Different types of beginnings?

SunnyBunny

Hi - so I am getting into Roleplay slowly but surely. Currently I am writing back stories for my characters and have been reading a LOT of what other people have written.
It seems to me a lot of people have the same type of back stories going - they are merchants or mercenaries etc, etc. Has anyone deviated from this and started their stories a different way? I'm pretty much just looking for different options. Or maybe just validating what I already have in mind.

Thank you in advance for any responses ^_^

Eirikir

A good story has to reach many people. Stories can do that well while rp is harder for that. In a story you only have to interact with yourself, so the story is able to go to places that would be out of bounds for roleplayers. This is because when you rp with others you have to respect their character as much as your own. While a story is free of such considerations.


As for origins, TES universe is the best franchise out there for varied origins. An example is a Knight. In most game universes there are knights, usually some group in some city and thats it. So a knight's origin is that they are of that order or were of that order and that's your options. But in TES there are dozens of options due in part to the major love given to the series lore. You can be a noble dark elf lord, a breton of any number of orders, a follower of Stendarr' Order in Cyrodiil, really anyway you would like.


So while there are a few archtypes in games like this, TES gives you the lore flexibility to get creative with your origin. If you would like a good source of lore to help you set up good stories try the Imperial Library.

http://www.imperial-library.info/

It has every ingame lorebook from every game as well as lore talks and AMAs frove devs of all the games. A great source of background info and a good place to get ideas also.


All that aside, to your question on deviating from standard story builds, yes, I do it all the time.

SunnyBunny

@Eirikur thank you I was all over the Imperial library yesterday reading, which actually did spark a back story that made sense., or rather justified an idea I have been trying to work out.
I'm a lot more familiar with story writing then RPing (it's been a LONG time since I've done it to be honest). For some reason I was worried that what I was thinking was so very wrong - but i'll just keep going with it.

Thank you

Totalitarian

By no means are you constrained to starting a story with your character being a mercenary or a merchant.

For example, my main's beginning started out when she ran away from home. She lived with her parents, and could barely be considered an adult.

If you feel like you're up for the long read, the link's in my signature.

Eirikir

You bet. Good luck.

SunnyBunny

@Totalitarian I have to admit I did read through your story on uhh Monday I think it was. I enjoyed it very much (yeah I'm that type of player, got to read EVERYTHING).

@Eirikir Thanks - I can now try and wrangle these scribbles I have going on to something a bit more understandable