Character Backgrounds

Your character's background details the key experiences in his life that occurred up to the point when you began playing him, and outlines his personality, goals, etc. You must complete the background stage of chargen to have the character you developed in the character generation process approved and be permitted to role-play all the abilities you selected. (See CG APPROVE for information on the approval process.)

The commands to enter your public and private backgrounds are listed in '+help bg'.

How Do I Write a Background?

Your character background is one of the most important steps in chargen. It outlines the key people and events in your character's life and helps build him up into a realistic, multi-faceted person. Some points to keep in mind:

	Backgrounds are usually written as chronological biographies in third or first person. You are welcome to explore other formats, but please remember that you may be asked to rewrite it if the reviewer is not able to read and understand it easily.
	There are a lot of aspects to a person that aren't part of the chargen system. You should include these in your background, particularly if they're notable. Does your character hold beliefs at odds with his station and cultural background? Does your character have any striking personality traits like a quick temper or a love for animals? Does s/he have any strong goals in life? Do you plan to do anything unusual with your role-play of the character?
	The character background you write is not just for the admin, it's for you. It provides you with a reference about the history and personality of your character, perhaps some background on her family and friends, etc. This can be particularly useful during your first few months of role-playing the character, while you're still "getting to know" him or her.
	Your character background is not publicly accessible. You should include everything of note about your character, including things that might be "secret", or that the character himself might not even be aware of.

The character background you write at the end of chargen is not accessible to other players. The only people who can look at it are you, and the admin (Wizards, Staff and Area Leaders). Admin have been instructed to keep the details of your character private. They will not repeat them to others or use them in their own role-play.

A system to post a public background also exists, as many people like to share a basic outline of their characters with other people, and many people find this to be a helpful memory aid. See '+help bg' for more info.

As you input your background, please keep in mind that an admin member will have to read it to approve it. Reading a paragraph that is 5 "MUSH pages" long is difficult. Please insert a blank line between paragraphs by using %r%r. Backgrounds are limited to 3095 characters (including spaces) in length.

  
Example:
  
   Tom types:
  
Nilbid is a sailor.%r%rHe was born in Tear to poor parents.
  
   When Tom reads his background, it will appear like this:
  
Nilbid is a sailor.
  
He was born in Tear to poor parents.

Character Justifications

The justification of your +sheet information is designed to help you get through the review process with minimal frustration to you and the reviewer, as well as to help you clarify what your +sheet information means to you. This information may be set either before or during the chargen process, but once it has been approved, it may not be changed.

The justification ties in to the Background Level 1 (see CG BACKGROUND) in that it contains some background information. However, your background is designed to be a "life story" while the justification is a simple list of +sheet elements that need detailed explanations. A detailed, but possibly incomplete, listing of those sheet elements is found in 'cg justify2'.

Formatting

The justification is limited to approximately 7950 characters in length. +Justify commands are listed in '+help justify'. The elements of your justification should be in a list format. This allows the reader to easily locate material and ensures no elements are missed. Use \%r to create a return, and \%r\%r to put a blank line in a place. \%b inserts a space and \%t inserts a tab.

Elements to Include in Your Justification

The following list of +sheet elements is not exhaustive. Please check the descriptions for your individual Assets and Flaws to determine what kinds of information need to be listed in the +justify. "You" and "your" in the following notes indicate your character.

STATS:

	Any Statistic of +4, +5, -4 or -5, and how that Statistic has affected your life. Assets that change a stat (Strong, Weak, Clever, etc) need only be indicated if they raise the stat to that level.
	Legendary Stat (+6) should detail which Stat is legendary, how you demonstrate the legendary status of this Statistic, and how the legendary level of this Stat affects your life.
	Any grouping of Statistics (for example, all high or low physical statistics) and their effect on your life should be explained. Example: Sally has Endurance -2, Strength -1, Dex -1 and Quickness -1. She explains that she has avoided doing any physical work and is therefore in extremely poor shape, to the extent that it makes her frequently ill.

SKILLS:

	Any skills that do not fit with the rest of the character should have an explanation of how they were received. Example: A pampered noble lady with Streetwise or a street brawler with Etiquette.
	Any skill-packs should be noted. Example: Bob takes the Children of the Light skillpack, because he intends to join the CoL. Sue takes the Accepted skillpack because she has the restricted asset FC: Accepted.
	Any skills that do not fit the stats. Example: A character with a poor Reason score who has Scholarship skills.

RESTRICTED CHARACTERS

	Many restricted characters have specific instructions on information that should be included in the +justify. This includes Accepted needing to detail their Novice testing, and Assassins needing to indicate a country in which they are a wanted criminal. Please read the CG file for the restricted character type to see what details are required.

ASSETS AND FLAWS

In all cases, refer to 'cg ' for specific details on the Asset or Flaw and what it may require to have explained.

	Physical Assets and Flaws need to be indicated in your @desc.
	Unless there is something particularly notable about people's reaction to your physical Asset/Flaw or it has particularly affected your life, it does not need to be justified.
	Assets and flaws given by culture or social background need not be explained.
	Even if you do not yet know you have a specific Asset/Flaw (for example, a Compulsive Urge or penalty on a skill you haven't tried) you must detail how it will affect you or you will react when you find out about it.
	Phobias: Where and how they were received and how they affect you.
	Skill-related Assets and Flaws should have explanations on how they were discovered. How the Asset/Flaw affects you is optional for Aptitude, Knack, Skilled, Inept, Unaccomplished or Unskilled unless you take it more than once.
	Items or money received, income received or expenses must be detailed - where the money/item came from, where the income comes from or what the expenses are for.
	Channeling Assets/Flaws that affect channeling Stats do not need to be explained unless they are taken more than once.
	Talents and Dreamwalker should have detail about the discovery of this talent (including Poor Healing) or indicate a possible way of discovery.
	Background Assets/Flaws should detail how the Asset/Flaw affects your life and how you cope with it. In most cases, you must establish a specific focus for your Asset/Flaw (example: Hatred - Trollocs or Spirit Guide - Aunt). See CG ASSET BACKGROUND and CG FLAW BACKGROUND for lists of which Assets/Flaws are considered Background ones.
	You may not take more than two Assets and Flaws based on the same incident in your life, as this makes for a very one-dimensional character. Example: Trollocs overrun Sue's farm and kill off her family. Sue takes Lost Love (family), Hatred (Trollocs), Idealistic Goal (killing all Shadowspawn) and Rage (Trolloc rampages). Sue would be a one-note character that does not provide a lot of RP hooks to her player, who may become quickly bored.

Examples

The following is a sample formatted +justify/read. See CG JUSTIFY for general notes on the justification section of chargen.

EXAMPLE: John is a Lost Tinker with a high Strength stat:

+justify/read John
Lost Tinker: Upon being attacked by bandits at age 15, John realized he couldn't stand seeing his mother in danger. He fought back and saved his mother, but was subsequentially removed from the band.

Strength +4/Strong: Working with his blacksmith father, John developed the muscles in his arms and got used to doing heavy labor. He enjoys the feeling that strength gives him, since he enters the wrestling competitions at fairs.

Compulsive Urge - Gambling: Shortly after going out into the world, John ran in to a bad crowd. After being introduced to gambling, John found he couldn't get enough of it, and now simply can't resist being drawn into a game of chance.

Fastidious - Lies: The gang that John joined after leaving the tinker band lied to him about their ongoing thievery. After he was arrested as part of the thefts (which he wasn't part of) and discovered the lies, he refused to tolerate liars anymore, because lies get people hurt.