What Makes a good Bio?

[SirArthurIV]

I was musing earlier about RP bios and my method for writing them. A particular thought entered my brain.

 

What aspects of someone's bio or appearance makes you want to approach them for RP? And what are the best opening lines to initiate with someone else? How do you incorporate what they write into the interaction? I always feel awkward approaching people and could always use tips to get that opening "hey" out of the way.

 

Usually, I come up with a character design I like then build the backstory of the character justify the appearance. It's like I reverse engineer a story for how I want them to look as wyswyg is my default consideration and it's easier to work backwards. 

[WanderingAries]

First you make sure the roll of TP is in range and follow it with a good pack of wipes. Then you....OH, you mean "A Bio", not "/bio".  >.>  <.<  >.>

 

 

I guess it depends on what your style is. I quickly came up with templates because I quickly found that you had to be creative with names (back on live) and not everyone might 'get' the name I chose due to things like language variances. Also, I heavily advise creating an actual document that you can copy / paste from for archival purposes.

 

Quote

Name: Ange (French for Angel)

Title: Ange des Ténèbres (Angel of the Shadows)

Visual Age: Late 20's

Actual Age: 192

Birthplace: French Quarter, Louisiana

Mate: Briana Molanof

Affiliation: The Watcher Clan

 

Pyromethious, leader of The Watcher Clan, recognized the purity in Ange's spirit and asked him to be his "Angel of the Shadows". Ange earned the upmost respect of the clan and eventually became blood brother to Pyro.

 

Later he was sent in search of Cygnes, Pyro's exiled wife, to see what she had been up to in the Rogue Isles when the “Vixens of the Isles” drew him out of the shadows. Overpowered by Cygnes' Vixens, Ange was all but dead when Briana stepped between him and her sisters.

 

Battle Cry: Mourez dans le ma Pêche (French: Die in Silence my Peach)

 

[twozerofoxtrot]

17 hours ago, SirArthurIV said:

Usually, I come up with a character design I like then build the backstory of the character

 

Some of my favorite characters, to include my main, have back stories built this way. IMO it's totally legitimate and I wouldn't be surprised if most comic book characters had their stories written after they were drawn.

 

That said, for me the biggest single factor in a bio that influences whether or not I want to interact with a character is correctness; spelling, grammar, and formatting. If the player doesn't take the time to review their own work and assess it for errors when they have the time, it gives me the impression they aren't taking their character seriously, which really lowers the stakes for me.

 

17 hours ago, SirArthurIV said:

How do you incorporate what they write into the interaction?

 

I usually try not to do this, unless their bio specifically has a hook that is listed that makes sense for my character to elicit or employ (eg: their character is 'famous' etc).

 

Other exception would be a note about how the character's design might be limited by the CC's options so I try to call that out relatively early (if that makes sense) as a way to signal "hey, I see and care about this exceptional thing you care about, that my character should very obviously be able to see for themselves." 

 

Otherwise? I like to let the player present their character at face value and determine via writing what I should or shouldn't know about them.

 

17 hours ago, SirArthurIV said:

I always feel awkward approaching people and could always use tips

 

That's the way it is! People are naturally programmed to one degree or another about flubbing first introductions. My method is to just relax and try to have low stakes. There's a million things that can make your first bump tricky, most of which you exercise no control over.

 

But if something draws you to another character, just try to lead with that if it makes sense. After all, it's your most natural reaction and in the absence of a clear reason for in-character interest, it will lead to more authentically written dialog for your character. 

[ChallengerYura]

On 3/27/2025 at 6:34 PM, SirArthurIV said:

What aspects of someone's bio or appearance makes you want to approach them for RP?

 

Generally what makes me approach people is if they're making an effort, I'm only relatively new to RP in CoH but I've done it for years on various platforms and other MMORPGs. It's not so much that it needs to be extremely detailed just that it's structured nicely and generally they have a good grasp of English. I'm not talking University levels of writing just being (mostly) fluent in the language! 

 

On 3/27/2025 at 6:34 PM, SirArthurIV said:

And what are the best opening lines to initiate with someone else? How do you incorporate what they write into the interaction? I always feel awkward approaching people and could always use tips to get that opening "hey" out of the way.

 

The best lines I think are the one's that come natural to your character, they're their own person with their own personality so you need to play off that. If your character is an antisocial type then it'll be a little harder. All you need to do is focus on your characters traits and let them naturally play out, whether that's approaching someone out of curiosity, commenting to them about something they've said or even just watching a group of people.

 

That could be asking them questions about whether they've seen a certain individual you're hunting (make it up if need be), asking them if they've seen a character you've written that's connected to your backstory, maybe your character is doing an investigation? Looking for his sidekick? Maybe you're eavesdropping on them for information? More than anything try not to stress out, if people are in public with their RP tag on they're usually fine with being approached! (most of the time) Just remember they're here to RP!

 

When it comes to what's written in their bio that's at your descretion, if they say their character is famous you might recognize them. If their character is an infamous SG that maybe has a bad reputation and it's specified that they publically identify with them you could comment on that! You don't always have to react to what's in there, stick mostly to hooks unless it's something you feel they're making public, your character might know and you might want to comment on it IC.

 

On 3/27/2025 at 6:34 PM, SirArthurIV said:

Usually, I come up with a character design I like then build the backstory of the character justify the appearance. It's like I reverse engineer a story for how I want them to look as wyswyg is my default consideration and it's easier to work backwards. 

 

There's nothing wrong with that at all! I usually work the other way around but I've had plenty of good characters in other games that came about because I spent the afternoon messing around with the character creator. What I will say is you might want to start out with a simple concept with a character that has a friendlier personality if you're struggling to be social IC, I made a sidekick that's essentially naive patriotic youth. The end result is her approaching people at random to say hello, offer help and hanging out at random is natural because that's basically her job!

Edited April 1 by ChallengerYura

[FFTMime]

My honest advice to all RPers.

Come up with one, one single on, really strong conceptual foundational trait. It can be a lot of things. A single personality trait. Some concept. Some specific event they were involved in. Or just a one-line concept of who they are. I built a CoC character around the simple idea of, "Schoolgirl who throws rocks as hard as she can at the evil fish men taking over the gulf coast." That was all I had. Then I built 'herself' up around that one part at a time as I used her and tested interactions. Yeah, kind of make it up as you go around what you have. This was one of my best characters, and all successes I have are similar. Which should make characters in COH all the easier. Since you can even do silly things like, "Was a family pet dog. Got soul transferred into the mind of a crime fighting humanoid robot." 

It kind of is that simple. You just need one VERY strong trait to think about. The rest can justify itself around it. It just works. This is how you make interesting characters worth interacting with. In my experience. I've never had luck doing anything else. Well thought out reasonable beings aren't interesting to chat with, turns out. 

[Latex]

I try to fit in character hooks lately, anything that makes my character easier to approach even if they're not the approachable type. Try to think of it from the outside looking in, what would interest me in a bio and how can I include that in mine.

First up is RP style for the character, if they're an adult concept then I don't want them RPing with minors IC or OOC, I really dislike self-censorship so I get that out there, also include that I'm cool with OOC approaches/Tells Welcome etc, a little OOC chat for anyone too anxious can quickly break the ice. A synopsis and then 3 or 4 character hooks that might not come across in costume or backstory elements others might be able to link to, e.g. 'Known to work frequently with Crey Industries.' or 'Works for Hero Corps most evenings.'

Basically I try to cater my bio to make it as easy as possible to engage with me and the character