Character Background (DMG)

__TOC__
When you look at a completed character, you will notice there are still many unanswered questions: Who were the character's parents? Are they still alive? Does the character have brothers and sisters? Where was he born? Does he have any notable friends or enemies? Are his parents wealthy or are they poor? Does he have a family home? Is he an outcast? Is he civilized and cultured, or barbaric and primitive? In short, just how does this character fit into the campaign world?
There are no rules to answer these questions. The Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide are designed to help you unlock your imagination. The AD&D® rules do not presume to tell you exactly what your campaign world will be like. These decisions are left to you.
Consider what would happen if the rules dictated answers to the questions above. For example, suppose the rules said that 50% of all characters come from primitive, barbaric backgrounds...and you're running a campaign set in a huge, sophisticated city (the New Rome of your world). Even more ridiculous would be the reverse, where the rules say 50% of the characters are city dwellers and your campaign is set in a barbaric wilderness. Or how would you explain things if 20% of all characters were seafarers and you had set your adventures in the heart of a desert larger than the Sahara?
These pages contain guidelines and advice about how to create a campaign, but there is nothing that says exactly where this campaign must be set or what it must be like. This does not mean that a character's background shouldn't be developed—such background adds a lot to the depth and role-playing of your players and their characters. However, it is up to you to tailor character backgrounds to the needs of your campaign.
==Letting Players Do the Work==
Of course, you don't have to do all the work. Your players can provide most of the energy, enthusiasm, and ideas needed. Your task is to provide direction and control.
Allow your players to decide what kind of people their characters are. One could be a rough nomad, another an over-civilized fop, others, homespun farmboys or salty seadogs. Let the players decide, and then tell them if, and how, their characters fit into your campaign world.
When a player says, "My dwarf's a rude and tough little guy who doesn't like humans or elves," you can respond with "Fine, he's probably one of the Thangor Clan from the deep mountain regions." This type of cooperation spurs your creativity, and involves the players in your world right from the start. You must come up with answers to their questions and ways to make their desires work in the campaign. The will be rewarded with the feeling of getting the characters they want.
A carefully well-crafted character background can do more than just provide emotional satisfaction. It can also provide motivation for the player characters to undertake specific adventures:
Just what is a dwarf of the Thangor Clan doing outside his clan's mountainous homeland? Is he an outcast looking for some way to redeem himself? Maybe he's a restless soul eager to see the bright lights of the big city and the world.
A character can have parents to avenge, long-lost siblings to track down, a name to clear, or even a lost love to recapture. Background can be used to build sub-plots within the overall framework of the campaign, enriching character descriptions, and interactions.
Background should not be forced: Do not insist that a player take upon his character a crippled grandmother, three sisters stolen by gypsies, a black-hearted rival, and a stain on the family name. Instead, see if the player has any ideas about his character. Not every player will, but the AD&D game depends as much on the players' fantasies as it does on yours.
Characters who players are happy with and feel comfortable about will create their own special excitement and interest. Players who are interested in their characters' backgrounds can be a source of creative energy, as they offer you a constant stream of new ideas.
==Problem Backgrounds==
Certain points of background can and do create problems in campaigns, however. First and foremost of these is nobility, followed closely by great wealth.
===Problems of Nobility===
Some players like the idea of their character being Prince So-and-So or the son of Duke Dunderhead. All too often this leads to an abuse of power.
The player assumes, somewhat rightfully and somewhat not, that the title endows his character with special privileges—the right to instant income, the right to flaunt the law, the right to endless NPCs, information, and resources—or, worst of all, the right to use clout to push the other members of the party around. This kind of character quickly becomes tiresome to the other players and will constantly find ways to upset carefully planned adventures.
Titles can be allowed, but the DM will have to put some controls on noble characters. The easiest and most effective method is to strip the title of all benefits that, by rights, should go with it.
The noble character could be the son of a penurious duke. The son may be next in line to inherit the title when his father dies, but he's also in line to inherit his father's debts! Instead of seeking to impress others in public, the poor son might be quite happy to keep a low profile so as not to attract his father's creditors. After all, it's hard to amass a fortune through adventuring when the bill collectors are always on hand to take it away.
Likewise, a princely character could be the son of an unpopular and despotic or incompetent king—perhaps even one who was overthrown for his abuses. Such a son might not want his lineage well-known, since most of the peasants would have less than happy recollections of his father's rule.
Of course, these kinds of manipulations on your part soon become tiresome, both to yourself and the players. Not every duke can be impoverished, nor every throne usurped. Going too far with this strategy will only destroy the validity of nobility and titles in your game.
In the long run, it is better for your player characters to begin untitled, with one of their goals being the possibility of earning the right to place a "Sir or "Lady before their names. Imagine their pride as you confer this title on their character (and imagine the trials they must have gone through to earn this right).
===Problems of Wealth===
Another problem you might have to deal with is characters from wealthy, upper-class families. (This is often associated with the problem of titles since the nobility normally is the upper class.) Such characters, being wealthy, lack one of the basic reasons to adventure—the desire to make a fortune.
Indeed, they see their own money as a way to buy solutions to their problems. Often they will propose eminently reasonably (and, to the DM's carefully planned adventures, quite disastrous) schemes to make their adventuring life easier. It is, of course, possible to hire a wizard to construct magical items. And a wealthy 1st-level character could buy a vast army. But these sorts of things will have undesirable effects on your campaign.
There are ways to control these problems while still allowing players the character backgrounds they desire. Think of the real world and how difficult it is to convince family and friends to give you money, especially sizeable amounts of cash. You may have a loving family and generous friends, but there is a limit.
In your campaign, parents may grow tired of supporting their children. Brothers could become upset at how player character relatives are cheating them out of their share of an inheritance. Sisters may take exception to the squandering of their dowries.
Standard medieval custom called for inheritances—land and chattels—to be divided equally among all of a man's sons. (This is one reason Charlemagne's empire crumbled after his death.) You can use this custom to whittle a wealthy character's purse down to size.
Further, families are not immune to the effects of greed and covetousness—many a tale revolves around the treachery one brother has wrought upon another. A rich character could awaken to discover that his family has been swindled of all it owns.
==Background as Background==
A character's background is a role-playing tool. It provides the player with more information about his character, more beginning personality on which to build. It should complement your campaign and spur it forward. Background details should stay there—in the background. What your characters are doing now and will do in the future is more important than what they were and what they did.