My inner Percy Jackson fan just died when I heard “He learns he’s not a normal kid, he’s the son of Zeus!”

Had one player planning on writing a book about his character... an assassination attempt gone wrong, seeking a lost artifact, finding a lost city, an encounter with a dragon, Surviving a shipwreck and dragon turtle... all before starting as a level 1 character. Loved the creativity, but I found the best character stories happen at the table. As a dm who builds out the world for his PCs that was a big haul for one player.

I got into RPGs in college, playing almost exclusively under one GM. I probably created nearly 20 characters for games he ran, and after the first few he told me that I was one of the few people he'd ever ran for that had total freedom to create whatever I want, dipping into whatever obscure expansion/home brew stuff I felt like (he typically kept it to the core rulebook so that he didn't have to go learning all these things about bizarre races and classes and feats and everything). Sometimes he'd even give me extra feats or class abilities (either from a higher level or borrowed from another class entirely) if it made the character more complete. He might have said no to me maybe once in our years of playing together.

I think a good backstory can be phrased into one hooking sentence. A computer game my campaign is based on has some good examples:

The best backstory is one you can die during. That's why I always start playing at level one.

One of my players came up with an interesting take on the tragic backstory trope. though her character lost almost everything, her village and monastery burned to the ground, her friends slaughtered, her family executed by the inquisition, and has an inferiority complex, but she still decided to become a kind empathetic pacifist and believing in peace among people , driven by the fact that her sister might still be alive out there in the world.

Me, as DM: "You're an adventurer. Your story begins now."

I think DCC's Funnel process is ingenious in this regard--it can create "organic" bonds between players and a more grounded backstory. Of course, the player still needs to decide why that crew of shepherds decided to check out that strange cave . . . but the reasons are quite simple and believable, fortune and glory, kid.

These are my favorite Dungeon Craft videos. Props for selecting Fiend Folio art as your thumbnail.

I think a big issue that people run into is conflating long backstories with complex backstories. The most complicated character I ever played was a rogue (arcane trickster) who grew up on the streets because he was trying to support his mother and sister who was trying to become a wizard. He had a major inferiority complex and a feeling of unworthiness at the start, and his flaw was that he had to 'steal' magic from other people in the party because he couldn't learn it on his own. Over the course of the campaign he got revenge on the thieves guild that had been exploiting him, got imprisoned for a crime he had committed in the backstory and had to be helped by the party, surpassed his sister as a mage, fixed his relationship with his family, found true love with a one line character from his backstory, and went from universally hated by everyone in the party to loved so much that everyone pretty much made it their sole goal for him to survive the adventure.

My backstory shortcuts are "you owe someone a chunk of cash: who and why?" and / or "you were headhunted for this job - how did they track you down?" In both cases, the answer solidly links them to the world and the game.

I love hearing about your NPCs backstories and seeing the minis! Reminds me of some of the first videos I saw from you.

One of my favorite characters to play was a tabaxi that hit the streets when his dad (a follower of Wael, because cat people) was killed by a beholder on their way to meet his mom in a new town. He was too young to know where she was and started stealing (and got GOOD at it) to eat. Then he "found" a strange coin (trinket table roll) that drew him to the far north. . . Which is where he met the party. . .

I like to write long backstories, one was almost 3000 words as I was really enjoying writing it as a first person POV short story, but I ALWAYS put a bulletized summary at the top. I put the key places, bonds, connections, and motivations that are necessary to develop encounters right at the top, and make sure to keep it to 10 items or less. I write the backstory for myself, so that I can empathize with the character and role play more effectively. If my DM wants to read my backstory, great, if not, then he has the spark notes.

The "down on his luck, wants to strike it big" is also a cliche, but more open ended, I think

Essential viewing for this channel. Great job!

My problems with backstories start when the player thinks they are getting special stuff because “It’s in the backstory!”. Working on a points system so players can buy into these things, but there is a limit.

Excessive backstory is a case of backwards design. Another example is that players imagine their characters at level 10, and then make all the choices from level 1 onwards to match that image.

My favorite video of yours in a while PDM! It feels like a bit of a return to form after a lot of "5e drama" videos lately.

I remember hearing about a British study where they wanted to know what kind of backstory makes Victoria Cross winners and it is the people who cannot afford to die.