Anyone else hate writing backstories?

[Mór-Ríoghain]

16 minutes ago, Parade said:

Ignore all these posers. I make up my backstory as I go along. Makes my character fit what I want to do at the time and then I stick with it. Much more fun. All these other people are just posers and are new to the RP game. Professional RPers don't require backstories.

Unironically this. I think being a good roleplayer is about being good at improvising too.

[Chaishi]

In my opinion you shouldn't have to put down every detail of your backstory because we're not writing a book here. Regardless of if you like it or not, your character has to have a background of sorts. Where he comes from, what kind of family he had, his obsessions during his childhood and his teens etc.

 

I think, having a base storyline to tell is great. It enhances your muse's interactions with other characters. In some cases, it determines how your character would react to certain events. I believe that everybody should have these three questions answered before they create a character, so that they could have a better experience with a lot more consistency in their roleplay:

 

1) Where are they from and how important it is for them?

 

2) What was their family relations like prior to today's events?

 

3) What motivates them to do what they do in life and why?

 

 

[eTaylor]

12 hours ago, Glitch said:

Still offering this?

sure

[KFN]

Wait you guys write backstories? I just copy mine from whoever the coolest character from any game/show I just watched was, just like real life?

[subway244]

My formula for backstories is first and foremost picking a character concept that you enjoy, and that's flexible with general sub-concepts you want to portray.

 

You want street crime, family RP, a little bit of white collar crime and corruption? Make an LCN character. You want a mix of government roleplay, espionage, corruption, drug dealing and depression? Play a hood lawyer. You want to let the wind take you, but also have solid character roots? Play an illegal immigrant.

 

Solid character creation should come with a complex array of things to consider, as the concepts you leave open in your backstory will be the concepts you portray later down the road... and deviating from that path at random could not only be immersion breaking for yourself, but could make you look like a Mary Sue if you try to do too much. This can be remedied by simply taking it slow, and going from one major RP concept to the next with smooth transitional scenes and development.

 

For text-based roleplay specifically, a thing you've gotta remember is that you're ultimately playing a mix of Grand Theft Auto, Heavy Rain, Mount & Blade and The Sims, all rolled into a schema who's crux is creativity and personal character development through text-based writing.

 

 

As a further breakdown of the schema:

• You're playing a character in an open-world game where your character is free to traverse the world, interact with it, or be hunted down by it. (GTA)
• You're playing a narrative adventure, where choices matter and your ending is totally dictated by your own actions. (Heavy Rain)
• You're playing a survival game in a persistent world, where factional relations and ownership dictate your power within the society. (Mount & Blade)
• You're playing a life simulator game, where the simulation of monotony of modern existence is paramount to immersion. (The Sims)
• And lastly, like these games, you're striving to be realistic, not necessarily for "realism." Have some personality and unique flare, without being a Mary Sue.

 

 

With all of this considered, and with contemplation of the fact that your character is only one part of a complex machine, you're ready to create your backstory. This is very important to remember, as most of us (including myself) have been guilty of making/roleplaying "protagonist" characters before. If left unchecked, your character's actions could become unrealistic if you never stop to self-analyze your development.

 

This can be done by establishing character boundaries. Basically, define your character's starting morals and experiences, then roughly calculate to the maximum of how far they'd be willing to change.

 

I.E. my lawyer character started as a depressed hood lawyer, and through a combination of IC experiences and the moral ambiguity I gave him in his backstory, he was able to graduate to a self-centered murderer. Much like Walter White of Breaking Bad, the traits that led to my character's moral demise were there from the beginning.

 

Even in classic Greek literature, Aristotle's tragic characters often fell from grace because of already extant negative traits. And in real life, the seeds of evil in dictators are planted long before their reign of terror reaches its peak of depravity.

 

Knowing your character's limits and how far you can push them is vital to achieving one of the most important aspects of good character development - consistency.

 

I see too many inconsistent characters. They'll hold a behavior toward a certain thing one day, then switch it the next... not because the roleplay called for it, but simply because a lack of OOC planning led to IC misjudgements.

 

As for the actual construction of backstories, once again, be realistic but also open to creativity. You don't need every detail filled, as improvisation can be extremely rewarding in certain scenarios.

 

Another good thing about leaving chunks of your past ambiguous is that it allows for easier retconning of past events, if you should so desire in the future.

 

 

 

Major backstory events to consider in a game like GTA World include:

• Place of Birth (affects cultural perception).
• Age (self explanatory).
• Ethnicity/Heritage (can lead to mingling with fellow race).
• Religious Beliefs (common identity + moral structure).
• Morals (Follow a left-right path. Either they're ultimately good, or ultimately evil).
• Occupational History (A major aspect of RP, especially for legal characters).
• Past Trauma (not too specific or overbearing, but one or two major events like a divorce or death).
• Aesthetic Choices (vital to keeping a consistent outward image).
• Preferences (self explanatory, but could be favorite music, food, etc. that could render future RP opportunities).

 

 

PLACE OF BIRTH is important because it will drastically influence your character's own feelings to certain things. I.E. my character is from the bad side of Detroit, an already shitty city. Despite being a white collar businessman and lawyer, he's very acclimated to living in a low-class urban environment, and has been able to assimilate and find illegal opportunities better among his criminal defense clients, as opposed to an Ivy League law student.

 

 

AGE plays a major role in influencing your character's automatic perception of literally every other character you interact with. It can help you establish common friends with similar experiences (a 44-year old would be likelier to connect with a 35-year old, than an 18-year old).

 

 

ETHNICITY/HERITAGE is vitally important in a world like Los Santos, not only to accurately depict a modern American city, but also because there's so many people already doing it. I can't name the many opportunities Italian or Russian characters have for making friends, just because they share a common ancestry. It's also a fundamental basis for almost all traditional criminal faction concepts.

 

 

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS is a very similar idea to ethnicity, as it's usually a cultural concept first taught to children around the same time as race. Not only does it give characters a basic moral framework to either respect (Do Good) or go against (Sin), but it also gives them a common identity to share with others in the same religion. Furthermore, the concepts of sin, redemption and the afterlife are all very interesting writing concepts.

 

 

MORALS are more of an internal idea than religious beliefs, and it establishes your character's internal morality sacrosanct from religious influence. It establishes a clear boundary of how far your character has gone, is going, and will go in either direction (good or bad). A good practice is following the Tibetan concepts of "left hand, right hand" paths, similar to how Star Wars depicted the light and dark sides. The same Tibetan principles for magic can be applied to morals and your character's philosophy.

 

 

OCCUPATIONAL HISTORY is very important in establishing what kind of jobs your character could hold in the world. Typically, your past is a clear indicator of your future.

 

 

PAST TRAUMAS are a good way to give a darker twist on your characters, and to humanize them to a relatable extent. Nobody has had a perfect life, and this should reflect in your character creation. Furthermore, it could leave the door open to therapy roleplay, which is very good for development. For example, wartime PTSD is a common but excellent method of giving your character artificial trauma.

 

 

AESTHETIC CHOICES are paramount to giving your character a consistent image. Decide your character's fashion choices, based partly on what would be realistic for their age, ethnicity and occupational/financial status, but also something that gives your character a unique flair and appeals to you OOCly.

 

 

PREFERENCES are the finer details and garnish that make a character come alive. What do they do for fun? What food do they like? What music do they prefer? It's something that can be bent to fit any character concept.

 

 

Remember - any question you ask and answer about your character only defines them further!

 

 

 

 

Lastly, seek inspiration from things you enjoy.

For me personally, I seek inspiration from several sources, namely the works of Martin Scorsese.

 

Another major inspiration for every character I have is the 1980s television show Hill Street Blues. It's an early example of serialized television, and it presents a lifelike fictional city and the lives of multiple denizens within it.

 

Hill Street Blues centered around the lives of police officers, the municipal courts, local criminals and the family members of each character, and their interpersonal relationships.

 

Hill Street Blues provided not only a gritty and realistic depiction of urban American life that's still relevant today, but it was also a hallmark in character development, in that it left every character open to fallacy. The precinct captain is an alcoholic, the police chief is an egotistical maniac, the judge is flamboyant and the cops take bribes.

 

If you're inclined to a more modern source, I suggest watching The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and taking mental notes of how their protagonists are portrayed and developed. It's strikingly similar to how good character development works in GTA World.

 

For studying consistency, pick highly acclaimed movies/shows that fall into your character's genre. For example, for a Mexican TOC member you might want to watch Narcos, or for a detective you might want to watch a few episodes of Law And Order. Television will not only provide you with an aesthetic anchor, but will also inspire you further when you go to RP.

Edited December 13, 2023 by subway244

[Padex]

For me personally, the backstory is just the starting point when you create a character. Since the new character hasn't interacted with anything yet, you'll use the backstory to influence the first interactions you'll have with other players. Once your character is fairly developed within the setting of the server, the backstory wont be as useful besides being quoted when necessary during casual conversations.

I can't go as far as writing paragraphs about my character's backstory. Rather than structuring a backstory as a separate external novel that few to no one really care about, I would prefer to make it consist of general ideas and events worded in a couple of sentences with the sole purpose of defining my character's goals, personality and overall behavior.

If I will need to add details in case a situation or conversation requires it, I'll just update the backstory on the go. I really can't be bothered pre-writing it with detail, because I feel like that if I do so, I would constantly bring it up even when it's not really necessary, in order to validate it since I would have spent time and effort in making it. Pretty similar to when people say that a bad AAA game they purchased is good, as a cope for spending $60 on it.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Padex

[Dominic]

I personally cannot stand getting into roleplay scenarios/ getting in-character without having a fleshed-out backstory. It not only ruins my immersion as making it up as I go doesn't feel genuine, but it could also have repercussions down the road for certain character traits or aspects I wish to portray. 

[Vorras]

Even if you hate writing that much, you're living in the era of ChatGPT. Thus, that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Having a backstory is essential for your character to have a starting point and develop from It.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Vorras

[Astralsomnia]

55 minutes ago, Vorras said:

Even if you hate writing that much, you're living in the era of ChatGPT. Thus, that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Having a backstory is essential for your character to have a starting point and develop from It.

 

As someone who runs their own RP server, fuck Chat GPT lmao

 

So many shitty RPers come through with generated backstories, then they start playing with one line posts and no grammar.

 

Then, they look at my backstories, and ask me where I generated them from, and that's just offensive as fuck to a person who spends a lot of time writing it out by hand, using my own creativity to whip up something that fits the setting and timeline, with a motivation that I can relate to enough to make the character I'm playing fun.

 

In conclusion, ChatGPT can suck my metaphorical left nut.

[Bauer]

I don’t think a long and elaborate backstory makes you a better rper. My backstories, usually, are a couple paragraphs just to set out a basic history (place of birth, important relationships, a couple major life events, and education) from there I just kinda improvise on the fly.

 

Rarely do I actually reference the backstory in RP, aside from small talk and such. It’s helpful to keep in mind, but I think the true test of someone’s rp abilities is if they can make a character that feels real, not how many words they can write.

 

I do think though backstories should be kept in stuff like house applications, faction applications, etc since it gives whoever is looking over the application an insight into your rp style and abilities, but I don’t think they should be required to be super long. Just enough to get a feel for you as a roleplayer.