How important should your character backstory be?
How long? How short?
What mistakes to avoid when writing it?
Personally, I noticed every GM has their own ideas about it, and some ignores it while others give him too much importance imho.
Where does Veeky Forums stands?
I like when most of the backstory and character can be described in one-two sentences.
Then I sit down with the player and make some npc's there characters are related to in some way.
I mean you can kinda do as much as you want and then adjust with the DM's help. My main character I've been playing has about an 8 pages of backstory. Mind you I wrote that in novel/story form with dialogue. I did that mostly because I was bored one night and decided to write it up with detail.
Thing is, I could describe the character's backstory in maybe about 4 sentences without all the fluff if I needed to.
A recent character I've only ever known his backstory as a paragraph long at most without any detail.
Write as much as YOU want, the DM can decide how much is needed for the game and the rest is just your own little lore stockpile.
It depends on the game. The only useful backstory is that which can be used to create interesting conflicts in the PCs current life, as such depending on what the game is about and how it's structured a different amount of backstory is useful.
For most games, less is more.
Even games with a dense story based on interpersonal intrigue rarely call for more than a paragraph. More than that, and you're basically just writing short form prose for your own amusement.
Less is more, basically always.
Paragraph max
The only people who say this are lazy shits. Yes, you can do a decent job quickly but anything that's good at one size is better if expanded well.
How much would you say a Call of Cthulhu backstory should be long?
As long as you can make it without running out of good ideas.
I did a "backstory is what you character remember in game, the people he knows in game and the justification for what/how he does in game" once. Which meant 0 prewritten text - besides what would be on the sheet anyway, I mean.
Went well.
2 sentences per level for the first 5 levels. for 5-10, use 3 sentences. 10-15 use 4 sentences, 15-20, use 5 sentences.
a high level character deserves to have the equivalent of a synopsis to the first two books of a three+ book series, as they are the stuff of legends after a certain point.
>What mistakes to avoid when writing it?
One mistake I often see is people writing a backstory that has their character being more awesome than what they have on their character sheet.
Remember that what is on your character sheet when your character starts the game is the end point of your backstory.
A related issue it players who realize that, still write the awesome backstory, then throw in some sudden, one sentence, event that takes all their characters power. I've seen that so often that it's just boring now.
Some other tips:
- Be prepared for the GMs plot to render your backstory irrelevant.
- Think about how you would give the GM a quick summary of your backstory if he asks. Too much important detail to be able to summarize is a problem.
- I like it when players include a few mysteries in their backstory that their character doesn't know the answers to. Because that means I can decide the answer and work the mystery into my plot if I see an interesting way to do so.
I find it funny that you just assumed this was a 20 level, level based system. You're fucking retarded and I hope you die slowly, painfully, and alone.
I never understood this.
Even my snowflakiest pc had a privileged upbringing, but cast it all away to retire with his hot wife. His family's enemies found him, made an example out of him, and his god healed him in exchange for him going out and living up to the duties he tried to skirt.
>- Be prepared for the GMs plot to render your backstory irrelevant.
This would earmark, to me, that the GM is more concerned about their own story than bringing the players into it. It usually takes little to use a nugget from the pcs backstory and make it something of note.
I saw a guy at the LGS come in with a backstory that ran 1 legal sheet, front and back, single spaced, Arial typefont size 12... PER LEVEL. I'm surprised he kept the margins standard.
2-3 sentences on each: family, early life, discovery of their talents, what made them want to adventure, any previous adventures, why they joined the party.
I standardly run D&D and Pathfinder 4 days a week, and that is what I allow new characters to have for backstory.
>I find it funny that you needed to make this comment, even though the OP doesn't specifically state one system or another.
For other systems, I allow a backstory appropriate in length for how old the character is and what they have accomplished in life. A 60 yo archaeology professor that has a history of stopping nazis will be allowed a longer backstory than some post-imperial sanitation worker whose hungry for white meat.
Ok, your backstory might be interesting. It doesn't sound like your character became less capable, he just lost various assets and connections.
I'm mainly talking about PCs whose backstory has them easily killing things that would 1-shot the character they have on their sheet.
>This would earmark, to me, that the GM is more concerned about their own story than bringing the players into it. It usually takes little to use a nugget from the pcs backstory and make it something of note.
Depends on the backstory. Most I could use a nugget or two from. But I know one person whose backstory almost always involves the PC being caught up in very major events that the player made up. To involve those events I'd have to go from what little the PC saw and come up with some really detailed explanation. Probably as much detail as I had planning the campaign in the first place.
For example, in a sci-fi setting where ships are relatively standardized, his PC was found as a baby in a ship unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. While the PCs species being one of the species included in the rulebook.
I wanted a campaign about the politics between the existing factions of the setting. Not one that introduced a completely new faction that I'd have to write from scratch.
When you make it to level 3, you get 2 paragraphs.
You're still retarded and pathetic.
Bare minimum it should include fluff that explains what the character is like and maybe why/how they have certain perks, feats, skills, or whatever the equivalent is for your system
playing my first game. i texted the backstory to DM. i contributed probably 4 text messages worth, and he dictated another 4 back to write me in to an existing story.
>Write as much as YOU want, the DM can decide how much is needed for the game and the rest is just your own little lore stockpile.
what if I don't write any of it down. I just made it up. f I need more backstory that is just pulled out of my ass. if the DM needs some backstory they can ask for it
When I get a backstory from a player this is what I want:
>Format:
Brevity. Bullet points are fine. A timeline works, too.
>Content:
Plot hooks. You're adventuring because you're a farm boy and want to see the world? That's fine. You're adventuring because you killed an important man in the next kingdom over and the law's after you? That gives me something to do.
NPC-bait. Do you have a best friend? A professional contact? A family? An enemy? Several enemies? Give me names, locations, and their relationship to you. I don't need or want anything else. The more you put in here the more difficult it is for me to fit them into the story. "Has a brother in Las Vegas, they're not on good terms" is perfect. If I ever send you guys to Vegas (and I just might, if this is in your backstory), that brother could make an appearance as anything from a cop to a mob boss. You start getting specific and he becomes less useful to me.
So yeah, the short of it is: Keep it short, and give me *actionable content*. I don't necessarily need to know about your lost love who died. She's dead. She can still be a part of your character, of course, and you can pine about her during play, but your backstory is a tool to me and your dead ex-girlfriend might not be something I need to know to create the adventure. Your character can be as deep, complex, and multifaceted as you want, and I really love seeing people get invested in their character at the table, but the backstory you hand me is not the place to do it. Keep it short and relevant.