Post by Morreion on Jun 30, 2010 9:05:40 GMT -5
Storyboard: Everybody starts somewhere (Massively)
Storyboard: Back me up, backstory (Massively)
Storyboard: Getting into the scene (Massively)
Storyboard: The infinite sadness of Aunt May (Massively)
Starting from backstory
The last survivor of an alien race from a dead planet. A prince from an old kingdom attempting to restore himself to the throne. A doctor thrown into desperate conditions with others depending on him for leadership. Some characters are instantly recognizable from the abstract of their backstory, and others aren't. But it's often a good place to start when you're reading about a game's lore -- picking out bits and pieces that might make an interesting foundation for a character.
The last survivor of an alien race from a dead planet. A prince from an old kingdom attempting to restore himself to the throne. A doctor thrown into desperate conditions with others depending on him for leadership. Some characters are instantly recognizable from the abstract of their backstory, and others aren't. But it's often a good place to start when you're reading about a game's lore -- picking out bits and pieces that might make an interesting foundation for a character.
Starting from abilities
Sometimes, the lore doesn't light you on fire, or it doesn't even compare to a cool ability that you know is in the game. That's when you turn toward taking a character and basing them off of their abilities. This can mean anything from basing your character around a single class to basing them around just one particular ability -- although the latter generally requires something less class-focused. You could theoretically build a character around Hammer of the Righteous, but that's a touch counterproductive.
Sometimes, the lore doesn't light you on fire, or it doesn't even compare to a cool ability that you know is in the game. That's when you turn toward taking a character and basing them off of their abilities. This can mean anything from basing your character around a single class to basing them around just one particular ability -- although the latter generally requires something less class-focused. You could theoretically build a character around Hammer of the Righteous, but that's a touch counterproductive.
Starting from personality
The last point to start from is the one that usually requires the least knowledge about the game -- starting from outlook and demeanor. On the one hand, this is the easiest method if you want to figure out how the character will actually interact with others. On the other, however, it also gives you the dimmest picture about the character in every other aspect. Still, if you don't know enough about lore or abilities, the personality is a great place to start, especially as it's the most visible aspect of any individual.
The last point to start from is the one that usually requires the least knowledge about the game -- starting from outlook and demeanor. On the one hand, this is the easiest method if you want to figure out how the character will actually interact with others. On the other, however, it also gives you the dimmest picture about the character in every other aspect. Still, if you don't know enough about lore or abilities, the personality is a great place to start, especially as it's the most visible aspect of any individual.
Storyboard: Back me up, backstory (Massively)
So where's a good example of this kind of character building? Lost.
Okay, okay, I freely admit that I have a tendency to call on the show whenever it suits my purposes. But if you belong to the camp that adamantly believes the whole show was being made up as it went, you have to admit that the flashback sequences were masterful ways of disguising it. Everyone's past is kept vague enough through the start of the series that as flashbacks reveal new things, it fits in with pre-established events.
And the show struck a decent balance. Main characters weren't constantly having strings of episodes focusing on their past -- but every few episodes, they'd get another story that fleshed them out. It was spread out just far enough that by the time they focused in again, you had time for prior stories to sink into your head. Over time, people turned from ciphers into well-detailed individuals. That's what you want to go for as you're building backstory -- just slow and periodic callbacks to a character's younger days based on the situation.
It's a subtle art, but it winds up creating some very invested individuals. And it ensures that you never miss out on that moment that would trigger a memory. When you do it right, no one even notices that you're doing it on the fly.
Okay, okay, I freely admit that I have a tendency to call on the show whenever it suits my purposes. But if you belong to the camp that adamantly believes the whole show was being made up as it went, you have to admit that the flashback sequences were masterful ways of disguising it. Everyone's past is kept vague enough through the start of the series that as flashbacks reveal new things, it fits in with pre-established events.
And the show struck a decent balance. Main characters weren't constantly having strings of episodes focusing on their past -- but every few episodes, they'd get another story that fleshed them out. It was spread out just far enough that by the time they focused in again, you had time for prior stories to sink into your head. Over time, people turned from ciphers into well-detailed individuals. That's what you want to go for as you're building backstory -- just slow and periodic callbacks to a character's younger days based on the situation.
It's a subtle art, but it winds up creating some very invested individuals. And it ensures that you never miss out on that moment that would trigger a memory. When you do it right, no one even notices that you're doing it on the fly.
Storyboard: Getting into the scene (Massively)
Writing in-character letters via in-game mail systems is an excellent way to start getting a feel for your character's worldview. By nature, they have to be fairly short, and they're a way to start incorporating roleplaying into your normal game routine. Unless you haven't got a mail system in-game, you generally make a habit of checking your mail on a regular basis to start with. A few minutes extra to dash off a letter to your in-character companions doesn't take anything out of that.
I'll admit to being a big fan of the letter system from having watched it work successfully. My girlfriend started playing World of Warcraft with me about four years ago, and at the time she started, she had zero interest in roleplaying. Because we were living separately at the time, we would generally talk and send letters to one another in game, and when she started a new character she just idly started writing her letters in character. So I responded in kind.
From that foundation, she got comfortable enough to start acting out little scenes with her characters, then taking part in events, then helping run events, and so on and so forth. It helped ease the concept into play instead of jumping straight into the deep end. It keeps the sheer enormity of roleplaying from being overwhelming and lets you focus on the cool things.
And if there's one major thing to be taken away from all of this, it's just that. Roleplaying adds more cool to things. It takes more time out of your play sessions, yes, but it means that when you stand down your enemies of choice there's something more going into it than needing another quest completion.
I'll admit to being a big fan of the letter system from having watched it work successfully. My girlfriend started playing World of Warcraft with me about four years ago, and at the time she started, she had zero interest in roleplaying. Because we were living separately at the time, we would generally talk and send letters to one another in game, and when she started a new character she just idly started writing her letters in character. So I responded in kind.
From that foundation, she got comfortable enough to start acting out little scenes with her characters, then taking part in events, then helping run events, and so on and so forth. It helped ease the concept into play instead of jumping straight into the deep end. It keeps the sheer enormity of roleplaying from being overwhelming and lets you focus on the cool things.
And if there's one major thing to be taken away from all of this, it's just that. Roleplaying adds more cool to things. It takes more time out of your play sessions, yes, but it means that when you stand down your enemies of choice there's something more going into it than needing another quest completion.
Storyboard: The infinite sadness of Aunt May (Massively)
Here are three potential approaches that can help you keep the benefits of having backstory NPCs without all of the drawbacks.
Offscreen wife, or the Norm method
Cheers and Frasier get surprisingly little flak for having used what amounts to the exact same joke in two different series. In both shows, one of the main male characters has a wife who is mentioned explicitly time and again. Both characters talk extensively about their wives, to the point that the audience is intimately familiar with said wives. And outside of non-speaking obscured silhouettes or the like, neither wife is ever actually seen over the course of the show. Every single aspect of the character is an informed characteristic.
I mentioned using this to an extent with one of my characters in City of Heroes, and it provides for a nice slice of what the character is doing during off-camera time. The downside is that it does eventually get to the point of absurdity -- it's very difficult to play a wholly absent character for much drama when great pains are taken to never display said character. Keep it down to the occasional mention, and it creates a sense that your character is doing something with people even when not logged in.
Not from around these parts, or the Souji Seta method
There are times when all you can do about your old friends is tell stories about them, and more often than not it doesn't involve all of them dying. Going away to college, to a new school, to a new job, or anywhere that it's sufficiently inconvenient to visit on a regular basis does the trick. It's not as if you didn't have a life before now, just that you can't really just walk down the block and introduce everyone to the gang.
Obviously, this sort of setup works best in a game at or below 21st-century levels of technology. You can't really get away with saying that your family is too far away in Star Trek Online, where warp drives make journeys to almost any inhabited planet fairly simple. But even then, if your parents and friends were off on a far-flung frontier world and your missions tend to bring you elsewhere, it's not beyond the realm of plausibility that you might not jaunt off to see them very often.
Everyone's significant, or the Sunstorm method
It's not hard to introduce your family and friends to your adventuring companions, but... well, they've got their own stuff to do. Your oldest friend works as a reagent vendor up north, your parents are both tradeskill apprentices out in a captial city, and your sister is a city guard in Outland. So you don't get together a whole lot. If you really want to introduce them, though...
Offscreen wife, or the Norm method
Cheers and Frasier get surprisingly little flak for having used what amounts to the exact same joke in two different series. In both shows, one of the main male characters has a wife who is mentioned explicitly time and again. Both characters talk extensively about their wives, to the point that the audience is intimately familiar with said wives. And outside of non-speaking obscured silhouettes or the like, neither wife is ever actually seen over the course of the show. Every single aspect of the character is an informed characteristic.
I mentioned using this to an extent with one of my characters in City of Heroes, and it provides for a nice slice of what the character is doing during off-camera time. The downside is that it does eventually get to the point of absurdity -- it's very difficult to play a wholly absent character for much drama when great pains are taken to never display said character. Keep it down to the occasional mention, and it creates a sense that your character is doing something with people even when not logged in.
Not from around these parts, or the Souji Seta method
There are times when all you can do about your old friends is tell stories about them, and more often than not it doesn't involve all of them dying. Going away to college, to a new school, to a new job, or anywhere that it's sufficiently inconvenient to visit on a regular basis does the trick. It's not as if you didn't have a life before now, just that you can't really just walk down the block and introduce everyone to the gang.
Obviously, this sort of setup works best in a game at or below 21st-century levels of technology. You can't really get away with saying that your family is too far away in Star Trek Online, where warp drives make journeys to almost any inhabited planet fairly simple. But even then, if your parents and friends were off on a far-flung frontier world and your missions tend to bring you elsewhere, it's not beyond the realm of plausibility that you might not jaunt off to see them very often.
Everyone's significant, or the Sunstorm method
It's not hard to introduce your family and friends to your adventuring companions, but... well, they've got their own stuff to do. Your oldest friend works as a reagent vendor up north, your parents are both tradeskill apprentices out in a captial city, and your sister is a city guard in Outland. So you don't get together a whole lot. If you really want to introduce them, though...
