So I ask what backstories do you like for you character? My newest character a Half Drow Elf Bard has this one.

I forgot please post your own characters backstory.

A good backstory sets up a tangible, non-obscure objective for a character so that there is direction for the character and a reason to invest interest in it.

By tangible and non-obscure, it's got to be more specific than a general motivation like "becoming a god" or "getting rich". Something like "tracking down Artifact X in order to become a god", or "raising funds to restore a family clan's estate and societal prominence" will work much better for focusing one's motivation and interest. 

Assuming that the DM actually creates opportunities to pursue a PC's personal objective, the choices made by the PCs will become considerably more important to the players since each decision can affect the pursuit of the personal objective on top of the current group objective.

These personal objectives should be discussed together with the other players and DM so that there are no conflicting goals and so that the objectives are made to motivate the PCs into cooperating with and staying with the rest of the group.

For me, generally backstories tend to be short interesting things about your character, usually set up to work with the type of character I'm building.  Then as I play them more and more, and the character develops, the current story arc sometimes helps to further define the backstory as character ties and story hooks start to weave in to the narrative which helps the over all story, like instead of 5 random people together starting a game, maybe two or three know each other - but the how doesn't generally come together until you start playing with the other players and learn more about their backstory and where things can fit together.  For instance I recently made a Minotaur Storm Herald barbarian with the pirate background, and this is what I started with when I developed the character.

Aregarak hails from the city of Luskan where he's spent many years 'working' for Ship Rethnor as a pirate until his ship mistakenly raided the wrong one.  The ship's captain was 'removed' and the crew put on 'administrative leave' and tasked with menial jobs for Ship Rethnor, which for a sea faring pirate is almost as good as prison.  One of the tasks Aregarak was chosen for was basically guard duty.  He spends most of his time watching important people do things, and trying to not let them get killed.  He longs for the chance to rejoin a crew and get back on the waves.  Aregarak is a boisterous and jovial one, however standing 6 feet 8 inches and weighing in at 300 pounds can be a bit imposing.  Besides the large horns on his head, his other interesting feature is that the rich mahogany colored fur across his upper torso and arms have bleached lines running down them that resemble bolts of lighting.  A large greataxe is strapped to his back and other than the harness for it, he wears only a leather gladiator kilt, and a pair of leather bracers.

As a DM and a creative personality in general, I ended up going a little overboard with the backstory for my first D&D character and wrote a 10-page short story (not exaggerating). Even though I ended up using the character as a primary NPC for a homebrew campaign later on, I still feel like it was overkill to write a backstory literally spanning the first 22 years of this characters life.

Moral of the story: sometimes it's just more fun to write something simple, like "I'm a half-elf rogue who used to be involved with a gang in [insert town/city]," and let the character reveal themselves through their actions over the course of the journey. 

The single most important part of any story (background or campaign) is conflict. Unless the character(s) have something to struggle against or work toward then it becomes difficult to put them in the spotlight. No one enjoys a character that never loses.....unless it’s One Punch Man.

This backstory for my new charictar melvin he is for my evil campain im joing.

To make sense of it youl need to know him and his sister are demond touched and to others outside of their homeland they look like monsters with a human shape.

I am....was part of a traviling bard duo with my sister. We were going to start a new life in this country. We...I am the last one in my familys name. 

My sister kerri and i went to do something that in our home archipelago is not just legal it is our custom. However here it is horible and veiwd a monsters a nearby gaurd paniced and shot kerri through the heart with a crows bow. 

In a fit if rage i leaped at him to tear his throat out with my fangs, however i barly was able to bite his hand off.

I then was suronded by gaurds and clubed unconscious. Draged away for "lawfull" punishment 

If i escape i will avenge my sister even if i have to go through this whole county.

What do you think? Need more detail? Because i was trying to keep it kid appropriate by adding less gruesome details.

I'll go for a bit of anything, but what I especially dig is unheroic backstories.  My last character was a tiefling loan shark on the down and out after getting run out of town.  The motivation was pretty vague in the sense that she just wanted to acquire all the money without outright stealing it, but it was a pretty fun character to play.  

Other backstories I've had include things like "I made a warlock pact with a demon as a teenager and now I regret it" and "I'm a mercenary who got screwed over by a theatrical wizard and now I don't trust magic".  I try to set up secrets and personality traits, and overarching goals sort of come along.  The warlock wanted to get out of the pact and get her soul back at any cost, and the mercenary was more a story about how you move on from disaster.  

As a DM, I like when players come up with backstories, but I care more that their backstory influences their character than I do what their backstory is.  I've had too many players come up with really cool and interesting backstories, and then just screw around and not interact with their backstory at all, which makes it hard for me to craft plot hooks for them, and they wind up just sort of getting dragged along by the rest of the party.  

Depends on the setting and with 5e which background is used, also try to consider the race and class level the character starts at as those factors determine how long they have been kicking around and if they are a novice or something more.

Current character bio:

Valdrin Amarillis

Born to a family of stewards in the Moon Elf house Amarillis, Valdrin was always a wanderer who heeded the call of exploration at an unusually young age. With his imagination captured by tales of Neverwinter Valdrin devised a plan to sail from Evermeet, and become an apprentice under relatives who had settled in the great metropolis. Successful in his plan Neverwinter became Valdrins new home and many years passed before once again a wanting of travelling abroad grew within him. Restless and tired of the comforts afforded by his wealthy relatives Valdrin decided to see more of the world outside the walls of Neverwinter, and search for the glory spoke of by many an adventurer in the taverns he frequented.

Using his trade contacts Valdrin secured a job as a scribe with a merchant caravan, and made the trade roads of the Sword Coast his new home. Learning on his travels the value of being cautious, and taking opportunity to make profit and reliable contacts. With his intelligence and the help of friends he made an meager living, but greatly enjoyed the experience of travelling with the caravans. More years passed before Valdrin found himself a merchant in his own right which suited the sociable Moon Elf.

Fate had other plans for Valdrin however, and one night at a caravan camp he met Faelah a Half-Elf poetess who in secret was a field agent of the Harpers. Faelah and Valdrin quickly became friends, which although genuine was also an intrigue by Faelah who saw Valdrin as a potential recruit. Through employment as a promoter for Valdrin in his mercantile endeavors, Faelah slowly introduced Valdrin to the ideals of the Harpers earning his admiration. Eventually the truth was made known, and an offer of becoming a fledgling recruit of the Harpers was presented to Valdrin. Having lived as a merchant for many years at this point Valdrin was ready for change, and took the opportunity to give back to the free folk who had helped him in his journeys.

Valdrin took to his training with earnest rapidly learning the basics, as fate would have it though his first field trial ended in disaster. Where he was ambushed and captured alive by a Drow raiding party, who brought Valdrin back with them to the Underdark where he found himself their prisoner and slave. Although Valdrin has not been officially accepted to the Harpers, he believes in their goals and is dedicated to their cause. His current situation has presented the quest of escaping the Underdark, and to learn as much information as he can about the sinister Drow to help the Harpers protect the people of Faerun.

Evangeline ‘Karen’ Aristos de’luca McCoy

Aasimar, bard  (College of Glamour)

(must be read in a snooty, arrogant tone or you’re doing it wrong)

As a babe, I was chosen amongst all other infants in the clan for an arranged marriage to ensure continued peace between warring factions, and thus was given luxurious care and exorbitant schooling to become a most excellent companion for my Intended. Between lessons, my every whim was indulged and every wish fulfilled, until one season before my wedding, when my Hatfield fiancé suddenly died, leaving me without any support since I now served no purpose to Clan McCoy. My entire life, everyone in the clan told me I was special and destined for greatness, and now they want to throw me away! Before they could take back everything they’ve ever given me, I grabbed as much of MY stuff as I could and ran off in the middle of the night, vowing to return one day to show them how I had managed to achieve my great destiny without them. Instead of recognizing how wonderful and special I am, everyone I meet keeps calling me ridiculous or spoiled rotten, and if even one more tavern drunkard says to me, “Just shut up, bard, and play another song!”, I swear I’ll have Mittens, my elephant companion, squash them, even if it gets me banned from yet another tavern!

Arem ___

Mountain dwarf, Monk (Way of the Ascendant Dragon)

A violent storm left ten-year-old Jasper clinging to wreckage as the ship full of his ransoming kidnappers sunk beneath the waves and, had a dire shark not attacked the large dolphin that seemed to be ferrying him safely back to shore, no one would have ever known that his rescuer was actually a shapeshifted bronze dragon!

Unsurprisingly, the events of that day had a profound and lasting effect on the young boy: the terror of being kidnapped and at sea for the first time in a storm, the awe of being in a dragon’s presence and feeling the very air around him vibrate with the power radiating off it, the glory of flight, watching everyone near the docks flee in terror at the nearing dragon before cautiously returning as they watched a child slide off its back, the single scale that same, very amused dragon gifted the tiny child brave enough to ask for it, and the dreams he continues to have about his dragon savior to this day.

From then on, Jasper aspired to be like a bronze dragon in all aspect of his life, from his appearance to putting an end to all injustice and cruelty he encountered, and now that his ailing father has finally passed and his youngest sister was married, he can begin his quest to right the wrongs existing outside his town.

Igneous Lithopeter   [ihg-nee-uhs]

Igne  [ihg-nee]    (Igneous might be changed to Ignatius or combined into Ignetius)

leonin, monk, Way of the Four Elements (Earth)

Igne always knew she was different, though she didn’t exactly understand how and, unfortunately, that was the problem. Igne was born slow-minded in the Wastes of Xhorhas, where life was too hard to let live anyone who couldn't be relied on to pull their own weight, so her tribe left her to die as a child. Instead, she found a couple of powerful earth elemental relics and formed an attachment to rocks. Ten years later, she now wanders the world, wanting to collect one of every kind of rock and visit the Earth Elemental Plane, if only she didn’t believe clay workers & glassblowers were earth mages, glass was a special kind of see-through rock, and lava was earth blood.

Theadora Thain   aka Thea

verdan, cleric (Knowledge Domain)     g-y-p-s-y fortune teller

The travelling circus who adopted and raised Thea found her as a half-starved and feverishly delirious, eight year-old wandering through the woods, the sole survivor of gnoll attack. Horrible though it was to say, Thea didn’t miss her parents, who were abusive alcoholics & violent thugs, very much at all and thought was better off without them, and she thrived in this new environment.

Thea never forgot what it was like to wander through the woods frightened, confused, and injured, and devoted her studies to healing and the pursuit of knowledge. When she was almost thirty, a couple of boys from noble families snuck into the circus at night and were injured, causing the circus to be shutdown, its ringleaders arrested, and everyone else to go their separate ways.

Having spent most of her life in an ever-changing, colorful sea of organized chaos, Thea found she was unable to happily settle down with a safe and normal job in a boring, everyday-is-the-same town, so she hit the road looking for adventure and camraderie.

Hazel Forster

Tiefling, ranger  (Drakewarden of acid drake)

Mine is the class fairytale: mother died when I was a very young and father died the season before my 12th birthday, but not before remarrying to my wicked stepmother. After father died, she became a source of unending torment with idea after idea of how to cleanse the Tiefling-ness from my veins (like beating or starving the evil out of me). It became habit for me to spend increasingly longer periods of time in the woods to avoid being at home, and one day, I realized I didn’t need to go back: I knew which berries and nuts were safe to eat and where and when they grew; how to make spear, rope, and net out of natural materials; where to place my snares; how to prepare and cook rabbit and fish over an open fire; which clouds meant rain was coming; how to make the roof of my hut rain-proof,; what each animal’s call sounded like,; how to make a bed that wasn’t itchy, and more. The forest embraced me, became my new home and new family, and I never looked back, wandering far and wide, eventually making a name for myself as someone who could guide travelers or transport packages through the most remote, dangerous, inhospitable of wildernesses.

Ezra Shepherd

Wild Magic Sorcerer, human Mark of Handling

I would have been accepted without issue if my powers were normal – I mean, our village priest is a tiefling, so it’s not like they weren’t accepting folk – but no one had even heard of powers like mine, and I didn’t have the best control. Still, it wasn’t until the gnolls attacked and I was able to dispatch half of them singlehandedly that my fellow villagers realized just how dangerous I was, so when the dust settled, they tearfully demanded I stay away until I could guarantee the safety of my neighbors. Joining an adventuring party might just be the best way for a smalltown nobody to get all the practice they need without endangering innocent folk and maybe return home with a bit of coin in my pocket, too.

Tribecka Shore-Thing
Tortle, druid (Circle of the Stars)

Tribecka’s egg hatched on a ship named Shore Thing that was sailing to the rich collector who’d purchased her and, if Tribecka had been the wyvern that the rich merchant thought he was buying, then the ship would have been in trouble, but since she was a tortle, only Tribecka was in trouble. Disgusted at being swindled, the collector who purchased her egg cast her aside without care, but the crew of the Shore Thing had grown attached to her during their journey together and happily adopted her. Tribecka had a wonderful childhood on Shore Thing, learning how to man the sails, batten the hatches, transport cargo, tie all sorts of knots, fight off the occasional pirates, and navigate using the stars.
Tribecka loved nature, the stars, the sea, and her life on Shore Thing, in that order, but ship’s only need one navigator, so when Shore Thing was sent to dry docks for extensive repairs after striking a reef, Tribecka was unable to find work on any of the same ships as her favorite crewmates so decided to engage in the common tortle pastime of wandering. Since she ended up alone, the crew gave her the ship’s mascot, Gulper the pelican, to keep her company. (OR she was lonely and adopted an orphaned baby pelican) It took less than week for her to figure out how she’d make coin for her travels, and all it took was catching and turning in the unlucky scoundrel who’d tried to pick her pocket. Now she spends her time wandering from town to town, hunting down fugitives and bringing them to justice.

Calderash aka Ash            like the word caldera

centaur, cleric (Twilight Domain)

Calderash was an orphan of unknown origin, rescued from the wilderness as a toddling foal by a travelling caravan and given into the care of a temple-run orphanage. Ash found that sad, incomplete story of his origin an unremarkable bit of trivia in a childhood otherwise filled with excitement, mischief, the love of a few caretakers and many friends, and too many boring lessons and chores.

The one shadow in his life was that the other children used his fear of the dark to torment him but, despite that fear, Ash was no coward, possessing steady hands and an iron stomach even in the face of blood and gore that made grown men turn green. This interest and natural aptitude steered his lessons toward the healing arts, which required stitches and bandages until the evening his healing powers first manifested and he accidentally healed a grievous injury on the young son of a noble whose family was sheltering in the temple from a violent storm.

The grateful noble father became a patron of the orphanage and, upon inquiry of an appropriate personal token of gratitude, gifted Ash with Goggles of Night. After gaining the dark vision bestowed by his gift, Ash’s fear turned into a newfound fascination that guided the course of his clerical studies into becoming a Twilight Cleric.

Now Ash has come of age and must leave the orphanage to find his way in the world and forge his own destiny.

MY DARKEST BACKSTORY SO FAR

Bruce ‘the Brute’ Talvar       (real name Gibbz)

Changeling (minotaur), fighter (Battle Master)

As a toddler, my parents recognized the uniqueness of my abilities and patriotically entrusted my care to the military and my future to ensure the continued greatness of the Emperor. Brainwashed extremist? Hah! They gifted me with a purpose by training me and then sending me behind enemy lines in deep cover! I excelled for years until I grew too cocky and got caught, interrogated, and then thrown in a fighting pit as that night's entertainment. 

I barely managed to kill my opponent with innate fighting skill I didn't realize I had, but still would've died that night had the pit champion not liked the idea of having a changeling for a bunk b!tch. He nursed me back to health, taught me to fight, introduced me to more than a few experiences that offended me, and even more new concepts & ideas that shattered my world perspective, and then the bastard died during a mass prison escape. Doubting everything I thought I knew, purposeless and adrift for the first time in my life, I assumed his identity and now wander the land as I try to figure out who I am and what I want in life.

Shadar-kai Halfling, rogue (Thief/Phantom)

cursed via homebrew Shadow Mastiff version of Hell Hound Cloak to be shadar-kai halfling who polymorphs into ‘shadow hound’

I was a common street urchin who made a living by lightening the purses of folks traveling through my turf of the city until the day I robbed this dandy wearing a pith helmet. He told me not to, saying something about curses, but his words were too similar to those spoken by a thousand other marks, so I ignored his warning not to don the fancy cloak I stole from him, and now....  No matter how sneaky you are, it’s really freaking hard to get away with crimes when you’re the only person in a thousand miles who looks like a walking corpse, so I had to hit the road and become a wandering thief as I try to figure this mess out. My name is Lucky F Boone and I'm shadow-cursed.        If you must know, the F stands for F*cker.