What's the most badass of a backstory that you'd allow for a level 1?
Ever let someone pull the incomplete-resurrection-of-a-great-hero shtick?
>systems with levels
>>45751445
/thread
I wouldn't really have any problem with that. Really anything that keeps their capabilities within that of what a level 1 character should be is fine to me as long as it isn't particularly shitty or overdone in the group itself. Someone's progression being more about them becoming whole again than growing isn't really mechanically different in that case
>>45751445
Even without levels, a system will still have means of defining PC power and ability. Would you rather the question be something like, "how badass a backstory would you allow a 100pts character in GURPS?
>>45751418
Do first sessions count as backstory?
>>45751418
Not my story but a guy I play D&D 3.5 always tries to set up a timeline for the campaigns I make, so he can establish a dynasty of Orcs and Half Orcs named Gormagon, who travel the world to earn Titles and glory.
Examples include Gormagon: Taker of Nazareth, Archmage Gormagon of the unholy flame!
Presently we're on Gormagon Void Piercer, drowner of wolves and bard killer.
>>45751547
Sometimes
2nd best pie baker in the village.
4 silver medals and counting.
>>45751586
Well I had a pretty neat one yesterday, posted about it awhile ago
>>45751590
So is this a revenge story?
>>45751445
Pretty much. That's why storyteller is a superior system.
Also, no natural 20 bullshit, you just an equivalent if you get +5 successes, which necessarily means you are at least specialized in the subject of the check.
>>45751418
>he's the best in his family!
okay
>he's the best in his village!
okay
>he's the best in his warrior village!
pushing it a little but run of the mill orcs are pretty shitty too so I can buy it
>he's the best in his town!
at least a couple of the random guardsmen would have some combat experience, which is more than what you have
>he's the best in his city/land/country!
fuck off
>he used to be super strong but he's rusty/old!
Being rusty/old doesn't reset you to fucking level 1, it'd take a magic creature using level drain on you to do that.
>he was level-drained by a monster/he was reincarnation from a monster/he has amnesia
I can accept these.
>his ancestors/grandpa/parents/mentor/8-year-old younger sister are all way way stronger than him!
This is all acceptable because the strength of people your character is related to has nothing to do with the character himself being a weak, inexperienced little fuckboy.
Fuck resurrection, my character WAS the great hero that saved the world, at level 1.
>>45751418
I once played a 70-year-old Warmage veteran of 2 wars in a game that started around, I think, level 3.
My justification was that he had been retired in peace and quiet for 25 years or so and most of his skills had atrophied in that time since he wasn't fighting or doing any adventuring.
Really though I just wanted an excuse to roleplay the crotchety old man stereotype.And get the sweet +3 bonus to mental stats for being Venerable age
>>45751876
I can accept this if it's a case of mistaken identity
>>45751876
OK, sell me on this.
>>45751937
He's a sea monkey
>>45751418
I think best I did was an old (50ish) and very alcoholic mercenary captain.
Fluffed him levelling up as "getting back in the saddle".
>>45751961
???
>>45751791
>he's the best in his city/land/country!
Depends entirely on what is being played.
>>45751937
He was the common literary example of the fated chosen one child to go on and adventure and save the world, guided along the way by mentors and magic creatures, magic items, and most importantly fate. His fated path ended at saving the world though, and after that all the help he had went away.
So he's suddenly reduced to just a kid without any mentors or people to help him, no longer bound by fate, and only the magic items which survived the battle with evil. In the game he actually was a pretty bad character, only his fame and beloved deeds were not befitting of a level 1, but to offset that they caused just as much if not more trouble than they helped.
>>45752027
I really can't see experiencing all that and not picking up a few levels, regardless of how much they were carried along.
>>45751791
I agree with >>45752025
Say, a bard can be the best in his country, depending on where he lives, and still be level one.
Especially since more low level bard stuff rarely goes beyond "play musik gud"
>level 1
>venerable human bard (22 cha)
>skill focus perform (song) feat
>prodigy feat
>talented trait
>savant trait
This gives him a total of:
1(ranks)+6(cha)+3(class skill)+3(skill focus)+2(prodigy)+2(savant)+1(talented)+2(aspect of the nightengale) = +20 to perform song. He performs better than the average individual when they are at his best and he at his worst (he rolls a 1 and they roll a 20).
I think this is enough to justify that he is the best in his city.
On a take 10 performing, according to the perform skill, he makes it into the following bracket:
>Extraordinary performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 3d6 gp/day. In time, you may draw attention from distant patrons, or even from extraplanar beings.
I think that's enough to be a grand master performer at level 1.
>>45751791
>he's the best in his city/land/country!
>he's the only one in his city/land/country
Do technicalities make for a good backstory?
>>45751937
>accidentally save the world at level 1
>everyone treats you like a great hero
>a new threat appears, and they expect you to deal with it
I mean, it wouldn't work in a serious game...
>>45752062
He did, he had 1 level.
>>45752064
That's fucking special snowflake bullshit. I would kick you from my game.
>>45752070
Yes.
>>45752075
You're just presenting it as a thing that just happened but his example had him go on an adventure, that's they key matter.
>>45752064
Trait bonuses don't stack and venerable only gives +1 in Pathfinder. If you're going to be pedantic, at least know the rules.
>>45752108
Special snowflake doesn't mean just min maxed.
>>45751937
Right place, right time. The BBEG of someone else's story was about to finish the brave hero and claim the mystic macguffin, but then some random shmuck stabs him in the back.
Everyone's grateful that he did it, but they also agree that it was a little underwhelming.
>>45752129
>venerable only gives +1 in Pathfinder
Incorrect. Middle aged, old, and venerable give a cumulative +1 and -1/-2/-3. Meaning at venerable you have a +3 to all mental and a -6 to all physical.
Now, instead I will push it higher with a racial bonus. Change the race to halfling and take the Driven Worker alternate racial trait and the rich trait for a masterwork instrument.
This gives him a net bonus of:
1(ranks)+6(cha)+3(class skill)+3(skill focus)+2(savant)+2(aspect of the nightegale)+4(driven)+2(masterwork vocal accompaniment thing) = +23
>>45752184
>Incorrect. Middle aged, old, and venerable give a cumulative +1 and -1/-2/-3. Meaning at venerable you have a +3 to all mental and a -6 to all physical.
The +1 and -1/-2/-3 are the cumulative total. Is english your second language?
>>45751418
>Level 1 character is the imaginary phylactery of a Quantum Lich.
>He doesn't know he's an imaginary phylactery. If he did, he'd disappear and the lich would die.
>Destined to one day become powerful enough to achieve lichdom.
>Gets the idea to create a phylactery that can't be destroyed; an imaginary one.
>Becomes a Quantum Lich. His phylactery is a level 1 character projected by his will in deep meditation.
>How many times has this happened?
>>45751791
What about "Was the ancient hero but was sealed awayfor a long-ass time and suffered from sickness derived from being sealed for so long that resulted in their reduced level?"
>>45751418
My buddy is DMing a 4e game where That Guy is playing a shardmind psion with the story that he is a god who took on a mortal form to really understand the mortal plane. He rules lawyers like crazy and throws a defensive fit when the DM says no to his psion bullshit.He even uses the Psion Handbook, which is a real thing.
And the DM is okay with his tale of overpowered bullshit.
>>45752222
No, it ends at a total +3 to all mental and total -6. You are incorrect. Each time you go up an age category you gain the additional effect of that age category, not assume the effects of that category.
>http://www.d20pfsrd.com/alignment-description/description
>With age, a character's physical ability scores decrease and his mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character's ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
Right on the website.
>>45752157
Almost fair, but it'd be really hard to argue that he didn't get enough xp to level. Sure it's an abstraction that doesn't apply to npcs the same way, but it still seems damn odd.
>>45752244
>unfortunately by virtue of being an imaginary being he was always being observed, negating his quantum state
>>45752315
I don't think it's fair to apply such technicalities when he's barely using the term right to begin with.
>>45752397
We're talking about ttrpgs, technicalities are the heart and soul.
>>45752275
This is why I dont play 4e
>>45752461
Doesn't sound like a 4e problem as much as a That Guy problem.
>>45751937
>>45751876
The character is an ultra-small race, such as a fairy or pixie or something, preferably monk or barbarian class. His/her 'world' was a series of villages of said race, in a world that was essentially Mouse Guard. Owls were boss-level enemies to be feared, large insects were horrifying abominations that carried the careless into the night, and anything beyond that was lovecraftian horror to them.
One of these little people somehow got herself a class level, and thus was instantly more powerful than literally everything else in her entire 'setting', which was really just a small strip of woodlands on the overgrown side of a farmer's land. Eventually she develops Saitama syndrome and becomes massively bored with the non-threats that surround her, eventually traveling out into the real world, getting into a fight with humanoid bandits, and realizing there's an entire world of new power scaling out there.
Shenanigans ensue.
>>45751640
>not linking it
>>45751418
Yes, but it was PL10 M&M so, you know, he was still pretty tough.
>>45751670
D&D doesn't even have the nat20 bullshit the stories say it has.
It's only an attack.
And you don't even crit if you don't hit it's AC on a second roll.
>>45753348
>>45753459
Oh, well it wasn't so badass as well...horrifying
another anon screen capped it before the thread died
And also cut it into two parts if you want
because this is a hell of a backstory to have, I felt actual terror while playing it, look forward to the second session
I have a hard time coming up with backstories that aren't mundane
>man is from cursed land where everything sucks, decides to go adventuring instead of moving for no reason at all.
>widow learns and practices medicine while traveling as a way of coping with her husband's death due to disease
>peasant farmer lost everything in wildfire caused by lightning strikes. While drinking overhears adventurers going on about riches and asks if he can help since he has literally nothing to lose
>woman is raised by cult that is obsessed with fencing and their holy book. Goes on an adventure to tell everyone about how great that book is and why they should practice fencing every day.
>>45752259
I did an Elan that got sealed by a volcanic/earthquake thing and kept themselves alive with Repletion until they finally broke out. They were a bit crazy as a result.
>>45751418
>farmer's kid decides the quiet life isn't for him, and sets out to join his nations army.
> first battles an absolute slaughter, his band is cut down to just three men
>Him, a ranger, and a paladin (both former PCs)
>The ranger is surround and cut down.
By now its 5vs2, and the paladin and him cut them down, but a poisoned arrow takes the paladin down, and the farmers child is unable to stabilize his wounds. >The paladin presses his rosary into the kids hands, dying and praying all the while.
>The day was neither won nor lost, but the boy sought out a way to repay the paladin for his heroic deeds, and became an adventurer.
>>45751418
Most of my players are very reasonable. I've had a couple of low nobles, and some veteran; last survivor stuff, but that's the most badass I've had.
>>45753463
Or you do 4e, where you do crit, but it's just max damage on your dice and you get to roll a few extra dice.
And generally you hit on a 20 anyway, so you just get random extra damage.
>>45752108
That sounds hilarious to have in my game. I can see why you'd be wary, sure- PC's so extra-special good he attracts extraplanar admirers and basically runs the entire plot of the game- but as long as he's shit at everything else which the party does, should be fine.
>>45751876
This comment kinda made me want to play a Rusty Venture sort of character that got dragged along on all the crazy adventures of his Epic Tier father before he even reached level 1.
