Choosing equipment is usually one of the last steps we take in character creation. When you’re developing your character’s backstory, consider how they obtained the equipment they start their adventuring career with.

In the equipment section, the Player’s Handbook points out that:

“You decide how your character came by this starting equipment. It might have been an inheritance, or goods that the character purchased during his or her upbringing. You might have been equipped with a weapon, armor, and a backpack as part of military service. You might even have stolen your gear. A weapon could be a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation until your character finally took up the mantle and followed in an ancestor’s adventurous footsteps.”

Your choice of background can inform a lot of this. In the game, simply selecting the “Folk Hero” background gives your character a set of artisan’s tools, a shovel, an iron pot, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp. But, your character was not born into the campaign world with these things!

Where did your Folk Hero get that set of stonecutter’s tools? Did they belong to someone else before your character received them? Does the pouch of 10 gp represent your character’s life savings, or is it the result of a lucky windfall?

How did your druid get their hands on their druidic focus? Was it a gift from a fey, or a branch from a tree they grew from seed?

Even characters from the same background can have wildly differing stories behind their equipment. One noble rogue might have received their rapier as a tool for self-defense, and another might have stolen it from their family manor as they ran away in an act of rebellion.

The details behind your character’s equipment will also inform your character’s emotions towards it! Though my elf bard’s chosen instrument is an ordinary lute, it was a gift he received from his parents when he was a child, so it holds a lot of sentimental value to him.

Where did your character’s starting equipment come from? What does it mean to them? These questions can develop your character’s past and inform their present!