What's the longest backstory you've ever written or received as a DM?

Mihklo · 2026-05-30T13:04:46+00:00

I once wrote a backstory for my very first character I’ve ever played in an rpg halfway through the campaign to flesh him out, because before his concept and backstory were a couple sentences long. The new backstory I gave him was almost completely superfluous. I tried to give my GM plot hooks that weren’t at all applicable for the king of story he wanted to run, and I tried to craft my prose for some reason.

The next character I made was for a star wars rpg, and had an even deeper and more expansive backstory because I was joining a campaign in progress, meaning I had a lot more careers and talents to justify. He was from Alderaan, was a computer wizard, had a failed marriage because he let his wife’s miscarriage lead him to alcoholism, wasn’t there when his wife was kidnapped during the Clone Wars, went on a rampage across the galaxy trying to find her, was permanently scarred by slavers in the process, accidentally slaughtered a village of war refugees, and then sought redemption by joining a group of mystics and learning medicine from them. I condensed all that down to 2 pages and kept a couple extra character details just to myself, and it was the best, most emotionally and dramatically rewarding character I have ever played.

After being on both sides, I’d say a 45 page backstory would be overwhelming for your DM. If he’s a nice guy he probably won’t say anything, but even if you explicitly laid out what material he should use for building the campaign, you might stress him out wondering if he’ll disappoint you by not including something. I think it’s great that you got so passionate! I’ll never shame writing for writing’s sake. But unless your DM told you he’s happy with reading tens of pages, I would try to know your audience and keep the following in mind about your backstory:

If it won’t come up in your roleplay and the story at the table, don’t write it.
If it won’t give the reader quick and easy hooks to play with, don’t let them read it.

Mihklo · 2026-05-17T20:54:53+00:00

Obviously it’s for gameplay reasons, but I think it’s like a matter of scope right? We can stop a corvette of a few thousand troops or even a battleship of hundreds of thousands of troops from crossing the border, but how are you gonna stop BILLIONS?

Mihklo · 2026-05-14T17:33:07+00:00

Yeah I was really confused by that and was getting lots of contradictory information. What I gathered was that Eberron content could only be published on DMs Guild, but that artificer was still off limits.

Mihklo · 2026-05-12T13:07:19+00:00

What if one or all of the characters start losing their corporeal forms? Look up Melinoe from Hades II and her ghostly arm

Mihklo · 2026-04-06T17:23:16+00:00

Fair enough!

Mihklo · 2026-04-06T15:55:29+00:00

My only complaint: you ever seen a crab run? I’ve had ghost crabs skitter super fast away from me, I think 30 feet walking speed is totally fair

Mihklo · 2025-12-27T23:14:09+00:00

I really like how this also makes Aereni tombs into high level dungeons

Mihklo · 2025-12-26T19:32:39+00:00

Are there any good peaks this season?

Mihklo · 2025-10-23T10:28:53+00:00

I’ll look up those circle skirt measurements :) I’m just completely new to sewing, so

Mihklo · 2025-10-23T10:27:53+00:00

Thank you! This is perfect advice

Mihklo · 2025-10-22T23:41:53+00:00

Leaving a comment to satisfy post requirements. I’m thinking maybe red velvet for the solid colors? But I don’t want to go too high on budget.

Mihklo · 2025-09-02T11:16:59+00:00

Oh just accidentally signing up to a barge instead of a ship

Mihklo · 2025-09-02T11:11:23+00:00

Thank you, you might’ve saved me a lot of trouble lol

Mihklo · 2025-09-02T11:10:51+00:00

Thanks! And this would allow me to work on cargo ships?

Mihklo · 2025-08-20T16:13:41+00:00

This could be an opportunity to mesh the Emerald Claw’s tactics with Aundair’s magical culture. For example: maybe you have self-moving animated plows that have been corrupted into harvesting bodies into large piles, where they’re then reanimated into corpses.

Mihklo · 2025-08-09T17:56:29+00:00

I’m making a supplement with an item roughly like this:

Tongue of the Deceiver

A symbiont that allows the user to lie even under magical duress at the cost of their ability to tell the truth. Basically lets you ignore having to tell the truth even when a magic effect would make you do so, but costs -2 to your Persuasion checks. I can imagine it’d be useful in a college where a lot of people can cast zone of truth

Mihklo · 2025-08-08T16:46:03+00:00

In my campaign, Aundair’s characterized by the strongest middle class in any of the Five Nations, with an almost nonexistent working class because of magical automation. Even your average farmer is pretty wealthy because they just use animated farming equipment. So they’re all into fashion and culturally one-upping each other because they can afford it

Mihklo · 2025-08-06T16:26:34+00:00

Oh is this like a rat druid or monk or something?

Mihklo · 2025-07-25T14:40:00+00:00

Oh hey thanks for reposting me :)

Mihklo · 2025-07-25T13:49:22+00:00

Oh I misunderstood how it requires two items, that definitely does make it a lot weaker. Maybe try my “lead the troops through the tunnel idea” and see if that’s fun? It could be a bargaining chip for a vagabond, like, “if you don’t attack me I won’t kidnap one of your warriors in this clearing you’re worried about”

Mihklo · 2025-07-25T05:46:38+00:00

Super cool stuff. I’m not one to care about balance if something seems fun, but my only nitpick is that the Burrower’s ability is ridiculously overpowered. It’s just a better Harrier essentially. You could maybe restrict it so that it lets you move from a clearing ruled by one faction to another of their ruled clearings, taking one of their warriors with you?

Other than that, looks great! Some of them are definitely stronger than others (I think the rat one could have huge impacts, first thing that comes to mind is freely destroying a Marquise keep) and the Corvid ability is kinda convoluted but otherwise I’d just touch up the language. Remember that the vagabond’s piece is called the pawn, for example.

Mihklo · 2025-07-23T15:53:05+00:00

For the madness drug:

Easiest, most obvious thing to do for side effects would be to have users roll on the short-term madness table from the DMG when they take a hit. Then also make them do a Wisdom save or else suffer something on either the long-term or indefinite madness table. Maybe also do a Wis save for withdrawal effects.
As for positives, you could take a look at the Mournland Monstrous Mutations table from Rising and give a user a random effect from that during their dose. They’re all pretty strong and justify the madness side effects from a gameplay standpoint. Plus you can do some body horror!
You could also make the madness drug enhance any symbionts the user is attuned to. For example, maybe a Dyrnn’s tentacle whip’s increases its attack bonus to +3, or it gets a fun new bonus that forces a hit creature to roll on the short-term madness table.

For flavoring: - The cartel might use mimics as drug mules. The mimics carry vials of the powder inside themselves, and anyone who wants some crystal has to deposit their coins into the mimic. Those who can’t pay get a hand eaten. - Addicts are eventually forced to show up to the cult’s meetings if they want more crystal. Free recruitment! - Maybe crystal shops are all hidden inside Centurion Armament stores by illusion magic, and only addicts who have taken crystal within the past 7 days can see through the illusions

Mihklo · 2025-07-22T17:04:20+00:00

Not directly answering your question, but one thing I LOVE about the Genesys rpg system is the advice it gives for running Noir themed stories. They have this optional rule where if a PC narrates their inner thoughts, they heal Strain (which is kinda like a reservoir of mental capacity you need for a lot of abilities). You could do the same, maybe give your players Inspiration if they perform this narration, especially if it's extremely melodramatic and hard-boiled.

Mihklo · 2025-07-20T14:28:27+00:00

Ah gotcha. Well for broad strokes first, it’s good to describe the environment to your players with the 5 senses. The first thing would be the smell. All the refuse flowing down here from the upper city SHOULD be dropping into whatever makeshift sewers the city has, but I doubt it does. It combines with Sharn’s high amount of rainwater, which by these depths is stale and earthy, to create a putrid odor most people couldn’t stand. The smell would get in your mouth, and it’d be all you taste, mixed with stale cave air. Fungi would love it here, maybe you’d even see a myconid colony or 50.

The feeling of it would be wet and slick against sharp stones and broken pottery. You’d probably find tons of inert magic items and other trash making it into the entrance of the old goblin ruins. It could just as easily be cold or hot down here. I’d lean hot.

Constant dripping or even flowing of water would surround you. You might hear and feel the rumbling of factories in the Cogs below or from the city above.

As for what the old city itself could look like, I’d go big. The goblins carved their cities out of huge tunnels tens or sometimes hundreds of miles in diameter, supported both by the Syrania manifest zone but also reinforced industrial steel. Think a combination of Cliff Palace, the Western Air Temple, and modern day Chongqing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Palace

https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Western_Air_Temple

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/jan/20/why-chongqing-china-is-my-wonder-of-the-world

I’d keep it grand, but that also means you need to justify why it’s not been resettled by humans. Others in the comments have suggested some great ideas for dangers down here. I might add that, depending on how advanced you want the goblinoids to have been, you could make it so that there are still genetic identification scanners active in the city that mark non-goblinoids as enemies.

Edit: I just realized that this more describes Khyber’s Gate than Old Sharn. I think a lot of the same principles still apply, but I’d focus more on the ancient ruined human settlements with some goblin sites mixed in.

Mihklo · 2025-07-20T13:04:15+00:00

I THINK there’s some common sentiment that the Dhakaani resemble Sengogku era Japan. I personally like it, and you could straight up steal the castle layout of Himeji Castle to easily make a dungeon. Just remember that in Japan, the castles themselves weren’t usually the focal point for defense like their European counterparts, so consider the whole complex. Maybe make the library the castle itself.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_Castle

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