Pre made Characters

[gejyspa]

Let them martyr my character. My characters welcome it, because they know the truth, and the rest of the world is too blind to see what's in front of their very eyes, and are deluded into thinking a twenty year old pops into existence.

Pfft. Such screwed up priorities. Clearly the outlook of an insane person.

And if your character has really been around for twenty years, then why is there nothing in their event log?

Touché, although I don't believe that the event log is an IG thing, either. But if your character believes it to be such, my character certainly won't call them crazy, my character will just assume they have a photographic memory.

[Snickie]

This discussion reminds me of a quote I'd seen not long ago when perusing the forums, and I just spent half an hour looking for it again.

Bottoms up.

2591-6.35: Jane says: "*Smiles* Hi. Im Jane."

2591-6.25: A man in his twenties says: "*He walks menacingly towards the woman and speaks in a distorted voice* I am Entity."

2591-6.22: You see some corn being pulled from the central area of unnamed location to The Good House. (a woman in her thirties)

2591-6.01: A man in his twenties says: "*A meteor slams into the ground and a creature seemingly comprised of flame emerges from the smoke*"

2591-6.01: You notice a man in his twenties whom you haven`t seen before.

[mojomuppet]

It has nothing to do with the laws of nature. It has to do with the laws of mathematics. Let me put to you, my friend "twenty years old" measured from... WHAT??

A character can also hold several shields and weapons at the same time, be able to work, fight, drag, and yes even drive while doing this. Capable of holding liquids and mass amounts of small objects like stone without containers. They can work non-stop for their whole lives if they want and be healed by an onion. So whats your point?

Oh and can kill a large animal with it's bare fist!

[gejyspa]

It has nothing to do with the laws of nature. It has to do with the laws of mathematics. Let me put to you, my friend "twenty years old" measured from... WHAT??

A character can also hold several shields and weapons at the same time, be able to work, fight, drag, and yes even drive while doing this. Capable of holding liquids and mass amounts of small objects like stone without containers. They can work non-stop for their whole lives if they want and be healed by an onion. So whats your point?

Oh and can kill a large animal with it's bare fist!

Ah, but those are physcis and biology. I can much more easily imagine a world where those things work, or even our own world, were our physiology different (ants can lift many times their body weight, a many-limbed creature could certainly manipulate many things). Onions? Well, chocolate makes us feel good, but kills dogs. Why not a creature that can be healed by onions?

I can imagine a world where the oceans are made of melted ice cream. I can even imagine a universe where the gravitational constant (big G) is different. That is fundamentally different than imagining a universe where 1+1=3. (Now, if you wanted to say that a cantrian at spawn is physiologically similar to someone who would be twenty years old (by some outside-cantr measurement???) I haven't a problem with that. But to say they ARE 20 years old? Well, that has to be measured from something twenty years in the past.

[Doug R.]

My point was that, despite Doug's long-lived decrial of backstories,

Um, where's my post? I spent a considerable amount of time writing it, and now it's gone. No moderator logs, nothing. If you deleted it, please contact me with an explanation.

[mojomuppet]

*you see a man spawn physiologically similar to someone who would be twenty years old*

Happy now?

[Doug R.]

there is absolutely nothing written in DA RULEZ that says "you can't",

It's called the Capital Rule - your character only has knowledge from the wiki and what they personally experience in game.
A backstory is a fabrication by the player and passing it along to the character is an OOC influence and therefore a violation. In my humble opinion.

[CrashBlizz]

there is absolutely nothing written in DA RULEZ that says "you can't",

It's called the Capital Rule - your character only has knowledge from the wiki and what they personally experience in game.
A backstory is a fabrication by the player and passing it along to the character is an OOC influence and therefore a violation. In my humble opinion.

Agreed. Live with what ya got, not what what ya want.

[gejyspa]

there is absolutely nothing written in DA RULEZ that says "you can't",

It's called the Capital Rule - your character only has knowledge from the wiki and what they personally experience in game.
A backstory is a fabrication by the player and passing it along to the character is an OOC influence and therefore a violation. In my humble opinion.

With all due respect, I think you are overexpanding the CR (of course, I can't quote DA RULEZ at you, with cantr.net blacklisted, but....) I agree that I can't use player knowledge of other places or characters or history in/of the cantr world in forming a backstory, but that does NOT preclude forming a backstory that uses none of those. (Perfect example, my first character had a backstroy despite my PLAYER knowing none of the above, so it clearly can't be a CRB). I also fully agree that using real world concepts IG is not allowed (it really irks me when people cut and paste from event logs, or sing real world songs, for example). Further, I also agree that pretending to have something that could exist IG, but is not, in fact, in possession of my character (e.g. "magic gloves") would, while not being a CRB, rightly characterize my character as deluded/insane. But I don't see how saying "I grew up in a small farming village far away from here, and my dad was killed by a rampaging ram, and that's why I'm deathly afraid of wool products" can be a CRB.

I'm sorry, but as both an actor and a RPGer, I can't NOT have backstory to give texture to a character.

[Doug R.]

I'm sorry, but as both an actor and a RPGer, I can't NOT have backstory to give texture to a character.

That's all well and good. The problem comes in when you tell someone else. Let's take your example. You can have it both ways. Say it did happen to the character before they spawned (in pre-spawn land), but then they forget about it upon spawning (like they forget everything else). Your character now has an irrational fear of wool, but doesn't know why. This, in my opinion, is both acceptable and much more interesting.

[mojomuppet]

This could cause someone to say what town was that, pulling out a map and wanting to go there. Then try saying some name of a town that no one can find on a map. Now there is a town introduced that doesn't exist, what happens then to a mapmaker? Mapmaker now says take me there so I can put it on my map. You cant be from another island since you dont own a boat. What if everyone did this? How about instead. Have a really bad dream about the town you are in being attacked by a wool wearing animal (do we have rams?) and then be scared of wool products. Or what Doug said.

[Doug R.]

Ultimately, while everyone has their own interpretation of the CR, it's the GAB and Players Department that act as the interpretive authorities regarding what is allowed and what is not. They're the Supreme Court, you can say. There's nothing about a 4-day rule in the CR, but we have one. There's nothing that says you can't use both of your characters to attack another if it's in both of their best interests, but it's still not allowed. Practical considerations will always trump philosophical arguments. After all, we have a game to run and keep fair.

[Abe]

In my opinion Cantr should be the story that shapes your characters. If your whole bone club wielding hide wearing settlement is slaughtered by men in wool shirts and your character gets away by the skin of his teeth, he's got a good reason to be afraid when he sees another wool shirt.
But why so keen about getting afraid of wool when spawning? What "texture" does that give to a character? I hate mushrooms but I don't have any backstory to explain it.
I know it was just a stupid example, but what I really can't understand is why a new character needs "texture". I imagine newspawns as a 15 year old people whose world view is yet to be constructed.

[gejyspa]

In my opinion Cantr should be the story that shapes your characters. If your whole bone club wielding hide wearing settlement is slaughtered by men in wool shirts and your character gets away by the skin of his teeth, he's got a good reason to be afraid when he sees another wool shirt.
But why so keen about getting afraid of wool when spawning? What "texture" does that give to a character? I hate mushrooms but I don't have any backstory to explain it.
I know it was just a stupid example, but what I really can't understand is why a new character needs "texture". I imagine newspawns as a 15 year old people whose world view is yet to be constructed.

Precisely BECAUSE they are NOT newborns, but 20 year old "newspawns", whatever the heck THAT means. If we started in cantr as infants, I would have zero backstory.

[gejyspa]

Ultimately, while everyone has their own interpretation of the CR, it's the GAB and Players Department that act as the interpretive authorities regarding what is allowed and what is not. They're the Supreme Court, you can say. There's nothing about a 4-day rule in the CR, but we have one. There's nothing that says you can't use both of your characters to attack another if it's in both of their best interests, but it's still not allowed. Practical considerations will always trump philosophical arguments. After all, we have a game to run and keep fair.

Actually, precisely both of those ARE what's mentioned as being illegal in the CR (at least according to the wiki. It's pretty much DEFINED as being "transferring knowledge from one of your characters to another in an OOCly manner, or having two of your characters act in concert for longer than is absolutely necessary to get them apart" The whole expansion of it to other things are NOT things that are written down in the definition.