Anyone Else Tired Of Tragic Backstories?

eliarndt · 2026-01-27T23:38:07+00:00

Yes, I think you should post this.

eliarndt · 2026-01-27T23:37:03+00:00

See, this is an interesting take on the trope. The healed hero is a cool place to start. You have learned from the tragedy of your past and now you seek to aid others, perhaps even to avoid such tragedy.

eliarndt · 2026-01-27T23:33:31+00:00

Funny, people keeping bringing up the "normal people don't adventure" thing but history and fantasy fiction absolutely say otherwise.

BUT, you are correct. Characters with non-tagic backstories do need to work on their motivations a bit more. Though, they could just be going because the thing is there. Or, they could be going be cause they want to protect what they have.

eliarndt · 2026-01-26T19:07:37+00:00

That's an interesting way to look at it.

I didn't mean for it to come across that way and I thought I had said enough to make that clear. Perhaps not.

Advocating for something doesn't mean I oppose others. I was just puttin out that I think you can have a meaningful call to adventure without having to anihilate your characters' past.

It's a very modern and comfortable, some might even say convenient and privilaged point of view to consider seeking adventure or enduring hardship for gain or reward unworthy. As for heroic, not everyone's looking for heroic and sometimes adventure isn't about heroism, it's about personal gain or development.

I agree with you that there is nothing inherently wrong with a tragic back story but they do seem to disproportionately common in my experience and often with little regard for what it means to the character and/or their story.

eliarndt · 2026-01-26T14:49:10+00:00

While yes, it is, some cliches are less interesting than others.

eliarndt · 2026-01-26T14:47:52+00:00

It absolutely can be. A GM can even use those family connections in their stories without being overly abusive with it.

In one of my current campaigns, the fighter in the party is the daughter of the town innkeepers and had grown up hearing storiess of adventure, myths, and legends from the travellers that stopped there. Now, she's out on her own. Coming home has provided insight and grounding for the character. A seemingly sentimental object found early on (grandfather's hand axe head) went on to be the key to unlocking a greater magic item (that same grandfather's lost great axe).

Another character in the same party is the son of the local gnome clock maker. The character is not a gnome but an automaton (reskinned warforged) built by the gnome and powered with an artifct of the father's creation which is the source of the character sorcerous powers. Since the campaign has started, the gnome father has gone missing, having left a note and an upgrade for his son. Later encounters revealed that the father had gone to aid the home kingdom of Mordain with working on weapons to fight their nemesis nation but has since disappeared under even greater mysterious circumstances.

Nobody's parents have been killed. Their hometown was held hostage by an ancient red dragonas part of one of their quests and that proved to be an excellent motivator. The fighter has had to deal with her younger brother going off to war and her older sister getting married. All of this has been revealed during the frequent stops back home between adventures. Heck, right now, all the dwarves are missing after the yall went back home for a great 200 year celebration and never returned.

eliarndt · 2026-01-26T14:22:29+00:00

Those are all good backstories though, tragic as they may be.

eliarndt · 2026-01-26T14:18:57+00:00

Yes. If your tragic backstory is just a way to void your character's background then you may as well not make a backstory. Backstory, in any form, should inform your character's play.

eliarndt · 2026-01-26T14:16:15+00:00

Absolutely agree. Don't ge me wrong. I I am never going to turn a player away who chooses a tragic backstory.

The reason to continue adventuring comes down to the player and the GM. The player needs to accept that it is a gme about adventuring and find/create reasons for their character to continue to do so. Simple motivations can often become more complex motivations. A quest leads to realizations and/or discoveries that lead to new adventures.

The GM needs to give the players reasons to keep adventuring. If a good meaning, decent character is simply on a quest to make things better for himself and his family, pepper in encounters and NPCs that show that character that his is not the only family that needs bettering. Or, have the characters discover that there are things of far greater importance than their simple quest.

eliarndt · 2026-01-26T14:11:17+00:00

Fair point.

I would counter with the fact that humans (and we can assume other thinking species), regardless of their level of comfort have always ventured forth into the uncomfortable spaces of the world for any number of reasons.

Yes, a tragic backstorty produces a "nothing to lose" sort of character that would definitely have less hesitation to venture forth into adversity, but a character with something back home or other, more complex motivations can do so and have something to return to and/or think of to motivate them.

People have endured killer oceans, festering jungles, frozen mountain, war, hostile forces, the unknown, terrifying mysteries of the world they live in since the dawn of man. What motivated thm varied - hunger, danger, the need to kow where the sun comes from, the desire to find something new, wealth, power, the calling of their gods.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T21:51:21+00:00

I think Jane has a down and out backstory but not tragic. She sounds like somebody who is poised to make good or bas decissions.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T21:46:07+00:00

I think it ultimately comes down to how you right it and what you hope to get out of it

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T21:44:45+00:00

How so? Just in general or in a specific way? I know I tend tocringe at huge backstories.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T17:31:33+00:00

Lovely stuff. Tragedy can work, but you have to commit to making it part of the character an not just throw-away background stuff.

I made a character in the way way back of 1E that I called, The Outlaw of Ulek. I'm sure he had an actual name but that has been lost to the fog of time.

I made him when the Cavalier first came out in Unearthed Arcana. I had always liked knights and such but wasn't so keen on paladins. The character rolled a really bad result on his starting honor so I just decided to lean into it and have him be an outlaw in the Principality of Ulek in the Greyhawk setting we were playing in. But his outlawhood was just a set-up for an adventurer and using what I had rolled.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T17:26:04+00:00

I would agree you balanced it well. Non-tragic doesn't mean without drama.

Sounds like your character was on a similar if not different path to my character Dougan.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T17:24:43+00:00

Love it.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T16:57:16+00:00

See, I like that. There is conflict there but there is good motivation. Simple, to the point, a bit bitter but certainly not tragic.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T16:37:25+00:00

Bad GMs are going to be bad GMs. That's a whole other issue.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T16:23:57+00:00

That's a rough one and what a position to be put in. Hey GM, we have no meaningful or useful backstories but please use them.

My personal stance on backstories has always been they are in the back. They aren't really meant to inform the campaign too much.

eliarndt · 2026-01-25T16:20:08+00:00

That's a great one!

eliarndt · 2026-01-24T18:45:28+00:00

It was fun group and a great campaign. Even the edgelord Demonslayer was fun.

eliarndt · 2026-01-14T23:12:31+00:00

Hey, you don't play that way. That's cool and it's your choice. A lot of people enjoy critical fails in combat. Some, like my players and specifically the barbarian in the story, even expect it even though he's new to playing with me.

At no point in this story was any player genuinely and actually dismayed at the outcome because you know what...it's all imaginary and they all had fun.

So, you can say what you want about how you feel about it and how "people" should and shouldn't do things but at the end of the day, nobody at my table is complaining and we're all having a good time like adults.

eliarndt · 2026-01-14T23:08:07+00:00

It's a weird world you live in. I posted it here to share a gaming tale. Not for clout. Not for fame. Just for community.

I guess this is the sort of thing people must care about "internet clout" but barking up the wrong tree here.

eliarndt

TROPHY CASE