There's a good thing about backgrounds appearing on your honours. If a close IC friend of yours, or a relative is asked a question they ICly SHOULD know, they can just read your background.

No one has grandchildren yet. When the game is older, the people will be older, and then people will have grandchildren and grandparents. Although back in the day, your grandparents could reasonably be only 40 years older then you (or less!, maybe 30 years older then you)... So if I'm 20, my grandparents could be only 50 or 60. Oh, and, btw, the age selection will probably be taken out eventually (unless they've decided not to). It was just put in so there would be a variety of ages from the start.



E-mail, if you're setting up some close RP that extends before you created your characters, then you e-mail back and forth between the two of you (or your group) discussing what you know about each other.

Yup. However, think about it, if you're bloodlining someone as your brother you don't automatically send them e-mails, or IM a huge discussion about your history. So while I guess that's great if you're a hardcore roleplayer, it would still be feasible.

And what if you neglect to mention something in the discussion? Do you go, "Ohshit, hang on. Wait five minutes while I IM my brother." Or do you quickly scan his background and go, "Ah yes, he was thirteen years old then!"

NB: I personally would prefer to IM and get it all planned out beforehand, but nobody is perfect, and sometimes vital things slip people's minds.

The idea is that you write your background and then mail it to people who would logically know it. Then they can refer to it if they need to, but people who don't know anything about you can't suddenly start spouting facts about your life.

In regards to Silvanus' answer:

I hate the honors quest thing. I want to be able to look at someone, know thier might, age, race, clans, etc. Plus, the background tells me if they're a good RPer, just the -fact- that they have one, I don't care if I can read it (though usually, I'd like to). Lastly, the mentor one tells me you've put quite a bit of time into the game. Mentor+background usually = a decent RPer and person in the game.

Anyway, that kind of turned into a ranble about more than just Silvanus' post. I just want it in... heck, what's one more line?

I'm saying that we've already got half a dozen different ways to know all sorts of things about someone. The backgrounds are there, what's wrong with having an extra line on the honours (already distinctly "impossible to know" information) - otherwise no one ever reads it? (By far the majority don't have them, at least in any realm I've checked out)

So... if we don't have a background, we're all immediatly bad roleplayers?

Sure, why not.

Backgrounds have always confused me. Aren't we supposed to remember nothing from before the Portal of Fate? Then what are we supposed to put in our background? I've been told that it's supposed to be everything up until you write the background, but that doesn't really make sense.

Could anyone clarify?

The amount remembered varies from what I remember reading, so basically it's up to you however you want to remember... all, parts, nothing.

I sincerely disagree with this:

"Plus, the background tells me if they're a good RPer, just the -fact- that they have one, I don't care if I can read it (though usually, I'd like to). Lastly, the mentor one tells me you've put quite a bit of time into the game. Mentor+background usually = a decent RPer and person in the game."

To me, OOC, background means you took the time to write a background. Good writer does not mean good or bad RPer. Mentor status means they played a long time. Many idiots play 300 hours.


And I WOULD like a way to 'set honors private' My honors:

He is the Matchmaker, having brought lovers together at the Chateau d'Amour.
He did release the ship of the dead to plague the Inner Sea.
He is a Slave Master of Angkrag.
He is an Honorary Shepherd of the Rocks.
He is an honoured Caregiver to the tae'dae cubs in Estelbar.
He has scribed the tales of old Celest into the Tome of Remembrance.
He solved the mysterious murder at Stewart Mansion.
In Acknor, he helped the orcs raise a new chieftain.
He has earned the title of Savior to the Gnomes.
He has earned the title of Hero to the Finks.


I don't want people to see that first thing when they think of me. I do these things IC, because doing things for people = first step to influencing them politically. Plus, gold = good.

This is actually the first time I've heard the suggestion to be able to hide your entire honours aside from the basics of sex, age, race and the like.

I would really enjoy being able to do that, honestly. I've actually avoided getting several of the honours lines simply because I didn't want them permanently attached to me.

Also remember your character doesn't have to remember everything that you've got written in your background. It could be that you're planing to have them remember events A, B, and C at a future point in time, or maybe the first time something specific happens (like the first time they see someone hunting rockeaters, they remember something about gathering raw gems, or something)...

On Aetolia hardly anyone read my background. It was discouraging. reflecting back on it now I think it would be best not to impliment the background check into the honors. I say this because if you want to know about someone... then ask them... I mean... I havent made my background yet because I'd like to include ashar's family into the scenes of the background somehow. But if someone came up to me and started saying something about my past that I didnt tell them about... I'd either be very concerned for my personal safety or very discouraged at the lack of roleplay. If I haven't informed you then you really dont need to know unless you're in a position on a city council... I mean... if someone from New Celest came up to me and in a scene or situation said something about my past I may not be surprised as a player because that person has a position of authority to pull birth records from an archive or something. That is perfectly roleplayable.

Reading my paragraph over I understand my opinion on this seems varied so I dunno... you decide.

When you leave the Portal of Fate, you only have no memory temporarily. So that's why good roleplayers add new things to their character over time, and their characters remember or explore things about themselves they forgot. Cronus remembered a few minutes AFTER leaving the Portal, that his surname was Whiteclaw. He remembered age while he was actually doing the tour, (as did everyone). However, I'm planning for him to learn more about the Whiteclaw family, and his parents, in a few weeks' time.