characters history

[S'mon]

IMO (as DM) only do a multi-page history if you can do it as an entertaining narrative the DM will find interesting to read. Otherwise stick to 1 page of A4.
One thing I hated running PBEMs was people who used the same 12-page background for _every PC they played_, ie they played the same PC in every game and the poor DM had to cope with this huge tedious background for some 1st-level half-orc.

 

[Michael Morris]

I was wondering how long my characters history should be? I have to give it to the DM (?) tomorrow and I haven't started it yet. But thats because I have so many ideas but I don't know how long it should be....

As Crothian said, as long as it needs to be. Just be careful, you'll end up with a novel if you're not careful.

 

[Bagpuss]

If its a first level character then you could do about a paragraph.

"Worked on his uncles farm since his father died in orc raid. Now he has come of age he has decided to sneak out the orc that killed his father. He intends to arange for money to be sent home to help his mother and younger sister."

That would do for nearly any non-magic using class. It's not like at 1st level you've done much. You've given the DM three friendly NPC's for plot hooks, a motivation and character goal (finding the orc that killed your father). But you haven't given him anything that will throw out a standard campaign.

That's actually more help to the DM that some of the massively wordy documents I've had in the past about 1st level characters that try and give them noble titles and all sorts of stuff that messes with my plans for the campaign.

If there higher level you might want to throw more in, also if they are a mage or cleric you'll probably want to put something in about where you were trained.

 

[Silver Moon]

I would say it depends largely upon the player and character. Some players in my group have characters with little to no history, while others could write an entire novel on their characters. We have one DM with a character who didn't know all of her past, having been raised by away from her parents. She's so far DM'ed two modules where the party's primary mission has been to locate each biological parent. We also occassionally have a "Tavern Night", which is a filler game between modules where the characters just sit around in a tavern and tell stories, many about their pasts.