Earlier in the Roleplaying 101 series, we looked at how to create a compelling character without an extensive backstory. I’ve found that D&D players who consider roleplaying as a key facet of their gaming experience, myself included, tend to get hung up on backstories. Some backstories are so detailed that they shut down any chance of organic character growth through the events played out at the table, while others are so potent that they threaten to re-center the entire campaign around one single character, like a spice drowning out all the other flavors of an otherwise delicious meal.
We explored last time how these problems can be short-circuited by eschewing a complicated backstory all together. This week, however, it’s time to take a explore how to make a rich, full-bodied backstory that enhances your campaign—and that can improve the game for your fellow players, too.
What Goes into a Detailed Backstory?
Whenever I create a backstory for a playable character, I try my best to include three specific elements. These items are inspired by my study of theater and storytelling, but I have to fight back against that training, too; even though my friends and I love roleplaying together, RPGs aren’t novels or plays. For example, a D&D character needs to be capable of being part of a group of adventurers, and there are ways to make that need congruent with your backstory and the character traits which it informs.
Backstory as Inciting Incident
A character’s backstory is the unified record of the most significant events that caused that person to become one of the main characters in this campaign. If not for one (or perhaps several) significant events in your backstory, your character would never have become an adventurer. What was this event? Was it traumatic, like the murder of your parents? Was it mystical, like the discovery of an ancient and enigmatic magical talisman? Was it patriotic, like a summons from the queen to become a royal knight? Or was it aspirational, like inheriting a suit of armor and finally being able to live out your life-long daydream of going on grand adventures?
The best inciting incidents dovetail with the outline of your Dungeon Master’s campaign. If your DM says that this campaign will be focused around Indiana Jones-style archaeological expeditions, do your best to create a backstory that doesn’t make it challenging for your character to want to investigate ancient tombs and put their artifacts in museums.
Backstory as Tinted Glasses
A character’s backstory is more than a starting point: it’s a lens through which all of their future experiences are viewed. The traumas and joys that set your character on the path of an adventurer will inform their behaviors throughout the campaign. For example, in campaign 2 of Critical Role, Liam O’Brien’s wizard Caleb Widogast had a traumatic event in his childhood that shattered his trust in people and institutions which he admired. Now, he views all people and hierarchies with suspicion, if not outright mistrust.
If you’re having a hard time finding a personality for your character, or you feel like you’re leaning too heavily on tropes, return to your backstory. No one’s personality develops in a vacuum, and everyone reacts to joyful and traumatic events differently. A person whose family was slaughtered by a band of marauding humans and orcs, for example, might react in many different ways. They might swear vengeance against all bandits, or they might cower in fear at the sight of orcs. They might even adopt a twisted philosophy of “might makes right” to justify their loss, and perpetuate the cycle of cruelty that they were a victim of.
Backstory as Character-Defining Choice
Most importantly, however, a backstory is something that a character can either choose to embrace or reject over the course of the campaign. If you’ve ever felt like your character’s backstory was a straitjacket that, over time, prevented you from playing your character the way you wanted to, then you may have needed to have your character reject their past. Most characters in games and stories aren’t actively aware of the way that their backstory has shaped them as a person. However, as a character grows and learns more about themselves and about other people, they may realize that they have the power to change their future.
This sort of self-actualization, whether it’s affirming or denying their past, can be an incredibly powerful character moment if played authentically. The moment a character seizes or rejects their past as a defining element of their personality moving into the future is the moment that character takes control of their destiny. The character transforms from a passive onlooker in their own life into someone who takes an active master of their own self. Some characters start as active, transformative people, which is great! But any character has the potential to grow out of a confining backstory, no matter what their personality is like.
What Stays Out of a Detailed Backstory?
A detailed background can pose problems when it makes it difficult for your own character to grow organically as new events shape their life. That is, when your character lives in the past rather than in the present, their narrative inertia can cause the campaign to lose forward momentum. An excessively complicated backstory can also steal the spotlight from other players, and create unpleasant drama at the gaming table.
As a player, you can use these suggestions as a diagnostic tool to help you make sure that your character’s backstory won’t get in the way of your friends’ fun. As a Dungeon Master, you can also use these suggestions to help get all of your players on the same page, so that they can avoid these pitfalls.
Material that Contradicts the Campaign or Setting
When preparing a D&D campaign with a significant roleplaying element, the best DMs send out a campaign primer to their players beforehand. This doesn’t have to be long—and it could be the subject of a future article—but it gives the players just enough details about the setting and tone of the campaign for them to create characters that mesh with the campaign the DM wants to run. It also lets the DM and the players have a conversation about any elements that they find disagreeable, or absent elements that they think might enhance the campaign.
As a player, once you have a campaign primer, take note of the setting—where and when and in what world the campaign takes place—and the tone; that is, if the campaign seems like it will be lighthearted and airy, or grim and gritty. You don’t have to go out of your way to match your character to the setting or the tone, but you should do your best not to contradict anything that your DM has presented to you.
Backstory Mismatch
Just like wealth inequality, backstory inequality can cause tension at the gaming table. This occurs when some players at the table write long and complicated backstories, while others keep their prose short and sweet. Neither style is better than the other, but there are times when an overlong backstory can hog the DM’s attention, and even steal the spotlight from other players during gameplay. A concise backstory that sufficiently explains your character’s motivations and idiosyncrasies is fantastic, but an epic-length tale complete with genealogies and replete with NPCs for the DM to steal has the power to enchant a DM. It might be sunk-cost fallacy (“I spent so much time reading this backstory that I’d better make use of it!”) or it might be actual usability (“Look at all these NPCs and plot hooks my player provided me with!”), but it can make players whose backstories are shorter and more utilitarian feel underappreciated.
If you have this problem as a DM, you can try to solve it by requesting that all backstories be of a specific length, just as if you were an English teacher asking for an essay. One page is a pretty good length. Alternatively, you could ask for everyone to provide one NPC and one character-based plot hook related to their backstory. And if someone doesn’t deliver what you’re asking for, turn it back and ask action. If you find that this tactic isn’t working with one or two of your players in particular, they may not be looking for the same type of game as you are. This is a good point to see who actually wants to play a roleplaying-focused campaign, and who wants something else out of their D&D experience.
Overfilling
Likewise, your backstory shouldn’t be an exhaustive history of your character. For one, it takes an excessive amount of time to write all that. Second, leaving space in your backstory is a boon to your friends, and your DM. The benefit to you is that it allows you to improvise new backstory elements if you need to. Or, if creating entirely new backstory elements mid-game isn’t appealing to you, it can allow you to add new details to your back-historical events that help smoothly integrate your backstory into the current events of your campaign.
Leaving room for further elucidation in your backstory is helpful for your fellow players and for your DM because it gives them opportunities to link their stories to yours. Allowing events from one character’s backstory have some significance in another characters’, or in the larger plot your DM is weaving, helps the story of the campaign feel like a united tapestry, rather than a patchwork quilt of different characters.
What guidelines do you follow when creating your characters’ backstory, or when asking your players to create one for your campaign? What’s the best backstory you’ve ever created? Share it in the comments below!
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their feline adventurers Mei and Marzipan. You can usually find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
It just so happens I'm doing a panel on writing backstories next weekend at VisionCon in Springfield, Mo.
I tend to write my backstories before making a character, at least broad strokes. Then I work interactively with the character generation process and the DM's guidelines to bring it around to a cohesive story.
I always make sure there's at least 1 good hook, 1 interesting NPC to flesh out, and enough vague areas to integrate for the DM and combine with other PC stories.
When teaching people to write a backstory, I ask them 3 questions:
1. What brought you to choose your class?
2. What led you to a life as an adventurer?
3. Who's 1 NPC that had an impact on your earlier life.
lol, i was wondering whether this was gonna mention caleb
I've a feeling much of the influx to the game these days comes from the successful streamers such as critical role, not that it is a bad thing! My new players see those and immediately want to get into that mindset, which is why I encourage them all to take some time, do some homework and really understand where your PC comes from. Personally I am thrilled that a game I have enjoyed for two decades and change is finally getting some positive attention. With technology advancing as it is the sky is the limit for DnD!
I run a club at a local high school. This is a great article. Is there anyway that these 101 series could be put into a PDF version so that I can distribute to my kids easier. some of them don't have internet and can't access the sites.
If you opt to print the article, Chrome offers the option of "Save as PDF" instead of a printer. It's not the best format, but it makes it available.
Huh, I had recently asked about this on Reddit, and got a similar reply. Everyone told me to have a 1 paragraph “elevator pitch” that captured the general story of the character. Bellow that they suggested up to a page of detailed character traits, and then after that include an “extended biography” however long I wanted, but was open to change.
its nice to see someone else confirm basically that same thing. Great article! Wish I’d seen this earlier haha!
I typically reward my players that give me a something solid to work with, even more so if I have the ability to tie it into one of the plot points I've planned for the game. If they've given me sufficient reason to believe their character had/has learned a skill or ability then I might grant them a skill/proficiency/feat. In my current game I have a player that developed an elaborate tale of a family business developing and harnessing the technology of firearms and using magic in an outside the box way but left it open ended as to where that information originated.
In the pre-game session I had with her to introduce her character to the world and basically have them travel to the meeting point she found something akin to an artifact of a missing family member. This item has grown with her as she investigated and researched into certain things. Nothing over powered but adds extra flavor and gets the players invested into the world a little more when they have a personal investment in the plot. They make a point to ask things like "well would my character know this or understand that?"
Currently in the process of writing a (probably overfilled) backstory and this article gave some great insight, thanks.
This is a big help. I am typically one to write pages of backstory and although I will continue to write long backstories, I am going to be trimming lots of fat off of them now with your tips. Thank you so much James!
@Tony1Adobe Kudos for creativity. Fun background!
I found this post really helpful. As someone who has only just started playing D&D at the end of my college career, most of my friends have been playing for years and I still find that I have a lot to learn. I am preparing for my first real campaign, and having these helpful hints as I work on my character is really nice.
This is a great guide! RP is my favorite aspect of dnd hands down, so I always get excited when making a new character and it comes to backstory. I get way too into writing it sometimes and end up having to go back and trim it down before forwarding it on to my DM. But I just love coming up on the spot with small stories of their past or reasons behind actions. I agree that it helps to have a solid motivation and outline of who the character is, but after that is when you just get to have fun with it!
I can't possibly pick a "favorite" backstory I've written, as I've spent years tweaking and refining some of them, even ones I've never gotten to play or ones I havent played in years! It's a hobby of sorts, just creating new characters.
The character I'm playing in one of my games now though is a pretty good one, I think. Shes a druid if the land, half elf, lived in a swamp her whole life, has an older and younger brother. She also is missing her left arm. Shes an alchemist and excels in potion making, one plant she was experimenting on was mutated in the wild without her knowing. When she brought it home, it attached itself to her and was quickly killing her. She had always had a hard time controlling her magic when faced with intense emotion and accidentally killed her parents in her panic when they tried to help her. Her older brother took charge and cut her arm off and the plant let go of her to attack him. It killed him, and she ran to get help before she died of the blood loss. Her little brother was away at wizard school at the time, and she sent a letter to him saying that the whole family was dead because she felt responsible and couldnt face him. It's been 20 years since then and Luyu has embraced her trauma and grown from it but still is scared of her own power. Shes bright and bubbly, which catches a lot of people off guard with the whole one arm thing, and just wants to make others happy. She will sacrifice everything for other people, always prioritizing them over herself.
Thanks
Sorry but even an Ankheg at level 1 is a huge stretch, you could argue that the current version is easy mode respect past versions, but it still isn't possible for a level 1 fighter to kill an Ankheg alone.
Yes, yes of course.
Deus ex machina is totally not a thing. There is no way possible that any 1st level character would even challenge a big yucky monster. Just nope.
Also, if it's any tougher than an exhausted goblin with a heart condition there's no way any commoner defeated anything.
Because there's no such thing as stories (tremors) where plucky townsfolk (tremors) manage to defeat terrible subterranean (tremors) beasts with luck and (tremors) perseverance.
Yup. Ankhegs are totally too tough to beat up in a one on one fight. And that is the only possible way to either tell stories, or play D&D for that matter.
I totally agree, all the backstories of orphan children surviving fires and strife are lame because commoners can't take that much damage.
Wow. Glad you pointed that out.
(see also: Tremors.)
(also: Poe's Law)
Tell me then, how would you kill an Ankheg, 1v1 with a lvl1 fighter. Really i'm curious, would you think that a beast stands still while you attack it? Obviously the Ankheg in 5e is not the same of previous versions(That could wipe a lvl3 party, alone) but it still is a dangerous opponent, especially against a single character.
Did i ever say that backstories make no sense cause one couldn't survive a fire? what i did say, is that alone, in plains or a tunnel(Ankheg's natural environment) you wouldn't survive a 1v1 as 1st lvl character, unless you know how to shoot arrows through at least 5ft of dirt.
And I completely agreed that you are the all knowing expert on the game, storytelling, and all other things that you set your mind to. All others pale in your shadow.
Anything is possible.
I've seen relatively low level parties defeat young adult dragons and greater Vampires with luck on thier side.
Backstories dont have to be 100% plausible, in fact epic backstories lead to epic characters.
I teach Writing Backstories at cons, both to RPGers and Writers, and test, it is generally better to say your character managed to escape/survive than to defeat a big bad, but there are times when the lowly youth beats the big bad and barely survives and is inspired by thier success vs overwhelming odds to become a hero.
As a DM, I'm far too familiar with PCs, both individually and as a group, killing off my big bad way too early in a narrative. Blind luck and great strategy combines to do it
The backstory, however, you never want to eclipse thier actual story moving forward, so such origin stories should be allowed very sparingly.
It might be possible if the Dm gives you a way to avoid the disadvantage of fighting an enemy that can literally onshot you, but an Ankheg even lacking intelligence wouldn't just try to approach the enemy on it's turn, it could burrow having the advantage of not being possible to hit for the moment, being underground you also might lose track of where it is, there are many things to consider especially about enemies that can lie in wait under the surface and jump up with a first strike at advantage, and a acid spray if things are not going as planned.
About the background, i agree with you, it is better to avoid really unlikely things, like killing the werewolf/vampire clan that literally wiped your village and the guards; a backstory should give additional taste to a character and their future possibilities, not overwhelm them. It would really sound weird if a guy that managed to kill an Ankheg, dies impaled by a trap cause he ignored the obviously suspect bunch of leaves right in front of a door(i use traps that can be found by simply looking at the environment).
So, the character I am currently using is my own take on a character from a series of books I really like. While it is very fun to play her, one of the drawbacks is that no matter what I do, her backstory spans six books.