The Player’s Handbook describes backgrounds as follows:

“Your character’s background reveals where you came from, how you became an adventurer, and your place in the world…Choosing a background provides you with important story cues about your character’s identity. The most important question to ask about your background is what changed? Why did you stop doing whatever your background describes and start adventuring? Where did you get the money to purchase your starting gear, or, if you come from a wealthy background, why don't you have more money? How did you learn the skills of your class? What sets you apart from ordinary people who share your background?”

I like to think that character background is similar to what they do on TV shows. Many times, the main characters have a detailed background story that has influenced how they have become the person they are today. But you don’t get the entire background at once. It’s broken into small chunks spread throughout numerous episodes, sometimes seasons. The viewer gets a little taste every so often and as more information is given, the viewer becomes more invested in the character. In good show, we get hooked. These little pieces of information bring us back, week and after week, as we hope like junkie to get another piece of the puzzle as to who our hero is.

The climactic reveal in the backstory usually coincides with the major plotline for that season where it all comes together for the character and the viewer alike. Our hero defeats the BBEG guy or gal and learns something about themselves that they at not have known, remembered or fully understood. Everyone’s happy, at least until next season, when the main character’s mother, who everyone thought was dead, resurfaces and plunges us into season 2, where we hope to get even more of our hero’s backstory.

Everyone comes from somewhere, even your newly created D&D character. Whether it’s long before you’ve rolled the dice or when you reach the background section of the sheet and pause for a moment, a kernel of an idea will start to form. This kernel is the beginning of your character, and while their background may change before you meet up with the rest of the party in a tavern somewhere, you have started to formulate where the character came from and how they got here.

Some people pour their hearts and souls into their backstory. Others, like myself, create a vague background, with one or two major character arcs that shaped them into who they are, that person everyone meets when the adventuring begins. No style of creating one’s background is right or wrong. It’s about what style fits you, the player, the best. Want to create a sordid upbringing where your mother was slaughtered by orcs and your father sold you into slavery to the very same orcs. Cool…go for it. Want to make absolutely no mention of your family other than your upbringing was boring and you left home at 16 for a life of grand adventure? That awesome. Do what you feel comfortable doing.

Here’s the big BUT portion of this article. Having a detailed and exciting background story for your character is great, BUT don’t have their lives already be so awesome that there is nowhere for them to go but down. Here’s an example of one such background story I found on Reddit. If you want to see some insane background stories, look no further than Reddit. Some of the ones I read were so crazy that I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Thorin grew up on a small Dwarven forge on Mount Olympus. There he and his teacher built weapons for the gods. One day Thorin made a weapon so powerful that he used it to defeat a hideous monster. The monster was 300 feet tall and consisted of 25 different pairs of elemental teeth that wove around its body like large scars. It had 3 massive hideous eyes that seemed to contain alternate dimensions. After 7 years and 407 days Thorin finally defeated the monster and ascended to god hood. Despite his great achievements the other gods jealous cast a spell to seal away his awesome power. Finally he went undercover and joined a temple that worships him. He joined the party when they helped him stop a cult that was trying to kill his worshipers. And my DM looked him straight in the eye and asked "So what you're telling me, is that you made a character who goes to church, to worship himself?" https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/4j1hkg/what_are_some_of_the_greatest_and_the_worst/

Yep, someone actually wrote that, and it’s not even the close to the worst one I have seen.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I read some of these over the top backgrounds is, “Why isn’t this person a DM?” They obviously love the story creation part of the game and have the imagination to create a fantastic world and develop enthralling storylines to challenge players at every turn. Sure, they don’t get to be a player, but the BBEG they create using all those pent up background story ideas is probably going to be awesome. It will be someone that can torment and infuriate the party on their journey from level 1 to 20. I’ve played with many a great DM that plays the BBEG almost as if it was their own character, and to me, that’s awesome, because that’s exactly what they are!

Think about Strahd for a moment. What made Strahd one of the greatest villains ever in D&D was his depth as an NPC and the story that went along with him. This allowed the DM to play him as they would a character, with strong emotions and feelings to go along with his desire to kill you. DM’s are provided with this tragic love story background, providing them with a source to draw upon the emotions need to play him. It is because we are provided with so much background that you could play a Strahd campaign with a dozen DMs and get a dozen interpretations of how he should be played. One person may think that his backstory will make him into a purely evil villain, looking to inflict pain on everyone that he crosses path with. Another may see this as an opportunity to have Strahd still struggle with the pain of loss and questioning the party on how to cope with such emotions, even after all these years. Once again, both translations of the Sthrad character are right, and neither is wrong.

Strahd is an NPC with a backstory to assist the DM in how to play him. Your character provides a backstory to see where his/her adventures will lead them. What we learn about ourselves and our characters influences who we are and where we go. You must leave room for this and not try to solve the question of “Who am I” in the backstory. It’s this slow development of the character throughout the sessions that make our character into someone we care about. There’s no big reveal, moment of epiphany, or shocking secret answered. It’s the daily slog through life, where we change a tiny bit day after day, so that a year down the road, we are somehow different than the person we were without even realizing it. It’s like your children. You see them every day and don’t notice the changes they are going through. But then the grandparents visit for the holidays and the first thing they say is “look how tall you’ve gotten!”They have grown, maybe a lot, but daily life blinds you to these gradual changes. You have to leave space in your story to be able to grow, because growth in D&D is so much more than just gaining levels and learning new spells.

Think about some of the most simple of background hooks you’ve seen over the years - I’m a disappointment to my parents and want to prove myself; I want to make my own fame and fortune; I’ve escaped slavery and will make those who held me pay, and so on and so forth. All of these statements are leading you towards something. Sure, they may be simple and boring, but simple and boring can turn into a life of excitement and adventure!

In closing, backgrounds are the prologue of your character’s life. Where have I been, what’s happened to me. Where am I going and what I’m going to do about it? Once you’ve written that, it’s time to start writing the book itself.