PC Backstory Street Library

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Thought about a cool backstory for a Ravenloft PC in the shower but don't have a campaign to use it in? Drop it in this thread, maybe someone else needs it.
Need a character for your next campaign but don't have inspiration? Browse here, maybe we have what you need.
(I'm calling this 'PC Backstory Street Library' cause it's like people drop in street libraries books they don't read anymore so other people can borrow them.)
(Also note that no cop is going to arrest you if you use these characters as NPCs)

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Inza is a talented Vistani seer. Her powers emerged when she was very young, and the clan's raunie, Madam Silvesta, taught her well. By the age of fourteen she'd already come into full sight, and is the pride of her clan.
The only problem is that Inza isn't 'she'.
He always felt that way, in the back of his mind. As a kid he thought he'd grow out of it, but as his pubrety started and both his powers and his dysphoria grew, he realised this is serious.
Now, it's not like Inza's familly is transphobic. If he comes to his parents or to Madam Silvesta and tell them he has the soul of a man, they'd 100% believe him - and thus will have to kill him. He's simply too dangerous.
Terrified of the death awaiting him, and even more terrified of the possibility he is the prophesized Dukkar, Inza fled his clan and now wanders the land of mists alone - that is, until he meets the party. He keeps his past secret from all but his most trusted allies, and - fearing to somehow invoke the evil hidden in his soul - will use his powers only when more than his own life is on the line.

Adventure ideas (Stakes in ascending order):
- To affirm his gender and to better hide from his family, Inza had struck a deal with a hag for a male body. In return, the hag demands a rare magic item that can only be achieved by a dangerous quest.
- Inza run away to the one domain where his clan wouldn't dare set foot in: Invidia. Despite his best efforts to hide his Vistani heritage, he finds himself in a confrontation with another Dukkar, Malocchio Aderre - and has an opportunity to become his people's saviour rather than destroyer.
- Inza is the prophesized Dukkar and he knows it. The party must find a way to change his fate - and might accidentally fulfil it.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Lix (Half-elf artificer) and Arken (Dwarf bard) are students of the Emherst School of Living Theatre.
When the school decided to present 'The Created' (A play loosely based on the story of Adam and Mordenheim), Arken was chosen for the role of the mad scientist, while Lix was put in charge of costumes and special effects.
If a feat of idiocy only such creative genuises were capable of, the two thought how cool it would be if, instead of a golem-like suit for a humanoid actor, Lix would create an actual, real-life golem. Utilizing the information they found in Van Richten's Guide to The Created (and dismissing as superstitious or satirical the repeated warnings that a golem will inevitably turn on its master and that anyone seeking to use the book to create one should, quote, 'throw it into their hearth fires') and Lix's craftsmanship, and powered by their obsessive passion for the art, the two created Amity, an unusually charismatic clay golem marvelously sculpted to resemble a - realistic yet beautiful in its strange way - flesh golem. Amity learned his part of the play perfectly, and earned the approval of the instructors (unaware of its dreadful nature), but quickly became disturbed with the differences and similarities between reality and fiction. The youths assured him that he's merely playing a villain, that in real life he's a wonderful friend, and he seemed to calm down.
During the show itself, Amity played his part marvelously - everyone was amazed by the amount of emotion 'a lifeless magical prop' managed to express. But when the final act ended and the kids got off the stage to meet their families and go home, the golem followed them into the crowd - and couldn't help but notice the horrified looks of watchers realising 'the monster from the play' isn't as imaginary as they thought.
Over the next few weeks, Amity went into hiding and started to perform increasingly destructive acts of vandalism around the town - often with an artistic bent to them - protesting his fate. He also started sabotaging the preparations for the school's next show. Lix and Arken don't know he's behind those crimes, but they're starting to suspect - suspicions strengthened by the mysterious whispers they both started hearing, asking them why they created an actor who can never drop his act.

Lix is shy (low charisma) but ambitious, displaying a unique enthusiasm toward the plastic side of the theater - costumes, props, settings, effects etc. She taught herself all the crafts needed to become the greatest designer in the domain (has a lot of tool proficiencies), and pays a lot of attention to trivial-looking visual details (perception expertise).
Arken, on the other hand, is incredibly charismatic and dedicated to his acting (performance and deception proficiencies). However, he's not good at improvising without a script.
Both have high intelligence - high enough to be considered above average even after the ability damage imposed by their madness - but ridiculously low wisdom. They start the campaign suffering the Paranoia madness effect - from which they can only start healing after destroying or reconciling with Amity, as it's created by their mental connection to him.

Adventure ideas:

Lix and Arken have created a monster far more powerful than themselves. To stop Amity (preferably before he turns homocidal) they have several options:
- Call for help. The kids have sent for Dr. Van Richten to help them find and defeat Amity. Unaware that they're the ones who started this mess, the doctor is impressed by their alertness and by their willingness to participate the investigation. If they prove themselves useful, he might even start considering them as proteges. But will they keep their involvement secret and deprive the monster hunter of possibility vital information, or reveal themselves as world-class fools, lose their new mentor's respect and subject themselves to punishment by the meistsinger?
This makes for an adventure centered around investigation and exploring the concept of Emherst - a town putting theater about real life both figuratively and literally. A hook for a longer campaign could be Van Richten actually taking them as monster-hunting apprentices - but if he finds out they're Amity's creators, they'd have to work hard to re-earn his trust.
- A Deadly Race. Knowing their creation will chase them, the kids run away in order to drive Amity out of the town and protect their families from him. Now Lix and Arken must travel around Ravenloft, never staying more than a week or two in every domain, gathering power, knowledge and allies on various quests until they're ready to face their past mistake. This makes for a fast-paced, action-filled adventure where the party has to strategize on their feet. A hook for a longer campaign could be them getting entangled in a much larger conflict in one of the domains they visit.
- Reconciliation. So far, Amity hadn't turned to violence against a living being. Raised in the theatre school, where most students and instructors were friendly to him, he wasn't as isolated as most golems are and maybe doesn't hate humans that much. If the other townspeople find him they'd probably try and fail to destroy or imprison him - which would escalate his distress and motivate him to go down the path of corruption. But if Arken and Lix find him first, apologise for the situation they'd put him in, assure him they still love him regardless of what other people think and offer him a better life, maybe they can save him. Yeah, canon says dread golems are inherently evil, but alignments are stupid and even Van Richten doesn't know everything.
This makes for an adventure centered around roleplay, where the heroes must convince both the other townspeople and Amity himself that he can play roles other than that of the villain. A hook for a longer campaign could be the party traveling around Kartakass with Amity (who possibly becomes a PC with the game statistics of a Reborn) on a show tour, running into the domain's various horrors between (and sometimes during) performances.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Inza is a talented Vistani seer.
...
Adventure ideas (Stakes in ascending order):
- To affirm his gender and to better hide from his family, Inza had struck a deal with a hag for a male body. In return, the hag demands a rare magic item that can only be achieved by a dangerous quest.

Interesting one, this... another facet to this adventure idea that springs to mind is: what if part of his quest involves finding a way to purge him of the Sight, so he can avoid the fate of being a dukkar. Ordinarily, I don't love a "happy ending" in Ravenloft, but I also don't like the optics of "Congrats on your transition, now you have to die!" Unfortunately this is the sort of conflict that arises when rigid gothic gender role tropes make contact with modern understandings of gender. But it seems to me that for a vistani, The Sight is a normal secondary sexual characteristic for women, and hence a trigger for dysphoria, and something a transman would be relieved to be rid of in his transition.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Interesting one, this... another facet to this adventure idea that springs to mind is: what if part of his quest involves finding a way to purge him of the Sight, so he can avoid the fate of being a dukkar. Ordinarily, I don't love a "happy ending" in Ravenloft, but I also don't like the optics of "Congrats on your transition, now you have to die!"

For the protocol, I wasn't going to kill Inza. I was thinking
'Why does the Dukkar have to destroy the Vistani? Cause fate says so. Who determines fate around here? The Dark Powers! Let's just fight them! But that's impossible! So what?'
This might be too epic-fantasy minded on my side, though. Your idea is a lot more sane.

Unfortunately this is the sort of conflict that arises when rigid gothic gender role tropes make contact with modern understandings of gender.

Why 'unfortunately'?
That's my favourite part of magic systems. You start with a few strict rules that seem clear enough, but then you start seeing the exceptions, the places where the clear rules suddenly don't know what to do - and that's where the story starts.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Ordinarily, I don't love a "happy ending" in Ravenloft,

May I ask why? There are horror stories with happy endings.

[Mistmaster]

Ordinarily, I don't love a "happy ending" in Ravenloft,

May I ask why? There are horror stories with happy endings.

Indeed. Ravenloft should have hard-won happy endings, but at the end of the day, even if the Dark Powers where sadistic and evil, they evidently love to torture evil ones more then goodones, so theyshould appreciate happy endings, in which the villain lost.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Ordinarily, I don't love a "happy ending" in Ravenloft,

May I ask why? There are horror stories with happy endings.

Indeed. Ravenloft should have hard-won happy endings, but at the end of the day, even if the Dark Powers where sadistic and evil, they evidently love to torture evil ones more then goodones, so theyshould appreciate happy endings, in which the villain lost.

Exactly.
I also think that from our perspective as writers, a setting where nothing can ever end well is counterproductive to horror: Certainty of tragedy invokes despair, not fear. If you have nothing to lose, what sense is there in being afraid?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Indeed. Ravenloft should have hard-won happy endings, but at the end of the day, even if the Dark Powers where sadistic and evil, they evidently love to torture evil ones more then goodones, so theyshould appreciate happy endings, in which the villain lost.

In my haste, I was perhaps too reductive. I agree 100% with hard-won happy endings, where hard-won means: with sacrifice and consequences. I wouldn't want this Inza to be able to completely dodge his fate and trick the dark powers and live happily ever after. That's not very gothic or Ravenloftian. At the happy ending of a horror story, the protagonist is usually battered, bloody, perhaps scarred, but alive, though his friends and family might not be.

And yet, it's a thin line to skate between: this character is being punished because it's a horror story vs. this character is punished for being trans. But on the flip side it's no good to say "this character has plot armor because he's trans" either. I'm just pointing out it's a place to tread lightly, that's all.

[Mistmaster]

I mean, everyone can be alive because the character fought tooth and nails. There are no consequences because their actions derves no consequences.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

So... I recently read a post where someone complained about a saturation of 'dark' characters in modern Ravenloft games, whereas in their opinion Ravenloft is about playing the heroes fighting against the darkness.
I think it always had been very much both. But the 5e Ravenloft content does contain a ton of spooky character options, which some people might find too edgy or morally grey and feel left out.
So I thought I'd give you a few PC ideas that are from a spooky class or race, but are 100% good and heroic and not that dark themselves.


Here's my first one:

Quincey Harker (dhampire rouge) is an average teenager on Gothic Earth's version of England. Except that he's allergic to garlic. And has an exceptional talent for climbing. And had grown kinda pale lately. And he always felt uncomfortable at church. And last time his classmate scraped his knee during a football game, he was disturbingly allured by the sight of blood. And... You get the point.
He tried to ignore it for a few months, but as the symptoms continued he started freaking out and asked Dr. Van Helsing, a friend of the family, to examine him. The old man reassured him that he isn't turning into evil incarnated as an undead monster, thank goodness.
What is going on?

"Well, nobody is quite sure, but... I'm not sure you had been told - it's not a thing to tell a small child - but at the beginning of our hunt for Dracula, the creature... assaulted your dear mother, turning her into not quite a vampire, but something slightly vampiric. She shared a telepathic bond with him for a while, and was repulsed by holy symbols much as the Un-Dead are. She was purified when the count was destroyed, of course - but some residual traits might have been passed on to you."
"Ugh... Okay? I guess? Like, what am I supposed to do about that?"
"I know not, to be honest. This is as much of an unfamiliar ground to me as it is to you, Friend Quincey. Maybe a friend of mine will know more - "
" - The folklorist from Budapesth?"
"That guy. Report to me if there are any changes, in any case."
"That depends. Like, you won't tell my parents about it, right?"
"Not until you're ready to."

When he doesn't have too much homework, Quincey often tags along to The Watchers' operations - that is, ones that don't involve his parents, cause he knows very well that Jonathan will have a heart attack if he ever finds out he'd put himself in such danger. (Van Helsing is a little more premissive. Mina might understand him not wanting to be left behind, but she might tell Jonathan...) For similar reasons, he's afraid to tell his parents about his dhampirism: He knows they'd blame themselves for him turning out like that.
His repulsion by holy symbols isn't as bad as that of a real vampire, but it's enough to make him question his faith: Does God not want me to worship him, simply because of what I am? Can God create a person who, through no fault of his own, has no place in his world? (Queer frum allegory, why do you follow me wherever I go?)

Here - I made a dhampire who's not much darker than your average YA protagonist.
Right, he's also a shameless Dracula fanfic (Quincey is the canon name of Jonathan and Mina's son in the epilouge. Yes, I've read the OG Bram Stoker novel. Finished it last week. I'm pretty proud of myself.), but if you aren't playing Gothic Earth or don't want your PCs to be this close to major canon NPCs, you can simply change the names and locations and make him the son of another pair of vampire hunters.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Now for a Reborn.

What I like about the Reborn is that the way they're presented is a very optimistic way to look at undeath. You aren't an abomination, you simply got a second chance at life.

It frankly reminds me of one of my OCs, Arden. Arden was a 'chosen one' style fantasy hero who prepared for years to defeat the evil witch Destilor... Then failed. He was defeated in what was meant to be their final confrontation, captured, tormented, and returned to his homeland suffering a horrible curse, with tentacles of dark magic crawling under his skin and causing him constant pain. Some might have considered this a fate worse than death, but he chose to look at his condition as a challenge to be dealt with rather than a tragedy to be lamented. Though broken in body, in spirit he's still the same man as ever - righteous, lively and stubborn AF - and that man is not gonna let Destilor conquer his city - even if he isn't sure what he can still do to stop her.

Arden isn't undead, and would be offended by the comparision. A large aspect of his conflict in the story is proving to himself and to others that he's still alive, even though the power of death flows in his veins. But he I created him out of the thought that so many fantasy heroes return from (near or literal) death unrealistically unscathed, and IMHO this sort of thing should take its toll on the character, at least part of the time. I wanted to see a hero - not a random victim, but the hero of the story. The main character. The Chosen One himself - actually dealing with the cost of his sacrifice (and without 'escaping from the mortal realm' like some characters).

I think an interesting way to make a heroic Reborn would be a take on the same idea. The fallen hero rising again - not quite what they used to be, but good enough. Their memories are blurry, they lost some abilities and gained others (not to mention that they look like a freaking zombie), but the core aspects of their personality are the same. The focus should be not about the fact they died, but about the difficulties and hopes of returning to life afterwards.
The specifics of the story can really depend on your campaign, setting, antagonists etc. Maybe I'll send an example later.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Next I'm going with calibans.
I don't think any player needs proof that calibans can be good, (I would say they're Ravenloft's oldest 'playable creeps', but The Slain were there first, if I'm not mistaken) but I'll do them anyway, cause I love calibans.

I'll start with the Cannibal subrace, which seems to me the darkest one, to make a point.

You're on your way home, back from a hangout in one of Liara's less reputable night clubs. You really shouldn't have gone out, but your colleagues pressed you and you couldn't master the courage to refuse, and now they left you alone here... Nevermind. As the thugs surround you, you pray to the Lawgiver for anything, anything that will help you survive the night - and just then, a twisted figure kneels on the cobblestone behind you. It's a young woman wearing a dark-blue crop-top, matching trousers and a red mask. You can't for the life of you guess wear she popped out of, unless she fell from the sky.
"Get on my back!" She whispers as she gets up, and you are in too much shock to disobey. You wonder how in the Hell of Slaves this is going to help, but then... A rope springs out of her belly button? WTF?!
"Hold tight!" She commands as she jerks and climbs up the giant cobweb. As you swing wildly across the night sky, you think you had fallen fron ash to ashes, saved from lawless men only to be kidnapped by a monster - but to your surprise and relief, you safely land on the roof of a tower closer to the respectable areas of the city.
When you're done vomiting, you look up to your saviour with astonishment.
"Who are you?" You ask. "Had you been sent by the Lawgiver?"
"That would be very ironic, as common wisdom holds I'm damned by him," She chuckes, "But stranger things happened. You can call me... The Friendly Neighborhood Abomination."

Natasha Silverman heard rumours of her parents being involved in some evil cult, which might explain her 'curse', but she was genuinely too young to remember that. The only family she knows is her uncle and aunt, who are... Okay, she guesses? Like, not perfect, but she child abuse isn't on the list of her tragic backstory. They forced her to hide the suckers on her arms with gloves and never-ever demonstrate her web powers (which she anyways couldn't use without 'dressing like a slut'), for her own safety in the xenophobic domain, but other then that she had a pretty good childhood. Especially in comparision: Most calibans in Nova Vassa are killed at birth - she just had to try and pretend to be normal.
But when her best friend was almost killed by the Signature Killer, it was her 'abominable' talents that saved the day, and she realised that being normal isn't always your best shot.
She also realised that Liara's Night Watch isn't doing its freaking job, and decided to take matters into her own hands. She watches over the city from the roof tops at nights, ready to 'fly' attacked passerbys into safety.
The city guard is divided about her.
On the one hand, she knows the rules and is much less violent in her methods than can be expected from a vigilante - the worst she'll do to most criminals is shackling them to the floor in cobwebs - and really is filling a niche where the guard itself has failed. But on the other hand, many of them have trouble believing that any woman acting outside the law (or a caliban doing anything) can be good.
Natasha has a nervous habit of eating bugs, but she's trying to get rid of it, cause she feels bad for the bugs.*

Stats: I imagine Natasha as an Urban Ranger, but she could obviously work as rogue.
Give her the Suckers, Spinnerets and Frog Tongue deformities, high Dex & Wis and enough charisma to balance out the racial ability malus.
*This can be represented by her having to make a will save to avoid eating any bugs she sees. The DC is 10 when she's calm, 15 if she failed a fear save that day. Tell your DM to drop random bugs into the scene at the most inappropriate times for comic relief.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Next I go with Brutes.
I think Brute calibans belong to the character-option style that usually only gets played as one of two archetypes:
1) Mr. "When Do I Get To Hit Stuff?"
2) Intellectially Challenged Gentle Giant.

(First is a strong, violent and not-very-smart character played by guys who don't know what 'roleplay' is and are only at the table to punch monsters. The second is a strong, very-not-smart and absurdly nice and sweet character played by guys who want to subvert the first.)

So I want to give you a character that subverts both stereotypes.

"Brad asked to see my paycheck today." Aurek entered the office. Though he towered over Bevel, the bussinessman knew not to be concerned by the hulking fool. "He said I get only a quarter of what any other dockworker gets."
"He's lying." Bevel snored. "He just wants you to feel stupid."
"He isn't. I've seen the numbers."
"Since when do you know how to count?"
"I don't, but I know his are one number longer than mine. It means much bigger, right?"
Bevel sighed. He knew better than to argue.
"Fine, I admit, we have been paying you less." He explained. "Your father thought it was fair at the time, given that you'd have to be explained everything four times."
Aurek stared him blankly with his single, bloodshot eye.
"That was when I was twelve." He slammed his fist on the table, leaving a small crater on the wood where his hand landed. This would cost five nightshades to fix... Bevel sighed. "Ten years ago! I know the work by now, and I carry twice as much load as the others! You can't treat me like I'm still a kid! I learned stuff in the meanwhy!"
"I'll wait till you learn to properly pronounce the word 'meanwhile'." His boss shrugged.
"Meanwhal - mealwine - mea - That's outside the point!"
"beside the point." Bevel calmly corrected him.
"I don't need no grammar - Fine, I don't need any grammar - to carry boxes!" Aurek growled. "And I've been carrying those damn boxes for you and your mama since we were both pimpled teenagers, so I beg your pardon - no, I ain't even begging, I'm setting an uli - ulti - whatever! Either I get equal pay starting from next month - and I will check with Brad or some other bloke - or I quit. Your choice."
"Then quit." Bevel spat to his face. "Good luck finding another company that will take in a thankless, moronic mon - "
"Don't call me that!" Aurek raised his voice a little too high, leaning over the desk. The merchant startled a little, than finished the word with a cruel grin.
" - ster."
Bevel wasn't stupid. He knew the freak could very well leave him with a broken arm or worse. But what would this achieve, other than a night in jail and proving everyone the boy really was the mindless brute he looked like? The taunt was a challenge. Come on, wipe that grin from my face. I hope you'd be pleased with the consequences.
Aurek took a step back, breathing heavily. So he wasn't that stupid either.
"I quit. Bye." He left the office with a few brisk, long strides.
Bevel was left in the room, alone with the grudging realization he just lost his best worker. And he can't go outside chasing him, cause that would make him look like a fool. Like the fool he was. And not to mention what Genny would think if she saw him right now... Sitting in the office chair, paralyzed by the shock of his own stupidity, Bevel had one word to say (which was actually two, but who cares):
"Dammit!"

Aurek Turbatoff (Brute Caliban Barb 1) was born of a scandal that involved two love triangles, three poisonings, four duels to the death, one case of accidental incest and a very naughty raccoon. He's completely unaware of this, and I'm putting this here with no context solely so the DM can entangle the party in the mystery of what the heck happened there later on the adventure.
His father Jason, the sole survivor of this chain of tragedies, saw Aurek as a painful remainder of his mistakes and was torn between not wanting to see him ever again while also not wanting his lover (and half-sister)'s only progeny to starve. As soon as Aurek was strong enough to work, Jason indentured him to the Boritsi Trading Company, hoping the kid's hard work and keen atitude would be rewarded.
However, the Boritsi saw Aurek's naivete as an opportunity for cheap labour. Though it took him a whole decade, eventually Aurek realised he had been cheated. Disillusioned, he quit his job and turned to adventuring, taking his rage at the system out on the monsters in his way.
Aurek has no childlike innocence left in him. He left it behind at the docks. He knows he's a little dull, and knows people can and will take advantage of this if he let's his guard down.
That said, he's wise enough to understand that he can't punch his way through every problem. He knows that no matter how many werewolves he kills bare-handed, to fix Borca's corrupted economic system he'd have to beat the nobles in their own game: trickery, diplomacy, beurocracy - all the things he's so-called too dumb to get the hang of.
Right now, Aurek has nothing but brute force (no pun intended) and rage at the system - stats fit for a barbarian.
But to get what he really wants, he'd have to take the long way and invest in skills more fit for a politician.

Personally I like the conflict of a barbarian whose rage isn't just aimless bloodlust but a justified, directed vendeta against social injustice. But does it fit in Ravenloft?
What do you think?

[order99]

I think that it's brilliant , myself.

And of course lack of education and opportunity isn't the same as stupid-our Caliban protagonist might be convinced of his own stupidity thanks to years of indoctrination, only to find out in the field that he's more skilled than he knows, has several natural talents that he thought were useless or has an ear for languages when exposed to enough casual conversation:

Bevel-and I assure you, you won't find a better transportation rate in this entire city. You will find that the price is more than fair. Do we have a bargain?

Borcan ambassador (native tongue)-you are from here, looming one...does he give a fair bargain?

Aurek (in crude Borcan)-he knows you not speak like him, he thinks you stupid. He rob you at half that price, he laugh in his palm at stupid Borcan man. You should insult him loud and leave more loud.

Borcan ambassador-Your rate is frankly insulting! If you had uttered such gibberish in my land the ruler would have had your tongue cut out! Who DARES run a business so laxly as to place a drooling IDIOT like you in position where MONEY is involved? You will never see a single coin of mine-no, that is too harsh, I will have my bodyguard compensate you out of pity for your crippling condition. Have someone count it for you so that you know it's value! (leaves in a huff )

Aurek (places a single copper coin on the desk and hammers it into the surface with a fist-it is now one with the desk forever. Holds up a single, highly insulting finger) That was ONE. One is less than two and more than zero. Again, one. ONE. One is more than you deserve. (leaves with swagger).

Bevel (looks at ruined desk in horror while a voice in the back of his head wonders why that hulking monster sounds so familiar)