Bios

[Gulbasaur]

2 hours ago, Ghost said:

I mean, I’m not even sure why I asked.  After all, everyone knows that REAL vampires sparkle and play baseball.

This is Carmilla erasure. 

Everyone knows real vampires are languid lesbians who languish languidly. 

[JasperStone]

On 7/6/2022 at 6:29 PM, Akalabeth said:

Alright thanks for responding everyone. 🙂  I didn't realize it has always been like this.  

 

On a side note, I wish I was creative enough to give my characters backstories. 😞

of course you are creative enough!

 

Take your time, I rarely have a bio out the gate.

For me, they take time.

Sometimes I have a full background, but my favorites are the simple, short, and sweet ones

 

I have a Black Canary inspired character. Her bio is:

Whiskey

Smokes

Gritty Guitar

...

Don't like it? F...K off

 

I wear leather jackets, miniskirts, and work boots. My body, my choice.

...

Don't like it? F...K off

 

 

[Stormwalker]

10 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

I keep seeing this thread and going "Oh!  A tech support thread!"

Grrrrr!

😁

It's "Bios", not "BIOS".

[Marshal_General]

21 minutes ago, Stormwalker said:

It's "Bios", not "BIOS".

Because shouting the letters changes the meaning.

[Stormwalker]

8 minutes ago, Marshal_General said:

Because shouting the letters changes the meaning.

 

Of course it does, that's why the agents at the door always shout "FBI!" instead of just saying it.

 

Now I am just imagining Aaron Thiery's dialogue with him shouting "SERAPH" every time.  This is comical.

Edited July 8, 2022 by Stormwalker

[CFIndustries]

20 hours ago, Zep said:

Virtue was the unofficial secretly official RP server. No telling what you might see or hear while moving about the City, specially in Atlas Park. 

 

I also likened Virtue to "RP Light" since you could "RP" insofar as "acting like your character would act" but without all the rules around how to talk in-character and out-of-character; people kinda knew and it was very casual (and made it super easy for non-strict RPers to "play aong" a little).

 

So I got into the habit of writing little backstories and still do because it was/is fun. Since I am a "concept player" I also use the backstory as a base for how I build an alt: what powers they have, which they might skip, etc. And I look for bios on everyone on the team…they are rare on Torch, but fun when I see them.

 

But even on Live, I rarely saw "tags" as described here, or anything obviously ERP-oriented (like gender, sexual orientation, preferences, etc.). I have seen it on Homecoming once or twice on Torch (which is the server I call home). Doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

[Sovera]

Bios with sexual orientation are a subtle opening like posting on Tinder indicating availability for, shall we say, more adult roleplay.

[Fire Chief]

4 hours ago, JasperStone said:

I rarely have a bio out the gate.

For me, they take time.

Sometimes I have a full background, but my favorites are the simple, short, and sweet ones

 

This here...I have a char sometimes to lvl 50 before a gud bio comes to mind. I do have a few in the The 'Share your awesome bios' Thread! 😄

[ZemX]

I'm on Everlasting usually.  The really detailed bios are the ones that tell me the serious roleplaying (even the stuff that isn't ERP) is probably not for me.   They read like D&D character sheets, with all the stats and personality traits listed out. More like you're reading a dossier someone compiled on that character.    I do usually get a chuckle out of how many of them list some form of telepathic immunity or "stealth" though, even on characters that wouldn't thematically seem to have psychic powers.  I infer that people roleplaying telepaths must be a real annoyance in RP circles. 

 

I enjoy reading (and writing) simple backstory type bios, though.  I usually do mine in the first person, like I'm speaking to the person reading the bio.  I get the occasional compliment in game, so I must not be too terrible at it.  😀  That said, The most roleplaying I will do is being in-character on a mission team or TF when others are doing the same.  It's just a bit more interesting than merely playing the content.

 

It's not strange to me though that sexual orientation would be in there.  Heroes are like celebrities in our world.  People would be after all the intimate details and that sort of thing would often be widely known. 

[Stormwalker]

43 minutes ago, ZemX said:

I'm on Everlasting usually.  The really detailed bios are the ones that tell me the serious roleplaying (even the stuff that isn't ERP) is probably not for me.   They read like D&D character sheets, with all the stats and personality traits listed out. More like you're reading a dossier someone compiled on that character.    I do usually get a chuckle out of how many of them list some form of telepathic immunity or "stealth" though, even on characters that wouldn't thematically seem to have psychic powers.  I infer that people roleplaying telepaths must be a real annoyance in RP circles. 

 

 

I mean, a lot of my characters back on Virtue (and still now) had differences between their concepts and what their powersets actually provide.

• Skylancer, in concept, has hypersonic flight.  Obviously, the game doesn't provide this power (in my story that I am writing about her, I interpret this as the city having a ~100mph flight speed limit below War Wall altitude for safety reasons, which she of course observes... usually).
• Blaze Atomica has FTL spaceflight abilities (she's a cosmic-type hero, gotta be able to get to those other planets!), obviously the game doesn't provide that, either.  Of course, she can't do that in atmosphere so it's less relevant than the above.
• Sylvie Stardrive (who is something of a "mad engineer" and gets her SS/Invuln powers form her powered armor) wears a psi-damper that makes reading her mind difficult.  If she didn't, she wouldn't be able to keep any of her inventions a secret, would she?  It is notably less effective against concentrated psionic attack, in keeping with her in-game powerset... though she does slot some psi-resistance.
• By contrast, Scarlet Diamond (or as she was on Live, Red Diamond), is explicitly vulnerable to psi-attack, but you can't get her to drop her forcefield that way, because... she can't actually drop her forcefield (she can make a hole in it to eat, and even that is a reflexive thing she doesn't actually know how to do consciously).
• Several of my /Willpower characters aren't actually defending themselves with willpower, they're defending themselves in various ways that there aren't powersets for in the game

I generally noted this stuff in my bio when I was on Virtue as it might be relevant to roleplay.  I also maintained Virtueverse pages for a number of my characters (Skylancer, Kitten America, Red Diamond, Smokemeister, and others)

[Sovera]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

I'm on Everlasting usually.  The really detailed bios are the ones that tell me the serious roleplaying (even the stuff that isn't ERP) is probably not for me.   They read like D&D character sheets, with all the stats and personality traits listed out. More like you're reading a dossier someone compiled on that character.    I do usually get a chuckle out of how many of them list some form of telepathic immunity or "stealth" though, even on characters that wouldn't thematically seem to have psychic powers.  I infer that people roleplaying telepaths must be a real annoyance in RP circles.

 

As someone who has heavily RPed the cringe factor of mind readers is something I can understand. Back during Neverwinter Nights bonanza of online servers I could switch and play something with completely new maps, sometimes even races. In one of those the bent was very D&D and I realized people would do rule-PvP without shame quoting rules to newbies and the newbies without knowing how to counter them.

 

It is important to understand in character knowledge and out of character knowledge. Digressing slightly from my unfinished story it was a reason I did not get along well with my SWTOR experience since my heavy RP guild expected me to know all the jedi names for katas, forms, philosophies, etc etc, and despite having the wookiepedia at hand it was common for an OOC blunder to be taken IC. But if the player is new to the universe the character is not, they were born in it, raised in it. I might not know the moonspeak gibberish names for the different bodyparts where a blow will hit, but my studious padawan would, of course, it is basic knowledge.

 

Back on course this lore-PvP happened all the time and as a D&D newbie I quickly grew to understand that the lore lawyering was in most cases subject to interpretation (I was told 'detect intent' would simply unmask my lies, which as a smooth corrupt evil character led to an interesting time of someone just sitting close as my character talked and whispering me their rolls. I was later on told Detect Intent did -not- work like that and I've no clue if it does or does not, other than understanding a level 1 Protection From Good/Neutral/Evil cantrip would seemingly block this. Something I did not know but my character certainly would, so I had spilled my beans for no good reason. AKA DMs are good when rules lawyering, also I probably mangled the terms and names of things since it's been 20 years) and in some cases was straight up ass pulling.

 

 

Now I -have- heard of the semi-horror tales of telepathic characters 'forcing' people to do stuff or spilling secrets and without protection against it people are just unable to stop it. In pure roleplay terms it would indeed have a strong impact for Super-Guy to be mindcontrolled by Evil Joe, but CoH is not that strong a roleplay experience nor does it (usually) have DMs to keeps things either fair or not going overboard. Also people doing this will usually not care for consequences. When a little level 5 does this and then logs off and disappears while the player goes back to their main people don't feel inclined to go through major character repercussions.

 

With those past experiences in NWN coloring my RP I also went through the road of immune to mind reading or at least resistant (my favorite approach became less of being immune and more of becoming aware of who was doing it, since one of the appeals of it is performing the act incognito. Becoming aware of who is doing it allows at least for confrontation) but eventually realized two things:

 

A) It had never happened again and I do have twenty+ years of RP in all sorts of themes and games.

B) If it happened it would be fine. It would generate roleplay, outrage, help requested from others, etc etc.

 

 

I feel if asked most people will know someone or know of a story of mind reading/control, up to and including unsavory 'adult' RP, though that is confusing to me since all RP is consenting. Someone not liking what is happening should ask to stop or simply log off or put the person on ignore. But my RP social circles have matured past these things and in my experience even someone playing a big bad villain will keep out of character communication going to make the RP entertaining, less RP-PvP (not in the arena, that's a different kettle) and more a book constructed to make an appealing story for the audience.

 

 

Heck, several months back we had a nice little plot going where someone with an hypnotic voice would control sidekicks and have them commit crimes and the RP community would be furious (in roleplay) while being thrilled (out of character) for the RP that seemingly simple plot was generating. Sidekicks would be protected, those hypnotized would be captured and deprogrammed, the siren type evil character was being detectived, etc etc.

[Ukase]

So, just to play devil's advocate, I should start stating that I'm a hetero male in my bio? 

I honestly don't think anyone gives a whit about what gender pronoun anyone goes by, nor their preferences and frankly, nor should they. If I ever stumbled across such a thing, I'd likely 2 star them with a comment to avoid them simply because they chose to share useless info. 

We're all just pixels in this game. 

[gamingglen]

7 hours ago, Sovera said:

Bios with sexual orientation are a subtle opening like posting on Tinder indicating availability for, shall we say, more adult roleplay.

 

 subtle?

 

hahahahahahahahahahaha

[Clave Dark 5]

On 7/6/2022 at 5:40 PM, Akalabeth said:

I've been seeing bios of characters with sexual orientation and preferences listed.  When did it become important to note?  Was it this way on live?

I recall someone once wanted to start a Twitter account - or was it Tumblr? - of bad bios and had a couple of screen shots of uh explicit ones, so yeah, that was a thing on Live.  To  finihs that story, it generated a bit of bad blood and the devs asked it be taken down to the poster did.

 

I like a good bio as much as the next person, but I am not going to read a document that fills out ever last possible character count in that little window.  if I have to scroll it's too long.  Think of it like an attack: do you need to spam a T1 attack, or do you have few strong attacks that'll do the work in less time?  And if you can write a good T9 bio, kudos!

[ZemX]

14 hours ago, Ukase said:

So, just to play devil's advocate, I should start stating that I'm a hetero male in my bio? 

I honestly don't think anyone gives a whit about what gender pronoun anyone goes by

 

I imagine the person putting it in their bio cares.  Isn't that obvious?  If you don't, then the answer to your first question is really simple, isn't it?

[Ukase]

10 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

I imagine the person putting it in their bio cares.  Isn't that obvious?  If you don't, then the answer to your first question is really simple, isn't it?

Hey, playing devil's advocate is supposed to be fun! Don't you start with your logic riddles! 

[Chrono-Bot]

15 hours ago, Ukase said:

So, just to play devil's advocate, I should start stating that I'm a hetero male in my bio? 

 

Why not? If your character's a hetero male and you want to share that detail, you absolutely should!

[aethereal]

I extensively roleplayed on Everlasting for years with short, uninformative, "witty" lines or snatches of poetry in my bio.  What you put in there is just your style, it's not like there's a requirement.

[Andreah]

1 hour ago, Chrono-Bot said:

 

Why not? If your character's a hetero male and you want to share that detail, you absolutely should!

I recall back on live a number of people would add "Male driver" or "Female driver" to their bio to separate themselves from the characters they're playing. I don't see it very much at all anymore. No one really cares.

 

I assume a bio for a roleplayer describes the character not the player, unless it specifically says so. Would some non-roleplayers not share that understanding and interpret the bio to be about the player? 

[Chrono-Bot]

4 minutes ago, Andreah said:

I don't see it very much at all anymore. No one really cares.

 

I ran off a guy who kept trying to cyber with my character by going 'oh bee tee dubs, I'm a guy' because apparently *that* was a bridge too far. Total stranger was fine. But a MALE one?

[Stormwalker]

3 hours ago, Andreah said:

I recall back on live a number of people would add "Male driver" or "Female driver" to their bio to separate themselves from the characters they're playing. I don't see it very much at all anymore. No one really cares.

 

I assume a bio for a roleplayer describes the character not the player, unless it specifically says so. Would some non-roleplayers not share that understanding and interpret the bio to be about the player? 

 

Yeah, I never did understand that one.  When I'm roleplaying, I don't want to be thinking about the person behind the character; that's just a distraction.

 

I mean, even if it's a friend and I know who they are, I'm still trying to focus on their character rather than them during the scene.

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Stormwalker said:

Yeah, I never did understand that one.  When I'm roleplaying, I don't want to be thinking about the person behind the character; that's just a distraction.

 

I mean, even if it's a friend and I know who they are, I'm still trying to focus on their character rather than them during the scene.

I wonder if this is part of the reason I'm against voice chat...

[Doomguide2005]

12 minutes ago, biostem said:

I wonder if this is part of the reason I'm against voice chat...

Maybe, it can certainly be an hurdle to be overcome at times.  On the flipside there's no voice and physical individual to hurdle like in a TTRPG situation.  No seeing the obviously male player running (trying?) the female pixie voice on your suspension of disbelief.  It's also probably more difficult when the character isn't a frequent teammate.

[Zep]

On 7/8/2022 at 2:12 PM, Ukase said:

So, just to play devil's advocate, I should start stating that I'm a hetero male in my bio? 

I honestly don't think anyone gives a whit about what gender pronoun anyone goes by, nor their preferences and frankly, nor should they. If I ever stumbled across such a thing, I'd likely 2 star them with a comment to avoid them simply because they chose to share useless info. 

We're all just pixels in this game. 

It would not bother me.

 

At the same time we are still in a place where anyone who doesn't declare is assumed to be a cis gender, white, hetero person. Statistically not a good guess that everyone meets all those criteria but ppl sure do like to assume. Invisible, un-named, groups are easier to exclude and discriminate against, which is why so many ppl declare. 

 

IMO:

In a world where orientation and gender identity are not thought of as any more special than eye and hair color, at that point no one should need to declare.