How to write a good backstory for your DnD character

Though writing a good backstory for your Dungeons & Dragons character isn’t easy, it doesn’t require you to be an expert storyteller. Avoiding overused tropes, focusing on a clear narrative arc, and thinking about how your character ties into their world, can help you to create a stronger backstory for your character.

Building a solid narrative foundation for your character will make roleplaying as them much easier, as you’ll have some core motivations to draw upon when deciding their actions. It’ll also make your Dungeon Master’s life much easier, as they’ll be able to use your backstory as driving points within their campaign.

Making a backstory in Dungeons & Dragons

The Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook does include a specific step for backstory in character creation, if you wanted to follow a more structured approach on your character sheet.

Character background: choose from a selection of backgrounds, which can provide certain traits, a brief description, and a starting point to build on: such as a farmer or a noble.
Personality traits: write a statement that outlines how your character interacts with the world and others, e.g. “I’m very protective of the people I love” or “I crave attention from impressive people”.
Ideals: things that your character stands behind and shapes their choices, e.g. creative integrity; not taking charity; maintaining social hierarchy; helping the oppressed; serving their king, etc...
Bonds: the most important relationships in their life, e.g. A beloved uncle who trained me in swordfighting, or a childhood sweetheart who I’ve never had the courage to ask out.
Flaws: characteristics that could lead to complications for themselves and/or the adventuring party, e.g. “magic confuses and scares me” or “I prioritise my ambitions over everything else”.

Why would someone choose to take up the role of an adventurer? How does your character leave their old life behind, and join the group? *Image: Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast*

You can treat these elements as the building blocks of your D&D character backstory, fleshing them out with some more specific details and connecting them together to form a complete narrative. Alternatively, you can completely disregard this process and freely brainstorm and write your character’s backstory (LegendKeeper’s boards feature is really good for this).

Either way, writing a good backstory for your DnD character should involve a bit more than just filling in these boxes.

What makes a good DnD character backstory?

Here are some things you can do when writing your DnD character backstory:

Enable moments of drama

Good drama requires tension, where a character is forced to make a choice, whether by external factors (like an enemy or a social system) or internal factors (such as personal trauma or personality flaws). A good character backstory will sow the seeds to enable these plot hooks to naturally appear throughout the TTRPG campaign, by providing snippets of external and/or internal factors for you, your DM, and/or your fellow players to draw upon.

Avoid tragedy overload

You’ll want to avoid tragedy overload, which is when the entire conceit for your character is rooted within tragedy. This can come across as overly melodramatic, could possibly make other players uncomfortable - if you choose to include some particularly edgy storybeats - and risks being incredibly one note. Some tragedy can provide good character motivations and a starting point, but there has to be room for character development beyond this.

Think about why they want to adventure

This means making a character that actually wants to join the group and adventure with them. You don’t have to lean on a positive reason - it could begin as a very transactional relationship - but your characters should want to journey with player characters and NPCs, otherwise it can make for a very frustrating experience for everyone else. This means thinking about why your character might leave their old life behind.

Your character's class should play an important role in their backstory - how does someone dedicate their life to becoming a Monk? Why worship a Cleric deity? What makes someone take up a Warlock pact? *Image: Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast*

Work with your DM

When creating your character’s backstory, it’s a good idea to talk your ideas through with your Dungeon Master. Collaboration can help you workshop your ideas, but it will also allow you to make a character that your DM can then better integrate into the campaign setting - both tonally and narrative-wise. You could even give your game master permission to create some surprises of their own, to introduce into your character backstory.

Don’t overwrite your backstory

Though it’s certainly a good idea to put work into your character's backstory and think through its different elements, it’s important not to overdo the lore. Remember that your character is one of several and so needs to share the spotlight with others. Also, their backstory is just the beginning of their character arc, the most exciting elements are yet to come! Playing D&D means being able to tell a story collaboratively, so don’t use all your best bits on the backstory.

Utilize your character class, species, and level

The backstory creation process isn’t the only source of inspiration you can take from the Player’s Handbook when making your character’s backstory, you can also utilize your chosen class, species and beginning level. How did your character train to be a Monk? What was their life like as one of the only Dragonborn in their city? What led your character to make their Warlock pact? What made them leave their Orc community behind? Their starting level will also have an impact on their backstory, as it indicates how much experience they have, how much they’ve learnt and how much more they have to learn.

How could your character's species play into their backstory? Perhaps they've been ostracized for being a Tiefling with a demonic heritage? Maybe they've been cast out by their Drow community in the Underdark? This could be the first time they've left the comfort of their Halfling village? *Image: Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast*

Example character backstory: Valros Miphra

Here's an example of a potential D&D character backstory:

Background: Criminal

Class: Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind)

Personality Traits: “If I think there’s a chance of success, I will always take the risk.” “I’m equally afraid and curious about my abilities.”

Ideals: Determined (They do not give up easily), A disdain for the misuse of privilege (They’re more likely to side against those in power).

Bonds: Their oldest friend, Yumi Tishelle. Their gang leader, Koshar Scallion.

Flaws: Reckless (Quick to put themselves into danger), Single-minded (Will discard other priorities for their goals).

Motivations: To find a way to travel to the Far Realm and rescue his lost friend.

Overview

Valros Miphra is a professional thief for the Keyhole Gang, a group of criminals who specialize in ‘acquiring’ items for their clients. His job is to investigate the whereabouts of requested items, before leading a team to infiltrate various locations to find and acquire the items. His boss, Koshar Scallion, is responsible for liasoning with clients and keeping authorities off their backs.

Life pre-campaign

Before Valros joined the Keyhole Gang, he worked as an independent thief with his friend, Yumi Tishelle. During a particularly lucrative job in an ancient underground ruin, Yumi wanted to leave prematurely (after several near-miss encounters with dangerous creatures). However, Valros convinced her to keep going, eager to find the highly sought after artefact believed to be resting in the ruins. The two eventually stumbled across an Aboleth (a powerful abomination from the Far Realm), which managed to psychically overpower Yumi’s mind - enslaving it and kidnapping her with it. Valros managed to escape alive, but vowed to find his missing friend, no matter the cost.

What motivates your character's choices? Revenge for the murder of a loved one? The desire to escape a restrictive upbringing? The ambition to improve their skills and abilities? *Image: Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast*

Joining the campaign

Valros sought out an invitation to join the notorious Keyhole Gang, in the hopes that he’d be able to use their connections to find a lead to Yumi. Eventually, Valros took a job to find a treasure supposedly kept in the tower of a powerful Wizard. As well as searching for the desired treasure, Valros looked for clues for how to travel to the mysterious Far Realm.

His curiosity led him to open a box which contained a Mind Flayer Parasite (from the Far Realm), which infected him. Session Zero sees Valros waking up in the same cell as the other player characters, caught by guards after his team fled the scene.

For some reason, he has not succumbed to Ceremorphosis yet. Instead, Valros can now channel power from the Far Realm, allowing him to inflict psychic damage and infiltrate people’s minds. Valros must work with the others to escape prison and use his newfound abilities to find his still missing friend.

His main motivation for working with the group is that they could lead him towards his ultimate goal of finding Yumi.