When Do You Create A Bio . . . And Why?

[Magnificus]

Like many of us, I want to make something with a specific powerset. But then I have to come up with a name and a look. I'm afraid I cant rely on puns or something like "Sonic Sam" (no offense if you are Sonic Sam). I usually draw inspiration around that time. For some its easy enough, some ninja is trained by a clan of ninja somewhere. Dark users are somehow connected to a dimension of darkness. Weapons users have appropriate background training, perhaps in a military or a circus. The origin is the clue. Science origin? Lab accident or an illegal immoral experiment. Tech origin? Alien experimentation or temporal refugee or garage DIY. Natural? Training and nutrition or native but alien background. I suppose that I should mention that I have a background of enjoying comics and creating RPB settings, campaign and scenarios so this stuff comes pretty easy as I am happy to steal.

 

Basically all of my characters have a bio so far

Edited July 7, 2021 by Magnificus

[merrypessimist]

15 hours ago, Mopery said:

One of these days I'll get around to making an AE arc utilizing all of my Abraham Lincoln characters, using the storyline I imagined to explain why I have 20+ of the damned things. I shall call it, "A Lincoln Time", and it will be the glorious story of our Heroes(and/or Villains) aiding Future Lincoln in his task of stopping all the other Lincolns(from parallel and perpendicular universes) from creating a series of paradoxes which would inevitably lead to the annihilation of all existence!

 

 

But shouldn't you call it "A Log of Lincolns" since the term for a plural of Lincolns is a log?  Like a flock of geese, a pack of wolves, a murder of crows, a log of Lincolns.

[Col. Kernel]

If I create a bio I'm more likely to play the character.  They're more fleshed out, less 1 dimensional to me.

 

If I'm going to create a bio it's usually at character creation, but sometimes I find I'm enjoying playing a character so much that a backstory just grows in my mind and then I type it in.

[Player2]

The correct answer to the OP's question is:  whenever you want to, for whatever reason you have or no reason at all.

[Driven Snow]

I have about four or five pages of alts. Because I'm a concerning sort of person, every single one of them had a bio before I clicked the join game button.

 

My problem is simple. I like making characters. I like writing them, designing them, drawing them, and then playing them until about level 25 at which point I make another one. If I buck against some part of the character on any level after creation, they fall into disuse even faster than average.

 

For an alt to survive this constant crucible of character concepts, they have to be the complete package. For myself, the bio is the last safeguard – the Thunderdome which many characters enter, but few characters leave. If I don't have enough of a concept for a bio, I don't make the character. They were unlikely to keep my attention anyway. Too incomplete to build a fiction in my head as I play. Many of my bios change and develop as I play the character, but I need something to start with or they never get off the ground.

 

For this reason I've got stacks upon stacks of disused costumes from concepts that never quite found a home. But hey, it makes the fifties a little more special.

 

[Tiger Shadow]

I probably create about five times as many bios as I actually get around to typing in.

[CursedSorcerer]

I usually make a bio when I come up with one. Unfortunately, I have suffered from "Writer's Block." (As an aside, who's guilty of using alliterative names when coming up with your heroes/villains/praetorians' secret identities?)

[cfarevival]

I have noticed something about myself:  only toons that I have spent hours creating costumes, planning power sets, creating bios, and testing make it to 50.  I don’t know why, honestly.  But it’ll always start the same: I will suddenly get inspired.  I will then spend all day (usually at work) daydreaming about it.  Then I will go create the costume (which takes me about 4 hours!!).

 

After that, it is the bio, which take about an hour.  All of my toons online personas (I don’t even roleplay!) are affected by these factors, especially the bio.  For Example, my toon RoidRage always balks at any baddies bigger than he is.  CLERIC makes rash combat decisions when facing Recluse or Arachnos (LR killed his wife).  Isotope cares about being remembered and dresses up like a radioactive cowboy and self destructs as a gag.  Coal, my farmer, woke up from a coma only to find he was getting forced to be a fighter by hero corps.

 

It is an immersive process for me, lol!  And as many of my friends can attest, I tend to focus on one toon at a time.

[Arnabas]

I always have at least the beginnings of a bio when I create the character. For me, the story matters as much as the powers and costume. I need all three for a character to work.

If a character reaches level 10 without a bio, I will probably either park them until I have one, or delete them.

[NevetsYar]

I actually create family themes. all 100 have a bio. Ten to a family Name Desalt's grew up in KR, the Pepper's in Steel, the Glamor's in Eden. The family names are just clans they are "Mostly" not really related. This keeps the story line open, the Roses are mostly villain's side, with a few cross overs. I have in D&D always created backstories, so it comes naturally to do so in COH. I usually make a reference to my main character Shaverra Desalt. With a if I can't stop you she can, so beware....lol Anyway if you like reading backstories it is fun if other have them, but I don't get offended if you don't.

[A Cat]

I mostly just enjoy coming up with a backstory. I sometimes like to play power combinations that are in the meta. Often this leads to since unintuitive combinations as far as storytelling goes, and this sometimes twists me into knots to come up with a workable story. That is still fun though. I have a hard time coming up with something from nothing so even an eccentric prompt helps me quite a bit. I like reading other peoples' stuff too. I generally try to at least skim a bit when waiting for teammates or whatever. Raids are especially good since it gathers a ton of people and it takes awhile for them to fully coalesce. Plenty of time to BS too which I also like doing. 

[RikOz]

Sometimes I have an idea for a bio right off the bat. Sometimes I need to play a character for a while before its bio forms. I never wrote a bio for my main on live, and after recreating her on HC, it was still a year before an idea popped into my head. Then I have some characters whose bio I have in my head, but it would be too difficult to pare it down enough to fit in the limited space.

[Dazl]

The bio muse can be a fickle bitch. Sometimes things just flow, like when I created my main Dazl. The name, power sets, costume and bio all just came together naturally. I do try to have bio’s for main main cast of characters, minor alts almost never. I do feel more obligated to create a bio for my characters on Everlasting since it’s the RP server.

[UltraAlt]

On 7/3/2021 at 11:41 PM, Tahliah said:

Why do YOU, personally, create an elaborate backstory for your COX heroes, villains, or gold sides?

 

I like a backstory for a Supergroup.

I like to create characters and not just an avatar.

I guess it's all the comics and books I have read. Probably my love for writing is part of it; as to write a good story, your characters really need a backstory to say where they are coming from and have an idea of how they would react in situations based on the back story.

 

I might start with a power set, but I tend to start with a concept and pick a powerset to fit the concept and design the costume from that.

 

On 7/3/2021 at 11:41 PM, Tahliah said:

Do you always do so?  or just for certain toons? 

 

Yes. Always. Every character - all 100+ of them.

 

I write the character bio during character creation - so it's there when the character goes into the game for the first time.

 

To me the character concept, costume, power customization, and bio are part of investing myself into the character and their approach on the City.

My love for the City isn't just for the game. It is also for how the game allows me to explore the superhero genre that I loves, and some other genres that it allows us all to access as well; Sci-Fi, fantasy, western, Pulp, etc.

[DoctorDitko]

On 7/31/2021 at 11:43 AM, CursedSorcerer said:

who's guilty of using alliterative names

Jerry Shuster, Joe Seigel, Gardner Fox, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko...

 

You're in good company, enjoy your alliterative alter egos!

[Nemeroff]

Bios usually come from a triangulation process for me. A mix of how the character functions, looks, the name, etc...

 

Two common themes: They have to have had the cliche of a tragic loss/suffering (which then leads to becoming a Hero/Villain).

And second all my characters are somehow connected, NOT related, but separated and quest-like one looking for the others. And this loss/quest ties into the first tragedy, somehow.

Edited August 6, 2021 by Nemeroff
EDIT: my Villains are "looking" for my Heroes. Sometimes it's personal, lol.

[CursedSorcerer]

11 hours ago, DoctorDitko said:

Jerry Shuster, Joe Seigel, Gardner Fox, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko...

 

You're in good company, enjoy your alliterative alter egos!

 

That's not what I mean by alliterative names. I mean names where the last name either begins with the same letter as the first name or the first letter of the last name makes the same sound as the same first letter of the first name.

 

Actual Comic book examples:

Bruce Banner

Stephen Strange

Peter Parker

Clark Kent

Scott Summers

[DoctorDitko]

You asked who else was guilty of creating alliterative character names.

 

Jerry Shuster & Joe Seigel: Clark Kent (sound not spelling), Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lex Luthor

Gardner Fox: Zatanna Zatara, probably a million others (Guy was as prolific as Asimov; seriously, check his Wikipedia page!)

Jack Kirby: Buddy Blank, Bruce Banner, Granny Goodness

Stan Lee: Peter Parker, Scott Summers, Reed Richards, Doctor Doom, Matt Murdock, many more

Steve Ditko: Stephen Strange, Dread Dormammu

 

As I said, you're in excellent company!

 

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by DoctorDitko
thought of more examples

[Jimpy2]

My character Mr. Spork was created solely because I thought of a joke bio. Half cold, calculating logic of a spoon, half wild reckless emotions of a fork. A foot in both worlds, but not truly-art of either.

[Triumphant]

I always write one, eventually.  Sometimes I come up with a look and a power concept for a character, but haven't got the background details worked out.  Until I get those solidly fixed in my brain, I'll just put (WIP) in the field.

 

Now, as to the why of it?  CoX is (for me) very much an RPG experience.  Granted, I rarely RP in pickup groups (unless the other members of the group are doing it- I don't want to make random teammates uncomfortable with my play-acting. 😄), but even when playing solo I'm imagining myself as the character that I'm playing.  I've been into tabletop RPG's as a hobby for so long now, that it's almost second nature to me.

 

That's my reason.  If anyone else doesn't like to do it, that's cool.  Not everyone is into roleplaying, so to each their own.  This game can accommodate a lot of play styles so feel free to enjoy it your way. 😎👍

[Latex]

I love writing bio's and love giving and receiving compliments based on them, it's a good conversation starter and a good place to attract like minded players especially those who might be intrigued by my characters concept or brief synopsis.

[Anakha]

I generally view a character without a bio in the same fashion I would one without a name or without a costume.

 

That being said, not all my characters have bios, since some of them were created around a power set I was curious to test a combination, or because I had a costume in mind that then created the character, but for every character I play frequently, I feel a bio is just necessary, although I do admit it kind of gives the impression we are all wearing signs on our backs with our character histories engraved on them.

 

It also helps me to know what choices to make when doing missions where I am giving multiple options, since I think about the character bio and make the choice that bio best personifies.

 

[Gentoo]

Sometimes on pickup teams somebody says "BRB bio".... and I wonder are they going potty or are they typing up their bio?

[Ukase]

On 7/6/2021 at 8:14 PM, Black Talon said:

Investing time, care and energy in building a character's bio is, I think, one of the hallmarks that determines this as an RPG and not just a first-person shooter game. 

And this  is part of the reason I usually avoid making one. I don't role play. I have never ever seen this game as an MMO or an RPG. If others see it that way - that's fine. I've always seen this as a game to play solo. The odd team-up can be great, or it can be a complete waste of time. 

A bio might be something I'll make for a character that has acquired a fair number of badges, (1000 or so). When you have 1000, ya might as well get the other 549. And when you invest that kind of time, invariably, some people will look at your bio, your build, your badge count. 

My few bios are generally trite, short, and somewhat amusing - to me, if to nobody else. But, I think I might have made...maybe 10 bios out of the 150+ characters. 

As far as other players go, I'll look at the first sentence, sometimes. If it grabs me, I might read more. But, I swear if you have typos or words that are spelled incorrectly, I'm going to just consider you an idiot. Spelling matters! And I will tell you that you spelled a word wrong. And I would expect you to correct it immediately. (but I can forgive a typo, of course) 

I love it when an SG member asks me "Hey, what do you think of my bio?" and I say, I dunno. I never saw it. 
"Well, read it, please." 
"Sure". (But I never read it) 
"What'd ya think?" 
"It was too long/short and not enough symbolism." 
"What?" 
"Damn, look at the time. Catch you later."

 

[Erratic1]

While I usually have some sort of "how the character came to be" in the back of my mind when I create a new character, I usually do not fill in a background until the character is in the 20-30 level range as that is about the time on most characters I can tell if I am going to like them enough to continue playing them.

 

Most backgrounds are of the typical biographical synopsis form though I have done magazine interview excerpts, FBI wanted posters, conversational exchanges and other unusual formats as inspiration came to me for them.