Oh gosh... last post reminds me of the RP I run; it's a small group of stray dogs in a post-apocalyptic city, and over the time we've been active the storyline frequently gets quite dark, which has resulted in all of us having such convolutedly tragic pasts just from events in the storyline that it's actually kind of funny (One fell in love with the leader of an enemy pack but miscarried their pups and ran off for almost a month to return to her abusive human master, at least two have been captured by mad scientists leaving one mute and the other a mentally unstable sadist, two of us are practically in a blood feud over an exceptionally twisted love triangle... it just keeps getting more over the top as time goes on, we kind of have way too much fun with it). So yeah, I can understand the problem of ridiculous backstories that no one would take seriously, but actually happened.
For all that though, none of those characters whine about it or use those incidents to get sympathy... it's life to them, and they eventually recover and move forward. No one sits around going 'woe is me' unless it furthers the plot.
That's one thing RPers with tragic pasts seem to forget... whatever someone grows up with seems 'normal' to them. To you, the idea of growing up without knowing your parents or having a sibling die might seem like an insurmountable tragedy, but the character likely wouldn't see it that way. It might suck, yes, but it's still just life to them.
Yeah I've been on the other side of the fence too, although thankfully I've never been criticized for having a character who encountered those circumstances in RP rather than scribbling it into their bio and saying it happened. Perhaps its because most of my characters who are like that, I don't usually have the space to include those details but it still very much impacts the character.
Most of the time I put a note in the bio that if someone wants to know a little bit about the background of that character that they need to ask me because some of my characters have been to hell and back in RP or they're just two complicated to explain in such a small space. However, I do know where you are coming from because some of the times I've tried to explain them, I've received a little confusion and reactions that suggest I "should've known not to set up that way because it would be hard to find people to RP with me playing them" so then I have to explain it happened through roleplay and then they're okay with it.
Though far from a tragedy (and although May has been through plenty a "tragedy" through RP) the main "offender" I end up having to explain to avoid the negative responses is the fact May, among some other chars I have had was NOT raised by her own species. Unplotted, and at random, one of my friend's feline character's [A cheetah who ALREADY had an adoptive tiger son after she miscarried her last mate's offspring] ended up adopting her as well as saving her from someone else who would have otherwise corrupted her while she was young and malleable. Later on, that little adoptive family evolved to include even more big cats, including an adult male puma and his hybrid daughter, who the cheetah also adopted. Now if you're wondering why I would get a negative response from anyone about having a character adopted by a different species [and giving consideration for some unknown reason a vast chunk of the population seems to view RPing two different species together peacefully is "stupid" even in an unrealistic RP like that one >_>;] its that outside of the canines May did manage to get to know during her childhood....she tends to "click" and get along with felines much easier than canines. She has no sense of "canine politics" making her a terrible candidate for pack-life on top of the fact she is solitary anyway and for other reasons has a constant need to change location. So when I ask now and then for someone to RP with who doesnt mind involving felines AND canines together or even just sticking her in a feline RP, its like it goes in one ear and out the other. Goodness forbid we put a cat and dog in the same room, that NEVER happens. *cough* Most people that RP with me don't realize my little herbalist/healer character Kau had to kill her own mother, take care of her siblings, and had some issues with her father [all of which happened in RP] because I just don't put that in the bio.
Now I may have veered away from the topic a bit in that explanation but I guess what Im trying to say is this, if people are not likely to easily understand what happened, happened in an actual RP and are likely to assume things based on cliches or trends, I just keep it out of my bio and let people find out for themselves.
