Life pre-spawn?

[Alladinsane]

I admit that I didn't search all 50 pages of topics, so please forgive my newbness if this subject has been discussed before.

Obviously I am trying to figure out if there is a line between birth and spawn. Its been 4 days in my 5 days as a member of cantr and I think a mistake of mine was pointed out subtly in character by another player. I was portraying a few hints about my past, my parents and a (so far)reason that I had to leave home in a big hurry when I was a teen. I figured that this adds a bit of depth to the character and explains some of his views on certain situations and problems etc. So far I have not been contacted by the PD or anything so I am taking the initiative here since I have a couple of other characters that I want to spawn, obviously their personalities are somewhat predetermined in my head. So...

Is it better to wait until a character is spawned and check their skills list before committing to a style (which kinda ruins some of the ways I had planned on naming them) or can we pre-ordain their personalities?

Again, sorry if this has been pre-discussed, In 7yrs I can't imagine that it would not have and perhaps I missed it in the instructions.

Be well

[Doug R.]

Is it better to wait until a character is spawned and check their skills list before committing to a style (which kinda ruins some of the ways I had planned on naming them) or can we pre-ordain their personalities?

You can do either. The question of life before spawn is a different question, though. Personally, mine appear out of thin air and have no past. As far as they are concerned, so does everyone else. Anyone saying otherwise is considered crazy.

The best resolution to this problem is if you want them to have some kind of past that dictates their personality, the act of spawning makes them forget it, like amnesia. Cantr doesn't supply any explanation as to what happens during those first 20 years, so if you don't want your preconceived notion to clash with someone else's preconceived notion, it's best to just not mention it.

[Piscator]

As far as I'm concerned newspawns are made in an underground spawn factory and teleported aboveground when finished.

Background stories are usually discuraged (because they don't fit into the game world 99% of the time), but I doubt anyone will give you more than a frown in front of their screen if you choose to have one.

[SumBum]

There's a difference between having a past and having a personality. Some of mine I spawn with a personality in mind, others I spawn as a complete blank....and some I have an idea of a personality then when they spawn they take on their own anyway. Everyone's play style is different when it comes to developing personalities.

As far as pasts are concerned... I think the general consensus is that they can be pulled off if done subtly. Most chars will be skeptical if someone just appears out of thin air and starts spouting off about how they lost their mom - there are some families (beyond couples) in Cantr, but they all come about via adoption. I generally avoid having any specific pasts for my chars because they are hard to fit in and pull off with other chars.

Some probably won't like me suggesting this, but you could always leave the town you're spawned in and when you arrive in the next town they won't know your past so you can pretty much make up anything you want (within reason) from that point on.

[SekoETC]

If you subtly slip mentions of parents into conversations, people might not call you nuts, although there are many who'd say "I don't know what mother/father/parents mean", while if you say something like "I'm a princess but I got kidnapped by my evil usurping uncle" or "oh no, who stole my spaceship?!" you're more likely to be assumed nuts, but it can also make life more interesting. It's best to have neutral stories that won't for example send others hunting for imaginary robbers or kidnappers. Half of my first dozen characters had some sort of a pre-spawn story and I think those also had more colorful personalities than the ones that didn't.

[Alladinsane]

thanks everyone who answered...I could see someone could play that they were hunting/seeking an imaginary person the same as if they were chasing a hidden treasure/trove of hematite etc. It obvious that they could not find their goal unless it was something installed into the mileau (sp?) by the programmers. By the same line of thought, it seems that someone could be pursued (whether real or in their imagination) by some spectre from the past. Possibly the 'boogey-man' or (in the case I was playin) the father of an impregnated teen girlfriend...not sure what he wanted, blood or parental commitment, I didn't play it that far and it obviously was only for character depth, though it would be funny if someone showed up deciding to be that character (probably a CR violation unless possibly played very carefully).

I just thought it could add some humorous by-lines during those times when everyone but you and 1-2 other players is perpetually sleepy. Moving somewhere else is not really an option with this primary character as he has gotten involved in some stuff already, but I am considering it with the other.

Again, thanks for the comments. I am not sure if I got a definitive answer due to a diversity of opinion, so I will probably just drop (but where did he get that foreign/odd accent???) it.

Be well

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Yea, I think there's a general consensus OOG that there's not really anything before spawning. But that doesn't mean that something simple and subtle wouldn't work or that characters don't come up with ideas about what spawning is or what might have happened before. Like Seko said, if they're neutral and don't send people after imaginary people that don't exist, it should be fine.

I guess you can think of it as:

Mama and Daddy's farm in Ohio doesn't exist in Cantr's world because Ohio doesn't exist there. So while you can pull off the semblance of an Ohio farmboy's personality quite well within Cantr, you can't really say you can make it back to Mama and Daddy's farm someday to help milk cows or anything as their farm doesn't exist and to milk cows, you have to kill them. Or you couldn't tell the lovely girl you just met that you're going to take her home to meet your parents on their farm. Etc.

Few will begrudge an allusion to some sort of past and as SumBum said, many characters might just act skeptically.

One thing you could do for your own benefit, if like Seko said, something of a background gives you a more vibrant personality and connection to your character, is to make up a simple background for yourself, just to help you imagine how they would act and achieve their goals within the structure of Cantr. You wouldn't need to relay it to others to portray the personality you're going for, but you'd have it as a reference for yourself.

Cantr is more like an open notebook. You start somewhere and as your character lives and grows, it builds a history and background within the structure of the world presented.

Oh, and as far as humorous by-lines, go for them! If they don't seem like they'd quite fit in Cantr as they do in the real world, then figure out a way to adapt them.

[HFrance]

What is strange and fun, is that the lack of personal history before the spawning also involves the lack of any previous affinity between the character and the community. This reminds me of the times I entered as an trainee in a government office.

[theguy]

Ok, Now im confused

viewtopic.php?t=3391

Reading this here is seems to suggest that before it used to be even against the rules to refer to something in your characters history before spawning however on a quick skim though that quote in the first reply is no longer in the introduction.

So what changed?

Also personally I don't give my characters any back story at all, I prefer it some are spawned with more personality than others but I tend to prefer having their personality shaped by things that I actually roleplayed in their life.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

I think it's a minor enough thing that most of the time people would rather let it slip rather than report it. There are far more important things to be taking care of than nit-picking at someone mentioning some sort of past unless it gets out of hand or something. Most people don't even mention a past before they spawn or they just describe what they might have experienced in the spawning process.

[SumBum]

The accent thing is a difficulty. I've created chars who spoke a certain way based on their personality and no one else in their town had accents. I've also had a "non-accent" char in a town where several others had a particular way of speaking. It does seem to me that a char should speak the way others in their town do, but there's no way of knowing how a group of people speak when you spawn in the area. Most players roll with it, others are not so nice (and I say players because I believe it is often OOCly done rather than the char itself picking at the way another speaks).

Anyway, I tend to think of a char's past more along the lines of how their personality was shaped, not a specific event or storyline. The trick is to not be outrageous about things and make it easy enough for others to play along.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

I always enjoy seeing accents just because it's different. I had one with an accent once and someone asked if something was wrong with her tongue...

I guess I see how people wouldn't like them, but I dunno. I think it adds something. It's really hard to know if an accent would be acceptable or common where you spawn unless you sit there waiting for someone else to speak. It is cool to see an accent amongst a group of people instead of just one person alone.

[Doug R.]

Ok, Now im confused
viewtopic.php?t=3391

I miss The Sociologist.

Sorry, now I'm off-topic.

Accents add character and flavor, and I think people think of them the same as characters that are mute, blind, etc. Something happened to this person when they spawned, and now they're blind, deaf, or talk funny. If they're talking about being abused by their dad in their teens, then they spawned crazy. I think the PD has gotten away from coming down on this kind of stuff, and justly so. It's easily handled in-character. At the most, I think that if a character was reported to PD for having a pre-spawn history, they'd be guided to threads like this to be educated on the issue.

Now, role-playing an 8-armed titan is completely different...

[AlchemicRaker]

Now, role-playing an 8-armed titan is completely different...

...
crap.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Now, role-playing an 8-armed titan is completely different...

...
crap.

So that was YOU!