Three Things Everyone Must Do To Create An Effective Character Backstory

This week’s topic will be on creating a backstory for your character.

If you’re like many people in the role-playing world, your character’s backstory is an afterthought. Its something to be done in a fraction of the time you spend creating the rest of your character’s stats, equipment spells etc. The danger of doing this is that the focus becomes centered on the “playing” aspect of the game, at the expense of the “role”. We’re all there to play the game, and what makes our hobby unique, is the creativity and imagination we can express in our roles.
 
Think of it like a pizza. Those stats, equipment and spells are the cheese, crust and sauce- all essential ingredients. But having a motivation behind your actions makes that cheese pizza, into a 4-cheese, Sicilian sausage with tomatoes, anchovies and extra onions masterpiece. It’s the options that make both the pizza and the character unique and flavorful. Better ingredients, better pizza.
 
{Insert Peyton Manning & Papa John’s ad here}
 
So, my discerning reader, here’s what I consider to be the 3 must-do’s for creating a backstory for your character.
 
1 Raison d'être- “To be a raisin”
 
This is something you absolutely must know before the dice hit the table. Your character exists (usually) as someone special, different and more powerful than the average person in the world. How did this come to be? More important for the party: why are you out on the road adventuring instead of something more relaxing? You could be curled up warm by a fire at home with a good book or telling the same old stories in taverns for free drinks! You must know the purpose your character has, otherwise you’re the Jean-Claude Van Damme of the group: too much action and too little plot.
 
[Quiz time: Name a Van Damme movie other than Bloodsport]
 
2- Muse Clues
 
Having a muse brings something real to your character. A real voice, a real walking gait, real idiosyncrasies that you sometimes can’t think up on your own. A muse gives your imagination a skeleton and wraps your ideas in silky smooth skin. They translate your character from an image search on a search engine to a person in a story. It can be a favorite actor, or a cool comic book character you read about, a funny co-worker, or someone from an obscure dramatic piece your significant other wanted to watch. Find the way you learn (visual or auditory only  – kinesthetic not so much, unfortunately) and then find your Tom Cruise…I mean Tom Muse! I mean…
 
What I’m trying to say is just like toilet paper, muses have multiple uses, and they can get stuck on your shoe, which is super embarrassing when going into a business meeting. Muses can teach you a new accent, execute sweet ninja flips that you can describe, or help you with turns of phrase in with the criminal underworld. Get creative, you say? I say: Why reinvent the wheel?
 
[Tom Cruise does not endorse this blog]
 
3- Cova the Dubya’s
 
School is in session, take out your coiled notebooks and come up with answers for the 6 question words of role-playing: Who, What, Where, When, Why and sometimes WTF.
 
Who
This influences how your character interacts with other people. Who do they like / hate/ find hot?
 
What
This influences what your character does during “down time”. What did your character do before deciding to take up the life of a wandering adventurer? What were their dreams? What’s something that they know loads of useless information about?
 
Where
 This influences things like accents, background knowledge, and skills. Where did your character grow up? Travel to? Want to go?
 
When
This influences your character’s interests and point of view of events. When did your character hit milestones in their life: born, married, bar mitzvah, baptism, death of loved ones?
 
Why
Why did your character become an adventurer? (See raison d'être above)
 
And sometimes,
 
WTF
What is something your character does that will be justifiable to nobody but you.  No matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise, you find a way to let this quirk shine in the story. This is the part of character creation that I like to call “dipping your character in ink”. For better or worse, long after the campaign is ended, people generally remember these things about your character. Hey, the only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about, right?
 
Well that’s all the time we have… I hear footsteps coming down the hall.
 
Gotta get back to work!
 
Dustinopolis
Chief Assistant to the Evening Custodian
I am Dustinopolis, Devourer of Cheese. I am an 11th level dreamer who has been rolling dice and playing roles off and on for over ten years. In High-level Games , my current position is as Assistant to the Night Janitor. I write my columns fully clothed. Usually.

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