BIOGRAPHY request.

[Only He Stands There]

Could it be possible to, perhaps, rearrange biography entries in the future? I like to fill out Bio entries on numerous things: snippets of my character's past, snippets of my character's quirks, snippets of what my character thinks about x place/clan/person... and I'd like to sort those into individual categories.

What can I say? I have OCD.

[Yokunama]

I seconded!

[psionic fungus]

Don't you guys have word processors?  The biography command is -not- to be used for note taking.  It is supposed to be historical information about your character.  Keep notes in a text file, and when you're ready to write a proper biography entry, make sure it is chronologically correct.  Seems easy enough.

Entries made into a character's biography must conform to the same standards and style of a background.

...

Be advised that this is not to be used as a personal diary, blog or notepad.  This is not an electronic sticky pad to jot down ideas, thoughts, or things to remember.  A good rule of thumb is to write entries where your intended audience is expecting to read and be enlightened by the story of your character's life.

[Only He Stands There]

Except chronologically isn't always the best way to sort things.

As I said before, I like to make a variety of styles for my biography entires: what my character thinks about certain events, people, races, places, et cetera, as well as the standard "here's what happened last month" style entry. I'd prefer to be able to put all of my "what my character thinks about X person" entries together, and then "what my character thinks about Y group" entries together, and then "what my character's quirks are and why he has them" entries, and then, chronologically "stuff that's happened to my character."

In no way am I using Bio as a notepad. I'm using it as a developmental playground for my PC, and I'd rather the admins be privvy to the information as well, rather than it sit in my wordpad file.

[Marauder Moe]

What, do you like... edit your bio entries?

[Only He Stands There]

What, do you like... edit your bio entries?

Err... no? As far as I'm aware, "editing" bio entries is not something that's to be done.

[Coat of Arms]

I think all the guy wants is to be able to re-arrange the order of his bio entries.

[mansa]

_I_ don't have a word processor.

[Fathi]

Don't you guys have word processors?  The biography command is -not- to be used for note taking.  It is supposed to be historical information about your character.  Keep notes in a text file, and when you're ready to write a proper biography entry, make sure it is chronologically correct.  Seems easy enough.

Entries made into a character's biography must conform to the same standards and style of a background.

...

Be advised that this is not to be used as a personal diary, blog or notepad.  This is not an electronic sticky pad to jot down ideas, thoughts, or things to remember.  A good rule of thumb is to write entries where your intended audience is expecting to read and be enlightened by the story of your character's life.

I see "taking notes" as people using bio entries for things like: "Here's a list of my current employees, here's a list of orders for that noble, oh and OOC: Remember to meet the Faithful Lady at 7PM next Tuesday."

Regarding the part I bolded, I fail to see how an entry detailing some sort of event and how it's changed your character's perceptions on something, or entries explaining your character's psychological motivations, could be seen as something that wouldn't entertain, enlighten, and inform a prospective audience.

And even if it isn't terribly enlightening to anyone but yourself and/or your clan imms that check in on you, it certainly doesn't constitute "just taking notes."

[Tisiphone]

Funny story behind this.

[Only He Stands There]

Hey, you know what would be cool? If we stopped trying to cut each other off at the knees whenever we get a chance.

Yeah, that'd be nice.

... I really don't see where anyone did that in this thread. Perhaps you're reading things in a different tone than they're intended? All the comments so far have been either constructive, legitimate questions/concerns, or brief off-topic comments.

Back to the matter at hand: yes, exactly, what Coat of Arms said.

[Tisiphone]

Yeah, mispost, due to some interesting dynamics with a hung wireless card. I'll delete the post now.

[psionic fungus]

I like to make a variety of styles for my biography entires: what my character thinks about certain events, people, races, places, et cetera, as well as the standard "here's what happened last month" style entry. I'd prefer to be able to put all of my "what my character thinks about X person" entries together, and then "what my character thinks about Y group" entries together, and then "what my character's quirks are and why he has them" entries, and then, chronologically "stuff that's happened to my character."

Aren't your "character's quirks and why he has them" a part of "stuff that's happened to my character"?

My real question is this: Does an entry like "What my Character thinks about Kurac" fit the guidelines for a biography entry?

Entries made into a character's biography must conform to the same standards and style

of a background.

If so, when you update these entries, do you add to or replace the information? I would be disappointed to see historical BIOGRAPHICAL information disappear from a BIOGRAPHY simply because the character's thoughts or alliances changed. If each of these entries is simply continually added to, it seems like they are each miniature biographies, with their own chronological order.

I fail to see how an entry detailing some sort of event and how it's changed your character's perceptions on something, or entries explaining your character's psychological motivations, could be seen as something that wouldn't entertain, enlighten, and inform a prospective audience.

And even if it isn't terribly enlightening to anyone but yourself and/or your clan imms that check in on you, it certainly doesn't constitute "just taking notes."

Agreed.  Detailing of events and how a character feels or reacts to those events is most certainly BIOGRAPHICAL, whether entertaining or not. Also, keep in mind that biographies may not be solely accessed by the staff.

I'm using it as a developmental playground for my PC, and I'd rather the admins be privvy to the information as well, rather than it sit in my wordpad file.

My only issue is if this 'developmental playground' does not "conform to the same standards and style of a background ". My fear is that this type of use promotes constantly updating "What My Character Thinks about Kurac" like a set of notes, with no BIOGRAPHICAL record of the evolution of the relationship left behind. It is the style of note-taking, not biographies, to group information by category rather than chronology. Rather than one entry with a simplistic matter-of-fact title that has been updated six times with developmental... notes... I would vastly prefer a half dozen entries with descriptive titles, scattered throughout the chronologically arranged history of the character.

All that said, I think that reordering entries could be useful, for properly placing historical entries, if nothing else. However, as it is, it only takes a modicum of creativity to write a 'current' entry about any past event you want to detail. Sorry about the noise, I just have some serious reservations about BIOGRAPHIES that read like exam notes.

[psionic fungus]

So... I see that editing/updating of "What My Character Feels About Kurac" isn't done?  Do you use entries like "What My Character Feels About Kurac, Part Two" or "What My Character REALLY Feels About Kurac NOW" to update changes with your character?

I just don't understand why someone would prefer

Code Select Expand


Biography entries [5]:
1 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] Initial Background
2 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] What I Feel About Kurac
3 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] What I Feel About Kurac, Part Two
4 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] What I Feel About Allanak
5 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] Bandits on the North Road


over

Code Select Expand


Biography entries [5]:
1 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] Initial Background
2 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] Running Spice with Kurac
3 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] Exiled from Allanak
4 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] Bandits on the North Road
5 : [Sun Jan 01 00:00:01 2000] Betrayed by Kuraci Dogs


[Fathi]

I just don't understand why someone would prefer

That's all it comes down to in the end. Some people's thought processes work differently from others; some people prefer to do their bio entries a certain way.

[spawnloser]

I understand wanting to be able to rearrange the order for your own purposes... but I think that it will serve the staff that reads our biography entries better to get them in chronological order.  The reason I think this is because getting them in this fashion allows them to see the timeline and order of events that have been detailed for better understanding of the character now.

The only other reason I could see to rearrange would be because people are using it like notepad.  You're not supposed to do this.

_I_ don't have a word processor.

Get a google account as use their web-based word processor.  That or buy an actual pad of paper.  I have no sympathy.  Gmail is free, once you're connected to the internet, and a pad of paper can be damn cheap.  If you're saying this just to be an ass, that has been noted too.

So... I see that editing/updating of "What My Character Feels About Kurac" isn't done?  Do you use entries like "What My Character Feels About Kurac, Part Two" or "What My Character REALLY Feels About Kurac NOW" to update changes with your character?

I actually think that editting your bio entries isn't right.  It doesn't show the progression and growth of the character.  A staff member could come along and see what you were doing, but not see you for a while and then see some major change, say from love to hate, but not know anything other than what is NOW in the bio entry.  I would prefer to see something more like your second example, where you show why you love Kurac... and then later show what they did different later that has caused you to hate Kurac now.