How much important is your char background to you?

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I know it all depend if your a role player or a "roll player" ( more like a power gamer but I just like pun... ) anyway I generaly take week to carefully create my Char Background as it may have many effect in the quest. And I think the DM should know his player character's background imagine this:

DM: okay Now you realize that the bad guy whi killed the king is actually your Brother!

Player: err... I never had a brother I only had a sister!

DM: "..."

Anyway as I have said above your char background could have major impact (spelling ?) in the game. So what do you think I am wrong or not since I have arguing (spelling ?) with a friend for week in the question " Should the DM know all of his player Background " and what is better than BOM for this kind of dilema?

 

Character background is one of the most important parts of the game, because the DM can rip parts from it and make the story more interesting.

 

I agree... Its very important since it makes you character a guy an not a barb/cleric. A name not a class i mean.

And yes it makes lots of new options for the DM.

I'd give it 9/10 if this was a pool.

 

I'd say it definitely makes the story come more alive to know the background of the characters. Can make the past haunts their characters from time to time.

 

I actually have to disagree with everyone.

It depends.

Character background is not important when you are playing a "Monty Haul" campaign, or are playing with powerplayers, or what have you. Conversely, I believe it's fairly important in a deep-immersion role-play campaign. Neither is "better"; the important part is having fun.

And yes, I do prefer the latter.

 

I believe that character background plays the greatest part a the begining of a campaign. Determining the character personality is more important for the long term. These two issues are somewhat tied together but not totally. As a campaign runs it's course the past events become the character background. The past game events are far more 'real' for the PC then any pre-game background they create. On the other hand how a character acts in these events is central to what role-playing is about.
Therefore I would out some general info about a character, goals, motivations, likes/dislikes, etc. This is far important to guide character choices as the game progresses.

 

Well, although it presents many good oportunities, backround isn't that important in my campains. In one of them, no body really seems to care, and in the other, no one cared either and the dm made up all the backrounds.

 

I have made a pretty big background for my Tiefling planar-champion Gian Tozar. Here it is:

You was given birth in 1260 DR in Atkathla in Amn by a human woman named Aneja. Your father were gone to fight as an mercenary for the Nine Hells in the Blood War between the Infernal Plane and the Nine Hells. When you were seven you heard from your mother that he dissapeared while battleing three Gelugons alone and wounded. When you became 15 you felt two large horns on your shoulders and started to feel a great bloodlust. When you asked your mother of this she told you that your father was an Abishai and that you were a planetouched Tiefling. She told you to leave the home directly so that she too, wouldn't be an outcast becouse of your heritage. You lived in the slums for month, earning your living in the gladiator pits in the Coppers Coronet so that you could scrap together enough money to leave Amn and head to Luskan.

As soon you got the money to get on the ship you were away. It were only one problem; the sailing ship was actually a galley transporting orc barbarians, goblin warriors, mad giants and even more evils to the north, to the Icewind Dale. The captain was a priest of Illmater named Brother Poquelin. He took you and all the other passengers that didn't belong to his army as prisoners and threatened to slay all of you and to make you his undead slaves instead. He also told you that all potential warroirs and spellcasters that were ready to join his forces should report directly to the guard captain, Feruish. When you did this he recognized you as the famous gladiator you were and sent you directly to Brother Poquelin.

When you arrived before the priest he showed his real identity as a mighty demon from the Infernal Plane, Belhifet. He told you that a great evil reigned in the north and that all this had to be made in order to free the north. The evil commander for the other army were another demon named Yuxonemi, a snake-woman of great power. After hours of hours you felt a new feeling, the feeling of uniety. You took him as your diety and he maked you to the apprentice of Feruish.

When you arrived to Targos in 1280 DR you and all the other on the ship were transported to the lower Dorn's Deep, a long lost dwarven ruin south of the little hamlet of Easthaven, one of the ten towns. You and Feruish formed a friendship and partnership in battles that was rarely seen before in orcish tribes. Eventually in 1281 DR you two became the commanders of Belhifets first orc army, the Avengers, which consisted of 3000 orcs, both warriors and spellcasters. You had the orders to overrun the acient elven fortress, the Severed Hand, and making it your base of operations. The fortress were controlled by spectral elves and their powerfull leader, the baelnorn Larrel. After a long and outdrawn battle the fortress were taken with only minimal losses on your side. As you came into the fortress you thought it would be a great idea to put all the half-dead elves to their final rest together with their god Corellon. This you did and soon the fortress were clean of all elves and you started to feel as home already. You sent the orcs to repair all the broken parts of the fortress and when you heard that a group of evil mercenaries had killed Belhifet you decided to make the Hand his last temple of this world.

You and your orcish friend Feruish started to seek out all these mercenaries to stop their evil existance on this world in order to be able to rescurrect Belhifet. The group concisted of a mage, a ranger, a druid/cleric, a fighter, a bard and at last a rouge. You first met out with the party's rouges outside Luskan, a halfling thief of great skill named Ferti and a half-elf bard named Madelin. You and Feruish successfully overcome the great defences that Madelin threw at them both and hacked them to pieces. You putted the parts in ourns and putted them in the Mercenaries Sack, a bag of holding, that your father left after him before leaving the home as a mercenary in the Blood War.

After you took care of them you met the archmage, a half-fiend named Fareluxz the Dread and the dwarven fighter, Kreg Hivenaxe in Neverwinter trying to sell some of their useless goods. Feruish and Kreg went toe-on-toe directly after the meeting and Fareluxz threw attack spells at you. You dodged them with great skill that you have earned from your time in the pit arena and was able to get in front of Fareluxz and chopped off his chest and up with your longsword and ran to Feruish aid. He had great problem against the strong and ferucius dwarf and was nearly killed as you came along. Kreg had to much difficulty at defending himself against both of you so he started to run and Feruish threw his greatsword in the dwarfs back, killing him instantly. You picked up the remaingin pieces of the devestating battle and putted them too, in little ournes and putted the ournes in your Mercenaries Sack.

The last party members, the elven ranger Iziol and the female wild-elf cleric/druid named Ozpeida, were to be found in Easthaven where they helped building up the remains of the destroyed city. As soon they saw you and the orc they called upon natures forces to attack you. Also the town milita putted up arms to attack you and Feruish. As over 30 of the militas and 20 of the summoned animals attacked Feruish you ran for the ranger. You to had an impressive battle against eachother and soon the ranger was so wounded that he fell down, bleeding gravely, on the ground. Soon he died from the injuries and this his wife Ozpeida saw and was suddenly furious on you. She threw everything she had at you, hurting you almost as bad as Iziol, when Feruish whom had hacked himself out of the platoon of defenders that surrounded him and stabbed the wild-elf in her back. As soon as she realized this she turned around, looked at Feruish and threw her last spell, a Creeping Doom spell at him. As she fell down to the ground between Iziol she saw the bugs eating Feruish alive. Soon there was nothing but skeleton left at your best friend body. You took the remaining parts of Iziol and Ozpedia and traveled back to the temple of Belhifet.

As you walked you thought of all the great memories you had with Feruish, of all the times you two had destroyed platoons of enemies alone and how many times you would celebrate it with a good old mead of ale. This was now lost, and the return of Belhifet will let you have your revenge. Your sweet, sweet revenge.

When you arrived at the fortress you was met with stunning silence. The orcs were sad becouse their commander and friend was dead and unraiseable. But as you showed up with the parts of the murderers of Belhifet they became much, much happier. The shamans and the priest of the fortress prepared for the ritual and soon everything was ready to go. After the ritual, Belhifet showed up in his spectral form. He told you that he wont be able to return until a hundred years after he died which means 1381 DR. You accepted this because you knew that a tiefling lives that long, even longer.

25 years after, in 1296 DR, a new threat showed up outside the fortress. It was the legion of Chimera, a nation of half-breeds controlled by the two cambions and bastard kids of Belhifet, Isair and Madae. Their army concisted of all kinds of monsters and outcast like the Neo-Orogs, Gelugons and Driders. Your army had only 2700 soilders left and the legion had over 15.000. They wanted the fortress as their new base of operation and wanted you and you soilders to join them. You refused, beliving that they were pure evil. You commanded your archers out to the towers and your close-combat soilders to the battlefield outside the fortress. Now it was showtime.

You let the legion make the first attack, storming in the front and the west, before your soilders started to defend the temple. The Avengers in your army fought great, killing five for each orc down. After seven hours of battleing the legion had lost 9000 conscripts while you had lost 2000. They were winning on the field, but you defended yourself glorious, knowing what would come if you lost the battle. Torture, torture and death. You and the remainging fortress slowly moved backwards in and up the fortress. As you came to the diversion of the hand the army splitted up. The wizards to the wizards tower, the priests to the priest tower, the warriors to the war tower, the civilians into the sleeping tower and you and your best warriors in the officer's tower. As you and the soilders barricated yourself in the fortress you saw out the windows how the other towers burned. There were more than a thousen screams that night from the towers and you and your 150 remaining warriors had the feeling to give up. But you didn't. And that saved your life.

The Madae gave you one last chance to surrender so your lives would be spared. You didn't, knowing that only death would come from the agreement. Then they went mad. Madae sent her best warriors, the Slayer Knights of Xvim, her god, on you. Your best warriors didn't stand a chance. They hacked themself thrue the door and killed all but 20 of your orcs. As you said your last prayer you got a stone bullet in your head, knocking you out. You saw in flurry how the knights of Xvim killed the last defenders and hos a winged, twisted human picked up your body. Then it was all black.

As soon as you woke up you saw Isair in front of you. He told you that you were a such good warrior and commander that you were welcome to their army if you wished. You said that you would never would betray your god in that way. Isair was a friendly fellow, controlled by his sister even that she wanted was revenge, all he wanted was peace in his mind. He let you loose outside Easthaven, where Belhifet would return and there you have waited as a milita-men in the hamlet peacefully but with dark thoughts in your mind for the return of your diety. Thoughts of revenge.

1312 the brother and sister were slayed by a new group of travellers and the legion of Chimera had fallen. You thought it was good but you felt compassion for Isair. After all, he was a nice guy with bad influence from his sister, Madae.

In 1381 Belhifet returned as Brother Poquelin in Easthaven and you two left the hamlet without causing any trouble at all. You two went south, all the way to the city of Baldurs Gate. There he went on a killing spree in the city and you saw his real intentions. He didn't want peace, he wanted chaos and destruction. As he slowly was killed by the flaming fist mercenaries and the town's militamens you hide yourself in an alley, cloaked in a robe. As you saw him falling to the ground he screamed your name, it sounded like over a thousen times in your head. You left your diety, now without a god in this terrifying world. You left the city, and in your travels in Fareûn you heard that the north have faced a new threat. The adventurers that putted down the siblings have started an open war against the ten towns becouse of their outstanding dept to the party. You felt it was the right thing to do, to kill the group and so you headed up, up to the Icewind Dale.

When you returned to Easthaven you saw the party, attacking the town but all the ten towns defences were there. You joined up once again as a militamen and joined the platoon that attacked the group. After a long fight the adventured were dead and you picked up their remains and putted them in ourns which ou putted in your Mercenaries Sack. You hoped to return Isair without his sister. You went to the Severed Hand which an old mage named Orrick the Grey recently build up. You two formed an alliance, you got the fortress and Orrick would get the wizards tower and you had to promise to kill Isair if he tried something evil. You layed an oath and performed the ritual to bring back Isair from the plane of limbo. He were happy at you, happy that he didn't have to meet his sister again, happy that he is back alive.

In 1382 DR you and your new diety formed an unique alliance. He would teach you the arts of being a Planar Champion and you would gather all the remaining forces from the legion to create your own country, the nation of Crystal, beautifull but rough on the edges. After years of training you became the warrior you always wanted, a Plane Champion, traveler of many planes and bladesman of the banished. When you were out and recruiting the old forces from the legion you met a nice man named Zuralx, a hobgoblin cleric. He was a nice fellow, a haunted spirit from the plane of Ysgard, the heroic domains. He was exiled there after an attempt to overthrow his tyrranic leader and free the slaves there. He joined you after he heard of the utopia you were about to create in the north. He joined up together with the group of hobgoblins he traveled with.

in 1286 when your legion had grown big Isair prepared to make the first step. You and Zuralx went into Easthaven and asked them if they would join the nation of Crystal. The prepared a council with the ten-towns and the council was united behind the answer and the answer was a strictly no. They didn't want freaks as their rulers and said that they would defend themself to the last man. You left the council, but not without declaring war on the cities. When you told Isair of the answer he was dissapointed. He wanted to take controll peacefully but if this was what was needed then it should happen. You gathered your forces outside the forest Lonelywood where you met the ten-towns army. They had 7000 brave men at their disposall while you only had 5000 "freaks."

They charged at your forces while their archers backed them up. You and the soilders ran into the forest while they followed but not the archers, they stayed right outside the forest ready if you returned. When you were about an hours run into the forest you blow a horn you had brang along the whole time. When the horn sounded 500 archers and crossbowsmen showed themself in the treetops. They slunged row after row of arrows into the helpless warriors of the ten-towns. When the soilders were dead or captured you showed up again outside Lonelywood with your remainging 300 archers and 4700 soilders. When you were there 5000 new mercenaries from Neverwinter and Waterdeep waited on you together with the archers from the ten-towns. They charged at you and you defended you positions with grat pride.

After five hours of close combat both sides had lost all their archers and you only had 500 soilders left while they had 900.
Your army forced them back with you and Zuralx in the front, eachother backing the other up. While you stopped at some times to watch his forcing thrue the enemies you was at your highest priority at all times. When the enemies was slayed or surrendered the ten-towns left their message; they give up and Isair will be the new ruler of the north. You, Zuralx and most of all, Isair were happy. Now you could rebuild the north with great potential with showing respect of both the barbarians of the north, the citizens of the ten-towns and the half-breeds and outcasts from all of Fareûn.

Now when you and Zuralx have finished your quest its 1392 and you have left the legion as a commander. Now you works as a mercenary in all the planes but are right now living in Easthaven and taking some time of at the Winter Cradle tavern there talking with Zuralx and another group of travellers.

 

Yes, it's important. It's actually the basis of the character's character (ekhm) and personality. Plus, 'tis history that makes the man

Even a very dull stat-wise character gets a whole new interesting touch when a nice bio is created for him/her. This bio might suggest further development and choice of options too. What's more, it's more than likely to suggest some parts of the plot to the DM - rewards, prestige class allowance, friends or enemies from the past - some kits, like Expatriate, are all about that.

In my own case there's one more thing: all my major characters of whom all are paladins are getting stats and BIO made after my own (at some stage in life), at least at start. I'm sick, I know. At present I'll be running an Errant that I think could well and perhaps should rather be Expatriate.....