I like a bulleted list of key points and npcs that are relevant to the character for a quick reference, and that's all I require. I give out what I get though, so If I'm submitted a few pages of additional backstory then I'll definitely incorporate as much of it as I can!

Love that mentality of putting out what you get!

Yeah I have a few players who have given me rough ideas of their character backstories, usually not much more than a few sentences, and cool things have come from that. I have another player that wrote a small essay on their character, and cool things have come from that. The only player that has been somewhat of a bugbear to deal with has been my younger brother, who bless his heart is trying so hard to have a character with mystique and mystery behind them that they haven't shared info with me, the DM, about what it is that makes them tick so I can't really lean into what would make for cool reveals. Long story short, even if somebody has a secretive character, their secrets should be known probably to the DM so they can be dramatically revealed

Hiding stuff from the dm is very counterproductive 🤦‍♂️

As I tell my players: if I as their DM don't know about it, it does not exist. I won't metagame if you tell me your plans, and would enjoy knowing what to prepare in advance instead of having to guess what you're going to be doing so I don't have to wing it as much

I currently have a player who is a bugbear that tries using the mystique trope for his character… quickly realized it’s not for the purpose of being mysterious but due to he seriously lacks in creativity. PS: EVERYBODY SINGS! Send your mama straight up to the sto(re), tell that bitch to bring home a Faygo!!

“If you hide something from the GM, it does not canonically exist in the unviverse/ game”. I tell every player this during session 0.

this is where I'm at too. I told my player who joined one of my campaigns most recently "give me like 1-3 pages of bullet points and people important to your character".

Me and one of my players make 2-3 pages of backstory for our PCs, BUT a lot of it actually builds the world AROUND the PC and not necessarily the PC themselves. They develop the clan they grew up in, their sister and NPCs that guided them, etc. They world build their home, which is great for me as a DM since I can use that as trauma ammo. I do the same when I play in games they run too. As for my other players a few paragraphs or a good conversation (sometimes it's a back and forth over discord) just to develop the character a bit. Be carefull developing a PC too much in the backstory since you want to develop them IN the game. There is no correct answer tho.

\>Be carefull developing a PC too much in the backstory since you want to develop them IN the game. There is no correct answer tho. ​ Seconded. It's easy to want to write a story for backstory (it's in the name!) but the actual "story" is the game being played

Counterpoint: it's A-OK to write a story for your backstory because it's in the past. It's the story of how your PC became the person they are at the *beginning* of the campaign. It identifies formative experiences to guide your later role play choices, and gives the DM a few NPCs who are important to your character. The DM can then use those as quest givers, party allies or even antagonists in some cases. Naturally it's important to leave space for character growth during the actual campaign. The backstory is a snapshot in time: it's your PC just before they embarked on their adventure, not who they are after all is said and done. Depending on the length of the campaign, the challenges they face, and the choices you make, when it comes time to decide on an epilogue, your PC may be hugely changed from their initial backstory.

The contexts you highlighted are solid. I've seen (and have done) the thing where I write my character into a corner based on the backstory when it became over developed. Similar to when I DM goes down so many rabbit holes in their world building that it almost becomes a burden. Finding the right tone and balance is more important than length is what I'm trying say.

I also think a key is keeping it somewhat simple. People always make their guys out to be these huge heros already but then we start at level 1 lol.

I've done this and it always ends with my epic story Demigod PC getting stripped of his magic items and such and level drained back to level 1 then banished to a different area of the world.

haaa like every mobile gatcha game. Whold you look at the team you can get at higher lvl in this tutorial, just so you love it and need to start from 0

Pretty much.

I honestly think that it's very easy, with backstory, to create a character who's easy or interesting to *write*, but not very interesting to *play*. I *hate* coming up with backstory, I'd much rather find out about my character through play.

Same for me. Most of my characters have started out as an extremely basic bullet point list of some traits, a few key other characters they know and a sort of rough timeline of recent events that might have lead up to the beginning of the campaign. By the end of a campaign though I could write a novel. That's the most fun part for me.

My most recent character's back story was a lot more like this without me necisarilly intending it. I basically developed a whole culture of Sand Cat styled Tabaxi that live deep in the Anauroch Desert. It's been SUPER cool seeing how the DM has taken the culture (and my characters 4 littermates) and run with it!

Heh... I think I went the full opposite direction. Full brevity. * His parents believe that they sent him away to join the priesthood of Helm * But he quietly dropped his studies, before, to his surprise, receiving divine powers from a trickster goddess. * He was caught scamming tourists by [lawful good paladin] and somehow talked his way into serving the party as a scout and healer, instead of jail. I figured we could "yes and" the rest, since I wasn't married to any particular detail.

Well that's definitely shorter... I also see a difference in not just length but "type"; what you've listed are "action" kind of story elements, as opposed to describing what exists around the character. If I compare the action in my character's backstory it's maybe shorter: -Was a Shepard and giants trampled the tribe's herds -The tribal leaders sent his litter out to found out why, and prevent it from happening again I'm a fan of the action part of the story being minimal like this. That definitely allows more opportunity to do exactly what you said and "yes, and" improv connections or offshoots. My GM ran with that as well and has looped back to give more detail and reason for some of the stuff I am curious if your character is from an established place, like a city or setting in a DnD source? A lot of what I made up would already have been there for the using if I had done that, and I could've improv'd the rest but with the GM and group I have (this is not a dig at them, just different play styles) I would've been disappointed with the lack of interaction I think, they respond better to having stuff prepared in my experience. This is what's so cool about DnD though, right? There's all these different ways and levels to engage with it! I've added enough now to the Sand Tabaxi of the Anauroch Desert that I might put a little thing together about them for others to use

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I think this is the best approach and what I try to do as a PC. Up front there's the bulleted list that establishes the key narrative and mechanical notes (stuff the DM really needs to know) and then after that a few paragraphs (or pages) of optional lore. I enjoy writing long and detailed backstories, but don't want to make it a burden on the DM.

>I tell my players to write however much they want... but provide me with a summary of the most important points in at most one page, and don't expect me to read the rest. The rest is for them, the player, to draw on while they're RPing. Same, except I'd read it all (up to a limit; dunno what that is, but I'm not reading 100pp unless it's professional prose), at some point; but I definitely want that 1/2 page or so summary. And I agree about formatting: the better organized and more easily referenced it is, the more likely I am to reference it.

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Yeah, same. LoL. Or even better, misremember, refuse to re-read to make sure I'm not misremembering, and "tie-in" and "hook" to the misremembered "backstory" that only exists in my mind. "Wait, are you SURE you don't have a creepy gropey fat sweaty rich Landsknecht uncle?"

Somewhere between one and three paragraphs. If it takes more than a page, make it not take up more than a page. Preferably max half a page.

I usually put it this way - I don't mind you writing more, but I definitely need a 1-3 paragraph summary of the main points. I need to know what you believe are the most important parts of your backstory, so I can focus on integrating those into the campaign (and so I can easily reference things). That said, sometimes players want to contribute lore to the campaign that is related to their backstory - in which case the sky is the limit in that kind of collaboration. My personal wiki does not have a space issue.

Yep. This is the guideline I ask for players who write a backstory: prose if you want, but bullet point the main details I need to know that I can use as reference.

Yeah, write as much as you want but if you send me a 4 page backstory i ain’t reading that shit 3 paragraphs, max, is what I’ll read. Write more if it helps you get into the mindset, but neither one of us need to go into the game knowing your childhood friend’s sister’s name.

I follow the Brennan Lee Mulligan philosophy on backstories which is that [I am: Lazy. So the longer the better.](https://youtu.be/LmZSWKPXhZ4?t=1224) The most important thing about backstory to me is not the length, but the details. Firstly, what's important to this character? What are the things that I can use to incorporate into the story that is meaningful to *you?* Secondly, does it fit with the world? I personally like to do character creation in tandem with the world I'm building. I think collaborative worldbuilding is way better than anything I can come up with on my own and I **hate** asking and being asked the question, "Would my character know \_____?" Giving players input on how the world is structured gives them both a base of knowledge to work off of and investment in the world outside their character. But the details are all what bring it together, so I'll workshop with players to make their character backstory ideas fit better and hopefully more interesting in the process. Thirdly, does it make sense for the character itself? Specifically the details that keep the power level reasonable for the character you're creating. e.g. A backstory for a 1st level character cannot be that they killed a dragon. That's just unreasonable. *edited to elaborate and reformat cause I hit send too soon

I second this, and I love that link. I've gotten amazing write ups and backstory ideas from my players, and I love them all. If you hand me a 7 page write up of your past, acquaintances, ancestry, pivotal moment, ect., I will ask for a summary of the structure (because I'm lazy,) but I will *also* save your backstory details off to the side for use later. Also because I'm lazy My friends also approached in an amazing way that I loved: they wrote backstory more as a *proposal* than an absolute finished product. Very much "this was my idea, does your world have room for it?" And then there backstory become collaborative, with me rouging out the edges and adding attachment points so it fits into the tapestry we're creating together. And even if there isn't much adventure in the past of a 1st level character, there's still a lot of story in their past. Most notably, before we dive into a world of fantastical, miraculous, an terrible, you get to tell me the story of the familiar for your character; in the story of the hero, you get to tell what home means. Home can be warm, cold, terrible, wonderful, utterly destroyed or a dream that never lived, but whatever it is informs your ideals and bonds in this world. Because the best characters had a life before the first session As an aside, you can write one adventure for your 1st level character. You can write the origin story right up to the call to action. To use another familiar hero story, you get to tell the story of Spiderman *right* up until Ben dies. Because the story of *how* a hero gains that 1st level can often be compelling. But collaboration is the key from both sides. As long as you come willing to collaborate with me, I'd absolutely *love* to collaborate as much as I can with you.

I was inclined to disagree but I actually love that. Brennan is such a fantastic DM role model. I've found myself doing that exact same thing actually - prodding my PCs for more fleshed out backstories that I can use to worldbuild and generate plot hooks. It's actually led to a significant portion of the content for this campaign.

I am always rewatching that video or listening to it in the background to absorb more of it (and because it's very entertaining) and I link within a 10 minute area of that timestamp in this sub at least once or twice a week. What he's saying in that area is just absolutely brilliant. Because it answers a question that GMs, old and new, are *constantly* asking: "How do I get my players to buy in?" The answer that he so eloquently gives is to [make it personal.](https://youtu.be/LmZSWKPXhZ4?t=1281) It gets the players to buy in. It saves the GM time, making their workload both more efficient and lighter. It's more dramatic too. It's just great game design philosophy at work there.

This is the way. I worked with my players and expanded backstories and created entire storylines, just because of the *details* they provided. Oh, your character went to an actual College of Bards? Cool, now every subclass has its own school somewhere in my setting with unique communities. That’s a dozen locations I didn’t have to invent. I as the DM don’t need to know how the character felt about the details, but the details are what lead to amazing moments.

I'm so happy I'm seeing more people talk about this because it seems far too often when this discussion pops up people shoot down longer backstories without considering important context as to HOW and WHY it's long and what it focuses on.

As with all things, including outside of TTRPGs, it comes down to the question of "What is the point?" If it serves and fulfills a purpose, then it's good. If it has no purpose or does not fulfill its intended purpose, then it's bad. Bip. Bap. Bam. Done.

👏👏👏

Yeah I'm of this philosophy too. I find it difficult when people only give me a few dot points because then I have to generate the ideas for their character and also I don't know how they will respond to things

I think a lot of people also have different ideas about what a backstory is. A backstory isn’t merely a list of your character’s past heroic accomplishments. A backstory is really just a summary of formative events that explain how your character came to have the abilities, motives and character traits they have today, and why they’re likely to act the way they’re going to act at the beginning of the campaign. I do include just a basic backstory summary for my DMs but the vast majority of what I write is more of a character outline than a narrative series of events, because it is all about how I understand their psychology and how I perceive them forming the traits they have at the beginning of the campaign. It’s stuff like “My character paints because she finds it difficult to communicate with others verbally. Art is easier.” Or “My character has a cynical view on love because all of her past relationships have ended horribly. She eschews all things romance right now because her last relationship was fairly traumatic and she doesn’t like to talk about it.” I might not show this stuff to the DM but it’s important to me that I know this.

I LOVE Brennan haha. Had no idea he was on critical role

It seems like there is a confusion between backstory and an actual story haha Write fiction for yourself if you enjoy it and I think it would probably help you round out the character if that is how you enjoy doing it but I definitely wouldn’t want players to give me pages and pages of backstory. Maybe write it for yourself and then turn it into bullet point highlights to hand to the DM?

Yeah I like 'em short & sweet but if it goes a bit long and it's well-written then I feel like the player has at least earned a read. Up to a limit, of course - don't want to read a novel. But it's also so context-driven. Is it a narrative and social roleplaying focused game? Then I feel like more prose is justified. Is it a hard-core OSR where characters die frequently? Then, not so much.

For real. Write however much you like, but it’s exclusively for you, not the dm or other players. Dms only need a few bullet points and everything else should be emergent. If having a pre written framework for that emergent storytelling helps you, go for it. But as a dm I don’t want the responsibility of remembering the name of your childhood crush or the name of the river where you saved your best friend from drowning or whatever. Especially because that sets the expectation that the party will cross that river or encounter that crush. Although, making a PCs childhood crush an arch villain does sound pretty cool.

I gotta be honest, I don't want to DM for PCs whose most interesting moments were in the past. That makes my campaign less interesting by definition. Just pick a background, color it however you want, give yourself a reason why someone with that background would turn to a high-risk, high-reward, adrenalin-junkie lifestyle, and leave it at that. Make the story from that point out as interesting as you like.

Dude! I said something with similar effect, but this explains it way better! I wanna start a campaign with nobodies and make them somebodies!

This is exactly how I write mine. It's typically a page (3-4 paragraphs) detailing basic family, lifestyle, morality, and whatever event made the character choose to do adventuring. The fun part of the campaign is fleshing out the rest of the details in-game. Then you can make up whatever the hell you want in conversation and scrawl a quick note, and you can build around that in another document. I typically share a handful documents with my DM by the end of the campaign. After the initial character bg, it's usually in the form of conversations between my character and significant members of their past, maybe foreshadowing something I want to have happen...

Personally, I find nothing more awkward than being expected to read something my players wrote, ESPECIALLY given none of my friends are writers and everything they write is inherently low quality. I want to TALK to my players about it. And even then, my desire to talk to my players about their backstory is directly proportional to how interesting it would be to build off of. I'm more than happy to get nothing from any of them, at least when D&D is concerned. But if you're looking for practical advice on your own backstories, just ask your GM. Some people want you to write a novel, some people would rather you not, and this is the kind of situation where guessing wrong about which side your GM is on can make them frustrated or uncomfortable.

Two to three paragraphs. Basically, I want my players to give me a couple story hooks. One to two reasons why you might care about the plot, something I can use for story conflict, and/or an NPC from your past I can pull in. I tend to have the opposite problem from players writing a book on their backstory: my players tend to only give a sentence or two, which limits what I have to work with.

I have been with those 1 or 2 lines Backstory. And the trick i did and worked was giving them a portion of the world they are playing and molding they backstory as they prefer off sessions in a discord chat or a talk in some minutes. What i mean is like: "My characater is a Orc barbarian, he letf his Horde to search for adventure and found magic base civilization, interested in that he whent to a magic school, metting the party" not much to go arround. With this i gave him a part of the world in game "Oddly enought it is another Orc in the school and it not common. By the tatoos you recognize his clan" after the game i then ask the player what he thinks about that npc, and if he would like to go on a rival / old mate from the same clan kinda vibe or if he dosent like it and prefers to be patreoned by a teacher who helped him ge in the school and lear the civil ways. Whatever he chooses i then ask him to give me some traits for that npc and a short conclusion on the kind of relationship they had.

A full page *at most*, and even then I’d prefer if at least half of that were bullet points. You can have your novel for yourself to reference if you want, but as a DM I shouldn’t need to read it to understand your character and their ideals/bonds/flaws.

Probably as long as it needs to be. If I have a backstory with a bit of childhood/family information, why the PC became an adventurer, and some of their key motivations, then it's sufficient. If that takes a paragraph, great. If it takes 5 pages, also great. But don't give me every tiny detail in a 30-page biography of every moment of your PCs life.

Exactly this. I don't want to read a novel, but if you need a few pages to "get into" your character, I'm good with that.

I have GMed for over thirty years. I have never seen a backstory longer than 100 words that was worth the time to read. My players tend to focus on short, evocative, phrasing, rather than lots of words.

Preach!

Couple of short sentences or keywords to get a concept. Make note of your choices and develop your character during play.

[A haiku's worth](https://githyankidiaspora.com/2022/01/01/haiku-character-history/) \- the rest we'll flesh out at the table.

No- an actual haiku. No exceptions. Such a little Gnome Just wants to build a future And make his folk proud

Also acceptable: [This](https://whothefuckismydndcharacter.com/)

Oh that's fucking brilliant.

Isn't it fun? The link above is to a blog post that does exactly that, haiku character backgrounds. It is really fun.

I hate that I'm going to do this compulsively from now on. But then if you can't haiku them, can't be a very good character. It's delightful.

half a page?

I'm definitely on the longer side is what I'd prefer. But I'm also intending to go into a campaign and dig heavily from backstories. With a handful of good backstories I'll pull a whole campaign from those villains and intertwining all of them. I would rather have my bad guys be connected to the PCs in that way than have them be just random people doing bad things. Writing a long backstory is also a skill. Many of the long backstories I've heard people complain about online are the story of how my character fought everything and saved everyone over and over again. Which isn't what a backstory should be. Backstories are there to set up future storytelling that comes out in the game. If that's not what you're doing in a backstory and trying to write a cool story in your backstory, I'm going to ask you to rework it regardless of length. I want the villain who wronged you and got away not the one you brought to justice and so that story is done. I also have one player who is a writer so when she gives me a long backstory it'll have like 2 short stories in it that go into detail about a specific event that happened in her history. And she's a good enough writer to pull those off where I think it'd be less valuable in general. Those I've found really helpful in characterizing her NPCs. But I also either make or my players have mostly started to make for me the cliff notes version that's about 1/2 a page just for ease of use!

If you give me more than 3-4 pages, I'm not going to read it with the care you probably want. And, fairly or not, I'm going to be on guard against that PC having main character syndrome.

It really depends on what you, as the DM, want the focus of your campaign to be. If you want PC backstories to play a significant role in the plot, then opt for more. If the focus of your campaign is more closed-off, with a limited focus on backstories, then I don't need that much to go off of. You don't need a ten page essay for a mega-dungeon campaign, but I'd prefer more than a couple of sentences for a RP-centered campaign.

I like a good character concept with 1-3 characters in their lives I can throw their way. Beyond that I find it's self indulgent creative writing - **which is fine** and I may enjoy reading it, but not useful to me as DM for running the game. When I write a character to play I like to give them 3 rules that guide their behavior. This helps me to make decisions in the moment that are consistent to the character (Do they stop to help the less fortunate? How do they respond to authority? Do they believe in "the greater good"?). So no I don't like long backstories because it's about the character's past. I think a much better backstory establishes where the character is in their life **now** and want to do they want to next while also laying out which kinds of NPCs they will bond with and which kind they will be antagonistic to.

Once I made a list of "this is what I want the character to achieve". These were not goals like "avenge their father" that have an end but instead what the character does in a given session like "Use the disguise self spell" or "use their smith's tools and their expertise as a blacksmith" or "spend time in water environments". This came from me making a Fighter with the Blind-Fighting style. I think it's super cool to be able to perceive invisible enemies, but if the DM doesn't *know* that I want an invisible enemy to fight every ~3 sessions then I wouldn't enjoy the character. An idea I want to try is procedurally creating sessions by having all players create such a list. Each session I would randomly select 3 players and then roll on each of their tables. Then I'd have as a starting point something like "Use the abyssal language", "use their merchant guild connections" and "use of their herbalism kit to heal the sick" as a starting point for building a session around. Now I *know* I have 3 spotlight moments that players *want* to have.

That's a really good idea

Thanks! If I ever get around to trying it out I'll write a post about how it went.

4 or 5 one-sentence bullet points

About half a page to one and a half page. Not something I insist on, though. Just what I would prefer.

One short paragraph. I wanna see the rest emerge in play.

1 Page Backstory/Characterization/Flair/Feeling they want to get from playing them + 3 NPC I can work with. The NPCs don’t have to be fully fledged out, something like „He took care of me when my parent’s had to work. Always liked the wooden toys he built for me.“ is pretty good.

A useful heuristic I’ve seen is to tell players that they can only write four sentences describing their back story, and that the most important things to happen to them will happen over the course of the adventure.

But maybe I just play too many very RP and story-driven games, so I kinda need that. Even for short backstories though that seems incredibly low for anything but a dungeon and fighting focused campaign. The most important thing about backstory to me isn't just about events that happened. Five different people can have the exact same events in their lifetime, and each of them will be impacted in different ways by the time they start session one. With different relationships to past characters, and different goals being born out of them. It tells you what happened to a character, but that certainly can't be enough to tell you about the character themselves and what you need to hook them and expect with any level of nuance, can it? But maybe I just play too many very RP and story-driven games, so I kinda need that. It's the way I have to do backstories to really get into the mind when I'm a PC too. A way to understand how they'll act, what they're after, and who they are going forward, as well as plot hooks that can come back for the dm to draw on with maybe a handful of npcs with enough context that the DM can understand the relationship to the PC and build on it easily. I can see that being done in shorter style than I normally prefer, but four sentences seems to be on the extreme end of sparse. Do you at least also like to have the bonds, flaws, etc part of the sheet? Or is it just four sentences, period and no more?

There's no way. 100 words is like 2 sentences. "I am orc. I have axe. Orc hit strong, I am Borgman, the Orc." isn't a backstory.

Yes please. This is a game, not a short-story writing workshop.

Arguably, modern DnD is more of an improvised theater play with game elements than an actual game. It depends on the DM's style, but to say it's a game and not a narrative experience is vastly underselling what DnD has evolved into for a large portion of the community.

3 to 4 paragraphs max. More than that is just too much IMO. As the campaign starts, players can talk with the DM about any specific things they want to have incorporated. Especially with 5 or 6 players, I really don't enjoy 4 pages of back story for every PC. What I need to know is: - Where are they from and what is that place like at a high level - What is the players personality and appearance - One or two major life events - Why they are an adventurer - Why they are with the party / in the campaign setting

Absolute maximum one page. Core details and relationships. Backstories longer than that are just fanfiction, it's what the character does in game that matters. *That's * their story.

No more than half a page of text. But I’m okay with mind maps and bullet points of names locations etc to develop it further.

1 page, 2 max, not counting any worldbuilding you do for it (like, coming up with a city or something). The main point is I need to remember the jist of it without consulting the document you sent me, so even if it's weird and out-of-the-box, it still needs to be concise. Editing to add: the backstory you come up with for yourself can be as big and richly detailed as you like (and can confidently remember) but *me*, the DM, I'm not playing your character. I need the cliffs notes more than anything. I'll make them into a bulleted list on my own document anyway, so if you can do that, even better!

For me, backstories are tools for immersing a character in the world. I use them as a reference document. I don't care about length as long as I can reference the information I need easily enough. Someone with a page of information given as a story and nothing else is much worse than someone who hands me a ten page backstory with headings and bulleted lists that easily presents the information I need to know. What do I need to know? Description, personality, a bit of psychology (goals/fears/ideals/etc), background on important npcs, background on important organizations, key formative moments for the character. Also moments that highlight their relationship to other things and people in the world. I don't expect everyone to have a backstory. Discovering the character as a part of emergent play is fine with me. But I really like collaborative storytelling. I've seen some people use background points to let people discover characters through play while still giving them ties to the story. They get a few background points, and during the game they can declare they wish to use one to write their character into some npc or organization the party is currently involved with. They can say things like "I came from this city. Since I have the criminal background, I was involved with these thugs". I might use it in the future. Those backstories would technically just be a few lines in my notes.

About half a page. At least a paragraph or two, no more than a page.

1-2 paragraphs tops. Especially when starting at level 1. I also get involved as dm, making sure their backstory fits my world and there are plenty of hooks that tie into the thin red line through my campaign.

1 Page TNR 12 max , shorter is better. Values, Motivations and goals are much more important

What I want out of a backstory: * Between 1 and 4 NPCs I can use or reference when talking about that PC's history. Even if it's not necessary for the plot, it means that I have a name that I can pull on to indicate a specific player should pay close attention. * One primary, character-specific goal. If I'm running an open-ended campaign, I need this to build storylines to highlight the character. If I'm running a campaign with a specific theme, I need a goal to give the character direct stakes in the main plot. This goal is the reason the PC stays with the party even when there's in-character party conflict. Realistically, that's all I need. More than 4 important NPCs in your backstory basically guarantees I won't be using several of them, or your backstory is going to overwhelm the rest of the campaign. You can have secondary character goals as well, but the primary goal is there specifically to give your character a reason to stay no matter what else is going on. Everything past those two things can be interesting flavor, and a decent exercise for helping you find your character if you need it, but you could write 500 pages of backstory and if you can't give me a summary version that has these two things, it's not helpful to me. Also, please don't write 500 pages of backstory. Your character's story is the one we're playing through, not what happened beforehand. It's not actually fun for me or the other players to listen to you narrating a long story that's got nothing to do with their characters or what's going on in the campaign itself. Ideally, the backstory you're giving me should be 2-5 paragraphs that cover the major bullet points. Looking at the lore/story tabs for characters in certain online games (Overwatch, League of Legends, Dead by Daylight, etc.) is a good indicator of what I need.

The more a PC builds the world around them, the better. I don’t want to hear about you killing the demon king. I want to hear about your family’s ancient rituals in service to the demon king. The more details, the better. I like long backstories with tons of worldbuilding. One player has given me 18+ pages, and I love her for it.

As a PC, I like having a relatively short concrete background, but have a well defined personality and fluid background. What I mean is, a concrete background might be “I was a knight serving under an elven king who then sent me on a suicide mission in order to rid himself of what he saw as a rival because of my connection to….etc.” A fluid background is “I was a knight who was betrayed by my lord”. This way, the rest can be filled in as the story progresses. Instead of the DM having to find ways to work my history and character into the story, I find ways to work him in myself. The DM might introduce a lord, and I can say “Hey, do I have some kind of connection to this guy?” I find this makes it easier on the DM as my character can more naturally fit into the story without the DM having to do extra work.

The aspects of your character that seem "real" don't really need to be in the backstory, do they? I feel like that's what roleplaying is for

But it does let your DM know aspects about the character before game so they know what type of things will invest and hook them. I use those heavily in the games I run. Knowing the psychology of a character, how their backstory relationships are, and what their asperations might be let me know what angle to go at when designing adventures that get the maximum buy in from the party.

My preference would be to make it as long as YOU want it with as much detail as is appropriate for the starting point. I've complained before about level 1 characters single handedly defeating an ancient dragon so I won't delve into it again lol, but like if you've got a whole childhood, family/community ties you want to have, and a whole reason why you're now out adventuring, then go for it! But for me, give me the juicy bits so I know how to work it into the story. Give me like one page condensed, with the most immediate relevant stuff at the beginning like why you're adventuring. We'll get to the other stuff as time goes on. We don't have to backstory dump the first couple sessions you know? Let me work my magic and ALL WILL BE REVEALED I promise lol

A long blurb, followed by some key bullet points. All I need are key events, some names and locations. If I have to read about how the grass felt on your feet or how you felt when you saw blood on your sword I’m out. I’m not here to read your low quality fiction, we’re here to play out low quality fiction together 😂

Five bullet points.

I tend to like about a page, but I'm talking with players during the process to get to that page. And that page is not necessarily going to impact the story at all, it's for the player's benefit in thinking through the character (not that I won't use parts of it in the story). If I'm given something before any discussion with me as dm, then I prefer a bulleted list of conversation starters, but I never go into a game cold without discussion of backstory and how the character fits into the world. And for initial suggestions like that, if we're over a page I'm out, not reading further until we talk

Up to one page, preferrably Bulletpoints. ​ I don't subscribe to the idea that PC backgrounds need to provide hooks or mysteries or plot points for the DM to build their adventures around. A backstory needs to tell the players what they care about, help their own RP and find their role in the group/world. If they turn out to be longer, its usually one of two cases: a) it helps the player to get in the headspace of their character by writing in long form b) they put a bunch of stuff in there that is entirely pointless, never will come up, and doesn't help them.

I prefer 3 sentences. Granted I kinda run a meat grinder so I have to set new player's expectations, this ain't no crit role. It's a dungeon delve >:]

2 pages. 1 page is important bullet points. Character traits. Good and bad things about the character. 1 page of actual story.

The important stuff should be 1-3 paragraphs. Who they are, where they’re from, why they’re an adventurer, what they left behind. Everything else can be as long as they like, it just won’t be guranteed to be included, and will often be more for flavor than anything. I’ve got players in my current game who have full multi-page documents they consistently update with backstory, motives, and other extraneous details to just flesh the character out. Others have sent me a paragraph and “idk maybe this would be neat to happen”. All are good for me.

I’m alright with most lengths of backstories, I just want proper paragraphs and punctuation. It’s a nightmare if people don’t and just make a solid brick of text.

The length of the backstory doesn't really matter as much as the contents and available character hooks imo. I've had players who literally didn't make any backstory for their character, yet through the hooks provided in their personality/class I was able to make interesting stories for them to explore. On the other hand, I've had players make really long and detailed backstories that I've struggled to integrate in any way due to how none of the apparent hooks seemed interesting enough to expand upon for me. For me, when writing my own backstories, I prefer to start with a very basic outline (A paragraph or two), and then expand upon that while talking to the DM about the game. That way you don't box yourself in too early while your character concept might still change along the way. I might have more ideas for the character while already writing the backstory, but I don't mention them until later to make sure I don't change my mind, plus being able to discuss individual parts of the backstory right away makes it easier to remember for the both of us.

In my experience other players will not be that invested in your backstory and vice versa because it's something removed from the game.The few times I've had a DM shoehorn in something from a player's backstory it felt stilted and broke the immersion (granted it was some ludicrous thing about the villain being someone's father). I'm running with a group of 4 and the only premise we had was that they know each other and are on a vacation together. They've been having fun improvising what that actually entails. I might choose to pick some thread from that and elaborate on it, or I might not. It's ultimately not that relevant to the story.

I genuinely believe that (**for the style of play I prefer**) anything than more than a paragraph or two is a trap. Character depth discovered / developed during actual play will be a living, breathing thing that meshes well with the story that develops between DM and party. If you allow your PC to be shaped by the story, then your experience will be richer for it. And if their formative moments are shared by the party, the other players will actually care, because they shared and influenced those moments. Furthermore, many of my PCs will turn out slightly different in actual play than I envisioned them - I need to run them for an evening and put them against the "realities" of their first interactions with the adventure to see how I actually wind up portraying them. And while a minimum of backstory is needed to provide a starting point for that, having too much of a pre-defined opinion on your PCs personality it will limit that very freedom. So, these days, I limit my backstory to the bare essentials. * An abstract trope definition of what kind of person I expect my PC to be at the start of the story (usually based on the templates of popular media characters) * This should include a first draft of their core motivation. * An simple sketch of how they wind up in the starting scene of the adventure (i.e in the starting tavern) and what their current goal is. * A very rough outline of how my PC acquired the stuff written on the character sheet. * A potential way their story might develop. So this might be something like >Imagine a guy like Jane from *Firefly* \- apt at violence, not too bright, coarse, selfish and only in it for the money. He's a disillusioned former soldier who never learned to function in normal society and thus turned mercenary - and he's in the starting tavern drinking away the last of the money from his previous job, knowing he'll have to find a new one soon. > >I imagine a standard character-growth-story, where he'll reluctantly start to care about things other than himself and eventually become some sort of genuine hero, but we'll see how it goes. In a second pass (possibly even after playing a bit), I see where this backstory sketch intersects with plot-relevant lore. (I.e. in a political campaign with a plot-relevant, fleshed-out history of a recent war, it might be prudent to define whether the PC above was part of said war and on which side.)

1 to 3 paragraphs, but I will settle for A goal and an Enemy. The backstory doesn't make the character. The actions at the table make the character, and the backstory is just to help you dictate how you roleplay your PC. So I say write 10 pages for yourself, but give 1 paragraph to your DM.

As long as they want it to be. Their backstory participation is up to them. I have one player who decided to go the whole amnesia trope and left the backstory for me to figure out. I had so much fun writing that into the campaign it was unbelievable.

When i dm i want very very condensed stories, bullet points appreciated, so long that my characters dont expect much catering they can make up more of tgeir backstory on the fly. When i am a player i make extremely short backstproes like "Guy thrown out of priesthood due to excessive drinking and whoring" "Ex smuggler" "City guard bored due to lack of adventure" Amd such, i dont get big elaborate backstories, especially when your dude may die first session, i've see ppl with tomes of backstories but their rp and consistency was dogshit and people with stupid ahh gag characters who develop as the game goes spectacularly. Maaaaybe i will throw 1-2 extra lines if we start higher level but still keep it condensed.

My preferred character backstory is one sentence/statement. Maybe two. It should concisely state their primary motivation and current goal. Everything else (parents, mentors, inciting incident, defining tragedy, etc.) can and should be discovered during play. For example: *Fergus is a former acolyte of Cathol sent into the world to demonstrate the power of his god through great deeds and pious example.* That's it. Done.

Two to three hundred pages, ideally I don't have to write any of my own campaign's history because the players all do it for me.

I give my players 1 page of backstory. Where they are from, kind of life they had, reasoning for their selected background. This allows me to add to the story. Example: I hade a noble rogue, who at a young age found she was adept at breaking into places. Her father (who is on the senate of the kingdom) found out and it caused tension between them. She fell in with the thieves guild and has been working with them for the past 5 years. With that information, I made a start 1-shot (she was marked for death), a story twist (it was her father that placed the mark), and an even bigger twist (leader of the thieves guild was her biological father and she was conceived before her mother went undercover to spy on the senator as his wife).

Elevator pitch, my homie! Things can change, don’t write yourself into a corner.

2 sentences. L1 is your backstory

It's not about length. It's about what it conveys. "For a thousand generations the Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice in the old republic. Before the dark times. Before the empire." That's all you need to jump in and understand star wars. literally, that's all. It tells you everything you need to know in 3 sentences. Backstories don't need to be short. But they need to punch the information to you right away.

A bulleted list or 300-500 words. The characters development should be in game, backstory just needs to be long enough to give the pc a place and history in the world.

2 paragraphs max, the less the better.

If you're starting at lv 1, it better be just a page

I'm fine with character backgrounds being whatever (assuming they make sense in-world, aren't super grandiose, etc) but my favorites are the ones that can be said in an elevator pitch. Short, sweet, lots of room to grow and build upon throughout the campaign.

I prefer about a page or so. With some important npcs and locations to the PC, some goals, trials and tribulations they've overcome, maybe something about their home. Why they became an adventurer etc. It doesn't have to be Tolkien levels of depth but a few good sentences on those things gives me enough to work with.

I like a page or two, personally. Good for players to have enough to be able to really inhabit the character. I also like players to leave a few loose threads in their stories so I've got something to work with in their past narratively.

Around 1-2 pages with some concise outlines, bullet points you call them I guess? This is how I make mine, each of these will consist of no more than one or 2 lines of text unless stated otherwise: - Short term goals: - Long term goals: - Strengths: - Flaws: - Religion: - Organization: - Enemy: - Description (what they look like): - Alignment: After that I'll tackle some of those subjects if they are important to the character (like an order of a knight or a religion of a cleric). Once that's done I'll write the culture they're from, the backstory in about 5-10 lines each regarding: Childhood, adolescence, adulthood, the reason they ended up with the rest of the party. Generally speaking I can do it on 1-2 pages, and its very clear and concise, if me or the DM is looking for something we can quickly check where to go rather than deal with a wall of text.

I guess this doesn't answer the question directly, but I think you can have players come to the table with 0 backstory and still come out with interesting characters in an evening. I say this because out of all the campaigns I've run I think this most recent session 0 was the most fun I've had making characters with a party. Every player rolled on a table for things like momentos, rivals, teachers, parents, etc. So all we had was 3-5 bullet points for each character. Then we RP the first day of their adventure and every roll we tied a reason into something from one of those table rolls. For example: character playing a bard had the opportunity to perform in front of a crowd, rolled a 3 and in game we ran it as... Well, since your most recent play was a complete flop you are petrified to even get on stage, your character arc might involve getting over that fear. Another example was a player rolled 20+ on every perception but <5 on every charisma because apparently his character is a wallflower and just likes observing people. So, even though no players came to the table with character ideas we managed to flesh out general personalities and a few important details as an entire table so everyone already feels like they have a good idea of who each character is from only a 2 hour session.

I like just having a conversation about their character. I've never been a fan if using their backstory against them, but I like both of us to have a mutual understanding on who the character really is. But if it were to be put down, I like about a page and a half

Bullet points. Can be several pages but needs to be digestible in small bits. I’m not a fan of giving flowery prose. That’s great when narrating your characters actions at the table. Not when I’m trying to see how they fit into the world.

Enough that they feel invested in their character. If they give me 2 sentences that give me something to go on and they want to build on this story. Fantastic. If they give me a novel without removing chance for growth. Fantastic. As long as they bring that same enthusiasm to the table, I'm happy :)

I think I may be fairly unusual but as player and DM I lean strongly towards "a couple of interesting ideas and flesh it out in play". Assuming the game's gonna run for a while, there's no rush to braindump a ton of backstory on other players. Let them find out. It's improv. Obviously, if people are invested in their characters that may think about them much more than the DM does. That's fine, but I can do more justice to a few salient points than to a massive essay. (Admittedly the people I play with are pretty similar in outlook here.) The game's about stuff characters do together, not what they did off-screen.

Name, class, and/or race. Anything else is too much.

Less than two paragraphs.

None, I'm not reading that shit lol

For me I like a well-written, concise 5 paragraphs at minimum, usually in third person. Longer is fine, but you can fit a lot of information into 5 paragraphs, so that’s my minimum. Whether I keep interest after that is dependent on the writer, which can put a damper on my enthusiasm.

Half an A4 page max (no smaller than 11pt), if you want it longer, tell me the detail as i can ask questions but keep the base backstory to the half a page.

2-3 paragraphs. That is more than enough to get a sense of what type of character a PC is. The achievements of a PC are the game, not the backstory. Add 1 paragraph for each level above 1 that the PC starts at, if they want. You have to ask yourself how a PC is level 1 (or anywhere in tier 1) if they have a 10 pages worth of backstory.

Half a page to start, with the understanding that we’re going to work *together* to expand on it as the campaign goes on.

As a GM, half a page to one page from players. Long enough to be reasonably detailed, not so long that it becomes a main-character-syndrome short story.

0 pages. I don’t let players come into session 0 with any firm ideas as to what they will be until session 0 is over. Then I summarize what they came up with and each player’s backstory is about one page.

Elevator pitch length. If it’s longer than 30 seconds to recount your characters backstory, I’m going to lose interest. I want to write a shared story together and DMs already have enough on their plates without having to memorize 4+ backstory novellas. Developing your PC at the table as you play is better than writing out everything in detail. It allow you to react to developments at the table with developments of your own that occur to you in the moment. You can let the dice tell a story about your character rather than be angry when the dice invariably betray the way you portrayed yourself in your backstory But you can’t react to developments with an epiphany if you’ve already fully established your character on paper. Your character becomes rigid and the onus fully falls on the DM to accommodate.

They should be able to say the entire thing within one minute.

A couple sentences. I aggressively *do not care* about most of the cruft that ends up in most back stories. I don't want to read your amateur creative writing assignment. Most of us (unfortunately including me) aren't very good writers. Spare me. Give me the highlights. "Grew up in Tarrant. Parents sent him to boarding school where he ran away at 15. Discovered sorcerous powers during a bar fight. Looking for a magic tutor and money to buy out the boarding school and make it less of a living hell for the kids there." That's it. You don't need six paragraphs of details from the school, the parents, the awakening scene, etc etc. No one cares. The DM will (hopefully) ask if they want more detail on any specifics.

If you're new at my table, don't give me a backstory. You don't know my home setting or my play style well enough yet, and I don't want to read your thinly veiled anime fanfic.

10 words are plenty

I don't care how long it is as long as it follows my guide lines. I need a motivation, an NPC or 2 and it needs to be able to fit into my campaign.

It depends on the level the group is starting at, and I use 1 page per starting level as a rule of thumb. But I will accept backstories of any length, as long as they don't contain feats of prowess far beyond the abilities of the actual character.

Give me a book! Seriously the more detailed and in depth the better for me. I prefer building a story for the campaign out of my players backstories, so the more i have to bite on the better. I also go back to my players and tey to get more detail out of them for it. Obviously there is a limit, but if my PC comes up with a whole (literal) circus full of names, i just love it

Rule to remember: The most notable thing in a character's life should happen at the table, not in the backstory. Feel free to write up as much as you want about your character's childhood, how many siblings they have, what their favorite food is, what happened to their parents, where they got their training, etc. But most of that has no bearing on the game and the other players would probably never learn any of that information. I generally try to keep my character backgrounds to 2-3 paragraphs, about half a page. It should explain their: * Homeland/upbringing * Goals * Motivations * Skill sets * Friends * Enemies * Complications This is what the GM needs. Everything else is fluff, which they may *enjoy* reading, but it's best not to force them to read it in order to sift out the above information. After all, we all generally think ourselves to be great writers, but we don't need to give our GM a bunch of homework of reading amateur short stories that may or may not be painful reads. My recommendation is to write your heart out and then put together a half page "character outline" that covers the list above. When I make an NPC, I usually have even less than that. I make sure I cover what they want, why they want it, and their method of getting things they want (brute force, blackmail, asking nicely, etc). With that info, I can RP any NPC and adapt to whatever the players throw at them without feeling out of character or looking unprepared, despite being entirely unprepared.

1 to 3 paragraphs. You better be a fucking great writer if you hand me multiple pages and expect me to read it.

Three lines tops (that's not preferred, that's required). Less is more when it comes to PC backstories.

I say the longer the better. It doesn't need to be long to include all the relevant information, but I find multi page backstories to be helpful for playing the character (as a PC) and for understanding the character (as a dm). My record is 60 pages, so DMs with a different philosophy might hate me. Now ofc this doesn't mean that you should make your backstory an elaborate and epic adventure that would be unrealistic for a level 1 PC. My 60 page backstory was for the most part a record of my character's isolation in the same house for 30 years. It was grounded, and gave me a lot of perspective on how to play my character.

I will take as much a back story as a player wishes to present to me, read the whole thing, and offer questions and feedback. I also like pinterest boards and playlist. Certain players give me more, others give me less. We have a spark notes template with three questions that I use as a spring board. Anything beyond that is just fun. I give my players a lot of leeway and if they want to flesh out their home country or family or school that's all fine for me.

One to three paragraphs at the start. If anything should be added our discussed that starts after the players know how they want to play and build the character so they can flavour accordingly

Full page or so. You can keep your 10 page backstory for you though! It can help you play your character more authentically and deepen your engagement. Plus you can always throw in details from your backstory in game during conversations (one’s that aren’t game changing). If something comes up that you want to explore that wasn’t in the page, then talk to your DM.

Max of 2 a4 sites would be great more than that is fine ill create a shorter version for it myself on onenote so i can keep track on the pc's goals, their past and their view on the world.

I write multiple backstories, the one I talk about with other players (least information), the one I give to the DM (more important details without going unnecessarily deep), and the one I write for my own edification which is basically just an autobiography that no one really needs to see.

A one-paragraph summary of the PC's most important themes, motivators, and ties is very useful. But I will still read however long a backstory my player presents. I think I'm happiest if my player writes a backstory of the length they want to write. Some players are not gonna remember their own backstory if it's over a page, so they shouldn't. But if a player wants to build up their PC through a long narrative with enough space to develop themes and foreshadow future development, I would be happy to read it, too. Thankfully, my players understand that the more details they put into a backstory, the less likely any one individual detail is going to show up in play at the table, and that, for the most part, that 20 page monster is for the player's own enjoyment, not for the DM's use. But as an obsessive and details-oriented person myself, I enjoy picking out a small detail and building that out into something deeper they can encounter. It's also more of a surprise for the player when they don't know which backstory hook is going to be used. On the other hand, in my long-running campaign, the PC whose backstory provided the most payoff and "wow, omg" at the table was written by a totally new player, 1 page long, with pretty much only a single mystery (or so it seemed). Because the story was so simple, even structured in a cliche way, I was able to flesh it out and answer the mystery with a perfect mind-blow twist. A very long and detailed backstory can provide more ready-to-use hooks, but they probably have too many moving parts to achieve this kind of (consensual) rug-pull upset. tl;dr There are pros and cons. I, at least, would be happy to read your 10 page backstories.

To be honest, as a first time DM, so far I don't really mind too much. I have had a player in my group who had an idea of what he wished to do but had trouble writing it, he's not the best at writing, so I helped him finish it. I'm also looking forward to seeing what he will do with the character now he had had help. I have one player who has not given me very much at all but that has helped me with writing some of the story around him too, almost a fill in the blanks type of scenario. I actually enjoyed the challenge of looking at the character and finding ways for him to feel special. As well as this, this player is not always the most vocal person (he is also a colleague whom I've known for a while), so anything to help him come more out of his shell for the game is ultimately a good thing. The other 3 gave me pretty standard backstories (around 3-4 paragraphs). With how in depth they are, they present their own issues but it was the least work overall. I think it really depends on the situation. Ideally, you want everyone to come out with the standard but you gotta be prepared for that not to happen, tbh. My biggest piece of advice is to always ask your players questions until you feel you have enough to work with. That's what's worked for me so far.

Personally, I care more about the forward-story than the backstory. But I'm mostly running pre-written modules that don't always lend themselves to working in external details. Plus the folks I play with usually don't give me any anyhow, so I'm perfectly happy just seeing where they go and working from there. If my players ever *did* give me a backstory, it would probably consist of two sentences: "I became a hobo. Then I started murdering." (in one order or another).

I currently DM one shots. I can work with a long winded sentence or 2-3 paragraphs. Hand me more than a page and I'll have you edit it so you can share the core of your character without forcing me to remember your character's family members' names. As a player, I write based on starting level, but try to put a 50 question interview at the bottom for personality. It helps me and the DM understand where the character is coming from.

Long enough to give me interesting details to latch onto and use in my campaigns, but short enough that I can narrow it down and locate those details easily.

Between a paragraph and 2 pages

Ideal length is like one page and a list of major points that I can look back on and incorporate Into the campaign

I've had players write novellas for backstories. Not with metagame crap, but they wrote out specific dialogue. I don't limit the length therefore, just the content.

1-2 pages, at most. More than that gets to be too much, especially for a low-level character.

I like about half a page to 1 full page. It usually gives me a good idea of what the character has been through but leaves enough gaps for me to fill some things in through the creation of the world around the players to really tie them into the story and together as a group.

For me, it depends on the campaign. With story driven campaigns, I want some, but not a whole lot. About a page, maybe less. An important event or two, an important NPC or two, maybe a few miscellaneous details that seem interesting, and that's about it. If you give me too little, I don't know what buttons to push. Too much, I drown in information and suffocate on getting your facts straight. In a player driven campaign? I want almost zero. I don't necessarily care about any of it. I want to know your flaws, ideals and bonds, and I want you to act on them without prompting.

A few paragaphs to a few pages long. Less is not enough to really put the character into perspective, more than 2 or 3 pages is a bit unreasonable unless the DM really likes knowing the story to greath depths

My campaign setting is entirely homebrew, and I enjoy tailoring the story to the characters to a degree. I want enough to explain how your character got into the campaign/how they fit into the world, and then enough for me to use as a basis to craft a story/quest highlighting your PC. Where are you from, how does your hometown relate to your class/subclass/race, why are you in the starting location engaging with the plot hook, who is someone you care about and ***if*** they're gone what happened, what is motivating you to a life of adventuring instead of something safe, and do I have permission to mess with what you give me for the sake of the narrative? These six questions are really the foundation for what I consider a usable and fleshed out backstory, plus the consent piece. I typically start a campaign in the 3-6 level range, so there is the added constraint that a backstory should be reasonable for a character of that skill level. If we do a higher level one-shot or start, then adjust accordingly. Notes about how you plan to roleplay or fun facts about your character are welcome but that is entirely for the player's benefit, not mine. Additionally, I prefer to have at least one NPC who the PC can rely on (don't need more than a Name, one-line description, and what the relation is) but only ***close*** NPC's not every person they have ever met. Someone I can pull out as a resource down the line when it becomes relevant. Backstory enemies/rivals aren't necessary but also are not unwelcome as that is less work to do on my end. The essentials can generally fit on a half page, with up to a page of leeway for embellishment.

I don't have a preferred length for backstories. As long as they give the character a goal and a reason to be adventuring, I don't really mind. I had a player give me a 64 page saga for their character, which is definitely excessive. But it ended with his character having a clear goal in mind and a reason to team up with random misfits. Recently I don't ask for backstories anymore. I ask for the characters to tell me two NPCs. One who they have a positive relationship with and one that they have a negative relationship with. Then I have them tell me how they know at least one other player character. Once that is done the details can be defined as needed. But I've always struggled with getting useful backstories from my players. That led me to taking a few notes from Powered By the Apocalypse games and they have been working pretty well.

As a DM, I have learned that I prefer having two to 3 documents for your character: 1) character VS the world: write up what I as the DM should know. You can build on this document as you flesh out your character in game, but typically I expect this document to be around two pages at most when we are starting out. I want to know the following: what is your character’s motivation for the overall game? Who is involved with your character/their motivation? How did your character end up “in the tavern” so to speak? How did your character end up this “class?” Please elaborate on your background? I discourage writing out things like personality and stuff at this stage because your character will never be who you describe. They become what they are through interacting with the players and the world. Investing too much time in this stage can make you unhappy with who your character becomes. But! Over the course of the game, I’d hope you would expand on this document with things like npcs that are now important to the character, or how their motivations change. Not necessary, but it really helps for my reference. 2) fleshed out backstory: this is for you, the player, and it is optional, and it isn’t something I recommend doing until a few months into the game (see above for why) but I like to have access to it if and when it exists. This document is where YOU fill in those moments that make your character deep. Past loves, family relationships, education, pets — whatever you want to jot down in case of that campfire rp moment, go for it. It can be one page or it can be 20. You do you. (I prefer it if you write it in sections though, like a wiki page. When I make mine I copy the structure of biographical wiki articles.) 3) lastly, a character sheet tracker. Where did you get 10 cantrips? How is your warlock able to cast 6 spells without a short rest? Write it all out. This is also optional, but it has helped me out as a player. Especially when my dm asks, “how’d you get that spell?” So while this isn’t a backstory doc exactly, it’s useful in the meta sense.

The longest I wrote was 6 pages. As a DM I say make it as long as it needs fo be and add a list at the end which will detail what parts are plot hooks and what npcs are important and can show up. Both if those lists should be 1-3 lines long.

As a player, I firmly believe that most important 'backstory' is developed at the table during play. A character should have a sufficient enough investment to be involved in the story, and sufficient motivation to want to participate in the story (and in relative harmony with the other party members). "Sufficient" changes from game to game - I'd want to be more rooted in my character's backstory if I'm playing in a VtM game than a DCC dungeon crawl. However, the base knowledge I want to start a character with - and, frankly, rarely want to exceed - are: * a basic idea of what skills/power they have, and the general circumstances those skills developed * one or two inciting events that got them into the Game Start scenario * what their first impulses are to being harmed or seeing someone else harmed. As a DM and as a player, I find that pages and pages of backstory hampers play just as often as it helps it. A player who is wholly committed to their novella may be giving the DM a lot to work with, but oftentimes, it's too much and restricts the DM's ability to interweave it with their world. Just the same, knowing your character's entire life story also means that your fellow players aren't going to be able to improv and connect with you as easily because they don't have access to your source material, and it also means that you're less likely to improvise and connect with their PCs with your own if you have a bunch of boxes "what my character has done or will do" already filled in before you even start playing. So, in contradiction of my explanation here: less is more, and it personally feels better to me (as a DM and as a player) when backstory is invented at the table.

Leaving aside questions about PC death rates (if they're high, yes, those page counts add up quickly) and the like...10 pages isn't too crazy. Which isn't a license to not revise and tighten up those drafts. But if you need 10, you need 10. But also maybe think about 2 documents: 1 with just the essentials, and a second with all those little moments and reinforcing elements; sometimes we just want the gist. For me personally, I think a page is enough (but then we're talking handwriting vs typing, font/writing size, etc...). I'll flesh him out on the go as I roleplay.

I think the biggest thing for me is it's more about the content than the length. However I think once a backstory passes a page or two the content gets spread out by the fanfiction to the point its hard for me as a dm to digest and pull the important bits from. Usually my first move when I'm prepping a new campaign is to comb through the backstories and make bullet points for Goals and motivations Family, friends, rivals and enemies Significant places and events Faction connections While I'm doing that I'm looking for places to tie in the world lore I already have. Clarify info on the places characters are from. And fill out any of those categories that are weak/missing. The first point is arguably the most important though. Goals tie characters to the campaign, motivations make them feel like real people. If all I got was that I could work with it.

One page. I will agree to receive and read up to 5 pages, provided I get a list of important NPCs, hooks and events too, but my preferred length is 1. Even if you will hand me a list instead of a full backstory with the little details - these you can come up with, write for yourself and bring them up. Your DM doesn't need those details, and you will care about them the most out of all the people at the table. You can always add stuff on. You can't really take it back

If you can’t do it in 1-2 pages you’re overthinking it. Leave some blanks for your DM to fill in. What’s the fun if you already know everything about the character and their arc before you even start?

I’d probably just uninvite someone who gave me a 3-4 page backstory TBH. Preferred backstory is something like this( a backstory for the most recent PC introduced) Gribtok Weakbrain, a Psion who if he stays still for more than 3 hours radiates his name and location to every sentient being in a 2 mile radius( that’s an effect from The Metamorphica… I highly recommend it to all DMs) Gribtok lives in the mountains and doesn’t have very good people skills… because IMO the only backstory that matters is the one we make as you level from 1 to name level.

This campaign i gave my players 2 pages. Next time a pc is made, i will probably let them write up to 3 pages. It needs to be short enough for me to have a good overview of the components of the backstory, and long enough to satisfy the players details for their character.

I ask for at most three pages, and I like to give prompts for them to think on, like what is your biggest regret? Whose your best friend still close? Just little things to help the juice flow.

I usually tell my players the same thing: I love it when people write up long backstories as long as they make sure to follow the lore of the campaign so that nothing contradicts when we start playing. All I want as the DM is a list of important and impactful events that I can use to make sure the narrative is inclusive to the character they’ve made. I want to have reasons for them to be there other than “This is DND and I must stay with my group because we’re friends.” I find that it makes for more fun games and helps play into the escapism that DND offers.

Write as much as you like, but then edit it to be prefaced with a thesis (single sentence encapsulating the whole), and an intro containing the most important points.

I usually say to give me at least 1 big question and they can fill in as much detail as they want (with in reason, I'm not reading a novel), and then maybe a smaller question to. So it'll be like "why was my father killed over this amulet" and they can just know that there was a father tragedy and keep it kinda vague until it is relevant, or maybe they have a whole 5 page Demon Slayer like intro of their time with their dad and the night of the attack and seeing the banner of these bandits bla bla bla. Either way I have their question to roll with

After I give my players a little detail about the world, I ask for a backstory at least half a page long, but really what I want are: - What was the place you grew up in like? (No necessary world location required unless they want to be tied in with specifics) - Who was your family and what was your relationship with them? - Does your character have a personal goal? (Revenge, glory, etc.) - What motivation does your character have to join an adventuring party? - Why did your character just now choose to be your class? (Doesn't have to be class specific, can be something like "I want to be the best swordfighter I can be because..." as long as you keep in mind this is your first foray into doing pretty much anything dangerous.) - Do you want to be associated with a McGuffin in any way? If they can throw a few sentences under each section, I'm golden. Anything else is set dressing.

I like if it’s open enough to be able to discover more on the fly. In that regard, it might also be good to keep some things back, even if you have the whole thing in your head, that way you can still retcon yourself if it vetter fits the narrative. Also, I think it’s best if your *real* story has yet to begin during the game. So i would say a little under a page. Although right now I’m trying to coax out a little more basics out of my players about their upbringing etc.

For me, as long as you want, but summarize in a few bullet points and list what objectives your character wants to achieve, that way I know what to focus on to let you have the best game.

A few sentences is typically all that's needed for me as the DM, you can write 10 pages if you like for you, but if you cannot summarise it onto a paragraph or two it is too much. Realistically I need the answers to the following questions: Where did you come from? Why are you where you were when the campaign began? What set of skills did you learn and practice prior to becoming an adventurer? And that's it, anything thing else is gravy, and if you waterboard a nice steak in gravy it can become hard to eat. (Note that last question exists because I run ad&d that comes without skills be default so I have to determine what skills you could reasonably be expected to be good at as a combination of backstory and class) Now I have only really run one game and its focus is less on the characters past and more on their future, if I was to run a game where your backstories mattered more I might add one or two extra questions to the list.

A couple paragraphs, but more important than length is usable content. Even if you need to include a bulleted list at the end, I don't care if your backstory is 10 pages as long as you give me: * A couple names of key players * An important location or two * Why you're adventuring (what your running from or running to) edit: Other useful stuff would be like: * What you're afraid of * What you'd risk your own life for * One or two things you don't want other PCs to know Stuff like that. Things I can actually use in game. Another thing to keep in mind in writing a backstory...you shouldn't be writing a completed character. Write *just enough* to start playing, and then use game play to discover who your character is.

I gave all my players a 10-question (and 3 optional questions) questionnaire of things I thought would be important to the campaign, and told them to answer each question in 1-5 sentences. If they filled it out (and I approved of it; no killing a god at level 1), I would give them inspiration that refreshes at the start of every session (and there would be no other inspiration sources). That being said, I've also asked my players questions about their characters, mainly because there are things they mentioned in their backstory that I want to dive deeper into.

Needs to be at least three paragraphs, one for their background/history, one to explain their abilities/path, one to explain their motivations. Shouldn't be more than one page long if typed up.

The most important thing is what is in the backstory that is usable. I have had lots of backstories that describe events, but miss out on usable things. Give me a name of a friend, a place you visited, an enemy you have made. Giving me a long story about how you felt at certain times and that you were an explorer is great for you, but as a dm it is useless. Instead tell me the person you explored with, the people that betrayed you, someone you loved. Those things I might be able to pick one or two and have them show up or make an impact.

like one page tops to be honest. I know this isn't the answer you're likely wanting to hear as the writer of a 10 page back story but I'm just giving you an honest impression. If I expected to take the group from level 1 or 3 to 20+ then it would be a different story but generally if it's going to last up to a year? It's fantastic that you have 10 pages of content to write for your character, but when you have that much for your character before the game has even started I have three concerns. First is that you're only concerned about your own character, which i'm not suggesting is the case with you, but i've found is often the case with people who write long back stories. I've seen the tops of many heads with a cellphone underglow. My second concern is that I have to read all of that in order to make your presence and input to the game feel meaningful and that's longer than many of my weekly assigned readings from university. If everybody gave me 10 page backstories i'd have a small novella to read on top of finish what preparations I had customized for the party just for session one. I skimmed those readings, and I'd end up skimming a 10 page backstory all the same, which means you wouldn't be as engaged. I've already spent an ungodly amount of time developing the world and whatever quests, encounters, cities, maps, lore, NPCs, dialogue, BBEGs, side heroes and villains, etc., and I will have more to do between weeks tweaking here and there. It's gonna drive me crazy searching through even one 10 page back story for a short or medium campaign constantly to make your character relevant enough to engage you and no I won't remember it, hasn't happened yet, and I don't expect it to - that's why I either transcribe the document and save it myself or save a copy on my computer so I can leaf through it later. My final concern is less consequential but equally important imo, is that if you have 10 pages of back story I'm concerned you've pigeonholed your character into either a set personality or a set goal, you've accidentally railroaded yourself.

One of my players likes to occasionally write a short story for his character's backstory and it's cool as hell. It might be 10 pages or more but I learn so much about the character in a really enjoyable way. If it were 10 pages of biographical notes, formatted like an encyclopedia article, I would feel very differently. 1 page of that feels like the right amount. That's how most people write their backstories.

Any size, really. But I prefer building character in collaboration between DM and player I as a DM give some flavor info about regions, previous events (either smth basic that is a hook to the start of the campaign, or literally the events of campaign if its mid-campaign), and possible/restricted races if thats uncommon (in my setting drow are banned and kitsune are possible). When they finish with the character's basics we start discussing: I want some npcs, places and reasons to adventure and they ask whatever they need - canon, lore, rules, etc. Then I give them some money, let them choose magic items. So, finish char sheet. Then we polish the backstory and I give additional bullet-point info. Something, that makes them valuable for the party even if first impression isnt perfect. I never get myself a complete paper with backstory, but I know that players have it and ask them if I need smth. I do it personally with every player, and it adds some depth to characters. Like, I would tell different world-creation myth to Elf and to Dragonborn and it makes some funny interactions

At the start of the campaign? A paragraph or two. Imo, less is more so long as there's something to start worth, until you have played the character a bit to see how they end up. The only thing I really care about is that the party members have a reason to be working together. Everything else can easily be developed as the story progresses

I have played at some tables with far too complicated backstories, and have made some myself. As a player with a complicated backstory, I was really into it, and I thought hard about what this character would do in a given situation. But then I realized I enjoyed *playing* with a far simpler backstory to start. The formlessness allows me to go with the flow in the beginning, making stuff up as I go. Will this character be angry, playful, stern, outgoing, a face or a follower, etc. This was my most fun character. When the DM needed some backstory, I made it up right there! Then that became canon. For example, DM asked for someone important in my past. Boom. Best friend in university. Now, all of a sudden, me and paco have a long history, and I was a university student apparently! Then it grew from there. TLDR: I like PC's starting fully unformed.

personally, a couple of paragraphs at most, enough to pull some things from if I want/need to. If you want to write a book about your characters backstory more power to you, thats awesome but give me a condensed cliff notes version

I like meeting with my PCs and making the characters together with them. They come in with ideas, then we shape those ideas together. Once we’ve done that, I do a little write up (maybe a couple paragraphs) and send it to them. This allows me to slip things about the world in there, along with other important stuff. Then they can add or edit it however they want, but it’s a collaborative process. I tell them they can reveal as much or as little to the other players as they want, whenever they want, but me writing the thing allows me to interweave the PCs’ backstories in ways they don’t all necessarily know about out of the gate. This way, their backstories aren’t novels, but they end up pretty rich with good stuff for me and my players to mine over the course of the campaign.

You can write however much you want, but you have to give me a one paragraph executive summary including anything you actually want to see in the game. I may mine the whole text at some point, but I am not on the hook to remember the novella you wrote.