Hello friends, welcome to the 2025 Age of Darkness character backstory guide for the main campaign.

AoD 2025 Newsletter #1 - Character Creation Guide // 12/2/2025

Introduction

Earlier when I told you it was time to dust off your backstories, I mentioned doing reviews to match your old character to the new setting. I should have mentioned also that it is perfectly okay for you to change your character completely, be it: race, class, personality, whatever you want... I understand that, even if you really liked your old character, you might not like the idea of playing it in a darker setting; or might have an idea that better fits this setting and that you're more excited about.

Some "traditional" class fantasies have been slightly skewed in AoD, such as druids, clerics, paladins and warlocks. In fact, almost all casters now have a new fantasy straying from classic D&D. This could provide an opportunity to play a class you like mechanically but don't love the fantasy of; or maybe just embrace a class you normally wouldn't. (but you don't have to!)

As for your old backstories; I would like everyone to "start from the beginning". If you already have a fully written backstory you can use that one as an outline, and even as the final product if you're happy with it. But following the exercise in this guide will help me a lot in including your story and character in the world and campaign. It will also hopefully help you better understand your character so you can role-play it more accurately.

Where to Start Thinking?

Before jumping right into writing our backstory, which can often be overwhelming, we can start with the fun stuff. The part that is exciting and inspiring. And what part is that? Well, coming up with the ideas, of course!

There are three main ideas you should have about your character before you start writing it: Backstory Events, Goals/Motivations and Character Personality/Behavior.

For now, we can ignore things like class, unless it plays a big role in your backstory right away. Some foreshadowing is okay, but we will delve deeper into your class skills in the solo sessions!

Understand that we can add things to the setting for the sake of your backstory. I will do this all the time during the campaign. ex: If your character is a cleric but you don't know what the cleric orders are, because there are none atm, just ask "hey I want this kind of this, is it possible?", do not write a cleric order yourself, but talk to me and together we will write a cleric order that fits your vision AND the setting (>>> if possible <<<).

Backstory Events and Facts

Your backstory events serve to contextualize your character in the world, to give it some unique experience/perspective and to justify your goals, ambitions and personality.

It begins by establishing simply things, such as your character's race, geographic origin, societal status, familial relationships. Then it references some events during your early life that shaped who your character has become, and explain the situation they find themselves in at the start of the campaign (start of the solo session, really).

During this stage it should be noted that you will be starting at level one. It is likely that you will level up in the solo sessions, and start the campaign in party as level two or three, but the backstory ends with you at level one, you're just a young upstart, still learning the ways of the world. So it's important that you attend to the following reference:

Character Goals and Motivations: What drives your characters

• What are your character's short term goals? -> What is it seeking to achieve RIGHT NOW, as the campaign starts. This will probably be the subject of your solo sessions, or the hook for them. It will change OFTEN throughout the adventure.
• What are your character's long term goals? -> This is perhaps trickier, this is your character's main goal, usually your short term goals will be stepping stones to achieving this one. This goal will remain during the entire campaign, or at least during many many sessions, and it is at the core of your character. If your character is not progressing towards this goal during the campaign in some way then it probably wont make sense for it to be with the group, so I will tie this goal with the main story in some way. This goal should be a bit vaguer and harder to reach, maybe you don't even know how to reach it.

Your character's goals, ambitions and motivations should tie in to your backstory. Having a strong motivation is great as a role-playing aid.

Character Personality, Strength and Flaws

• What is your character willing to do to achieve their goals?
• Is your character selfish or selfless? Does he care for other's or just himself?
• How does your character carry themselves? Are they arrogant, confident, paranoid, serious, funny, smart, stupid?

You get the point. Personality is the most natural I feel, it's one that forms naturally as you write the other too. But you can start here if you'd like. It should also tie in to your backstory, but not everything needs to be justified. Your character can just be selfish, you don't necessarily need a traumatic event that made them so.

You should begin with the part (events, goals or personality) that you feel the most strongly about in your character. Like if you want your character to be a righteous paladin trying to rid the world of arcane corruption maybe you should begin with personality, then goals and only then write the events that justify your goals and personality. It is important to understand that the idea you have when you start writing your character might change as you write it, maybe as you write your character you think of a really cool even that you want to keep but that would force a slight change in your goals, the whole process is fluid.

Exercise One - First Draft

So the idea is that, before we begin writing long backstories in prose, we write our ideas down in topics. This way we can easily overview everything, and change anything we want, without fully committing hours on things we might have to change later.

Example - Fizban

Fizban is not the most well written character, I wrote him many years ago and he's very one dimensional and simple. Regardless, you all know him so I think he will do fine as a simplified example. I will include some notes on the topics.

Backstory Events

- Fizban is a human born to some peasants in a random shithole village --> I didn't name the town, for example, or locate it on a map, it's irrelevant right now. This establishes that he is a human, and he lives in a poor village, and is poor.
- When he was just a baby, inexplicable things started happening around him, magic. --> Some seed of talent
- Growing up he was different from other kids, and didn't get along with them, instead he played with his imaginary cat, Galaxy Eyes, who was beginning to seem all too real --> Some characterization (doesn't care for human interaction) and some flavor (has an imaginary pet cat which is a manifestation of his illusion powers)
- Fizban was useless for working the fields, but he was awfully curious about the world and what made it tick.
- One day, in his wonders, he caught the attention of a mage from a local academy. The mage offered his parents to take them out of his hands and enroll him in the academy Fizban went gladly, leaving his parents and village behind at the age of 14
- He apprenticed under the mage for some time, showing great promise, he had an exceptional memory and unquenchable thirst for knowledge --> sets up his feat (autism memory feat) and his motivations (the pursuit of knowledge)
- But there's only so much you can learn from books, and a mage must experience the world, so his master tasked him with living 2 years away from the academy, traveling far and wide before returning to his studies. --> Sets up short term goals, and current situation

Goals and Motivations

- Short Term Goals: To complete his "wordly internship", travel to far away lands, meet new people, and learn new spells/languages/skills
- Long Term Goals: Fizban is concerned that his human lifespan will limit how much he can learn, learning takes time and he has precious little. He wants to become immortal to that his never ending quest for knowledge may indeed never end

Personality, Strenghts and Weaknesses

- Aloof and socially inept --> Fizban was never talented with people, most feel strange and foreign to him
- Easily distracted, or hyperfocused on other things --> Fizban has a great eye for detail and is very observant, but his priorities are often misplaced, at least according to his peers
- Lawful Neutral --> Fizban does not particularly care for others, but he believes a peaceful and orderly environment is best conducive to the gathering and developing of knowledge and serearch. He has no desire to harm others and believes in following the rules and keeping the peace and order, the only exception being if that order stands in the way of his personal pursuits.

I don't want to write your character for you, if you feel like I'm being too controlling LET ME KNOW, I might just be excited and not notice. All I should be doing is making sure the character fits the world, the setting, the campaign, the tone and the party. Nothing else.