Joke’s on you, I just plagiarize my backstory from other media or roll for it randomly
My main DND character is a chaotic evil Cleric of Cyric whose motivation is to become Cyric’s top guy all so he can get closer to the god to kill him and usurp his power.
I’m afraid of what that would say about me…
“So what’s this about your recent promotion at BlackRock again?”
You’re a JRPG protagonist
My first character was a barbarian who despised magic and made a point to tell every mage in existence that they are bad and should feel bad.
My second character was a grave robber who accidentally unearthed a cursed slab and refused to return it to the owner, resulting in an ancient mummy cursing him. He became a Warlock against his will and made it a point to become strong enough to kill his Patron.
My third character is a normal ass dude who got involved in a situation much bigger than himself. Currently dead set on killing the gods because they suck at governing the world. Also hates magic and refuses to use magical items that require attunement.
My fourth character is a pacifist orc who’s been dead for thousands of years, resurrected by an evil necromancer to do his bidding. The necromancer botched up the ritual and the orc came back with his free will, but unable to die (much to his grievance).
I guess my therapist would tell me that I hate magic and magicians?
I mean I’d imagine they’d say that a common theme with your character’s is valid misgrievances with authority, especially perceived as incompetent and evil — hence deserving of retribution for disrespecting your character’s natural peace.
At the very least, a therapist would identify whether you generally perceive threats/issues as internal or external - or your PCs have ultimately external threats and want to rectify that while other people’s PC (like my own) usually have internally-derived
One of my characters is the nicest person I can possibly imagine. I figured I could use the practice.
Another one is a teenage half-orc barbarian who’s basically me at that age. It’s nice to remember the good and bad of that guy.
My latest character is a robot controlled by a crew of sapient alien bees. Good luck with that one, therapist.
Does OOP always play characters with the same backstory beats? I’m always making up new insecurities/obsessions/neuroses for my characters because I feel like I can’t use the same backstory twice. (They have to have something going on, though, because well-adjusted people don’t make a career out of going into trap-filled holes in the ground and fighting to the death for the inhabitants’ pocket change.)
If they’re anything like me then each character they make is focused on a different facet of themselves or something they’ve dealt with. The rest bleed into it in more minor ‘supporting’ ways while one mental illness takes the main stage.
Good therapists are security researchers for helping people recognize and fix their own vulnerabilities.
And if you’re good at self-reflection, you can be both the playtester and dm.
it’s always good to see people freak out about therapists doing their job…
