Once had a DM who insisted I had to write an enemy into my backstory, one who is still living and we can encounter. I write a story about my fighter doing a side job before meeting the party where a changeling assassin wearing a black robe wielding a strange jagged khopesh snuck up behind him and slashed his throat, not killing him but putting him on death saves, one of the other people on the job quickly got my character back up by forcing a potion down his throat, and the cowardly changeling fled. We encounter the enemy after I tracked him down with scrying magic, and instead of a cowardly changeling who works alone and fights by picking people off who aren't on guard; now is a brave halfling who puts up spiked barricades on roads and fires rocks from slings with his halfling party of 30 while standing out in the open and making a grand spectacle of himself. That's basically the exact opposite of what I wrote.

@JD-mh8be

3 жыл бұрын

Your dm is an ass hat that Backstory sounds amazing and I'd love to see what could be of your original enemy

@16moons

3 жыл бұрын

Sounds like a bad dm. It really sucks when you get one of the ones, who just seam to love stamping out every bit of nuance from your characters.

@kyosokutai

2 жыл бұрын

I would demand my gold back for that scrying spell.

I like to write a backstory *with* my players, not *for* my players

@draconicfeline6177

2 жыл бұрын

With my players, I always ask them what sort of vibe they are looking for and what ideas they have, and then offer suggestions related to the world. We make it together. And it's usually MAYBE 3 paragraphs to start AT MOST.

@jaspermaij3753

2 жыл бұрын

@@draconicfeline6177 Yeah exactly! Like one of my players was like "are there any fire elementals in your world?" and I was like "there are now!"

@curtisfranzen986

2 жыл бұрын

I have offered to help with back stories with new players, I REFUSE TO DICTATE THEM. Their story is their own, I'll just help in putting it to the aspect of the game.

I had a DM ask if someone wanted to go with the amnesia backstory and let him try something. I volunteered. Turned out really fun but the point was he asked. Didnt just assume we would be cool with it.

As a fledgling DM. My wants and goals for the start of any campaign, is to almost entirely focus on characters backstories. I want them to get that feeling of progress, a feel for their character, and overall help feel invested. It gives plenty of opportunity for me to organically interweave their stories into the looming main plot. So It always confuses me a little when a DM ignores backstories. They are literally giving out free fuel.

Spend a year locked in a room? That'd better be the absolute most amazing room with the most engaging murder mystery and impostor intrigue, or I bounce.

If a DM were to touch my backstory without permission, I would be gone immediately.

Had a DM who was honestly a great writer but obviously had no idea how to handle people who actually wrote backstories. Played a decker in a shadowrun game who created a gang but was forced out when they becam radical and spent a lot of starting Karma on a contact wh ws still in the game. GM was like "Awesome I'd love to use this sometime! I love it when people give me backstories I can use!" first sessin we fight this technocult who worship the Golden Ratio and when we finish fighting a cyber monster in the matrix, we find out that all the now-fried members of the cult? they're my character's ex-gang. The entire one. They're all dead. I ask about my contact. Never get an answer. GM just ignores it. We don't have time to check the bodies, they're all destroyed in a fire. Oh well. Wait why is your character so fucked up about this, it's not like he liked the gang anyway. Then we played a magical burst game (I know, I know) and I came up with a really neat backstory about my charcter having traded away her soul to become a magical girl while dying since her psycho boyfriend murdered her. All of her character motivations were tied up in this guy stalking her. We do a 30m backstory RP in order to go over things; not only does he totally change how this whole thing happened in such a way that my character's thoughts, worries, and fears don't make sense anymore, destroying my character concept, but he also has my character's stalker turn into a monster and die before the game even starts, removing the rest of her motivation and conflict. it sucked.

To me the creation of a player character and their backstory is up to the player of the character.

@AxiomofDiscord

3 жыл бұрын

Works until it doesn't and when it doesn't it doesn't hard

@TheWrongDMs

3 жыл бұрын

Creation, yes, implementation, no.

@secretlyditto7716

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah. Normally I work with my players to help with backstory development for their characters, just so I can get a good feel for it myself. Like, ultimately choices are their decision, I just don’t want to miss things that they find important. :)

@talkingwithadam812

2 жыл бұрын

In my opinion, kindling is the best way to start a campfire

I'd be pissed if the DM told me, "Nah, don't bother with a backstory, bro; I'll create it." No! This is my character, and he is who he is because of my backstory for him. With your backstory, he becomes a completely different person and he's not really "mine" anymore. The DM is free to make suggestions, and ask me to tweak certain details, but it's ultimately my character. Like, if I say my Barbarian is an oddball noble of House X, and the DM asks me to make it House Y instead, because he has this similar House already established in his world, yeah, that's fair. I can call him Nathan Huffhines instead of Nathan Arizona. If the DM instead says, "No, Barbarian + Noble background = you're a tribal chieftain's kid," that is a completely different person from what I've envisioned, despite having the same class and alignment and background.

@voidlight0472

3 жыл бұрын

@Charlotte Tent shut

@Logan_Baron

3 жыл бұрын

Agree 100%. I am very much of he mind that one's characters are a personal thing. Even if you've just got a simple background don't want anyone trying to change it (I mean I've had situations where a newer player will want some ideas to flesh them out more, and I'll give ideas, but they get to choose and adapt them). I even hate it when I post something about my character, and some people post "You should have it be * instead". Like when I had a rogue character who's brother when they were young was killed, stabbed in the heart by the prince, who is now the king, in front of him. Even though the post was an explanation of how a DM was not so good, I got comments of "Oh you should make it that he just HEARD his brother was killed, but maybe he's alive because they never found a body, and maybe the prince is actually both or yours brother too, instead of you being street urchins". I'm like "Go write your own fucking characters, instead of mine".

@insertname4929

3 жыл бұрын

Just read it bro, reading is 100% easier than writing something new.

@voidlight0472

3 жыл бұрын

@@insertname4929 what do you mean?

@insertname4929

3 жыл бұрын

@@voidlight0472 uhh wouldn't reading something be faster than writing?

It's a fine line. I know players that get testy if the DM doesn't remember every word of a 20 page backstory. I've seen DMs focus so heavily on one characters well developed background leaving the other players feeling like sidekicks. The goal is to have a simple backstory that fits the setting your DM is making. The campaign should be about what the characters are becoming, not who they were.

@Logan_Baron

3 жыл бұрын

I look at it like this. A lot of this especially sticks out to me, because I recently watched a video about DMing and worldbuilding, where it was discussed that when a DM creates a world some DMs want to tell the PCs during the campaign every little detail and every tiny little bit of history about everything. Like a20 page essay on the history of the Inn that the PCs just want to get a drink in. Where while the DM who built the world and knows every little detail and an expansive history, they should just drop little bits of it. Little hints. By that same reasoning, the DM doesn't need to remember every word of the 20 page backstory because you are not going to be reading it back to them. You remember the broad strokes and drop those pieces in. No Player is going to be told by the DM "And there sitting at the table is your long lost brother Ian, who you last saw 5 years ago and thought was dead" and say "You didn't the part about my aunt ingrid and her love of stew". Even if they have a 20 page back story, you will in no situation be just reading it or saying it back to them.

lmao i remember my first dm didnt even ask for alignment,a physical description of our characters or a backstory qwp yeah they stopped the campaign after we wanted to make a bakery which was not in the module book

The changeling backstory isn't wasted if I ste- i mean use it as inspiration for my next character

I think pre-gens/DM made backstories are fine if its made clear ahead of time or during session 0. I sometimes find it easier to rp as a character I had no hand in creating

Reminds me of a DM I had. This dude forced you to write a detailed backstory just to play anything outside of the PHB or Xanathar's Guide, even though he essentially forced races into other DMs' settings with either no backstory or just completely plagiarized the backstory whatever race he tried to add. However, this guy would do nothing with any backstory. Then, to make it worse, apparently, I was the only one who was told this as one player was playing a UA subclass, another was a tortle, and there are a few others I repressed. He recognizes that the campaign didn't go well but he still, to my knowledge, doesn't see the issue in forcing a backstory and never applying it. We're still really close friends as he isn't a bad person by any means but as a DM, he's got some things to work through

I just got into dnd and my friend who is experienced with it and DM for us helped us make backstories. He did most of the work for my friends, since we still weren't very comfortable or familiar with dnd but we still pitched our own ideas he made it around. Still playing that game, it's fun af so far

I've actually got a story that might fit this video! While I was at work, a friend notified me he, and two of our friends, were going to be playing D&D (3.5E), and that I should join them after work. Now having something to look forward too for after work, I immediately come up with a character concept. I had decided to play three things I rarely ever do, and I made a Half-Orc Druid/Barbarian. Now our groups is always about backgrounds, roleplay, and personal conflict available for use ingame. So, here was my BGS: "My mother is a Human Druid, who tends a grove that happens to be close to Orc territory. To be allowed to stay in the area, and not have to worry about raids by Orcs, she arranged a deal with the Orc chieftain, and conceived a child with him. She would raise their son, grooming him in the ways of the Druid, and making sure he knew his lineage. By the age of ten, he was connected to nature, and on his way to being a decent Druid, when his father arrived. It was time for him to learn the ways of his other half. His father takes him to the mountains. Good are the warmth of the forest, the songs of the birds, and the kindness of his mother's love. Snow, stone, wolf howls, and harsh training were now his life. Day after day was filled with the echoes of metal clashing. He never knew if his father was training him, or trying to kill him. For six long, and unforgiving years, all he knew was cold, brutal combat. When he was capable of holding his own against his father, he had earned the honor and respect of the tribe. They travel back to where his early life had been, only to find the grove being cut and burned down. Amid the devastated forest lie his mother's broken and lifeless body. The lumberers around her paid no care about the murdered Druid. It was then that his vision shifted red, and he and his father laid waste to every man desecrating the Druid's grove. Once the screams stopped, and the earth was soaked in blood, his rage subsided. He and his father buried his mother, and mourned. The next day, they found the crest of a Human Noble house, and he swore vengeance upon the those who were responsible for this atrocity. His father, proud of the warrior his son had become, gifted his double bladed axe and sent him on his quest for blood." I leave work, getting to my friends shortly after. In 15 minutes, my character is rolled up and ready to go. I sit there waiting to be introduced, watching my friend DM for his son and our two friends for nearly TWO HOURS. Then I am finally brought in. On my investigation to locate the Noble(s) responsible for my mother's murder, and the destruction of her forest, I here the sounds of combat in the distance. I rush to the noises. I see the party fighting some sort of beast (honestly do not remember what it was), and charge in to join the fray. I am told it will be five rounds before I can enter combat. Round five, only two turns before me... they defeat the enemy before I can even get one attack in... We do introductions. I am invited to join them, and maybe they could help me avenge my mother. Game ends..... Six hours of anticipating gaming. A lot of thought into my character and his background. Two hours of watching everyone have fun. Fifteen minutes of running, just to talk to some adventurers, and have the game end. Okay, so I missed out on the first session. No big deal, I'll get to play next session... right? If there had ever been a next session! The DM says he is shelfing the game to run Vampire: The Masquerade... I never really get to play my Half-Orc Druid/Barbarian...

@ratboy2

Жыл бұрын

He sounds like a very interesting character! I hope you were able to use him at some point. Super lame that the DM pretty much just ignored you the entire game. Weird ://

the closest a dm should ever get to this is to tell them where they are starting their adventure with you. they can plot how they got there, within reason and maintaining feats that can happen pre level of the character. nothing world changing, but they had to have a reason to collect in the place where i would start them.

Had a dm who ignored my characters backstory which heavily relied on the fact he killed his abusive sister and fled his traditions-obsessed family in search of freedom and self.... just to..... Bring her back to life and make her the main focus of his character development. It was an entire regression of his character that after a couple sessions and a terribly rushed story arc I just... Left the campaign. He admitted in the last session I attended that he never read my backstory and had his wife do so... Who was another pc. Still not the worse butchering a DM has done to me tho.

I have had plenty of invested players in which I wrote up a short backstory and said take it from here.

Asked me to convert my ranger into a cleric then involved my character's backstory in his introductory adventure and then said the adventure was meaningless as it was all just an introduction so irrelevant to his campaign... So why involve a character's back story in your introductory adventure?! The character was travelling to respond to a request for aid from her son, the dm killed said character off gave the character no means of closure and despite that adventure starting in the perfect place to start his campaign and a low level party since the port city he wanted to focus on would have plenty of adventurers so why waste the introductory adventure?! Watching another video it became clear his railroad ran out of tracks rapidly and my mistake was wasting my time using an adventure in Exandria to correct his mistake so i can continue running that character only to discover he now wanted his campaign to be set on Exandria despite repeatedly stating that wasn't the case!

I was once in a campaign with two of my friends. We st together and they were circus slaves captured my a half-elf organization and could barely get away, seeking revenge. My half-orc was also captured by that organization and wanted to pummel them into the grounds. The story was about us getting shipwrecked and it never came up lmao

Character backstories coming into play are a big thing now and I love to work backstories into play. However would anyone enjoy a game that it is known that backstories will never come into play. I've always wanted to do a "strangers in a strange land" campaign. Where the PCs are normal people who end up in a fantasy world. Think Land of the Lost, or The Lost World, or even the old D&D cartoon, or even the old John Carter on Mars. They're trapped and need to adapt to a world not their own. So any back story goals of "want to avenge my fathers death" aren't going to happen as that is a different world they will never see again, or if they do it's the end of the campaign. Back story would be good to define a character and their personality and skills but will never be something resolved during play. I mean it could be a FEELING of redemption or overcoming some mental thing, but that would really be the character roleplaying it which would be cool. Could that type of campaign be interesting these days?

@MassiveKreutz

2 жыл бұрын

Kiiiind of. Speaking for myself only, of course: I'd be interested in playing a rather simple character, or at least one who's backstory never comes to "fruition" within the campain. And I find the premise stranger in a strange land interesting - with one big addendum: it mustn't be a character from the RL world, it HAS to be one belonging to the universe, so a medieval(-ish) one. I really hate roleplaying more modern-day people, the closer they get to our world the less interested I am. But it could be a simpleton wannabe squire who gets... let's say thrown through a portal to another plane of existence, one he has maybe not even heard rumors about (oh, Mechanus would be cool! Imagine a Sancho Panza or Rincewind there!) and now has to deal with the situation, with a party in a similar position. Or maybe a party of non-magical characters only, who may learn magical abilities from the denizens of the "new world", a tough thing to do, but mustn't be arduous - and therefore get to multiclass into all other classes at level 5 or something.

I like my current back story a lot despite how simple it is, it can play out in a lot of ways, got a secret brother who wants me dead, framed me for a murder but instead of execution I willingly go into exile due to a unrequited love where he can't find me for years before I start adventuring, I avoid my home town and people I know out of shame, so no time crunch for the resolution. So DM has a mid boss to work with, a town potentially, a former lover, my family, and it's totally open for his use, it could even amount to a road ambush and an easy victory that clears my name, or a large side plot, but I've basically followed the rule off give the DM some ammo and don't make it unworkable complicated.

They were never given the backstory on purpose is my guess. You never have to work them in if they don't exist.

My character was a half Moon Elf, Half Drow Elf (we used teh Half Elf archetype as a jumping off point and homebrewed her from there) who was the product of her mother being ...yknowed...during a Drow Surface Raid. Her father was nothing more than a means to an end so my character could exist and be born. He wasnt supposed to be anything else. The open ended part of my backstory (the part where the DM is supposed to build upon) was my mother disappeared one night, leaving only a "dont come looking for me. im okay" note for my character. Of course Character goes looking for Mother. one of the DMPC's goes "oh Mother? Yeah, i know her. Last i saw her, she was with some Drow going by the name Jack." Turns out that "Building Upon" my open ended story meant RETCONNING how my character was conceived. My parents were deeply in love, and secretly MARRIED when she contacted him saying she was pregnant. But, Mother coudlnt tell me the truth about my dad because they were both HARPERS and needed the secrecy, and yaddah blah blah. i checked out and didnt care anymore. Oh also, the DM let my character die, just so he could use the Reincarnate Spell (that he out of game admitted he was DYING to use on a player), and she was turned into a Human who lost all her homebrew buffs as a Half Moon/Drow Elf. DM is my dad, and keeps talking about wanting to play this story again, but im so done.

I've been guilty of this one player wanted his character to have become a fallen aasimar after butchering the starving peasants who murdered his parents. I tried to point out his character wouldn't have survived that peasant version of the Batman origin. I changed it that he and his parents were ambushed and he managed to kill one of their attackers leaving three opponents. The leader a literal version of Joker ran off when a guard turned up and bundled the two other thugs. Attempts to locate the "Grinner" failed as the Royal Guard prevented any further investigation the resulting outrage resulted in a new order of Knights literally called the Free Knights being founded in response to this event and the child survivor was raised by the guard who rescued him eventually becoming his mentor. After two sessions in that player after repeatedly refusing to ask any questions on the setting after I repeatedly told all of them to ask me about it claimed he had no idea he was a member of the Free Knights. He's running a Paladin a Folk Hero was there anything in his background that he put forward that would explain his background? Nope. Session zero is something I need to do and not end it until they get the clue they need a back story that makes sense! That's something I need to enforce!

Second story: "why do I hear banjos playing?"

There is a major exception to the ‘don’t write a character’s backstory rule which never gets brought up: conventions. A lot of convention games all characters are created by the GM, including backstories. This makes sense in this setting because you are trying to write a self contained story (even if it’s part of a yearly series) where unknown players can come in, pick a character, and play without too much time lost to prep. This can be a lot of fun and honestly is the most entertaining type of convention game to me. Characters created at the game can take a large portion of the session, so that ends up not being terribly interesting when it’s a one shot. And while I’m sure some of the bring your own character games are fun, they all have a very precise list of rules you must follow making it all seem very formulaic and mechanics based. Many of them are clearly just dungeon crawls. Which makes sense. It’s going to be extremely hard for a GM who only has you for 6-8 hours to read 6+ backstories and incorporate them all into a single pre-planned adventure. Now outside of conventions, and occasional testing of convention games with friends, it’s a different story. Also, in the convention game example, you know what’s going on and expect a character to be provided, which is not the expectation in a normal campaign.

Reminds me of one of my worst D&D experiences, with a dash of favouritism from the DM. I was in a two-person party. The DM remembered my teammate's backstory down to minute details including exact names of the NPCs in it, which the BBEG dropped to taunt his character with. In contrast, in the few moments when my backstory was mentioned or had any relevance at all, the DM forgot the most basic, high-level facts I'd written.

I had a Tengubushi Rogue character who lived In a poor area as a kid and was raised in part by honorable mercenary, and eventually became a body guard to the boss of a Crime boss due to their life circumstances it being one of their only options, they eventually turned on their boss disgusted by their cruality, and basicly became a Vigilante, merging with another characters back story well hunting down their old gang they rescued a young Kitsune(pc) from a village that had been attacked by slavers related to the gang, they convinced my character to basicly be their body guard out of guilt and relating to them wanting vengeance. they came off as a serious loner, but were actually just shy, they have an underlying darkness to them being utterly brutal to evil doers, and torturing victims at times, but otherwise had a heart of gold. And was ungodly stealthy, becoming known as bird batman as it became a running gag that I was insanely stealthy almost always rolling high for stealth with an unreasonably high stealth modifier of like 40 by the end witch I think was around level 10, and also at one point went around with a -20 stealth debuff for just putting on all the treasure they found covered In non magical gold jewelry like a pimp, yet was still undetectable. Anyways the idea was for my character to be more of a supporting character from the background, but the DM made the butler of our benefactor my cousin, with I had no knowledge of their existence among aton of surprises relating to my backstory, then it turns out my parents were very prominent pirate, who well never appeared in campaign had powerful connections to like everyone in the campaign witch put me in the spot light way more then I wanted. At the end of the campaign I was told my character went off to be a pirate? Something they had no interest in. It was not horrible but alot of the stuff made me feel like the character was less and less mine that felt not good. On a side story as to how I Learned of my pirate dynasty, my character had a habit of petting any mammalian animal person they interactacted with, so well gathering Intel talking to this tough looking cat man who my character had intuition from being involved with the criminal underworld in the past would probably know stuff, naturally after starting a conversation pet them rolling an animal handling check, something that in the past I was not that successful at,(some time later I ranked it up, because my habit of peting fluffy animal people) but I rolled a not 20, and he turned out to be a pirate who was connected to my parents who were pirates... before this point there was nothing pirate related in the campaign... the plot had nothing really to do with pirates till my backstory pirate connection grew out of control and we had a random pirate episode... and the back to mostly normal non pirate activities... but with tons of connections to pirates, being connected to all the major npcs even if they don't really have any good reasons to be connected with pirates. Before all that my character saw the merc who some times took care of them as the closest thing to a parent, and I planned for my character to grow out of their brutal side as they looked after the kid and opened up to others... instead they became samurai pirates Bat Man with personal space issue with a ton of pet chickens.

In Cyberpunk, you randomly roll your backstory - upbringing, family status etc, life events from age 16 to year before current character age etc. Referee can allow modification of those rolls or allow you to select. The life events and backstory are awesome sources for plot hooks as well as provide options for game play... your childhood friend might get kidnapped, prompting you to undertake a rescue mission or you might decide that the contact who is a corporate bodyguard might be just who you need to help get out of a sticky situation. Randomly rolled or dreamed up by the player, DMs ignore backstories at their peril and at the cost of the game.

Player backstories are a goldmine of ways to make your players care, and almost always leave you with a lot of threads to weave in your own ways. Just make sure the fabric is recognizable as the threads it is based on.

ah creating Backstories the Foundation to even care for your Characters.

I had a dm send me off to search for my character’s parents who went missing. He skipped the part where the character was adopted and didn’t share a race with their parents

@zachm5485

2 жыл бұрын

Reunion was awkward

I'm currently in a campaign where I submitted an admittedly probably more detailed backstory then the DM was looking for. But before the game we talked through it tweeking ideas. But then during the game he made a lot of choices that blatantly went against what we discussed. Some where semi waved away by him saying family members were mind controlled so that's why they were so out of character, but it still felt like he completely missed my chars motivation and upon seeing I wasn't enjoying where it was going quickly backpeddled. The worst was I had a twist to my chars identity that I specifically told the DM I DIDN'T want just blurted out but rather wanted to RP a reveal. One of the very first things that happened in the game was an NPC announcing the twist to the entire table. I argued with the DM about this but he just didn't seem to get why I was upset. I let it go as the rest of the table wasn't really paying attention it seemed and several people weren't there yet so I thought it was missed and I could still RP reveal it later. It's down to me, the DM and a very new player. No backstory is really coming up anymore and we really aren't RPing much so now what i hoped would be a complex char who would grow with RP is.....just a fighter.

Oh, I feel these Because despite writing up an engaging backstory to flesh out the character, some or many aspects of the character are changed to fit this narrative that has little to do with the character It was only recently that I was actually allowed to ply a specific character by saying on version was a future edition, and another was a DMPC many years later And for some reason, this was allowed, but God forbid I try to introduce anyone else

I had a DM make some major changes to my backstory, but the thing is everything still happened the same from my character's point of view. Playing a halfling rogue with dead parents (killed in a mugging) as a low level thug in a criminal gang that he didn't want to be in, but wasn't given a choice. The changes the DM made was that his mother was actually alive. It turns out that she actually founded the gang he was in, but she created it as more of a Robin Hood kind of thing. When she retired to have a family, it was taken over by people with less nobel intentions. Turns out his "mother" that he saw killed was a magical duplicate that took her place after she went into hiding after being threatened. He was pulled into the gang to train him up to be a figurehead leader, "son of the founder" kind of thing. Honestly, these were welcome changes. Made my character a lot better and more interesting.

DMs writing or helping write backstories for their players can be cool in some situations. Like, i’m pretty slow at making characters for anything and am super unsure, so suggestions are always nice and i find that my characters feel a lot more rounded when somebody else has contributed. But this stuff? Yeah, not cool. Pay attention to your player characters’ backstories and don’t contradict them like this 😭

I had my current DM 'ignore' my backstory in the best way. My wizard was a tiefling with Rakshassa heritage, which I'd initially said cam from her mother's side way back in the ancient past. Unbeknownst to me, my DM changed that, and I learned in game that the devil blood came from the father, whom my wizard never knew, and had in fact been created by a pact with the rakshassa by her grandfather. It was actually really cool, and at lvl 18, with a little help from a god, my character destroyed her devilish patron in a 1v1 duel.

Wow, that was one mess after another.

I am a huge Fan of Creating the backstory as one plays.

My oc's back story: Corrin (named after fire emblem character) is a phantasm (homebrew race) who travels the multiverse insearch of anything thats interesting, from monsters, and peoples races, to tech and magic. Her class is witch (homebrew). She is decended from royalty in an asteral realm and her family is a group of witches/sorcerers/mages and other caster classes and they all love taking things from other realms to being to theirs, like magic books, weapons, races/people (with concent), and animals to help liven up the places. Phantasms gain immunity to attacks or Status effects of physical origan, whale also being weak to attacks or status effects of a magical origan. They are immortal because they are spirits and take the form of solid shadows or light and can shift into living forms and even produce living children with living being or other phantasms even in shadow or light form.

@jacobgoodrich6984

2 жыл бұрын

pretty cringe

@redacted606

2 жыл бұрын

@@jacobgoodrich6984 I'm glad you've looked in the mirror.

These early videos are great as well! Great content all around!

Last story. Not just what makes a good GM, but what makes makes a good person

@Kimberk25

4 күн бұрын

Discernment, Wisdom, and Compassion= how to be the best…

3:36, I had to play this character myself. Thank you for the amazing concept

If a player ever came to my table saying "My character is adopted royalty" I would laugh in their face.

@CrispysTavern

3 жыл бұрын

I actually think royal characters are fine. "Noble" is actually a background in the Player's Handbook. The major caveat is that they can not have any of the benefits of being royal. A runaway prince or a deposed noble are both examples of how to make royalty work in a character.

@VermilionMage

3 жыл бұрын

@@CrispysTavern But that's the thing. They have to be deposed or illegitimate. If not, the party will swiftly figure out that they're all a few murdered uncles away from wealth and power beyond their wildest dreams. The player character in the story was adopted into a direct royal lineage, which is laughably powergamey.

@windyface9383

3 жыл бұрын

@@VermilionMage Except that a character suddenly becoming King is begging to be downgraded to NPC the moment they grab that blood-covered crown from their dead parents' head. No time to go adventuring if you're now having to take care of a country, there's all these people eager to manipulate you to get rich, those fans of the old regime fomenting revolution against your new reign, that little cousin of yours being inspired by your action (after all, she's related to the crown by blood too and you've just shown it's so easy to murder your way to the throne...) There is a lot of potential trouble that can be thrown in the way of an heir. Political enemies to deal with, kidnappers, the royal family as quest-giving NPCs, trying to make the kingdom better because you're going to inherit the damn thing one day... make it a small kingdom that wouldn't be worth taking over by bloody murder, or arrange with the player in advance that you don't want them to ascend to the throne yet. You're still the DM, after all. DnD takes a lot of inspiration from fairytales and legends, and wether you like it or not, a LOT of those deal with wayward princes and princesses having to prove their worth. It's your game, of course, you're free to decide you don't want your players to be royalty, but I'd hardly call it powergamy if a player wants to tie their character directly to the world's political game like that.

@VermilionMage

3 жыл бұрын

@@windyface9383 Yes, but you're ignoring the immensity of power that comes with a royal title and overemphasizing the problems that come with it. If a character becomes a landed noble in D&D, it has always been the case that they can keep playing their character and do not have to become an NPC, especially if they take on their adventuring party as their councilors. I call it powergamey because at low levels, gold is everything, and magic items are everything. As a monarch you have access to both of those in plentitude. Normally this is reserved for 10th level play and above, but having your character be -legitimate- royalty is a quicker and easier path to high-powered gameplay, which is what munchkins and powergamers typically aim for in the first place.

@windyface9383

3 жыл бұрын

@@VermilionMage I'll get back to one detail: you're the DM, you decide how much power being king gives them, and you can always tell the player outright that their actions will have consequences. It's pretty complicated for a low-level character to execute every step needed to eliminate their entire family line to get the title if they're currently off on an adventure. Not to forget, when this is the case, they don't have access to their ressources and might not want everyone to know their title! I've played a game in which we were all princesses, but were too far from our homes to be able to use family ressources (in fact, all our money was stolen after we openly showed our royal status at the inn we were staying at - our bad, but my character was a little naive on the matter, she really got what she deserved there). If your players want a royal bloodline, you can be open with them about what this entails and impose limits. Why would a prince or princess be out adventuring, for one? If they actually want to get the power associated with the throne, it should be after a whole quest line to get there that should land them at an appropriate level. I'd say it's easily doable to make it work in a non-powergamey manner, if you can have that discussion and that level of trust with your players. I've admittedly hardly ever DMed, more on the player's side of the table, but I've seen it done well without huge power imbalance or munchkinry. Then again, I've been pretty lucky when it comes to DnD groups.

In many games we play the backstory is based on random rolls which also decide what bonus to skills and attributes. Plus what extra skills you have also decide what starting equipment you have.

@marcmielke

2 жыл бұрын

A variation on the Cyberpunk system. That's a good basis for a backstory.

I have a character with amnesia, and I told the dm I had no plans for their backstory, they woke up in the woods maybe a hundred years ago (elf) and they’ve just been vibing in the woods since. One thing I did say, they have dreams… and I would let the dm decide what the dreams were. One of the things was they dreamed of the group they met up with. So that helped connect them with an already established party. Also they dream about a beautiful red tiefling who is sad. (A romantic connection!)

I hate back story when the DM gives no input, especially in homebrewed worlds. I am like trying to write a good backstop and at same time not break any existing lore. But if you don't give me lore or work with me I am just guessing.

DM certainly should NEVER ignore their players' backstories, but conversely, I think the best backstories a player can write are ones that are open ended enough for the DM to add onto. D&D is after all a form of collaborative story telling. The player should of course always have final say over their own character, just like the DM should have final say over the setting, but the entire experience can be all the more rich and rewarding when DM and players work together flesh out and expand upon each other's work. That said, unless a DM knows their players very, VERY well, they should probably always discus any additions to the players' backstory outside of the game rather than springing them as a surprise mid-session.

Me as DM mixed up the backstory and made long adventure hooks based on it and the player never told me that i had mixed them up.

My characters backstory is simple and doesn’t require too much integration, so I hope to avoid such problems. Aaracokra who fell into the material plane from the air one as a chick. Got attacked by wolves, but was saved and adopted by two half elf sisters. Lost one wing and can’t fly. Became a lore bard to research the plane of air, feeling a sense of longing for the Home she never had.

1. In my game I'm kind of guilty of not including Backstory, but as only 3 of my 7 party have given me a Backstory I've nothing to work with, (one of these 3 gave me free run of her story, She loves what I came up with), 2. So for Curse of Strahd I created a Lore Bard/ Knowledge Domain Cleric, Noble woman, who was highly educated, (She was a Know it all), A natural with with a Violin she would play for a very elite group of people. her farther had retired from political office to manage her, letting her brother take over the family's political interests. in the 3rd session the DM turned to me and said 'As you sleep you have a dream about your brother stabbing your farther in the heart, to steal power from him..... yer OK

I had a rogue who was a failed mage, some unknown illness prevented him from channeling magic despite years of training and the fact that his parents were powerful mages of the royal court. He ultimately fled home to seek a cure on his own using tricks and what little magic he could do (some illusion spells from magic initiate) to try and pass himself off as more powerful than he was Hes forced to confront his parents later in the story, then it turns out that "years of training" just meant my character was a slacker who spent way too much effort on cheap tricks over learning magic

I always try to tie in my characters backgrounds as much as possible. Even if I can't think of an explicit personal quest I'll do other things. For example, one of my players is from a classic pirate utopia type place so even though he's not a rogue he can use thief's cant. Another one of my players is an assimar who was adopted at a young girl and thus doesn't know who her godly/angelic ancestor is. She's already beginning to find hints and trails on it. Backstories are important to people. You should always try to use it SOMEHOW.

Ignoring a backstory for me would completely depend on how long it is. Is it under half a page? Sure, I'll read it. Is it longer than that? Give me a tldr under half a page and I'll read that.

@CrispysTavern

3 жыл бұрын

Totally agree. I'll read the full thing eventually, but summaries are always appreciated. The character introductions for Critical Role campaign 1 are a great example of concise character backstories/summaries.

I don't know. Backstories are cool when applicable. Obviously, you can't go to Ravnica to save your son if the setting is Lost Mines, nor when players make a Demi-god with how many battles and graces that you question why they're level 1. But when the backstories can be applied, the act always make both the character and the game more rememberable.

I am sorry but now I thinking of the first story but instead of the dm being a fool just having kidnappers just turn to each and panic because they grabbed the wrong person, like Jim who the hell did we just kidnapp this dude's pa is dead, maybe even they turn back to the party and say "are you sure he's dead"

...Why a year in the room? Was it, like...an excuse for a timeskip? Was it going to ahve consequences later? Was it "Forced realism"? Were they supposed to RP what they do in that room?

@DaDunge

3 жыл бұрын

Maybe it was a misunderstanding there is a common trope that time passes faster in the feywild maybe the time they were expected to stay in that room amounted to a year in the real world or something.

Trinston was here..

Backstories need goals. Many I read are long and complicated or doesn't fit in the worlds politics.

I will argue that yes, DM's adding stuff or writing backstories for players is usually a terrible move. Buuuut, in can be done right. My one line of "My character never knew her mother" led to one of her most defining moments when the DM actually introduced the mother and there were some good revelations that actually changed one detail in my backstory that made the character better. It can also work when the player actually gives the reigns with an amnesiac character, which is something I'm currently doing with one of my players in Dark Heresy and it's actually going pretty well. It just depends on how it's done. Character's essentially a broken Skitarri that's been mind wiped. He's slowly been uncovering his history through the campaign and it's about to become a relevant plot point. Though this is a bit of unique one because the players interest lies more in the character learning to become more human from the rest of the party, That's what he was designed for. But he's still interested in the mystery backstory

@windyface9383

3 жыл бұрын

In this case, it's different. You, as a player, gave the reins to the DM when it comes to some aspects of your character's backstory. I've done it myself, and it makes sense, a character isn't going to know everything about themself and everyone surrounding them all the time. I've played this human druid who was left on a doorstep as a toddler and grew up with an unique connection to nature and spirits, as well as horrible visions of a disaster. This is basically asking the DM to make her origins something truly unique, without destroying the basic facts about the character, her upbringing or her personality. For the records, both times I've played her, my little human shepherdess ended up being something completely not human - the incarnation of a spirit of the land, or a were-raven from Borovia rescued by an archfey and dropped in a sleepy little faerun community. I was thrilled! I would have been a lot less happy if they'd taken my idea of a young awkward shepherdess living in a small village, seen the class "druid" at the top of the character sheet, and dropped her in the middle of the woods as a magic mushroom-eating hippie who ran around having sex with animals and fairies. There's a respectful way of doing this. Of course, if you don't want to be disappointed as a player, it helps to start with a backstory that's a bit more vague, and leave some things up to the DM - then work with them when some elements of your backstory are likely to come up.

@CrispysTavern

3 жыл бұрын

I don’t think I mentioned it here, but I brought up a backstory element I call “twist hooks.” There are places where players clearly want something cool. Missing parents and amnesia are great examples.

@DaDunge

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah I was thinking a warforged gloomstalker ranger with Amnesia for a backup character for a curse of stradh game. Since I don't know what really is going on in Barovia I can't really have a backstory for a character from there so amnesia is a great way to handle my character being as ignorant as all the others.

Hold up. How do you come up with "My character's dad got his head bitten off by a shark in front of me" for your backstory.

@bellumdorf3360

2 жыл бұрын

The character is secretly a Locathah which has learned to breathe on land?

It seems that im the first here hahaha, just to reminder your videos are great

Do y’all have any tips for a new Dm to add player backstories?

I don't want backstories, I want 1 sentence about a player character, that's it. I didn't become a DM to read a book about how cool a PC is, that ain't my job. Stories happen at the table. Stories that happen at the table become backstories.

@CrispysTavern

3 жыл бұрын

I don't think the backstory should be too long and involved, but if a player has a backstory that can act as a simple setup, I think it's welcome. The backstory needs to give the character plentiful room to grow, but should also establish where they came from and who they are.

@chirpynsleepy958

3 жыл бұрын

I couldn't disagree more. When players make backstories most of them aren't self flattering, they're valid explainations for how that character GOT to the beginning of the story. More importantly, they're PIECES we can use in our story to make it more compelling. You need a noble to be the villain lording over this town? How much more interesting is it if that noble is the bully that used to pick on the rogue at school? Or the mayor who had the druids parents killed before they ran away!

@spacegoat2130

3 жыл бұрын

@@chirpynsleepy958 I couldn't disagree more. If I want to read a story, I'll buy a book. The story will be as compelling as we will make it at the table when we play, DMs don't need backstories to make it compelling. Also I don't want to waste my time reading a character backstory just to see that character getting stabbed to death by a goblin at first encounter and me feeling like I wasted my time. I'm giving a player one sentence before the game to tell me something about his character, the rest happens at the table.

@XMaster340

3 жыл бұрын

@@spacegoat2130 If your characters regularly die during the first encounter then you're indeed a DM that doesn't need backstories. But not everyone likes to play a grimdark souls like dungeon runs that require almost min-maxed characters.

@XMaster340

3 жыл бұрын

I copieas a pretty good system from my former GM. She used to request a catalogue of answers to 50 questions from every player. A written backstory was optional. This way players can still write a detailed backstory and answer those questions based on it while players who don't want to write a backstory can just answer the questions and have enough depth to prepare some really interesting gameplay moments for them

To be honest I feel like the premise of the video is, that players believe they are somehow entitled to have their stories incorporated into the game, somehow believing it's DMs duty, and then being pissy about their disappointment when DM doesn't deliver on that perceived duty. I'm sorry, maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but they are wrong. It's not DMs job to learn by heart player's not-that-well written piece of fanfic power fantasy. If DM didn't ask for your backstory - don't expect him incorporating any of it. If you want to have one, you can have one for your own benefit, to help you with your roleplaying. But if it's longer than three vague sentences, then why are you even coming to the game? Go roleplay that guy to the mirror by yourself, clearly you know him and his story better than the DM. I believe that it was Gygax who said that you shouldn't have a backstory, because your backstory is what happens during levels 1 through 10. To be fair though - if your DM promises, that backstories matter and then pulls off any of that crap from the video - by all means, your griefs are justified and well founded.

@theuncalledfor

3 жыл бұрын

You either didn't actually watch the video or you're a That Guy.

@rudolfaligierski3043

3 жыл бұрын

@@theuncalledfor given the limited alternatives you provided it's the latter, I suppose.

@emberfist8347

2 жыл бұрын

@@rudolfaligierski3043 Yep you are that guy.