|
I have been toying around with a couple character concepts and backstories, with varying levels of creative liberty. My primary idea is a Magus who hails from a small kingdom nestled in some mountain range, where the primary military force is made up of such martial casters. He is adventuring to fulfill a rite to join them. However, the city is greatly divided amongst the nobility and upper crust, and the lower parts of society, and he has great disdain for the common and ignorant. I was thinking my GM might have a problem with all this. My second idea is more conventional, but might be a bit unbelievable: A half-orc Druid (Saurian Shaman) who was born in Deep Tolguth, forged a bond with a young Tyrannosaurus, and both of them fought their way up to the surface together, where the half-orc met more experienced druids who taught him properly and pointed him in the right direction. My third is more common and practical: a cleric of Gorum who fought along troops in various armies.
My point is, how much creative liberty can I take with a character's backstory and the setting before fellow players and GMs get annoyed with me?
I think you really have to talk with the GM to figure out backstory. I know that we have one player who does barely anything for backstory and then we have others that have 2-3 pages of backstory. Of course, the ones who have a lot know that we keep it in line with the current campaign. our Gm is really liberal with our freedom to create whatever kind of backstory we want, he only demands that we keep it simple. As long as it fits with the campaign somehow it is all good.
As for the other players getting annoyed. I can't believe that they would. So you spend some extra time cooking up a good backstory. I don't see the problem.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I see neither chosen of gods, glittering angels, six winged penguins, anthropomorphic skunks, or demon possessed sword wielders.
Yes, these are all legitimate character concepts I have seen submitted to me. Go forth and be pleased with your restraint.
My primary idea is a Magus who hails from a small kingdom nestled in some mountain range, where the primary military force is made up of such martial casters. He is adventuring to fulfill a rite to join them. However, the city is greatly divided amongst the nobility and upper crust, and the lower parts of society, and he has great disdain for the common and ignorant. I was thinking my GM might have a problem with all this.
I would think your DM would appreciate an involved back-story within reason. It shows a good personal investment in the world he/she is running and its always better to have a player run a character they're really into you know? On top of that, the more details you give to the DM, the more details the DM has to play around with later on. It sounds like your magus characters story is ripe for a political hook at some-point, I would totally roll with it.
six winged penguins?????????
six winged half celestial emperor penguin to be exact. Honestly it wasnt submitted to me. It was for a pbp and the choice of paladins between my normal human paladin from lastwall to the herald of a goddess half celestial emperor penguin with six wings.
Needless to say I breathed a sigh of relief when it was rejected.
|
|
I like the first idea, it doesn't sound far-fetched and could fit in many city concepts. Has your GM given any indication for what he expects?
I am currently looking for a group, so I don't have a GM.
To be honest a druid with a dino companion seems less conventional then your Magus idea to me. Any idea what type of setting you are looking at? Are you doing an AP or some type of homebrew?
I'm looking at any games set in Golarion. I was looking around at the Pathfinder Wiki and I stumbled upon Deep Tolguth, which has dinos and primitive orcs/humans, perfect for my character concept. Plus, the Saurian Shaman archetype requires a dinosaur companion. Also, rules for a Deinonychus companion is given in the Druid profile.
All those seem fine to me. As a dm I would be pleased that you have provided me with potential hooks and motivations for your character. You should ofcourse consult with your gm and make sure he is ok with some of the geographical elements being somewhere in his world, but it seems to me they can easily be placed outside of the path of the campaign if its actually an issue at all.
Frankly all your stories sound fine but the only real answer that matters is between you and your GM. Every group has it's own feel and I have found that the best way to make backgrounds is in concert with your ref.
Leave some gaps in your story that YOU don't know about and let the ref fill these in for story hooks and plot. I am sure that if your ref is decent you will have no issue with getting a background you can both enjoy.
My point is, how much creative liberty can I take with a character's backstory and the setting before fellow players and GMs get annoyed with me?
So long as your DM does not have a problem with your character choice, and your backstory isn't being used as an excuse to confer added advantages to yourself, all of the above would be fine by me.
The only exception to this is when the DM may have a particular beginning to a game, such as "You all hail from the village of Bad Ath in the Intermittent Mountains ..." Otherwise, there is nothing 'selfish' about any of these. It's just good role-playing.
I have to admit- I'm failing to see the "selfish" part in any of your ideas.
Write them up or pick the one you like the best, pass it to the DM and let him decide if its enough or too much. Myself, I find people make backstories and the DM says "hey that works out great with this idea I had, especially if you changed City X to City Y and made yourself aligned with the house of Zim instead of Zylaphone"..
However long (or short) your backstory is though I doubt many will find it annoying.. heck, most of it won't ever come out in game play though- its just a guide for you to settle into your character. (or at least thats how I've always treated it. not sure "the group" has ever really gotten the whole story about any of my characters backgrounds before)
-S
I also don't get how any of these would be 'selfish'. As long as you aren't trying to use a backstory to gain some kind of benefit beyond what's allowed by the rules, I fail to see a problem.
They aren't really that bad.
The only way I could get a sense that this "might" be selfish, is that you are coming up with character concepts and backstory before you even know what the campaign setting is supposed to be like.
If it's a general campaign with a "you can be from anywhere" type of attitude for character ideas, then they'd be fine.
If they are supposed to take place on the high seas, where it's expected everyone there has some kind of sailing/coastal background to tie people together to the story arc, then these ideas might not fit.
If the GM has a homebrew setting with a completely different set of locations/gods, then a couple of these might be completely off, or might be asking the GM to change his setting to accommodate a whim.
But, that's pretty much why it boils down to a discussion with the GM. If it's standard Golarion, and the GM hasn't outlawed anything, then I'd expect any of those options to be well received.
they both look fairly simple to integrate into or ignore out of any existing campaign.
My point is, how much creative liberty can I take with a character's backstory and the setting before fellow players and GMs get annoyed with me?
I just wrote a 12-page backstory/bio for my character. If the other players have an issue with that, it's usually because they're too lazy to put much thought into their character. I usually play alongside the guy who writes one vague paragraph about his character, and it usually shows on the DM's face which character he prefers to interact with at the table. That being said, some people simply love to write, and some people hate it. If you're the type that loves it, then go for it. If the DM is customizing content to you, I'm sure you will be loved for it.