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[RF] Editable Backstories and Names [1.0]

Are you tired of running into characters in your game with horribly overpowered or just plain silly backstories? Are you frustrated by the number of colonists you have to feed who aren't willing to work to earn their keep because their backstories prevent them from doing manual labor? Does it annoy you when you find a backstory you like with the "Prepare Carefully" mod, only to notice that the gender pronouns or even the pawn's name don't change to fit your character? Do you just hate not being able to do anything about typos that you spot in backstories?

Well, fret no more! Your worries are over!

"Editable Backstories and Names" dramatically improves, and gives you full control over, the game's backstory and name databases. It's ready to be used "out of the box," but also allows you to change pretty much anything, in whatever way you see fit. Details are below.

- Rainbeau Flambe (dburgdorf)


This mod provides you with a fully customizable database of more than 300 backstories which (by default) completely replaces RimWorld's vanilla backstory database. None of the backstories are unreasonably powerful or lore-breaking, none have hard-coded pronouns or names, and they're (mostly) free of typos. They're ready to be used as provided, but of course can be edited. (Please note, though, they can't edited from within the game itself. To edit them, you'll need to edit the mod's XML files. Instructions on how to do so can be found in its "Documentation" folder.)

(The basic instructions file can also be found here[www.dropbox.com].)

It also provides much more robust filtering of backstories than does the vanilla game. You should never again see pawns whose childhood and adulthood backstories contradict each other, with one providing penalties to skills or disabling work types that the other significantly buffs. Additionally, the mod provides brand new filters, so you can define certain backstories to only be available to pawns of a particular age or gender, define some backstories to be more or less common than others, and even define "sets" of backstories which will always and only be used together. (For example, in the mod's "out of the box" database, medieval backstories are flagged so that medieval childhoods will only ever be matched with medieval adulthoods, and vice versa.)


This mod provides a significantly larger pool of random first and last names for colonists than is available in the vanilla game. (It provides more than 2,000 each male and female first names, as opposed to about 300 each in vanilla, and about 10,000 last names, as opposed to just 1,000 in vanilla.) The mod's database is drawn from lists of the most common names in pretty much every country of the world, so your pawns' names will have a truly mixed- and multicultural feel. But like the mod's backstory database, its name database not only replaces the vanilla database, but is completely customizable, so you have full control over the names that can appear in your games. If you wanted to include nothing but German first and last names, for example, you could play a game of RimWorld in which literally every non-tribal pawn has a German name.

The names of colonists' pets draw from the same lists as do the names and nicknames of colonists themselves, so any changes you make to those lists will be reflected in the names colonists give their pets, as well as in the colonists' own names.

(This mod does *not* alter tribal names in any way. For that, I'd recommend my "Tribal Pawn Names" mod, with which "Editable Backstories" is fully compatible.)

In addition to lists of first and last names, and of course nicknames, the mod also utilizes new lists of "sets" of first names and nicknames, allowing for randomly-named pawns to have intelligent nicknames. You might encounter a pawn named Jonathan with the nickname "Jon," for example, or perhaps a Cassandra known as "Cassie."

Not all names have to be randomly generated, of course. Just as there are defined full names in the vanilla game, some of them attached to certain specific backstories, the mod allows you to define full names for pawns who might show up in your own games, either with or without specifically-defined backstories.


"Use 'Lite Mode'": By default, "Editable Backstories" allows only its custom backstories to be selected randomly for new pawns. However, if this box is checked, the mod will instead allow new pawns to draw backstories from both its custom database and the vanilla database. (Note that vanilla backstories will always be visible and manually selectable when using a mod such as "Prepare Carefully," regardless of this option's setting.)

"Tag Backstories by Source": If this option is selected, backstory titles will be tagged to indicate their source, with "(Vanilla)" and "(VanillaPK)" indicating basic vanilla backstories and "Pirate King" designated backstories, respectively, "(REB)" indicating backstories added by this mod, and "(Other)" indicating backstories added by other mods. These tags can make it easy to tell what you're looking at when searching through backstories in "Prepare Carefully" or a similar mod. However, the tags will also be visible on the character bio windows within the game itself, so you probably won't want to turn the option on except when you're actually manually creating new pawns.

"Allow Vanilla 'Triple Names'": By default, the only predefined "triple" (or "full") names that will be available for random assignment to new pawns are the names defined in the mod's data files. If this box is checked, though, the "triple names" defined in the vanilla databases will also be available. (Note that even if you don't allow vanilla names, if you're playing in "lite" mode as defined above, the vanilla "Pirate King" pawns, whose names and bios are linked, can still show up in your games.)


"Editable Backstories" can safely be added to a game in progress, and any of its configuration settings can be changed at any time. However, it should not be removed from a game in progress, as if it is, any pawns with backstories drawn from its database will have those backstories randomly reassigned.

The mod is compatible with both "EdB Prepare Carefully" and "Verify Start."

It is also fully compatible with any mods that utilize Erdelf's "Humanoid Alien Races" framework.


I completely understand why backstories aren't editable by default. And I mean absolutely no disrespect to those who backed RimWorld on Kickstarter back in 2013 (or have purchased the "Name in Game Pack" since then) and got their stories written into the game as a result. But at the same time, I'm a modder. Changing things I don't like about the game is what I do. And the fact that backstories can't be edited, even though I understand it, is something that I don't like.


Some of the C# code in "Editable Backstories" (specifically, the code that allows data to be read from XML files) derives from code in Erdelf's "Humanoid Alien Races."

The mod utilizes Pardeike's "Harmony Patch Library." (No additional download is required, as the library is included with the mod.)

Special thanks to Kiame Vivacity and Sumghai for handling the initial update of the mod from RimWorld b18 to b19 in my absence!