GREATPC: 6 Questions to create the Ultimate Backstory for your Player Character in Roleplaying
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- Here we discuss how you as a player can shape the world your character is playing in, and discover your character by just answering 6 questions. Create an epic player character for your Roleplaying Game.
Courtesy of DeathUnboundGaming: (Thank you for the timestamps)
1. Where was the Character Born? (2:52)
2. Who are their parents? (6:38)
a. Are the parents/family still alive? (8:20)
3.What was your character doing before the adventuring life? (10:00)
4. Why did your character leave their previous life? (13:01)
5. What did your character leave behind? (15:01)
6. What does your character want? (motivations) (16:53)
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He talks about Game Mastering and uses questions and comments from his subscribers to create the campaign that will be played on this channel , so check him out.
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Website: www.greatgamemaster.com - Zábava
Want more tips, guides and insight into being a great game master or role player character? check out our channel. How to be a Great Game Master: czcams.com/users/HowtobeaGreatGameMasterChannel
Bacon Battalion RPG My witch, Claudette Morellas, was born to a branch in a lower noble family in the capital city of Absalom. She moved to a castle along the gulf shore to live with an older handmaiden and bodyguard when her father, a local adventurer had left to assist guards with orc invasions from the southern most country. Her mother died mysteriously in the night, quietly and without warning and the grief left her father, crippled by war, a great deal colder.
She spent the time taking care of him and fulfilling her duties as the matriarch to her family at the young age of twelve. After some time learning of her touch from her healing patron and her thrush familiar, she was rewarded with the power to heal supernaturally. Her handmaiden seeing this, took it upon herself to train her in alchemy. Knowing it would aid her in her altruism.
Once her father passed, she left her home to help those she could find. Leaving her inheritance, her alchemy teacher, bodyguard, and betrothed to seek greater understanding of her powers as a Hedge Witch. Hoping to find a cure or reason for the untimely death of her mother, and for any other person taken before their time.
Important questions for backstory:
Where did you come from?
Where did you go?
Where did you come from, Cotton-eye Joe?
Well, I've been married long time ago
He came to town like a midwinter storm
*slow clap in back ground*
STI song lmao
he came into town with a big Iron on his hip ;)
I feel like you should narrate wildlife documentaries...
+Pi-hilist In a way the Pathfinder videos are like narrating wildlife lol. Thank you so much appreciate the compliment.
+Bacon Battalion RPG Wait! You should make Monster Manual documentaries! Lol
"And here we can see the mother carrion crawler and her young. It's the dry season and corpses are rare as adventuring parties remain in taverns, avoiding the noonday's heat. It is a perilous time for her and her kits, and if she doesn't find a peasant soon, she will have only once choice... she will devour her own." :)
Now I want to watch wildlife documentaries about fantasy creatures. Like seriously, we put all this effort into our characters and settings... why not the creatures getting some love? :)
Bacon Battalion RPG if we are all getting a go... " the small hob goblin sneaks through the bushes, spying on the low level party. Suddenly, he strikes out- murdering their magic user which for some reason was sitting at the front. The barbarian strikes with his brutal chair leg- he sold his axe for a door. He smacks the their behind him instead- the their falling backward, killing the bard behind him as his snide falls out of the sheath it was in- a long sword sheath . The barbarian is now left by himself, and does what any logical barbarian would do, try and use healing magic. The barbarian is then stabbed through the hearts, and collapses in a puddle of blood. This is what we call the hobgoblin. He is now charged with bringing the bodies back."
1)What is your name?
2)What is your your quest?
3)What... is your favourite color?
...what's the maximal speed of a swallow...? ;-)
African or European?
I dunno?
Aaaaaaaaaahhh
Also important question especially the third one
These are the types of things that separate Role Players from 'Roll Players'
adrien ennis 😂
*TRUE*
1 - Unknown
2 - Dunno
2a - N/A
3 - see character class
4 - N/A
5 - N/A
6 - that's easy: to *level and loot*
Question links for the lazy.
1. Where was the Character Born? (2:52)
2. Who are their parents? (6:38)
a. Are the parents/family still alive? (8:20)
3.What was your character doing before the adventuring life? (10:00)
4. Why did your character leave their previous life? (13:01)
5. What did your character leave behind? (15:01)
6. What does your character want? (motivations) (16:53)
As he says in the video, each of these questions spawn more and more specific questions, which can either be explored before play or left as a mystery within the game space for the game master and fellow players to discover together.
This is definitely one of my favorite tutorials for character creation out there. Think of the character, not the class, instead of vice versa.
Thank you for doing this! It's amazing. How to cut a tutorial from 20 mins down to 7 sentences lol. I appreciate your effort here and I'm glad you like the video!
No problem. I have a lot of time on my hands currently, so I'll probably be doing it for some of your other videos.
Bacon Battalion RPG When someone makes a helpful comment like this, you should pin it to the top, I believe you're able to do that. This would prevent the need to scroll through comments.
***** Darn Skippy! 😊
I didn't have much luck in finding good D&D games due to bad DMs which I posted about on another Vid. This one is about my Favorite Character and I pretty much used a similar approach to the one in this video when I made but this is also how my DM ruined him for me.
1) Place of Birth Unknown (Per DM rules as he hinted at all the characters would be linked to some Dark Deity who banged a lot of woman.
2) Assumed to be traveling Merchants as was rescued by traveling monks trying to defend a group of travelers being attacked by bandits. Being the only survivor with no known living relatives the monks took in the toddler with them.
3) Character spent his life living in mountain monastery being raised and training with the monks.
4) Like all the ofter character they got a summons from an important individual in the Kingdom.
5) He left behind the quiet remote monastery to the big city.
6) Character had always wanted to explore and spent a lot of time sneaking out to exploring the local mountains(had high stealth/climb/survival skills) but for some reason the monks would never let him join their trade expeditions to nearby towns for supplies. So he jumped at the chance for the invitation.
I envisioned the character as more of the Asian movie monks with slightly supernatural powers along with expert hand to hand fighting skills and ability to grab anything as an improvised weapon. To do it I made a multiclass monk, it's been a long time since I played so I'll probably get a few names of things wrong but from what I recall it was a Monk/Ardvent(Psionic Class) as we started at level 3.
Being someone who likes to dive into the rules of any game I play, I understood monks suffer from MAD and in general reference from a lot of people I've talked to in online chats and forums the monk is one of the weakest classes unless done in curtain ways in which case he can be fairly decent but still won't measure up against a decent builds in most other class not even bringing in the MIN/MAX setups.
Anyway I mapped out how I wanted the character to work up to level 15 because the DM implied he had a long term campaign lined up. I knew there was issues right at the start when the DM demanded I lose most of the gear I bought at the start of the game because he claims my character lived a "sheltered" life and wouldn't know what to get like the 100 foot or rope and climbing gear typical adventures might use to explore caves and dungeons. My reply was my character grew up in the mountains, had high climbing skill which I put points into so it's not unreasonable for him to think scaling difficult terrain would be common. He begrudgingly let me keep only 20 feet of rope?!? My character also bought a ton of other items like can-trips, marbles, and etc (don't recall what else). My argument was, ONE I'm a monk and don't really "need" much, and TWO I'm basically a rural kid in the city with more money than I ever seen and I've course I'm gonna buy up a bunch of nick knacks at the local shops as both souvenirs and was probably talked into buying much of it by a merchant who saw him as an easy mark.
Out of Character we were given funds equal to what a level 3 should have so everyone could equip but momks don't need much so I had no real plans for the stuff I just figured let's buy as much as we can reasonably carry and see if it comes in handy which I figure would be similar to my characters line of thought. Plus most of it was cheap anyway.
But the DM telling me what my character could and could not do right from the start really rubbed me the wrong way. It got worst along the way when at later levels he told me I couldn't take curtain feats which we key to the synergy of my character's theme and is failing to understand how Psionic Classes work completely stripped my character of his full potential despite the fact that it was key to the party's survival since my character was the ONLY one with any healing abilities in our group. And the Psionics don't have very good healing choices to begin with. It was original a combination of using my own life force to heal while having another ability that was a self heal. I was on the verge of quitting but the group disbanded before that happen because other players stopped logging in on game night (playing online using TS as Chat and a D&D Map Program), probably due to him meddling with their characters as well.
... D&D has always interested me but never had any luck finding a good group. I know my personality tends to be that of Ruler's Lawyer due to my time with wargaming. But with D&D I don't know all the supplemental materials that well and every time I played I went for a theme of a character while trying the keep his stats such that they could hold their own. I was never the strongest in the party and in 2 cases (one above included) I was easily the weakest person in the party due to DM house ruling how my abilities worked because they assumed I was trying to do some crazy MIN/MAX cross class OP trickery since they didn't know the rules that well.
At this point sadly I'm so leery of it because I can recall exactly all the campaigns I've played(which wasn't many) and the reasons each fell apart. Videos on the types of bad DMs are like a listing to me of each of the campaigns I played in. I can't imagine myself ever giving it another try, but I still like to watch from the side lines viewing all the interesting stories and fun I know I'll never have.
EDIT: Even though it's been like 2-3 years while watching other videos I remembered that since the Monk Char was done online and I backup most stuff I should have his stats somewhere, took about 5 minutes to locate and here is the general list of them. It's clearly not a char trying to min/max or go OP since I don't even have a stat over 16 yet the DM though I was. We used point buy system for char creation which is what points refer to as I just copy paste this stuff from the txt file I was using as my char sheet during character creation. The stats as we went to level 5 were tracked in the D&D table app we used and couldn't find any list of those since stopped after level 5 because half the group stopped showing up, started with 6 players too.
Level 2 Monk / Level 1 Ardent (Lvl 3) HP 23
Stat/Points/Mod
Str 14 6 +2
Dex 14 6 +2
Con 12 4 +1
Int 12 4 +1
Wis 15 8 +2
Cha 8 0 -1
Init + 2 (Dex 14)
Fort +5 (Con 12)
Reflex +6 (Dex 14)
Will +8 (Wis 15)
AC 10 +2 DEX +2 WIS = 14
Touch AC 10 +2 DEX +2 WIS = 14
BAB +1 (Flurry -1/-1)
Attacks Attack Dmg Critical Range Increment
Crossbow, light +3 1d8 19-20/×2 80 ft.
Quarterstaff +3 (+1/+1) 1d6/1d6+2 ×2
Unarmed +4 (+2/+2) 1d6+4
I had Weapon Specialization Unarmed +2 Dmg feat which is why I got +4 instead of just STR boost on my unarmed.
Thank the Lord that someone finally understand D&D isnt about numbers.
...indeed...
...not only D+D...
...i.m.h.o. numbers (and dices) are vastly overrated in ANY P+P-R.P.G...!
D&D itself could be soundly argued to be a numbers game, the rules only suggest that you *might* want to roleplay and nothing in the rules enforces roleplaying. Other games could definitely be said to be roleplay focused, but D&D is perfectly functional and whole as a dice game. Of course for most of us it is greatly enriched by roleplaying. But we shouldn't dismiss those who want to play it as a dice game.
New name for D&D: Dice *and Dialogue*
@@Sanctor95 yeah I was going to say. A mathematician made d&d not a writer. More power to you if you appreciate rp more than the g, but it's about something different for every table.
@@colinsmith1495 Thats good... This is really good lmao
How players actually make their character:
- What class are they? This pretty much defines 93% of the personality/backstory/race of the player.
- What weapon are they using? Is it big with lots of numbers? The more the better.
- Is their wardrobe really fashionable? If not just wear lots of black.
Now just take a running start and insert yourself into whatever the setting is as hard as possible and you'll "win".
guess it depends on who you play with
I used to play like that, numbers, numbers, numbers.
That was 25 years ago.
Now I more interesting in creating a fictitious person living and function in a fictional world.
My character is the soul of a powerful lich who has been sealed into a corpse. The seals are made of strange, black, stretchy substance that wrap around his chest and limbs and head. The substance is what we today call, trash bags.
Questionable Life Choices plastic!
@@bettycharms Polyethylene, I.e plastic, i.e garbage bags lmao
"That's an old film from the 90s."
I feel attacked.
zis playce is cuuuurs't!
Who cares about D&D anymore, I want to hear how the story of Elizabeth ends!!!
Given this is a Call of Cthulhu game, probably on a slab in a morgue or a sanitorium.
@@oz_jones 🤫 SPOILERS
Though I didn't watch this during character creation, I am glad that I had the answer to all six questions for my character.
Well that's all this video is doing is helping people who maybe don't have answers, or who wouldn't think to have these answers. By having them it just means you know your character which is a good thing! :)
Same here, for all characters I've created over the past 20 years.
Frank Robins, Jr. oddly enough, in the campaign im in now, the first thing the dm did with me for character creation was essentially answering these questions
I had an answer to all but one of these- Motivation.
I don't really know what my character wants yet, but I suppose just in action I will eventually develop this, as I've already got plenty of personality built up on their past- perhaps there'll be a focus on surrivival, or finding another tribe or party to call home: I guess for the moment he's as uncertain as I am, just searching for answers, and going with the flow of events until then.
Yeah me too
I know it's not the point, but as someone vary new to Role playing, the character you made in 20 minutes seems miles better then what I can make in an hour, definitely gonna remember these questions for my next characters.
And so it shall feel that way for some time - until you get used to the idea of how to do it, until those questions become second nature. Don't stress, I've been doing this for 20+ years. We can however all get to the place where it seems 'easy'.
You'll start to see traits in other characters from movies and what not, and say, dude that's awesome, but what if...?
Don't worry about it. Be the character that happens at the table. Backstories only get busted. Amnesiacs make the best D&D characters, especially if they never try to regain their memories. Just kill the monsters, loot the corpses, and burn down the tavern.
@@vincejester7558 That's not really my playstyle but to each their own.
"so you can canoodle down the river" lmao i died
I'd also say to not be afraid of cliches. You aren't trying to write an award winning novel, and cliches exist because they are fundamentally interesting. Also, the DM _probably_ isn't going to delve too deep into your backstory -- it depends, but since there will be at least another 3 or 4 players all with their own backstories, the main focus will often be on things happening in the world. I think a good DM should try to weave in character backstories (I like to do that) but as a player never count on it.
Oh, also, it can be okay to be somewhat vague in your answers. Try to at least get a general idea of things, but for instance with the first question you don't have to specify the exact town and street on which you were born. Though I think that question is more focused about where you _grew up_ as that's usually more important than where your mother expelled you from her body. But the point is, you could focus on the type of place where you grew up: the slums, or a tiny forest village, or a noble's estate in a massive city, or in the sewers of that city, or in a dark and secret cult, or on a ship that sailed the seas and only dropped into port for brief resupplies.
Even if your character has some cliche elements they will still be more interesting then if you didn’t add back elements at all. Had a character who became an adventurer to do good and promote justice. Not simply because he was a good man but because of what he considered his greatest failure. In a low point of his life he he yelled at his son over something minor he shouldn’t have reacted so harshly to. His son ran off and got himself killed trying stop a pair of thugs. His motivation as a hero is to try to be man his son would have wanted him to be. This I turn provides other elements to his character such as a soft spot for children or that his personal guilt could be used against him. Even gave new elements to how he would would react to other characters. He would react protectively to younger of more innocent characters and would give a cold shoulder to more roguish characters because he sees the men how killed his son in them. Gives a starting point for a personality and for some ways the character good grow as a character for better or worse
"Oh, you're character is super special and has a prophecy to fulfill? How unoriginal!"
If they weren't special; why would I be telling their story?
@@rhiannonlamothe2769 Think about it: most people going on adventures (or just going through life, really) aren't all that special. Most people have had horrible things happen to them, which can be used in a backstory, but it's unlikely for your character to be "the chosen one."
@@robrockstar9648
Interesting characters DO interesting things. They don't spent hours telling you how interesting they are. Nobody, but nobody cares about other players' tropey back stories. They care about how you are gonna help them kill the hungry Owl bear with lasers attached to its nipples.
@@vincejester7558 Well *you* don't care, but don't tell people how they should play their games. If your fun is killer hobo mode killing and looting with a big "skip" to every lore scene, well so long as you find a DM and a group of people who are in for that, fine. But that's not what everyone is about.
If you go at someone else's table and say "you guys are ridiculous trying to build characters with actual stories and psychological motives" well then just why ?
Also having a good backstory giving you motives doesn't mean that you need to spill it at the first few minutes of the game. You can discover this progressively, and then other characters get to discover the reasons why yours tends to think/act like that in some situations. And that, for someone into it, is gonna be *real* interesting.
I remember one of my most endearing characters, I wrote a ranger with a backstory of his family still being alive and well. I'd gotten tired of the PC "orphaned hero brigade" routine we got, where everyone had, one way or another lost their family. So instead, I went the other, he had both parents, and even grandparents still alive, brothers and sisters, aunts uncles and cousins. So why adventure? Well for one, to explore, to become a part of a legend that would be told and retold by his descendants, such as the stories he'd heard growing up. More pointedly, his town had bee a mining town, but after a war had forced increased production, the mine had finally petered out. His road to adventure was him intentionally departing to try and score the funds that would save his town, to help it change over to a more farm-based economy.
I had a ranger with a similar story; she was the seventh of eight children in a large farming community, most of whom she was distantly related to. She left her community to go adventuring because adventurers are too busy adventuring to need a dowry.
brilliant
Oioi
I am absolutely enthralled by how you speak. Your cadence and voice lend themselves perfectly to this. This channel is like a cornucopia for me,
since it interweaves my love of phonetics and linguistics with my interest in both storytelling, fantasy/science fiction, and D&D/role-playing.
Thank you for putting effort into these very informative and engaging videos!
I am delighted that you feel this way about the channel! I owe my manner of speaking to my grandmother and mother who ensured that I spoke as they wanted me to speak. I am especially glad you like the videos!
I was a bit traumatised when he said the entire world revolved around us because he sounds like the narrator from The Stanley Parable
8 years later and this video is still helping people make amazing characters
Truly impressive
"2000 views and counting"
my, have you grown.
My friends and I are about to depart from our current adventure to a new one, and during our campaign a running gag started to occur that we just could not get rid of a villian called Gorgon. Every time we tried to guess who did what, even if completly unrelated, the list would be "Gorgon, person a, person b, etc, or Gorgon again!" And as we were thinking of adventures the GM suggested a sea ferring journey and I thought of a character to continue the joke: A failing pirate that would board local army ships so often and unsuccesfully, the sailors wouldn't even arrest him at a certain point, and joked whenever something bad happend that "It's Gorgon again!", a motto he embraced later. But the character wasn't much more developed than a joke, and this really helped me. Thank you.
Holy shit man, I have pretty much these EXACT questions as a handout I give to new players.
I approve :)
David Folsom Is it "pretty much" or is it EXACT?
Language
I believe that this is a great guide on how to make a character feel real and that, if possible PCs should try to follow this process. In addition to these questions, there is another aspect of a character that I always include to help me and others understand the core personalities of a character: Flaws. Simply put, I always understand that no person is perfect and therefore needs to have something that they're probably not proud of. I base the core flaw that my characters have off of the 7 deadly sins: Pride, Gluttony, Greed, ect. Not to say that my or any character is the pinnacle of these flaws, but they should all have one that stands out from the others. E.G. If a character is gluttonous, that doesn't mean that they weigh 800 lbs and eat everything in sight, but it might mean that promise of a good meal might tempt them or that he or she might be easily killed via poison at a dinner party because he or she feels no sense of danger when he or she is in his or her most comfortable place even if there are known assassins after the party. There are other examples (obviously), so I'll just leave it there
well said
We played in a medieval setting and I chose a squire (lower nobility). His key flaw was how constantly angry and butthurt he was (in-character ofc), this led to interesting interactions with the team and gradual changes.
I'm joining a game for the first time and my DM sent me this to help me with my backstory. Some of the questions I had already answered in my mind, but I hadn't encorporated them in the written backstory itself.
This was helpful, thank you.
Thanks for the comment and thank your DM for us. Let us know how your game goes :)
Written backstory? like a homework assignment? How many pages were you required to fill? Did you need footnotes and bibliography?
@@vincejester7558 you could call it that, yeah. He didn't give me a specific set of rules (other than that is should work in the DnD universe) or an amount of pages. It was quite light hearted and I can enjoy writing from time to time, so it was nice to do.
@@robbe2000 Too many authors in D&D. I think players should save the backstories for themselves and their diaries. How much fun do you have going to the club with someone who is constsntly talking about themselves. Imagine how much worse it would be if they kept trying to convince you how cool and tragic they were all night.
@@vincejester7558 🤔 I'm not sure if I get what you're trying to say. The way we play DnD our so called tragic or cool pasts don't come up very often. I have to admit, I added one key experience that may have been a bit much, but I don't think it was ever mentioned during a session.
This guy is very talented. You can see the smarts in him.
I thought I was on the wrong channel when I saw your first video only had some 2,000 views. You give excellent advice to players and GMs alike! This video was very helpful for crafting my characters' backstories.
+Equeon 2000 views is in my opinion 2000 players and GM's hopefully inspired to tell better stories. We'd all like more views so thank you for your comment. I hope you get some awesome characters out of this :)
Equeon i
Up to 54000+ views already.
207k now
I'm a brand new player who's struggling with many aspects of roleplaying and I'd just like to thank you for these videos. They are very helpful and I'll definitely be checking out others. My current character is very 2D but with these wonderful tips I'm sure I'll be able to fluff her up a bit!
I was so happy when I watched this video and found that all my characters already had answers for these. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right.
Awesome! Must be a pleasure having you in the group - as so often those answers cannot be found on character sheets.
while my characters usually vary strongly in the amount of backstory they have, I always try to leave some open ends in my characters past. sometimes it's something they experienced back as a child, sometimes it's something that literally made them go on this journey just recently. but I really like just having one or more little things in my backstory that I as a player don't even know. that way it's more realistic because many people don't know 100% why things in their life happened the way they did. it also gives me the opportunity to uncover those secrets along with my character which greatly improves my ability and the fun while roleplaying. and lastly, the GM is usually happy to have something to work with that instantly connects my character and gives them some sort of motivation or interest and be relatively free to do whatever they think fits their story most because I left it completely open and don't have any expectations whatsoever except "in think something really weird must be going on because why else would this thing have happened"
... sorry for this really long comment, I kinda suck at explaining things and even more so in English.
I wasn't making a character for a game, but this still helped develop my character more! I'm using her in a comic I'm making and having fears and stuff are crucial to who I want her to be.
Same
I'm creating my first d&d character and this definitely helps me to get started thanks!
I love the focus on a story driven chaacter creation method. I appreciate the hell out of this, im going to throvv this video at some peeps vvho need the help... Numbers and dots are only there to support all the story for the character that should already exist.
And you knovv? If the stats dont fully support the backstory, then theres more to think about on that backstory. ^.~ i just love the implications of having a backstory and then having to explain lackluster stats that ought not be...
So much fun!
Bacon...what happend at the temple, don't let me hanging man, you can't do this to me :'(
Just played my first session with a new character today.
1. High on the icy slopes of an mountain in an isolated region of a cold northern clime. The clan's dwelling-place was a little way below the lair of the ancient white dragon Viserion that many generations of the clan of white dragonborn had venerated and paid tribute to.
2. Two warriors of the barbarian clan, her father a warrior of some note though not a figure of authority.
a. Her parents and immediate family were slain along with most of the clan by the powerful adventurers who fought their way through the tribal camp on their quest to slay Viserion.
3. Growing up a barbarian warrior. Just on the cusp of adulthood when disaster struck, she had been hunting, fighting, surviving from an early age, in the custom of the clan - both to contribute to their survival in the harsh landscape and as a test of her own fitness to be a part of the clan. The strong survive.
4. Sora was away from the clan on a solitary hunting expedition when the attack took place, as were a handful of other tribesfolk. With the object of their worship and all senior figures in the clan slain, there was little left to bind them to that place or to each other. They went their separate ways.
5. Nothing besides many corpses. She carries the customs and mindset of her people with her, even into more civilised lands. Along with her father's greatsword and a tooth of the dead dragon which she wears as a pendant. She is still the feral child of a savage world and little has changed except that the slaughter of her people has instilled her with a furious rage.
6. Vengeance.
I like her. She's fun, and already developing relationships with party members in a way that my much more serious character who died last session wasn't managing to.
I'm going to be playing dnd for the first time this weekend and have been really struggling with inspiration. This video has really helped and I think I now have a character ready :)
I love how none of the questions had anything to do with what she could do...
We very seldom have the capacity to influence our backgrounds. But it is a valid point you raise!
Bacon Battalion RPG That wasn't sarcastic. What I mean is so often players try to define their characters by the things they can do, or what they own, rather than their experiences. These questions fill in a lot of the blanks.
Oh ... my bad... I was in a mood this morning when I read your comment :) Glad it was me who was mistaken! Hugs?
NP Good videos btw.
I absolutely adore your way of speaking. You manage to make those topics so interesting and flavourful.
+xXSenSenSenXx My English teacher - Mrs. McMichael - thanks you. And I thank her :) Glad to keep it interesting.
as an Irish DM I just wanna say I really liked that little idea at the beginning of the video, very cool
Your voice is delicious.
+Scoffs Consumption is ill-advised ;p
Bacon Battalion RPG consume with ears? ,😁
It's crrrisp
Weiird comment, but i would hire this guy to narrate nature shows.
Do you mean Quetzalcoatl the cultural hero of the Aztec. I'm sorry I have been studying Aztec mythology and culture for at least 4 years now and I am still finding more interesting things to learn. Quetzalcoatl is anything but a "demon", the Aztecs had gods and monsters but not nessisarily demons, but gods could be benevolent or malevolent and the Aztecs were very interested in ideas of duality. Quetzalcoatl represented the absolute of benevolence, moral integrity, and wisdom as contrast to his evil twin brother Tezcatlipoca who represented malevolence, cruelty, and sorcery.
The distinction of "demon" is one that I think he was filtering through the lens of the "missionaries in 18xx" character concept he was talking about. Most non-Christian religious figures in those times (or any time prior) would have been regarded as such (at least to Christians themselves). I hope this helped.
Yeah I understand
Okay, it's an old thread... and (as usual?) I'm late to the party... BUT a distinction should be pointed out here.
In the vid' even that he referenced "demons" and Aztec myth'... He was referencing through the ideology of the Game scenarios from Call of Cthulu (based mostly from H.P. Lovecraft/Necronomicon sources)... So it's not going to be much in the lines of accurate or precise about Aztecian mythos, outside of a relative notion that there was something to source the "old stories" you might here in South America from "actual" creatures of one variety or another in the Lovecraftian (or related) texts...
This is more relevant to creating a character who might know of the Aztec's, but the player doesn't have to... so if you do, you can only help a game you're thoroughly involved in. (like answering questions where the GM "gets stuck" in explaining something... or where your knowledge can add bredth and depth to the story or scene at the time.)
There's also plenty of fun to be had, sticking the GM "on the spot" from time to time... if you like watching him/her squirm. :o)
And here I was coming just to argue pedantically that Brazil is the wrong place to search for Quetzalcoatl. =P
I run a new party and this is my first time being a gm so handing them these questions really helped me shape their campaign and give them a basis to role play with. Thabks!!!!
Awesome! Let us know how the campaign goes?
Bacon Battalion RPG Why of course no problem. Hopefully I won't fumble through it to bad...
I just found you're channel and they have been so incredibly helpful, I just started playing RPG's with my friends I'm so incredibly bad at it but these videos have been very helpful and now I'm actually excited to delve into my GM story instead of just hanging out with friends so thank you so much.
Love this videos. Already started playing a character that I had a general idea of before watching this, but this really helped fill in the blanks of the background story.
I played my first evening of DND tonight and had an absolute blast!!
I’m coming back to this video to leave you a comment to say thanks for the help. A few of your videos really helped me…thank you much love ❤️❤️
The style of your presenting and the way you raise points and ideas is really good. Great job.
thanks so much for that video! i've now watched it the third time in the last few years and it still helps me when i sit down to write a characters backstory :)
Thank you so much for this series and specifically this video! On my first campaign with my third, yes third, character and just following along with this video i've already began to generate my character's background much faster than the last two, so thank you!
Me: *handing In my 16 chapter backstory*
Dm: you know this is a one shot right?
Me: yeah that's why I just handed you the cliff notes.
Dm: >:/
This is a stellar introduction to writing characters! Thanks very much for sharing. I can't wait to start applying this in my free-form roleplaying.
This has been a huge help with my writing for my stories, I've shared this knowledge with other writers and see they really liked the help so I thank you and I hope to share your vids around.
This video is helpful, even if you already ask yourself most or all the questions, the in depth discussion of each question helps you think more about the details
canoe-dle xD writing that into my dad joke book xD
Your videos have really helped turn my game group into a role-playing group which is infinitely better. Thanks so much.
Oh that's what he said. I give it a belated groan.
I havent yet had the chance to play, but I have been working on a few characters so that I have some options already available. Of course I can tweak them if need be, but anyway I just wanted to say thank you for the videos and the work you've put into them! They have helped me have a much better idea how to make my first game, and those after, more enjoyable for me and my friends. I have enjoyed working on character creation so far and this video has done a lot to help me remember some simple points to make a great story for present and future characters. Thank you once again, and I look forward to seeing more content from this channel.
I'm linking this video to all the players in both the campaigns I'm in. Very useful advice, and you keep it interesting throughout. Thank you!
Very much enjoyed the video, I agree that it is definitely gratifying and useful (as a GM) to have players who are motivated and have given some thought to their character background, that way you can help deliver what you (and they) want out of a game :)
This is the first time I've ever had these questions posed. I usually just sorta do this stuff adlib but man, glad to see I'm not the only person who pains over what the characters story is. Awesome chanel.
For years as a writer and a roleplayer, I had struggled to create a backstory that I have loved. Watching this video and using the questions has made me better at writing backstories. So thank you GM. Ill is sure to save this in my writing tips playlist.
You are calming me.
Had a bad day and now i relax listening to this and learning more about gm-ing. Thanks.
I have ran and played D&D for 17 years, and I still find these videos very informative. I love your world building videos, and find your character videos just as gratifying. Cheers, mate. Keep it up. :)
Woooow, very helpful for my cousin and I! Loved your auditory quality for this video, you went in depth with your examples and it covered every corner, you didn't leave me bored! I'll be coming back if I have anymore questions :)
Great video. I need to watch this again to write down these questions. I can use these questions to flesh out my character in the making backstory, it feels a little bare bones.
This video is EXACTLY what I have been looking for in regards to information on making great backstories! Simply amazing!
That was amazing! Knowing the right questions to ask certainly is half the battle. I will definitely keep this in mind and refer to it later.
Worth a sub - and I intend to check out those play-sessions with your own group too. Roleplaying with a great GM who invests himself into the role can be a truly amazing experience, so I'm hyped to see how that works out.
Where is you?
Who is you?
Why is you?
Just discovered your channel recently. I was reviewing some of my LARP characters and wanted to add a bit of soul to the way I play them. Your background questions gave me much to think about. Thanks a lot!
it is very good and i will be sharing it with my group. in some ways it is long but it shows people that you can make a good back story in a short time because you make one while doing this video.
I love this!! I've just started playing a with a group and we're all knew to D&D. We're just about to finish the pre-set starter campaign and have started talking about finally making our own characters. This is so helpful for new players because now we know how to make our characters really come alive. Great video!!
This is brilliant; and I will share this with all my players. The are so many hooks created this way, as well as giving the player many chances to become involved in their own characters.
Great pointers and great examples - talking it through was super helpful - thank you!
These videos are amazing, very good pace and level of details, obviously built from lots of experience. Thanks
How I like to describe the character-creation process is a string of lies you find yourself wrapped up in when you were younger. You say that his parents are priests, and so you ask yourself the question, "well, why isn't he a priest?" And then you come up with the fact that he rebelled against his parents when he was younger, and ran away from home. So then you wonder, "how did he survive?" You come up with the idea he started working as a baker so that he could make a living. So on and forth, for as long as you'd like.
Coming back to this every time I onboard new players in my games. Great content!
I appreciate all the help you gave. You mentioned that you grateful for the 2k views but now you have half a million. Well deserved!
SUPER helpful video. This all still works 6 years later as well! Thx for the help!
This really has made creating (and presumably playing) my character MUCH more fun! Thank you!
Excellent, accessible and fun advice. Shared it with my group. Many thanks :)
Liked and subscribed because you put the questions in the description for people who don't have 20 minutes to watch the video.
these videos help me so much, I've only played a couple dnd campaigns and I've never figured out how to make a backstory. This video is so so so helpful to me and I can already see my characters are much more interesting
Thank you so much, thats really helpful! This is also great if you want to begin writting stories
Excellent video! I'm starting to play D&D with some friends and I'm fleshing out my character. This helps a lot, thank you!
This has been lovely, I'm going to work through my party with these questions before/while creating our campaign after doing it myself a few times.
This has helped me ease my new players into there back stories, this is a gods send. Thank you
I'm in the middle of the video, and you're providing a great backstory for this hypothetical character, no question!
Condensing it all into less than a paragraph so the GM might read it... THAT'S what I need to know.
Amazing video. Sharing it with my players, hope some of the awesomeness will rub off on them. Keep it up!
+Malboras112 If it helps improve the fun at the table, let it rub! :)
I'm really late for this, but I wanted to share that it's my first time DMing, and I'm doing it for my little brother, and these questions have sparked an unending streak of inspiration on them. Thanks for making this video
I was already asking myself these questions about my character, but I was getting really frustrated with my answers, and after watching this video it was suddenly so much easier and more exciting! The way you explained made sense and most importantly made me understand the why's of asking these questions. Thank you for explaining!
Incredible, thank you! This has helped me as a new role player so much
Totally honest I've been watching these videos non stop and it's really pacifying my anxiety. Just a soothing voice and good information
Really, great characters do make for great games. One of my proudest moments as a dungeon master was back in college, where I ran a game for three semesters straight. My 'dirty little secret' of it is that I really didn't do much in the way of long-term plans beyond an end goal for the story. Still, it was made immensely easier by having a few people in the group who knew the importance of a well-made character, and one that would evolve over time. I was careful not to make the story _about_ them, but they had room to have their arcs within the story. And to a degree, they inspired the other players to flesh out their characters as the game went on, and everyone got their moment to shine by the time the end rolled around, and they loved it. And I've had times where I've come up with some really fun characters to play and for others to be in a party with. So, from both the DM's side and the player's side, I do have to say that these kinds of questions are major. Even if you decide these questions aren't what interest you as the player, find questions that do inspire you and help you come up with a fun, engaging character. You'll appreciate it, and everyone else in the game will appreciate it, players and GM alike.
I love this format of making a How to be a Great GM video and this PC video to compliment it. Easily my favorite guide to these topics now. Keep it up, sir!
+ZeNightmare1001 Your words, my hands. Glad this is working for you!
I really appreciate this content. I am quite new to D&D and am starting to run a game for some of my friends who have never played before. This really gives me clear points for them to create backstory to help bring them into the world that I have started creating. Thank you very much for your time knowledge and passion for this art.
Only a pleasure! Welcome to the table! Feel free the share the vids with your friends, I can only hope they'd help you have an awesome game! Let us know how it goes?
I really like your videos on character creation and all the jam that's around it. I'm not a role-player myself (yet), cause I don't really have many people around me who would be interested in that kind of stuff, but I'm moving soon-ish, and I'm planning to join an RPG-circle then.
But that's not primarily why I love your videos. I love them because you don't need to apply them only to RPG-characters. I'm planning to go into videogame development later on, so I relish in every advise on world-building I can get. And I'm also currently creating OC's for a webshow I'm watching, and those videos are really helpful for immersing them in that fictional world as much as possible.
So, although I really like the RPG-aspects, I enjoy how adaptable your advice is.
Plus, the videos are enjoyable to watch. Go on doing what you do, I'll keep watching. ;)
I am a Game Master myself. I have started to answer a few of these questions in that I worked out the genealogy of my kingdom's monarchy. Yet, you have also given me a lot more to work with for my NPCs to be better developed. This is so cool. I will also be using it as part of a template for the pre-gaming interview. I may even have my players watch this video. I've subscribed. Excellent work.
I honestly rewatch this video every time I create a character, it helps me be more creative every time!
The Mummy was an awesome movie
Agreed!!
Just too bad about the sequals... The thrid one had me wanting to smack my head repeatedly against a steel door.
It's really bad when I enjoyed the direct-to-DVD Scorpion King series more than the third Mummy sequel. At least *those* copped to being action movie schlock.
I want to be a librarian. xD
The new one sucks.
As a GM, I find this useful for my major NPCs as well! Thank you so much. Your amazing voice will surely be heard more often in our household.
Marvelous presentation, thank you!
You're an absolute treasure! These videos are perfect in all ways. Also lol'd at canoolding.
Me: Watches on Thanksgiving
GGML: Can I start off by saying "thank you..."
Me: 😲
Came in expecting great advice. Not disappointed. 👍
Honestly, all I can say is I loved the video. Obviously, you are very talented in storytelling, I was picturing every sentence.
This guys voice is so soothing. Also very helpful.