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Question on this pre-order. Or more accurately the Into the Fey option. There’s a little more info you’re sharing that I can find on the current books. Anywhere I can find more information or reviews on the stuff available with the Into the Fey book? I for sure want to add the book but want to know more about the additional options for it. The maps is clear that it’s two versions, one with a grid and one without. But what all is including at the $100 price point. Any chance you plan to do a video covering the content?
Personally, I run homebrew campaigns and I only really start writing plot details after the PCs sent me their backstories. So not only the main campaign involves them, but their stories might even mix together. My group literally met each other because they were after their villains, who knew each other, and their villains' allegiances is what made the adventurers run into one another
In my curse of Strahd game, I had the players start at 3rd level and create their own story in the forgotten realms where they met each other, went on a quest, and even accidentally killed a dragon. This allowed them to bring their past accomplishments into Borovia and really be these heroic adventurers from the outside world
@@jaysw9585 players who love roleplay should have some respect for the collaborative nature of the game. It seems like you are playing with some pretty salty players
They gotta make characters with enough buy in, and work with the rest of the group to determine a conflict between characters that won’t get out of hand. An example of this is a cleric who has a thing against resurrection, and a necromancy wizard. The cleric may hate it when the wizard summons zombies, but isn’t going to leave the party or not go on the adventure because of it.
I was really struggling to get anything backstory-wise from most of my players. The group was a casual group and didn't have too much interest in heavy RP, which is fine, but I also got the feeling that keeping the group together for regular gaming would be easier if they were just a little more invested in their characters. With no backstory to pull from, I started opening the sessions with a character builder question. I started simple - favourite meal, favourite drink etc... Just one question per session. I had no idea how it was going over, for me it felt a little awkward, but I was getting more info about their characters and I opened the questions up to backstory questions - what sort of place did you grow up? What sort of family do you have? What led you to adventure? Over time this gave me a good idea of the characters backstories. It helped that it was a communal process - everyone got to discuss their ideas and riff off it a little, and it wasn't metagaming as the characters themselves would have probably shared that sort of information amongst themselves by that point of their adventure. I also made it clear that if anyone wanted secret backstory elements (as one player had) they could privately message me between game sessions to talk about it. Eventually I started running out of my burning questions and when I forgot to ask one, at least two of the group asked if there would be a question. I asked if they wanted that - still a little insecure about the process, as it wasn't something I had been sure about to begin with - and they said that they enjoyed the questions. Reflecting on that process, I could see how the behaviour of their characters changed over time as the players grew more confident in the personality of their character. They weren't just playing a fighter, they were playing a Half-Orc who secretly enjoyed a warm glass of milk in front of a fire to being stuffed into the corner of a tavern reeking of pee and stale ale - but they had a rep, man come on and gimme another drink! It was a really cool thing to watch as a DM.
That's a great way to pull people out of their shells! It helps with character building as well as give them material to roleplay amongst themselves about.
Awesome job! You may have been insecure about how it was going but you stumbled into a great way for everyone to learn about the characters that were being played. & it would be a natural process in a group (especially if they weren't close before the adventures began) to learn about each other as they had down time together.
I think saying it will feel “contrived” more than “designed intentionally” (especially in a game where everything is designed intentionally) gets the point across more.
I try to entangle their backstories with the "main quest", so that their characters also become relevant to whatever major event is the central aspect of the campaign. It's awful when the game feels like everyone could change their characters and it wouldn't make a damn difference.
Thats about how my character is currently, reason why im switching characters too. Make new one invested better. Great thingbis the dm is building in the backstories now, and somewhat allowing us to have impact on things. This is all homebrew so its quite wild at times
This is what I do. I find that the adventure is far more engaging when it feels personal to the players. There is a reason they are the heroes (or villains) of the story as opposed to an adventure that anyone could have done.
I agree entirely. Although there is the potential to run into issues where if a character dies, that does essentially make part of the main story... well a bit irrelevant or unconnected. However, this isn't a massive problem since the DM can make tweaks to future story. Or you could honestly just roll with it, since, not everything necessarily has to conveniently tie back in to the current characters and their story
There are two ways I use character backstories. One of these is actually to come up with messages for players to privately receive when mind control abilities are being attempted on them. Aboleths, for example, tap into a character's memories to offer them the things they desire in exchange for their servitude. Sending a personalized message to them for it, which ends with "Roll a Wisdom saving throw."... Most of my players loved that! The party's Cleric even told me later that he wished his character had failed the saving throw so he could've roleplayed that scenario out. The other way I use them is for planning: I don't plan things too far in advance (just one adventure at a time). So no overarching plots ahead of time. I keep a list of open threads. Since no one gets their backstories to me before we start, the inciting incident is its own separate thing. From that, each open thread that appears I'll add to a list. When I do get backstories, I'll add open threads from those to the list as well. If they're particularly relevant to specific characters, I'll note that in my notes (to avoid using someone's plot hooks if I know they're going to miss a session or two). Certain kinds of coincidences can be added to the list as well, but that's rare. One example of this was when three party members happened to coincidentally be a Minotaur created with Baphomet's blood, an Asmodeus bloodline Tiefling, and an Aasimar. This specific grouping caused the group to get the attention of key figures in The Blood War, and the overarching plot slowly became about the interruptions that those figures have caused to disrupt the players and try to further their own goals. Some were immediately hostile, while others wanted to trick the players into joining and helping them. Each time an adventure is closing, I'll take 2-3 open threads from the list that make sense to interact and have them interact. If it's too big of a stretch to combine two threads, then I won't. I keep it believable enough. I've had to occasionally pick just one open thread, but I can usually grab 2-3. The result causes the overarching plot to follow whatever the players leave open from each adventure. The game has evolved to have a primary villain who's been the villain for a very long time at this point, and the PCs have a plan to finally defeat him. (They started at level 1, they're 18 now, and one of this villain's minions appeared as early as session 1. I never intended to make him an overarching villain.) I also sometimes just toss in something I want to toss in though too... Like when the party found an ooblex in a spooky house in the woods shortly before Halloween in our world about a year and a half ago. I still managed to tie it to open threads though. An NPC who went missing several levels prior did go in this general direction and the party last saw her only a few miles from this spot, so it made sense for her to have encountered the ooblex, so an ooblex spawn of her greeted the party when they arrived. This piece wasn't backstory related, but if they were in a different region of the map it could've been.
If you are starting from scratch and making your own campaign story my recommendation is to give your players the premise first and let them create their characters before you plot out your campaign. Let the players write their story and work out a campaign from what they give you. It's extra work, but it's worth it.
One thing I'm real proud of is something I did in Icewind Dale. One of my players was raised by a vampire that ran an assassin guild, but ran away for obvious reasons. The vampire followed the PC to Icewind Dale, but not for the PC. He learned that Icewind Dale is dealing with it's perpetual night due to the Frostmaiden's curse, and being a vampire, this means Icewind Dale is quite appealing to him. So now I have a secondary villain trying to stop the players from ending the perpetual night so he can dominate the area and base his guild there.
Ooooh I love that! Making a villain's motivation not directly about the PC but the motivation does clash with the quest. We need more of that in the official modules!
I had a player in a few games I played in who made all of his character backstories "orphan with no friends." We thought he played D&D competitively against the DM and saw backstories as a weakness in some sort of game mentality.
First rule of backstory: (A level 1 PC hasn't already killed 37 ancient dragons.) The PC backstory needs to be appropriate for PC level. Rule 2 of backstory: It's great to bring in PC backstory elements into the adventure series we call a campaign. Rule 3 of backstory: The player doesn't get to hand their PC "The family armor and armaments" to gain high level magic items as a level 1. If they try, their parents had to sell these artifacts to pay taxes.
As far as giving a level 1 magical gear, I definitely agree with you. However, I've wanted to use a backstory with a very modest/shy female bard that gets 'magical' bikini armor. It's magic is that it just acts like normal armor but reveals a lot of skin. This isn't for titillation. It's to contrast with her personality. She doesn't want to be a sex symbol or sleep with anything that moves. But this armor is good, at least for starting off so there is the incentive to use it [the DM can off-set the price to keep things balanced. & you can make it scalable (if it's working story-wise) so as she levels up & would get more powerful stuff, it becomes more powerful]. Using this to help develop the character I think could be a focal point. Does she become (for lack of a different term) sluttier & how does that effect her magic & fighting style, and dynamics within her team? Does she become more & more embarrassed & retreat within herself or does she become angry & start to lash out at people? Will either cause an alignment change or making a deal an entity to overcome the harassment? Within the group, does it invoke conflict, or maybe over-protectiveness of her. Wow, guess I've thought more about this than I thought I thought I had.
At bit late but check out mage gate and family heirlooms. They have a good method to create scaling items for player characters. Hope this helps others with heirlooms in back stories. Can be found on drive by rpg or Google.
1. Homeland: Describe in 2 sentences your character's culture, the lands they spent their youth in, and how they lived. 2. Create 2 Support NPCs, Roll 2d6 or pick 2 adding in (Parents, Siblings, Mentors, Rivals, Lovers or Allies) 3. Adventure motivation: Roll 2d8 or pick 2 or more reasons to adventure. (Gold, Revenge, Knowledge, Power, Approval, Love, Fame, Religion) 4. Fear Response: 1 fear and explain how your character reacts: 1d8(Spiders, clowns, heights, Dirt/germs, Being alone, Becoming monster/evil, Someone dying near you, Small spaces)
@@jaysw9585 not really. Because even though you're level 1 your character has lived a whole life before this. And for some characters that is a very long time. I do think accomplishments need to be within reason of a level 1 though, no crazy bs like taking down an entire gang or king or something. But a lot of stuff can have happened around your character that needs some explanation as to why they are the way they are. Should be kept around 1-3 pages though. I like to explain side stuff so the dm can create stuff if he wants to without having to clue me in on what he is planning by asking certain questions for clarity. But I put a short succinct part at the front, then additional extra details for if he wants to dig.
Homeland: I lived on my own... in some forrest... there was no culture, just survival Support NPCs: Dolores - a puppet I found in a fashion store as a kid and Wilson a ball I painted a face on Adventure Motivation: I was bored being in that forrest alone by myself... Also Dolores started to make out with Wilson and I am angry with them because of this Fear Response: Fear? Me? NOPE! Actually I tried to make the stupidest character ever answering your questions and it turned out to be a crazy and cool backstory for a warlock who has gone crazy after his hometown got blown up by the bad guys.
@@h.s.6269 Exactly, you have the right way about it. In fact even up to 5 pages is reasonable for some races. Like for example; my Drow Feylost Death Domain Cleric she has 5 pages of backstory and it gives a reason for becoming a Death Domain Cleric while also setting up her Equipment/Gear choices to start out with. Her family included Smiths and other Crafts for their careers. So they crafted for my Cleric her starting Equipment, yet didn't go overboard with full Mithral. As for why she became a Death Domain Cleric she was in the Feywilds for a while and she got out of them by encountering the Raven Queen who offered her the opportunity to become her Cleric. So my character was already curious which lead her to entering the Feywilds, the Raven Queen seemed like a way to learn more things & was able to free my character from wandering forever in the Feywilds which also gives the Raven Queen more depth.
To me, the issue with sprinkling character backstory into main stuff, is half the time players don't even remember their backstory or haven't seemed to explore it like a writer or dm would, so miss little tidbits which is especially annoying when you've tried to use that to help hook them on going down a certain path
I feel your pain on that one. My latest example is one of my players was totally clueless when they found out an ancient queen from 1300 years ago had the same last name as him. Luckily another player eventually figured it out.
Definitely see that. Granted think the dm got me more invested since im siting currently between a pseudo dm at this point. I kinda chalked it due to having imagination and the dm likes me creating characters but i enjoy it and have fun with it.
@@erc1971erc1971 that's awesome. One time I used that to my advantage. I had a queen statue be one of the first things they saw in the first sit down. The queen had the same name as the changling player. Long story done short, the campaign ended with time travel and his character becoming the queen. It was the only time I've successfully blown a player and the rest of the parties mind. But... let Saturday I started a new game. Every single player had "ash" being In their backstory to some degree. It was just by chance. So I set up a character to be holding a urn of her husband and asking for help to travel with heroes. All 5 of them just dismissed it as any old NPC. So, now I'm left with a new way to hook them which is fun in its own way but omg , it felt so obvious. I mean she was among ten others on the train at the time but to me it felt so clear
Yeah I feel this. My players are pretty wrapped up in whatever they've felt like doing in the present which, thankfully, still keeps them on target for the adventures they're doing, but they've never once bothered to consider their backstories even after sitting down to create them.
@@karsonkammerzell6955 I find that backstories for casual characters are often written to be the main dude of a movie or video game but come the actual experience of dnd, players find they want do be more X or Y, and things change for the first few sit downs
Whenever I start up a campaign, I write up two or three pages about the setting, tone, themes and provide the opening adventure hook and some motivation suggestions and then give that all to the players before character creation. I usually follow up once they have some ideas to give them links to major factions or locations, and either integrate some of their ideas or offer suggestions to get them on the same page as my plans. I also use my campaign foreknowledge (I'm a long-term-story-arc planner type) to arrange the pacing so that different PCs get the spotlight at different times. For an example of how this works, my most successful campaign started with a meteorite that hit an island outside of town, and the PCs form a group to head out and investigate, motivated by a mix of treasure desire, curiosity, rumors of monsters and concern about some missing NPCs. The various PC backstories were integrated into the story as follows: - One PC was searching for his father, who left home shortly before the campaign after saying a bunch of weird things. He actually went a ridiculously long time before finding the father (which was near the end of the campaign), but he found plenty of hints and examples of a weird symbol that his father had a medallion of. I also secretly wrote down everything the player ever said off-handedly about his hippie druid compound hometown, and then had an arc where the PCs went there and got to meet all the PC's wacky siblings (which the player had made up). - One PC worked for the local group of wizard scholars (though he was not himself a wizard) who became major support NPCs, helping the party unravel all the esoteric stuff they found. This contributed to a simple but satisfying arc as the character gain more respect in the organization. - One PC had fled the cult where she grew up, and I made them a major component of the villains' plans. For added fun, the PC was very secretive about this backstory and the cult had a carefully-crafted public face, so the PC spent a while working behind the rest of the party's back before she told them the truth. I also made the PC's parents, friends and mentor significant antagonists, with the player making up those NPCs and me controlling when they appeared to maximize surprise/trouble. - One PC was a greedy loser who hung out with a punk/goth subculture that sort-of worshipped a Neutral Evil goddess of undeath and gluttony in a True Neutral "goddess of hedonism" interpretation. This group (who are mostly chill and non-evil) because very important in the plotline about undead attacks across the city, which they were being blamed for. - One PC was a veteran of the anti-demon crusades and was obsessed with fighting "demons", despite the campaign not being remotely about that. (The player was well aware of this, and made the character quite prone to interpreting any enemy as a "demon" or "demon-worshipper".) I did write him an arc with some antagonistic but not quite evil tieflings to make him think about things. He also was attracted to the above-mentioned cult's propaganda before he learned the truth about them.
For those using published modules, I've found character backstory can bring meaning and purpose to side quests or encounters that would otherwise be filler or discarded entirely. For example, there may not be much reason to check out the necromancer in The Lost Mines of Phandelver, but when that necromancer killed and "raised" your orc clan with a plague and you survived being half-orc, dumped unconscious on the road, only allowed to live as a curiosity... suddenly the throw-away, side-quest villain is the main villain to that player, and too powerful to take on alone... I will say this was collaborative with the player as it was the means of bringing him into the campaign after the first several sessions. Also, the liberties one can take with player back stories will vary from player to player.
Oh yeah the necromancer. As far as I know my DM ran him pretty much straight from the source material and my character also realised we didn't really have a reason to fight him (he gave us a reason to fight him later on though)
@@Tiyev weirdly enough that has been relatively easy for us O.o but we're a group of friends and friends of friends who hang out outside of DnD anyway. I'm a little hesitant to bring in people from outside our group, but I might be persuaded to run a oneshot or something with random people from the internet, just to see how it goes xD
@@majestyc0359 Good idea, and I might do that in the future to make it easier for myself, but I did after much prodding and prying get some backstory from all my players, problem is though, I have 6 players in my group, all with different backgrounds, and it's just been difficult to create a little side arc for each and every one of them haha. Not to mention fitting it into a lvl2-5 adventure.
In the future, it might be good to start the campaign process by encouraging the players to create joint or connected backstories. It could be something substantial like two PCs being siblings, or it could be something smaller like being from the same town or that they were both robbed of things they cared about by the same group of bandits. That would make it a lot easer to provide plot hooks that apply to more than one PC. But also, don't worry about it if you can't fit everything in in a relatively short campaign. Sometimes, it can be enough to just have an NPC with a connection to a backstory (like the innkeeper knew a PC's father and mentions that), and not have a more elaborate adventure spinning out of it.
I started using life paths from Google a few years ago for characters and the results were so much fun that they are now used in EVERY game I run. The players actually beg for them. Nothing beats the thrill of rolling a d100 for a years life path. Some awesome backstories come into play. It really does help new players to get into the game more. My 14 year old niece couldn't wait to play DnD, and she rolled that her character was swallowed by a giant fish for a month of her life. I, naturally, hated the idea and wanted to re-roll because it just seemed too much of a stretch for me, but she LOVED that idea and it became the foundation for her character. I am so glad we decided to keep it. Her story turned into her being poisoned by her step-mother and tossed into the ocean from a high tower. While sinking, facing death, air bubbling from her lips, she thought it was over when suddenly a giant mouth swallowed her whole. It was later discovered to be a divine intervention by her deity. In the first session, a large fish was strung up on the deck of a ship my party was traveling on. When the NPC fishermen cut into the fish, her character spilled out onto the floor covered in fish guts and surrounded by the party. She slowly woke up and joined the party, naturally... and that was the birth of her love of DnD. Always use them! They add so much flavor!
In my latest campaign, i took one of the players's backstorys and turned it into a new adventure and it was one of the most fun things to come from that game. Completely agree with this video!
One method I've found to incorporate my players' backstories is asking them to give me a vague idea of what they'd like for their backstory and I have a private chat/discussion with each of them where I share a tiny nugget of the world lore that only they get to know as it pertains to their character. We then flesh out their backstory more within the world. It's nothing game breaking or too revealing, and they have the choice to share it or conceal it from the rest of the group. I also like to offer them a personal goal/challenge that is very critical to their character (not an easy goal) and when they succeed, I give them an extra ASI or feat. This allows me to work with them on their personal story arc but also invest them in the story. I can also use it to sow a little discourse in the party depending on how the players' stories interact with one another. I can also use it to establish some connections between the characters prior to the adventure, so their meeting and adventuring together feels more organic and real.
If in need of backstory elements, can just go through the many tables on p62 to 73 of the Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Used them for the last character I created, and going along with those rolls turned into quite an adventure on it's own. Even just using the tables about why you became a 'background'/'class' can help flesh out a character in just two D6 rolls...
My characters love backstory content so I run Sandbox style games where throwing in backstory content is not just neat but even expected. Much easier too imo
My dm’s who use my backstories more extensively tend to do so in campaigns that are already being modified. This is the phandelver and hoard of the dragon queen (smushed together) and the radiant citadel module. The dm did a lot of extensive work on time lines for that phandelver and beyond campaign. We went in knowing there would be a lot of modifications. So we also made our backstories something that the dm could work into the rough of the narrative we were made aware of. Actually this dm very much enjoys collaboration so he will jump into calls with us to hash out various magic items and plot points for our characters. It’s kinda fun to see how our characters start meshing together and why and how and what elements are put into play. That’s a pretty fun one. But I have to say I love my radiant citadel one more. First, this particular module actually is more like the candlekeep one in that it’s a bunch of mini adventures that tangentially weave together. So our dm has a ton of leeway to fill in the blanks. It also helps that all the players gave their strong reasons as to why they travel. One is a researcher of the citadel and so will gladly travel to further that research. Mine is a refugee and barely escaped his hometown being invaded by demonic forces. He is traveling to get his name out since he is a very well known figure of the town (he is a subrace of elf that can be near immortal) so that he can look after then and make sure they are ok (he served as the protector of the town for most of the time he was there). The other two are searching for their relatives, though for different reasons with different emotions regarding it. Recently we got word on those relatives from an information broker. They said they had word that the two (not together) were traveling through the worlds but the ones ahead of us. So we are expected to try traveling through until we find them. From the way the backstories are written, there is also likely to be heated discussion or fights between the relatives as there is definitely tensions there. Oh, and it’s quite likely that a relative of my character is with one of the other player’s character’s relative during these travels. Which will be explosive for my character as he is trying to keep distance from the empire, culture, and race he was born into due to many of his family members being killed during warring royal factions. So he is also on the run. And will be at war with himself on either running to get away from that or staying with his group and protecting them (he has tied up a great deal of his self worth into being able to protect). Anyway so that’s the fun one because the dm is genuinely really good at the backstory weaving. Though I suppose it helps that all the players are quite good at weaving backstories together and some of us did the work ahead of time with weaving them ourselves
I run a homebrew world and I find working backstories in really easy. The world is a big place and as such, there is a lot of things that I haven't taken time to write anything about other than have a rough idea of what the place is, mostly what race comes from there. This gives a lot of flexibility to work a character's backstory into the area they are from and give me building blocks to work with. For example, I had a player play a half-giant race that comes from a far away place from where the campaign takes place. As a young person, he and his sister were exploring a ruin and found an old crystal. When my player touched it, it shocked him and gave him a scar that ran from his hand up his arm, to his shoulder. His sister touched it before him and vanished. So I took that little bit of backstory and decided that this crystal was a prison for a demon lord that once warred against humans a millenium ago. His army was defeated and the humans lacking the power to destroy him, imprisoned him instead and then hid the crystal in a far away land where it would never be found. What the player doesn't know is that when he touched the crystal, he entered it and made a deal with the demon lord. In exchange for power, he agreed to siphon power from the crystal through his new abilities. Once enough abilities were used the prison's magic would be weak enough for the demon to break free. Fixing this into the story was easy enough. The mark of the demon pains him terribly in the presence of extremely good being like angels. Through the course of the main story, they ended up in the small town that defeated the demon lord originally millenia ago. The entire place was cursed with bad luck. The lair of said demon lord was beneath the city and millenia ago the demon had imprisoned an angel of luck there, which cursed the area with bad luck, as the magic of the lair corrupted the angel's power. They eventually discovered information about the war and the demon's lair through ancient tomes at the abandoned castle. When they stormed the demon's lair, which was largely empty, except for the angel, they were able to free her and he gained a lot of insight into the knowledge that had been suppressed about his original encounter. (I left a lot of details out to keep it somewhat brief) I guess the main point is, if you are running something, having places that aren't fleshed out gives you the flexibility to implement pretty much anything.
I have absolutely no doubt that adapting main campaign arcs to character stories is incredibly complex. I've watched a DM spin that together masterfully, and it seemed intense on the planning side. It was also what made the campaign so engaging. It made all of us, the PCs, reeeaally feel like the main characters rather than people who are also involved in events marginally within their control. What you describe with character story arcs reminds me of filler episodes from anime. If it can tie back into the main campaign, and reinforce the PCs status as main characters, then great. Otherwise, it sounds like the main campaign is being designed with the ability to slot in any PCs with little fluctuation. Not being a DM myself, I can only guess how much less strain that creates, but I'm fairly confident in my initial reaction to the idea: that isn't a campaign I'd be as immersed in. I'd still play, because the DM went through the trouble to prep a story for us, but I would struggle to give my best roleplay. I suppose that's one of the real deciding factors though: are your players the sort who will make it worthwhile to tailor your campaign to their characters?
i‘m currently moving my campaign in the first backstory quest. one of my player’s characters died and the new character he came back with has lost her sister and other members of her tribe to slave traders. when she went looking she got seperated from her tracking party and met the rest of the party. when we wrap up our current arc, they’re gonna find clues pointing to slave trade down by the sea and it’s gonna be a whole thing. it was honestly quite the convinient death because the player went from a character with very minimal backstory to a character whose backstory can be tied in very quickly.
Jocat in his recent campaign did an amazing job at making the campaign about his character's backstory by giving them the prompt "Your character has something of a reputation that people would know" but there was another story going on that backstories were played off.
I always use background story arcs as a catalyst to create a unique and specialized campaigns for the player's characters. Something I would do is talk to them before the first session about their character and the back story ,also during the game give bonus XP for role playing their character back story influences, if you know what I mean. It always made the game more immersive and fun.
One of my players created a backstory that he was left as a baby on the doorstep of a family of nobles who took him in and he didn't know his real parents. So two of my other players decided they were his real parents but the mother character had changed her appearance and the father character never knew he had a son. I had so much fun trying to weave that into the plot but unfortunately that campaign was cut short.
13:55 Whether or not to involve the player in incorporating elements of their backstory feels like it could be dependent on their preferred play style, rather than a hard & fast rule...? For some players who are especially lore-driven or who are also GMs, they don't have to know all the details (still retains some surprise) but they may enjoy the shared plotting/planning of choosing an element to bring across? [Edit: they may also have some interesting ideas about how these lifted elements could be woven into bits from others characters' backgrounds too, if you're running a longer-term campaign? Saves you coming up with absolutely everything solo, and could build extra engagement for these kinds of more plot-driven players...]
I am running the tyranny of dragons from start to end with a group and with all the massive holes in the provided material it worked out to fit in extra content in the form of backstory arc, I like the idea of peppering in the plot hooks to make options
I run call of cthulhu and I do this! A part of the rules is that when characters lose sanity put have a bout of madness, the keeper can take their sheet and edit an entry on it. With limitations of course. This is supposed to simulate the madness and insanity slowly wearing down who the players even are. But! What i did was used the character backstory and wrote a kind of lovecraft inspired twisting story about it. Then as they lose sanity I edit the character sheets to give them mysteries and clues to discover the hidden horrifying truths hidden in their stories. For example, one character was a mob boss daughter, 1920s era etc. But was estranged and hated her family business. Maybe because her mother had gotten killed or disappeared because of her father's work. So I started by adding a single question. "What really happened to your mother? ". She then chose to reconnect with her brother and father, ask questions, go on trips to visit and speak with her father. She finds out that things didn't go like she thought as a kid. Her mother left. But there is more to it. She eventual finds that her mother tried to down her in the sea. Her father , at her request, sent her a box of her mother's old things. Insure she found a bunch of artifacts and culty things. Eventually she found out her mother was a priestess of the Esoteric order of Dagon and she might be part deep one! This all happened over many months of sessions and were really fun for the players to peel back their stories getting little hints along the way. It made going mad actually both horrifying and exciting for them because they might get a new clue. ((Thus incentiveizing them to take more risks and play more into the horrors)) Everyone has unique stories and everyone has been loving this method I came up with thus far.
Its easy for me to put player backstories into the main arch. I run a homebrew so I barely know what's going on half the time. Their backstories become inspiration and the solution to my lack of preparation. HA!
In my new campaign I had my players write a backstory and include details of their death. They will start the game being resurrected by a cult many many years later due to a new wave of invaders to the island. This cult believes that the characters had such an impact on the world that they can now save the island if brought back. The characters backstories helped me figure out how their legacy impacted and shaped the world after their deaths and what their “unfinished business” was. One has a family weapon that’s missing, one discovered a great artifact but died before telling anyone about it, and the other was a diplomate pacifist who was betrayed and murdered. All have their own arc potential while dealing with invading forces. Serendipitously, they all chose different facets of society to be heavily involved in so they shaped the history of the world and did a ton of work for me. Backstories are my bread and butter. ❤️
I like the backstory to develop at the table. I like the players to engage in what we are doing, instead of their own private novel. Tell me what you want to do, not what you want to have done. If you want a tragic story, don't worry, I'll give you one. If you want to be a secret princess, Go become a Queen.
Counter argument: Do both! Seriously, have character arcs that have aspects that lead into the main campaign. You avoid the issues of having characters COMPLETELY tie in to the main arc while still keeping that tied in motivation that it gives the PC's/players. An example of this would be my Druid currently, my group are about to run his character arc adventure which involves a usurp of power within the city he grew up in which has lead to a lot of civil unrest and somewhat of a resistance movement within that space which is now lead by the previous lord's son. The way it ties into the main campaign is that an ally of the guy behind the main plot was pulling a lot of these strings in order to gain allies within her political sphere allowing her more power and also granting her a safety net. She has no idea of the Druids existence as of the moment- but it's possible she will know soon depending on how things play out. Either way it's likely the coming events will leave her floundering and angry as she tries to control the damage and keep her involvement under wrap. But I hope to be able to plant the seeds as to her involvement which will come to fruition if the group continue to unravel some of her other dealings within the world. I'm excited for this!
Their backstories are massive clues as to what the players want to do in the main game. So, I make DungeonWorld Fronts for each and try and make them THE MAIN plot. My 'big ideas' with my Campaign BBEG in the background, the frame that holds the painting that the characters make. I just started an Arabian-style game and the debt one character owes the local thieves guild has ensnared everyone in the main plot. It's not like peppering in items and easter eggs in the game, it's more the game is centered around those PCs. Anyways - Pasties cannot get better than Greggs, Luke. Google them!
A really good way to do Backstories is the Heroic Conicle that apeered first in Explores Guide to Wildmount. It is really fun and i changes things arround. There is also a Sworedcoast Version of it on dnd beyound i belive. But what it boils down to is rolling on a lot of fun stuff that make the characters also Unique, by giving them feats and pets and so on. I do think as written it is not fair and needs work but it think the Concept is really cool so i made it better for my groupe.
I've found that there are three types of backstories: 1) No background whatsoever. Player is just there to loot, kill stuff, and gain XP. Typically, they will always say "I WANT TO BE LEVEL 20 RIGHT NOW!" 2) Just enough backstory that a DM can take it and play with it, and incorporate it into the campaign. 3) The 1400 page tome that can't possibly exist because there's no way a level 1 character could do all of that. I've found that these are typically the players who wants the entire campaign to revolve around them and only them. Then there's my DMs who either don't give you the option of a backstory at all, tell you what your backstory is, or take your backstory and burn it in front of your face while accusing you for trying to commandeer their campaign because how dare you write a backstory that's longer than a paragraph.
I have already learned that tying the character backstory adventures into the main plot just leads to heartbrake when a player can't play anymore. Now I make them part of a B plot.
I was running Rise of the Runelords. In the 2nd chapter, there was a serial killer and in the 4th chapter a fey city if I remember correctly. So, after my players wrote their backstories, I looked at the adventures and tried to find a small detail, a small dot in the tapestry of their backstory, that I could add that would make it a bit more personal to their character. I did that for every players, each in a different chapter. For the thief, I told him that his second cousin from his mother side was murdered while travelling. So, no one so close to him that would drastically change his backstory, but someone he knew so that when the 2nd chapter would begin, I could feed him information and that it would feel a bit more personal. The gnome summoner didn't specify where he was coming from, so I told him that the town where he grew up was the fey city. Same thing here, nothing big, only enough so that I could feed him information about the place and it would feel a bit personal. The players reacted well. It didn't bothered them that I added a small something. We didn't got to go through the 4th chapter, but the guy playing the thief really got into the "this serial killed killed my cousin" and seemed to have fun.
I have some questios. Can/should, character's, npcs, bbeg, and minions never change from the original backstoies? Can they change or never change as they progrees in game relations to npcs, enemies, dispositions about how they feel about characters. Some good become, indifferent? Some evil become good and vice versa? A minion change sides and now become allies to characters, based on time, circumstaces and Can characters change too, in those regards? Perhaps a new bigger, badder evil/good threat now emerges? Like Froto finally succums to the the rings power and the golum bites His finger only to accomplish the destruction of that ring, for and example.
I'm a DM - Is it okay to write a character back story for them? if they didnt do it, or if the only write something like "I come from far far away and I'm an elf" haha
I like the concept. Seems more organic than shoehorning in stuff to the main campaign. I'm new to DMing and am currently running a campaign with a friend who has been chomping at the bit for me to incorporate something from his backstory, so this video/discussion is great timing for me :) My friend has way more experience than I, so he's been coaching me along, but I just haven't been able to come up with a way to incorporate something until now. Thanks! BTW, pasties are one of my all-time favorites. But, then again, I'm a born Yooper so it stands to reason :)
Yeah, a Yooper!!! I'm not from up north, but I LOVE pasties! :D I'm glad to hear the video was useful, and I hope the game with your friend goes great! :D
All of my campaigns are homebrewed so my players do not bat an eye when somethings comes in subtly or boldly about their backstory. They enjoy it and they also like rumors of other characters they have played in one-shots.
I used the background storys of my players from the beginning on as arcs that run parallel to the (homebrewed) main campaign arc and i love that the background storys give me so much opportunities to push the party forward. The Sorcerer player had in his background story a mysterious amulett in his posession. He didn't know where it came from, only that it must have some magical power. The amulett is awakening now more more and from session to session it gets stronger. The player gets for every stage it awakens more a new item card version of the Amulett. At first, it could communicate with ancient machines, than it gaves him advantage on arcane knowledge checks 3 times a day, than the ability to consume magic items (and transform them into spellslots or spells), than a +1 on hit and now he can refresh half a sorcery point per player level once per long rest. The amulett got awakened from the god celestian in agreement with the Sorc-Player, after the party found an altar of celestian (which the circle of star druid from our party worships) and the "souls" of the party traveled into space to meet celestian. After that, the amulett comunicated with an ancient giant sword (which i 3d-printed out), which they had found and from than on the giant sword talked to the party through their dreams in their sleep. WIth this, i can steer them gently back on the right path, if they got lost, or give them hints if they can't put 1+1 together.
So I play Jolnir(Santa) paladin/warlock who gets abducted by....bad gods and altered/ mind controlled to do "Santa things" each xmas. Anyway last game before Xmas DM tries to abducted me mid-quest, team manages to fight the foe off. Yay no Santa for me😃 this year. Bad for the brother I never knew I had, also turns out my Fey patron is Ostara(Easter bunny) & is in this fabric of the world war thing. It's awesome my DM jives with the treads I put out and runs with them.
I've had a lot of success integrating backstories into the main campaign. Of course, I have players that write backstories with hooks and mysteries that I can bring in. I've also made backstory arcs that aren't part of the main campaign in the same campaigns. I've also had success with backstories as presented in this video. The means for success in integrating backstories into main campaign in my experience focuses on one of two methods. Method one is to give the players a plug on the basic idea of the campaign before they put their backstories. For example, one of my main campaigns right now is a rebellion against an evil king. The players knew it would be a rebellion, had background on the country and its oppression, etc. They came up with their characters and backstories with that in mind, so they could tie their backstories into WHY they were part of the rebellion... this way they specifically wrote them to fit into the plot. Even then, not all of the backstory elements are tied to the main plot, so you still get side adventures based on backstories. Method two is to have the players write their backstories and give them to me before I decide what the core conflict is. For example, I recently started a new campaign and asked the players to deliver their backstories a month before we started, while the old campaign was still wrapping up. I used their backstories to create the overarching campaign. Three out of four characters (by complete coincidence) had warrior siblings that disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Right there, I had my central mystery and created the conflict around it. I found one element from the fourth player's backstory to also tie into the main plot so that they all had a reason to pursue the BBEG. That being said, I've also run (and am currently running) games where the backstories have nothing to do with the main plot and are only used for side quests and character story arcs, like you recommend in the video. I think, as always, it comes down to the group and the DM.
I have no group to play with, but have 6 Characters I designed and worked on backstories for, WITHOUT NEEDING A LOT OF NEGATIVE STUFF OR FEARS OR DIFFICULTIES NEEDED. Yet none of them are "OP" or "Broken", what's more the backstories can theoretically work out in almost every pre-written module or campaign, based off a Multiverse existing in D&D.
When my dm was putting together a group on roll20 another player and I unintentionally created backstories that would blend together super well. I think it's going to turn into a super interesting arc and we are expecting it to be towards the end of the campaign. Basically his character was a prince who survived a coup and is now on the run. And my character was a bastard child of the king (unknowingly) and a part of a prophecy to save the true heir. So they are unknowingly half siblings and a part of the same adventuring party, where my character has tons of opportunities to save him. It's quite hilarious because the two naturally fell into an older sister and younger brother comradery off the bat. And she is incredibly protective of him because of his insecurities. So even though I set up the prophecy in my backstory, it developed very naturally between the other player and I instead of it feeling forced. Integrating backstories into a campaign can create some amazing roleplay among the party!
To be honest, I've already been using this approach, and I told my players in session zero that I was going to do this, just so they knew that if spotlight shifted to a single player they immediately knew what it was. I found it prevented players getting bored because the adventure was solely about one person for a while.
I think a lot of people struggle with backstories because they start with the hardest part - where did my character grow up and who were their parents? It’s infinite choice and it’s overwhelming. I start in reverse with a goal (sometimes randomly rolled) and work backwards, what happened to my character to give them that goal? The rest of the story just flows from there. Details like clothing and eye colour are picked last (if at all) because they are picked to fit with the rest.
I have used loot And Lore. I love it, very helpful in spells and small encounters. I've even used the maic item comb of thievery. It's a comb? Right? Lol
See my DM has done Character Arcs...but the issue is he threw 2 or 3 of them together at the same time in different places and puts a time limit on them. So now the party has to generally argue on where to go.
Sometimes I can't help but think that I am a bad player because I lack creativity. Like my current character is pretty simple: likes fighting and drinking and hammers. They back story is just: came from a town or village and is the blacksmith's kid, one day bandits attacked, and they managed to fend them off by supplying the townsfolk with tools. I don't really have the creativity to flesh that out any further. But my DM still managed to make up a town that we got to visit for a while, was a fun little side story - not really a quest there just a bit of passing through. Edit: This was written before I finished the video, and right when I hit play he went into getting backstories from players. My attention has been seized. Further edit: Need to go look at those questions now.
All of this seems to hinge on having a regular, RELIABLE, group of players to play with. Plus, this assumes that players actually want to have their backstories affect the campaign. Some characters may come from fairly boring backgrounds and not have anything to really work with and their players may be perfectly fine with that. And if that's what the player wants, then the DM needs to respect that. Trying to force a players character into the spotlight, when they don't want to be there, is a recipe for an unhappy player. Also, if you're playing a more old fashion location based campaign where each session represents a round trip expedition to explore some location, kill the monsters, collect the loot, and then return to the base of operation, using whatever players showed up to that session. Planing backstory stuff in the adventure is going to be more of a one off session and can't really be something that continues across multiple sessions, as it could easily be interrupted by that player not always being available while other players are. And this type of old fashion campaign is starting to see a rise in popularity since it really only relies on the availability of the DM and enough players that can make a planned session. These campaign can still have larger plots going on, but it will be the combined effort of all players exploring and interacting with the locations that will advance the story, instead of just one 'chosen' group of adventurers. Meaning more players have a chance to build the overall story.
I had a DM that didn't read a SINGLE backstory, no matter how short that ended up causing the campaign to collapse because of continuity errors the players had issues with. So my backstory was at most 1 page long. 3-4 paragraphs. Long story short, she was a slave in an amateur gladiator arena where the other contestants never fought before either. Fight to the death, she wins, ends up escaping. Very hunger games if the careers didn't exist. All players read each other's backstories. The campaign ended up coming across a slave trade that had a gladiator ring. The players were all like, "Oh shit, our fighter is going to burn this place to the ground." Which I had the rogue (Assassin)'s help getting into the higher ups and executing by the way. The DM. Flipped. Out. He called us murder hobos and went apeshit, bringing in an ancient gold dragon that lived in the city and killing us. Since slavery was legal in this area we were just being blah blah blah. He had no idea why we went so extreme either. Turns out, he never read my backstory and had no idea about this trauma. In fact, the other characters knew because we discussed it in character even, which meant he wasn't listening to in character conversations either. We all honestly thought that this was a plot hook dropped specifically for my character and went along with it since it looked like it was lifted nearly verbatim. Was just a coincidence.
One thing my friends and I do to encourage players to write detailed backstories is to reward them with a feat or common/uncommon magic item if they write a backstory with 3 named NPCs and a motivation for adventuring. It seems to work pretty well in my experience
In the last group I played with my DM used my back story in his introductory game and then claimed it wasn't important after killing off my character's son, denying her the chance to locate his body then ignore the hamlet we were at was an ideal location for the campaign. At the time I thought he just choked, but in retrospect i feel this was just set up to make pointless acts of spite at the one player he thought wouldn't notice he was being an arse. I noticed and pointed out what he did wrong, naturally it went downhill until he decided he wanted to swap settings after I started my game there. Part of the reasonb I'm rewatching this is because I believe I failed at this too when running my game but i think I scared one player when they realised their character being slain by starving peasants that he alone killed naturally wouldn't work. I changed it to him and his parents being ambushed and he was rescued before he could be killed being raised at a shrine. His parents death and his upbringing being responsible for the creation of an order of Free Knights dedicated to preventing what happened to him happening to anyone else as it was clear someone in charge of the city was behind the ambush. During the game he encountered and rescued a merchant whose the splitting image of his character's father instead of asking questions of this merchant he chose to run in the opposite direction! I had planned on revealing he was his father's identical twin brother who was sent to the church as per his background his family was very poor. The true villain was responsible for the PC's mother leaving the city and marrying his father however when seen together it was assumed the merchant was her husband and the rival set up the ambush to kill the husband and son NOT the mother but it was fumbled. Sorry the other DM jumping settings ended both games as far as I was concerned, had he asked I would have shifted his Port City that he was so unwilling to move away from to Exandria and move my setting out of there but he really didn't give a damn about the game only his own obsession with Critical Role. Still hung up on that but one day I start forgetting that idiot the DM not the player with the Folk Hero Fallen Aasimar Paladin who couldn't be bothered to explain why his character was a Folk Hero.
Currently running rime of the Frostmaiden. Currently slightly off rails, the party's still in Ten-Towns, f***ing around and doing personal things instead of advancing the campaign, and, y'know, that's *fine*. The campaign's using milestone leveling, so if they want to extend their time at level 3, that's entirely up to them. Also, they are building rep with Ten-Towns, even outside of the predetermined Ten-Towns quests, so it's not as though they're spinning in place or anything...
OK, Luke, great video. Lots of good advice. But I do have one bone to pick: You can't claim pasties! They're literally legally protected as being the cultural heritage of Cornwall, England! *scream* No but seriously, the exact origins of pasties is unknown, and the legal protection extends only to the specific interpretation of them in Cornwall, where they have a very interesting history. But, regardless of which origin theory you accept, they definitely do not originate in the New World. Side note: rutabegas are called swedes over here, and yes, they're amazing. 😁
A problem we've had is that the main story arc has felt like such a big threat. Like a sense of "we need to stop the world from ending, we dont have time to check in on your parents".
Yup, and this is the reason you *might* want to involve the character's backstory in the main event to make it more personal. There are right ways and wrong ways to do this. One good way I feel is that you could have the characters learn something new about themselves that they didn't know before that connects them to the main event, and have it connect back to the backstory in some way. I call this approach "expanding and contracting" You "expand" your character by giving them new traits, but then they have too much going on, so you "contract" them by connecting these new traits to what we already know about the character.
This is fine if the campaign takes place where the characters are from. How do you incorporate backstories in an adventure that doesn't take place in the starting location. Like my character is an elf and they have a backstory in an elf village, but the campaign takes place in the Underdark or the 8th circle of hell? I'm about to start running a Ravenloft campaign and feeling a little lost.
I've been starting to lean into creating more depth and fullness in my PCs backstories so I can start bringing them into the game more and make things feel connected
Yes, this exactly, my first few characters were just flat as can be. Now they actually have stories and convictions, meanings, wants, desires. Its also fun playing with the alignment system to create fun characters too
@@tymoore2117 that's my goal, this is my first campaign that started as a "test run" with one of my friends that we ran with and now have a party of 7, along with two NPCs. One is from the first "test session", and the other from an 8 session "session zero" with two pcs that wanted to play before the group was fully ready to play together. I've done a backstory session with 4 of my PCs, and those sessions really only expanded upon their simple backstories by setting some things into place for the current timeline. But recently I've really got two of my PCs backstories rolling and starting to really have intresting detail. I can't wait to get to the others, its wild seeing where its gone from our first run-away test session.
My favorite way to implement characters' backstories in the story is to first build the world, but only write the campaign AFTER getting my players' backstories whom I help in the process. This way, implementing their backstory in the campaign doesn't feel forced and even when it's not necessarily their proper character arc, there are still often plot hooks that connect to at least 1-2 of the players.
Running Tomb of Annihilation for the 2nd time. I took PC's backstory to create PC arcs that gets some kind of ''where to go next'' in the Jungles of Chult. By experience, I know this jungle offers so much, so I threw some personnal hooks out there to leave bits of breadcrumbs on where the f*** Omu is. It helps a lot in the navigation
My DM didn't rewrite my character's backstory: he suggested a very small change that ended up being very significant. My backstory started out in a nonspecific small town and the small change was to make that small town be Thundertree.
I thought pasties we're a Welsh thing. The miners of Cornwall took pasties into the tin mines for lunch for centuries. Their descendants took their favorite foods to the new world when they emigrated. Yes, I try to make back stories for all characters I make. Most GMs have ignored them. One tried to tell me I had to change it to fit his campaign, and then totally ignored both versions.
as a player when i find the party in the throes of someone elses character arc, i cant help but find issue with it, whether it be my own need for attention or involvement. my groups dungeon master very clearly sets out parts of the story that are to cater to one character or another, and i find it contributes to a sense of temporary favouritism, and alienates the other party members who may feel like they are now participating in someone elses story. as a dm, i (try to) let the narrative change and follow character backstory. and i believe this offers more power into the hands of the players when defining where the party goes, instead of designating "here is the part where we all go to this place and do all the stuff from this characters backstory" (which may leave the character with less motivation to continue adventuring if a lot of their historical problems have been solved) i try to find ways that would make sense for backstory to find relvance in the plot, and if (all of) the players have a want to expand that part of a character backstory into an arc, or whatever else, they can. i think this means that the party gains more agency for where the story goes, and what kind of things to involve themselves in, and eventually (however thoroughly followed) the element of backstory will led back into the central plot of the game, giving them a renewed purpose for continuing the story. this way of scattering player backstory into the narrative means that no character should feel that others are being prioiritised, and rather than "finishing" a players backstory, theres always option for it to come up again. i can understand this method may not work for dungeon masters who like to plan their story far in advance (perhaps without knowledge of player backstories) or who perfer neat and seperate arcs for their party. but i find it leads to better player involvement, and interest in the story as it pertains to their characters.
ill also recognise that a lot of the issues i have with arc style backstory intergration can probably be solved by a mix of more engaging situations, complex narratives and deeper player character connection (or buildup), and that my experience playing has only been with one dungeon master so far.
My dm and I have coordinated on my backstory but it had to be done because my character has the brain of a child in a strong barbarian body. So if the party ever wants to understand anything about my character or why he acts the way he does they would have to literally go ask his parents because he's not capable of relaying that information and very few other people actually have the ability to tell my characters backstory in game
The dungeon master is responsible for the setting and the plot; the players are responsible for the story. This is a cooperative relationship, and when executed well, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences you can have at a tabletop. As an added bonus, letting the players have their own slice of your story in a meaningful way will help guide them into being a part of the next generation of DMs.
One of the reasons DMs don't 'use character backstories' properly is because it shouldn't be the DMs job to use the backstory out of the blue. The players have agency in the world too, and the whole point of the backstory is for the player to define their motivations. If the players aren't actively trying to further the personal quest they defined for themselves it makes no sense for the DM to force it in arbitrarily. Example, if the characters backstory is that their brother went missing and they became an adventurer in hopes of finding them, they need to ask around wherever they go for hints of their brother, if they never bring him up why would he just fall into their lap? If the wizard wants to research an ancient family curse and they never hit up any of these ancient libraries looking for that information they aren't going to find it.
Not fully with you on the characters story arcs, especially for homebrew campaigns. In general they seem to me a diversion or distraction from the big events of the worlds, but ok, this can be acceptable one in a while but not for each PC. In the case of homebrew campaign I actually use elements of the characters’ background to shape the plot or arc. I’m with you that for published adventures it might not be neither easy nor efficient. All this said, love all your videos and I’m start missing you interpreting all characters (the barb is my favorite!).
I think what turns players off from writing backstories is that you ask for them too early. Backstories don't really matter in the first few sessions anyway, so ask the players to write them when they have a better idea who their characters are.
Usually they have an idea of how the game plays in the few sessions so I find when I do then get those backstories they almost write themselves into my plots.
But it actually can make a difference and give reasons during the first session. Say the backstory included apprenticing under a Blacksmith or at least some other connection to one. Then when you started adventuring that Blacksmith is who gave you your starting equipment to help you out. Another way is you lived somewhere else, perhaps somewhat secluded. When you eventually did leave your home you didn't know which direction to go, but you helped some other random traveler perhaps by helping them get their wagon out of the mud, the traveler appreciated that and gave you directions to somewhere. That somewhere is where the DM wants the campaign to start from and gives a logical reason for being in that location, especially if as I said you grew up somewhere else fairly secluded. So my point is, a good backstory actually matters even at the start of the campaign.
i don't think using a backstory element will feel shoehorned in if done right. for example i was running a oneshot heist where they had to steal the kings crown. the kings guard are all dragonborn (this was made up before i read backstories) one of my players made a character who was adopted by a dragonborn. i don't think it feels forced or shoehorned that when the guards came the captain of the guards was his father, his first words where "i am so disappointed"
i also don't feel that using backstories as character story arcs will guarantee it doesn't feel forced. it still needs to mesh with the main story enough it seems believable that this piece of backstory came up because its part of the world and not because you wanted to give them some nugget of character backstory. like your example with a sword from a childhood i would incorporate that into my sea adventure by having them see it used by a pirate because it doesn't feel out of place that a pirate might have stolen their sword nor is it out of place for them to run into pirates in a sea based adventure
Character Story Arcs are my FAVORITE way to work my player’s backstories into our games. They’re so much fun write and everyone is always so hyped to dig into their fellow PC’s pasts 😊
Yeah, that last question is the big one. In my home-brew world, I've go ta player who literally gave 8 pages of back story complete with NPC bios and pictures. Then I've got another player who gave me 2 sentences, and that player has been playing DnD longer than me. Obviously, the first player is getting all kinds of story moments and character adventures. But no matter how many times I ask, the other player goes me nothing. I've told him if he ever wants a chapter of the story to be focused on him, I'm happy to do that...as soon as he gives me something to work with.
Consider that your 2nd player has no idea how to do that Instead of just being angry with them, sit down with them and have a conversation - simply talking it through can be an easy way to build the backstory; take notes That way, they're not overwhelmed and feel supported by you
@@danielcrafter9349 you're absolutely right, and I wouldn't say I'm angry per se. I just get worried that one of my players is getting a lot more story spot light. However, he is a close co-worker and friend of mine, we've talked about it multiple times outside of sessions, and we had a nice session 0 to try and talk stuff through. Still nothing. Honestly, I think he just doesn't care. We play on roll20 because 1 of our players is 500 miles away. So every time we have sessions he is always playing his x-box and doesn't take notes. Which is fine (kind of) but I'm more just letting him know, if he wants me to put effort into his character, he has to do that first.
I think my players like having their backstories included. We're not that worried about immersion, so I work with them one at a time to include little adventure arcs designed for their characters.
my DM isnt even using my backstory, which when the backstory is over the watchers paladin, in the shattered obelisk....... yeah i cant rp because my pc just feels like an edgy anime character
What you're saying is not a argument but a debate..you're not an idiot you're quite the damn genius my man. I believe in doing back story arcs like you said for example, the sword a pc lost in his past. I would have it that one of the pcs had terrible abusive relationship. Come to find out his past lover is the villain in the game. Example, use plot hooks in a characters back story. Here's the punch line..if and only if the pcs has serious Jerry springer background it will be child's play in making character arcs.
I put a fair amount of effort into my character background but making effort to include nothing that 'obligated' the GM. It was surprising how much and how ofter my GM used it in the game. Many, many adventures contained hooks that seriously implicated and motivated my character.
One issue you can run into is if focusing on oen character's backstory, the other characters may lose interest and for a while it turns into one player being the main character while the others just sorta follow along, like the biggest issue people complained about with the video game octopath traveler. One character I have a strong backstory already written for but am nervous to actually play due to this is a high elf druid who was born to a noble house, but when it was attacked by more corrupt and power hungry nobles, she fled towards the forest at a still young age, where wood elves took her in and she remained, believing the rest of her family dead. This persists until in the woods one day as an adult she finds a necklace with her old house crest on it, suggesting someone in her family is still alive, this is her inciting incident to begin her adventure (her two twin sisters are alive and were actually taken in by the more corrupt houses and raised into people my character could never agree with) this has a lot of setup for potential conflict and drama leading to character development as if it does get resolved, it will force her goals and motivation to change. But I'm nervous to use her because I don't want to have such an involved backstory potentially steal the spotlight, so I'd wait for a campaign where someone else has a backstory we could link together, maybe a rogue who wants to steal some precious treasure from that same noble house and that's what leads us there only to then discover the twins are there for example.
Unpopular opinion here: As both a player and a GM, I kinda hate backstories and the huge emphasis placed on them nowadays. Part of it comes from a bad experience I had, where I'd come up with a really interesting backstory for this warlock I was playing in a 5e campaign my best friend was running. (It was a series of published modules but I don't recall which.) Unfortunately, my "backstory" really didn't resolve in a way that I found satisfying, and this led to me somewhat "checking out" of the game. (There were other issues as well, related to my dissatisfaction with 5e as a system, but I mostly blame myself for this whole incident.) Of course, my friend picked up on this, which led to a confrontation wherein, long story short, we're not really friends anymore. And I haven't played 5e since. I mostly play Pathfinder, but my philosophy now is that a character's story arc IS the campaign. Frodo didn't go off on a side quest to resolve some unfinished business from his past. A backstory should be one paragraph, that serves as the 'why' your character to took up the adventurer's life. It's not your character's first adventure, nor is it some other adventure you'd rather be having.
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Question on this pre-order. Or more accurately the Into the Fey option. There’s a little more info you’re sharing that I can find on the current books. Anywhere I can find more information or reviews on the stuff available with the Into the Fey book? I for sure want to add the book but want to know more about the additional options for it. The maps is clear that it’s two versions, one with a grid and one without. But what all is including at the $100 price point. Any chance you plan to do a video covering the content?
now I want rutabaga.... roasted
Personally, I run homebrew campaigns and I only really start writing plot details after the PCs sent me their backstories. So not only the main campaign involves them, but their stories might even mix together. My group literally met each other because they were after their villains, who knew each other, and their villains' allegiances is what made the adventurers run into one another
Same
@@jaysw9585 this is only necessary if you have really problematic players, or players who don’t like roleplay.
In my curse of Strahd game, I had the players start at 3rd level and create their own story in the forgotten realms where they met each other, went on a quest, and even accidentally killed a dragon. This allowed them to bring their past accomplishments into Borovia and really be these heroic adventurers from the outside world
@@jaysw9585 players who love roleplay should have some respect for the collaborative nature of the game. It seems like you are playing with some pretty salty players
They gotta make characters with enough buy in, and work with the rest of the group to determine a conflict between characters that won’t get out of hand. An example of this is a cleric who has a thing against resurrection, and a necromancy wizard. The cleric may hate it when the wizard summons zombies, but isn’t going to leave the party or not go on the adventure because of it.
I was really struggling to get anything backstory-wise from most of my players. The group was a casual group and didn't have too much interest in heavy RP, which is fine, but I also got the feeling that keeping the group together for regular gaming would be easier if they were just a little more invested in their characters. With no backstory to pull from, I started opening the sessions with a character builder question. I started simple - favourite meal, favourite drink etc... Just one question per session. I had no idea how it was going over, for me it felt a little awkward, but I was getting more info about their characters and I opened the questions up to backstory questions - what sort of place did you grow up? What sort of family do you have? What led you to adventure? Over time this gave me a good idea of the characters backstories. It helped that it was a communal process - everyone got to discuss their ideas and riff off it a little, and it wasn't metagaming as the characters themselves would have probably shared that sort of information amongst themselves by that point of their adventure. I also made it clear that if anyone wanted secret backstory elements (as one player had) they could privately message me between game sessions to talk about it.
Eventually I started running out of my burning questions and when I forgot to ask one, at least two of the group asked if there would be a question. I asked if they wanted that - still a little insecure about the process, as it wasn't something I had been sure about to begin with - and they said that they enjoyed the questions.
Reflecting on that process, I could see how the behaviour of their characters changed over time as the players grew more confident in the personality of their character. They weren't just playing a fighter, they were playing a Half-Orc who secretly enjoyed a warm glass of milk in front of a fire to being stuffed into the corner of a tavern reeking of pee and stale ale - but they had a rep, man come on and gimme another drink! It was a really cool thing to watch as a DM.
That's a great way to pull people out of their shells! It helps with character building as well as give them material to roleplay amongst themselves about.
Awesome job! You may have been insecure about how it was going but you stumbled into a great way for everyone to learn about the characters that were being played. & it would be a natural process in a group (especially if they weren't close before the adventures began) to learn about each other as they had down time together.
You have some great ideas of how to get info out the PCs to tailor make you campaign( which I will use) great comments!
That's a pretty solid idea. I will consider incorporating it potentially should I get a shot to run a session.
I think saying it will feel “contrived” more than “designed intentionally” (especially in a game where everything is designed intentionally) gets the point across more.
Yes, "contrived" is a better way to put it.
I try to entangle their backstories with the "main quest", so that their characters also become relevant to whatever major event is the central aspect of the campaign. It's awful when the game feels like everyone could change their characters and it wouldn't make a damn difference.
I try to do this but it's hard when none of them will write one
Thats about how my character is currently, reason why im switching characters too. Make new one invested better.
Great thingbis the dm is building in the backstories now, and somewhat allowing us to have impact on things. This is all homebrew so its quite wild at times
played in far too many games like that
This is what I do. I find that the adventure is far more engaging when it feels personal to the players. There is a reason they are the heroes (or villains) of the story as opposed to an adventure that anyone could have done.
I agree entirely. Although there is the potential to run into issues where if a character dies, that does essentially make part of the main story... well a bit irrelevant or unconnected.
However, this isn't a massive problem since the DM can make tweaks to future story. Or you could honestly just roll with it, since, not everything necessarily has to conveniently tie back in to the current characters and their story
There are two ways I use character backstories. One of these is actually to come up with messages for players to privately receive when mind control abilities are being attempted on them. Aboleths, for example, tap into a character's memories to offer them the things they desire in exchange for their servitude. Sending a personalized message to them for it, which ends with "Roll a Wisdom saving throw."... Most of my players loved that! The party's Cleric even told me later that he wished his character had failed the saving throw so he could've roleplayed that scenario out.
The other way I use them is for planning:
I don't plan things too far in advance (just one adventure at a time). So no overarching plots ahead of time. I keep a list of open threads. Since no one gets their backstories to me before we start, the inciting incident is its own separate thing. From that, each open thread that appears I'll add to a list. When I do get backstories, I'll add open threads from those to the list as well. If they're particularly relevant to specific characters, I'll note that in my notes (to avoid using someone's plot hooks if I know they're going to miss a session or two).
Certain kinds of coincidences can be added to the list as well, but that's rare. One example of this was when three party members happened to coincidentally be a Minotaur created with Baphomet's blood, an Asmodeus bloodline Tiefling, and an Aasimar. This specific grouping caused the group to get the attention of key figures in The Blood War, and the overarching plot slowly became about the interruptions that those figures have caused to disrupt the players and try to further their own goals. Some were immediately hostile, while others wanted to trick the players into joining and helping them.
Each time an adventure is closing, I'll take 2-3 open threads from the list that make sense to interact and have them interact. If it's too big of a stretch to combine two threads, then I won't. I keep it believable enough. I've had to occasionally pick just one open thread, but I can usually grab 2-3. The result causes the overarching plot to follow whatever the players leave open from each adventure. The game has evolved to have a primary villain who's been the villain for a very long time at this point, and the PCs have a plan to finally defeat him. (They started at level 1, they're 18 now, and one of this villain's minions appeared as early as session 1. I never intended to make him an overarching villain.)
I also sometimes just toss in something I want to toss in though too... Like when the party found an ooblex in a spooky house in the woods shortly before Halloween in our world about a year and a half ago. I still managed to tie it to open threads though. An NPC who went missing several levels prior did go in this general direction and the party last saw her only a few miles from this spot, so it made sense for her to have encountered the ooblex, so an ooblex spawn of her greeted the party when they arrived. This piece wasn't backstory related, but if they were in a different region of the map it could've been.
If you are starting from scratch and making your own campaign story my recommendation is to give your players the premise first and let them create their characters before you plot out your campaign. Let the players write their story and work out a campaign from what they give you. It's extra work, but it's worth it.
One thing I'm real proud of is something I did in Icewind Dale. One of my players was raised by a vampire that ran an assassin guild, but ran away for obvious reasons. The vampire followed the PC to Icewind Dale, but not for the PC. He learned that Icewind Dale is dealing with it's perpetual night due to the Frostmaiden's curse, and being a vampire, this means Icewind Dale is quite appealing to him. So now I have a secondary villain trying to stop the players from ending the perpetual night so he can dominate the area and base his guild there.
Ooooh I love that! Making a villain's motivation not directly about the PC but the motivation does clash with the quest. We need more of that in the official modules!
I had a player in a few games I played in who made all of his character backstories "orphan with no friends."
We thought he played D&D competitively against the DM and saw backstories as a weakness in some sort of game mentality.
First rule of backstory:
(A level 1 PC hasn't already killed 37 ancient dragons.)
The PC backstory needs to be appropriate for PC level.
Rule 2 of backstory:
It's great to bring in PC backstory elements into the adventure series we call a campaign.
Rule 3 of backstory:
The player doesn't get to hand their PC "The family armor and armaments" to gain high level magic items as a level 1.
If they try, their parents had to sell these artifacts to pay taxes.
As far as giving a level 1 magical gear, I definitely agree with you. However, I've wanted to use a backstory with a very modest/shy female bard that gets 'magical' bikini armor. It's magic is that it just acts like normal armor but reveals a lot of skin. This isn't for titillation. It's to contrast with her personality. She doesn't want to be a sex symbol or sleep with anything that moves. But this armor is good, at least for starting off so there is the incentive to use it [the DM can off-set the price to keep things balanced. & you can make it scalable (if it's working story-wise) so as she levels up & would get more powerful stuff, it becomes more powerful]. Using this to help develop the character I think could be a focal point. Does she become (for lack of a different term) sluttier & how does that effect her magic & fighting style, and dynamics within her team? Does she become more & more embarrassed & retreat within herself or does she become angry & start to lash out at people? Will either cause an alignment change or making a deal an entity to overcome the harassment? Within the group, does it invoke conflict, or maybe over-protectiveness of her.
Wow, guess I've thought more about this than I thought I thought I had.
@@markuhler2664 basically Ryuko from Kill la Kill
@@goganii lol, hadn't even realized that but pretty much.
At bit late but check out mage gate and family heirlooms. They have a good method to create scaling items for player characters. Hope this helps others with heirlooms in back stories. Can be found on drive by rpg or Google.
1. Homeland: Describe in 2 sentences your character's culture, the lands they spent their youth in, and how they lived.
2. Create 2 Support NPCs, Roll 2d6 or pick 2 adding in (Parents, Siblings, Mentors, Rivals, Lovers or Allies)
3. Adventure motivation: Roll 2d8 or pick 2 or more reasons to adventure. (Gold, Revenge, Knowledge, Power, Approval, Love, Fame, Religion)
4. Fear Response: 1 fear and explain how your character reacts: 1d8(Spiders, clowns, heights, Dirt/germs, Being alone, Becoming monster/evil, Someone dying near you, Small spaces)
@@jaysw9585 not really. Because even though you're level 1 your character has lived a whole life before this. And for some characters that is a very long time. I do think accomplishments need to be within reason of a level 1 though, no crazy bs like taking down an entire gang or king or something.
But a lot of stuff can have happened around your character that needs some explanation as to why they are the way they are.
Should be kept around 1-3 pages though. I like to explain side stuff so the dm can create stuff if he wants to without having to clue me in on what he is planning by asking certain questions for clarity. But I put a short succinct part at the front, then additional extra details for if he wants to dig.
Homeland: I lived on my own... in some forrest... there was no culture, just survival
Support NPCs: Dolores - a puppet I found in a fashion store as a kid and Wilson a ball I painted a face on
Adventure Motivation: I was bored being in that forrest alone by myself... Also Dolores started to make out with Wilson and I am angry with them because of this
Fear Response: Fear? Me? NOPE!
Actually I tried to make the stupidest character ever answering your questions and it turned out to be a crazy and cool backstory for a warlock who has gone crazy after his hometown got blown up by the bad guys.
@@h.s.6269 Exactly, you have the right way about it. In fact even up to 5 pages is reasonable for some races. Like for example; my Drow Feylost Death Domain Cleric she has 5 pages of backstory and it gives a reason for becoming a Death Domain Cleric while also setting up her Equipment/Gear choices to start out with. Her family included Smiths and other Crafts for their careers. So they crafted for my Cleric her starting Equipment, yet didn't go overboard with full Mithral. As for why she became a Death Domain Cleric she was in the Feywilds for a while and she got out of them by encountering the Raven Queen who offered her the opportunity to become her Cleric. So my character was already curious which lead her to entering the Feywilds, the Raven Queen seemed like a way to learn more things & was able to free my character from wandering forever in the Feywilds which also gives the Raven Queen more depth.
To me, the issue with sprinkling character backstory into main stuff, is half the time players don't even remember their backstory or haven't seemed to explore it like a writer or dm would, so miss little tidbits which is especially annoying when you've tried to use that to help hook them on going down a certain path
I feel your pain on that one. My latest example is one of my players was totally clueless when they found out an ancient queen from 1300 years ago had the same last name as him. Luckily another player eventually figured it out.
Definitely see that. Granted think the dm got me more invested since im siting currently between a pseudo dm at this point.
I kinda chalked it due to having imagination and the dm likes me creating characters but i enjoy it and have fun with it.
@@erc1971erc1971 that's awesome. One time I used that to my advantage. I had a queen statue be one of the first things they saw in the first sit down. The queen had the same name as the changling player. Long story done short, the campaign ended with time travel and his character becoming the queen. It was the only time I've successfully blown a player and the rest of the parties mind.
But... let Saturday I started a new game. Every single player had "ash" being In their backstory to some degree. It was just by chance. So I set up a character to be holding a urn of her husband and asking for help to travel with heroes. All 5 of them just dismissed it as any old NPC. So, now I'm left with a new way to hook them which is fun in its own way but omg , it felt so obvious. I mean she was among ten others on the train at the time but to me it felt so clear
Yeah I feel this. My players are pretty wrapped up in whatever they've felt like doing in the present which, thankfully, still keeps them on target for the adventures they're doing, but they've never once bothered to consider their backstories even after sitting down to create them.
@@karsonkammerzell6955 I find that backstories for casual characters are often written to be the main dude of a movie or video game but come the actual experience of dnd, players find they want do be more X or Y, and things change for the first few sit downs
Whenever I start up a campaign, I write up two or three pages about the setting, tone, themes and provide the opening adventure hook and some motivation suggestions and then give that all to the players before character creation. I usually follow up once they have some ideas to give them links to major factions or locations, and either integrate some of their ideas or offer suggestions to get them on the same page as my plans. I also use my campaign foreknowledge (I'm a long-term-story-arc planner type) to arrange the pacing so that different PCs get the spotlight at different times.
For an example of how this works, my most successful campaign started with a meteorite that hit an island outside of town, and the PCs form a group to head out and investigate, motivated by a mix of treasure desire, curiosity, rumors of monsters and concern about some missing NPCs. The various PC backstories were integrated into the story as follows:
- One PC was searching for his father, who left home shortly before the campaign after saying a bunch of weird things. He actually went a ridiculously long time before finding the father (which was near the end of the campaign), but he found plenty of hints and examples of a weird symbol that his father had a medallion of. I also secretly wrote down everything the player ever said off-handedly about his hippie druid compound hometown, and then had an arc where the PCs went there and got to meet all the PC's wacky siblings (which the player had made up).
- One PC worked for the local group of wizard scholars (though he was not himself a wizard) who became major support NPCs, helping the party unravel all the esoteric stuff they found. This contributed to a simple but satisfying arc as the character gain more respect in the organization.
- One PC had fled the cult where she grew up, and I made them a major component of the villains' plans. For added fun, the PC was very secretive about this backstory and the cult had a carefully-crafted public face, so the PC spent a while working behind the rest of the party's back before she told them the truth. I also made the PC's parents, friends and mentor significant antagonists, with the player making up those NPCs and me controlling when they appeared to maximize surprise/trouble.
- One PC was a greedy loser who hung out with a punk/goth subculture that sort-of worshipped a Neutral Evil goddess of undeath and gluttony in a True Neutral "goddess of hedonism" interpretation. This group (who are mostly chill and non-evil) because very important in the plotline about undead attacks across the city, which they were being blamed for.
- One PC was a veteran of the anti-demon crusades and was obsessed with fighting "demons", despite the campaign not being remotely about that. (The player was well aware of this, and made the character quite prone to interpreting any enemy as a "demon" or "demon-worshipper".) I did write him an arc with some antagonistic but not quite evil tieflings to make him think about things. He also was attracted to the above-mentioned cult's propaganda before he learned the truth about them.
For those using published modules, I've found character backstory can bring meaning and purpose to side quests or encounters that would otherwise be filler or discarded entirely.
For example, there may not be much reason to check out the necromancer in The Lost Mines of Phandelver, but when that necromancer killed and "raised" your orc clan with a plague and you survived being half-orc, dumped unconscious on the road, only allowed to live as a curiosity... suddenly the throw-away, side-quest villain is the main villain to that player, and too powerful to take on alone...
I will say this was collaborative with the player as it was the means of bringing him into the campaign after the first several sessions. Also, the liberties one can take with player back stories will vary from player to player.
Oh yeah the necromancer. As far as I know my DM ran him pretty much straight from the source material and my character also realised we didn't really have a reason to fight him (he gave us a reason to fight him later on though)
Love this. Though sometimes, it can be difficult to get the back story from the players. Or, they are always orphans with a bland background.
Using character backstory, has been the single most difficult thing about DMing for me.
Ask each player for a secret about their character, or that they know but doesn't want anyone else to know. Boom, story seed.
I always thought it was getting the group together to play on a regular schedule.
Speaking of which, you know any groups?
@@Tiyev weirdly enough that has been relatively easy for us O.o but we're a group of friends and friends of friends who hang out outside of DnD anyway. I'm a little hesitant to bring in people from outside our group, but I might be persuaded to run a oneshot or something with random people from the internet, just to see how it goes xD
@@majestyc0359 Good idea, and I might do that in the future to make it easier for myself, but I did after much prodding and prying get some backstory from all my players, problem is though, I have 6 players in my group, all with different backgrounds, and it's just been difficult to create a little side arc for each and every one of them haha. Not to mention fitting it into a lvl2-5 adventure.
In the future, it might be good to start the campaign process by encouraging the players to create joint or connected backstories. It could be something substantial like two PCs being siblings, or it could be something smaller like being from the same town or that they were both robbed of things they cared about by the same group of bandits. That would make it a lot easer to provide plot hooks that apply to more than one PC.
But also, don't worry about it if you can't fit everything in in a relatively short campaign. Sometimes, it can be enough to just have an NPC with a connection to a backstory (like the innkeeper knew a PC's father and mentions that), and not have a more elaborate adventure spinning out of it.
I started using life paths from Google a few years ago for characters and the results were so much fun that they are now used in EVERY game I run. The players actually beg for them. Nothing beats the thrill of rolling a d100 for a years life path. Some awesome backstories come into play. It really does help new players to get into the game more. My 14 year old niece couldn't wait to play DnD, and she rolled that her character was swallowed by a giant fish for a month of her life. I, naturally, hated the idea and wanted to re-roll because it just seemed too much of a stretch for me, but she LOVED that idea and it became the foundation for her character. I am so glad we decided to keep it. Her story turned into her being poisoned by her step-mother and tossed into the ocean from a high tower. While sinking, facing death, air bubbling from her lips, she thought it was over when suddenly a giant mouth swallowed her whole. It was later discovered to be a divine intervention by her deity. In the first session, a large fish was strung up on the deck of a ship my party was traveling on. When the NPC fishermen cut into the fish, her character spilled out onto the floor covered in fish guts and surrounded by the party. She slowly woke up and joined the party, naturally... and that was the birth of her love of DnD. Always use them! They add so much flavor!
In my latest campaign, i took one of the players's backstorys and turned it into a new adventure and it was one of the most fun things to come from that game. Completely agree with this video!
One method I've found to incorporate my players' backstories is asking them to give me a vague idea of what they'd like for their backstory and I have a private chat/discussion with each of them where I share a tiny nugget of the world lore that only they get to know as it pertains to their character. We then flesh out their backstory more within the world. It's nothing game breaking or too revealing, and they have the choice to share it or conceal it from the rest of the group. I also like to offer them a personal goal/challenge that is very critical to their character (not an easy goal) and when they succeed, I give them an extra ASI or feat. This allows me to work with them on their personal story arc but also invest them in the story. I can also use it to sow a little discourse in the party depending on how the players' stories interact with one another. I can also use it to establish some connections between the characters prior to the adventure, so their meeting and adventuring together feels more organic and real.
This is really good advice thank you
I’m a new DM so every bit of information helps.
I’m going to go look at the 9 questions now.
If in need of backstory elements, can just go through the many tables on p62 to 73 of the Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Used them for the last character I created, and going along with those rolls turned into quite an adventure on it's own. Even just using the tables about why you became a 'background'/'class' can help flesh out a character in just two D6 rolls...
You could always take a leaf out of Call of Cthulhu. It's amazing how many uncles and aunts, that live in big houses, have left me in their will.
My characters love backstory content so I run Sandbox style games where throwing in backstory content is not just neat but even expected. Much easier too imo
My dm’s who use my backstories more extensively tend to do so in campaigns that are already being modified. This is the phandelver and hoard of the dragon queen (smushed together) and the radiant citadel module. The dm did a lot of extensive work on time lines for that phandelver and beyond campaign. We went in knowing there would be a lot of modifications. So we also made our backstories something that the dm could work into the rough of the narrative we were made aware of. Actually this dm very much enjoys collaboration so he will jump into calls with us to hash out various magic items and plot points for our characters. It’s kinda fun to see how our characters start meshing together and why and how and what elements are put into play. That’s a pretty fun one.
But I have to say I love my radiant citadel one more. First, this particular module actually is more like the candlekeep one in that it’s a bunch of mini adventures that tangentially weave together. So our dm has a ton of leeway to fill in the blanks. It also helps that all the players gave their strong reasons as to why they travel. One is a researcher of the citadel and so will gladly travel to further that research. Mine is a refugee and barely escaped his hometown being invaded by demonic forces. He is traveling to get his name out since he is a very well known figure of the town (he is a subrace of elf that can be near immortal) so that he can look after then and make sure they are ok (he served as the protector of the town for most of the time he was there). The other two are searching for their relatives, though for different reasons with different emotions regarding it. Recently we got word on those relatives from an information broker. They said they had word that the two (not together) were traveling through the worlds but the ones ahead of us. So we are expected to try traveling through until we find them. From the way the backstories are written, there is also likely to be heated discussion or fights between the relatives as there is definitely tensions there. Oh, and it’s quite likely that a relative of my character is with one of the other player’s character’s relative during these travels. Which will be explosive for my character as he is trying to keep distance from the empire, culture, and race he was born into due to many of his family members being killed during warring royal factions. So he is also on the run. And will be at war with himself on either running to get away from that or staying with his group and protecting them (he has tied up a great deal of his self worth into being able to protect). Anyway so that’s the fun one because the dm is genuinely really good at the backstory weaving. Though I suppose it helps that all the players are quite good at weaving backstories together and some of us did the work ahead of time with weaving them ourselves
I run a homebrew world and I find working backstories in really easy. The world is a big place and as such, there is a lot of things that I haven't taken time to write anything about other than have a rough idea of what the place is, mostly what race comes from there. This gives a lot of flexibility to work a character's backstory into the area they are from and give me building blocks to work with. For example, I had a player play a half-giant race that comes from a far away place from where the campaign takes place. As a young person, he and his sister were exploring a ruin and found an old crystal. When my player touched it, it shocked him and gave him a scar that ran from his hand up his arm, to his shoulder. His sister touched it before him and vanished. So I took that little bit of backstory and decided that this crystal was a prison for a demon lord that once warred against humans a millenium ago. His army was defeated and the humans lacking the power to destroy him, imprisoned him instead and then hid the crystal in a far away land where it would never be found. What the player doesn't know is that when he touched the crystal, he entered it and made a deal with the demon lord. In exchange for power, he agreed to siphon power from the crystal through his new abilities. Once enough abilities were used the prison's magic would be weak enough for the demon to break free. Fixing this into the story was easy enough. The mark of the demon pains him terribly in the presence of extremely good being like angels. Through the course of the main story, they ended up in the small town that defeated the demon lord originally millenia ago. The entire place was cursed with bad luck. The lair of said demon lord was beneath the city and millenia ago the demon had imprisoned an angel of luck there, which cursed the area with bad luck, as the magic of the lair corrupted the angel's power. They eventually discovered information about the war and the demon's lair through ancient tomes at the abandoned castle. When they stormed the demon's lair, which was largely empty, except for the angel, they were able to free her and he gained a lot of insight into the knowledge that had been suppressed about his original encounter. (I left a lot of details out to keep it somewhat brief)
I guess the main point is, if you are running something, having places that aren't fleshed out gives you the flexibility to implement pretty much anything.
I have absolutely no doubt that adapting main campaign arcs to character stories is incredibly complex. I've watched a DM spin that together masterfully, and it seemed intense on the planning side. It was also what made the campaign so engaging. It made all of us, the PCs, reeeaally feel like the main characters rather than people who are also involved in events marginally within their control.
What you describe with character story arcs reminds me of filler episodes from anime. If it can tie back into the main campaign, and reinforce the PCs status as main characters, then great. Otherwise, it sounds like the main campaign is being designed with the ability to slot in any PCs with little fluctuation. Not being a DM myself, I can only guess how much less strain that creates, but I'm fairly confident in my initial reaction to the idea: that isn't a campaign I'd be as immersed in. I'd still play, because the DM went through the trouble to prep a story for us, but I would struggle to give my best roleplay.
I suppose that's one of the real deciding factors though: are your players the sort who will make it worthwhile to tailor your campaign to their characters?
i‘m currently moving my campaign in the first backstory quest. one of my player’s characters died and the new character he came back with has lost her sister and other members of her tribe to slave traders. when she went looking she got seperated from her tracking party and met the rest of the party. when we wrap up our current arc, they’re gonna find clues pointing to slave trade down by the sea and it’s gonna be a whole thing.
it was honestly quite the convinient death because the player went from a character with very minimal backstory to a character whose backstory can be tied in very quickly.
Jocat in his recent campaign did an amazing job at making the campaign about his character's backstory by giving them the prompt "Your character has something of a reputation that people would know" but there was another story going on that backstories were played off.
I always use background story arcs as a catalyst to create a unique and specialized campaigns for the player's characters. Something I would do is talk to them before the first session about their character and the back story ,also during the game give bonus XP for role playing their character back story influences, if you know what I mean.
It always made the game more immersive and fun.
One of my players created a backstory that he was left as a baby on the doorstep of a family of nobles who took him in and he didn't know his real parents. So two of my other players decided they were his real parents but the mother character had changed her appearance and the father character never knew he had a son. I had so much fun trying to weave that into the plot but unfortunately that campaign was cut short.
I think backstories are as important as the main campaign story arc !
13:55 Whether or not to involve the player in incorporating elements of their backstory feels like it could be dependent on their preferred play style, rather than a hard & fast rule...? For some players who are especially lore-driven or who are also GMs, they don't have to know all the details (still retains some surprise) but they may enjoy the shared plotting/planning of choosing an element to bring across?
[Edit: they may also have some interesting ideas about how these lifted elements could be woven into bits from others characters' backgrounds too, if you're running a longer-term campaign? Saves you coming up with absolutely everything solo, and could build extra engagement for these kinds of more plot-driven players...]
Yes my players love it when I use something from their backstory in the game. I try to pick a different player each session to do this.
Good tips
I never knew Cornish pasties were adopted and still thriving in Michigan - thanks Luke, from a Cornish DM!
Oh yeah, lots of immigrants to the upper peninsula in Michigan were from over that a ways, is my understanding. :D
I am running the tyranny of dragons from start to end with a group and with all the massive holes in the provided material it worked out to fit in extra content in the form of backstory arc, I like the idea of peppering in the plot hooks to make options
I run call of cthulhu and I do this! A part of the rules is that when characters lose sanity put have a bout of madness, the keeper can take their sheet and edit an entry on it. With limitations of course. This is supposed to simulate the madness and insanity slowly wearing down who the players even are.
But! What i did was used the character backstory and wrote a kind of lovecraft inspired twisting story about it.
Then as they lose sanity I edit the character sheets to give them mysteries and clues to discover the hidden horrifying truths hidden in their stories.
For example, one character was a mob boss daughter, 1920s era etc. But was estranged and hated her family business. Maybe because her mother had gotten killed or disappeared because of her father's work.
So I started by adding a single question. "What really happened to your mother? ". She then chose to reconnect with her brother and father, ask questions, go on trips to visit and speak with her father. She finds out that things didn't go like she thought as a kid. Her mother left. But there is more to it. She eventual finds that her mother tried to down her in the sea. Her father , at her request, sent her a box of her mother's old things. Insure she found a bunch of artifacts and culty things. Eventually she found out her mother was a priestess of the Esoteric order of Dagon and she might be part deep one!
This all happened over many months of sessions and were really fun for the players to peel back their stories getting little hints along the way. It made going mad actually both horrifying and exciting for them because they might get a new clue. ((Thus incentiveizing them to take more risks and play more into the horrors))
Everyone has unique stories and everyone has been loving this method I came up with thus far.
Its easy for me to put player backstories into the main arch. I run a homebrew so I barely know what's going on half the time. Their backstories become inspiration and the solution to my lack of preparation. HA!
In my new campaign I had my players write a backstory and include details of their death. They will start the game being resurrected by a cult many many years later due to a new wave of invaders to the island. This cult believes that the characters had such an impact on the world that they can now save the island if brought back. The characters backstories helped me figure out how their legacy impacted and shaped the world after their deaths and what their “unfinished business” was. One has a family weapon that’s missing, one discovered a great artifact but died before telling anyone about it, and the other was a diplomate pacifist who was betrayed and murdered. All have their own arc potential while dealing with invading forces. Serendipitously, they all chose different facets of society to be heavily involved in so they shaped the history of the world and did a ton of work for me. Backstories are my bread and butter. ❤️
I like the backstory to develop at the table.
I like the players to engage in what we are doing,
instead of their own private novel.
Tell me what you want to do,
not what you want to have done.
If you want a tragic story, don't worry, I'll give you one.
If you want to be a secret princess,
Go become a Queen.
beautiful
Counter argument: Do both! Seriously, have character arcs that have aspects that lead into the main campaign. You avoid the issues of having characters COMPLETELY tie in to the main arc while still keeping that tied in motivation that it gives the PC's/players.
An example of this would be my Druid currently, my group are about to run his character arc adventure which involves a usurp of power within the city he grew up in which has lead to a lot of civil unrest and somewhat of a resistance movement within that space which is now lead by the previous lord's son. The way it ties into the main campaign is that an ally of the guy behind the main plot was pulling a lot of these strings in order to gain allies within her political sphere allowing her more power and also granting her a safety net. She has no idea of the Druids existence as of the moment- but it's possible she will know soon depending on how things play out. Either way it's likely the coming events will leave her floundering and angry as she tries to control the damage and keep her involvement under wrap. But I hope to be able to plant the seeds as to her involvement which will come to fruition if the group continue to unravel some of her other dealings within the world. I'm excited for this!
Their backstories are massive clues as to what the players want to do in the main game. So, I make DungeonWorld Fronts for each and try and make them THE MAIN plot. My 'big ideas' with my Campaign BBEG in the background, the frame that holds the painting that the characters make. I just started an Arabian-style game and the debt one character owes the local thieves guild has ensnared everyone in the main plot. It's not like peppering in items and easter eggs in the game, it's more the game is centered around those PCs.
Anyways - Pasties cannot get better than Greggs, Luke. Google them!
i completely agree
A really good way to do Backstories is the Heroic Conicle that apeered first in Explores Guide to Wildmount. It is really fun and i changes things arround. There is also a Sworedcoast Version of it on dnd beyound i belive. But what it boils down to is rolling on a lot of fun stuff that make the characters also Unique, by giving them feats and pets and so on. I do think as written it is not fair and needs work but it think the Concept is really cool so i made it better for my groupe.
Rutabagas are a tasty tuber-ish thing my Mammaw always added to our winter soups. I still love them. North Louisiana btw.
I've found that there are three types of backstories:
1) No background whatsoever. Player is just there to loot, kill stuff, and gain XP. Typically, they will always say "I WANT TO BE LEVEL 20 RIGHT NOW!"
2) Just enough backstory that a DM can take it and play with it, and incorporate it into the campaign.
3) The 1400 page tome that can't possibly exist because there's no way a level 1 character could do all of that. I've found that these are typically the players who wants the entire campaign to revolve around them and only them.
Then there's my DMs who either don't give you the option of a backstory at all, tell you what your backstory is, or take your backstory and burn it in front of your face while accusing you for trying to commandeer their campaign because how dare you write a backstory that's longer than a paragraph.
I have already learned that tying the character backstory adventures into the main plot just leads to heartbrake when a player can't play anymore.
Now I make them part of a B plot.
I was running Rise of the Runelords. In the 2nd chapter, there was a serial killer and in the 4th chapter a fey city if I remember correctly. So, after my players wrote their backstories, I looked at the adventures and tried to find a small detail, a small dot in the tapestry of their backstory, that I could add that would make it a bit more personal to their character. I did that for every players, each in a different chapter. For the thief, I told him that his second cousin from his mother side was murdered while travelling. So, no one so close to him that would drastically change his backstory, but someone he knew so that when the 2nd chapter would begin, I could feed him information and that it would feel a bit more personal. The gnome summoner didn't specify where he was coming from, so I told him that the town where he grew up was the fey city. Same thing here, nothing big, only enough so that I could feed him information about the place and it would feel a bit personal.
The players reacted well. It didn't bothered them that I added a small something. We didn't got to go through the 4th chapter, but the guy playing the thief really got into the "this serial killed killed my cousin" and seemed to have fun.
Nice to know I did everything right! Loved the video.
I have some questios. Can/should, character's, npcs, bbeg, and minions never change from the original backstoies? Can they change or never change as they progrees in game relations to npcs, enemies, dispositions about how they feel about characters. Some good become, indifferent? Some evil become good and vice versa? A minion change sides and now become allies to characters, based on time, circumstaces and Can characters change too, in those regards? Perhaps a new bigger, badder evil/good threat now emerges? Like Froto finally succums to the the rings power and the golum bites His finger only to accomplish the destruction of that ring, for and example.
I'm a DM - Is it okay to write a character back story for them? if they didnt do it, or if the only write something like "I come from far far away and I'm an elf" haha
I like the concept. Seems more organic than shoehorning in stuff to the main campaign. I'm new to DMing and am currently running a campaign with a friend who has been chomping at the bit for me to incorporate something from his backstory, so this video/discussion is great timing for me :) My friend has way more experience than I, so he's been coaching me along, but I just haven't been able to come up with a way to incorporate something until now. Thanks!
BTW, pasties are one of my all-time favorites. But, then again, I'm a born Yooper so it stands to reason :)
Yeah, a Yooper!!! I'm not from up north, but I LOVE pasties! :D I'm glad to hear the video was useful, and I hope the game with your friend goes great! :D
@@theDMLair Thanks! I appreciate it :)
All of my campaigns are homebrewed so my players do not bat an eye when somethings comes in subtly or boldly about their backstory. They enjoy it and they also like rumors of other characters they have played in one-shots.
omg i already did the character story arcs! Im really happy to see it, Im kinda new 😂😂
I used the background storys of my players from the beginning on as arcs that run parallel to the (homebrewed) main campaign arc and i love that the background storys give me so much opportunities to push the party forward. The Sorcerer player had in his background story a mysterious amulett in his posession. He didn't know where it came from, only that it must have some magical power. The amulett is awakening now more more and from session to session it gets stronger. The player gets for every stage it awakens more a new item card version of the Amulett. At first, it could communicate with ancient machines, than it gaves him advantage on arcane knowledge checks 3 times a day, than the ability to consume magic items (and transform them into spellslots or spells), than a +1 on hit and now he can refresh half a sorcery point per player level once per long rest. The amulett got awakened from the god celestian in agreement with the Sorc-Player, after the party found an altar of celestian (which the circle of star druid from our party worships) and the "souls" of the party traveled into space to meet celestian. After that, the amulett comunicated with an ancient giant sword (which i 3d-printed out), which they had found and from than on the giant sword talked to the party through their dreams in their sleep. WIth this, i can steer them gently back on the right path, if they got lost, or give them hints if they can't put 1+1 together.
So I play Jolnir(Santa) paladin/warlock who gets abducted by....bad gods and altered/ mind controlled to do "Santa things" each xmas.
Anyway last game before Xmas DM tries to abducted me mid-quest, team manages to fight the foe off.
Yay no Santa for me😃 this year.
Bad for the brother I never knew I had, also turns out my Fey patron is Ostara(Easter bunny) & is in this fabric of the world war thing.
It's awesome my DM jives with the treads I put out and runs with them.
I've had a lot of success integrating backstories into the main campaign. Of course, I have players that write backstories with hooks and mysteries that I can bring in. I've also made backstory arcs that aren't part of the main campaign in the same campaigns. I've also had success with backstories as presented in this video. The means for success in integrating backstories into main campaign in my experience focuses on one of two methods.
Method one is to give the players a plug on the basic idea of the campaign before they put their backstories. For example, one of my main campaigns right now is a rebellion against an evil king. The players knew it would be a rebellion, had background on the country and its oppression, etc. They came up with their characters and backstories with that in mind, so they could tie their backstories into WHY they were part of the rebellion... this way they specifically wrote them to fit into the plot. Even then, not all of the backstory elements are tied to the main plot, so you still get side adventures based on backstories.
Method two is to have the players write their backstories and give them to me before I decide what the core conflict is. For example, I recently started a new campaign and asked the players to deliver their backstories a month before we started, while the old campaign was still wrapping up. I used their backstories to create the overarching campaign. Three out of four characters (by complete coincidence) had warrior siblings that disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Right there, I had my central mystery and created the conflict around it. I found one element from the fourth player's backstory to also tie into the main plot so that they all had a reason to pursue the BBEG.
That being said, I've also run (and am currently running) games where the backstories have nothing to do with the main plot and are only used for side quests and character story arcs, like you recommend in the video. I think, as always, it comes down to the group and the DM.
Those are great! Might have to do a future video on this so that the wisdom and experience in this comment can be shared with everyone. :D
@@theDMLair You know I’m happy to help out however I can. Just let me know what you need.
I have no group to play with, but have 6 Characters I designed and worked on backstories for, WITHOUT NEEDING A LOT OF NEGATIVE STUFF OR FEARS OR DIFFICULTIES NEEDED. Yet none of them are "OP" or "Broken", what's more the backstories can theoretically work out in almost every pre-written module or campaign, based off a Multiverse existing in D&D.
Since I run mostly character driven games, there is only character story arcs in my game, they are the main campaign at my table.
I might try this in my next game!
When my dm was putting together a group on roll20 another player and I unintentionally created backstories that would blend together super well. I think it's going to turn into a super interesting arc and we are expecting it to be towards the end of the campaign.
Basically his character was a prince who survived a coup and is now on the run. And my character was a bastard child of the king (unknowingly) and a part of a prophecy to save the true heir. So they are unknowingly half siblings and a part of the same adventuring party, where my character has tons of opportunities to save him. It's quite hilarious because the two naturally fell into an older sister and younger brother comradery off the bat. And she is incredibly protective of him because of his insecurities.
So even though I set up the prophecy in my backstory, it developed very naturally between the other player and I instead of it feeling forced. Integrating backstories into a campaign can create some amazing roleplay among the party!
To be honest, I've already been using this approach, and I told my players in session zero that I was going to do this, just so they knew that if spotlight shifted to a single player they immediately knew what it was. I found it prevented players getting bored because the adventure was solely about one person for a while.
I think a lot of people struggle with backstories because they start with the hardest part - where did my character grow up and who were their parents? It’s infinite choice and it’s overwhelming. I start in reverse with a goal (sometimes randomly rolled) and work backwards, what happened to my character to give them that goal? The rest of the story just flows from there. Details like clothing and eye colour are picked last (if at all) because they are picked to fit with the rest.
Two of my players hate writing backstories and the third could but just doesn't .____.
I have used loot And Lore. I love it, very helpful in spells and small encounters. I've even used the maic item comb of thievery. It's a comb? Right? Lol
See my DM has done Character Arcs...but the issue is he threw 2 or 3 of them together at the same time in different places and puts a time limit on them. So now the party has to generally argue on where to go.
Your players write backstories for their characters?!? Next you will tell me they take notes!
I have SOME players that take notes... not many. :D
Sometimes I can't help but think that I am a bad player because I lack creativity. Like my current character is pretty simple: likes fighting and drinking and hammers. They back story is just: came from a town or village and is the blacksmith's kid, one day bandits attacked, and they managed to fend them off by supplying the townsfolk with tools. I don't really have the creativity to flesh that out any further. But my DM still managed to make up a town that we got to visit for a while, was a fun little side story - not really a quest there just a bit of passing through.
Edit: This was written before I finished the video, and right when I hit play he went into getting backstories from players. My attention has been seized.
Further edit: Need to go look at those questions now.
All of this seems to hinge on having a regular, RELIABLE, group of players to play with. Plus, this assumes that players actually want to have their backstories affect the campaign. Some characters may come from fairly boring backgrounds and not have anything to really work with and their players may be perfectly fine with that. And if that's what the player wants, then the DM needs to respect that. Trying to force a players character into the spotlight, when they don't want to be there, is a recipe for an unhappy player.
Also, if you're playing a more old fashion location based campaign where each session represents a round trip expedition to explore some location, kill the monsters, collect the loot, and then return to the base of operation, using whatever players showed up to that session. Planing backstory stuff in the adventure is going to be more of a one off session and can't really be something that continues across multiple sessions, as it could easily be interrupted by that player not always being available while other players are. And this type of old fashion campaign is starting to see a rise in popularity since it really only relies on the availability of the DM and enough players that can make a planned session. These campaign can still have larger plots going on, but it will be the combined effort of all players exploring and interacting with the locations that will advance the story, instead of just one 'chosen' group of adventurers. Meaning more players have a chance to build the overall story.
I had a DM that didn't read a SINGLE backstory, no matter how short that ended up causing the campaign to collapse because of continuity errors the players had issues with.
So my backstory was at most 1 page long. 3-4 paragraphs. Long story short, she was a slave in an amateur gladiator arena where the other contestants never fought before either. Fight to the death, she wins, ends up escaping. Very hunger games if the careers didn't exist. All players read each other's backstories.
The campaign ended up coming across a slave trade that had a gladiator ring. The players were all like, "Oh shit, our fighter is going to burn this place to the ground." Which I had the rogue (Assassin)'s help getting into the higher ups and executing by the way.
The DM. Flipped. Out. He called us murder hobos and went apeshit, bringing in an ancient gold dragon that lived in the city and killing us. Since slavery was legal in this area we were just being blah blah blah. He had no idea why we went so extreme either. Turns out, he never read my backstory and had no idea about this trauma. In fact, the other characters knew because we discussed it in character even, which meant he wasn't listening to in character conversations either. We all honestly thought that this was a plot hook dropped specifically for my character and went along with it since it looked like it was lifted nearly verbatim. Was just a coincidence.
That's terrible on so many levels. Hope you find a better DM.
One thing my friends and I do to encourage players to write detailed backstories is to reward them with a feat or common/uncommon magic item if they write a backstory with 3 named NPCs and a motivation for adventuring. It seems to work pretty well in my experience
In the last group I played with my DM used my back story in his introductory game and then claimed it wasn't important after killing off my character's son, denying her the chance to locate his body then ignore the hamlet we were at was an ideal location for the campaign.
At the time I thought he just choked, but in retrospect i feel this was just set up to make pointless acts of spite at the one player he thought wouldn't notice he was being an arse.
I noticed and pointed out what he did wrong, naturally it went downhill until he decided he wanted to swap settings after I started my game there.
Part of the reasonb I'm rewatching this is because I believe I failed at this too when running my game but i think I scared one player when they realised their character being slain by starving peasants that he alone killed naturally wouldn't work.
I changed it to him and his parents being ambushed and he was rescued before he could be killed being raised at a shrine.
His parents death and his upbringing being responsible for the creation of an order of Free Knights dedicated to preventing what happened to him happening to anyone else as it was clear someone in charge of the city was behind the ambush.
During the game he encountered and rescued a merchant whose the splitting image of his character's father instead of asking questions of this merchant he chose to run in the opposite direction!
I had planned on revealing he was his father's identical twin brother who was sent to the church as per his background his family was very poor.
The true villain was responsible for the PC's mother leaving the city and marrying his father however when seen together it was assumed the merchant was her husband and the rival set up the ambush to kill the husband and son NOT the mother but it was fumbled.
Sorry the other DM jumping settings ended both games as far as I was concerned, had he asked I would have shifted his Port City that he was so unwilling to move away from to Exandria and move my setting out of there but he really didn't give a damn about the game only his own obsession with Critical Role.
Still hung up on that but one day I start forgetting that idiot the DM not the player with the Folk Hero Fallen Aasimar Paladin who couldn't be bothered to explain why his character was a Folk Hero.
Currently running rime of the Frostmaiden.
Currently slightly off rails, the party's still in Ten-Towns, f***ing around and doing personal things instead of advancing the campaign, and, y'know, that's *fine*. The campaign's using milestone leveling, so if they want to extend their time at level 3, that's entirely up to them.
Also, they are building rep with Ten-Towns, even outside of the predetermined Ten-Towns quests, so it's not as though they're spinning in place or anything...
OK, Luke, great video. Lots of good advice. But I do have one bone to pick:
You can't claim pasties! They're literally legally protected as being the cultural heritage of Cornwall, England! *scream*
No but seriously, the exact origins of pasties is unknown, and the legal protection extends only to the specific interpretation of them in Cornwall, where they have a very interesting history. But, regardless of which origin theory you accept, they definitely do not originate in the New World.
Side note: rutabegas are called swedes over here, and yes, they're amazing. 😁
A problem we've had is that the main story arc has felt like such a big threat. Like a sense of "we need to stop the world from ending, we dont have time to check in on your parents".
Yup, and this is the reason you *might* want to involve the character's backstory in the main event to make it more personal. There are right ways and wrong ways to do this. One good way I feel is that you could have the characters learn something new about themselves that they didn't know before that connects them to the main event, and have it connect back to the backstory in some way.
I call this approach "expanding and contracting"
You "expand" your character by giving them new traits, but then they have too much going on, so you "contract" them by connecting these new traits to what we already know about the character.
This is fine if the campaign takes place where the characters are from. How do you incorporate backstories in an adventure that doesn't take place in the starting location. Like my character is an elf and they have a backstory in an elf village, but the campaign takes place in the Underdark or the 8th circle of hell? I'm about to start running a Ravenloft campaign and feeling a little lost.
with my backstories I leave gaps for my dm to fill in for the campaign we're playing
I've been starting to lean into creating more depth and fullness in my PCs backstories so I can start bringing them into the game more and make things feel connected
Yes, this exactly, my first few characters were just flat as can be. Now they actually have stories and convictions, meanings, wants, desires. Its also fun playing with the alignment system to create fun characters too
@@tymoore2117 that's my goal, this is my first campaign that started as a "test run" with one of my friends that we ran with and now have a party of 7, along with two NPCs. One is from the first "test session", and the other from an 8 session "session zero" with two pcs that wanted to play before the group was fully ready to play together. I've done a backstory session with 4 of my PCs, and those sessions really only expanded upon their simple backstories by setting some things into place for the current timeline. But recently I've really got two of my PCs backstories rolling and starting to really have intresting detail. I can't wait to get to the others, its wild seeing where its gone from our first run-away test session.
i agree that incorporating backstory can potentially break immersion. it has potential to make the world feel small
My favorite way to implement characters' backstories in the story is to first build the world, but only write the campaign AFTER getting my players' backstories whom I help in the process. This way, implementing their backstory in the campaign doesn't feel forced and even when it's not necessarily their proper character arc, there are still often plot hooks that connect to at least 1-2 of the players.
Running Tomb of Annihilation for the 2nd time. I took PC's backstory to create PC arcs that gets some kind of ''where to go next'' in the Jungles of Chult. By experience, I know this jungle offers so much, so I threw some personnal hooks out there to leave bits of breadcrumbs on where the f*** Omu is. It helps a lot in the navigation
Remember: don’t rewrite character backstory. This is bad DM behavior. If you want to change character backstory, ask the player first.
My DM didn't rewrite my character's backstory: he suggested a very small change that ended up being very significant. My backstory started out in a nonspecific small town and the small change was to make that small town be Thundertree.
I thought pasties we're a Welsh thing. The miners of Cornwall took pasties into the tin mines for lunch for centuries. Their descendants took their favorite foods to the new world when they emigrated.
Yes, I try to make back stories for all characters I make.
Most GMs have ignored them.
One tried to tell me I had to change it to fit his campaign, and then totally ignored both versions.
Pasties are enjoyed throughout Britain and have been for centuries.
as a player when i find the party in the throes of someone elses character arc, i cant help but find issue with it, whether it be my own need for attention or involvement. my groups dungeon master very clearly sets out parts of the story that are to cater to one character or another, and i find it contributes to a sense of temporary favouritism, and alienates the other party members who may feel like they are now participating in someone elses story.
as a dm, i (try to) let the narrative change and follow character backstory. and i believe this offers more power into the hands of the players when defining where the party goes, instead of designating "here is the part where we all go to this place and do all the stuff from this characters backstory" (which may leave the character with less motivation to continue adventuring if a lot of their historical problems have been solved)
i try to find ways that would make sense for backstory to find relvance in the plot, and if
(all of) the players have a want to expand that part of a character backstory into an arc, or whatever else, they can. i think this means that the party gains more agency for where the story goes, and what kind of things to involve themselves in, and eventually (however thoroughly followed) the element of backstory will led back into the central plot of the game, giving them a renewed purpose for continuing the story.
this way of scattering player backstory into the narrative means that no character should feel that others are being prioiritised, and rather than "finishing" a players backstory, theres always option for it to come up again.
i can understand this method may not work for dungeon masters who like to plan their story far in advance (perhaps without knowledge of player backstories) or who perfer neat and seperate arcs for their party. but i find it leads to better player involvement, and interest in the story as it pertains to their characters.
ill also recognise that a lot of the issues i have with arc style backstory intergration can probably be solved by a mix of more engaging situations, complex narratives and deeper player character connection (or buildup), and that my experience playing has only been with one dungeon master so far.
My dm and I have coordinated on my backstory but it had to be done because my character has the brain of a child in a strong barbarian body. So if the party ever wants to understand anything about my character or why he acts the way he does they would have to literally go ask his parents because he's not capable of relaying that information and very few other people actually have the ability to tell my characters backstory in game
The dungeon master is responsible for the setting and the plot; the players are responsible for the story. This is a cooperative relationship, and when executed well, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences you can have at a tabletop.
As an added bonus, letting the players have their own slice of your story in a meaningful way will help guide them into being a part of the next generation of DMs.
One of the reasons DMs don't 'use character backstories' properly is because it shouldn't be the DMs job to use the backstory out of the blue. The players have agency in the world too, and the whole point of the backstory is for the player to define their motivations. If the players aren't actively trying to further the personal quest they defined for themselves it makes no sense for the DM to force it in arbitrarily. Example, if the characters backstory is that their brother went missing and they became an adventurer in hopes of finding them, they need to ask around wherever they go for hints of their brother, if they never bring him up why would he just fall into their lap? If the wizard wants to research an ancient family curse and they never hit up any of these ancient libraries looking for that information they aren't going to find it.
Not fully with you on the characters story arcs, especially for homebrew campaigns. In general they seem to me a diversion or distraction from the big events of the worlds, but ok, this can be acceptable one in a while but not for each PC. In the case of homebrew campaign I actually use elements of the characters’ background to shape the plot or arc. I’m with you that for published adventures it might not be neither easy nor efficient.
All this said, love all your videos and I’m start missing you interpreting all characters (the barb is my favorite!).
I think what turns players off from writing backstories is that you ask for them too early.
Backstories don't really matter in the first few sessions anyway, so ask the players to write them when they have a better idea who their characters are.
I agree. There is no urgency to making the backstories (at least from a DM perspective).
Preferred route, right here.
Usually they have an idea of how the game plays in the few sessions so I find when I do then get those backstories they almost write themselves into my plots.
But it actually can make a difference and give reasons during the first session. Say the backstory included apprenticing under a Blacksmith or at least some other connection to one. Then when you started adventuring that Blacksmith is who gave you your starting equipment to help you out. Another way is you lived somewhere else, perhaps somewhat secluded. When you eventually did leave your home you didn't know which direction to go, but you helped some other random traveler perhaps by helping them get their wagon out of the mud, the traveler appreciated that and gave you directions to somewhere. That somewhere is where the DM wants the campaign to start from and gives a logical reason for being in that location, especially if as I said you grew up somewhere else fairly secluded.
So my point is, a good backstory actually matters even at the start of the campaign.
I did the Character story book thing a couple of times and both times the players ignored the hooks.
Arg, that sucks. Maybe they just aren't interested in their backstories?
Ditto one literally ran away.
But Luke! But Luke! What if a player’s backstory is utterly ludicrous and doesn’t fit with my campaign!?
Go bread hood go bread hood go. You can always turn into comedy central.
Talk it out
i don't think using a backstory element will feel shoehorned in if done right. for example i was running a oneshot heist where they had to steal the kings crown. the kings guard are all dragonborn (this was made up before i read backstories) one of my players made a character who was adopted by a dragonborn. i don't think it feels forced or shoehorned that when the guards came the captain of the guards was his father, his first words where "i am so disappointed"
i also don't feel that using backstories as character story arcs will guarantee it doesn't feel forced. it still needs to mesh with the main story enough it seems believable that this piece of backstory came up because its part of the world and not because you wanted to give them some nugget of character backstory. like your example with a sword from a childhood i would incorporate that into my sea adventure by having them see it used by a pirate because it doesn't feel out of place that a pirate might have stolen their sword nor is it out of place for them to run into pirates in a sea based adventure
Character Story Arcs are my FAVORITE way to work my player’s backstories into our games. They’re so much fun write and everyone is always so hyped to dig into their fellow PC’s pasts 😊
The only thing I know about rutabagas it's Jackie Chan tried to pass one off as ginsing.
Yeah, that last question is the big one. In my home-brew world, I've go ta player who literally gave 8 pages of back story complete with NPC bios and pictures. Then I've got another player who gave me 2 sentences, and that player has been playing DnD longer than me. Obviously, the first player is getting all kinds of story moments and character adventures. But no matter how many times I ask, the other player goes me nothing. I've told him if he ever wants a chapter of the story to be focused on him, I'm happy to do that...as soon as he gives me something to work with.
Consider that your 2nd player has no idea how to do that
Instead of just being angry with them, sit down with them and have a conversation - simply talking it through can be an easy way to build the backstory; take notes
That way, they're not overwhelmed and feel supported by you
@@danielcrafter9349 you're absolutely right, and I wouldn't say I'm angry per se. I just get worried that one of my players is getting a lot more story spot light.
However, he is a close co-worker and friend of mine, we've talked about it multiple times outside of sessions, and we had a nice session 0 to try and talk stuff through. Still nothing.
Honestly, I think he just doesn't care. We play on roll20 because 1 of our players is 500 miles away. So every time we have sessions he is always playing his x-box and doesn't take notes. Which is fine (kind of) but I'm more just letting him know, if he wants me to put effort into his character, he has to do that first.
I think my players like having their backstories included. We're not that worried about immersion, so I work with them one at a time to include little adventure arcs designed for their characters.
Got all my players backstories in (apart from the Barbarian Dwarf, who is reluctant) - so now to try and weave this in :)
my DM isnt even using my backstory, which when the backstory is over the watchers paladin, in the shattered obelisk....... yeah i cant rp because my pc just feels like an edgy anime character
What you're saying is not a argument but a debate..you're not an idiot you're quite the damn genius my man.
I believe in doing back story arcs like you said for example, the sword a pc lost in his past. I would have it that one of the pcs had terrible abusive relationship. Come to find out his past lover is the villain in the game. Example, use plot hooks in a characters back story.
Here's the punch line..if and only if the pcs has serious Jerry springer background it will be child's play in making character arcs.
I put a fair amount of effort into my character background but making effort to include nothing that 'obligated' the GM. It was surprising how much and how ofter my GM used it in the game. Many, many adventures contained hooks that seriously implicated and motivated my character.
One issue you can run into is if focusing on oen character's backstory, the other characters may lose interest and for a while it turns into one player being the main character while the others just sorta follow along, like the biggest issue people complained about with the video game octopath traveler. One character I have a strong backstory already written for but am nervous to actually play due to this is a high elf druid who was born to a noble house, but when it was attacked by more corrupt and power hungry nobles, she fled towards the forest at a still young age, where wood elves took her in and she remained, believing the rest of her family dead. This persists until in the woods one day as an adult she finds a necklace with her old house crest on it, suggesting someone in her family is still alive, this is her inciting incident to begin her adventure (her two twin sisters are alive and were actually taken in by the more corrupt houses and raised into people my character could never agree with) this has a lot of setup for potential conflict and drama leading to character development as if it does get resolved, it will force her goals and motivation to change. But I'm nervous to use her because I don't want to have such an involved backstory potentially steal the spotlight, so I'd wait for a campaign where someone else has a backstory we could link together, maybe a rogue who wants to steal some precious treasure from that same noble house and that's what leads us there only to then discover the twins are there for example.
i can confirm, Luke is very smart
Well thank you! :D
Unpopular opinion here:
As both a player and a GM, I kinda hate backstories and the huge emphasis placed on them nowadays.
Part of it comes from a bad experience I had, where I'd come up with a really interesting backstory for this warlock I was playing in a 5e campaign my best friend was running. (It was a series of published modules but I don't recall which.) Unfortunately, my "backstory" really didn't resolve in a way that I found satisfying, and this led to me somewhat "checking out" of the game. (There were other issues as well, related to my dissatisfaction with 5e as a system, but I mostly blame myself for this whole incident.) Of course, my friend picked up on this, which led to a confrontation wherein, long story short, we're not really friends anymore. And I haven't played 5e since.
I mostly play Pathfinder, but my philosophy now is that a character's story arc IS the campaign. Frodo didn't go off on a side quest to resolve some unfinished business from his past. A backstory should be one paragraph, that serves as the 'why' your character to took up the adventurer's life. It's not your character's first adventure, nor is it some other adventure you'd rather be having.