Some nation drafted you against your will into their army, maybe you were a criminal who they decided to send out into battle, a retired guy they decided was getting too relaxed, or maybe they were just oppressive pricks who took you, a normal village teenager into their ranks since they were short on ground-pounders, whatever the reason, you were in the military, and you didn't like and at first chance you got, you escaped or "betrayed" the army you were serving, and now you travel as adventurer since you can't go back home.
309. Broken Spy
you were a spy for some reason, undercover behind enemy lines, gathering info, sabotaging enemy efforts and all that, but then somehow you got caught, maybe you made a mistake, or maybe their investigators were just that good, whatever the reason, you got caught and to keep yourself from getting killed, you spilled the beans on your sides secrets, earning you lifetime in jail instead. being an experienced spy you eventually escaped, but now your first enemies are trying to catch you..... and your original allies want to kill you to for blabbing! being the undercover-type guy you are, you have decided to take on the role as an adventurer, as the identity allows you to travel without many questions being asked, lay low in any appearance and gives you allies to protect you from your enemies.
310. The Last Soldier.
you were a soldier on the front lines, you were apart of a regiment and a group of friends who shared your love of battle, fighting the good fight, you were apart of a war to defend your nation or some other reason, you were one of those soldiers who survived or even won battles. However the commanding officers made a strategical mistake, maybe they gone too far into offense, maybe the forces were spread too far apart, whatever, but what matters is that because of this, you lost a battle, and somehow you survived that battle while everyone else in your regiment died and you can't find your way back to the army, so you decided to move on and become an adventurer so you can find a new, better reason to fight.
311. The Failed Captain
Unlike the Last Soldier, you were one of the commanding officers, you liked the men under your command and you knew they would all fight to the end and that would do anything to defend the ones they loved, what hurts is that you failed them. you were the guy that made that tactical mistake, you were one the guy that walked his men right into a trap, while the Last Soldier is what resulted from the blunder, you were the cause, its your fault. it is because of you that the army lost that battle and their nation fell- at least you think you were the reason. Now you lead a group of adventurers, sad, trying to a find way to make up for your mistake- or at least do a better job than you did with your army.
312. The Conquered Escaper
For some reason, your nation got took over, and you weren't happy. The armies and wizards were all killed, the generals and commanders made mistakes, and the king or whatever was dethroned, so you were one of the many citizens who decided not to put up with the new guy in office and you decided to escape the country, either vowing to someday come back and free the nation, or just fleeing so you can find a better home, you now work as an adventurer either to enhance you skills and abilities or to just earn gold until you can get a house.
to long has your tribe been forced to live in filth and squalor while the other nations of the world took your land and pillfered your goods. It's time to strike back, but first you must live among them, learn their tactics and gain their trust. Adventuring lets you do all these while sharping your skills and gaining magic weapons.
You have been adventuring with the same character for 34 years, carefully nurtured through countless campaigns and many editions of rules. It's like a favourite woolly scarf. An old friend.
Now, you are within a single 5' square of attaining your epic destiny. You need only roll 50d10 to determine your final level of immortality. Trumpets sound and with a final flourish born of years of play, you prepare roll your epic roll. You use your best dice, including those from your very first Blue Box set. It seems only fitting.
There is a heart-stopping moment as ...
All but one of the aged dice crumble into dust and the last one of all totters across the table and, with a final valiant effort, rolls a natural 1.
The walls echo as the ghosts of all the DMs you have ever encountered shriek with laughter. "Critical Fumble! Critical Fumble!" they taunt over and over again.
For whatever reason (being on the losing side of a major war, suffering a major cataclysm, p***ing off the gods, what have you), whatever land or world that you called home is no more. Maybe you're a Cyran survivor of the Day of Mourning. Maybe the Empire wiped Alderaan off the face of the galaxy or the Alliance burned the land and boiled the seas of Shadow. Maybe your homeland was conquered by a powerful empire, and you're one of the lucky few who escaped.
Whatever the case, a life of wandering and adventuring is the only thing that you have left. Perhaps you're seeking revenge on whoever or whatever destroyed your home, maybe you want to take back your home from its conquerors, or maybe you want to find as many survivors of what went down as you can and find a new land to call home.
When you were born, you were taken from your parents and raised in the Feywild by an eladrin queen. No one knows why she took you and left a fey in your place, but she has trained you and your colleagues to serve as her knights. When you came of age, you recieved your arms and armor in a grand ceremony, and the queen declared that as a reward for completing your training, in addition to your promotion as a knight in her court, she would grant you one boon.
Several months pass, and your colleagues soon depart the Feywild to pursue quests in the mortal world, leaving you behind. Deciding that you cannot wait any longer, you ask as your boon from the queen a heroic quest to perform in her honor. She complies, giving you the information you need and where you need to go. She warns you, however, that your quest may take longer than you think, and it may take you through many trials before you may return to her. You decide the chance to finally take your place among your colleagues as a true hero is worth it.
(Inspired by Edmund Spenser's epic poem, The Faerie Queene)
10. Drunken Bet- It always happens like this. Your head clears as you ride slumped over in the saddle, thirsty as hell with a pounding headache. You're armed for battle, although it looks like a schizophrenic chimpanzee dressed you. In your hand is an empty booze bottle, and in your pocket is a royal writ or something. "Gods be damned," you grumble as you unfold the paper. "What did I agree to do this time?"
(I hope this isn't too similar... and that it's okay to post after all this time)
317. The Ganger:
You are Theresa Jones. You have Theresa's memories and her maneurisms, not to mention her appearance. So, why is it that this other person who looks just like you is swearing that SHE is the real Theresa Jones? Could one of you be lying? And is it possible that you could be Theresa's doppleganger... and not even know it?
318. The Hollow Demon: (This is a variation of the above based on my first D&D character)
You are a hollow demon, a mysterious breed of demon that has the ability to take the form of someone else who has died. You take their form, but you also take their memories, their morals, and their purpose. And you discard your own. Your life is a series of "reincarnations" between different forms. Every once in a while, you are able to regain your senses to figure out that something isn't right... you aren't really Imbrianna the Elven Druid. But then you die and take another form and your memory is wiped clean again, to be replaced by that of your new form.
All you really know is that you are running... from something (or someone). Did you do something in a past life to anger some malevolent deity? Or is it something you /didn't/ do? Is the master that created you trying to collect his missing puppet? And when he finds you, what will you do?
You were at the end of your journey, and of course, you had to partake in a 1 v Billion battle. It's easy to say, you died, but . . . that is just the beginning of the story. Some superbeing(god, demon, pirmal spirit, etc.) had taken a liking to you, and will not let you leave the mortal realm this soon. So, back to the beginning you go, back to when you first set off on your adventuring. Now you have to do it all again, but will you be able to change your death?
When you were young, you loved to sit with your grandmother and study the old maps she collected. She had a collection of maps from around the world and had fit them together to draw a master map of the entire world. Unfortunately, there was one area she left blank, because she had never gotten any maps from there. Now that you are of age, you have decided to set out and explore that place to create the map she never had and fill in the one blank section on your grandmother's map.
You were raised in a temple-fortress. A gigantic place, large enough to hold armies - which it did - and every inch of it dedicated to His worship. Perhaps you were unimportant, just another acolyte, a servant, a slave who cleaned up after everyone else. Maybe you were in a position of power, the chosen voice of your god, commander of his armies. Whatever your former glories were, they matter not now. Not since your Heresy.
It happened so suddenly. Someone very close to you died. Perhaps a brother, a parent, or your only friend in the world. Slain on the battlefield amongst dozens of others, or stabbed in the back, or burned at the stake. Whatever their method of demise, you had only one thing on your mind - bringing them back. You were desperate. Desperate enough to delve into the forbidden areas of the library, where the books would read you just as much as you read them, and come back with the kind of ritual you could be executed for simply knowing the name of. You would bring back your lost one - no matter the cost.
Of course, demons hardly have a reputation for being trustworthy. Summoning it in the first place was foolish. Worse was trying to bargain with it. It detected your weakness, broke through your amateur bonding and dove upon you, intending to devour you drag your soul screaming into the endless agony of the pits. You fled, the cackling monster close behind, until you broke through a door and found yourself in the armory - face-to-face with the reliquary carrying the sacred weapon of your order. Without a second though you snatched it up and struck at the demon, permanently corrupting the blade, and it was sent howling back down into its infernal home, but not before exacting its final revenge - a smouldering, agonising scar across your face.
You fled with nothing but the armour on your back and the corrupted blade in your hand. What choice did you have? You're permanently branded as a heretic, a diabolic consort, and if that wasn't enough of a reason to exile you there's the matter of the sacred relic you infested with demonic energy. If your order, your former friends, those you once considered yourself part of, ever catch you, you'll be burned alive for your crimes. Or hung, drawn, and quartered. Or perhaps you'll be flayed, and your still-bleeding skin used as a trophy to warn all of the dangers of meddling with the profane. There is no shelter for you there any more. Nor anywhere, really. Not while you still have this mark upon your face. There's also the small matter of the demon persuing you from across the planes...
You're on the run. Your friends want to burn you alive. An angry demon wants to eat your soul. Your sword keeps whispering to you at night. You're alone, with no idea whether your god can still hear you, or if he even wants to. You have nobody to rely on but yourself.
