Specific Background Details Make Your Character an Organic Part of The World

Character backgrounds are sometimes a contentious topic. On the one hand, you want to have enough of a history to get an idea of who your character is, what drives them, and how they picked up the skills and abilities they possess. On the other hand, there are folks who argue that you can put in too much extraneous detail about your character. After all, unless your character's younger brother that you spent half a page talking about is going to show up in your story somewhere, or their childhood friend who joined up with the militia has the potential to become a plot point, there's no point in insisting those details take up space in the GM's memory.

However, there is something I've seen trip players up when it comes to figuring out who their characters are. Because too often players will make generic backstories hoping to ensure their characters can fit in a variety of game settings, but that can have the effect of making a character feel more like a sketch rather than a fully-inked design.

My character? Yeah she's from... "small fishing village." No, I don't know where it's at!

That's why this week I want to talk about the little details you can add to make your character feel like an organic part of the world where the game is actually taking place. As always, if you haven't signed up for my weekly newsletter yet, consider doing that to get all my shiny updates right to your inbox!

Where Are You From... Specifically

When most of us make characters we tend to start with rough concepts. We know our paladin grew up in a remote farming community, or our sorceress is from a noble family in a major city, etc., but too often we just leave things at that point and forget to go back in and fill in the blanks.

If you're going to focus on necessary, impactful details that tie you more closely to the world you're actually playing in, that's a good place to start.

There's a hot spring in my wizard's home town. Where is that? Ugh...

The devil is in the details here. Because there's a difference between being from "a small faming community," and being from Astspear. The former is a general, vague sketch of a place, while Astspear is a town that focuses on fishing and farming, where there's a tradition of militia service among all young people of a certain age, and where there is a vehement anti-piracy stance. It's a place with a specific culture, and which has unique locations like Scalawag's End or Fletcher's Finds in it. Even if the party never ventures to this location, it provides concrete history for a character, along with references, and an idea of the particular forces that shaped this character. Also, if you look at where this town is, and where the party is now, you can see all the areas they traveled through to get where they currently are, giving you an idea of the sorts of sights they've seen and experiences they've had along the way.

For those who are curious, Astspear can be found in my 10 Fantasy Villages supplement.

And if your character is from a city rather than a smaller town or village... well, that's when these details become extremely important. Because if someone tells you they're from a city, that's a generic idea of the sort of place they come from. But the difference between New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Paris, or a hundred other places is marked, to say the least. So while knowing your character is from a city is important, the culture, styles, fashions, norms, etc. of that particular city can make them feel like they're a more organic part of the setting as a whole. Especially since cities can pack so much culture and variety inside them that you can really get down into the nitty gritty of a character's history.

For instance, a character that's a generic big city enforcer who used to work for a gang is a good starting sketch. If they were an Ironfire duelist who fought in the Red Circle, though, that's vastly different than someone who was a grave robber in Moüd, or someone who worked the canal docks shaking down sailors in Silkgift. Not just because each city will have its own gangs, its own guards, and its own laws, but there will be unique cultures and opportunities, as well as certain groups you may or may not have crossed paths with that can give a character a unique perspective on the setting.

Also, for those who are curious, each of the cities mentioned are part of my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, and details can be found below:

- Ironfire: The City of Steel for Pathfinder 1st Edition and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

- Moüd: The City of Bones for Pathfinder 1st Edition and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

- Silkgift: The City of Sails for Pathfinder 1st Edition and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

Always Be Specific Where You Can

While the place a character is born and raised is a good spot to start, this same attitude can apply to every major aspect of the character's history. For instance, if your character is a noble, be specific about what kind they are, and what that responsibility entails. What is their title, where are their lands (if they have them), what's their crest, family reputation, etc., etc. I covered a lot of these things in 5 Tips For Playing Better Noble Characters, but since noble families are one of the bigger parts of any social fabric, you need to know how your character is tied into that society specifically instead of just in a vague sense.

You can apply this to basically every aspect of your character. If you were a criminal what gang did you run with? If you were a mercenary, what was the name and heraldry of your free company? If you graduated from a wizard's college, what is it's name, and where was it? If you were trained as a priest, who taught you, what branch of the church handled your tutelage, and what specific location did you live in while you handled your studies?

And so on, and so forth.

Any time you can tie an aspect of your character to the specific world you're actually playing in, do that. Because not only does it integrate your character with this setting in meaningful ways, but that is how you give your GM the strings they need to tug on. Because now you're not just creating random details; you're marking locations on their map that matter to your history, and which can be used as tools to motivate and reward your character.

Additional Resources

For those looking for additional inspiration when it comes to making their own settings, or finding details to include if a world doesn't have what you need, take a moment to check out some of the following:

- 5 Tips For Creating Fantasy Towns and Cities

- 100 Random Mercenary Companies

- A Baker's Dozen of Noble Families

- 100 Knightly Orders

- 100 Gangs For Your Urban Campaigns

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