Several questions on backstories

[xLegionx]

I have a curious question for the dm's on the topic of backstories. Now I have been working on my character's backstory for a while now and I am curious: Are we allowed to include like imaginary cities that we mold up into our backstories for our characters just to add necessary flavor to our character? The reason I ask is I am making a character who is born off of nobility and I am thinking about making his father a duke or perhaps a baron. Some crazy events happen with this character that could effect this city or city states future such as...the duke wants my character dead for such and such reason or brought back to a prison cell. And this affects the relationship he has with the rest of the family as well.

If we are allowed to make this sort of city then that brings up several more questions I have: First, how close exactly can we make this city? Does it have to be far away or can it be some decent miles from baldur's gate?

If we allow this sort of thing added into our character's backstory does this help encourage dm's to create an interesting plot related to our character's backstory or does it help discourage it?

Do you think this runs the risk of players creating too many imaginary cities that it just starts getting absurd compared to the forgotten realms lore?

Could we perhaps make our character related to a particular duke of baldur's gate or some other random important character like maybe my characters father is indeed one of the dukes and could be in line for power on the server? Not that its important but I'm simply curious.

One last question: Not that I'm entirely making a story up for the purpose of a dm reading it and making a plot line BUT what exactly is it that dm's these days look for in a good backstory? Again I'm not creating my backstory entirely for the purpose of plots but since dm's Im sure read hundreds of backstories, what do you guys today look for in a backstory? I ask mainly because whenever I write a story I value greatly the opinion of "important people" rather than the common folk ( no offense to the awesome players who read this).

Thanks and I'll be looking forward to your response on this topic.

[Rasael]

I think the simple answer to your question is that that player characters cannot be nobles or in possession of titles (duke, count, earl, king, emperor, mayor) without having earned them on the server by the explicit recognition of subjected other players and NPCs.

In this way a mage might become an archmage by being recognized as possessing that calibre by his fellow mages. Or your character might become a mayor if you are part of a guild which has its own village. And so on. You can even become a noble or politician in Baldurs Gate if you commit to the roleplay and stick it out for a long while. (but you'd need a Dungeon master, since you'd be dealing with NPCs)

So your character may claim to be a noble from another country or a fake place but this won't have any influence on what happens on the server. Even if other players play along and pretend your titles are real. A Dungeon Master wouldn't and the majority of NPC characters and players also wouldn't. Instead, they would legitimately consider your character to have made the titles up, to be crazy, or to be trying to trick them into believing something that's not true.

The latter is a crime, because your character in that case would be pretending to possess a title he really doesn't have on the server. So the Magistrates of Baldur's Gate for example might take offence and sentence your character for illegally claiming to possess a legal title. It could confuse merchants and traders, even nobles if that were to be legal. That's why real life countries also forbid it. You can't call yourself a lawyer or doctor unless you have the title.


So if you want to play a noble you might say your character is the relative of a mayor or governor some place distant. And a Dungeon Master might be okay with that so long as you also understand that it won't make you "important" or "famous" on the server unless your character achieves something during his stay in Baldur's Gate / the Sword Coast.

Ofcourse that doesn't mean that you can't tell tales about yourself and your family. That's part of your character development and it will help your character grow. It establishes your character on the server. Just be sure you understand the line between what you're allowed to make up (no fake places, no real titles) and what you're free make up (family relations, except for famous / important people and their families).


Don't worry if you can't see the line very clearly. Because its very unclear.

Lets just say that its not okay to claim to be the nephew of the emperor of Mulhorand. But it might be okay to claim to be the niece or second daughter of a city mayor in that far away place. If you are in doubt, contact a Dungeon Master

[Jorel]

I kinda have this question as well, i hope it isnt a problem to create such imaginary places, i was roleplaying that my character came from a island which isnt canon.

EDIT: Posted before rasael replied.

[Rasael]

The reason for the rule is to prevent players from re-shaping the setting unilaterally.

That's necessary because if players are able to do that it disrupts the continuity of the setting and causes chaos. Because no one will be able to keep track of who adds what, since its all imaginary and not represented on the server.

So that's why the DM's are the authority.

That said, it is commonly accepted that players have a wide amount of space to conceive character backgrounds in. You can connect your character to known settlements and even families, so long as they aren't important or famous. Because that would again cause continuity issues.

If a player crosses that line what will happen is that a Dungeon Master ignores the part of his roleplay that violates the rule. Which means that NPC's will consider the player to be mad, crazy or lying to them. So it can also have negative in-character repercussions. But they wouldn't ban you for doing this unless you clearly knew you were breaking the rule or wanted to hurt other people by doing so.

But again, if you are in doubt: contact a Dungeon Master. They normally won't indepth check out your story, they'll just try to see quickly if you stick within the lines. (Which means that if a conflict with your story and the server setting turns up: its your problem unless the DM adjusts the server setting)
And if they have the time they will probably try to help by giving pointers of things you might look at, for inspiration.