Fiction Friday: Potential Character Backstories For a TTRPG Game

Playing table-top role-playing games (TTRPGs) are a favorite pastime of mine. I love the collaborative storytelling, the camaraderie, and all the memories that can come from a single session or a longer campaign. As such, when I was asked by a friend to join a game they were running, I said yes. The campaign would be run in Pathfinder 2E in the West Marshes style (ie a game that focuses more on creating a “sandbox” experience for players).

I bring all of this up for Fiction Friday because I took it as an opportunity to draft up some character backstories. Below you will find three different backstories generated using different methods. As a rule, I kept the backstories at a page or shorter (approximately 500 words). Also, all of these characters will share two traits: they recently completed a journey to the setting of the game (the continent of Rend) and they’re level 2 (i.e. low-level adventurers who are likely just starting on their adventuring career). Enjoy!

Character 1: Cambria “Cammie” Collier, Human Thief

Cambria, or “Cammie” to her friends, was born to wealthy mercantile parents. Her education was among the finest in the land, rivaling that available to the aristocracy. Cambria excelled academically, seeing it as a fun challenge to overcome. Her parents also supported this, at first, because they saw it as a way to improve her potential for marriage. Problems started to emerge during finishing school, however.

Everything Cambria embodied during her academic education was rejected during her finishing. Her wit, her athleticism, and brash nature were all actively punished; in the eyes of her teachers, she was expected to be a demure, quiet woman who saw to the needs of her suitors and little else. In the end, Cambria only graduated by way of a sizable donation from her parents.

After “completing” finishing school, Cambria’s parents went on the marriage warpath. They were determined to see a return on investment on Cambria, as marrying into the “right” family could greatly elevate their social standing. Cambria, for her part, rejected everyone her parents presented to her. She had no interest in being an “executive housemaid,” or taking on any role that required her to subsume her true self beneath a veil of domesticity.

Thievery, though, that got her blood racing. She never wanted for money, but having her own was new and intoxicating. The fact that she could take from everyone who had wronged her over the years made each job all the sweeter. It started with small things: a set of cutlery here, a diamond necklace there. As her skill grew, so did the audacity of her jobs. She wasn’t just riding high, she was developing a reputation. Soon, the “white fox,” was the talk of the town.

After a series of close calls, Cambria developed some rules for herself; no killing was chief among them. A lump on the head was fine, and anything magic could mend was fair game. In her mind, this kept her above the common rabble. In the end, this rule also saved her life. After her ambition outpaced her skill on a particularly difficult job, she was caught, tried, and convicted. Her non-violent approach was all that saved her from the gallows.

The judge offered a choice: years of house arrest, or mandatory service on an exploratory expedition to the continent of Rend. Of course, she jumped at the latter; anything would be better than withering under her parents’ gaze. In a few weeks’ time, she was on a boat to Rend. She developed a new motto on the boat: “a new continent is full of new suckers, marks, and grifts.” If her parents were hoping this trip would “reform” her, Cambria was determined to do the opposite. Though the thought was bittersweet in her mind, she vowed that if she ever returned, she would be the greatest thief they’d ever known. Of course, this meant she’d never be caught again.

Author’s Note: this character wasn’t created with any particular method or framework. Instead, I just wrote what was kicking around in my head. This character could be used to examine individual desires versus parental or societal expectations. I also considered an alternate version of the story where Cambria is only caught by her parents (and not the law). Instead of being sent to Rend as punishment, she is exiled there by her parents under the guise of a missionary trip. If this was done to save face (or potentially as a means to raise their own social standing by way of their daughter’s piety), this character could also be used to explore the role of religion and status in the character’s life.

Character 2: August “Lucky” St. Clair (Human Sorcerer, Imperial Bloodline)

August “Lucky” St. Clair was born to noble parents, and spent their childhood in the lap of luxury. They were happy to continue coasting, until they unintentionally cast a spectral hand in front of a servant, using it to grab a cold drink. The servant, in turn, promptly reported the incident to the lord of the house.

Lucky wanted to brush it off as a fluke; Lord St. Clair had other ideas, however. He insisted that Lucky learn to “control their powers” at a wizarding academy. (In truth, Lord St. Clair also saw the utility of having a wizard in the family.) Lucky was enrolled soon after, their matriculation made easier by their family name. Aside from their tremendous wealth, the St. Clairs produced some of the most powerful wizards of their era in times past (approximately two centuries ago).

With just a hint of training, certain magic was effortless for Lucky. The academics, however, weren’t. They struggled in most classes, teetering on the edge of expulsion. Only three things kept them around: their family legacy, Lucky’s innate magical abilities, and a large donation or two directly from Lord St. Clair.

Eventually, the administration received enough complaints from burnt out teachers that they took action. The high mages of the school decided Lucky was to be assigned to “self-study.” During this time, he would be tasked with developing his skills in real-world scenarios. To complete this portion of his training, he simply needed to travel to Rend and obtain a magic item for study at the institution, the more powerful the better.

The problem, however, was that the continent was mostly unexplored; it was unclear if it even had anything worth discovering. Lord St. Clair initially rejected this suggestion, calling it unorthodox or even dangerous. Lucky chimed in before the high mages were given the chance to explain; they were determined to go and considered it a chance to live up to their family name. Lucky was sure this would impress their peers, too, which didn’t hurt. Eventually, Lord St. Clair relented. Though they may have only had limited training, Lucky is ready to take the continent by storm.

Author’s note: this character was created using Pointy Hat’s character creation method. In it, he suggests using a gimmick (aka something the character can be immediately recognized for and that can be used as a fallback when it’s unclear what the character would do), a conflict (the main issue a character is facing), and a want (aka the character’s deepest desire at the start of the story). In Lucky’s case: they’re a bit thick (gimmick), they are going to be expelled from wizard school unless they complete a seemingly impossible task (conflict), and they want to live up to their family name and make friends (want). This character could be used to explore the weight of legacy and expectations. This character may also be fun if you want to play someone who’s a bit more dense without falling head-first into the typical “barbarian” archetypes “intelligence” (or lack thereof).

Character 3: Marvin “Marv” MacDonald (Human, Alchemist – Bomber)

Marv was born to subsistence farmers in the flatlands of Argolis. Marv grew to be tall and stocky, never really bulking up like his brothers. What he lacked in physical strength, however, he made up for in intelligence. If a machine broke, Marv was the one who fixed it. If they needed a new way to harvest crops, Marv invented it. If there was ever a way to make his family’s life easier, he would pursue it.

This led to the invention of the Cropinator 5000, a wondrous machine that sped up the harvesting of crops up five-fold. Marv, seeing the good this invention could do for the people of Argolis, decided to try and sell it. He knew fellow share-croppers wouldn’t have the funding, so he appealed to the Council of Five for funding. They summarily dismissed Marv, calling his work, “a neat diversion,” but little else. With no other prospects, Marv was growing desperate. He tinkered with the Cropinator for days, drawing every last ounce of power he could out of it. Eventually, when it could handle the stress no more, it exploded.

This set-back was Marv’s “ah-ha” moment. He realized that the combustion at the heart of the Cropinator could be harnessed in a more offensive capacity. He believed, in his heart of hearts, that this design would appeal to the Council, especially with the threat of war always brewing in the south of the province.

Marv would need time to iterate on the design, however, and resources to further develop it. He figured a trip to Rend would offer both of those things in spades. A new continent was sure to be awash in new opportunity, after all. He would miss his family dearly, but this experience had shown him he was not meant to spend his life on a farm. Besides, wouldn’t his family be better served by a son with wealth and fame on his side?

Author’s note: this final backstory was created using DM Lair’s character backstory template. This template is much more directed than Pointy Hat’s. It asks about everything from the character’s parents and upbringing to their greatest strengths and weaknesses. With that said, it is still a relatively short document at around 4 pages (2 if you only count the questions themselves). Personally, I prefer a more open-ended approach, but I see no reason why this method couldn’t be used as a supplement. Beyond that, this character could be a fun way to explore the cost of ambition and how far a character is willing to go to achieve their dreams. It also has a bit of “mad scientist” flair, which is always fun.