So I have a character. He's a human chronomancer who is perpetually 12 due to a spell done as part of his initiation into the Cronomancy class at the wizard's college he went to. Thing is, outside of that, I have no clue what his backstory is like. May I have some help?
A good way of forming backgrounds is to "ask your character questions" so to speak. You've already answered some of them, but consider asking more of them.
Where did they come from?
What makes them unique?
What them move from living their life as is to adventuring?
What do they want most?
What are they afraid of in adventuring life? Was there an event/series of events that sparked that fear?
You can use prompts from your DM and the campaign they plan on running to make sure that the answers to those questions fit into the setting and make sense for the campaign.
Flesh out his backstory at the Chronomancer college. What brought him there. What are the rules there. Anything that would be interesting to his pros and cons.
Flesh out his family and how he came to the college.
What does he find interesting, what are his motivations?
How long has he been 12, and how is that affecting his life?
Backstories are just a way of explaining why your character exists, why they are good at things, and what would influence them in their decision making. This is the fun part, and there is really no way to do it incorrectly. Yes we warn of tropes, and stereotypes but those can have their uses as well occasionally. But this is a good time to work on the reasons he would join an adventure group, and how he will interact with others.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Is this normal for members of this college? If so they would all be 12. But that's not as interesting. Maybe your character is a child prodigy who gained entrance to the wizard's college early. (Was this by choice, or is it like if you have the gift, they force induct you to avoid rogue wizards outside their sphere of influence?) So everyone else is frozen at various ages: a few teenagers, mostly young 20s, and the rare oldster who developed the talent late in life.
One thlng I value in my backstories is seemingly unimportant stories and details that bring life and depth to the character.
So the events don't all (if any) have to be dramatic. Instead of serving as detailed history, they can exist to paint a picture of who they are and how they've been using their skills etc. and how they learned / got their abilities.
These days I prefer writing some little separate clips from their lives to flesh them out.
Like for example if you want to get a bit of a silly feeling to it, you could have a story like this. These are summaries from my changeling sorcerer/conman's back
"Sat the changeling has always had a habit of pushing his limits and sometimes try ridiculous things just to see if it can be done. His last attempt was disguising himself as a powerful wizard who arrived from distant lands. He found an old spellbook and used his skills in forgery to make a seemingly powerfui, but absolutely fake spellbook. He then turned himself into a person who looked much like the ancients wizards depicted in books and legends. Enjoying those little details, he made his fingers long and mystical, calling himself Angwor Spellfinger. Of course Sat knew how to cast spells as a sorcerer, but it would be boring to "prove" that knew magic. So he instead played the whole ruse without ever using even the simplest spell. He was surprised to actually be able to fool even some actual novice wizards. Like usual, he got bored quickly and abandoned his disguise to start a new one."
"Sat is very much carefree. Probably because he can get away with almost anything by simply starting a new life as someone else. His ruses are always very successful - until his need to always go one step further leads to disaster, every time. Luckily Sat isn't one to worry about the past - even what happended yesterday. He once had an entire bag full of gold after a successful ruse, but he misplaced it. The bag of gold is probably still somewhere in towb. He just has no idea where, and he doesn't really care anyway. Right now he is completely broke."
So instead of writing a summary of his life, I wrote this type of short clips out of his life. The story of how he became a sorcerer and then a few of his most amazing or bizarre ruses.
There are tons of ways to write a backstory. I always try to write in a way to inspires me to play the character. 😉
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Finland GMT/UTC +2
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So I have a character. He's a human chronomancer who is perpetually 12 due to a spell done as part of his initiation into the Cronomancy class at the wizard's college he went to. Thing is, outside of that, I have no clue what his backstory is like. May I have some help?
A good way of forming backgrounds is to "ask your character questions" so to speak. You've already answered some of them, but consider asking more of them.
You can use prompts from your DM and the campaign they plan on running to make sure that the answers to those questions fit into the setting and make sense for the campaign.
Flesh out his backstory at the Chronomancer college. What brought him there. What are the rules there. Anything that would be interesting to his pros and cons.
Flesh out his family and how he came to the college.
What does he find interesting, what are his motivations?
How long has he been 12, and how is that affecting his life?
Backstories are just a way of explaining why your character exists, why they are good at things, and what would influence them in their decision making. This is the fun part, and there is really no way to do it incorrectly. Yes we warn of tropes, and stereotypes but those can have their uses as well occasionally. But this is a good time to work on the reasons he would join an adventure group, and how he will interact with others.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Is this normal for members of this college? If so they would all be 12. But that's not as interesting. Maybe your character is a child prodigy who gained entrance to the wizard's college early. (Was this by choice, or is it like if you have the gift, they force induct you to avoid rogue wizards outside their sphere of influence?) So everyone else is frozen at various ages: a few teenagers, mostly young 20s, and the rare oldster who developed the talent late in life.
One thlng I value in my backstories is seemingly unimportant stories and details that bring life and depth to the character.
So the events don't all (if any) have to be dramatic. Instead of serving as detailed history, they can exist to paint a picture of who they are and how they've been using their skills etc. and how they learned / got their abilities.
These days I prefer writing some little separate clips from their lives to flesh them out.
Like for example if you want to get a bit of a silly feeling to it, you could have a story like this. These are summaries from my changeling sorcerer/conman's back
"Sat the changeling has always had a habit of pushing his limits and sometimes try ridiculous things just to see if it can be done. His last attempt was disguising himself as a powerful wizard who arrived from distant lands. He found an old spellbook and used his skills in forgery to make a seemingly powerfui, but absolutely fake spellbook. He then turned himself into a person who looked much like the ancients wizards depicted in books and legends. Enjoying those little details, he made his fingers long and mystical, calling himself Angwor Spellfinger. Of course Sat knew how to cast spells as a sorcerer, but it would be boring to "prove" that knew magic. So he instead played the whole ruse without ever using even the simplest spell. He was surprised to actually be able to fool even some actual novice wizards. Like usual, he got bored quickly and abandoned his disguise to start a new one."
"Sat is very much carefree. Probably because he can get away with almost anything by simply starting a new life as someone else. His ruses are always very successful - until his need to always go one step further leads to disaster, every time. Luckily Sat isn't one to worry about the past - even what happended yesterday. He once had an entire bag full of gold after a successful ruse, but he misplaced it. The bag of gold is probably still somewhere in towb. He just has no idea where, and he doesn't really care anyway. Right now he is completely broke."
So instead of writing a summary of his life, I wrote this type of short clips out of his life. The story of how he became a sorcerer and then a few of his most amazing or bizarre ruses.
There are tons of ways to write a backstory. I always try to write in a way to inspires me to play the character. 😉
Finland GMT/UTC +2