I counted seven deadly sins. D and D

players keep committing when writing

their backstories that ruin their games.

I've been playing D and D for over 20

years and committed all of them, but

also learned a lot along the way. So,

today I'm telling you all about them,

but also showing you how to fix them one

by one by taking a mighty chosen hero

with all these seven sins and turning it

into an incredible character so you

never fall into these traps again. All

right, so we'll jump straight to sin one

in just a second, but you need to know

the guy we're going to fix today first.

This is Odiel Meerin. He is a level one

human paladin. His noble bloodline was

wiped out in a single night, so he

smuggled to safety as a child and then

was raised by a legendary swordmaster,

and with him, he lived through many

adventures. He would be awesome as a

protagonist of some novel, but as we're

going to see in a minute, as a D&D

character, his backstory is not so

great. But why though? Well, let's start

with something you might have already

noticed. Before starting the campaign,

Odariel killed a young dragon with his

legendary master, but he is level one.

He has what, like 12 hit points. If we

trust the rules, at least a little bit.

A couple of goblins with pointy sticks

could end this guy in just a few

seconds. So, this is our first sin, the

level one dragon slayer. It's when you

create a backstory that describes feats

your character could never actually

perform. And sure, maybe some of you are

thinking, well, maybe he got cursed and

lost his powers. And right, but isn't

that a bit cliche? I think the fix is

actually simpler. Don't describe your

character speak, and instead focus on

their potential. Let's say you

absolutely want to keep the dragon

thing. Well, maybe your character didn't

slay the dragon, but survived an

encounter with one. Like maybe he

distracted it for a while, or just saw

one up close and barely made it out.

This is a level one character and that's

still the kind of thing that changes a

person. But now the level one does not

feel wrong anymore. Your backstory

should be the reason you're going on an

adventure. So it does not work very well

if it says you're already so strong that

you don't need to. But even if you get

the power level right, that doesn't mean

you're saved because your D&D character

is important to you. So, you'll likely

spend quite some time writing their

backstory, thinking about every detail,

choosing your words carefully, etc. But

if you then send it to the one person it

was meant for, aka the DM, and they

never read it, not because they didn't

care, but maybe because they just didn't

have the time, you will get frustrated

when nothing you wrote comes up in the

game. It happens all the time with DND

backstories. So much so that it's our

second scene. And I decided to call it

the nolla nobody reads. It's when the

players write five, 10, or sometimes

even 20 pages and then the DM doesn't

read them. And both sides get very

frustrated. In our example, Odario's

backstory is so detailed because he

lived through so many adventures that

it's 12 pages long. So maybe it's well

written and has a lot of emotional

depths and everything, but the DM has

four other players who also send

backtories. And he's a DM, so he also

has to do session prep and remind

everyone to bring their dice and books

and sheets. If everyone's backstory is

that long, the DM will have to read 60

pages before they can even start

planning their session. But don't DMs

love reading? They play a game where you

need to read hundreds of pages of rules

to get started. So what? They're going

to give up for 60 pages? Well, the

problem is the DM, like the players,

wants to play the game. They don't want

to feel like there's extra homework to

do. It's also a bit scary when you get

backtories that are too long because it

implicitly tells you that there's a risk

that this player will think about their

character more than the rest of the

group. And this can lead to many other

problems. I believe a backstory should

feel more like a pitch. One summary

sentence and a few usable details like

this. Odariel is a divine touched

paladin from a fallen noble house

seeking purpose after surviving a dragon

attack that scattered his order. That's

a single powerful sentence that the DM

can read in 5 seconds and that will have

them start to think about how to use it.

Under the sentence, we can write a page

of important details like living NPCs

related to the character, open

questions, hooks the DM can grab, etc.

And this can go wrong, too. So, we'll

get to those in a second. But the point

is, if you're a DM can't absorb your

backstory in 5 minutes, it starts to

feel like homework. But even a short

backstory can be completely useless if

you make this one specific mistake. Just

before I tell you what it is, I just

wanted to let you know that I made a

free cheat sheet called the seven deadly

sins of character creation. It covers

the other mistakes to avoid when

creating a D and D character that are

not necessarily backstory related. So,

just click the link in the description

to get it. All right, so let's keep

going. Let's say you take all the advice

I've been giving you so far. You shorten

your character backstory, make sure it

makes sense considering their power

level, etc. Your DM reads it.

Congratulations. But now they put it

down and think, "What do I do with

this?" Because maybe your backstory is

now short, but in the process, you might

have accidentally resolved every

conflict inside it. That's our third

deadly sin. No hooks, no knives. And it

gives me an excuse to share a concept

that I think might be one of the most

useful tools to use in this hobby. I

believe backstory elements exist so the

DM can use them to raise personal stakes

and make the story more intense. When

you come up with the backstory, you

forged the knives and you hand them to

the DM so they can stab you with them

down the line. So your mentor, your

hometown, your rivals, etc. are all

knives. Backstory without knives feels

useless quickly to the person reading it

because this is a game, so everything

needs to be useful to play. So Odariel

needs a few nice. I think he does have a

mentor. Maybe he is not that legendary.

He has a bit of a hero worshiped

situation going on. That mentor did

disappear. But who killed them? Did he

really die? We don't know. And maybe he

is from a fallen kingdom. But there are

surviving loyalists somewhere. That way

we give the DM opportunities to surprise

us. They don't have to use all the

lives. It does not have to be the main

plot, but this will make the world a lot

more immersive. So now I know some of

you are probably thinking, "Oh, awesome.

My backstory has hooks. I have dead

parents and come from a destroyed

village, so I'm good, right?" Well, I'm

afraid it's a bit more complicated than

that. Let's go back to Adoreiel's

backstory. We imply that his entire

bloodline was killed in a single mate

and that the mentor he found later on

disappeared as well. And that sounds

like a lot of emotional material. So why

isn't it great? Well, the answer is

quite simple. If everyone's dead, drama

has nowhere to go. This is sin number

four. Your hooks are all dead. Every

time you kill something or someone in

your backstory, you're making it a

little bit harder for the DM to use

those as hooks because dead parents can

explain why you're adventuring. Sure, it

gives your character some motivation,

but motivation is not really story fuel.

A dead mentor or parent will mostly

motivate once when you start the

adventure. And sure, you can always seek

revenge, but it's a bit onedimensional.

But if the parent is alive and just

gone, or if the mentor joined the enemy,

for example, now we're back to the

knives thing and the DM can twist them

for however many sessions you play

through. So, how does that look like for

our paladin? So far, we had dead

parents, mentor, and order. What if the

mentor is simply missing and was never

confirmed dead? And maybe his mom

survived at the last minute but went

into hiding but didn't tell him where

cuz him knowing would mean he could be

captured and forced to reveal her

location. We still have emotional weight

and loss here. But now the DM can work

with this. It can turn into clues, other

NPCs like allies of those peoples, etc.,

etc. I'm not saying you should never

kill people in your backstory, but if an

NPC matters enough to be in it, they can

probably be very useful alive in your

campaign, too. All right, so we've fixed

quite a few things already, but what if

I told you that there's a whole category

of sins that happen before you even

start writing? By the way, if you've

ever committed one of these sins and

find this video helpful, please attack

the like button with your most powerful

ability to help it reach more people and

create better games for everyone. Okay,

so just imagine you show up to session

one with your backstory and because you

mean well it's short, has hooks, plenty

of live NPCs for the DM to use, etc.,

etc. But then your DM starts talking and

says, "Right, so as you know, there are

no gods in this setting." What? This is

our fifth sin built in the wrong

universe. The god thing is just an

example here. Sometimes people create

characters in complete isolation,

totally ignoring the DM's world. I'm not

just talking about lore details. It can

also be a total mismatch, like making a

comedy character in a grim dark

campaign, for example. Eventually,

you're going to be playing with a

character, which means it's got to be

fun for you and for everyone else as

well. So, your backstory needs to fit

that specific campaign. And this is the

one sin where the fix is a conversation

really. You ask your DM about their

world and the tone of the campaign and

adjust accordingly. So, let's say we did

ask for Udariel and our DM told us that

the campaign is going to be a bit

light-hearted, more than what we had in

mind anyway. Adventure will be front and

center and the heavy stuff will feel a

bit out of place if it's too present.

So, we don't have to change everything,

but we just adjust the texture a little

bit. Maybe Odariel didn't heroically

survive the dragon attack and had to

hide under a cart and got lucky. He's

not proud of it and he actually fears

people will find out eventually. And I

think it would be funny if his mother

was actually staying in a small cottage

with her best friend in the village next

to their castle. She has a hat of

disguise but is superstitious and thinks

seeing her son again might stop it from

working. The meat of the backstory stays

the same, but it has a slightly more

comedic tone to it now, and it would fit

that specific table better. But even if

you take the world into consideration,

when you come up with backstory, there's

one sin that might wreck everything. The

worst part is that it comes from the

best intentions. So, for this part,

we'll pretend to be in Odariel's plier's

head for a minute. Look at the backstory

one more time. Odariel is a paladin, but

was also chosen by his god. He is also

the rightful heir to that fallen kingdom

we were talking about. Now imagine

you're another player at this table. Say

you made a halfling rogue who grew up on

the streets or a ranger who just really

likes the woods. How do you feel

standing next to the chosen one who is

also secret royalty? What space can you

occupy? This is the main character sin

where your backstory puts you at the

center of the universe making everyone

else seem less important by comparison.

prophecies, unique artifacts, etc. all

fall into this category. And I get it.

It doesn't really feel like a sin when

you're writing it. You just love stories

and epic ones are cool. In fiction,

there's a protagonist. Froto carries the

ring and Argorn is the secret king,

etc., etc. But this is not a book or a

movie. This is Dn D, which is a game and

fundamentally a group activity. And I

think this is why this one is so

painful. You've seen or read thousands

of stories in your life. uh you start

playing a game where they tell you that

you can do everything because unlike in

video games, there are no edges to the

world. So when you sit down to write a

backstory, you instinctively write

something where your character is that

protagonist you're so familiar with, I

don't think it's an ego thing, but more

of a habit thing. And the problem is,

even if the other players don't

particularly mind, it will heavily

destabilize the story because the DM now

has one player whose backstory is

screaming, "Build the campaign around

me." And therefore, the campaign will

almost inevitably start to orbit around

it. Every player at the table needs to

be the main character of their own

story. Your backstory doesn't need to

make you the most important person in

the room, but to make you an interesting

person to share the room with. So

instead of being a chosen one with a

cosmic destiny, etc. What if Odiel had a

connection to his god that he doesn't

fully understand yet? It might be divine

or maybe something else. He doesn't know

and maybe neither does the DM. It could

be a good excuse for one level deep into

Warlock down the road or something

entirely different. This makes things

more reasonable, less like Odariel is

the center of the universe. He's just a

person with unanswered questions and he

will be able to explore those during

play with the other characters as they

explore their own. So yeah, forget

prophecies and spend more time on

questions. And this brings us to the sin

that might make all the others feel

trivial in comparison. So let's imagine

this is session 14. Now the party has

been through a lot and the campaign is

well underway. Adariel's player starts

talking. Guys, uh, I have something to

tell you. Everyone looks around

confused, even the DM. I'm actually the

rightful heir to the throne.

>> Oh, but um, didn't we establish her

kingdom was gone?

>> Unor.

>> What? Uh, who was Unor? This is the

secret reveal nobody cares about.

Sometimes players hide backstory from

the party or even the DM hoping for a

dramatic reveal that almost always falls

flat. I've seen this go down three

different ways. Blank stairs, you know,

people don't understand. Anger like,

"Why didn't you say something when we

were in that kingdom?" Or, "Might have

been cool to discuss this with me if

that's from the DM." Or just awkward

silence when it's so obvious that in

fact, no, this is not true. Look,

secrets are cool. Reveals are cool, too.

But, and it's a big butt. I cannot lie.

For them to work, you need to work with

the DM early on and to build towards it.

So, how do we fix this for Odariel?

First, the DM needs to know everything.

Don't fight me on this. You need to

share the secret in advance so the DM

can actually build toward the moment and

tell you if it's even possible. But

there's a second thing you need to make

sure of that I think is easy to miss. A

good reveal isn't new information from

nowhere. There always a deeper layer of

something the table already knows and

cares about. In our example, the party

already knows Odariel's family lost

everything and that he has this weird

connection to his god he can't really

explain. So the reveal isn't surprise

actually from another kingdom, but his

god has been losing power and his

connection is to one of his divine left

tenants who actively conspired against

the noble house. Now the twist

recontextualizes something. the table

has been living with for a long time,

which is a lot more exciting. So, we

started this experiment with a long

backstory telling the story of a secret

air chosen one dragon slayer dude with

everyone dead and a random hidden

secret. And now we have the same

character, but that will actually

contribute to the fun of everyone at the

table. I think all seven sins kind of

come from the same place. We bring our

storytelling instinct to the D&D table

and forget we should be building a tool

to help everyone have more fun. Your

backstory isn't the first chapter in

your character's novel, but the setup

for a game that hasn't been played yet.

So, next time you write a backstory,

just read it back. Ask yourself, can my

DM use this? And if the answer is no,

rewrite it using the techniques we

discussed in this video. And if you're a

DM, don't just hope your players will

figure it out. Share this with them and

tell them what you need. But, okay, now

you know what not to put in the

backstory. But there is a question

underneath all of this that most players

never think to ask. And it's so powerful

that it can make your next character 10

times better. So, click on this video

next to find out what it