Random backstory generator

How the backstory generator works

Each roll takes a childhood, a family, a turning point, a secret, and a want. The childhood and the family say where the person comes from. The turning point is the one event that split their life into before and after. The secret is what they hide from the people in the story. The want is what moves them now, and what the plot can threaten.

Pair it with the random personality generator for how they act, and the random character generator for a name, a look, a job, and a city. The parts are ours, written for this page.

Every part the generator can roll

Childhoods (14)

• Harbor town. grew up in a harbor town where everyone worked the boats or left.
• Big city flat. grew up in a two-room flat above a bakery in a big city.
• Farm. grew up on a farm that the family lost when they were twelve.
• Army base. grew up on army bases, a new school every two years.
• Boarding school. went to boarding school at eight and came home only in summer.
• Suburb. grew up in a suburb where every house looked the same, and hated it.
• Grandparents. grew up with grandparents who never explained why.
• Hotel. grew up in the hotel their parents ran, sleeping in a different room each week.
• Mountain village. grew up in a mountain village with one road out.
• Foster homes. moved through four foster homes before finding a steady one.
• Theater family. grew up backstage, in a family of traveling actors.
• Desert. grew up in a desert town built around one mine.
• Island. grew up on an island where the ferry came twice a day.
• Religious community. grew up in a strict religious community and left at eighteen.

Families (12)

• Only child. an only child of parents who expected a lot.
• Youngest of five. the youngest of five, used to being overlooked and underestimated.
• Twin. a twin whose sibling got all the attention.
• Eldest. the eldest, who raised the younger ones while the parents worked.
• Absent parent. the child of a parent who left and sent a card once a year.
• Famous parent. the child of someone famous, and tired of the comparison.
• Step-family. part of a blended family of eight that never quite blended.
• Immigrant parents. the child of immigrants who wanted a safer life for them than their own.
• Adopted. adopted as a baby, and curious about the birth family.
• Family business. the heir to a small family business they never wanted.
• Orphaned. orphaned at sixteen, and raised by an older cousin.
• Secret sibling. the half-sibling nobody told the rest of the family about.

Turning points (14)

• The fire. a fire took the house and every photo in it.
• The scholarship. a scholarship took them far from home, and they did not fit in.
• The accident. an accident ended the sport they had built their life on.
• The betrayal. a best friend stole an idea and got rich from it.
• The inheritance. an inheritance arrived from a relative they had never met.
• The illness. a long illness as a teen left them with time to read everything.
• The first love. a first love left without a word.
• The arrest. a wrongful arrest cost them a year and a reputation.
• The win. they won a competition that made them locally famous for one summer.
• The move. a sudden move across the world at fourteen.
• The bankruptcy. the family business went bankrupt in public.
• The rescue. they saved someone from drowning, and the story followed them.
• The debt. a parent's debt became theirs at twenty-one.
• The discovery. they found letters that proved a family story was a lie.

Secrets (12)

• The name. they changed their name, and nobody in their new life knows the old one.
• The money. the savings are gone, and the family does not know.
• The letter. they never sent the letter that would have changed everything.
• The witness. they saw a crime and said nothing.
• The child. they have a child they have met once.
• The degree. they never finished the degree on their résumé.
• The ex. they still write to an ex, once a month.
• The talent. they can sing, and have never let anyone hear it.
• The diagnosis. they have a diagnosis they have told no one about.
• The lie. the story they tell about their scar is not the true one.
• The job. they lost their job three weeks ago and still leave the house every morning.
• The ring. they keep a ring from an engagement that nobody knew about.

Wants (12)

• To go home. to go home and be welcomed.
• To be seen. to be known for their own work, not their family's.
• To make it right. to pay back the one person they wronged.
• To belong. to have one place where they do not have to explain themselves.
• To be free. to owe nothing to anyone.
• To be safe. to never be poor again.
• To be loved. to be chosen first, once.
• To find them. to find the person who disappeared.
• To prove it. to prove the people who doubted them wrong.
• To forget. to forget the thing they saw.
• To build. to build something that outlasts them.
• To rest. to stop running, and rest.

How to use a backstory without an info dump

Do not tell the backstory in chapter one. Show the want in the first scene, and let the secret leak in small ways: a lie about a scar, a letter they do not open. Reveal the turning point when it costs the most, usually near the middle. The childhood and the family can stay as texture: the way they order food, the way they answer the phone to a parent.

Questions