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Let's Make Some Heroes of Legend
Platy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Do you remember the "Let's Make Some Mutants" thread? This is similar! You choose a gender, class and race (which can, but must not be within the D&D bounds) and I'll roll up your character's background in this very ancient tome.
This is fun because these backgrounds get absurdly detailed and can be interpreted in many interesting ways! So let's make some Heroes of Legend.
This is fun because these backgrounds get absurdly detailed and can be interpreted in many interesting ways! So let's make some Heroes of Legend.
+1
Posts
How about a Male Orc ... Pirate?
Let's do a female half-orc cleric
female gnome paladin
@Uriel
- Cultural Background: Primitive (clan-based/non-ironworking/non-agrarian)
- Social Status (of parents): Comfortable, character may own a heirloom weapon
- Birth: Legitimate
- Family: Grandparents only (maternal relation)
- Siblings: 3 siblings, character is a middle child
- Place of Birth: Exotic - in the sewers under the palace of a local ruler
- Unusual Birth Circumstances: Character received gift from a mysterious stranger at birth
- Nature of Gift: A tapestry
- Occupation of Parents: Head of household was an adventuring shaman
- Significant Events of Childhood: Character's friends involved him in illegal activities
- The Wrong Path: Character began a life of crime because he wanted to defy the authorities
- Type of Criminal Activity: Petty theft
- Underworld Events: Jailed for a few days in a sweep of the streets by law enforcement officials
- Significant Events of Adolescence: Character had a religious experience, the character has grown up with this religion, but is now personally confronted by it
- Religious Events: The character uncovered the activies of an evil cult, others began to shun him because of this, possibly out of fear of the evil cult
- Significant Events of Adulthood: Character learned to use an unusual weapon (player's choice)
- Piracy Events: A raid on a particularly large treasure ship resulted in the character acquiring 5000 gold pieces
- Personality Traits: Rude, Untrustworthy
@One Thousand Cables
- Cultural Background: Civilized, raised among humans
- Social Status: Poor, has experience in brawling or street fighting
- Legitimacy: Legitimate
- Family: Mother only
- Siblings: None, character is an only child
- Place of Birth: Exotic, in the home of friendly non-humans while a battle was raging outside, the non-humans were also wizards
- Unusual Birth Circumstances (as if this wasn't unusual enough): Character was born at exactly Midnight and with extremely pale skin, at the moment of birth all gold in the house mysteriously turned to lead
- Parents: Mother had one primary occupation as a money lender
- Childhood: A disease almost killed the character and left horrible scars
- Adolescence: Character befriended a group of dwarves
- Adulthood: Character develops an exotic personality trait
- Exotic Personality Feature: Allergic to magic or enchanted items, a low power spell may trigger a mild reaction while touching an ancient artifact may kill the character
- Personality Traits: Mysterious (has an air of mysteriousness about her)
- Hobby: Hunting for sport (with a casual interest)
@BertezBertez
- Cultural Background: Nomad, character has expertise in riding the riding animal of this culture
- Social Status: Comfortable, may own a heirloom weapon
- Legimitacy: Legitimate (I think I'll just skip this from now on if the character is legitimate)
- Family: Father only
- Sibling: One older brother
- Place of Birth: In a healer's tent in a foreign land
- Unusual Birth Circumstances: Character was abandoned/given away by natural parents and raised by a foster parent
- Parents: Father was a warrior
- Childhood: Character ran away from home for six years to serve a foreign warrior who needed all the friends he could get but died while the character was serving him
- Adolescence: Character had a religious experience
- Religious Events: It was raining and the god's temple was the only warm and dry place with an open door, in the temple the character made prophetic statements which made her quite unpopular for what she said
- Adulthood: Character had a romantic encounter with an Orc (I'd like to think this is Uriel's character)
- Personality Traits: Foppish (preoccupied with appearance), Impatient
Also there's a weird conservative rant in one of them because they put being gay or something in the 'deviancy' column and it's this haughty-ass explanation of "Oh we don't adhere to the MODERN notion of what homosexuality is" and man
@Rainfall
- Cultural Background: Nomad, native of the wilderness
- Social Status: Comfortable
- Family: Mother and Father
- Siblings: One older sister
- Special event: sibling is half-fey
- Place of Birth: In the middle of a field
- Unusual Birth: Nothing unusual occured
- Parents: Both have an occupation, father was a cobbler, mother was a dyer
- Childhood: Character serves a halfling because the halfling needed the character's skill. The character got to know and befriended her later lover as a child. A special event occured.
- Special Childhood Event: Forest home is ravaged by monsters. No friends or loved-ones are killed, but it will be centuries before the woodlands are restored to normal.
- Adolescence: Characters teases and angers an old woman (a witch) who then puts a curse on her. Character will be responsible for the untimely death of her lovers.
- Adulthood: Character serves her great grandmother because the character is being prepared for a special task. Character falls in love with her childhood friend who serves the same patron.
- Romantic Affair: Lover is half-elf
- Death Situation: Lover was killed because of offense caused to an influential person
- Monster event: Character knows of a great treasure owned by fey of the same species. Character must determine whether or not she would betray her own kind for reward.
- Personality Traits: Emotional (rarely keeps emotions in check), Follower (prefers to let others lead), Precise (always exacting), Introverted, Angry (never at peace)
@Projeck
- Cultural Background: Civilized
- Social Status: Wealthy
- Legitimacy: Illegitimate
- Reason for Illegitimate Birth: Mother was unmarried, character knows father's identity
- Family: Father only
- Siblings: three half-siblings, the character is the oldest
- Place of Birth: Exotic, in the temple of an evil or malignant deity
- Parents: father has a primary and secondary occupation - works as a banker and a diplomat
- Childhood: Character learns to mountaineer, an unusual skill. A special event occurs.
- Special Childhood Event: An exotic event occurs.
- Exotic Event: The character discovers that he has a guardian ghost, a wise, benign spirit who acommpanies him, but can never be seen or heard by the character's friends.
- Adolescence: Character acquires a rival but also gains a friend.
- Rival: A professional rival with the same occupation. The rivalry ensues because distant ancestors were already rivals. This is a potentially fatal hatred, severely injuring the character in any way is the rival's goal.
- Friend: A wondrous wizard
- Adulthood: Character joins military as he was drafted during wartime.
- Military Experience: Character serves as part of a heavy cavalry unit and rises to the rank of Lieutenant. The army is led by the head of the local bowyers guild.
- Military Events: Serious casualties, the character was grievously injured and has an impressive scar to show for it. Despite this, he was protected by his guardian ghost and others were less lucky. His friend the wondrous wizard died at his side.
- Moleman events: Character befriends a human thief.
- Personality Traits: Humorous, Irreverent (tends to mock the gods)
- Hobby: Acting (dramatics), casual interest
@Moriveth
- Cultural Background: Civilized-Decadent
- Social Status: Poor
- Family: Mother only
- Siblings: Two siblings, character was a middle child
- Place of Birth: In a forest
- Unusual Birth Circumstances: Character is the offspring of a mortal and a demon. Please note that either side can constitute the "family" of the character.
- Physical Affliction: Character has glowing eyes which allow the character to see in the dark without a light source (but not like infravision). The eyes glow scarlet and allow the character to shoot a 2d6 damage heat ray from them.
- Curse: All the character's children will be born under unusual circumstances and with a physical affliction.
- Parents: Head of household is a peat cutter by occupation.
- Childhood: A special event occurs.
- Special Event: Something wonderful occurs.
- Something Wonderful...: During repairs to the family home, the character discovers a magical item - a bound wooden staff.
- Adolescence: The character has a religious experience. The family encourages the character's interest in magic, inspired by the discovery of the magical item. A special event occurs.
- Religious Experience: After the priests of the god heal the character of an injury or illness, the character joins the god's religion as a devoted follower of the god's principles of faith.
- Deity: God/goddess of bodily perfection (decadent).
- Special Event: The character joins the military in the service of the ruler of the land because she was drafted during wartime.
- Military Experience: The character served as a Ranger who operated behind enemy lines.
- Military Events: Character is personally responsible for the deaths of six of her comrades. The horror causes the character to develop an Exotic Personality Feature.
- Exotic Personality Feature: Aversion to an exotic food type (use imagination).
- Adulthood: Something wonderful occurs.
- Something Wonderful...: A lasting peace takes hold in the land. If the character is currently in the Military, she is discharged with honors.
- Personality Traits: Clean (practices good hygiene), Benign (gentle, inoffensive), Disrespectful, Impatient
@cB557
- Cultural Background: Barbarian (a mostly illiterate society with a weak central government if present)
- Social Status: Comfortable
- Family: Extended family, including mother and father, one grandparent and three aunts/uncles or cousins
- Siblings: Four siblings, character is the firstborn
- Place of Birth: Exotic - in a bar, tavern or alehouse
- Parents: Both parents have an occupation as a herder and a fuller (makes cloth heavier and thicker)
- Childhood: The family has great plans for the character's future and expects the character to fulfill those plans. The character runs away from home for five years. He serves a noble who chose him at random. The noble requires the character to commit criminal acts.
- Criminal Activity: The character is an accomplice in racketeering and gets (quite literally) branded as a criminal.
- Adolescence: The character befriends a troupe of traveling Elves and Dwarves. He learns unusual skills from them - to play an exotic musical instrument of his own choice and to play by ear. He can hear a song and play it instantly.
- Adulthood: Character joins the military because he mistakenly thought that he was applying for some other government job.
- Military Experience: Character served as a common archer in an army under the leader of the land.
- Military Events: Character's prowess and obvious intelligence earn him a reassignment to a Special Forces unit for the remainder of his enlistment hitch. He joins a unit which is responsible for the design, construction and use of catapults, ballista and other machines of destruction. This unit gets involved in a plot to take control of the land. He fights in a major battle, but his side loses with 84% killed. The character fought poorly and almost died when he received a serious injury. All troops in his unit are declared traitors and are made outlaws.
- Serious Wounds: His right ear was torn or cut off in the battle.
- Personality Traits: Emotional, Leader, Thoughtless (rarely thinks of others' feelings)
As off-script as you would like, it is just a matter of choosing the right tables (for fey I took the elf and monster tables, I would take the elf and dwarf tables for your character)
Gender doesn't play a whole lot into this, but there is a chance that your character was assigned a different gender at birth, for example
The language and categories are offensive by modern standards (homosexuality is for example included in the "sexual disorders" table), but this was published thirty years ago and the author has since come out as a lesbian transgender woman
If there's a table to roll on for having the background of "Worst Druid Ever" that could also factor in
Male Dwarf Barbarian
edit: man i love stuff like this that's meant to give characters a bit of background and stuff without putting so much pressure on the player to come up with everything on their own. i can't remember the name of it but it was the horror-themed D&D 3.5 book, and it had this huuuuge table of random traits for characters to have, like "mumbles incessantly to themselves" or "has a terrible phobia of darkness" and stuff like that
@OmnipotentBagel
- Cultural Background: Civilized
- Social Status: Poor
- Family: Mother and Father only
- Siblings: One sibling, character is second born
- Place of Birth: In a hospital or healers guild hall
- Parents: Head of household has no work, the other parent buys used goods, fixes them up a bit and resells them for less than new
- Childhood: The character witnesses three criminals making a transaction involving some kind of drug. The criminals see the character but are unable to catch them. It may be possible that these criminals still seek the character even now. A tragedy occurs.
- Tragedy: Unable to pay a special nonhuman tax which is raised on their heads, the character's parents are imprisoned. Both parents die in prison.
- Adolescence: A fencing instructor takes the character in because she admires the character's skills. The character leaves this patron's service after five years. The character has a pathological urge to do wrong and joins his friends who roam the countryside as a gang of bandits.
- Underworld Events: After a successful robbery, the character's two partners vanish with the loot and never reappear. The character gets very angry when this happens a second time.
- Adulthood: A terrible fire destroys the character's village or hometown.
- Personality Traits: Hateful, Disrespectful
- Race-specific events: The character was taught how to sing and tell stories by their elven parent. Somewhere along the way, the character befriended a goblin, arch enemy of dwarves. This goblin was instructed by mysterious voices to seek out the character and becomes their trusted companion. The goblin loves a good fight.
@Ringo
- Cultural Background: Barbarian (a mostly illiterate society with a weak central government if present)
- Social Status: Nobility, the character is a hetman, a village leader (Barbarian nobles are often elected or appointed)
- Family: Single Grandparent, maternal relation
- Siblings: Seven siblings, the character was the first born
- Place of Birth: in a healer's hut
- Unusual Birth Circumstance: The character was born with a special blessing
- Blessing: The character acts like a Good Luck Talisman. His presence improves the luck and fortunes of anyone who is near him. This does not seem to improve his own luck.
- Childhood: A disease almost kills the character and leaves horrible scars. A fire destroys his home, destroying his personal belongings.
- Adolescence: The character has an encounter with a group of satyrs and befriends them.
- Adulthood: The character falls in love with an elf who becomes his partner in marriage. The character develops an exotic personality trait.
- Exotic Personality Trait: The character develops a phobia of spells and magical items which is a really unfortunate trait for someone who is a spellcaster. I swear I did not fudge this.
- Personality Traits: Angry, Lazy, Introverted
@Metzger Meister
- Cultural Background: Barbarian
- Social Status: Wealthy
- Birth Legitimacy: The character is considered to be of illegitimate birth by his culture
- Family: Aunt, maternal relation
- Siblings: Three siblings, the character is the second-to-the-last-born
- Place of Birth: Exotic - on a ship at sea
- Guardians: Character's aunt is a curio merchant - she trades with knick-knacks, curiosities and collectibles, rare herbs, incenses and spices. Occasionally she will buy and sell magical items.
- Childhood: Rivals force the character and his aunt to move to a new locale or face reprisals. A special event occurs.
- Special Event: The character acquires a hobby, gardening.
- Adolescence: His aunt has great plans for the character's future and expects the character to fulfill those plans. The character runs away from home and starts living among a community of beastmen.
- Adulthood: The character becomes well-known, even famous as a smuggler. He took up this criminal activity out of peer pressure.
- Underworld Events: The character gets imprisoned one night for violating curfew.
- Prison Events: The character is whipped frequently by the guards. He eventually escapes together with four other prisoners.
- Personality Traits: Respectful, Tardy (always late)
Edit: OH OH HE CAN USE A HOE AS A WEAPON! OR, LIKE, A SHARPENED STEEL SHOVEL! AND, LIKE, GROWS EXOTIC SPICES AND HERBS IN MEMORY OF HIS AUNTIE.
GUYS I'VE TOTALLY GOT A HEAD-CANON GOING HERE
For example:
Was it the character's great grandmother who ordered the lover's death? Or a different person? What kind of offense was it?
@Mr Fuzzbutt
I redid yours because the first one didn't turn out very well!
- Cultural Background: Primitive (non-ironworking/non-agrarian)
- Social Status: Destitute
- Family: Mother only
- Siblings: Four siblings, character is second born
- Place of Birth: In a cave (I did not fudge this, this was my initial roll)
- Unusual Birth Circumstances: Character was born with an unusual physical affliction
- Physical Affliction: Character does not grow to normal size (20 to 60% smaller than average)
- Parents: Mother lives as a hunter ("stalks wild game, providing both food and clothing, diet is supplemented by gathered foods")
- Childhood: The character begins to serve a government clerk because the character becomes part of a complicated wager. The patron provides for the character's formal education.
- Adolescence: While foraging in a trash heap (once again, no fudging, this is a consequence of being "destitute"), the character find an unusual object
- Unusual Object: Trousers ("the GM must bear the weight of deciding why an object is important")
- Adulthood: The character acquires an unusual pet
- Unusual Pet: A fire-breathing big cat (lion, tiger etc.)
- Personality Traits: Energetic (does things quickly, with verve)
@NeoToma
- Cultural Background: Civilized
- Social Status: Destitute
- Birth Legitimacy: Illegitimate
- Family: None known - left to fend for herself
- Place of Birth: Exotic, in an alley
- Unusual Birth Circumstances: Character was born with an unusual physical affliction during a night when the moon and the stars went dark briefly
- Physical Affliction: The character has retractable fangs like a viper and can use them to inject poison into people she bites
- Childhood: Character gets involved in the activities of an organized crime syndicate. She learns how to carve little, realistic miniatures out of wood and bone.
- Underworld Events: The syndicate, led by heretics, is planning treason against the ruler of the state. The character learns the secret passages, entrances and exits to the King's palace. She later attempts to leave her life of crime behind.
- Adolescence: The character leaves the city but returns after five months. She has a religious experience.
- Religious Experience: A friend invites the character to come to a god's temple where she joins the religion. She however merely remains a temple-goer without any serious devotion.
- Deity: The moon goddess who is the patroness of those who need her light
- Adulthood: The character learns to wield a weapon appropriate to her culture. She becomes well-known over the course of events which force the local Dwarves out of their cavern homes. Monsters still occupy the caverns to the present day.
- Dwarvish Events: The character receives a magical hammer as a gift from a Dwarven Prince.
- Personality Traits: Ascetic, Skeptic, Disrespectful, Immoral
@Bucketman
- Cultural Background: Civilized-Decadent (normally Dwarven societies cannot become decadent under the rules in the book and simply revert to Civilized, but I personally like the idea of decadent Dwarves)
- Social Status: Comfortable
- Birth Legitimacy: Illegitimate
- Family: Aunt and Uncle, paternal relation
- Siblings: Two siblings, the character is a middle child
- Place of Birth: Exotic, in the home of friendly half-orcs
- Unusual Birth Circumstances: Water boiled by itself
- Guardians: Uncle works as a local guide, aunt owns a barrel making business
- Childhood: A change occurs in the character's family who become Well-to-Do. The character acquires a rival.
- Rival: A professional rival with the same occupation. This rival goes out of their way to foil the character.
- GM SPECIAL: The rival is secretly in love with the character. Keep this information from the player.
- Adolescence: The character learns how to skate on ice. An exotic event occurs.
- Exotic Events: The character survives a deadly encounter with brownies. Because of this encounter, the character will receive combat bonuses against brownies whenever they are encountered.
- Adulthood: Character stumbles upon lost caverns which contain much lost Dwarvish lore, treasure and wondrous devices. Yet, upon leaving the caverns, he cannot find his way back and none will believe his stories.
- Dwarvish Events: The character is unable to grow a beard.
- Personality Traits: Liberal (tolerant of others, open to change), Selfsufficient, Tactless
Gender: Dwarf
Class: Sword
Probably not the 100 dollar copy that's for sale on Amazon though
Class: Baby-stealer
Gender: Male
but they're listening to every word I say
@Dr. Flamingo
- Cultural Background: Barbarian
- Social Status: Nobility, Princess (Queen's daughter)
- Family: Extended family, including mother and father, three grandparents, two aunts and one cousin
- Siblings: None - character is an only child
- Place of Birth: In the character's family home
- Race-specific events: The character is given a special soul tree. As long as this tree survives and thrives, the character will gain bonuses to her attributes.
- Childhood: The family throws an extravagant birthday party - everyone who is anyone attends. When all the gifts are recorded, one unusual gift stands alone without a card to say where it came from.
- Gift: An anachronistic weapon (something from another time or place, like a pistol, a laser rifle, a flint hand axe, etc.)
- Adolescence: The character's mother is made close advisor to the High Queen (who rules over lesser queens). The character exhibits symptoms of an exotic personality.
- Exotic Personality Feature: Phobia of corpses (may include the undead).
- Adulthood: Character becomes involved in forest banditry because she is forced into a life of crime by criminals who threaten her loved ones.
- Underworld Events: The character becomes a feared bandit chieftess.
- Personality Traits: Unfriendly
@Gumpy
- Cultural Background: Civilized
- Social Status: Comfortable
- Family: Mother only
- Siblings: Two siblings, character is the second born
- Place of Birth: In the character's family home
- Unusual Birth Circumstances: Wolves and dogs set up a howling at the moment of the character's birth. A seer declares that the character will be afflicted by an ancient family curse which was put on the family because an ancestor stole a helmet which belonged to a wizard.
- Curse: Character is attacked by fits of Pyromania, an obsessive impulse to set and then watch fires.
- Parents: Head of household is an importer (a general importer of trade goods, including spices, raw materials, crafts and wild animals)
- Childhood: The character's parents split up, the family's social status changes to poor. Tragedy befalls the character.
- Tragedy: The character's father is outlawed for grand larceny and goes into hiding.
- Adolescence: The family does not approve of the character's friends. A special event occurs.
- Special Event: The character learns about importing goods and the ins and outs of the merchant trade from the head of household.
- Dwarvish Events: The Dwarven Home Guard trains the character in war hammer, sword and shield usage.
- Adulthood: The character saves a priest's life who subsequently becomes the character's companion. He (the priest) is an incurable romantic who is always questing towards some greater goal and in love with the character. It is up the player whether this love is requited.
- Personality Traits: Obstructive (acts to block other's actions), Giving, Self-Doubting
Sounds about right