[warning: post may contain humour]

Evil Elitest Suggestion: Char has blank/bioware bio? Char is 'unremarkable commoner'; therefore all stats set to 10 to represent.
Alternative Option: DM can write your bio for you at discretion (probably unflatteringly) "Here is an annoying little hin/retarded musclehead half orc/pasty faced human" and so on

Also: If "[RP]" or similar is all that is found in the bio window; instant kill on server entry

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Lady Astor to Winston Churchill in a matronly tone: "Winston, you're drunk!" Churchill: "Yes, Madame, I am drunk, but you are ugly, and in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly."

It's only trivial up until if they had said something from their bio out loud and you choose to pass it off. What distinction can you make between a person RPing ICly *wears a blindfold over his eyes* versus the same person saying in their bio "This relatively beautiful elf wears a blindfold over his eyes"? No, it's not as active a denial of Roleplay, no one knows if you read it or not unless you tell them. But not reading someone's bio over something as silly as word choice makes about as much since as no longer listening to someone because they "* *" the word beautiful too.

I guess what I'm getting at is if you decide not to read someone's bio, at least do it for a better reason than "they said a word I don't like." Does it sound any sillier when paraphrased? I don't know, perhaps I am a little upset, but not at you in particular, just that I've seen this sentiment expressed before, and I really think it is toxic to the playerbase, especially new arrivals. When I made my first and oldest PC here, his bio was as cliched and mary-sued and immersion breaking as anything. But you know what? I saw other people's bio's, and I had people comment that they liked my bio(they read it) and they suggested more IC ways of saying the things I wished to. And now he is probably the most developed PC I've ever had. That would not happen in a place where no one bothered to read my bio because he had "flowing locks and handsome looks." It may seem trivial to you, but it can be anything but to the people we're trying to attract.

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I... usually don't go for particularly descriptive bios. Mostly because I'm never entirely sure how my characters are going to turn out at character creation (and also, I am bad at thinking up distinctive looks). Usually I'll just write some basic, ambiguous things, like the mixed traits of a halfbreed, or the smell of a planetouched, etc., and let WYSIWYG and IC-descriptions do the rest. Personally, I'm not a big fan of bio descriptions of things like attitude or clothing (unless it's something characteristic, like an eyepatch, or that harlequin whose name I can't recall who went everywhere with only one boot). My halfdrow is going to look fairly different depending on whether she's visiting Kampo's or passing through Kohlingen (especially after that time she got thrown out for being snippy at a paladin).

There's also the matter of how much text you can reasonably expect others to read quickly. When I encounter new characters with big bios, I'll just skim them to find the information my character could reasonably know from the situation at hand, and then get back to the RP as quickly as possible. I might read it more thoroughly if there's a pause (like if they go AFK or they need to rest or something), but otherwise I'm not very fond of just standing there in meta-stasis in order to read someone's life story when I have no business knowing that ICly.

*edited the last sentence to clarify slightly*

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Currently playing:
Aven Brinyflask
Safaya Dalai
Riyit
Chsera Hile

(Credits to Raua for the sprite, sauce -here-.)

I'm probably the lasiest person on the server when it comes to my own bio's.

I skim other people's here and there, usually when I first meet them, or when I catch them in completly different clothing / gear to make sure they're not intentionally disguising themselves. Other times when I remember there was something odd in there I want to address.

Mostly for myself I just go with a "you see what you see" attitude and emote any signifigant details on a case by case basis. Anything I'm not showing on the character model is more or less a case by case, thing. I've found most people don't constantly read bio's to check for updates anyway.

Thankfully my character's in game model is close enough for government inspection to what he really looks like and robes or a tabbard can cover a lot of sins.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

Wow!

I am a little surprised how my little post seems to have touched a cord with some folk (in either a good way or bad way but touched in either case )

Far to much to reply to individually with quotes etc. so I will try to limit myself to a few bullet points by way of replying.

1.) I am not saying nor have ever said reading and creating bio's should be a server rule.

2.) I am suggesting that using the bio as the handy little RP tool it is should maybe become part of our server culture and I don't for a minute think its over the top to expect every player on this server to be expected to constantly strive to improve their game and that of others, by this I mean become better RP'ers. I know for a fact I am better now than I was when I first joined and I hope to continue getting better the more I interact with other good people.

3.) I do not consider a visual snap shot of general physiological characteristics to be OOC information, I can't think of anything more IC...its not a census document its not a medical check up report it doesn't have to state minute detail about irrelevant things. But to give me some fundamental details of what my character sees when she looks at your character this helps me (and some others) get a feel for that character before even the first dialogue.

4.) I firmly feel that we as a server community need to stop tearing things apart using extreme examples, lets keep all those anecdotes inside plausible instances of what can happen in game sprinkled with a little of what we have directly and regularly experienced. A decent short bio will not break the server, it doesn't need to be eligible for a Pulitzer prize it just has to be relevant and in character.

5.) I am so pleased that I am not alone in thinking Yoss is a twa....*coughs*...I mean, thinking that bio's can & should be used more proactively in helping RP server wide.

This post is not about a wrong or right way to do anything, I just hope folks can take something positive away from this, I will say this as a final thought. Amia is an RP server so anyone here not feeling the RP or not really bothering with RP stuff is maybe missing out on a lot, or maybe on the wrong server.

I know that Amia isn't like certain other more ~hardcore~ RP servers, but when all is said and done its still about getting stuck into creating interesting RP about being involved in interesting RP and so on.

But ultimately if a player isn't remotely giving a crap about RP then grind away at your hack and slash and do not involve yourself with RP'er with silly blurb RP completely ignoring the IC information made avaliable by those who do give a crap.

Some of the responders here have made me think they are not remotely interested in their own RP or others, I have to ask why then are they here ? (this question of course is not solely concerned with the issue of Bio's)

Nat

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Aggie Agetha War Knight (much to the chagrin of certain players and character )

IMHO what you are saying, expecting and suggesting etc.. are perfectly reasonable, in my eyes.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

Since I just saw yet another masked, description-less guy walk by, let me explain how it works for me. Note that this is entirely my interpretation, just to give a bit of insight to the people that care what I think.

NWN is old and shitty. So are my eyes. Blank bio/default bio/wysiwyg is basically, to me, saying "blobby sprite". A blobby sprite gives me nothing to start interaction with. Blobby sprite says to me: "I can't be bothered to be considerate of other player's immersion, and I have no desire to provide a story hook for you. I will start any interactions I desire. I do not care if you're ever put into a position where you need to describe Blobby Sprite to another character, that's your problem." Well, suit yourself. If I have two Blobby Sprites in front of me, and one has a bio and one has nothing, I'm going to have much more favorable interactions with the Blobby Sprite I can give some sort of form to in my mind's eye. A unique description says to me; "I might have written a backstory for this character, instead of it being the millionth alt of the night. There's something interesting to find here. I gave this character some thought before even creating it. There's a chance I'm not just bullshitting as I go. I understand descriptions are useful things to have for other people in certain circumstances." Obviously, there's good RPers with blank bios, and terrible RPers with a ton of fluff, but the generalizations are certainly hard for me to shake. I don't particularly like mary sue pretty people either since they've become so overdone, and it's hard for me to shake the assumption that they only exist for RP that isn't entirely legal anyway, but it's much better than a big wad of nothing.

Please, please don't add anything that isn't purely physical either. I don't need to magically know your life story by looking at you.

Well... not necessarily. I'm 5'7" and 98 pounds.

But yes to the Bird's post. What's with the over abundance of freaky tall guys anyhow?

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+1,to a T.

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Active Character:
Aerosque Cain - Retired
Rhek the Wall
Anzety Alean'ndar

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Inactive as of November 28, 2013

It's ok, no one expected much of you. Especially your parents.

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Lady Astor to Winston Churchill in a matronly tone: "Winston, you're drunk!" Churchill: "Yes, Madame, I am drunk, but you are ugly, and in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly."

Careful now, you might cut yourself on all that edginess.

In all seriousness, there is one big problem with big bios: time. NWN is a real-time game, where long pauses can be immersion-breaking at best and completetely disruptive at worst. Long character descriptions are fine in P&P/chat-based roleplaying because the action flows at the speed of text. That's not the case in Neverwinter Nights, where reading a page and a half of backstory and very, very detailed descriptions of someone's "emerald orbs and raven hair" can lead to a lot of lost opportunities. One example would be if a necromancer and a paladin stumble upon each other on the road, and the necromancer legs it while the paladin is busy reading.

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Currently playing:
Aven Brinyflask
Safaya Dalai
Riyit
Chsera Hile

(Credits to Raua for the sprite, sauce -here-.)

I can't disagree more, and for the exact same reason. People who put "RP for description/more" as their bio have to describe themselves as you observe them, whereas you could simply see it by looking at their bio. If you're sneaking about, having to say "Heeeeeey guy who thinks he's alone, can you describe your character a bit for me posterity? I think there's a DM on who might give you some DCs.....?" Way faster and better to read it.

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Mathus, Void Apostle of the New Moon

The instances in which the lack of a bio really, really bothers me are those cases in which a character bears any obvious identifiers, such as draconic or planar traits, religious icons, factional insignia, and so on. These are things that can radically change the tone of an interaction even before it begins. Everyone who RPs with such a character is absolutely entitled to have info like that up front, in order to properly RP their own biases and assumptions. Example: I recall an instance in which my elf, after standing around in conversation for several minutes with a group of humans, was told that one of them (whose bio was either blank or nondescriptive) was "obviously half-drow," which drastically changed the tone of the encounter. Failing to disclose that sort of hot-button data pre-emptively is basically cheating, IMHO.

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Winner of Amia's "Most Ethical Time Traveler" award 2026

Character Portraits!

100% agree. It's like showing up on a battlefield or a dangerous situation and then mentioning 20 minutes later your character is pregnant. Stupid.

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Well obviously some description should be there, I agree, especially for things like race, or a character who always wears some symbol of their allegiance. My issue was specifically with the really, really big bios.

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Currently playing:
Aven Brinyflask
Safaya Dalai
Riyit
Chsera Hile

(Credits to Raua for the sprite, sauce -here-.)

I don't think any of the RPers here are asking for a "wall of text" bio, and neither am I.

But I feel its the players job to represent his/her character honestly and using all available means to make that character more immersive and more "real"

I am tired of playing with my ogre/ogrillion PC's only to have them continually referred to as "orc" and no its not someone being IC antagonistic its someone being OOC lazy and contemptuous of my RP and the short simple snap shot bio I have provided for their benefit, add to this that a friendly pm to that player to inform them of their mistake often results in that player instantly switching to WoW abuse mode.

Of course I can screen shot that and report to a DM, but that doesn't remedy the immediate problem and I am far from convinced it does anything long term either because its up to the player base to self regulate and raise the RP bar itself. I.E. I think its about time we expected more from each other in order to improve the RP server wide.

Anyone not trying to improve their RP and that of others is wasting our time and taking up a valuable slot on the server imo.

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Aggie Agetha War Knight (much to the chagrin of certain players and character )

No. No no no no no. I have seen that line of thinking before and it ALWAYS leads to horrible, horrible drama. Amia is as good as it is in part because of its relatively relaxed and inclusive nature. I know it can be frustrating to have to wait for a disruptive or abusive player to be removed, but I don't see how cracking down on people who don't roleplay "right" can do anything but harm the server.

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Currently playing:
Aven Brinyflask
Safaya Dalai
Riyit
Chsera Hile

(Credits to Raua for the sprite, sauce -here-.)

Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes, it only leads to horrible drama with players of a certain mindset who are almost certainly on the wrong kind of server, Amia might be "relaxed" compared to some but it is still a role play server and players acting contrary to this ethos are harming the server, expecting them to buck up, is not.

Also no one mentioned "cracking down" on anyone nor the “right“ kind of RP, I am talking about players raising them own standards in general, never mentioned punishing those that don't.
Any punishment is inherent if those trying to role play do so whilst upholding certain standards and ethos relevant to a RP environment as those not doing so will quickly find themselves ignored.

Obviously I am not talking about punishing those genuinely trying to RP, I believe I am talking about those being wilfully disruptive as players and hiding behind claims its all IC even as they are abusive via pm etc as they continue with their contemptuous “arrpee”

This thread is not me bashing on those who are not the best RPers, far from it. But it is about discussing ways (in this case bio's) of improving our game here.

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Aggie Agetha War Knight (much to the chagrin of certain players and character )

People are making fake quotes supposedly by me that have no real reflection on what I actually think and know, then go on to make a sarcastic comment about what people do or don't expect of me even though they have no idea who I am, now I do feel 'kewl' despite having no care for such a label.

And regarding the parents, I should imagine not since they are not with me.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

If a female PC is described as 'beautiful' then my female PC will hit on her. Be warned.


You're not dead, Priss, just emaciated.

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~Sharess on AmiaWiki~
Priestess, politician, prostitute
"[They] were moving in on me like Sharessans on a new broad in the bath house" - Tracer Bolt
AmiaWiki mod (mostly inactive)

I blank my bio section precisely to avoid causing trouble with those who have very particular ideas of what belongs in there. At least if it's blank, their only complaint is that it's blank. This forum topic is an illustration in itself of why some people, like myself, might choose to go that route.

Frankly, anything is legitimate in my mind. If someone posts four pages of prose detailing their characters clothing and temperament, I know that they are too in-depth of a role player for me to interact with for too long. If it's a paragraph or so giving general information that's well written, I'll probably enjoy our interactions. I have a real life I inevitably need to get back to, and I'm not going to keep a journal of interactions with every person I meet in Amia.

This is not to say in any way, shape, or form that I dislike or have a problem with people that write a ton of text. I just like to leave town and do things, and I've found that a lot of people that take their role play that seriously don't leave town often and if they do they move slowly enough to be caught in dungeon respawns. It just depends what you want the focus of your game to be; player interactions and well thought out role play with consequences or a lighthearted romp through some kobolds. I know that I don't have two hours slated just for getting to a dungeon. I don't have any high level characters, and it seems some people rocket past me and some never gain a level at all. I prefer a more happy medium of both.

This also isn't meant to imply those two things are incompatible. Just don't get bent out of shape if someone else doesn't conform perfectly to your preconceptions of what role play is and isn't barring heinous breaches of server rules. Worst case scenario you can always excuse yourself and walk away. There are entire area's of Amia I simply don't go to because I know there are role players there I can't deal with either in character or out.

EDIT: I can't disagree more when someone says players need to 'be held accountable' for not reading other peoples bio section. I like this server because I can role play, or I can adventure, and often times I can do both. If I wanted to play a 100% role play game I would be playing on IRC and not NWN, end of story. And yes, I have done that before as well.



Should have read this part, sorry! And yes, I do 100% agree with this. Hiding behind thin role play excuses for bad behavior and bullying lower level characters is something that quite definitely happens here on Amia. I am now a screen shot vigilante, sadly enough. I'd rather just play, instead of policing other peoples play.

You rang?!

I just want to say, as a person new to RP and wanting to improve, that I am finding this thread to be extremely helpful. Even had a scare when the "pretty little rainbows" was mentioned as I have a pretty little rainbow character (just checked my bio and I didn't say that so dodged that bullet). As I am coming up with my new, and hopefully better, bio and I just want to summarize the "best" points I have seen so far.

1.) Concise (that way people like Bini will actually read it)
2.) Physical Descriptions (though I am unsure if paragraph or bullet form is better)
3.) Important features (scales, horns, faction/religious icons)
4.) No background of said features


Anything I missed?


Edit: Taking Lizzie's advice and removing Pnp Spells

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Lance battle shifter of Red Knight
Lyle Underburrow...I would watch where you step when he's around, you might go boom

I'm a Yes bios please.

I read all y'alls bios. I figure if you took the time to write a wall of text the polite thing to do is read it. Of course this means I keep exiting to RP and then returning to read...exit/return/exit/return. AND my PC comments on the fact that your charcter looks intimidating, or smells or their eyes sparkle or your sword looks like a family heirloom.

I have bios on my characters since most of them are drow and lets face it...all the drow look similar. If the guard only gets that white hair and ebony skin as a description for that theif... ug.

At the top is the basic things so if you need to grab a quick description the height, hair color, eye color and any identifying marks are there for you.

After that, it's what you'd see at first glance, that lute case, a shabby long sword, all natural materials for clothing etc. And I try and add something that can start converstaion, a fragrance, a bow with some kind of writing etched on it, etc.

I try to be careful not to react to things that wouldn't be readily apparent. Even if it says your PC is a Red Knight, my PC would emote having a look for symbols.

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Ari'aerath Dlues'athsha ~ Silver Singer with the Bow of the Sun
Clarette Feohn ~ Magic is Art.
Victoria Marrs ~ "I have an herb for that."

Treant: I'd leave out #5, if it were me. A bio is for relaying IC info that's readily able to be observed just by looking at a character, or by cursory interaction. (Just my opinion, of course.)

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Winner of Amia's "Most Ethical Time Traveler" award 2026

Character Portraits!

This quote is an illustration of why I made this topic.

As an RPer on an RP server imo its not expecting to much from you that you take a couple of minutes at character generation or as soon as you can in game using the commands to edit the bio to furnish me with a short simple relevant description of that character.

It does not have to be more than a few lines.

It should be IC information only.

Amia is a role player server and I am at a loss as to where some players have the idea that its RP ~lite~ or RP ~optional~ ?

We may not be required to eat and drink by some custom script, we may not be only allowed to rest at certain special places, but character to character interactions ~are~ 100% IC, a well constructed bio is incredibly useful in facilitating this aspect.

It won’t break the server and I am beginning to feel it maybe should be a server rule given how useful a decent bio is to cultivating RP.

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Aggie Agetha War Knight (much to the chagrin of certain players and character )

WYSIWYG fails to take into consideration a character's smell, how they hold themselves (ex. regally, hunched over, etc), or any distinctive, outwardly-apparent features about said character. That said, I find that I can simply roleplay sniffing a character and most players will emote information regarding smells either IC or in a Tell. Therefore I agree that a bio is there to enhance a player's experience and is therefore not necessary - though it is indeed helpful and convenient. Instead take into consideration the fact that everything mentioned in your bio can be roleplayed through emotes without much difficulty. Perhaps you're depending too much on the convenience of bios when, instead, you could be bringing these unique traits to life through RP'd emotes .

[Example]

Natalia Winters: *Natalia marches into the room with her armor freshly polished. She pauses for a moment to adjust the unusual clasp of her cloak, which is shaped like a skeletal arm carrying a set of scales. She then flicks the shoulder-length brown hair away from her face to reveal a pair of green doe eyes, which she fixes on the man sitting in the corner.* Greetings, sir *she murmurs in a husky voice.*

*After entering her hundredth room, Natalia gets incredibly bored with typing the same description of herself over and over again every time she enters a room, and wonders if there could possibly be some way to permanently store that information, where anyone who wanted to see it could look at it at any time.*

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Winner of Amia's "Most Ethical Time Traveler" award 2026

Character Portraits!

This.

Its not a matter of anyone least of all me, being "dependent" on anything. The fact is a well constructed bio is a very useful tool in RP, thats all I am saying.

Players who choose to leave it blank or who fill it with pages of OOC are denying others a potentially useful RP hook into their character.

As an RP server I feel that Amia should expect everyone here to be onboard with making their characters as immersive and enjoyable to play and play with as possible.


Edit
Windrider you make an interesting point but there is a difference between dynamic emoting for effect about specific actions a character takes and static information about the general appearance and mien of a character. Obviously the key word being "general" I have never said you need to rewrite a bio in order to take into accound your outfit of the day. Please don't put words into my mouth I think its pretty clear what I have been talking about?

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Aggie Agetha War Knight (much to the chagrin of certain players and character )

Are you saying your character looks the same all the time? I would assume that a character's appearance would change based on their recent activities - armor could rust, get dirty, or bloody. All these things give fellow roleplayers cues that they can react to. The example I used synchronizes character actions with important character-specific details. If a player brings attention to some unique detail about their character, such as a skeletal brooch, I guarantee that other players will respond with curiosity to it.

Again, I'm not saying bios are bad, but that they are optional. As such, it is up to the player to make any distinct traits about their character evident through rp.

I think the point was more about how tedious it no doubt becomes emoting the same descriptions over and over. From what I gather there is no problem put forward in their words that says they aren't willing to emote temporary changes to appearances, I'm quite sure people are more motivated to continue to RP by not overusing the same things all the time as opposed to emoting/RPing the exact same things a lot.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

They're overcompensating for something else.

Depth of character?

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feel the blood gushing from your anusfeel the blood gushing from your anus

Let me stop you right there and say that you're assuming that just because someone doesn't have a biography that they are automatically not role playing. This is an untrue assumption, I can assure you. You're also lumping in RP lite with RP optional and telling people like me that we don't matter since we don't fit your individual ideal.



There are plenty of like-minded role players that hardly ever leave the main cities. Even the other night, you went out and 'adventured' with my Shifter and helped rescue an injured friend. It all went pretty well I thought, although it wasn't exactly a thick plot with intimately written pieces for everyone to play out. It also didn't last long, as I was exhausted. Still had fun with you, and I look forward to playing with you again.






I would tend to agree with you, but honestly I've found myself at character creation drawing a blank then later on I'm a bit intimidated by the rewrite function. Should I be banned from the server for writers block on the particular day I wanted to roll a halfling weapon master? Doesn't every character start as a blank slate that gets filled in with detail as you play and interact with other people? It seems like you're ignoring all that interaction that makes a character, and focusing too much on the first two minutes you play with somebody.

My answer, in general, is that it's not my job to provide you with a 'hook' to interact with any of my characters. They might hate you, and just as soon stab you as even look at your face. It is, however, perfectly valid to need a description if your 'race' isn't WYSIWYG. If someone assumes something about you that isn't true, you can point them at your bio. At that point, they can react to it or, if they're like my insane Chaotic Neutral mage they might decide your accent is too thick so it must be a language they don't understand. (Or something equally on-the-spot ridiculous.)

It honestly just sounds to me like you want people to be forced to read your biography to interact with you. I think your role play should be able to stand on it's own without a lengthy write-up with intimate details as a 'price of entry'.

At the end of the day, does it matter if your character is 5'4 or 5'6? And it seems to me every normal hair color and skin type is covered with plenty remaining. I've met plenty of people in my short time here that have done great things with the customize features to make their races unique even within the shortcomings of WYSIWYG. It seems like the DM's are more than willing to help customize something a bit more to get it as close as possible. They've all been super helpful to me anyway, even though most of what I've needed is simple tech issues like getting a split connection so my girlfriend and I can play together.

Frankly, I might not even realize there is a variant or what they might look like. My character could be total hick racist for all you know.

Romnesia: The Biographic Descent
(silly Claimh, nobody will get that)

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Inactive as of November 28, 2013

Only my drow doesn't have a bio, and it's because he's new and he looks like any other drow at the moment, and also, he covers himself up quite a bit- sometimes wears robes sometimes heavy plate other times, and sometimes nobody can even tell he's drow. Until I develop that character more, I really don't know what to put in his bio. I often wait a while before I make bios anyway, on all my characters. I only do this because I like to develop my characters in-game instead of before I even play them. If someone doesn't like the way I do this, they are being too picky in my opinion.

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There's nothing wrong with that, but when I've made certain characters with little background to add to their depth and development already then I fail to play them for long. My own personal preference is to plan a character first, personality, looks, perks,, fears, dislikes etc.. And with that I make my bio based on all of that.

I did for a long time make characters on a whim and try to think up Bio's at creation. It didn't always work out well like what BYODB said, I get a block, too and a few times never added Bio's due to this. So pre-planning worked great for me in most cases.

I'm not saying make them so developed before creation that it may feel there's no room for more development (but tbh, in my eyes a character can always develop and grow no matter what, take Ael'thil for example, he would never so much have spoke to even just a Dragon Disciple before his arrival on Amia, he later befriended one and they enjoyed each others company, too. He's even become more open minded towar a number of things and taught himself to better endure certain situations.), just a bit of planning before hand can go a long way.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

Wish folks would stop putting words into my mouth and to refrain from twisting simple ideas into something completely wrong. I can speak for myself well enough thanks and believe I am old enough to choose my own growd up wurds.



I never said that, and the comments I made that you have paraphrased were clearly directed towards those who were not interested in RP and were against any opinion that a decent bio is useful to RP. Silly me for defending my point of view!



Yes I tend to lump them together because Amia is a RP server and to me the lite side of Amia has to do with not being required to eat and drink and rest and all the other little logistical tasks requird to sustain life and can concentrate on the more interesting things to RP about.

Those players I am refering to are the blatant "diablo" players who run about two knocking everyone about Cordor square before running off to "grind" up experience and fill party chat up with banal chatter with occasional ooc loot order comments and deciding where to "grind" next.




The way you have quoted this would seem to indicate that through discussion and the airing of different points of view I am not allowed to be influenced (note the word “beginning”) by good points made by other posters and change my opinions?



As stated several times all I am suggesting is that in the first instance simply provide basic pyhsical information that would be obvious to an observer. Later as your character developes its the easiest thing to word process a more detailed brief bio which you edit into easy to copy and past blocks of a line or two. Then zero your old bio and copy and past the new one into each command line. With practise you will have it done in a minute or two once the text is prepared.



I have never once suggested anyone be banned.



Would love to know where you are getting this idea, I am talking about using a simply bio to help with RP for all the reason I and others have laid out in what I think are clear terms. It has nothing to do with ignoring anything whatever.



Its not your job to make your character come to life and to give it as much interact ability and immersive as possible using the simple tools provided?

Whose job is it then?



Ridiculous statement to be honest, and again with putting words into my mouth “intimate details” please quote me as ever having asking for such a thing?

I am fairly certain that simply details about general appearance and mien is hardly intimate details.



Your completely missing the point of my original post, it does matter because it’s a knowing these simple facts is a great tool for enhancing interactions. Is this such a foreign concept on an RP server?



As I have said there is a clear difference between the player being informed of the facts of another characters appearance and how that player has his character reacts to it.

A decent bio informs the players reading it, how they manifest their character's interactions is and always has been up to them. Again something I have tried to make clear in previous posts.


P.S.

I would be happy to help anyone with the creation of their Bio's just send me a PM on this forum and I will be happy to help.

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Aggie Agetha War Knight (much to the chagrin of certain players and character )

I think you should refrain from helping other people write their character's bios at this time.

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feel the blood gushing from your anusfeel the blood gushing from your anus

Why should I not help people if they ~ask~ for it?

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Aggie Agetha War Knight (much to the chagrin of certain players and character )

Bini dropping got'ems left and right in this thread.

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THREE

Please do not construe any of the following as a personal attack, like I said in my other post I had fun playing with you. This issue comes down to a yes/no and I'm not going to jump down the rabbit hole of quote wars with you even though I desperately want to.

The inherent limitations of NWN does not allow for dynamic updating of your character biography based on what you're wearing, where you are, and what's happened to you recently. Nor am I going to read your biography unless you reference me to it because of some exceptional thing you're currently playing. If I see a human female with blonde hair, I am going to assume you are a human female with blonde hair. If you point me at your biography because you are not in fact a human female with blonde hair I will then read it and react accordingly.

Far too often, the biography contains OOC knowledge that the player should not have. What if you're a tiefling and my character doesn't know what a tiefling is? What if I'm playing a shape shifter that you've never seen shift? Should my biography communicate to you as a player that I am in fact a shape shifter? When I'm not in my 'human' form do I need to update my biography every time I change shape? These are examples where the limitations of the system become painful as a player using the system you describe.

While you are not suggesting players be banned for not having a biography, making it a server rule means there will be punishment for rule breakers. If not being banned, then something else that's a slap on the wrist for someone playing differently than you. A biography is a double edged sword that can either be used to provide more character depth for those that want to know more about your character or can be used to know things about your character that another character would not know. (And probably shouldn't know.)

I again reference the fact that knowing your characters height is relatively unimportant. Only gross departures from WYSIWYG should need a biography. Even then, in my mind if you can't get it close with in-game models perhaps you shouldn't be playing it in the first place. Lord knows there are plenty of in game races that require DM intervention. You will not, for instance, see a pixie player character that looks like a human unless they have some power or ability that allows them to change their form. (In which case, once again, a biography will either give OOC knowledge of that fact or simply be inaccurate. Which is worse?)

It is simply a fact that NWN is not as dynamic as playing PnP with some friends, and it is impossbile to make it a reasonable facsimile. Amia DM's have done a simply fantastic job at doing their best to get it as close as possible. A 'pure' RP server is indistinguishable from a chat room, and never leaving town to 'adventure' kind of defeats the purpose of an adventure game to me. Even in PnP you're killing Orc's and generally fighting and interacting with one another as you do so.

Maybe what Amia needs is a ventrillo server, so that people can group up and 'role play' what their characters say in real time. Typing is simply too slow in general, and Amia dungeons can get very tough, and frankly sometimes you need to say things OOC in order to get a dungeon done. For a RP server, Amia takes it's spawns seriously at mid-to-high level. (At least it seems that way to me, having not played NWN in quite some time.)

If it was pure RP, shouldn't all the spawns be easier so it's not deadly to type your role play as you fight monsters? Shouldn't level progression be based on nothing except dream coins allotted by DM's? I'm not saying Amia doesn't take RP seriously, but it doesn't coddle you either. Talking is a free action in PnP to a point, but it simply isn't in NWN unless you're playing single-player or coop. With sixty plus people logged in at any one time, I think it's ultimately a fools errand to try and enforce role play rules such as a biography requirement. I would much rather people spend their DM'ing doing events and keeping problem players out. It's way more 'immersion' breaking to have a level 30 dev crit your level 5 character in the face just for setting foot outside of Cordor versus someone not having a well thought out biography.



Nope, it's not my job to give you a 'hook' to role play with me through a biography. I would much rather walk up to your character and role play my reason for interacting with that random NPC stranger. If you want to talk to me, talk to me. There doesn't need to be some carrot at the end of a stick for you to interact. For that matter, why not do away with the Party Tool? Does that not break your 'immersion' knowing for a fact who you can team with? Or the fact that teaming up with a level 30 character will do nothing for your level 2 halfing? These are OOC decisions that you no doubt make every day because it benefits you as a player.

I doubt you even give it a second thought, because it's natural to do so. When playing NWN, there is a certain amount of OOC that's going to occur simply because it must for you to progress in any way outside of pure character development. That is why I say that if it was indeed a 'pure RP' server, there would be ZERO XP outside of DM events. That is the logical conclusion to that path of argument, and I've played on servers that did exactly that.

However, for those of us that actually do have a weekly PnP game, sometimes we just want to murderface some Orc's and level. Especially after a bad day at work or when we might be stressed out. It's cool for it to take a few weeks to level in PnP, it's painful to level that slowly in a digital game and there are many failed NWN servers that underline that point.

I'm not entirely sure what you're arguing about. This is as simple as being able to right click on any object in game and get a quick description of what it usually looks like. In the time it took you to write all of these responses, you could have slapped a simple, one-paragraph description on a dozen characters, so I'm not thinking it's an effort or a laziness thing, I'm thinking it's an "I refuse" thing.

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Mathus, Void Apostle of the New Moon

CoA is wise.

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Winner of Amia's "Most Ethical Time Traveler" award 2026

Character Portraits!

What's the purpose of this thread?

(not saying that there isn't one, I just want to understand)

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Discussion about the merits/drawbacks of BIOS bios.

(Edit: Stupid phone.)

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Mathus, Void Apostle of the New Moon

And I believe the initial purpose was to gain others opinions on whether what she thinks is reasonable.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

No offense was intended by my post in this thread. It was just cheeky sarcasm*. In fact, it was actually a dig at myself for having such a silly approach to bios that has, in many instances, has created a bit of consternation because it doesn't meet others' expectations. In other words "most of you should stick to simple descriptions" was my way of saying "don't do what I do because most people aren't going to appreciate it and I acknowledge it causes more problems for most!" Hence the surprise that anyone took offense. Read it and pretend there was a smiley there if it lowers the acid reflux.



*For the most part. It is true I am very discerning about quality, and my expectations tend to be in the stratsophere, but I don't hold it against anyone if they fall short. They're just character bios on a NWN server, not Nobel Prize winning pieces.