On the other side of the screen we have players…. “Roll the Bones” is for you.

A character, like the player behind it, is a culmination of past experiences. How the react to situations and people around them is heavily rooted in their personal history, and this is the very reason a believable backstory is important.

Detail is not as important as originality. Avoiding cliches can be challenging in many settings, but can had depth to a character.  Discuss your backstory with the Dungeon / Game Master so that any elements that are of your own design can be reviewed and approved. This allows them to add any elements or story arcs to the world that can put your character in a range of situations. Avoid loose ends, and don’t be afraid to introduce characters that can be used as NPCs through out the campaign, a rival or arch enemy is never bad.  In fact in the campaign I run comprised of Nightly.Net community members we have that.

Tim was once the champion of village. A star hunter and exalted soldier. He was given what the village called a “Truename”. A name that encompassed his exploits. Whilst on a hunt, he returned to find that the rival village had burned his to the ground. Slaughtering everyone. Tim arrived to see the champion of the other village slay his father, with set of spiked chains. Tim engaged the marauder in a combat that lasted several days till he disarmed his opponent and took his chains.  His opponent fled. From that moment on Tim has hunted his opponent, hiding his “Truename” from all, and allowing his horrific scars to tell his story.  Of the bloodfued he now holds with his brother.

While the story itself is very cliched, he added a dynamic that I have been able to use as a motivator for him. And even a potential future conflict for the party. And the fact that his brother was the one to kill his entire village opened the door for various character traits to be more believable. Another character in a game I run has a much different backstory. But for the sake of not spoiling my party (they read this), I’m going to rename her.

Rick James comes from a common Elven family. He has had three things going for him his whole life : being stunningly beautiful, being highly charismatic and well-liked, and having both a skill and a fondness for disguise and acting. He has had two personality pitfalls : a love of money, and a love of the excitement of a risky challenge. He left home early, and took up with a crowd of genteel and talented gamblers and whoremongerers. A young and rash scheme to cheat a very high class gaming establishment left a young Rick James, under the alias of “Harry Conick JR,” a fugitive from the shady and powerful owners of the establishment he tried to cheat. Rick James has taken on different appearances and personas in an attempt to evade his enemies and the bounty hunters in their employ. They have cracked a handful of his disguises and aliases, but not the one he is currently employing. In the intervening time he has become proficient in standard theft as well as running confidence games. His latest persona is a young, seductive female adventurer named Star Jones. Only people who knew him in his adolescence know his true name and identity, and even they would be hard pressed to casually recognize him.

The party knows this character as “Star Jones”, not as “Rick James”. The character feeds them a false backstory any time they are asked. The backstory here is dynamic. It humanizes the character giving it flaws and addictions, as well as real world problems.  It also opens up some interesting party dynamics and situations for the DM/GM to introduce. I absolutly LOVE this backstory. It’s inventive and fun.  As a DM it allows me to put the characters in odd situations and really adds a full range of character emotions to the roleplaying, and usually leads to a lot of fun for the players and the DM as you roleplay yourselves out of awkward moments.

Remember the game is about fun, and dynamic backstories can add to that. So be inventive. Your character doesn’t have to be the shining of beacon of light in your world to be a hero, nor does he have to be the example of deprivaty to be a villain.

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