How Much Backstory Should You Give Your GM? 

What would you have done differently when creating these backstories? Thanks so much to WorldAnvil for sponsoring this video! Visit www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike and use the promo code SUPERGEEK to get 40% off any annual membership! www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike

My favorite character was a tabaxi genie warlock who used to just be a cat until they knocked over the genie’s vessel.

Love how with the "recovering cannibal" description, Sterling is less happy about the "recovering" part

“Don’t do a cannibalism.” Life advice I never knew I needed: Thank you Mike.

"Culinary Procurement Team" is a GENIUS in-game rich people euphemism, my god.

Your joke rubric for a good dnd backstory happens to be an almost exact description of my current characters backstory, and I kinda feel called out lol

I’ve always personally preferred a bullet point lore submission to my GM. Enough information to work off of, that’s vague enough to mess with but concrete enough to give me some control too. I try to go for about 5-10 “lore bits” of important detail and it’s always worked nicely for me, especially since it’s a lot less reading! Ex. My goblin thamauturge in pf2: - Was found protecting another goblin kid and refused to leave without her, forming a sisterly bond with this younger goblin. - Adopted by a well-known house of mix ancestries, known for their skill in combat. - Snuck into the library every night with her sister to study how to slay monsters, not only to protect her family but also bring honor to them. - Really likes to eat. - Built her sword with her dwarven father.

"Don't do a cannibalism." *_YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!_*

All these characters are super cool, but HOLY SHIT do I want to be in a campaign with Sterling. What a great backstory.

An easy rule of thumb is -does it explain their motivations -does it give the dm hooks they can use That is really all they need

Hey Mike. Love this. I think it's fair that some GMs might not integrate your backstories so it's always important to either make sure you know or prepare for your backstory not to come up. :) So maybe it's just for your benefit and not for the GM.

Having a pirate with a peg leg is not necessarily able-ist, as long as you have other sailor characters with similar injuries and prosthetics. It was a hard life on ship and injuries were common, surviving such injuries, perhaps, less common but, with a good ship's surgeon, maybe not. Incidentally, would cannibalism , for a Tiefling, consist of eating humans (or whatever ancestry they've popped up among) or of eating other Tieflings?

I think the big thing for writing backstory is what pushes the character into adventure and you're actions up to that may be limited. Case in point, one of my characters has a backstory that is 10 pages in length, but, that backstory takes place in a few days (start was character is level 3 when game begins). The biggest things that happen before the call was that they're a bard in their family's tavern, ends up in a minor bar fight (breaking their lute over the head of a customer that got grabby), then getting a replacement lute (and encountering the customer following them after replacing the lute), and then having something that happens that makes them become a Sorcerer and find out that the customer was actually trying to warn the character. Then the character ends up leaving because they think they're in danger and staying would put their family in danger too.

A couple of unconnected thoughts. A "backstory" isn't just what the character did before the campaign, but also what the player expects from being in the campaign. The details on that sheet are part of the character's story, just as the campaign is, but some details are just facts being left behind while others are more relevant. Talking to the DM about expectations is very important, but it's also a good idea to make notes such as, "I'm not expecting this to come up, it's just explaining why my guy thinks this way," or "This is important to my character at the start, but I'm expecting them to change their mind as the campaign goes on, so don't bother trying to come up with a reason to make this more important to the campaign than that." Or, for that matter, "I'd love for this event to have been part of a conspiracy that ties in to a major campaign arc because it would make the resolution really dramatic." Communication is always good. "Long John" Silver doesn't have a peg leg because it makes him a monster. He's a monster when he behaves like a monster, and he does that out of greed. The peg leg is an easy visual identifier that also marks him as someone who gets into dangerous situations and survives. A player character with a wooden leg would be fine, so why not an NPC? Touching upon human (or, in D&D, humanoid) frailty in a harsh world isn't the same as ableism. That said, it would be easy to include a note regarding the NPC in your backstory saying, "This guy is missing an eye because he fought something terrible and survived. Imagine him as a skillful, dangerous guy. He's survived for years while doing bad things despite being easily recognized."

These series of videos are so formative. I'm loving them a lot. Can't wait for monday video since I'm the DM and I can learn a lot from that.

Two of my favourite characters have been ones whose backstory could be shortly summarised without losing anything of note. Adrianna Vyačeslav was born to a mercantile family of wine-makers in one of the major cities who went on to study magic at the local institute of the arcane. She was apprenticed under a William Angell Legrasse for seven years. One day, when visiting his home, she found the place ransacked and Professor Legrasse dead -- brutally so. A robbery, it was later dismissed as. She returned home to grieve. During her week at her family estate, she received a package from her deceased mentor containing a book and a letter. The book was an ancient leather-bound tome, an ancient occult text the letter explained, that William had been investigating the history of. He had uncovered something, though he wouldn't say what. More to the point, he feared he was being hunted by persons unknown. Knowing his death was near, he left the artefact to the only person he trusted: her. Adrianna left to the Institute, intent on leaving the Institute to pursue her mentor's murderers but, instead, she was offered a role of junior researcher. She could pursue her own goals to her heart's content, yet to the benefit of the Institute itself. Obey their orders and deliver an annual assessment of her research, and Adrianna would receive certain privileges in return. So, she left a junior researcher, off to retrace her mentor's footsteps and uncover this mystery. Then there was Emilia Morgan. Emilia grew up in a rough neighbourhood who dreamed of a better life. Unfortunately, that better life came at a cost. Emilia was forced to sell her body just to survive and, though she eventually found employment as a bartender, she needed both jobs to live in a comfortable squalor. One day, one of her clients murdered her. It didn't last. Emilia awoke in an alleyway with a dark hunger, killing the man who may have been trying to help (or, in her experience, take advantage of her state). She had become a vampire (dhampir, but this is a homebrew world, so who cares). And, well... that's it. (Un-)life goes on, and she has bills to pay. So she continues, working when she can, at the bar, in her bed, all the while figuring out what she's become. All the while, she is constantly on the look out for a big break: a job opportunity that will take her out of his soul-crushing cycle. I liked both these characters, even if my DM wound up mishandling both games. I hope I get to use them again, some time later.

My first campaign was set in ravnica. My first character’s entire backstory was he,a human, was orphaned and grew up with goblins. He had a friend who joined a gang and eventually was killed in gang violence. My character proceeded to get revenge on the killer and the detective working the case was actually a member of the dimir and took a liking to my handy work. He then recruited me to the dimir guild as an assassin. During the campaign, my rogue was undercover as someone from the orzhov syndicate. Sadly, the campaign just fizzled out due to lack of consistent scheduling and other life stuff

Very excited for Monday!!!

I think it’s a good idea to follow a process of “what, who, where, why.” What happened to make them who they are Who are they, who are their friends, who are their enemies, etc Where are they from Why are they an adventurer

One more small note for Histix, I would note a couple of the other prisoners/slaves on the ship that he knows and got along with/didn't. That way the DM has something to work with before making it to the grove narratively. Also chef's kiss on the conman fighter not learning from his mistakes of conning lord after lord having an 8 Wisdom.

As a GM I actually prefer my players leaving names for NPCS and places open. I often already have a few ideas that I would like to weave into the PCs backstories, so that I can connect the characters to each other and the overarching plot. I also like to work pretty closely with my players, when they create their backstories, so that I can get a feel for their characters before we start playing. It's usually a really fun process of throwing ideas back and forth.

This is a good channel. I like Mike.

You're honestly one of my favourite youtubers! Wonderfully listenable, simple presentation and videos that always have their niche for me. Hope you're having a good day!

I have a horribly rough time with backstory, since I tend to be detail-oriented and I don't like pushing lore onto a GM. Sure, it's a conversation between me and the GM, but I want to give the GM as much creative freedom as possible. Plus, I tend to be the first person to absolutely be A-OK with dying. I don't push for character death, mind you, but if someone's gotta die, I'm fine with that someone being my character (usually). I also tend to not have the greatest idea as to WHO a character really is until I play a session or two. Sure, I know the important bits and what likely brought them to where they are now, but I don't know how they'll interact with the world until they get to. Gotta feel them out, get comfortable, and then I can really get into who they were. What helps to a degree in this is that I am the Background Player. I tend to take party roles no one is playing because I want the people who are the Frontline Players to have their fun, and I enjoy watching them go through their arcs and doing my part to make sure they can get through them. In that sense, maybe my lack of backstory keeps me in the background so others can flourish, and that's honestly fine with me, and most GM's I've played with.

Personally what I like to do for my backstory is first a bullet list of the points important to me that I send to my DM We then fine-tune it together so that we're both happy with it and then I write a short story in the first person of my character telling their own story I like this because it gives me some time to think about how my character is going to express themselve and also it gives a vibe check to my GM And also if an other PC asks for my past later it is easier to just pick some paragraphs directly from the text

(Writing comment at about 3:30 into video) Every time I see backstory discussed on the internet I realize how different I am from a large portion of the active community. I can't come up with detailed and intricate backstories. My first character's backstory was maybe a page, my second was pretty much a small paragraph. Both did their job I think, but I can't make up stories on my own, and I don't really think I should since all the good stories should be ahead of my character (not to say you can't have interesting stories in your background but for me and my playstyle I think this is okay)

One of my biggest hang ups as a 'forever dm' is when a player gives me like a massive google doc of backstory but its not just backstory, it's the travelling band of merchants they grew up with and their entire history and each of the people in the village and how they all interact with each other. which on the one hand is super cool, I love that a person is this excited about their stuff...but i get big DM anxiety personally whenever someone else puts too much character into a npc that I have to play at some point. It's also the reason I really dont like controlling PC's as the DM if a player misses a session and prefer to just explain them away or just kind of remove them. There's something about playing someone else's character that gives me a lot of anxiety. Living up to their expectations. I want them to see and have their backstory interwoven dramatically with the story but everytime I think about trying to remember everything they wrote for each character and trying to get personalities, genders, and anything else right I kind of freeze up. I find when i make NPCs it's easier for me because the act of making them like, unlocks a weird memory block in my head that makes them easier to slip into. Which is why i prefer helping my player's make their backstories feel more connected to the world and having a bit more influence. For what its worse I never get mad or say 'no dont do that' (though a 'okay...but lets make this slightly more realistic' is a bit more common) but it does make me a bit uncomfortable, and I have noticed I like, subconsciously interweve those stories less into the campaigns directly because of that anxiety of playing someone else's babies. idk. no reason to make this long message other than it just felt like the thing to do.

The only criticism to your videos ist that there are not enough of thank you for all the great help ❤

Two things: as a gm I work very closely with my players on their backstories. I want them to play the character they want to play but also need to make sure it fits in with the setting and tone of the campaign and also to gently guide them into a direction where the character's motivations and goals are solid from the beginning. Two: love the idea of a character that's just in debt. Not from gambling or some tragic backstory of the family business being taken from them. Just a guy in what it essentially horrible credit card debt that he spent on drinking and restaurants. Like even his starting equipment is financed all to hell.

I got me a recovering cannibal in a current campaign. A bugbear w a kiwi accent. A big ole sweetheart and orgy enthusiast. He’s learning to play guitar and writing a travel guide. He’s a defender of the small, who occasionally relapses after a battle. I accidentally ate another one. My bad. The struggle is real

I have a formula. 2-3 paragraphs of reasonable length. They then have the following: - What your character wants - A trouble that is reason to join the group - 2-3 normal-ish persons and 1 villain type in your past you care about It is digestible, mineable and easy to review.

One minor quibble: it _is_ possible to have a level 1 or 2 character with level 10 accomplishments in their backstory, you just need a good in universe explanation for why they've lost their old abilities. Maybe your character is an older person who was a skilled adventurer in their youth, but has spent the last several decades as a civilian and has gotten rusty (this works especially well for longer lived races like elves and gnomes). Or maybe they suffered some debilitating illness/injury/curse with lasting effects that has forced them to relearn their old abilities (e.g. a swordsman who suffered a permanent injury to their sword hand, and has had to relearn how to fight with their off hand). You can then RP leveling up as your character slowly regaining old abilities they lost through practice. In my CotN game I'm playing a consecuted Bladesinger who was a level 10 drow wizard in her first life, then died and got reborn as a human. The way I wrote it, her memories of her previous life only started returning a few years before the campaign, and her magical skills and knowledge have been especially slow to come back. Hence why she starts the campaign at only level 3, despite having a backstory where she spent years fighting demons. The two free spells she gets to learn with each level up, I RP as her slowly copying/reconstructing from memory spells that she used to have in her old spellbook (which was lost when she died). With a character like that, tho, there was still a risk of overloading my DM with pages and pages of backstory from all the lives she'd lived over the centuries, so I did us the favor of giving my character only one previous life. That way, we wouldn't need to remember any lives besides her first one and her current one (which were the only two interesting ones anyways). I also had her first life end at the young-for-an-elf age of 200 or so, so I wouldn't have to write 700+ years worth of backstory.

Coming up with character backstories is one of my favorite parts of the game. I have to remember to keep myself in check sometimes to not get too carried away with it. 😜 These all sound like fun characters to play!

I tend to create rather detailed backstories for my PCs but I tend to be flexible. Most of my typing is for me. It is creating names for family, friends, people they dislike, their relationship to gods, any organizations they have been in, some tics, hobbies, their ideals, their flaws, etc. One GM likes to read through it all, another wants a bulletin point of it. In both cases I tend to talk with the GM to ensure everything is in the go and can be an interesting direction. I'd say the big thing is also to adapt. One character I had wasn't intended to have low self confidence problems but as I played her I found it increasingly something I was leaning into and I feel made more sense for some of the things she had done and why she was adventuring to begin with. Similarly, when the GM changed some backstory I didn't object to it and instead leaned into it because it made for a fun intrigue angle. For my other PC, I have added things as I have gone on as I've felt the character out.

Looking forward to hearing your advice on how to integrate backstories into campaigns, it's always struck me as headache inducing!

As a player that used to write a 10 page backstory, and as a dm that dreads the 10 page backstory, I ended up settling on only giving the dm relevant information that they can use in the game, and the inciting incident that pushed them into becoming an adventurer. I start my backstories with a bullet list of important information, hometown, important relationships, short descriptions of backstory characters, and their overall goal. Kind of like the character list at the beginning of play. Then I write out the inciting incident (that I try to keep to around a page) and send it off. I've had a lot more success with this method, and it's less of a time investment for everyone involved. That's not to say you can't still write that 10 page backstory, but we all know that those are more for the writer than the game master. That information is still relevant to you and how you rp the character, but not vital. You can still talk to the game master about backstory and character, and probably achieve the same result.

The way I make backstories. First I usually start with a simple one, a one paragraph explanation of who they are and general motives, and then the second paragraph simply explains how they got to where they where when they enter the campaign to justify why they join the party. Basically it’s general story justifications to make the integration smoother. That’s just for simple backstories though. When do more detailed ones…well those I throw together a word document for. I still make a summery backstory of course but I also include physical and family details, details on important people and events in their lives, a general idea on food preferences and how willing they are to try new things, maybe even if they drink, smoke, or do drugs. I also include a small area of inspiration art and a I expand on this document as I go along in the campaign. This long form of backstory is actually less for the dm and far more for me. It’s to sorta keep straight things I may say in roleplay and might forget the implications of later. So I write it down and it tends to help be a good reference for me if it’s been a while since a session. I only really provide this style of backstory to my dm if the game is roleplay heavy and the dm asks for me to submit it. I’ve done this only a handful of times and mostly for exandria campaigns. This is probably because those campaigns are more built to be friendly for creating one and most who probably run them seem to encourage the longer backstories. It really comes down to what is asked for. I only had two non Exandria campaigns that asked for this style and one for for Radiant Citadel, and that more flowed into being so roleplay heavy of a party that dm just told us to submit it after a few sessions and he started incorporating it all (which was awesome because sometimes he would ask us to fill in or expand specific areas that had caught his interest and use that, it was awesome). The other time was a homebrew but honestly I don’t like to count that one. The dm was…honestly I don’t think he bothered to read any of it despite his request for the information. He didn’t even use it during a perfectly good time to do so and eventually I left due to lack of communication and so on. Honestly I was also tired of being the only want to instigate anything into happening at all because no one would talk and the dm provided bare minimum with little clarification if asked and often changed around how some spells worked or what information we found. Like, for instance, us submitting a report to the town guards and the the paperwork from that is lost. Honestly it became pretty obvious that the dm wanted us to let it go rather than let us bring in the guards in any way. Honestly roleplay on that was a pain. But that aside, that’s probably my only bad experience with a dm asking for a long form backstory and just basically tossing it in the fire despite having been the one to ask for it. The rest loved what I submitted and I got wonderful and engaging feedback that showed they cared and read over what I wrote. I am a bit of a writer so when I make these long form backstories I tend to leave in plenty of plot hooks for a dm to latch onto and use if it catches their interest. I’m in dnd for the creative collaboration (and the rest of the fun of dnd, but lots of fulfillment in creative collaboration, make no mistake) and so I respect a dm who engages in that. Anyway, apologies for the length, I just wanted to mention my way of doing these and went off in a tangent. Loved the video! Oh, one thing, I mentioned I add details like food preferences right? Well I know that seems silly to add to a long form backstory but…for me it tends to remind me of what my character acts like and what choices they might make. It’s more a roleplaying reference thing, like knowing a favorite color or animal, or that maybe the character fell out of a tree as a kid and broke their arm and now they prefer not to climb if they don’t have to. Maybe a chicken chased them around as a child and now they order chicken at all the inn’s in a petty revenge. Maybe my character likes to embroider flowers on their clothes and help sew dresses or nice clothes for their party. Maybe they like to white children’s toys and give them to various ones on their journey. This is why I add those little anecdotes. I should also mention I have a section for “goals” I want to hit in the backstory in terms of arcs, if possible. For instance, maybe they are scared of their family matriarch but finally confront them on all the pressures they put on the family and call them out despite their fear? I might make it a goal for that confrontation to happen. Maybe they saw their past lover die in a monster attack and blamed themselves for years, and so maybe their arc is to let go or forgive themselves? It could be a number of things. It could even be a petty man trying to smear their reputation because he lost to them in a public and fair spar and finally making that person eat their words. Little goals like this, and those would be subject to change as the campaign evolves. Anyway yeah I just wanted to add that on.

As both a player and a DM, I completely support and encourage collaboration between player and DM when it comes to backstories. Sometimes (hopefully most of the time) the DM will be willing and able to accommodate details/aspects of the backstory. There may be times, unfortunately, where something simply doesn't fit. This is just part of the reason that communication is key, as you said. I also would encourage you to keep reminding viewers of that, for a couple reasons: 1) so many issues in a game can be resolved through effective communication 2) the lesson won't hit home until the person is ready to receive it, and that could be the 1st time you say it, or the 501st

Bit edge-lordy, but my main OC is a former petty rogue from Scornubel who was duped into raiding the crypt of the Wondermen (Lich coven). He wound up grabbing a gem being prepared as a phylactery/soul cage and had his soul trapped. When the mage killed him in anger, because of his trapped soul, he “woke up” a few decades later as a Reborn. Found his old thieves guild killed by the mage, (who had since completed his ritual and was now a lich), and swore to use the mage’s own dark powers against him. He’s currently a Hexblade/Whisper Bard with Echo Knight levels after coming into the service of Kelemvor as a tainted, but devoted Doomguide. (The Echo is played as him temporarily summoning his soul from the gem). Story wise, it’s a more old school “what they want vs what they need”, he *wants* to find and kill the Lich, in the hopes of ending what he sees as the “curse” of immortality (he’s over 100 now), but he’s learning that there’s a *need* for someone like him, who is able to console, comfort, and strengthen those facing death or who are going through the same loss he did.

Awesome work my dude! If I could add a suggestion for your next video, I would like to see how a GM can help a player who wrote a poor/bad backstory. Maybe a blurb or even a whole video concept on it's own? I.E. what makes a backstory unusable?

I generally write a page to a few pages depending on what level our group is starting at and what the character necessitates. Starting at level 10 for our current campaign of more than a year of playtime now, I wrote maybe 3-4 pages since our characters were actually strong enough to have some crazy experiences. Our other current campaign which also started at level 10, I'm playing a husky paladin who was experimented on by an evil scientist (hence why she can talk and reason). I think I wrote two pages for that maybe, but it was really just focused on her very early life being taken and experimented on leading to her awakening. It didn't make sense to go into more than that since she hasn't had a ton of other experiences outside of captivity. Lower level campaigns, I had a druid raised by a hidden village of birds who literally thought she was a bird (albeit featherless most of the time) for a long time. Basically just wrote about how her bird mother found her and her childhood for a few paragraphs max.

Please have a video on how backstories influence RP!

22:44 While I agree that he shouldn't be a revealed to be of noble birth. I would still recreate the scene from Knight's Tale where he gets captured for his scamming ways and just before he gets excuted the future King/Queen of the nation comes and saves him by saying that they had found evidence that he was actually from an ancient noble line and releases them from their bonds. But just like in Knight's Tale is very clear that the Prince/Princcess is lying and is meerly using their status as the future King/Queen to save a close friend from a certain death and is daring all of other nobles present at the execution to call them on their buff.

9:40 that is such a sad backstory. well done

How’d you time this video to the exact day I’ve been working on one of my characters backstories after a random blast of inspiration 😆

These are awesome. Honestly though, I'll say this: as a DM I have never yet received a backstory that is too long - too short and a sparse is much more common. I don't mind reading a long backstory at all, as long as the player didn't try to give themselves unreasonable power for the level at which we're playing (and I haven't seen this actually occur in real life yet, though I'm sure it happens - most of my players are much more interested in making their characters go through the wringer in their backstories instead 😂). Long backstories often have a lot of stuff for me to choose from when I'm building arcs... and also usually help the player get into their character's head faster. Maybe I'm still overcompensating for my own first backstory experience, which was pretty disheartening. I wrote four paragraphs. I gave info on the character's family, why she left home, how she joined a criminal organization in a big city to explain the criminal background, and the sorts of low stakes crimes and cons she helped with until she got someone innocent jailed for HER crime and decided to move on. No special powers, no insane importance, none of that. My DM informed me it was unreasonable to write "so much" (four paragraphs???) and that as a level one character there was no need for "all this." I felt terrible (and incidentally that whole game was a disaster but that's for another day - I'm just glad my first experience didn't become my last). Anyway, next time I made a character, I wrote two sentences, hoping I got it "right" this time, and for nearly a year the poor DM was operating blind thinking I just didn't care when actually I had a whole complex background in my head. Eventually we talked and I gave them all the info they needed but geeeeeez. That first guy really made me feel small. Anyway, all this to say, go out there and write a dang novel if you want to. Just edit, and give the DM a cliffs notes version that they can reasonably read in a quick glance. If they decide they want more, they can ask.

In a campaign I’ve been DMing for about 20 sessions I’ve been struggling a lot with dm anxiety about backstory, a few of the characters backstory are less about informing motivations and more along the lines of “these are the specific events that this character has to complete” and as someone who has a large campaign written, I don’t know how to make them understand that it’s entirely possible that some characters backstories will never come up, especially prophecies, I really hate prophecies in backstory. The character with the most well integrated backstory is the bard that played the first three sessions with ZERO backstory and we built it together into something distant, but well woven into my world, could be a major part of the story if they pursue it, but could very well never be more than explanation of why the character acts like he does

I try to keep my backstories fairly small these days. Dramatic, and normally with a nemesis to fight, but I try to make those characters personal enemies rather than world-scale threats, and not boosting that PC beyond the limits of whatever level we start at (typically Lv.3). So, for example, my second character in 5e was a veteran of a war, but at that point she wasn't any stronger than an NPC soldier, she as a juvenile delinquent who got conscripted, and learned a bit of magic there, starting her journey to becoming an adventurer. That said, I think if you want to make your character have a longer backstory with more history, I think it can be fun to examine the idea of a character who _used_ to be a badass and has since become weaker than their peak. Bertrand in Campaign 3 of Critical Role is something of an example there, as he's a lower level in C3 than he was in the Vox Machina oneshots. Maybe your character is retired, and hasn't been fighting or adventuring for a long time. Maybe they're a martial fighter, and suffered a career-ending injury, like the loss of their dominant hand, and they're having to learn how to fight again. Maybe they were a Cleric or Paladin, and suffered a crisis of faith, abandoning their god or oath (without falling and becoming an Oathbreaker in the Paladin's case). Maybe they were a Warlock, and their patron abandoned them. I did this sort of thing with two of my characters. The first was a Warforged, who had once been the right-hand guy of the greater-scope villain. In that time, he'd been incredibly powerful, and occasionally, bits of what he used to be would leak out. But during the cataclysm that formed the world's backstory, he betrayed the BBEG and helped the previous generation of heroes stop him. The backlash of doing this almost killed him, and he'd spent much of the intervening time slowly healing his body and soul, and at the end of it, he was Lv.5. The other heroes had made his survival/existence a closely-guarded secret, until he was strong enough to defend himself. He brought a sense of age and world-weariness to a mostly young and impulsive party of noblebrights (well, noblebrights with issues, our combined alignment was Redemption Idiot), and I played his backstory as an epic warrior not as a series of badass things he'd done before, but as an event that deeply traumatised him and left him with a deep loathing for war and the people that cause them. Rather than reacting to the return of the cataclysm with cocksure smugness that he'd handle this sort of thing before, he was often the only one taking it seriously, as he was terrified of what they were up against after witnessing it first-hand. The other was a more comedic idea, one I never got to properly use. My second character from that same game had gone on to become the right hand of the Raven Queen, and I liked her so much that I kept using her, mostly in non-game RP spaces. I played her as having long-since died and ascended to the status of an angel, but I always wanted to use her in another game, with the idea that she'd be sent on a mission by the Raven Queen, and incarnated in a fresh mortal body. Hence, she'd be weaker, and I intended to play that for a joke, by having her constantly forget that she was once again a squishy Drow with biological needs. She'd flub her attacks because bodies made of muscle and bone feel off compared to her purely-astral true form. She'd forget to eat or sleep and take a level or two of exhaustion. She'd incarnate without her wings and suddenly have to remember how to _climb things,_ or that she can't just jump off tall structures and not take fall damage. And she'd often be brought in without her full set of memories, because she was impulsive and had a tendency to overshare, and her mission would probably go smoother if she _couldn't_ announce that she was RQ's right hand woman. As it was, I ended up taking her in a different direction before I ever got to explore this idea. Maybe it would've been annoying, but I find something compelling about the idea of a character who _used_ to be much stronger than they are now, and weakened over time.

I used to love writing elaborate backstories. Often using the central casting book from the 80s by the great Janelle Jaquays. But these days i prefer to keep it minimal. I've really wanted to play a character who starts out as a humble gongfarmer. Someone who cleans up human waste from the streets.

My preferred way of approaching it is, rather than asking ‘who has your character been’, asking ‘who does your character want to be/become?’ - I find it places the focus more on what will happen, stops them from being level 1 superheroes, and puts the player in the mindset of getting into the role a bit more

I gave my "last GM" like 2 paragraphs of backstory on my character, but since we were playing a level 1 one-shot starting with character creation for our coworkers, even that was overkill. 😅

I can get really into my character's backstory. for my first VtM game I wrote like 2 pages and a half, but it wasn't a wall of text and I used proper punctuation. in some cases, a one sentence quote from my character would be the entire paragraph, so if I had compacted those instances and my prose, it would probably actually be like one page and a half, but I'm a sucker for style but if I were creating a character for Curse of Strahd, I'd write 2 paragraphs at most

I am playing in a game that joins any universe imaginable in a kind of post-death nexus world. My character is a Jedi knight, who fought in the clone wars and found out the order 66. While trying to revel it to the Jedi council, he was attacked by a sith assassin, and ended up in this planet, where the Force basically exists only inside himself, explaining why he ended up weaker then before Edit: a detail I forgot to mention, we started as lv 3 characters, that's why he needed to be weaker then before

Your ‘type’ seems to be fallen or displaced nobles. ‘Highborn brought low’, in the sense of being someone who could have been wealthy and powerful, but was humbled by circumstance. It’s a good trope for playing a character who develops personal dignity rather than relying on an accident of birth.

I don’t provide cohesive lore docs, I provide 2am lore drops.

Howdy Mike! This video emphasizes the need for a Session 0, before beginning a campaign. The Dungeon Master should outline the framework of their campaign setting BEFORE the players start creating their characters. The players have a better idea of the boundaries and basically meet the DM halfway. I am also a history buff, so my default backstory runs like this; I am the second son of a wealthy merchant family. I have a good childhood, was educated, but will not inherit the family business. So I have become an adventurer to earn my fortune. I have an infant goblin wild magic sorcerer named Blammo, who was banished from his village, for accidently set the nursery on fire. There is also a halfling, charlatan, rogue named Tyron Shoelaces. He is a counterfeiter and is forging letters of credit from Count de Monet, (who is hunting him down.)

"Like Captain Kirk," except he never actually did that, he was devoted to his ship and his duty.

If you were at my group's table, you don't need just one or two friendly backstory-NPCs or family members. You need one for each other non-DM, non-you player so that when there's a scene with your family or backstory-specific NPCs, each player can play one (and usually give them a ridiculous accent, habit, and/or make them romantically interested in one of the PCs; this isn't mandatory, but it does seems to be inevitable in my group).

oh yes, bimblebomble the humble noble

Honestly the answer is to write the amount of backstory your game master can use. Don't write a novel. Don't write more than one page. Do write the inciting incident or motivation for why your character is going on adventures. The vast majority of npcs in the setting are not dungeon crawling adventurers. Come up with a reason for why your character is actively adventuring when they could instead be a baker, tailor, or fluffer. After you have your inciting incident, come up with carrots and sticks. I like to get a bullet point list of 5 NPCs that the PC has some relationship with. Parents, romantic partners, old friends/siblings, rivals/enemies, etc... It doesn't matter who the NPCs are or what their connection to the PC is. Loved of hated, all the NPCs need is to have some reaction to the presence of their PC and a vested interest in the success or failure of the PCs. If you are playing a warlock your patron and how they perceive their warlock needs to be the first NPC. If your playing a fighter the person who taught you to fight or a ranking superior in the army you used to be a part of needsto be on the list. Druid = Grove members. Barbarian = tribesmen. Cleric = other priests or higher-ups in the church. Rogue = the thief or beggar king that raised/trained you. All the classes and most of the backgrounds have something that obviously ties the PC to the world and the people in it. Figure them out and give them to the DM so they can prod you with them when the game stagnates and you forget why you're adventuring.

I tend to have somewhere between two and five paragraphs, whether or not the GM asks for any backstory - Enough for me to know who the character is. Even if they're, you know, 'ordinary child' for e.g. a campaign inspired by Digimon, I've usually got enough sense of who they are to at least get a paragraph of personality description for them before I start the campaign. Just to give me a starting point of how to play them. From there, I can then give the GM about as much as they ask for. "Give me a few bullet points about your character" is easy, as is one or two paragraphs even if I've written a few pages for myself. If they want longer than I've written for myself, that's not a problem either - I can always write a short bit of prose focusing in on a key event in their life or two. But, if there's something specific the GM asks for? I'm going to try and focus in on that in what I send them.

I FEEL LIKE IM BEING WATCHED I LITERALLY JUST GOT DONE WITH MY FIRST DND SESSION

All things said. I think then the first backstory i ever wrote was not bad. A scientist is searching for a way to upgrade humans and along the path installs the best upgrades he can to his daughter. Giving her increased hearing, increased stealth, and a higher jump (most of which i would depict with my stats) But one night, the house is attacked (here i ended added a part my dm wanted, so she died. But i would've otherwise continued) During the attack she tires to escape through the back entrance to her father's workshop and finds a gathering small underground hovels where he kept his test subjects. He opens the exit door for them and finds a second group of people, this one looking extremely different than the attackers. She's the only one who escapes this second group and so decides that she'll find a way to get stronger, find her father, whom she maybe still loves And get some answers

I love the art for the sexy evil cleric reference. Can you post credit for the art?

From a DM perspective, don't create names and motivations for anyone outside your immediate family and friends. Describe the actions of NPCs, and I can find existing NPCs in my campaign who might have done what is described. If your backstory has enough gaps in it, and the connections from it to the world around you are vague enough, then it fits easily into an existing campaign setup. Focus on the formative moments, keep everything scaled at "Level 0" adventures.

I really need to write up my character’s backstory. But I keep running into the same issue. “It this going to make sense”..😅 granted I myself like it, but I need it to make some logical sense though.

Any advice on solo D&D playing? I've tried for over a year to try and find a group to try a beginners campaign but no luck ... i think you have mentioned solo play in videos before but would like a new more detailed view from you if possible 👍

"Don't do a cannibalism." 😂

I don’t think backstories should be written in isolation and then submitted to the DM. I work with my players for weeks to months before starting a campaign to flesh out their backstories with them, ensuring deep integration in the world and setting up plot hooks during initial world building instead of forcing them in later. I give them freedom to be as thorough as they want and I fill in any details (some of which they won’t find out until later). This leads to very fleshed out, detailed backstories that both the player and DM are invested in and excited about and that can tie into the world and plot in significant ways. (As a bonus, since I’m doing this in parallel with all the players before the campaign starts, I can inject details that subtly tie their characters together in unexpected ways. Been running a campaign for about 6 months now and they are on the verge of discovering that one character’s long lost daughter is another character’s adoptive mother, so that should be fun!)

i mean old man henderson had like 500 pages of backstory to justify being able to do anything so any is fine tbh

At this point I'd take a novel.

How much backstory should you give your GM? All of it. All. Of. It. OK, fine, I'll watch the video and find out what Mike has to say about it.

If a player wants their backstory woven into a campaign, they do have a responsibility to structure a backstory that lends itself to further storytelling. It’s unrealistic and unfair to expect GMs to make everything fit. Their main obligation is to make their parameters clear so that they can collaborate to meet player needs. Which is why as a player if you failed to ask a GM what they need from your backstory, you messed up.

Ok. So your thing is that you love being a noble, but actually not. Got it

For backstory it depends on the game. I play in 3 weekly games. One is mostly a backstory the DM gave me. I just said 'wizard that works for a library' and he made the rest. One has Literally none, just "fortune teller that saw a vision of traveling with the party" and that's literally all there is. The campaign only consists of campaign stuff and not back stories. My third group we love writing. We write short novels about our characters. And I mean literally 20-40 page google doc with 12 point font. So it just depends, greatly depends.

first?

There is so much wrong with this. Backstories should be, maybe, three sentences. (1) Why/how they became the class they are. (2) One fault. (3) One long-term goal. Any more is just self-serving fan fiction. No first-level character has gone adventuring. No first-level character has a world-class villain against them. No first level character is particularly good at combat/social encounters.

As a DM I try to push the following things to my players to figure out in their back story: 1) Why is your character invested enough in the pitch to kill and potentially die? 2) How did your character meet the party? 3) Why is your character staying with the party? First one can be the hardest, especially when the pitch is bad. Happened to me once and lead to a short and sad campaign that deserved to be freed from its misery... Usually, when the motivation is not simply "I like money", the rest followos. "I like money" is veryproblematic as the party will usually quickly get enough of it so that a character could live comfortably for quite a while. Just give them a magic item they could sell and they might decide that this is all they need for the rest of their days and there is no reason to further endanger themselves. As the DM I can pitch "The dragon will destoy the town!", but it is the job of the players to figure out why they risk their lives in fighting the dragon instead of just looking for a new home elswhere. Potential plot hooks or specific characters that go beyond the points above are just icing for when we play a campaign that has room for character related content.