You grew up on the streets. You know where to hide and when your puppy dog eyes will earn you a hot meal.

Why were you on the streets? Were you a runaway? An orphan? Or just an adventurous kid who stayed out late?

You served your apprenticeship among merchants and traders. You’ve traveled dusty miles and haggled under distant skies.

Why are you living a life of adventure? Are you working off your debt to the company store? Are you escorting a caravan through dangerous wilds?

Are you raising capital to start your own business, or trying to restore the fortunes of a ruined trading family? Or are you a smuggler, following secret trade routes unknown to the authorities?

You’re a hard-bitten veteran accustomed to long marches, short supplies, and the sight of blood. A career as an adventurer seems like the logical next step.

Were you a battlefield soldier in a war between nations? A mercenary or town guard? Were you a front-line grunt, an officer, or a specialist such as a medic or a war mage? Did you retire with honor or in disgrace, or do you still serve?

You’re an experienced mariner with a keen weather eye and a favorite tavern in every port. Hard voyages have toughened you and the sea’s power has made you humble.

Were you a deckhand, an officer, or the captain of your vessel? Did you crew a naval cutter, a fishing boat, a merchant’s barge, a privateering vessel, or a pirate ship? 

You are a seeker of the world’s truths and an expert in your chosen field, with esoteric knowledge at your fingertips, or at the farthest, in a book you vaguely remember.

Why have you left the confines of the library to explore the wider world? Do you seek ancient wisdom? Power? The answer to a specific question? Reinstatement in your former institution? 

You lived far from the farms and fields of civilization. You know the beauties and the dangers of the wilderness.

Were you part of a nomadic tribe? A hunter or guide? A lone wanderer or explorer? A guardian of civilization against monsters, or of the old ways against civilization?

You come from a family with hereditary power. Since you’re taking up a life of adventuring, it’s quite likely that you’re a second child or more distant heir with no vast inheritance to look forward to. You’ve got to make your own way in the world with only your years of training from armsmasters and private tutors, your many rich relatives and friends, and your not inconsiderable personal wealth.

How rich and powerful is your noble family? Will the titled head of the family help you out of trouble? What is your family’s coat of arms or heraldic symbol?

You were a member of an outlaw band. You might have been part of a troop of cutthroat bandits, or a resistance movement battling a tyrant, or a pirate fleet. You lived outside of settled lands, and your name was a terror to rich travelers.

How did you join your outlaw band? Why did you leave it—or did you?

You lived for years alone in a remote shrine, cave, monastery, or elsewhere away from the world. Among your daily tasks you had lots of time for introspection. 

Why were you alone? Were you performing penance? In exile or hiding? Tending a shrine or holy spot? Grieving?

It never hurts to be part of a team, and when you’re part of a guild opportunities knock at your door.

Are you a member of a trade or artisan’s guild? Or an order of mages or monster hunters? Or have you found entry into a secretive guild of thieves or assassins?