One of the rites of passage for a Dungeons & Dragons player is creating a character for the first time. One of the most common pieces of advice given to new roleplayers making their first character is “Have a backstory!” Doing so gives you an idea of who your character is and where they come from, and it helps the Dungeon Master think of plot hooks to engage you. But if you’ve never written a backstory for a character before, this can be pretty daunting advice. Where do you start? 

This brings us to maybe the most unsung aspects of character creation: backgrounds! Sure, there’s a lot of excitement to be found in the class and species selection, and of course the fun of assigning ability scores. But with just a read-through of the background that works best for you, and maybe even a roll of some dice, you can emerge with a fleshed-out backstory.

• What Is a Background?
• Using Suggested Characteristics
• Sample Character Backstories
• Creating Your Own Background

What Is a Background?

A background typically refers to the primary focus of your character’s life before they became an adventurer. For example, someone who might have lived a life of crime in their hometown would likely use the criminal background. Take a look at the criminal in the Basic Rules if you want a visual reference for what the backgrounds look like. In addition to the Basic Rules, background options can be found in books like the Player’s Handbook and the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, as well as other adventure and setting books.

Each background has a set of assigned skill and tool proficiencies, as well as a background feature, which is a storytelling prompt that you can partner with your DM to use when relevant to the game. For example, with the provided criminal background, your character has a contact within the underworld to try to suss out or share some information. 

Beneath all of those are a set of tables for four suggested characteristics. These four characteristics form the foundations for building strong character backstories from scratch.

Using Suggested Characteristics

Once you’ve selected or scrolled past your proficiencies for now, you can either select from the suggested characteristics yourself or roll dice according to the provided tables. If you’re building your character using the D&D Beyond character builder, there’s even a shiny red button that will pick randomly for you. 

Here’s a close look into how each of the elements of a background can help you craft a fully formed character.

Personality Traits

Each one of these is a bold, declarative statement about how your character interacts with others. “If someone is in trouble, I’m always ready to lend help.” tells you about a very different type of character than “I don’t like to get my hands dirty and I won’t be caught dead in unsuitable conditions.” Choosing two from these lists can help you build characters with personality conflicts that make them feel more three-dimensional.

Ideals

These give you a sense of what your character values most. Knowing this can help you understand what motivates them to engage with the story. Are they operating out of ambition? Are they just following the path of altruism? Does your entertainer believe “The world is in need of new ideas and bold action.” or are they “only in it for the money and fame?” Knowing that answer will inform interactions moving forward, especially ones involving their art in this case.

Bonds

If you’re not sure yet where your character comes from, the bonds section can help you establish roots that connect your character to the world they inhabit. Do they have a rival? Do they have a sense of duty to someone? Did they lose someone? This kind of info not only helps you visualize your character but also helps your DM work them into their story and world. Your folk hero could have a former bully that has created their desire for justice, or a missing family out there for you to discover somewhere in the story.

Flaws

Possibly the most important of the bunch, flaws can be extremely helpful for fleshing out your roleplay. Knowing that your character struggles to keep a secret or is keen to pick up loose trinkets gives you direct instructions for what to do with them in situations where leaning into that flaw could heavily influence the story being told.

As a sailor, your character being someone who follows orders even if they think they’re wrong tells you a very different story than saying anything to avoid doing extra work. In all these cases, story conflict is right there on the table. Maybe your character causes a stink by picking up a loose item, maybe your character accidentally blabs confidential information because an authority figure intimidated them. All because you now know their flaws and how to lean into them.

Sample Character Backstories

Once you’ve worked through each of the items, you’ll have your character's values and flaws, plus how they generally interact with the world and an idea of who are some of the most important people in their life.

To show just how simple and effective it is to create a table-ready, fleshed-out character from just a background, I’ve selected some of the backgrounds from the Basic Rules and rolled random selections from the suggested characteristics. Then, I strung them together to create a simple description of a brand-new character. 

Noble

Personality Traits (d8): 

• I take great pains to always look my best and follow the latest fashions.
• My eloquent flattery makes everyone I talk to feel like the most wonderful and important person in the world.

Ideals (d6): Independence. I must prove that I can handle myself without the coddling of my family. (Chaotic)

Bonds (d6): I will face any challenge to win the approval of my family.

Flaws (d6): I too often hear veiled insults and threats in every word addressed to me, and I’m quick to anger.

Putting it together: This combination of traits paints a picture of a person who has taken great labor to present themselves as charming and composed, while masking a deep insecurity. They’re desperate to both break free from the shadow of their family and also get their approval. 

Ways to expand on this is to ask who their family is. Were they adventurers? Is this vain child a product of the privilege that their treasures paid for? Or is this generational wealth that the character feels unsure they deserve and have a burning desire to prove their own worth, to the world or even to themself? Things to look out for in roleplaying is grasping at opportunities for your character to try to do something impressive, or having them get bent out of shape at perceived slights. 

Soldier

Personality traits:

• I’m always polite and respectful. 
• I face problems head-on. A simple, direct solution is the best path to success.

Ideals: ​​Live and Let Live. Ideals aren’t worth killing over or going to war for. (Neutral)

Bonds: I’ll never forget the crushing defeat my company suffered or the enemies who dealt it.

Flaws: I’d rather eat my armor than admit when I’m wrong.

Putting it together: From this combination, you can imagine a soldier who is not ruled by passions. When conflict breaks out, they’ll fight efficiently and directly, but they will likely remain calm until their hand is forced. But there is that sense of failure from some long-ago defeat that drives them now, something they don’t want to repeat, which will influence their decisions. They’re also stubborn, they’ll dig their heels in when they’re sure they’re right. A fun conflict to play as a player, even when you might know they’re wrong even if they don’t.

Acolyte

Personality traits: 

• I quote (or misquote) sacred texts and proverbs in almost every situation.
• I am tolerant (or intolerant) of other faiths and respect (or condemn) the worship of other gods.

Ideals: ​​Power. I hope to one day rise to the top of my faith’s religious hierarchy. (Lawful)

Bonds: I seek to preserve a sacred text that my enemies consider heretical and seek to destroy.

Flaws: My piety sometimes leads me to blindly trust those that profess faith in my god.

Putting it together: This combination actually gives you a few ways you can go with it. Initially, the quoting or misquoting could feel like something to play as a fun affectation, but when combined with their piety and their goals of power within their faith, it could actually be more of a power move, a need to be seen as someone who knows their sacred texts inside and out. 

Their tolerance or intolerance of other faiths could be part of this power play as well, either by brokering deals with other deities’ followers or by reinforcing their dedication to their faith in the eyes of those who might be in a position to advance them. 

The sacred text in the bonds could be a juicy nugget for a DM to grasp. Is it a book considered apocryphal within the faith but, if canonized, could establish the character’s legacy within the organization? Or is it something that directly threatens someone currently in a position of power? All these are fun avenues to explore within an ongoing D&D narrative. All from a handful of dice rolls. 

Creating Your Own Background

Once you’ve explored the variety of published backgrounds, you may find that none of them quite match what you imagine for your character. For these cases, you can actually create your own customized background. 

The rules for customizing your own backgrounds can be found in the Basic Rules. D&D Beyond makes it super easy to build your custom background in your character sheet, with drop-down menus for setting your features in the character builder. Reading through the suggested characteristics for the published backgrounds might give you some ideas for crafting traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds of your own.

Conclusion

As you can see, while they might not have the immediate mechanical benefit as class, species, or ability scores might, there is a lot more to backgrounds than simply the proficiencies and starting equipment they provide. Taking the time to fill in the charts can have as much benefit to your roleplaying as those other new character details can for your rolls. It takes you from a blank page to a character that feels ready to be played with just a few easy steps.

Riley Silverman (@rileyjsilverman) is a contributing writer to D&D Beyond, Nerdist, and SYFY Wire. She DMs the Theros-set Dice Ex Machina for the Saving Throw Show, and has been a player on the Wizards of the Coast-sponsored The Broken Pact. Riley also played as Braga in the official tabletop adaptation of the Rat Queens comic for HyperRPG, and currently plays as The Doctor on the Doctor Who RPG podcast The Game of Rassilon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.