Biography Process

[doctorsimon4]

I want to start this post by stating that this is by no means criticising the team or belittling the amazing work that they do. It is no secret that the team of DM volunteers work really hard and are appreciated by everyone for what they do. This post is just to explore alternatives to help make the process better and provide an improved experience.

Over two months ago I submitted my biography for approval to the DM team, since then I have heard back once over a month ago. I know that I am not alone in waiting long periods of time to receive feedback. The DM team is stretched thin across all of their responsibilities and it raises the question is leaving biograph approvals to the team the best way forward?

For returning players like myself, or new people to the community, it can be off putting or disheartening to wait so long to hear back from the team. Especially if your concept falls under the categories that requires an approved bio to even play.

So it raises the question, would a specialised role in the team that's responsibility is to just review biographies make more sense? Would this provide a better experience to new players?

Please share your thoughts

[Steve]

Blame DM Ghost! Hahahahaha!

[Mork]

I can only agree that the situation could use some improvement. I don't mind waiting simply cause of time it takes but it gets sad when lack of answers can literally influence character and server plots.

[Goat]

If we had the DMs we wouldn't be in this situation. It's not that we're ignoring it. "Be faster" doesn't really work when there is not many on the case I get the idea of one who would dedicate more time to bio, but it's more than just that. One person cannot be the sole reason for approving a bio - it is often discussed because the lore is so vast and heavy, and we miss things.

Generally it's about a 1-2 months for a full review and approval (I think yours got approved from what I recall on the 9th?).

[Ghost]

Biography reviews take a bit of time because in a lot of cases it involves us doing lore research to verify that backgrounds make sense, respect the setting integrity and so on. This also involves spending time discussing the biography and responses to it, so it can be refined. It's never fun for anyone to get a "no!", for example, so we try to offer "no, but (...)" with suggestions.

Whenever we approve a biography, we're saying "this is now canon". So it mean we better make sure we're not contributing to additonal contradictions in the lore.

We are currently quite low on DMs too, as mentioned. And all of us have lives outside of this: Not just work and family, but other games we may be active with. And of course we do other things as DMs too, like plan and run events.

Blame DM Ghost! Hahahahaha!

... OK?

[Mork]

Day 70.
Still no word on my bio approval.
May their quills never dry - I begin to worry that it confirms my deepest fears. The Citadel scribes perished in uneven battle against forces of Chaos. Valiant workers of Administratum sacrificed on altar of paperwork.

Reports claim the foe left behind only corrupted parchment. Scrolls that whisper "File in 3 copies or be unmade". If this is the bureaucratic heresy I think it is, then even the Harpers won’t save us.

I'm on my way with medicae squad to perform rites of entombement. In Imperium of The Sword Coast duty does not end even in death.

Red Knight protect us!

[selhan]

Things to consider:

Active DM's are low for whatever reasons they have. They do have a real life and they are players as well, some are even Both DM and Dev's.
A DM's inbox is scary with a buttload of pms/requests.
The more complicated the Bio, the longer it will take for review.

[Goat]

Day 70.
Still no word on my bio approval.

You make it sound like we haven't sent you messages back etc. I get it's not approved, but we're working on it too. Last message to you was on the 10th though - and the reply to yours/changes is being discussed anyways.

[DM Limerence]

Day 70.
Still no word on my bio approval.

You make it sound like we haven't sent you messages back etc. I get it's not approved, but we're working on it too. Last message to you was on the 10th though - and the reply to yours/changes is being discussed anyways.

Just to add for transparency and clarity.

• 1. The biography was received by the DM team on 13th September
• 2. The DM team provided initial feedback on 27th September.
• 3. A revised biography was received by the DM team on 28th September.
• 4. The DM team provided further feedback on 10th November.
• 5. A revised biography was received by the DM team on 19th November, and the DM team is now considering this.

I don't think it's fair to measure the success of the process solely in terms of the time it takes for approval from day 0 of submission. The feedback process is important - and while it takes a bit less time for you as a player to make changes to the biography, it takes a lot more time for multiple people to view the biography and consider the changes. While there is a decent gap of time between 3. and 4., as others have explained above, there are competing priorities and a small team.

There is some fault of mine here. Biographies were something I was more focused on as part of the team, but I took an extended break and have just recently returned, so I expect to reduce the time it takes to get feedback/responses on biographies (although it is not only up to me, and looking behind the scenes the team has done and continues to do a great job in being thorough). But there can still be many reasons why individual biographies take a bit longer, as noted by Ghost.

I agree there is always room for improvement, and we do not always get everything right and are certainly open to constructive feedback. For example, if there's something in the biography instructions that would be helpful to rewrite or clarify - or perhaps designing a different template. I do agree that it is challenging if you are waiting quite a while for approval on a unique concept that requires DM approval; I have been on the other side as a player (including while as a DM) waiting for a response on a request; but patience is ultimately necessary, alongside sending some gentle reminders to the team.

A key thing to remember for engaging the DM Team with any type of request is as selhan says, there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes and we are attending to a lot of different players' requests, as well as other grievances and problems. Sometimes more pressing issues come up that need to be addressed, and some older forum requests can become a bit 'lost' for the team or fall down the list of priorities. Bumps (no more than once per week) are helpful in drawing our attention to outstanding requests.

[Mork]

Day 70.
Still no word on my bio approval.

You make it sound like we haven't sent you messages back etc.

Sorry Goat. My goal there was trying to make it sound ... humorous and lightweight. Not Ironic and nitpicking. One of the problems of communicating via text.

I think It's not the bio itself that's the problem but how main questions in it weren't answered after quite some time passed.
Sometimes all that player needs is having basic stuff in his bio confirmed while details can be improved over time.
Before player even starts to write a bio he might want confirmation that he doesn't play something with holes in it at the very root of a concept.
Part of a problem seems to be small details are discussed first while big important questions are left unanswered. Those are questions so huge that depending on the answer whole character concept might crumble.

I'll give you an example of how I experienced my own bio handled (oversimplified version for sanity sake):

I started with asking questions important for the CORE of character:
1. Does his canonical Paladin Order exist in server lore. What is canon in books could be changed here after years of custom campaigns so it's natural question of new player.
2. What is the status of Citadel of Strategic Militancy - a Major place of Red Knight worship and place character training comes from.
3. What is the status of Bloodhawk nobility. Important cause they founded the Paladin Order, heavily influence the Citadel and character is in service to them.

And that is it. If get my answers I have CORE stuff confirmed. Instead responses to those important questions DM answers covered details that could easily wait. So essentially I get 1 response per month about small details like Aasimar ancestry or specifics of his personality all while I am forced to wing 2 months of conversations and introductions my character has to make while meeting new characters in game. There are like 20-30 characters I role-played with through those 70 days and some spent hours talking with my toon. All while I don't even know if that RP was founded in something that will be confirmed. That is 70 days of hours upon hours of RP that I might need to retcon If the answers I finally get will turn bad.

All while receiving answers (1 per month) covering things like: Could you expand on X-Y aspect of his personality? Or: Explain reason for the rogue levels in his build (while characters whole backstory is 5 years of traveling with rogues).

[renshouj]

If you have big questions that make or break a concept, you could ask those before sending in a bio approval (because after all how are you going to even begin a biography if you dont have that information?). For the bio approval you should be caring about the small details (especially something like aasimar ancestry and class levels, which I wouldn't consider small) as well as the big ones. I feel like you approached bio approval with the wrong idea in mind to begin with unfortunately.

[DM Limerence]

Day 70.
Still no word on my bio approval.

You make it sound like we haven't sent you messages back etc.

Sorry Goat. My goal there was trying to make it sound ... humorous and lightweight. Not Ironic and nitpicking. One of the problems of communicating via text.

I think It's not the bio itself that's the problem but how main questions in it weren't answered after quite some time passed.
Sometimes all that player needs is having basic stuff in his bio confirmed while details can be improved over time.
Before player even starts to write a bio he might want confirmation that he doesn't play something with holes in it at the very root of a concept.
Part of a problem seems to be small details are discussed first while big important questions are left unanswered. Those are questions so huge that depending on the answer whole character concept might crumble.

I'll give you an example of how I experienced my own bio handled (oversimplified version for sanity sake):

I started with asking questions important for the CORE of character:
1. Does his canonical Paladin Order exist in server lore. What is canon in books could be changed here after years of custom campaigns so it's natural question of new player.
2. What is the status of Citadel of Strategic Militancy - a Major place of Red Knight worship and place character training comes from.
3. What is the status of Bloodhawk nobility. Important cause they founded the Paladin Order, heavily influence the Citadel and character is in service to them.

And that is it. If get my answers I have CORE stuff confirmed. Instead responses to those important questions DM answers covered details that could easily wait. So essentially I get 1 response per month about small details like Aasimar ancestry or specifics of his personality all while I am forced to wing 2 months of conversations and introductions my character has to make while meeting new characters in game. There are like 20-30 characters I role-played with through those 70 days and some spent hours talking with my toon. All while I don't even know if that RP was founded in something that will be confirmed. That is 70 days of hours upon hours of RP that I might need to retcon If the answers I finally get will turn bad.

All while receiving answers (1 per month) covering things like: Could you expand on X-Y aspect of his personality? Or: Explain reason for the rogue levels in his build (while characters whole backstory is 5 years of traveling with rogues).

I think as renshouj has said above, you can start with those initial questions before engaging in the biography process. And just to be clear, you have only posed those key questions in that way in the most recent version of the biography you sent to us, which we will be addressing.

I will review the biography guidelines to see if I can better emphasise that people can send us preliminary questions prior to sending a biography. That seems like some wisdom that can be learnt from this.

[Mork]

I can't help myself not to smile internally when reading those (very reasonable) tips but... I did exactly what you suggest.

And just to be clear, you have only posed those key questions in that way in the most recent version of the biography you sent to us, which we will be addressing.

Nope. Questions were posted originally 74 days ago:

Sent: Sat Sep 06, 2025 12:59 am
Player copy of DM Request:
I'd like to request some information about current server lore of Citadel of the Red Falcon Order: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki ... Red_Falcon [...]

That was before I've sent my bio.

Let me predict your next move as should be expected of RK player and add that I also asked about all those things on discord in "rp-and-lore-discussions" channel and got no official answers other than how I need to wait for DM staff to figure it out.

Checkmate ! (Again not being nitpicking and negative - just having a little laugh internally )

Also - I totaly understand how you're drowning in paperwork and want to underline you absolutely have my (and entire playerbase) respect for all that hard work!

[Mork]

If you have big questions that make or break a concept, you could ask those before sending in a bio approval (because after all how are you going to even begin a biography if you dont have that information?).

Just one more preemptive strike cause I think you might now try to introduce a narrative how It's my fault cause I should bump my questions.

[...] Looking forward to updates about Bloodhawks and Citadel status on the server. [...]

The question was not asked like Lime suggests only in recent DM request. It's actually 4th or 5th time I've bumped it.
Same questions repeated on:

Again - not trying to be an ass. Just trying to show that experience with the whole process from players perspective is... not so great.

[blazerules]

Hard to say about the Citadel. Last time I had to deal with it was for my BGTSCC map and the only agreement we came upon is its ruins / incomplete but there. Since thats all lore pointed at for pre 1370.

Considering the citadel was razed post ToT and we are post ToT the heir either already returned to its razed state or is out there and didnt notice its razed