D&D General It's Session Zero! How Much Backstory Do You Give Your Character?

[cbwjm]

I almost never write more than a couple sentences (or have a couple in my head). My current character, a half-orc barbarian/wizard grew up on a farm with loving parents before moving to the city to join a wizard academy. That's pretty much all I have. It's kind of wild that having a relatively normal background is the odd one out in my group, everyone else has tragic or weird backstories.

 

[CleverNickName]

@Man in the Funny Hat 's post is just too real. And sometimes, it's not just a bad DM...sometimes the players get in on the backstory-bashing too.

One time, I decided I was going to play a pacifist character. Combat is rather boring for me, and I was looking for ways to mix it up and handle it differently...a little change of pace, ya know? But I know the guys I play D&D with, and I knew I couldn't ever tell them that my character was a pacifist. I had to keep it a secret, because as soon as they found out, they would all narrow their eyes and smirk and say "oh a pacifist, you say? Let's just see about that, shall we?" and put me into countless no-win situations until I broke character.

So I rolled up a cleric, chose the Life domain, armed myself with a mace and shield. Pretty standard cleric stuff, right? And when we were fighting non-living creatures like constructs and undead, I was happily blasting and bashing along with everyone else. But if we were fighting living creatures--especially animals and humanoids--I would only use skills and spells. I'd cast protection spells, healing spells, buffs, battlefield control spells; I'd make knowledge checks, create distractions, use the Help action, use healing kits. A cleric can always find something useful to do.

Nobody noticed until we were like, 9th level. And sure enough, every encounter thereafter was a contrived attempt to force my character to finally attack someone. Enemies would focus on my character every round, everyone in the party would stand aside and let them rush me...

 

[Oofta]

Yes they do. When the game starts, however, the lives of characters now revolve around a NEW circle of friends and found-family in the other PC's. If those individuals of my past were so important to my PC why aren't the other players playing those characters instead of their own? Why does my PC need to return to the family farm to visit mom and dad and uncle Flarrb in order to get other players to accept that my PC HAS a family somewhere? How important is it to write that history down for everyone else and have EVERYONE'S backstory specifically feature in the ongoing game events?

I like people having ties and I rarely use threats specific to a family member as a plot device. People don't just suddenly exist fully grown one day. Unless you're Athena and the result of a (literally) splitting headache.

 

[Seramus]

I used to write backstories, but once I was inside the character it often feels wrong or not like the character at all. Worse, I sometimes tried to force the character to adhere to the backstory even though they were turning out to be someone completely different than what I imagined at the start of the game.

Now I make up the backstory as the game goes, based on what feels right for the character while wearing their skin. This turns into a process of discovery as I decide "X makes sense!" and then decide they acted that way because Y happened in their past. Pretty soon I've got a robust backstory that all came about during play.

 

[bedir than]

I'm writing the equivalent of a tweet/thread/toot/whatever per level these days.

I find that gives me a foundation for my character, and leaves a lot of space for the DM, the party and myself to fill in during play.

 

[ezo]

Sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes none. There is really no standard for me when it comes to backstory as a player or what I get from my players as DM.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Lots.

If they didn't exist in the world prior to play, I don't see the point of playing them.

And if that makes the DM sad, I know I wouldn't enjoy playing with them anyway.

 

[Shiroiken]

I normally put in enough to explain my motivation. Usually 2-3 paragraphs are fine, and while I give it to the DM, I don't necessarily expect them to do more than skim over it. I like to provide plenty of plot hooks for the DM, even if they have no intention of using them.

 

[J.Quondam]

Anywhere from "nothing" to "three or four paragraphs", depending on the campaign. Usually a few bullet points (eg, BIFTs), plus maybe a sentence or two overview.

 

[Richards]

I generally come up with (what I hope are) interesting backstories for my PCs, but I don't generally share much of it with the other PCs - that's information for the DM to do with as he sees fit. The other PCs get to know the basic generalities of my PCs, and the other stuff gets released over the course of the campaign if the DM chooses.

My first PC had a dead wife and was adventuring to donate money to the orphanage raising his infant daughter, all of which was revealed and became relevant plot points over the course of that campaign. My current PC, a human sorcerer born to a noble family, was cast out by his father when his sorcerous abilities started manifesting (he wasn't aware he'd been casting spells, but his father assumed he'd made a bargain with a fiend for the ability to do so), and while that plotline has been resolved (he was welcomed back into the family), I'm still waiting to find out if my sorcerer's real mother was his father's wife (as everyone believes) or the nanny who practically raised him and his older brother, as I left that open for the DM to decide.

My next PC will be a human cleric, but he'll secretly be worshiping a different god than the one to which everyone believes him to be in service. The future DM has already approved that concept, and it'll be a nice reveal moment in that campaign when it finally comes out.

Johnathan