Breakfast Topic: What's your story?
by Adam Parkinson 
Jul 27th 2010 at 8:00AM
I have a confession: I am not a roleplayer, yet I feel the need to create a backstory for every single one of my characters, from the mighty main to the lowly banker alt who sits comfortably in Stormwind. I do not really know why. Maybe it is the storyteller in me, the sheer boredom, or the 60 ounces or so of various energy drinks that keep me up at night, but I begin to imagine the details of my characters, even going so far as to create a web of connections between them, as if when I'm not playing, they are banded together, battling side by side as brothers and sisters in arms.
A main example is my main and all the human alts I play on. There are only two at the moment, but a third shall arise, of the wolfish variety, come Cataclysm. Their story? All of them are brothers, my death knight being the eldest, a once-accomplished paladin who fell during the purging of Stratholme, being one of the very few against it. My main warrior is the middle child who was the least likely to accomplish anything of the three brothers but fought nonetheless as part of the Stormwind guard, before becoming a mercenary for hire. The newest addition will be a worgen rogue, the long-presumed-dead, sickly little brother who was astute in the arcane and was taken under tutelage of a sorcerer in Gilneas before being infected as a worgen. He will return instead as a quick and nimble character, one of the few worgen who likes his new form.
Heck, I have even made a blood elf paladin that is a half-brother of the humans. Don't even get me started on the draenei brothers.
So, tell me readers, what's your story? Even if you don't roleplay online (or only dabble in it), do your characters have stories? Untold love stories or rivalries? Is your bank alt the head of a powerful mercenary corporation that your characters work for? Are your characters connected, or merely single entities that have never and will never cross each other's paths?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Abbadon Jul 27th 2010 8:10AM
The closest I came to storytelling was in the creation of my DK. I wanted him to be the resurrection of my main; so I made him look the same albeit a tad bluer.
macster Jul 27th 2010 8:43AM
Yeah, I've done this as well - though I did the Death Knight first, then created the warrior she used to be...
Jamie Jul 27th 2010 8:11AM
My story is that of a frustrated lvl80 Human Paladin who's player got defeated by the RL boss, and he now spends his time commenting on WoW.com with humourous posts aiming to get them to blue status, I think my best combo is like 10 in a row....
Either way the results of endgame WoW.com posting has its highs and lows but it's great making people smile or laugh. ;)
Riiya Jul 27th 2010 10:10AM
Wow lol that's almost exactly what I was going to say, with a 80 human pally too, only you did it much better.
You just made another fan Jamie!
TheBlob Jul 27th 2010 8:19AM
I tend to think of my characters as at least working together, what with the passing of items around and such, but never thought of them as a family or created a very detailed backstory for them all.
Regardless, interesting read and cool ideas.
Mal Jul 27th 2010 8:15AM
I am not big on RP as well but i find myself doing the same thing, like when cata comes out i will be switching my dk from human to a worgen, and my story is that even though he was awoken from the dead, started remembering who he was, until the cataclysm hit, he didnt remember that he was actually something completely different and the curse was locked deep within him until now....
Gorgy Jul 27th 2010 8:16AM
I rolled an orc dk earlier on today to try RP'in and now I may have made a lot of belfs very unhappy by insulting em in Silvermoon, involved a load of shoutin if i remember.
ElrithCC Jul 27th 2010 8:24AM
You actually are a casual role player. Your denial of your nature will destroy you. Give in to your geekdom.
Maymer Jul 27th 2010 12:19PM
No....it's not true!...THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!
Loveliest Jul 27th 2010 8:34AM
I don't RP per se, but I do make up stories about my characters and situations they are in. At first, I leveled a mage till lvl 30 with a friend's shaman, then decided to make a pally tank - quickly leveled him so I could catch up to the friend shaman. So this story was formed: the paladin was in love with the shaman and wanted to protect her; ovbiously, the mage would become his rival, since he was there first and loved her too. I've been thinking up conversations between them: pally taunting mage that he cannot protect the woman he loves so he should back off. The shaman is supposed to be oblivious of this quarrel. Pally is also smug and inept at confessing his feelings. At one point, pally had a crush on a dk (raid leader), but they had a falling out (raid leader left guild). So every little thing that impacts the game translates into his little story. Also all other characters are linked to my pally - rogue is older sister, hunter is ex-girlfriend etc. It's fun to make up a motivational backstory.
Shoikler Jul 27th 2010 8:33AM
Almost all my toons have some elements of this, either backstory or specific personality traits, even if they aren't on roleplay servers. The ones that are on RP servers usually have more elaborate backstories (not that I've actually told them to anyone).
As much as I possibly can, I try to avoid any angst in the personalities. It can be hard, too, with some of them, because the canonical backstories for all races are loaded with it. I have at least one gnome DK who simply can't remember those years.
For the most part, these stories don't include any of the other alts, but there are exceptions.
STARF Jul 27th 2010 8:34AM
Lol, all my characters hate each other, and i can't seem to figure out why?
Jim Jul 27th 2010 8:37AM
My gnome warlock's family died in the fall of gnomegon which turned him to the dark magical arts as a way to gain power after the failure of the mages to do anything to prevent gnomergon's destruction. My gnome deathknight is his long lost brother and now that he is free from the lich king they are combining their evil powers to one day take back gnomergon.
Nina Katarina Jul 27th 2010 8:35AM
I'm not a roleplayer but my daughter is; she's a constant storyteller, whether online or in life. When we have play sessions together, I create a character and she tells me how we're related, what our history is, and how we're making our way through the world. I'm her sister, her mother, her daughter, her cousin, her student, her doctor, her employee, her grandfather. I'm also a dragon in disguise and I've been told I'm battling a strain of the worgen plague that will eventually turn me into a kitty.
I don't have to roleplay; she does it for me. Which is great by me.
niftypete Jul 27th 2010 10:35AM
That sounds really nice. I used to tell stories to my mom too. Things along the lines of: "No, I didn't take the last cookie from the jar."
JerichoWin Jul 27th 2010 8:36AM
I kinda have a story... I've been using my wow toons to work on my artistic and writing skills. I've been producing gucomics style strips for my enjoyment based upon my characters existence between rl and azeroth. The strips typically are in a lounge called "the character screen", but can include azerothian adventure as well. My old guild enjoyed one comic that was a sort of 4 panel rage comic where my main rogue and druid were having an ale, the druid was around 75 and it was still in the naxx days. The druid pops out and the third panel he pops back in 80 and beautifully resto'd out in almost all epic gear for raid healing. The rogue simply has that manga style shocked look and a WTFuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! Response. Maybe one day I'll publish all these since the lounge is getting crowded with 10 toons on one server and a dk on a friends server!
Nina Katarina Jul 27th 2010 8:39AM
I guess I have to caveat, I never thought I was much of a roleplayer until recently. When I created my paladin I randomized her to be a blonde and I gave her a very girly name. Last night I realized that I /silly, /flirt and /giggle a heck of a lot more than usual when I'm playing her. My main has a very stern face, and I just can't imagine her telling jokes so I never try. But my pally? She's a reincarnated cheerleader, I can tell.
Rai Jul 27th 2010 8:39AM
All of my characters bare no connection to one another.
I only do this because a friend of mine interlinks about eight of his characters via magic and I like a challenge.
Donny J. Canup Jul 27th 2010 8:44AM
I have to admit... that on my main (Holy Pally) I follow the story of WoW closer than any other of my toons. I feel he is me. That said I like to stick with what Blizzard gave us as a starting story when we first enter WoW. So I feel I have become a pally through training. The back-story I have for myself is very shallow. I just think he's a young man just old enough to be apart of the war efforts, who before this was just a church boy looking up to the likes of Turalyon, Uther and Lothar and wanting adventure.
Never have much invested in other characters, I even feel horrible when I make a horde character or an evil aligned character (like a warlock). I'm such a nerd.
Devv Jul 27th 2010 9:17AM
I don't really have back stories for my toons, but I've always viewed my main as the "motherly" one of the group. I always have to make sure that she has more gold, achievements, titles, etc. than any of my alts. And whenever a new alt approaches 70 and receives a Tome of Cold Weather Flying and 5000G for epic flying, I always think, "these ungrateful punk kids have no idea what it was like to *walk* around Northrend for 10 levels."