Level 1 character has a backstory

>Level 1 character has a backstory

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>contrarian greentext thread

>"I have a set personality for my character in the first session."

all my characters have my backstories, whether 1 or 100
everyone has a start, and i always have a story in my head for each character, to see how exactly he got into whatever he is doing
it is so much fun coming up with ways a simple farmboy could have become a level 1 fighter
heck i will even see if i can connect dirty street rat with wizard

What level 1 character should have, then?

i was wrong, you're gonna get hella (you)s

nice one OP

It's a valid point, even if baiting.

This.
Level one means you are fresh out of training. The most that is acceptable is a level one fighter who learnt on the battlefield rather then extensive training. Maybe a level one wizard who used to be the simpler magic npc class I forget the name of.

I am Wayne. Anam agent of chaos and stupidity. I am the clever idiot, the awesome retard, the stupid genius. I am that who is and isn't. I'm legion but I'm also one dude with a laptop. I'm openly bisexual but a prude towards men. I could fill a thread with clever quips and intelligent discourse... or I could post stupid Shit that's just retarded. I represent every board member and every post, and the futility of arguing and making a big deal out of Shit on here.

I did not study the blade. I did not come in your time of need. I have no idea how to be edgy. The Sausage Egg McMuffin always needs ketchup on it, and the Breakfast Burrito from the Hispanic place down the street is better anyway.

I'm here to make this thread so utterly stupid, so utterly retarded and unpalatable, that no one but me enjoy posting in it. If you think this is stupid, you're right.

>(you)

fuck my pussy baitdaddy

>all characters appear fully-formed at the start of the campaign, like they burst from the forehead of Zeus
Bro, any PC that shows up to any campaign with less than five lines of backstory - hell, they don't even have to be long or detailed ones! - is a PC that the player just don't give a fuck about playing.

Here's your >(you). Take it and fuck right off.

I hate this bullshit "HURR NOTHING HAPPENED IN YOUR LIFE BEFORE THIS CAMPAIGN" reasoning fuckwits like you use. A backstory for a level 1 character isn't about setting them up as some uber powerful character, but instead in setting them up as someone who has the potential to become one. All a lvl 1's backstory does is establish WHY they've become an adventurer. I mean everyone ITT has a backstory but it's not like any of you have accomplished anything impressive. Autists like you just don't understand what the fuck 'backstory' means.

So, how did your Half-Elven Wizard get from a level 0 commoner to be a level 1 PC, then?

Level 1 character is already an adventurer. They're already a step above the regular dude. A level 1 fighter is a veteran.

There's already some backstory there.

Also, we had this thread just a few days ago.

What the fuck kinda backstory can you honestly produce when all you can fight is goblins and orcs?
>I'm a fighter, I found a guy to teach me swordplay, now I'm a level 1 Fighter.
>I'm a wizard, I found a guy to teach me magic, now I'm a level 1 wizard.
>I'm a rogue, I found a guy to teach me thievery, now I"m a level 1 Rogue.
Coming up with a detailed backstory for your level 1 character is about as pointless as producing a prologue to an established franchise.
>"Oh man, I hope Anakin wins that super dangerous pod race long enough to become DARTH FUCKING VADER!"
>"Oh man, I've never met this dude in the main series, I hope he doesn't suffer a horrible death before the end of the story..."
Just cut the shit narrativefag, your level 1 character's life isn't interesting enough to fill out an index card, just deal it.

>Luke Skywalker
>raised in the life of a moisture farmer
>experience with droids
>flight experience with a T-16
>wanted to join the Imperial Military Academy and defect
>found out his father was a Jedi
>trained under a Jedi for a short time
And that was all before level 1.

>Playing level 1

>A level 1 fighter is a veteran.
Only in a shit system

And everything that you just mentioned took place in less than 10-20 minutes of screentime because the most interesting bits of the story happened after they met Han Solo and got onto the Millennium Falcon.

Also, thanks for proving me right, because those six sentences wouldn't be enough to fill out even half of a 3x5 index card and yet it explains everything that you'd need to know about your level 1 character.

Better luck next time.

>Only in a shit system
in every edition of D&D except 5th

I repeat, only in a shit system.

What's it like being so autistic?

>What the fuck kinda backstory can you honestly produce when all you can fight is goblins and orcs?
And, you know, humans? Regular militia or thieves or whatever? Learning your ropes in going to some small-scale war against some other 0-level conscripts makes for a good enough backstory for a fighter.

>Breakfast Burrito
is that different from a normal burrito?

You must be a blast to play with.

>Level 1 character has absolutely any backstory whatsoever

What a stupid fucking binary statement. You're a retard.

I dunno, you tell me.
>Learning your ropes in going to some small-scale war against some other 0-level conscripts makes for a good enough backstory for a fighter.
Not after the umpteenth time you hear it though.
>You must be a blast to play with.
I am, because when I run a game, we don't waste time going through the nitty-gritty details of how a first level fighter learned how to fight and shit like a shitty audit, we dive right into the game assume that everything that happened between level 1 and level 2 is our character's backstory.
It only sounds stupid because you're suffering from cognitive dissonance. It's okay though, it happens to the best of us.

>Levels

Six sentences on half an index card is just right for a first level character, though. It puts some color in the campaign and might turn out to be relevant later on.

boards.fireden.net/tg/thread/53661667/#53661667
MODS, DO YOUR JOB.

So whose horrible backstory hurt you so much that you must keep on being on this crusade, thread after a thread, week after a week, responding to every single user that dares to call you out?

You'd think you had better ways to waste time.

You start off with a backstory and personality but you let your experiences change your character.

I started with a rogue in my first game. Eventually I discovered how useful bottles are and started hoarding them. Then we switched my class to bottlemancer (alchemist).

are you armstrong?

>It only sounds stupid because you're suffering from cognitive dissonance
I don't think that word means what you think it means.

You're basically saying not a single freshly made character should have even a single line of backstory - not even on their origin, their parentage, fuck-all. They just popped into the world, fresh out of aether. Are you sure that's what you're saying?

>OP is a faggot

>Posts in a blatant troll thread
>Shits on others about finding better uses of their time.

>I'm going to blatantly misinterpret what he's saying in order to make my own point seem relevant.
>Oh, and I'll post a stale meme, that'll sure get the other anons on my side.

Multiple cocks in their mouths at all time like OP.

This. That's how everyone in my group makes characters.

>And everything that you just mentioned took place in less than 10-20 minutes of screentime

So 8-16%? Seems reasonable for a backstory

>because those six sentences wouldn't be enough to fill out even half of a 3x5 index card and yet it explains everything that you'd need to know about your level 1 character.

Regardless of level, a backstory should be between 100-500 words. Any more is writefaggotry

It's called flourish, user. Its what differentiates Mark the Wizard from Bob the Wizard.

>blatantly misinterpret

You said "has a backstory" in the OP post. It's a pretty damn binary statement, isn't it?

If it's not, then exactly what the fuck did you mean? Where goes the line? Why must you be so fucking vague? How about make your statement actually clear instead of fishing for easy (you)s?

Yeah, instead of beans and carne asana and rice it has potatoes and eggs and bacon

you sir are a idiot. please review the post you linked to youyou have ignored his points, that it need not be detailed and need not be set up for him to be the ultimate [insert thing here] it is his reasons for going on a adventure

you are either moronic or baiting, the jury is still out on that. you can not "waste" time going over how your warrior learnt to fight, his master affects him.
you can not "waste" time learning how the rouge became a thief/ assassin that is a fundamental part of how they act.
and your point on cognitive dissonance is daft

that's a creepy yugi

I agree with the word count minimum, but the maximum should be 200

Are you replying to the correct post?

>you are either moronic or baiting, the jury is still out on that
We get this thread at least once a fucking week. That puts it pretty firmly down to "baiting" in my book.

It's a burrito with disgusting shit like egg and sausage in it instead of beef and beans and onions.

I'm not OP but it's adorable how new you are, so I'll let that one slide.

My backstory is typically 'born from the aether to go on this adventure'. As in the character is a retarded baby man who has been thrust into the game with zero experience or sense

It's the core of the issue, I didn't bother to go back five posts of fag calling for my reply.

...

You know, that unironically sounds like a fun kind of a character to play one time.

Truly they were
Not OP But

Should we make a general? /cbg/?

oh.... well I didn't know that
right bait it is.

oh and I forgot to link my picture to my post so here it is

I first used it in Shadowrun when I found out that clones in SR were retarded babymen so I just played a fresh clone

So what if it's bait? We can still have a discussion on what makes for a good backstory and what doesn't.

Of all the posts to reply to you chose the single one that doesn't mention any of the things you said

I prefer the level 1 character to have something, but something simple.

I mean, everyone has a childhood. There were some key events that shape starting attitudes, beliefs, and skill set. It could be as simple as being a farmhand with a poor yet stable family who got conscripted for a couple years and is generally wary of anything mystical, because farmer. Nothing there is overly dramatic or set in stone, especially for the younger character.

>everyone has a childhood
Wrong

Shh.

What is good backstory for a starting character, in your opinion?

No one cares to read your stupid boring-ass fanfiction explaining why your character acts this and this way, user, just get to playing and roll your fucking dice.

>you can not "waste" time learning how the rouge became a thief/ assassin that is a fundamental part of how they act.
Yes you can, because every fucking Rogue develops the same basic backstory.
>"Hurr I was an ophan who grew up on the streets, so fucking original. Durr, I kill people for money because nobody hugged me enough, so deep."
Just cut the bullshit already for goodness sake and let us get into the game.

Nobody gives a fuck about how your life was as a child besides your therapist, and even then it's only because you're paying him to listen to your problems.

Just get to the fucking game and let your character develop naturally during play.

>character is over the age of 20
>still level 1

>Just cut the bullshit already for goodness sake and let us get into the game.


>Wah it takes me more than 5 minutes to think of an interesting backstory this is hard

fucking players man

The duality of meme
But seriously they're not totally wrong, most other players don't give a fuck about your childhood, it's better to have an idea for a backstory than anything concrete so that later you can use your vague ideas as opportunities for character growth

> ten second backstory that sets up some context
> autistic screeching

Holy shit. Calm down.

>"Hurr an evil dark lord needs a powerful artifact, so fucking original. Durr, the paladin is a chosen one, so deep."

Fuck you DM, your shit isn't as great either.

>Frodo and the Gray Mouser have the same basic backstory

nice exact same bait as a week ago

Shouldn't you be playing 3.5 instead of posting here?

I mean there are plenty of answers to that and some systems have it so that your 'backstory' is part of how you determine your level 1 skills and stats. But in general DnD terms I go for the short and sweet 'retard who likes swords is told by his dad to get out and go fight monsters or something' or 'whack-ass hippie meets a talking animal that teaches him some druid magic'

I can't imagine how boring your life as a level 0 peasant must be then.

>level 0 peasant
>grow crops, chop wood
>one day just shrug, pick up a sword from somewhere, slap on some armor, set off to adventure

There's actually a pretty interesting concept there too.

See? These threads are pretty neat because even though OP is a faggot, taking that stuff seriously actually leads to some pretty funny characters.

No backstory made within five minutes is going to be interesting user.

Any backstory spent more than five minutes on is a waste of fucking time, getting in the way of the DM's awesome and actually interesting adventure, and organic character development emerging from the game itself, and boring us to death with shitty fanfiction.

...

This summer, in a world of over-defined characters that follow painfully cliche paths of destiny, three heroes will unite to fight a dragon or something, who cares. A newborn retard with a sword, some filthy peasant who wants to kill things, and a whack-ass hippie who talked to an animal once are about to reach

The First Level

Frodo and Gray Mouser wouldn't exactly be D&D Rogues either.

Hey, if you're automatically dismissing every character backstory as shitty and uncreative, then it stands for a reason that the DM can't possibly be any better, now can he?

>and a whack-ass hippie who talked to an animal once

>the DM's awesome and actually interesting adventure

not being

>shitty fanfiction

The CR1/2 Goblins that you're fighting don't need a backstory though because they only exist to be slaughtered by the party.

Even then, assuming your GM isn't running a GMPC or some stupid shit like that, you generally won't know about any of their backstories unless you personally do some digging on your own.

What makes you say that?

>The CR1/2 Goblins that you're fighting don't need a backstory though because they only exist to be slaughtered by the party.
Well, now we've got real and solid evidence that you're not only a baiting retard, but a shitty DM as well.

>not informing the party in painful detail just how active these goblins were in their community
>not telling them about the lives and families they've destroyed
>not actively making these CR 1/2 goblins more sympathetic than any of the major characters simply to unnerve and upset your players

Because they're actually characters that are useful at something aside from "look for traps" and "stab a dude once when he isn't looking."

That and D&D Rogues only really exist so that martials are one-trick ponies who can barely tie their own shoes.

Meanwhile, Conan is the actual thief guy.

Funny how that works.

How often have you honestly stopped to think about the lives of the monsters you've killed over the course of your tabletop RPG career?

Never that's why, because nobody gives a shit about those shitty goblins and when the DM tries to force you to feel sorry for them, it's usually ham-fisted nonsense that ignores the fact that they were actively trying to kill the party.
>"OMG, you killed the poor helpless goblins, don't you feel like a hero...you monster."
Why yes, I do feel like a hero, because we killed monsters that were kidnapping people and we managed to save a bunch of peasants as well.

Get over yourself.

So it's either Goblins-tier "I'M SAD", or simple vermin that exist to be exterminated by the heroes like this was some fucking MMO?

More single-track binary thoughts, I see. No sense of nuance whatsoever. I'm glad I don't play in any of your games.

Conan is what the Fighter used to be, a dude who could fight well and use cunning to avoid traps and deal with magic-users.

Then somewhere along the line, D&D added the Rogue/Thief class and now, all martials have to choose between being a big stompy guy with the IQ of a potato or a skinny twink who can only afford to deal a shitload of damage to someone once, assuming that they even hit the fucker at all.

Like there's no reason why any of the Rogue's abilities couldn't be just a general thing that all martials get by default, like who the hell goes into a dungeon with no knowledge on how to look for/disarm a trap and who wouldn't want to be stealthy when everyone inside the dungeon wants to kill you?

Makes no sense yo.

Nah I get your point, but frankly beyond slight character quirks, why would you give the 'cannon fodder' enemies huge complex backstories that the players will never learn? A bandit thug who plays the harmonica is an interesting, slightly memorable bad guy that dies quick. Why bother creating details about his son's dance recital or what he majored in in bandit college when you know that shit will never, ever come up?

I'm glad you don't play in my games either. Assuming from your posts you'd probably try to revive the goblins we slaughtered out of some misguided act of mercy, only to get yourself and the rest of the party killed once the goblin takes a swipe and alerts the rest of the complex of your presence.

And for the record, goblins are vermin that exist to be slaughtered, that's how they've been since D&D was a fucking thing. Just because 3.PF added monstrous races as playable characters doesn't mean that their species is less monstrous as a result.

>'cannon fodder'

If you're not playing OSR, you shouldn't have cannon fodder enemies generally.

>huge complex backstories

So don't give them huge complex backstories. Give them small ones.

>Why bother creating details about his son's dance recital or what he majored in in bandit college when you know that shit will never, ever come up?

...Have you ever written a backstory? Or played a game in general?

>why would you give the 'cannon fodder' enemies huge complex backstories that the players will never learn?
The original argument was any "backstory" at all. Now you're talking about "huge complex backstories". You're moving the goalposts.

A bit of backstory, reason for their presence here and place in their ecology, perhaps a way to just talk to them and get past them without a fight, the occasional funny quirk like that harmonica bit - all very well, all adding to the game.

>goblins are vermin that exist to be slaughtered, that's how they've been since D&D was a fucking thing
You know fuck-all about early D&D. Back in the day battle was last resort, and you were supposed to try and sneak or trick or diplomance your way through the enemies first. Even goblins had some scale of threat and personality to them.

I'm not going to come up with details about the thug who the players are going to beat up in about two rounds max's home life, it's just tedious. If anything, his 'backstory' is who he works for and why the players are about to beat him up.

Then why put them there at all? What's interesting or memorable about him? Why not just skip the encounter altogether?