I found this old guide that I wrote in 2007 and thought maybe some role players might be able to benefit from it.
Most applications are there for multiple purposes. One of these purposes is to serve as a profile for your character, while the other is to make sure you’re a good fit for the role play, and to check things like grammar, spelling, and the like. Most role-play administrators want to make sure you’re going to be a good addition to their website. Your application is not just a profile, it tells everyone what level you role-play on, and this I have found through experience. People that put out applications in one-liners, usually type in one-liners, and that won’t fit a site that is geared toward a higher level of role player.
People whose applications that have spelling errors, chat speak, leet speak usually role-play like that too. So to restate, your application is rather important. It’s what you as a role-player are judged on. The fact that your character was somehow abused, or it’s parents murdered… that usually doesn’t matter so long as it’s realistic (or lack thereof depending on the genre of the site). Let’s break down the usual basic requirements of a character’s profile.
First Name, Middle Name, Last Name
A name is perhaps the most important part of your entire character. I don’t really need to tell you this though. Now you don’t need a middle name usually; Japan-born people don’t, for example. Make sure that whatever name you give your character goes along with where they were born. You don’t want to name a Vietnamese-born character Donald R. Johnson, you know what I’m saying?
Age
Age is also very important, but make sure you play your character according to it’s age. If you create a ten-year-old character, he should not be able to buy liquor. I mean, certainly he can try, but he isn’t going to be able to, flat out. If you create a character that’s too young, or too old, that’s not going to be good either. Unless of course you can play such a character, but I’d imagine it could be difficult. If you make a character too young, it’s going to need parents, if even npc’s because a thirteen year old, no matter how you want to try to justify that I’m wrong, can not support itself. It just can’t.
Gender
This is whether your character is a boy or a girl. Only one comment on this please; use male or female because those other weird words are just… weird and most of the time are used in such a way that the real definitions no longer make sense (or they’re just plain not real words). Try not to use femme, femora, fetale, fea, fae, potent, virile, or other weird words for this.
Description/Physical Appearance
In your description/physical appearance, sometimes a picture is all you need, however sometimes it is not. Do everyone a favor and don’t make your character out to be the most beautiful/handsome person in the world please, nor the most perfect with no flaws, blah blah. That just makes you look horrible as a role-player. Your character needs some flaws in both it’s description and personality, but we’ll get to personality. Some things that are very important to add is your character’s height, weight, eye color, and hair color.
Some other things to add is whether or not your character dyes their hair, colors their eyes with contacts, the type of clothes your character likes wearing, any jewelry or make-up that your character puts on, the way s/he likes to wear their hair, any scars, tattoos, or other defining marks, any defects. Anything that has to do with how your character looks you want to make flow in your character’s description. Of course make it fit the role play. For example, in an animal role play this above would be irrelevant, but rather you would need fur color, eye color, weight and height are always good extras to add. Scars can be added, any potential defects your character may have.
Also be sure to add things in your written description that are not in the picture, such as clothing (or lack thereof) that covers up a tattoo or a scar.
Personality
I would recommend doing your character’s history first, because your own personality is based on your history. That’s the way it should be here. It wouldn’t make sense if your character had an awesome, beautiful history and it’s personality is that of a hardened gangster. That just doesn’t make sense. Start from childhood and work your way up, just like your history started.
Your history formed your personality. Talk about how your character acts. How does s/he react in group situations? Towards friends, family? People s/he doesn’t know? What does your character like, or dislike? I highly recommend against adding anything of an adult nature, because it really makes you and your character look desperate and looking desperate is not a good thing!
It’s also important to note that you make sure not to make your character’s personality too perfect. Everyone has personality flaws, even if you don’t want to admit it. Me personally, a big flaw is jealousy. When it comes to those personality disorders, I almost recommend you not do it unless you really know what you’re doing. If you really want to do this, do research first, and don’t make it too severe. Just a suggestion.
History
History is a very important part of your character, as it forms how your character acts. I mean, your history formed how you act, right? And start from the beginning. You didn’t start life at sixteen years old, and just *magically pop* into wherever you’re currently living. Neither did your character... well... sort of.
Talk about your character’s childhood. What happened when s/he was a child? Did s/he have any siblings? Was s/he adopted by some family? Did your character live with other family? Has your character endured any abuse? Moved at all? What was school-life like? What did they do in free time? Tell everything about their childhood. Just think of your own history, or your friends’ histories. Your character’s no different.
Talk about the pre-teen years, lost loved ones, deaths, being in love, having heart break. Seriously go into detail. The more detail in a history, the better. Also make sure to tell how your character got to wherever s/he is at currently, and make sure it’s realistic. I mean, if you’re in Japan, how are you going to get to the United States if you have no money? You can’t.
Make sure you make your history realistic to the site you’re on. Also make sure that you don’t just auto-add yourself to any organizations that are on the site that role-players have their character involved in unless you know you’re allowed to. Example of this, the gangs and the mafia on one of my old mafia based sites; make sure you don’t auto-add yourself to one of these unless you’re supposed to. Remember that you are writing an application, and to gain entrance or any affiliation you usually need to talk to a member of one of these types of organizations (we’re still talking about role play, by the way; I don’t promote illegal activity). A good example of what I’m talking about is saying, for example, that your character has seen no gang in the area interests your character, or that the gangs in the area want your character, or lack thereof because you are writing an application and your character has not talked to any member of these groups yet.
Some organizations, such as the Mob, your character shouldn’t even know of. The unwritten rule in almost every role-play is that if it’s not said or done in character while your character is in the thread, your character does not know. This same unwritten rule applies to your character’s history.
Parents & Siblings
Every single person has parents, but not everyone has siblings. So people usually understand if your character doesn’t have siblings listed, but every single person has at least one parent or guardian. There are no excuses for leaving parents unlisted if it is a required field.
This guide provided by Diana on December 9 of 2007. Please do not steal this. It took a while to put together. If you want to use it on a site of your own, please contact me and ask. The original article can be found here.
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