Does writing a bio qualify you as a RP'er?
By
Blood_Wolffe,
Posted on: 2008-07-22 09:10 in Roleplaying
when you're playing a role, then you're role playing.....
that's all I got to say about that. take from it what you want/can
I would say no. If that were the case then every author would be called an RPer.
I wouldn't call people who write stories here RP'ers unless they are open threads where they work with other writers.
Hi:
I tend to see RP in multiple stages of maturity from marginally a role player to hard core rokle player.
If you want tob e considered a role player, there are many things to conside, a short list follows:
1. Bio, you have to have a bio! You have to have a reason why you are a hero or villain, a reason of why you have certain attitudes you role play during the game.
2. Your battle cry "F10" has to make sense as to your origins, for example one of my lady heroes, a healer, she was attacked and her clinic personnel killed, that horrendous experience awoke her powers. Her battle call: "You gonna hurt much more, if you try to hurt anyone" would make sense based on her experience.
3. Cool outfit, your costume has to be relevant to what you are! I seen some beautiful costumes made with leaves and a natural theme to it, and the player is a plant dominator, quite appropriate. My Tanker Lady Reaver used to go around in a victoria secret's outfit and sporting mean looking shoulder pads. While it seems weird, if you read her bio, the costume makes sense, and the shoulder pads are a souvenir.
4. Powers, the have to make sense to your character concept, in general it is not going to be flavor of the month (fire/kin, etc). Often you will choose powers that may not be the optimum and in fact you may handicap yourself as a whole, you may avoid powers because they may give you an inappropriate look. For example, you could say you are a natural based person, but you are very fast, thus you feel haste is reasonable, yet haste gives a pom pom glow to your hands, which is quite un-natural. Thus as a result you chose not to get haste, despite it could have been very helpful.
5. How you behave in game, what you say! If you are a clown, you should joke alot, say funny things, etc. If you are the dark reserved type, you should be somewhat quiet with pragmatic statements.
6. The final stage of role play, is actually behaving as the character is designed. That is you say and do as if you weret hat person. I made a Norse Barbarian warrior, in the terms of a Red Sonja. I found it difficult to roleplay, too many other players did not like it, were freaked by it, or simply went out of their way to ruin the feel. But at times others do get into the feel of the moment, and the experience is glorious.
Hugs
Stormy
No.
A superhero without a bio is just a guy walking down the street with a natty fashion sense.
If you don't have a bio, nobody has any way of judging who you are or what you're supposed to be. Every superhero has a story. The bio is supposed to summarize the story. Whether you RP your story is irrelevant to the story itself.
You write a bio for a character to serve as their background, nothing more. You're an RPer when you act like that character (You: "We must save this hostage from the Freakshow!" ; Another Player: "Dude, chill out. It's just a game."). If you just put in a story because you think it's a cool or neat idea, then kudos to you. You're now an AUTHOR. You've done a character write-up.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
It's a broad question, asked that way on purpose.
I figured this was the most appropriate place to ask the titled question, as this discussion came up among my SG members a few days ago, with some interesting opinions on both ends.
Some arrived at the conclusion, that writing a bio was "the first stage of RP'ing", while others claimed "no" it was not, with a few other opinions inbetween. I myself, fall into the latter camp, as I cannot say I'm an RP'er at all; but I do enjoy fleshing out my characters with biographies, which by my understanding, coincides with something fans of RP do pretty often. I figure some of the difference lies in the perspective of the narrator, as I typically write my stories from a third person omniscient viewpoint.
Any thoughts?