InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "*I milked it myself!*"

the bee charmer from alabama (colloquialisms) wrote in rp_tutorials,
@ 2010-08-23 05:04:00

Biographies vs. facts
Depending on the game, I think it could go either way when it comes to a character. Sometimes, I even think facts are better than a full biography mostly because people don't really have the attention span nowadays to sit and read a really in-depth biography, not that this is an excuse. We as people have definitely become a very ADD and lazy society.

My real question here, however, is when a comm asks for "detailed facts," how detailed is too detailed? What's an acceptable detailed fact sentence and detail-wise?

Edit: The character journal I'm working with in this particular situation is ~zifang, which I'll more than likely comment on this post quite a few times when responding to others. I'm a mult-tasker, so sometimes I forget which journal I'm signed into when responding to comments.

Edit again: There's a new post up in ~zifang which is the write-up containing the bullet point facts that are in the post below it. Feel free to comment and give me pointers!

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midichlorians
2010-08-23 01:55 pm UTC (link)

I think it depends on the game. If it's just your average, run of the mill town/apartment/etc game where there isn't anything specific going on plot-wise, facts are fine because it's just a 'whatever happens, happens' kind of place. A detailed, 12 paragraph biography isn't really necessary and facts will provide the basics for players and moderators.

But if it's a genre game or a plot-based game (like scifi, mafia, zombies, etc), I think a biography is more important. You have to include lots of information like how and why they're connected to mobsters or where they were/how they handled an outbreak, etc. That sort of thing lends itself to a biography better than just 'everyone lives at Sunshine Apartments!!'

Personally, I prefer biographies over facts because I really enjoy creating characters and fleshing them out. I use bulleted fact points as a way to guide myself through a bio, so I always feel as if my character is left unfinished when I just list out a few sentenced facts. When I DO have to use facts for applications, each of my facts are 3-4 sentences. :/ I can't help myself. I'll be like "He has a tattoo of this in this location. He got it when he was this age because of this reason. While he has to keep it covered up at work, he likes to flaunt it whenever he has the chance because he thinks he's bad ass." Or something like that.

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zifang
2010-08-23 09:56 pm UTC (link)

I agree with you about "slice of life" games. While you want to be serious about the writing, in the end it's all fluff. People play in these games because they want to be able to write a piece without having to treat it like it's a mini-series rather than a daytime drama.

With that said, I also agree with you about specific genre games. When you have a history that's set in stone, you really need to elaborate on time, places, and events because it shows how your character is connected to it all.

When it comes to facts though, I've never written just a pure facts entry. I've always written a biography and maybe sometimes included a set of facts, mainly trivia or random quirks that don't relate to the personality or biography. I tried doing facts with this character, but I keep getting massive paragraphs that I end up not feeling satisfied with. Right now, I'm using a system of bullet points for specific events.

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