Anyone Else Tired of Tragic Backstories?

I mean this in the most casual, non-confrontatioal way but I find myself very much tired of tragic backstories.

There is nothing inherently wrong with them but they can get a bit old when every character coming to a tavble has a backstroy that is one tale of woe after another. Such backstories are actually pretty tricky to pull off and still have fun at the table. They require a pretty mature player and a willingness to have the tragic backstroy be the beginning and not the be-all-end-all of the character.

Many people, I feel, make tragic backstories for their characters to lighten the load on both them and their GM or as an attempt to dodge GMs using their backstroy against them. The truth is, however, that neither of these will deter a skilled GM. Even a backstory bereft of any living relatives can be turned into a source of story elements for the GM and that tragedy may not prtotect your PC from their backstory being used against them.

Family killed in a fire? Did you know that there is now a rumor going around that your character, the only survivor, is now suspected of having caused the fire?

Noble family from which you were spawned dead when you were a child? Guess what, one of them survived and is now the BBEG in the game and specifically hates you because they feel like you abandoned them or they were rescued by a rival noble family and raised in that house to be a nemesis for you.

It's pretty easy with just about any tragic backstory.

Some players feel that the tragic backstory is actually the best motivator for their PC to adventure. They have nothing left to lose, no attachments, and every belivable desire or need to accept any old adventure to give their live meaning or purpose but it is here that I like to jump in with an alternative - make your backstory nice or at least not so bad.

Just as it is easy to erase everything from a character's background, it is also a simple thing to just decide to have your character come from something that is still there. It doesn't have to be all sunshine and whispery fields of golden grain but it can be. This is a bit of a personal crusade I have taken upon myself when creating characters for those rare occasions when I, a forever GM (by choice), get to play. Call it leading by example, if you will.

The last three characters i have made have all had backstories where their families were alive, they had varying degrees of good happen in those backstories and they still managed to have motivations to adventure. This is, I think the biggest thing to keep in mind when trying to avoid the tragic backstory - living connections, a life that did not end in tragedy, and a solid reason for adventuring.

While I have always tried to make characters with interesting (but reasonable) backstories, I'll talk about my most recent three for 5E.

Bortino Dal Orendo - This character was a Human Fighter. He was the fifth son of a noble family and stood to inherit nothing more than a room at the family estates and a small allowance. He was loved by his parents, though often overlooked due to his late birth order and allowed to pretty much live as he would. Fortunately, he had a sister with which he was particularly close, who kept him from sliding into debauchery and carousing as so many other "unneeeded" noble sons might. He also had a grandfather whom he loved very much and who returned that love by guidng him to be a good man. To this end, Bortino was enrolled in the finest sword schools and educated as a master swordsman. Bortino, knowing that any fame and fortune and a life of anything but a "spare son" would be made by himself took to the world, seeking adventure and a life of his own.

Dougan of Moorwatch - Born into a peasant family, Dougan grew up with a strong back and arm made for swinging heavy tools. As he grew older, he turned these natural talents toward fighting, joining a mercenary regiment, learning and becoming a leader of men, even if they were sellswords. Success led to some small fortune which led to marriage and children and as family grew, his desire to fight waned. Eventually he became resentful of years of rich men throwing away the blood of men like him on senseless was. Dougan and a small band of men from his unit deserted from a battlefield and took to the land. Now an outlaw, he took up a contract with an expedition company travelling to another land to forge the way for colonization (the campaign). His only requirement in hi contract was that half his wages be sent to his wife and children through a trusted fiend.

Randalmar - Born into a family that had enough to make life comfortable but not enough to make it grand, Randalmar was an intelligent young man who sought knowledge and showed and early interest and aptitude for arcane magic. He was sent to apprentice with a local wizard and was an excellent student until one day he returned, from an errand, to the wizard's tower to find that his master had disappeared without a trace. No note, no message left with servants. Not a single one of the wizard's minions knew of his whereabouts or what had happened to him. Randalmar carried on for some time, maintaining his studies and his tasks, assuming the wizard would return. When he didn't, the young wizard took his faithful familiar Hamwise (a small pig) and ventured forth into the world in hopes that he might discover what had happened to his master.

I have made other characters with non-tragic backstories but all of them seek to create a character who has something to go back to but also has reason to adventure in the current campaign.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and I would love to hear others' thoughts on the topic of tragic backstories and especially any other ideas for non-tragic, even happy backstories.

THE APE CAT - A NEW MOSNTER IDEA FROM A LOCAL LEGEND

 

The Pacific Northwest is known for some pretty famous cryptis, most notably the Sasquatch or Bigfoot. There are others such as the giant octopi of the Tacoma Narrows, Tree Octopi, even several lake monsters but there is one that I only recently learned about that seems like the right sort of critter to include as one of D&D's weirdo monsters - The Ape Cat

Known as the Klickitat Ape Cat, the creatures is said to be a large, panther-like cat with a six-foot long tail and the face of an ape, with hair that sticks out. It's said to haunt the area around The Columbia River Gorge where it stalks the waters and bluffs. It is said to mess with electrical devices and compasses. 

In old school D&D terms this gives us an interesting monster that seems like it might carry some sort of electric charge. The disruption of electronics is unlikley to be a thing in a fantasy setting, so we can make this into it carrying and active electrical ability and being resistent to or immune to things like lightning and such. We can even extapolate on the purpose of the long tail. Like the illustration below, it may simply be a swimming tool but we can also make it into an attack, with the Ape Cat using it's tail to lash at or even snare enemies and zapping them with its electricity. 

APE CAT (B/X)

No. Encountered: 1 (or maated pair)
Alignment: Neutral
Move: 150' (50'), 100' (30') swimming
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 4+4
No. of Attacks: 2 claws or tail*
Damage/Attack: 1d4/1d4 or *save vs dragon breath or 2d10 damage from shocking tail.
Save: F2
Morale: 10
Treasure Type: U

The ape cat is a magical creature of unknown origin, Some say, like the owlbear, that the creature is the magical melding of two creatures though others believe it to be a relative of the displacer beast, though there is little to substnatiate either. Ape cats prefer rocky areas near bodies of water such as river gorges or alpine lakes. They are not found on oceans coastlines though and seem to prefer inland haunts where they can retreat to the brush and trees when not stalking prey or fishing in the waters. 

These creatures have the ability to generate an electric charge and use their 6ft-long tails as a lash with which to attack and stun prey. In water, they can discharge their electicity around them, stunning small prey but not enough to damage anything larger than fish or small animals. When threatened, the air around the hums and their fur stands on end, showing they are charged and ready to strike. 

Ape cats are solitary except during mating seasons, when they pair up, often with the same makte year to year. Ape cats prefer to make their dens in the sides of the cliffs and bluffs they hunt from, digging shallow holeso r using natural cave where they will raise broods of 2-5 kittens. While ape cats are of only animal intelligence, they can mimic humanoid-sounding noises, often giving the illusion of speach without actually saying anything. 

ATARI'S ADVENTURE - A SEED FOR NOSTALGIC ADVENTURE

This early open world adventure game is just begging to be made into an OSR style adventure module. While the story for the game was that an evil wizard stole a magic chalice. You have to brave up to three dragons to find the chalice and return it to its rightful place. Along the way there are some lesser monsters, in the form of a bat that steals things.

This is a pretty bare bones framework but I feel you could expand this into a fun little one-shot or short adventure built on the nostalgia of for the times. The biggest thing to figure out is how to handle the three dragons under the wizard's power. Are these full-on powerful dragons because if so how powerful is this damned wizard?Populating the rest of the setting's mis of forests, hedge mazes, caverns and other castles is just a matter of peppering in the usual suspects.

Making it interesting is the hard part

YOU START IN AN INN

 

There is a stereoptypical beginning to D&D and other fantasy adventures and campaigns. It's tried and true and for soe reason has become a bit of a joke. While yes, it is overused, it is still an absolutely solid place to start things. 

Inns and taverns are THE meeting place in a medieval style setting. While there are plenty of other places to start things off, an inn/tavern is the most universally accessible location besides an open, public space. Other locations may often lack any reason for some characters to be there but everyone eats, drinks, and needs shelter. Inns are also incredibly generic and as such can easily be used to set any number of tones for your adventure or campaign setup. 

The Action Start
In this start, the inn becomes a sight of an action scene that instigates the adventure. After a brief setup, the PCs either knowing one another or having introduced themselves, suddenly find themselves in the middle of some sort of action that starts the adventure. Perhaps the man they are all looking for gets wide to them and springs from the crowd to try to get them before they get him. Maybe that same person tries to sneak out and the character spot him. It could be that the action only indirectly addresses the adventure. Perhaps the city guard, minions of an evil NPC, are in the inn, taking prisoners or searching for the PCs themselves, their master having been tipped off to the characters being there to thwart him?

The Mystery Start
The players have come together and find themselves in the midst of soemthing mysterious that sets off the adventure. This is not just a simple quest giver introducing a mystery plot but something mysterious occurring whole the characters are in the inn. Perhaps a specretal presence makes itself knowm, signifying the beginning of something, even the adventure. They might witness a suspicious interaction between inn patrons. Perhaps the lights or flames in the inn act strangely as a hauntng sound filters in through the windows and doors.

The Unintended Quest
As the party gets to know one another, or as they enjoy their latest rest after a long adventure, something occurs within the inn to make them aware of  a possible quest. This can tie in with any of the previously mentioned sorts of starts. In these sorts of starts something such as a rumor, a tvern tale, a song sun by a bard, or even a curiosity among the decorations fo the inn draw the players into an adventure. Perhaps they ask the inkeeper about a strange monster head hanging above the fire. The bard's song might sing of a place that sounds worth finding. An old drunk mutters something about gold in the dark hills. This sort os start does very much require buy-in by the players.

PLAYING BAD CHARACTERS IN A GOOD WAY

There are a small number of character concepts/tropes that are generally bad ideas for the gaming table, not because they are inherrantly bad characters but because players tend to play them poorly. These character types often appeal to players because in media they are often very interesting characters but what is often lost on potential player. 

The key to playing these characters is to understand what they are actually about. Most of the unpopular character concepts are designed as starting points and/or vehicles for character growth. As the character is written (played), they are supposed to develop and change. The lone wolf learns the value of friends. The edgelord learns to share the weight of his emotons with others and gain strength from them. The brash lout learns that there is room in his life for caring and sensitivity. Even the villainous character learns the mistakes in the assumptions they have made that led to their villainy. The key to all of these is that the character, as written explores these changes.

As players, it can be tricky to explore these without coming across as disruptive or annoying but it can be done through effort and an attempt to exposit the reasons and rationale behind their actions and how there character is processing things. This can sometimes seem awkward at the table, expressing a characters' internal processes outloud, but it is what makes these characters work in print and on the screen, though in the latter case we see this acted out and don't read it, but it was written down somewhere. Doing so, however, cuts through any perceptions that the player is doing this to be a problem for the rest of the party.

Next, the player of such characters should make an effort to express that changes and character growth are occurring. In moments of role-play it only takes a few little expressions to reflect this. Perhaps the shutdown, closed-up character shares a rare and new moment of openess. The evil character might give pause before committing and act that once came so esily to him. The pilfering thief puts the thing back. these moments don't even have to be made in the form of dialog or moments shared with PCs. they can be narrated as downtime activities or in interactions with NPCs and even monsters. A violent, "kill 'em all" sort of character who has spent the adventure launching into needless combat might show mercy or restraint at the start of combat, but this becomes clear when the reason is given.

Lastly, embrace the changes. Accept that you have made this character to explore the growth and make a conscious choice of when the character finally reaches that point of transformation from who they wre to who they have become. Much in the same way that players absolutely must make a conscious decision to play and adventurer and find the reasons for their character to embrace the aventures put before them, so to must a potentially problematic character archetype make a choice to eventually change. Such changes are not even the end of that character's cool concept and archetype for now the character's concept changes to one of acceptance, redemption, correction, or even mentoring. The player now gets to embrace the changed character and all the new role-playing opportunities that come with their new self taking the rest of the players and their characters along for the ride.

Problem characters are only problems because people play them poorly. Now, some of this comes down to bad players choosing them for the wrong reasons but, if you are a good player who truly wants to play one of these character archetypes then by all means go for it. Just remember to make it fun, embrace the story that those archetypes are meant to tell and accept that at some point for it to work, the character needs to tramsform.

HOW PLAYER-FACING THINKING CAN RUIN THE GM'S FUN

 

It can be difficult to have discussions about the things modern gaming has brought into the hobby that may not be all their cracked up to be. I have long been the sort of grognard that isn't the groggy-est or...um..nardy'est (maybe the wrong way to put that), but even I sometimes run into issues with the new fangled gaming thinking. While I am okay saying some of these new ideas are good and, often, not as new as a lot people thing they are, sometimes there are new concepts that can either be misunderstood or even misused. One such concept is the player-facing or players first sort of game.

As I understand it, these sorts of game place an emphasis on collaboration both in terms of a game's plot, story, themes, even worldbuilding with the goal being greater player buy-in and an increased sense of belonging and participation. this can be great and, to a certain extent, I do enjoy and encourage GMs and players to embrace this. However, this is often overplayed or pushed too far. While the intent may be to give players some say in shaping the game and making sure the game is something they want to play, it is possible for the game's balance between players and GM to fail.

Over the years, I have seen a tendency for players to take this to the extreme - considering themselves in charge of the game and religating the GM to a simple adjudicator of rules and not an active participant in the game. This is a terrible place to put a GM an ultimately will result in the failure of a campaign as much, maybe even more so than a group of poorly invested players. A GM's character really is the game world and creating an running that world is where the joy comes from, for most GMs. 

How this manifests can vary greatly but often takes the form of players expecting that they can just go off and do anything they want in the game as if their agency trumps any consideration for the plot or adventures at hand. If this is the sort of open, ultimate sandbox campaign you have all agreed to play, that's fine, but if everyone has come to the table to play in a world either created by or presented by the GM along with the adventures and plots they wish to run there, then players really do we it to the GM to play along. Chosing not to do so, with the players insisting on doing their own thing regardless of any plans by the GM is inconsiderate and rude.

The GM is often the player putting the most amount of actual work into the game. Players need only show up and play along. Players who want to express their characters selves should find ways to do so that work within the construct of the game world and not disrupt it. Most GMs are going to be very collaborative and considerate of player's desires and generally find it quite easy to find a way to fit it in or figure out a way to let a player player a character they want, in some manner or another.

At the end of the day, players are in charge of their characters but just as they expect the GM to be responsible for presenting a game that is fun for them, so should they also respect the work, time, and the world the GM is putting before t hem.

THE TROUBLE WITH TOO MANY KLINGONS