What would be allowed under RP? Can you just make up stuff, i.e. history, so that your RP makes sense? What are the limits? Will anything happen to you IG other than people will regard you as a loon if you make up something stupid? As long as it doesn't contradict anything important can you pretty much make up whatever you feel like?

Wow that was a lot of questions.

Just a RP novice trying to make sense of the possibilities.

Some times I quote Socrates or some other philosopher and say "A wise Mhun once said" or somthing like that.

I try to keep it vauge when I drop people into history at random.

In general, if something your character goes around saying as part of his/her RP does not contradict the canon laid down by the admin, you should be fine. At worst it's simply a disagreement between characters.

That said, the best policy is Keep It Simple, Stupid.

It helps if it's some ancient myth or legend or other thing which, if it should be contradicted later on, could simply be said to have been inaccurate, partially or completely.

No one's history should be based upon an ancient myth or legend, true or false.

QFT

Ah, this is true. I was addressing the question of making up history without considering the context.

You can make up whatever you want.

Read other people's backgrounds to get an ideas and whatnot.

OK, thanks you guys.

Some clichés to avoid (that my own novices have actually tried to use):

-Orphaned at a young age because you killed your parents for their estate, you inherited a large sum of money which kept your diabolical schemes afloat until you came of age and the cash mysteriously ran out, leaving you so destitute that you couldn't even afford a vial of health elixir.

-Orphaned at a young age, you befriended a gangbanger and became an underground street fighter who killed five people before you turned fifteen-- never mind that you can't even survive a black rat anymore.

-Orphaned at a young age, you were sexually abused by your street family and -that- is why you sleep around so much-- you aren't a whore, you're just looking for love in all the wrong places, trying to fill the void left when Daddy died and surrogate Daddy decided to touch you in your no-no spot.

-Orphaned at a young age, you were raised by a pack of (insert name of hostile, non-maternal, generally solitary wildlife here), and at the age of eighteen were somehow able to acclimate yourself immediately to a society of intelligent beings, adhering to their customs, language, and way of life sans any period of awkward re-adjustment.

-Orphaned at a young age, the minions of (insert name of any organization considered to oppose your own) slaughtered your family and left you, an infant, exposed on a cliff to die. Although you were no more than a few months old, you somehow managed to retain very vivid memories of the event, and, though no one came to rescue you from said cliff, you survived through sheer force of will to arrive at your eighteenth birthday, where you could finally wreak vengeance upon those who murdered your loved ones as you fearsomely wield your shortsword and canvas backpack.

-Orphaned at a young age, you were enrolled in the choir in Shallam, where you suffered abuse and buggery at the hands of Handel and the older boys. At the age of seventeen, you escaped and stowed away with a group of travelling merchants to Thera, where you underwent your Trial of Rebirth and joined Ashtan, determined to master the power of Chaos to bring the wicked pedophiles of Shallam to justice.

-Orphaned at a young age, you were sold into sex slavery in (insert name of city or village here). With the help of (a sibling/a wise veteran slave/a compassionate master/an illicit lover-- sometimes a noteable individual in that city; that always makes me laugh) you managed to escape to freedom and begin a new life, determined to bring down the corrupt society that wronged you.

-Orphaned at a young age, you were enrolled in the Loving Hearts Orphanage, but managed to elude death by expressing your fervent desire to follow in the footsteps of Servelan de Vermiis to become a formidable Occultist and eventually ascend to Divinity.

-Orphaned at a young age, you were apprenticed by a wise man who took you as his pederastic lover.

-Orphaned at a young age, you were raped and impregnated by a brutal thug, but miscarried the baby. You decided to study the Occult in order to find your rapist and kill him for what he did to you, and you aspire to join the Order of Suffering because your life has been nothing but pain and heartbreak.

-Orphaned at a young age, you spent your childhood terrorizing Shallam from the inside, until your name was tainted with such infamy that you were banned from the city because the Caliph feared for his life. The fact that they claim never to have heard of you before is proof of their terror-- they are too afraid to even say your name, lest you return to destroy them.


I think you get the idea. If it starts out with, "Orphaned at a young age..." and has some traumatic or implausible story attached, it's probably a bad idea.

O rly?



QFT.

NEVAR.

And yes, a novice actually did have a backstory like that-- but it was back before Shallam became a theocracy. I don't remember who was the Sultan. It was just before I became the Demiurge. I changed the title to "Caliph" here to modernize the reference and avoid confusing the OP. As for the novice with that backstory, he didn't last too long.

Ever seen anything that begun with "Having orphaned yourself at a young age..."

We should hold a competition to see who can come up with the most entertainingly implausible backstory.

Hey, hey. This one with some variations is kind of viable.

So long as by "at a young age" you mean "at least four or five years old" then it is indeed possible. A bit cliched, but given the never-ending war in Achaea, it's not like it would be uncommon.

EDIT: Oh, also, someone's got to come rescue you unless you bump up the age to at least twelve or thirteen.

EDIT EDIT: We need a house to contain all the novices with ludicrously implausible backstories, like Sparklypoo for Achaea.

Actually, I had a character in Shallam a few IRL years ago, so I was entirely confused when people started talking about the Caliph


Thanks for that Amunet, I laughed, a lot.

Orphaned at a young age by the brutal militias that spring up between Ashtan and Shallam, you set out on a Sapience-wide journey throughout your developmental years. You eventually traversed into unknown lands, attracted the ire of a long-lost race, became hand-picked by Sarapis to lead the destiny of humanity, and eventually founded a continent-spanning kingdom in order to cull the threat of your ancient foe.

Do I win?

Sure, being orphaned is terribly clichéd. In Achaea's world of daily genocide, it also makes perfect sense. Something to remember, though: Orphans will never make use of the bloodline system, as bloodlines are only for blood relations.

If you want more general advice, though, hold off on as many details as possible. It makes retconning after you learn about Achaea much easier, and you'll be less likely to appear noobish in the interim.

I was wondering about that, how do you become involved with a family? Is it just like one day, "oh yeah this is our lost child <insert name>, we just found him\her when he\she was 22"?

The best way, in my opinion, is to just pretend you've always been a part of the family. When Danith was adopted, I'm sure we sat around for a while getting to know each other and to the outsider it would probably appear that we were strangers, but within 5 years you have to just pretend that you've never been without a family. I've also seen people state that their children were off in another place 'studying' or 'training'... for instance, I think Rho's backstory involved him being a perfectly normal child that was sent to the Arcadian university until he was 18.

Yes. I'd give you an internet if you had one of those internet counters.

...Mick?

What does "Mick" mean?

Nicator.

I'm sure Amunet knows who Nicator is; I think she was taking a potshot at an old Ashuran with an ego.

What if I was orphaned at 100 years of age, do I still have a shot at having a terrible sob story?

I think that would ruin that news post by Malifuus

That should be your new RP. After all, you have every right to hate Malifuus...he threw stuff at you while you were a child! AND you can act dumb and claim it was from brain damage. You have just been handed the key to becoming a world class griefer for free.

EDIT: Gogo doublepost..in the same post?

My backstory starts with 'Orphaned at a young age...' but is boring.

Wasn't that the one Sarapis shouted to not give up and keep at it when he died to the Pixie Queen as a newbie?

Not necessarily. Think of the opening scene from Kung Pow. Add in the helpful peasant who helps you continue your roll down the cliffside and you're all set



Orphaned at a young age, I was sent to live at the orphanage until I was 18. Nothing happened...

Is that right?

Ooo, I've got a great one.

I was orphaned as a child because it was foretold that I would kill my father and marry my mother. My parents abanonded me after sticking spikes in my feet, but I survived and was found by the king and queen of another city-state. I was raised at their son. Many years later, I was told by an oracle that I would kill my father and marry my mother. I freaked the - out and ran away from home. As I was wandering, some - in the road decided to bitch and yell at me for being in his way, so I killed him. Then I ended up in another city-state, where I fell in love with the queen and made babies. When the queen saw the scars on my feet, she recognized them and told me "OH MY GOD YOU'RE MY SON WE ABANDONED YOU BECAUSE YOU WERE GOING TO KILL YOUR FATHER AND MARRY YOUR MOTHER AND YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD AND OMG YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND O DISCORDIA!" and I was like "OMG NOOOO" and I stabbed my eyes out and then became the Messiah of the Damned.

It's like Cliff Notes but better.

Cool story, bro.

Yeah, my back story's pretty bland. Just kinda read books, and didn't talk to people.

+10 to Gorly.

What about mine, don't I get +10 for my little orphan Annie?

I was conceived by the rare force of necromantic/devotional Essence that pulses through the world and was raised as a slave with my mother in a distant land ruled by thugs. One day, a Templar came by and set me free because they could sense that I had the power to become the greatest Templar ever and bring balance back to the Essence of the world, so they conspired to set me free by entering me in an incredibly dangerous race which I managed to win against all odds. Then I fell in love with a fourteen year old girl who helped the Messiah of the Damned (blinded due to his own backstory) become Tyrannus. It turned out that Mhaldor are actually the bad guys, though, so thirteen years and one ill-thought out marriage later I defected to the Maldaathi and helped Mhaldor conquer the world.

That doesn't register as Anakin even now.

EDIT: Ashen, however... +10!

Well, the story was for little orphan annie, the red head, but I've decided that anikin is also little orphan annie

-20 to Berenenenenene.


EDIT: Uhhhm. I actually forgot what we were supposed to be discussing. Is this thread pretty much done or did it just get off track?

We're pretty much done. If the OP wants to rename it to "most hilariously unlikely backstory contest" they can go ahead and do so.

lol

but tangents aside, thanks for your help and advice

God! I thought I was being original!
I'm going to brood some more over how unoriginal my idea is.
Is there any redemption I can make? This is my first character, I'd hate for it to get any more cliché.

Any more clichés to avoid if you've already thought out some of your character's future actions?

Anything involving being attacked, raped, mistreated, enslaved, etc. by the "other side" (whichever this other side may be). I've seen way too many characters enslaved by Mhaldorians, raped by Paladins (wtf), and the like. It's even worse if the situation wouldn't even fit the rp or atmosphere of the Other Side in question, for instance above example tagged "wtf."

I agree, though given the somewhat dark atmosphere of the Shallam/Ashtan conflicts, saying you were an orphan in Shallam is sort of like the lower-middle-class, family-divorced, 1.2 siblings sort of demographic: it's a fairly safe bet.

I mean, Shallam's enrolled how many hundred of the orphans, and yet one room in the Basilica is enough to house them?

Hmm.

EDIT: obviously that would only really work in Shallam, since we know what happens to Ashtan's orphans

This was only believable with the old intro tour with the paladin that makes you climb up ladders and sleep naked in front of him >_>

I was orphaned as a child and the first thirty years, I lived a traditional life, working as a carpenter.
In my thirties, I began my public teaching and displaying of miracles, yet still never traveled more than 200 miles from my birthplace. Over a three year period, despite my efforts to keep a low profile, my reputation spread nation wide. Many began to ask who I was. My most controversial act was when I repeatedly claimed to be a Divine, which was a direct violation of my country's law. Therefore the religious leaders asked an allies government to execute me. In each of several official trials, the they found that I was not guilty of breaking any of their law. Even my countries leaders recognized that other than my claim to be a Divine, I followed my countries laws perfectly. Still the religious leaders, using the argument of political disfavor, persuaded one of their allies political leaders, to authorize an execution.

I was brutally tortured and then hung by my hands, which were nailed to a horizontal wooden beam . This method of execution restricted the airflow to my lungs, killing , me in three hours. However, I returned from the dead three days later, and over the next 40 days journeyed in both the southern and northern provinces of a holy land. To many, this was conclusive proof that my claims to be a Divine were real. Then I returned to the city where I was recently executed and according to witnesses, I left the earth alive by rising up into the sky.

As a result of these miraculous events, the number of my followers increased dramatically. Only a few months later in that same city, one record states that some 3000 new followers were added in a single day. The religious leaders responded by trying to stomp out my followers. Many of these people chose to die rather than deny their belief that I was truly a Divine.

Thank goodness I decided not to role play a "side". As far as my character goes he is supposedly a street urchin from Hashan who never knew his parents other than the fact his father was of a despised organisation.
(first RP, I didn't know how to join a bloodline)
Raised to be scholarly and observe every angle from visiting Damaris of the Academy
Leaves Hashan befor the trial of rebirth with the knack for adventure.
Joins the ancient circle of druids,
Returns to Hashan homesick,
Leaves Hashan, realizing how much it's changed since he was young
Returns to Ancient Circle
Takes a time to meditate on the Isle of Ulangi where his fellow race of the grook live.*
(I'm transfering into college with a new computer and I need to adjust as well as make sure my computer is secure for telnet)

*Please tell me this isn't a cliche way to roleplay, I tried so hard to find something my character would do to lie low for a couple months.

From here can you find any possible areas for sour spots or point out any common RP mistakes that I should try to have less of?