Hey everyone,

This will be my first thread on here so I'm truly hoping you guys can help me out with this! So I play a Half-Elf Bard who is a party member of 5 in which there is a Druid, Paladin/Sorcerer, Human Fighter and Artificer! From the very little I've played so far, as I'm still very new to roleplaying within this I don't have a backstory but i need something as a reason why I don't like the rest of the party! I want some sort of twist and I'm quite open to anything in regards to ideas.

Thank you all so much and I look forward to hearing all your ideas soon.

Starters we should look into the background choice.Hermit,entertainer,outlander,charlatan and noble (likely as a diplomat) are whats calling from this race/class choice.Pick one of these and monkey and poke around the tables,feature and similar stuff looking for stuff you want.Then check out the Xtge extra class background notes and their life events (assuming you own the books) these are great starters for a character.

Come back when your done with that and We can start with the finer details.

Mayhaps the young Bard has a price on his head somewhere. (Not in the area you're currently playing in of course. Had to stretch your legs away from the heat so to speak) and he doesn't like the group because he knows that, should any of them find out that he has a price on him, regardless of reason, any one of them would/could/will sell him out to the authorities if not outright take him there to collect the bounty themselves (Save the paladin who may just kill him right on the spot).

How's that for off the cuff?

How about:

Concept: Spell Thief (Bard College of lore)
**The Spell Thief requires a little bit of fore-thought and planning, you need to decide what spells you want for your magical secrets ahead of time and let the DM know so they can work these in for you to obtain**
The Spell Thief has been a student at one or more Wizard or Sorcerer academies and likely been expelled before falling into the College of Lore. Whilst they were a student at those academies, they became aware of powerful spells from other avenues of magic, such as Cleric or Druid, and grew frustrated that the Wizards or Sorcerer's they were studying with could not or would not tell them how to go about learning them. Now under the tutorage of the College of Lore, the Spell Thief has been given the tools to acquire those spells, and will go to great lengths to learn or steal those spells. Given the other party members you mentioned perhaps your dislike is more profesisional rivalry.

Maybe no one ever likes his music and he is scarred for life, even though he devotes himself to playing the best magical music. (kinda just joking around with this 1st one)

Maybe he grew up somewhere horrible and is slow to trust.

Maybe he was framed by his so-called friend, and is afraid it'll happen again.

I've got no more ideas, but if I do, I'll put them in the thread.

Well, a good place to start would be to think about what sort of bard you're playing as, and we can work backwards from there. You say you're playing as a bard but I don't have a lot of information to go on, and "bard" can be interpreted a lot of different ways. Are we talking a musician? An actor? Stand-up comedian? Writer? Is she more interested in learning about the world or inspiring particular emotions in her audience? Does she have any sort of goals or motivations for being a bard? Once we have a clearer idea of how she fits the bard class we can start thinking about what motivates her and how she became that way. 

Now you also say that you're looking for a reason to distrust the party. I should probably mention that, while internal conflicts can be great for roleplaying, you may want to be careful with how far you go with that aspect.

That said, you mentioned your character is a half-elf, something which does have an unfortunate history of being marginalized. Obviously I can't claim to know much about the setting you're working with, but a lot of the material I've seen depicts half-elves as being looked down on by full elves. Especially high elves who are known to be super elitist. This might offer a simple motivation- if she's been looked down on her whole life and had to rely on herself to survive, than it makes sense that she might be instinctively distrusting of others regardless of their actual motivations.

Maybe seeing too much of the worst on both her human and elf sides has left her with a very cynical view of the world, leaving her instinctively paranoid that everyone who seems to be on her side is really out to get her, or using her to further some unknown goal. This could also make for a really good character arc with the party earning your trust and slowly opening up to them.

Interesting, it seems like you’re almost building a backstory backwards in a way. Which is good. That’s definitely one way to do it. 

First, I’ll say what some others have said in the thread, which is that: without a lot of information to go on, it’s hard to give you well formed ideas.… What kind of characters are your companions?… This could help to easily create a rift.… What spells do you like to use as a bard typically?… Often times a story can form from that but so can a rift when someone’s tactics are not liked or approved by the rest of the party.

Second, you can totally build this from front to back which was also said by people so far too.  So it can almost be two birds in one stone…. Kind of hard to have a rift without a reason… a reason is based on your preferences, predispositions, intentions, all you, all your person and so story.

Here we go:

• you need a way to create a rift.
• you not having a backstory is perfect and we can just roll that into:  you’ve been hiding certain things about yourself, perhaps not outright lies but more a withholding, spiteful? Jealous? Angsty? Misunderstood? Confused? Burdened? Disenfranchized?… you decide.
• You want it to be a kind of twist, which, when revealed, ultimately creates an intention and thus a backstory
• Even if the twist or reveal is something very silly it will still ultimately be sincerely tied to your character
• You may or may not have developed some kind of personality so far in the game, even if you’ve been fairly quiet it’s still possible, either making that small personality into an even more intense version of what its been so far and so the reason why you are like the way you are… Or… Making that personality you developed into a kind of façade, perhaps sarcastic, that was alluding to other intentions you were distracting people from. Its all about your intentions… you decide.

Here are a few rift and twist relationships:

• And here we come to the intention… The reveal… only you can tell exactly what kind of reveal you’re looking for.… 

• —— this one is tricky but I wrote it anyway:  Is it the kind of deep dislike and twist wherein you completely betray the party? You establish some reason, whatever it is, and then it results in sever destabilization? this can be fun as a collaboration with the dungeon master but may result in you losing your character because you become too far gone from the story, really talk it over with your dungeon master… you could get your toes wet and pretend you’re doing something like this but opt for a redemption arc we are in, you actually joined this party because you believed they were responsible for killing a good friend or family member of yours. But then you realize it wasn’t them but you haven’t forgiven yourself, or you have… or you then create another deeper story out of that backstory by resisting your own lust for blood in vengeance, which can Definitely make a rift as well. A lighter version of this would be you’re seeking a powerful bardic instrument of great magic and you think the party actually wishes to destroy it or something… the problem with it though is that these can try and control or even strangle the story though since you’re just sooooo hard nosed. 

• ——- these kinds of rifts and twists can be really cool for character and world building:  Is it the kind of twist that is in the middle ground where the entire rest of the party all come from a similar part of the world, and you do not hail from that area and there was actually a secret kind of grudge do you have held on for quite some time because of the nations Waring history?... this will not be game breaking to your dungeon Masters designs but does cause them to shape the world a certain way which could even assist in their world building. From my experience most dungeon Masters are excited to get a fairly suspenseful and world establishing backstory that helps them build their world to be more full.  Just as an example of skinning this kind of thing to your preference, you could have a particular style of music you play that hails from your dreams, your home land, your ancestry, and you can’t share it with them because they already said they didn’t like it…. This is actually doable without trying to control your fellow players responses and hoping they go along:
• -  - - - - - - - - - — - - - - - - - - - - - - You play a nasty sounding note that they would almost have no choice but to react to as you keep mentioning you do it.....… They either make fun of or outright yell at you for abusing their ears, and they basically tell you to stop……   What they don’t know is that you were practicing an ancient tradition of dissonant chords that, when practiced properly, can sound like the most beautiful music ever played…. Or you heard a secret song in your dreams and you Need to replicate it but its elusive and difficult… who knows… your dungeon master may even roll it deeper into the story as a Quori dream spirit communicating with you, etc.etc. But, regardless, that’ll definitely make a functional rift that still keeps party cohesion.

• ——- these ones can be a lot more out there and diverse and also really help for those great and easy role-play moments but they often don’t last long for creating rift because they can be quickly resolved, unless it’s a reoccurring issue: is it the kind of twist that it is a quirk, character trait, perhaps even physical or emotional. You have an itch that you just have to scratch that the rest of the party does not, like a favorite kind of food you just have to find in the rest of the party simply doesn’t understand it.   Something even simpler that would not necessarily create a rift would be like simply having your characters favorite color come up a lot in conversation, always trying to find it, talking about why you love it, perhaps even talking about why it is superior… You would need the right party synergy for this to create a rift however.

Anyhow, those are some thoughts on creating rift while also trying to keep the game balanced and most importantly developing your role-play and world building skills.  

This game is truly incredible and there are so many diverse ways to approach it, and amazing things to find out. 

All the best, and be well!