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[BlackFlyme]

Just curious: how do some people come up with their character's back-stories?

My DM wants us to come up with stories for our characters, but I can't quite figure out how my character could have gotten to where he his.

[scrdest]

Just curious: how do some people come up with their character's back-stories?

My DM wants us to come up with stories for our characters, but I can't quite figure out how my character could have gotten to where he his.

One half character concept and one half asking yourself questions about the various things you've established already. Let's say you have a wizard. Why did he become a wizard? Why [something in the answer] is a thing? Change lines of thought - where he could be from? What was it like there? Eventually it sorta congeals into something coherent.

[BlackFlyme]

Eh, I have a vague idea, but the prestige class I'm going to be taking belongs to a group that only operates in few select places.

Another player plans to take a prestige class that never leaves their home country, and we are quite a ways away from it. Plus he doesn't really act within their tenants.

[Rolan7]

.

[Flying Dice]

Just curious: how do some people come up with their character's back-stories?

My DM wants us to come up with stories for our characters, but I can't quite figure out how my character could have gotten to where he his.

Here's my process:

I decide, in crunch terms, the sort of character I want to play for the campaign, from anywhere as broad as "I want to into magic" to as narrow as "I want to be a perfectly optimized charger." Flip a coin for gender, roll dice for height/weight. Pick eye and hair color. Put all of that together into a general description. That's the broad strokes of the simple stuff out of the way.

Now, I figure out what my character's drive is -- what is the fundamental purpose of their life? Generally, I try to go for something that meshes with the crunch. From the combination of core goal and the roles they serve in the party, I derive personal characteristics. Then, I try to figure out how they got to where they are in life. Remember, stories will emerge naturally from realistic characters and their interactions.

Another way to go about it is to just build their backstory with a 5e sheet. It's got a really straightforward four-box framing device for characters which any half-competent RPer can easily translate into a more nuanced character.

[tonnot98]

My brother's barbarian got raped to death by a friend's spirit whale.

It was messy.

[Flying Dice]

wat

[Spehss _]

My brother's barbarian got raped to death by a friend's spirit whale.

It was messy.

Only in a pen and paper tabletop rpg, ladies and gents. Quality gameplay! Fun for the whole family!

[My Name is Immaterial]

wat

FATAL

[Spehss _]

wat

FATAL-ity

ftfy

[Sergius]

wat

FATAL

Ah, he probably had a low A.C. score then (not armor class).

[Tack]

Just curious: how do some people come up with their character's back-stories?

Here's my process:

Mine is the direct opposite:
First up I've never played a woman in anything I've played. No idea why, but it's basically tradition now.
So I go - What do I want to play/What does this group need more of - that gets me my class.
Then I skip straight to the backstory. I throw a complication straight on the empty table and away we go.
Complications: He's an idiot/He's rash/He's pretentious/He's insane/He's uncompromisingly evil.
Put that in, and let that guide the stats you make for them. Chances are you can still minmax them pretty effectively whilst working around that.

After that you try to figure out WHY they have that particular character trait
Are they insane? Maybe something horrific happened to them or their family.
Are they stupid? Maybe they've lived a very sheltered life.

The GM usually gives you a reason for being there, so you just tweak the last year or so of your backstory to shunt in there as needed.

From there it's just filling in the little blanks with dramatic/funny stuff as needed and away you go.

My personal two triumphs would be:
The Xenophobic lizardman paladin I created for a high-rp game I played.
(Humans were spreading throughout his home swamp which would usually have been anathema to them, so he considers them some kind of highly-adaptable vermin)
- And a funny half-orc berserker who grew up with a very soft heart and lawful mindset, underneath a very evil and manipulative baron von father figure.
("Never fear! 'Tis the duty of the nobility to cull the peasantry", "But those humans are slaves! This is horrible! Humans make TERRIBLE slaves! Nobody likes minotaurs- use minotaurs!")

[scrdest]

Baron Von Father sounds like the name of a villain-that's-a-parent-figure-symbol in a kids movie.

[BlackFlyme]

I think I got my character figured out, but it's a bit difficult to validate the prestige class I want to take.

Not as bad as the cleric/rogue though. Prestige classing into a class that requires that the members' true identities are never known. Even more difficult is the fact that you aren't even supposed to be able to tell one member apart from another, yet he wants to make a name for himself. Hell, this class isn't even supposed to leave their home country without good reason, yet he has never even once set foot within its borders.

Plus his backstory is logically impossible to have occurred.

[scrdest]

I think I got my character figured out, but it's a bit difficult to validate the prestige class I want to take.

Not as bad as the cleric/rogue though. Prestige classing into a class that requires that the members' true identities are never known. Even more difficult is the fact that you aren't even supposed to be able to tell one member apart from another, yet he wants to make a name for himself. Hell, this class isn't even supposed to leave their home country without good reason, yet he has never even once set foot within its borders.

Plus his backstory is logically impossible to have occurred.

That... sounds like a shoehorn either way you try to tackle that. I mean - outside of game mechanics, what in-character reason this character could possibly have in joining that particular organization? If the skills aren't fluffwise bound to active membership, you might make him a rogue member of whatever that is, whose ambitions made him leave or betray or whatevs the main, with proper consequences.