PC backstory help/ideas?

[owangolama]

Hiya. I'm about to start a WotBS campaign. I'm interested in giving the players some backstory options that will, somewhere in the adventure arc, add something to the story. I will first admit that I have not read all of the modules (in fact, I've only completed reading #1), but I fear that if I wait to read all of them in detail, it will be quite a while before I can confidently tell my players what backgrounds will make the story most interesting.

So I'm looking for ideas, like:

- PC is a user of arcane magic and is thus inherently in danger. They study at Gabal and blah blah blah...

- PC is a [WHAT RACE?] member of the resistance from [WHERE?]. Obviously, it would be great if the race and/or location origin of the PC was relevant in some way.

Hopefully my question makes sense. I'm just looking for advice about what I can suggest to my characters that will, in the long haul, bear some interesting fruit. Obviously, there are some pseudo-suggestions in the Guides, but I'm interested in hearing from DMs or players that have found particular enjoyment in specific PCs' stories.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[joebobodo]

3 out of my 5 players have backgrounds thus far (we are about halfway through Gate Pass. My other 2 players are still getting a feel for their characters).

The Female Tiefling Wizard (Kalastryn Zolfura) selected the "Dark Secret" generic background from the character builder. I worked with her to adapt it to the WotBS setting, and this is what resulted:

You have a dark secret. The trouble is, you can't remember it. Dark images haunt your sleep and even occasionally your waking moments. Brief flashes of torture, blood, and claustrophobic rooms. Even though nothing is even distinct or clear in these images, you cannot shake the idea that you are not on the receiving end, but the giving end of these despicable acts.
Your memories are full of holes. Where you come from (whether it's the nation of Ostalin, where most Tieflings on the continent are from or not) is entirely up to you, but you just can't understand quite how you ended up in Gate Pass.
You think you're running from something, something having to do with these images that haunt you. You've been in this city for a while, taking advantage of its tolerance of outsiders and its neutrality. You've even managed to make a bit of a home for yourself, and maybe have taken up some further magic studies and scholarship within the city (on your own or with help).
Either way, your time here and your talents have not gone completely unnoticed...

Her secret, which she remains blissfully unaware of, has to do with her character being involved in the making of the magical weapon that requires the kidnapping of all the arcane magic-users.


The Male Dwarf Warlord (Werim) selected the "Dedicated to an Ancestor" background from the character builder. Again adapting to the WotBS setting, this is what we ended up with:

You hale from a nearby, underground Dwarven nation, deep in the heart of what your people refer to as The Singing Chasm. Among your isolated people (the dwarves have long decided to separate themselves from the outside world), you were somewhat revered. You were born on the same exact day of the year as one of your people’s greatest ancestors (feel free to make these details up on your own, such as who this ancestor was and what they did), and so great things have been expected of you since your birth.
In recent years, one of King Stalwarden’s sons, Marben Diamondheart, decided that the dwarves needed to reclaim their rightful place in the world, and recapture the glories of their past empires. Your king would not hear of it, and so Marben struck out on his own with a few devout followers to begin his own clan in the image of his forbears.
To the shock of the King’s clan, your parents were among those who left with Marben. As you were old enough to make your own decisions, they did not force you to come. Due to your fame, auspicious birth, and conflicting loyalties, you found the decision too difficult to make, and instead chose exile from all dwarven clans. So, here you are in Gate Pass, a city on the verge of anarchy, invasion, and rebellion. What will you do should your name be called to heroics?

Of course, this background will come up in an interesting way toward the end of this first adventure. I look forward to seeing where this goes, especially since this is player who is brand new to the D&D game.


Our Male Human Ranger came up with his own background which I then tweaked to make more specific to the setting and the overarching plot:

You grew up on the fringe of the farming community on the outskirts of Gate Pass. A couple years ago, your older brother, showing signs of magical potential and political passion, disobeyed your parents and struck out for Gate Pass. From your few correspondences with your brother, you gleaned enough information to know these vital things:
He had begun studying magic with a fledgling school of sorcery run by an ambitious Halfling.
His letters are constantly flecked with treasonous words of rebellion and resistance, often times referring to a “Scourge” and the need for Gate Pass to stand up for itself.
While he never says so explicitly, you have taken to believe that your brother had joined with an underground resistance group. The name Torrent, tied to these clues, has come up on more than one occasion.
Recently, any and all word from your brother has ceased. Struck with the moral dilemma of seeking out your lost sibling and staying with your parents (and in their good graces), you have opted to flee to Gate Pass. Never quite sure of how you felt regarding your brother’s life choices, you investigations into his disappearance have led you further and further down a rabbit hole that has no light at it’s end. At this point in time, you know (or suspect) these things:
Your brother was a rebellious magic-user in a city facing a Scourge of all arcane wielders.
The Inquisitors, Ragesian enforcers of the Scrouge, have not yet been allowed entrance into the city.
There are groups within the city that have taken it upon themselves to make an early start to the Scourge in the hopes of gaining favor with, who they believe to be, the victorious invading nation.
The most notable of these groups goes by the name: The Black Horses.

This background has already hit the ground running as the PCs begin getting entangled with Torrent and the Resistance, and the very first encounter happens to be with The Black Horses. What I like about this background is that it acts as a nice opening hook to the early events and then will continue to be relevant periodically through the campaign.


I'll try to remember to post my other 2 player's backgrounds once they've become more firmed up. I hope this helps/inspires/etc...

Also, I'd love feedback on these from people who have experience with the campaign. Do you foresee any roadblocks in my future?

 

[owangolama]

Joe! Good stuff, and thanks for sharing. This is certainly helpful. I'm looking for more fodder like this, but I certainly don't need all the details (though it was fun reading yours).

I'd like to be able to give my players vague options that we can flesh out (and thus will be more meaningful) later.

It would especially cool if somebody could give me some backstory hints that would tie in later in the adventure arc (note that by backstory I do not mean a specific background in the CB).

Thanks again in advance for any ideas/hints/thoughts!

 

[owangolama]

Bump... no love, huh? Bummer... oh well, I was hoping for a community that was a bit more active...

 

[RangerWickett]

Hiya. I'm about to start a WotBS campaign. I'm interested in giving the players some backstory options that will, somewhere in the adventure arc, add something to the story.

Have the players already given you ideas of what they want to play? I'd rather not spend tons of time posting suggestions for possibilities that no one will use.

Here are the easy connections:

Monks and psions can be affiliated with the Temple of Echoed Souls, which shows up in adventure 7.

For the Monastery of the Two Winds, monks, sorcerers, and invokers (in 3e it was clerics, but I think invokers work better in 4e) are a good fit. Especially if they want to focus on lightning or thunder attacks. Storm sorcerers should definitely have some connection to here; when I was that class I felt like someone had read the campaign saga. The monastery shows up in adventure 5.

Any character with some psionic talent could have a trace of trillith in them. The first trillith the PCs meet, Indomitability, shows up in adventure 2, but they make appearances in 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10.

If you want some real weirdness, you could have minotaur, shifter, wilden, and PCs of similar 'hybrid man-thing' races be -- instead of a full race -- perhaps an abandoned creation of Pilus, the biomancer/storm sorcerer/monk from adventures 5 and 11.

Dwarves fit well w/the kingdom of Dassen in adventure 4. Gnomes can have some fun with a gnomish adventuring company in adventure 7.


I mean, there are lots of options. When I ran the campaign back in 3.5, the PCs were:

* A human fighter with a level of sorcerer that represented him having a trillith secretly bonded to him.

* A human rogue who wrote him and his NPC sister in as spies posing as refugees, though he ended up joining with the resistance.

* A wizard who studied with Gabal and eventually became the most famed spellduelist in Seaquen.

* A psychic goblin whose clan had a century's old vendetta against Shaaladel, the leader of the elvish nation.

 

[Skyscraper]

Your question appeared a bit precise that's why I didn't answer, but here are a few thoughts.

I've just started DMing the campaign, we're barely a session into it.

One PC is an eladrin and is a member of the military navy from Shahalesti. One PC is an eladrin rogue that got picked up on the same boat the other eladrin was on, as a pirate. They both became friends and they both fled Shahalesti.

One PC is a wizard student at Gabal's. Nothing more for the moment on this one for the time being.

One is a goliath fighter who used to live in the mountains near Gate Pass and is now a member of the Gate Pass militia.

No PC really has a background that ties in to the story directly, but all have something that ties them to the environment. Nothing extraordinary to report, but they seem happy enough about the humble beginning. I had offered that they be members of the Resistance before the game started, even mentioning that the game would start by being contacted by them, but they all refused, which is fine for me. Sometimes, the backgrounds that seem thrilling for a DM just don't have that shine for the players.

Sky