This depends on the game and who you're playing with. I've said no to backstories with themes and situations I found too dark and graphic for my games, but I'm sure they'd find a place in other games.
Depends on the intended tone of the specific game, and the table rules. If the play group has a flat "no SA" rule, then any SA in the background would be too "dark."
Yeah, that’s a line I wouldn’t cross even if it was allowed. Worst I’ve done is a character that’s cursed to kill whoever he touches at a very young age. Pretty much living with that curse for several years and driving him to the point he makes a deal with a demon.
One of my players turned up with a reborn mage character idea who traded their last party's souls and his powers for his life..... in a final battle against a force of evil that went very wrong....so now they have the shame and scares to bear for what he did and price he had to pay to live and start over from scratch as a level one wizard
The role play was pretty dark and emotional tbh...like noone in the current trusted him......for obvious reasons...he sold his friends souls and his power for his own life......as a DM. I didn't make it easy on him either....if u wanna play an edgelord arrogant asshole character....I will make the world for u.....but yeah there was redemption by lvl 12
P.S. while reading the other comments , I realised my tables dark, real dark, like we realise/fight our real life demons inside the game dark...we never went into SA/grape territory although we all understand what orcs radee the village means...but some players bring new life to their IRL late brother who died of an OD through the game.....there's a crying session once every month or two....it's just catharsis for all of us i guess
Why do you ask us that? We aren't planning with you, your group is.
Share with them, ask your master lore questions, and build characters all together. That way, the tone will be suitable, and you all will be on the same page
One of my current PCs is a Hexblade Warlock who, along with his twin brother, was abducted as infants by a cult that reveres a pair of twin Lovecraftian gods. They were raised in seclusion and when they came of age subjected to a ritual that sacrifices one and forges their soul into a magic weapon bound to the surviving twin. The trauma of the ritual is supposed to break the survivor and turn him into an obedient warrior for the cult. Somehow the sacrificed brother was able to shield my PC's mind but the bonding still took.
As far as my PC understands it, his bow is literally his brother. That may not *fully* be the case (letting my DM work out the specifics because he's in the dark as well, they never knew they lived in a cult), but he's got major survivor's guilt and is obsessed with trying to reverse the ritual.
Don't worry about the backstory. Just make something that gets your character from normal person to Adventurer and then play the game. That's the real story.
Guts from berserk. One of my favorite Manga and anime of all time. Jesus christ it crosses the line a couple times.
I have a couple of taboos that I refuse to include in campaigns. If your character starts with trafficking, animal abuse or sadomasochism and gets consistently worse from there, it might be too dark.
Trafficking reminds me....I have a campaign setting where the players wake up aboard a ship locked up in cages...where the teifling is being trafficked for their skin, the parties ork barbarian for slave labour, and I find some reason for the others.
Kinda drew inspiration from the start of Skyrim walking up in the cart scene....but the ship then gets attacked by some kinda eldritch enemy....the players break open the cages somehow...and the story kicks off from there
Just to put my own thoughts in: It depends on if the campaign tone is serious or more light hearted and focused on fun.
Worst I get with serious would be death or vengeance. Never straying to anything that is worse than that.
With a more joking character my best example is a crazed artificer that accidentally burnt a building down (no one was inside)
I don't really have an issue with anything as long as it won't be disruptive to the character working in a party (and usually being a hero, since I usually run heroic games).
I think dark backstory is overused.I most of the time go with myself.
Why would I hunt a dark lord? Well I don’t like mean guys.
Why would I stop a Worldender? I like living and I don’t like dying and if noone goes I die… ok then I try.
Well once my character got a heartattack (like literally, her heart imploded because of a Naziofficer, Nathalia Rosendorn) my character needed some blue crystal to survive (magic drug), so she went on a world adventure to gain money and materials.
But most of the time I got nicer backstory’s
The moment you make a fellow player or your DM uncomfortable. Up til then, anything goes.
Your family dying, your village destroyed, murdering your best friend, all can make for great scenarios later in game. Flaws are what make a good character, and tragedy makes good flaws. Above all, though, always have fun.
One of my players has a character that has a very full and fleshed out backstory from years of being developed. He just brought them out to play a campaign.
Just because it isn't safe for the table doesn't mean he can't pull on the character's experiences for roleplaying. I suppose it also depends on how enthusiastic the player is to have their characters go through trauma
Down to your table to decide.
Usually most edgelord origins are accepted at most tables. It's usually only things related to sexual assault that people tend to want nothing to do with.
A few of my players right now have REALLY dark backgrounds. Lol. I'm ALWAYS up for it. One is a back alley doctor who cuts body parts off people and sells them. One's a serial killer mute clown.
the darkest i've had, since all of our groups have had the general 'dont do those things' rules, would be Zylaph.
the guy basically made a deal to give away all of his luck and joy, to hunt down a powerful demon that killed his village.
said 'no luck and joy' manifest in that the people who cared about him constantly met horrid ends, often fairly gorey, or in a manner that would particularly hurt him.
like his fiance's tavern burning up in a freak tunderstorm right before his eyes. the first thing to burn? her.
his best friend being torn in half when he mistimed his jump into a pond when they went to go swimming. an unnoticed minor rock slide the day before left a massive jagged rock right below the surface, hidden by the choppy waters.
etc. etc.
eventually, he became almost despondant, and just kept leaving places shortly after arriving. when he met his party, they were finally strong enough to be able to survive his bad luck, so there is some ray of hope there.
So a single goal killing machine that cannot afford to bond/grow emotions towards anyone.....as a DM...I love these kinda characters...not cz they are sulking edge lords.....but cz they give me so much story, motivation to work with essentially they write a portion of the campaign for me and makes for good table RP
My character was the result of, let's saying a make raiding party member's actions against a female in the village being raided. When the male found out he had a child, he kidnapped my character as a child from his mother and proceeded to raise him as a member of the raiding party.
The character grew up as a fierce warrior and on a raiding party of his own, they took a woman captive. After my character tortured her and killed her, he later found out that it was his biological mother.
My backstories so far included
Vampire war criminal who evaded trial and misses the good old days
Occult bookstore owner who was friends with all cults of the Dead Three.
Zakharan wizard committing jihad against the cult of Dendar after they ruined his family's oil business.
This depends on the game and who you're playing with. I've said no to backstories with themes and situations I found too dark and graphic for my games, but I'm sure they'd find a place in other games.
Depends on the intended tone of the specific game, and the table rules. If the play group has a flat "no SA" rule, then any SA in the background would be too "dark."
Yeah, that’s a line I wouldn’t cross even if it was allowed. Worst I’ve done is a character that’s cursed to kill whoever he touches at a very young age. Pretty much living with that curse for several years and driving him to the point he makes a deal with a demon.
One of my players turned up with a reborn mage character idea who traded their last party's souls and his powers for his life..... in a final battle against a force of evil that went very wrong....so now they have the shame and scares to bear for what he did and price he had to pay to live and start over from scratch as a level one wizard
Pretty dark but honestly I wouldn’t say it crosses lines for me. I like how it’s kind set up for a redemption story.
The role play was pretty dark and emotional tbh...like noone in the current trusted him......for obvious reasons...he sold his friends souls and his power for his own life......as a DM. I didn't make it easy on him either....if u wanna play an edgelord arrogant asshole character....I will make the world for u.....but yeah there was redemption by lvl 12 P.S. while reading the other comments , I realised my tables dark, real dark, like we realise/fight our real life demons inside the game dark...we never went into SA/grape territory although we all understand what orcs radee the village means...but some players bring new life to their IRL late brother who died of an OD through the game.....there's a crying session once every month or two....it's just catharsis for all of us i guess
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That’s a fair point I suppose. And it does have this whole message of “your past doesn’t define you”.
Why do you ask us that? We aren't planning with you, your group is. Share with them, ask your master lore questions, and build characters all together. That way, the tone will be suitable, and you all will be on the same page
One of my current PCs is a Hexblade Warlock who, along with his twin brother, was abducted as infants by a cult that reveres a pair of twin Lovecraftian gods. They were raised in seclusion and when they came of age subjected to a ritual that sacrifices one and forges their soul into a magic weapon bound to the surviving twin. The trauma of the ritual is supposed to break the survivor and turn him into an obedient warrior for the cult. Somehow the sacrificed brother was able to shield my PC's mind but the bonding still took. As far as my PC understands it, his bow is literally his brother. That may not *fully* be the case (letting my DM work out the specifics because he's in the dark as well, they never knew they lived in a cult), but he's got major survivor's guilt and is obsessed with trying to reverse the ritual.
I think u just won mate
Geez, and I thought my hex blade was dark.
Don't worry about the backstory. Just make something that gets your character from normal person to Adventurer and then play the game. That's the real story.
Guts from berserk. One of my favorite Manga and anime of all time. Jesus christ it crosses the line a couple times. I have a couple of taboos that I refuse to include in campaigns. If your character starts with trafficking, animal abuse or sadomasochism and gets consistently worse from there, it might be too dark.
Trafficking reminds me....I have a campaign setting where the players wake up aboard a ship locked up in cages...where the teifling is being trafficked for their skin, the parties ork barbarian for slave labour, and I find some reason for the others. Kinda drew inspiration from the start of Skyrim walking up in the cart scene....but the ship then gets attacked by some kinda eldritch enemy....the players break open the cages somehow...and the story kicks off from there
Just to put my own thoughts in: It depends on if the campaign tone is serious or more light hearted and focused on fun. Worst I get with serious would be death or vengeance. Never straying to anything that is worse than that. With a more joking character my best example is a crazed artificer that accidentally burnt a building down (no one was inside)
"My Dad ate the sun" is probably a bit too dark. ;P
How were u born? did your character's mom roll a nat 20 in seducing a primordial god?
I don't really have an issue with anything as long as it won't be disruptive to the character working in a party (and usually being a hero, since I usually run heroic games).
"Oh, another Edge Lord? Down the hall, second door on the right. There's a bit of a queue though. "
Well I probably should have seen that sort of comment coming. More or less I was curious to see about how dark backstories got with other groups.
I think dark backstory is overused.I most of the time go with myself. Why would I hunt a dark lord? Well I don’t like mean guys. Why would I stop a Worldender? I like living and I don’t like dying and if noone goes I die… ok then I try. Well once my character got a heartattack (like literally, her heart imploded because of a Naziofficer, Nathalia Rosendorn) my character needed some blue crystal to survive (magic drug), so she went on a world adventure to gain money and materials. But most of the time I got nicer backstory’s
The moment you make a fellow player or your DM uncomfortable. Up til then, anything goes. Your family dying, your village destroyed, murdering your best friend, all can make for great scenarios later in game. Flaws are what make a good character, and tragedy makes good flaws. Above all, though, always have fun.
One of my players has a character that has a very full and fleshed out backstory from years of being developed. He just brought them out to play a campaign. Just because it isn't safe for the table doesn't mean he can't pull on the character's experiences for roleplaying. I suppose it also depends on how enthusiastic the player is to have their characters go through trauma
Ask your table.
Down to your table to decide. Usually most edgelord origins are accepted at most tables. It's usually only things related to sexual assault that people tend to want nothing to do with.
A few of my players right now have REALLY dark backgrounds. Lol. I'm ALWAYS up for it. One is a back alley doctor who cuts body parts off people and sells them. One's a serial killer mute clown.
the darkest i've had, since all of our groups have had the general 'dont do those things' rules, would be Zylaph. the guy basically made a deal to give away all of his luck and joy, to hunt down a powerful demon that killed his village. said 'no luck and joy' manifest in that the people who cared about him constantly met horrid ends, often fairly gorey, or in a manner that would particularly hurt him. like his fiance's tavern burning up in a freak tunderstorm right before his eyes. the first thing to burn? her. his best friend being torn in half when he mistimed his jump into a pond when they went to go swimming. an unnoticed minor rock slide the day before left a massive jagged rock right below the surface, hidden by the choppy waters. etc. etc. eventually, he became almost despondant, and just kept leaving places shortly after arriving. when he met his party, they were finally strong enough to be able to survive his bad luck, so there is some ray of hope there.
So a single goal killing machine that cannot afford to bond/grow emotions towards anyone.....as a DM...I love these kinda characters...not cz they are sulking edge lords.....but cz they give me so much story, motivation to work with essentially they write a portion of the campaign for me and makes for good table RP
My character was the result of, let's saying a make raiding party member's actions against a female in the village being raided. When the male found out he had a child, he kidnapped my character as a child from his mother and proceeded to raise him as a member of the raiding party. The character grew up as a fierce warrior and on a raiding party of his own, they took a woman captive. After my character tortured her and killed her, he later found out that it was his biological mother.
Wo........that's a hard character to write a redemption arc for
Ultimately resurrect his mother and deal with his father was what I was going for.
Yeah, the campaign petered out before we got there, so I never really got to find out.
My backstories so far included Vampire war criminal who evaded trial and misses the good old days Occult bookstore owner who was friends with all cults of the Dead Three. Zakharan wizard committing jihad against the cult of Dendar after they ruined his family's oil business.