The Semi-Literate & Literate Roleplayer's Club (V4)

[pep]

Have you guys ever been hesitant to give your character a sad history because you're afraid that people will think that you're trying to give them a "sob story"?

heh. not really.
i was supposed to have a character with a dark past for a one x one so i made his story pretty sappy and sad. his mother was mugged and killed, father hung himself a few years later, he and his sister went to an orphanage, they got separated, he was adopted by a family who made him do their dirty work, he stabbed someone beating his adoptive father to the ground, and then was taken into a friendly overprotective household. i went a little overboard but hey, he was supposed to have a past even darker than that, i guess. eue

[boat]

oops, I forgot I changed my username to 'notes' for like 5 minutes. So I thought I wasn't accepted xD
But... Hi guys c:

Have you guys ever been hesitant to give your character a sad history because you're afraid that people will think that you're trying to give them a "sob story"?

ugh, yes. This. This so much. But then my characters histories seem a bit too plain.
But it seems more realistic to me though. I know that some people really do have terrible pasts. But on a lot of the RPs I join, a ton of characters always have these dark and depressing pasts. It just seems like a bit too much. Having a alcoholic father is fine. Or having divorced parents and whatnot. It just really bugs me when everyone has characters who witnessed tons of death, have over the top abusive parents, etc.

[eden .]

wait did we decide anything plotwise for rp as yourself

[benexo]

wait did we decide anything plotwise for rp as yourself

nope :c i actually kind of want to do something simple

okay, so i don't know if you guys have ever played this game with friends or at school or whatever, but i was thinking about wink murder, and that it could turn into a really fun and interesting roleplay. is anyone familiar with this game? would anyone be interested in it as an rp if all the kinks were worked out?

how to play wink murder: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wink_murder

[Artesian]

wait did we decide anything plotwise for rp as yourself

Nooooope. I think there was two camps, maybe three. Apocalyptic thingy, dream-world thingy, or meh to both.

[paradox.]

Have you guys ever been hesitant to give your character a sad history because you're afraid that people will think that you're trying to give them a "sob story"?

Yes!! I'm always worried that I'm being a bit too over dramatic when I'm making a character but at the same time if I don't add in things like that then the history is going to be short and boring. I mean not everyone has terrible life altering events in their life but then whats a life without a little sadness? I think the worst I've actually done, though, is a kids mother died in a car accident because of drunk driving and the dad grew apathetic towards her.

[Smite]

Have you guys ever been hesitant to give your character a sad history because you're afraid that people will think that you're trying to give them a "sob story"?

Yes, I do have some characters here and there that have a pretty upsetting history...I've put some pretty sad things in some of my characters past. Cancer, death, depression, ect. Oh gosh, I need more characters with happy pasts. It's just I usually make them have a sad history so they seem strong, or I just don't care what others think... cx

But really, I need more characters with happy pasts.

[Stray Dog]

Hey there! I'm back!
Username: Stray Dog
Old Member Number: 176

[Clavicle]

Have you guys ever been hesitant to give your character a sad history because you're afraid that people will think that you're trying to give them a "sob story"?

I used to worry about this a lot, especially right after I got out of my blissful mary sue phase. After one constrained, boring history too many, though, I learned to just relax. Let your heart do the smiley emoji and all that. I write character histories with a bigger goal in mind, a [somewhat] clear vision of how I want them to be at the start of the RP, and if a less than ideal past helps in building this character up to that point, then I'm not afraid of writing one.

If you ask me, it’s all about being aware of how much is too much, and making sure you’re actually showing character development with this event [as opposed to stuffing in angst purely for the sake of stuffing in angst]. One of the characters I’m currently working on has a plethora of problems up to here because of past events, but he didn't stay in a frozen stasis ever since “big bad thing” happened. Age factors in this, because over time people change and develop. A teenager will perceive events and react to them very differently than an adult would. The interesting thing I’ve discovered is that ”big bad thing” doesn’t even have to be anything dramatic or horrible [death, abuse, disease, what have you], and that how horrible the events are actually depends on the characters themselves. Death of a family member that might be tragedy to one character could be a mere blip on the radar for another. Similarly, say, losing an important heirloom could be easily shrugged off by one person, but become a catalyst to something far worse for another. If you're creative [and bored] enough, you can play around with “angst” without actually falling into the pitfalls of sad pasts. Also, I think it’s important to remember to show events developing in a believable manner! Suspension of disbelief and all that. A character doesn't exist in a void [unless they, like, literally exist in a void], and they won't be the only one influenced by what happens.

How you write about the events influences how people perceive them. While you can’t control the reader’s reaction, if you don’t write your character’s past as a melodramatic “sob story”, then it probably won’t read as one.

...…Ahm, also, if you guys wanna read about how to fix angsty characters/backstories [and what’s wrong with them in the first place], you should head on over to Limyaael’s livejournal/insanejournal rants. Really helpful & entertaining reads A+

[Artesian]

Have you guys ever been hesitant to give your character a sad history because you're afraid that people will think that you're trying to give them a "sob story"?

Well, I don't do a sad history in a casual way. I don't write histories that I don't know how to roleplay, and don't have the time and energy to concentrate on how to learn to. I try to be very cautious when writing a character to make their personality match their history, and the more terrible things have happened to them (especially when they're young) the harder that is. People get warped by their histories, especially when it's painful, and I want to make sure the warps are realistic. I haven't got an abnormal psych degree, so yeah, I'm super super cautious. (Especially given how offensive a character with a mental illness or trauma in their history can be to someone who actually does have that illness or has experienced that trauma).

But sob-stories? I've never really worried about that.