D&D General Oh Please give me some Happy Backgrounds!!

[Dragonhelm]

Ginny Di addressed this very topic. Her video got me to thinking about creating characters without tragic backstories.


To me, tragic backstories are fine, but they have become cliche'. So I'm challenging myself these days to come up with characters that aren't tragic. I've had some great results by doing this.

 

[TorgoTheWhite]

Glorymonger, a wagger, own a magic shop and need things for it, a retired pinnacle of their field out to prove they've still "got it", a clueless innocent crusader for a church, a peasant was the only one left for a job. The tragedy can be pretty minimal to start the adventure, then the true motivation can come later. Maybe you are roped into adventure by proxy, maybe you need to clear your name because you happened to be in the same place as the party during the wrong-place-wrong-time

1) You can be a braggart: one adventure I have going, the campaign is a magic invitation to glory. The character reminds me of Big Fish a little. Character is a big fish in a small pond.
2) Be a gambler that loves the promise of riches.
3) Let a culture guide you? So a nomadic culture of "odd-job" types. Maybe you have to earn your keep to get that cushy job you want?
4) I made an eternally youthful Paladin that was basically a Missoura river boy. Motivation was complex, but the darkness was minimal

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Just started watching season 4 of Critical Role. Well done, Liam. Yet another tragic backstory. I should turn this into a drinking game.

 

[Dyson Logos]

The character I played in our 11 year long Empire of the Petal Throne campaign (recently ended) was one of these.

He was retired from the temple military. Spent all his time fishing and taking care of his clanmembers' children (he and his wife never had kids, but act as parents for a lot of the clanchildren)... and then one day a bunch of his "nephews" decided to start adventuring and he joined them because otherwise he was SURE they were going to get in over their heads and get themselves a mild case of stabbing.

Turns out he was right.

He sent missives back home regularly, and would drop in when in town to shower his wife and clanchildren with the prizes of his adventuring.

He also spent a LOT of time during the campaign fishing. "Alright folks, except for Grujung who's obviously fishing, anyone have any thing they want to do during downtime?"

 

[Dyson Logos]

My current character in the next campaign for that group (Fading Suns) is a young Li Halan noble who romanticizes the ancient history of his family - back when they were the most decadent and hedonistic of the noble families of the empire instead of their current status as the most reserved and religious of the families. He romanticizes it to the point of ignoring all the negative aspects of that era (like the fact that the family was mostly demon-worshippers too).

He just finds the modern family... stiffling and boring.

So, armed with a disgustingly handsome allowance, he's off to explore places far from Li Halan space (mostly because his family would much rather he cause trouble elsewhere).

 

[Bae'zel]

You are comparing travelling in Europe to going dungeon crawling? Been watching too much GB News?

Um... we're not talking about 21st century glamour travels by influencers on trains and ubers.

We're talking about pre-industrial times; travelling about the wilderness was likely dangerous. Highwaymen were a thing right? War time dangers? Wild animals?

 

[Azzy]

Um... we're not talking about 21st century glamour travels by influencers on trains and ubers.

We're talking about pre-industrial times; travelling about the wilderness was likely dangerous. Highwaymen were a thing right? War time dangers? Wild animals?

Do keep in mind, though, that there was a lot of travel, migration, and trade networks even during the neolithic and chacolithic periods of Europe's prehistory.

 

[haakon1]

Mmm, chocolithic. (mouth waters)