The Bodyguard - D&D 5e Character Background

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Inspiration

I’ve been running D&D games since I was a sophomore in high school, so once I was ready to start working on another personal project, I decided to make something in the TTRPG space, with the system I was familiar with (D&D 5e). I knew I wanted to make something small and simple to start out, and settled on the idea of writing a character background.

Brainstorming

I knew when I started that any idea worth designing for a character background needed to not only excite me as a designer, and fill a role that is not already being filled by something else within the system. I used a technique a professor taught me, which was to force myself to brainstorm at least 10 ideas before allowing myself to develop any of them, with the idea being that the farther I would go in the list, the more creative my ideas would be. This turned out to be true, and I settled on my 9th idea, The Bodyguard.

First Draft

Since I was writing something for an existing TTRPG system, a lot of the design and writing of the first draft was focused on making the cadence and language used in the source-books of the game, so that the Background would read like an officially published one.

On the design side, I started writing by considering how a Character Background fits into character creation in D&D 5e and how it is meant to come through at the table. It’s important that a background be specific enough to give the player a sense of identity, but open enough that there is room allowed for the player to make the story their own. I also considered popular “Bodyguard” archetypes that players may want to fulfill the fantasy of playing as (powerful parent and young child, shadowy lookout, big muscley bruiser, etc.).

Feedback

Once I was done with the first draft, I sent it off to some colleagues with experience designing in the TTRPG space, as well as seeking out ways to get the Background used at an actual table. I received some feedback that the Background Feature was not specific enough in its application, and that the skill proficiencies provided with the background did not line up to the identity that the background had.

Publishing

Once I was confident that the Bodyguard had fulfilled its design goals of being a new, fun, engaging Character Background around which to build a new PC, I got to work publishing. Using a site called The Homebrewery I got the document in the exact form that it is in official D&D 5e materials. I also purchased some fantasy stock-art to use (most backgrounds in the Player’s Handbook for D&D 5e come with character art). Then, I got the piece published on DMsGuild and on my website!