Last time we discussed the more negative aspects of character backstories. This time we’ll focus on ways a backstory can be used in more positive manner. I have two examples: the first is something that one of my characters experienced and the second is one of my favorite ways to build a party backstory that can be used to have of fun.

Example 1:

I like when a GM does what I call “call backs” to my character’s backstory. In a recent New World of Darkness game, I played an ex-NHL player named Frank “The Tank” Wilson. Frank was a goon, an enforcer on the ice. While his backstory details were deliberately left vague, we all knew at one point during a game, Frank injured an opposing player so badly, that he was banned from the NHL for life and ended up doing some jail time.

During the the adventure, the Big Bad would try to mess with our minds. At one point, Frank, in the middle of a haunted apartment building, began hearing phantom radio broadcasts inside his head, forcing him to relive the incident and the shame and anger that followed. He began pounding the walls, shouting “IT’S NOT MY FAULT, IT’S ONLY A GAME!” while at the same time fending off grappling attempts from others in the party who were trying to calm him down. Not a ton of details were given, but since it was my character, I didn’t need them. I knew the backstory. Hell, I could almost smell the ice.

While it took some effort on my part to imagine the incident, it was a master stroke on the GM’s part to take what was essentially 1 or 2 lines in the backstory, realize it was a life-changing moment for Frank, and then call back to it in the game at a time where it made the most narrative sense so it would have maximum impact on me as a player.

Example 2:

This one takes a bit of setup on the GM’s part. I like shared backstory among the party. It doesn’t exist when the game begins, but it occurs naturally as the game is played.  For the first part of this setup, you have to have a villain the party wants dead no matter the cost. How do you do that? You have to let the villain get away. Let the the party be victorious, but at some horrible cost.

For example, maybe they survive this adventure’s dungeon, but the evil wizard behind it all manages to get away, taking most of the treasure before disappearing. Note that I said “most” of the treasure. If the bad guy gets away and you leave your party with no treasure and broken gear, they may revolt. A simpler way is that the villain gets away, they get all the treasure, but when they haul it back to the small village they’ve been using as their home base for the past month, it’s been burned to the ground, a smoking pile of bodies left for the party to find, a taunting note from the wizard stuck to a fence post, or perhaps the pretty barmaid’s corpse has been enchanted to deliver to get up and speak for the wizard.

The second part of the set up is to have the villain disappear for a while. While absence makes the heart grow fonder, in the right situation it also lets hate and anger grow from a tiny spark into an all-consuming rage fire. Let some time pass. Let the party adventure. Then you can bring the evil wizard back, perhaps for a cameo, perhaps for another adventure… and then let him get away again. But be careful You need to know your players. While you want them to angry at the wizard for even existing, you do not want them angry at you for keeping the wizard constantly out of reach.

So send the wizard to Cancun on vacation for a while, recharge his batteries, and then bring him roaring back in a final, no holds barred battle to the death. When the players win, it will mean so much more because of, their backstory with this guy and it is immensely satisfying to GM and players.

I know it sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but the look on your player’s faces when they finally kill the guy who’s been slipping through their fingers for months, I promise you it will all be worth it.