RWBYFanon v5
RPG Creations => AMA Section => Topic started by: Vision on November 25, 2018, 12:00:05 PM
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All my threads have halted a bit (may need to join another one soon) and I had a question that has been jumping around in my brain since the recent voice chat. Whilst I don't like my characters to have a massively tragic backstory I do realize that I do want them to have something I can play off of to give them some personality flaws. For example, Diana is essentially afraid of her own semblance, which over time has given her a really poor view of herself. So rather than a tragic backstory, I try to have characters that have lived pretty well but have some personal emotional trauma.
So the question is: when you're writing a character's backstory what do you try to achieve with that story?
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My primary motive for writing backstories is to give purpose behind my characters’ actions. For instance, Smokey wants to hunt big Grimm so he can collect bounties and pay off his father’s contract. Essentially, it should be a beginning point for a character arc.
In general, though, I feel backstories are somewhat overrated in RPGs like this. The most interesting part of any given character’s story is the part that takes place during play. That’s my opinion, at least.
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It depends on the character. For Cerulean I wanted the most standard backstory ever after Rust was so edgey. But for the most part I have a personality in mind and then think up a backstory that would cause a person to behave that way.
Using Rust as an example again I knew I wanted an unapologetically violent character to act as a villain for others so I gave him a backstory in which he used extreme violence as a way to be left alone.
That said for a lot of characters I come up with a weapon first, which due to weapons being an extension of the user I ask myself "What kind of person would use this weapon?" and then I come up with a backstory that would lead someone to behave in that manner.
Then there is Gray, who is just my negative traits from when I was younger amplified.
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I just try to make it work with the present character.
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A strong foundation for the rest of the character, compelling character motivation for plot development and out of character interest in seeing their arc completed.
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Themes, motivation, depth, and consistency.
Though not all my characters possess solid factors in all of these (I seriously need to rewrite some of this crap) I do believe they hold a lot of importance.
RWBY, though not needed on site, has a lot of theme based stuff canonically with their characters, even if it's not all too obvious at first. Though that doesn't mean they can't stray from it. Cookie cutter protagonists feel generic on paper so throwing something new here and there help spice things up.
Motivation plays a lot in determining how a character would turn out in the long run. What happens if their motivation is challenged? What happens if they lose that motivation? Do they lose their drive? Or do they go through the fire and temper themselves into a stronger person?
Depth. Self explanatory. Having a fighter be good because they're good is boring. Having them be good because they trained to attain a certain goal or hope to attain one is more interesting. Having a fighter train to be good because they feel self-loathing because they feel powerless in the face of all those skilled people around them and to prove they're not just comic relief in the eyes of the audience. Well that's Jaune. And that's not bad at all. On paper at least.
Consistency. At least flow-wise. Writing how cool they are in one sentence then jumping straight to how they're quiet and shy is jarring. Giving the character a certain speech pattern or tendency or a neat quirk is interesting, if they don't overdo it at least.