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Message: <blockquote data-quote="halfling rogue" data-source="post: 6496032" data-attributes="member: 6779182">I wound up hindering my dwarf because my DM never really found a way to insert plot hooks I placed in my backstory. Every character I've ever created has had some kind of backstory where I'm offering plot hooks on a plate. I understand some of the reasons why the DM would have a hard time inserting it though. I'm just one of like 5 players and to have a story linked to me might not be so exciting for the others. Plus it's a lot of hard work to incorporate different backstories, etc.Anyway, I think this was one of the reasons why I created my character as I did, a wooden leg was a part of my backstory: Former general led a charge against a dragon who invaded a dwarven stronghold, trapped with a dragon in a cave in, the dragon bit off his leg and burned the left side of his body, and he figured he was as good as dead. He fainted and upon waking, vaguely remembers seeing shadowy figures giving him something reviving drink. Upon fully waking, the dragon was dead and his axe was embedded deep in its side. The dwarven army finally breaks through the cave in to find this scene. They cheered him as the dragon slayer, but he knew he didn't do it.There was a bit more, but the point is, I couldn't really carry any of the unfolding story into the game with me unless the DM did something with it. Who killed the dragon, not wanting to go back to my hometown until I could live up to my new status, the shadowy figures, etc, all of this stuff is just air. But the wooden leg and blind eye I could bring along with me.Now not only did I have a quirky character to share, but a reason for the party to be interested in why I had a wooden leg or why my face was so scarred up. In that campaign the DM eventually wanted to use the home from my backstory for his campaign to play out, in part because I think because the rest of the party now felt like they knew a bit about it and it added an extra dimension to what he already had planned. Kill two birds with one stone kind of thing.I kind of have the feeling that if he didn't have a wooden leg, none of the backstory really would have mattered to anyone. Not that it has to matter to anyone, and not that I just did it because I wanted any limelight, but that it gave our gameplay another level, one that all of us were okay with. Personally it was my favorite character to play because it was so fun. Plus it provided lots of laughs.</blockquote>

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