Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2004 6:13:53 GMT -5
Savar's RP Guide for Dummies
[/center]It was brought up at the meeting last night a topic of character bios and I noticed some people questioned what a bio should contain.
But first a little something about why a charcter should have a bio. A bio is infinite, ever expanding. Everything you do in Sem should add to your bio. A bio explains who your character is and where they come from. Their likes and dislikes. Goals, dreams, loves, fears... basicaly a past. Does he/she have a mortal enemy? Are they searching for something? Did they come to Sem to find themselves or answer to a problem that has plauged them?
All this helps us as others who play our characters. Much like in Dungeon and Dragons your character is much more then the numbers written down on a sheet of paper same as with Sem, your chracter is much more then a pretty av and a name. In a free form style rp enviroment you are freed from the clutches of what a standard role playing game bogs you down with. So please run with this.
We all play off of one another. If a player shows up at Sem and says...
Hi, my name is John, I'm a knight and I come from where ever.
This doesn't really give us much to work with.
I ran a two year Star Trek game in college. The players sat down one night and hammered out characters but they were much more then just numbers and names, the captain had been Court Marshalled twice. The Engineer hated the doctor of the ship, the First Officer and the Head of Security were in Star Fleet together. One player was married and had a child, his son was afraid of Klingons. All this added[/b] to what I could come up with as the game master and also added to their experience.
Now don't get me wrong I see lots of great examples of characters playing off one another well but I also hear others say they can't rp and that's bogus! Anyone can rp... just look at it as a good bs story, laughs.
Now an example of what a bio should contain...
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- Name
- Age, sex, height, weight, eye color. hair color
- Family (mother, father, grand parents, sibblings, ect. ect.)
- Marital status
- Physical Description
- An out line of your characters history. This can be as in depth as you make it. Where were you born, schooling, first loves, how did you get into the profession your character currently has?
How did you manage to fins Sem, opinions of other Sem members?
Fears, golas, enemies... dark secrets... Nightmares... where do you want to be a year from now... intentions of being at Sem... - Sometimes a character quote is nice and flashy...
See not so hard, just some questions you need to ask yourself about what makes your character tick.
Now here's an example of what I just laid out for you...
Name: Count Strahd Von Zarovich
Age: 35 Sex: Male Height: 6'1" Weight: 235lbs Eyes: brown Hair: peppered gray
Family: Baron Von Zarovich (Father-Deceased), Ravenia Van Roeyen (Mother- Deceased), Sturm Von Zarovich (Brother), Sergei Von Zarovich (Younger Brother), Tatyana (Sister-In-Law, wife to Segei)
Marital Status: Single
Quote: "Power is everything but without knowledge it pointless and is next to useless without respect."
Physcial Description: Strahd is a tall man of about 6'1". His body is lean and hardened from long years as a warrior. His face is guant. Ect. Ect...[/b][/color]
Background: Strahd currently resides in Castle Ravenloft where he currently plots to steal his younger brother's wife; Tatyana from him for his own. Strahd fears embarrassment as in being made a fool infront of Tatyana...Ect. Ect...[/b][/color]
Okay now I hope you all have a good idea what a bio is. I know we all have lives... Well maybe I don't, laughs and only do this for fun. But what you put into an rp is exactly what you get back from it. Like Erik said, bios don't have to be done over night, but a few minutes a day to jotting down some ideas is all it takes. Now a bio doesn't have to be the exact model of what I posted. All that is is to give a general understanding as to what they should contain...
Thank Y/you
and happy rping everyone,
Savar