PlaneShift
Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: acraig on August 25, 2004, 09:00:49 pm
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How important is a background story to your character and the game world?
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Important because it decrees what I will do in the future without my charictures rough past he decided to live in the forests after one last adventure (to journy the planeshift world) Also it defines my goal. To taim the toughest flying creature and to live in a forest untouched by any humans.
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i\'d rank it as a nice to have but not manditory.
most people, myself included, aren\'t creative enough to carve a decent back story.
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To me this game is a story. We are all the heros in it. Playing this game is equivalent to writing part of the story. So I voted \'Very important\' :-)
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Sure thing jorrit, but don\'t have so much fate in boring masses. It should be partially enforced.
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Very important. Without putting much thought into who you are becoming in the world of Yliakum, you are... nobody. Just another random face with no interesting quirks or habits or curious features that will grab the attention of others. If you want to roleplay as yourself, that\'s perfectly fine (as my character, Karyuu, nearly IS me) but it still is important to think through to the beginning of your character, his or her early history, what made him or her the way the individual is now, etc. Once you do at, at least for yourself, it\'s much more fun to \'sink\' into the character. In the world of roleplay, you have the amazing ability to control every aspect of your persona - every movement, facial expression, and so on. You have incredible control, and you can use it in any way you like. However, without a sort of \'focus,\' that power is too broad to be used effectively. You have to set some sort of realistic and individual limits on your character. For example, create some intriguing likes/dislikes that will affect how the character feels towards others and make for good scenarios. Set goals for your characters, be they large or personal, materialistic or internal and emotional. Make them act a certain way because of who they are - not jump all over the place because they have no attributes that define them.
It makes things a heck of a lot more interesting :)
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How would the background story affect your character...
Lets say that your backgorund story said somthing like this.
Life was tough as a Karn at a early age, was slaved labored in the town where i was born. The miners had no idea I was to become more powerfull then 5 of them combined.
So at age 10 I made my first stand with my best friend _____, we made it out we were all alone trying to make it back to the main city.
Upon arriving the people here were really mean, racist to karns they did not like us for some reason, This saddened me so I moved on trying to be the best karn to make a stand to let everyone know karns are powerfull.
My first attempted failed, I was 12 everyone laughed they caught me and sent me back to slave labor for the miners.
5 long years had past I became very strong after all that hard work I was planing it, finally the day where again I would make my stand I succeeded.
Now I have made someone of myself no one wants to mess with me, I free the other karns from mining camps.
Now we live in a town called karroikw (weird name i know).
We will one day make our stand against the racist towns people.
Something like that...
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The reason why I made that post is that the community in the game itself is really mean to karns, its like they were put in the game to laugh at?
One guy named camp is really mean. /sigh
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I voted \"Important\". If the game is good enough to warrant making the effort of creating a background story, it\'s something I\'d like to be able to do in-game (I could write it in a text editor an day, but I\'d rather have some editor in PS to store it with my char). I wouldn\'t go so far as to say it\'s \"very important\" because I can also do without, and I\'d most likely not spend much time reading more than the occasional background story in the library or consider my own one good enough to be put into the library, for that matter. The story will affect my char, of course, but it should be editable to allow for adding stuff as it comes to my mind.
@ Aware: Huh? Krans are just like dwarves in that they have some properties that can easily be made fun of, but I would like to know where in the setting it sais something about mining camps, child labor and racism? I don\'t think they were put into the game as some running gag, because they do have qualities that make them very good for certain tasks (mostly the more strength-intensive ones and in hostile environments) so they will be a good choice for ppl. who wish to excel at these jobs. I don\'t see any need for a \"save the Krans\" movement.
Originally posted by Aware
One guy named camp is really mean. /sigh
Was his name \"Mining Camp\"? :D
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Very imortant, a background story will affect everything you do while RPing in some small way. It is an essental part of an RP world. If I were some hack-n-slasher, it wouldn\'t mean a thing, but to me it is very important.
@Aware - There is an Edit button...
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Very Important, what is a role playing game if you don\'t have a role of some sort, and the backstory defines what kind of role you are ging to have. It shows that you weren\'t just thrown into the world, also very fun when you add hints about what you are doing in there :P
Also good for showing why you shows certain characteristics of your character
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Everyone doesn\'t have to have a backstory.
It\'s just as possible to say you don\'t remember or you don\'t want to talk about where you came from without elaborating on it. Also, you don\'t have to have preset parameters defining who you are. Spontaneous creativity is what has made for some of the best games I have ever played.
I mean, honestly, can you think of a reason for why you do every little thing in your real life? If you are tapping a pencil on your desk and someone goes \"Why don\'t you quit?\" is your more likely answer \"I don\'t know, just a habit\" or \"Well, you see, ever since I was a small child in the village of...\"
Backstories are a nice cinematic touch, but they bear little overall relevance to the game and how role-playing is done. Some of the most creative and inspired characters I\'ve ever adventured with had no backstory whatsoever - none.
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Thats actualy a good idea, some games have profiles so it would make sence to be able to edit your profile to have a history.
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I think the idea of story in general is very important (i.e. that cities and organisations have histories, and that characters have particular goals or intentions that they work to achieve). The only downside is that I have a fairly low opinion of the average story-writing capacity of the gamer :)
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EDIT: Ack! I read the question wrong
Very Important because it defines your characters personality and abilities more clearly
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LOL poll results are now coming in at +/- 3.125%
Good job, Syzerian :P :P :P
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Very important. I base everything action I make around my history.
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Very Important
PlaneShift strives to be a true RPG, and you can\'t effectively roleplay if you have no background. I imagine it would be similarly difficult if you were acting in a movie/play as one of the characters, but were only told what to say and you have no backstory. How could you put any feeling into it? Any emotion?
I remember from my human relations class in college, one of the first things we were taught was that \"we are a product of our experiences\" and that \"our experiences affect the way we view the world around us.\" If you had no past, how would you know how to act, think, or say?
Now all I need to do is stop being a hypocrite and go write my backstory...
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You need a backround story, or history in things..unless you decide to start out as a child? Your history is your life, downfall...or...fame? Having that backround story helps intensify your future situations and self expressions in perhaps things you have encountered before. Basicly all in all it helps your Character Role-Play, without it your nothing.
One exception...Say your history is something you can\'t remeber because you had Amnesia or something..thats a backround history all in its own.
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One of the first rules of war: Know thine enemy.
I shall indeed know mine, by researching them at the local library! :]
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I guess the follow up question is who will stay true to their background story if it negatively affects their game. ( ie they cannot hold steel weapons for some story reason and a new steel weapon comes out ). Will people stay true to their story or try to wiggle out of it?
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I *sometimes* trust in the roleplaying ability of the players.
I think that MB was actually good for the game, because there is not much to do but roleplay. And it has people getting involved in the community coz there\'s not much to do yet.
So I think a lot of people will stay true to the background.
But what is inevitable, is people who won\'t, people who don\'t give a rat\'s ass about roleplaying.
*sigh* It is an inevitability.
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Probably not, but hopefully they\'ll at least try to RP-fashion some cool gloves or steel repellent or something. :D
Didn\'t that always suck when you were the cleric in the back of the D&D group with the morning star and everyone found sword after sword after sword after sword of +1 or higher? Ahhh.... memories.......
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Well I vote is very important but not mandatory?
I do this because I would really like the chance to change & be part of the history of Yliakum & write books to put in the library etc?
But I do not believe it should be mandatory @ all, for the reason of players that have just found the game & decided to test it out, they usually do not know a thing about the actual world without experiencing it so how can they possibly create a background story for there Char? Maybe they can get some idea from the site, (which most people play the game first before reading everything on the site?) The setting is a long section I would be surprised if even ? of the people who play Planeshift actually read the Players guide before installing the game & checking it out? You should have a option box saying:
Background Story:
- ?My Character has stumbled upon the world of Yliakum not knowing anything??
[_] Make up your own Character Background:
& Always have the option to fill this in & edit later? also the journal idea a little bit back was good, you can right in a journal that tells the adventures of your Char, so this could be part of this? also, I think it would be good to make up a background story on your char after checking out what jobs you like because maybe someone made a background story that now he/she has to contradict because there are no dragons or whatever? new people should get to know the world before making a background for there char?
(Imo it will just make rp more consistent...)
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Originally posted by acraig
I guess the follow up question is who will stay true to their background story if it negatively affects their game. ( ie they cannot hold steel weapons for some story reason and a new steel weapon comes out ). Will people stay true to their story or try to wiggle out of it?
Of course it would be respectable to stick to the story that have decided upon. Minor alterations could always be made, but to completely turn something around would be... inconsistent, thus again throwing away all the \'focus\' your character had. I know I sure as heck won\'t try to wiggle out of the handicaps I\'ve put on my character. Karyuu, for example, refuses to use and fears all magic, thus no matter what new and appealing (to the player behind her) spell comes up, Kary won\'t throw out her entire background and weild some sorcery.
Honestly, I have no idea whatsoever how this will affect my character in CB, but I\'m going to stick with it and find out ;)
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Well you could add to the start and end of your backstory :P
Armeen is a good lad
becomes
The evil and ruthless killer Armeen deceived everybody so that when people talked about him they would say \"Armeen is a good lad\" while in reality he was secretly plotting their demise.
hehe....Armeen is having fun..
enough with 3rd person now
(my backstory is slightly longer then this :P)
Also you could have spaces in your story
He was then never seen for three days. Curiously in those three days everybody who said that Armeen is a good lad died.
So I guess what I am trying to say is: Don\'t call me a good lad :P
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You could always do what I\'m doing and completely rewrite your backstory, hoping no one notices before the next release. But you have to go away or be really, really quiet for most of a year and then when you come back and CB still hasn\'t come out get a bunch of new friends, change your guild, and start recruiting a whole bunch of people.
And you have to blab all your plans on the forum....
I\'m just gonna stop talking now. :P
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God is everyone blabing there plans on the forums, there is alot in my plans that I didnt mention like slaying anyone who even trys to jump of the top of the tower in the main city to commit suicide... oh dam I just typed out loud didnt I oh dam.
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Important -- PS is an online game, and will never be exactly like a tabletop RPG. We all need to face that there is no GM for every 4 or 5 people playing, always there to guide the players on and have them experience new and exciting adventures. It\'s simply impossible to do, so it wont be done. Besides, if someone wishes to know what you did in your childhood, and you were just living on your parents\' farm, that story most likely wont be on the local library. It will have to be told person-to-person.
Having a library full of well-written stories is nice, but unless these stories hide secrets, or help hiding secrets by being written so they definitely contain secrets, just not the ones you need, then the stories really are of no use to anyone. Maybe the setting is medieval and a lot of us want to roleplay, but face it, reading fictional stories just for the sake of it is something we have real life libraries for. But okay, if you want to write stories for some purpose that I really can\'t see, then by all means feel free to do so. Just don\'t expect me to contribute. :)
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I think it is important, background stories are hard to stick by in games though, for example if you are hunting a nemesis (like me) it would be hard to implement that into the game, I will stick by it as much as possible, I intend to have little or no magic, as my character is afraid of it... I\'m thinking none, but he might want to dabble to overcome his fear somewhat...
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I wouldn\'t expect too many character backstories to be in the library, I think the comment in the poll was referring more to a general \"I like story so much that I\'d write some stuff\" Character backstory doesn\'t have to be written down, but it should exist for the purposes of guiding your characters decisions and intents.
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This is a roleplaying game, as such we need to distinguish between ourselves in real life and our characters. Few people do that. It\'s more like acting and a creative outlet.
As Karyuu said, our characters can inherit their personality from us...Nilaya\'s personality is close to mine, though more outgoing and playful and less geekish. Still I distinguish between her and me - otherwise, roleplay becomes a total mess, and people get hurt.
Once you get into the mindset of being a person in a world, rather than a person playing a game, a lot becomes clearer. I don\'t run up towers, run around rooftops, and miraculously heal people...Nilaya does. Of course, I am friends with the people who play a lot of Nilaya\'s friends.
Background story is essential to roleplay and defining your character. Your own personality is affected by your life experiences growing up. Same for your character.
You may not remember every part of your history, but you still have some. If nothing else, you found yourself in Hydlaa somehow and have been living since then. That\'s OK too - stories can be as elaborate or as humble as you like. That\'s the beauty of it.
I do hope to include an introduction to basic roleplay in future versons of the Explorers\' New Traveller\'s Guide.
--kg/\"Nilaya\"
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Meh, bad roleplayers being kicked is still a possibility in the future?
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\"Very Important\"
Although it would be extremely easy for me to wiggle with my backstory. :P (Sci-fi has it\'s advantages :D :P )
Mine would be in the library possibly, but as my character suposedly isn\'t supposed to reveal himself (Which he\'s bad at), maybe it shouldn\'t... Hm...
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Meh, bad roleplayers being kicked is still a possibility in the future?
well i dont know about that, a bad roleplayer is better than a non-roleplayer (kick those PLEASE!) .... if you mean someone who roleplays for everyone else... (maty: Maty sits down and Kethro gets thrown out of the window by three rats...) then i hope that they get kicked or warned or something... or we can put them on an ignore list
very important, if someone doesnt want to create a background story, then make something short,
born in 332, now a mage at >>>>> fighting >>>>.
! :)
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all I can say is, \"Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.\"
But i would go with neutral
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I said very important. Just imagine a huge library full of stories about every single person in ps. It would be very cool. I already have mine planned out ^^
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Do not get me started.
\"Very important.\"
Firstly, we need a thorough background story for the game world before we demand our characters to have a well thought past.
At the moment, I would say the context of PlaneShift and Yliakum is a bit vague, as we have no clue as to what the culture in the underworld should be like.
For example, is one-on-one dueling enforced, or banned by the authorities? Is there a distrust between Elves and Dwarves? How about the feud between the Enkidukai and the Humans? Is there a sequel or a side effect of that? What about traditional celebrations and holidays in Yliakum? Is there a Day of Laanx and a Day of Talad? How scornful is the society towards begging, romantic affairs, and public innuendo? What behaviours are thought to be \"Politically correct\"? Are sacrifices common-talk for the inhabitants of Yliakum? How are criminals punished? Beheaded? Burned? Hanged?
Many questions remain unanswered and, while the game is being coded and programmed in its more basic stages, I see no better time to solidify the setting. Get those brains at the Settings Department to work.
Once we can say, \"Hey, I think we are pretty much done with the outline of the game world.\" We can start to demand basic backgrounds for the characters.
Why is this? Because I as a player want to know how the average folk of the society shall react to my characters\' actions. Or I may deliberately have a \"Good guy\" possess a singular trait that makes him look like a \"Bad guy\", and RolePlay the complex he possesses within for being regarded as what he is not.
On the other hand, I may want to play a ruthless tyrant that maintains a most courteous and politically correct behaviour in the outside, but in the inside he is corrupt to the core.
A well structured background for the entire game allows the players to design a well structured background for their characters. They will be more aware of what flaws or strenghts their avatars can be given to make them look more realistic, or interesting, or to render them more fun to play!
Try creating a background for \"the game that shall not be named\". Can you? No! Because the world\'s background is non-existant. You do not know what the difference is between the culture of one corner of the game world and the opposite, because there is no culture!
And you know how THAT game ended.
Nonetheless, I would encourage all players to maintain coherence and cohesion in their characters\' actions. As the example given above: If your character has an abversion towards steel weaponry, and a new steel weapon comes out, then tough luck!
If you still want to try that weapon out, create a new character able to do so. It is that simple.
Hypocresy ruins the fun and entertainment to the majority of players. We do not want to see a D&D Thief prancing around in plate mail, or that Cleric hacking and slashing trolls with a claymore.
Stick true to your characters!
THAT is what RolePlaying is all about.
- Golbez
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I will always remain true to my backstory and character abilities. This reminds me that I still need to write my backstory down :( Its all sorted out just need to manage to write it out
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If your character has an abversion towards steel weaponry, and a new steel weapon comes out, then tough luck!
Through roleplaying (pen and paper) I discovered that many people are unrealistic in their character creation, for example the Paladin, a paragon of holiness and justice, yet what about weaknesses, is he completely arrogant, ending him in trouble, does he question his faith?
Not many people create a weakness for their characters, I liked the way that the MB selection screen had positive and negative traits, and games like Fallout do too (A pity they mean nothing in MB). No one is perfect, thus no character can be either.
I have long modeled my characters with rather large flaws, whether it is a personality flaw, or something more extreme. An example is my latest D&D character, a powerful master of Evocation, that is too arrogant for his own good, and refuses to heed any advice, making many enemies. Or my first character, a simple Rogue who was a skilled thief, but has no patience and is deeply hurt by the ruthless slaughter of her friends.
My first PS character (Adeli) was merely a vessel for me to familiarise myself with Hydlaa... RP was not a factor in her life, as I just wanted to experience things for myself. My current character (Tyralus) is how I wish to be known in the game, and I spend most of time in-character, and as such he needed a background.
I modeled him after my first ever D&D character, an intelligent, skilled, agile and witty thief... then changed some things, he too lost his friends that were like family... Tyralus\' family was killed by a mage, and he bears a cold hatred for those of the Arcane. To make matters worse, he is unevenly matched against spellcasters due to his deathly fear of magic.
Because of this, Tyralus will probably never use magic, unless he does it to desensitise himself, in order to overcome his fear and get revenge. He is often taken by blind hatred, and will flee from battle when a wizard is involved, he also lacks the ability to trust again.
I agree with Golbez that hipocrisy ruins the RP factor, which I see as very important. Sorry for the essay.
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Very important.
I agree with Golbez. The better and more thorough background is given to the world, the better (and easier) the roleplaying will be. It\'s a bit hard to write a good story when you know little about the world it is put in.
Since I don\'t play Planeshift for scores, I don\'t have a reason for my character to avoid disadvantages. If I wanted to, I just wouldn\'t give him any. :rolleyes:
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Most of the time a character background is important only if you feel that you cannot achieve everything possible in the game. If you were given the oportunity to choose between being the most, everything in the game or having a character that would not be the most powerfull but would go along by what his \"personallity\"would have him do then most people what choose the previous. Only in a game so incredibly hard to conquor does a person settle for just having a believable RP character. I think many people will agree.
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Game... hard to conquer? I thought Planeshift is a mmoRPG o_0 How can you \'conquer\' a roleplaying game if not by roleplay..?
>>>If you were given the oportunity to choose between being the most, everything in the game or having a character that would not be the most powerfull but would go along by what his \"personallity\"would have him do then most people what choose the previous.<<<
Yeah, if they want to do nothing but powerlevel... Such will not be welcome in this community.
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Originally posted by ajdaha
If you were given the oportunity to choose between being the most, everything in the game or having a character that would not be the most powerfull but would go along by what his \"personallity\"would have him do then most people what choose the previous.
Good, so I achieved everything that was possible to achieve. What\'s next? Hmm.. Hey, wait, there are other players in this game? Why nobody has told me? ;)
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Originally posted by ajdaha
If you were given the oportunity to choose between being the most, everything in the game or having a character that would not be the most powerfull but would go along by what his \"personallity\"would have him do then most people what choose the previous. Only in a game so incredibly hard to conquor does a person settle for just having a believable RP character. I think many people will agree.
Counter-Quotes
You can become truly powerful, indeed! - Volo
Yet there is always another with greater power than your own. - Elminster
From the Baldur\'s Gate II manual. Volo and Elminster are two fictional characters who in their quotes, express momentous concepts of the game.
So...Knowing than there is always someone else that can get \"the good stuff\", knowing that anyone can be \"the best\" at this way or that one of magic, or has the best skills in mele? combat...What makes a character truly unique?
A personality. Traits. Quirks. Strengths and weaknesses.
Do keep that in mind when you think about \"conquering a game.\"
Some people think that winning a RolePlaying game is being the most powerful character. I disagree, utterly and completely.
I win when I tell a story, and to tell a story I need a dramatic yet believable character. Skills and combat are a tool for that, not my goal. Therefore, I seek not to be the \"cool dude with a big sword\", but to build an entertaining character through which I can hook other players into RolePlaying. Keep them coming back not to hack and slash, but to live a fantasy world.
My two coins.
- Golbez
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i think that background stories are a nice thing to have for a RP game... BUT, not all of us are prolific writers with elaborate stories to tell about our characters. Furthermore i think that the reason to have a background story is to give some rhyme and reason to the characteristics we wish our character to have.... therfore i believe the most important thing is to be able to assign attributes and features to a character. It is these characteristic that will be defining factors in our character whether they are accompanied by an autobiography or not.
In short, should be an option and not a requirment
just my two cents worth.....
Saz
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it\'s important to know your background, but it\'s not compulsory to tell everyone nor to write it in a book.
I think it\'s part of rp to be able to anticipate your friends reactions according to what you know of their background.
But when I meet someone for the first time I dont expect to know everything about him, it would be stupid !
Now of course, having a complete background is cool but if you\'re not able to do it, a few lines that can explain your behaviour is enough :
\"My parents were rich, so I\'m rich and I hate poor people, in fact I really dont understand them... if they dont have money, why dont they buy some ? HAHAHA (aristocratic laugh)\"
No, don\'t worry that\'s not my character, just wrote that to illustrate ... You see, these 3 lines can help people decide wether they want to have you as a friend or not ... simple, obvious and effective !
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Golbez, I really like your way of thinking.
Saz, you bring up a valid point, the autobiography is not necessary, the existence, not availability of a story is important IMHO, noone else need know it, but you must have some way to describe your character to yourself, and a mental autobiography should do just that.
Leji, I\'m very impressed by your attitudes towards RP, I know you are very new, and I think you are a welcome addition to PlaneShift. Your point is very good, anyone can write a few simple lines, mine would go along these lines:
\'Tyralus is a thief, his friends and family were killed by a powerful, as a result he hates mages and is terrified of magic...\'
Not sure if people would want to adventure with a Magiphobic Enki...
In case you are wondering Leji, I am Tyralus in the game.
Edit: To help you out Leji, you might want to fix your sig, \"list\" should say \"least\".
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Nobody is demanding a novel of a background for a character. I doubt anyone has the amount of free time or the patience necessary to become a professional writer in order to partake in a gaming community!
However, every character must have a reason to be. Yes, MUST.
This is not Quake. This is not Wolfenstein 3D or any of its sequels and clones. RolePlaying is not about who has the higher stats, or who possesses the highest mathematical possibility of being successful in combat, spellcasting or crafting.
It is about character development. Yes, that is RolePlaying.
To give room for development, you need a background. A beginning for that imaginary avatar. An explanation of which one is or was the purpose of the existance of that conglomerate of pixels and bits that we call \"our character\".
It shall all unfold from then.
It can go from an intricate and detailed sucession of events, to a mere couple of short paragraphs. But you really REALLY REALLY need a background if you are in a RolePlaying game.
I would very much like to see an enviroment in which RolePlaying is enforced, instead of letting it fall under the \"optional\" category.
PlaneShift is an MMORPG. Enforcing the RPG part should be more than redundant, but in the internet community of nowadays it is downright impossible to leave a game in the hands of the players as the concept and purpose would inevitably be altered, shaped, re-shaped, adultered and deviated from its original course. Most if not all of the times for the worse.
I agree, it will never be alike to a table-top D&D game. The massive amount of players inherently brings this as a consequence. Nonetheless, it does not mean that the RolePlaying genre is doomed to die in the hands of lamers, hackers, crackers, and power-leveling.
I have asked on more than one occasion. \"What will be done to provide a comfortable RolePlaying environment for the players?\".
Obviously, this question is mainly addressed to the staff, as players have little more to do other than encourage their peers to behave as expected.
Nonetheless, (and even if it appears I am complaining, I am not) the staff never gave even the slightest hint of an answer.
There is time. We barely have a game as it is. But it is now as good of a time as ever to make sure that the online RolePlaying genre is not reduced to a bunch of drone-like players exclusive dedicating their precious time to indulge themselves with dull and repetitive hack and slash, mining, crafting and other individualistic activities.
After all, RolePlaying is all about socialising.
And there is no socialising whatsoever in solely trying to beat the ridiculously limited AI of the NPCs.
- Golbez
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Dont worry Golbez, I\'m sure PS players are nearly all eager to RP, and backgrounds can be written and developped after the creation of the avatar, you can even write a new paragraph each week.
This way you don\'t need to spend much time on it and you can add interesting things, for instance if you find a really good friend on PS after 3 weeks, you can always add that you know each other since you\'re 3 years old and that you have grown up together.. things like that really help RPing and are not a problem as soon as you dont modify really important things over and over...
PS : thanks for the \"at least\" Adeli :) I\'ll remember this one :)
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I think a basic idea behind a character is important but an entire history isn\'t. A background story should be just that, in the background only occasionally peeping through and impacting on the now.
My character has a background story not written down mind you but in my head. To me that is enough, and I place little value on it for roleplaying. You see in real life I have experiences too, but they don\'t govern my actions on a day to day basis.
However I don\'t see why not having a background story is such a problem if the roleplay spirit is still there and realistic for the setting. If I play as I will in the planeshift world and the extent of my roleplay is fitting for that world then how is that wrong?
Perhaps I\'m more tolerant then some, but background should be in my opinion up to the player, so should roleplaying. While I wouldn\'t like to see rampart stupidity in play. My fear is non rp players playing as themselves be persecuted for the sake \"roleplaying\".
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As much as I deeply enjoy roleplaying, I agree with Stydracos, but I also know how terrible the alternative is. No roleplayers at all ruin a game... those \'drone-like- resource gatherers... kill-stealing, hack\'n slash obsessed players truly ruin the game play. Ever played Runescape? Nexus? perfect examples... everyone cares for one thing, levelling. In PS this would obviously be skill-building.
Leji I really like your idea of adding to the background story to relate to your progress in game. I however would save this for when something important happened or something truly momentous occurred, to prevent a boring history. That\'s okay about \"least\" you said you wanted to improve your English, I\'m happy to help.
Golbez, you\'re the type of person I\'d like to play tabletop D&D with. My old group, one of them was deadly serious, the rest of us just wanted to have fun.. and our DM was cruel, good but cruel. You seem to truly like RP and I agree with that. You\'re not american are you? I thought you were, but you didn\'t use a \'z\' in socialising...
Edit: I was lazy and typed the real name of \'Spoonscape\' instead of \'the-game-that-shall-not-be-named\' and saw an automatic filter, that\'s cool... I\'d always typed the whole thing, silly me
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Wow ! amazing how important the background is important to everyone *Leji stares at the poll* !
I guess we will really have a good time reading all those stories coming strait out of your tortured brains :)
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It is very important...my character\'s background was already formed many years ago from short stories i wrote...and did background on my clan...
Being a person ina world is more important for me rather than...skill leveling...I don\'t like playing...faceless characters...
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I think lore is vital, especially to the RPG genre.
RPGs have become to reliant on things that people already know: elves, dwarves, gnomes, blah blah blah.
These are okay, but where are they from? Are they good or evil? Why?
You have to have quests in these games, but why are you killing NPC_001 to give his head to NPC_002? You have to have a reason for these things.
A backup storyline isn\'t enforcing any rules - look at old-style D&D. Your DM set up the scenario and the story played itself from there. Without that scenario you don\'t know what you\'re doing there in the first place.
So yes, I think it\'s very impotant myself. But then I love reading lore and discovering exactly why I should be doing things, rather than just mindlessly following orders :)
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wow you allg ot long posts...
well i\'m neutral b/c its not what about my character has done or been through, its more what his is/will be doing.
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Yet when you think about it, what s/he is going to be doing is often influenced by what s/he has already done. Why does the character reach for the goals s/he reaches for? For the hell of it? That\'s not very interesting. Are any goals present at all? No? Then what is your purpose here? There are some things that at least the player behind the character must think about.
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One thing that I find is a problem with people who demand background stories for online games is this - You may have gone to the best school, or you may be a deadly assassin, but when you start, you\'re still the same stupid n00b that everyone else is too, and you still have to learn how to walk, jump, fight and so on. Whatever you pretend your character is, was and will be, it is always limited to the features of the game. Background stories are not necessary to play an online RPG, as you basically start out at the beginning of your life, and you advance from there. In maybe two or three years, you\'ll be able to write a good story about yourself, going from when you started out in Hydlaa, exploring the world as it developed, finding the new monsters and getting killed over and over again. Another thing is a biography. It tells simple things like where you were born, what your parents do, how your family is like and such. A background story doesn\'t. It descibes your life until the day it is now, and since we all start around the age of like 20 something (or at least we look that way), your background story must only contain things like childhood memories, and so on. When playing an online RPG, you play your story. You don\'t write it.
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You start out at the beginning of your life... as an adult? You still have all the events that happened prior to the age you are at character creation. Was your family abusive? Were you raised by a race completely different to your own? Were you always taught to be peaceful and help people or were you trained by a swordsmen as a youngster? These things that happened to your character in childhood would all effect who they are now, and thus how you roleplay their personality.
You don\'t start out at the beggining of your life, just the beggining of your skills, and even then you get to distribute the bonus points you get at creation to lay down the template for what you will make your character, skill wise.
I have a pretty detailed background story myself, though not all of it is written... Thanks Grono, you\'ve inspired me to write down more info about my character past and his tribe ^^ I\'ve needed to do that for awhile but haven\'t gotten around to it.
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Well, as a child you\'re basically capable of doing nothing. Your life really starts when you set out on the epic quest of saving the world or whatever it might be. You leave the place where you grew up (or you start a shop, or whatever). What I mean is simply that your character\'s life only really starts when you enter the picture.
Where you come from and what happened to you during your childhood, etc... Those things are just a part of the biography, and not a part of your story. Your story starts whenever you get fed up and leave, or you decide to go save the world, or whatever might be the reason for you to play your character. The ultimate goal is where your story starts. When you have completed your story, you can ask yourself, \"Did I do all that I dreamt of?\" That is really the purpose of a background story. It\'s for old people to let new ones get glimpse of the outside world, and inspire them to leave and get their own experiences. An 18 year old person doesn\'t have a story. They only just got away from where they are, and their story has just begun.
As for the biography. It doesn\'t have to be some huge novel on everything, unless you plan to have those people around you when playing. Saying how great your mom and dad is, or how many great friends you have wont help you if you actually don\'t have them. Altough it is an RPG, you have to be realistic to some extent, and not come up with some story that makes you seem like Superman, when in fact you just want to play a baker. You won\'t get good, cool or at all better from making a wonderfully perfect story about your childhood. It is what you do ingame and offgame that makes you special and earns you friends/enemies, and they are the things that creates gameplay. You have to keep one thing in mind. You create the story as you play. You\'re not making a game where the story has to be preconfigured, as in Final Fantasy games, you are an active participant and you must remember that there are thousands of other people out there who want to contribute to the story as well. You\'re not alone in the world. :)
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Originally posted by Gronomist
One thing that I find is a problem with people who demand background stories for online games is this - You may have gone to the best school, or you may be a deadly assassin, but when you start, you\'re still the same stupid n00b that everyone else is too, and you still have to learn how to walk, jump, fight and so on. Whatever you pretend your character is, was and will be, it is always limited to the features of the game. Background stories are not necessary to play an online RPG, as you basically start out at the beginning of your life, and you advance from there. In maybe two or three years, you\'ll be able to write a good story about yourself, going from when you started out in Hydlaa, exploring the world as it developed, finding the new monsters and getting killed over and over again. Another thing is a biography. It tells simple things like where you were born, what your parents do, how your family is like and such. A background story doesn\'t. It descibes your life until the day it is now, and since we all start around the age of like 20 something (or at least we look that way), your background story must only contain things like childhood memories, and so on. When playing an online RPG, you play your story. You don\'t write it.
I\'ll be pl\'ing until I can play my character with all the abilities I present in the backstory. I simply refuse to give in, and I won\'t. As far as the character is concerned, he doesn\'t exist until his skills do at some level, and won\'t be visible until then.
This does, of course, mean I\'ll have to learn a heck of a lot of magic to make up for technology, but that\'s ok, and I\'m going to do it regardless. Starting fresh & new isn\'t the only option.
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Why don\'t you just start playing your character from a less-developed stage? Seems a poor excuse for powerleveling unless your character has a reason to be so driven. I think the intent is for character creation to provide some ways of specifying who you are and to have that make an impact on the actual ability of your character. You won\'t be more powerful than the average n00b, but you might be different.
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Originally posted by dfryer
Why don\'t you just start playing your character from a less-developed stage? Seems a poor excuse for powerleveling unless your character has a reason to be so driven. I think the intent is for character creation to provide some ways of specifying who you are and to have that make an impact on the actual ability of your character. You won\'t be more powerful than the average n00b, but you might be different.
Well, not having been raised with sword-fights and the like, he wouldn\'t by defualt be good with that sort of stuff anyway. But I\'ve been playing my character in MB, and to suddenly lose completely whatever skills he has would seem rather odd, would it not? Going from being able to wield a sword and defend himself some of the time, to being able to defend himself none of the time for no particular reason just seems wrong. Not to forget that having a variety of futuristic gear is difficult to rp when you have no effects, others usually won\'t accept them if you just say you do. I don\'t mind being as powerful as a newb, but I\'d like to continue to rp my character. So I\'ll have to gain sufficient use of magics in the game to compensate for what would be technology, and to get there, I\'ll have to PL. It isn\'t like I\'m using it as an excuse, it\'s more like I don\'t want to make more accomodations in my story to the engine.
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Well Monketh, perhaps this is a good time to realize that perhaps your character aren\'t so much more better than all other characters. Noone starts out with being uber l33t at something, compared to what other people are, no matter how good you are in that story of yours. If you wish for such a system, then online RPGs aren\'t anything for you. Tabletop RPGs however are what you want.
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Monketh isn\'t the only one who\'ll be doing that. :) I\'ll be pl\'ing non stop until I reach the point where I fit in with my backround story. Yes, it would be better if we wrote a sort of \'rolling character history\' where you just write about everything that happens during your ingame experiences. But unfortunatly, no mmorpg I\'ve played caters for this roleplaying stuff, so you have to make it up yourself, pl, and then carry on from there. From what I\'ve seen and heard from mods, ps won\'t be any different for a long time. If you just wrote as it happened, everybody would have the same history, as everyone does the same thing. Which is boring, and turns the game into a hack \'n slash.
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Originally posted by Gronomist
Well Monketh, perhaps this is a good time to realize that perhaps your character aren\'t so much more better than all other characters. Noone starts out with being uber l33t at something, compared to what other people are, no matter how good you are in that story of yours. If you wish for such a system, then online RPGs aren\'t anything for you. Tabletop RPGs however are what you want.
Ah, but you see, I\'ve never played a table-top rpg and have no intention of doing so. Since I can\'t go around the engine, (well, at least not morally) I\'m going to work within it\'s limits. There\'s nothing wrong with that. I like computers and what comes with them. The internet is my favorite hobby. It doesn\'t matter to me if you think every character should start out equally. In the real-world people don\'t start out equally, and how would you have characters like barons that have inherited land except if they have to work within the engine to make the story work? Does this mean there would be none?
So yes, until I can create with the magic of the game engine what would be tech., I\'ll PL. It might take a while, I might create other more normal chars during that time (possibly abandoning the first one), but I\'m going to do it. The engine is there, but I don\'t have to live by it. After all, isn\'t the fantasy genre supposed to be just that?
edit: Of course, I forgot the other possibility; Take him off Vodul\'s world permanently to some other job. Naturally, that would kill name-recognition, and a decent amount of effort. I could intertwine him somehow with a new character, like some sort of mystery.
Anyway, I\'ll figure it out when the time comes.
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Originally posted by Monketh
In the real-world people don\'t start out equally, and how would you have characters like barons that have inherited land except if they have to work within the engine to make the story work? Does this mean there would be none?
That\'s a relatively simple question. Real life has been running since the beginning of the universe, or maybe even longer. PS has barely even started yet. So you have noone to inheirit your land or skills from, and you have noone to teach you what you know. However, you have the opportunity to go out and seize the land and learn the skills far before anyone else gets that chance, and you can make a name of yourself. Not by writing a good story, but by living a great life. :)
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Originally posted by Gronomist
That\'s a relatively simple question. Real life has been running since the beginning of the universe, or maybe even longer. PS has barely even started yet. So you have noone to inheirit your land or skills from, and you have noone to teach you what you know. However, you have the opportunity to go out and seize the land and learn the skills far before anyone else gets that chance, and you can make a name of yourself. Not by writing a good story, but by living a great life. :)
According to PS\'s written history, however, everybody didn\'t just all appear at once. \"Living a great life\" is very important of course, but very few are actually going to log and record it, you know that. Like I said, I don\'t have to let the engine ruin my fun. My character cannot be created initially because the creation system won\'t allow me to take away almost everything in exchange for certain advantages (which would not be availible through to creation system, anyway), I don\'t like to make too many compensations for the system, and I\'ll work within the laws of the engine to create that character.
I\'m stubborn on this matter, what you say isn\'t really going to effect me much.
There\'s another issue I disagree with you on, I prefer character skills over player skills. Can\'t remember the words to that spell? Why should you have to? Your character may not remember either, then you\'re in trouble, but as a player, noone should be forced to memorize that kind of stuff.
But this is all way off-topic...
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Almost everyone will be PL\'ing like mad even if you aren\'t doing it for the same reasons as Monketh and others :P The ones not doing the PL\'ing are just lazy.
Yes I probally will have to as well, just to get my guy up to good fighting standards so I can back my words to a degree :P Also it will most likely happen that I will work with evil alligned people to get stuff done and learn and educate more upon the new release. That will be temporary if it occurs *stares at Seperot*
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I have always felt that taking the time to research as much as one can about a given game\'s environment, customs and mores is mega-important. Only by this means can I sit down to craft a backstory for who my character is and what role they wish to accomplish within that world. I also don\'t believe that every character in a given game is a \"hero\" figure. Nontheless, 99.9% of players always cast their characters as the great white hunter who is going to save the entire universe! There has to be butchers, bakers and candle-stick makers as well as heroes, people... ;) . Therefore, I usually go out of my way to create a peasant who has to seek the knowledge of his craft through the school of hard knocks, maturing into an adult who is worthy of being called friend and ally while never aspiring to greatness other than within his own personal sphere. Usually that character is a magic user who is more of a teacher, with no desire greater than to master his art and help others to attain their goals as well--as long as those goals are rooted in the here and now and not some pipe dream of being \"the one\"!
A backstory is very important to me, but I don\'t feel that the average person\'s character story needs to be in the library or on public display. For me, creating a backstory is more a personal thing, an outline for me to role play that character with. I create positive and negative boundaries that the character must not cross to be effective within the game-world and true to itself. I feel that a character\'s story needs to unfold as one interacts with the game world and its people. I don\'t go around boring people with my backstory. They can easily pick up on who I am and what I stand for just being around me in the environment of the world we inhabit. If they can\'t, I didn\'t do to good a job of creating my backstory in my estimation.
Role playing to me is not something I do in a game; it\'s who my character IS. It\'s what defines that character and the way he interacts with his fellow world-mates. I never play female characters because quite frankly, I would not know the first thing about conducting myself as a female character... :P . By the same token, I never play a pure melee warrior because I\'ve already been that irl in the Marine Corps. The third rule I have set for myself is that I don\'t play a given game to be the richest, or have the most uber stuff or attain the highest level offered in the shortest time. I let these things happen as they happen, as the story develops and my character \"ages\", so to speak. For me interacting with fellow players and exploring the world are far more important than materialism and capitalism.
Fantasy games for me are for living a vicarious life that I could not possibly live in the real world. That is primarily why I love Wizzies and Sorcerer type characters so much. They give me a chance to play with magic that no longer exists, although I think it might have, to some extent, in our distant past. Sadly, most of us move too fast and are too capitalistic and materialistic this day and time to worry about such things... ;)
Anyway, that\'s my take on the matter, for what it\'s worth.
Cheers!
Miago
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I just realized somthing. Since I am \"evil\" and all my story would have to be dark and mean. So this would mean I would have to be evil and mean IC, wihch I have no problem with :D, but would I still have to be mean to people who are friends and arent in my guild?
That would really suck not having freinds out of my guild cuz of that. Maybe I could bend my story a little? Hmmm, but then it wouldnt be as good *ponders while walking back an forth*