Rate my party, this is the summary of the PC's backstories submitted to me...

Rate my party, this is the summary of the PC's backstories submitted to me. The players decided as a group ahead of time what classes they would be taking before writing up their stories and character sheets:

The fighter is just a farm boy with a sword. Due to a bad draught one year, and his parents owing so much to the lenders, they couldn't make payments and the lenders took the farm. His parents now live as beggars in the local town. He was able to scrounge up the precious bit of crop left and sell it to buy a crappy breastplate and some greaves and use his father's old home defense rusty sword. The only martial training he has ever had has been him getting 5 precious minutes a day of free time whacking a stick on a tree before it got too dark. He adventures to seek riches and get him and his parents a decent living.

The Wizard was another wizard's apprentice. But that wizard was kindof an asshole and really just wanted a manservant, not someone to pass his legacy to. The 'apprentice' did all of the wizard's day to day chores and basically being a slave. He was chastised for ever asking to be taught magic or secretly practicing it (of course he was hired on under false pretenses), where his master would tell him 'you're not ready' and leave it at that. He gleaned a scant bit from watching his master. The wizard finally died of old age, alone, and the apprentice now finds he has all this stuff. The town didn't like the wizard and apprentice all that much (mainly because of how much an asshole the old man was) and started a raid on the tower. The apprentice gathered a robe, a hat, and a book he barely understands and escaped through the night. He seeks to understand more of what he just wanted all along.

cont.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ
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The thief is an orphan street urchin in a big city. He rolled with a gang or 2 of other street urchins, living off of scraps, but never getting violent with people because the city has a very good peacekeeping force. He caught a lucky break and pickpocketed a half-way decent dagger off of some drunk. The dagger was better quality than anything he ever owned, which all he ever had was a piece of steel he ground against rock until it made a crude blade. This dagger gave him a sense of empowerment and decided to leave the streets and seek his fortune elsewhere.

The cleric was an altar boy for the church. He always wanted to adventure and spread the word of their patron deity, but duties always kept him busy at the chapel. Their spiritual leader was very pious and protective of them. Then the new king, next in line from his father, declared a new official church of the kingdom and ordered all funds and support to that new church. The altar boy finds his church's attendance and tithes, and support from the congregation, dropping to near zero over a single month. The altar boys wake up one moring, and on their way to light the candles, they find their leader had committed suicide ritually in front of the icon of their god. The boys are now orphaned. This one boy immediately ran to the reliquary and grabbed a couple important items, particularly an icon and book, and left to seek his destiny.

cont.

The ranger is a beautiful half-elf woodsman who was born of human rape, and her adopted elf parents were killed in an orc raid on their village, of which she is the lone survivor. She got a vision from the elf deity that her destiny is to topple evil empires who expand into their heritage forests. She has 2 animal companions; a bird who can fetch anything it is told to, and a wolf twice the size of her that guards her loyally, one she raised from a pup since the orc raid that killed her parents and village. Before she seeked adventure, she found the orc encampment and slaughtered every single orc that dwelled therein, including the women and children, which she feels guilty about. But she is able to find a ring amongst their plunders which when worn grants her invisibility. She now seeks adventure to fulfill the the prophesy her goddess gave her.

The party will be meeting on a caravan that travels through the forests to the great capital city of the land, where much opportunity for the adventurers supposedly awaits.

Jesus the sue is strong with this one

What the fuck?
The others are all 4-5/10 level 1 backstories and could be engaging characters, but this is a real crock of shit.
I really hope you won't be approving this wannabe main character

Are you rusing me, user? This seems too contrived, everyone else except the last one has made backstories that explain their call to adventure and why they may still be a little green at what they do.
And then you hit me with edgy Mary Sue McMain-Character who has already solved her tragic backstory alone and has some bullshit items added in for good measure.

If you want my genuine advice, have it so that the orcs who killed her parents are still alive and she has set off on a quest to kill them. Give her only one of the animal companions and deny her the ring of invisibility. The bullshit with the quest from a godess can be added later if you feel it can fit into your campaign.

>Before she seeked adventure, she found the orc encampment and slaughtered every single orc that dwelled therein, including the women and children, which she feels guilty about

Come on dude.

>a farmer with a sword
>not even a proper wizard apprentice
>an altar boy
>AN ORC-SLAYER WITH TWO STUPIDLY STRONG COMPANIONS AND A RING OF INVISIBILITY

Something about the last one doesn't really mix well with the rest of the party. You should talk the ranger into getting in line with the others.

>Fighter farm boy
4/10, clichéd, but good motivation for doing low-level quests
>Poorly-trained wizard
4/10, clichéd, but room for character development
>Urchin Thief
2/10, poorly-described character, motivations unclear
>Acolyte Cleric
3/10, events surrounding the character are more interesting than the actual character, motivations unclear
>That Ranger
0/10, do not approve this character. See previous responses from other anons

I'm curious as to why these assholes will care at all about each other.

>Before she seeked adventure, she found the orc encampment and slaughtered every single orc that dwelled therein
Why would they throw away a perfectly serviceable, if cliche, plot/adventure hook like this for "MUH DIVINE PROPHECIES" insyead?

Ah, the Russian judge.

so what gets an 8 or above in your book, user?

Holy shit you sound like nofun at all. If you're a dm, I feel pretty damn sorry for your players

Meh. The ranger needs to be dialed back, but there's potential.

Different user, i like this thread prompt. Rate my party as well.

(1/5)

Lizardfolk ranger originally raised in a failing tribe of caravan raiders outside of a major trade route that is akin to the silk road.

learned to speak very simple common from a constant exposure to it from prisoners(sell/trade them to the gnolls/drow). Eventually the tribe breaks down under the pressure of a larger clan(gnolls) and the chief dying at a bad time.

Lizardfolk flees the tribal life before everything fall apart and starts following the caravans eventually reaches (starting city) where he improves he common and starts working as a guide/bodyguard for anyone looking to explore the desert. Five years after that he gets hired for a job along with the other PCs to go explore some ruins in the desert at which point the game itself starts.

Human wizard.

"The great ARCANEO!" Sort of a shady figure.

Child genus street urchin who managed to sneak his way into the wizard's guild through a hole in the wall. Made off with a whole cartload of magical books and trinkets. Sold most of them off for money cool robe and stashed his cash in hidey holes. All of the 10'000 GP of it, no longer strapped for cash he bought a tavern room and focused on learning magic. eventually his money ran out due to his terrible spending habits, desperate for more money he gets job for a ruin excavation site by bluffing that he is an archaeologist wizard.

Okay, yeah, the ranger is absolute BS. Virtually every idea here is cliche or trash. Level and game? In all likelihood, a free Ring of Invisibility is wayyyy above the starting wealth of these players, and you definitely should not give them such. I'm also hoping that the whole two animal-companions is from a special character-building option which they had to trade something else for, as Rangers typically don't get a second animal companion. And of course, parents getting killed and then you taking revenge on them makes you the most emo, annoying character possible. See: Anakin.

(3/5)
Drow bard.


She fled the underdark because they hated her positive music, she moves to the starting city after disguising herself as an elf and planning to kickstart a career as a music composer but gets contacted on the way there by a mysterious fella offering her a job and a shitton of m money because she is 'familiar' with a group of ruins, having explored them as a young child when she was brought along for a caravan raid. the cash incentive is to much and she accepts the job offer.

Half elf gunslinger.

Literally just a some half elf who is a mercenary........This shit head literally has a backstory of getting offered a job and accepting it.

(fuck you Jared!)

Halfling monk, born as the great, great, great, great granddaughter of the greatest monk in history of the world ,Kalileaf was inspired to live up to her family legacy, trained as a martial artist, hated it and was stuck into the training by peers. One day a mysterious fella arived at the dojo and told her that she would no longer be forced into this lifestyle if she survived this adventure.

Kalileaf took the offer in a heartbeat and set out the apply for the job.

I like these ones

Silly but OK

Oh god this sounds like a pain in the ass.

Ah, yes, the Traditional PC Backstory.

8/10

Nice original backstory and a very good explainantion for why this lizardfolk is in the party.

11/10

AMAZING! This just oozes with this guy's sense of personality, even better is that I can't say that I've ever seen a 'child genus/Oliver twist story spin on a wizard before.

5.5/10

Drow....she's thankfully not a drizzlet wannabe and the music thing seems good, story breaks down by the end with the part where hpshe gats asspulled into the plot.

I 5/10
Very Vanilla.

gunslingers are badasses though. Jared has good taste.

0/10

I want to stab this little pile of rejected kender shit and drown my brain in a tub of bleach after reading through that.

Fuck whoever allowed that PC to exist and fuck whoever came up with it even harder.

I'm pretty amazed I got this approved recently:

Frederick (Freddie) grew up in Carendale. Not knowing his parents, he was looked after by a young woman. The woman also looked after several other orphaned or otherwise helpless kids, and they all knew her as Momma, the "parent" of them all.
Nevertheless, times were hard, and they all had to get money and food wherever they could, usually through theft, but a couple chose other paths, such as Freddie.
Freddie chose music.
He quickly gained notoriety in the slums as a talented busker, but fame is fickle, and people are greedy. After a successful afternoon on a market street, he was cornered by thugs, demanding the money he had earned that day. He refused to give up what he had made and the thugs got violent.
It was at this point Momma showed up, she saw the situation and realised the thugs wouldn't leave peacefully no matter what. A short fight broke out, which left Momma with a large wound, and the thugs dead. Before the guards arrived she told Freddie to flee, and gave him her ring to remember her by. Today, he still earns decent money performing on the street, but hasn't seen the woman who raised him and saved him since. He decided that before he went back to face his old family of cast out kids, he would become famous, and bring back enough money that they would all be able to live comfortably.
youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ

...Wow. Did the DM just not get it?

What're your plans for the character?

...can you sing?