You might have gone into separate corners to calculate your numbers. Now it’s time to bring everyone together and create a backstory that will drive your characters toward adventure.
Your character’s backstory should be approximately three sentences. It should include a sentence about the character’s home, a sentence about the character’s family, and a sentence about the character’s community or culture.
You don’t need to use names yet. Your Adventure Guide can help you with that later. But you should know the kind of places and persons you’re describing: use “the city”, “the mayor”, and so on.
As you answer these questions, think about your character’s motivation, archetype, specialty, and skills. Interpret your character’s motivation in a manner that will drive your character to adventure. What in your character’s backstory drives them to the unknown?
Who raised you?
What kind of person or persons raised your character? A farmer? A scholar? A rich merchant or evil landlord? A thief or an ex-con? Or even wolves if it’s that kind of game. Was your character’s home nearby or far away? What kind of a place was it? Was it rural? A village? A city? A port city? A lawless frontier town? A religious community? If your character’s background includes wealth, why has your character lost access to this wealth? Has the wealth itself disappeared, or do the rules of inheritance keep them from any chance of receiving it? Sudden poverty is often an impetus to adventure.
How do you know the other characters?
How does your character know the other characters? Unless the group has decided to bring the characters together in some other way, your character’s backstory should include at least one other player character, and preferably two or more.
Your character must know each of the other characters enough that they would hang with you and you with them.
How did you get here?
Where is your character starting the game, and how did your character get there? The Adventure Guide may tell you where your character is, depending on the first adventure. Or your group can choose a place to start.
You may already know where your character started based on your answer to the first two questions. How did your character get here from there, and why? What happened on the journey? What does your character hope to accomplish by being here?
