What's included
1 live meeting
1 hrs 30 mins in-class hoursClass Experience
Creating an awesome character goes beyond the game’s basic options for race, class, statistical attributes, and equipment. Building a rich, compelling background story can bring your character to life. Understanding your character’s history helps you understand everything else about your character – what they care about, what their goals are, what they fear or despise, and how they make their decisions. And when you know all that, role play with your character gets a lot more fun. In this class, we’ll talk about ways to create your character’s background, and spend a little time brainstorming story ideas to create unique, dynamic character stories, too. We’ll begin class with a discussion about the importance of backstories and the process to create them, but we’ll spend most of our time in an interactive session where we’ll get creative together and brainstorm ideas to bring YOUR character to life. --- What will we do in class? This is a hands-on class where we’ll each develop ideas for our own character’s backstory, and contribute ideas for the other students’ characters, too. Together we’ll go over: - Why knowing a character’s race, class, statistical attributes, and equipment is just the beginning of the character creation process - The importance of backstory in understanding and playing a character - Elements of a strong backstory - Process for brainstorming and then deciding on a backstory - An interactive brainstorming session, coming up with background stories and ideas for each student's character --- Who is this class for? This class is for students who already understand the basic rules of D&D, and have created at least one character before. If you are completely new to the game, I recommend my class Dungeons & Dragons for First-Time Adventurers to learn the basics first. And if you’ve not yet created a character, you can take my class Dungeons & Dragons Character Creation: The Basics (CC1) to learn how. --- What if I want more advanced training? This class is part of a four-part series on character creation. After you’ve taken this course, or if you are already an experienced D&D player, you can learn more advanced character creation techniques by taking CC3 and CC4. - Dungeons & Dragons Character Creation: The Basics (CC1) https://tinyurl.com/y63b2egs - Dungeons & Dragons Character Creation: Building a Backstory (CC2) https://tinyurl.com/y4p9avr6 - Dungeons & Dragons Character Creation: Finding Your Class Path (CC3) - Dungeons & Dragons Character Creation: Creating Your In-Game Story (CC4) --- Ready to play? If you're ready to start playing, think about joining the D&D Adventure Club, which meets Friday each week. More info at: https://tinyurl.com/yy7ux48u.
Learning Goals
You’ll learn the importance of backstory in understanding and playing a character, understand the elements and creation process for a strong backstory, and gain experience brainstorming and selecting backstory elements for a variety of characters.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
This is a fantasy game that can include violence, combat, and life-and-death scenarios. This particular class won't include these, but please be aware if you continue to play the game.
Supply List
Please bring paper and a pen or pencil to take notes during the class. For students who are interested in learning more about D&D, you may want to acquire: 1) Dungeons and Dragons Basic Rules, a free downloadable document you can find with a quick Google search. 2) Dungeons and Dragons Player Handbook for 5th Edition. This is a more comprehensive guide than the free Basic Rules listed above. 3) A set of 7 polyhedral dice.
1 file available upon enrollment
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Sources
In this class, I may show materials using D&D Basic rules, D&D Beyond, and Roll 20.
Teacher expertise and credentials
I’ve played and been a dungeon master (DM) for every version of D&D created, from the original box sets to the current 5th edition. And I still love it. Why? Because imagination matters. Storytelling matters. Myths and legends and adventures aren’t just something to watch in the movies, they are something for us to live and create and experience together.
No matter who you are or where you’re from, I want to help you tell your story. I want to help unlock your imagination and work together to create the world that you want to be in and explore. As a D&D teacher and DM, that’s what I do – create an open and accepting space where you can have some fun and be yourself, through the lens of wild and fantastical characters.
Reviews
Live One-Time Class
$20
per classMeets once
90 min
Completed by 4 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 12-17
3-6 learners per class