The backstory essay is a TTRPG tradition nobody loves. Players agonise over pages of history; GMs skim it looking for hooks; half the table forgets it by session two. There’s a better option: the origin one-shot. A single session, stripped-back character, and one guiding question: what put this person on the road to becoming an adventurer?
What an Origin Session Actually Is
To be clear, this article isn’t about using Dungeon Crawl Classics or Shadowdark-style funnels; I’ll touch on those later as another option for origin stories. This approach is much more narrative focused, and definitely not meant to be a meat grinder. It also happens to be a great chance for players to experience a healthy dose of variety without becoming a drag to play.
Stumbling upon the Origin One-Shot
The first time I tried this was somewhat by accident. The other players in the group couldn’t attend a session, meaning there was just one left. We were already ten sessions into a long campaign, but both of us wanted to roll some dice.
The player in question loved discovery play. He never made a long backstory, or even have a fixed idea of one come the first session. His approach was to look at the character’s current actions and invent past events that would justify their activities. He effectively created backstories in reverse, using results to build beginnings.
For that 5e campaign, he was playing a young warlock. The character had found a mysterious tome that, once she’d picked it up, never left her. Gradually, she found that book had possessed previous owners, stretching back centuries. Remains of their souls were still within its pages. However, the details of how his character became a Tome of Shadows warlock were unknown.
Essential: Make Sure Everyone Buys In
So, I proposed we played a special origin one-shot. This is important: I checked the player wanted this break from regular play first, and didn’t just surprise him. It would be a massive break from normal play, with the heavy focus on combat taken away. Some people just want to roll dice and smack some skeletons. So, checking he wanted something different to the usual D&D experience was important.
The pitch was simple: play the character as a young girl before she found the book. She’d have low physical strength and constitution, and no warlock powers. She would have a few cantrips, but these were for distraction or manipulating the environment. She’d also have a couple of friends of a similar age, so she wouldn’t be alone. However, it was very clear combat was to be avoided whenever possible.
The Benefits of Constraints
The player had a fantastic time for a bunch of reasons:
First, there was the novelty factor of one-to-one GMing. The group always had three or four players, and that’s two to three other people to discuss decision-making. The fewer the players in a group, the more events you cover in a session. Additionally, all of the attention is on the player’s character; there’s no need to share the spotlight.
Second, it was a new challenge. Most people love variety; D&D 5e’s bread and butter is combat with a bit of social and a little exploration. A kid with a default for attacking adult warriors, wizards, and priests just didn’t make sense. So, we completely inverted the experience.
Long-term, a 5e game with little to no combat will likely struggle for fun. It’s bending the system in a direction it wasn’t designed for, and skipping more than half the rulebook; there are better systems (like Vampire: The Masquerade, Burning Wheel, and Court of Blades) for a purely social adventure. However, playing a one-off game? An origin one-shot adds variety without fighting the system’s intended gameplay loop for too long.
Mixing It Up
While on variety, it also gave him a new roleplaying challenge. I’ve found some players can start to play similarly behaving characters; warriors, mages, healers, or thieves—sometimes it just doesn’t matter much. But make someone play a kid, and there’s usually a big shift. Most of the world is bigger than a kid is. They hide; they run; kids try and find an adult to help them. Again, long-term this would probably be not so fun in a 5e game, but as a one-shot? It was awesome.
In one instance, the character and her friends were hiding upstairs in an inn. A mercenary strode into the inn and threw a dead body on the ground. They wanted to know if anyone present was in the girl’s holy order—easily identified by their bright red robes. The player knew it was a trap—a way of flushing them out—but the locals had no reason to know the danger they were in.
After a quick debate, the girl’s older friend said she would go down and do final rites for the body. If things turned ugly, the PC and her other friend should run. The player was faced with multiple decisions: should she abandon her friend to the mercenary? Should she wait? How could they escape the village without pursuers? With combat not an option, the player was having to think in completely different ways. They loved it.
A Working Theory
I’ve repeated this technique three more times with similar levels of success; once more with the same player, one session with another, and once with a group: each session was great fun. Now, that isn’t big enough for any definitive research by any stretch of the imagination. However, I wouldn’t be the first person to say variety is the spice of life; indeed the Romans were saying similar 2,100 years ago.
Practical Advice for Playing an Origin One-Shot
Origin stories require a specific arc. The conclusion is the beginning of the hero’s path, the inciting incident. The chapter finishes when the hero swears vengeance for their family; it’s when they take their holy vows, or pick up a sword to defend the town.
Even characters who seem set on their life’s path need a moment of crisis. A squire trained to be a knight from childhood must complete a final test or quest. Perhaps their mentor is away fighting when a new danger strikes; there’s no one else to respond except the squire [and their friends].
The result of this means the session doesn’t need a railroad, but it does need a guiding star. Both the GM and the player(s) must want to reach a conclusion, even if the way there is unknown. The origin experience is not the campaign; it’s a warm-up before the main event. So, anything that does not contribute to defining the character, their motivations, hopes or fears, should be handled quickly, if they’re included at all.
3 Step Design: The Setup
There should be at least three acts: the setup, the test or the crisis, and the determination.
The set-up lays out the character’s life before a big event occurred. It may be a life they want to protect, or something they want to escape. This is a slice-of-life moment, but it doesn’t have to be peaceful. Teenagers knowing only wartime will have very different starting sequences to ones living on a peacetime farm. However, the goal is the same: show what the character wants to save, or to get away from.
The Test
The test is there to challenge this escape, threaten what is loved. The trial may seem obvious: the squire training for their coming-of-age test makes the test a likely choice. If that feels fun, play into that. However, there are always options and ways to jump off the rails. Something might stop the squire from arriving in time. For example, an old friend might call them elsewhere; a terrible accusation may block their participation. Suddenly, the story is going in a different direction.
Similarly, there may not be one big test at all, but several smaller ones. These could be chances to explore a tension in the character from different angles. Is the squire prepared to kill a wild animal to protect the locals? Are they willing to kill bandits to protect local trade? Can they execute a convicted criminal in cold blood?
Alternatively, the tests may work like trials, letting the character explore different possible futures. The squire may have to serve the nightwatch’s forest patrol; the next test may see them as part of an escort for pilgrims; a final test may put them in a tournament, performing for the pleasure of the crowd. It’s important to note the character does not need to pass or fail any of these tests.
The Determination
And that leads me to the determination. Note, I’m saying determination, not resolution. An origin one-shot is a warm-up; there is no need to finish scenes, just for characters to reach the determination to become an adventurer. Characters can pass or fail any or all of the tests; it’s just laying the foundations for understanding their personality and motivations.
Tests the characters succeed can act as a point of pride, or an anchor in the future; the character has faced hard times before and won. Conversely, they may be a source of shame or unease. A squire that wowed the tournament crowd, but let a pilgrim die on the road may have lasting regret. Alternatively, a squire who aced all of the tests chose a vow of protection for pilgrims; yet, every night, they can’t forget the moment they locked eyes with a towering silver stag on that lonely forest patrol.
Tests the character failed at may be moments of pain or revelation. The squire failed to protect the pilgrims, and helped a retaliatory attack on the bandits. Surely there was a better way? Now they resolve to face danger with words first, not blades drawn. Alternatively, the character performed terribly at the tournament and was booed off the arena. Far from shame, the squire is proud: they now know they’re meant for a life of hard adventuring, not showboating.
So long as the character reaches a moment of determination, the origin story has done its work. There is no need to finish every plotline. In fact, in some ways, the more loose ends the better. It gives more opportunity for the group to weave material into the main adventure—so long as it fits.
Tips for GMs During the Origin One-Shot
From the GM’s side, it’s essential the environment gives lots of options to the players. Origin characters don’t have to go as badly equipped for combat as my example. However, by definition, characters won’t have developed the skills or capabilities their “present day” selves have. They will be less proficient, probably weaker, and a lot more vulnerable to missing and damage.
That means environments need options to distract, slow down, and possibly eliminate enemies—even more than normal. Interpreting the dice becomes a really valuable skill. It may be better to see failure as a spectrum; a binary choice of “it happens” versus “nothing happens” is going to make story progression hard work. Given the characters will likely be mechanically weaker, take some of the pressure off. For instance, a trap that should kill the enemy fails, making them fall prone instead; a trap that should make them fall prone fails, but it still halves their movement.
Give More Than a Beat Stick
Additionally, although the origin story does help define a character, the session still needs to be fun. Stripping characters of skills, proficiencies, and attributes can be a hard buy-in for players. There needs to be some sugar with the tax.
Inexperienced characters, and especially younger ones, can do things adults cannot. They can fit through smaller openings, notice details older, more jaded eyes do not. They have superpowers lost in adolescence: my daughter can fall out of a tree and not bat an eyelid; meanwhile, I’m at the age where fall damage seems to have unlocked a 4x multiplier. Give the characters one-off feats and abilities to reflect this. There’s no concern about balance; between the end of the origin one-shot and the start of the main campaign, these have been replaced by the character’s established skills and abilities.
NPCs as Inner Voices
Also, make doubly sure NPCs are pulling their weight. These can be especially useful from a narrative perspective. Of course, they can fill out a few weaknesses mechanically for the party. But acting as dark mirrors for the primary PC is where they really shine. Have them nudge the PC in compelling, opposing directions.
The squire might have other squire friends: one believes a knight’s devotion is to the natural order; another may think the poor and helpless should be defended before anyone else; a different NPC may think all criminals have to pay the ultimate price. Avoid making any one character obviously right or wrong. Players are gaming, not being lectured to. Besides, it makes the choice cheap and easy. The NPCs should honestly believe their point of view, and think it’s best for the PC to follow their advice with good intentions.
Player Tips for an Origin One-Shot
From the player side, remember the guiding star. Chasing small details and looking for random NPCs should probably be saved for the main campaign. Lean into plot twists and turns, especially when prompted by the dice, but don’t lose sight of reaching some kind of determination. This is a session with a focus.
Given the inherent weakness of less experienced characters, ask the GM questions. Every scene should have three or so things players can interact and manipulate to their advantage. However, that list isn’t exhaustive. Also, there may be ways to use those things in a way the GM wasn’t expecting. If there’s a cool idea of something that could be fun, ask the GM.
This is a really important tip, and one players should take into any session. When asking, don’t just say “is there x?” or “can I use x?” Instead, state the intention, too. Don’t be cagey with details.
Consider a player asking if their squire can see a flag in the forest while on patrol. With no other details, the GM is more likely to say no to strange-sounding requests. Now consider a player asking if there’s a flag around because they want to block a game trail; they wish to funnel wildlife down a different path when they create a loud noise.
The GM may still say no—ideally “No, but” or “No, and”—but their understanding will be far deeper. They’re more likely to say yes, or offer more natural alternatives. Players helping the GM get way more help, and the game moves along much faster.
Alternatives to the Origin One-Shot
I mentioned DCC’s [in]famous funnel. This is a variety of origin story but far more brutal. Players have a pool of four level zero character sheets; the PCs normally having less than 4 hit points, often 1 or 2. They’re run through a very lethal dungeon level. Whoever makes it out alive becomes a first level character. When one character dies, the player takes direct control of the next character sheet in their pool. It’s a baptism of fire, and proven so popular Kelsey Dionne imported it directly into the multi-award-winning Shadowdark.
For a more developed origin story, groups should check out Free League’s Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. Players can run kid characters all the way through to adulthood, seeing how they and the world around them change. They are a very rare case of origin and adult campaign built in lock-step from design.
In Conclusion
An origin one-shot is one way to make a standard backstory a lot more vivid. Instead of passing a page to a passive GM, groups can discover the inciting incident through play. As one of the most pivotal moments in a character arc, it’s surprising so many people skip over it.
Even for players less invested in character motivations, playing origin stories offers another way to game. It’s not a long-term commitment; it’s a chance to briefly push creativity and problem-solving in unusual ways. Ultimately, it’s easy for me to promote variety and story depth. Plus, running it 10 sessions into a campaign shows origins can make cool interludes. They don’t always have to come at the start of the adventure!
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely day.
