theres something very funny about people writing these rich and detailed backstories for dnd characters as if the characters aren’t gonna still be level 1 when they start
“my elf has been alive for a thousand years and has won ten thousand battles!!!” you’re still level 1 aint ya i guess you those ten thousand battles you won werent all that hard to win
i know this sounds all grumpy but i legit mean it when i say it is hilarious when someone writes it in to their backstory that they were the Smartest Mage on the Planet that has researched magic for A Thousand Centuries and then the game starts and they’re like “yeah i know fireball whats up”
the more detailed your character’s backstory is and the more you boast about the character’s competence and abilities, the funnier it becomes when you roll a 1 and your character just drops their sword and shits themselves. president of the dwarves for six centuries and you just shit yourself in a bar you were trying to find work in.
Like I know that this is a Goof Post™ and that you’re generally not supposed to try to offer any explanations for stuff like this for fear of Ruining The Joke™ but I feel like people do this because they fundamentally misunderstand what their character’s backstory is actually for.
The most interesting and compelling part of a character’s life is supposed to be the story you’re going to tell; you’re defeating the object by shoving all of the cool shit into their backstory. The actual purpose of the backstory is to inform your character’s behaviour and choices and the way they react to things so you can play/write them consistently! A solid backstory is a great way to make your character a whole person with a personality that makes sense.
tl;dr - A “cool” backstory doesn’t necessarily make for a cool character. It’s less about who they’ve been and what they’ve already done than it is about who they might become over the course of the story you’re going to tell with them.
hey! this! this is really really good advice for players!
