CHARACTER BACKSTORIES "What are the Rules?"

[Atreides Conscript]

celest said:

So, to summarize, when making a backstory here are a few simple rules:
1: Write one, period.
-A short one is better than nothing and using amnesia to get around it is begging the GM to torture you.
2: Include reasoning for all major character points or concepts.
-Even if it is a simple has also been terrified of heights to explain a phobia. After all some people just are.
3. Give basic descriptions of their life.
-They had a happily childhood, mother died when young, abused as a teen, when to college, works at local grocery store, ect.
4. Keep it short.
-That doesn’t mean that it should be less than a paragraph, but if your backstory is more than two pages, typed; you are probably writing too much.
5. Mini stories are ok.
- These add uniqueness to your character as they are something no other character will have. Just try not to have too many.

This is an excerpt from Celest's post in the Silver Blade Project. To give a bit of background for those not aware, the Silver Blade Project is a set of classes and discussions to help people improve at and become more familiar with role-playing. At the beginning, the Silver Blade will focus on general RP knowledge, theory, and concepts for players. I am told that it may eventually branch out into specific discourse involving the types of role-playing here on the Temple.

The original post comes from the RP class, headed by Celest, that discusses the concepts and theories involving player-character (PC) creation. This specific excerpt is speaking of character back-stories (the information about your character's history and thus explanation as to how she/he came to be who and where they are now), and what Celest points to as the basic rules for their drafting.

I bring this excerpt up in the Hall of Screams, as I believed it to deserve specific merit in discussion. As many forum members are/were/are going to be role-players, I felt it prudent to discuss whether or not we all agreed with her basic rules. This is done here, rather than in her class, as otherwise would only divert attention from a good class session. I would not want to be rude and intrude upon that.

With background being stated, I will introduce this to the floor by asking, "what do you think about these rules?" Do you believe that they are all necessary? Would you add to them, or perhaps detract from them? Where do you think the limits are in choosing to break these guidelines? Should they ever be broken?

Other than those questions, I will look forward to any simple digressions and evolutions to the topic at hand. As will be my custom from this point onward in the Hall of Screams, I will post my own thoughts separately from any of my own introductory posts, and only after another person has posted.

Have at thee!

[artemi]

atreidesconscript said:

I bring this excerpt up in the Hall of Screams, as I believed it to deserve specific merit in discussion. As many forum members are/were/are going to be role-players, I felt it prudent to discuss whether or not we all agreed with her basic rules. This is done here, rather than in her class, as otherwise would only divert attention from a good class session. I would not want to be rude and intrude upon that.

...My first, main, question would be to question why that thread is outside of the Silver Blade. Not only is the main thread OPEN for discussion on this sort of thing, second, if that does not suffice, the Silver Blade has its entire own BOARD for this sort of discussion. Would not this discussion tie in with everything that is going on over there?

[Atreides Conscript]

Simply put, questioning the judgments of an authority figure is quite controversial, and I'm also looking to see if this sparks a debate. Further, I see this as having potential to become a LONG discussion and would not want to see it derail Celest's class.

The last time that RPing was debated over, it spawned the "Which is Better?" thread. Those of us who were around in those days remember well how long and heated that was. This has just as much potential for debate. That sort of thing belongs here.

I would like to take this point to remind us all of what gets placed in the Hall of Screams:

1. Controversial Materials/Subjects for discussion.
2. Debate threads.
3. Argument threads (that do not violate the rules, obviously).

These three stand above the reach of other sections on the forum (with the exceptions of rules, staff, and RPG Game areas). That means that even if it has to do with another covered subject... it belongs here when it is:

- A DEBATE
- AN ARGUMENT
- A GENERALLY CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC
- A DISCUSSION ABOUT GENERALLY CONTROVERSIAL MATERIAL

'nough said. Back to the topic at hand.

[Lylie]

I don't write long and elaborate backstories anymore because I have had dm gm st whatever you want to call them, look at them and get this funny look like their constipated, then tell me, well your charactor has amnesia because they hit their head, had a tramatic experience, or "I don't want to read this. This is too long. So they don't remember their past."

[celest]

My I just make the point that I have open discusions in the class for this very reason. Should any one in the class feel that something should be added or deleted if they have any comments or questions or whatever, there is a good amount of time for open discusion. If any one disagrees with what I have written they are more then welcome to say so and I will consider it. This is just as much a learning experiece for me as it is everyone else.

The point of the class orginally was to help new rpers create functioning characters, but there was also the intent to have experienced players join so they may add any valued input so that everyone will gain and share their knowlegde.


To Lylie: I'm curious as to who did that, cuz really that's just not right.

[Atreides Conscript]

That the Silver Blade is open for on-forum discussion is well known. I noted that the first time when I created this thread. I noted that the second time when Artemi brought it up above. I have now noted it the third time. That topic has been addressed and is not the one at hand.

Move on, people. There is a topic to discuss. If you, Celest, feel that the topic, when finished, is relevant enough to include it in your class notes, then feel free to link to this thread.

- Atreides Conscript (Temple Gatekeeper)

[shaggy]

Backstories are important to a game at the core, but I disagree that they have to be written. Now since the Temple is a text based RPing session it kind of has to be typed. But if you started RPing like I did, human interaction, then the backstory does not have to be typed. All you have to do is discuss it with the GM. Now that we have chat capabilities and most of us live in the same area the text based Rping is a moot point.

I disagree with basic descriptions. Detail is always awarded as far as the GM I play with and will play with again. I know that if I hand a story to Ant that is underdeveloped I will get reamed because there is not enough sufficient detail. Details are good and give reason for your character to be more than just a bunch of stats.

I also disagree with the statement of keep it short. The age of the character has to be brought up. Now the length of the story should correlate with the age of the character, a 15 year old D&D human should have a paragraph to a page, but a 250 year old Masquerade Ventrue should be about 2 and a half pages to 3 and a half pages.

And I don't know what she means by mini stories so I am not going to touch that one.

[Atreides Conscript]

shaggy said:

And I don't know what she means by mini stories so I am not going to touch that one.

That is a good question. Celest, what do you mean by "mini stories", and why do you see them as legitimate (not that I would necessarily disagree, but it's always better to state why in the Hall of Screams)?

[celest]

if you read the entirerty of the post, not just what you quoted you will see that I gave a lengthy discription of "mini stories". I beleive they got a whole paragraph to themselves.


In short a "mini story" is just that, a very short story found with in your backstory. Something with more detail than the rest of the BS. A series fo events that happen in a short period of time (a few minutes, and hour, maybe a day) that changed your character. It effected them for the rest of their lives and made them who they are.

[shaggy]

I always thought that was a normal backstory event. There is always a little bit of a reason to go into further detail if it is important. Details are what give the GM a way to shape the grand scheme of the game. If there are no details there is really no way of getting your character involved easily.

[Atreides Conscript]

celest said:

if you read the entirerty of the post, not just what you quoted you will see that I gave a lengthy discription of "mini stories". I beleive they got a whole paragraph to themselves.

Noted... my apologies.

celest said:

In short a "mini story" is just that, a very short story found with in your backstory. Something with more detail than the rest of the BS. A series fo events that happen in a short period of time (a few minutes, and hour, maybe a day) that changed your character. It effected them for the rest of their lives and made them who they are.

I never really considered it before, but I always write my back-story as a basic life-story of my character. It will cover anything pertinent and the story will focus around life-shaping events. These "mini-stories" you speak of are those very events. I never really considered a back-story to be legitimate without them, but perhaps it could. If the GM/DM/ST/etc. is happy with a list of reasons for stats, merits, flaws, etc. then one wouldn't need the back-story at all. I, however, don't see this happening with our known GM/DM/ST/etcs.

I suppose that my question to you, Celest, is now how one could ever write a true "back-story" without the "mini-stories" in the first place?