Forums » RP Discussion » "Normal" Backstories?

I'm going to ask for some opinions on this because I'm wondering if this will help me in the long run.
I have a lot of characters and, for the most part, they're all part of the same story. A lot of people make characters like that, so it's not as if that's completely out of the ordinary. However, because I have a whole story and web of predetermined relationships I have to take into every RP I do, I feel like that makes it hard for me to find an RP where my characters feel "in place." Because of this, I have considered writing all of them "normal" backstories in addition to their story-oriented ones. They would keep their species as well as the general feel of their character and any appearance changes would be minimal. It mainly just removes the concept of hopping between dimensions (which is very prevalent in the story I'm working on) and makes the stories easier to place in any setting.

I've seen some people do this more informally (as in they don't have a whole other story written out and instead they just toss the character in with needed changes) and I've seen other people not do it at all. I know my one friend always keeps her story intact during RPs unless we're doing some sort of AU. So, what do you guys think? A lot of my character profiles are under heavy construction anyway. Should I write out some more flexible stories for my characters, or should I just learn to be more assertive with melding my story with others for the sake of an RP?

It really depends on the story, what you want to explore, and what you hope to share. If you're looking to play around with the character concept and see how it develops when thrown into a thread with someone else, it might be good to cut loose the story-specific ties and replace them with similar but more genre-specific backgrounds.

If you really want to share your setting, or want to use a piece of plot to instigate where an RP thread goes, you might keep the background. You could AU your entire setting so that it's playable for other people.

Personally, I always keep the original version of a story out of RP, if my character has one. I don't like it when a character's sole backstory consists of what has happened in previous RP threads, as I like to have concurrent storylines going with one character that might clash if they were taken to be one universe. I also find that RP necessarily deviates away from whatever original idea I had for a character or their story because other players come up with weird, wonderful ideas. When I embrace those I often find that a character will evolve in ways that they never could have in their own situation.

I do something similar, what I do is that I give my characters room to expand beyond their backstories, (since I don't have their entire lives plotted out), while still leaving room for the other characters and relationships in their lives, however I don't leave them set in stone in case the RP doesn't really go that way.

As a rule, I try to make characters that are easy to adapt within their genre, and customize them as needed for specific tales. It's a method that works pretty well for me, and allows me to more easily reuse character if/when their stories fall apart.

With me, my backstories are more of a reference to how my characters have developed in terms of their personalities and current goals. Their present day situation is deliberately left open ended for RP. However, I'm starting to become more of a "one universe/continuity" player anyway because I've found it to be much easier for me in the long run rather than having different AUs in different timelines to keep up with. (Besides, these guys have their own story in the works, and their backstories are my reference for it anyway.)

All in all, it's up to you. If you feel like your characters' personalities and goals should be more malleable to a RP scenario, then normal backstories can work out. If you already have a set personality for your characters and the backstory gives indicators on how that personality was molded, then maybe it's a good idea to keep it as is.

If any of that makes sense, of course...