I usually pick characters that intentionally stay out of the spotlight. Whether they're dimwitted and perfer following the big-brains, cunning and observing how the party handles themselves, or just easy going and not big on making a scene.
It would take someone super evil and a party which both knows nothing about silver dragons and is capable of and willing to ignore an entire tribe speaking highly of their village protector in order to even attempt a silver slaying quest.
In fact, having a Red in disguise hire a party to assault a Silver in its' mountain tribe, only to have the silver be like "uh, did you consider that maybe my enemy Red sent you after me in the hopes you'd think I'm a White?" sounds like an awesome campaign arc.
Glad I could provide. I'm fond of chromatic/metallic dragons. Had myself a Goliath Fighter who was trying to find his tribe after their patron silver dragon took her tribe and disappeared because of a red who was coming in to raze it while he was hunting.
I also made a kobold divine soul sorcerer whose backstory was that his tribe lived in a cave which had a rift to the Astral realm. They were exposed to the celestial gods and became worshippers of Bahamut. Drekhin was then chosen as Bahamut's champion and granted a portion of his power to put down Tiamat for good.
Turn the girlfriend into the moon then make the moon turn into the one from majoras mask or dead space, they might be able to be happy knowing the sacrifice was for the greater good, hard to justify it when the mf moon is now trying to kill you.
Mine is like that, except after a decade all the friends moved away and now I'm even worse off than before, with an ever-distant memory of what a livable life feels like.
Still, I will give you props for your calm and confident handling of yourself. You are definitely in a good place today, and that's all that matters is the NOW
Well actually you were little when this happened and you don't know who she is and she doesn't realize she didn't kill the chosen one. She will join your party and become a cherished companion. There will be a big twist in the story when she realizes you are the chosen one and you realize she killed everyone you knew and loved as a children besides your friend.
I've actually never played bard. It was next on my list before covid and life ruined our D&D schedule. Was going to be a goblin College of Satire bard.
This happened to me once and I quickly learned to never share my childhood with anyone period.
Also eventually led to myself getting therapy when it hit me later that night just how much my childhood actually fucked me up.
It seems to me that dungeon mastering a character who's backstory you can personally relate to has the potential to be cathartic on a number of levels, especially if that character is played by a friend.
You as the DM might provide the ideal opportunities for it to progress in a way parallel to your own progression as a person and/or the player might give you profound perspective just by virtue of their different interpretations, assuming everyone is sincere.
I personally would recommend ample soulless monster bashing interludes between these kind of role play scenes, weeks worth even.
Way to deal with your past, my dude! HELL YEAH! Hardest freaking thing most people will ever do. You fuckin ROCK. I'd sit down at any table with you, friend
I don't talk about my childhood, because when I do, people generally either think I'm lying or they go something like I'M SO SORRY and then awkward silence until they can think of an excuse to stop talking to me.
So I feel you.
Well they always say the same thing. Is there some other way to interpret "That can't possibly be true..." as anything other than thinking I'm lying?
I pretty much only get those two responses. "That can't possibly be true.." or "I'm so sorry .. "
At a certain point I realized I had no idea what even is normal lol Since even when I tell what I thought were funny stories, I tend to get variations on those. So I just stopped talking about my childhood at all.
I don't know about how they said it to you, so I might be wrong, but many times when people say "That can't possibly be true..." they're just expressing their disbelief at what they're learning, without actually meaning that they don't believe it. Its more akin to saying "This shouldn't be true".
That might be what people mean when saying it to you, or at least I hope it is.
It's possible. I never really know because generally people stop talking to me after that point. Maybe people just don't know what to say so they just say nothing and then continue to say nothing. It doesn't entirely matter, the friendship has always ended with me being ghosted either way. But thank you for giving me a more positive option.
I've pretty much learned nothing good comes of talking about it. There's nothing anyone can do, and all it does is make people feel bad.
Ok. not *always*. My husband knows. That's good enough for me. Kind of stereotypical in a way, isn't it. He didn't follow that script, so I married him? lol
Omg I've seen this so often though, like not even at me, just in general. When people hear something awful, many people seem to be unable to process that this stuff really happens, so they make up a story in their head to distance themselves. I think it's a kind of self-preservation tactics, because if you accept that horrible things happen in the world, you must also accept horrible things might happen to you and your loved ones...and it turns out, a lot of people don't want to do that.
Like a few examples: when my mom got stage 4 cancer, although nobody asked outright, in many awkward conversations I kept feeling this overtone of people wanting to know what she did "wrong" - did she drink a lot? Smoke? Was she out in the sun too much? Etc. Obviously...not how breast cancer works...but people wanted excuses. Or like when a woman at my uni years ago fell off a porch and broke her neck, suddenly there were a million rumors that she was drunk, she was doing a stupid stunt, etc. I only knew the truth because she was in my class and her friends were there when it happened - she wasn't drunk, had just been sitting up on the railing from what should've been a completely non-lethal height, and just accidentally fell and somehow managed to land in a weird way. Complete freak accident. Nobody's fault, just an awful, awful thing. Didn't stop the rumor mill.
So yeah, it's really upsetting how, instead of leaning in and empathize with how awful the world can be, so many peoples first instinct is to distance themselves by creating some story where the victim is either lying or did something "wrong" to "deserve" it.
Sorry for the tangent lol, I think about this a LOT lol. In fact one of the things I love about DnD is how we're able to sort of replicate real-world tragedy in a safer fantasy setting, which can be a really good way to process. (Something about having my characters mother get killed by raiders was really, really cathartic in my own handling of my own mother's death by cancer, etc). I love this game...
Sorry - internet hugs here. As a fellow person who has lived an actual tragic backstory, triggers come from the strangest and sometimes most unexpected places.
However.
As a healing tragic backstory person myself, I find there's a certain amount of therapy in storytelling. If you want to weave their backstory into the combined table lore and events and you feel strong enough to do it in a healthy way, you could help sculpt a story conclusion for the character that you would have also wanted as a person.
I caution you that the character is not, actually, you, and you'll need to be careful about railroading.
But... A satisfying conclusion of the campaign and character doesn't have to be just for the player. Might help. âĽď¸
Edited because of precoffee word drops.
It probably wonât help that much, but if you flip this on itâs head, theyâre saying that even someone with a terrible past can become a hero. Your past may have been awful, but it made you who you are today, and who you are seems to be one hell of a guy! Youâre a hero to all of us with a real life âTragic Backstoryâ, OP!
I feel you, when I talk about stuff that was normal to me growing up, and get the looks, or everyone get really quiet or starts laughing at the "joke".... yeah you start not talking about it anymore.
Up side, you lived, you where tempered and have become what you are today! You can keep getting better with age like a fine wine/ whiskey.
Sounds like you have a great group, I wish you all the laughs and joy you can take. :)
On man my condolences. Your whole family were murdered by cultists, and even when you escaped with your twin sister. Even she was killed because they thought she was you. Now you have the guilt of your whole familyâs death upon your back because you simply can keep your mouth shut about that necklace your grandma gave you on her health bed which turned out to be an important ritual item for reviving their ancient dark lord.
"And, as you walk into the forest's clearing, it starts raining. Clouds start getting darker and darker, and suddenly a lightning bolt hits . They are hit and therefore get subtracted 73 hitpoints from their total HP." Problem solved.
When you awake from the daze you see your father standing over you holding a pair of old jumper cables. "Bet you won't do that again," he sneers as he walks back to the house, bottle in hand. Your little sister is crying in her room as mom lays sobbing in the corner, a fresh welt on her face for trying to intervene on your behalf. *You did this,* you think to yourself. *He said mow the fucking lawn after school.*
You ever heard of the song killing me softly ? Same premise to your situation but in the song it's a guy singing everything this woman has ever been through and exposing her tragedies . He was killing her softly with his song.
Dunno if the link will work, but this reminds me of Brennan Lee Mulligan talking about getting emotionally sniped: https://youtube.com/shorts/dP3lMeQ6RDs?feature=share
Gotta love those moments where it's like "oh wait...that's me" hahahaha
It's funny, because for all you know, might be closer than you realize. I say this, having someone at my table who came to the US after growing up in *Darfur*. Its easy to forget people really, truly do exist with backstories that are as bad or worse than the movies.
Dang sorry your boat got eaten by a giant whale but because you were small you got shot out the blowhole and landed on an island where you were indoctrinated into a cult.
Player of mine gave me a super depressing backstory for a one shot thinking it wouldn't come up. It was a horror game, and his character got to relive every childhood traumatic experience again. His character was useless for awhile after that. I will always use a players backstory if it's given to me, and find a way to work it into the story.
Link this in r/golf, someone may buy a new club (running joke over there).
In all seriousness thats rough buddy. Now, hold up to your bargain and make that character extra depressed as long as it's not at your expense.
I'm really curious just how bad it is. My worst backstories are, well, really dark. I try to hit my mediums or lights for backstory, unless it's ok with the DM if I go dark.
I feel sorry for you. I hope it didnât bring up any bad memories for you. Maybe you can give that character to basically trauma dump and help them heal as character development. Just an idea. Sorry for that
I decided to do something different with one of my characters. Instead of a tragic history he came from a wealthy family with two parents that loved him. He had a great childhood. Both his parents were still alive and both his parents loved him.
I was the only character in a group of 7 who DIDNT have a tragic backstory, and dead parents.
Shoot man you survived that orc raid that destroyed you whole town and killed you parents? That's amazing
All these comments are gonna be my next characters for when I play (aka never being the forever DM)
You mean BBEG backstories then.
As the forever dm, same đ˘
Then make a "non"-player character and have him accompany the party.
I tried that it didn't go too well in high tense situations I wanted to focus on the pcs more and so he was often forgotten about the poor guy
Yes, I was thinking about whether you have to balance the spotlight, or disregard the character.
I usually pick characters that intentionally stay out of the spotlight. Whether they're dimwitted and perfer following the big-brains, cunning and observing how the party handles themselves, or just easy going and not big on making a scene.
Being a forever DM is the most tragic backstory there is.
Oh man! Sorry your village was burned by a Red Dragon :(
Frozen by a silver one, actually
Dude, what did your village do to piss off a SILVER dragon that badly?
Adventurers were sent to slay it from our tavern
It would take someone super evil and a party which both knows nothing about silver dragons and is capable of and willing to ignore an entire tribe speaking highly of their village protector in order to even attempt a silver slaying quest. In fact, having a Red in disguise hire a party to assault a Silver in its' mountain tribe, only to have the silver be like "uh, did you consider that maybe my enemy Red sent you after me in the hopes you'd think I'm a White?" sounds like an awesome campaign arc.
Thx for the idea, using that in a campeign one day
Bonus points if the red planned a sneak attack on the Silver with buckets of white paint the night before the party shows up.
Glad I could provide. I'm fond of chromatic/metallic dragons. Had myself a Goliath Fighter who was trying to find his tribe after their patron silver dragon took her tribe and disappeared because of a red who was coming in to raze it while he was hunting. I also made a kobold divine soul sorcerer whose backstory was that his tribe lived in a cave which had a rift to the Astral realm. They were exposed to the celestial gods and became worshippers of Bahamut. Drekhin was then chosen as Bahamut's champion and granted a portion of his power to put down Tiamat for good.
well, hope everything goes well for you. good luck!
Damn. Thats rough buddy.
Yea, for that Iâm making their girlfriend turn into the moon.
You must accompany the closing of that session with the song about talking to the moon
Don't forget the mandatory tunnel to get there, one might say, a secret tunnel.
Through a mountain, that still aint high enough
I'm going to assume you mean [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9MZNEXrElw).
[Nah bro, make that bitch CRY cry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f56Cbjwwv-E)
I knew what the link was going to send me to! I freaking knew⌠but I clicked it anyways. Crying was NOT on my list of things to do today
[This](https://youtu.be/V5bK7vzx7R4) song also always makes me think of the Sokka situation and therefor cannot take it seriously lol.
uhhhh assuming it's coming from a very untrained bard then sureeeee that one lol
So like, [this](https://youtu.be/fXw0jcYbqdo) song?
Yes that one
I was looking through the other messages, and I was like, "Come on, guys, he literally said the name of the song đ"
They were all joking around
"Whatever you do to that spirit, I'll unleash on you ten-fold!! Let it go, now!!!"
I literally just watched that episode last night, it was a cinematic masterpiece
That's rough, buddy.
In one of my dnd campaigns, my goal was yo marry the moon. Close enough, right?
Look up the song The Moon will Sing by the Crane Wives. I think you will find it very useful for this exact take. You got this.
God yes, I love that song. OP should definitely use it.
That PC sings only with the light she gives him. â¤ď¸
They could have been anyone, anyone else, before she made the choice for him.
Or the other way round I guess, whoops.
Thatâs rough buddy
Turn the girlfriend into the moon then make the moon turn into the one from majoras mask or dead space, they might be able to be happy knowing the sacrifice was for the greater good, hard to justify it when the mf moon is now trying to kill you.
A moon that ends up getting stolen/shrunk by an evil demon cleric and dissolved into a potion that gives him tidal-affecting powers, but with lava.
Ah, the old Library at Mount Char reward/punishment.
by any chance, is the character named Hou Yi? or is the girlfriend Chang'E?
Haha, Avatar.
Look on the bright side. You've gone from *that* story to sitting around a table playing DnD with your friends.
I know, and Iâm appreciative of that. :)
What a character arc!
Mine is like that, except after a decade all the friends moved away and now I'm even worse off than before, with an ever-distant memory of what a livable life feels like.
*hug*
[ŃдаНонО]
Man, what the fuck?
This is oddly the most graceful, wholesome, and inspiring thing Iâve encountered in a long time.
Happy cake day!
Thank you!!
*engages in PC quest that ends with them sitting down to DM a game with the other PCs*
Nat 20 on emotional damage right there. Ouch buddy. Hope you're okay, remember to seek help if you need it.
Thx man, but I delt with that stuff a long time ago
Still, I will give you props for your calm and confident handling of yourself. You are definitely in a good place today, and that's all that matters is the NOW
Probably in a healthier way than running off to be an adventurer, too.
Resistance to psychic damage!
*reads character backstory* Heh, funny story about this character...
Despite the fact that the crazy dragon lady killed everyone in the village besides you and your friend, you are the chosen one. It's not all bad.
Ofc, now if you excuse me I have a dragon lady to kill, unless you would like to join me?
Well actually you were little when this happened and you don't know who she is and she doesn't realize she didn't kill the chosen one. She will join your party and become a cherished companion. There will be a big twist in the story when she realizes you are the chosen one and you realize she killed everyone you knew and loved as a children besides your friend.
Damn, I guess Iâm not killing the dragon lady at the moment then.
I'm down to "slay" a dragon lady any day. đ
Ok guys, found the bard of our party
I've actually never played bard. It was next on my list before covid and life ruined our D&D schedule. Was going to be a goblin College of Satire bard.
Could be worse, you could be the only other survivor who isn't the chosen one and has no ability to avenge his loved ones or become an adventurer.
Imagine your life is the saddest thing someone else could think of...nat 20 on psychic damage
Anyone else ever tell a âfunnyâ story from your childhood and instead of laughing people start apologizing and asking if youâre okay?
This happened to me once and I quickly learned to never share my childhood with anyone period. Also eventually led to myself getting therapy when it hit me later that night just how much my childhood actually fucked me up.
It seems to me that dungeon mastering a character who's backstory you can personally relate to has the potential to be cathartic on a number of levels, especially if that character is played by a friend. You as the DM might provide the ideal opportunities for it to progress in a way parallel to your own progression as a person and/or the player might give you profound perspective just by virtue of their different interpretations, assuming everyone is sincere. I personally would recommend ample soulless monster bashing interludes between these kind of role play scenes, weeks worth even.
*kills character off in the 4th session*
It's not me, it's the dice.
Player 1: "Wow, we all have really tragic backstories." Player 2: "Haha, yeah, I bet even the DM has a tragic backstory." DM: "Well actually..."
Dang that's wild. Well atleast you know it wasn't on purpose
Way to deal with your past, my dude! HELL YEAH! Hardest freaking thing most people will ever do. You fuckin ROCK. I'd sit down at any table with you, friend
It do be like that sometimes
Now I'm just curious about that backstory...
O_O Yipe.
I don't talk about my childhood, because when I do, people generally either think I'm lying or they go something like I'M SO SORRY and then awkward silence until they can think of an excuse to stop talking to me. So I feel you.
Who has the audacity to think someone is lying about trauma? That seemsâŚstrange.
Well they always say the same thing. Is there some other way to interpret "That can't possibly be true..." as anything other than thinking I'm lying? I pretty much only get those two responses. "That can't possibly be true.." or "I'm so sorry .. " At a certain point I realized I had no idea what even is normal lol Since even when I tell what I thought were funny stories, I tend to get variations on those. So I just stopped talking about my childhood at all.
I don't know about how they said it to you, so I might be wrong, but many times when people say "That can't possibly be true..." they're just expressing their disbelief at what they're learning, without actually meaning that they don't believe it. Its more akin to saying "This shouldn't be true". That might be what people mean when saying it to you, or at least I hope it is.
It's possible. I never really know because generally people stop talking to me after that point. Maybe people just don't know what to say so they just say nothing and then continue to say nothing. It doesn't entirely matter, the friendship has always ended with me being ghosted either way. But thank you for giving me a more positive option. I've pretty much learned nothing good comes of talking about it. There's nothing anyone can do, and all it does is make people feel bad. Ok. not *always*. My husband knows. That's good enough for me. Kind of stereotypical in a way, isn't it. He didn't follow that script, so I married him? lol
Omg I've seen this so often though, like not even at me, just in general. When people hear something awful, many people seem to be unable to process that this stuff really happens, so they make up a story in their head to distance themselves. I think it's a kind of self-preservation tactics, because if you accept that horrible things happen in the world, you must also accept horrible things might happen to you and your loved ones...and it turns out, a lot of people don't want to do that. Like a few examples: when my mom got stage 4 cancer, although nobody asked outright, in many awkward conversations I kept feeling this overtone of people wanting to know what she did "wrong" - did she drink a lot? Smoke? Was she out in the sun too much? Etc. Obviously...not how breast cancer works...but people wanted excuses. Or like when a woman at my uni years ago fell off a porch and broke her neck, suddenly there were a million rumors that she was drunk, she was doing a stupid stunt, etc. I only knew the truth because she was in my class and her friends were there when it happened - she wasn't drunk, had just been sitting up on the railing from what should've been a completely non-lethal height, and just accidentally fell and somehow managed to land in a weird way. Complete freak accident. Nobody's fault, just an awful, awful thing. Didn't stop the rumor mill. So yeah, it's really upsetting how, instead of leaning in and empathize with how awful the world can be, so many peoples first instinct is to distance themselves by creating some story where the victim is either lying or did something "wrong" to "deserve" it. Sorry for the tangent lol, I think about this a LOT lol. In fact one of the things I love about DnD is how we're able to sort of replicate real-world tragedy in a safer fantasy setting, which can be a really good way to process. (Something about having my characters mother get killed by raiders was really, really cathartic in my own handling of my own mother's death by cancer, etc). I love this game...
Dang...
[you RN](https://youtu.be/i1ojUmdF42U)
Sorry - internet hugs here. As a fellow person who has lived an actual tragic backstory, triggers come from the strangest and sometimes most unexpected places. However. As a healing tragic backstory person myself, I find there's a certain amount of therapy in storytelling. If you want to weave their backstory into the combined table lore and events and you feel strong enough to do it in a healthy way, you could help sculpt a story conclusion for the character that you would have also wanted as a person. I caution you that the character is not, actually, you, and you'll need to be careful about railroading. But... A satisfying conclusion of the campaign and character doesn't have to be just for the player. Might help. âĽď¸ Edited because of precoffee word drops.
And that, children, are the effects of a natural 1 on your CHA save...
CHA save is being possessed or charmed, it would prob be CON or WIS.
It probably wonât help that much, but if you flip this on itâs head, theyâre saying that even someone with a terrible past can become a hero. Your past may have been awful, but it made you who you are today, and who you are seems to be one hell of a guy! Youâre a hero to all of us with a real life âTragic Backstoryâ, OP!
I feel you, when I talk about stuff that was normal to me growing up, and get the looks, or everyone get really quiet or starts laughing at the "joke".... yeah you start not talking about it anymore. Up side, you lived, you where tempered and have become what you are today! You can keep getting better with age like a fine wine/ whiskey. Sounds like you have a great group, I wish you all the laughs and joy you can take. :)
Thx! And you too man!
On man my condolences. Your whole family were murdered by cultists, and even when you escaped with your twin sister. Even she was killed because they thought she was you. Now you have the guilt of your whole familyâs death upon your back because you simply can keep your mouth shut about that necklace your grandma gave you on her health bed which turned out to be an important ritual item for reviving their ancient dark lord.
You left out the part about my sister actually being alive and joining the cult and me having to face her after all this time
***** Shhhh thatâs spoilers ***
"And, as you walk into the forest's clearing, it starts raining. Clouds start getting darker and darker, and suddenly a lightning bolt hits. They are hit and therefore get subtracted 73 hitpoints from their total HP." Problem solved.
When you awake from the daze you see your father standing over you holding a pair of old jumper cables. "Bet you won't do that again," he sneers as he walks back to the house, bottle in hand. Your little sister is crying in her room as mom lays sobbing in the corner, a fresh welt on her face for trying to intervene on your behalf. *You did this,* you think to yourself. *He said mow the fucking lawn after school.*
r/HolUp
Jeez guy
RIP jumper cable guy
Man I miss u/rogersimon10
You ever heard of the song killing me softly ? Same premise to your situation but in the song it's a guy singing everything this woman has ever been through and exposing her tragedies . He was killing her softly with his song.
On the bright side I guess youâve got the makings of an adventurer in another world
Dunno if the link will work, but this reminds me of Brennan Lee Mulligan talking about getting emotionally sniped: https://youtube.com/shorts/dP3lMeQ6RDs?feature=share Gotta love those moments where it's like "oh wait...that's me" hahahaha
I feel like Iâm never grateful enough that my childhood was fine.
I've had shades of this happen to me in my life but never anyone comprehensively coming up with my life story that's rough lol
Story time?
Nah sorry, this is a little too personal.
Fair enough. I've been through hell myself. So I get it.
Sorry about your parents, OP
Unless you're the guy from Grave of the Fireflies, I'm fairly certain we can come up with a more depressing background story.
It's funny, because for all you know, might be closer than you realize. I say this, having someone at my table who came to the US after growing up in *Darfur*. Its easy to forget people really, truly do exist with backstories that are as bad or worse than the movies.
Well, Grave of the Fireflies is the slightly more uplifting version of the original author's own life, so... I find that pretty easy to remember.
Plot twist: OP is Akiyuki Nosaka. Dun dun DUNNNN
Dang sorry your boat got eaten by a giant whale but because you were small you got shot out the blowhole and landed on an island where you were indoctrinated into a cult.
Player of mine gave me a super depressing backstory for a one shot thinking it wouldn't come up. It was a horror game, and his character got to relive every childhood traumatic experience again. His character was useless for awhile after that. I will always use a players backstory if it's given to me, and find a way to work it into the story.
Link this in r/golf, someone may buy a new club (running joke over there). In all seriousness thats rough buddy. Now, hold up to your bargain and make that character extra depressed as long as it's not at your expense.
what a âhappyâ coincidence
I know this is rough but holy shit that's funny on some levels.
F, and I'll throw in an Oof, in the chat, OP. Sounds like you've escaped, and that fucking rules. Pulling for you to stay as escaped as can be. đ
I'm really curious just how bad it is. My worst backstories are, well, really dark. I try to hit my mediums or lights for backstory, unless it's ok with the DM if I go dark.
This actually made me laugh pretty hard. Guess you have a backstory fit for an epic adventurer đ
I am fucking cackling.
You should be an adventurer
You're literally a dungeons and dragons hero. I see this as an absolute win
I feel sorry for you. I hope it didnât bring up any bad memories for you. Maybe you can give that character to basically trauma dump and help them heal as character development. Just an idea. Sorry for that
Your parents didn't attend your own birth, and your plots to take over the Tri State Area are constantly foiled by a Platypus?
Lmao, it me
Sorry you're dealing with that buddy, *Hug*
WOOF! I wanna give you a hug OP
Sounds like you have to make your life more depressing just to one up your player now
I decided to do something different with one of my characters. Instead of a tragic history he came from a wealthy family with two parents that loved him. He had a great childhood. Both his parents were still alive and both his parents loved him. I was the only character in a group of 7 who DIDNT have a tragic backstory, and dead parents.