I’m new to d&d, the character i’m making right now is for my first campaign im playing with some friends. He’s a warforged bard and i’m excited to play him, all that’s left for me to do is his backstory. I’ve been quite fond of the idea of him still having a written backstory except he doesn’t remember anything before a certain point. I like the idea of him being content enough with his current life to try and ignore the fact his past is a mystery, fearing he doesn’t like what he finds, but maybe part of him wants closure as well and eventually he’ll be able to piece together the full story, bit by bit. He might even have a second fake backstory that he tells people, only opening up about the fact even he doesn’t know it when he builds enough trust with them. I have a rough idea of what the missing bit of his history is, he loses someone very close to him and then something causes him to suddenly forget everything about him and what happened. That i’m fine with making myself, the bit i’m struggling with is exactly how and why he lost his memory so suddenly and what could bring it back? The dm is definetly willing to work with the whole missing backstory thing and implement a way to bring it back, but its just a matter of how. Give a few ideas if you want, we’re getting together to play in like a month so we have time to discuss it.
Speaking from a DMs perspective, this is one of my favourite types of character - someone that gives the DM something to work with, such as some kind of mystery you can slowly unfold throughout the campaign.
The biggest problem with this type of backstory is a DM who doesn’t want to work with it, so they can feel a bit unsatisfactory if they go unresolved - but it sounds like your DM is interested as well, so that should go fine. One thing that might be worth noting to your DM - these types of backstory can also be rather unsatisfactory if all the secrets are revealed at once. A slow burn with clues overtime can engage not only the person with the mystery backstory, but other players as well who will become curious - an exposition dump feels a bit like a deus ex machina to the player with the backstory, and means the other players just have to sit through exposition they are not personally invested in.
Personally, I would recommend leaving everything during the period of missing memory out of your backstory - you’ll have more fun if you are slowly filling in the gap as a player, rather than just roleplaying your character filling in the gaps. That level of fun and investment tends to be infectious and will also improve everyone else at the table’s enjoyment.
I would start your backstory somewhere that gives some kind of clue as to a darker past, but one you do not include in the backstory. You are a warforged, so playing off that artificial nature and survivability makes sense. Perhaps your memories start in the centre of a burned out mansion or at the bottom of the ocean in the middle of a sunken ship, with no recollection of how you got there. Or maybe an inventor powers you on, and the only clue you have to your past life is some kind of symbol (religious? House crest? Manufacture mark? Who knows! I’d say you don’t know what the symbol is and let DM fill in details). Or maybe a bolt of lighting repowers you, and you awake in the middle of the leavings from a now-over battle.
You want something that gives the DM a thread they can tug on, and something that you as a player can use for a starting point on your voyage of self discovery.
Then you can continue with a backstory as normal - what you have been doing since you gained consciousness. How you discovered what your class abilities are. Things like that which get your player from their rebirth to the start of the campaign proper.
As for how you regain your memory - don’t plan that out. Let it evolve organically from the campaign itself. Also, note that you might not ever truly regain memory - perhaps you learn the truth, so your character has filled in the gaps, but they only know it academically and do not have the direct memory ever return.
Speaking as someone currently playing an amnesiac bard, I agree that it's a hoot to leave things up to the DM. A little scary, since you have to trust the DM to make it enjoyable, but you can also steer things a bit by requesting certain boundaries. "No woobie backstory, please!" or "Maybe it involves forbidden magic?" and the like helps the DM know what kind of fun you're looking for, or gives them ideas about where to go.
It's actually really freeing just to let the story shape things, plus you get to learn about your character as you go along! Also, it's never too late to approach your DM with ideas. This is a collaborative game, after all. Have fun!
You ever see the Batman movie where the Joker told his back story like six different ways, all of which contradict each other? I think a Warforged is particularly apt for something like that. It's consciousness may well be governed by mechanisms, including memory. Maybe there's a fault in this Warforged's memory, or maybe it's actually operating at a higher multiversal level, sort of quantum memory. So, the Warforged's backstory through fault or higher design is fluid. I'm very big and ridiculously schooled on the unreliable narrator mode most folks associate with postmodern storytelling, but it has its origins way back in the 18th century with Tristram Shandy. Maybe the Warforged's "thing" is they can't marry their "back story" to the "present" because every time it tries to do so, it tangents into another random set of "facts" (any fact of which would explode into a mix of contradictions if properly interrogated). So in the end, you have a character who in many ways is simply a b.s. artist, constantly putting things together to make sense of their tale, but an incredibly earnest b.s. artist. And Freebird, the Warforged can do an amazing rendition of Freebird for reasons unknown. That's a cool Bard.
And this is why I NEVER write more than a short paragraph as a back story and I leave all the details out I can.
I let the DM pick my place of origin, my family make up, and my past friends and contacts. If he does nothing then I did not waste time and if he fills things in in order to make the campaign better than I am happy as a clam.
Especially if your starting at L1 you might not even know your class and have to try things out in game/spontaneously do things (like going to call out a warning to a companion and actually singing the warning so that it provides bardic inspiration to them)
This should actually be pretty easy. You just want to think about, instead of who your character is or what they've done, how they'd react to certain situations, and that kind of person they are now. Instead of "what have I done?" think "what would I do? How would I react?"
It would actually be nice if more players tried this as an exercise.
I’m new to d&d, the character i’m making right now is for my first campaign im playing with some friends. He’s a warforged bard and i’m excited to play him, all that’s left for me to do is his backstory. I’ve been quite fond of the idea of him still having a written backstory except he doesn’t remember anything before a certain point. I like the idea of him being content enough with his current life to try and ignore the fact his past is a mystery, fearing he doesn’t like what he finds, but maybe part of him wants closure as well and eventually he’ll be able to piece together the full story, bit by bit. He might even have a second fake backstory that he tells people, only opening up about the fact even he doesn’t know it when he builds enough trust with them. I have a rough idea of what the missing bit of his history is, he loses someone very close to him and then something causes him to suddenly forget everything about him and what happened. That i’m fine with making myself, the bit i’m struggling with is exactly how and why he lost his memory so suddenly and what could bring it back? The dm is definetly willing to work with the whole missing backstory thing and implement a way to bring it back, but its just a matter of how. Give a few ideas if you want, we’re getting together to play in like a month so we have time to discuss it.
The best thing about this is...
They're a bard.
If they really wanted to play up the mystery of not knowing their background, you as a DM, might write it up (or they can) - but the player should really, as a bard, keep fabricating stories of their own background.
"Oh, you slayed a white dragon you say? Why, I remember - there I was - my companions bleeding all around me - only my quick speed and wit - did I never bleed any of my own blood - and right before me - the enemy! An ancient red dragon! Mighty and terrifying was she - but I did not tremble. For I was born for this - you see, I come from a very long line of disguised dragon slayers - made to destroy vile creatures such as this! So I did what I was born to do - with quickness and determination - lo, did I leap onto the dragon, violin in hand as my only weapon and plunge deep the bow into the dragon's eye! It roared - and I slipped into it's mouth!" (waits for ooohs and ahhs) "But no! I was not devoured! From the inside did I rend her! She spat me out - I was covered in blood. Her blood. As she collapsed to the ground. Dead." (And they're only level 1 when they share this fictious background) :D
I think the best way to go about an amnesia story is to mostly stick to writing what your character knows, but add in a few details from before for guidelines for the dm. Like if you want you character to have a forgotten spouse, tell your dm that you want that and maybe give a few specifics on what you want them to be like, but overall leave it up to the dm
Back story is something that session 0 is very important to play dnd. Session 0 usually is session that set expectation both DM and player what are they into including back story. If your DM dont want to involve each player into the campaign, there is no point to go into detail on it but if the campaign is sandbox that evolve around each player back story and DM is ok to make a campaign to make your forgotten backstory reveal, that is great. Communicate with DM and party is the key to have fun in dnd. It is social game.
How does this sort of thing work in terms of having a reason for becoming an adventurer and a goal of the character (assuming they don't have a different reason that unrelated to the missing bits . . and ditto for having a goal)? I have a character that has stuff that happened before he was born that is significant to the rest of his life that he does not have knowledge of; he has some misconceptions about the circumstances of his birth and just an inkling that there is something mysterious from his past (it's kind of the meat of in his backstory, which was written in 3rd person prospective). My goal/hope for the character is that he will encounter relevant creatures related to the past or otherwise discover the missing bits - how that happens is probably largely for the DM to decide. The character himself probably at least thinks he became an adventure because he like violence and hitting things with a big axe (that part might need work). He's not aware of the goal that I have for him. I did put something in the end of the backstory about him hoping to find out something mysterious that he thinks happened in his past/before he was born that he would like to know more about.
Is that enough in terms of having a reason for adventuring and a goal?
From a storytelling perspective, it's usually trauma that causes characters to lose memory, and it's usually returning to the location or time of that trauma which helps them to regain what they've lost...
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I’m new to d&d, the character i’m making right now is for my first campaign im playing with some friends. He’s a warforged bard and i’m excited to play him, all that’s left for me to do is his backstory. I’ve been quite fond of the idea of him still having a written backstory except he doesn’t remember anything before a certain point. I like the idea of him being content enough with his current life to try and ignore the fact his past is a mystery, fearing he doesn’t like what he finds, but maybe part of him wants closure as well and eventually he’ll be able to piece together the full story, bit by bit. He might even have a second fake backstory that he tells people, only opening up about the fact even he doesn’t know it when he builds enough trust with them. I have a rough idea of what the missing bit of his history is, he loses someone very close to him and then something causes him to suddenly forget everything about him and what happened. That i’m fine with making myself, the bit i’m struggling with is exactly how and why he lost his memory so suddenly and what could bring it back? The dm is definetly willing to work with the whole missing backstory thing and implement a way to bring it back, but its just a matter of how. Give a few ideas if you want, we’re getting together to play in like a month so we have time to discuss it.
Speaking from a DMs perspective, this is one of my favourite types of character - someone that gives the DM something to work with, such as some kind of mystery you can slowly unfold throughout the campaign.
The biggest problem with this type of backstory is a DM who doesn’t want to work with it, so they can feel a bit unsatisfactory if they go unresolved - but it sounds like your DM is interested as well, so that should go fine. One thing that might be worth noting to your DM - these types of backstory can also be rather unsatisfactory if all the secrets are revealed at once. A slow burn with clues overtime can engage not only the person with the mystery backstory, but other players as well who will become curious - an exposition dump feels a bit like a deus ex machina to the player with the backstory, and means the other players just have to sit through exposition they are not personally invested in.
Personally, I would recommend leaving everything during the period of missing memory out of your backstory - you’ll have more fun if you are slowly filling in the gap as a player, rather than just roleplaying your character filling in the gaps. That level of fun and investment tends to be infectious and will also improve everyone else at the table’s enjoyment.
I would start your backstory somewhere that gives some kind of clue as to a darker past, but one you do not include in the backstory. You are a warforged, so playing off that artificial nature and survivability makes sense. Perhaps your memories start in the centre of a burned out mansion or at the bottom of the ocean in the middle of a sunken ship, with no recollection of how you got there. Or maybe an inventor powers you on, and the only clue you have to your past life is some kind of symbol (religious? House crest? Manufacture mark? Who knows! I’d say you don’t know what the symbol is and let DM fill in details). Or maybe a bolt of lighting repowers you, and you awake in the middle of the leavings from a now-over battle.
You want something that gives the DM a thread they can tug on, and something that you as a player can use for a starting point on your voyage of self discovery.
Then you can continue with a backstory as normal - what you have been doing since you gained consciousness. How you discovered what your class abilities are. Things like that which get your player from their rebirth to the start of the campaign proper.
As for how you regain your memory - don’t plan that out. Let it evolve organically from the campaign itself. Also, note that you might not ever truly regain memory - perhaps you learn the truth, so your character has filled in the gaps, but they only know it academically and do not have the direct memory ever return.
Speaking as someone currently playing an amnesiac bard, I agree that it's a hoot to leave things up to the DM. A little scary, since you have to trust the DM to make it enjoyable, but you can also steer things a bit by requesting certain boundaries. "No woobie backstory, please!" or "Maybe it involves forbidden magic?" and the like helps the DM know what kind of fun you're looking for, or gives them ideas about where to go.
It's actually really freeing just to let the story shape things, plus you get to learn about your character as you go along! Also, it's never too late to approach your DM with ideas. This is a collaborative game, after all. Have fun!
You ever see the Batman movie where the Joker told his back story like six different ways, all of which contradict each other? I think a Warforged is particularly apt for something like that. It's consciousness may well be governed by mechanisms, including memory. Maybe there's a fault in this Warforged's memory, or maybe it's actually operating at a higher multiversal level, sort of quantum memory. So, the Warforged's backstory through fault or higher design is fluid. I'm very big and ridiculously schooled on the unreliable narrator mode most folks associate with postmodern storytelling, but it has its origins way back in the 18th century with Tristram Shandy. Maybe the Warforged's "thing" is they can't marry their "back story" to the "present" because every time it tries to do so, it tangents into another random set of "facts" (any fact of which would explode into a mix of contradictions if properly interrogated). So in the end, you have a character who in many ways is simply a b.s. artist, constantly putting things together to make sense of their tale, but an incredibly earnest b.s. artist. And Freebird, the Warforged can do an amazing rendition of Freebird for reasons unknown. That's a cool Bard.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
And this is why I NEVER write more than a short paragraph as a back story and I leave all the details out I can.
I let the DM pick my place of origin, my family make up, and my past friends and contacts.
If he does nothing then I did not waste time and if he fills things in in order to make the campaign better than I am happy as a clam.
Either way my play style does not change.
Especially if your starting at L1 you might not even know your class and have to try things out in game/spontaneously do things (like going to call out a warning to a companion and actually singing the warning so that it provides bardic inspiration to them)
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
This should actually be pretty easy. You just want to think about, instead of who your character is or what they've done, how they'd react to certain situations, and that kind of person they are now. Instead of "what have I done?" think "what would I do? How would I react?"
It would actually be nice if more players tried this as an exercise.
The best thing about this is...
They're a bard.
If they really wanted to play up the mystery of not knowing their background, you as a DM, might write it up (or they can) - but the player should really, as a bard, keep fabricating stories of their own background.
"Oh, you slayed a white dragon you say? Why, I remember - there I was - my companions bleeding all around me - only my quick speed and wit - did I never bleed any of my own blood - and right before me - the enemy! An ancient red dragon! Mighty and terrifying was she - but I did not tremble. For I was born for this - you see, I come from a very long line of disguised dragon slayers - made to destroy vile creatures such as this! So I did what I was born to do - with quickness and determination - lo, did I leap onto the dragon, violin in hand as my only weapon and plunge deep the bow into the dragon's eye! It roared - and I slipped into it's mouth!" (waits for ooohs and ahhs) "But no! I was not devoured! From the inside did I rend her! She spat me out - I was covered in blood. Her blood. As she collapsed to the ground. Dead."
(And they're only level 1 when they share this fictious background) :D
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
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Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
I think the best way to go about an amnesia story is to mostly stick to writing what your character knows, but add in a few details from before for guidelines for the dm. Like if you want you character to have a forgotten spouse, tell your dm that you want that and maybe give a few specifics on what you want them to be like, but overall leave it up to the dm
Back story is something that session 0 is very important to play dnd. Session 0 usually is session that set expectation both DM and player what are they into including back story. If your DM dont want to involve each player into the campaign, there is no point to go into detail on it but if the campaign is sandbox that evolve around each player back story and DM is ok to make a campaign to make your forgotten backstory reveal, that is great. Communicate with DM and party is the key to have fun in dnd. It is social game.
How does this sort of thing work in terms of having a reason for becoming an adventurer and a goal of the character (assuming they don't have a different reason that unrelated to the missing bits . . and ditto for having a goal)? I have a character that has stuff that happened before he was born that is significant to the rest of his life that he does not have knowledge of; he has some misconceptions about the circumstances of his birth and just an inkling that there is something mysterious from his past (it's kind of the meat of in his backstory, which was written in 3rd person prospective). My goal/hope for the character is that he will encounter relevant creatures related to the past or otherwise discover the missing bits - how that happens is probably largely for the DM to decide. The character himself probably at least thinks he became an adventure because he like violence and hitting things with a big axe (that part might need work). He's not aware of the goal that I have for him. I did put something in the end of the backstory about him hoping to find out something mysterious that he thinks happened in his past/before he was born that he would like to know more about.
Is that enough in terms of having a reason for adventuring and a goal?
From a storytelling perspective, it's usually trauma that causes characters to lose memory, and it's usually returning to the location or time of that trauma which helps them to regain what they've lost...