Xanathar’s Guide to Everything introduced a section at the end of the character options section called “This is Your Life” which included table upon table of various options for your character’s background and origin. It can be used to generate an entire backstory for your character, or simply supplement it by filling in small pieces. I’ve been wanting to do something with this for some time, creating a full random backstory for a character. I decided to roll up the backstory for a Human Rogue with the Entertainer background named Kerrit for this piece and use the results to piece together a coherent backstory from the pieces.
Kerrit was born knowing both parents. The results showed that he was born at home, but later results stated that he didn’t have a permanent home,
but moved around a lot. He was the oldest of six children, and shortly after the last one was born, his father disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving his mother to raise all of the kids alone. Despite all of this, they managed to maintain a modest lifestyle, and Kerrit grew up having a normal childhood with a few close friends. All of his siblings and his mother are alive and [mostly] well, and he is on good terms with all of them. He became an entertainer because he “always had a keen insight into other people, enough so that [he] could make them laugh or cry with [his] stories or songs” and he fell into the Roguish lifestyle because “an experienced rogue saw something in [him] and taught [him] several useful tricks.” By the time he began adventuring, he was well into his middle forties and had lived a full life. He fell in love and had a child with her. He also spent a lot of his down time working, earning some extra coin. He also experienced a supernatural event that he took as an omen, and was involved in a kidnapping.
So now it’s time to put all of these pieces together. Kerrit is a 1st level human rogue with the entertainer background and neutral good alignment. He has Strength 9, Dexterity 16, Constitution 13, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 14, and Charisma 15.
Kerrit was born into a traveling caravan of entertainers, merchants, and other craftsmen. They would roll up to a town or village, spend several days to several weeks resupplying and selling their wares before moving onto the next place. It wasn’t an easy life, but it was a good life, and he grew up happy. However, when Kerrit was about twelve, right after his baby sister was born, his father disappeared one day while out hunting and foraging. The caravan waited several days, sending out scouts to look for the man, but they could find no trace of him, and they eventually had to move on. That evening, Kerrit saw his father’s face appear briefly in the bark of an oak tree. He didn’t know exactly what it portended, but he knew that he hadn’t seen the last of his father. Regardless, his family was still able to live a decent life – the children just needed to work a little extra harder, and his mother pretended not to notice when the caravaneers would give their family a little extra food every now and then. Kerrit worked quite a few odd jobs during those days, but found his favorite calling telling telling ribald jokes and singing bawdy tavern songs whenever they passed through various towns. An older member of the caravan saw the young man’s talent and taught him how to make a “little extra” as he worked the crowd, pilfering a couple of extra coins and running a few short confidence scams. He continued his life with the caravan for quite a few years, eventually falling in love with an elvish maiden that had joined them and fathering a child with her. Most of his siblings stayed with as well, working in various capacities as herders, scouts, and entertainers. One of them grew up to have magical talent and left to study the arcane arts with a master as soon as he found one willing to take on an apprentice. His mother became a central figure to the caravan, growing to be a respected matron figure to everyone.
Eventually, Kerrit’s mentor was looking to get out of the game, but he needed one final score. He knew the grandchild of such a respected figure as Kerrit’s mother would be valuable and so he kidnapped the young child, leaving a ransom note and enough evidence to implicate Kerrit and his wife in the act. Kerrit went off after his old mentor while his wife tried to sort things out with the caravan. She was arrested and hanged. He managed to track his former mentor through the woods and confronted him, only to watch helplessly as he tripped and fell down a small ravine, breaking his legs and breaking the child’s neck. Kerrit dragged the man back along with the body of his infant and tried to make his former mentor confess to what he had done. The old thief spun a tale about how he had figured out the truth and gone to confront Kerrit and save the child. However, in the struggle, he was wounded and Kerrit killed his own son. His mother and siblings rose to Kerrit’s defense, but much of the rest of the caravan believed the old thief’s story and demanded that Kerrit share the same fate as his wife. Kerrit took what little he had and fled justice instead. Now he looks for a way that he can clear his reputation, as well as that of his dearly departed wife.
There it is – a cohesive character backstory that was made with only a few rolls of the dice. Just a little bit of assembly and lateral thinking was required to get a character with depth, connections, and motivations. If you’re stuck, or just want to have some fun, I would definitely recommend that you give this option a try.
Ben Erickson
