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!
@westerncivilization4 жыл бұрын
Was hoping you would start singing Phil Collins, but I rolled a 2.
@twilightgardenspresentatio63844 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the heads up
@Ashtonyss4 жыл бұрын
Monty just has the voice of a God. No glitch there.
@edvingjervaldsaeter36594 жыл бұрын
Robot voice module: Engaged.
@Rodistair4 жыл бұрын
Monty voice glitch is my tragic backstory. Now I'm on a quest to find out what haopened
@questionalatbest18274 жыл бұрын
"my parents are dead" my 80 year old barbarian: well obviously
@brennag79624 жыл бұрын
Hey! I've got a 81 year old fey-pact human warlock (Louise).
@questionalatbest18274 жыл бұрын
@@brennag7962 elderly characters are the greatest. Especially charismatic ones
@kmacgregor63614 жыл бұрын
Cohen the Barbarian??
@billcipher8264 жыл бұрын
@@questionalatbest1827 yeah nice grandma is the beat
@ParadoxChiaki4 жыл бұрын
@@kmacgregor6361 The first hero stole fire from the gods. It's only fitting that the last hero return it.
@JonnyLOV4 жыл бұрын
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.
@madhippy34 жыл бұрын
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.
@prootybaby51914 жыл бұрын
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.
@vansradjmadho83654 жыл бұрын
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.
@Jafroboy4 жыл бұрын
Is that Cellar of death?
@naheemquattlebaum22674 жыл бұрын
That's freaking cool
@brandonk89483 жыл бұрын
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..."
@TheEternalLightning3 жыл бұрын
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-uc7zl3 жыл бұрын
Time stop?
@brandonk89483 жыл бұрын
@@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? ;)
"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-hq4td2 жыл бұрын
If this was fallout luck would be 1 (also 69 likes (nice))
@windmage01682 жыл бұрын
Does BBEG stand for Big Bad Evil Guy?
@stevenkerns75542 жыл бұрын
@@windmage0168 Yes
@skell61342 жыл бұрын
@@windmage0168 Yes indeed,you guessed right in first try sir
@windmage01682 жыл бұрын
@@skell6134 woohoo i am smort
@stanleylee53584 жыл бұрын
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.
@jacoblynn63944 жыл бұрын
Dude seriously. People really trying to be legends before they get out of "I got mortally wounded by a swarm of rats" tier
@goliathcleric4 жыл бұрын
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?
@DungeonDudes4 жыл бұрын
You jest, but I once had a player character with a backstory which basically amounted to what you wrote here.
@Hyperactiveinsanity4 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@stanleylee53584 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@stanbartsch19844 жыл бұрын
"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
@BJGvideos4 жыл бұрын
I guess the moral of the story is that piracy is always an option.
@-Natalie--4 жыл бұрын
Let's be honest, Princess Bride is one big DnD game
@Fektthis4 жыл бұрын
Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.
@claytonsilverfox26024 жыл бұрын
@@Fektthis stole my thunder 😆
@vernonhampton58634 жыл бұрын
I just gave you your 1000 thumbs up. You're welcome. Also, the Princess Bride was awesome and can fuel anyone's imagination.
@feeshofyeet50114 жыл бұрын
“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*
@Dafuqinator74 жыл бұрын
Should have gathered for Whiskey and Cigars that night instead.
@mateo01234 жыл бұрын
to be fair that must have been a hell of a dream
@W1ntermut3_4 жыл бұрын
@@Dafuqinator7 Indeed, I believe so.
@tylermckinney20414 жыл бұрын
Bed time stories you told your child, your child that went missing one day.
@kittyplayz14804 жыл бұрын
Ah yes, the pathological liar character flaw
@Ajehy2 жыл бұрын
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.
@Ajehy2 жыл бұрын
And yes, the Obi Wan Kenobi is strong in this one.
@sgt.squeegee17202 жыл бұрын
That's awesome. May his oath be restored and his atonement true.
@thatsmuggamer2 жыл бұрын
That sounds BADASS
@braedenrichardson30772 жыл бұрын
Yo this is dope
@torgranael2 жыл бұрын
I love that.
@joshprice48554 жыл бұрын
"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
@BelLancaster4 жыл бұрын
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).
@madmalkavian38574 жыл бұрын
Bruh, that's kinda brilliant. Just a low level character hyping themselves up to get jobs.
@Pirateking5364 жыл бұрын
The Sniper King returns...
@veronicasardo764 жыл бұрын
Omg that would be such a cool character, like a dude whos like famous, i slayed houndreads of dragons and is full of it
@Typoopie4 жыл бұрын
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.
@rocksnrolls4 жыл бұрын
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.
@sapateirovalentin3483 жыл бұрын
O H
@eman21983 жыл бұрын
and oop
@Szadek233 жыл бұрын
at level 1.
@rocksnrolls3 жыл бұрын
@@Szadek23 oh, obviously
@musakamara41573 жыл бұрын
I think you buried the lead there
@dannya.26164 жыл бұрын
One of my players is an orphan (alcoholism and cancer) and his character's backstory has a big happy family...
@kittyplayz14804 жыл бұрын
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.26164 жыл бұрын
@@kittyplayz1480 Nat 20 to your feels. I was super nervous to DM as his family NPCs the 1st time.
@klusternider65404 жыл бұрын
>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
@thehalfa954 жыл бұрын
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
@oscarbrazil99224 жыл бұрын
Guess they want something, they dont have.
@buddyimboden84443 жыл бұрын
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.morphous662 жыл бұрын
That reminds me of Will Treaty in the Ranger’s Apprentice
@buckarooben76352 жыл бұрын
Reminds me of “Water Boy”
@Brook_552 жыл бұрын
@@a.morphous66 FINALLY. SOMEONE SAYS WILL TREATY!
@Brook_552 жыл бұрын
It's been years of not finding anyone that knows what that is TwT i finally found one
@kidwhat66642 жыл бұрын
@@a.morphous66 damn you're right
@maqusan224 жыл бұрын
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.
@FFgamesftw3 жыл бұрын
If you are doing an evil campaign, your parents are dead and you were the one that killed them
@artemisfowldragon3 жыл бұрын
Or “I killed one of my parents by accident and now my family uses my banishment as an excuse to hate me”
@theoscout92053 жыл бұрын
"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.
@heretic33343 жыл бұрын
Ooooooh, you know what, I might just do this. :D
@Littlecrowfriend3 жыл бұрын
My cleric. “I ran away from home because my father is a dick, he might as well be dead because fuck him,”
@squared2313 жыл бұрын
"I was initially a turtle who drank radioactive waste and turned into a monk turtle who knows martial arts." Wait, that sounds familiar.
@TimeLord6753 жыл бұрын
An uplifted turtle monk? Run it.
@squared2313 жыл бұрын
@@TimeLord675 One tiny problem. I have no friends.
@willjudge35343 жыл бұрын
COWABUNGA DUDES!
@aprinnyonbreak12903 жыл бұрын
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.
@skeletor40623 жыл бұрын
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 That is actually the very first character I ran with 5e's new setting. Except I traded the wings for earthglide.
@Wildbarley4 жыл бұрын
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?!
@matttale79183 жыл бұрын
Imagine thinking having a light hearted backstory is bad. Also their reaction 😂
@hokutoulrik73453 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@matttale79183 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@hokutoulrik73453 жыл бұрын
@@matttale7918 this is true.
@luthienmpl3 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@AuspexAO3 жыл бұрын
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.
@hawkthetraveler63442 жыл бұрын
this is good DMing, support the fantasy they want, and help them into the fantasy group they're in :) bravo
@CharlesChaldea2 жыл бұрын
I love this idea.
@whoghostthere96642 жыл бұрын
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 Жыл бұрын
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 Жыл бұрын
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.
@sebas36644 жыл бұрын
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.
@ezramoore78354 жыл бұрын
You monster
@ilovecheez77694 жыл бұрын
Don't say the t-word!
@mystic10294 жыл бұрын
😂now that is a good backstory.
@easy42654 жыл бұрын
so you were wesley snipes
@VeteranDecanus864 жыл бұрын
That’s hilarious and awesome! Taxation is theft btw.
@WolfmanXD4 жыл бұрын
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.
@Lobsterwithinternet4 жыл бұрын
No, you’ll create a rift in the space-time continuum!! 🕳
@antongrigoryev63814 жыл бұрын
And it will be the best backstory among all players.
@fhuber75074 жыл бұрын
Seems to be the goal of most players lately.
@Neutral_Tired4 жыл бұрын
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.
@Ento20124 жыл бұрын
@@Neutral_Tired sounds like an egomaniac with nothing separating realaity from fantasy.
@Karma-lx8ny3 жыл бұрын
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.28903 жыл бұрын
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
@elieli28933 жыл бұрын
Oh mannnn it would be like a gaggle of siblings adventuring together, that's awesome!!! xD
@happylilhippie333 жыл бұрын
We are just starting one like this, a continuation of an old champion where th ed rescued n freed orphans
@robertchristopher19203 жыл бұрын
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_62 жыл бұрын
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.
@friendlygiant23142 жыл бұрын
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.
@sumsum38732 жыл бұрын
I NEED to hear this story !!!!
@oz_jones2 жыл бұрын
Oh god this is evil. Love it.
@friendlygiant23142 жыл бұрын
@@sumsum3873 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.
@kokichibestboi2 жыл бұрын
@@friendlygiant2314 holy fuck, the *drama*
@SingingSealRiana2 жыл бұрын
not sure if I should be in awe, or horrefied
@cobaltsable18003 жыл бұрын
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
@wistfuloptimist12383 жыл бұрын
"Edna! Get back here, you forgot your medication!!" "To hells with the damn medication, I'm gonna go slay a dragon!"
@cobaltsable18003 жыл бұрын
@@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
@chillypep23 жыл бұрын
Bilbo Baggins in LOTR
@allisontrouten68913 жыл бұрын
We all need that grandma
@maliksteele1433 жыл бұрын
Why does this remind me of don quiote
@spiffy70194 жыл бұрын
My character is just a person who needs to pay off wizard school debt
@MrMViceroy4 жыл бұрын
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.
@MrBromansa4 жыл бұрын
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.
@ididnosuchthing3454 жыл бұрын
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_Law4 жыл бұрын
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.
@pixlbelle80814 жыл бұрын
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.
@tatersalad764 жыл бұрын
"My wife and daughter are dead!" "Okay, well you still have-" "The rest of my family killed them."
@ondry87804 жыл бұрын
And THAT'S a interesting backstory
@ignacioperez54793 жыл бұрын
I took that base for my hexadin.the goddess he works for was venerated by the cultist who killed her loved ones
@attish10003 жыл бұрын
Thanks, i am stealing that for my next PC LOL
@unlimon63823 жыл бұрын
"my sister! Good to see you again! It has been so much ti-" *she pulls out a knife* "le fuck ?"
@ZombieTumors3 жыл бұрын
This was almost my real life backstory
@michaelcreech89573 жыл бұрын
“My family is dead because the dm tricked me into murdering them one by one” -my first d&d character
@avrilfan05212 жыл бұрын
My parents are dead ...killed by the reckless actions of another band of adventurers.
@SingingSealRiana2 жыл бұрын
yeay . . . .that sounds horrible and awesome at the same time
@laserfork78402 жыл бұрын
…Hercules?
@spankyavalon2 жыл бұрын
@@laserfork7840 Kratos
@toolatetothestory2 жыл бұрын
Oedipus
@saintpoli68004 жыл бұрын
Best backstory- “I just wanted money... So I left home to get a job”
@linkthedaydreamer34473 жыл бұрын
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."
@HamsterPants5223 жыл бұрын
Nah, the best backstory is choosing to be a homeless adventurer because participating in a society is too depressing.
@xTobsecretx3 жыл бұрын
Hmmm... I was just about to write a Master Baker Tiefling warlock that is in a pact with the eldritch cookeh monster!
@carso15003 жыл бұрын
@@HamsterPants522 so what you are saying is that... We live in a society
@HamsterPants5223 жыл бұрын
@@carso1500 No, society is a spook. lmao
@cooltrainervaultboy-394 жыл бұрын
To quote a DnD tiktok I saw, "You're level 1! Your back story should be about how you got tired of planting turnips!"
@mariaschneider81814 жыл бұрын
😂😂😂😂😂😂
@Watchin4story4 жыл бұрын
I shall use this.
@nathanthom81764 жыл бұрын
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.
@mariaschneider81814 жыл бұрын
@@nathanthom8176 plot twist: the weapon is a hoe
@nathanthom81764 жыл бұрын
@@mariaschneider8181 and you're on a quest to get back your prize turnip before the Harvest festival.
@sipjedekat85254 жыл бұрын
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_4 жыл бұрын
Was he Volo's Guide to Monsters? :-D
@IoanCenturion4 жыл бұрын
Alright, that's clever.
@sipjedekat85254 жыл бұрын
@@arthilas_ in the flesh =)
@GracieLizzy4 жыл бұрын
To be fair he's probably knows Volo. Volo is a mostly useless asshat who knows practically everyone in the Forgotten Realms.
@Yental4 жыл бұрын
@@GracieLizzy my players learned that after completing chapter 1 of dragon heist
@ArceusShaymin3 жыл бұрын
"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."
@greenstarlover12 жыл бұрын
Ancestral barbarian?
@u.v.s.558311 ай бұрын
My parents are dead too. They were shot from a crossbow, right on my seventh birthday. They gifted me a crossbow.
@pixellighthouse6214 жыл бұрын
When your Rogue's mother died of natural causes, leaving him with his awkward dorky gnome step dad
@Athuwu3 жыл бұрын
I love this
@respectfulevil90223 жыл бұрын
Six seasons and a movie
@rodrigonoffs13693 жыл бұрын
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
@TrojanManSCP4 жыл бұрын
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.
@mateofantasma4 жыл бұрын
loved this story!
@PhailRaptor4 жыл бұрын
Organic flaws are the best flaws. No GMOs in my character!
@RenAki54 жыл бұрын
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.
@RenAki54 жыл бұрын
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.
@HiddenOcelot4 жыл бұрын
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.
@gyrrakavian4 жыл бұрын
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."
@baxterbruce98274 жыл бұрын
*writing character backstory based on this*
@gyrrakavian4 жыл бұрын
@@baxterbruce9827 Haunted One or absented-minded Frankenstein?
@baxterbruce98274 жыл бұрын
@@gyrrakavian I was thinking something closer to the second one (I have way too many characters and literally no chances to play them *sigh*)
@gyrrakavian4 жыл бұрын
@@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).
@baxterbruce98274 жыл бұрын
@@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
@jr22hon3 жыл бұрын
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 Жыл бұрын
comment for the algorithm this is very important
@akobrakoral Жыл бұрын
underrated
@stevenpappas02 Жыл бұрын
Goated comment.
@yorhahoudini453110 ай бұрын
Thank god
@Bigryguy95-epic4 жыл бұрын
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-h4 жыл бұрын
Robin hood but cooler?
@Bigryguy95-epic4 жыл бұрын
David Vitale not cool lol. I played him as easily creeped out and very nervous with most, even obviously easy, encounters.
@V-V1875-h4 жыл бұрын
@@Bigryguy95-epic neat
@dragonstryk72804 жыл бұрын
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-h4 жыл бұрын
@@dragonstryk7280 neat backstory man
@KarumaJiusetu3 жыл бұрын
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-qs7ee3 жыл бұрын
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.
@HamsterPants5223 жыл бұрын
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.
@strangeyoungman3 жыл бұрын
@@HamsterPants522 Right. Superman's entire civilization is dead, and he's still pretty cheerful.
@HamsterPants5223 жыл бұрын
@@strangeyoungman Superman is fucking based
@someonefromsomewhere10093 жыл бұрын
@@strangeyoungman But then there’s batman...
@RedT...TheOriginal.NotANumber4 жыл бұрын
"The goal of the Lone Wolf... is to not be a Lone Wolf anymore." That's pretty awesome.
@an8strengthkobold3604 жыл бұрын
or just attact them to a character who does work well with the group (basically make them the introvert adopted by an extrovert friend).
@DiscardatRandom4 жыл бұрын
The chad paladin and a virgin rogue
@WTFproductions05233 жыл бұрын
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.
@Littlecrowfriend3 жыл бұрын
I love this so much.
@tami34563 жыл бұрын
@@WTFproductions0523 facts.
@isaacgraff82883 жыл бұрын
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."
@monikaisdonewiththeinterne20395 ай бұрын
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
@AdamAtYourService4 жыл бұрын
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.
@JNJTabletop4 жыл бұрын
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.
@theredrighthandproductions4 жыл бұрын
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.
@yarnpenguin4 жыл бұрын
@@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).
@DrthVictor4 жыл бұрын
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.
@DaDunge4 жыл бұрын
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.
@garyrobbins94444 жыл бұрын
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.
@d3vitron7794 жыл бұрын
Lmao
@HuchiaZ4 жыл бұрын
Are you sure you aren't playing Loki?
@thatonebabygoat85034 жыл бұрын
@@HuchiaZ I doubt he has 3 children that are all humanoid beasts that have the sole purpose to destroy the world lmao
@FacilityD204 жыл бұрын
Hahah... run... run...
@HuchiaZ4 жыл бұрын
@@thatonebabygoat8503 could be before he meets the wild woman to have said beasty children.
@suicaedere72444 жыл бұрын
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"
@joshuagrahamtheburnedman18143 жыл бұрын
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.
@Kylora21122 жыл бұрын
"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_EX2 жыл бұрын
Yea like stereotypes
@monikaisdonewiththeinterne20395 ай бұрын
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
@lauramcmillan95924 жыл бұрын
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!
@Katio8884 жыл бұрын
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.
@mayas34224 жыл бұрын
that's such a great idea!
@saudade78424 жыл бұрын
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.
@jakobbraun51804 жыл бұрын
Laura McMillan very nice idea!
@xaviercarmona44394 жыл бұрын
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 !
@merkavamkivm33733 жыл бұрын
If you write "superhero" backstories with a level 1 character, you should play with a flaw called *LYING*
@WinterPains3 жыл бұрын
Omg, and the other party members have to figure out what's true, cause not everything they say is a lie.
@merkavamkivm33733 жыл бұрын
@@WinterPains *finger guns*
@silvercandra42753 жыл бұрын
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...
@gorkroymorkins20233 жыл бұрын
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
@silvercandra42753 жыл бұрын
@@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...
@Lennygrodd4 жыл бұрын
"You're character probably isn't going to be a great hero right off the back" Me: takes folk hero background
@davidfoster51994 жыл бұрын
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.
@OhNoTheFace4 жыл бұрын
Oh no, a bunch of backwater villages think you are real neat :O
@dinohansen50744 жыл бұрын
It could be of the "Jaynestown" variety?
@V-V1875-h4 жыл бұрын
Ah yes, the trickster
@vernonhampton58634 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@blizzardthefox2 жыл бұрын
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 Жыл бұрын
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 Жыл бұрын
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
@noeliesmith5159 ай бұрын
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”
@Arkios649 ай бұрын
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'.
@miconis1238 ай бұрын
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.
@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii61494 жыл бұрын
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.
@LHLogs4 жыл бұрын
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.
@arqueiroXD4 жыл бұрын
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.
@roastingghosts13024 жыл бұрын
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.
@hibiscusishere4 жыл бұрын
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.
@beastwarsFTW4 жыл бұрын
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.
@FatalKitsune4 жыл бұрын
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.
@ScottEllerman4 жыл бұрын
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.
@Girlhead4 жыл бұрын
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!
@FatalKitsune4 жыл бұрын
@@Girlhead That's awesome! I'd like to hear them!
@jadas14834 жыл бұрын
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
@TheSuperMegaPlus4 жыл бұрын
...The therapist is their patron.
@thosebloodybadgers84994 жыл бұрын
@@TheSuperMegaPlus the character is a Great Old One warlock
@BoredomBee4 жыл бұрын
Oh my god, that's wholesome as fuck and I'm here for it.
@Technotoadnotafrog3 жыл бұрын
@@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-qs7ee3 жыл бұрын
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"
@singer31883 жыл бұрын
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.
@fireandblood16552 жыл бұрын
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)
@berneemartin88592 жыл бұрын
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? 🧐👿😁
@IrvingIV2 жыл бұрын
2 goblins in a trenchcoat is always fun.
@einkar42192 жыл бұрын
ah another classic cliche 2-3 small creatures in trench coat
@pondrthis14 жыл бұрын
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."
@Karpfenkroete3 жыл бұрын
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.
@amberkat81472 жыл бұрын
I guess the DM agreed with you, lolz. That's just so poetic!
@IrvingIV2 жыл бұрын
@@amberkat8147 Love the pack of wolves touch.
@shanedsouza1892 жыл бұрын
I need to know what kind of stats this dude was rocking. Wis 7, Cha 4?
@MaximumMatador2 жыл бұрын
palpatine_ironic.jpeg
@remarkzero2 жыл бұрын
Brutal. Love it.
@kylethomas91304 жыл бұрын
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.
@jwjusaf4 жыл бұрын
That is almost exactly a character I have been playing for about a year now. He's quite fun!
@steinistein86114 жыл бұрын
But that's quite the cliché, too.... I alone played with 3 players who had this exact backstory
@jackbrian70834 жыл бұрын
@@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 ?
@sagitt0nious4 жыл бұрын
That sounds like James from Pokémon
@tafa_matai31844 жыл бұрын
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
@TheCnstgrad3 жыл бұрын
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.
@franklindean85932 жыл бұрын
Or just kills theme off the first chance they get I had that happened so mine times it got very boring.
@primeemperor91964 жыл бұрын
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.
@crimsonwizahd23584 жыл бұрын
Inigo Montoya.
@Ozinarg4 жыл бұрын
>like thanos Soooo the big bad comes back as a lich?
@lizanna63904 жыл бұрын
Great for roleplay.
@kayas75744 жыл бұрын
My new lvl 5 char already got his vengeance, now he seeks the means to bring his dead fiance back to live ...
@primeemperor91964 жыл бұрын
@@kayas7574 That works too.
@GoblinLord3 жыл бұрын
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
@thetruegavinator3 жыл бұрын
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.
@GoblinLord3 жыл бұрын
@@thetruegavinator I went with an archery build but that is also a valid concept
@willow81862 жыл бұрын
That’s a really good idea, I like it 🙂
@greenstarlover12 жыл бұрын
@@thetruegavinator or reverse - a family of raging barbarians nursing their flimsy spellcaster child because they love him regardless.
@Takisan111 Жыл бұрын
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.
@Litl_E4 жыл бұрын
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.
@twilightgardenspresentatio63844 жыл бұрын
Easy button
@TheOneMarty4 жыл бұрын
Is it bad that I now want such a character at my table so I can force the plot upon that character, Rincewind style? 😅
@nucleargandhi27094 жыл бұрын
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.
@spacedinosaur87334 жыл бұрын
@@nucleargandhi2709 the key is reluctant hero...not a "oh hell no, I'm going to wash my hair now" character.
@madhippy34 жыл бұрын
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...
@elysemccarty14152 жыл бұрын
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.
@alyssathefool30514 жыл бұрын
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.
@FacilityD204 жыл бұрын
I like it!
@dan13jb3 жыл бұрын
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.
@knate444 жыл бұрын
I'm playing a kobold whose family was killed by a roving band of Adventurerers.
@luc-zq7ku4 жыл бұрын
just make sure he live more than 11 days
@chaosmastermind4 жыл бұрын
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?
@kittyplayz14804 жыл бұрын
Oh dear
@ensentry3 жыл бұрын
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
@madeofmeats3 жыл бұрын
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
@KarIsTheStar3 жыл бұрын
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.
@MjolnirInTheFridge3 жыл бұрын
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_majora11 ай бұрын
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.
@buboniccraig8963 жыл бұрын
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.
@glitchedcrit38483 жыл бұрын
Yooooo this is good
@arempy58363 жыл бұрын
That's kinda like Batman and Joe Chill.
@allisontrouten68913 жыл бұрын
Dude. Next time I dm and someone in my group has dead parents I'm so doing that
@informer21423 жыл бұрын
@@allisontrouten6891 Make sure you ask the player character you make the killer first otherwise it's power playing.
@Steamjax3 жыл бұрын
You mean sandman in spiderman 3?
@wilgarrett3224 жыл бұрын
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.
@travismurtland32573 жыл бұрын
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?
@williamlee74823 жыл бұрын
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
@dropthewalls3 жыл бұрын
Monty soullessly staring into my eyes, occasionally flashing me a practiced customer service smile, whenever Kelly speaks is an interesting vibe.
@NoahofWill4 жыл бұрын
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!
@Jayman1clone4 жыл бұрын
Awesome concept!
@DavidInSomnia4 жыл бұрын
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.
@baxterbruce98274 жыл бұрын
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
@baxterbruce98274 жыл бұрын
@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
@philenaphilena22234 жыл бұрын
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.
@heededshadow5094 жыл бұрын
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.
@MrMossMan72724 жыл бұрын
Wow that’s really cool I love that
@heededshadow5094 жыл бұрын
@@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_beemer4 жыл бұрын
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
@heededshadow5094 жыл бұрын
@@the_beemer Nice! It's always fun to try to break character stereotypes and see what other angles you can have them come from
@BEEEES4 жыл бұрын
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.
@TheCrispAlien4 жыл бұрын
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.
@ethanadams81094 жыл бұрын
Truly perfect.
@WardNightstone4 жыл бұрын
that's REALLY good
@someonewhocommentsonyoutub37794 жыл бұрын
The way you described the weed aspect being the character's motivation is actually really interesting
@joelroush59094 жыл бұрын
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.
@danielessex21624 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@SupremeViola2 жыл бұрын
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!)
@amberlyveil88563 жыл бұрын
"The real revenge for my family was the friends I made along the way"
@andrewjohnson67163 жыл бұрын
🤣
@z0is0i2 жыл бұрын
actually valid in some cases too
@cait8123 жыл бұрын
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.
@insertname73253 жыл бұрын
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-poo42353 жыл бұрын
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.
@tylerian46483 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@taserrr2 жыл бұрын
@@insertname7325 As horrific as DnD? Don't look up warhammer my friend, you'll see DnD as a children's playground :D
@insertname73252 жыл бұрын
@@taserrr Already know that Warhammer and 40K exist, and while they are also horrific, that doesn't detract that DnD is also horrific.
@jordanfleming70224 жыл бұрын
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.
@davidfoster51994 жыл бұрын
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.
@BEEEES4 жыл бұрын
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.
@BelLancaster4 жыл бұрын
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".
@baxterbruce98274 жыл бұрын
@Kat Murphy I love all of these
@CheetosStainedLips4 жыл бұрын
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.
@Manotaur1 Жыл бұрын
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.
@joshuagross315110 ай бұрын
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.
@LyleAustin4 жыл бұрын
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.
@FacilityD204 жыл бұрын
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.
@reloadpsi4 жыл бұрын
"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.
@commanderbastard19934 жыл бұрын
"My parents are dead!" Meh, done way too much. "My pet squirrel is dead!" That is more like it.
@CidGuerreiro12344 жыл бұрын
The journey of Sir John Wick.
@legomaniac2134 жыл бұрын
@@CidGuerreiro1234 or Doomguy from Doom 2
@vitrify3 жыл бұрын
Noooooooo!!!! Not Boo! ... Oh. You said squirrel. ... Carry on.
@cr1mssy4913 жыл бұрын
Tragic
@gmaster38873 жыл бұрын
Sound like John Wick that became a druid
@hyperbolicparaboloid1542 жыл бұрын
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.
@geoffdewitt68454 жыл бұрын
Going into this like, "I'm about to feel attacked, and that's OK."
@mariaschneider81814 жыл бұрын
Same
@freezeburn98754 жыл бұрын
That’s why I’m here haha
@cameroncowles4074 жыл бұрын
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*
@FacilityD204 жыл бұрын
Haha you got me lol
@frozencloudzzful3 жыл бұрын
😢
@crimfan4 жыл бұрын
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.
@davidfoster51994 жыл бұрын
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.
@Chaosmancer74 жыл бұрын
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.
@CrazyGoGoVrose4 жыл бұрын
Every character a friend of mine makes, their pc attacked the rest of the party recently with little prompting.
@ReapTheWhirlwind4 жыл бұрын
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.
@notaword11362 жыл бұрын
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.
@schwarzerritter57244 жыл бұрын
How about a character having dead parents, but he was adopted by his parent's killer?
@Nani-yd1hq4 жыл бұрын
Ohhhhhhhhhhh I like that😏
@psychic-paranoia80204 жыл бұрын
Malinite von Karma.
@talesofventus42494 жыл бұрын
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.
@tychogoedhart2864 жыл бұрын
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?
@schwarzerritter57244 жыл бұрын
tycho goedhart Not too uncommon. Itachi Uchia and Herakles killed their own families, although not because of a demonic patron.
@rofire93 жыл бұрын
Instead of my family being dead, I started my campaign with a family member killing me. Reverse trope! XD The DM loved it.
@happyslapsgiving54213 жыл бұрын
Well, that was a short campaign...
@rofire93 жыл бұрын
@@happyslapsgiving5421 Nah, my character was resurrected by a level 20 Gnome Cleric before the campaign even started.
@happyslapsgiving54213 жыл бұрын
@@rofire9 I figured. 😂
@knate444 жыл бұрын
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.
@princeboo31882 жыл бұрын
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
@MAKRA5674 жыл бұрын
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.
@kittyplayz14804 жыл бұрын
Geralt of Rivia
@shippey24894 жыл бұрын
"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-yd1hq4 жыл бұрын
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-yd1hq4 жыл бұрын
I say killed your parent as in they died in childbirth so you're technically the one that killed them
@shippey24894 жыл бұрын
@@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-yd1hq4 жыл бұрын
@@shippey2489 oh cool 😄mine's an only child
@shippey24894 жыл бұрын
@@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)
@joshuasorey60314 жыл бұрын
Fun twist on the "my parents are dead" cliche: "just 1 of my parents are dead...and the other one hates me"
@2ndbrain9094 жыл бұрын
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.
@hmcloud84874 жыл бұрын
OR "One of them is dead, the other is in life suppport,I need money fast NOW to pay the greedy clerics"
@luciver32224 жыл бұрын
@@hmcloud8487how about "one of them WAS dead, now I need money to pay the necromancer"
@ShinGallon4 жыл бұрын
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".
@alienplatypus77124 жыл бұрын
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"
@randolphtiangco62393 жыл бұрын
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
@silvercandra42753 жыл бұрын
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.
@pikachuvincent90812 жыл бұрын
So... The Joker?
@silvercandra42752 жыл бұрын
@@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-ng9it2 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@silvercandra42752 жыл бұрын
@@MarioPerez-ng9it Oh... yeah, my guy is just really wholesome and feels like that's boring.
@MarioPerez-ng9it2 жыл бұрын
@@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.
@TheAurgelmir4 жыл бұрын
My main rule for characters is: "Must want to go on an adventure, and be willing to be part of a team"
@FacilityD204 жыл бұрын
100% its a team game after all.
@Faelocke3 жыл бұрын
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.
@8BitDuck2373 жыл бұрын
So almost bastion from overwatch
@GibsonYouTube3 жыл бұрын
@@8BitDuck237 more like Captain America
@8BitDuck2373 жыл бұрын
@@GibsonKZbin true
@emofascist3 жыл бұрын
Or shale from dragon age
@greenstarlover12 жыл бұрын
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.
@softbleep20202 жыл бұрын
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.
@ItsCreaidan10 ай бұрын
Welcome to the club 😔
@donovancarlson92564 жыл бұрын
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
@euansmith36994 жыл бұрын
"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."
@ODDnanref4 жыл бұрын
Is this chaotic evil or lawful evil? Or just evil?
@baxterbruce98274 жыл бұрын
I get a Lawful feel, they emphasized a lack of evidence
@tidalshores4 жыл бұрын
“Everybody in the world needs money” Lizardfolk: “Are you sure about that?”
@CrownRock14 жыл бұрын
My lizardfolk barb actually started out as a merchant. His tribe had seen other tribes get wiped out by humans, and decided that diplomacy and trade would protect their borders better than war. This transitioned in to him becoming a hero/adventurer for PR reasons.
@tuckernutter4 жыл бұрын
You teach the Lizardfolk about capitalism and them have them emulate it to better understand only for them to come to the conclusion centuries faster than humans that money really does have no value in the end.
@DeathsHood4 жыл бұрын
I have a Firbolg druid (how original, lol) I want to play who requests herbs or healing agents in lieu of gold for completed quests. "You may keep the gold but do you, perchance, have some Olisuba leaf, instead?" I think it'll be pretty neat.
@philenaphilena22234 жыл бұрын
TidalShores “Money” is just another form of Bartering. But instead of trading furs, tusks, and other resources people chose to trade things for little pieces of paper or various coins. “Money” is just a term used to describe a type of bartering good. Even Lizardmen barter and trade.
@tidalshores4 жыл бұрын
@Philena Philena It’s a form of bartering, yes, but not one that Lizardfolk use. And while they do trade, I’m not sure that they would agree it’s _necessary_ to survival.
@impofstpete7273 жыл бұрын
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.
@greenstarlover12 жыл бұрын
A princess gone rogue (literally!). I love it!
@shenronsgoldfish4 жыл бұрын
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
@canadiangopnik70073 жыл бұрын
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.squeegee17202 жыл бұрын
Awesome backstory, is your Paladin going Oath of the Ancients?
@canadiangopnik70072 жыл бұрын
@@sgt.squeegee1720 that's the plan
@maddnesshero38132 жыл бұрын
Awesome background!
@technicallybyrd85912 жыл бұрын
This actually helped me elaborate on my character so much! I was going to just go into the campaign and be like, “i dunno, my whole family is dead” but now I’ve decided that she helps her aunt and mother run a shop in a small town. Her dad died of a natural disease and the best friend was unfortunately mauled by a bear (and she watched as it happened) I’ve had a concept for it for a while and this really helped me develop it further as a new dnd player. Thank you so much!
@technicallybyrd85912 жыл бұрын
The she in this context is my character Rena. Sorry for not adding that :)
@thomasm.8976 Жыл бұрын
has this panned out at all? I'm quite curious I like it