You\u2019ve spent countless hours carefully crafting the perfect backstory. Sure, it\u2019s a little wordy at 10 pages, but it\u2019s got heart. You\u2019ve really taken efforts to explore the emotional turmoil of your character’s youth and how that\u2019s shaped them into a powerful, epic adventurer. You have a horde of engaging NPCs that fill their past, so as to provide the DM ample opportunity to pull them into the campaign. You have excruciating detail about your character\u2019s appearance, and you\u2019ve poured out their hopes and dreams into a word processor. Finally, it\u2019s Session 0. You\u2019ve blown off your first born child\u2019s birthday party for this moment, and it\u2019s totally worth it. The time has come to present your masterpiece to the rest of the players. But most importantly, it\u2019s time to present it to your DM, who will no doubt interweave all the complexity and nuance of your tale into the campaign\u2019s main plot, providing a climactic end to your character arc that will make your loins quiver with transcendent narrative indulgence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except, that\u2019s not how it goes. No one seems to give a fuck about your backstory. Why would that be? It doesn\u2019t make sense to you. The other players don\u2019t talk about your nuanced reference to a ring your father gave you as a child during your time at the local tavern. Your DM had the perfect opportunity to insert your estranged sister into the plot, but they didn\u2019t. Don\u2019t they realize she\u2019s been on a pilgrimage that would take her through a town only 5 miles from the party on her way to bury the remains of your character\u2019s demigod father in the Valley of Tears? (a location you expertly crafted). You feel frustrated, you feel unfulfilled, and you\u2019re thinking maybe this isn\u2019t the table for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fuck your level 1 backstory: It\u2019s too long, too complex, too restrictive. It sets you up with unrealistic expectations and alienates you from the other players as it instills a subtle undertone of main character energy in you as a player. Let\u2019s discuss an alternative, shall we? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Give me one paragraph. One single, glorious, open-ended paragraph that contains the following elements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Want an example? Fine, let\u2019s create a dwarf for the standard trope of the party meeting in a tavern:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bilby Blackhammer \u2013 Male Dwarf<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bilby grew up in a small sea-side town on the coast where he worked as a simple fisherman. He was never satisfied with just being a fisherman, Bilby was always good with a sword, and he sought a life of adventure. When he came of age, Bilby stowed away on a pirate ship bound for <insert starting location of campaign>. When the pirates discovered Bilby, they were quick to discard the dwarf once they reached port. Resolute, Bilby found his way to <starting tavern> in search of adventure. Bilby is clumsy, loyal, and is constantly fidgeting with his long beard.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n But what about Bilby\u2019s dead parents? His friends? HIS HOPES AND DREAMS? Well dear adventurer, we have left room for those things to develop DURING the campaign. We have created the narrative leeway we need for Bilby\u2019s story to become part of the larger (and vastly more important) narrative of the party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By not naming specific people, places, and traumas, we leave room for those specifics to organically develop during play. By creating a level appropriate history, we avoid the main character energy of Bilby the Dragon Slayer and instead have the approachable level 1 character of fisherman who dreams of bigger things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As we create a simple entry point to the campaign, we create the motivation for our character to join the new party.\u00a0 By giving a few memorable things about Bilby, we give tropes to be used during roleplay that help cement Bilby\u2019s character with the table.\u00a0 The table may not pick up on Bilby\u2019s subtle angst around the camp fire, but they will recognize (and engage with) things that are more obvious and collaborative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You see, I\u2019m not proposing you give up your epic backstory. I\u2019m just suggesting that epic story starts with the campaign. You just write the intro, and then you come to the table, adventurer. Come and draw steel with your new-found allies. Face impossible odds, defeat mighty foes, and bathe yourself in the glory of battle and deed! Until you die \u2026 and then\u2026. give me one more paragraph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You\u2019ve spent countless hours carefully crafting the perfect backstory. Sure, it\u2019s a little wordy at 10 pages, but it\u2019s got heart. You\u2019ve really taken efforts to explore the emotional turmoil of your character’s youth and how that\u2019s shaped them into a powerful, epic adventurer. You have a horde of engaging NPCs that fill their past, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character-creation","category-for-dms","category-for-players"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicandmayhem.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n