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► Advice for DMs on how to use player backstories in the campaign: • Making D&D backstories ACTUALLY matter
► INDEX
0:00 Backstory bad habits
0:50 Not having a catalyst
3:25 Sponsored by Converse!
4:30 Ignoring worldbuilding
6:45 Having a rigid plan
10:00 Writing a novel
12:20 Ignoring character level
13:20 Mistakes that aren't mistakes
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Views : 161,266
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Date of upload: Apr 24, 2024 ^^
Rating : 4.971 (86/11,900 LTDR)
RYD date created : 2024-05-15T21:03:42.213765Z
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YouTube Comments - 1,351 Comments
Top Comments of this video!! :3
Okay, but you've got to write an incredibly long backstory with insane feats in it, and have the character flaw "is a pathological liar" at least once
1.8K |
On the note of character investment, my wife was SO invested in her half-elf ranger that after she saved her estranged father from the underdark, she decided to retire the character so she could live with her Tiefling girlfriend and help her at her potion shop.
She loved this ranger so much she was genuinely worried something bad would happen to her. So she asked if she could retire Emelgwen and roll up a new character. Emelgwen is still in the world and can be called upon by the party. She’s just not an adventurer any more.
511 |
With the whole “I ran a magic shop, but one day the place was robbed clean” would be an incredible setup for a game in which the player went to try to find said items to return them to the shop. Cause that way you can have random enemies throughout the campaign all equipped with pieces from the collection to maybe work to tie them all together to one source to find the initial thief
391 |
You can be creative with giving a low-level character an illustrious backstory. In curse of Strahd, my 3rd level ranger was a major player in an uprising, but since entering Strahd's domain had become a severe alcoholic. Hence, leveling up for her isn't improving herself in a novel way, it's working past her demons to take back full control of her life and regain the skill and drive she once had
519 |
I love nothing more than a player who ties their character directly into the bones of the campaign setting. You want to be part of a major faction? Yes! You wanna be a cleric of an outlawed god? Interesting!! You want to be from the town where we are starting? You betcha! Sending all the Nat 20 luck to anyone who does this.
985 |
I'm glad I am not the only one that writes two different length backstories, one to give to the DM and one optional to read that I did so for me.
837 |
My immediate thought about the magic shop is that she ran it while her husband went adventuring for supplies, but now he’s injured- took an arrow to the knee- and can’t bring back magic plants, monster parts, and mystical paraphernalia anymore. So now it’s her turn, but all she has is his half legible self-written guide to ingredients, and so she must seek the help of other adventurers, etc. etc.
107 |
I actually did have a character who had slain an adult green dragon in his backstory. The twist was that he was but one member of a huge hunting party that his tribe sent to do the deed; he was just the lucky sucker who happened to strike the final blow. The tribe gave him a deed-name for it and expected great things from him, while he suffered from impostor syndrome and overcompensated by projecting a tough-guy image to everyone he met.
He actually did go on to really wreck (and get the last hit on) a green dragon late in the campaign. I don't think the DM planned it for story reasons, though. That was just a reasonable boss for that adventure, and my character happened to roll insanely well in the fight. He did have a policy on our later adventures of letting the player who dealt the final blow on the boss keep the mini, so I have a cool green dragon on my RPG shelf now!
68 |
As a DM, I love the final point about players caring about their characters and not punishing them for it. The problems with backstories, mechanics understanding, even gameplay styles can all be addressed and remedied so much easier if the players actually care. That is what means the most to me when I'm running a game for them
397 |
My last backstory document was huge, there was a paragraph at the top that said "what you need to know" and then the rest of the document tilted "I got carried away, sorry." I'm glad I'm not alone.
54 |
I'm not going to lie, I'm a huge fan of somewhat comedic back stories. One of my favorite was from a few campaigns ago. A friend was a level 1 Halfling Druid whose story was that he and his family were farmers. Everyone is safe and mostly happy. His reason for traveling is to find his horse who had been "stolen," because she's been his best friend for years. What he doesn't realize is that his horse was never actually stolen. His younger sister had borrowed her, with their parent's knowledge, and the horse and his sister returned home 2 days after he had left in his search. He never bothered to ask his parents before he left, he was too embarrassed to tell them that his horse had been "stolen," instead he left a note saying he wanted to see the city and would be back before harvest. Thus began the adventure of Karl Willowbark and the search for his horse named Jenni.
43 |
One of my favorite characters was the third child, out of four, of a clothier and merchant. Education was very important, so she had been attending schools most of her life. At the start of the campaign she had been corresponding with a research wizard as part of her graduate project and had not received a response to her last three letters.
133 |
I'll admit my weakest part of roleplay is reacting to how the dice fall, as I can sometimes fall into the trap of 'I wish it had rolled this, imagine how cool/dramatic/allowing for character development it would have been', rather than fully understanding that it's all about how I in-character should respond to wins and losses. This is good great advice. Also? I want those shoes, here's hoping they bring them to Australia.
PS: Five breaths, if you need it.
253 |
Worth pointing out to people starting with higher-level campaigns, "make sure your character's backstory is appropriate to your level" goes both ways. A 6th-level Ancients Paladin is not likely to be a wet-behind-the-ears farm girl looking for her dog that got lost in the woods, nor is a 15th-level fighter likely to be "a lowly new recruit to the city guard"!
Great advice, as per usual, Ginny!
63 |
I'd like to add one more for the cliche part: Do not shy away from playing basic setups like for example the human warrior commonfolk or maybe even with a military background as soldier. I for one think since they are often seen as basic they have also the biggest opportunities to grow and even surprise the group. I can understand the desire to play exotic characters since RP should be a getaway, but playing a Githyanki necromancer or tiefling druid you are most likely allready some kind of unicorn and super special magic awesome, which kind of lessens the opportunity for growth a bit.
112 |
One thing I would add: Don't be afraid to collaborate with other players at your table on backstory. The party doesn't have to be total strangers at the start of the adventure, maybe they've crossed paths before: Friends, siblings, former lovers, rivals, parents, etc. can all make for very interesting party dynamics.
34 |
One time, my ENTIRE player group joined in a kind of prank on our DM who wanted us to make LEVEL ONE characters, wherein we were all these epic villains, planes hopping terrors that have felled kings and empires, with a loyal army of soldiers thousands strong...
AND THEN, we thought we were so smart and untouchable that we went to Sigil and tried to *usurp the Lady of Pain*. She didn't take to kindly to this and proceeded to turn our loyal soldiers into so much fertilizer. In a last, DESPERATE bid to escape my wizard used a kinda janky teleport spell he was still working the kinks out of but would render them untraceable, having the whole party jump through... reverting our ages and capabilities back to level 1, thought we still largely possessed our memories but with that fog of timey wimey nonsense that kept our proficiency bonus at +2, even for stuff we knew otherwise.
45 |
“We’ve all heard the horror stories.” Huh. What horror stories?
Kidding. Anyway, your point about caring about player characters hit home with me. I’ll take it a step further and say it’s a mistake for DMs to not care about PCs.
How can you build a world/story around people you don’t give a crap about?
188 |
My sweat has dried up because according to your tips, I did my current/first D&D character backstory correctly. I gave a summarized version to the DM, had a catalyst/reason to be from where she was, then to adventure, and while I had an idea in mind to how her character arc would go, I played along with the dice and DM's plans to see what would be the ultimate shift in her.
I just had a session where I shared her story to the rest of the party. I had a rule that she would try to keep it to herself for as long as she could because she is ashamed of what happened to her. But the session before, she died - she saved the paladin, now her adoptive father, from a lich Power Word Kill by switching places with him. We had a cleric with a diamond to save her after. Dying is a pretty big deal and it rocked my whole party.
I was pretty scared to share her story after because I was worried I went too far. Thankfully, this video just validated that I'm doing alright. 😅
79 |
@GinnyDi
2 weeks ago
Lots of folks sharing some incredible exceptions to these rules in the comments! The thing about "rules" is that if you understand WHY they exist, you can always break them. 🙌 Every single "bad habit" I described here COULD work, if you understand why it's a bad habit, and are clever about navigating that. You can be the last of the elves as long as your DM is on board for it. You can own a magic shop and have a husband and adventure for... I dunno, a different reason than the ones I suggested. You can slay a dragon before level 1, as long as there's an explanation for why they are NOT dragon-slaying-level-powerful AT level one. I truly hope that y'all know me well enough by now that you know I am NOT making these videos to shut you down or tell you that you're playing wrong. As always, my goal is to provide you with information that teaches you something, makes you think, and gives you ideas. You don't have to listen to me unless you find what I'm saying helpful, and want to listen to me! OKAY BYE 💕
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