Writing Your Backstory

When to write it, how to write it, and how to make it work for the game's purposes

Chances are that, through the process of character creation, you will begin to get a sense of your backstory. You may choose your big FACTs (Focus, Ancestry, Class, and Themes) and your little FACTs (Features, Acumen, Competencies, and Talents) by just looking at what interests you in each category, but as you fit those aspects together, you will likely find yourself weaving the threads of the past to justify how your choices would come together. A "backstory" is typically an account of what has made your character who he is at the start of the campaign. Usually written out, the backstory is shared between the game player and the GM; the game player can choose to share his written backstory with other members of his party in full written form or in small spurts of verbal information during the course of play. (The decisions of what to share, when, and to whom, are key components of your character, and add extra interest to the game.)

Now, you can choose to craft an epic backstory, the day-by-day chronicles of your Level 1 Barbarian who excels in healing the sick and weaving delicate blankets, whose grandmother taught her to craft as she watched over those who had been wounded in battle... but I recommend before you get too committed that you ask your GM what her expectations are in terms of length. I've heard recommendations of three pages, so that your GM can juggle the backstories of all the players, and so that there's a roadmap to the future for each character based on his past and his hopes without being overly proscriptive or restrictive.

Best not to recite your backstory, but let it incorporate into play naturally during your sessions.

Why do you even need a backstory? Technically, you don't. I once played in a campaign that invited us to pick the most basic elements of our character and then play through our first session without having formally "made" the character, so that the characters developed in front of our eyes, and we retrospectively filled in more backstory as the campaign continued. I confess that I didn't write a backstory proper until a year into the campaign (and my character didn't share a lot about the past initially, so it worked well). Contrastingly, some of the party quickly generated detailed backstories, which likely made gameplay easier for them, as they (and the GM) had a greater sense of their character's canon facts. (As a note, beware writing too much, as this will possibly constrain your gameplay, and possibly hamper the GM in terms of the scope of canonical facts that she must attend to).

So, what to write? The most basic rule of thumb: a specific setting, two or three people you interacted with in a meaningful way, and a brief anecdote or two that reveals your goals or your hopes. A thumbnail backstory: The barbarian Hrosvitha of Gandersheim dreamed of being a healer and studied diligently under Gnez Greetha, the town healer, until Gnez told Hrosvitha it was helpless; Hrosvitha was too dull to master medicine. An elder in the town, Haduka Oodle, applauded Hrosvitha's physical strength and encouraged her to study battle instead under the greatest warrior in town, Ernst: today, Hrosvitha is a protector in Gandersheim, lauded for her martial prowess, but she still dreams of learning medicine. There's a basic outline. Fill in some descriptions, and you're ready to roll! No one but you and the GM need know of Hrosvitha's dreams, but your understanding of her frustrations adds nuance to your gameplay of this mighty warrior.

So, the backstory is useful for three things: 1) your understanding of why your character is the way he is today, and what experiences he found useful, moving, or terrible in his life; 2) the GM's ability to mine your story for ideas and create more synergy between you imagination and her own; and 3) your colleagues' understanding of your character (again, to the extent that you choose to reveal anything directly). Honing in on 2), it is always advisable to include a handful of characters from your old village or your college or your childhood, with names and lightly sketched personalities, for the GM might choose to have the party visit your village or run into one of the people you wrote about. She might do very little-- or seem to do very little-- with your backstory, but adding some interesting detail increases the chance of seeing part of your backstory play out in the present campaign. You can only imagine Hrosvitha of Gandersheim's joy when her beloved champion, Haduka Oodle, appears in an unexpected in-game scenario!

The art of the backstory is not simply to navel-gaze about your motivations, hopes, dreams, successes, and failures, but an opportunity to add richness to the larger story that the GM and your group writes collectively during gameplay. Don't be afraid-- but also, remember that the backstory is just the beginning of getting to know your character, and that you may want to fill in more of it as the campaign goes on and as new insights occur through seeing your character transition from page to table-top.