Most of my characters have bios. It certainly helps me stay interested in them. I make an effort when I play to take the missions and contacts that would appeal to the character. This is much easier to do if I have a bio written for them. Of approximately 150 characters, only about ten don't have bios in game, and only 2 or 3 those haven't been given much thought at all. These are also the most likely characters to be deleted when another idea comes along.
New story arcs coming soon (ARC IDs will be aded when I finish the arc):
So, you want to join the Hellions? (level 1-14 Villainous arc)
Sparks & Steel (level 5-20 Heroic arc)
and
So you want to join the Skulls? (level 1-14 Villainous arc)
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Interesting question. I'm definitely a believer in immersive gaming, so all of my characters have bios. I figure, if I'm going to play a character for that long, I want to know where they came from.| What percentage of your characters have biographies? |
Normally, I have a bio mostly fleshed out at character creation, but occasionally I've tried to "shoehorn" a bio to fit a character concept. For example, a while back, I created a Dual Blades/SR scrapper--mostly because I liked the powersets and playstyle. I seriously considered deleting her because...I just couldn't explain her powers in a way that didn't sound cliche or ridiculous. I finally came up with a highly elaborate bio involving Ouroboros, medieval Japanese Emperors, and a father's love. It was arguably one of my better bios.
On the other hand, I've had bios that started before a character even existed and continued to float around to new characters. I had a mentally and physically abused but gifted psychic character that started out as a dominator, rehabilitated into a controller, and finally backslid into a widow. Her bio is so compelling that she just doesn't seem to either die or get to a happy ending...
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| While I'm on the topic, anyone else notice the text window where you write your biography being buggy? I'll be at 1004 characters, go back and delete a comma and it'll jump to 1015 characters or some weird like that.It tend to make large character count jumps for minor changes that don't add characters at all (or certainly not 15 of them). |
Feel free to try out my AE mission arc, # 473452: Praetorian Redemption
@Valerika
Currently none of my characters have bios because I'm to lazy to write them. One did have a bio but I decided to recton him so it's gone for now. I know what the bios are for 3 of my 6 characters but the other 3 I have only vague a sort of personality/back story in mind based on their powersets and costumes (for example my Warshade looks vaguely Native American for some reason).
In general I figure out roughly what sort of character I want and then see if a bio occurs to me. That being said the bios for 2 of the 3 characters that I actually know what they'll be I came up with before making the character.
I've noticed the buggy counter as well. The best solution is to keep a text file handy for editing. Liberal use of ctrl+a and delete to clear the space is a must. Pasting info into the space is something of a pain as well as carriage returns to don't follow from the editor of choice. It takes some frustrating clicking and arrowing to get the cursor to go where you want it to if there are carriage returns.
While all of my characters have some kind of story to their existence not all of them have a bio to speak of. That's my failing, I have an disconnect with giving shape and form to the idea(s) in my head.
Evil is a maze of deceit and the cheese it hides is never worth the running.
When I first started playing, my rule was that by level 6 I'd have a bio written. The logic being that it would take that long for me to determine whether or not I'd botched the costume in some way (got tired of re-writing bios after realizing my shirt was on inside out).
Nowadays most of my characters have their bios by the early twenties. The ones that don't are in my head, but I'm too lazy to write them. In any case, if a character makes it to SO level and doesn't have a bio yet, I'm probably not playing him very much. I dont' have any characters over 25 that DON'T have bios.
After i14, it seems the character bio section went all bonkers. I thought they fixed it with the patch that let us break text into paragraphs again, but the deal you described with the phantom characters appearing still exists. I also notice that some paragraph breaks won't delete (they'll stay there forever like some kind of text-based STD). Plus, every time you double space after a sentence, the second space will count as like 5 characters! Hard to get used to single spacing after a sentence. Anyway, some angel of the forums sent me a PM letting me know about "ctrl+a+delete" to clear the field and start over. That's a good trick, but very time consuming when you have to start over a dozen times.
Larry: Owen, what the hell did you do to my wife?
Owen: Well I don't want to say on the phone - all I can tell you is that I killed her last night.
Most of my characters, say 75%, have a bio of some kind, and those that don't still have a story, I'm just really bad about going back and adding in a bio if I don't write it up at creation. I also try to aim for contacts and missions that fit that particular character.
I haven't had a good bio save a character I dislike playing, though. If I like a character but don't like actually playing them, they usually get rerolled until I find something I enjoy. I have had the opposite happen, where a character with a "meh" bio was so much fun to play that they stuck around until I came up with a story for them that really fit.
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Physically (or virtually) transcribed? Less than 10% on my "played" characters.| What percentage of your characters have biographies? |
Mentally stored? All of them. Just a limitation of time and patience to get them written as some of them are a little more "ambitious" than others. One in particular has a 40 line humorous narrative poem for its origin story (which I have written down due to its size but yeah). Obviously, that doesn't really work well with the space limitations imposed in CoH.
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| Do you usually write them at creation or after you've had a chance to get a feel for the character? Has a good biography saved a character you otherwise weren't that thrilled with? |
I then build the role to suit its gimmick which is finally applied to the character. Comparatively, if I don't have that gimmick, successfully building a role still means the character won't be played to completion. One key example is my forum namesake, a DM/Regen Scrapper. It was made before I discovered what was needed for me to enjoy a toon so it sits uncompleted at 42 after more than 5 years (although it has granted me other benefits in toon creation so I can't bring myself to replace it...that and I don't want to lose the various anniversary badges), despite having a fully fleshed-out backstory and web of intrigue surrounding it.
After that, time constraints dictate whether a toon gets played or not.
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| While I'm on the topic, anyone else notice the text window where you write your biography being buggy? I'll be at 1004 characters, go back and delete a comma and it'll jump to 1015 characters or some weird like that.It tend to make large character count jumps for minor changes that don't add characters at all (or certainly not 15 of them). |
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
My characters tend to start with a very rough idea for a bio right from the character creator. However, they don't tend to get actually written out until much later, say around the 30s or higher. Even when they do, there's no guarantee that they will actually get written in-game, and instead just written on another forum or on notepad.
As far as having some idea as to who this character is in my own head, I'd give it around a 75% or higher. Written out in game? Maybe 33%
My story arcs: #2370- Noah Reborn, #18672- The Clockwork War, #31490- Easy Money
Sartre once said, "Hell is other people." What does that make an MMO?
I usually have a series of ideas for who my characters are. But, I usually don't write up the bio in-game. Some because they have secrets, others sheer laziness, but usually there's more than a little bit of thought that went into whatever character I'm playing.
Just because I haven't put it in the bio in-game doesn't mean it's not a fully fleshed out character, just that there's almost always something better to do than fill in the bio section.
Of all of my characters I think there's ONE that actually has something written in his Bio, and it's not even a Bio, it's a Poem. (A very Fitting poem, but a poem nonetheless.)
I'm absolutely terrible at taking the ideas I have and putting them down on paper (as it were). So while I *have* a horribly complex bio for my main (who represents 3 of my actual characters), it only exists in my head.
@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too
I have three characters and all have some sort of bio in game and much much more fleshed out back stories in my head.
On the other hand, not all my toons have bios 
I have two versions of Daybreaker Alpha, two of Fenian and just one Caemgen but more will come... Rather than create alt after alt I have so far used the same characters with different power sets.
This works for Alpha since his powers come from his armor... Easy enough to have different suits with different powers.
It works for Fenian since her powers are magical in nature. She has a wide range of magical powers to draw from but it's easiest if she limits herself to a couple sets at a time for memorization and quickness
mayhap the reason Caemgen doesn't have a second toon yet is changing his powers doesn't work as easily... But I'm sure I'll think of something 
Straying from topic though... So original toons all have a bio on them but I haven't bothered cutting it over to the "alts" yet...
I'd say about half my toons have written bios. Usually it takes a few levels before the complete inspiration for the story arrives. Just recently I was running a Psi/EM blaster and got a tell from a team mate about how ugly the toon was. It's slim, very pale, and has DEAD in it's name. If a player can't recognize a dessicated zombie hero, it means that a bio had to be written and was
There is no such thing as an "innocent bystander"
All of my characters (20) have Bios (and all of them are truncated, dagnabbit). I write them at the time of creation. They may be tweaked along the character's progression to level 50 and in some cases, beyond.
Rabbits & Hares:Blue (Mind/Emp Controller)Maroon (Rad/Thermal Corruptor)and one of each AT all at 50
MA Arcs: Apples of Contention - 3184; Zen & Relaxation - 35392; Tears of Leviathan - 121733 | All posts are rated "R" for "R-r-rrrrr, baby!"|Now, and this is very important... do you want a hug? COH Faces @Blue Rabbit
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Nearly all of them, even my silly ones. Some of them are rather sparse but most of them push the 1024 character limit.|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
What percentage of your characters have biographies?
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
Do you usually write them at creation or after you've had a chance to get a feel for the character?
Has a good biography saved a character you otherwise weren't that thrilled with? |
This means I spend a lot of time in the editor getting the look I want, the powers I feel are appropriate and then writing up the bio to tie it all together.
However, I will sometimes modify a biography by events that happen in RP thread here in the forums. I haven't really done any RP in game yet though. As a keyboarder, it's hard to fight bad guys and chat at the same time.
"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them."
Out of all my 31 characters only 4 have bios write. I have one for almost all but can never be bothered to spend time writing them out, or I'm to busy playing to have the time. 
I do wish they would raise the limit though, as one bio isn't explained in the detail I'd like. 
I think that 30% of my characters have a bio, of the remaining characters roughly the half got a bio in my head. My namesake for example has no bio, yet he is so vivid and well defined in my head that I chose him as my forum handle.
I always write the story when I create them. The moment of inspiration for my characters. Sometimes it is a background story, sometimes it is a moment of silliness. Of the toons I delete, the ones without a bio/good idea who they are tend to be chosen first to go.
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Usually I don't start with a biography in mind. A lot of my toons get deleted before they hit the 20s anyway. However, sometimes I have a general idea that evolves as I level the character. By the time they hit L50 all my characters have a biography although I don't always write it down.|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
What percentage of your characters have biographies? Do you usually write them at creation or after you've had a chance to get a feel for the character?
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| Has a good biography saved a character you otherwise weren't that thrilled with? |
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| While I'm on the topic, anyone else notice the text window where you write your biography being buggy? I'll be at 1004 characters, go back and delete a comma and it'll jump to 1015 characters or some weird like that.It tend to make large character count jumps for minor changes that don't add characters at all (or certainly not 15 of them). |
I have short bios written for most of my characters. I don't write the kind of bio that pushes towards the length limit of the field, but is descriptive enough to get the basics covered.
I've no quarrel with those who skip the bio, nor those that bump against the length limit, but to see the description field say this:
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is just a waste, IMO.
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d |
Much to my dismay, most of my characters have 'mental' bios. I have written fics with them in it, so I fully know their backgrounds and how they fit in my version of Paragon.
I just haven't written them up in game yet. The words just don't come. Bleah. Besides, half of them wouldn't make sense to people that haven't read my fics.
As a result, only three of my characters have serious bios, and those were the first ones I got to 50. The rest...sigh.
Currently playing:
The Domestic: Broom/WP
Shadowhex: Dark Control/Dark Affinity
Defenestration Lass: Grav/Kin
"See, this is what happens when you have to shove all this stuff into your pockets: it's easy to misplace a suborbital warhead." -Arcanaville, on how crowded our power trays are getting lately
60+ characters, 60+ Bios. I usually create a character with a story already in mind, the story drives the character and I build the best I can from what is available.
"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."
Most of my characters have actual bios. I'll occasionally put it off until the 20s or so, so that I can get a feel for the character first, but they almost all get one eventually. I find it fairly hard to stick with a character if they don't have any concept beyond 'this is some guy and he fights crime, so yeah.'
The characters who are at level 50 with 500 badges and bios that say 'Bio coming soon!' make me laugh.
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
All my "actual" characters on my main servers get bios. I have some mule/farmer/experimental special projects that I don't bother to write anything for, and some rarely-played alts don't have anything written -- not because they don't deserve a bio, but because I'm conserving my good ideas for characters that will be used.
Sometimes the character has "filler" text for a while until I settle on a bio...one of my current favorites had nothing worth reading until level 40 or so, when I finally had an inspiration and wrote one I liked, but usually I have one worked out in the first few levels of the character's life.
The little game I play is variety -- my bio spaces are used for very different styles of writing, and although straight origin-story or biography is probably my most common topic, it's by no means the only one I use. Instead, each character's space is used to convey flavor -- that's all we really have room for anyway. Some of the styles I've used:
- A history of the tragic end of the character's people
- The TV promo spot for the character's show
- Journal entries
- Straightforward origin story
- Poem (original)
- Conversational style like the character is chatting with the reader
- Statesman's file on the villain
- The moment the character decided to become a hero
- A fairy tale
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
100+ characters have bios. The concept comes first and then the biography starts to form. From there the power sets are chosen and possible archetypes are listed. Then build process starts, matures and possibly respecified after power combination and play style are tested. The costume is an on going thread through out the method.
All of my characters have bios. I can't play a character who isn't actually... you know, a character. I write them very short and simple. I almost never come anywhere near the maximum length.
I don't write entire personal history or insights in bios, because it doesn't make sense to me to learn that sort of thing by looking at someone, and because my characters generally wouldn't be the type to be going around announcing their life story to everyone they meet.
There's a lot more to the characters in my head, but I just prefer my bios short.
Just idly curious and some questions on character biographies:
What percentage of your characters have biographies? Do you usually write them at creation or after you've had a chance to get a feel for the character? Has a good biography saved a character you otherwise weren't that thrilled with?
On my main server, 70% of my characters have biographies. I typically write them either at creation or before level five. If I can't feel a "history" by then, I probably won't ever feel one. I'm not sure if I'd keep a character I "hate" due to bio, but I've only deleted one character with a full biography; all the rest have been a couple rotating slots of non-bio'd characters.
While I'm on the topic, anyone else notice the text window where you write your biography being buggy? I'll be at 1004 characters, go back and delete a comma and it'll jump to 1015 characters or some weird like that.It tend to make large character count jumps for minor changes that don't add characters at all (or certainly not 15 of them).