Discover your next 5e character with Fantasy Life Paths, a backstory generation system that takes you on a journey through your character's life, from their upbringing to their career to the friends and enemies they've made along the way.
Discover your next 5e character with Fantasy Life Paths, a character generation system that takes you on a journey through your character's life, from their upbringing to their career, to the friends and enemies they've made along the way.
More than just a backstory, the Life Paths system will grant you ability score improvements, starting wealth, skill proficiencies, NPC Allies and Rivals, even extra Feats and Magic Items. Endure personal tragedies, suffer long-lasting scars, and gain special abilities as a result of the events your character experienced before the adventure. Start the game with a place in the world and connections to its people for you and your GM to use during the campaign.
Those born into the positions of Nobles or Priests are vested with great privilege, but the top of the social hierarchy can be precarious...
Download the complete preview PDF here and try out the system! You can also find a Life Paths record sheet here (print version) and here (form-fillable).
9 different Upbringings, from Nobles to Merchants to Commoners, each with 6 different formative events with multiple outcomes and decisions.
11 Vocations, including Creative, Criminal, Religious, and Scholarly pursuits, each with 9 events that can occur as part of your backstory.
Scars, Tragedies, and Fantastic Events that can seriously alter your character's life. You could be captured by a malevolent dragon, have your home destroyed in a natural disaster, or even meet a god face to face.
Family and NPC generation tables that place your character into the world. Maybe you have a huge but fractious family, or maybe you have an unshakeable bond with your twin sibling.
GM Tools and advice for integrating the Life Path results into your campaign, a section of example Heirloom magic items, and different ways to alter character creation to suit your preferences.
The Life Paths system is more than just the narrative of your character's life, you will also see it impact your character sheet from the very start of the game:
Gain ability score improvements from your Upbringing and choice of Class
Gain skill and tool proficiencies from your life experiences.
Make NPC Contacts and Allies who can help you on your adventures, or Rivals who will complicate them.
Gain magic items, animal companion, extra feats and even unique abilities.
Endure long-term scars that require advanced healing magic to cure.
Follow your Life Path in unexpected directions:
Maybe you are a Noble who was tutored in the arcane arts before being sent to prison where you honed the skillset of a Rogue.
Perhaps you grew up in poverty but stumbled upon an ancient artifact of a lost school of Wizards.
You could even have been locked away in a tower most of your life, only to be rescued by a dashing knight who inspired you to take up the cause of a Paladin.
The possibilities of what your character could become are endless!
Whether combing through libraries or plying the open seas, there are always dangers and opportunities. Tragedy can strike without warning, but so too can the fantastic unexpectedly intrude into the everyday...
Hi, I go by Sean vas Terra. I am an experienced GM and designer of 5e-compatible supplements, such as the best-selling All The Weapons. I was a writer and the principle layout artist for the Ennie Award Winning Home-Field Advantage. I have been a contributing designer to multiple popular 5e releases including Tome of Intangible Treasures and the Ultimate Adventurer's Handbook.
After playing a campaign of Traveller I was super impressed by its life path style character creation system, and so now after several playtests I've put together Fantasy Life Paths so that you too can generate cool characters in under half an hour.
No AI tools were used in the making of this project.
The system is already designed, content-complete, and fully usable. All that's left to do is some final GM Tools pages, editing, and layout polish. Once funded, the complete PDF should release through Drivethrurpg within 1 month.
The print version will have to then go through the DTRPG PoD process, which may take 1-2 months. Once approved, backers at the Softcover tier will get a code to order an at-cost (printing + shipping) softcover edition through Drivethrurpg. Print cost is estimated at $9 USD.
