What is the worst roleplaying / backstory you have ever seen?


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Are asploded weenies made in microwave ovens?


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DungeonmasterCal wrote:
Are asploded weenies made in microwave ovens?

Either I'm way too tired, or this borderlines non-foodstuffs.

Either way, I've been reminded of The Reanimator... third film I think, with him in prison.. Disturbing, hilarious, and over all, unforgettable.


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Pippi wrote:


"A meteorite smashes into the Underdark, and within the debris the Drow investigators find a baby- my character. The dark elves would have normally killed such an aberration on sight, but instead they decided to sacrifice him to the local dragon, in an attempt to appease his anger. They left him at the entrance to the red wyrm's lair, but instead of eating the baby, the dragon took him to a nest, filled with the monster's clutch.

Superman landed in the Underdark?


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Liranys wrote:
Paul Bunyan landed in the Underdark?

FIFY


Mark Hoover wrote:
Taliesin Hoyle wrote:

"My character is a beautiful blonde with big t$%#.

.
.
.She's a lesbian."
How appropriate that your avatar is a hand.

In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes or speech marks or as quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name.


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This one guy I GMed for refused to give his character a backstory. His justification was "He has amnesia!".

Silver Crusade

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Splode wrote:
This one guy I GMed for refused to give his character a backstory. His justification was "He has amnesia!".

Yeah, the character might have amnesia, but the player doesn't! The character existed and things happened to him even if he can't remember what they were. The DM wants to know.

If the player refused to say, then I'd do it for him. He shouldn't be surprised if he's soon arrested for a murder he did commit!

After the execution, you can roll up a new character. Do you want me to make his background too?


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Amnesiac characters in any of my games are only allowed with the express rule that the player doesn't get to pick their backstory.

I do.

End of discussion.

I only ever have to do this once for any group before they realize that it's much less hassle on them, and with far fewer horrible bits of nastiness coming to get them in the dark, if they actually write a background.

Evil, EVIL laugh


I tend to keep my character backgrounds pretty simple. Of course, I do like giving my DM (who I trust not to totally screw my character over) some leeway so he can stick something in my background that could be useful, etc to his campaign, because that just makes things more interesting.


Malachi Silverclaw wrote:
Splode wrote:
This one guy I GMed for refused to give his character a backstory. His justification was "He has amnesia!".

Yeah, the character might have amnesia, but the player doesn't! The character existed and things happened to him even if he can't remember what they were. The DM wants to know.

If the player refused to say, then I'd do it for him. He shouldn't be surprised if he's soon arrested for a murder he did commit!

After the execution, you can roll up a new character. Do you want me to make his background too?

I did this, basically. I created a backstory for his character and his past came back for him partway through the campaign.

He didn't like that. He immediately coup-de-grace'd himself with a dagger and asked to roll a new character.

I don't think he liked the GM having any power whatsoever with regards to his character's trajectory and development. We talked about it later, it turned out he had a massive amount of backstory in mind but had kept it to himself for reasons he didn't specify.

I didn't GM for that group for much longer after that.

Silver Crusade

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I'm totally for the player having control of his own PC: it's all players have. : )

But keeping that fully-detailed background knowledge from the DM who's weaving the story around the PCs is almost as disrespectful as not bothering to go to the effort of creating a background at all.


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Kydeem de'Morcaine wrote:
Necromancer wrote:
I've seen so many Drizzt, Legolas, and Gandalf clones, I would be entirely justified in just randomly weeping. Some players handle it well and roleplay their ripoff to the hilt, but even then it just reeks of LOLJUSTSAWTWOTOWERSANDIMABADASSNAO+5BOWPLZ!!!!!1111!!...
I had a player that always wants to play Drizzt's cousin, nephew, brother, uncle, etc... Of course he never actually wants to deal with the problems of being a drow. Never hides what he looks like - but they should like me cause I've got a 12 charisma. Get's upset if there is any drow assault trying to take him back. He actually said once, "But after Drizzt everyone should know they can be good and the matrons would stop trying to get back the runaways."

I now kinda want to play a Drizzt "clone".... just an average competent drow fighter who would prefer to mind his own business and maybe move out from his mom's place, except he is constantly being mistaken for that miracle-worker liberator drow and harassed/hounded for words of wisdom and feats of daring-do. Is it too on the nose if I name him Breye'n Doe'Eyeden? :D


I once had a Drow bard with a wisdom score of 7... That was amusing...


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Malachi Silverclaw wrote:

I'm totally for the player having control of his own PC: it's all players have. : )

But keeping that fully-detailed background knowledge from the DM who's weaving the story around the PCs is almost as disrespectful as not bothering to go to the effort of creating a background at all.

They have direct control over the character, yes, but they don't have control over what happens to the character. The whole thing just seemed like a control issue to me.

Silver Crusade

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Splode wrote:
Malachi Silverclaw wrote:

I'm totally for the player having control of his own PC: it's all players have. : )

But keeping that fully-detailed background knowledge from the DM who's weaving the story around the PCs is almost as disrespectful as not bothering to go to the effort of creating a background at all.

They have direct control over the character, yes, but they don't have control over what happens to the character. The whole thing just seemed like a control issue to me.

His mistake is treating the DM as an enemy, and assuming that the DM will do evil things to him out of sheer badness.

As opposed to doing them for story purposes. : )


Malachi Silverclaw wrote:
Splode wrote:
Malachi Silverclaw wrote:

I'm totally for the player having control of his own PC: it's all players have. : )

But keeping that fully-detailed background knowledge from the DM who's weaving the story around the PCs is almost as disrespectful as not bothering to go to the effort of creating a background at all.

They have direct control over the character, yes, but they don't have control over what happens to the character. The whole thing just seemed like a control issue to me.

His mistake is treating the DM as an enemy, and assuming that the DM will do evil things to him out of sheer badness.

As opposed to doing them for story purposes. : )

In all fairness, there are GM's that do this. For a long while all of my PC's were orphans, the only survivor of X, and/or hated everyone they had ever been close to before joining the party. Because I learned any positive, friendly, likable, or enjoyable contact mentioned would be used to hammer my character. Usually through unbeatable blackmail which would of course be betrayed even if you paid off the blackmailer (if you didn't it you probably had an alignment shift toward evil).

Silver Crusade

Some DMs are bad for doing that. I have a DM that rolls 1d100 everytime you mention a family member; on a 01 that member died. The party have lost two loved ones so far (he wasn't joking), so the effect of that is to ensure we stop referring to our backgrounds in any way.

This DM isn't interested in weaving our story, only in weaving his story.


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The name of the character and the back story were exactly the same....

"Lothar of the Hill People"


KenderKin wrote:

The name of the character and the back story were exactly the same....

"Lothar of the Hill People"

Wow, what a detailed back story...


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Personally, I don't know many settings well enough to come up with a backstory that'll be easy to fit into the setting - and if it's a homebrew world, I won't know it at all. So I generally find it easier to come up with very broad strokes, and fill in details later.

Then my current GM dropped a five-page questionnaire of backstory & personality questions on me. Sheesh! So much filling-in I had to do... but it did give me some ideas to use later. Him too, I suspect...

Anyway, terrible backstory stories. I'm happy to say that this one isn't mine, and I never played with it:

soylent wrote:


Okay, this comes up once or twice a year on the pen-and-paper roleplaying websites I frequent. The topic of "What's the worst character concept you've ever seen?" is a well-loved one, ripe with humor potential. And I always submit the same contribution. The Invincible Hammer Wheel.

...

My "Worst Character Concept Ever", submitted to me by a prospective player in a Champions game was going to run (but never got off the ground):

The Superlative (Invincible, Indestructible, etc.) Hammer-Wheel.

The Invincible Hammer-Wheel's power is that he has hammers for hands and wheels for feet. Or it could have been wheels for hands and hammers for feet. The player himself wasn't sure, but my mental picture of the character is a man with monster-truck wheels plugged into where is arms should be, who drives up to villains and kicks them with his sledgehammer feet.

Here's basically how the conversation went:

Player: I hear you're running a superhero game. Can I play?
Me: Sure. Do you have a character concept in mind?
Player: The Invincible Hammer-Wheel!
Me: Uh... (keep in mind this was to be a "serious" supers game)
Player: He has hammers for hands and wheels for feet! Or, wheels for hands and hammers for feet. I haven't decided.
Me: And how did he come by these "powers?"
Player: He was born that way.
Me: Must have been rough on his folks...
Player: He was raised by farm implements.
Me: ...and his motivation for doing good?
Player: He lives in the woods.

So whenever people bring up their "worst concept" horror-stories, all I have to say is;

"The Invincible Hammer-Wheel.
He has wheels for hands and hammers for feet.
He was born that way.
He was raised by farm implements.
He lives in the woods."


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To quote, "I guess that's just how he rolls".


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"I'm going to be a sun-elf, because they're, like, immortal sun-guys, and I'll be a cleric because they're the most powerful class."


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Fortunately, this one never happened to me. Over heard it while gaming at my FLGS.

So, the player was apparently one of those "Crusader Activist" types.. So this guy waltzes up to the game with a fairly decent character. A Mwangi Nature Shaman (during the playtest).

The back story? I can't recall the whole thing, but it was something to the effect of: "Imprisoned for two decades in taldor, he spent much of it in meditation. He became one with nature during this time, as the spirits have come to detest the way his nature peoples were being treated. Serving his time, he campaigned and adventured for Mwangi Rights in Taldor."

The reason he was jailed for two decades?... Jaywalking...

Nobody could ever figure out if that was a serious character, or a parody....


Artemis Moonstar wrote:
Nobody could ever figure out if that was a serious character, or a parody....

Perhaps he takes all of his parodies seriously?


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Artemis Moonstar wrote:
The reason he was jailed for two decades?... Jaywalking...

Such is life in Taldor.


If he had also done something to piss off someone in power, I could see a sentence for a minor crime being trumped up and extended. Taldor isn't exactly known for rule of law, I don't think.


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I read the 'your family dies on a 01' as needing to create a genealogist? Hey, you we are like 22nd cousins! Oh yeah, the king is my 30th cousin. Yep, no that I get much out of it, related via a someone that was the ancestor of the person that ascended to Kingship.

Just keep mentioning that you are related to all your opponents "Hey, yeah that Bandit leader is like my third cousin thrice removed!"


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David Neilson wrote:

I read the 'your family dies on a 01' as needing to create a genealogist? Hey, you we are like 22nd cousins! Oh yeah, the king is my 30th cousin. Yep, no that I get much out of it, related via a someone that was the ancestor of the person that ascended to Kingship.

Just keep mentioning that you are related to all your opponents "Hey, yeah that Bandit leader is like my third cousin thrice removed!"

You sir, have just given me a wonderful character idea. A human who's family is so diverse (and randy), that practically every big bad, or even small bad, every high level power player, every person of importance, is in some way related to him. Not that he gets anything out of it, they'd usually be like his 35th cousin thrice removed by marriage, or something, but the point still stands, lol.

Alternatively, I'll just play a Kitsune Rogue with that talent that gives them a major bonus on convincing someone they already know you.


Splode wrote:
This one guy I GMed for refused to give his character a backstory. His justification was "He has amnesia!".

I once wrote up a character who had no backstory. She had amnesia because she had so much exposure to the Fey that she became too mutable to have a concrete identity. She even has a Barbarian archetype that gave her the ability to gain different abilities by switching faces. Whenever somebody asks her about her past, she just makes something up on the spot, and seems to honestly believe it, despite telling a different story each time. Nobody understands her motives or ways of thinking, least of all her. Her whims and instincts, which she obeys unquestioningly, fall into Chaotic Good territory, so she isn't overly destructive and isn't known to attack people without reason, but she is odd in the low-Charisma sense. I have never written any information about what her backstory actually was before becoming feytouched, because the lack of any sort of explanation of who she is or where she comes from works for the character concept. When the fey are involved, things just are. You can't explain it, and there isn't any logic to it.

See? No-backstory amnesiac characters can be done in a flavorful manner.


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Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert wrote:
Splode wrote:
This one guy I GMed for refused to give his character a backstory. His justification was "He has amnesia!".

I once wrote up a character who had no backstory. She had amnesia because she had so much exposure to the Fey that she became too mutable to have a concrete identity. She even has a Barbarian archetype that gave her the ability to gain different abilities by switching faces. Whenever somebody asks her about her past, she just makes something up on the spot, and seems to honestly believe it, despite telling a different story each time. Nobody understands her motives or ways of thinking, least of all her. Her whims and instincts, which she obeys unquestioningly, fall into Chaotic Good territory, so she isn't overly destructive and isn't known to attack people without reason, but she is odd in the low-Charisma sense. I have never written any information about what her backstory actually was before becoming feytouched, because the lack of any sort of explanation of who she is or where she comes from works for the character concept. When the fey are involved, things just are. You can't explain it, and there isn't any logic to it.

See? No-backstory amnesiac characters can be done in a flavorful manner.

Sounds like someone's been wearing the Mask of Lost Identity!


Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert wrote:


Whenever somebody asks her about her past, she just makes something up on the spot, and seems to honestly believe it, despite telling a different story each time. Nobody understands her motives or ways of thinking, least of all her. Her whims and instincts, which she obeys unquestioningly, fall into Chaotic Good territory, so she isn't overly destructive and isn't known to attack people without reason, but she is odd in the low-Charisma sense. I have never written any information about what her backstory actually was before becoming feytouched, because the lack of any sort of explanation of who she is or where she comes from works for the character concept. When the fey are involved, things just are. You can't explain it, and there isn't any logic to it.

See? No-backstory amnesiac characters can be done in a flavorful manner.

I have a character who doesn't know her full background. She was orphaned and raised by a hermit in the woods for most of her life. :P It's fun.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

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Once I thought it would be good to meet more nerds like me IRL, as opposed to online. I went to my university's game club on new member's night, and joined a one-shot game.

There were three new people (including myself), and three current members (including the DM). We get off to a standard start, getting a job in a tavern. 4 of us take the hook, but one of the members (who is playing the fighter) decides to stay back and seduce the barkeeper's wife. Okay. 4/5 of us are going on the adventure.

Combat begins, and the other current member is playing a druid. He wildshapes into a big cat, and once he slays his first opponent (out of a large group of enemies), he spends the rest of his turns eating his kill. So we're down to 3 contributing members. Meanwhile the Fighter is found out by the barkeeper, so he kills the tavern owner.

I decided that if that's what the club members thought was good RP, it wasn't where I wanted to be.


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Petty Alchemy wrote:


I decided that if that's what the club members thought was good RP, it wasn't where I wanted to be.

Um, yeah, I'd tend to agree. Our group's don't go in for a) splitting the party and b) killing NPCs unless they attack us first

Why would you abandon the fight to "eat your kill"? Was he evil or neutral or something? I've never heard of a PC Druid doing anything so.. stupid.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

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Liranys wrote:
Petty Alchemy wrote:


I decided that if that's what the club members thought was good RP, it wasn't where I wanted to be.

Um, yeah, I'd tend to agree. Our group's don't go in for a) splitting the party and b) killing NPCs unless they attack us first

Why would you abandon the fight to "eat your kill"? Was he evil or neutral or something? I've never heard of a PC Druid doing anything so.. stupid.

Everyone knows predatory instincts demand you eat your kill on the spot, heedless of other threats.


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Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert wrote:
Splode wrote:
This one guy I GMed for refused to give his character a backstory. His justification was "He has amnesia!".

I once wrote up a character who had no backstory. She had amnesia because she had so much exposure to the Fey that she became too mutable to have a concrete identity. She even has a Barbarian archetype that gave her the ability to gain different abilities by switching faces. Whenever somebody asks her about her past, she just makes something up on the spot, and seems to honestly believe it, despite telling a different story each time. Nobody understands her motives or ways of thinking, least of all her. Her whims and instincts, which she obeys unquestioningly, fall into Chaotic Good territory, so she isn't overly destructive and isn't known to attack people without reason, but she is odd in the low-Charisma sense. I have never written any information about what her backstory actually was before becoming feytouched, because the lack of any sort of explanation of who she is or where she comes from works for the character concept. When the fey are involved, things just are. You can't explain it, and there isn't any logic to it.

See? No-backstory amnesiac characters can be done in a flavorful manner.

I disagree. Your story and the character that Splode mentioned are very different. Just because a character is an amnesiac doesn't mean the player is.

You had a concrete reason for the amnesia that lead to future stories.

"I have amnesia" and nothing else is not backstory in the same way a title alone isn't a story.

Were I GM I'd demand to know what the character did before the amnesia (it's okay if it was peaceful farmhand), how the character got amnesia, what the character is doing to get his memories back, and an idea on how he can subject to my approval. You have to think about your characters a little bit.


Petty Alchemy wrote:
Liranys wrote:
Petty Alchemy wrote:


I decided that if that's what the club members thought was good RP, it wasn't where I wanted to be.

Um, yeah, I'd tend to agree. Our group's don't go in for a) splitting the party and b) killing NPCs unless they attack us first

Why would you abandon the fight to "eat your kill"? Was he evil or neutral or something? I've never heard of a PC Druid doing anything so.. stupid.

Everyone knows predatory instincts demand you eat your kill on the spot, heedless of other threats.

Maybe if you're an ACTUAL animal. But Druid's are able to retain their humanity and their mind while in animal form. A Druid would not fall prey to those animal instincts and if he did, he's not a very good druid...


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Liranys wrote:
Petty Alchemy wrote:
Liranys wrote:
Petty Alchemy wrote:


I decided that if that's what the club members thought was good RP, it wasn't where I wanted to be.

Um, yeah, I'd tend to agree. Our group's don't go in for a) splitting the party and b) killing NPCs unless they attack us first

Why would you abandon the fight to "eat your kill"? Was he evil or neutral or something? I've never heard of a PC Druid doing anything so.. stupid.

Everyone knows predatory instincts demand you eat your kill on the spot, heedless of other threats.
Maybe if you're an ACTUAL animal. But Druid's are able to retain their humanity and their mind while in animal form. A Druid would not fall prey to those animal instincts and if he did, he's not a very good druid...

Pretty sure you missed some sarcasm there. I think Petty Alchemy's comment was more a joking reference to the fact that predators are generally smart enough to not just ignore any threats around them while they eat. Sure, they might eat on the spot, but if there's a bunch of people around trying to kill them (and it's likely that, having killed and began eating someone, that someone's friends are going to be trying to kill them), they're not going to just ignore them and keep eating.


Tinkergoth wrote:


Pretty sure you missed some sarcasm there. I think Petty Alchemy's comment was more a joking reference to the fact that predators are generally smart enough to not just ignore any threats around them while they eat. Sure, they might eat on the spot, but if there's a bunch of people around trying to kill them (and it's likely that, having killed and began eating someone, that someone's friends are going to be trying to kill them), they're not going to just ignore them and keep eating.

Thanks. I tend to be a little bit oblivious to sarcasm in text unless someone puts <insert sarcasm here> in the text. :D


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Liranys wrote:
Tinkergoth wrote:


Pretty sure you missed some sarcasm there. I think Petty Alchemy's comment was more a joking reference to the fact that predators are generally smart enough to not just ignore any threats around them while they eat. Sure, they might eat on the spot, but if there's a bunch of people around trying to kill them (and it's likely that, having killed and began eating someone, that someone's friends are going to be trying to kill them), they're not going to just ignore them and keep eating.

Thanks. I tend to be a little bit oblivious to sarcasm in text unless someone puts <insert sarcasm here> in the text. :D

All good. I also fall victim to Poe's Law sometimes, and with my luck it's usually when I've gone a few days without sleep and am already irritable, snappish and unreasonable... led to a few apologies having to be made in the past, that's for sure. I really should learn to just stay off the messageboards at times like that...


SoulDragon298 wrote:
I personally have not seen much bad roleplaying or bad backstories but I'm interested in reading some funny and horrible backstories and roleplaying moments. So have at it.

Me: Tell me again why you took 2 lvls of fighter one lvl of monk one lvl of cleric, three levels of rogue and a level of ranger?

Player: Uhhh...because my character felt like it?

The cognitive dissonance incurred while trying to accept the theory that any given organization (paladin, monk cleric esp) has a revolving addmittance door is staggering

P.S. "Because he felt like it" was literally the only sentence given for backstory


Luckily I usually manage to avoid anger messages. :)

Back to topic,

So, I'm not sure what kind of race he was, but he was some sort of insect thing and his back story was insane. I only wish I remembered it better. Total min/max going on and it was horrible! Luckily, it died after one session. It did manage to save the rest of the party's lives tho. :P


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Larkos wrote:
Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert wrote:
Splode wrote:
This one guy I GMed for refused to give his character a backstory. His justification was "He has amnesia!".

I once wrote up a character who had no backstory. She had amnesia because she had so much exposure to the Fey that she became too mutable to have a concrete identity. She even has a Barbarian archetype that gave her the ability to gain different abilities by switching faces. Whenever somebody asks her about her past, she just makes something up on the spot, and seems to honestly believe it, despite telling a different story each time. Nobody understands her motives or ways of thinking, least of all her. Her whims and instincts, which she obeys unquestioningly, fall into Chaotic Good territory, so she isn't overly destructive and isn't known to attack people without reason, but she is odd in the low-Charisma sense. I have never written any information about what her backstory actually was before becoming feytouched, because the lack of any sort of explanation of who she is or where she comes from works for the character concept. When the fey are involved, things just are. You can't explain it, and there isn't any logic to it.

See? No-backstory amnesiac characters can be done in a flavorful manner.

I disagree. Your story and the character that Splode mentioned are very different. Just because a character is an amnesiac doesn't mean the player is.

You had a concrete reason for the amnesia that lead to future stories.

"I have amnesia" and nothing else is not backstory in the same way a title alone isn't a story.

Were I GM I'd demand to know what the character did before the amnesia (it's okay if it was peaceful farmhand), how the character got amnesia, what the character is doing to get his memories back, and an idea on how he can subject to my approval. You have to think about your characters a little bit.

I dunno. A shy player who wanted amnesia as his background for one campaign led to one of the most daring twists in my last 3.5 campaign before we switched to Pathfinder. He said "I'm Adam, a paladin of the god of knowledge, and I have amnesia. The first thing I remembered was being at the temple of the god of knowledge with my sword, so I trained to be a paladin." I said, "Alright, in that case I'll figure out why you had amnesia and tie it into the story" and he said "Great!" The party was on the trail of a villainess named Lilith who had caused a Red Tide and killed a lot of people in the starting city, draining energy for a massive psionic ritual. They managed to trace her down to an enormous red crystal pillar in the middle of the sea pulsing with stolen soul energy, and they realized she was summoning Dagon. The party fought her, and she kept using selective attacks to exclude the paladin, making pleas to him like "Why are you fighting me? Let's kill the rest of your team and do the ritual and summon Dagon together." and the players laughed. The shy paladin player said "Wow, she was supposed to be a master manipulator who duped all the sahuagin, but she's terrible at convincing people. No way a paladin would listen to that!" At the end of the fight, everyone except the paladin was KOed (an NPC cleric they brought with them had also died), and the paladin stabbed her through the heart with his special sword he started with (it was also the only weapon in the party that was piercing Lilith's DR 10/good and evil). Since Lilith herself was half demon and half celestial, she was the final sacrifice needed for the ritual to finish, because...the paladin was an epic-level seer cerebromancer (evil due to a twisted intent for good that involved destroying the world and making a new one that was less screwed up) who gave himself amnesia as part of his plan that required a paladin to kill Lilith (who didn't know this particular detail) at just the right spot while the ritual was at the right point. The paladin persona spawned by the amnesia managed to pull off a hail-mary opposed Cha check as he was slipping away forever, and so I told the player he could ask to manifest one calirsentience power of 1st to 9th level, and I would tell him if it was one the other Adam knew. He asked to manifest reality revision to move the unconscious PCs and their boat out of there before Dagon arrived, while shunting his consciousness into their NPC friend who had sold his soul to save the dead NPC cleric, leaving the body alive but mindless and soulless. I knew that was slightly more than a transport travelers, but it was too awesome, so I allowed it.

Well, it was a big risk, since that player was so quiet that it was hard to gauge him usually, so I had no idea what he would think. His response: "That was the best thing ever! I'm going to multiclass into psychic warrior to show Adam's psionic roots."


Rogue Eidolon wrote:


I disagree. Your story and the character that Splode mentioned are very different. Just because a character is an amnesiac doesn't mean the player is.

You had a concrete reason for the amnesia that lead to future stories.

"I have amnesia" and nothing else is not backstory in the same way a title alone isn't a story.

Were I GM I'd demand to know what the character did before the amnesia (it's okay if it was peaceful farmhand), how the character got amnesia, what the character is doing to get his memories back, and an idea on how he can subject to my approval. You have to think about your characters a little

...

That belongs in the Awesome category. :) Great plot twist, I'm impressed.

The whole amnesia thing really depends on the DM and the player's reason for being an amnisiac. The player did give you some detail (He rembered waking up in a temple and training). If you have (or are) really good story teller of a DM, then you can pull off minimal backgrounds. I usually do make minimal backgrounds because our DM is such a good story teller that he usually takes our minimal background and weaves it successfully into his story.

I think the whole reason I tend to do minimal backgrounds is because I'm usually not familiar enough with the world to make a truly detailed background and I like giving my DM fodder to work with :)

Designer

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Liranys wrote:
Rogue Eidolon wrote:


I dunno...

That belongs in the Awesome category. :) Great plot twist, I'm impressed.

The whole amnesia thing really depends on the DM and the player's reason for being an amnisiac. The player did give you some detail (He rembered waking up in a temple and training). If you have (or are) really good story teller of a DM, then you can pull off minimal backgrounds. I usually do make minimal backgrounds because our DM is such a good story teller that he usually takes our minimal background and weaves it successfully into his story.

I think the whole reason I tend to do minimal backgrounds is because I'm usually not familiar enough with the world to make a truly detailed background and I like giving my DM fodder to work with :)

In actuality, I sort of fished for that, and fished for "When you first remember, did you have any paladin gear on you? Like your starting gp worth of gear? Or did you get that later?" and then when he said he had it, I said "Cool. If you like, let's actually say your sword you started with was this weird cool sword that's masterwork and made of an odd hybrid material. Maybe it will help lead you to some answers some day."


Mark Seifter wrote:
In actuality, I sort of fished for that, and fished for "When you first remember, did you have any paladin gear on you? Like your starting gp worth of gear? Or did you get that later?" and then when he said he had it, I said "Cool, I'll actually say your sword you started with was this weird cool sword that's masterwork and made of an odd hybrid material. Maybe it will help lead you to some answers some day."

Ahh, well, you made it work. It sounds like he wasn't good at coming up with ideas, but he turned out to be good at taking one of your ideas and running with it. Some players are like that.

Some are just insane though and give you these twisted backgrounds that are contradictory and don't make much sense and are only there so they can have an excuse to powergame.

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I don't have any stories of bad roleplaying or backstory really. Sure, I've had plenty of players who didn't come up with backstories or do much roleplaying, but I feel that is different from bad roleplaying.


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Way back in the red box era, when Elves were fighter/mages, we had a new player.

Her backstory about seeking revenge and being a well spoken elf, when she told us in great eloquence about her desire for revenge, she capped it with "Let's go squish some guts!"


KenderKin wrote:
"Let's go squish some guts!"

Because that is totally well spoken...

I've never actually played a game with a Kender in it, but I used to know someone who told me some hilarious stories about his Kender and their party.

I've also heard horror stories about parties with Kender in them. I'm guessing it really depends on the person playing it, right?


Liranys wrote:
KenderKin wrote:
"Let's go squish some guts!"

Because that is totally well spoken...

I've never actually played a game with a Kender in it, but I used to know someone who told me some hilarious stories about his Kender and their party.

I've also heard horror stories about parties with Kender in them. I'm guessing it really depends on the person playing it, right?

Yes it does. It also depends on whether the person reading the various descriptions of kender believe that the description "fluff" is rules dictating how a kender is to always behave OR if the fluff was written in a very tounge in cheek style which was never meant to be read by a rules-lawyer.


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Liranys wrote:
KenderKin wrote:
"Let's go squish some guts!"

Because that is totally well spoken...

I've never actually played a game with a Kender in it, but I used to know someone who told me some hilarious stories about his Kender and their party.

I've also heard horror stories about parties with Kender in them. I'm guessing it really depends on the person playing it, right?

Very much so. If you've ever read the books, think about if a co-worker did all that stuff to you. Would you have kept working with him? Probably not. The author of a book can keep them together, but when it is actually separate persons...

If the player realizes that less is more, it can work. Pull pranks only occasionally in ways and at times so it doesn't always risk a death or mission fail and not constantly. Then it can be comedic.

But many players tried to do it all them time, no matter the consequences, picking on one fellow player, and without the authors ranks in humor. It would end up funny for about the first 15 minutes, then I'd be ready to start looking for a new group to play with.

I only saw one player who did it well. Yes, it was hilarious and highly entertaining.

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