So Teuful, a young tiefling, is sold into slavery, and works there for many years, when he finds out he has sorcerer powers, he kills his master and runs away. He then starts a criminal gang with other ex-slaves to combat slavery in Neverwinter and the surrounding area by crippling the livelyhoods of slave owners. He then gets put in jail, flees, and joins a boat expedition (campaign start) to hide from the police.
I want some tips on how I can improve the backstory and how to write it out.
That sounds like a good backstory - there's nothing which makes you the second coming of a god, the greatest swordsman in the world, or any other things which make the backstory completely detached from the reality of the game!
I would try to leave some things to the DM's discretion, if they should choose to include your backstory in their plots:
• You killed your master by burning down their house. You never saw the body. In doing so you saw their daughter, and so rescued her from the flames, as she didn't need to die, and left her unconscious on the lawn. • The arrest happened under suspicious circumstances, and you suspected that one of the other members of the gang set you up, and would seek revenge if the opportunity presented itself. • The punishment you were to be given was death, which seemed somewhat excessive for your crimes, but you managed to escape. You are concerned that someone powerful wants you dead.
This gives the DM lots of fuel for plots involving your past, including potential plot twists, old acquaintances emerging, revenge, pursuit, assassination attempts - loads of stuff from what is essentially a very concise backstory. I like it a lot!
Also curious if the name is inspired by a character from The First Law trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie?
I think your backstory is where it needs to be. You don't really need to flesh it out much more, since you don't want your level 1 character's backstory to be richer than the actual adventure. The coolest stuff to happen to your character should happen during the game.
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So Teuful, a young tiefling, is sold into slavery, and works there for many years, when he finds out he has sorcerer powers, he kills his master and runs away. He then starts a criminal gang with other ex-slaves to combat slavery in Neverwinter and the surrounding area by crippling the livelyhoods of slave owners. He then gets put in jail, flees, and joins a boat expedition (campaign start) to hide from the police.
I want some tips on how I can improve the backstory and how to write it out.
That sounds like a good backstory - there's nothing which makes you the second coming of a god, the greatest swordsman in the world, or any other things which make the backstory completely detached from the reality of the game!
I would try to leave some things to the DM's discretion, if they should choose to include your backstory in their plots:
• You killed your master by burning down their house. You never saw the body. In doing so you saw their daughter, and so rescued her from the flames, as she didn't need to die, and left her unconscious on the lawn.
• The arrest happened under suspicious circumstances, and you suspected that one of the other members of the gang set you up, and would seek revenge if the opportunity presented itself.
• The punishment you were to be given was death, which seemed somewhat excessive for your crimes, but you managed to escape. You are concerned that someone powerful wants you dead.
This gives the DM lots of fuel for plots involving your past, including potential plot twists, old acquaintances emerging, revenge, pursuit, assassination attempts - loads of stuff from what is essentially a very concise backstory. I like it a lot!
Also curious if the name is inspired by a character from The First Law trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie?
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I actually used google translate to name him. Teuful is german for devil or demon, fitting since he's a tiefling!
The name is great for a tiefling, and reminiscent of the German word for devil, but the actual word is "Teufel".
I do like Teuful better as a name, though :)
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I think your backstory is where it needs to be. You don't really need to flesh it out much more, since you don't want your level 1 character's backstory to be richer than the actual adventure. The coolest stuff to happen to your character should happen during the game.