How to Roleplay New Characters | TTRPG | 5e D&D | Web DM
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- čas přidán 1. 09. 2020
- RPG players: we're talking how to roleplay your new character in D&D and TTRPG! How to come up with a backstory, how to get into it, and how to make a SATISFYING character that's fun for others to interact with, too. It's easier than you think!
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I love crafting backstory for characters and tut he best advice I ever got was "Don't make a level 20 backstory for a level 3 character."
Unless you're intentionally playing a charlatan or braggart, your tales of singlhandedly winning The Battle of Five Dragons is going to ring really hollow when you get ganked by a kobold.
Top notch advice
My group had a guy who constantly did that. It's unfortunate that he isn't able to play with us, anymore, but the tales of Renald Batman will be retold 'til the end of time.
I only saw one instance of this done well, where the character legitimately was level 20, but his enemies used magic to take away his powers, so he acted like a high level character, but with the powers of a level 3
@@daniellins4114 Ah. That metroid trope.
@@ryansprenkle6356 or just be a successful old man with many memories
I can't recommend those xanathar tables enough. They're so useful for generating background story seeds.
Which section of the book are those tables in. I think i'm being stupid cause I can't seem to find the tables at all.
Bley it's called "This is your life" and the section starts on page 61
@@bley2127 Chapter 1. "This is your life" section, right after all the subclasses, and before racial feats
I recently used them for my new High Elf Bard. He is now the 6th child of 10 including an adopted Fire Genasi along with a host of other life events that I'm really excited to play with in game.
Yeah. I dont always use them, but they make for a good starting point
one of the things i need when making a character is "why are you adventuring right now, vs doing what you would normally be doing" is a big question
Absolutely. A big reason for this is that players are _required_ to make an adventurer who wants to adventure with the party and who the party would want as a member. It is not the job of the other players to constantly convince you to play D&D. Nor should they be expected to have twist their PCs into knots in order to justify why they would tolerate a party member who is useless or an actual liability.
@@nickwilliams8302 yeah exactly!! like why make it harder on everyone when you could just be on board with the whole concept of the game. and for the most part you do get this "call to adventure" but adventurers at the end of the day are not normal people. normal people do not go into ancient underground dungeons and fight monsters via personal choice, they are barbers and shop workers and farmers with family etc. haha
From Narcosa (which is free on drivethrurpg) the magical symbiote from the drugged wine you drank has taken over your body. It has decided to wake you up and give you back control of your body. It senses it has gotten into a life or death situation. It has decided you have more experience in surviving this.
Thats why I made a hedonist and a pirate whos ship and crew sunk and wants to buy a new one as my main characters.
Another is a cleric who travels so he can hunt undead and keep the natural cycle of life, death, and the afterlife.
Got a tinker who needs inspiration.
Insane lady who wants to know more about the cause of her Madness.
And more.
I actually love that you all still found a way to get them behind the table!
@@Jason_Bryant it's only as easy as getting a bigger green screen lol
I love the effort made to recreate the two being behind the table. Just wanted to say the effort is noticed and appreciated! Love this show!
Pruitt looks more and more ripped throughout the covid videos
Pruripped
Those triceps
"Creating a pattern out of all the noise." That is great!
My favorite 5e character was one I made an hour before the game, and only had a nugget of a backstory in mind. That backstory changed to match the tendencies I noticed I/he had as a character.
I figure if you can relate a character's backstory in a single paragraph or even sentence, you're good to go.
To date my favourite backstory was "Terry was turned into a chicken once, an event he still remembers fondly." That was the inciting incident for him to take the Eldritch Knight subclass and dabble in wizard spells, plus it's a funny line to throw into conversation.
Yeah less is often more. Stitch your backstory in as you learn about the present conflict. Make it relate.
Great advice! As a forever DM, these tactics are highly recommended.
Thank you!
My most recent character is a Yuan-Ti Divine Sorcerer who has the goal of becoming a god. His idea is that if he convinces enough people to start believing in his god (which is just his last name), that he will somehow be imbued with divine powers. He's Neutral Evil, and wants to become a neutral god of languages (obviously evil though, since he's lying about his divine power). So far, one follower, a bugbear he's using as a sidekick.
That is actually hilarious, it sounds like a great character to play!
I feel like all he'a gonna get out of that is a son who looks like him, has his last name, and is also a minor god lmao
All you need is to find a community of Kuo Toa. 😉
find some kuo'toa and make them worship you.
I'm literally rolling a new character with the crew today. You guys with your perfect timing 👌🏽
I love writing long backstories, but I’m also ready to throw it out whenever I need too. For me, the backstory is mostly there for me to get into character. Once I’ve gotten the vibe down the backstory is kinda whatever
I tend to make detailed character backgrounds, but I always let my DM that everything I put in my background is totally open to change to fit the campaign. I'm not rigid about it at all, and I've never had issues. I understand that doesn't always work for everyone, though.
While i agree with a lot of what you mention here, there is one Giant Caveat: You enjoy the randomness because you have been playing for so long that you played all the characters that you wanted to play at least one time. You played your Sorlock, your Lawfull-Goody-two-shoes Paladin, your Sorcadin, You Sentinel Fighter, Your Sharpshooter, your Assassin, your Rogue, your evil Necromancer etc. But that doesn't mean this is the best way for everybody. A lot of people, especially in this audience are just starting. They are not bored with the classics yet. Far from it.
@Pat Mgroin The point is that when you're starting out, you'll have archetypes that call to you, and they might be built around a certain personality type, like the evil necromancer, or they might be built around an interesting mechanical twist, like the sorlock. Until you exhaust those and start to repeat, playing random doesn't really add anything.
For myself, I like a twist on the common tropes; some of my cool character concepts include a lonely kobold urchin, a cheating goblin nature priest, and a grim dwarven ranger with a wooden leg. Just yesterday I was daydreaming about playing a lizardman druid of the moon who lives for the hunt, but is surprisingly well educated and philosophical. I'll probably never run out of fun characters to play because all I have to do is take a standard archetype or even a class and do something unexpected with it. The hardest part for me is always knowing what goes together mechanically, because some of my character concepts fall down in play. My first character in 5e was a very strong dragonborn moon druid who disliked using magic in combat. I had pictured him as a kind of nature warrior, but the mechanics did not support that vision. He'd have fit better as a paladin of the ancients.
There's something interesting I did: I made a lvl 3 character for Curse of Strahd. Some weeks later I played a one shot with this same character on a lower level, so that became canon in his BG.
Tulio Cerquize oh man that’s a smart idea
I played in a game where myself and another guy decided we'd been drinking buddies for the past year and a half. We agreed we didn't know a heck of a lot about the other (mine had a secret Identity) and it was a lot of fun going from casual to trusted friends. We also made up a lot of back story for each other. "Remember that time we crashed Merriweather's Gala?" "Yeah, and you got so drunk you fell in the punch bowl?" "And we had to run and hide in the basement?" "Yeah, that's where I found this sword!"
I still enjoy writing backstories, but I recently was invited to join a campaign about 30 minutes before the first session, so I threw together a Kenku rogue and named him "Mango" as a joke and gave him a background that just amounted to "spy on the run from his former allies" and he's been one of the most entertaining characters I've played lately. The only reason that character is on hiatus at the moment is because I had been playing fully into the idea of Kenku not having a voice of their own by never saying anything I wasn't just repeating from someone else, and now being stuck in playing online-only, the rest of the party thought that made communicating more of a pain than it needed to be.
Yeah...Kenkus are great for one-shots but they're kind of difficult in a full on campaign
You could play it like bumblebee from the transformers movie. Have a list of sayings and use the one that fits most.
If you're playing online maybe you can get some friends to repeat some voice lines and play it back with sound pad.
Its a cheap $5 soundboard on steam, I've used it before for stuff like that
When my party thought something simliar about my kenku KiKi (the sound of cicadias screaming but kiki for short), I took a few gold and hired a teenager to read the dictionary to me in our downtime. I preferred to speak by repeating people's words, but for better speech I would switch to speaking eloquently in a very bored voice.
This might be my favorite video of yours yet. I’ve been toying with the idea of running a very improv heavy/ player driven campaign and I will have all of the players create their characters based on the ideas presented here. Thanks!
Thank you for the kind words!
I think this has been this channel's best episode. Solid advice.
Thank you!
I LOVE fully randomized characters, I'm currently playing one (a dragonborn noble wizard) who is 99% randomly made and I friggin love him! So much fun and I'm so invested in the setting my GM is using
I’ve always struggled with creating characters, especially in the role play aspect. Analysis paralysis, ASIs, what class I actually want to play, not wanting to make poor choices, and all that jazz make it hard for me.
The biggest problem I have is giving them any sort of personality, because I myself have nothing of the sort.
What i am finding works amazing for me as person who is indecisive on character personality and roleplay is use the tables listed under the character backgrounds (mainly the ones under the background you are choosing) as if the dice get to choose the bulk of your work is brainstorming a backstory that mixes the goals,bonds and flaws together into a coherent story. So much easier if indecisive. If this approach works for you as it did for me , you can use the tables in xanathers for further brainstorming.
This may be the most useful and concise video from you guys yet! Great job!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the comment
this is so well edited together!
Jim's screen's border aligns with the edge of the bookshelves!
Id love an episode on joining into an already established group, either as a new player, or as a new PC to replace one that has died/departed.
Being an extremely experienced DM/GM/Player and I've tried it all as a player. Most recently with my current character I kept the backstory loose. Just some basic information and a sibling of one of the other players. It is now my absolutely favorite approach. I completely agree with you guys on this. Building the character quirks and tidbits of backstory has been a blast coming up with it on the fly. I came up with my sister's nickname 'in game' and now it has stuck. This is such a great strategy. I encourage others to give it a try if they haven't yet.
When I am making a character to play I like to make a Will, not an Obituary. This ties my character to the world, sets expectations and leaves me open to an adventure.
I honestly really love to almost entirely randomly roll all aspects of my characters. I like rolling race, class, and background, I like rolling my stats in the order they appear with maybe one mulligan and one switcheroo between a couple, and sometimes even subclass options. Then, I really like to put those numbers together and figure out what it all means for a person that grew up in the world they are in with their given stats and proficiencies. Creating the characters and vaguely piecing together their pasts is half the fun for me, and I highly recommend it for folks that don't like decision-making quite so much, or for those that just want to go out there and put together something weird. It's how I got Orsik Holdenhek, Hill Dwarf Knowledge Cleric of Moradin. The dice haven't been so kind to him, but that's fed even more into the story of him, and I'm really glad I have him in my memory.
That sounds really fun. Though I wouldn't be able to do that in a thousand years!
We had a campaign where basically every player was playing a lone wolf. It was not nearly as bad as it seemed (except maybe for the DM for a bit), and actually ended up with pretty interesting dynamics. It helped that one character was interested in forming a group and that another was a 13/14 year old kid who a few other PCs wanted to help.
The PCs initially met by stopping an attempted assassination on a prince, but we actually got together as a group because we were all traveling the same direction and decided that the others were more trustworthy than strangers.
Also one of the characters might have been a Warforged, Serial Killer Jester, but unfortunately I'll never know because the DM had to leave our school for a surgery and then COVID happened.
Great advice. You guys always deliver with the insightful points.
Edit: Pruit lookin good dude
Thank you!
Great show guys. Also great work to the camera/editing person. For a bit there I had completely forgotten you were doing this online and not at the table. It looks great!
That was a particularly engaging video to watch. :)
"Wanting to have that very satisfying experience before putting in the work" - I'm so glad you touched on this! The way people I know personally and online talk about their D&D characters has always made me feel like I"m doing something wrong-- why am I not as attached to my character? Why am I not as comfortable with roleplaying as my character? Is it normal for it to take a while for me to truly connect to this character and the campaign? The answer is, of course, YES. I've seen other people recently talking about this issue of putting pressure on yourself to create the perfect character with the perfect backstory, and it takes the fun out of the game. We all need to be kinder to ourselves and just let things come as they will.
Man you guys hit many of my problems I face as a DM right on the head far better than I ever could. Thank you.
I dig the digital work you did to make it look you were at the same table.
Yes, we love videos like this. We often think of a concept or a theme before even building the character. Those Xanathar tables are amazing. We have used them more often than not when making characters for a game.
Fantastic video! As always i sent this on to my buddies. WebDM has greatly improved the quality of our games. Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words and for the share!
Recently started rolling up backgrounds using Xanathars and I've made some characters with backgrounds I wouldn't of thought of that I hope to play.
This is why I love WebDM. A lot of this stuff is stuff I already do (keep it simple, create a basic concept and allow the character to grow organically from that) but there's always some nuggets of wisdom that I think "Damn, yeah that's a great idea!"
Keep up the excellent work guys!
As a forever dm i am about to make my first PC and this video couldnt have been better timed! Guess ill go simple with this transmutation wizard, he took a reduce spell to the knee.
Despite the message being 'think about things less', this video gives you a lot to think about. Really cool stuff!
Just found your channel a few weeks ago as I was getting back into ttrpgs and it's been a real treat! I especially agree with the point on letting the randomness shape your character and not trying to shoe horn it.
My friends are playing a campaign where we decided our classes before straight rolling our stats - I wanted to play a Barb. I got no physical stat higher than a 12 and my INT and CHA are both 15. I decided his background was that he's a Ph.D learning about how rage affects those in battle and his capstone is becoming a barbarian and taking notes. I gave him a scholarly background so he can research and present well. He's not very good in combat but it's way funnier and more memorable than anything I would've come up with on my own. If he survives long enough, we might have a session with a focus on him trying to pass his Ph.D defense
Absolutely love how Travis is putting this together. Way to bring it together, keep on brand, and keep everyone safe in these tough times. I don't have enough thumbs for the thumbs up I want to give all of you.
Rolling character backgrounds/backstory completely changed how I approached playing my characters for the better. You get to discover the character with the rest of the party and its sooo much easier to fit it into the world when you have less details. Also its a really fun minigame to get a couple random events and make them into a cohesive unit
I started my 2 player+DMPC Sunless Citadel group at 2nd level. I said they had already completed an old Pathfinder adventure as their background for why they were together. I gave them a basic rundown of that adventure along with a list of loot to divvy up. They liked having some previous shared experiences to draw on.
The green-screen game is on point.
It's actually amazing.
Love the table's still in xD
Glad to see you guys are doing good
You guys rock. Always look forward to your new videos. Much love.
Thank you!!
Hey congrats on getting the angles finally right :D it is now actually quite hard to realize that your not in the normal set and Pruitt is no longer staring through my soul anymore, which is nice.
Hey guys, the editing is on point, same camera cuts as when Jim & Pruitt are in person. Looks seamless!
Clever camera and post production work guys!
Back to Basics with WebDM, I love it
One of my favorite things is determining bits of my character's personality through play
I recently started playing a charming, swashbuckling rogue in Strixhaven. Very much a charming scoundrel type character. But I'm personally terrible at flirting, and so my attempts to have him flirt with a fellow student forced him to make a Persuasion check at Disadvantage.
He rolled a one.
So now I have it as part of his character that most of the time, he's smooth, confident, and charming. But he's HORRIBLY awkward at flirting and gets nervous in those sorts of situations.
The cypher system character creation does all the things you're talking about in this video as part of the base development. No wonder you guys liked it so much. :) Thanks guys, you made my Wednesday. Be safe & game on.
As always, this was chalk full of useful for players who are making new characters; whether for a new campaign, replacing a departed character or jumping into an existing group.
The greenscreen and editing is fairly good. Lighting composition will be the hardest to get right. Pruit's shifted his camera over so he spends time staring at the screen with Jim on it instead of at the camera, which is a nice touch. Jim's hands and arms cease to exist when gesticulating, and they phase through one of the castle walls.
This episode may seem relatively trivial to some, but this to me is one of the most precious gems among all the series. Seems easy enough to do or plan, but it's these little investments that keep the campaign cohesive and not feel contrived. It's so important to realize that everyone is awkward at first, and it's okay to start off slow and casual. Thanks for the excellent advice!
Loving the new/old format. I actually forgot you guys weren't actually in the same room.
Finally able to start thinking about RPGs again! I missed you guys
Woo! New shows once every two weeks through this month and then we're back to weekly shows!
This is a great episode! I always have so much fun writing my characters backstories, but it more times than not ends up becoming a barrier for my game entry or even gelling with the other player characters. I'm going to try more open book characters that can develop naturally and contribute moment to the game rather than looking for how situations interest my character
This is so timely. Starting my 3rd campaign with my group of two years in about a month and the first month is always so hard for each person for a different reason so showing them this will hopefully give them the ability to Let Go and Let Roll.
Glad to help! Good luck with your new campaign!
Love this video.
I've been DMing for about 30 sessions and now I'm playing again in a friend's game. I realize I'm interested in doing something different and new. I was going to play my Tiefling Sorcerer, but the DM joked that canons are a thing with Artificer, and now I'm a Warforged Artificer.
I have found that if things aren't working out it's better to ask "how can we make this work" rather than say "this doesn't work".
Ha! I was like "There's something wierd about his lighting, it doesn't match the room... And why aren't they looking at each other?"
Then I saw your hand go past the edge of your frame!
You're a green-screen Obi Wan!
this is my favourite of your videos!
Oh gosh, thank you so much!
"You seem like a trustworthy individual! Fall in!"
On the other hand, almost all the DMs I've played with so far preferred detailed backgrounds, because they based the campaign on the information we've given them. Granted, they weren't strangers.
I just had to do this recently in a game I was playing. My initial character did not truly fit in with the group/world, so I pulled a “Shepard Book” and brought in a new character that was created that actually fit in with the world and it has been amazing. His background was not 100% set but as Pruitt mentioned, I found one thing to attach him to the world.
I started roleplaying using the Palladium: heroes unlimited books so this discussion about randomness determining the character really resonated with me. I always found it strange playing with other people who like you said, would have a fan fiction for their characters.
Xanathar's is great for story seeds!
For me the hardest part is what accent I should use. It has to be one that I can do for hours at a time, but sometimes I want to be a cantankerous, scratchy-voiced crazyperson
I rolled up a couple characters using the random tables in the old Hero Builder's Guidebook. It's been fun!
I can't help but be distracted by the phantom table manifesting behind Pruitt.
Being willing to change is one of the best ways to enjoy dnd. We're here to enjoy ourselves, and being unmoving in a certain aspect of character can ruin that.
Another player in our group was playing a character that was very abrasive and did stuff that, out of character, bothered me hugely, and fairly early on I chatted with the player about it. They promised to work towards changing it, but only when it made sense for the character to do so. Lo and behold, as the campaign went on, the character barely ever changed till the end of it, and they absolutely hated playing that character, and just wanted to be done with the campaign because they didn't like the character, and by the time they were willing to change it in a bit more of a meta-gamey way, the campaign was nearly done with and it was "too late."
So the biggest thing to remember, I'll quote from some advice on the WebDM Twitter:
"Tip: if doing what your character would do is leading you to places that aren't fun for you or your group, change what your character would do.
There's beauty (and ample opportunities for character growth) in inconsistency."
My second outing as a wizard began with me playing Neloth from The Elder Scrolls as I started fleshing out what this fella was about.
As a DM I look at the player's backgrounds and personality traits to build my story. I tend to add a villain that is creating conflict but I start with where the players are.
I usually make a character that fills in any holes that the party has. In 5E, i've found random rolling for the traits helps make cool histories based on the rolls!
I recently joined an ongoing campaign due to a few players leaving and the party needing a level 5 tank or AoE character. A day before the session I made a 2 Forge Cleric\3 War Magic Wizard variant human who's looking for magical artifacts for his monastery. Absolutely love playing this character.
Once I made a Githzerai Dreams Druid because I thought it was cool, then I joined a campaign at level 3 and by watching the other players manage their character I realize mine was gong to help them to reach their potential and fulfill their destiny. From then on, a Dream was just a goal in life, how to be a better version of each own self day by day, and my character was the guide.
Dude thanks for going to the effort to greenscreen and place on your set. It makes a difference!
Definitely learn from experience. I backed my previous character into many corners because I had written so much back story. Our group are just about to start a new campaign and I'm writing no more than a few lines of backstory this time! I'll let the game dictate my story
Thank you.
I like that Pruitt is now sat more sideways. Him sitting straight in the other covid vids was super uncanny and I just couldn't unsee it 😂
I also have a system that works okay so far: Race, Class and Background number 1, 2, 3 etc. and build the rest from there.
Failed 2 death saves last week in tomb of annihilation. This is very timely.
I played AL for Dragon Heirst/Dungeon of the Mad Mage (we played with a set table, so it played a little more like a home game than DMs/players constantly changing like some AL games end up). I did the detailed backstory thing, but because I had an idea about the tone and content of the adventure so I was able to work that out in a way that just fit with the adventure. If Waterdeep is the "Manhattan" of the Forgotten Realms, I made a "proud, Big Applesauce New Yorker" without the accent; utterly loyal to his city and the people who live there, though he might fight with his neighbours and rivals. I gave him a quirk for the Mad Mage portion that was really fun to RP, though; he was claustrophobic. He absolutely hated Undermountain and everything down there, and only went at first because he had friends who needed things done down there. Then, as he learned how much of a threat the monsters of Undermountain were to Waterdeep, he kept going back down because he couldn't let them find their way up. I used his constant complaints about everything Undermountain as comedic commentary on everything we came across. He ended up with a couple catch-phrases by the end of the campaign: "Gods damn Undermountain!" and "I hate this f*$%ing place!" I loved making him suffer for our mutual ammusement; it was a nice counterbalance to the unreal mechanical power that character was able to amass as the campaign went on. The party's "big gun" was also the party butt-monkey; it was great!
Fantastic episode, really helped reinforce some ideas on how to help start up my next campaign and encourage the players to try building investment organically!
What I do nowadays is to look through random fantasy pictures, then pic an interesting picture and use that to build my character. I look at the picture and try to imagine what personality and backstory this pictured character might have. So yeah, it is not a random character per se, but a random idea based on something that catches my fancy. So a bit different from what they are saying so just giving another idea for drawing inspiration. The one big take away that they didn't hammer on enough is just create one incident in your past that was a character building moment. I, too used to write 10-15 page backstories, now I just try to understand why is my character going to do what they do. We all have that one defining moment in our lives the same should be true for our characters.
Yes thank you WebDMons.
I have always rolled ALL parts of my character. Though for things like feats or later choices, I will write a list of those I like and go random from those. I don't try to cram in stuff that just does not fit. But I love having fighters that were NOT soldiers and are smart, etc.
If you go to irl pubs on occasion and chat with folks you can easily find out what little things walk into the room before the people do. Everyone has a quick 3 that they don't even realize they present in a few short sentences. This drunken version of "this is who I am without trying to talk about me" is how to approach my favorite PC sheets. Any more than that and it's too complicated for the table.
Folk hero:
1. *"Yehaw! Howdy Ya'll!"*
2. *"As my daddy always use to say (may he rest in peace)..."*
3. *"Shiiit! I cain't swim to save my life! oops... swear jar!"*
Soldier:
1. *"Hey! No petting my dog while he's on duty"*
2. *"You look like you've seen combat. You got that thousand-yard stare."*
3. *"You here alone? I am... Everyone I love leaves me in the end. Good riddance, more for me!"*
Urchin:
1. *Are y-you g-gonna eat that?*
2. *Hey can I bum a smoke?*
3. *My buddy doesn't know I'm here. I usually drink crosstown. We're not talking right now."*
I have made different characters, but I will say though I fall into one of three character types recently. Drunk, "Leader", go with the flow, or non confrontational type characters the types mixing a bit sometimes. Like one character might be a "Leader" that likes to party and drink, another might be a go with the flow drunk, or a "Leader" that goes with the flow of the group. I have tried branching out, but those characters barely get/have gotten developed before the campaigns ended shortly after they got started.
Nice good stuff
One of my closets friends in the world I meat 20 yrs ago at a LARP. I was role-paying a character from the south Shore of Boston. and did my best accent from that area. As it turns out this friend was from that area recognized the accent as authentic. As I used a lot of real world locations in my portray i had him in stitches for the rest of that night.
In the intervening years we has worked to get played together we are each others kids uncles, and stood for each other at our wedding shred drinks after divorces. We call each others parents mom & Dad; but it all stated with a single thing. I knew that the local swimming pool in North Quincy was inside the jr. high school.
If it works in real life it should at least be worth a shot at the table
After I figure out numbers (ability scores), I almost instantly jump to the class tables and 'This Is Your Life' tables from Xanathar's.
would love to listen to you guys talk about vehicles and uses in games
Good suggestion, thank you!
I'm playing an elf wizard right now that I rolled up from xanathar's, one of my favorite characters now.
I loved the video. And i agree with most of it.
but about the "backstory" i do not agree to the "just one thing"... i find that i need a few more things:
at least one friendly NPC
at least one hostile NPC
at least 1 profund believe or value
at least 1 thing that the character hate
at least 1 thing that the character fears
at least 1 small quirk
at least 1 personal objective
this things could be related and in a story or could be totally unrelated bullet points.
One other thing.. to mention.. si KEEP YOUR BACKSTORY related to your character capabilities.. one of the more problematic backstories i need to deal with is the "my backstory is greater and more interesting than the game" .. like... "i'm a lvl 1 human fighter... in my backstory i killed 4 dragons " :P
100% agree. The best part about the list you made is that it can apply to character seeds from Xanathar or your own custom backstories. I hate the flak that elaborate backstories get just off the idea that putting a lot of thought into the character before the story starts is somehow a bad thing purely on premise. There's a way to do it well and there's a way to overdo it. As a person who loves to put the extra time into most of my character stories and then has a blast with them it's always a little annoying when the "just improv it" crowd makes my way of enjoying the game feel invalidated.
I’ve had 2 characters who have been the I killed a dragon in my backstory kinda guys one was a paladin who had been retired for 30+ years so he was slow and didn’t fight as well
The other one was a warlock who had been horribly injured shortly before the campaign started so he used to be stronger but now his body is too damaged to handle using more powerful abilities until it heals up
I enjoyed these two characters and my party liked them fine too I didn’t change any rules I just had it as flavor stuff
@@thisstatementisfalsenothin5312 i get it.. and i'm glad you and your group enjoyed them. and i would allow them at some tables, probably for one shoots or short stories but... i would not like it:
why a high lvl character (required to kill a dragon) would lvl up? by doing the same than a lvl 1 character?
why a heal or similar spell does not restore the warlock? (or some rest )
Being old or hurt is not the same as being inexperienced. And i get it, it COULD be done... and at least you put an effort to justify WHY you are "weak" now .. and i respect that... but i would have problems with that all the time...
(if an experienced player wanted to play some concept like that.. i would say something like ok you are a higer lvl character, but with some drawbacks .. like a permanent str and con drain but only for a one shoot or similar
Elias Vernieri the warlocks injuries are so severe that a rest wouldn’t heal them and neither would most basic healing spells he was a celestial warlock so the idea behind it was that healing magic running through his body was all that was keeping him alive and that leveling up was just his body getting back to functioning properly
The paladin knew what he was doing but it had been decades since he’d swung a sword and he definitely hadn’t kept training so he was still rusty and weaker than he would’ve been before he stopped adventuring but once he was needed again he god some new equipment started to get back into shape and stuff but he physically had trouble moving well so like his dex was bad and he had bad eyesight and hearing on account of his low wisdom so I guess they don’t sound great but they actually play pretty well
@@thisstatementisfalsenothin5312 I get it.. and as i said before.. i notice you put a lot of effort to justify it... and if it worked for you and your table, that is great!. And yours could be a worthy exception and guideline to others who want to do that... ( and keep in mind that your example has nothing to do with what i was originally speaking)
For me (even with something worked out as yours) it brings more problems than enjoyment, what about other stuff. like the spells? skills, class abilities, knowledge, allies, prestige, renown, etc.
I build a barebones backstory that accumulates the bits to flesh it out after I walk around in it like a meat suit.
"Complimentary Data" As a fellow science nerd and D&D player I approve.
Ngl Jim's voice is real good sounding.
Thank you! We've been working hard on our home studios!
Its not random table generated but im playing in a feel free to try new characters your character can be off doing whatever while you bring in a new character kind of game and it really has kept things fresh and exciting and still keeps that slice of life feel.
Currently playing as a interplanar invader aarakockran astral soul monk trying to clear out large stretches of land and then start a ritual or something tbd to pull in an army of bird person monks. Hes also a fan of dropping explosives from above and belts of daggers and ball bearings/spikes, plus molotovs.
i had a recent chance to introduce a Warforged Eldritch Knight to a game using the lore of the DM's world where Warforged were created and their essence crystals or whatever contains their soul for a lack of a better word used a soul of another being. My old character a shadar-kai necromancer was killed due to the fact she wasn't ok with finding this out during a time she went off away from the party in what seemed intrigue and it turned into something sour. Just so we are clear the DM and I worked with each other on that and yes i was ok with it. This was to provide a mentality of true evilness to the warforged as enslaved souls to the party which they understood as i took find familar and my necromancer's raven familar became my EK fighter's familiar. It was the most fun ive ever had introducing a character and RPing a new character to the party. And it created a fun memorable session for everyone.