"that way she gets traumatized on the road, during the campaign" - best elavator pitch for non-tragic backstories, hands down imo

My favourite character I made was a single dad who, after his daughter left home to learn healing, mid life crisesed his way into being an adventurer

The issue comes when the bard needs to go west, the sorcerer north, the rogue south and the fighter east, all due to their backstories.

I always wanted to try a grumpy, elderly kobold alchemist who just wants to find and reconnect to his old flame who is a literal adult dragon he met and formed a loving relationship with while originally searching for rare ingredients in her lair. They parted ways on good terms and now, feeling a bit lonely in his older years, he goes out to hopefully spend his last years with her.

Ah yes, "The tragic backstory is the one we made along the way"

Me: "My monk's monastery burned to the ground. So he wanders the world." DM: "So he wanders the world looking for the villains who burned down his monastery and killed his brothers?" Me: "What? No. The fire was an accident. Everyone survived. He just doesn't have any place to live now."

My first ever character had a backstory that consisted of, and I quote “kicked out of her home for causing too much mischief, shenanigans and tomfoolery that caused too much unrest in her village. Is now travelling the lands to look for something to do because she is bored in exile” Was pretty proud of that one

I don't do tragic backstories to make them interesting, i just like that backstory model. It feels easier to convey a motivation through a tragic backstory. Edit: i also like tragic stories for some reason

"My character's parents are both dead" "Well MY character's parents were poly, so she has EIGHT dead parents"

"So why are you an adventurer?" "I asked the most beautiful woman in my village to marry me." "And she turned you down, so you fled in disgrace, I get it." "Uh, no, she said yes. She just wants a big wedding, and we're going to need a big house with room for kids and a workshop so..."

i don’t really play DnD but “i used to talk to plants and one day i discovered a talent for plant magic” is such a cute idea and i really wanna use it!

"That way she gets traumatized on the road, during the campaign." This one hits pretty close to home for an old character of mine, an Aarakocra Bard by the name of Reed. He grew up with a happy family in their coastal village and learned from his mother how to play the violin, and as a result wanted to become a traveling minstrel when he came of age. The inciting incident that got him started on adventuring was when his mother disappeared without a trace one day, and found himself kidnapped alongside the other partymembers by a hag. After that incident, he stuck with the other partymembers and started helping them out. Unfortunately, over the course of the campaign he found himself: getting mauled in his sleep by an owlbear, charmed and almost devoured by an ooblex (temporarily making him lose his memories), had another partymember throw them outside a dungeon right before it collapsed on top of them giving him survivor's guilt, and many other horrible circumstances. What began as a happy bard-to-be wanting to follow in his mother's footsteps turned, over the course of the campaign, into a cautionary horror story on why not every person is capable of being an adventurer. To cap this tragic tale off, he died in a total party kill where the last living partymember had to abandon the rest, so his last living moments where seeing an ally leave him to die.

I think the "get traumatized during the campaign" reason for not having a tragic backstory actually illustrates the reason why, conversely, people start with tragic characters: to give them a happy ending.

"I'm here to kick ass and protect family-- And I'm all out of family" -Your average adventurer

One of my character’s backstory is just… dirt. He loves the dirt. Spends all his time cataloguing dirt and rocks, digging through the mines, and trying to search for the lost city of mole-people that might just be a rumor his big sister made up just to mess with him. Turns out, part of the reason he was so obsessed with the local mines is because there’s a magical shard of a defunct talisman ‘calling’ out to him, buried deep, deep, deep under the earth. It gives him a little bit of magical power, and part of his quest is finding ways to track down the other shards, if they still exist at all.

My Warlock character (Genie Patron) was a farmboy that fell in love with an Air Genasi girl when they were kids. After years of dating they agreed to marry. This sparked the ire of the girl's Djinni grandfather who believed that a mere farmboy wasn't worthy of his favorite grandchild. Granting him a vestige of power he forced my character to venture out into the world to seek a fortune, prestige, or title that will make him a worthy future husband.

“I saw a cool bird once and I’m trying to find it again” is definitely gonna be my next backstory

I often like tragi-comedy backstories, like "I need to repay my college debt from the magic school", or "I got isekai'd for making fun of Zeus, and now this world is my witness protection program".

The funniest thing can be miscommunication between the characters on whether someone has a tragic backstory or not. I played a fighter who moped and looked sad whenever he mentioned his wife. Everyone thought the wife had died, but it turns out she was just as home and he missed her. One of my favorites is a monk with the social skills of a goldfish who lives in a backwater village. One day a trio of adventurers stay for a night, and he immediately had the "Oh no she's cute" reaction to the bard. Before he could work up the nerve to say so (it took all night), she had already left town. He promptly left to go adventuring to go find her.

As a dm, these are the best backstories you can ever possibly give me: "I'm a warlock, and my patron told me to go adventure." Why did their patron tell you that? Well you'll see in 20 sessions hee hee haha

DM: Why'd you take up adventuring? My Character: Money.

There is a character I have been waiting to play that literally just a dude who makes really good soup. He is on an adventure in search for rare and exotic ingredients. Edit: I forgot to mention he also has no weapons. Instead he uses kitchen utensils such as knives and a cleaver.

This reminded me of a character I played for a short Christmas campaign. She was an adorable tabaxi child (looked more like a huge kitten in adventuring gear) warlock named Lucy. Her backstory was that her father is an adventurer and her mother was a bard. She lived very happily with her mother, but her father was often gone for weeks, months, or sometimes even years all in the hopes of making a fortune. One day Lucy's mother suddenly gave her a backpack full of adventuring gear, and told her that she needed to find her father and bring him home immediately. Her mother then quickly shut the door and all Lucy heard was "someone using their outdoor voice". Lucy had no idea where to go, so she just set off in a random direction to go find her father. Along the way, she met her patron who wanted her soul and in exchange he would give her power and a single KitKat. She had no idea what a "soul" was (she still doesn't) and she wanted a KitKat, so she said yes. For context, this is how adorable she was. Every time she sat in a chair she was too small for it, so she either just stood on the chair or the party would place her on one of their laps. She sometimes didn't know what a word meant but would often still go along with it. For example: the Grinch, "If you help us we will help you find your father. Deal?" He extended his hand towards Lucy. "I don't know what a deal is but ok!" She stood up in her chair and stretched her paws out until she was lying flat on the table with her feet dangling off of it, but was still unable to shake his hand. She stubbornly pawed at the air towards the Grinch's hand while he explained was a deal is. She was just this pure, naive, little kitten that was searching for her papa. At the same time, she was also a terrifying warlock who fought better than anyone else in the party. When she first met the party she had already been wandering for a few years, and she joined them because they agreed to help her find her parents (and she was never taught stranger danger). The party was comprised of the Grinch, Krampus, and an elf who was fired from Santa's factory. They wanted to steal all of the presents and burn them. The moment Lucy was introduced, they all agreed to protect her innocence as much as they could. Even Krampus, who suspected that Lucy was actually a naughty child who should be dragged down to hell, insisted on helping her find her father, so that she can be with her family again. The party even had her cover her eyes and/or ears when they said/did something obviously bad (even swearing). Even at the end of the campaign she still thought that they were good people. To the DM's credit it would have been easy to have Lucy's story be a tragic one. Instead they chose to have Lucy's father be one of the people who transported the presents. When they were reunited Lucy explained to him that her mother sent her to bring him home immediately. His face became white with fear and all he said was, "divorce." That was it. At the end of the campaign Lucy went home with her papa. The end. Her story was not sad at all. She was a ball of warmth that protected the party in more ways than one, so they protected her in other ways. Sure she was ultimately tricked by the party into helping them ruin Christmas, but she never found out about it. Even at the end when the presents were burning, they made sure to decieve her about what happened and even saved one for her (which she then gave to her papa).

My character was a daughter of a tavern owner with adventurers coming and going. She was obsessed with their tales and compiled them. She loved singing and learning new instruments. And she just wanted to go to learn more stories and tales and wanted to be a traveling minstrel. She was very happy at home, and also just wanted to see what other people saw.

Character: **has parents** The Party: **disorganized grumbling and discord**

The most dangerous job in any rpg: being the main characters parents. Lol

My (most loved) paladin backstory is "as the 16th child, it was always obvious that she would serve The Mountain Goddess." And there she goes, adventuring because if a Goddess tell you to go, you go. No tragic. No loss. Only duty and a lot of praying

I know this is DND oriented but it’s actually a really cool exploration point for writing a novel. If done correctly you can have a unique hit that reads well whilst breaking one of the largest monomyths ‘The Hero’s Journey’ Edit: Mistake, All these are still calls to action so you don’t really break the Hero’s Journey but it’s still breaking some form of monotony, but I still think this a great idea

I made a monk character that was a total surfer dude at heart, but his monastery was nowhere near a beach. His goal is to finally reach the ocean and learn to surf UPDATE: I finally got to play him for a one-shot and he did some ice-surfing! It was a blast, and he ended up attempting to teach the whole party how to surf.

My most recent PC is a 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' reference. A Tiefling Bard who lost a priceless family heirloom (a fiddle made of solid gold) to some 12 year old hick in an ill-advised bet and can't go home until he gets it back.

One of my favorites was a guy who used to run with a bandit gang. They attacked a caravan, but were defeated. One of the caravan guards showed mercy to him and let him live. The character sought out the guard afterwards and trained under him. Now he adventures to pay that forward. He wants to save who he can

Great video! I love non-tragic backstories. I don't even think the reasons need to be as special or compelling as that. "I just want a life of excitement of adventure" and "Adventuring is a good way to make money" are underrated reasons for adventuring. Lots of people (especially prior to the 19th century) would join the military just for adventure.

I once played a guy who wanted to inherit his father’s store, so he set out on a quest to take his 12 older brothers out of the running.

My tabaxi druid has the most tragic of tragic backstories, she's taking a mail order course "even you can druid", but since she is very bad at written tests, she keeps failing her druid exams. right now she's at lvl 8, but she still is unable to get certification that she's a lvl 1 druid that can be entrusted with the safe keeping of a grove. her neverending quest, to get tenure!

Most of my characters have had positive backstories, Especially my Druid Elanna, she was a quiet girl who always spent all of her free time talking to the plants and animals in the forest she lived near and was found by a high druid who asked her parents to take her as an apprentice. Years later she left to "Learn the name of every leaf and flower in distant lands" of her own volition.

I like mixed backstories, where there's some kind of tragedy that may spur the character, but doesn't haunt them and make them traumatized. While real-world tragedy often traumatizes, it also sometimes just... sits there. Take the 'parents died at a young age' backstory piece that is used so commonly. I have two characters in a novel I'm making that both have had their parents die at a young age, but one of them is mostly indifferent because they weren't very close with their parents, and the other is too cold-hearted to show any care that it happened. That's of course not at all their whole characters, but I just like having tragedy that doesn't always lead to grief and trauma. In certain circumstances, it can be more realistic.

I have a Half Orc Artificer who just want's to make toys for kids. He's traveling to find out what kids like what toys. Adventuring funds his Goals.

One of my favorite characters was a monk who lost his parents early on, but had already learned to overcome his trauma early on, instead deciding to dedicate himself to making sure no one else had to suffer like he did. He was also a 7 foot tall idiot though, so that probably made him more likeable.

One of my new favorite things to do with my friends is to roll a d20 for trauma. We've had 2 nat 20's and a natural 1 in the same campaign, which made for a wonderful dynamic. It's fun to do with friends, and build a character off that

My first character Choca was on her "coming of age" trip that was a tradition for members of her clan. They'd travel the world for a year and come back and tell everyone stories of everything they saw and did. She went with her pet velociraptor/best friend, Vel. She was a happy/go lucky kid who was so excited to see the world and everything it had to offer. Cut to the end of our campaign (it was Curse of Strahd), she died twice, was brought back with a permanent insanity, lost Vel twice, didn't manage to successfully bring her back the second time, got turned into a werewolf, was betrayed by one of the party members, watched more than half of her friends/party members die, and made a personal enemy out of Strahd. That doesn't even begin to include all the horrible traps/injuries she got (she's got a hole in her cheek from a bad injury that go infected). So yeah...she didn't have a tragic backstory going in, but she sure does now, and a lifetime of guilt for some of the decisions she made while in Barovia XD. They won in the end, but it wasn't a happy ending. Not for her at least. She won't be going back to her family.

Ah, yes, the kindly young bard who regularly prepares Sending to let their parents know that they're doing okay and that the party is nice and they've been staying away from booze on the road. Occasionally quite vocal about receiving inopportune, embarrassingly saccharine replies from wizard mom, who apparently can be a bit overbearing. And then they die brutally and their corpse is unrecoverable for resurrection and the party has to break the news. Enter players's new character. A wizard who will stop at nothing to avenge their baby.

I've learned that making a character tragic and giving them a "tragic backstory" don't have to be together. I made a warforged spores druid named F.R.A.N.K. 1.0 for a one-shot that never was played, and his backstory is simply he protects his grove and treant master, burying travelers who passed away near the area and caring for the wildlife. The catch is his memory banks only hold around 30 years of memory, and he is way older than that. He doesn't remember anything about his origins, past, or if his master is even a treant or just a big tree. He is doomed to live past and forget anyone he befriends, but his backstory is pretty relaxed and happy.

most of my characters who have terrible depressing backstories: my old man goblin artificer who just wants to live a little: yoohoo, bug summer blowout

So far I only have one character with a happy backstory and he's an awakened dog, he's just a happy potato and I love to play him! What's even more interesting, is that my DM seems to have decided to make his master (owner) some sort of villain in our campaign, which I can't wait to find out more about!

I actively avoid tragic backstories, they're so common they've become boring to me. When I first got into DnD, everyone in the group had a tragic backstory. I made it my mission to prove to these people a character did not have to be tragic to be interesting. I created a kitsune prince whom was beloved and lived in a paradise where almost nothing bad had ever happened. In his home town, he was treated like a celebrity, being smart, handsome and charismatic. He studied the rogue arts, but only because it was tradition in his kingdom, he didn't actually use them to fight. Right before his coronation, he was kidnapped but was rescued by his bodyguard. This was literally the only bad thing that ever happened to him and nothing of consequence actually happened. Even afterwards when he returned home, people praised him for his bravery despite him doing nothing to rescue himself. This moment made the prince realized that he had been falsely praised his whole life. That no matter what he did, people always saw the best in him and he didn't know what real consequences were. Considering he's supposed to rule over people and make decisions that would impact others, he figured this was not a good headspace for him to be in. So he headed out on a journey in order to find out what normal people have to deal with when they fail, thus he can learn to properly understand consequences for his citizens.

It's funny, because it made me think about how many characters in books truly don't have "tragic backstories" but instead, tragic things were apart of their life, as much as the bad. Take Frodo, for example. He was raised by Bilbo because his parents drowned when he was young, but while that is tragic, and changed the course of his life, a major element of Lord of The Rings was just how peaceful and happy his life before the quest was. He was happy, Bilbo was a loving guardian, and he had friends and family, and as a rich hobbit, was free to do as he liked. I mean, heck, look at Aragorn, who had, to the say the least, a tragic family history that affected him, and lived most of his life away from his homeland, had many happy moments. He was raised by his mother and elves, fell in love with Arwen, and was a Ranger. His life had tragic moments, and while that tragedy led him to his destiny, it did not define him as a character.

I will say also that tragic backstories are very dependent on how the _character views the experience._ For instance, my very first D&D character could have very easily been a tragic one, but ended up being taken to a place where she had some of the most heartwarming stories I've ever seen. Azrei Breval the Witch (a Necromancy Wizard) started her story as the bullied runt of the slums. She was a Half-Elf, looked down upon for her heritage and her diminutive stature, and was frequently bullied - often violently so. Eventually, things escalated to the point where her attackers beat her all the way to death, leaving her to die on the side of the alley. However, that was not how fate would have it, as an old woman - known as a crazy witch to most - came upon her shortly thereafter and Resurrected her (the GM and I agreed that Necromancers should be able to learn Revivify, Resurrection, and True Resurrection, since they are quintessential parts of the manipulation of life force). For most people, being killed and resurrected would be a very traumatic experience, but for Azrei, it gave her perspective. She was already a gifted mind, though she had never had the chance to display it, and ended up having the old woman mentor her in Necromancy for the purpose of using it to help those without the strength to help themselves. She took what could have been a tragedy and turned it into a _drive._

In the process of creating a halfling with a not particularly tragic backstory right now. She was a farm girl with an innate connection with plant life she doesn't get understand. She ended up moving away to take over her grandmother's tea house after she (peacefully) passed away, and up until she starts her adventure, the most difficult thing she's dealt with is singlehandedly defending her town from a monster while she was armed with nothing but a shovel (Folk Hero background).

Ginny Di: "ditch the tragic backstory" Liam O Brian: "how about no?"

"My character killed their parents, by accident. It haunts them" **Stares in Caleb Widowgast**

My favorite character has just a dash of trauma in her backstory. She, Jaquline da`Box (pun on Jack in the Box) is a Tiefling Bard Harlequin She grew up on the streets and other children used to make fun of her, especially since the whole Tiefling thingy with the hornes and such. But she choose not to let this drag her down, she made jokes and gave whity insults back just as they come in. One day she noticed that her words actually have power, even a really bad pun made a whole groupe of people laugh like maniacs and one of her insults made the nose of another child bleed. So she decided to get away from this small town and explore the world to maybe figure out why she can do such things. Long and behold in the taverns of other towns she learned that she has bardig magic and that she accidentally casted Vicious Mokery and Hideous Laughter back then. That was the moment she knew what her destiny is. To become the best Harlequin in the land and make every last person laugh their hearts out.

I have a story where one character had a rough, abusive childhood and struggles to find a feeling of belonging, constantly seeking affirmation. His best friend was raised in a fairly nuclear family with supportive parents, and she’s landed a stable job with no considerable conflicts. It makes it interesting to see how each of them approach problem solving, and how they learn more about each other’s perspectives.

I have a paladin whose backstory is he thinks he's undead and must get revenge on his killer so he can rest in peace, in reality he has a 6 Int and can't wrap his head around the possibility that a more famous orc warlord shared the same name as him and was stopped/killed by an up and coming hero.

This makes me feel good about a character I want to play: Old cool dwarf grandma who masters Grave Domain as a cleric as a way to cheat death/ help others stave off death. She has a good family but she's getting old and wants to see the world and adventure before she dies. She obviously always has a sweater on hand for party members, don't want them to catch cold!

A lot of main characters arent that tragic. Maybe they have parents that died, but that was ten years ago and they kinda moved on. I think its the call to adventure that makes a lot of characters interesting. Something like getting accidently involved in defeating a dark lord, because its the right thing to do and they have the ability to help. (With great power comes great responsibility. If you can help someone you should.)

The greatest backstory I wrote is on a character I still haven’t played yet. Rouleau is a warforged who fell in battle long ago. He sat deactivated for many years, until a farm was created at the site of the old battlefield. One of the farmers found his body buried under the soil, and repaired him with anything they could find around the farm. His bashed head was replaced with a wooden bucket and almost every limb had to be reinforced with random junk. He ran errands for the farmers, and was the front line of defence when orcs or goblins attempted to raid. The farm started to run out of money fast, so when a group of adventurers stopped by in the nearby town and boasted of the great treasure they were looking for, Rouleau begged to join them, so he could bring back enough money to save the farm

Not my character, but my friend has a bard whose thing is that he’s just lost. He was part of a traveling group and one day he just turned around and they were gone. The twist SHE INSISTED ON was that he just has a habit of wandering and the old group got tired of searching for him so they just, moved on. Maybe one day he’ll find his friends, who knows?

I’ve noticed that I’ve started keeping my character’s parents alive just to hit the inevitable session where the DM has to play them. It gives me a glimpse of what normal parental figures are like 😅

One of my favorite characters is a halfling fighter who left his village out of spite, because everyone mocked him for being a failed merchant (he had -1 to charisma as a merchant lul), so he decided he would leave, become rich and go back to rub their noses in it. It was fun as heck to not have to worry about edge or sadness in my past and I got an excuse to play a greedy character who also traded and bargained a lot, so I always had a plan or some interesting business to do, even if I was just trading wares for some profit. My DM even allowed me to try a special check in order to wake up from 0 hp once, when someone mentioned a tresure close to my unconscious body

One of my characters is an 8-yo girl called Nene. She's a warrior, simply because she thinks it's fun, though she's somehow better than half the king's army (don't ask). Her backstory for joining the party isn't even tragic. One of the multiple gods in the campaign goes "sup dude, we kinda need your daughter's help in fighting off the dark lord" to her parents. They don't force this choice on their daughter, but Nene decides to go and help them anyway. She writes home every week and sometimes even sends them souvenirs. She's a very joyous girl, spreading happiness everywhere. Even the cleric with a very tragic backstory who closes herself off to everyone, goes out of her way to protect Nene from danger.

I love having a non-tragic backstory! It makes the first time they kill someone or watch someone die so much more dramatic.

I've always loved more comedic backstories. A few I've heard: *Country bumpkin who accidentally wandered into a situation where a local noble was making a pact with a demon. Character falls into the circle, knocking the noble out of the circle so the demon accidentally makes the pact with the character / country bumpkin. The demon only had enough power to make the one connection, so he's forced to work with this simple-minded, good-hearted character now made a warlock lol. *Character begins adventuring to pay his child support, constantly grumbles about his ex and how he'd prefer to be drinking ale in his comfy armchair in his favorite tavern. *A gnome who used to be a powerful wizard but lost his spell book and now suffers from mild dementia, so starts as a lvl 1 wizard trying to get back to his former glory. Bumbles his ways into some great situations. The gnome constantly expects to be casting high-level spells that end up being cantrips while the character is still low level.

I love the idea of a happy, lovable character suddenly revealing a more tragic side to them. Weather it's through combat or they just need a moment to process what they're *really* feeling instead of pretending to put on a face. This can lead to some very interesting plotlines during Campaigns.

I've wanted to play dnd for a while, but I honestly clicked on this video for writing advice, and it worked really well. The very first character I ever wrote had zero trauma and no reason to leave her happy life as the Princess of her kingdom. She never knew her mom, yeah, but it didn't bother her, nor was it her motivation for leaving. Instead, she left because her father revealed the existence of a twin sister she'd never known, taken by a witch on the night of their birth. She decided to leave her country and go to the human world, not to kill the witch and avenge her mother, but to welcome her sister home with open arms. Of course, then things went wrong and stuff, but her backstory wasn't "tragic", per se. She is still one of my favorite characters to this day, and that series had an amazing plot. If only I'd been a better writer when I'd written it.

My greatest character’s backstory was basically “He got bored and got hired by seasoned adventurers, making more money in a single dungeon delve than he and his family did in a decade.”

"Druid on a coming of age journey" Keyleth, is that you?

I am just now getting into role-playing, and it never occurred to me to create a character with anything but a tragic backstory. This is such a refreshing take, and my newest character comes from a solid, happy background. This gives a great deal of motivation to my character - he wants to protect and serve his family and community. I love this - thank you!

I see it as easier to explain why your character risks their neck going through abandoned dungeons and fighting evil if they have a few screws loose. A normal person would probably be terrified in a situation where half their party is bloodied/killed in a situation with no way out and their only experience was being a kid with a wooden sword who wanted to be an adventurer from stories they read, but I will say that it's interesting for roleplay. Reminds me of the first chapter of goblin slayer lol.

One of my favorite "mystery" character backgrounds was for a half elf who was raised by both parents, but her elven father was extremely close-lipped about his life before meeting and marrying her mother. One day he let slip that he had children from other relationships with other elves, so my character went off to find her half-siblings (one of whom was another member of the party).

7:37 Ginny: "And then you receive the official title of..." Me: "... Pokémon Master. Oh. Wait--"

My favorite character is just a gifted swordsman who wants to protect his family, his land, and his people. He also wants to be the greatest swordsman of all time, despite not really wanting to kill his rivals. He's good-hearted, but he's proud, and one member of his beloved family is more than a little on the wicked side and needs help staying grounded. His brother and his cousin are there beside him, and he's got more family at home, but he does need to handle things outside his homeland.

I really like the bubbly air genasi I rolled up for a campaign a while ago. She just kinda stumbled into the party while foraging for mushrooms (her favorite hobby) and is so go with the flow that their quest just sounded like fun and tagged along. Then she really grew to like them and became invested in helping them.

Getting traumatized on the road is the best for real character creation. In addition, having a background like that gives the DM elements that they get to incorporate into the game.

This gave me inspiration to make a Dragon born whose parents are humans who accidentally went to a Dragon born egg adoption instead of a farmers market, and just chose the most chicken looking egg there (a white Dragonborn egg) and instead of a chicken it was a him, his motivation for exploring is to find his real parents

This is actually something I'm working with my DM to set up in our current campaign. My character is a renowned metaphysicist (Conjurer Wizard / Master Specialist) who is basically a cross between Richard Feynman and Doctor Strange. He made several discoveries regarding extraplanar mechanics, was involved in a top secret military project, and has a very self-important attitude because of his accomplishments. At some point, the DM is going to turn that military project against the forces of good, and my character will be horrified to realize that he had a hand in starting the apocalypse, thereafter desperately trying to atone for his sins.

This reminds me of one of my oldest (how long I’ve had him, not age) PCs. He grew up with loving parents, had a super happy childhood, and set off to explore the world once he was old enough. Given, he was an elf and his family and friends were all gnomes, so his concept of aging was a little off, but not too much. He really was super naive when I first started playing him, and trusted just about anyone, cause why wouldn’t he? But as the campaign continued, there were betrayals, battles, and a bunch of other things that really caused him to change. Something I also really enjoyed was that because his family obviously wasn’t blood related (gnomes and an elf) I got to explore finding his bio parents without having the angst to go along with it. It wasn’t a motivation, it just happened. I really, really loved that. I think he’s probably the most drastic in terms of character development in any PC I’ve had, and his backstory was happy. Anyway his name is Elf and I absolutely love him. Also his bio dad was a king and I had no clue. (Shoutout to the DM for coming up with that one)

My rogue is lizardfolk. His mother died when he was young. No emotional baggage. Great food at the wake, though.

I’ve played a lot of campaigns with the same group, and our tables favorite character has been the human fighter Hugo. He joined up with a group of friends and started an “adventuring” guild where the whole thing was basically just an excuse to one up everyone at taverns with made up stories. Basically everyone in the guild was just pretending to be adventurers for clout. Just regular guys. Hugo basically accidentally teamed up with the party, it was great. The party slowly learning Hugo wasnt the most truthful about his many exploits was a riot

One of my favorite characters just didn't feel like going into the family trade... of piracy. So she ran away to play adventurer. And wound up back home, buying a ship so the party could get to the next part of the world to save it.

One of the most interesting and engaging characters I have played in 5e had a hilarious back story. He never wanted to be an adventurer, he is just a middle aged slightly overweight cook, like thats all he wants to be. He was always on the other party members to make sure they were eating right and carried little candies with him to give to people. Helped that he was also kinda dumb

"Saw a cool bird once and want to find it again." Pokémon reference: Ash seeing Ho-Oh? Nah, probably not.

I had a character with a happy backstory: meet Alexander Davenport, the second child of Barron Arthur Davenport. As the second child he was not going to inherit his father's title, but that didn't mean that his upbringing on the small estate was free of duties or training. From a young age he was taught to fight with and without weapons, how to act in court, how to manage a household and all that entailed (book keeping, staff training, etc.) and on and on. As he came into adolescence, he was told the reason for all his training: he was going to become a butler to a noble household; not a mere servant, but a trusted companion, advisor and bodyguard. Which noble he ended up serving would depend entirely on him as he would have to attract a patron through his skills. The quickest way to develop his skills, earn a reputation and gain valuable experience was to become an adventurer. So at seventeen he left home with his parent's blessings and set out to test himself against the world. While he was primarily interested in gaining a good reputation and gaining experience, he also wanted to take the time to understand how normal people lived and gain new perspectives. He would also use his time as an adventurer to find out whom among the nobles was worth serving (and maybe find out if the royal palace had any openings). I played this character for quite a while and he actually ended up fairly powerful (level 11 or so if memory serves). He was mostly a monk with a level of sorcerer for some useful cantrips (prestidigitation, mending, and mage hand to help him buttle better) and he actually earned a minor noble title of his own (complete with coat of arms) through his adventures. I haven't played him since the world shut down, but I may play him again someday.

Idea: Your character just has an adventurer sibling who inspired them to become an adventurer themselves. So if you want the on-the-road tragedy you can have that sibling either die or turn out evil during the campaign.

One of my favorite background stories for a character that I played was from the 5th edition Tyranny of Dragons campaign. My character had an adventure hook that said she used to be a gold dragon but did something to displease Bahamut and he transformed her into her current form which was a gold dragonborn. I decided that she was a very vain gold dragon and enjoyed staying in her lair looking at herself and her shiny gold scales. Her brother asked her for help because there were powerful beings in his territory. She refused to help him and he ended up being killed by the Cult of the Dragon. That's when Bahamut transformed her into a baby dragonborn. She was raised in Candlekeep and she had dreams and vague memories of her previous life so she used most of her spare time to study dragons. Once she was of age, she felt a calling to go adventuring. Once the party started to encounter more people from the Cult of the Dragon at higher levels, she found a handful of pieces of her brother that were passed around to different members of the Cult as trophies. When she touched them, she got very clear memories and flashbacks of what she did and what her brother went through before he was killed. It was probably one of my absolute favorite characters to play & the campaign was so much fun.

Honestly I love the whole "The campaign is the trauma". I'm playing an Artificer librarian who was researching Barovia (Curse of Strahd). Up until the campaign start he was literally just a dude who managed books and made some funky contraptions, never even seen combat. Two days in and he's witnessed a *lot* of fighting. He is not okay

I usually go for less-than tragic backstories whenever I can. One I've been especially wanting to play though is Connan Chubb, a halfling fighter who runs a meat market and brewery with his family. He and his wife have 11 daughters, and since local tradition says a bride's family pays for a wedding, he converted a pan lid and his biggest fillet knife into a shield and scimitar and is off to make sure his girls growing up get the big parties they dream of.

we can apply this to fanfic too. This inspired me to give the Elktaur a happy childhood in my Centaurworld Nowhere King backstory fic, so that when the downward spiral in his canon backstory hits, it hurts that much more. He rips himself apart because all the trauma comes from his own mind and societal pressures.

An approach I like to make is the "mundane trauma" approach: if I, who have no critical family situation and generally no reason to be traumatized, am crippingly traumatized, then the character can get traumatized because someone said something bad to them once too. It depends on the setting and the reason why you're writing too.

"that way she gets traumatized on the road, during the campaign" That basically sums up my philosophy on character creation. I give some basics, but I prefer to let my character develop in play in ways that surprise even me. And they don't always become traumatized. I've had characters become very heroic and I didn't expect them too. I've always felt if you write too much for your character you become bogged down in your backstory. It's certainly not impossible, but it becomes more difficult to move them in many different directions. I create a small catalyst or odd personality trait that gets them moving, and from there I mostly try to create them as young (but capable) and still figuring themselves out so they have room to grow in many directions based on the drama of the game.

Happy backstory: One of my favorite characters ever was an 80-year-old bard named Gloria. She had 8 children, 34 grandchildren, and 27+ great-grandchildren (I created a family tree of her descendants). Gloria had been a travelling bard for her entire life but had settled down with her eldest daughter's family a few years prior to the start of the campaign. When her first great-great-grandchild was born, she declared that she was too old to die at home and took up adventuring. Gloria was forever going on about her family members and and comparing the other party members to them. She was completely unaware of her magical abilities, so her spellcasting always involved a description of the emotions she was trying to evoke (eg. casting Phantasmal Force involved her reminiscing about her half-orc great-granddaughter). She was a very fun character to play and my plan for leveling her up was to always take feats so that her stats wouldn't increase, but I unfortunately didn't get to play her for very long because the campaign fell apart after a few months.

I read a fic where the mc had a regular childhood and everything but during the course of the story they go thru trauma but don’t even notice it / they were in denial abt it, so the mc and the readers weren’t even aware of the trauma until it was too late and the mc died. It was one of the best works I’ve ever read

This made me think of Jester from Critical Role! She started very happy and naïve, which made her trauma and character development in the campaign that much more interesting. Plus every other character had a tragic backstory so she really stood out and balanced things

These are great tips Ginny! You've made me realize that I tend to favour tragedy when writing backstories. Even my cleric who came from a loving family and was adored by her village had a subtle element of tragedy. Since she was selected to be a cleric of the village's god from birth, she was always held to a higher standard than the other children and essentially did not have a childhood. However, it wasn't until she had been sent on a quest by her god and met her party that she started to realize how messed up her upbringing was and the effects it was having on her adult life. Honestly, the only non-tragic backstory I've written was for a one-shot. My character had grown up helping her parents run their inn and, after years of hearing adventurers recount their epic tales, decided to join an adventuring guild so that she might go on her own adventures.

My favorite theoretical character is a rouge that worked for a guild. And his job was basically to attempt to get into the stated bank or prison or similar structure. And mark all the ways he could use to get in. So when he was done, he would tell the owners it's weak points, and the building could have better security. Lawful good rouge.

My second character was just an old man and his backstory was that he wanted to see the world before his age won't allow him to, anymore. Super sweet guy. And my first character's backstory always remained a mystery. When they were asked, they always brushed it off or just replied with something along the lines of them traveling through the area or that they happened to pass by and needed some cash. To this day, their party doesn't know their face because they always cover it up with a mask.

Tragic backstory: easy way to lessen the number of characters you have to deal with while instantly giving your character something to work through or overcome.

Hi Ginny! I created a character who's backstory was both "tragic" and "happy". I was a Firbolg, my husband a Goliath. We adventured together many years ago, and retired as he aged. We grew old together in a cottage we built ourselves. Being a Firbolg, my life expectancy and his were vastly different. My parents begged me not to fall in love with him; they knew the pain that I would eventually feel. I lost him due to time. He grew old, and died a peaceful death in the home we built together. I put him to rest in a grave near our home. My grief never grew easier, I was a alone. Neglected friends and Family. I withered into a hermit. My Firbolg tribe were star watchers, map makers. I was mapping the starts and saw a portends to disaster, and begrudgingly decided to give the information I had to the nearest civilized place, where I got wrapped up in the adventure with the group. I love this backstory so much, because it brings real life situation into our Role Play. Time is, for the most part, an inevitability. My Husband was of the natural/neutral side, so he would have never wanted to have his life extended by magic or healing. My character was just selfish and heartbroken, but still had a really fulfilling and happy life, all things considered.

Another Fun one: My monk is sent off in the world to find that which is most beautiful, so it can be used to adorn the new temple construction, and money wouldn't be bad either. She first suggested a large mosaic of herself, seriously. The other monks thought that perhaps she should go off and learn what beauty is.

I have! he's a kenku mystic who saw a travelling merchant and was hit by inspiration, he now travels the worlds attempting to sell things despite having no concept of prices and i love him

YES! YEES!! YEEES!!! THE RP WORLD NEEDS THIS MESSAGE!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! No need of abusing parents, growing-up in a prison and losing your memory to end-up barely surviving in the woods to have an intersting complexe character.