I typically just write a short story with several characters and then use those.
Their backstory is just... an actual honest-to-goodness story and I WILL force the DM to read ALL of it.
Same here.
Backstories can vary, though. On DDB alone I've seen a one-sentence backstory and a nine-hundred word backstory (below).
"
Kevinus Panio was once a peaceful resident of the island of Sicily. He had a loving family and three great kids, and they all lived in a beach-side house. Then, one fateful day, the Romans came. (Don't check the dates. The Romans didn't invade for another 534 years.) They raided the fields of grain, slaughtered the cattle, and imposed heavy taxes on the natives.Then, Cassius appointed himself emperor. Before long, jobs were scarce and good paying ones were almost non-existent. Before long, the Sicilian Mafia saw that Kevinus was angry at the oppressors, and helpless to do anything about it; a perfect recruit. Kevinus went on and made a living by imposing debts, and then collecting them. In the beginning, he was perpetually guilty and could not stop thinking of those he had wronged. Over time though, he became more and more calloused, and recently he hasn't even remembered the faces of those he had robbed. Except for one.
It was a big day for the Sicilian Mafia. Cassius Piscius himself was coming to Sicily to oversee the construction of the new port. Kevinus and a few other of the most talented mobsters were tasked with "snagging" something from Cassius. The night of the visit though, several of the other agents came down with the flutus, an infectious disease, and couldn't be part of the mission. So, Kevinus went solo. As he was approaching the private house that Cassius was staying in, Kevinus heard strange incantations. Suddenly, as he climbed onto the roof using a grappling hook, there was a flash of brilliant purple light, and he was thrown off the roof by some unseen force. Only cat-like reflexes and years of training allowed Kevinus to land on his feet, but when he tried to walk around, he felt dizzy. Kevinus hadn't seen or heard of anything like that before, but he knew something wasn't right. Determined to not let some strange force abort his mission, Kevinus doggedly climbed back onto the roof and was scouting out a possible skylight to drop through, when a harsh voice rang out from beneath him. "I know who you are. I know what you want. You can't get it, so you might as well get out of here before I call the guards on you." Kevinus had no idea how Cassius had found out so much about him, but he decided that now now would be finest moment he would ever get to kill two birds with one stone: it was an opportune time to end the entire empire's misery, and he could collect the money to provide for his family. So, after a few moments of contemplation, Kevinus dropped down from the roof, and turned to face this new opponent with a newfound determination. But, before he could move or speak, a silhouette from the front porch emitted another wave of blindingly bright energy, knocking Kevinus off his feet. "Well well well, who do we have here?" the shadow sneered. "I would assume you're the one from the Mafia?" Kevinus glared at the figure, watching its hands intently. "You made a big mistake. Not heeding the warning of your superior? Not gladly receiving the mercy I offered you? Unheard of! You dirty lowlife! You and your illegal friends decided to try to steal from this empire's emperor? You greedy pilfering unworthy unimportant stupid wretch!" With that, Cassius unleashed a mighty blast of fire, incinerating the gardens behind, and illuminating the sky with flickering flames of dread. Kevinus, who had been watching Cassius' every move, had predicted the blast, and as soon as Cassius tried to fry him, Kevinus rolled onto his feet, and threw three of his four daggers in quick succession. Cassius however somehow leaped into the air, above the daggers, and in the blink of an eye, was grappling Kevinus to the ground. Soon, Cassius had Kevinus pinned to the ground, one foot triumphantly set atop Kevinus' head. "Don't worry, I will never bow down to the likes of you!" Kevinus spat. Then a fist came out of nowhere and all was dark for Kevinus.
When he next woke up, Kevinus had a swollen jaw, and his head was throbbing. As soon as he gathered enough energy to look around, he realized that he was tied to a stake in the city square of Palermo. It was early morning, and from what he could tell from his limited range of vision, the square was deserted. Then, Kevinus remembered the series of events that had occurred the night before, and silently swore an oath to personally eliminate Cassius for the empire and for himself. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of a blade being sharpened. "Oh no." Kevinus thought to himself as he realized what Cassius' plan was for him. As the morning turned into midday, a few people began to gather around Kevinus, then, by early afternoon, there was a whole crowd of murmuring passersby. Then, the executioner came out. The chatter died down, and then the executioner spoke, "By the order of the emperor this man is to be publicly executed for assaulting the emperor himself, being affiliated with a Mafia, and attempting to thieve the emperor's royal possessions. Any last words?" "Yes," Kevinus replied, "DOWN WITH ROME!!!" With that, the executioner raised his axe above his head, the sun glinting off the razor sharp blade, and viciously swung it towards the Kevinus. In the spot of a moment, a dart came out from the crowd, and pierced the executioner's shoulder. Then, mysterious persons, who Kevinus recognized as fellow Mafia members, quickly unbound Kevinus, and brought him to the Mafia HQ. Once he was safely in the underground bunker, the Big Boss sat him down and briefed him on his next mission. He was to go behind the enemy's lines and personally end Cassius' reign of terror. After spending one last evening with his family, Kevinus set off, armed with some daggers, a crossbow, a precious Morningstar, and fierce determination to end Cassius. After a fortnight of travel, Kevinus arrived in Athens. Once in Athens, he decided to bide his time, find some allies, and then strike like lightning."
Lesson: Find a happy medium. Please don't do this to any DM.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Religious frisbee player, writer and goofball. Some may say professional for the latter.
I usually come up with pages worth of backstory, but send it to my DM in as short a paragraph as I think captures all the details they need. I then send them extra details later if they come up/if I want them to come up in the campaign :)
I ask the same of my players. Give me enough detail to let me know what stuff in the backstory you want me to work with, and then send the longer one for me to read for fun but don't expect me to memorize it lol. I had a player who only sent me a like 5 page backstory and didn't provide a summary. I didn't appreciate that.
My last back story was 4 pages long, for a campaign intended to for every week for 12-18 months
Page 1 is name, flavour art and bullet points, being:
7 key points, setting out influences and preferences alongside immediate family names and connections for the ref to leverage
6 OOC points highlighted for specific attention which the ref could tweak to fit into his world
2 specific system queries and a link to a character sheet.
The rest is 7 snippets, a couple of hundred words each, illustrating that history, connections, upbringing and life in a way that conveys the flavour of the character through the style of writing.
It's a process mostly for myself in the text to help solidify the character in my own head so I am comfortable I know what I'm playing when we hit session 1. Ideally the ref will read it, but the bullet point summary and system queries are all they really need to see.
I also tend to be the note-taker, and write up the sessions so we can make links, cross reference NPCs and generally experience and investigate the detailed and fascinating world the DM is putting together in Raiders of the Serpent Sea.
But then, making the character is about half the fun of a campaign for me!
The ideal backstory length is whatever makes the most sense for you, the DM and the campaign
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Ideal length depends a lot on length and depth of the campaign and starting point- if this is a one-shot, printed adventure, or a new/casual DM dipping their toe in the water you can't typically expect an extensive backstory to crop up much in-game. Long running campaigns are more open for it, but it still depends on how many plot points the DM wants to juggle and the general vibe of the table- some groups will just be looking to do a straightforward hack and slash dungeon crawl where backstory is mostly just going to crop up in party banter and might or might not be taken seriously.
Personally I prefer two or three paragraphs if I'm doing an in-depth backstory so I can lay out a setup, how they became an adventurer/PC and essentially got started in their class, and what their current activities in the setting are. Really, the most important thing is to keep your achievements comparable to your staring level- a 3rd level character's claim to fame should probably be something more like fending off a gang of bandits or a fairly minor marauding monster rather than single-handedly stopping an active demonic invasion or besting an adult dragon, for example. That's not to say you can't have any flair- my Archfey Warlock stumbled into the Feywild in his pre-PC stage and got an offer directly from a major archfey to make a pact with her after he tried to help someone he encountered in the Feywild who turned out to be an agent of the archfey, but in context that was just the archfey scouting a rookie and seeing if they can go pro, not the character pulling off some unheard of feat that got an offer out of awe.
The ideal backstory length is whatever makes the most sense for you, the DM and the campaign
This is the answer.
If the campaign is a one-shot of 2-6 hours, you probably shouldn't bother with a 3-page backstory.
If the campaign is intended to be from level 1 to level 15 spanning several dozen sessions, with a campaign taking heavy elements from the PC's backstories, it should probably be more than seven sentences long.
The poll is completely useless. There is practically no meaningful difference between 3 and 7 sentences - both are short backstories. Six-seven sentences is not at all "long" for a backstory. A more useful poll would have choices like "1-3 sentences," "1 paragraph," "1 page," "2-3 pages," and "more than 3 pages"
To my mind, the length of the back story depends on a couple of things: 1) the species, background and class of the character- how they got to this point with these abilities should be covered at least briefly. 2) any special plot links you want the DM to make use of in the campaign- what are they and why are they there. 3) The level the campaign is starting at - if your starting above L1 you should have some sort of description(s) of how you got to your current level. This doesn’t mean a play by play but should include key points and pieces that might enable a DM/NPC to identify or recognize them ( favorably or unfavorably). Obviously the higher the level they start at the longer the back story is going to be.
Eh, if it's just something you want to keep in your head, sure, but when you want it crop up or otherwise influence how things play out in the campaign itself, the DM does have final say in how that goes.
Eh, if it's just something you want to keep in your head, sure, but when you want it crop up or otherwise influence how things play out in the campaign itself, the DM does have final say in how that goes.
A player can invoke parts of their character's backstory whenever they want. The DM can't tell them to be quiet or take it back.
My point is that a character's backstory is for informing the actions of the character. It's who they were, what they did, and how they got to be where they are when the story, the game, starts. It should not be written for the DM to have possession of and surprise everyone with. Rather, it's something for the player to share at a time and place of their choosing.
Eh, if it's just something you want to keep in your head, sure, but when you want it crop up or otherwise influence how things play out in the campaign itself, the DM does have final say in how that goes.
A player can invoke parts of their character's backstory whenever they want. The DM can't tell them to be quiet or take it back.
That depends- if they just mention a passing bit of fluff it's at least bad form for the DM to make an issue of it, but if they try to play the "I know a guy" card in a way that impacts what the party is currently trying to accomplish, the DM most certainly has a say over whether or not an appropriate NPC is conjured into the setting on the spot.
Eh, if it's just something you want to keep in your head, sure, but when you want it crop up or otherwise influence how things play out in the campaign itself, the DM does have final say in how that goes.
A player can invoke parts of their character's backstory whenever they want. The DM can't tell them to be quiet or take it back.
That depends- if they just mention a passing bit of fluff it's at least bad form for the DM to make an issue of it, but if they try to play the "I know a guy" card in a way that impacts what the party is currently trying to accomplish, the DM most certainly has a say over whether or not an appropriate NPC is conjured into the setting on the spot.
The same can be said of every NPC the DM had previously come up with. Anyone in the party could easily invoke the name of a friendly magic user, guard captain, or patriar. Whether that NPC can aid the party, and the kind of aid they can provide, is still left up to the DM.
There's a schism, I feel. I like coming up with backstories, but I feel characters are born through play. That's certainly true for me.
As such, I consider backstories to be a player tool: Something I - or another player if I'm the GM - can use to get started, to provide a sheen of context for later development.
But other than that, I just don't care. I don't remember my own backstories a few weeks into play, and as a GM, I certainly don't remember the player's. And that's .. problematic. Because there's certainly players out there who consider their backstories to be important, and expect me to incorporate them into play. And .. that's simply just not ever going to happen at all. Like at all.
So I try to point out in advance to prospective players that ... such an expectation is going to lead straight to disappointment.
So for me: Player tool. Not GM tool.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Your backstory can be as long or as short as you like. A longer backstory gives the DM more hooks to use to enmesh your character into the story. A shorter backstory allows you and the DM more wiggle room to allow the mystery to unfold through play. And that right there is the key:
Your backstory is not who you are. Your backstory is who you WERE! Sure, your backstory will inform your decisions, and will guide your perspective on many things. But your backstory is over. You're in your Nowstory now. Don't focus so much on writing THE definitive backstory. Just write enough to get the ball rolling. Focus instead on where that ball is rolling to.
I base the length of my back stories on how much room I want to give my DM to work it into the campaign. I have a few specific details, mostly names of places and people, just to give my characters a place in reality and make it kind of a hard don't change point, but I leave some stuff pretty loose, like where they are or detail of a contract, pretty vague for the sake of the DM torturing my characters.
I would say talk to your DM on if they will incorporate your backstory first though if you do want to get detailed or stay vague. I stick with a medium length backstory to hit my basics and give some insight for myself into who the goober is.
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Some character backstories are brief (one-shot) while others can be significant (prolonged campaign). What is everyone's preference?
I typically just write a short story with several characters and then use those.
Their backstory is just... an actual honest-to-goodness story and I WILL force the DM to read ALL of it.
Same here.
Backstories can vary, though. On DDB alone I've seen a one-sentence backstory and a nine-hundred word backstory (below).
"
Kevinus Panio was once a peaceful resident of the island of Sicily. He had a loving family and three great kids, and they all lived in a beach-side house. Then, one fateful day, the Romans came. (Don't check the dates. The Romans didn't invade for another 534 years.) They raided the fields of grain, slaughtered the cattle, and imposed heavy taxes on the natives.Then, Cassius appointed himself emperor. Before long, jobs were scarce and good paying ones were almost non-existent. Before long, the Sicilian Mafia saw that Kevinus was angry at the oppressors, and helpless to do anything about it; a perfect recruit. Kevinus went on and made a living by imposing debts, and then collecting them. In the beginning, he was perpetually guilty and could not stop thinking of those he had wronged. Over time though, he became more and more calloused, and recently he hasn't even remembered the faces of those he had robbed. Except for one.
It was a big day for the Sicilian Mafia. Cassius Piscius himself was coming to Sicily to oversee the construction of the new port. Kevinus and a few other of the most talented mobsters were tasked with "snagging" something from Cassius. The night of the visit though, several of the other agents came down with the flutus, an infectious disease, and couldn't be part of the mission. So, Kevinus went solo. As he was approaching the private house that Cassius was staying in, Kevinus heard strange incantations. Suddenly, as he climbed onto the roof using a grappling hook, there was a flash of brilliant purple light, and he was thrown off the roof by some unseen force. Only cat-like reflexes and years of training allowed Kevinus to land on his feet, but when he tried to walk around, he felt dizzy. Kevinus hadn't seen or heard of anything like that before, but he knew something wasn't right. Determined to not let some strange force abort his mission, Kevinus doggedly climbed back onto the roof and was scouting out a possible skylight to drop through, when a harsh voice rang out from beneath him. "I know who you are. I know what you want. You can't get it, so you might as well get out of here before I call the guards on you." Kevinus had no idea how Cassius had found out so much about him, but he decided that now now would be finest moment he would ever get to kill two birds with one stone: it was an opportune time to end the entire empire's misery, and he could collect the money to provide for his family. So, after a few moments of contemplation, Kevinus dropped down from the roof, and turned to face this new opponent with a newfound determination. But, before he could move or speak, a silhouette from the front porch emitted another wave of blindingly bright energy, knocking Kevinus off his feet. "Well well well, who do we have here?" the shadow sneered. "I would assume you're the one from the Mafia?" Kevinus glared at the figure, watching its hands intently. "You made a big mistake. Not heeding the warning of your superior? Not gladly receiving the mercy I offered you? Unheard of! You dirty lowlife! You and your illegal friends decided to try to steal from this empire's emperor? You greedy pilfering unworthy unimportant stupid wretch!" With that, Cassius unleashed a mighty blast of fire, incinerating the gardens behind, and illuminating the sky with flickering flames of dread. Kevinus, who had been watching Cassius' every move, had predicted the blast, and as soon as Cassius tried to fry him, Kevinus rolled onto his feet, and threw three of his four daggers in quick succession. Cassius however somehow leaped into the air, above the daggers, and in the blink of an eye, was grappling Kevinus to the ground. Soon, Cassius had Kevinus pinned to the ground, one foot triumphantly set atop Kevinus' head. "Don't worry, I will never bow down to the likes of you!" Kevinus spat. Then a fist came out of nowhere and all was dark for Kevinus.
When he next woke up, Kevinus had a swollen jaw, and his head was throbbing. As soon as he gathered enough energy to look around, he realized that he was tied to a stake in the city square of Palermo. It was early morning, and from what he could tell from his limited range of vision, the square was deserted. Then, Kevinus remembered the series of events that had occurred the night before, and silently swore an oath to personally eliminate Cassius for the empire and for himself. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of a blade being sharpened. "Oh no." Kevinus thought to himself as he realized what Cassius' plan was for him. As the morning turned into midday, a few people began to gather around Kevinus, then, by early afternoon, there was a whole crowd of murmuring passersby. Then, the executioner came out. The chatter died down, and then the executioner spoke, "By the order of the emperor this man is to be publicly executed for assaulting the emperor himself, being affiliated with a Mafia, and attempting to thieve the emperor's royal possessions. Any last words?" "Yes," Kevinus replied, "DOWN WITH ROME!!!" With that, the executioner raised his axe above his head, the sun glinting off the razor sharp blade, and viciously swung it towards the Kevinus. In the spot of a moment, a dart came out from the crowd, and pierced the executioner's shoulder. Then, mysterious persons, who Kevinus recognized as fellow Mafia members, quickly unbound Kevinus, and brought him to the Mafia HQ. Once he was safely in the underground bunker, the Big Boss sat him down and briefed him on his next mission. He was to go behind the enemy's lines and personally end Cassius' reign of terror. After spending one last evening with his family, Kevinus set off, armed with some daggers, a crossbow, a precious Morningstar, and fierce determination to end Cassius. After a fortnight of travel, Kevinus arrived in Athens. Once in Athens, he decided to bide his time, find some allies, and then strike like lightning."
Lesson: Find a happy medium. Please don't do this to any DM.
Religious frisbee player, writer and goofball. Some may say professional for the latter.
Extended sig here.
DM: Westeros - A Homebrew D&D Campaign, Liquid Swords - A Historical Wuxia Campaign
Player: Marcus Aquillus Arcade (Quil) - 1st Rogue - Pax Romana
"Are you sure that you want to cast fireball?" - me, just before the wizard kills the entire party
I usually come up with pages worth of backstory, but send it to my DM in as short a paragraph as I think captures all the details they need. I then send them extra details later if they come up/if I want them to come up in the campaign :)
I ask the same of my players. Give me enough detail to let me know what stuff in the backstory you want me to work with, and then send the longer one for me to read for fun but don't expect me to memorize it lol. I had a player who only sent me a like 5 page backstory and didn't provide a summary. I didn't appreciate that.
:)
My last back story was 4 pages long, for a campaign intended to for every week for 12-18 months
Page 1 is name, flavour art and bullet points, being:
The rest is 7 snippets, a couple of hundred words each, illustrating that history, connections, upbringing and life in a way that conveys the flavour of the character through the style of writing.
It's a process mostly for myself in the text to help solidify the character in my own head so I am comfortable I know what I'm playing when we hit session 1. Ideally the ref will read it, but the bullet point summary and system queries are all they really need to see.
I also tend to be the note-taker, and write up the sessions so we can make links, cross reference NPCs and generally experience and investigate the detailed and fascinating world the DM is putting together in Raiders of the Serpent Sea.
But then, making the character is about half the fun of a campaign for me!
The ideal backstory length is whatever makes the most sense for you, the DM and the campaign
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Ideal length depends a lot on length and depth of the campaign and starting point- if this is a one-shot, printed adventure, or a new/casual DM dipping their toe in the water you can't typically expect an extensive backstory to crop up much in-game. Long running campaigns are more open for it, but it still depends on how many plot points the DM wants to juggle and the general vibe of the table- some groups will just be looking to do a straightforward hack and slash dungeon crawl where backstory is mostly just going to crop up in party banter and might or might not be taken seriously.
Personally I prefer two or three paragraphs if I'm doing an in-depth backstory so I can lay out a setup, how they became an adventurer/PC and essentially got started in their class, and what their current activities in the setting are. Really, the most important thing is to keep your achievements comparable to your staring level- a 3rd level character's claim to fame should probably be something more like fending off a gang of bandits or a fairly minor marauding monster rather than single-handedly stopping an active demonic invasion or besting an adult dragon, for example. That's not to say you can't have any flair- my Archfey Warlock stumbled into the Feywild in his pre-PC stage and got an offer directly from a major archfey to make a pact with her after he tried to help someone he encountered in the Feywild who turned out to be an agent of the archfey, but in context that was just the archfey scouting a rookie and seeing if they can go pro, not the character pulling off some unheard of feat that got an offer out of awe.
This is the answer.
If the campaign is a one-shot of 2-6 hours, you probably shouldn't bother with a 3-page backstory.
If the campaign is intended to be from level 1 to level 15 spanning several dozen sessions, with a campaign taking heavy elements from the PC's backstories, it should probably be more than seven sentences long.
The poll is completely useless. There is practically no meaningful difference between 3 and 7 sentences - both are short backstories. Six-seven sentences is not at all "long" for a backstory. A more useful poll would have choices like "1-3 sentences," "1 paragraph," "1 page," "2-3 pages," and "more than 3 pages"
To my mind, the length of the back story depends on a couple of things:
1) the species, background and class of the character- how they got to this point with these abilities should be covered at least briefly.
2) any special plot links you want the DM to make use of in the campaign- what are they and why are they there.
3) The level the campaign is starting at - if your starting above L1 you should have some sort of description(s) of how you got to your current level. This doesn’t mean a play by play but should include key points and pieces that might enable a DM/NPC to identify or recognize them ( favorably or unfavorably). Obviously the higher the level they start at the longer the back story is going to be.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
The story is for the player's benefit, not the DM's. So, however much the player needs, I guess.
Eh, if it's just something you want to keep in your head, sure, but when you want it crop up or otherwise influence how things play out in the campaign itself, the DM does have final say in how that goes.
A player can invoke parts of their character's backstory whenever they want. The DM can't tell them to be quiet or take it back.
My point is that a character's backstory is for informing the actions of the character. It's who they were, what they did, and how they got to be where they are when the story, the game, starts. It should not be written for the DM to have possession of and surprise everyone with. Rather, it's something for the player to share at a time and place of their choosing.
That depends- if they just mention a passing bit of fluff it's at least bad form for the DM to make an issue of it, but if they try to play the "I know a guy" card in a way that impacts what the party is currently trying to accomplish, the DM most certainly has a say over whether or not an appropriate NPC is conjured into the setting on the spot.
Usually I just go with a few details, then add more dynamically as the campaign progresses.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The same can be said of every NPC the DM had previously come up with. Anyone in the party could easily invoke the name of a friendly magic user, guard captain, or patriar. Whether that NPC can aid the party, and the kind of aid they can provide, is still left up to the DM.
There's a schism, I feel. I like coming up with backstories, but I feel characters are born through play. That's certainly true for me.
As such, I consider backstories to be a player tool: Something I - or another player if I'm the GM - can use to get started, to provide a sheen of context for later development.
But other than that, I just don't care. I don't remember my own backstories a few weeks into play, and as a GM, I certainly don't remember the player's. And that's .. problematic. Because there's certainly players out there who consider their backstories to be important, and expect me to incorporate them into play. And .. that's simply just not ever going to happen at all. Like at all.
So I try to point out in advance to prospective players that ... such an expectation is going to lead straight to disappointment.
So for me: Player tool. Not GM tool.
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.
Here's my two copper pieces...
Your backstory can be as long or as short as you like. A longer backstory gives the DM more hooks to use to enmesh your character into the story. A shorter backstory allows you and the DM more wiggle room to allow the mystery to unfold through play. And that right there is the key:
Your backstory is not who you are. Your backstory is who you WERE! Sure, your backstory will inform your decisions, and will guide your perspective on many things. But your backstory is over. You're in your Nowstory now. Don't focus so much on writing THE definitive backstory. Just write enough to get the ball rolling. Focus instead on where that ball is rolling to.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Tayn of Darkwood. Human Life Cleric. Lvl 10.
I base the length of my back stories on how much room I want to give my DM to work it into the campaign. I have a few specific details, mostly names of places and people, just to give my characters a place in reality and make it kind of a hard don't change point, but I leave some stuff pretty loose, like where they are or detail of a contract, pretty vague for the sake of the DM torturing my characters.
I would say talk to your DM on if they will incorporate your backstory first though if you do want to get detailed or stay vague. I stick with a medium length backstory to hit my basics and give some insight for myself into who the goober is.