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

[haakon1]

Most recently formed party backgrounds. Since it’s over email, there’s a wide variety of actual locations and backgrounds, though I know them all outside the game.

- Halfling from a merchant family signed up for an arranged marriage for business alliance reasons and ran away with the dowry because he’s a rogue who wants to be free from halfling society. (Player is an actual farmer in Minnesota, and happily married.)

- Orphaned half-elf raised by halfling farmers. Felt a calling to serve a halfling god as a Paladin. (Player is an actor in LA.)

- Human son of a blacksmith, raised to carry on the family trade, but conscripted and made to be a fighter (longbowman). He went AWOL and learned to become a Wizard-Enchanter from a hedgemage. (Player is CEO of the family business his dad started in the Seattle area.)

- Naive cloistered elf cleric. Sent to the city to deliver a book, but struck up a friendship with the fighter-enchanter and has no plans to return to his temple. What’s a few months among elves? (Player is an accountant in Chicago, college best friend of fighter-enchanter player.)

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I'm sure the situation was a lot more nuanced than that.

Well, my relationship didn't have as many musical numbers.

But to give Crazy Ex-Girlfriend it's due - it really got good in Season 2. I get the feeling the show is the passion project of the star/producer (Rachel Bloom.) A quick joojle tells me that, yes, Rachel Bloom does have BPD.

 

[Hussar]

Why wouldn’t they? One day, they helped the knight with something, showed potential, the knight saw something in them, so they offered to squire the young farmer. Who would say no?

I mean, heck, squiredom is a perfect reason to become an adventurer. You became an adventurer because you were apprenticed to an adventurer. No tragedy required. It's not like a paladin or a druid or a ranger never took on a squire/acolyte.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I mean, heck, squiredom is a perfect reason to become an adventurer. You became an adventurer because you were apprenticed to an adventurer. No tragedy required. It's not like a paladin or a druid or a ranger never took on a squire/acolyte.

Absolutely!

And there is a lot to recommend being those things.

And then there is the “carrying on the family legacy” backstory, or “I was raised in the guild” backstory, or even “I was a weird silent child and the local [insert class] was known to be similar so my parents took me to her and she took me as an apprentice.”

All potentially happy characters that want to adventure because they have the skills and the inclination and opportunity.

 

[Hussar]

Absolutely!

And there is a lot to recommend being those things.

And then there is the “carrying on the family legacy” backstory, or “I was raised in the guild” backstory, or even “I was a weird silent child and the local [insert class] was known to be similar so my parents took me to her and she took me as an apprentice.”

All potentially happy characters that want to adventure because they have the skills and the inclination and opportunity.

Really, I would be over the moon if a player gave me that sort of background. "You belong to some sort of organization? Would you like that to be a thing in the game? FANTASTIC!" I keep telling my players that I will not weaponize their backgrounds without their express permission. No one seems to believe me, but, it's true. You have a family? Nothing bad is going to happen to them. I will not use them as a story hook without asking you first.

But everyone wants to make these characters with this hard, hard shell made of tephlon that nothing sticks to. Then they wonder why the campaign seems to focus on that one or two players that actually did have backgrounds that give me something to work with. SIgh.

 

[Retros_x]

People don’t climb mountains and circumnavigate the globe because their life sucked or they lost their family or someone dragged them into adventuring. They just do it because that impulse is a natural human impulse that is stronger in some folks than in others.

I really like that comparison and can completely understand that drive - unfortunately it still doesnt work for me, because adventuring in DnD means being a heavily armed combatant. Its not like like D&D adventurers just want to broaden their horizon - they are ready to slaughter everybody who stands in their way and are very proficient in combat. I think your suggestion would better work for less combat more narrative focused games, but in D&D 90% of character progression is based around combat. And that doesnt fit the happy family live for me, at least not in a campaign with "serious" storytelling.

I don't believe happy people with a stable support network leave everything to go heavily armed and ready to kill in some dangerous environments full of enemies. I never had an adventure where we "just" risk our own lives - the lives of a lot of other creatures are always in our hands too and characters get blood on their hands pretty quickly.

If its just a beer and pretzels game where we don't care about realistic character motivations, sure absolutely. I've played such characters myself. But they always are a bit "cartoonish" to me.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I really like that comparison and can completely understand that drive - unfortunately it still doesnt work for me, because adventuring in DnD means being a heavily armed combatant. Its not like like D&D adventurers just want to broaden their horizon - they are ready to slaughter everybody who stands in their way and are very proficient in combat. I think your suggestion would better work for less combat more narrative focused games, but in D&D 90% of character progression is based around combat. And that doesnt fit the happy family live for me, at least not in a campaign with "serious" storytelling.

I don't believe happy people with a stable support network leave everything to go heavily armed and ready to kill in some dangerous environments full of enemies. I never had an adventure where we "just" risk our own lives - the lives of a lot of other creatures are always in our hands too and characters get blood on their hands pretty quickly.

If it’s just a beer and pretzels game where we don't care about realistic character motivations, sure absolutely. I've played such characters myself. But they always are a bit "cartoonish" to me.

Fair enough, everyone has stuff like this where they just can’t resonate with a particular thing.

I think that you’re assuming a type of violence that isn’t universally the case in “serious” games, though. In particular the phrase “ready to kill anyone who stands in their way” rings quite jarringly false to me. From wotc statements and observation, most current D&D campaigns are heroic, rather than murder hobo or grimdark.

Also, it’s not like we don’t have a close equivalent in the form of young people with happy lives voluntarily going to war. Honor and glory is a hell of a drug. The only way it doesn’t make sense for the happy farmer to go adventuring is if there is no perceived glory or honor or fame or fortune in doing so. Whether they end up regretting it is another matter.

I think that the key to such characters is simply to take them seriously. What I mean by that is, accept the premise and then react to the world in character. If that means the character changes over time, great! If it means they simply become more defined but keep their optimistic outlook and yearning for adventure and glory, also great!

I hope that all makes sense.