CHARACTER DEVELOPEMENT

[TKAR 0]

In Character development on bios maybe we should have a page or suite like moose tips on ---how to make a bio on your character.......LIKE species,planet,skills etc....what do you think

[Images 0]

I dunno, everyone kinda does their bios differently so standardised tips might crush creativity on that front perhaps.

 

Don't really have an opinion but I just like playing devil's advocate.

[Guest Laarell]

Actually, I tend to agree with Images. Watch some advanced games to see how the characters play out, read some logs and biographies -- that'd be my advice. :P

[Kansas_Jones 0]

Well, for the character dev I agree with the Man in Britian and Laarell - that's up to the Player and reading and writing your own character logs tends to help with that. Just enjoy playing on a sim and see where the character and the adventures takes you.

 

But for your Biography TKAR, it usually goes something like this:

 

General Information:

 

Name:

Age:

Species:

Birthplace:

Height:

Weight:

Hair Color:

Eye Color:

 

Personal Background:

(Family Life and background, any other family in the Starfleet, personality quirks, do they get along with others, do they have a temper, allergies, what did they major in at the Fleet Academy)

 

Starfleet Career:

(Other fictional postings besides the sim you are joining, if you want details. If a character is very young, then don't have a huge career section. If a character is in their 50's, then they are going to have more professional background)

 

This is a basic biography, but it's the best way to go for someone just starting out on one of the sims; if someone tries to map out their entire character backstory in the Bio, that's more trouble then it's worth. Too much isn't necessarily a good thing. And, these characters aren't X-Men, so energy shooting out of your eyes is probably not a good idea. :-D

[Cmdr Ba'alyo 0]

This is a basic biography, but it's the best way to go for someone just starting out on one of the sims; if someone tries to map out their entire character backstory in the Bio, that's more trouble then it's worth. Too much isn't necessarily a good thing.

I totally agree with Kansas. Keep it basic at the beginning, because you might have a sudden flash of insight after you've been playing for awhile, so you can throw it in later. I did this with my own bio. Even though my character's a Commander, I decided not to list a lot of details about his career. I'm not claiming its classified or contains any secrets, I just want the freedom to make some parts up later to support future stories: the guest villian is an old crewmate, I've been to this planet before, Darth Vader is my father...

 

I also agree with Laarell and Images that there's lots of ways to lay out your bio. Check out the ones that are out there and you'll see different formats with different kinds of sections:

 

Personal Statistics

Background

Service Record

Education

Personality / Psychological Profile

Medical Record

Interests

Notable Career Incidents

Miscellaneous

 

I wouldn't use all of these. Pick a couple that are important to understanding your character. Think about how you imagine and how you want others to visualize your character: smart, huge, shy, brash, overeager, uncertain. This'll guide how you play and others respond to you.

 

I'm also a big fan of finding a representative picture, but I'm a visual person. It's not essential.

[Kansas_Jones 0]

I just want the freedom to make some parts up later to support future stories: the guest villian is an old crewmate, I've been to this planet before, Darth Vader is my father...

 

He's your Dad too!? He met Mother during that one night at Mos Eisely! Vader sure gets around.

 

And I agree with Ba'alyo on this as well; I like that freedom as well, to introduce new character development in the Bio based on what has happened during the sim adventures to my character and any resulting log writing. I've had quite a few things added to Bios just because something totally surprised me during the chat plots.

[Samantha_Kent 0]

While I recommend that you mix and match your categories to determine the information most useful and relevant to you, I do recommend that you *definitely* make use of the family background idea. Family information can be really useful to understanding what shaped a character and where their personality grew from and it's always been really helpful to me in the initial shaping of a character. It can also really simplify the process; placing characteristics into the family background can drop a lot of characteristics into place in the actual char that might have taken a longer time to come to light on their own. Sam's father is a diplomat, for example, which ended up shaping her personality to be more xenophilic and interested in learning about things she doesn't understand, which led me to place her as a science officer.

 

Also keep in mind that what you are creating in your bio is not going to remain static; after only a few months of play you may find that your character has evolved away from the original bio (it's certainly been my experience with every character I've ever played). In my opinion the bio is a jumping-off point, which is not to say it shouldn't require focus, but you shouldn't let it completely hamper you.

 

That being said...if it helps any, the bio categories I usually stick with are:

 

Basic Statistics

Family

Personality Profile

Medical Profile

Career History

 

and then add other things from there if the character turns out to need them.

 

EDIT: Whoops...Kansas and Ba'alyo pretty much already touched on the character evolution idea. Oh well...::points:: What they said. :P

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

My two cents are probably pointless. All of my esteemed colleagues have really covered it. But my bio style kind of relates to the "SIM Websites" topic in the "Community and Trek Discussion" forum, in terms of content. I started it very small (actually based on tips from moose, doesn't he say somethign about not killing your parents in your bio so you can kill them later?). Just my personal traits and a brief explanation of how I ended up in Starfleet. Now it's HUGE, and I haven't even been here as long as some. I just keep up with the content, as plots happen I go back through the logs and Plot Summaries on my sim's website and then write what happened ot myself in my "personal history". So this becomes a narrative of my character's life and development during his SF career, but there's NO WAY I could have written all this starting out, I could have maybe tried and come up with this much material, but it wouldn't have been real (well, sim real). So let your experience *playing* your character become the story. That's how you get a big impressive bio and experience great character development. (from my perspective).

[STSF Jumper 0]

based on tips from moose, doesn't he say somethign about not killing your parents in your bio so you can kill them later?).

 

Whoops. It occurs to me that not only are Ensign Jumpers parents both deceased, she has a hot temper, psychological issues, and can be a crazy pilot - I broke a few cardinal rules regarding Simming, Character Biography, and a Moose Tip!

 

Overall, a GM team is going to be on the lookout for a new Character/Player biography that has these sorts of traits or background in it; not necessarily a red flag or anything, but don't be entirely surprised if you are asked to rework a Bio section to make it less gritty or maybe more family oriented or to streamline the stereotypical traits or something.

 

It's really much easier, as everyone has said, to start out with the basics as a new Player. If you want to be a crazy pilot, fine, but leave the psych issues out.

 

Another point? Biographical experience and background, should be kept within reason.

 

A character really shouldn't be a warp mechanics, medical doctor, tactical, and covert ops agent all rolled into one officer. You gotta keep it real. A combination General Practitioner and Battlefield Medic for Medical would be doable, and a Security officer with past training as a Sniper is doable as well.

 

And remember the most important Character Bio Rule - no, you can't be an Admiral, and no, you can't be Helm and Tactical so you can fly the big ship and shoot things.

[V'Roy 0]

Starfleet Career:

(Other fictional postings besides the sim you are joining, if you want details. If a character is very young, then don't have a huge career section. If a character is in their 50's, then they are going to have more professional background)

 

Unless the character in his 50s and still an Ensign, in which case he probably has a very UN-professional background. :)