RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Erik Mynhier · **06-01-2015, 06:26 PM**

Back story is important to me as I draw his character from it. Its not really important for others to know it though, anymore then its important that people in real life need to know my whole life story.

That said I draw his story from my real life, some from the character's various incarnations over the years, and from evemts open to all in whatever setting he is in (D&D, EQ, TESO, and so on).

TheLastCandle · **06-01-2015, 06:32 PM**

Backstory! Yvelont has one, and it's more relevant than ever with Heavensward and Ishgard looming near. I think the important thing for me is to let it stay in the background, let it affect your character and their actions, but don't become a slave to it. After all, in the end, every moment of our characters' lives we are writing important events that will shape their later roleplay.

Gegenji · **06-02-2015, 08:31 AM**

(06-01-2015, 04:50 PM)hauntmedoitagain Wrote: Back story is important to a point. It can set the tone and mood for a character as well as help build those initial layers. In short, back story is one of many building blocks in the writing process.

I think this is closest to my feelings on backstory. It helps with building the character - and, as such, how much backstory is needed is going to be dependent on how much the player feels is needed and how much the character itself needs it. A "live in the now, don't worry about the past" type might possibly not need more but the barest of background notes (something that caused them to think this way, maybe, if it's not just their nature), while one whose life has been wholly shaped due to past events (conflicts, death in the family, etc) might want more.

Personally, I like using it to help explain how the character got to where they are today. Chachan's history is basically a summary of events - a relatively vague passage of time interspersed with important events. His family tradition, his brother's bucking of it, his own fight with his father. Even as I add more as he travels through "arcs" in game, I try to just give the most general gist I can. There were cultists he fought, he ended up in this relationship, he helped deal with this thing.

Part of it is not wanting to go too heavily into the nitty-gritty details (and leave some flex room, in the case of his pre-IG background), the other is just not being able to remember every little thing that happened in x or y event since I tend not to update the wiki except in bursts after I feel enough "stuff" has happened. In fact, I might be doing an update today, and I'm sure I can't recall every little situation that occurred between the last update and now.

But I can still (hopefully) provide enough that someone can skim through the page and get a general feel for the little guy, if they're so inclined. And, at times, it helps me keep tabs on everything he's done too. Blush

ArmachiA · **06-02-2015, 01:50 PM**

If your character can do something - there should be an explanation as to why.
If your character has issues with something - there should be an explanation as to why.
If your character has a tragic history - it should be well thought out so it doesn't confuse players who ask about it.

A backstory is wholly necessary to build a complete and three dimensional character that really fits into the world. It doesn't need to be too detailed, you don't need to know your characters favorite color right away for instance, but a solid foundation makes for a solid character.

HOWEVER, if your character is only your backstory, it's going to be difficult to connect. We all have RPed with that person who sat down in and in 5 minutes of knowing you was drowning you in their own personal backstory. Backstory mostly benefits YOU, it doesn't really benefit others - especially when you first meet them. It's important to also have a solid personality for your character too and then once they get to know people the backstory can come out.

I'm not really one for pushing Armi's backstory on people, preferring to do it slowly through dialogue then say - doing it like above or even trying to set up Storylines where only my backstory is important. It's hard for people to really care about your dead mother if they don't know you and personality is really the only way to do that. Once they get to know you it's a lot easier for characters to care about your backstory.

Like with most things in RP, balance is important.

Uther · **06-02-2015, 03:57 PM**

Generally I see backstory the same way I see a super hero's origin story. It should explain why someone is there, but it shouldn't be bogged down in detail and unnecessary plot devices. Your RP should be the story you're telling, you shouldn't be wasting RP time talking about things you just made up in your own head and only you care about. Â

Uther has a simple backstory of being a knight who was disillusioned with Ishgard's war and fanaticism after the death of his wife.

Amadeus has a free-flowing backstory of "He's just a guy who's been around, and now he's here (again?)"

I don't like backstories that take focus away from the here and now, but I don't think you should RP that your character just popped up at the Adventurer's Guild and was born a 30 year old, fully-clothed, intelligent man.

Backstories should be short, sweet, and to the point.

Asmodean · **06-02-2015, 04:17 PM**

Histroy is in my opinion is very important as part of your character story but the problem is often making the past just part of the RP and not the guiding force of an RP.Â With my character, his history effects him greatly along with pushing his way of thinking his own home town at the current point of time.

The main problem is often RP can find the balance of back-story vs the here and now of RP. IF you can find that balance, you can ofter a lot RP for others so long as you don't just focus on your own character. More people just need to find the balance.

Rila · **06-02-2015, 04:51 PM**

I wouldn't be able to play a character well without a good backstory.

I'll admit it right now: I can be a Chronic Exposition Monkey OOCly. When I come up with a detailed history I'm excited about, it's difficult to resist gushing about it. My main character hardly ever speaks in depth about her past. Me? I'm a different story altogether. "You want to know about I'rila?! Well why didn't you say so? Oh hon lemme tell you all about her. *four hours later, still happily talking*"

Seriously. Do not get me started talking about any of my characters. You'll regret it.

And you know? Part of it is sheer self-indulgence. Getting a really detailed backstory down is like filling a blank sheet of paper with very intricate and tiny doodles. It gives me that sort of reptilian pleasure.

But part of it, too, is that I don't think people are ever really outside of the influence of their personal backstories. When I speak, even when I think, I notice bits and pieces of my parents and friends, little subtle behaviors, ways of saying things that I've picked up as a result of mirroring. My hang-ups, my pet peeves, my ambitions, my thoughts about myself and about the world, the things that I value in interpersonal relationships. Some of it I can't explain any further than "this is me", but a lot of it I can trace to past experiences.

Without my memories, I wouldn't really be me, at least not completely. I think the same applies to fictional characters. Someone who refuses to raise his sword against a bandit because his parents raised him to be a staunch pacifist is different from someone who refuses to raise his sword against a bandit because the last time he used it, he lost a most embarrassing duel against three little ladybugs and three lost lambs.

For me, RPing a character without a backstory is like getting into a pair of shoes without soles. I can admire the stitching and the laces, but the moment I trying to move and react, there's nothing for me to stand on. No traction.

EDIT: Another thought. I don't think having a detailed backstory is detrimental to character growth. To me, it's akin to throwing a ball. Once you release it, it has a certain trajectory. If something else comes flying from another direction and hits it in midair, that trajectory will change, although the forces that had originally acted upon it will also have an influence in where it lands.

Emvi'zi · **06-02-2015, 09:43 PM**

Personally I've always been a big advocate of having a backstory for a character, though how big or influential a backstory has varied. For settings I'm more familiar with, I'm happy to give a bare minimum and then let it evolve from there, but in settings I'm just getting into, like FFXIV, I tend to try and make a backstory a bit more in depth using lore I read and the likes if only so I can get a proper feel for the universe, and a more solid grounding from which to RP from.

To each his or her own, though! My own way may be somewhat bizarre. Why make a background for a character in a universe you don't have a lot of experience with bigger than one you do have experience with? But I find it's working for me, at least crafting this guys story. ^^

EDIT: Giving it some more thought, a backstory should, in my opinion, always have some scope for alteration and by no means bind a character too much to it. People change their minds and circumstances change, etcetera. Sticking to the backstory of your character like some kind of religion is a surefire way to meet trouble somewhere down the line. It's a backstory, after all! Not the story!

Viola · **06-02-2015, 09:55 PM**

Backstory to me is important to a point.

As people have said; too much backstory causes problems with the future, and too little makes the character hard to understand.

An example of too little is Memenu; a lalafell brought into existence by the pleas and wishes of lalafell who suffer through Eorzea as a sole prayer for help.

Until this point; there's literally nothing about her, and her time (albeit short on Eorzea) still may not be enough to fully flesh her out.Â

Originally, the whole Primal thing was a joke, she was originally a Pope (which was an in-guild pun that somehow became rather popular), and mutated into her becoming a Primal because it apparently became a running gag in the linkshell I'm in. (Non-RP linkshell, sadly.)

tldr I think I'm hi-jacking the thread, sorry.

Cliodhna Eoghan · **06-02-2015, 10:16 PM**

i don't like to plot out every detail of a backstory, but i do like to give it a lot of thought. it gives me better foundation on the character and makes it easier to be on familiar terms with. i feel its like reading a good book; the more you know about their past hardships and high points, the more you feel invested with them. i noticed characters i spend little time on tend to feel flat and i'm less attached to them. but the more of their history i develop (counting from what occurs after that point i first start using them) the more i feel their well rounded and have a developed personality. it makes it fun too when i can do little things here and there that nod at something in their past even if it's just something that would be noticeable by only myself or a select few (typically i don't toss their full past out at once. i like it to be a gradually discovered thing x3)

V'aleera · **06-03-2015, 01:03 AM**

Playing a character the likes of which is constantly subjected to scrutiny, a meticulously planned and thorough backstory has proven to be extremely necessary and extremely valuable for a number of reasons. The first and most important being that it establishes narrative credibility by outlining how this exceptional circumstance came to be. Creating a well thought out backstory that can be viewed publicly also has the added benefit of providing a degree of personal credibility for myself as a player by demonstrating the thought and work I have put into the character.

Zelmanov · **06-03-2015, 02:04 AM**

RP is unique in its trappings that unlike a novel or movie, where a character's backstory can be revealed in an exposition dump or piece-meal ONCE and move on, RP cannot afford the same luxuries for the same audience is not always present.

So what if you have a wonderfully crafted back-story? Many of us RP'ers are cut from the same cloth as wannabe actors and writers, we want to SHOW our work. I feel a lot of us eventually want someone to know all about our character eventually, to understand them beyond say, their flirting at quicksands.Â

To which I say Background is important in how your character acts, their perceptions, their allegiances, their skills, their ability to form connections and what types of connections. I personally want someone to know about my backstory, its why I made a Wiki, its why said wiki has a long list of "You can know this about Orrin without me shouting Metagaming/godmodding" but I also endeavor to make my actions be reflections of his history.

But what happens when you are someone turning over a new leaf? The reformed thief? The Soldier who can't erase the blood stained on his hands? Or in my case, the Dragoon questioning his faith. How long do you keep that SECRET? How many months do you let someone live their life before their past comes back to haunt them? And what do you do when it comes? Does it then become the realm's worst kept secret?Â

To this, I answer that do not allow your character to be tethered too tightly to the past that you created. The background that is created in synthesis with other players should, eventually take precedence over the one your character has at "birth". That is not to say that you have to get rid of it all at once. You can make a checklist of things that will be resolved (or never will) and if there is something so monumental and important that can't be resolved without fundamentally changing the character, you stand at a precipice for real character growth and development and if it turns that character into something unfun to play, it may be then that you retire and create another.

Embrace the transience of your character, that what makes them real, human. If their arc concludes and they are in "Happily Ever After" mode, start anew, relegate them to cameo status.

I think I got off base >_>

Gegenji · **06-03-2015, 07:59 AM**

(06-03-2015, 02:04 AM)Zelmanov Wrote: But what happens when you are someone turning over a new leaf? The reformed thief? The Soldier who can't erase the blood stained on his hands? Or in my case, the Dragoon questioning his faith. How long do you keep that SECRET? How many months do you let someone live their life before their past comes back to haunt them? And what do you do when it comes? Does it then become the realm's worst kept secret?

This is what kept me from working on a Wiki for Judge for the longest time. While his background is important for who he is and how he acts, it also is a massive spoiler that I don't want to just... give away. Revealing bits of his past strikes me as something that would be fun in and of itself, and I worry how much would be lost if the person I was playing with just looked and went "Oh. Huh." and their reaction ends up tarnished.

On the other hand, it's one of those things that... well, Judge is rather out there as a character anyway. I play him like a FFTA Judge, for one, and all that comes with that. I feel it necessary to have something so that the person I'm playing with has a chance to know what they might be getting into - and can decide if that's something they want to deal with. And yet, trying to write something that is both informative and vague at the same is... difficult.

My current thought on the matter is to have the spoilerish bits of background behind spoiler tags (since you can do those in the wiki) along with a warning of what it is. That way it is there if people want to know, but you actively have to pop it open to see it, leaving those who want to still be surprised able to read the rest of the page without seeing something spoiled.

Otte · **06-03-2015, 09:07 AM**

I'm the type that creates the basic framework first, and then throws that character into the world to see what they end up building onto and under that frame!Â

I usually only have a idea of what I want the character to be like, for example their base personality, still without the quirks or mannerisms. It might be just a concept of a "a quiet bookworm", "Tall scarred ex-nunh" etc.Â
After that I put them into the world, start RPing them, and watch them grow in that enviroment. At that point I start wondering what made the character to act like they do, or react to certain things like they do, or why are they there, at that very moment. And that way I slowly build up their backstory! Sometimes the character even takes a completely different direction from what I was initially planning.

Sometimes the backstory never gets shared and just works as a base, or a pool I can pull from when I imagine what's going on in my character's head. It depends how open the said character is, some of mine wouldn't talk about their past to anyone, others would be happy to talk when asked.

Lilia Lia · **06-03-2015, 10:07 AM**

(06-03-2015, 07:59 AM)Gegenji Wrote: My current thought on the matter is to have the spoilerish bits of background behind spoiler tags (since you can do those in the wiki) along with a warning of what it is. That way it is there if people want to know, but you actively have to pop it open to see it, leaving those who want to still be surprised able to read the rest of the page without seeing something spoiled.

I dunno... you might as well just omit them at this point?Â Even having spoilers in there cues people off to the fact that there's more than meets the eye, and there's something fun in gradually raising people's eyebrows about your character through roleplay instead of having them suspect something off the bat.

I guess depending how the disclaimer is worded, like "this section contains details that I would rather reveal through roleplay."Â But I'd still think that you can work around saying such things explicitly.

I know it's tempting to share your work when you put so much thought into a character backstory but you don't want to compromise your RP experience.

« Next Oldest \| Next Newest »
Pages (3): « Previous 1 2 3 Next »

The Importance of History.

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes