6 Questions to Help You Create a Backstory for Your D&D Character

Everyone wants their character to be special, and creating a backstory for them is a crucial part of any Dungeons and Dragons campaign. A fleshed-out character background can take your table-top RPG experience from blah to breath-taking.

Let’s get your character ready to roll with 6 questions to help craft them into a character that’s fun to play and easy to integrate into adventures.

Firstly, why does your character need a backstory?

Creating a compelling character backstory will not only get you excited about your character and provide cues to roleplay them, but it will also give the DM tools to deepen the campaign in a way that further develops your character and involvement.

It will also provide you with a thorough understanding of how their alignment and motivation will influence their decisions, whilst dictating their bonds, ideals, flaws and personality traits. A deeper backstory featuring identified ties to places, people and things will unearth a stronger connection to the world that the DM is always striving to immerse you, the player, in.

Which questions should you ask yourself to help build a backstory?

Before we run through 6 useful questions, it’s important to note that you should speak to your Dungeon Master about the creation of your backstory, too. They may be able to help you take that backstory one step further into the lore of the campaign, and they may also be able to use these prompts when creating a larger-role NPC, too!

(Channel your inner Critical Role and High Rollers influence!)

Remember, you’re not writing a biography of your character, you’re describing their origins and establishing the theme of that character.

1. How old is your character? Too young to remember the days ‘before’, or older and wiser to the world’s quirks? Perhaps they don’t even know their true age?
2. Where was your character born? Where were you raised? By who? Your character’s actions and influence may be a product of their childhood. Is your character local? Do these places bring back memories? Or, is the path they walk not from these parts?
3. What is your character’s moral code? Are they a natural do-gooder? Or, does their sense of warped morality come from a sordid background? A character’s alignment will heavily influence their actions, be sure to outline why they arrived at their moral code.
4. Does your character have any personality quirks? Do you get hiccups every time something surprises you? Or, do you have compulsively share ‘fun facts’ about everything, that are usually wrong? Personality quirks brings a character to life.
5. Is there anything that your character fears? Hero, champion or winner. We all have fears! Knowing your character’s fears will influence how they navigate through their quests.
6. How does your character view their role as an adventurer? A means to an end or something they does proudly?Thinking about how your character functions in a group is an important aspect of role-playing.

Each character is unique and creating an interesting backstory not only indulges your imagination but also influences how your character will interact with other members of your party.

To kit your character out for their debut, explore our Sovereign range, featuring all the tools every adventurer needs for the perfect Dungeon and Dragons session. Pack up your dice, take out your mini and set out on your journey!

Do you have a memorable experience with crafting your character backstory? We’d love to hear all about it! Share it over on our Facebook Page.