Five Awful Character Backstory Clichés in Dungeons & Dragons 5e

[@DungeonDudes]

A bit of strange audio at 4:00 in. Seems to be a small glitch but it's only for about 30 seconds. Our apologies!

[@westerncivilization]

Was hoping you would start singing Phil Collins, but I rolled a 2.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Thanks for the heads up

[@Ashtonyss]

Monty just has the voice of a God. No glitch there.

[@edvingjervaldsaeter3659]

Robot voice module: Engaged.

[@Rodistair]

Monty voice glitch is my tragic backstory. Now I'm on a quest to find out what haopened

[@questionalatbest1827]

"my parents are dead" my 80 year old barbarian: well obviously

[@brennag7962]

Hey! I've got a 81 year old fey-pact human warlock (Louise).

[@questionalatbest1827]

@@brennag7962 elderly characters are the greatest. Especially charismatic ones

[@kmacgregor6361]

Cohen the Barbarian??

[@billcipher826]

@@questionalatbest1827 yeah nice grandma is the beat

[@ParadoxChiaki]

@@kmacgregor6361 The first hero stole fire from the gods. It's only fitting that the last hero return it.

[@brandonk8948]

Character: "I never knew my mother, she died before I was born..." Group: "Awwwwwwww." DM: "Wait, how is that even possible?" Character: "I ask myself that every day..."

[@TheEternalLightning]

Technically Speaking, The Mother Could Have Passed Away And The Baby Could Have Been An Emergency C-Section And Technically "Born" Afterwards Sooooo Yeah.

[@Jack-uc7zl]

Time stop?

[@brandonk8948]

@@TheEternalLightning Character: "A perverted necromancer was insistent that the child within her womb was still rightfully his so he performed an emergency C-section on her corpse to ensure his heir would have a life that he never had....he "raised" me right." DM: ...."bruh." :-/ How's that a for a parental backstory? ;)

[@carso1500]

@@brandonk8948 well thats kinda interesting

[@TheEternalLightning]

@@brandonk8948 *Puts Away My Gnome Necromancer Bard Backstory Thats Eeriely Similar* Yeahhhh Exactly xD

[@stanleylee5358]

I'm an angry orphan, a lone wolf anti-social type that would rob my friends in their sleep. I've enslaved Demogorgon as my familiar and made love to angels while falling from Mt. Celestia. Armies run at the sound of my name and kings lay their crowns at my feet. ... Level 1 fighter.

[@jacoblynn6394]

Dude seriously. People really trying to be legends before they get out of "I got mortally wounded by a swarm of rats" tier

[@goliathcleric]

That's the thing I never understood about the folk hero background from the PHB. Like, if I am a folk hero, shouldn't I be at least level 5?

[@DungeonDudes]

You jest, but I once had a player character with a backstory which basically amounted to what you wrote here.

[@Hyperactiveinsanity]

@@goliathcleric not really, a name can be legend for good deeds, musical talent... and most level 1 adventurerers are still above average people anyway. Then there's always one shots and higher level adventures, where it suits fine.

[@stanleylee5358]

@@jacoblynn6394 My level 2 Tempest Cleric just got dropped by 4 Giant Rats because I was holding spell slots for the next encounter. Crit. Crit. Good night.

[@kyuven]

"My parents are dead!" "Oh no, who killed them!?" "They fell down a hole. It was 10 years ago. Also my village was destroyed." "By the BBEG?" "Nah, by a flooding river. Also I'm a lone wolf." "Oooo edgy..." "Nah I'm just socially awkward. I want to make friends but I'm like, super shy."

[@gggg-hq4td]

If this was fallout luck would be 1 (also 69 likes (nice))

[@windmage0168]

Does BBEG stand for Big Bad Evil Guy?

[@stevenkerns7554]

@@windmage0168 Yes

[@skell6134]

@@windmage0168 Yes indeed,you guessed right in first try sir

[@windmage0168]

@@skell6134 woohoo i am smort

[@JonnyLOV]

One of our DMs started a campaign with all of the player characters meeting at an NPC's funeral. Everyone had a backstory about how they knew the deceased. Thus, the party was formed and the adventure began.

[@madhippy3]

I like it. It doesn’t have to be a revenge story but it could be. Characters know they need to get stronger so they quest together till the beat the bbeg.

[@prootybaby5191]

Currently DMing a campaign with that exact setup. It’s been great so far, especially insofar as the PCs feel built into the setting with NPC connections.

[@vansradjmadho8365]

We had this in our current game. Our uncle/great uncle /family friend respectively died and was lord of a country. Our job to fix it and retake the throne.

[@Jafroboy]

Is that Cellar of death?

[@naheemquattlebaum2267]

That's freaking cool

[@joshprice4855]

"Your level 3 character did not go to the upper planes, aquire an angel's sword, and challenge orcus to a duel." You are correct, my real backstory is my character is full of crap

[@BelLancaster]

Had a Bard that truly believed he was actually a Great Old One that had been mind-altered by his greatest rival. Of course... it would sound crazy to anyone else, so he kept his truth to himself. Yeah... he was totally delusional... He ended up multiclassing into Warlock because he ended up making a pact with an actual Great Old One by accident (he thought he was just reconnecting with parts of his former self).

[@madmalkavian3857]

Bruh, that's kinda brilliant. Just a low level character hyping themselves up to get jobs.

[@Pirateking536]

The Sniper King returns...

[@veronicasardo76]

Omg that would be such a cool character, like a dude whos like famous, i slayed houndreads of dragons and is full of it

[@Typoopie]

Lmao when one of my players presented his lvl 1 fighter as such, I told him how it doesn’t make sense. He promptly added compulsive liar to his character sheet.

[@stanbartsch1984]

"Is very strange. I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life." -Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

[@BJGvideos]

I guess the moral of the story is that piracy is always an option.

[@-Natalie--]

Let's be honest, Princess Bride is one big DnD game

[@Fektthis]

Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.

[@claytonsilverfox2602]

@@Fektthis stole my thunder 😆

[@vernonhampton5863]

I just gave you your 1000 thumbs up. You're welcome. Also, the Princess Bride was awesome and can fuel anyone's imagination.

[@Ajehy]

I let a player do the “I’ve had epic planar adventures but I’m only level 3” thing once, because the setup was awesome. This was in 3.5, and during his adventures he had gotten level-drained down to lvl 3 by necromantic magic, and the rest of his party killed. Now his memory is so damaged by the attack that he can only remember pieces of it, and he loses his Paladin faith. He lives for 30 years as a humble village blacksmith, trying to forget the old days. Then a new group of adventurers rise in the village, and he sees himself and his friends in them. He hears the call of his deity deep in his chest for the first time in 30 years. He takes his old gear out of a long-locked chest, reforges the broken pieces-no longer magical but still good steel. This is his second chance, his last chance, and he will protect these bright-eyed youngsters as he could not protect his friends. He swears, with every swing of the hammer: he. Will. Atone.

[@Ajehy]

And yes, the Obi Wan Kenobi is strong in this one.

[@sgt.squeegee1720]

That's awesome. May his oath be restored and his atonement true.

[@thatsmuggamer]

That sounds BADASS

[@braedenrichardson3077]

Yo this is dope

[@torgranael]

I love that.

[@feeshofyeet5011]

“I traveled to the Higher Planes, proved myself worthy to a Solar by defeating him and received his sword. I then challenged Orcus to a duel and defeated him. I saved the world and became a Hero-King” *gets killed by rats in the first session*

[@Dafuqinator7]

Should have gathered for Whiskey and Cigars that night instead.

[@mateo0123]

to be fair that must have been a hell of a dream

[@W1ntermut3_]

@@Dafuqinator7 Indeed, I believe so.

[@tylermckinney2041]

Bed time stories you told your child, your child that went missing one day.

[@kittyplayz1480]

Ah yes, the pathological liar character flaw

[@rocksnrolls]

My character: • killed a Mindflayer, • Laid a dragon • Fist fought a dragon, • Out drank a giant • Knocked out a beholder with one punch •has super cool laser eyes • and is a pathological liar.

[@sapateirovalentin348]

O H

[@eman2198]

and oop

[@Szadek23]

at level 1.

[@rocksnrolls]

@@Szadek23 oh, obviously

[@musakamara4157]

I think you buried the lead there

[@dannya.2616]

One of my players is an orphan (alcoholism and cancer) and his character's backstory has a big happy family...

[@kittyplayz1480]

OUCH I have divorced parents and my characters also usually have happy families, sooooo maybe it's just wanting what you don't have.

[@dannya.2616]

@@kittyplayz1480 Nat 20 to your feels. I was super nervous to DM as his family NPCs the 1st time.

[@klusternider6540]

>mfw I discover that I unknowingly wanted to be kidnapped from my family and be a slave until a loving couple would buy me and take care of me as their son

[@thehalfa95]

My girlfriend is a player in my campaign and her parents have also passed. She made a character whose parents are dead and when i asked her why she said "im playing what i know" turns out tears come in all shapes and sizes

[@oscarbrazil9922]

Guess they want something, they dont have.

[@buddyimboden8444]

My human wizard grew up hearing his mom tell stories about his father being an amazing wizard and wanted to be just like him. He taught himself magic and set out to help people after his mom passed away. The twist is that his mom made up those stories about his dad who was just a regular commoner that died before he was born.

[@a.morphous66]

That reminds me of Will Treaty in the Ranger’s Apprentice

[@buckarooben7635]

Reminds me of “Water Boy”

[@Brook_55]

@@a.morphous66 FINALLY. SOMEONE SAYS WILL TREATY!

[@Brook_55]

It's been years of not finding anyone that knows what that is TwT i finally found one

[@kidwhat6664]

@@a.morphous66 damn you're right

[@maqusan22]

Something that's worked for me: replace "I left because my family were killed" with "I left because my family were dickheads" and the DM has way more stuff to throw at you.

[@FFgamesftw]

If you are doing an evil campaign, your parents are dead and you were the one that killed them

[@artemisfowldragon]

Or “I killed one of my parents by accident and now my family uses my banishment as an excuse to hate me”

[@theoscout9205]

"I left because my family were dickheads" is actually a really good excuse, possibly even better than "I left because my family were killed" because then why didn't you just leave the investigation and chasing up to the police, or use your inheritance or something to hire some assassins to kill the murderer? Plus, I've met a lot of LGBTQ people (especially on tumblr) who were more willing to face homelessness and struggle for a job in a bad economy than face their awful family, so in my opinion "I left home because my family were dickheads" is actually a better argument. You could add that you were the Cinderella in your family, and now that you've run away they're trying to legally hunt you down and are telling everyone else you've been kidnapped etc. Again, I've seen people irl do this unfortunately.

[@heretic3334]

Ooooooh, you know what, I might just do this. :D

[@Littlecrowfriend]

My cleric. “I ran away from home because my father is a dick, he might as well be dead because fuck him,”

[@squared231]

"I was initially a turtle who drank radioactive waste and turned into a monk turtle who knows martial arts." Wait, that sounds familiar.

[@TimeLord675]

An uplifted turtle monk? Run it.

[@squared231]

@@TimeLord675 One tiny problem. I have no friends.

[@willjudge3534]

COWABUNGA DUDES!

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

I'm a dragonblooded Tortle Sorcerer. I am the heir to my Tortle kingdom, and was raised by the court wizard, but ran away to prove myself worthy. There's a nearby human princess I've captured a few times to kill time, and my rivals are two brothers who service the aqueduct of that kingdom who have foiled me several times. By favorite spells are Cone of Fire, Burning Hands, Enlarge Person on myself, and I have a monk level to punch fools, and a barbarian level to help me bench press the average ox and for flavor. I convinced the DM to let me trade the wings I should get from dragon blood, in exchange for armor spikes on my shell. I have very high Strength and Con for a sorcerer. Bwahahaha.

[@skeletor4062]

@@aprinnyonbreak1290 That is actually the very first character I ran with 5e's new setting. Except I traded the wings for earthglide.

[@Wildbarley]

The last time I was a player, not a DM, everyone at the table had some sort of tragic sob story loner background except me. I deliberately played a Dragonborn paladin who was raised by two well adjusted parents who were I fact still alive. Everyone thought it was stupid until midway through the campaign when we needed the insight of a powerful magic user and I chimed in... well, we could always go visit my mother. They were like, your mom was a high level wizard this whole time?!

[@matttale7918]

Imagine thinking having a light hearted backstory is bad. Also their reaction 😂

[@hokutoulrik7345]

@@matttale7918 well, to be fair, normally a well adjusted person with a happy childhood and early adulthood is not someone that you would to expect to be an adventurer. It can be done obviously, but it is rare for someone who is happy to go fight dragons and other powerful enemies.

[@matttale7918]

@@hokutoulrik7345 True, But it’s also not unbelievable that someone well off would want to experience hardship or prove themselves capable of adventuring. Hell, you could do the bilbo baggins route and join a party cuz some folks need your help.

[@hokutoulrik7345]

@@matttale7918 this is true.

[@luthienmpl]

@@hokutoulrik7345 You'd think that but every year well adjusted people with happy childhoods and adulthoods risk their life for no reason climbing Mount Everest, so.

[@AuspexAO]

As a DM, I love "lone wolves" because you can totally play into the power fantasy and give them cool fluff to do. I like to let them scout ahead and stealth kill a single guard or two. Then I'll confront them with a trap, lock, or obstacle that one of the other party members can open. Then they have to get the party involved in the adventure, making the lone wolf almost like a NPC hook. Let's say the lone wolf is a ranger looking to slay an orc captain, but he tracks the captain down to a cave with a mystical lock that the wizard may be able to crack. He groans and heads back to the party. Now the ranger has to ask for help and maybe learns a little something about teamwork.

[@hawkthetraveler6344]

this is good DMing, support the fantasy they want, and help them into the fantasy group they're in :) bravo

[@CharlesChaldea]

I love this idea.

[@whoghostthere9664]

This works until you end up with a genuinely selfish player with MCS (main character syndrome). I literally had to remove a player from my group because they were an eternal lone wolf.

[@VotePaineJefferson]

The problem I have is that players at the table often don't communicate with each other in character i.e. when the lone wolf finds that trap, he just walks back to the group and then the group moves towards the trap to "disarm it" even though our lone wolf didn't directly TELL them it was there. My players don't roleplay with each other like that, not even to relay important information to their adventuring group. Short of telling my players "your character doesn't know that" I don't really know how to get them to actually talk to one another.

[@fallendeus]

Yeah, you might think this is fun. The rogue might think it's fun. But i hope you asked your other player if they think it's fun. Because if you are doing this often... then you have multiple other players that are sitting there doing nothing while you and the lone wolf are playing dnd without them.

[@WolfmanXD]

5 awful character back story cliches. Me - oh goodie. Now I can put them all together for my next pc to have the ultimate terrible back story.

[@Lobsterwithinternet]

No, you’ll create a rift in the space-time continuum!! 🕳

[@antongrigoryev6381]

And it will be the best backstory among all players.

[@fhuber7507]

Seems to be the goal of most players lately.

[@Neutral_Tired]

My family is all dead, I don't care and have no desire to avenge them, they were also rich so I don't need money. I used that money to create an ancient, unstoppable artefact, and use it to win the great war that threatened to destroy all the planes and slay the Devil king Asmodeus. I'm very antisocial and hate people, I can't take orders and don't play well with others. Despite this, I have no flaws and have never made a mistake in my life, everyone else around me is always wrong.

[@Ento2012]

@@Neutral_Tired sounds like an egomaniac with nothing separating realaity from fantasy.

[@sebas3664]

When I learned to play d and d, my first character was a fugitive rogue. He traveled the land to scape justice for the terrible crime of... tax evasion.

[@ezramoore7835]

You monster

[@ilovecheez7769]

Don't say the t-word!

[@mystic1029]

😂now that is a good backstory.

[@easy4265]

so you were wesley snipes

[@VeteranDecanus86]

That’s hilarious and awesome! Taxation is theft btw.

[@Karma-lx8ny]

If you have a lot of players with dead families in their backstories, then have them all grow up in the same orphanage.

[@r.s.2890]

My friends and i rolled for backstories using Xanathar's guide, and all 3 of us ended as orphans. I grew up in an orphanage run by a priestess of Hestia while the other two were raised (separately) in the military after a recent war. XD

[@elieli2893]

Oh mannnn it would be like a gaggle of siblings adventuring together, that's awesome!!! xD

[@happylilhippie33]

We are just starting one like this, a continuation of an old champion where th ed rescued n freed orphans

[@robertchristopher1920]

That's a great idea. If you need inspiration for what kind of camaraderie that can create go play/ watch the Sly Cooper series of games.

[@Guian_6]

Yup, did this with my character, she grew up an orphan in a library ran by a high ranking scholar, also where she met/grew up with her future bf.

[@friendlygiant2314]

Unknown to two players in a game, I had set it up where one had killed the others parents. It was quite a moment when they both figured it out.

[@jfduug4994]

I NEED to hear this story !!!!

[@oz_jones]

Oh god this is evil. Love it.

[@friendlygiant2314]

@@jfduug4994 One was a former bandit who gave up his ways after a gruesome raid on a town. He went on to become a paladin. The other was a rogue who's parents were killed during a massacre by bandits.

[@kokichibestboi]

​@@friendlygiant2314 holy fuck, the *drama*

[@SingingSealRiana]

not sure if I should be in awe, or horrefied

[@cobaltsable1800]

Favourite backstory to date: Elderly gnome with 3 dead husbands, and a whole load of descendants constantly checking in, runs away from home to have an adventure before she croaks while being persued by relatives eager to drag her back home

[@wistfuloptimist1238]

"Edna! Get back here, you forgot your medication!!" "To hells with the damn medication, I'm gonna go slay a dragon!"

[@cobaltsable1800]

@@wistfuloptimist1238 Circle of the moon druid. Goes from frail 400+ years old crochety person to ELEMENTAL. My barbarian friend carried me around for a while :P

[@chillypep2]

Bilbo Baggins in LOTR

[@allisontrouten6891]

We all need that grandma

[@maliksteele143]

Why does this remind me of don quiote

[@tatersalad76]

"My wife and daughter are dead!" "Okay, well you still have-" "The rest of my family killed them."

[@ondry8780]

And THAT'S a interesting backstory

[@ignacioperez5479]

I took that base for my hexadin.the goddess he works for was venerated by the cultist who killed her loved ones

[@attish1000]

Thanks, i am stealing that for my next PC LOL

[@unlimon6382]

"my sister! Good to see you again! It has been so much ti-" *she pulls out a knife* "le fuck ?"

[@ZombieTumors]

This was almost my real life backstory

[@spiffy7019]

My character is just a person who needs to pay off wizard school debt

[@MrMViceroy]

Mine worked in a lumber mill until he lost his leg in a log jam. Now he works as a city guard, because a big fat guy with a wooden leg is good at blocking a gateway and it doesn't matter if he can't run fast. Super epic.

[@MrBromansa]

I legit had a group that consisted of not just a wizard trying to pay back student loans, but also: a Dwarf Fighter going through a midlife crisis who decided to live his fantasy of being a Warrior, a Cleric who acted like the stereotypical Bard (ie. Fucking anything with two legs) so much that he got kicked out of his own temple and they actively want him dead and a Rogue that only stole shit because it's the only thing he's good at (his skills were all directed at being a burglar), so he decided to be pragmatic and just start stealing shit for cash. It was a fun time.

[@ididnosuchthing345]

I.... I just have a human character the came from a tribe that lives in the highest peaks of mountains. I built the tribes religion around 4 demons; Demon of Lust, Demon of Death, Demon of Time, and Demon of Desire. Orphans found, produced but unwanted, or of a dead family in(of) the tribe are given to the Demons to be their servants. My character was born of the tribe, and their mother passed at their birth while his father had died on a failed hunting trip. They were given to the Demon of Death, and the demon himself raised the human child, since the character was one of the very few orphans given to Death due to how rare orphans actually are at the mountain peak. They were raised to kill, but still care, as those under Death basically become his assassins as to try to kill those who continually make choices bringing them closer to Death. Add to the fact, he would "bless" his orphans with immortality if they killed a specific amount of people. Alec, the character's name, doesn't really care about immortality, they just kills as to consume the person he killed. They're semi-cannabilistic, and enjoys food related challenges, and they claimthat immortality was just a plus as it allows him eat for as long as he wanted to. I actually had Alec sell a pair of legs of another Player's character, cause Alec told the purchaser it was a a delicacy from the Mountain peaks, though in reality Alec knew that if you didn't know how to cook Demi-human meat you would end up deleting an entire town, but they didn't say anything because it's Indirect Direct assassination thus getting him closer to eternal life of food. They're just staying close to the group because of a Player's dwarf character Alec calls "Fat Pig" who promised them that he'd help them get the LARGEST creature in existence to eat, though he does threaten to eat the dwarf on several occasions. Also, Alec also tried eating said Demihuman in a BBEG one-shot event one time before nearly being killed by the BBEG of the event, while being blamed to be The BBEG. I don't know how far I could have gone with Alec, since I couldn't make it to the campaign all the time and then the Quarantine happened. I'll probably join a different one in the future and continue to use Alecai (their full name, I just like saying Alec) till I have to replace them with a different character in a campaign. Though, they have nearly died on several occasions due to a physical condition, Brittle Bones, I always ask for hp damage for Alec if they do things that that would warrant bones snapping, cause things do get wacky in DnD.

[@0th_Law]

My character is also trying to pay off their debt... to a tutor who was actually a hag, and who taught her enough magic to graduate. So she’s a Wizard! Totally! A diploma and everything. Definitely not a Warlock, that’d be crazy.

[@pixlbelle8081]

I’ve got a few, some as concepts and others I’ve actually played: - A goblin ranger who’s a raging alcoholic and is generally depressed because she feels inadequate and compares herself constantly to her family’s achievements, and thus is trying to prove herself, all the while ignoring the actual praises of her peers because she just doesn’t feel she’s good enough. - A human bard who was orphaned at a young age, lost both his biological parents to bandits, but through his mother’s determination, was delivered to a gnome artificer so that he may have someone to call family, and family he became, being raised in absolute kindness, as well as becoming incredibly smart and musically gifted, though also very eccentric. He also has the spirit of a Tiefling wizard hovering him at all times, because he was a little dumb at one point and put on a cursed bracer that housed that spirit, but they’re on okay terms with one another. - A Fire Genasi barbarian who’s on the search for his mother, the genie, as well as a quest to redeem himself, he was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, but a different crime he actually committed went under the radar, and he’s trying to repent for his actual crime.

[@michaelcreech8957]

“My family is dead because the dm tricked me into murdering them one by one” -my first d&d character

[@avrilfan0521]

My parents are dead ...killed by the reckless actions of another band of adventurers.

[@SingingSealRiana]

yeay . . . .that sounds horrible and awesome at the same time

[@laserfork7840]

…Hercules?

[@spankyavalon]

@@laserfork7840 Kratos

[@toolatetothestory]

Oedipus

[@saintpoli6800]

Best backstory- “I just wanted money... So I left home to get a job”

[@linkthedaydreamer3447]

Twist: "I wanted money to pay for an addiction to pizza I have... So I left home to get a job so I have money to last for the rest of my life."

[@HamsterPants522]

Nah, the best backstory is choosing to be a homeless adventurer because participating in a society is too depressing.

[@xTobsecretx]

Hmmm... I was just about to write a Master Baker Tiefling warlock that is in a pact with the eldritch cookeh monster!

[@carso1500]

@@HamsterPants522 so what you are saying is that... We live in a society

[@HamsterPants522]

@@carso1500 No, society is a spook. lmao

[@sipjedekat8525]

I once played with a dude whose bard character claimed to be an apprentice to Elminster, a guide to Volo and having done business with Mirt the moneylender. His background stated he knocked on elminster's door and was told to bugger off, he carried Volo's bags in the docks for a copper or two, and he got thrown some change by Mirt in his hat while busking on the streets. He played his scoundrel persona excellently.

[@arthilas_]

Was he Volo's Guide to Monsters? :-D

[@IoanCenturion]

Alright, that's clever.

[@sipjedekat8525]

@@arthilas_ in the flesh =)

[@GracieLizzy]

To be fair he's probably knows Volo. Volo is a mostly useless asshat who knows practically everyone in the Forgotten Realms.

[@Yental]

@@GracieLizzy my players learned that after completing chapter 1 of dragon heist

[@cooltrainervaultboy-39]

To quote a DnD tiktok I saw, "You're level 1! Your back story should be about how you got tired of planting turnips!"

[@mariaschneider8181]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@Watchin4story]

I shall use this.

[@nathanthom8176]

Except you are proficient with some kind of weapon, which essentially suggests that you have at least training or some experience. If you were just leaving the turnip farm you would have no proficiency with weapons unless you were some kind of prodigy.

[@mariaschneider8181]

@@nathanthom8176 plot twist: the weapon is a hoe

[@nathanthom8176]

@@mariaschneider8181 and you're on a quest to get back your prize turnip before the Harvest festival.

[@ArceusShaymin]

"Both of my parents are dead." "Ha! Heard that one a million times before." "They killed each other over their lesson plan for me. It was a pretty epic duel; they both got kinda carried away. Their spirits are pretty happily chilling back at the ol' family cottage."

[@greenstarlover1]

Ancestral barbarian?

[@u.v.s.5583]

My parents are dead too. They were shot from a crossbow, right on my seventh birthday. They gifted me a crossbow.

[@pixellighthouse621]

When your Rogue's mother died of natural causes, leaving him with his awkward dorky gnome step dad

[@Athuwu]

I love this

[@respectfulevil9022]

Six seasons and a movie

[@rodrigonoffs1369]

My (elf) rogue was adopted by a circus, and only left because there was a curse/disease that makes him age normally like a human

[@KarumaJiusetu]

My Player: My family is dead. Me, DM, behind the screen in my notes: Your family faked their deaths and abandoned you because you're too much of an Edgelord, got it.

[@SH-qs7ee]

My family is dead and I adventure to track down the killer and exact vengeance. The twist; I killed my family. By adventuring I stay ahead of the law and draw attention away from my crime.

[@HamsterPants522]

It's not edgy to want to roleplay as a character with no family. Most people tend to idealize themselves in fantasy as being orphans or coming from something which doesn't exist anymore, because it gives them a tabula rasa to start fresh.

[@strangeyoungman]

@@HamsterPants522 Right. Superman's entire civilization is dead, and he's still pretty cheerful.

[@HamsterPants522]

@@strangeyoungman Superman is fucking based

[@someonefromsomewhere1009]

@@strangeyoungman But then there’s batman...

[@gyrrakavian]

Fleshsmith meets the party: "Are you the ones _delivering_ the spare parts I requested, or _are_ you the spare parts I requested? I'd rather not make that mistake again."

[@baxterbruce9827]

*writing character backstory based on this*

[@gyrrakavian]

@@baxterbruce9827 Haunted One or absented-minded Frankenstein?

[@baxterbruce9827]

@@gyrrakavian I was thinking something closer to the second one (I have way too many characters and literally no chances to play them *sigh*)

[@gyrrakavian]

@@baxterbruce9827 Tell me about it. Same. I just came up with a way to explain having a Simic Hybrid in Fayerune (escaped Mindflayer test subject) and she's loosely based on Newt from _Aliens._ Then, there's my harpy abjuration wizard (Quilynn Ashfeather), my Southern gentleman ghostwise halfling bard (Jonah Highhill), and my shadow sorcerer tabaxi (Fish heads).

[@baxterbruce9827]

@@gyrrakavian I have a Dragonborn Barbarian that wants to be a great chef (I have a name written down, but I don't remember his last name), an Aasiamar Bard whose DAD has one of those absurd backstories and he just wanted to be a musician but no one would leave him alone ("I made love to an angel as I fell from Mt. Celestia" kind of backstory), I have a Wizard (Actually, I made two versions of this character, the other is a Warlock, I might make a Sorceror version too, but anyway) that grew up in a town where magic is taboo and he finally left his home and now wants to see all the magic the world has to offer Oh,and I tried making a class without using any of the class's levels, Paladin wasn't that hard

[@blizzardthefox]

Prince Zuko is the absolute best pop culture character i can think of that suits the "my dad is an emperor" backstory in a way that still allows for a player character to go through a campaign and develop and improve along the way. A prince in exile, mistrusted by both the enemies of his nation and the citizens of it. Despises his father but also seeks to prove himself to him. Brilliant character motivation and would be a great character in D&D

[@chrishansen8119]

Ya know, I thought I was making a really cool, semi unique backstory for my Leonin cleric. A fallen prince forced into exile, by his father who he despises, yet still earns for his approval Your comment made me realize I just wrote Zuko as a lion

[@eliasroos7185]

Fuck, I think I just realized I made my character Zuko without realizing it. Abusive father he once sought to make proud, but abandoned once he realized that he wasn't the kind of person his father wanted him to be. Only difference is that his mother is still alive, but she was turned into an archfey through magical fuckery and trapped in the feywild

[@noeliesmith515]

I also accidentally made my character Zuko with the whole “banished and the requirement for coming home is finding this powerful entity who nobody has seen for generations and might not even be real”

[@Arkios64]

Just letting you know that Zuko's mother may or may not have that exact same fate, except the part about living in the feywild, she's more 'finally free to live her life away from Ozai and all of the trauma'.

[@miconis123]

Now I want to create an older character whose real backstory is like Uncle Iro but the one he tells people is him getting his own tea shop.

[@TrojanManSCP]

RE: Flaws - Don’t be afraid to let your table run a few sessions even if people aren’t 100% on their characters yet. You may find that character traits, including motivations and flaws, may come out organically during play. I had a female high elf ranger begin a level 1 campaign with “dead/missing parents” and no flaws. First time player, it’s all good. By just letting them play it out for a session or two, they became more comfortable and understood their own character better. They eventually came upon a great roleplaying moment where, after a fight, they weren’t paying attention because they were chowing down on sweets. The famous line was, “After battle, I get snacky.” It fit the character so well I jumped up and yelled, “That’s your flaw! Write it down!” Which led to another great moment where the party is being chased through the forest by wolves. The rogue takes a cunning action to scamper up a tree and hide, makes the roll and is like peace out. The cleric, clanging along in plate armor, yells, “For goddess’s sake, drop them some food!” To which the ranger screams, “NOOOO! Not my snacks!!” A bit silly, but also it sets up a scenario where the player character prized an item of low significance (food) against the lives of their party members. Textbook character flaw. And that was all completely organic at the table. Again, don’t be afraid to just let those sorts of things happen. You may be surprised.

[@mateofantasma]

loved this story!

[@PhailRaptor]

Organic flaws are the best flaws. No GMOs in my character!

[@RenAki5]

Very recently, While playing through Rise of Tiamat, my Elf Arcane Archer was frightened for the entire fight of our encounter with the first dragon (this worked out really well too, since my character was the only one to have not fought a dragon of the current party. RoT isn't the first campaign we've done with these characters). I've since made it a note that my character has an inherent fear of dragons, and doesn't want to touch them, and will avoid them as much as they can. Obviously still fighting them when needed, but more mundane scenarios like: DM - "There's a dragon flying overhead" me - "I run to the nearby forest and hide." and avoiding the dragon corpses while our barbarian cuts out scales and teeth to sell/add to his necklace This was never intended for the character, but sometimes a couple of bad rolls can lead you in a fun new direction for your character. It's going to be very interesting in a couple levels when the draconic sorcerer in the party sprouts his wings in a couple levels, and my character who now has a fear of dragons has to see this.

[@RenAki5]

A friend and his party also ran into some fun ordeals like this. They're playing through Curse of Strahd, and their paladin has an addiction to Dream Pastries (even after learning they're made with kids), and actively tries to steal them from his party-mates bags whenever he can. Again, this is the Paladin.

[@HiddenOcelot]

I can agree, my character in my brothers game, lives knowledge, to the point where he'll pretty do most anything to get it. In a town we were in he eaves dropped on quite a few people, and then inserted himself into the conversation to get info he wanted, so yeah he's not to good with personal space or values lol.

[@AdamAtYourService]

If you're gonna do the "my parents are dead" cliche, I would recommend trying the Superman route. Clark Kent lost his biological family, but grew up with loving human parents, so the guy never knew what it meant to be an orphan. And even though he carries the weight of surviving Krypton's death, he still has parents who he'd consider parents, even if they didn't give birth to them.

[@JNJTabletop]

Great advice! That adds a lot of depth and story telling potential to work with. Sounds like an Aasimar or Tiefling might fit well here.

[@theredrighthandproductions]

That or only kill off one of the parents. Leads to fun drama with how the death affected the relationship between the character and the living parent.

[@yarnpenguin]

@@JNJTabletop I can say with confidence it does, indeed, work very well for an aasimar. Because I definitely did it for my protector aasimar paladin; left in a small town temple by her birth parents for reasons at level 15 are still unknown. She was taken in and raised by a human couple (though they already had a bunch of kids, just to be not so obviously Ma & Pa Kent).

[@DrthVictor]

It's hard to avoid dead or missing parents with the Urchin background. I'm playing an urchin at the moment and even though he has no idea what happened to his parents, it's not a motivation. He had fun growing up on the streets and becoming a rogue with his Fagin-like parental figure.

[@DaDunge]

Well it's a whole lot better than the batman route.The last thing we need is another brooding person who is antisocial because his parents died.

[@merkavamkivm3373]

If you write "superhero" backstories with a level 1 character, you should play with a flaw called *LYING*

[@WinterPains]

Omg, and the other party members have to figure out what's true, cause not everything they say is a lie.

[@merkavamkivm3373]

@@WinterPains *finger guns*

[@silvercandra4275]

May I introduce you to Helainthus Flüglemeier? They once were the captian of a feared group of pirates, but were seperated from their crew while they were singlehandedly fighting off a dragon turtle. At some point they lost their memories and joined the circus, where they learned to play the lute and began traveling the world. Also, they aren't actually a tiefling, they used to be human and came from the future, where people have forgotten how to use magic and now he has to find a way back to his own time, but they are also the chosen champion of a god and have to stop the end of the world, by going on an adventure! Or maybe they are really just a child, who was bored living in a small town with their loving (adoptive) parents, and one day just took the lute their mother had taught them to play, and left to travel the world for a few years... We may never truely know...

[@gorkroymorkins2023]

or have someone who used to be legendary but something happened that crippled them or made them lose their power and they are trying to regain it

[@silvercandra4275]

@@gorkroymorkins2023 That reminds me of the unnamed hero of a game series I used to love. The guy essentially killed a god in the first game and the way they explained him starting from level 1 in the second game was that when he won, the entire temply they fought in collapsed onto him and he was buried in there for 2 weeks...

[@isaacgraff8288]

One thing that actually was a lot of fun was going against cliché. I was in a party where everyone had lost family or had a horribly dysfunctional family. Then there was me. A nobleman whose entire was still alive and well. We were on speaking terms with each other, and none of us tried to kill each other (sibling rivalry doesn't count!). The worst that happened was my family quasi-disowned me because as a cleric I became an Arcana domain cleric instead of following Pelor. The awkwardness made some interactions absolutely hilarious. "wow.... this is awkward. My family life seems positively divine in comparison."

[@monikaisdonewiththeinterne2039]

The character im currently doing (for a dystopian/cyberpunkesque world) lost her parents because of a group of fanatics that hate people with prosthetics, but she doesn't really want revenge because while she has imposter syndrome (aka she believes its her fault), she also knows her parents werent really great parents anyways, while they weren't assholes, they certainly werent good parents neither

[@Bigryguy95-epic]

Playing a non-edgy rogue is so fun. Character had a fairly nice childhood, parents are still alive, and he’s neutral good (doesn’t like stealing from innocents and unnecessary killing). Subclass is arcane trickster so he reads a lot and always talks about becoming a great wizard even though he’s not great at it. He’s also a bit of a coward that heavily relies on his allies to encourage him. Basically, instead of a depressed, edgy, yolo, and criminal rogue he’s a happy, normal, coward, and only wants to help people and become a famous hero.

[@V-V1875-h]

Robin hood but cooler?

[@Bigryguy95-epic]

David Vitale not cool lol. I played him as easily creeped out and very nervous with most, even obviously easy, encounters.

[@V-V1875-h]

@@Bigryguy95-epic neat

[@dragonstryk7280]

Lol, yeah, I've had a lot of fun playing light-hearted rogues. I styles one after Rufio from Hook, there was my running attempt to play Rogue who worked for the church of The, God of Justice. My favorite one, though, was my Human Rogue, Clint. Grew up in a small Hamlet as the 8th of 9 children, (all alive at start of game). Decent enough life, his family was one of the more prosperous families, a nice quiet life if he wanted it. Why is adventuring? Well, the whole things boils down to that life just not being for him, until one day, as he's running around, he came across SE old ruins and saw his first dungeon. It was love at first delve, and so now he's obsessed with traveling the world and finding lost relics, treasures and the like. Any treasure he didn't need he sent home (the DM kept track of this, and I got sidebarred finally at one point when the DM informed me that I'd sent some 10,000gp home, which would unbalance the home economy).

[@V-V1875-h]

@@dragonstryk7280 neat backstory man

[@lauramcmillan9592]

For my current Dragonborn Paladin, knew I wanted to play a slightly grizzled, experienced, older character...but we were starting at lv1. So I gave him a backstory as a carefree knight (think fighter-bard) who ended up in a horrific folly adventure gone wrong. Most of his buddies were killed and he himself suffered an injury that left him near death for months. When our campaign opens, he’s recovered enough to start fighting again, a bit, and needs to find a new way to get by in the world-enter some strangers and a job board. Level 2 comes and his magic starts to return to him. Level 4 and wow, he’s feeling much stronger again. We’re at level 5 now and it’s been SO much fun to role play-especially with the two teenage party members, who he has a sort of exasperated mentor relationship with. Definitely recommend the midlife-disaster backstory!

[@Katio888]

I want to do something similar with a future character for Rime of the Frostmaiden. An Aasimar Paladin/Barbarian who was a mercenary, considered absolutely ruthless and maybe attained a level of 5 or 6. But then gave it all up because simply, her priorities changed and she resented her celestial blood. So, she settled down, had kids (adopted), and hung up her armor and sword. I figure, years later, she’s regressed in skill back to level 1. But it’ll come back to her, as soon as she starts adventuring again. Which she does begrudgingly, because protecting her family is now most important and that is her motivation.

[@mayas3422]

that's such a great idea!

[@saudade7842]

I have a concept for a human paladin who's EXTREMELY religious and has a strong dislike for everybody who doesn't in some way strongly resemble a human (due to his belief that there was a revolution against the gods when a powerful person became a god and lead his people, who would later become humans, against the gods {with the help of sympathetic gods}. The rebels won and the followers of the god of man were blessed with human form {and their allies blessed with whatever forms their gods saw fit} and their enemies were cursed to become savage creatures who inherent sin {although my character does believe that they can repent} and their enemy gods became demons {with the most powerful becoming the accursed five}.). He was part of a holy order tasked with defending the faithful and purging the heretics, until the other species had enough of being slaughtered, formed a coalition, and destroyed their cities (ending in a last stand at a port city where anyone capable of fighting fought in a last stand, holding them off until most of the refugee ships fled for mythical continent that may not exist). After the fighting he and many other stranded survivors fled and went to spread the word of their dead faith. He also hates 'foul sorcery' and those who practice it while being okay with 'divine magic' (the difference being who uses the magic, the purpose of the magic, and whether the magic is related to demons/unnatural entities or divine entities). He used to be quite powerful, and still is, but he is limited by self doubt, perceived cowardice, perceived failure, his overwhelming prejudice and extremism, and the need to constantly repent for any shortcomings (real or imagined). Who knows as this all just a concept, maybe the DM could throw in a curveball and I figure out that the guidance I thought came from my god was actually from a demonic entity. He also believes that all tieflings are irredeemable abominations who should cherish the loving warmth of the flames, as is, in his mind, a merciful fate for a living incarnation of all that is impure. In his mind flame cleanses all of their sin, and those whose beliefs are anathema to his should willingly throw themselves upon the pyre, just as he would if he were deemed irredeemable.

[@jakobbraun5180]

Laura McMillan very nice idea!

[@xaviercarmona4439]

My current character is a Scourge Aasimar Way of the Long Death Monk who WAS a high level warrior, but then he and his platoon (he co-founded the Special Ops of his home country) were ambushed during the Hobgoblin War and the glyphs and emotional trauma blasted me to level one. So I am able to present a character who is well-informed and experienced compared to his younger/more naive party members, yet is basically re-learning the basics when it comes to his physical and emotional state. My DM also has me roll PTSD CON saves throughout gameplay whenever he deems it appropriate. It’s a freakin blast to play !

[@RedT...TheOriginal.NotANumber]

"The goal of the Lone Wolf... is to not be a Lone Wolf anymore." That's pretty awesome.

[@an8strengthkobold360]

or just attact them to a character who does work well with the group (basically make them the introvert adopted by an extrovert friend).

[@DiscardatRandom]

The chad paladin and a virgin rogue

[@WTFproductions0523]

It's honestly the best way to play one of those characters. There's nothing wrong with being the lone wolf if that's just a character trait and not the only defining element of a character. Having seen a good lone wolf character play out before in a campaign I ran once it's always heartwarming watching the distrusting and brooding character open up slowly, make a friend and eventually become a better person after finally facing whatever problems they're dealing with.

[@Littlecrowfriend]

I love this so much.

[@tami3456]

@@WTFproductions0523 facts.

[@joshuagrahamtheburnedman1814]

What everyone should understand is that: 1- Tropes are tools to be used, nothing more, nothing less. 2- Cliches are merely overused tropes. 3- A trope that is overused must be so for a reason, it might not be a good one, but more often than people would like to admit it is.

[@Kylora2112]

"That's a cool cliché...are you actually going to do something interesting with it or are you just looking to be a pizza cutter character?" (all edge, no point)

[@DUES_EX]

Yea like stereotypes

[@monikaisdonewiththeinterne2039]

Yeah for the character type i am doing i didnt really have a way to avoid a few cliches here, since our campaign is based on the Project Moon series, which is a dystopian cyberpunk-esque world with a few _totally not_ scps and a lot of classical literature "plagiarized" characters. Very dear people dying and everything in your life sucking is pretty much a unavoidable stample here

[@garyrobbins9444]

Got drunk, got married, got sober.....ran like hell. Became an Outlander. I am now hunted by her 4 brothers to bring me back to my -3 Charismatic Wife.

[@d3vitron779]

Lmao

[@HuchiaZ]

Are you sure you aren't playing Loki?

[@thatonebabygoat8503]

@@HuchiaZ I doubt he has 3 children that are all humanoid beasts that have the sole purpose to destroy the world lmao

[@FacilityD20]

Hahah... run... run...

[@HuchiaZ]

@@thatonebabygoat8503 could be before he meets the wild woman to have said beasty children.

[@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149]

I had a character's whose parents were dead. But here's the important part: _that wasn't all there was._ They were dead because this character was rather old. Making "dead parents" all your character is, that is the problem, I believe.

[@LHLogs]

I have a gunslinger ( Ringo ) whose mother died during childbirth and his father raised him as an outlaw. As part of his backstory, Ringo was 16 and doing a bank robbery with his dad's gang, though Ringo was wounded in the midst of the robbery, while his dad and the gang left him for dead. Agreeing to work with the law in the capture of his dad's gang, which works out for Ringo due to the fact he was already going to set out for revenge, which he personally declared that as he watched his dad and old gang run off.

[@arqueiroXD]

Yeah,i tend to do dead parents because most of the time i don't use it is the basic reason...but most of my characters instead of parents,have mentor figures,friends etc... The only one that had parents that matter...was a changeling that killed a noble and took her place.(I had just one character that had almost nothing...that was a vampire with 1000 years old. That most of her character was her blinded hatred for vampires...and the fact that she had nothing left in the world.

[@roastingghosts1302]

Hermon the great my current character in a friends campaign was a part of family of shifter nobles, his whole family is dead, the kicker here is I don’t know why, because he (and our bard) lost their memories. So for all I know I could’ve murdered themself.

[@hibiscusishere]

I currently play a night elf arcane trickster that actually killed both of his parents at BIRTH because he has a curse that hexed people if they look into his eyes, and that he would pass out one day for every person sucsessfully hexed . They got their lungs turned into flowers. Apparently his mom didn't get cursed by a demon , but in fact she cursed her baby to kill the parents for leaving her cult of warlocks to find their tribe and losing their viginity(two big no no's in the cult). Now he's trying to find the person who cursed him and taking revenge for his dead parents and most of his tribe, unknowing that he killed them from turning their lungs into roses.

[@beastwarsFTW]

My barbarian's an old man who became an adventurer because he's an elf with only a 100 years left to live, he's a war veteran, and after his wife died he needs something to give him excitement.

[@suicaedere7244]

You can resume this with: "Remember there's other people at the table playing with you, including the GM. Your fun shouldn't come at the expense of theirs"

[@jr22hon]

Time Stamps 0:00 sponsor 1:11 Intro 3:19 My Family is Dead! 8:06 A bad motivator 12:50 Storied History 16:42 The Lone Wolf 19:50 Perfectly Boring Person 24:54 conclusion

[@stevecrafter518]

comment for the algorithm this is very important

[@koral.arthouse]

underrated

[@stevenpappas02]

Goated comment.

[@yorhahoudini4531]

Thank god

[@Lennygrodd]

"You're character probably isn't going to be a great hero right off the back" Me: takes folk hero background

[@davidfoster5199]

My barbarian Rook has that. He's not a hero in that he won many battles (even as a barbarian), he's a hero because he once spent several nights searching for kids lost in the woods, traveled a long distance to ask the clerics of the big city for help with a plague that'd hit his tribe, and I've had him mention something with a flooding river once but I haven't actually fleshed out what that particular story will be. There's more ways to be a hero than killing things, even if those things are evil tyrants and terrible demons.

[@OhNoTheFace]

Oh no, a bunch of backwater villages think you are real neat :O

[@dinohansen5074]

It could be of the "Jaynestown" variety?

[@V-V1875-h]

Ah yes, the trickster

[@vernonhampton5863]

@@dinohansen5074 This is a perfect example of a folk hero. Jayne, as we know, is a greedy stooge. But the legend is greater than himself, and is tarnished by the revelation of who he really is. The story is of a level 20 gregarious hero, the reality: level 1 murder hobo.

[@FatalKitsune]

My favorite "dead family" backstory came from my Rogue Swashbuckler. She grew up with her brother in an alternative religion (other people would uncharitably call it a cult) and longed to see the world outside their little commune. So she escaped, dragging her brother along with her. They took up service on a pirate ship as deckhands, but eventually her brother got into a fight with the captain and died at his hands. She blamed herself for having brought him along, for having dragged him onto the ship. After making an attempt on the captain's life she fled and actually took up her brother's name, intent on becoming as famous and well-known as possible so that the whole of Faerun would remember him. Outwardly, she's very charismatic and cheerful, but it's just to cover up the inner turmoil and hurt. Only the party members closest to her know the real story.

[@ScottEllerman]

That's quality. Clear motivation, adversaries, plausible for level 1 character, and a little bit of a trauma scab for the DM to pick at if they want.

[@Girlhead]

I'm using this in my game for an NPC! :) I am currently building my world. Let me know if you're interested in details- but this is a great!

[@FatalKitsune]

@@Girlhead That's awesome! I'd like to hear them!

[@jadas1483]

Character idea: an orphan (hear me out) falls into a deep depression after the death of their whoever, and is coerced into trying adventuring by their therapist to 'get active' and find something to 'channel their interests into', the therapist comes along as a background/support character to ensure the orphan's progress

[@TheSuperMegaPlus]

...The therapist is their patron.

[@thosebloodybadgers8499]

@@TheSuperMegaPlus the character is a Great Old One warlock

[@BoredomBee]

Oh my god, that's wholesome as fuck and I'm here for it.

[@Technotoadnotafrog]

@@TheSuperMegaPlus that definitely seems like the kind of thing one of the more benevolent archfey would do, especially one with powers of either empathy (like telepathy, but emotions instead of thoughts) or prophecy (has a vague idea of what the future holds)

[@SH-qs7ee]

The therapist is a player character too, a bard. His vicious mockery is him saying in a deadpan voice "How does that make you feel"

[@singer3188]

Favorite of my character backstories. I was playing a pair of goblins(a monk and a rogue) that could work in tandem during combat They used to be a bugbear until they met some undefined magical creature in combat that turned him into two goblins. They go around in public one on the others shoulders under a long coat to try and pass as a single character.

[@fireandblood1655]

I did the same coat thing with a pair of dwarves who deserted their posts in the army, and are convinced everyone they meet is out to kill them as retribution (they’re really stupid)

[@berneemartin8859]

singer3188 that is a super-cool backstory - I love it! What I’m curious about is how did your monk half of the goblin team get their training to be a monk? That could be a very interesting part of the story as well. Is there a goblin monastery out there somewhere or did some type of mentor monster monk train you? 🧐👿😁

[@IrvingIV]

2 goblins in a trenchcoat is always fun.

[@einkar4219]

ah another classic cliche 2-3 small creatures in trench coat

[@kylethomas9130]

Given me an idea for a character background. What the party sees: Lone wolf, edgelord, orphan, no last name, little practical experience despite knowledgeable about many regions. The Truth: High born 'child' running away from noble society, and needs to be scarce whenever the party deals with nobility. Well read and has lots of epic adventures to tell, but lacks the skills to back up those stories. His parents are both alive, loving environment, well off, but the character is just running away from responsibility.

[@jwjusaf]

That is almost exactly a character I have been playing for about a year now. He's quite fun!

[@steinistein8611]

But that's quite the cliché, too.... I alone played with 3 players who had this exact backstory

[@jackbrian7083]

@@steinistein8611 everything is a cliche at this point. and there is a reason for every cliches too. The dead parents is literally the best way to be an adventure, like why would you go on deadly adventures if oyu got a safe and happy life ?

[@sagitt0nious]

That sounds like James from Pokémon

[@tafa_matai3184]

I have an extremely similar character, except his parents are nobles in an industrial military monarchy that actively tortures and abuses lower class citizens, and he ran from home and honed his rage to instead tear down everything they ever built

[@GoblinLord]

My character has a family who loves him except they love him a little too much, he's the only non-caster in the entire bloodline and they doted on him because they considered him weak

[@thetruegavinator]

It'd be so funny if your character was a barbarian or something. A family of scrawny but doting relatives babying a giant hulking behemoth all cause of his natural talent not being spellcasting.

[@GoblinLord]

@@thetruegavinator I went with an archery build but that is also a valid concept

[@willow8186]

That’s a really good idea, I like it 🙂

[@greenstarlover1]

@@thetruegavinator or reverse - a family of raging barbarians nursing their flimsy spellcaster child because they love him regardless.

[@Takisan111]

I had a fighter character once that was the only child of a paladin and a druid but he was never able to awaken any magic of his own. So his paladin father taught him how to fight using weapons and physical strength and his druid mom taught him how to identify the different properties of plants. He grew up with a deep respect for nature and all living things which made learning how to kill in combat hard for him. He would end up taking a few levels in barbarian later because the complexity of the world really started to piss him off and he never learned a healthy coping mechanism for negative emotion.

[@Karpfenkroete]

My friend once played a lone wolf character who didn't value his own life and wanted to preserve that of others above all things. It usually played out like this: - We get a quest and discuss how to advance - He splits up from the party to solve the problem on his own to avoid the others being in danger - He gets overwhelmed by the enemies and lies incapacitated on the ground - The rest of the party arrives and saves him - The lone wolf is annoyed that the others got themselves in a dangerous situation just to save his worthless life and complains about how he doesn't want help - His character gets pissed because the others won't listen to his lone wolf nonsense - My character gets pissed because of how ungrateful and uncooperative he is This happened multiple times pretty much that way. One time my character was so annoyed by him he started to call out this childish behaviour. My character spent most of his youth in a forest so he explained how nature handles cases like this: "A lone wolf joins a pack or he dies." The lone wolf character obviously didn't listen and the conclusion of the discussion was: "I never asked you to help me, so don't expect any gratitude. If you're going to complain about it afterwards, then maybe you should stop trying to save me." The next time the lone wolf character set off on his own my character didn't come to help him. ...He died. In a forest. Bitten to death by a pack of wolves.

[@amberkat8147]

I guess the DM agreed with you, lolz. That's just so poetic!

[@IrvingIV]

@@amberkat8147 Love the pack of wolves touch.

[@shanedsouza189]

I need to know what kind of stats this dude was rocking. Wis 7, Cha 4?

[@MaximumMatador]

palpatine_ironic.jpeg

[@remarkzero]

Brutal. Love it.

[@elysemccarty1415]

Our DM actually asked me when I was first discussing my background (Changeling Assassin Rogue Guild Merchant) if I would be okay if he incorporated my backstory into the first arc. I had asked to be a tinkerer in the clockwork guild by day but a 'fixer' for the guild by night. By pure coincidence, our plot was going to be a Changeling Guild Master (basically the empire's lead artificer, his Changeling nature a big secret) who was hiring people to fix magical anomalies across the land. Now, I work as his daughter and lead engineer by day, but his agent by night. The premise of the campaign is that he's hired the party to help me with the anomalies because I can't do it myself. The anomalies we are investigating are in the hometown of two other PC's who represent rival factions wanting in on the investigation, and he's conscripted a clockwork sorcerer PC from the guild. We have one more character we haven't touched on their backstories yet, but the DM has so far incorporated our backgrounds really well into the plot and it's very refreshing. The plot isn't *about* my rogue or the other PC's; it's about these anomalies. But because of their backstories they're heavily compelled to participate in the plot.

[@Litl_E]

Your character doesn't want to go on the quest? I'll take that character sheet, you need to write up a new one. This character's now an NPC.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Easy button

[@TheOneMarty]

Is it bad that I now want such a character at my table so I can force the plot upon that character, Rincewind style? 😅

[@nucleargandhi2709]

Characters that want to go out and slay monsters are extremely boring. The best heroes are the unwilling ones. Those who don't *want* to go questing, but by their circumstances find themselves forced to in order to protect themselves or others.

[@spacedinosaur8733]

@@nucleargandhi2709 the key is reluctant hero...not a "oh hell no, I'm going to wash my hair now" character.

[@madhippy3]

I worry about this in the new campaign I recently joined. One player appears to be only motivated to travel, which I suppose is fine, but in a dungeon when things got hairy this PC ran and I don’t know if I want to play with a character who is a coward...

[@knate44]

I'm playing a kobold whose family was killed by a roving band of Adventurerers.

[@luc-zq7ku]

just make sure he live more than 11 days

[@chaosmastermind]

Party: Hey, we're a team of adventurers. We want you to join us on our quest! MC: Sure, what are we doing? Party: Killing kobolds...... oh... right... too soon?

[@kittyplayz1480]

Oh dear

[@ensentry]

My first character was a kobold who got exciled from his tribe for herecy againts Kurtulmak, and instead became a warlock to a trickster god Hes dead now, died to his own kind, rip Krako

[@madeofmeats]

My most recent character was a Kobold sorcerer who only became a sorcerer because a half dead Necromancer stumbled upon her cave, in which she immediately killed and ate him and stole his clothes and belongings. Her name is Woot and she is now a very powerful and evil Lich, she made it babey

[@alyssathefool3051]

I had a character with a good twist on the dead parents backstory! She was an elf, however she was adopted by a human father after she had lost her memory. They grew up together, but as the years past, her father was getting older and older. The elf was still a child when her father died of old age. After he died however, she took his name and set out on an adventure to discover who her elven parents are and to regain her lost memory.

[@FacilityD20]

I like it!

[@TheCnstgrad]

I've found that DM's who abuse the 'hooded enemy that turns out to be a family member' trope is the cause of so many orphaned adventurers.

[@franklindean8593]

Or just kills theme off the first chance they get I had that happened so mine times it got very boring.

[@primeemperor9196]

Tip for the "my family's dead, and I want vengeance" trope: Give them their vengeance early, and have them ask, "Now what?" Kinda like what happened to the Avengers in Endgame after killing Thanos.

[@crimsonwizahd2358]

Inigo Montoya.

[@Ozinarg]

>like thanos Soooo the big bad comes back as a lich?

[@lizanna6390]

Great for roleplay.

[@kayas7574]

My new lvl 5 char already got his vengeance, now he seeks the means to bring his dead fiance back to live ...

[@primeemperor9196]

@@kayas7574 That works too.

[@NoahofWill]

Imagine making a Rogue character who was a rogue simply because she felt that those kinds a skills would always be in demand among adventurers. A Rogue who joined an adventurer's guild as a bright-eyed newbie, wanting to find a group of people she can bond and go on quests with (having a fairytale view of adventuring, admittedly) and ends up partying up for the first time with a *That Guy.* A Paladin who turned out to be emotionally abusive, manipulative, controlling and basically just wanted someone (multiple someone's, in the case of his "party" of sycophants) to control. He wouldn't be all bad - he's very good at Performative Goodness, and the quests he undertakes have genuine good outcomes for the people he helps. He seems to have some Not-Bad qualities that make it easy to see why someone would fall into his sphere of influence. But those little bits of silver linings don't make up for the fact that he's a huge douche. When the Rogue left his party, the Paladin used his shiny reputation and high charisma to turn every party she ever joined afterwards against her in an attempt to coerce her back into his sphere of influence. Is he in love with her? Is he just spiteful? Does he consider this a game and he doesn't want to lose? Is this just a weird form of Well-Intentioned Extremeism that manifests in a disgustingly toxic way? Who knows! All the Rogue knows is that her life's been a living hell since she joined the guild, and this party is her last attempt at living that ol' adventuring dream before she just... quits. Race and Background left intentionally vague. Anyone can steal this. Genders subject to change. Let me know how it goes in your group!

[@Jayman1clone]

Awesome concept!

[@DavidInSomnia]

I was with a rogue player who was from a noble background. Rich parents but he was a trouble maker, stealing and dealing for the adrenaline rush. Hid it from his parents well.

[@baxterbruce9827]

We need to make this little lady a party, I'm working on a Swords Bard that might work for this, be back if and when I finish him

[@baxterbruce9827]

@NoahofWill I have a Bard that wanted to be a Paladin since he was a little kid. He jumped at the chance to become one and wanted to be mentored by a Paladin that had saved his town a few years ago, but soon found that he was a horrible, abusive person that had merely surrounded himself with brownnosers and people blinded by his good deeds to the horrible person he was, he eventually just left without a word and joined the College of Swords. He learned much from the College, but still wanted to fulfill his childhood dream, he decided to study the way Paladins fought and invested all his time in learning their spells. A few years later, he decided to join the guild and decided to join a party as far removed from that Paladin as possible. As with OP, race, gender and background are kept pretty vague, gender also subject to change, anyone can steal if they so choose, but I WOULD like to know how your campaign went if you used it PS. Wanted to include a Paladin that was a terrible person anyway, thank you to NoahofWill for including that in his own

[@philenaphilena2223]

NoahofWill I find that, much like the “Edgy, Loner Rogue” trope, the A-hole Paladin that is seen as a good guy is also a very common trope as well. Sort of like Snape in Harry Potter, except reversing the “A-hole” public persona vs the “Noble” private persona that made Snape such a good character type. The only other Paladin trope I see more than the Heart of Gold Paladin with a Corrupted Heart is the trope of the Callous Paladin that enforces law regardless of circumstance. I find them both to be as boring and uninteresting as the edgy rogue trope.

[@heededshadow509]

I took what I think is an interesting spin on the whole "my family is dead" cliche. Generally what most seem to go with is that they have nothing tying them down, or just use it for a quest of revenge, but I made a wizard necromancer who started out as a farmer, but after a tragedy felled his family, (My baseline is an orc attack, but I've made adjustments for things like a campaign centered around plague), and so my character takes their bodies with him, casting gentle repose to keep them preserved as he scours the land for books on necromancy, hoping to find a way to bring them back.

[@MrMossMan7272]

Wow that’s really cool I love that

[@heededshadow509]

@@MrMossMan7272 Thanks! My original intention with this character was to break the mold around necromancy, and ended up messing with the cliche around a dead family as a result. I feel it's kinda surface-level changes, and not too deep into what could be made, but this character is always interesting in sessions with all sorts of different people. To some he seems selfish, to others dedicated and loyal to a fault. It's made for some interesting campaigns and I'm fairly proud of how he's turned out.

[@the_beemer]

My character had a background in being a healer but he failed to save his parents from an unexpected sickness. Now he has started studying necromancy just for the sole reason that he is scared of the concept of mortality and the fact he could die to something similar like his parents without warning, so he just pursues it to find a way to immortality. So mine is kinda similar in that I also tried to make necromancy less this bad guy, undead army chaotic evil stereotype and instead went for a character that has life magic and necromancy and just tries to keep himself alive, because he saw what happened to his parents

[@heededshadow509]

@@the_beemer Nice! It's always fun to try to break character stereotypes and see what other angles you can have them come from

[@BEEEES]

My character never knew his parents. Their parents were forced to abandon their child when they escaped an island with terrible people. Then my character was raised by a woman who was raised by mer-people. Then his best friend was plotting to brutally murder him in public and he was forced to kill his best and only friend to save himself and was blessed with the voice of a siren when the mer-people who raised his caretaker when they helped him escape the evil island. Now cut to a hyperactive, pyromanic drow forcing him into social situations so he can become more confident and acually get more friends/a boyfriend.

[@KarIsTheStar]

DM: "And what about your parents? Are they still alive?" Me: "Yes." DM: "Oh, wow! Umm okay. Also does your character find the person that released the plague that killed half you village?" Me: "I don't know, we'll see." That is when I knew my DM loved me.

[@buboniccraig896]

I like the idea of having a character with dead parents who's set on getting revenge but doesnt know who did it and later finding out that the death of your parents was unintentional and the person who killed them feels bad about it and couldnt stop them from dying. Like imagine if the killer was another player character. Yoooo.

[@glitchedcrit3848]

Yooooo this is good

[@arempy5836]

That's kinda like Batman and Joe Chill.

[@allisontrouten6891]

Dude. Next time I dm and someone in my group has dead parents I'm so doing that

[@informer2142]

@@allisontrouten6891 Make sure you ask the player character you make the killer first otherwise it's power playing.

[@Steamjax]

You mean sandman in spiderman 3?

[@pondrthis1]

The short version of this video: "Don't be so far up your character's ass that you forget you're at a table with other people, with their own characters and priorities, and you're supposed to be a team with them."

[@jordanfleming7022]

One of my character back stories was an orphan tiefling, his mother was savaged by a devil and he was abandoned in the woods once born. He was found and raised by satyrs, he never suspected he was a tiefling because satyrs and tieflings are relatively similar in appearance; he just thought he was a little weird. Being raised by satyrs led him to develop a love of wine, music, hijinks and pleasure, rather than becoming edgy and brooding. Seeking adventure, he decided to leave the commune to travel as a bard, oblivious to how tieflings were treated, he just figured it was cause satyrs weren’t the most liked of races, being fey and all. It actually took a while for him to find out he wasn’t a satyr, he only really started putting the pieces together when someone called him a devil to his face. Overall, he was a sunny, cheeky (kinda dumb) type of guy with a decently okay past, plus a few dark parts and flaws the DM could pick at to advance the plot; it was cool to role play these confrontations and challenges.

[@davidfoster5199]

A friend in my first campaign played a Tiefling who was heavily watered down because she got recessive genes from both parents. Her parents were both ostensibly 'normal' humans who had a Tiefling daughter with all of the least obvious visual traits of Tielings: no horns, her skin had only a reddish tint beyond her looking Native American, her eyes were green but with slit pupils, her teeth were all sharp, she had six fingers on each hand, and she permanently smelled faintly of sulfur. And her parents were normal humans living in a poor area. Yeah, she didn't get treated well. Throughout the entire campaign, we never found out whether her parents were dead, or just dead to her, but Gentle (born Jennifer) shutting down all inquiries in that direction and telling elaborate lies about her past were illuminating character traits on their own.

[@BEEEES]

My tiefling bard was raised by a woman who was raised by mer-people. He was raised in an environment without much hate or pain because this old blind woman who was teaching him to sing like a siren and he is this cheerful cinnamon bun character who just has social anxiety because of ptsd. No dark, brooding tieflings over here, just social anxiety that manifested into an adorable tall gay baby.

[@BelLancaster]

I had a Yuan-Ti Pureblood foundling that was raised by a forest tribe of Firbolgs. She was ashamed of herself and her appearance, and some of the other kids wouldn't play with her, so she asked the elders how to fit in better. They helped her learn the disguise self spell, and she ended up attracting the notice of an Archfey (who had tracked her down and had ulterior motives for this little Yuan-Ti girl) and becoming a Warlock. She now continually has Mask of Many Faces up to make herself appear like a smallish Firbolg, but she has a bit of a built-in lisp :P She has to excuse herself every once in awhile to recast... I'm still waiting until someone finally uses "Detect Magic".

[@baxterbruce9827]

@Kat Murphy I love all of these

[@CheetosStainedLips]

Also made a tiefling with a good upbringing. He was born to entertain so goes off to do so. Has a lot of people who grew up around him as well. His main goal is to have his songs sang by the masses. Also takes pride in his sexy hair. Did leave home partially for an emo reason (a girl), but ultimately found new passions as the game went a long. But still keeping to his goals of promoting his music everywhere. Got me in trouble with the law a few times. The backstory goes a bit deeper and is more elaborate but that's the gist of it.

[@dropthewalls]

Monty soullessly staring into my eyes, occasionally flashing me a practiced customer service smile, whenever Kelly speaks is an interesting vibe.

[@MjolnirInTheFridge]

My favorite instance of the "my parents are dead" story was for one of the players in the first game I ever DM'd. She actually found and killed the man responsible in our third or fourth session, but that opened up a connection between her family and the larger plot I had planned for the rest of the campaign, and "my parents are dead" turned into "my family has a bloody history going back thousands of years that they kept hidden from me, and now that history is having an impact on the modern world." It was so satisfying every time something new was revealed to her that made perfect sense, and yet changed everything she thought was true.

[@triforce_majora]

My most recent character has the Urchin background. Her parents were killed in front of her when she was a young child by the corrupt empire where magic was outlawed because they resisted arrest for using magic. She wanted this empire dismantled, but she was an orphan on the streets just trying to survive. Dismantling the empire was the goal of the campaign, so this worked well. Especially since her and the two other characters got arrested and sent to a "re-education" program (basically a prison training them to be monkeys for the empire, since they're the only ones allowed to use magic) for getting caught using magic as adults. So dead parents doesn't always mean no hook or the vengeful hook doesn't work. Side note I'll also never give any character with that DM a family because he likes to alter the families differently from how the player writes them as part of the background to fit his narrative and do his own "surprise" twists without discussing it with the players first. It's happened too often to ignore.

[@amberlyveil8856]

"The real revenge for my family was the friends I made along the way"

[@andrewjohnson6716]

🤣

[@z0is0i]

actually valid in some cases too

[@wilgarrett322]

When you guys brought up the great hero prior to level 1 character, I immediately thought of one of my players and friend who was in a campaign I made. He was a warrior of sorts, beloved in his village for doing these noble and great things that maybe a level 10 character would be able to accomplish solo. So, I said, "sure. You can be all of these things. But on your most recent adventure, you bit off way more than you could chew. In an attempt to save the city of so and so from big bad evil guy (the same big bad that that I would have them quest for in the actual story, but whom he would only later recognize by the description of his armor), he was utterly defeated. Curb stomped. He suffered a horrific defeat that left him wounded and incapable of fighting as he normally would. (Bam, his character is now level 1, and the opening scene has him wallowing in the town bar. He over hears a conversation from the party who is on a mission to find out the source of a problem, and a small description of bbeg). He rediscovered his strength later and recovered from his wounds through the help of one of the PCs.

[@travismurtland3257]

This reminds me of Origin characters in DOS2, like Ifan Ben-Mezd, a renowned mercenary/war vet, and Sebille, a world class assassin who specialized in emptying thrones and toppling hierarchies. Now stuck on a boat and barely able to do anything, all because someone snuck up on them. Except it's not done well in DOS2, how the hell are you supposed to drug a skeleton?

[@williamlee7482]

Why not make the bad guy a wight that us also a powerful npc who level drains the character all the way down to level 1 before he could escape . You can also have the wights minions destroy or take his gear so he has to go adventuring again because the wight is also a high level mage that put a curse on him that no spell or ability would work at restore his levels making him start over from level 1

[@SupremeViola]

My favorite of my character's backstories is one of a recent divorcee sorceress. And the divorce was more awkward than acrimonious since the marriage was arranged and she and her spouse simply *did not* get along on a day to day basis. Left me with: 1. A reason to go adventuring (new life, fresh start, etc.) 2. A reason to generally stick with the party (it's not like she was a career adventurer to start; going alone would be dumb) 3. A set of villains for the DM to call on (just because her spouse took the divorce okay didn't mean her former in-laws were; they were looking forward to sorcerer grandbabies!)

[@cait812]

All of my characters parents are alive. I didn't realise that was abnormal. My life cleric sends them letters and parcels everytime she gets the coin.

[@insertname7325]

Yeah that's not nearly as common I've found if only because it makes the idea of being an adventurer in a setting that is as horrific as DnD is, with a tech level that means you won't even get to communicate with family for weeks/months/years, just a little less plausible unless you have some really grand larger than life reason to leave said family terrified that you're going to disappear one day.

[@paigey-poo4235]

In my current campaign one of the characters has parents from the same city our adventures guild is run out of, and their house is kind of our home base! They even take care of my pet hermit crab when I’m out of town, which is impressive considering he’s approximately the size and weight of an english bulldog and before I fixed him up with a Lesser Restoration he would give a deadly disease to anyone who touched him! His name is Spikey and he’s a Very Good Boy.

[@tylerian4648]

@@insertname7325 For this reason I have all my characters come from a clan that values the adventuring lifestyle to the point where it is expected of each one to go out and do something worth writing a grand epic about before returning. They also happen to value jumping through portals head first, that way they can have backstories the DMs don't have to work too hard to merge into the campaign.

[@taserrr]

@@insertname7325 As horrific as DnD? Don't look up warhammer my friend, you'll see DnD as a children's playground :D

[@insertname7325]

@@taserrr Already know that Warhammer and 40K exist, and while they are also horrific, that doesn't detract that DnD is also horrific.

[@reloadpsi]

"My family is dead" I used this to make a character who learned at an early age something I only learned in the last decade: that you don't have to blood to be family. You can be a human whose "father" is a halfling who taught you your craft; your "big sister" can be the one who learned it alongside you; your "mother" can be the goddess you worship. Your character can keep his birth parents alive in his mind through all kinds of means; mine does it by, of all things, casting find steed and having the horse take on a colour scheme inspired by a flower his parents favoured :P He's a very wholesome orphan.

[@LyleAustin]

Most of the time I don't create a backstory, mostly because I can't count on the campaign lasting long enough to make it worthwhile. Often I'll let the campaign create my backstory. For example, I had a wizard with a very low strength attribute. So he was always converting all coins into gems to save weight. The party was ambushed by ninjas and he lost all his gems (worth about 32,000 GP). From that point on his position on ninjas was Fireball first, ask questions later.

[@FacilityD20]

Yeah, it can be hard for a DM to fit in meaningful story arcs for 4+ people... we are over 50 session (over a year now) into our campaign and I only have completed 3 out of 5 arcs for the group I DM with, along with the main story lines.

[@Manotaur1]

I had a character named Chef Bob in Pathfinder that was an alchemist that studied gastronomy and would thematically incorporate food into all of his spells and abilities. He even had a trio of goblin sous chefs that would run his restaurant while he was away.

[@joshuagross3151]

I did something similar. Well, when I say similar, I mean he was a great chef. Granted, he was also a stab-happy noble that regularly added questionable ingredients, but the premise at it's core is still there.

[@dan13jb]

I have used the 'my village was burned to the ground and everyone was killed' backstory once before, but only after our pyromancer made their backstory 'I accidentally burned a village to the ground the night I gained my powers, but have no memory of it'. My objective was to find out who burned down my village, whilst growing to see the pyromancer as a father figure through our travels. Their objective was to regain their memory of that fated night, and atone for it. It worked really well, and ended with them asking me to put them out of their misery (they were dying already) so they could be with their deceased wife once again. This was ultimately my original objective, but conflicted with the character development.

[@TheCrispAlien]

Okay here's a backstory that has and doesn't have everything mentioned. Race: A Male Halfling (This is important because they generally don't want to leave home and adventure) You have a wife and kids. And your family is dead, but nope a traveling necromancer revived your ENTIRE family (ancestors included) and they're now pretty much immortal, with each member having a long history. Being a ginormous family of Halflings they use up the village's supply of the Halfling's leaf (weed). You drew the short straw and reluctantly have to go out of the village to buy an obscene amount of smokes. In order to get the money to buy the amount of weed you need to get A LOT of gold, like a couple dragons hoard's worth. This character never gets to the point where he likes to go on adventures, it's just a boring "means to an end" to him. So they're like the lone wolf/black sheep of the party. And after each violent encounter he gets PTSD and smokes the current supply of the Halfling's leaf to cope. This leads him to become the social life of the party which further depletes the leaf supply. This is a vicious cycle that leads you to never return to the village. Also this character's interests are really boring. He'll only talk about the mundane aspects of farming tools and how much he wants to return to his hoes. And if you do manage to return successfully, you learn that they figured out that it's just faster and cheaper to grow their own stash. Making your quest meaningless and scarring. TL;dr you're a father who went out to buy cigarettes and doesn't return home... Maybe. You can steal this backstory.

[@ethanadams8109]

Truly perfect.

[@WardNightstone]

that's REALLY good

[@someonewhocommentsonyoutub3779]

The way you described the weed aspect being the character's motivation is actually really interesting

[@joelroush5909]

You know, since you mentioned it, I just realized that I’ve never played at a table with someone whose character is married or has children. I have a rule at my table about “no dead parents”, but I would totally waive that rule in favor of the character having a spouse and kids.

[@danielessex2162]

@@joelroush5909 why no dead parents? Isn't it highly plausible with in such a fictional world to have people who died because a town got sieged, a gang of cut throats, evil wizards and such? Hell look at what happened in most Neverwinter stories.

[@crimfan]

Boiling it down: Characters like Batman may make for good fiction but don't typically make good PCs. One other I'd definitely add: If the rest of the characters would reasonably think "Why are we with this chucklehead, let's just frag him" chances are very good it's a bad PC for that game.

[@davidfoster5199]

IF you've got a character who's REALLY like Batman, then the others are with him because 1) his Noble background means he's the one paying for any debts the rest of the party rack up, and 2) he's the pessimist who keeps everyone alive because he made his Investigation Check to see that their employer is actually a Fiend in disguise. Then the other characters get to argue about whether it's WORTH keeping him around to them or not, and the few times he does show emotion either get everyone picking at his soft spots or, worse, making fun of him. Also, are we talking Batman pre- or post- Jason dying? Because (except in Reboot) Batman pre-Jason is usually actually semi-sociable if nothing important in Gotham is going on. It's just that most of his major friendships -- Superman, Dick, etc. -- were formed before Jason died, so they stay with him in hopes of bringing back the man he used to be. ...Lastly, if you have a player who can't reliably make it to every game night, (like Ashley in Critical Role,) then a post-ADITF Batman-like character is the perfect explanation. When the player can't make it that session, it means the character has either gone off Lone Wolf again deliberately, or got shoved out of the party when the others were sick of them. If the player is arriving to a session after they missed the last session and it ended in the middle of something, it means the character tracked down the rest of the party after realizing something was up and can show up unexpectedly. So you're not wrong, but the problem tends to be playing the character archetype shallowly rather than exploring why said character is a Lone Wolf and whether the party members do or don't agree that keeping him around is worth it. It's an excellent opportunity for role playing if done well, but you're right that is is REALLY easy to mess up badly.

[@Chaosmancer7]

I once did a non-DnD game with a friend and a brand new GM who was also our buddy. I was playing a jack-of-all-Trades who was heading home to his wife after years working for a company in space and earning the licenses and tools I would need to make a life for us (we were told the adventure was very much a "you are on a ship that crashes and you have to solve the problems of that" so a guy who doesn't want to be there was pretty good and I figured his good nature would keep him adventuring til the end) My friend was playing "de best bounty hunter evar" and nearly broke the system to get the highest skill with guns possible. He was violent with a hair-trigger and no subtlety. I remember saying at one point, either to the GM or to one of the NPCs "He's essentially a rabid dog I'm trying to point away from me and at something worth breaking" it was terrible. On a flip of that game though, he was... really dumb about certain things. We were assaulted by a group of pirates while we were in a supposedly "fastest ship ever made" and that led to a problem. See, they couldn't have caught us, and we were heading to a secret military base, so there was every chance our benefactor had betrayed us. My friend decided to scare a captured space pirate by opening the outer hatch and closing it again, saving him from being pulled out into space at the last minute. Instructions he gave the computer... by voice command.... in front of the pirate. So, of course, the pirate felt no fear, because he literally heard the instructions meant to save his life. But, we still needed to know, so my mild-mannered man who only wants to get home to his wife took charge. -graphic details follows- He sat the guy in a chair, with a specially designed gag to prevent the cyanide pouches in the pirates cheeks (don't ask) from being used. He then explained, very calmly, that we did not care about any of their political drama, in fact all my character cared about was knowing who hired them and how they attacked our ship, That information was necessary to ensure that he got home to his fiance. If he did not tell me, then I was going to skin his foot, from the ankle down. And then ask again. And if he didn't tell me a second time, I'd skin his other foot. And ask again. Until he reached a point where he told us. He refused, I started skinning, he starts begging for me to stop. I finish skinning his foot. Then I ask the questions again. The GM later asked me what I was thinking, and I told him. I had to prove after my companion messed up by being a bad liar, that I meant what I said. If I said I was going to do something, then I was going to do it. Love can make you do monstrous things.

[@CrazyGoGoVrose]

Every character a friend of mine makes, their pc attacked the rest of the party recently with little prompting.

[@ReapTheWhirlwind]

I had the pleasure of playing in a party with a Dwarven Battlerager who was convinced that he was stealthy, brooding, and the world's greatest detective. He was actually just an idiot with an axe but we did enjoy sending him ahead to scout. Meatbag was better than Batman because he was the hero we wanted and needed.

[@hyperbolicparaboloid154]

We once started a campaign where all of us play as heirs to rich nobles (except for a one runaway slave and a tavern owner) attending a royal banquet. Man, was that chaotic... The ridiculously exaggerated accents, the plot twists, assassination of the king involving our families, war between kingdoms, totally unnecessary humiliation to our half-elf slave rogue, and the unexpected growth of our bard's tavern business which weirdly enough, eventually became a theater and became the most successful source of income in the entire nation.

[@commanderbastard1993]

"My parents are dead!" Meh, done way too much. "My pet squirrel is dead!" That is more like it.

[@CidGuerreiro1234]

The journey of Sir John Wick.

[@legomaniac213]

@@CidGuerreiro1234 or Doomguy from Doom 2

[@vitrify]

Noooooooo!!!! Not Boo! ... Oh. You said squirrel. ... Carry on.

[@cr1mssy491]

Tragic

[@gmaster3887]

Sound like John Wick that became a druid

[@geoffdewitt6845]

Going into this like, "I'm about to feel attacked, and that's OK."

[@mariaschneider8181]

Same

[@freezeburn9875]

That’s why I’m here haha

[@rofire9]

Instead of my family being dead, I started my campaign with a family member killing me. Reverse trope! XD The DM loved it.

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

Well, that was a short campaign...

[@rofire9]

@@happyslapsgiving5421 Nah, my character was resurrected by a level 20 Gnome Cleric before the campaign even started.

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

@@rofire9 I figured. 😂

[@softbleep2020]

19:30 I AGREE WITH THIS SO MUCH, I was a foolish child making an edgy character who "doesn't want to get attached" back then, but he ended up having a soft spot for a fellow party member and he ended up being a goofy protective mess lmao, he's my favorite character now. After all people who are lonely tend to not want to be alone anymore, right? I mean the lone wolf that got soft is still a cliché, but it's a way more fun cliché in a team game than the edgy loner.

[@ItsCreaidan]

Welcome to the club 😔

[@cameroncowles407]

DM "Whats your characters backstory?" Me: "My parents are dead" DM: "That's kinda cliche" Me: No I mean they actually just died recently IRL *gets up and leaves*

[@FacilityD20]

Haha you got me lol

[@frozencloudzzful]

😢

[@silvercandra4275]

I recently came up with a character, who keeps coming up with new backstories for themself, because their actual backstory is deemed to boring by them. They're the adopted son of a clockmaker and his wife and grew up in a small town, living a very comfortable life. However, this bard feels like that's just boring and thus comes up with new backstories every time someone asks them. They also come up with new names each time they introduced themselves.

[@pikachuvincent9081]

So... The Joker?

[@silvercandra4275]

@@pikachuvincent9081 I don't know. I don't really know anything about Batman or the Joker (I'm assuming that's the Joker you're talking about...).

[@MarioPerez-ng9it]

@@silvercandra4275 In the Dark Knight Trilogy the Joker is a demented and sadistic showman with a flair for destruction. Every time he's given the opportunity for introduction he makes up a new backstory to explain the presence of his scars.

[@silvercandra4275]

@@MarioPerez-ng9it Oh... yeah, my guy is just really wholesome and feels like that's boring.

[@MarioPerez-ng9it]

@@silvercandra4275 Nice, I wish I could do wholesome stuff, but I don't know how to act it/write it. I'm going for a more cynical Tabaxi Artificer on the run from his family, so he'll keep changing his name. It is an exaggeration of a reality I have to live, so it won't suck like most backstories, I hope.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

How about a character having dead parents, but he was adopted by his parent's killer?

[@Nani-yd1hq]

Ohhhhhhhhhhh I like that😏

[@psychic-paranoia8020]

Malinite von Karma.

[@talesofventus4249]

That’s actually the case for my Tielfing celestial warlock he’s parents were cultists killed by a solar who took pity on the young innocent child and started raising him from a far. They are surprisingly wholesome together.

[@tychogoedhart286]

What about a character being the last survivor of his family cause HE KILLED THEM ALL in a fit of insanity induced by his demonic Patron?

[@schwarzerritter5724]

tycho goedhart Not too uncommon. Itachi Uchia and Herakles killed their own families, although not because of a demonic patron.

[@notaword1136]

My favorite thing that’s happened with a “bad motivator” character was that he literally got tied up and dragged along by the rest of the party.

[@joshuasorey6031]

Fun twist on the "my parents are dead" cliche: "just 1 of my parents are dead...and the other one hates me"

[@2ndbrain909]

Another fun twist on that idea is that the character never grew up with their birth family because they were kidnapped(or something) at a very young age and for a majority of their life they think their kidnappers are their birth family. And what starts their adventure is some damning evidence that makes the character declare the kidnappers dead too them(the people that raised them) then the character goes on an adventure to discover their birth family with what little knowledge they have about them, and make up for lost time.

[@hmcloud8487]

OR "One of them is dead, the other is in life suppport,I need money fast NOW to pay the greedy clerics"

[@luciver3222]

@@hmcloud8487how about "one of them WAS dead, now I need money to pay the necromancer"

[@ShinGallon]

My current twist is "they're dead but my character doesn't know that and he's currently working for the people that killed them, but his parents were kinda evil so it's gonna be real awkward when he finds out".

[@alienplatypus7712]

Similar to my take which is "My parents aren't dead, but they both hate me. They're not bad people, I'm just that annoying to and useless"

[@knate44]

My favourite "traveling PC" (she shows up to random games when someone needs a substitute player for a few weeks), is a paladin mom who adventures to support her family financially and wants to adopt all the Orphan Players. Especially the emo halfling rogues.

[@MAKRA567]

19:00 Yeah, thats the lone wolf secret. I've learned that when you start with the loner "we're not friends" vibe, it takes *so little affection* from that character to make the rest of the party cheer together around the table with goofy smiles. Slowly growing from a character that looks like they don't care at all to a character that sometimes shows that they care a little bit makes everyone fall in love with them.

[@kittyplayz1480]

Geralt of Rivia

[@princeboo3188]

I played a goblin who was separated from her family when she was young, so long that she doesn't know who her real parents were. She was adopted by an elvan traveling potion maker and learned alchemy under him. He became her father figure despite the race difference, showing that family is not by blood, but by bond and love. My DM didn't explore the missing parents part, but I think it was for the better

[@shippey2489]

"Your character motive could be getting revenge on those who killed your parents." Kortakk, my dark elf rogue whose parents died from a plague when he was a child: Uh... They already found a cure.

[@Nani-yd1hq]

What if you killed your own parent and then your other parent physically and mentally abused you for the next 9 years until you snap and kill another kid run away and become a druid?

[@Nani-yd1hq]

I say killed your parent as in they died in childbirth so you're technically the one that killed them

[@shippey2489]

@@Nani-yd1hq He still had, like, 10 siblings, so he's cool with that. Like, he wasn't really attached to them since he was (the dark elf years equivalent of) six years old when they died, and had to take care of two younger siblings.

[@Nani-yd1hq]

@@shippey2489 oh cool 😄mine's an only child

[@shippey2489]

@@Nani-yd1hq Mine got disowned by his entire kingdom (except for one of his younger brothers) because he was gay for a high elf (Who got murdered a few years after they got married)

[@Faelocke]

I'm playing a warforged soldier who remained inactive for 20 years after being injured in a long and bloody war until the party wakes him up. Now the war is over, so he's learning how to adapt to this new era and searching for a new purpose.

[@8BitDuck237]

So almost bastion from overwatch

[@GibsonYouTube]

@@8BitDuck237 more like Captain America

[@8BitDuck237]

@@GibsonKZbin true

[@emofascist]

Or shale from dragon age

[@greenstarlover1]

Plot twist: he was originally a level crazy powerful 20th level fighter, and was an insane trump card in the war. But during the time he spent inactive he lost one level for each year.

[@donovancarlson9256]

The moral of literally every single Dungeon Dudes player guide on making characters... Talk with your DM. as a dm I am suggesting these videos to my players every time we start a new campaign

[@impofstpete727]

The last campaign I ever participated in was nearly 10 years ago. We had the following backstories: Human bard Ren- Had just received journeyman status from the Bard's College and wanted to have the kind of epic adventure that he could write an epic song about. Goliath barbarian Ecksagal Stonebreaker- Came from a village that enjoyed centuries of prosperity partially due to an alliance with halflings. He had worried that after an incursion with bandits that peace had made them soft and vulnerable. He left his wife and baby daughter to seek out the wealth, experience, and notoriety necessary to make sure his village would never become victims. Half-elf wizard Margus- After learning his first spell he was filled with a hunger to know more but also with the wisdom to know that such power had consequences. He was deeply concerned with preserving "the balance." As a result he was true neutral. Halfling cleric Jardin- His entire village was wiped out by a, at the time of him joining, unknown force. He was narrowly saved by paladins who had seen the smoke plumes. He was brought back to the temple and raised by the High Abbot. He had read every book in their library by the time of his joining the party and the High Abbot wanted him to join the party so he could see the ills and good of the world and decide what the best way to help people was. Tiefling rogue Chara- Initially her past and motivation was not known. Rogues am I right? Except she was in fact Princess Chara Falligrin of the the Sapphire Throne. She was next in line for the throne when her mother decided to step down, it was a matriarchal monarchy. She had slipped away because she needed to see the land she was destined to rule. She left a note for her mother and father before leaving the city in the night. She needed to be the one to decide when or if she would finally become queen. And we were all level 1 from the start. Except Jardin who joined later and was given level 3 status.

[@greenstarlover1]

A princess gone rogue (literally!). I love it!

[@TheAurgelmir]

My main rule for characters is: "Must want to go on an adventure, and be willing to be part of a team"

[@FacilityD20]

100% its a team game after all.

[@shenronsgoldfish]

So I once played an archmage of a wizard school of legend, starting at level 1. The catch was the school was actually a tax evasion effort by a far away Lord and my "master of all arcane arts!" Was in fact worse than most apprentices. Was a lot of fun

[@randolphtiangco6239]

Backstories I've used: On the run because my alterego killed everyone in my class in an experiment that went horribly wrong. A minor prince ritually exiled by his people for being to old and going senile. Now only looking for a glorious death A barbarian only looking to take care of his totem magical beast. Unfortunately, his magical totem is crazy wild A child is delivered by undead shades to a monastery, he grows up realizing that life in the monastery is not for him A crusader from the real world boards the last ship after the fall of crusader kingdoms of the levant. His ship flounders in a strong storm and he wakes up in a strange and magical land

[@euansmith3699]

"My parents are dead... but there's no evidence to connect me to their gruesome murders. The same applies to my siblings, relations, friends, mentors, acquaintances and random bystanders."

[@ODDnanref]

Is this chaotic evil or lawful evil? Or just evil?

[@baxterbruce9827]

I get a Lawful feel, they emphasized a lack of evidence

[@canadiangopnik7007]

Since it seems everyone is posting their characters backstories, I’ll post mine; I made a Paladin who was a half elf born to a concubine of a noble human family, but due to that, her siblings constantly picked on her, and she didn’t get much attention, so she spent most of her childhood sneaking off to the nearby forest to search for adventure, one day she found an amulet and brought it home, turns out it belonged to Titania, and with it, she could speak with her at will, so she grew up with the Queen of Light as her best friend, who eventually taught her about nature and magic, of course Titania only started to teach her and watch her to relieve her own boredom, but for the girl, it meant so much to her that she finally had a friend, that she decided to devote her life to Titania by becoming a Paladin in her name to uphold and spread her ideals, and while Titania came to appreciate her devotion and her friendship, she has forbidden herself from directly interfering with her life, even if doing so would save her life. And her flaw is that she’s so focused on proving herself and making Titania proud, that she sometimes doesn’t ask for help, or even actively discourages it, even if she really needs it (Titania is the fey deity of friendship and magic, so I feel like it’s not too out of character or odd, and I felt this was a good way to make a stereotypically righteous character without it being too... I don’t know how to say it, obnoxious?)

[@sgt.squeegee1720]

Awesome backstory, is your Paladin going Oath of the Ancients?

[@canadiangopnik7007]

@@sgt.squeegee1720 that's the plan

[@maddnesshero3813]

Awesome background!

[@duckwithachainsaw2459]

My current character left home as a kid because she was bored, lost her leg as a teen (because she got blackout drunk and lost a bet) and consistently changes her backstory every time she’s asked to make herself seem cooler. oh and she’s a bard named Stori T’ubeatould-

[@cyberneticsquid-godofmassd3759]

*nice*

[@andrewjohnson6716]

My grandfather had a scar on his forearm and every time I asked him how he got it, he would tell a different story. No matter what he said my grandmother would just say “liar” and nothing else. I never found out he actually got it and I like it that way.

[@genericwd6290]

For the "My parents are dead" cliche that was one of the first thing i tried to make sure i didnt do when making my character its generally easier to just say "my parents are dead feel bad for me" which is why i kinda did the opposite my character is motivated to just pay off a incredible debt that his parents have stacked up. i like the debt thing because it gives me a better reason for why i became an adventurer.