Don't start out with "I am Lwaxana Troi, daughter of the Fifth House, holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed." Start with "My name is Jeff."
Actually the first option isn't bad. You have a character to reference for personality if you're not comfortable with improv & creating a character from nothing. And there's a big difference between titles and accomplishments. She didn't slay an entire platoon of Klingons or negotiate peace between the Vulcans & Romulans. She had a fancy cup and some jewelry.
On the backstory bit. You're absolutely correct. A long expansive backstory is just absurd and nobody wants to read that, or incorporate the entire thing in. As a player, I generally try to do 2-3 paragraphs about my character. This allows me to introduce them, provide some context as to why they are the way they are, give the DM some NPCs to bring in, and give my character a clear goal that they're trying to work toward. But, I take care to leave the backstory fairly open ended so that the DM can bring things into the story, and so that (as you said) I can figure things out about them as the game goes on.
I really like your take on coming in with a bullet list of traits going into a game. My current campaign I was given a day's notice to create a guest character, making a fun-loving irresponsible aasimar gladiator. She ended up being my permanent character and it's been incredible to see how she's evolved over the course of the story. For all my other concepts, I try to flesh out their childhood a bit to consider what feeds into their grown up selves, and detail a major event that puts them on the path leading into the campaign story
Solid enough to build a character around, but far enough in the past that you aren't wondering how they accomplished all these great deeds as a level 1 character.
I've made and played a range of characters across my D&D career. Some good... some pretty terrible... some that didn't really get off the ground, for various reasons. Regarding insanity, I decided to make an insane Warlock who insisted he was actually the world's greatest Paladin. His backstory was that he was just an average farmer, but one evening he was contacted in his dreams by a maiden, who claimed to be a deity that was held against her will in a pocket dimension, and she begged and pleaded for him to find a way to release her. Thus, he declared that he would be her champion from that moment forth! What I shared only with the DM is that the "maiden deity" was actually a Great Old One who fed on the sanity and willpower of mortal creatures, and were Lyomar to find a way to open a portal to their dimension, it would allow the Great Old One to slip into the mortal realm and feast on everything. Unfortunately, the game was cut short after only a few sessions, as our DM just disappeared. Not actually sure what happened to him, but he just stopped coming online and responding to all of us. As for one of my favourite characters I've played, while I didn't do it quite as meticulously as you (making a physical list of traits, etc), I had them start out with next-to-no personality, and built it from there through interactions with the party and what happened in the story. Mylo was a lab experiment. He was found in a stasis tube in a wrecked lab... the only piece of equipment to survive after the lab was destroyed. (I used a Simic Hybrid race as a base, and was meant to basically be a clone-like creature that was grown in the lab, and mutated across the campaign... ie, when he gained his SH traits as he leveled up) The lab had been attacked and destroyed prior to Mylo being given any form of mental stimulation or interactions with people. As such, after Naya (the player character who found him about an in-game month before the campaign started) released him, she found he was basically a toddler in an an adult body. He couldn't speak, didn't understand words, etc. He mostly communicated in gestures and grunts... which I chose to do simply because I wasn't very good at roleplaying at that time, so it let me interact without having to go into full-blown conversation with them. Over time, as the party gathered, they taught him to talk, read, write, and deal with social cues, etc. Regarding his class, he was a Wizard, but played like a Sorcerer at first (he'd still have to mentally prepare spells and such before using them, but couldn't use spells that required consumed or costly material components, couldn't do spells as rituals, couldn't learn spells except naturally on level up, etc). This changed later as he was taught to read and write. A couple of the sillier traits that became part of his character is that he he would become hyperactive over chocolate (not helped by the DM's homebrewed cantrip "Create Chocolate", allowing the caster to pull a small chocolate bar of various flavours from their pocket)... and he became "aggressively helpful" whenever he ate cheese. He would become more forceful in his words and actions, insist on helping out regardless of how much someone refused the offer, etc. Towards the end of the campaign, he made friends with a young Cloud Dragon (whom he called Drake), and after getting badly beaten up one time, and in the same battle nearly losing his dear friend Rena after the leader of the gang of thugs threatened to kill her after she was unconscious, he decided he no longer wanted to be a burden and have everyone always have to protect him, so he got them to train him with physical weapons, as well as starting to focus on teleportation magic. Mylo was one of my longest played characters (the campaign finished a bit short of 2 years in total, and Mylo and Rena were staples the whole way through, even though the other players changed characters once or twice). I've been very tempted to bring him back if we ever have a high-level one-shot or game again.
Look ma I'm on TV 1:00! Completely agree on long backstories really pidgeonholing characters... This is ESPECIALLY important in PBtA games where the narrative flexibility is the point!
I've DMed 1st and 2nd ed for well over forty years- played a bit as well. During a DM break, years ago, I played in a campaign set in the Realms. My PC was Sir Glindon The Red, a Paladin with the Votary kit. He was so much fun to play- gleefully burning down a Temple of Cyric...with all the worshippers still inside.....
Yes I'm perfect! Or rather, I just started with playing myself and then I try to make characters somehow different than my previous characters. And myself. In ways that could easily affect my acting as well as decision making.
If you can't fit your PCs backstory into two to four paragraphs then the dm will dislike it. The easiest idea it to look at the backgrounds in the PHB.
The backstory should have enough in it to give you and your DM enough of a foundation to build on, without pigeon holeing either of you; or making it weird that you did this amazing thing, but are still level one. The one thing that needs the most fleshing out is the inciting incident. Why are they here? What made them start this journey?
such a classic amateur player move to play someone who has some crazy trait to "make them interesting" then not play into it at all bc it was way too bold of a choice for first time RP
Don't know about you Austin but I am as perfect as prefect can be. 🤣Those voices in my head are real. Those voices in my head are real. Those voices.....
OMG! 1st D&D toons! 1988. I learn about the game. Minotaur Fighter with a double side double headed axe named Torack. Oh good memories. 100% best rich douchebag noble player I have been in 30+ years of gaming. Thanks for entertaining us!
Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I've seen beginner players trying to play 2 characters as their first character, either by insanity or some form of possession. And I always tell them the same thing. Don't... You want you character to play off of the other PCs not themselves and playing 2 characters is always too demanding for a new player. But the truth is it's mostly just a bad idea.
I honestly want to try this as an experiment because I do have multiple personalities, but idk if it's a good idea even then. You'd definitely want it to be more of a liability than an asset but even then as a dm coming up with compelling and realistic switching mechanics seems like a headache.
I hate backstories. I hate them as a player. I hate them as a GM. I hate seeing other players talk about their backstory in some esoteric way as if I'm supposed to know what they're referencing. I hate when players make a backstory that didn't take into account anything about the pitch of the game I'm running. Backstories just suck. Stop writing them. Your "backstory" should be what happens at the table.
Backstories can be dope though! I've only played in and ran homebrew campaigns where they are a lot less burdensome to incorporate The DM makes the framework for the world/setting, and a backstory is an easy way to add player engagement & input (within the appropriate framework of the setting) to make it a more collaborative experience. Backstory shouldnt be a chapter book of epic feats, of course. But just a few paragraphs of backstory can add character motivations, NPCs, plot points and player buy-in! That said, no backstory , no problem! Thats just more opportunity to be flexible and improvise!
@FatedCaliber id say character backstory written beforehand helps with a single persons buy in, but character backstory done as improv at the table helps everyones buy in. As for character motivation, I don't think that its especially important to establish beforehand either. If a players character motivation is aligned with how that player naturally interacts with the game world then the player will have much more fun, because theyre not doing something that they find boring. Ideally this will align with the mechanics of the game being played
@@Genesis19-26 I agree that backstories done wrong can become an exercise of self-centeredness & rigidity. I also agree there's always room for improv and abandoning/changing ideas that don't work. I love having those backstory-agnostic BBEGs and conflicts -- that's how I start planning my campaigns. The longevity & collaboration comes in when I take into account the ideas of my players (often in the form of their backstories) When done right, backstories add a lot and give a potent pay-off. Having no backstory is definitively better for the table than having a bad/convoluted one though.
If I wanted someone's backstory to matter, I'll ask the player at the table, "So tell me about the time your character did X or was in X situations" or "when you enter the tavern, you see an NPC that calls out your name in anger. What did you do in the past to piss them off," during the session. Not only does that technique flesh out a PC's background in ways that matter to me as a GM, it gets their creative juices flowing to produce plot seeds for adventures.
@@quickanddirtyroleplaying Hell yeah! I think most players want their backstories to somewhat matter though, whether or not you want them to matter as a GM. It's all a matter of preference though, and imo as long as you're giving your players those moments to engage with what they like in a game, youre doing your job as a GM! That and as long as you're also playing a game you enjoy running, can't forget that!
I detest players that want to play schizophrenic or psychopathic PCs, both as a player and as a GM. I classify that as "special snowflake syndrome," and it's eye roll-inducing behavior.
Don't start out with "I am Lwaxana Troi, daughter of the Fifth House, holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed." Start with "My name is Jeff."
Your first PC vs your latest PC
Actually the first option isn't bad. You have a character to reference for personality if you're not comfortable with improv & creating a character from nothing. And there's a big difference between titles and accomplishments. She didn't slay an entire platoon of Klingons or negotiate peace between the Vulcans & Romulans. She had a fancy cup and some jewelry.
On the backstory bit. You're absolutely correct. A long expansive backstory is just absurd and nobody wants to read that, or incorporate the entire thing in. As a player, I generally try to do 2-3 paragraphs about my character. This allows me to introduce them, provide some context as to why they are the way they are, give the DM some NPCs to bring in, and give my character a clear goal that they're trying to work toward. But, I take care to leave the backstory fairly open ended so that the DM can bring things into the story, and so that (as you said) I can figure things out about them as the game goes on.
When is Wizards of the Coast going to man up and release “Douchebag” as a new character class
I don't think they'll ever pay for their crimes
I really like your take on coming in with a bullet list of traits going into a game. My current campaign I was given a day's notice to create a guest character, making a fun-loving irresponsible aasimar gladiator. She ended up being my permanent character and it's been incredible to see how she's evolved over the course of the story.
For all my other concepts, I try to flesh out their childhood a bit to consider what feeds into their grown up selves, and detail a major event that puts them on the path leading into the campaign story
Solid enough to build a character around, but far enough in the past that you aren't wondering how they accomplished all these great deeds as a level 1 character.
I've made and played a range of characters across my D&D career. Some good... some pretty terrible... some that didn't really get off the ground, for various reasons.
Regarding insanity, I decided to make an insane Warlock who insisted he was actually the world's greatest Paladin. His backstory was that he was just an average farmer, but one evening he was contacted in his dreams by a maiden, who claimed to be a deity that was held against her will in a pocket dimension, and she begged and pleaded for him to find a way to release her. Thus, he declared that he would be her champion from that moment forth!
What I shared only with the DM is that the "maiden deity" was actually a Great Old One who fed on the sanity and willpower of mortal creatures, and were Lyomar to find a way to open a portal to their dimension, it would allow the Great Old One to slip into the mortal realm and feast on everything.
Unfortunately, the game was cut short after only a few sessions, as our DM just disappeared. Not actually sure what happened to him, but he just stopped coming online and responding to all of us.
As for one of my favourite characters I've played, while I didn't do it quite as meticulously as you (making a physical list of traits, etc), I had them start out with next-to-no personality, and built it from there through interactions with the party and what happened in the story.
Mylo was a lab experiment. He was found in a stasis tube in a wrecked lab... the only piece of equipment to survive after the lab was destroyed. (I used a Simic Hybrid race as a base, and was meant to basically be a clone-like creature that was grown in the lab, and mutated across the campaign... ie, when he gained his SH traits as he leveled up)
The lab had been attacked and destroyed prior to Mylo being given any form of mental stimulation or interactions with people. As such, after Naya (the player character who found him about an in-game month before the campaign started) released him, she found he was basically a toddler in an an adult body. He couldn't speak, didn't understand words, etc. He mostly communicated in gestures and grunts... which I chose to do simply because I wasn't very good at roleplaying at that time, so it let me interact without having to go into full-blown conversation with them.
Over time, as the party gathered, they taught him to talk, read, write, and deal with social cues, etc.
Regarding his class, he was a Wizard, but played like a Sorcerer at first (he'd still have to mentally prepare spells and such before using them, but couldn't use spells that required consumed or costly material components, couldn't do spells as rituals, couldn't learn spells except naturally on level up, etc). This changed later as he was taught to read and write.
A couple of the sillier traits that became part of his character is that he he would become hyperactive over chocolate (not helped by the DM's homebrewed cantrip "Create Chocolate", allowing the caster to pull a small chocolate bar of various flavours from their pocket)... and he became "aggressively helpful" whenever he ate cheese. He would become more forceful in his words and actions, insist on helping out regardless of how much someone refused the offer, etc.
Towards the end of the campaign, he made friends with a young Cloud Dragon (whom he called Drake), and after getting badly beaten up one time, and in the same battle nearly losing his dear friend Rena after the leader of the gang of thugs threatened to kill her after she was unconscious, he decided he no longer wanted to be a burden and have everyone always have to protect him, so he got them to train him with physical weapons, as well as starting to focus on teleportation magic.
Mylo was one of my longest played characters (the campaign finished a bit short of 2 years in total, and Mylo and Rena were staples the whole way through, even though the other players changed characters once or twice). I've been very tempted to bring him back if we ever have a high-level one-shot or game again.
Look ma I'm on TV 1:00!
Completely agree on long backstories really pidgeonholing characters... This is ESPECIALLY important in PBtA games where the narrative flexibility is the point!
Swingripper mentioned pog
I've DMed 1st and 2nd ed for well over forty years- played a bit as well. During a DM break, years ago, I played in a campaign set in the Realms. My PC was Sir Glindon The Red, a Paladin with the Votary kit. He was so much fun to play- gleefully burning down a Temple of Cyric...with all the worshippers still inside.....
Ringmar
Yes I'm perfect!
Or rather, I just started with playing myself and then I try to make characters somehow different than my previous characters. And myself. In ways that could easily affect my acting as well as decision making.
If you can't fit your PCs backstory into two to four paragraphs then the dm will dislike it.
The easiest idea it to look at the backgrounds in the PHB.
The backstory should have enough in it to give you and your DM enough of a foundation to build on, without pigeon holeing either of you; or making it weird that you did this amazing thing, but are still level one.
The one thing that needs the most fleshing out is the inciting incident. Why are they here? What made them start this journey?
such a classic amateur player move to play someone who has some crazy trait to "make them interesting" then not play into it at all bc it was way too bold of a choice for first time RP
This was oddly validating lmao
Low key love the fable music in the background of this
This whole video was just an excuse to play Bowerstone Market in the club
Don't know about you Austin but I am as perfect as prefect can be. 🤣Those voices in my head are real. Those voices in my head are real. Those voices.....
OMG! 1st D&D toons! 1988. I learn about the game. Minotaur Fighter with a double side double headed axe named Torack. Oh good memories. 100% best rich douchebag noble player I have been in 30+ years of gaming. Thanks for entertaining us!
Double sided double headed axe sounds like an OSHA violation.
Thanks for watching!
Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I've seen beginner players trying to play 2 characters as their first character, either by insanity or some form of possession. And I always tell them the same thing. Don't... You want you character to play off of the other PCs not themselves and playing 2 characters is always too demanding for a new player. But the truth is it's mostly just a bad idea.
I honestly want to try this as an experiment because I do have multiple personalities, but idk if it's a good idea even then. You'd definitely want it to be more of a liability than an asset but even then as a dm coming up with compelling and realistic switching mechanics seems like a headache.
Finally! I found a D&D YTer that love F1!!!! lol
I’ve thought about doing a “F1 drivers character classes,” video but I like my stuff to get views😂
Mazespin the Bladedancer@@tabletopbro
...who am I kidding... he's an NPC.
Lord of the ringmars.
I hate backstories. I hate them as a player. I hate them as a GM. I hate seeing other players talk about their backstory in some esoteric way as if I'm supposed to know what they're referencing. I hate when players make a backstory that didn't take into account anything about the pitch of the game I'm running. Backstories just suck. Stop writing them.
Your "backstory" should be what happens at the table.
Backstories can be dope though! I've only played in and ran homebrew campaigns where they are a lot less burdensome to incorporate
The DM makes the framework for the world/setting, and a backstory is an easy way to add player engagement & input (within the appropriate framework of the setting) to make it a more collaborative experience.
Backstory shouldnt be a chapter book of epic feats, of course. But just a few paragraphs of backstory can add character motivations, NPCs, plot points and player buy-in!
That said, no backstory , no problem! Thats just more opportunity to be flexible and improvise!
@FatedCaliber id say character backstory written beforehand helps with a single persons buy in, but character backstory done as improv at the table helps everyones buy in. As for character motivation, I don't think that its especially important to establish beforehand either. If a players character motivation is aligned with how that player naturally interacts with the game world then the player will have much more fun, because theyre not doing something that they find boring. Ideally this will align with the mechanics of the game being played
@@Genesis19-26 I agree that backstories done wrong can become an exercise of self-centeredness & rigidity. I also agree there's always room for improv and abandoning/changing ideas that don't work.
I love having those backstory-agnostic BBEGs and conflicts -- that's how I start planning my campaigns. The longevity & collaboration comes in when I take into account the ideas of my players (often in the form of their backstories)
When done right, backstories add a lot and give a potent pay-off. Having no backstory is definitively better for the table than having a bad/convoluted one though.
If I wanted someone's backstory to matter, I'll ask the player at the table, "So tell me about the time your character did X or was in X situations" or "when you enter the tavern, you see an NPC that calls out your name in anger. What did you do in the past to piss them off," during the session. Not only does that technique flesh out a PC's background in ways that matter to me as a GM, it gets their creative juices flowing to produce plot seeds for adventures.
@@quickanddirtyroleplaying Hell yeah! I think most players want their backstories to somewhat matter though, whether or not you want them to matter as a GM. It's all a matter of preference though, and imo as long as you're giving your players those moments to engage with what they like in a game, youre doing your job as a GM! That and as long as you're also playing a game you enjoy running, can't forget that!
I detest players that want to play schizophrenic or psychopathic PCs, both as a player and as a GM. I classify that as "special snowflake syndrome," and it's eye roll-inducing behavior.
I’m the specialist snowflake that’s why I make RUclips videos