Re: History, is it really needed?

by Bluemouse Wed Jan 22, 2014 10:59 pm

As the writer, you need to know it regardless of if you put it in the profile. Its good to have a record, and it can be interesting on the off chance someone else reads it.

But by cirnos logic, nothing really is worth putting in a profile. You spend loads and loads of time writing and rewriting and formatting and deleting and reposting profiles, but they're all pretty worthless if you just intend to only use rp threads to keep track of the character.

by Cirno Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:41 pm

I wouldn't say worthless. Personally I know the history of most if not all my old characters I have played since the beginning without even having to write it down. I just don't know if it's worth writing histories at all for something like this, if all you do is just fighting matches or deciding to use a character that only fights matches.

by **Kelsea** Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:57 pm

Writing down the history is for other members that will potentially RP with you aswell though.. Reading through 4 or so 8 page threads only to get an idea of the characters history within AFW (not before it), when you could just read a quick 1 or 2 paragraph summary in one place seems inefficient don't you think?

You don't need to write a documentary.. But just a paragraph or two ends up being a great supplementary to the character's personality section in giving other members an understanding of the character, not to mention that by not having a history section you miss out on a chance to alert other members of good storyline points that could be used in future RPs.

by Bluemouse Thu Jan 23, 2014 12:01 am

If your point is that a character doesn't need any kind of depth to just write throwaway, one-off matches, you are correct. All you really need for that is a pic and a name, and maybe a style.

by Alexandra Thu Jan 23, 2014 4:05 am

Writing out histories is part of why I hate doing profiles so much. :|

by Cy_Man Thu Jan 23, 2014 4:15 am

I honestly enjoy making bios for my characters and reading others. Since as Kelsea Bunny said, it helps further understand the characters and will make you want to RP with them and even start up a story line.

by XSirenX Thu Jan 23, 2014 6:06 am

[quote="CybeastGregarX":1e83bp42]I honestly enjoy making bios for my characters and reading others. Since as Kelsea Bunny said, it helps further understand the characters and will make you want to RP with them and even start up a story line.

Facebook thumb image here.

by Tatyina Thu Jan 23, 2014 10:58 am

Histories are the only thing on the profile I can actually write >______-<

Don't take them away from me ; ;

by anegge Fri Jan 24, 2014 6:20 am

[quote="xSirenx":dliibjv6]Read a book Cirno ~_~

I'd like to revoke my accusation that Siren is the least funny person I know, now that new evidence has been presented. I declare a mistrial.

by beangraff Fri Jan 24, 2014 6:35 am

In my opinion, every character biography for any PbP RPG should have a well defined history section. This encourages role players to actually think out their character's history, and it sets it down so that it's not constantly being changed.

In many PbP RP's, writers have a tendency to just CONSTANTLY add convoluted and ill fitted events into their character's history simply so that they'll look cooler. Having a pre-defined history helps to combats this tendency.

Another important use of the history sections is, simply, to help the writer remember what they decided on years ago. I have a character in another PbP RP whom I created several years ago, it would be very easy for me to forget parts of his early life that may be relative many OOC years down the line.

It can also generally assist the RP. For example, by looking at the history of one of Tai's characters I was able to see that she and John could have a good friendship. We had an OOC discussion and then planned a long story out.

Having a history is not silly.

That said, a lot of people have silly histories. That's a completely different subject.

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