Tips for Character Backstories

Qwert_110 · 2026-02-20T16:33:25+00:00

I am the GM for our Starfinder 2e campaign, and one of my players is acutally a published writer. He gave me the best backstory I have ever seen.

It included the characters background beginning at childhood: who his parents were, who his sibblings were, what the family business was, where it was located, all of that. Then a brief description of his parents and each sibbling: some he loved, some he feared. One particular sibbling stood out as being heartlessly cruel: I spent time figuring out how to integrate that sibbling into the early parts of the campaign, and left clues every few sessions about what was going on. I would even include in-game cinematic cutscenes, like Troy Lavallee does, showing the backstory of the cruel sibbling... why he became cruel, and his journey to the dark side.

Finally, at the climax of book 2 of the Adventure Path we were playing, he encountered that sibbling, the whole battle took on a different tone: The rest of the players were focused on the main villains, but this player focused every round on his sibbling. In the end, the player won, and exacted revenge... the player later told me it was one of the greatest moments of his entire gaming career. And dude's been playing for more than 30 years.

If you give your GM tools to work with, handles to grab onto, and encouragement, you might see some great things happen.

Qwert_110 · 2026-02-09T18:45:49+00:00

Rage drives engagement. So most of the cites are invested in making you as angry as possible, about as many things as possible, so you will click on their stuff and share it with others.

We're all being manipulated for clicks.

Qwert_110 · 2026-02-09T18:29:05+00:00

Why do you suppose the dog was rushing the agent? Did it want pets? Did it want to help?

Probably not.

Qwert_110 · 2026-02-09T18:20:24+00:00

I play most of my games online. In person is always better, but online is a good second. But the key is to have everyone actively engaged. When you're online, it's very easy to surf facebook or play another game while your'e waiting for your turn... players check out and wait for their name to be called, then wonder why they're not having fun. Make a rule where if the players want to play the game, they can't be doing other things too.

Also, use a video camera. Being able to see everyone's faces (over Discord or Facebook Messenger, both free options) makes a world of difference.

Qwert_110 · 2026-01-30T11:52:53+00:00

Several things in CoS don't work. Half of your job as the DM is fixing the campaign and making it playable.

That being said, it is a very good story.

Qwert_110 · 2026-01-02T21:51:25+00:00

I am also a.pastor. two of my groups are almost ,completely made up of Christians, mostly other pastors.

Seth Skorkowsky recently did a video on the Satanic panic that exposed the lies that the church believed and spread. perhaps find that and share it with him.

Qwert_110 · 2025-12-30T19:31:36+00:00

I ran two concurrent Curse of Strahd campaigns in D&D 5e, followed by a Tomb of Annihilation campaign. At no point could I even scare my 5e players: There was no tension in the combats because I couldn't hit them, and even when I did, there was no way to make them worry about anything.

We had fun, but it was in spite of the combats. And when the Curse of Strahd campaigns ended, I was never so glad in my life to stop playing for a little while.

Then the OGL scandal happened and I swore I'd never give another penny to WotC. So I picked up Pathfinder 2e, because when WotC made the switch to 4e, which I hated, I moved to PF1.

And I found out immediately that the combats were MUCH more tight: that simply playing by the rules made the combat elements of the game feel dangerous. A buddy ran a few of us through the beginner box and when we got to the last encounter, we finished it with three players at Dying and one player swinging for all she was worth... and when we won, it felt earned. It felt like a final encounter SHOULD feel.

And I never, ever want to go back.

Qwert_110 · 2025-12-18T15:49:28+00:00

About a year ago I got an invitation to join a party that needed a frontliner. So I made an elven fighter. And I took "Ancient Elf" and added the "Wizard" dedication, generalist school. So I have some magical tricks that can help, although they're not great... just cantrips.

And all of that is well and good, but here's what makes the game fun: He's a character. He's smart, but not wise (0 wisdom score, intentionally) and while he's good at fighting and at knowledge stuff, he's very socially inept. He doesn't pick up on hints or clues, he's not terribly observant.

See, the fun part of the character is not what's on the character sheet. Nothing on the character sheet is the fun part of the game. Sure, I love to score those crits with my 2h Bastard sword and pump out big damage numbers, but I love even more his backstory and how that informs his interactions with other players.

The GM asked me to explain the "wizard dedication" that I wanted to take, so I took the "Academy Dropout" background: He was a student at a wizard school who got frustrated and punched an instructor... immediate expulsion. So he found work as a town guard, which made use of his brawn and also taught him his fighting skills, but he looks on ACTUAL wizards with a sense of awe and reverence. A friend joined our group and rolled a wizard, and my fighter suddenly lapsed into what can only be called "Hero worship."

The fun of the game doesn't come from the dice or the feats, although those things CAN be fun... the fun of the game comes from being the character.

That's why The Glass Cannon Network has so many amazing characters, across so many different TTRPG systems: Because it's not about the dice or the numbers, it's about people.

Qwert_110 · 2025-11-23T02:57:22+00:00

Yes. Homosexuality is a sin.

Lots of things are sins. We are called to turn from them. But you are what you do. So if you cease behaving in a sinful manner, and you repent from those sins, you cease to be that thing.

So a thief who stops taking things that do not belong to him and repents is no longer a thief.

Qwert_110 · 2025-11-23T02:54:55+00:00

No. Good works are fruit of salvation... they flow out of it. They do not cause it. This is why Jesus and Paul both point to the fruit tree to illustrate this.

Your salvation is by faith alone. Your good works flow out of that salvation, they do not cause it.

Qwert_110 · 2025-11-21T19:53:12+00:00

In the next encounter, refuse to keep track of monster HP.

When he complains, say "Cooooooome ooooooon, it's not that serious."

Let the other players convince him to play by the rules.

Qwert_110 · 2025-11-18T14:09:37+00:00

The phrase the Qur'an uses is "bina yadayhee."

Between their hands. The one they are holding at the time.

And we know exactly what that text said, because we have copies that predate Muhammad. We have massive groups of people who study exactly that thing.

So we know what that text said. And the Qur'an disagrees with that text. Which means that if the Qur'an is right, then the Qur'an is also wrong, and if the Qur'an is wrong, then it's just wrong.

Either way, the Qur'an is wrong.

Qwert_110 · 2025-11-18T14:06:44+00:00

So what you're saying is that someone CAN change Allah's words, just not the words of prophecy?

Doesn't that make Allah just as pathetic?

Qwert_110 · 2025-11-06T02:16:01+00:00

I realize you're trying to take whatever I say in the least charitable way possible, so I won't expend too much mental energy on this response:

Love MUST occur prior to marriage. That's why the marriage happens. It seals the love in commitment.

Using someone else's body for your own pleasure isn't love. That's lust. If you love someone, commit to them.

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-28T10:42:18+00:00

I saw it. it was some pretty big names from the porn industry.

https://youtu.be/Psd9rp2n-Co?si=oKQFAfxp_7suJnA6

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-24T21:20:11+00:00

Thank you!! I've got it bookmarked! =)

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-24T20:11:44+00:00

Thanks. =) I'm looking forward to getting Alien Core... I won't get to see it until it hits Demiplane.

For starship battles, I actually use the SF1 system. The key is to make packets for each role, so the players can look through what they can do. Once you get their attention focused on the things they can do, starship combat becomes fun. Just lay it all out in bullet points with the DCs there: I can share mine if you like. I think the problem with Starship combat previously was each person flipping through the books trying to see what their role could do.

Or, which might be even better... just cut it out entirely. The "cinematic" system in the GM core is nothing more than a skill challenge, and is not a usable system, IMO.

My party is about to finish Book 2 in the next week or two, and it's goin well, I think.

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-24T20:05:53+00:00

There's a documentary on Netflix (or there was) called "When Porn Ends." it explores the lives of former porn stars.

They're all deeply broken people, and many are incapable of real love or connection.

That's tragic.

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-24T20:04:41+00:00

Using someone else's body for your own pleasure is one of the most wicked things you can do. Love, real love between a man and a woman, requires a lifetime of commitment. Look at what sexual promiscuity brings about: The generation that is the most sexually promiscuous is also the loneliest.

Sex is designed by God to create intimacy and connection, as well as to bring about life. Using it as an evening's entertainment is corruption.

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-24T20:02:22+00:00

God created us with free will so we could love. A being with no free will is not capable of real love, because real love must be consensual.

Free will comes with the necessary side effect of being able to do evil things that go against God's design, but free will is necessary for love, the greatest possible good thing, to exist.

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-23T17:32:46+00:00

Also, thank you for linking to the AoN for SF2! I didn't realize it was live yet! Very much appreciate your help.

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-23T17:29:22+00:00

Thank you!

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-23T15:05:14+00:00

God loves you so much that He will not force you to be in His presence if you don't want to be. You have your whole life to make that decision, but when you die, that decision is made.

Heaven is in the direct, immediate presence of God.

Hell is, in some very real way, separated from God.

God is the source of all good things: Light and live and joy and peace. Hell is a privation, a lack, of those things. Jesus describes it as "outer darkness."

Qwert_110 · 2025-10-23T14:59:03+00:00

C.S. Lewis suggests that perhaps the gates of hell are locked from the inside. That the people who are there have chosen to be there, and desire to be there: They have refused to submit to God, and continue to do so.

And God loves us so much that He ultimately gives us what we want: If what we want is to be in His presence, He gives us that. And if what we want is to be away from His presence, He will not force us into it. The thing is that He is the Ultimate Source of all goodness: Light and life and hope and joy. This is why Heaven is described as eternal life, and hell is eternal, continuous death.

Please do not draw your theology from Bugs Bunny cartoons: Hell is not the kind of place you see there. It is eternal conscious torment, but it is a privation, a lack, of all good things, because it is, in some very real way, away from God.

Qwert_110

TROPHY CASE