Bonus How to Play Good: Create a Killer Backstory

Don’t. Seriously. Just…don’t. There are people who bring 30 single-spaced A4 sheets of backstory to Session Zero. That’s insane. Why?

Because it doesn’t give your character any room to grow.

If you show up at the beginning of a campaign with a starting character that’s defeated a great ogre mage, you’re not a starting character. You’ve had experiences. Experiences are what make you not a starting character. Whether you’re talking about XP to level or discrete skill % improvements or whatever the game system, you’re ahead.

So don’t do that.

At the most, show up with a few sentences about the life you led before you became an adventurer. In 5e, see what your Background says and work with that. In other games that don’t tie anything mechanical to your backstory, you still only need a few sentences, just something for you and your GM to sink your teeth into to create a character arc.

“The talking wolves of the Archenwood raised me. Until the loggers came.”

That’s so much more free than 30 pages of backstory. And it gives your character room to grow.