Why D&D Character Backstories Are Pointless

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[@mevensen]

Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool when a backstory is integrated into a campaign/narrative, but the most useful thing a backstory does for me as a player is to establish a foundation for their attitudes, actions, choices, etc. It gives me the WHY of the character.

[@davidmorgan6896]

Absolutely this. The main purpose of the backstory is an aid for role playing. It's like an actor using The Method and developing the character's motivations. The other use is to embed the character into the campaign setting. Which criminal organisations or army units were they in? Do they have contacts? How did they lose that arm? For this to work well the player has to immerse herself in the lore and discuss details with the GM.

[@PkBearMan]

This!

[@stever.8029]

Agreed! I think backstory is WAY overemphasized in current D&D KZbin land. I believe a PC's story should be developed in-campaign, along with all the other PCs. I find it SO contrived and corny when a DM incorporates backstories into a game. If you need to do this in order for your players to follow plot hooks, man, you're playing with the wrong people. I come to the table ready to adventure, not to have to be convinced to play with my own personal narrative. I don't need that, ever. Like you said, a BRIEF backstory is useful for roleplaying, but that's it, in my opinion.

[@davidmorgan6896]

@@stever.8029 If a brief backstory is useful for roleplaying, a detailed story has to be better; surely? I don't care about weaving in personal narratives. I do care about the acting.

[@stever.8029]

@@davidmorgan6896 In my experience, the more detailed the backstory, the less the player is open to respond to what is happening in the moment of the game. Besides, for me, most D&D players are not good actors, so that's not really an important part of my game. Roleplaying doesn't really mean acting (like in a play). If that's a big part of your game, then that's great! To each his own.

[@brucegusler5208]

I love incorporating a players backstory into the main story. We usually have a conversation about what’s going on before characters are made. I give a brief summary and expectation of said campaign.

[@egg_l0rd13]

I love doing that too

[@THEPELADOMASTER]

It doesn't matter if a backstory isn't integrated into the campaign as a personal quest. It's still far from useless. Your backstory is what shaped you to be who you are right now. It's what made you who you are. It's what informs how you act and what your morals are (at least at the beginning). Without a backstory, your character is as in depth as a skyrim character. Just a race and a class acting randomly because there's nothing in their story to inform who they are.

[@Miranda17137]

you don't need a backstory for your character to have a core

[@egg_l0rd13]

@THEPELADOMASTER This!

[@jonhunt1419]

My players have a short backstory- character development happens as you play. I see huge backstories as a restraint that no one ever follows anyway.

[@THEPELADOMASTER]

@@jonhunt1419 it doesn't have to be a huge backstory. One or two paragraphs would be fine. Yes, character development happens as you play, but the backstory is how you got to your initial state.

[@randallsmith6270]

@@THEPELADOMASTER Something under a page long I would classify as a background not really a back story. I understand this is semantics but if you are writing just a few sentences to give a general background for choices and actions that's not a story. A story does imply that the character has already gone through massive events or changes that would in my opinion destroy the whole point to the development in game especially when starting at low levels. If starting at high levels sure go with a bigger story because there is more time to fill in.

[@mentalrebllion1270]

As a player I adjust my level of backstory complexity to the needs and style of my table, meaning I pay really close attention to session zero and vibe check everyone, dm included, for their general plans, priorities, and style. Of course, also check in with the dm on what I should expect from the game we are playing. One of my ones I’m playing in today (as of posting this) is the Tyranny of Dragons module. We chose some hooks from the suggested bonds table with me taking the Talis bond. I wasn’t the only one though as another player also chose it. After some talk together we concluded my character was the childhood friend who had been exchanging letters with Talis right up until they suddenly stopped. Around that time the other pc comes across my character, looking for a lead on Talis. He was hired by her family because she also went missing. We both end up hearing rumors that she was caught by a cult and may be in the starting town of the module and opt to travel together for the long journey there. I won’t say more on the actual module part but suffice to say this is how that pc and I are making our very opposite alignment characters (his is neutral evil, mine is neutral good) work and have an already established sense of trust in each other for combat. It also means we both have a priority to find the same person, alive. Our goals, while differently motived, are not clashing. Weirdly enough the entire party runs the gamut of alignments save chaotic (which is for my drake companion as a drakewarden, a little copper designed one). We all get along however and set up goals and motivations that keep us aligned together, at the very least, professionally. Our backstories come up occasionally but most times, this is our lower priority in the game. They are more flavor and a little more motivation based. Two of the party pcs have their characters motivated by a sense of honor, one focused on repaying a debt, and the other on being hired by yet another pc as a long term bodyguard. I guess you could say the one who shared my Talis connection also goes with a sense of honor but that’s more in completing the contract and less about how they engage with combat. His is a frontliner designed hexblade warlock so he is more leaning towards some deceptive methods there. And we also have our resident rogue who took up the bond of being in the cult before being cast out violently and has a hit list for certain members, which keeps him in the party. He is rather cheerful most times, being one of the more playful ones outside combat, but becomes vicious in battle. Our cleric, a noblewoman and aasimar….she’s a mysterious one. She hired the bodyguard designed pc (our battlemaster fighter) and is actually of an evil alignment. She has an evil patron deity, or deity like figure, who wants her to take down the cult so she remains with us as she is a practical sort and figures we meet her needs to do her job successfully. Our monk is the one with the debt, was a foreigner escaping from political upheaval in his country and had a debt to repay to an early pc monk who had saved him in the past. The same npc asked him to continue to honor his debt by taking on this responsibility of fighting the cult, even offering lessons and an invitation to their own faction, which the monk accepted. As for my character, my character’s priority is the find their friend as I left the motive being that Talis was one of their only childhood friends, had taught her to read, had shared her dream of being an adventurer when they grew up, and who my character feels protective over since the dm and I characterized Talis as an ambitious hot-head at times who often gets in over her head and my more reserved and introverted character has to clean up and after and protect Talis from the consequences. All since childhood, where even my character had to physically protect their friend. My character assumes this cult situation might be the same. So my character’s motive is solely on Talis, finding her, and insuring she is safe. The cult? If they are in my character’s way, well, my character will be their problem if need be, even turn their back to allow the more evil members to do their thing. Despite the good part of my character’s alignment, I left their motivation to be entirely focused on the protective nature they have for their friend. Does this sound a bit like pining? Well…ok maybe. There is a subtle undertone of it but I won’t have my character admit to it until a pc calls it out directly. I plan to play that out of yes, my character is self aware of their feelings but no, they will not act on them nor confess to Talis about them. They are aware that Talis is of noble stock and my own is of peasant status. Favor from Talis’s parents in the past (when my character saved Talis in childhood) isn’t going to change that. That my character can offer their friendship and support for the shared childhood dream the pair had, that is enough for my character and all they intend to act on for life. They believe Talis deserves and needs them as a good friend more than anything. This journey to fight the cult? That is an extension of that. Lol anyway, this is getting too rambling so I’ll stop here. Basically what I want to say is that this campaign I designed my backstory around the module and made it more simple since we would be following the pace of it. It isn’t complex but it’s still deep enough to provide context and motivation for my character that keeps them engaged with the story and party. I have other games where go into pages of backstory (sort of, main backstory is never more than a page, but other details like backstory npcs, etc, will turn that into pages) but that’s because those are designed more freeform, more designed around the player backstories, and this game I mentioned earlier is designed around a module with a straightforward path, which requires me to design something simpler and meant to follow that path the entire way. One is for deeper roleplay and the other is a backstory that is meant only to provide context and motivation. It’s a good idea to always get a feel for that. And with that, I am done. For those who read this, thank you and I hope my rambling was enjoyable.

[@ratatatuff]

Didn't read your comment. It's just, it is longer than any backstory my players ever wrote. If I ever get such a wall of text from my players I'd just nod and say "ok" before I put the paper into the trash. Unread.

[@Ksavputin]

My guy, its takes me two full swipes to reach the end of your message, holy damn. Just write a 100 word max paragraph about a character that's it.

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

I always like to keep my characters' backstories simple, but with enough depth for the DM to work with. Currently, I am playing a 300 year old Lizardfolk Paladin who had been tasked with guarding the tomb of his people's first king. Alone, guarding thus tomb for several centuries, he has gone slightly mad, eating anyone who attempts to steal from the tomb. Now has only started adventuring because a group of bandits managed to successfully steal relics from under his nose. Partially inspired by Fantasy High's Gorgug, he asks every new person he meets if they have seen his missing relics, leading to some hilarious conversations. He refers to the rest of the party and anything not Lizardfolk as "mammals".

[@Adssso101]

I did the research on KZbin - I found a tons of videos on how to implement my player's backstories.

[@sethb3090]

My solution to the fallen torch issue is to have players incorporate potential backups into their backstory. For example, if my artificer Denno dies, the cleric Asran in his village will probably be called upon to carry on the party's mission. She already has a place and a story of her own, and could potentially show up as an NPC as is if they ever go there.

[@chameleonx9253]

My backstory is "I am an [race] [class] [background] and my name is [name]." Add a gimmick and/or an accent, and we're good to go. For example, my most recent character is an Owlin Druid who is a hermit. His name is Ag'Hool, and he's an obvious copy of a previous character who died in the same campaign, named Ga'Hool. I had him only speak in single word phrases that sound like owl noises. Later, I decided to explain this behavior by telling the DM that I'd received a revelation (as per my Hermit background) from the Elven god of wisdom that my last word would be my 1,000th. So I try to speak as little as possible because I think I'm going to die after saying 1,000 words. Another character was an Eladrin Swordmage. I wanted him to have an Irish accent, but in play I kept switching to Scottish by accident, so I eventually said that he was an elf that had been found and raised be an old dwarven couple, and he had left home to prove himself to his clan, who subtly looked down on him for his elvish qualities. One of his greatest aspirations was figuring out how to grow a beard.

[@JasonNCSU2007]

I built a home brew campaign based on character backstories. A well liked element to centering the campaign around the PCs is naming towns and people after the irl player’s names, or pets, or social media names. Essentially layering in personalized flavor to make it feel like the campaign is extra special to them.

[@GameMasterDude230]

This was a great video. The title kind of through me off lol. But I use this quite a bit in my game. It really does get my players interested in an adventures/campaign. And they actually pay attention to what is said by NPCs and pay attention to events in the world etc… again great video Luke 👍

[@respecttheyoshi]

As someone who struggles with creating character ideas, backstories are even more troublesome. I think I've only had one character in mind where their story wasn't kickstarted or shaped by the dm or another player before we started. So more often than not, my methodology is just "make a character that is mechanically interesting/fun to roleplay to me, play a few sessions, and see what they act like, see what details pop up naturally. And then, start figuring out the backstory. For example, our party was in a dungeon and did a thing that briefly affected all our senses of smell. I offhandedly said, "Why do I smell burning flesh?" And another PC asked "Why do you know what that smells like?" So now I've been thinking about potential reasons for knowing that, like a village raid by the setting's Big Bad Military State. I also had some phenomenal die rolls when a new player joined, so maybe my PC lived alongside members of that race, and felt a little boost in energy while working alongside one of them again.

[@Guy_With_A_Laser]

One thing to remember is you don't need to come up with an original backstory from whole cloth every time. You can get great mileage out of just repurposing backstories of characters from your favorite media. "My character has worked in the smuggling trade for years, fairly successfully. Recently, however, he had a large shipment of contraband confiscated by the Kingdom and he's now indebted a huge amount to a powerful mafia boss who has sent bounty hunters after him. He's desperate for cash to try to repay his debts before the hunters catch up. He will take any job, no matter how dangerous, as long as it pays well." Gives your DM everything they need for great conflict, gives your character a good motivation to go on adventures. This is Han Solo, of course, but he'd play well as D&D character.

[@PsychoMachado]

My rule of thumb for backstories is two paragraphs. 1 Explaining where the character comes from and one explaining a reason to go around entering caves and looking for trouble. The first paragraph gives the character general vibe as to how they think and is expected to act, and the second has maybe one or two hooks for the DM to use if he wishes to.

[@blackmagick77]

I had a guy whos backstory involved him running away from home. He left everything very vague and said its ok if i add some stuff. So my other friend made a character that was the dudes caretaker because he was young. When he first showed up his first line was " Ah there you are your highness". Everyone was very surprised and it ended up being a huge plot point

[@GreycatRademenes]

I'm usually the problematic player with backstories, in that I keep them as simple as dirt - example: a Rogue worked as a sailor for hire, one day she got mugged at the docks, giving her a scar and some brain damage, thus she's still fairly smart but her int score is low. It's just that I prefer, with few exceptions, for the character to grow and develop with the campaing, rather than 'pre-order' certain story beats. Is it just me?

[@Neighborhood_Samoan]

A part of it is giving your character a reason to adventure that the DM to work with. It's why talkin to the DM can be helpful if you don't have any ideas. Won't force story beats but can bring interesting events.

[@GreycatRademenes]

@@Neighborhood_Samoan I get it. I usually tie my characters motivation to any plot hooks or given setting info. It's more the part where I often don't have much to give the DM to work with, like significant events or people in their past.

[@drsnugglesfan]

I agree completely. My characters want to leave home behind and go on an adventure, not resolve their twisted pasts.

[@stever.8029]

Agreed! Backstories are overrated, and I think they create an egocentric game. Like you, I think characters should grow and develop shared history with others, DURING a campaign. FWIW, and not that this matters per se, but I've been playing and DMing since the early 1980s. Only recently have I been playing in campaigns where backstories are used in-game, and I dont really like it to be honest. It doesn't feel organic.

[@ratatatuff]

You're not problematic. As a GM I absolutely prefer players who come to the table with a general idea of their character over players who write a meaningless soap opera nobody cares about. A few sentences of backstory are enough.

[@Al-ny8dr]

I've been a DM for over 30 years. I deal with a lot of new players and casuals. There are 2 things in particular that players can have trouble with when creating a character. Number one: Puzzling over the perfect name. Number 2: Backstory. I'm usually very good at helping with names, but I never pressure players to come up with a backstory. Otherwise, 9 time out of 10, they simply just stick with the ever-popular "Lone wolf" thing I've heard several thousand times. They also says their parents were killed. I disallow any of that nonsense, and just make it up on the fly. Perhaps the new group of characters gets attacked by big nasty spiders. One of the characters gets badly hurt by them. Now they have developed a fear of spiders. If this occurs again, that fear gets irrational. Perhaps an encounter occurs where a family member is captured by spiders, and now they have the opportunity to overcome this fear by saving that person. There are tons of things to help create a story for a character. Let's face it. Some players just want to jump in and start playing, and don't currently have an interest in creating much at the moment. A lot of people aren't very good writers. With proper adventures, stories will write themselves. A lot of the best memories come from game play.

[@Maarks91]

I think the best backstory is something similar to: "My name is [player name], and i had to leave my hometown/area of [place name] when a group/band/creature/organization [attacked/tricked/did something] forcing me to leave. I had to leave my [friend/family/other person i care about] behind as i seek out answear/revenge/allies to handle the thing". Its short, sweet and gives you plenty to work with. For example it could look like this: "My name is thorgrim copperhand, and i had to leave my hometown of Ironhold when a group of banditsbegin threatening my families smithing buisness forcing me to leave my femily behind as i seek out allies to handle the thugs".

[@rail7646]

pretty on point , played so many campaigns as a player where my story just got ignored, and everytime it pops up on campaigns I'm super happy, especially when I'm invested in it myself. So as a DM I do exactly that, first I let them write their backstories first and them build the world around it, not the other way around. That way every second encounter can be somewhat backstory driven and makes 1-2 people happy that their work getting recognized and used.

[@robertpanasuk1156]

One of the easiest ways to mitigate the issues of building your campaign around character backstories is to ask your players to incorporate a character in their backstory that could theoretically take their place in the party. An example of this could be that in the paladin's backstory The player adds a cleric that the paladin was very strongly connected to for whatever reason romantic interest, familial relation, something like that and that cleric is invested in having similar issues resolved however if their paladin dies I would personally ask them to build a backstory for the cleric as well and that will potentially alter the course of the campaign.

[@Calebgoblin]

I do think the plot hooks can and even should be vague sometimes, to allow the players to project a little bit of what they want on to it through their characters. They can fill in some of the details if you hook them with a broader framework.

[@strawberrylotlizard]

I used another player's missing sister and her reason for becoming a bounty hunter was to help find her sister to start a false Hydra campaign and the only reason she could still remember her sister while nobody else could was because she took a hag deal on our second session involving an eye so she could see whoever she's hunting long as there on the same plane, so she actually saw the part of her sister soul that was still in the Hydra. Also her using the hag's eye and giving one of her eyes to the hag. It allowed me to bring the hike back later because she could see everything the party was doing through the bounty hunter's eyes

[@nathantheholt]

When I ran my first campaign, I didn’t really know what I was doing and improvised a lot, but somehow I stumbled onto the idea of using stuff from my players’ backstories. In doing so, it led to the creation of the campaign’s main antagonist being the villain of one of my player’s backstory. They were genuinely surprised I used that character, but it made sense for that character to take on the role of big bad of the campaign.

[@marcinkrz3140]

I always try to incorporate character backstories into gameplay whatever I'm the player or Dm, my favourite campaign i ever run was a homebrew where the characters had to escape from hell. Each area they went through was "personalized hell" formed around characters history also every pc had a weakness connected o their backstory and the deal they made with devil antagonist, for example a bard who wanted to be famous now suffered heavy debuf if none was looking at him.

[@clarkside4493]

THANK YOU! AUGH! I can't tell you how many times a player comes to my game, lays out their backstory, but has no motivation with it! Their characters don't actually want anything! And they expect me to tailor the adventure to something that's not even there! My most successful campaign was where my brother came to me and said, "I want to build an army and take over this place." And I said, "Okay!"

[@thomaspetrucka9173]

Dude, you give THE BEST D&D advice on this whole website, I swear. Some of the stuff I've already learned or figured out, but I REGULARLY take notes from your videos for any future campaigns. Your perspective is clearly well-informed, and I really appreciate both your depth and consistency. Thank you.

[@morrigankasa570]

I disagree with "Backstories being Worthless"! I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:( But I have created 12 different lvl 1 characters in case I found a group. All of them have backstories & they where all relatively easy to come up with. Also, none of the backstories are "too long".

[@lyudmilapavlichenko7551]

I don't write campaigns. I take my characters back stories and weave them together. Ultimate lazy DM move. make your characters write the campaign for you.

[@vickieden1973]

I always try to involve aspects of my player character's backstories into the game. I won't change the theme of the game (such as if one person brings an edgelord backstory to a game we all agreed would be light-hearted heroic fun), but I will try to sprinkle NPCs and events that relate to the backstory throughout the game. The main difficulties I've encountered with this are A) people forgetting their own backstories, B) people getting grumpy when their backstory and character isn't the main focus of an entire adventure, and C) scented candles and segues are awesome.

[@emils1615]

My campain usually have 3 major arcs. Ans I usually prepare 1 or 2 backstory moment for every player in act 1 and 2 and then resolve their personal quest in act 3. I also try to incorporare part of their backstories in the main plot

[@Darkwintre]

Not in mine, one freaked out when he realised I not only can, but will alter within reason (and will attempt to discuss this if the player is willing). Two of them went with the dead parents and in his case a back story that either results in him playing one of the killers of his character and family or never travels to the city in the first place! In his case his character and parents visited friends in the city and were ambushed narrowly surviving because those friends got there in time. When i introduced his fathers twin brother the reason for the visit and why they were attacked he ran in the opposite direction! Sad but true.

[@Newnodrogbob]

Uh…what?

[@sfrink1425]

Great timing, as we're currently wrapping up a 15-month campaign, a 5E version of the classic Desert of Desolation campaign (LUKE: You and I had a Zoom meeting and I shared it with you; would love to chat with you again sometime!). Getting ready to start an entirely new campaign, new characters, etc. Thanks for this.

[@ColtSTaylor]

My backstory has driven two separate campaigns and is nosing it's way as a big bad in a 3rd. Ya's just gotta write a gooe one, that's all ;)

[@piotrtrzaska3146]

My Players love when i put they stories as part of Campaign, last time one Player dad run (he was elf) and second Player dad try to poison his Mother but run again so i make them brothers but they get to know about this when they meet him as High priest of Bhaal. Or made lost sister of our wizard best killer working for Lord Alliance in whole Sword Coast after she made contract with Shar, team helped her payed her dept with goddess of sorrow and even one Player Fall in love with this NPC and get married after they saved the world. Love my team ❤️

[@brenden6540]

Whenever I go to create a backstory, I forget that I have both the tables from Xanathar's and Luke's template. I really need to use those more 😂

[@silverstrings292]

what i've tended to do is have an overarching plot that always exists in the background. i'll introduce it fairly early on and if they decide to interact with it then great, but the bulk of the adventures revolve around the characters and their backstories. when they hit a dead end with their backstories the "main" plot is still there until a new character hook can be planted. the main plot progresses without them though

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

The best way to get usable material out of backstories is to tell players what you need their backstory to contain and how they are formatted. Don't let your players hand in a short novel. Ask for a very specific one or two pages of bullet points. What does a useful backstory need? 1. The character's inciting incident. One paragraph describing the event that made the PC become an adventurer. 2. The reason why they are still adventuring. What do the fight for? What do they live for? What do they need the money for? Who is hunting them. Answer at least two of those questions, and you'll be fine. 3. A list of 5 NPCs that exist in the world and are either loved ones, friendly to jealous rivals, or hated enemies of the PC. Bonus points if you kept the PC's parents alive and came up with a reason why the PC needs to check in regularly or can never go home again. Either one is great.

[@TheNanoNinja]

I've caused so much emotional damage with my players backstory that they really don't like backstories any more. I had a redemption arc for a connected NPC. Players decisions and dice roles lead to that NPCs death. Good news, they still talk about it.

[@TwilightxKnight13]

No worries, Luke. Alexa seems to be able to discern between a human voice and digital audio. I’ve always wondered why an Alexa commercial doesn’t cause my Alexa to go crazy. The unit is sitting near the computer/tv speakers. I don’t know Alexa’s programming, but as an EE, I know it is easily doable through many methodologies.

[@RuBoo001]

I wonder if my Moon Elf Artificer/Druid character’s backstory is any good… He was a member of a nomadic tribe, and he had a tendency to go off away from the tribe when they set up camp, to work on his artifices (all made of natural materials, rather than processed metals). Unfortunately, one day, his tribe was attacked, and everyone was either dead or missing. Everyone, that is, except for himself. That’s where a lot of his starting gear comes from, salvaged from the remains of the camp. Anyway, he doesn’t set off for revenge, per se; he doesn’t form attachments all that strongly, and even if he did, he wouldn’t stand a chance on his own. He hasn’t even finished his magnum opus, his “Steel” Defender, yet, he’s nowhere _near_ ready to face a bunch of bandits, or orcs, or orc bandits, or whatever it was that attacked the tribe. That said, he doesn’t want anyone else to go through the same thing he did, since they’d probably be far more attached to their family, so if he _can_ do something to prevent it (in between watching out for his own well-being, something he still struggles with)…

[@inuendo6365]

It's pretty good! You could use that with a number of the modules or low level campaigns. I would say to make things a little more personal or give your DM a deeper hook, you can have an object of one of the tribe members your Artificer never found the body for. Give that missing member a name (because DMs are always short on names, please help) just so the orcs aren't the only thing acting as a "touchstone" to the active campaign. Alternatively you could ask one of your fellow players to share an NPC or location somewhere else in your backstory. Just speaking as a DM it's nice to have things that are killable in the backstory -like your orcs- but also something less combative for when the party needs a breather.

[@RuBoo001]

@@inuendo6365 Hmm… Could be that’s the “trophy from an animal you killed” from his Outlander Background. It’s not from an animal _he_ killed, but from an animal killed by one of his now-missing tribemates. If he kills something, he’s probably gonna use as much of it as he can, rather than just eating the meat and discarding everything else… Tan the hide into leather, make the bones into something useful (possibly structural parts for his Steel Defender, or maybe claws)… No time for trophies, those things are _useless._

[@inuendo6365]

@@RuBoo001 yeah that sounds great! When there's downtime you could expand on who originally got the trophy or how/when the animal was killed. Doesn't have to be a huge story but fun details you can sprinkle here and there to other party members. It really bridges the "then" from the "now" well.

[@RuBoo001]

@@inuendo6365 “This is… [INSERT NAME HERE]’s trophy… From their first kill, a(n) [INSERT ANIMAL HERE]… I never liked them… So boastful… But, y’know… They were always proud of this thing… They would never leave it behind… Not if they had a choice… So, if I ever find them… I should probably give it back…”

[@syvajarvi2289]

Since I don’t use prefabricated modules anymore, I can use aspects of a character’s backstory as different hooks in the overall narrative and even if the PC character is KIA, I can still use it as part of the world building process. A point i like to make to PCs is that some backgrounds like folk hero isn’t necessarily something grand but the character may have been a local athletic hero of some kind or might have been at the wrong place at the wrong time and became a hero by default or accident. I try to let the PCs lead the narrative and don’t mind if things go off the rails, I’ve been a DM for a long time and if the main thread I intended doesn’t happen until later I’m good with that, even if the story is taken over by other characters. I ran a campaign that the initial characters ended stuck in side quest hell but the players had back up characters that were part of the backstory plot web that took over after some campaign limbo issues. Eventually some of the characters came out of the side quests and rejoined the main party which ultimately made a better experience for the players. It doesn’t always happen that way but it does work from time to time.

[@user-cu2bh8uh4i]

When I ran games I always insisted my players come up with back stories. It helped make the characters matter more to the players. I also used their back stories in the adventure and often used ways to make them part of the plot this also made the game more fun. Good video

[@Rubymagicalgirl88]

Some great principles so far, I'm running into problems with two players or rather two players back stories are very easy to draw on, so I need to work a little harder.

[@40yearoldninja61]

I DM for six players, I've gotten backstories from two of them. Both got to fulfill elements of their arcs recently, loving it, and received feats as a boon. The others get nothing......

[@Calebgoblin]

That Professor Dungeon Master conclusion was slick 😎

[@CrashCraftLabs]

the player has to also use their backstories, the prime example would be telling tales around the camp fire, if the dm isnt using mine i tend to mention the events i have listed to the characters in game, its like premade filler for camping. i make at least 2 events for the stages of life (Youth/adult and so on), i treat it like a book report in school lol

[@benjin3993]

I always start with a basic and vague back story. I think it irritates the dm a bit my pc is bland with background, but it also lets me build history as we play along. As i figure out my character andnhow they play, i also figure out back story stuff. I do establish a few things with other players and with the dm, but it also gives the dm a chance to incorporate a random important npc that now has ties to the group for story reasons.

[@egg_l0rd13]

I honestly think it depends entirely on what each player/table gets out of D&D. I sincerely don’t believe there’s any one ultimate, perfect way to do character backstories because different types of games call for different levels of backstory depth. If you and your friends just want to have a simple adventure that develops organically as you go on, then little to no backstory is needed. If you and your friends want to have a complex, cinematic experience with overarching character arcs, then more backstory could be a favorable option. People play D&D in different ways for different reasons, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

[@DazzleCamo]

I like incorporating a lot. It makes for a richer world and the players can enjoy unpacking each other's characters a bit

[@A-rogous-1]

When someone from their past shows up unexpectedly, it can make for unlimited story's.

[@JuanSanchez-tr5zi]

Hey, excuse me. Do you know how I can run a dnd adventure for a group of 2 or 1, but still being able to tackle adventures ment for a party? Is there like rules for that?

[@donalddouds6033]

Those type of situations are usually social/RP heavy as s single player against even two or three adversaries is dangerous as all hell.

[@vincejester7558]

I like to use the game to create the character's story. Levels one thru for are basically the character back story.

[@vortega472]

This is just good advice. And - well the candle commercial, unexpected but very welcomed.

[@chaosblade5906]

"Alexa, order backstory."

[@ccarter1988]

It is Alexa, not Alexis...but it mine STILL tried to order pizza darnit lol

[@KaineVillante]

I feel clickbaited Luke goddammit you hahaha

[@guloopy]

literally was looking for a video like this yesterday

[@bretlynn]

Really enjoying your content. I'm a DnD ghetto vet going way back, I feel like we have very similar experiences and opinions when it comes to running games and playing in them. Do you have any content on the impact of video games on role playing culture? Like do you think that games like WoW have had a positive or negative impact on the way people think about RPGs?

[@Thenarratorofsecrets]

man i one time tried to make my character a member of one of the founding companies of a colonial enterprise. the space travel nature meant that there was hundreds of years since we left earth before i arrived which meant that the company that i was a part of wouldn't remember/care about me. i just thought it'd be an interesting little hook for me to see what my company was up to after 400 years. My DM was pissed. thought i was trying to power game somehow.

[@aimanbenkhadra644]

The “btw, I love candles” was so left field 😂

[@Darkwintre]

The DM I played with took a back story reduced to just answering a call for aid from her son and killed off said son and refused to allow her to recover his remains and afterwards claimed his introductory game wasn't important. Sadly if it wasn't inmportant why involve a character's back story in it? I ran the next game and in 15 minutes corrected his mistake so that character's full back story revealing she had been banished from another world and now having recovered that part of her memory is seeking a way home to her surviving family. Mine was pretty much a one shot that evolved into a campaign until he got bored and decided to coopt the same setting I was using as he couldn't even run one shot games let alone the campaign he was supposed to be running! Sorry sore spot, he genuinely was unable to adapt or run his game properly.

[@DJLenox]

What should i do if i got 2 fully fleshed out Backstories with many details to work with and two other players, even after asking for several times, only gave me really really short backstories. (One is literally: "I was born in a small town near the capital city".). If I use the 2 backstories to work something out for those players it would be awesome, but two other players will be left out. On the other hand, isn't it their fault anyway if they just didn sent me anything to work with?

[@jasonreed7522]

You reap what you sow, at best you give them a simple assigned secret backstory. But keep your effort inline with what you put into everyone else's secret backstory. Also you can only resolve problems by actually talking to your players, tell them that if they want their backstory be used that they need to actually write one that motivates their character to adventure, and that has plothooks and gaps fro the DM to expand upon. (Happy well adjusted people don't go on adventures.) Maybe the person who said "i was born in a small town near the capital" doesn't want an arc where their character is kinda the main character as the party helps them solve their problems. (When you are helping 1 character find their mom, you expect them to be font and center. But once you start working on the next player who's debt to the mob is coming due, the new player gets to be in the limelight. If you don't want a turn thats fine, just don't get upset you didn't get a turn when you didn't give a reason to take one.)

[@DJLenox]

@@jasonreed7522 Thank you for the quick respons! To be honest especially with this one player i have the feeling he just wants to play D&D with the group, but doesn't want to spent any time on it outside of our weekly sessions. I basically had to make the character for him as he didn't have any "time" to do so beforehand, despite knowing how to create one. But he asked several times if he could play with us, it's not like i forced him into the group or into our D&D campaign... I'm just a bit confused with him. During the Sessions, he is a fine player, bit of meta gaming but nothing major.

[@Guy_With_A_Laser]

You could try just talking with the player, sort of guide them through the exercise, give them ideas of how to flesh it out. It may be they just aren't' sure what they're supposed to write. So ask them details about what you want to know. Like, "Okay, so you're from a small town where most of the people who lived there were probably farmers. How did you end up becoming a Fighter? What did your training look like? Cool. What did your family think about that? Okay, and once you finished training, what sort of work did you get in to? Were you part of the army? A mercenary? Okay. The first group you worked with, what was their leader's name? Did you get along? How did you end up leaving that group and setting out on your own? Did something bad happen?" Some people might not be good at writing, but if you ask a bunch of leading questions and get them to fill in the details themselves, you might be able to come up with something that works for you.

[@drsnugglesfan]

Just make fun cool adventures that appeal to everyone's character. They don't have to have anything to do with anyone's backstory at all.

[@DJLenox]

@@drsnugglesfan yeah, thats what I've been doing for the past month. Everyone loves it so far, at least thats the feedback i got. Running a full self written setting :)

[@bretlynn]

at first level, you're practically IN the backstory. THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE BACKSTORY! lol

[@DellikkilleD]

yeah, I hate people who want to put something dramatic in their background. "No Timmy, you didnt spend 3 years raiding on the open sea, you are level 1. You went fishing a couple times and decided you wanted to be a pirate."

[@askoldkeithsson845]

I always try to add in players backstories, its who that character is and usually a reason for them adventuring, why have a backstory of a cleric looking for his master if in the campaign he never does it, it makes no sense for the character, I was doing this long before BG3 but that game, has the main story arc but ties in the players backstories to making them a part of the world rather than a bunch of randoms

[@108MCruz]

My dm is using my character's backstory as influence to make a quest based on what happened in their past. I think it depends on the creativity of the dm and pcs

[@annageorge8406]

Some of my favorite characters I have ever played didnt start out with a backstory, and instead the backstory was created while role-playing. (Whether my using POV videos by Ginny Di or during rhe session)

[@LB_adventurer]

Backstories are also supposed to support character personalities and affect the choices they make so that those personalities and choices are sometimes different than what the player might choose in the situation.

[@talongreenlee7704]

I’ve been saying this for a while. I came to dnd from video games (like I imagine most people do). Specifically I played a lot of Morrowind as a kid. When you start a new game in Morrowind, they walk you from the boat to the census office where the character builder is explained in-universe as filling out the paperwork to become a citizen after being released from jail. There is exactly one point in the entire game that I’m aware of after that point where your backstory as a prisoner is even mentioned. In the main quest line there’s a subquest to fulfill seven prophecies, and that subquest is divided into more for prophecies three and four where you have to talk to seven different political groups and get them to vote for you to officially be declared the guy who’s going to save the world, and then those groups are further broken down into subquests for each council member specifically. So after completing one of these sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-quests for one of the councilors, you get a piece of flavor text that mentions you were a criminal, which is probably referencing the fact you were released from prison at the start of the game. That’s literally the only payoff for your backstory in the entire game. And it doesn’t matter. It’s still an awesome game. I don’t care what this specific character’s backstory is or where they come from, I’m willing to assume that a character fitting this description exists somewhere in the world and I’m going to start using that character as my avatar to see into this world and go on adventures. If I’m going to write a backstory, I’m going to write it like a fairy tale. No proper nouns, just the role the characters play in the story (the princess, the dragon, the knight in shining armor, etc.). It’s going to be incredibly vague because the specifics don’t matter. It’s going to be brief, set up a quest, and only the things that happened in the past that are relevant for the future are going to be in there. I don’t like backstories. They’re not necessary. You only really need a quest to go on going forward.

[@ArvelDreth]

In this video, I learned that the KZbinr behind the DM Lair cries in the corner all the time

[@ismirdochegal4804]

Incorporating player backstory and hooking them in is increadably hard, if the players dont care about their characters backstory and can't say what motivattes them other then "we want to play RPG."

[@rayrous8229]

Good points. I needed a reminder or two. Nothing new to me, but keep it up.

[@simonwhitworth2040]

Great advice, as always. Thanks :)

[@hughneil7212]

Before I watch this video, just want to say, I watched, "Please, never do this with your D&D backstory" yesterday, posted a month ago. Seeing this pop up in my watch list, posted 10 days ago, was a bit of surprise. What has changed in less than a month?

[@drsten.]

I first get my players characters and backstories and then build the entire story around it lol so in my games they are a lot but not worthless

[@Xitixcix]

Excellent video! Thx🎉

[@reedbeazley3914]

Im confused, you said in a previous video it was best to use character backstories for side quests and whatnot. still good content.

[@N0-1_H3r3]

Why is it that GMs are expected to drop everything and incorporate the backstories of the player's characters, but players are never asked to inconvenience themselves by learning any of the GM's worldbuilding? Fundamentally, worldbuilding is the GM version of PC backstory, so why the double standard? More importantly, it's _much_ easier for a GM to incorporate a player's backstory into a campaign if a player has read and understood even a little of the setting and built upon that. A bit of back and forth here is really useful.

[@bryanleimbach3939]

An hour after watching this video a pizza showed up.

[@rdmrdm2659]

Backstory is what happened be fore the ‘and then’ that comprises the campaign that made you who you are.

[@princesskanuta3870]

Great video!

[@yourbusinessvalue]

I hate character backstories as a DM. It's one more thing I have to worry about when prepping the game. And its super-hard to keep players from feeling like they are being slighted in favor of another player.

[@Indomakio]

My technique to create and help my players create backstories is a game of why. Ok, your pc has anger, but why? They look for a magic item/ person...why? And the answers allow to make those links between character traits, ideals, bonds and flaws which many times feel disconnected or arbitrary...or worse, stereotypical (ie I play a barbarian so I have to be dumb and aggressive), ugh.

[@Lusa_Iceheart]

At my current table, one of my players wanted to play a dragon. Not a dragonborn, not a kobold, not a dragonblood sorc but an actual dragon. I'm like "hard no on that". Another player at this same table is playing a kitsune raised by dwarves. I wanted to like smack these players but after a sizable amount of creative energy being spent (and a lot of compromising) I worked out how to mostly incorporate their backstory ideas. I was much happier with the player who was like "I want to be a barbarian who has parental issues". SO much easier to work with. Gimme something simple, one or two sentences and or a trope of some sort. If I had a player come to me with a multi page backstory written out I'd tell them throw that shit out or get out. I'm not dealing with that backseat storytelling crap.

[@Koranthus]

I think the problem with backstories is people see them as a chance to make their character cool, when in reality it's a chance to define their character's Bonds, Flaws, and general personality information, sure it can be cool stuff but the whole "I never miss" trope comes from people who think it's some epic tale of how they became a level 1 Ranger, not understanding that the epic tale begins at session 1.

[@ShaneKennedy-gt8nl]

Thank you Luke

[@emessar]

If that candle is Waterdeep Inn, why is it labelled Winterhaven Inn? (jk - understandable mistake)

[@TheRockhound119]

Not defacto worthless if the DM doesn't use the backstory. It still creates a baseline for the character's behavior. Definitely is more useful if the DM takes the backstory into account though.

[@kilrkitty0818]

Great Video 🎉

[@ryvyr]

"Why D&D Character Backstories are Pointless" *Decades of campaigns inspiring written and played out RP online* "Uh-huh"

[@BLynn]

Shouldn't Tim be an Enchanter & not a Cleric?

[@artistpoet5253]

😇 My players don't give me detailed backstories anymore...not since...yeah...better to leave that in the past....

[@MrCarp69]

Sorry havent listened to this yet to be honest. Backstories are my bread and butter I build off them for my players. I pull plot armor from them as well. So if none of this relates my apologies.

[@josephcarriveau9691]

That's a funny way to spell "100%"

[@deathbare5306]

Honestly, that sounds great, but it has never worked in any of the campaigns Ive run. Regardless they all die after 7 to 8 sessions.

[@srmillard]

Yessssss! TY 🙏

[@Gerson.Reyes.C]

My DM really did all of this, wow. I'm a lucky player

[@KaineVillante]

While I disagree with you initially Luke I'll hear you out. Backstory is 100% important in a game that matters. If it's a one shot sure no. If it's a game like curse of strahd maybe not but could be fun to haunt the player. But in a game that matters. It matters. The inner thespian in me wants to strangle you lmao 🤣

[@jaymiescott96]

Luke and the Barbarian do not completely suck.

[@JC-ew5ss]

Where are your rules for social combat that you promised?

[@SurmaSampo]

Using backstories as a DM is sure easy, barely an inconvenience.

[@Insert_Bland_Name_Here]

Copying catchphrases from Pitch Meeting is TIGHT!

[@knaz7468]

Not a fan of the plot armor aspect. Also having players come up with arbitrary stuff creates a party of mish-mash and conflicting priorities. If the DM doesn't carefully ensure there is alignment, and perhaps forbid anything with "time pressure" (ex: must rescue my uncle before he is executed), it creates a situation where the player, if playing the character faithfully, should be doing everything in their own interest and with almost no regard to the party. A better approach is to have all the players together with the DM decide how the group ties together FIRST. Then weave in backgrounds. Interactively. If there are one or two "secret" threads for a character or two, fine, add them in outside of this session. I would call this "session -1" because it comes before session 0.

[@BlackyMox]

Nope. Without backstory you can't create a character. I tried to play with people who have a 2 line- backstory. Every campaign with them lastet max 3 evenings. After that the characters with a decent backstory had no reason to keep traveling with them or leave them alive