Those Who Play Games

Flag

Cakenbacon

Channel: dungeons-n-drags

(See more...)

random

Favorite Comment

✖ Prev Top Next Comment

(Enlarge)

Like puppets.

MI File: HIE, 469x480, knightsend, jpg)
So, you pledge yourselfes an evil god, and it grants you great power?"
No, not exactly. Theme not gods, theme something else. The Archmages call them the Those Who Play Games. And what they give you is, basically, the ability to gain power from death."
Right, I got that part. Creepy. Like, you chop up some wolves, or kill a bandit, and you get stronger?"
Stronger. Tougher. More skilled at everything. The more you kill, the more powerful you get. And it happens FAST. I mean, you could stay a guard, keeptrolling every morning, maybe in a dozen years you' ll have mastered that
Clem/ trick Captain Talbot knows. C) ryou could give yourselfes one ofthe Players, go out one night, show upthe next morning covered in blood and able to beat Captain Talbot into the ground with one hand."
why didn' t you take the offer? I mean, it sounds bad, but there are so many monsters and cruel people out there, you mouldiest hunt them, use your strength to help people-"
Ifly sister."
You wanted to staite protect her? But ifyou were stronger-"
HI wanted herto stay alive. The Chosen, the Playeed-. every one ofthem I found out about, their past was in ruins. Hometowns burned down by monsters, family dead or kidnapped returned evil."
Yeahh"
So, you could have been a hero, flying carpets and fights with demon princes and saving the world. But you decided to stay here. Straw mattress and armoranth one keeps breaking and morning training with me."
now maybe the town gets wrecked and my taken and I don' t have the strength to do anything about it. I asked, but no one knows what happens to people who say no."
Yeahh"
what are you going to do?"
Morning training. Everyday. Until I learn that cleave."
need a sparring partner?"
Yeahh"

...

+522

Views:	30623
Favorited:	67
Submitted:	01/04/2016

Share On Facebook

+Favorite Subscribe to Cakenbacon Subscribe to dungeons-n-drags

Comments(54):

Leave a comment Refresh Comments Show GIFs

Anonymous comments allowed.

54 comments displayed.

+96

#1 - peliaosfiendline (01/04/2016) [-]

see, that's why I try to avoid "my family is dead" if I can avoid it. If the character is an isolated loner, sure, their family might be dead, but for the most part I try to have some family still alive.

Honestly, to make your backstory otherwise is to be responsible for more npc deaths than most the things you fight.

#17 to #1 - Tusura (01/04/2016) [-]

I always liked the runaway orphan backstory.
No -supposed- family, and it opens up the "finding your true family" story line possibility.

#18 to #17 - peliaosfiendline (01/04/2016) [-]

I tried that once... the campaign didn't get far but the DM told me about a month after the group had disbanded that he had planned on going all "I am your father" on me with the BBEG's right hand man.

#21 to #1 - lolgonewrong (01/04/2016) [-]

Everyone chooses "family is dead" becuase no one wants to get ****** in the ass later when the BBEG decides to kidnap one of the party members family

#43 to #21 - peliaosfiendline (01/05/2016) [-]

and if your DM pulls that, it shows they're not that good of a DM.

#23 to #1 - brobyddark (01/04/2016) [-]

Personally, I don't believe in large, abnormal backstories where everything goes wrong for the character, or they go on some grand adventure. You have to save all that stuff for the real story, or else you'll severely lack in character development. My characters all start out relatively the same: They were born, grew up, left to go adventure, never turned back.

#27 to #1 - yournewestgod (01/04/2016) [-]

I made the mistake once of playing a nomad once, DM had me roll up how many family members I had, lets just say it was way too many, and every single one of them ended up kidnapped or tortured or eaten with my group having to rescue all of them.

#40 to #1 - therockofshame ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

My first character just kind of said " **** it I'm going adventuring." and then left his little hamlet in search of adventure.

#45 to #1 - reaperriley ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

My issue with the whole "my family is dead" and "isolated loner" is how generic they are. The "my family is dead" doenst really help much for narrative and if it does its such a cliche that its boring. And the "isolated loner" is a easy way to **** yourself RP wise or make newer players turn into a THAT GUY.

#46 to #45 - peliaosfiendline (01/05/2016) [-]

this is vary true, though when I said Isolated loner before I meant along the lines of as an example "Ranger who has lived in the wilds all his life, and never developed "proper" social skills so tends to come off as cold and distant"

#47 to #46 - reaperriley ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

my opinion is that you can only really get away with one of those characters is if no one else even tries to also do it. Ive seen/read about many parties dying out because they refused to socially interact/join up with the group due to that background. And no matter how hard the DM tried, nothing could be fixed.

#50 to #47 - peliaosfiendline (01/05/2016) [-]

that's more a problem of diversity, or rather, lack-there-of. honestly, a party of a bunch of the same character just with different classes and names sounds dull as hell.

#52 to #50 - reaperriley ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

Maybe its because I play with a metric **** ton of new players since most of the experienced pen and paper players out where I live tend to play with are kind of like the neckbeard version of douche. So we cycle through alot of new players trying to fill the void, which results in lots of instances of THAT GUY, RPing themselves into a wall, leaving mid campaign due to no longer liking pen and paper, etc.

#53 to #52 - peliaosfiendline (01/05/2016) [-]

#3 to #1 - dwarfboy (01/04/2016) [-]

"Family is dead" is overused, but it's reliable.

Used it for my first character before I knew any better, and started expanding more and more on his past.

#32 to #3 - drtrousersnake ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

My first dnd character was an half-orc barbarian called Drolyag Stonepuncher, the once halfling. It basically was about how the stonepuncher clan was a nomadic halfling mercenary clan, and 8 year old Drolyag was the eldest son of the chief. After becoming fairly well known, the clan decided to build a village in the sticks. They were offered a job to capture some beast by some witches and were paid in cursed amulets that strangled them when activated and all but Drolyag and his younger brother Toggaf were killed. Toggaf was hidden by Drolyag but Drolyag was forced into the witch's gladiator ring. A years of fighting, the elder witch decided to further torment Drolyag with the forced Reincarnation hex. Drolyag was killed and reborn as a Half-Orc and was able to catch the witch off guard, snap her neck and make his escape.

#49 to #32 - dwarfboy (01/05/2016) [-]

Oh, are we trading stories? Goodie!

My first character was a tiefling monk named Viadd Syreb (Anagram of my first and last name) At first he was just some asshole with a dead mom who lived in the most god-forsaken place in the entire map with other assholes. After a little while, I expanded on his past, with the traditional 'tiefling outcast' story with an elven mother. Eventually, angry villagers pitchforked her, and the demon tyke had to drag her away to bury her. Unfortunately he came upon a place literally FILLED with negative energy (The god-forsaken place I mentioned earlier) and so she resurrected as a ghoul and I had to put the bitch down before burying her.

#34 to #32 - anon (01/05/2016) [-]

Clever naming.

#35 to #34 - drtrousersnake ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

yeah, stonepuncher is a pretty cool name for a barbarian clan

#10 to #1 - spacekraken (01/04/2016) [-]

What about murdering my own wife and children while entranced by the will of "the one true god" that may or may not just be insanity depending on if the DM wants to work what the next spoiler contains into the plot

This is a background story I've had in my mind for a long while for a nordic human berserker guy who spills blood in the name of the one true with the ultimate goal of restoring the one true to full strength, so that the false gods can be cast down from the heavens and the devil lord of the underworld restored to his former self as the holy gatekeeper and returning all evil entities to the underworld where they belong. And thus restoring the world to before the high preists put the one true to sleep and took the role of gods for themselves, after which the holy gatekeeper was consumed by revenge and started to open the gates of the underworld to enact revenge upon the false gods, and in the process being corrupted by evil.

#11 to #10 - peliaosfiendline (01/04/2016) [-]

... that's still you being responsible for more NPC deaths than most of the things you're going to fight...

#20 to #11 - spacekraken (01/04/2016) [-]

Well with most of "my family is dead" backgrounds I'd assume that the player character set out to kill whatever killed their family to avenge them or leave their home because there's nothing left anyways or something in that direction, but to have killed them yourself, and denying that fact. Because what monster would kill their own beloved wife and daughter?

And I found that that would make an interesting character is all, and I kinda wanted to share the idea with someone. Someone that might bring it to the playing field or whatever you wanna call it.

Other concepts I've had include:

A half-orc who grew up at a chapel, because his mother didn't have the (emotional) strength to smash him against a tree.

And the spirit of an ancient warrior tied to his armour, which is being tracked down piece-by-piece by a paladin who during training spent more time reading than training his swordsmanship. So it's kinda two characters at once and I don't even know if this kinda stuff is allowed.

And another one more suited for a sci-fi setting. A man who was a doctor (family fully alive), who after a tragic surgical accident was no longer accepted at home, so he joined up with a band of mercs who shortly after accepted payment from a suicide mission that he survived, so he has some combat experience and a gun, but he'll need some dutch courage to get through a battle without ******** himself or whatever.

#44 to #20 - peliaosfiendline (01/05/2016) [-]

fair enough, and with the elaboration you added I can certainly see the appeal.

#15 to #1 - GShock ONLINE (01/04/2016) [-]

My last Pathfinder dude is just a fighter with a big sword from a small town. He has parents and a sister that are still alive (for now), and was raised to use his natural gift for combat to fight evil.

I later made a half-ork female bard who soon became besties with the party's rogue, serving as a nice distraction as the rogue pick-pocketed their targets. She was picked up as a an orphaned by a roving troupe of bards who sang songs of battle and the forces of darkness. She's basically a good looking half-ork who's themed as a Heavy Metal musician.

#19 to #1 - mychaelmoar (01/04/2016) [-]

Technically, my character's family is alive and kicking - and I say technically, because he is a noble and all of the courtiers and kin back home among the royalty are doing fine, but the same can't be said for my character's brother, who was played by my irl brother as well.

We rolled them together with all of our friends for our first campaign, and everything went well as the fighter/paladin tank brothers who defended the group.
However, during one week when I was late to join them - I had to play over skype because I was away during my last semester of college - they fell into an encounter with a vampire lord. They forgot, or perhaps purposefully denied, allowing me to join, which might have allowed me to ride in on the war horse I had acquired the last session, but because I wasn't there, my brother soaked all that damage alone instead of us trading it together.
Though the vampire lord was defeated, my brother's character - among two others - didn't make it through. As my character believes that nothing is more important than family - because they are the only ones he feels that he can truly trust in this world - he has been wracked with grief since. Because my portion of the family crest has a dragon, one of my character's life-goals is to tame a dragon - no matter how futile this is - in order to both honor his brother and prove that he has/had the strength to save him by conquering something insurmountable.

#29 to #1 - anon (01/04/2016) [-]

Become a 32yr Male. Left home at a younger age to make his world but left on bad terms. After a falling out with the parents and mother having died from fever. Father had drank himself into a useless cunt while the other siblings were running the family store to make money for bread. Everyone once and a while I go to see the siblings but still can't stand the sight of me pa'h. Every time I go I give some of my hard earned coin from being a traveling merchant.

Hows that sound for a rough draft of a back ground.

#16 to #1 - JustintheWaysian ONLINE (01/04/2016) [-]

My character's family backstory is that he had surrogate parents, and his genetic parents died in a government-work-related catastrophe.

His genetic parents were such workaholics after having 2 kids, when they found out they were going to have a 3rd child, they said ' **** it, we need to get this work done for the sake of the nation'.

So they had a magical operation performed to give the embryo/fetus (w/e it is, at that stage) to a close married couple who have been struggling to have child. And this surrogate mother has draconic blood.

My character then has draconic blood from his surrogate mother, and in time, finds out about his genetic family and how he is different from his genetic siblings, since they don't have draconic blood. This also compels him on a journey to investigate the catastrophe that his genetic parents died in and to find out why they "gave" him away.

But he learns that family is about those who love and care for you, and not those tied to you through blood.

#6 to #1 - Nihatclodra ONLINE (01/04/2016) [-]

I have never played a "family is dead" background for my characters. I HAVE had however:
1) Character is adopted. (Twice)
2) Character is a rebellious teenaged noble.
3) Character got kicks out of his family because they were scared of his magic powers.
And my most recent character:
4) Was adopted by farmers after his birth parents abandoned him for being the ugiest baby they've ever seen (as well as a Demon-Rape concieved Tiefling), eventually got drafted into a militia, but was given no equipment (they expected him to be cannon fodder, so why waste equipment) so he used a Farmer's Scythe as his weapon... eventually he became recognized, and the militia commisioned him an actual battle-scythe... that ended up being Huge-Sized (medium character). He became a symbol of terror on the battlefield (for his ugly face that curdles milk into cheese in seconds, and his 2-character-sizes too big scythe that he uses effortlessly) before his militia serving term was up, and he returned to being a farmer... until weird **** started happening and he decided to investigate.

Needless to say, my current character is my most... thought out one, backstory-wise.

#9 to #6 - peliaosfiendline (01/04/2016) [-]

my hat goes to you sir. I try to avoid Family is dead, but I sadly had used it fairly often with my very first characters

#8 to #6 - fourfangedferret (01/04/2016) [-]

just give him inferno robes. or whatever that robe was in princess bride.

#4 to #1 - kloudianorici ONLINE (01/04/2016) [-]

Yeah, in the most recent campaign I'm playing, I'm a half-orc bloodrager. So mom was a human who got kidnapped by orcs and dad was one who took a liking to her, he claimed her and kept all the other orcs off her. She had my character and a twin brother who is also part of our group as a semi-DMPC. The reason we became adventruers in the first place was to get away from our violent CE dad and get strong enough to come back, kick his and his tribes ass, and get our mom out.

+19

#7 - groundzero (01/04/2016) [-]

I like games....

#36 to #7 - sptnfouroneseven ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

Can't remember his name but familiar. Is he that one crime boss in Witcher 3?

#42 to #36 - urapooper ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

DLC magician guy that is sorta behind the events that are happening in the DLC

#25 to #7 - knightbean ONLINE (01/04/2016) [-]

Just started the quests for this guy. He seems like a massive knob head and I don't like him, but the other guy isn't much better. I really long for a game where you can just give both sides the middle finger and tell them to **** right off after doing all the stuf for them.

#31 to #25 - thematthew ONLINE (01/04/2016) [-]

sooooooo, new vegas?

#48 to #31 - knightbean ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

thanks for the recommendation

#54 to #48 - thematthew ONLINE (01/06/2016) [-]

no problem

+12

#37 - varrlegrimscythe ONLINE (01/05/2016) [-]

100 parries
100 lunges
2 Slain Kobolds
EVERY SINGLE DAY

#5 - supremetaco (01/04/2016) [-]

Reminds me of the manga 'the gamer'
www.mangareader.net/the-gamer

#12 to #5 - thehardstudynot has deleted their comment [-]

#13 to #5 - thehardstudynot (01/04/2016) [-]

just disregard that, i re-read it and changed my mind

#26 - kanbabrif (01/04/2016) [-]

Characters look like they are from Final Fantasy Tactics (War of the Lions)

#39 to #26 - anon (01/05/2016) [-]

They look like the knight (or maybe squire) class models.

#51 to #39 - kanbabrif (01/05/2016) [-]

Game was my **** !

#24 - knightbean ONLINE (01/04/2016) [-]

Personally I've always gone with the angle of "abandoned" or "when adventuring" because I can never bring myself to the orphan thing because I can't imagine seeing your village burned down and your whole family dead. Sure I'd have to go save them perhaps, but still it gives me a morality boost which helps my giant sword warrior builds.

and also I'm pretty sure that if my whole family died irl then I'd be a pretty sad sack most of the time, so I can't really play a character who can get past that so easily.

#28 to #24 - sheepnut (01/04/2016) [-]

that's the challenge of premium roleplay, friend

#30 to #28 - knightbean ONLINE (01/04/2016) [-]

Indeed. And after years of training perhaps one day I'll be there.

#38 - dogziller (01/05/2016) [-]

GIF

i like less vanilla origins, which is why most of mine include more redemption/optimistic origins.

#41 - innocentbabies (01/05/2016) [-]

If he doesn't know what happens to people who say "no" then he should watch more movies. Motivation is the only reason they do those things in the first place.

#33 - iamkagji (01/05/2016) [-]

Only characters I've had whose parents were dead were ones with stories that were assigned to me. One was born a slave and his family was made an example, one had her home town ravaged by drow she was fun, managed to take the mantles of three gods and then gave it all up once the fighting was over to rebuild her family farm . I designed both of them, but the DMs in both cases said "This is the setting, this is what has happened to you. Deal with it however your character would"

#22 - lordsaucy (01/04/2016) [-]

I don't Think I've ever had a character whose whole family died. Of all my characters the only dead family member I can think of is one mother who died in child birth.

#14 - Thundergod (01/04/2016) [-]

My characters just are off adulting until they enter the bar. I mean, he's a grown man, he puts his pants on one leg at a time, he doesn't need no ******** reason to adventure.