Behind the Mask: A roleplayer's calling card
Roleplaying is kind of a big deal for a lot of people in Champions Online. The community members are a pretty intense crowd and they take their in-character exploits pretty seriously. Getting involved with RP has very little to do with gamer skill. Integrating yourself into an RP clique is mostly about social maneuvering and just being a little extroverted.
I've already gone over some of the best ways to get involved in an RP circle, but this week I'm going to hit a very narrow point: the art of bio writing. A bio isn't the most important thing when getting to know new RPers, but it sure helps. Having a well-written bio for your character draws people to you without any spoken words. You still usually have to make the first move, but a good bio lets people know what to expect.
Sometimes a good bio can even draw people to start up random conversations with you. Ever get tells saying how cool your bio is? After we're done here, you will!
Remove the elitist stuff
Elitism is sort of my worst enemy (ironic, being a competitive gamer). Any sort of exclusivity or hate text can really only hurt you, especially if it's at the top of your bio. The top of your bio is extremely important advertising space. Don't clutter it up with all the kinds of things you don't want to RP with.
The first reason you should keep that kind of stuff out of your bio is because it makes you look unapproachable. A [No Retards] or [Correct Grammar Only] tag may be amusing to your friends, but it only distances you from people who might think you are an elitist. Other people don't know what your standards are. Don't be lazy; filter out people you don't want to RP with manually rather than risk losing the opportunity to meet cool people.
The other very important reason is that it makes you more susceptible to trolling. If you put what you don't like right in your bio, griefers will come knocking. People with a huge list of things they don't like are most likely more sensitive about being griefed. You may think griefers don't read bios, but you'd be mistaken.
There is a very real need for one particular comment though. If you're not interested in adult-oriented roleplaying, you may want to include a [No ERP] tag at the bottom of your bio. Generally, in my experience this does not really work for really desperate people (and the ones who are not desperate tend to realize you're not interested).
Avoid godmodding
There are other elitist things you should avoid. In a world of superheroes, mind-reading is a rather common power. I would wager a guess that half of the people who wander into Club Caprice are immune or resistant to telepathy (even though such a thing is impossible in gameplay mechanics). If possible, avoid this. A mind-reading character is automatically limited by the information you give him, so don't worry about his being too invasive.
Characters that know too much or are too powerful are generally not interesting and often tend to radiate a god complex about their players. Don't let that be you. A character's bio should emphasize strengths. If those take up over a few hundred characters, either you're too wordy (see below) or your character is probably overpowered (at least in RP). Remember to take your character's gameplay abilities into account. There's no reason a Might character should be able to conjure random objects with magic, for instance.
The overall rule of thumb is to never have something in your bio that invalidates someone else's character. Technically speaking, an Invulnerable hero is still vulnerable to bullets; they just don't hurt a whole lot (unless they're sniper rifle bullets). Keep that in mind!
Get to the point
The first paragraph or two of your bio should answer the following question: "Who is your character, and why do I care?" The last part is implicit; you need to include interesting elements of your character early on in order to get your reader to care to read the rest of your bio (and more importantly, strike up a conversation with you).
The emphasis on paragraphs is also important. Use proper line breaks and don't create a giant wall of text. Walls of text are hard to read, and our eyes naturally glaze over them and miss all your detailed prose. Hit the enter key a few times and clean up the stuff that isn't as important.
Remember, your bio is an advertisement for you, not your whole backstory. You want people to learn about you from roleplaying, not from reading your bio. I'm admittedly kind of guilty of this (I have several bios hovering around 2000 characters), but the real key is getting the potential reader's attention and grabbing his or her interest. You should fill up the space if you can, but try to keep it relevant.
Have someone to nitpick everything you write
Editing is absolutely critical to a good bio. Having friends look over it is great. I tend to open my bio while I'm idling and reread it, editing any awkward phrasing or rewording parts that don't flow right. It does take a little more time, especially if you're really outgoing. However, a little editing really does pay off.
The most important thing you can have is critical friends. A look-over does you no good if people don't find something wrong with it. If a friend tells you that your bio looks perfect, he may not be the best editing choice. Find someone who is into really detailed backstories and have him nitpick away. The same person can help you with character designs and concepts, so you avoid some of the pitfalls we've talked about earlier.
If you don't have any critical friends, you might want to post it up somewhere like CORP, where people will be more than happy to critique it for you.
It's not stealing; it's inspiration
Lastly, I advise looking at other peoples' work, especially professionally done character bios that you find interesting. You're not looking to copy the bio itself; what you're looking for is phrasing. Sometimes you'll find a much better way to express a particular character trait in words or maybe just learn some new adjectives or adverbs that perfectly describe your character. Don't let these gems of the English language go to waste!
If you're really starved for inspiration and you own some console games, the instruction manuals have tons of material you can use. Game fansites (or even comic, TV and movie fansites) often have detailed character descriptions with plenty of different phrasing options for you to use. There's an endless number of character descriptions on the Internet, waiting for you to come by and use them.
It's not plagiarism -- you're not stealing the bio, just specific words and phrasings that fit for you. In general, I don't actively hunt for these, but I often notice when someone uses phrases in a particularly creative way.
I think that, above all else, getting a second opinion and observing other people are the most important things you can do. Don't expect everything you write to be a masterpiece; you need others to clean and polish your bio before it really stands out.
When he's not touring the streets of Millennium City or rolling mooks in Vibora Bay, Patrick Mackey goes Behind the Mask to bring you the nitty-gritty of the superhero world every Thursday. Whether it's expert analysis of Champions Online's game mechanics or his chronicled hatred of roleplaying vampires, Patrick holds nothing back.
