D&D General Character Secret idea help CoS

[Digital M@]

I wanted to create a list of 20 player secrets for my PC's to roll before making there characters and am looking for ideas and inspiration. Backgrounds don't make much of a difference in this campaign as they will not be in their world so I thought secrets would be a great way to help create flavor. The secrets don't need to be linked to the module, just something to make the character interesting. I am running this for mostly new/ish players and I also thought this could help them flesh out the characters. I am doing all human campaign unless you roll another race on your secret. Some quick ideas I had:

1. You were once attacked by a were creature and were partially contaminated – use Shifter race from Ebberon
2. Emblem cloak pin of a silver dragon that you followed to the town. It would get warm when you went the “right way” and cold when you went the wrong.
3. Made a deal with a devil – You were told to be at this town and convince a group to go into the mists with you. You know there is more to than meets the eye about these mists, but you do not know what. You have resistance to fire damage and something else TBD
4. You are a Mystique warforged who looks completely human. A brigand group found you locked in a sarcaughagus that was being transported by a caravan. They open the sarcaughagus and are freaked out to find you in there. Without understanding what you are doing, you quickly kill 3 brigands and the final two run away. There are broken wagons still smoldering, dead bodies of the trade caravan scatter the ground. You start as true neutral and can choose where your alignment goes from there. You are relearning what and who you are.
5. You are the servant of a great wizard who failed to return home several years ago. Finally after searching through his papers you not only discovered his whereabouts, you finally have a means of getting there.

 

[Stormonu]

I'd steer away from secrets that require a character to use a specific race or class, though it'd be okay if you got some special minor trait from one. For example, on #1 I'd change it that as a bonus action, the character can grow claws. On #4, I'd change it that instead of Warforged, they simply are a construct, instead of humanoid.

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6. You've been given a deed to a manor, but only the foundation stone remains on the grounds. There is no signs of rubble or debris at the site. Locals say that on the night of the new moon, the mansion returns - with a single light lit on the second floor.
7. You were held prisoner by a ghost for a year, but managed to escape. You bear a mark of your imprisonment (white hair or lack of it, or perhaps aged features), but once per day you can use misty step.
8. You were nearly drained of blood by a vampire. You survived, but gained a vicious bite that deals 1d4 damage. Once per day, after you deal damage with the bite, you gain a like number of temporary hit points.
9. There must be lycanthrope blood in your veins, for you are allergic to the touch of silver. However, once per day as a reaction you can ignore bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage from non-magical weapons that aren't silvered.
10. You met a strange fellow at a crossroads, who read your fortune and told you were destined for greatness. Once per day, you can choose to reroll a d20 roll you, an ally or enemy make, but you must take the new result.

 

[Clint_L]

Are these optional for players? I'd be very hesitant about mandating anything about a player's character backstory, and some of these are extremely specific. Like, most of them I would not like for my character (not that they are bad, just that they are not to my taste).

Why not let the players propose ideas for their own backstory? All I ask of my players is no cliches ("you are secretly the missing child of the king!") and nothing that gives them special powers, equipment or wealth. And I ask them to identify one thing that their character wants as the campaign begins (e.g. "get rich," "be respected," "get revenge," and so on) and one thing they need, though they might not know it.

Then if a player is stuck, tell them you have this cool table they could roll on. But they always get to consent, so if they don't like the result of the roll, they can roll again.

I think it's pretty important that players feel like their character is their character.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Missread the OP, thought we where talking about RotFM. My experience of that is it didn't work very well, the players largely ignored them. What I have seen work is having one of the players privately agree to act as a "mole" within the party. But you need to choose the right player.

As for CoS, my experience is this adventure always falls apart or descends into farce.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Having run Curse of Strahd to completion (with major modifications to Strahd's personality and motivations), backstory tie-ins mean very little because your impetus is to get home/escape the mists. Instead of giving players powers of your choosing (and for new players, just one more feature to track), I'd recommend a "jam" session with your gamers where they build upon a story of why they're adventuring together and why they'd risk their lives for one another.

For example, you could start with the frontier town dinner. Player 1, why are you at the dinner? If the player stalls, help with a few open-ended suggestions. "You're human, are you perhaps related to the Baroness, or work there, or something else?" Player 2, how do you know Player 1's character? "You're dwarven, which means you're old enough that you'd have seen Player 1 born and growing up. Did you have any role in that, did you help them or offer advice, or something else?"

Get the ball rolling, let the players come up with cool ideas (and they will).

By the time my gamers did this, one was the daughter of the Baroness who got her first task (get rid of the Vistani stragglers), one was the bastard son of the oft-absent baron (fiercely protected by the daughter, who fought to keep him there when his sorcerous powers manifested), another was the "wise old mentor" half-elf who educated them both, and he was friends with the game warden (a dwarven ranger who taught the kids outdoor skills). Now you have a "family" of adventurers who would do anything to protect one another as they soon find themselves being drawn away from the safety of their home and into a strange, lethal world.

 

[Quickleaf]

I remember seeing something like this on Homebrewery... no it was GM Binder... hang on...

https://www.gmbinder.com/pdf/-MP6eFWPDDfpUwa4RcWU/curse-of-strahd---mysterious-secrets.pdf

 

[Digital M@]

Thanks. Players can deny their secret if they don't like it but in groups I have used it with, it lead to interesting character choices and characters less purely stat and ability based. I also like the idea of not forcing a race on somone if they dont want. I will include two versions/options for those.