How important is it to you for your characters to resolve/realize their backstories going forward?
What criteria would you use to determine how much you will pull from your characters' backstories into the current situations?
How much backstory influence would you prefer from other players' characters in the current campaigns and by what criteria?
(I cannot determine a common measure for such values. Just describe it as best as you can.)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Depends on the player. By itself, it's of zero importance to me, personally. I know DMs who place a ton of importance on backstories, far more than their players do. I'm not one of them. Frankly, I'm not even convinced that it's good writing for every character to have a huge backstory. It's enough sometimes for them to gain personal goals and objectives as they play.
Now obviously, if a player cares about their backstory, I care about it. But even then, I've known players to write lovely backstories and then just go straight murderhobo once they hit the game world. I wouldn't twist myself into a pretzel trying to write their backstory into a campaign unless they showed some sustained interest.
Very little. As a DM and a player, I like the focus to be on the story of the GROUP, not the individuals. It's like the first Guardians of the Galaxy, where everyone works together, and not the second, which is more Starlord's personal quest. I don't write backstories that can't be explained in a couple sentences, or ones that set up future adventures. They're more about giving the character a little texture and explaining how they got these skills and why they chose this life. Remember, the most epic part of the characters' lives are the part we "see" in the game. Overwritten backstories take away from that.
As a player, I try to keep my backstory something that fits easily into a variety of settings or locations, and to give my characters motives don't require a separate story arc to achieve. As a DM, I love to integrate as much of the players backstory as I can. Often it is little things, like the fighter discovering that his mentor's surname is actually the name of a group to which he once belonged, or the the rogue discovering that his old nemesis is in town and running his favorite scam.
The current dungeon crawl (actually a ruined temple) contains clues to the identity of the parents of the party's mage, and why she was left at the wizards' school as a foundling. Another clue leads to the Necromancer who killed the cleric's mother. Beyond that, it is up to the players what they want to pursue. If they are interested in following one or more of these leads, I will flesh it out so it becomes either a side-quest or a complete story arc. If not, I have other adventure hooks awaiting them.... [Insert evil laugh]
For me, my backstory is just the story of how I got to where I am when I started playing the character. I generally do not have a lot of loose ends to tie up in my stories. Mostly, in my mind, my character becomes an adventurer because he really /has/ no ties and needs to do /something/. I generally don't like to go down that "I am sworn to vengeance" path. I don't like to have a true destination in mind, I like to see where the story takes me.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
How important is it to you for your characters to resolve/realize their backstories going forward?
What criteria would you use to determine how much you will pull from your characters' backstories into the current situations?
How much backstory influence would you prefer from other players' characters in the current campaigns and by what criteria?
(I cannot determine a common measure for such values. Just describe it as best as you can.)
Mixed. When I am playing as a character, I don't always bring my background into the campaign very often. I simply forget; when one is loading and firing their longbow at a hoard of zombies as fast as they can, how often does one think "how can I bring in my background as a Guild Artist into this scene?" not very often. I would try to remember in free action, but it was always so difficult to remember to graft in my background into situations.
Then I began DM'ing, and it suddenly became important. Now, I like grafting the player's backgrounds into the story, and I try to help them do it. Sometimes I have it influence things like perception checks; it doesn't change what happens, but if a player with a background of soldier rolls an 18 to perceive a mayor's intentions, I'll describe it like, "you feel that they're pitching your group a shallow offer. Kind of like a commander back in your past, who would talk big to the troops, than shy away from joining the combat at the last moment." It really helps flesh out the characters and bring color to the story, as well as make players think about their backgrounds when it's choosing time.
And goals; I found it best to look at their goals, as per their backgrounds, and graft it into the plot of the campaign before it begins. I did this with a player's character, a warlock with a background of outlander (wanderer). A spot that they came across in their backstory, I decided, should re-surface in the campaign with a significant plot twist; it worked out well.
So, now I pay a lot more attention to background; I like to think of it now as the character's foundation, their start, not just a determination factor for starting equipment.
While I usually leave no "strings or goals" in my backstory, I do have some hooks built in for a DM to use. Very, very rarely to they ever get used. The campaign my main group is playing right now however, the DM grabbed on to some of those hooks and is actually using them. It's a unique experience the direction he's tried to take and has inserted some complications for myself specifically, but also the party.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Honestly it depends. I have two characters in my current campaign that there back stories are very important not only to the player, but also very open that I can have some ability to place some hooks tying them into the over arching story. On the other hand, one of my characters (For sposta this is my Gourmand) that her character concept and "present" history was more interesting than where they came from, or who their parents were. For her, there's some general stuff that happens but it is small and really no plot tie in but makes for great moments in each session. So for me it's a good 50/50 split on hooks from backstories and hooks made for simply the character's goals.
But for the ones who put more "meat" into the past than the present, it is nice to tie up those loose ends for them and have a moment for them to have character growth in relation to them.
So, a big problem with ... a lot of things in reality is the assumption that all things are fundamentally alike. All players are not fundamentally alike. Some players have neither engaging backstories or roleplaying chops to really hold the spotlight. If your players only exist as a collective, then no, I wouldn't focus on individual background. However, if you have one character who stands out as a character and brings a depth to their character and you think other people would enjoy resolving their story? Sure. Not everyone needs or wants the spotlight. A lot of times, players would like to see a character they like played masterfully than be forced to resolve their own backstory that they made because someone told them they had to.
Some people are only there to "watch" and that's okay too. It might not be their character, but it's still their story. They're taking part still.
This is actually right on. While I still focus on group stories, like I said, I tend to weave in character moments for the two of my players who (like me) get way into the whole role playing part. The other two don’t like to role play as much and prefer to watch, so for them I keep the action tight and don’t let them feel left out. That said, I draw a distinction between character moments and backstory ones: if half of why a scene is cool is only known to one player, it’s not that cool. Even when it ties into a character’s backstory, their “big moments” are more about the arc we’ve all seen in the game itself.
My DM wanted all of us to write a backstory, some personality concepts or traits and our characters death scene i.e how did envision the character dying? Old age? In glorious battle? And on and on. He wants to us to try to incorporate some of these attributes or traits, into our game play. To me, if you are writing a novel for your DM, it's a bad thing. I also think too many people write their character as being really powerful, in their backstory, but then they are going off to be a 1st level toon...which isn't all that powerful!
This was my recent backstory, for a 1st level half orc paladin. We are going to be using Egyptian gods, but not in a desert setting. As a DM, is this too much, too little or about right for size of backstory?
Backstory:
Torvald is a half orc, who never knew his parents. He was left on the steps of the Temple of Bast, the goddess of cats and vengeance. He was raised in the temple's orphanage, receiving religious instruction from the priests, as a part of his schooling, but it was the temple guards and paladins who fascinated the boy. He would watch them as they went through their morning sparring and rituals, longing for the day when he could join them.
Some of the paladins were disdainful of his half orc heritage, others viewed him with pity about it, as though he had been inflicted with some handicap or sickness. A very few special paladins, treated him with kindness and affection, instilling in him the belief that he could write his own destiny, a destiny not ordained by birth. To those special paladins, he was their adoptive son and to him, the orphan boy, they were his fathers, not of blood, but of something stronger, faith and love.
When he left the temple and his adoptive fathers, he saluted them, giving forth the creed of their order:
"I am the fear, in the eyes of my enemy. I am the hope, in the eyes of the hopeless. I am the shield and the wall that protects the innocent.
My friends will know the truth of my words. My foes will know the truth of my steel. My Goddess will know the truth of my heart."
Torvald departed, trying unsuccessfully to put on a brave front, hiding the tears in his eyes. To his back, his mentors watched him go, with pride and tears in the their eyes, as well.
He left to find his path, his party and his destiny.
Torvald's personality concepts:
Torvald has a fear, as a half orc, that he's not good enough to be a paladin. That he will fail and disappoint his goddess, his mentors and himself. He has a special place, in his heart for and desire to defend children, especially orphans. In every town or village he visits, for any length of time, he will want to see if there is a good aligned temple or orphanage. He will want to be a patron of that orphanage, donating a sizeable portion of his gold to it (at least a 10% tithe, of his latest adventure and likely more).
Torvald is laconic, with few words and some insecurity about his relatively low intelligence and wisdom (only 8s). He will usually defer to the party members with higher intelligence and wisdom, assuming they know better. But Torvald has a stronger will and strength of character than is apparent, which will become known to his party members. He has a temper, but has learned to control it, through prayers to his goddess. When he is most angry, he will repeat the tenets of his order, like a mantra to help control it.
If the player wants their backstory to come up it should be obvious. I require at least a basic "I grew up here until I left to adventure because ..." kind of backstory. Some players are fine with just this and don't leave a lot of plot hooks for you, those players don't want their backstories to be involved more than a "I know that person" kind of way. Other players want you to create an intricate plotline that meshes with their backstory, these players leave a lot of hooks and often times leave some of their backstory mysteries up to the DM to figure out. Then you have players who are in between and leave one maybe two hooks for you and don't have a detailed or long backstory, for these players I try and weave in some backstory NPC's to gauge their reaction: if they're excited they get a backstory plotline if not then I leave it at the occasional NPC from their backstory showing up. This isn't perfect as some players create very minimal backstories without hooks and still expect a plotline, in that case, it's hard to design a plotline.
TLDR; In general try and get to know the players and see if they want plotlines centered around their backstory or character, some people don't. If they don't want a plotline throw in a few NPCs their character would know. Not everyone likes having plotlines centered on their character or their backstory, but I believe that everyone likes to see some parts of their character's backstory show up.
Edit: Another good idea is to have the PC's all working towards a common goal (ie: getting an item, defeating an evil king/bandit/lord, acquiring treasure to rebuild something, trying to get fame for their town, etc.). I'm doing that in the current campaign and reasons for going after the main treasure horde range from my patron wants it to I want money to I want to know how to return home.
If the player wants their backstory to come up it should be obvious. I require at least a basic "I grew up here until I left to adventure because ..." kind of backstory. Some players are fine with just this and don't leave a lot of plot hooks for you, those players don't want their backstories to be involved more than a "I know that person" kind of way. Other players want you to create an intricate plotline that meshes with their backstory, these players leave a lot of hooks and often times leave some of their backstory mysteries up to the DM to figure out. Then you have players who are in between and leave one maybe two hooks for you and don't have a detailed or long backstory, for these players I try and weave in some backstory NPC's to gauge their reaction: if they're excited they get a backstory plotline if not then I leave it at the occasional NPC from their backstory showing up. This isn't perfect as some players create very minimal backstories without hooks and still expect a plotline, in that case, it's hard to design a plotline.
TLDR; In general try and get to know the players and see if they want plotlines centered around their backstory or character, some people don't. If they don't want a plotline throw in a few NPCs their character would know. Not everyone likes having plotlines centered on their character or their backstory, but I believe that everyone likes to see some parts of their character's backstory show up.
Edit: Another good idea is to have the PC's all working towards a common goal (ie: getting an item, defeating an evil king/bandit/lord, acquiring treasure to rebuild something, trying to get fame for their town, etc.). I'm doing that in the current campaign and reasons for going after the main treasure horde range from my patron wants it to I want money to I want to know how to return home.
There are really no "hooks" or even serious plotlines to work from, in my backstory. Perhaps the order of paladins could be involved in a greater war or some such, but that hardly needs a backstory to get that plotline. I was figuring my 1st level half orc, wouldn't have much story, since he hasn't done much living yet! So...he grew up admiring the paladins and temple guards, he wanted to become like them, so he trained to be a paladin, now is one and is trying to find his place in the world. Not really any cliffhangers there! lol
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How important is it to you for your characters to resolve/realize their backstories going forward?
What criteria would you use to determine how much you will pull from your characters' backstories into the current situations?
How much backstory influence would you prefer from other players' characters in the current campaigns and by what criteria?
(I cannot determine a common measure for such values. Just describe it as best as you can.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Depends on the player. By itself, it's of zero importance to me, personally. I know DMs who place a ton of importance on backstories, far more than their players do. I'm not one of them. Frankly, I'm not even convinced that it's good writing for every character to have a huge backstory. It's enough sometimes for them to gain personal goals and objectives as they play.
Now obviously, if a player cares about their backstory, I care about it. But even then, I've known players to write lovely backstories and then just go straight murderhobo once they hit the game world. I wouldn't twist myself into a pretzel trying to write their backstory into a campaign unless they showed some sustained interest.
Very little. As a DM and a player, I like the focus to be on the story of the GROUP, not the individuals. It's like the first Guardians of the Galaxy, where everyone works together, and not the second, which is more Starlord's personal quest. I don't write backstories that can't be explained in a couple sentences, or ones that set up future adventures. They're more about giving the character a little texture and explaining how they got these skills and why they chose this life. Remember, the most epic part of the characters' lives are the part we "see" in the game. Overwritten backstories take away from that.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
As a player, I try to keep my backstory something that fits easily into a variety of settings or locations, and to give my characters motives don't require a separate story arc to achieve.
As a DM, I love to integrate as much of the players backstory as I can. Often it is little things, like the fighter discovering that his mentor's surname is actually the name of a group to which he once belonged, or the the rogue discovering that his old nemesis is in town and running his favorite scam.
The current dungeon crawl (actually a ruined temple) contains clues to the identity of the parents of the party's mage, and why she was left at the wizards' school as a foundling. Another clue leads to the Necromancer who killed the cleric's mother. Beyond that, it is up to the players what they want to pursue. If they are interested in following one or more of these leads, I will flesh it out so it becomes either a side-quest or a complete story arc. If not, I have other adventure hooks awaiting them.... [Insert evil laugh]
For me, my backstory is just the story of how I got to where I am when I started playing the character. I generally do not have a lot of loose ends to tie up in my stories. Mostly, in my mind, my character becomes an adventurer because he really /has/ no ties and needs to do /something/. I generally don't like to go down that "I am sworn to vengeance" path. I don't like to have a true destination in mind, I like to see where the story takes me.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Mixed. When I am playing as a character, I don't always bring my background into the campaign very often. I simply forget; when one is loading and firing their longbow at a hoard of zombies as fast as they can, how often does one think "how can I bring in my background as a Guild Artist into this scene?" not very often. I would try to remember in free action, but it was always so difficult to remember to graft in my background into situations.
Then I began DM'ing, and it suddenly became important. Now, I like grafting the player's backgrounds into the story, and I try to help them do it. Sometimes I have it influence things like perception checks; it doesn't change what happens, but if a player with a background of soldier rolls an 18 to perceive a mayor's intentions, I'll describe it like, "you feel that they're pitching your group a shallow offer. Kind of like a commander back in your past, who would talk big to the troops, than shy away from joining the combat at the last moment." It really helps flesh out the characters and bring color to the story, as well as make players think about their backgrounds when it's choosing time.
And goals; I found it best to look at their goals, as per their backgrounds, and graft it into the plot of the campaign before it begins. I did this with a player's character, a warlock with a background of outlander (wanderer). A spot that they came across in their backstory, I decided, should re-surface in the campaign with a significant plot twist; it worked out well.
So, now I pay a lot more attention to background; I like to think of it now as the character's foundation, their start, not just a determination factor for starting equipment.
💙🤍~*Ravenclaw*~ 🔮
While I usually leave no "strings or goals" in my backstory, I do have some hooks built in for a DM to use. Very, very rarely to they ever get used. The campaign my main group is playing right now however, the DM grabbed on to some of those hooks and is actually using them. It's a unique experience the direction he's tried to take and has inserted some complications for myself specifically, but also the party.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I leave big places for hooks in my backstories, but I never “expect” anything from them. If the DM uses them great, if they don’t that’s fine too.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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Content Troubleshooting
Honestly it depends. I have two characters in my current campaign that there back stories are very important not only to the player, but also very open that I can have some ability to place some hooks tying them into the over arching story. On the other hand, one of my characters (For sposta this is my Gourmand) that her character concept and "present" history was more interesting than where they came from, or who their parents were. For her, there's some general stuff that happens but it is small and really no plot tie in but makes for great moments in each session. So for me it's a good 50/50 split on hooks from backstories and hooks made for simply the character's goals.
But for the ones who put more "meat" into the past than the present, it is nice to tie up those loose ends for them and have a moment for them to have character growth in relation to them.
So, a big problem with ... a lot of things in reality is the assumption that all things are fundamentally alike. All players are not fundamentally alike. Some players have neither engaging backstories or roleplaying chops to really hold the spotlight. If your players only exist as a collective, then no, I wouldn't focus on individual background. However, if you have one character who stands out as a character and brings a depth to their character and you think other people would enjoy resolving their story? Sure. Not everyone needs or wants the spotlight. A lot of times, players would like to see a character they like played masterfully than be forced to resolve their own backstory that they made because someone told them they had to.
Some people are only there to "watch" and that's okay too. It might not be their character, but it's still their story. They're taking part still.
This is actually right on. While I still focus on group stories, like I said, I tend to weave in character moments for the two of my players who (like me) get way into the whole role playing part. The other two don’t like to role play as much and prefer to watch, so for them I keep the action tight and don’t let them feel left out. That said, I draw a distinction between character moments and backstory ones: if half of why a scene is cool is only known to one player, it’s not that cool. Even when it ties into a character’s backstory, their “big moments” are more about the arc we’ve all seen in the game itself.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
My DM wanted all of us to write a backstory, some personality concepts or traits and our characters death scene i.e how did envision the character dying? Old age? In glorious battle? And on and on. He wants to us to try to incorporate some of these attributes or traits, into our game play. To me, if you are writing a novel for your DM, it's a bad thing. I also think too many people write their character as being really powerful, in their backstory, but then they are going off to be a 1st level toon...which isn't all that powerful!
This was my recent backstory, for a 1st level half orc paladin. We are going to be using Egyptian gods, but not in a desert setting. As a DM, is this too much, too little or about right for size of backstory?
Backstory:
Torvald is a half orc, who never knew his parents. He was left on the steps of the Temple of Bast, the goddess of cats and vengeance. He was raised in the temple's orphanage, receiving religious instruction from the priests, as a part of his schooling, but it was the temple guards and paladins who fascinated the boy. He would watch them as they went through their morning sparring and rituals, longing for the day when he could join them.
Some of the paladins were disdainful of his half orc heritage, others viewed him with pity about it, as though he had been inflicted with some handicap or sickness. A very few special paladins, treated him with kindness and affection, instilling in him the belief that he could write his own destiny, a destiny not ordained by birth. To those special paladins, he was their adoptive son and to him, the orphan boy, they were his fathers, not of blood, but of something stronger, faith and love.
When he left the temple and his adoptive fathers, he saluted them, giving forth the creed of their order:
"I am the fear, in the eyes of my enemy.
I am the hope, in the eyes of the hopeless.
I am the shield and the wall that protects the innocent.
My friends will know the truth of my words.
My foes will know the truth of my steel.
My Goddess will know the truth of my heart."
Torvald departed, trying unsuccessfully to put on a brave front, hiding the tears in his eyes. To his back, his mentors watched him go, with pride and tears in the their eyes, as well.
He left to find his path, his party and his destiny.
Torvald's personality concepts:
Torvald has a fear, as a half orc, that he's not good enough to be a paladin. That he will fail and disappoint his goddess, his mentors and himself. He has a special place, in his heart for and desire to defend children, especially orphans. In every town or village he visits, for any length of time, he will want to see if there is a good aligned temple or orphanage. He will want to be a patron of that orphanage, donating a sizeable portion of his gold to it (at least a 10% tithe, of his latest adventure and likely more).
Torvald is laconic, with few words and some insecurity about his relatively low intelligence and wisdom (only 8s). He will usually defer to the party members with higher intelligence and wisdom, assuming they know better. But Torvald has a stronger will and strength of character than is apparent, which will become known to his party members. He has a temper, but has learned to control it, through prayers to his goddess. When he is most angry, he will repeat the tenets of his order, like a mantra to help control it.
If the player wants their backstory to come up it should be obvious. I require at least a basic "I grew up here until I left to adventure because ..." kind of backstory. Some players are fine with just this and don't leave a lot of plot hooks for you, those players don't want their backstories to be involved more than a "I know that person" kind of way. Other players want you to create an intricate plotline that meshes with their backstory, these players leave a lot of hooks and often times leave some of their backstory mysteries up to the DM to figure out. Then you have players who are in between and leave one maybe two hooks for you and don't have a detailed or long backstory, for these players I try and weave in some backstory NPC's to gauge their reaction: if they're excited they get a backstory plotline if not then I leave it at the occasional NPC from their backstory showing up. This isn't perfect as some players create very minimal backstories without hooks and still expect a plotline, in that case, it's hard to design a plotline.
TLDR; In general try and get to know the players and see if they want plotlines centered around their backstory or character, some people don't. If they don't want a plotline throw in a few NPCs their character would know. Not everyone likes having plotlines centered on their character or their backstory, but I believe that everyone likes to see some parts of their character's backstory show up.
Edit: Another good idea is to have the PC's all working towards a common goal (ie: getting an item, defeating an evil king/bandit/lord, acquiring treasure to rebuild something, trying to get fame for their town, etc.). I'm doing that in the current campaign and reasons for going after the main treasure horde range from my patron wants it to I want money to I want to know how to return home.
call me Anna or Kerns, (she/her), usually a DM, lgbtq+ friendly
There are really no "hooks" or even serious plotlines to work from, in my backstory. Perhaps the order of paladins could be involved in a greater war or some such, but that hardly needs a backstory to get that plotline. I was figuring my 1st level half orc, wouldn't have much story, since he hasn't done much living yet! So...he grew up admiring the paladins and temple guards, he wanted to become like them, so he trained to be a paladin, now is one and is trying to find his place in the world. Not really any cliffhangers there! lol