one of the teachers became like a Mom to Brixis, (She doesn't know where her parents are.) but other than that, I don't know where to go from here.
Geez, I wrote a lot... Sorry if you actually read all this, but I wanna thank you if you did. And, if you have any suggestions for me, I'll gladly take them!
(P.S. No, I'm not the DM... I could be with any amount of worldbuilding knowledge, but we already have a DM for my campaign.)
I'm glad to finally be able to access the world of D&D! :)
Edit: Thank you all for your help! I’ve officially finished her backstory, and I’m grateful for everyone’s help.
Luckily for you, you chose a class that has some good general lore. Religion in D&D can mean many different things, it could be in reference to a pantheon of gods, or just a singular god. A quick reference for the lore of Tieflings is at some point in the Tieflings family lineage, someone made a deal with a devil or demon. This is why Tieflings look demonic. Often times Tieflings are ridiculed and misunderstood because of how they look. This is a great starting point for adding a conflict to your character. Perhaps some religious cult was trying to cleanse the demon away from Brixis' and her brother's Tiefling blood. Maybe they practiced cutting off their horns, tying up their tails in a really uncomfortable manner, or even forbidding them to go outside and instead having them do nothing but chores.
It's fun to write a backstory. Just remember, it's not a writing class (this is the trap a lot of new players fall into). Have an idea of where your character came from. The purpose to your backstory shouldn't be to monologue. It's not for an exposition dump.
The backstory is really there to define your character's personality traits.
Most new players fall into one of two camps: * I'm going to be myself in this game * I'm going to be this idyllic version of myself ... often this will manifest as an anarchistic Grand Theft Auto style murder hobo character, or a person who ALWAYS plays the same kind of personality (maybe it was a warlock last time, and it's a rogue now ... but it's the same fearful, loner, edge lord personality).
What happened to your character when they were 10 ... may not really matter a ton. When you watch a movie, or play a game, or read a book it's really easy for that story to be focused on that one character. At a table with 5 other players is harder (possible, but harder) to work in backstory details in a way that's fun for everyone. You can definitely hit major points along the way. But, a trap a lot of new players fall into is trying to turn D&D into fanfic and trying to be the center of the story (just getting used to a new hobby and learning how things work).
A thing that helps me is to focus on personality. Positive aspects and negative aspects. You need to know how your character will react to a situation, and sometimes you WILL very intentionally make a poor decision (hopefully not to the detriment to the other players at the table too terribly often ... but it'll happen from time to time).
A great trick when you're starting out is to think of a character that exists in a movie/show/book/game that you're passionate about. Be THAT character. Come up with your own backstory ... but, if you know you want her to be ... Laura Croft. That gives you a LOT to work with. You know she tends to be curious to a fault, reckless, maybe not the most tactful person ... you need enough to go on so you can sit at the table and think "I'm this person" and when a situation comes up ... you don't for one instant worry about what YOU would do ... you're doing what the character would do because you can imagine Laura Croft (or whoever) in that situation.
Once you have your foundation, then you can work in a backstory to make those personality traits make sense. You don't need more than a couple lines or paragraphs about each major personality trait you want to embody.
Think about how your character reacts to stuff like:
personal hardship
the hardship of friends
the hardship of enemies
the hardship of strangers
fear
triumph
What are your character's motivations? Do they want glory and fame? Do they just want power? Do they want money?
I hope this makes sense. It's not role play because you wrote a couple pages of text. It's role play because you're embodying another role. And, as long as that's true, the details of your backstory ... they don't really matter (not much). What will make your character fun and memorable is how you bring them to life at the table, not how well written a three paragraph monologue about your backstory you recited 6 months into a 4 year long campaign.
You could make celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey into an outstanding D&D character. Making some stuff up here: Harsh and intimidating in most situations. Aggressive to a fault. Strong weak spot for children where he develops a soft and nurturing personality and will put himself in harms way to help them. Never gives up and always pushes forward with (aggressive) positivity and profanity laden inspirational speeches. Highly motivated by fame, but just doesn't care about money/treasure.
That's enough to build a character and start a game. Valor bard building towards the chef feat or the inspiring leader feat. Using prestidigitation to help flavor the party's foods. Always hunting for rare ingredients and challenging chefs to cooking competitions between adventures. Eager to try specialty regional food. Eager to experiment with eating various plants/creatures.
That (very silly) character has clear faults. They have clear goals. They have their own desires that will push the party towards specific types of destinations. There are clear ways for a DM to manipulate that player with any plot hook involving a chef, or a rare plant/animal that is famously good for cooking, or with plot hooks about children in need. No one but you needs to know who the inspiration was. And, there's no real backstory going on there. Just personality, goals, flaws, and some loose ideas for game mechanics to embody the character.
Hope that helps! Enjoy writing your backstory. Don't worry too much about the backstory. Have something. But, don't stress. In most situations the purpose of the backstory is to inform the personality. The details that matter are the personality.
What kind of church was she living at? Like what god/goddess? Those tenets might help determine what she saw that made her wish to flee.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
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I'm new to D&D, and I haven't actually been in a campaign yet.
(TW, this might have subjects that some people aren't comfy with, like religious trauma, and missing persons for my character's backstory.)
I'm still making my character (I've had her for a loooooong time, but have never gotten a chance to use her or update her) so I'm trying to work on her backstory. This is where the problem is. I just got an account for this, and am using the mobile app to create my character right now. I'm glad for all the easy and accessible features, but I don't know much about D&D in its entirety.
I know a few things I want my character to have in her backstory, but I'm not sure how to write them to a way I like.
Her name's Brixis, and she's a Tiefling ranger. I know I want her to have some sort of religious trauma that caused her and her younger brother to run away from the church that they were living in, and had been living in for most of their lives, but I don't know about any religions in D&D. I know I could create one, but I honestly don't have enough braincells to do that. It could be a cult pretending to be a church with a real religion? I don't know. I'm just spitballing things out here, don't mind it.
I know that after Brixis and her brother find shelter in a town (I don't need help with the town, I can create small things like that.) and some time passes, her brother is gonna go missing. And... that's all I have so far! I know that the town is also gonna have a school, where one of the teachers became like a Mom to Brixis, (She doesn't know where her parents are.) but other than that, I don't know where to go from here.
Geez, I wrote a lot... Sorry if you actually read all this, but I wanna thank you if you did. And, if you have any suggestions for me, I'll gladly take them!
(P.S. No, I'm not the DM... I could be with any amount of worldbuilding knowledge, but we already have a DM for my campaign.)
I'm glad to finally be able to access the world of D&D! :)
Edit: Thank you all for your help! I’ve officially finished her backstory, and I’m grateful for everyone’s help.
Luckily for you, you chose a class that has some good general lore. Religion in D&D can mean many different things, it could be in reference to a pantheon of gods, or just a singular god. A quick reference for the lore of Tieflings is at some point in the Tieflings family lineage, someone made a deal with a devil or demon. This is why Tieflings look demonic. Often times Tieflings are ridiculed and misunderstood because of how they look. This is a great starting point for adding a conflict to your character. Perhaps some religious cult was trying to cleanse the demon away from Brixis' and her brother's Tiefling blood. Maybe they practiced cutting off their horns, tying up their tails in a really uncomfortable manner, or even forbidding them to go outside and instead having them do nothing but chores.
Thank you! I’m grateful for someone actually replying to this, and I’ll take your suggestions into consideration! Have a good day/night. :)
It's fun to write a backstory. Just remember, it's not a writing class (this is the trap a lot of new players fall into). Have an idea of where your character came from. The purpose to your backstory shouldn't be to monologue. It's not for an exposition dump.
The backstory is really there to define your character's personality traits.
Most new players fall into one of two camps:
* I'm going to be myself in this game
* I'm going to be this idyllic version of myself ... often this will manifest as an anarchistic Grand Theft Auto style murder hobo character, or a person who ALWAYS plays the same kind of personality (maybe it was a warlock last time, and it's a rogue now ... but it's the same fearful, loner, edge lord personality).
What happened to your character when they were 10 ... may not really matter a ton. When you watch a movie, or play a game, or read a book it's really easy for that story to be focused on that one character. At a table with 5 other players is harder (possible, but harder) to work in backstory details in a way that's fun for everyone. You can definitely hit major points along the way. But, a trap a lot of new players fall into is trying to turn D&D into fanfic and trying to be the center of the story (just getting used to a new hobby and learning how things work).
A thing that helps me is to focus on personality. Positive aspects and negative aspects. You need to know how your character will react to a situation, and sometimes you WILL very intentionally make a poor decision (hopefully not to the detriment to the other players at the table too terribly often ... but it'll happen from time to time).
A great trick when you're starting out is to think of a character that exists in a movie/show/book/game that you're passionate about. Be THAT character. Come up with your own backstory ... but, if you know you want her to be ... Laura Croft. That gives you a LOT to work with. You know she tends to be curious to a fault, reckless, maybe not the most tactful person ... you need enough to go on so you can sit at the table and think "I'm this person" and when a situation comes up ... you don't for one instant worry about what YOU would do ... you're doing what the character would do because you can imagine Laura Croft (or whoever) in that situation.
Once you have your foundation, then you can work in a backstory to make those personality traits make sense. You don't need more than a couple lines or paragraphs about each major personality trait you want to embody.
Think about how your character reacts to stuff like:
What are your character's motivations? Do they want glory and fame? Do they just want power? Do they want money?
I hope this makes sense. It's not role play because you wrote a couple pages of text. It's role play because you're embodying another role. And, as long as that's true, the details of your backstory ... they don't really matter (not much). What will make your character fun and memorable is how you bring them to life at the table, not how well written a three paragraph monologue about your backstory you recited 6 months into a 4 year long campaign.
You could make celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey into an outstanding D&D character. Making some stuff up here: Harsh and intimidating in most situations. Aggressive to a fault. Strong weak spot for children where he develops a soft and nurturing personality and will put himself in harms way to help them. Never gives up and always pushes forward with (aggressive) positivity and profanity laden inspirational speeches. Highly motivated by fame, but just doesn't care about money/treasure.
That's enough to build a character and start a game. Valor bard building towards the chef feat or the inspiring leader feat. Using prestidigitation to help flavor the party's foods. Always hunting for rare ingredients and challenging chefs to cooking competitions between adventures. Eager to try specialty regional food. Eager to experiment with eating various plants/creatures.
That (very silly) character has clear faults. They have clear goals. They have their own desires that will push the party towards specific types of destinations. There are clear ways for a DM to manipulate that player with any plot hook involving a chef, or a rare plant/animal that is famously good for cooking, or with plot hooks about children in need. No one but you needs to know who the inspiration was. And, there's no real backstory going on there. Just personality, goals, flaws, and some loose ideas for game mechanics to embody the character.
Hope that helps! Enjoy writing your backstory. Don't worry too much about the backstory. Have something. But, don't stress. In most situations the purpose of the backstory is to inform the personality. The details that matter are the personality.
Hope you enjoy your character and love your game!
Thank you so much! These are really good tips, and I’m glad you’ve shared them with me.
I actually finished her backstory a bit ago, but this will help when I’m expanding on her!
She has some serious anger issues.. :p
What kind of church was she living at? Like what god/goddess? Those tenets might help determine what she saw that made her wish to flee.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha