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Post by Karma on Jun 11, 2009 13:21:45 GMT -5
Character Creation Rules:
Characters Interacting With Characters/Role Playing in General:
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[/li][li]Do not mix OOC and IC when role playing; having your character attack the character of someone you don't like for no plausible reason is just plain stupid. On a side note, don't suddenly change up your character's appearance, personality or history while role playing. Okay, you can change your character's appearance if they get a wound and you want the profile to take note of the scar, or maybe if they go through character development of some sort, you could change up the personality, but it has to be justified. You can't just up and make your formerly stern character be the happiest cat on earth for no reason at all. If you want your character to change, role play so they will change.
[/li][li]Another rule about NPCs from before. Though their creator role plays them in given situations, they can't be "role played" (i.e. mentioned in a sense that this NPC did this or that) without the permission of their creator and a staff member okaying the action that's being taken. For example, let's say Whitefoot's father is Snowytail. Nobody role plays Snowytail. Whitefoot's role player could mention something like, "Whitefoot had a quick conversation with Snowytail before leaving for a hunt". However, Smokeclaw's role player cannot mention something like, "Smokeclaw found out about Whitefoot's sickness from Snowytail" without Whitefoot role player's permission, since Snowytail is Whitefoot's NPC. However, Whitefoot's role player can't up and make Snowytail take drastic action without permission of a staff member because then you're essentially using NPCs as an excuse to... well, not make a character profile. Just ask if you're unsure of what you can and can't do with NPCs.
[/li][li]I bet you've seen this rule a lot if you frequent forums that pride themselves on "literacy" (ha!): Don't use those cute little asterisks (*) in IC. Want to describe a character's action? Say, "He did this" instead of "*Does this*". Want to emphasize a particular word? Pull a Karma and use excessive font tags[/i]. Basically, write it like a novel: para-para-paragraphs!
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- Your character can only be a cat. By cat, we mean the type of wildcat that looks like it could be your friendly domesticated pet if it wasn't brimming with savage instincts. We do not mean cats like jaguars, lions, lynxes or bobcats, nor do we mean an anthropomorphic (humanoid) cat or some kind of strange hybrid of such cats. No role playing a dog, a human, a bird, no anything unless it's a special character from Character Auditions. Simple.
- On a side note, you can have as many characters as you want at one time, but don't go overboard and please stay active on all of them. We'd advise you don't exceed five characters, however; that's definitely enough, and we don't want half the board's characters to be owned by one person, anyway.
- On a side note, you can have as many characters as you want at one time, but don't go overboard and please stay active on all of them. We'd advise you don't exceed five characters, however; that's definitely enough, and we don't want half the board's characters to be owned by one person, anyway.
- Your character cannot be an official Warriors character or have any relation to them. Why? It infringes on canon (and therefore would end up contradicting other characters' histories that infringe on canon), and we really don't want to get into that. This means, for example, you can't role play an alternate universe Graystripe that somehow ends up in America, nor could you role play an incarnation of Tigerclaw. It's fine if your character shares the name or maybe even slight appearance traits, but you can't role play the actual character or a mere clone thereof. Not too difficult.
- Really, just keep your characters' histories out of the real Warriors setting and there won't be a problem. There's nothing wrong with this setting, right? Why bother having a cat come all the way over from Britain when you can just easily make an interesting character from this setting?
- Your character can come over from "faraway lands" if you so choose, but you need to explain how they got over here in a realistic manner, such as stowing away on a boat or being a runaway pet of humans who came from such a place.
- Role playing a character from somewhere else (or a real person, or a human/dog/non-cat not from any particular fictional world) who gets turned into a cat and ends up in this setting is also not allowed, even if they have amnesia of their past life or whatever.
- Really, just keep your characters' histories out of the real Warriors setting and there won't be a problem. There's nothing wrong with this setting, right? Why bother having a cat come all the way over from Britain when you can just easily make an interesting character from this setting?
- Your characters cannot be related to anyone else's characters without that role player's consent. Similarly, your character cannot be related to say, a past leader without consulting a staff member and getting the character okayed. We don't want every other cat to be related to an overthrown leader of some sort.
- Careful about your characters' histories! If they contradict the major histories outlined in the Culture of the Groups thread or the main Setting thread, your character will not be accepted until the contradictory details are edited or taken out altogether. For example, you could say your character's brother was out hunting when he was hit by a car and died, but you couldn't say your character's brother died in a massive war between all four of the groups. This rule doesn't only apply to histories, though; a character's appearance/species could contradict the setting, too, such as having a lion character. If you're afraid of contradicting the main continuity of the forum, just ask and someone will explain if you are or not. When in doubt, PM Karma. Rather simple; she doesn't bite.
- This also means your character can't refer to other characters' histories without their permission. After all, it's effectively powerplaying if you say someone else's character was your character's best friend without the role player's input. This doesn't count if the character is referred to in a passing manner, like, "When my character was eight moons old, this other character became advisor in Ruinplace." However, you would have to ask if you said something like, "When my character was eight moons old, this other character became advisor and started acting mean to my character."
- This also means your character can't refer to other characters' histories without their permission. After all, it's effectively powerplaying if you say someone else's character was your character's best friend without the role player's input. This doesn't count if the character is referred to in a passing manner, like, "When my character was eight moons old, this other character became advisor in Ruinplace." However, you would have to ask if you said something like, "When my character was eight moons old, this other character became advisor and started acting mean to my character."
- You may introduce NPCs to fill in places in your character's history (such as a father and mother not necessarily role played by anyone). That's not considered infringing on continuity. You don't have to make them mysteriously vanish because nobody role plays as them, too: you can just keep them there and it's assumed they're still members of the group that just aren't so high profile. However, similarly with regular characters, without the initial creator of the NPC's consent, you can't mention NPCs in your character's background and whatnot.
- NPCs can become full characters if the profile is submitted by the NPC's original creator or if a profile is submitted by someone else with the NPC's creator's permission.
- NPCs can become full characters if the profile is submitted by the NPC's original creator or if a profile is submitted by someone else with the NPC's creator's permission.
- "Chosen one" characters are not allowed. No one is stopping you from making a character who thinks he or she gets visions from the deceased or that he or she is a chosen one of some sort of prophecy, but the character can't actually be the chosen one or something. The exception to this is plot-related characters, but Character Auditions has its own set of rules, anyway.
- Characters that are unnatural (e.g. neon green fur) or don't even plain belong in a Warriors setting (e.g. a Digimon, a Naruto-style ninja, a frogcat) will not be accepted.
- When it comes to markings or coloration... well, we'll be lenient as long as it's reasonable. You want your tabby character to have a weird black splotch at the end of his tail? Sure, go for it. A strange "W" shaped marking on your character's paw? Why not? Glowing red eyes? No. Pink stripes? No. Blue, green and yellow calico markings? No.
- By the way, healthy male calico/tortoiseshell cats (male calico hybrids, too, like torbies) effectively don't exist. Most would suffer numerous health problems living in the wild and many would be sterile. (So a character having a wild calico father is wholly unlikely, but it's slightly more plausible if the father was a pet.) This is due to genetics; some colors in cats are sex-linked, meaning they come with a certain sex chromosone. The colors for black and orange are sex-linked to the X chromosone. Females have two X chromosones, therefore they can be black and orange (tortoiseshell/calico). Males, on the other hand, have only one X chromosone, which means they can be one or the other, but unless there's some kind of mutation (they get two X chromosones and a Y for some reason), they can't be both. Hence, male calicos would be likely be unhealthy.
- Have realistic names, too! The concept of demons and angels the way we think of them don't exist in the cats' heads, so you won't see cats named Demonfang or Angelwing. Similarly, mythical animals don't exist in their culture, either. Sorry, but you can't have a character named Dragonheart or Griffintail. The "bigger cats", such as lions, tigers, lynxes and jaguars are considered myths to the cats, but of course, a cat with an uncanny resemblance to one of them might be named something like Lynxclaw. However, there are some animals that don't exist in the setting and aren't even myths. While the cats have most definitely seen falcons and seagulls flying around, the concept of a penguin or a flamingo doesn't exist.
- Oh yeah, if your character is living in a group and has a non-traditional name (e.g. Freddy, Fluffy, Snowy, Tiger) then you must justify it somewhere in the history. Most group cats wouldn't name their children something untraditional, and many cats would likely change such names to something traditional upon becoming rangers/sages to avoid being ostracized by the other cats. So, this makes rangers/sages/advisors/leaders/ancients with nontraditional names wholly unlikely. If you can come up with a plausible reason for it, though, go for it! Don't be deterred by this rule if you know it makes sense; this rule is here for the people who can't justify it properly, not the people who can.
- Related to realistic names: while having a foreign language name definitely sounds cool, you have to remember how unlikely a cat is to have one. If the cat was a pet and his or her owners were immigrants from somewhere (thus the cat is named something like Fuego or whatever) then it's possible, or if a cat is from another country and hitched a ride over, then it's possible. However, you most definitely won't have cats named with a jumble of languages, like Rojofang or Hikaripelt. Or whatever you're pulling out.
- Oh yeah, if your character is living in a group and has a non-traditional name (e.g. Freddy, Fluffy, Snowy, Tiger) then you must justify it somewhere in the history. Most group cats wouldn't name their children something untraditional, and many cats would likely change such names to something traditional upon becoming rangers/sages to avoid being ostracized by the other cats. So, this makes rangers/sages/advisors/leaders/ancients with nontraditional names wholly unlikely. If you can come up with a plausible reason for it, though, go for it! Don't be deterred by this rule if you know it makes sense; this rule is here for the people who can't justify it properly, not the people who can.
- When it comes to markings or coloration... well, we'll be lenient as long as it's reasonable. You want your tabby character to have a weird black splotch at the end of his tail? Sure, go for it. A strange "W" shaped marking on your character's paw? Why not? Glowing red eyes? No. Pink stripes? No. Blue, green and yellow calico markings? No.
- Don't make flat or flawless/overpowered characters!
- A flat character is one that is just that: flat, lifeless, dull. These are the kinds of characters that you don't want to role play with because... well, nothing happens with them. These characters don't have quirks and there's nothing memorable about them except that they aren't too memorable. Don't make characters that are absolute good or absolute evil, nor should you make characters that are absolutely brilliant at everything they do or ones that rarely fail. Characters that can just conquer any obstacle without trouble aren't fun to role play with, and they really take away a lot of the fun for other people. What's the point of a plot if a character can just solve the crisis in two seconds flat? Don't make characters like this.
- However, keep your character's quirks/flaws realistic and make sure they flow together! Yeah, having a character who's insane half the time would definitely be funny and likely be fun to role play with, but where does the insanity come from? If it doesn't make sense, then what's the point of having the character? Similarly, don't add in random flaws just to avoid your character being called a Mary Sue. Make the flaws work. So you want your character to be painfully shy? Okay, but how did he or she become this shy? And how does that affect the rest of his or her personality? Does he or she purposefully try to keep others away to avoid having to talk with them? Or maybe your character just does everything in an average way to keep others from noticing him or her. Just one flaw (shyness to the extreme) can be taken so many ways! Don't just say, "My character's shy". Make it work and show me how that shyness affects your character and has affected your character in the past! A character profile is like Cerberus; the three heads (parts) have to all work together or the dog can't do anything.
- A flat character is one that is just that: flat, lifeless, dull. These are the kinds of characters that you don't want to role play with because... well, nothing happens with them. These characters don't have quirks and there's nothing memorable about them except that they aren't too memorable. Don't make characters that are absolute good or absolute evil, nor should you make characters that are absolutely brilliant at everything they do or ones that rarely fail. Characters that can just conquer any obstacle without trouble aren't fun to role play with, and they really take away a lot of the fun for other people. What's the point of a plot if a character can just solve the crisis in two seconds flat? Don't make characters like this.
- Characters with "incomplete" histories won't be accepted. What is an incomplete history? Let's say there's a new character being created. His name is Waterstep, and he's a ranger in Crashingwaves. He's oh, forty moons old. If Waterstep's role player doesn't detail Waterstep's life up until the present day (or something very close) then Waterstep won't be accepted. If Waterstep's history section just ends when he becomes a ranger, he won't be accepted. If Waterstep's history section ends when he's thirty moons old, no go. Basically, if you detail what's happened in your character's life up until the present point in time, you'll be fine. However, implausible histories won't be accepted, so don't try to fill out details with random stuff or nonsensical bits that don't match up with the rest of the character.
Characters Interacting With Characters/Role Playing in General:
- Don't even try to godmode or powerplay.
- What is godmoding? Godmoding is essentially making your character do improbable things such as jumping twenty feet into the air to avoid an attack or otherwise "twinking out". In other words, role playing unrealistically (relatively speaking, of course; cats using magic in this setting is not godmoding because it's already been established that they can use magic). To avoid doing this, just keep realism in mind; would your character really be able to dodge that attack? If the answer is no, then just let the attack hit. It's not the end of the world if your character gets injured or loses a fight.
- What is powerplaying? Powerplaying is controlling someone else's character. In battle, this is referred to as autohitting, namely automatically assuming your character's attack hit in a certain way. Powerplaying isn't restricted to battles, though; you could very well powerplay another character's appearance. Basically, just stick to role playing your own character, and you'll be fine.
- What is godmoding? Godmoding is essentially making your character do improbable things such as jumping twenty feet into the air to avoid an attack or otherwise "twinking out". In other words, role playing unrealistically (relatively speaking, of course; cats using magic in this setting is not godmoding because it's already been established that they can use magic). To avoid doing this, just keep realism in mind; would your character really be able to dodge that attack? If the answer is no, then just let the attack hit. It's not the end of the world if your character gets injured or loses a fight.
- Characters can be in multiple threads at once. While there's not a limit, don't bite off more than you can chew and we'd prefer it if all of these different threads happen in different boards (here, subboards count as regular boards). However, if you decide to put your character in multiple threads, you need to decide which ones come first chronologically and which ones come later. Use logic here, usually when the threads have ended; for example, let's say in one thread, Blackstripe suffers a major wound that lands him back in camp and unable to leave because it's so severe. Any threads that don't mention the wound would have to come before that one chronologically. If the wound is present or is mentioned as having been healed, those threads would come after the thread where he got injured.
- Threads that are going to contain, or already do contain, mature content (e.g. lots of blood, in-depth descriptions of gory injuries) should be marked with a [Mature] or [M] tag of some sort in the subject so people who don't particularly like to read that kind of thing aren't subject to it if they happen to be poking around and reading threads they might want to join. However, Reversals is not your place for hardcore cat sex or bloodbaths of terror. Keep even "mature content" to a... respectable level, please.
- Threads that are "private" (in other words, only invited people may participate) should be marked as such. If a person's username is in the subject title (e.g. [Karma]) or if it's marked with something like [Private] or [Reserved], then don't post in it without asking. Threads without any marks, however, are considered to be open to anyone for posting by default.
- When you have multiple people in a thread, make a posting order so nobody gets left out. It's no fun if everyone moves on without you, after all.
- Please stay active in any threads you join in. If you feel like you've bitten off more than you can chew, just have your character leave the thread.
- When you have multiple people in a thread, make a posting order so nobody gets left out. It's no fun if everyone moves on without you, after all.
- When your character gets accepted, link to that character's profile in your signature before you role play with that character or a staff member will do it for you. Believe me, nasty things happen when staff members have to do this.
- Having trouble with getting a working link in your signature? Use this format:
[URL=]link text[/URL]
After the equals sign (=), copy and paste the direct URL of your character's profile. It needs to stay in the brackets. Where it says "link text", you put whatever you want the link to show up as. For example, if I wanted to make the link show up as, "The Big, Admirable, Mysterious Rah'Dawnfang!" I would put that there instead of "link text". It has to stay between the two brackets. Finally make sure that the backslash (/) is in the
- Having trouble with getting a working link in your signature? Use this format:
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[/li][li]Do not mix OOC and IC when role playing; having your character attack the character of someone you don't like for no plausible reason is just plain stupid. On a side note, don't suddenly change up your character's appearance, personality or history while role playing. Okay, you can change your character's appearance if they get a wound and you want the profile to take note of the scar, or maybe if they go through character development of some sort, you could change up the personality, but it has to be justified. You can't just up and make your formerly stern character be the happiest cat on earth for no reason at all. If you want your character to change, role play so they will change.
[/li][li]Another rule about NPCs from before. Though their creator role plays them in given situations, they can't be "role played" (i.e. mentioned in a sense that this NPC did this or that) without the permission of their creator and a staff member okaying the action that's being taken. For example, let's say Whitefoot's father is Snowytail. Nobody role plays Snowytail. Whitefoot's role player could mention something like, "Whitefoot had a quick conversation with Snowytail before leaving for a hunt". However, Smokeclaw's role player cannot mention something like, "Smokeclaw found out about Whitefoot's sickness from Snowytail" without Whitefoot role player's permission, since Snowytail is Whitefoot's NPC. However, Whitefoot's role player can't up and make Snowytail take drastic action without permission of a staff member because then you're essentially using NPCs as an excuse to... well, not make a character profile. Just ask if you're unsure of what you can and can't do with NPCs.
[/li][li]I bet you've seen this rule a lot if you frequent forums that pride themselves on "literacy" (ha!): Don't use those cute little asterisks (*) in IC. Want to describe a character's action? Say, "He did this" instead of "*Does this*". Want to emphasize a particular word? Pull a Karma and use excessive font tags[/i]. Basically, write it like a novel: para-para-paragraphs!
- Also: third person, past tense. No present tense in narration. If you want to get really technical, you can use conditional if your character is fighting or something (e.g. "He would pin down his foe if the ambush was successful") but if you really like first person ("I did this" versus "She did this"), take it to the Gallery and please keep it off the IC boards.
- "But I like first person to develop a strong characterization by thinking of how they'd narrate their actions!" You can still use the Gallery to "get into the skin" of your characters and role play them better. Also, characterization without first person exists. I think a lot of plays, movies, novels, video games, role plays and any other narrative medium I might've missed have done it in the past. I'm sorry if you really hate third person, but I guess if you really like the forum overall and just hate the third person rule, you can stick around and send me flames until I change it. Or something.
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