Oh good lord, never let my use a pun like the one in the title again... Anyway, today's topic is: backstory...
There are many ways to create a backstory. Some are harder than others - for that reason it is a part of character creation that many of us leave out. I prefer to come up with original ideas for my characters but even what we may think original could be influenced by things we've seen or read. You could choose a character you admire from a book and use them as an idea for backstory. I briefly played a character based on the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" - this MUST prove that effectively anything can be turned into a character seed (seed is another name for a background idea). Try coming up with a flaw or a strength of the character and ask yourself: "Why is he afraid of water?" or "How did she get so good at magic?" and so on - simple stuff. One other option is to play the game awhile and let your first four levels be your back story. I like this option as it gives your game a realistic-feeling backstory more often than not. In the end it's your choice. Maybe you have an idea for a source of backstory - post and share.
I like your idea about using a song. Characters from a famous play, like a Shakespeare play would be interesting. A painting might inspire a character too...
ReplyDeleteThank you, I forgotten to mention pictures! But LAMB is right, you can use pictures. Sometimes it's picture that get the mind going. There are some execellent pictures here on Deviantart. Here's a link: http://www.deviantart.com/
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