Character Backgrounds

How the fuck do I write a good character background?

I always write like 2 paragraphs of backstory, then go back and read it and it's utter shit. Do I need to take writing classes or am I just retarded?

Also, post backgrounds, I guess.

Other urls found in this thread:

1d4chan.org/wiki/Creating_Characters_for_Character-Driven_Games
mythcreants.com/blog/the-six-traits-of-strong-characters/
app.roll20.net/forum/post/1315058/10-minute-background
archive.4plebs.org/dl/tg/image/1474/67/1474675652410.pdf
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

You don't write a background. Have a vague idea of what your character did in the past and figure it out as you play.

From the sound of it you're judging yourself too harshly. In general, less is more, and try to focus it on what actually matters to the game.

A backstory fulfills two general purposes- It gives you some grounding for playing the character, defining who they are, and it also gives the GM potential plot hooks and connections they can use to link the character to the world.

As long as you achieve that, it's all good. Don't worry about it seeming cliche or boring or derivative, you're not writing a novel here. And don't be afraid to leave things undefined- Grey areas that let you adapt to events as they happen, or that let the GM better connect you to the setting, are really useful things to have.

I just do random backstory

Why do you think it shit?

I try to do this, but I end up coming up with some complicated story. Then as I write it down I try to abbreviate everything and it ends up seeming rushed and most of it doesn't make sense since it misses a lot of things because I am trying to put 30 or so years of a character's life into a paragraph, and the event that made the character go adventuring on another short paragraph.

I'd post one as an example, but I am too ashamed to do so.

Pull back on the details. Broad strokes are all you need, you don't need lots of intricate twists and turns, just a general trajectory to give a good idea.

Normally you want a very soft background, your char is lvl 1 so he basically did nothing very extraordinary. Be creative, he can have a school rival, an enemy of the family, an ally from the neighbourhood. Just dont kill all your family, dont make an epic story on how your charcter killed a demon and made a pact with god so he can become a lvl 1 adventurer, is just cringe

I always use this:
1d4chan.org/wiki/Creating_Characters_for_Character-Driven_Games

It gives a great step-by-step process for designing a good character.

This also gives good advice:
mythcreants.com/blog/the-six-traits-of-strong-characters/

>being ashamed on an anonymous imageboard
Come one user, show us your backstory, we don't expect a novel written in a perfect prose, what you wrote is surely good enough for the purpose of a background for a ttrpg character. You don't need take writing class just for that

The quality of your prose doesn't really matter for a backstory. Just write what you want for the character. Since you seem to have a sense of shame and embarrassment, I doubt your characters are special snowflake edgelords that oblivious retards think they're so cool and creative for making.

It's not like I'm actually ashamed, but the specific backstory that made me create this thread is on roll20, so y'know. I have another character in mind, so I will try to write a backstory for him and post it here.

I used to make those dark an edgy characters whose whole families died, I guess we all do at some point, but true, not anymore.

Okay I did it, the background would be for a DnD Barbarian.

-*-
Being born in a big nomadic tribe is harsh even if you are one of the many sons of the Chieftain, but Jezal loved it. He loved fighting with the other kids, hunting in the steppe and riding all day. His mother was one of the Chieftain's concubines and he was her only son, she was getting older and received very little attention, so Jezal spent a lot of time with her and she did her best to educate him on their oral tradition.

Years went by and on his 16th birthday, the Chieftain passed away in a hunting accident. Almost overnight, the tribe became chaos as the chieftain's sons killed eachother in an attempt to succeed their father tradition dictated that the strongest son would become the new Chieftain.

In the midst of all this, Jezal stole 2 horses and ran away from the tribe with his mother. They hid in a big city and Jezal took odd jobs to support the both of them, his strength and martial prowess was in high demand.

5 years later, something happened... [whatever the plot hook to begin the campaign is].
-*-

I still feel like everything is kinda rushed, like it's missing a lot of things. I did not say anything about the character's flaws or anything since I am only trying to get feedback on the backstory and how it could be written better.

app.roll20.net/forum/post/1315058/10-minute-background

and that's even too much for the games I run.

Meh, seems alright. Sentence structure is a little janky in points which could lead to you disliking the way it sounds, but the substance of it is pretty standard and inoffensive.

Seems classic and not especially
original but I like it! You need ti stop worrying for nothing, as a GM I'd be glad if my players gave me at least a backstory like this

It's alright. It gives an outline of his skill set and establishes some connections to the world. It doesn't say so much about his personality. Here's some things to consider: Did he enjoy learning the tribe's legends? What were his relationship with his father like? And with the tribe in general? Why didn't he make a play to become chieftain? How did he adjust to city-life? Does he ever plan on returning to the tribe?

Guess I'll have to stop worrying, I'm not trying to write a book, just put out something decent. Thanks guys.

Those are good points, but I used to make huge backstories and now I try to cut it down a lot, so I leave stuff out that should be there and I miss or that I expect to be filled later with the DM. Thanks.

Here is the background story of my favorite character ever, an Elf Ranger:

> Name is Tht'wh-Chwl'dl (which means "That Which Chews Loudly")
> Savage warrior of the Bloodleaf Tribe
> Tribe is always in fight with other tribes, because savages
> One day, Tht'wh-Chwl'dl is captured by an enemy tribe
> Enemy tribe marks her for cannibalism - which is actually the greatest honor a warrior can receive
> Before that they let her chill around their village, until her time is due (not caged or anything, because warriors are bound by honor not to run away)
> Runs away anyway
> Can't go back to her own tribe because of dishonor
> Sneaks back anyway to get her daughter to come with her
> Daughter is 10~13 yo (or whatever is the elf equivalent of that)
> When daughter sees her, look her dead in the eye and say "You bring dishonor and shame to our tribe. Run away as the coward you are or I shall kill you myself"
> Runs away in tears
> Failed hard in life
fast foward
> Living 5+ years by herself, distant from her tribe, too consumed by guilt and shame

That was the original concept I had. From that I took the following characteristics that would shape her into an interesting character

> Always hungry, sounds like a t-rex when eating
> Talks and acts as if she was a fearless warrior, but its really afraid to die
> Talks and acts as if she didn't need anyone, but its really needy and craves for acceptance
> Is a complete savage, don't understand humans and their weird traditions, hates that she doesn't understand or fit in
> Don't 100% understand the Common language, use weird words and mixes it up sometimes
> Walks naked around because savage
> Respects people who prove themselves as good warriors, despise those who don't

Btw, I never told anyone else at my group (not even the DM) about the character's backstory. Did it entirely to have something to base my roleplaying in. Turned out to be my favorite character to roleplay.

I love everything about this. You mind if I totally just copy paste this for my wood elf barb?

>asking for permission to save something from an anonymous image board

Here's my offering, a Kenku Knowledge Cleric named [sound of a tree falling in the woods].

>Born into a kenku criminal gang in the burned rafters of a slum city, Treefall lived a stable life as a coin counterfeiter.
>The City Watch eventually caught on to the operation, and raided the district, slaying most and capturing some.
>The captives were either hung or sold as slaves; Treefall ended up in the possession of a mad wizard, kept captive in a "mental asylum" which was actually a menagerie for MEDICAL EXPERIMENTATION.

>During his stay, he was roommates with a mad dwarf, a worshiper of Savras (or so he claimed; his bizarre proselytizing rants didn't quite match up with any known deity).
>Sometime during the months of forced invasive brain surgeries and nightlong rants, Treefall's mind was broken.
>He could finally glimpse the truth as his nameless roommate could. Savras, the Lord of Fate, truly plotted the course of the world.

>Treefall knew that he could collect the fragments of truth in his head and complete the picture of the cosmos, becoming one with the divine... if he could only collect enough knowledge.
>During a botched escape which led his roommate to his death, Treefall slipped over the walls of the compound with nothing but his rags and a stolen crowbar.
>He set out in the world, with the holy mission of collecting all its knowledge. A Kenku can never forget what he has read; Treefall would read every word ever written.

PRAISE BE THE LORD OF DESTINY

Sorry, spending too much time on reddit these days

There isn’t very much meat on the bone here. Really all I get is he’s close to his mother, very athletic, and rebellious enough to run from his tribe. It’s a solid start but honestly your fear of making it too long has led to a lack of depth

i'm the guy from yeah, go ahead user!

just keep in mind that dinosaur fossils are fake evidence implanted by Satan to undermine our faith

For one thing, you are doing too much more than likely. Quality comes with practice, but length factors in.
A reasonable backstory for any character is 1 paragraph + 1-2 sentences per level. This means that their background gets a paragraph, and every 2-5 levels you get another. If you have a level 20 character, you get one or two pages at the absolute max (i can fit 5 paragraphs on a sheet of notebook paper, 10 on both sides)
Now, to improve quality, don't thing every detail is important to write down. Too much and you can bore people. Also, if you are starting a low level character (under level 5), you haven't done anything important enough to be noteworthy on anything more than a local scale.
Important things to note; birthplace, family, motivation. Then move on to achievements. Keep it simple and avoid edginess. If you killed a monster that was attacking merchants, put that in. If you went and farmed 50 wolves, that might not be so impressive. If you killed 50 goblins, that may be a decent one to add in depending on your level.
Important deviations from the above;
>Level-less systems: Go by when important events occur. These tend to be more story-based in my experience, so go ahead and add a bit more fluff.
>Low Magic system: chances are, in a low magic system, your achievements at low level will be worth more. High mortality means risk. Risk means renown. Renown means your abilities go beyond what they normally do and killing a low-level monster may earn you jobs a hundred miles away once word spreads.
Remember, KISS.
Keep It Simple Stupid.

The most important should be the character’s relationships, and a couple of major experiences. IMO the background “writes itself” over time as you need it to.

Fantasy Setting:
Dwarf born during human uprising, somehow at a young age ends up in Githyanki chains, not sure if sold, parents killed, etc.
Gets liberates by cousin of slavers who serves under a philosophy goddess. He’s taught to read on the long trek to his home city. Finds that it’s mostly ruined, most Dwarves in some form of servitude. Makes a break for the neighboring Free City.
Can’t find decent work to nepotism bulllshit in the Guilds, doesn’t know his clan name, etc.Starts doing illegal small jobs, usually construction, mason-repairing, some prospecting if they can forge a permit.
Gets approached by a half-dragon Yuan-ti with an ultimatum. Either take a massive, lucrative mining contract across thousands of miles away, or get reported to the city and the guilds. Discover that Yuan-ti has other partners looking to settle a new city. Invited on as an “equal partner” on a council to help govern this new town despite being basically a teenager and not well liked by his workers.

Shenanigans and unexpected casualties ensue.

I would vastly prefer this over most of the characters I've seen people online make. There really isn't anything wrong with it, it's just a little basic. I would just ask you to add some more about his tribe's culture and people he was close to aside from his mother. And yeah, something about his flaws.

Personally I have a soft spot for basic characters like these, characters who didn't stand out much, if at all, in the setting before they started adventuring. Who could have been any other person you might pass on the street in a city, maybe doing the odd job to support their mom.

> 3 elements of your past that shaped your personality
> 3 personal objectives beyond "get riches, fuck bitches"
> 3 meaningful relationship with NPCs. Rivals, Lovers, Family Members, Mentors, Tormentors, etc.

And you're set. Develop the rest in game. If you're really into it, make a rival's character sheet and hand it to your DM.

Do share please

You gotta read more good literature. Alexandre Dumas was good at backstories..

archive.4plebs.org/dl/tg/image/1474/67/1474675652410.pdf

Visualize your character and what makes them stand out from the common folks.
Think on how they got to where they are.
Throw in how the events of the past shaped their current personality.

You're done.

Let's roll a character d20 for race

I know this is going to sound like a le ebin meem, and I know the advice I'm going to give is going to sound really abrasive and unconstructive, but basically, all you need to do is NOT be a brainlet.

Wtf do I mean by that? Okay, so pretty much just look at all the fucking autistic sperglords and spaghetti no-lifers at your local gameshop and find out what it is about THEIR character backstories that piss you off and remind yourself not to do that.

Example?
>Hurr durr my character's name is Garthfidriel Goulinkien Zarchamol Segnezzer and he's a half human/elf that gives him super 1337 'bilities and the reason he's so competent at FOIGHTIN' (lol, I LOOOOOVE basing my character's worth on how good they are at FOIGHTIN' xD) is because he used to be the in the prestigious KING'S GUARD, an incredibly prestigious role that would surely make random NPCs in the game to turn and say "Jesus fucking Christ, you're were in the King's Guard? Out of respect for your prior endeavors, I will kowtow to your superior deference", and while your unique situation as an ex-fucking-kingsman might be used in a variety of creative and innovative ways to either further advance the plot or the dimensionalism of your character (I don't know, maybe he was disgraced? Maybe he was framed? Maybe he just became disillusioned with the idea of being a tool of battle?), we'll NEVER fucking know, because you're such a fucking brainlet that the ONLY reason you decided to make him an ex-king's guard is because you wanted that extra stat when it comes to your character FOIGHTIN' xD!

See that?
>Shitty name that tries too hard at sounding mystical and shit
>Le half-hoomin, half-vampire/elf/drow sooper speeshul OC Mary Sue'ism
>Only thing worth mentioning about character is that he's so le good at le fighting (roleplaying equivalent of going on a date and the only thing you can fucking talk about is building model trains or something because you're such a boring fucking person)

pt1

>talk about is building model trains or something because you're such a boring fucking person
rude

>Background of character bends the DM's very lore, and instead of using it in potentially fun and creative ways, it's just a cheap justification for your character's uncanny skills or some shit and it literally NEVER gets mentioned ever again until you pull some ridiculous shit that your DM disagrees with and you rebuttal with "Nuh uh, my character could TOTALLY choke out a dragon like Chuck-fucking-Liddell, because :^)...he was in the KING'S GUARD
>Too fucking much; only thing I forgot to include was the fucking kitchen sink

How a REAL backstory should be (I'll even mix up the genre to sci-fi, just to show that these details I'm talking about are universal and not just confined to DnD type games):
>Kelli White, AKA "Alice"
>Used to be a really fucking good classical artist (violin prodigy)
>Would out-total her highschool orchestra teacher when she was a Freshman
>Started to go into EDM
>Passion wasn't even music, she really wanted to be a psychologist and she just happened to be really good at music theory
>Free ride to university due to music, but expelled because her partying was getting to be too much
>Said "fuck it" and just kept DJ'ing and taking drugs
>While high as shit, she decided to invent a musical earworm (the very first of its kind, scientists didn't even know audio/visual drugs were possible until she pioneered its existence)
>Played it at her next gig and people went fucking nuts and nearly burned down the city
>Feds have been looking for her since
>She spends her life running from feds, selling megabyte-sized self-destructing CDs to ecstatic druggies who crave the high without any of the negative bodily effects, and now she's wanted by a criminal organization for her incredibly useful yet abusable powers
>Just wants to be able to go back to being a regular DJ and regrets ever having invented A/V Drugs

Hey man, my hobbies include some pretty lame shit like gardening and bird-watching, but they don't DEFINE me as a person.

imagine a concept, write a twit-sized background and use the Plinkett test to see if it works

words for a good character will come easily

also, goals > background. nodoby really gives a shit about you characters' dead parents. clear goals promote consistent and engaging roleplaying.

>also, goals > background. nodoby really gives a shit about you characters' dead parents. clear goals promote consistent and engaging roleplaying.
I was going to mention that. Background itself is overrated - its only relevant to really shape how your character is at the first session. In my experience, the following things are a lot more relevant for creating a consistent/interesting character (even without background)

> Goals
> Fears / insecurities
> Habits
> World views
> other personality traits

I've seen players write down pages of background story and somehow miss defining any of these characteristics. Therefore it was simply a useless background story. When I described mine (), I also wrote down the characteristics I got from my background story, because ultimately, that is what is relevant.

Again, as user said, nobody really gives a shit about your characters' dead parents

Make sure you can summarize your backstory quickly. I'll demonstrate:
Nomad refugee
Warrior race reject
Escaped slave madman
Then get into the meat around the skeleton.

If your GM makes you write a background, then origin, what made him who he is, party joining event. Three paragraphs.

If not, well, .
"Tommy shitheel was a musketeer in the queen's own undead dragoons and joined the party to get over his gambling debts."

1. Who are they

2. What did their parents do

3. What is your profession

4. What was your call to adventure.

Answer these questions first then work out the rest from there.

>2. What did their parents do

Check out mr chink over here.

Unless you're an orphan then what your parents did or do for a living does have an impact on you, your upbringing, and your outlook on life.

Sorry, can't hear you over the rice noises.

Wash the mud out of your ears you uncultured swine.

>implying it's not acceptable, hell, even fucking encouraged to steal shit on reddit

You need one thing and one thing only kid and that's motivation. What's your motivation to go out and risk life and limb against the powerful beings of this world? Answer that question and you've got yourself a character