writing
"There's no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you"
-Maya Angelou
Welcome to c/writing!
This is a space for all kinds of discussion referring to writing. This could include the structure and style found in different types of writing, authors worth talking about, different genres, trends, etc.
This is also a space for users who wish to share their own writing for feedback. This could look like independently posting excerpts of poems/prose/plays or it could be replying to one of the writing prompt threads. Brainstorming and worldbuilding ideas are welcome too!
Ideally, this will be a community where we work together to become better writers and appreciators of writing in all its forms.
All that said, please note that Code of Conduct still applies here. Please apply content warnings where applicable and spoiler material that might be inappropriate.
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I've made it a ground rule whenever I run TTRPGs that the player backstory can't leave them parentless. Orphan with adopted family, fine. Raised by a street gang, sure. Collective community parenting, right.
The problem was always "orphan assassins". Nobody in their backstory at all, parents dead, somehow a highly trained killer
Not having family ties makes sense for a person doing weird dangerous adventures.
No family ties is one thing if there's a compelling reason for it that creates further storytelling opportunities. My problem, after a great deal of experience, is people reading Baby's First Drizzt or something and inventing, ex nihilo, the brooding cloaked assassin with no ties to anyone or anything, who has no particular reason to join a part and no particular motivation to do anything at all except brood. Making people sit down and think about who their character is and why leads to more interesting characters, both for the player to play and for the other players to interact with.
I've let people do brooding assassin types in my games previously, and I'll continue to do so, but my only requirement is that they give a reason for why they're like that and how they got there. Maybe their child is being used to compel them to act, maybe they've been wronged by society and they've Become The Joker, maybe they're literally cursed with bloodlust and avoid forming relationships due to the risk. I've seen all those. They worked great.
There are forms of writing that arent for tabletop games
I mean it makes sense to me that this kind of character would exist in a lot of settings. If you're a gang of assassins looking for new people to turn into killers, a war orphan who has already become somewhat desensitized to violence, may be easily manipulable by filling the role left by dead parents, and who has no one who will know to come looking for them if they disappear seems like a pretty solid candidate
Aha, and now you've created an interesting backstory with storytelling hooks! There was a war, the character is receptive to manipulation in exchange for comfort, and there's someone turning victims into soldiers.
it makes sense but it tends to breed empty characters with no growth potential and no real hooks for storytelling
I suppose it can. That's why the assassin gang/teacher(s) should fill the roles normally filled by family for that character. You can tell all kinds of stories about questioning the philosophy which supports being hired murderers, or recognizing and gaining distance from the abusive relationship which turned one into a killer, etc. I feel like a lot of these kinds of characters tell very interesting stories about figuring out who you want to be and learning that your mentors or parent figures aren't necessarily good people.