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.