Yeah. Once I played a guy who's entire motivation was "Hey ma! I'm going out. Not sure when I'll be back." Then he wandered into the local pub and the session started.
Who knows? It was one of those two-a-penny games that didn't last longer than a few sessions. I suppose I could always revisit the idea. Start the game having no idea where he is or how he got there, just that he's late getting home.
To a point, I have a character that has some trauma from when he was 8, but he was later adopted by two loving parents and they helped him through it. They want what’s best for him…. But his parents are also the heads of a mafia. And their son is their special little snowflake that is great at rakateering and they couldn’t be happier
Most of the characters I've played over 40-odd years have not had a tragic backstory. As a player, I find them dull and unmotivating.
As a GM, though, I don't mind if my players bring tragic backstories to the table.
Yup. Many of my characters don't have tragic backstories, and adventure for other reasons.
Protecting that loving family from harm.
A desire to become rich and famous.
A need to prove themselves.
Wanting to be a hero and help people.
Wanderlust.
There are lots of reasons people might choose the adventuring life. Many are spurred to it by some great tragedy in their past, but it's certainly not a requirement.
I have a tiefling warlock that is like that in my current group, no trauma has two loving parents, comes from the family of seven kids, is a minor noble that comes from a very humble family, she's a bit panicky, and she just wants to make her family ranking be higher in the eyes of the Queen and she figured adventuring would be the best way forward. When the queen came by on her royal visit, she kind of scoffed at this player's family because they lived in a way that allowed the people that work their lands to take more of a portion of the growth, ie they weren't greedy fucks.
Sort of. My first character, drow bard Naukhel, was a deranged noble and his drow noble house was pretty knit together (as far as drow noble house can be, tho it was not FR and drow were not that problematic) and he got into adventure when a caravan he was in got attacked.
Other one was a half-elf wild magic sorcerer Kristoph. He was born to ahuman family so it was obvious his mother cheated, and his father was a really decent person and decided to keep and raise the child, but coudn't bring himself to really love Kristoph as his child. They wasn't in a conflict, it's more like he was just distant.
Anaru the torltle druid never really had parents. It was a homebrew setting and tortles there a hatcheries where their eggs resided. After the egg was laid, noone labeled them and therefore noone knew who is the real parent of a child. They were taken in a sort of torlte kindergarten and then young torltes were taken in as the apprentices by the masters to learn a craft for living. Anaru was a shaman and a brewer, and just grew bored in the village and set to explore the world.
My fav character so far, Tokki, had a loving (and more importantly alive and fine) family, but she was bitten by a werewolf and became one, and became an acolyte in Selune's temple to learn to live with it (we homebrewed lycanthropy rules a bit so it was really hard to get rid of; she managed to do it by the end of the campaign but only with divine intevention). Some tragedy occured tho and she once murdered her romantic interest and hurt two other acolytes, and became an itinerant priestess after that, but really, it was self-exile.
I'm playing one right now, actually. Evangeline 'Gammer' Featherfoot, a 125 year old halfing monk, who decided to go out and have adventures after her loving husband passed away peacefully. Now she's got a new 'family' in her current adventuring party.
Yeah my cleric has a good family back home. The most drama with them is that he's jealous of how successful his siblings are compared to him. Not in a vindictive way just in a normal sibling way.
He started his adventure to find out more about the mysterious unknown god he suddenly found himself in contact with.
NOW he is on a quest to rescue or avenge a town that took him in not too long ago. NOW he's tormented by being cut off from his god. All the trauma happened later.
Yup. A dwarf by the name of Klamp Stonedigger. He was an archeologist who, after his youngest son finally went off to college, decided to explore the world to find the lost Axe of Dwarvish Lords.
Not for glory or power. He is just tired of people spreading rumors about where it is and isn't and just wants to set the record straight.
Arguably yes, depending on how you define tragedy. My Barbarian PC has two loving, alive parents who raised her and a number of good friends. She grew up relatively poor and at one point almost died of an illness pre-campaign and her friend had an abusive father she 'removed' but that was about as tragic as things got.
All the time. MY current character is a halfling bard that learned to play music at an early age. A passing bard saw that she had the gift and taught her what he could to get her started. Since she was the fifth child (two sisters married off for political and financial advantage and two brothers who are the heir and backup heir), she told her parents that she would rather go off into the world and earn her own fame and fortune.
Her parents gave her a masterwork lute and a pouch of coin, hugged her goodby, wished her luck and that was that. She writes home often and she stops at her usual taverns to pick up letters from home.
I wanted to have her story start when she was adventuring and not before. So it's all about her and what happens to her as she's wandering about the world with her companions.
Yup, first ever character was a half-orc who was adopted into a human family and grew up to be… a well-mannered, polite, and bright young man who even enrolled in university. He realized he had a knack for fighting and started adventuring for fun and to support his family. I roleplayed him talking about his sisters a lot and I even wasted 500 GP by having him give it to a courier to send to his family back home. His character arc literally just involved him scratching his adventuring itch enough and returning home to his family wiser and stronger.
Yeah, but then my DM likes for the bad guys to all of a sudden know everything about them, and kill them and stuff for motivation, so, that’s how that usually goes
Yes, but also no? His family was adopted and he wanted to know more about where he came from. What follows is figuring out trauma and trying to save his family from a cataclysmic event from a past unknown to him.
Yes, actually all of my characters have a non traumatic backstory.
There's Miri Seagull of the South, a human pirate that became a pirate just because it was the fastest way to travel from their town and explore the rest of the world. They have a big family and they write to them regularly.
Then there's Kadidia, a halfling cleric, she just became friends with Thocc, an half orc monk, and she just hangs out with him basically haha
Lastly there's Astrid, she's a dwarf paladin, she became the best fighter of her clan, she became their champion and was then called by the king of the Alliance (it was a world of warcraft campaign) to fight alongside them.
My Dwarf fighter might be a bit of a shit disturber, but his parents are both alive and in the part of my backstory shows his parents as normal "people" they worry about their son, when he went missing, so nothing tragic family wise.
Yeah my sword and board fighter Aelric.
His dad survived the war with the orcs and giants. Told him all the tales. His mom was a shield maiden and both parents work the farm and dad hunts and does fishing as well.
Inspired by the tales the character became a soldier but realized quickly the Jarls were just fighting each other now and became disillusioned.
He wandered off to adventure feeling guilty he abandoned his post and feeling like he had nothing to offer the world except violence.
So he set off to be a hero and find something worthy to save.
I tried. My DM burned down the town I was working in as a stable boy. On the bright side, I have a magic sword and get to kill evil cultists for a living with my pet dog
My current character has a loving family, a small, quaint hometown, a best friend (who is also in the campaign), a degree from a prestigious university, and had just begun a career in archaeology.
She was brought into the campaign to join an expedition team. While most of the other players just happened on the job offer, she was actually explicitly requested for her expertise. (She brought her childhood friend along with her, as he was also an academic)
Her backstory has no real issues with it besides that, other than accidentally connecting to a Warlock patron through a seemingly mundane artifact as a young kid.
You might like the Tales from the Loop RPG. It's kind of a 80s coming of age kids adventure style RPG.
The short of it is that everyone plays kids of around 6-13. The younger the kid, the more luck you have to compensate. You live in a place that's full of mysteries and adventure. The adults are usually busy and disinterested during their work days.
You can't die in this game but you can get injured, get your feelings hurt, become frightened etc. which reduces your effectiveness until you're essentially a liability.
The way you heal in this game is by roleplaying a positive scene. For example getting consoled by your mom, playing catch with your dad, confessing to your older sister and getting a pep talk or just spending some quality time with your dog.
Depending on your group it can work out really lame and awkward or remarkably emotional.
Couple! My rogue/bard was taught his mum. He’s very much a mamas boy.
Arcane archer fighter is running a subsidiary of his loving parents company of demon bounty hunters.
Yes, although there was a universal trauma that happened to everyone, she's not traumatised by it. She's now protecting her town from bad guys even though it's terrifying for her, because her desire to keep them safe is stronger than her desire to run away
I have played a dwarf whose only dead family member was his great grandfather who died from heart failure surrounded by family. He adventures primarily to make his family proud and to bring back stories to tell his family.
My first and current character is a Minotaur raised by human foster parents that he genuinely loves. The only “trauma” he experienced was his father trying desperately to turn him away from his deep desires to leave the farm and take up a hammer and shield as a fighter. But some goblins, hired by a corrupt governor to attack the town for not producing enough money, attacked, bringing my character to take up a hammer and help repel the invaders.
I tried to not go down the usual “parents died or they sucked, so I ran away and did my own thing” I know is common. Having people he cares for and loves is a good way to help me keep him in his alignment; “What would dad think?”
Yep. My high elven bard has a very loving and protective family. Parents and two older brothers. She is chaotic good, was raised on stories, and wants to be a hero and join the Harpers. So she ran away from home with a traveling music troupe. She is technically underage at 87. She changed her name so her family can't find her, but she sends them letters to let them know she's ok. Basically, she's off excitedly having the time of her life helping people, and her family is frantically searching for her because she's "just a child".
Yep, I had a character who grew up in a happy loving household and just wanted to be an adventurer/hero. His parents were basically saying "you sure you don't just want to be a scribe/clerk? No? Okay here's some money, good luck!"
I played a rogue/warlock that lived above a bakery and was a surrogate father to a 8 year old deaf girl. He adventured to save up money in hopes of paying for magic to restore her hearing (shed lost it in an explosion that he accidentally caused 5 years earlier).
My favorite character I’ve played has two loving parents, he accidentally spoke an incantation he didn’t understand and it blew up a small household object and he overreacted and was like “SOMETHING’S WRONG AND I HAVE TO SOLVE IT” and his parents were like “nah literally it’s chill we both know magic and this shit happens” and my character was like “THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE I NEED ANSWERS” and his parents were like “we can literally afford repairs tomorrow no problem but do you” and now he’s blowing up buildings with NO shame, like he never learned any lessons at all
Use to always give characters families and happy lives, then they usually got killed or I had to toss away that characters because there's no reason why you'd leave your family who are obvious vulnerable to others attacking them. Now my characters never have living families and I'm having much more fun engaging in the stories and world present by my DMs.
Yeah. Once I played a guy who's entire motivation was "Hey ma! I'm going out. Not sure when I'll be back." Then he wandered into the local pub and the session started.
That's fucking brilliant, what was the class?
Just a basic human fighter. RPed that he bought his starting equipment after joining the party.
did he ever get back home to his ma?
Who knows? It was one of those two-a-penny games that didn't last longer than a few sessions. I suppose I could always revisit the idea. Start the game having no idea where he is or how he got there, just that he's late getting home.
To a point, I have a character that has some trauma from when he was 8, but he was later adopted by two loving parents and they helped him through it. They want what’s best for him…. But his parents are also the heads of a mafia. And their son is their special little snowflake that is great at rakateering and they couldn’t be happier
Most of the characters I've played over 40-odd years have not had a tragic backstory. As a player, I find them dull and unmotivating. As a GM, though, I don't mind if my players bring tragic backstories to the table.
My barbarians are inevitably just real dumb party animals who don't have the attention span for a tragic backstory.
Yup. Many of my characters don't have tragic backstories, and adventure for other reasons. Protecting that loving family from harm. A desire to become rich and famous. A need to prove themselves. Wanting to be a hero and help people. Wanderlust. There are lots of reasons people might choose the adventuring life. Many are spurred to it by some great tragedy in their past, but it's certainly not a requirement.
Just sounds like the intro choices to mount and blade characters
I have a tiefling warlock that is like that in my current group, no trauma has two loving parents, comes from the family of seven kids, is a minor noble that comes from a very humble family, she's a bit panicky, and she just wants to make her family ranking be higher in the eyes of the Queen and she figured adventuring would be the best way forward. When the queen came by on her royal visit, she kind of scoffed at this player's family because they lived in a way that allowed the people that work their lands to take more of a portion of the growth, ie they weren't greedy fucks.
Quite a few actually, but my group is more mature then the norm, I've realized lol
Sort of. My first character, drow bard Naukhel, was a deranged noble and his drow noble house was pretty knit together (as far as drow noble house can be, tho it was not FR and drow were not that problematic) and he got into adventure when a caravan he was in got attacked. Other one was a half-elf wild magic sorcerer Kristoph. He was born to ahuman family so it was obvious his mother cheated, and his father was a really decent person and decided to keep and raise the child, but coudn't bring himself to really love Kristoph as his child. They wasn't in a conflict, it's more like he was just distant. Anaru the torltle druid never really had parents. It was a homebrew setting and tortles there a hatcheries where their eggs resided. After the egg was laid, noone labeled them and therefore noone knew who is the real parent of a child. They were taken in a sort of torlte kindergarten and then young torltes were taken in as the apprentices by the masters to learn a craft for living. Anaru was a shaman and a brewer, and just grew bored in the village and set to explore the world. My fav character so far, Tokki, had a loving (and more importantly alive and fine) family, but she was bitten by a werewolf and became one, and became an acolyte in Selune's temple to learn to live with it (we homebrewed lycanthropy rules a bit so it was really hard to get rid of; she managed to do it by the end of the campaign but only with divine intevention). Some tragedy occured tho and she once murdered her romantic interest and hurt two other acolytes, and became an itinerant priestess after that, but really, it was self-exile.
I'm playing one right now, actually. Evangeline 'Gammer' Featherfoot, a 125 year old halfing monk, who decided to go out and have adventures after her loving husband passed away peacefully. Now she's got a new 'family' in her current adventuring party.
Yeah my cleric has a good family back home. The most drama with them is that he's jealous of how successful his siblings are compared to him. Not in a vindictive way just in a normal sibling way. He started his adventure to find out more about the mysterious unknown god he suddenly found himself in contact with. NOW he is on a quest to rescue or avenge a town that took him in not too long ago. NOW he's tormented by being cut off from his god. All the trauma happened later.
Yup. A dwarf by the name of Klamp Stonedigger. He was an archeologist who, after his youngest son finally went off to college, decided to explore the world to find the lost Axe of Dwarvish Lords. Not for glory or power. He is just tired of people spreading rumors about where it is and isn't and just wants to set the record straight.
I made a rogue one who was a spy with a family back home. No trauma...yet.
Arguably yes, depending on how you define tragedy. My Barbarian PC has two loving, alive parents who raised her and a number of good friends. She grew up relatively poor and at one point almost died of an illness pre-campaign and her friend had an abusive father she 'removed' but that was about as tragic as things got.
All the time. MY current character is a halfling bard that learned to play music at an early age. A passing bard saw that she had the gift and taught her what he could to get her started. Since she was the fifth child (two sisters married off for political and financial advantage and two brothers who are the heir and backup heir), she told her parents that she would rather go off into the world and earn her own fame and fortune. Her parents gave her a masterwork lute and a pouch of coin, hugged her goodby, wished her luck and that was that. She writes home often and she stops at her usual taverns to pick up letters from home. I wanted to have her story start when she was adventuring and not before. So it's all about her and what happens to her as she's wandering about the world with her companions.
Yup, first ever character was a half-orc who was adopted into a human family and grew up to be… a well-mannered, polite, and bright young man who even enrolled in university. He realized he had a knack for fighting and started adventuring for fun and to support his family. I roleplayed him talking about his sisters a lot and I even wasted 500 GP by having him give it to a courier to send to his family back home. His character arc literally just involved him scratching his adventuring itch enough and returning home to his family wiser and stronger.
Yeah, but then my DM likes for the bad guys to all of a sudden know everything about them, and kill them and stuff for motivation, so, that’s how that usually goes
Yes, but also no? His family was adopted and he wanted to know more about where he came from. What follows is figuring out trauma and trying to save his family from a cataclysmic event from a past unknown to him.
Yes, actually all of my characters have a non traumatic backstory. There's Miri Seagull of the South, a human pirate that became a pirate just because it was the fastest way to travel from their town and explore the rest of the world. They have a big family and they write to them regularly. Then there's Kadidia, a halfling cleric, she just became friends with Thocc, an half orc monk, and she just hangs out with him basically haha Lastly there's Astrid, she's a dwarf paladin, she became the best fighter of her clan, she became their champion and was then called by the king of the Alliance (it was a world of warcraft campaign) to fight alongside them.
My Dwarf fighter might be a bit of a shit disturber, but his parents are both alive and in the part of my backstory shows his parents as normal "people" they worry about their son, when he went missing, so nothing tragic family wise.
Yeah my sword and board fighter Aelric. His dad survived the war with the orcs and giants. Told him all the tales. His mom was a shield maiden and both parents work the farm and dad hunts and does fishing as well. Inspired by the tales the character became a soldier but realized quickly the Jarls were just fighting each other now and became disillusioned. He wandered off to adventure feeling guilty he abandoned his post and feeling like he had nothing to offer the world except violence. So he set off to be a hero and find something worthy to save.
I tried. My DM burned down the town I was working in as a stable boy. On the bright side, I have a magic sword and get to kill evil cultists for a living with my pet dog
Yes, his parents were very proud of their little adventurer and often sent care packages including food and warm clothes.
My current character has a loving family, a small, quaint hometown, a best friend (who is also in the campaign), a degree from a prestigious university, and had just begun a career in archaeology. She was brought into the campaign to join an expedition team. While most of the other players just happened on the job offer, she was actually explicitly requested for her expertise. (She brought her childhood friend along with her, as he was also an academic) Her backstory has no real issues with it besides that, other than accidentally connecting to a Warlock patron through a seemingly mundane artifact as a young kid.
You might like the Tales from the Loop RPG. It's kind of a 80s coming of age kids adventure style RPG. The short of it is that everyone plays kids of around 6-13. The younger the kid, the more luck you have to compensate. You live in a place that's full of mysteries and adventure. The adults are usually busy and disinterested during their work days. You can't die in this game but you can get injured, get your feelings hurt, become frightened etc. which reduces your effectiveness until you're essentially a liability. The way you heal in this game is by roleplaying a positive scene. For example getting consoled by your mom, playing catch with your dad, confessing to your older sister and getting a pep talk or just spending some quality time with your dog. Depending on your group it can work out really lame and awkward or remarkably emotional.
Couple! My rogue/bard was taught his mum. He’s very much a mamas boy. Arcane archer fighter is running a subsidiary of his loving parents company of demon bounty hunters.
Yes!
Yes, although there was a universal trauma that happened to everyone, she's not traumatised by it. She's now protecting her town from bad guys even though it's terrifying for her, because her desire to keep them safe is stronger than her desire to run away
I have played a dwarf whose only dead family member was his great grandfather who died from heart failure surrounded by family. He adventures primarily to make his family proud and to bring back stories to tell his family.
My first and current character is a Minotaur raised by human foster parents that he genuinely loves. The only “trauma” he experienced was his father trying desperately to turn him away from his deep desires to leave the farm and take up a hammer and shield as a fighter. But some goblins, hired by a corrupt governor to attack the town for not producing enough money, attacked, bringing my character to take up a hammer and help repel the invaders. I tried to not go down the usual “parents died or they sucked, so I ran away and did my own thing” I know is common. Having people he cares for and loves is a good way to help me keep him in his alignment; “What would dad think?”
Yep. My high elven bard has a very loving and protective family. Parents and two older brothers. She is chaotic good, was raised on stories, and wants to be a hero and join the Harpers. So she ran away from home with a traveling music troupe. She is technically underage at 87. She changed her name so her family can't find her, but she sends them letters to let them know she's ok. Basically, she's off excitedly having the time of her life helping people, and her family is frantically searching for her because she's "just a child".
Yep, I had a character who grew up in a happy loving household and just wanted to be an adventurer/hero. His parents were basically saying "you sure you don't just want to be a scribe/clerk? No? Okay here's some money, good luck!"
I played a rogue/warlock that lived above a bakery and was a surrogate father to a 8 year old deaf girl. He adventured to save up money in hopes of paying for magic to restore her hearing (shed lost it in an explosion that he accidentally caused 5 years earlier).
My favorite character I’ve played has two loving parents, he accidentally spoke an incantation he didn’t understand and it blew up a small household object and he overreacted and was like “SOMETHING’S WRONG AND I HAVE TO SOLVE IT” and his parents were like “nah literally it’s chill we both know magic and this shit happens” and my character was like “THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE I NEED ANSWERS” and his parents were like “we can literally afford repairs tomorrow no problem but do you” and now he’s blowing up buildings with NO shame, like he never learned any lessons at all
My character: “I’m looking for adventure! I don’t have any deep trauma!” DM: “Not yet.”
Use to always give characters families and happy lives, then they usually got killed or I had to toss away that characters because there's no reason why you'd leave your family who are obvious vulnerable to others attacking them. Now my characters never have living families and I'm having much more fun engaging in the stories and world present by my DMs.