by Steelsings mentors
Here's how to avoid this.
Step one: Have a look around.
This starts with going back to the books. look at descriptions of what Tortall is like, what kind of people populate it, and what professions they have. This should show you some obvious things--many women still did womanly things. Merchants were becoming more and more important. Commoners were forbidden to carry swords. There were very few Yamani in Tortall. The Rogue was full of many different kinds of people with all sorts of professions: mercenaries, thieves, fences, forgers, mages, you name it. The Song of the Lioness quartet is particularly important if you're applying for the Inn and creating a rogue character.
Step two: Writing the profile.
Even when you've done all that research, sometimes the hardest thing to do is to come up with a concept for your character. You know if you can just get that initial idea, you'll be able to write the perfect profile, but how do you start?
2.1 Beginnings
The first and easiest step is to start with the basics, some simple stats to work with.
Do you want a male or a female character? There is a definite imbalance in the male to female ratio with characters, so if you apply with a male character, it might buy you a bonus point or two.
What stage of life are they in? You don't need to pick an age at this point, but defining the life stage of your character helps. There's not much point applying with a child on his/her own since it's just unrealistic, so try to make sure your character is over about 13 or so.
Could they join the Rogue? One of your first two characters must be looking to/capable of joining the Rogue, but it doesn't have to be your hopeful character if you'd rather wait until you're in the game and watch the Rogue game play first. If your character is going to be in the Rogue, they'll need a rogue job of some sort and a reason for wanting in. Remember, your character won't necessarily know where the Rogue headquarters is before they enter the game , so you'll need to think about how they'll find out either before or after entering.
2.2 Personality is where it's at
Personality in an application is one of the most vital things, because it's what will be most apparent when you roleplay. Fun and outgoing characters are a lot of fun- they're always the life of the party. Sensible and stable people great because they're the anchors and voices of reason in the roleplay and are very flexible. World-weary, competent people who have seen it all, but manage to have fun once in a while have a lot of depth and will improve your roleplaying and characterization skills very quickly, but may be a little challenging. You will find a personality creation tutorial here.
At this point, the phrase ICA=ICC should enter your vocabulary. It means, "In Character Actions=In Character Consequences". This means that if your character does something, other characters will respond in a way that's realistic and not always nice. For example, if your character breaks a Rogue law, they may get taken out back and beaten up or have their ear cut off. It's not because we don't like you, it's because your character's actions have consequences.
2.3 Spelling, grammar, punctuation, net and 1337 speak
If ur post looks lik +his \/\/e \/\/ill not re@d i+. We will simply ask you to retype it, properly, and edit your post. This entire role-play is text based, and no one wants to spend hours decoding each statement of leet.
Spelling is easiest to correct: Microsoft Word has a spellchecker. So does LiveJournal. The forum even has one. If all else fails, fall back on www.spellcheck.net. Mentors take offense to having to read profiles that haven't been spellchecked. We're doing this to make your RP experience better, and we feel it is very rude to increase the amount we have to edit.
We don't expect stellar grammar from you, either, but we do require the basics that make it legible. Put periods (full stops) at the end of your sentences and capitalize after them. Remember your apostrophes for possessives, and please, please learn the difference between its/it's, your/you're and their/there/they're. Do your best with commas. If you aren't sure, again, ask someone to take a few minutes and look it over. There is a list of people willing to beta-read your profile on the forum.
2.4 Presentation please
Once you've got your character all thought out, you actually have to make a profile. You can't just slap something up in five minutes. Preview your post and make sure you don't have any paragraphs that are huge. These are referred to as "text blocks of doom". Split them up into smaller paragraphs--it makes the application much easier to read.
Bold your fields. This is really snazzy--it makes the application wonderfully readable. Bold things by using the [b] and [/b] commands. Using < > in place of [ ] also works.
You type:
[b]Name:[/b] Bob Johnson.
[b]Where he lives:[/b] In a house along the River Olorun.
[b]Place of birth:[/b] A tiny village in southern Tortall.
What you get is:
Name: Bob Johnson.
Where he lives: In a house along the River Olorun.
Place of birth: A tiny village in southern Tortall.
Step three: Facing the mentors.
First, acquaint yourself with the rules. If it says not to do something, don't do it. Never post on another newbie's profile. Treat mentors with respect. We're doing this out of our own time, and we're trying to make your experience more enjoyable. So grant us a few minor things.
3.1 Courtesy, courtesy, courtesy
Remember to be generally polite to the moderators who are helping you with your profile. Their job isn't to make you feel bad, it's to help you make a character that you and everyone else can play with in the RP. They actually have a lot of experience and good ideas, and they can help you a lot once you're in the roleplay.
Also, please don't pester the mentors for crits. If you've not received a crit three or four days after you posted your profile, by all means bump your thread up with a post. However, it will not be appreciated if you PM the mentors constantly asking for more crit or if you bump your post up every few hours. All of the mentors do have real lives that take priority over Steelsings. That means we have to go to school, uni, or work, just like you, so we can't always come back to you with instant crit.
3.2 Crossing swords with the mentors
Suppose we suggest you change something in your profile and you really don't want to do it. For example, your character has a sword. We say your character can't have a sword. You now have two options.
Option one: "Yes they do have a sword and that's final. You can't make me change that."
Response: "Pity you couldn't join our RP."
Option two: "Well, I know swords were forbidden to commoners. But I believe Tammy states the palace guard could carry them, noble or not, and my character is immediately going to enter training to be in the palace guard. Furthermore, he's the oldest son of his family and his father was a member of the guard until he was injured on duty, so my character will inherit his father's blade, so that he may train to become a palace guard."
Response: "You seem to have taken into account our worries (commoners couldn't learn to use a sword and owning one is financially infeasible, etc) so we'll think on it and let you know."
If you take the option two route, there's no guarantee you'll get your way. But you'll have a much better chance of having your character be allowed to own and train with his sword, and you'll show us that you're willing to compromise and that you understand our concerns.
3.3 Disappearing
Don't expect to make one correction and be done. Don't get snippy if we ask you to make corrections. Overall, never just disappear. Once you're in the RP, you can play as often or as rarely as you like. But on this board, you have at most two weeks to impress us. If you suddenly go silent--even if it's after your second or even third revision--and there are still things we want fixed, we will vote no.
3.4 It works like this
Familiarize yourself with the way the mentoring system works. Understand what is going to happen and when, and build a timetable so that you know when things will happen with your profile.
Voting works on a bi-weekly schedule. One Wednesday, a mentor gathers up all the applications of that batch and they go into voting. The following Wednesday, the results are posted. Then a weeks' break, and then we gather the new applications again. Naturally, you are allowed to edit your application while it's in voting. This means that if you apply on a Tuesday, you have one week of reviews and edits before you get your results. If you apply on a Wednesday, you don't go into that day's batch, and you get two whole weeks.
3.5 It's a game!
Remember, nothing we say to you is personal. This is only a game you're applying for. If you have a problem with something a mentor said, don't scream or yell or report them to the Site Admin as being abusive-- contact them through Email or PM and just ask, politely, why. Maybe they didn't explain themselves well enough or you didn't understand, and if you talk to them you can just figure things out. We're not yelling at you, so don't yell at us.
This is the hardest part. We're the mountains before Oregon, the billygoat on the bridge, the battle with Sephiroth before you reach the Promised Land. Once you're past us (hopefully with your new, improved, shiny and spiffy char,) you won't have to face criticism like this again.
Step four: Working with rejection.
So you've worked on that character and yet it was rejected. It's annoying, it's disappointing, it's frustrating--yes, we know, each and every one of the mentors had to go through the Hopefuls at some point. We judge on a wide variety of factors. This means that we'll look at the other posts you make on the forum as well as your application thread and we'll always take into account your general attitude and understanding of what the roleplay is all about.
Some reasons your profile may have been rejected include: poor grammar, lack of courtesy, plagiarism, a lack of realism, displays of immaturity and bad behavior elsewhere on the forum, displays of immaturity and bad behavior in general, we see this character type several times a week already. If you don't understand why you've been rejected, feel free to PM a mentor or Roleplay Head and ask, and they will be more than willing to help you understand why. If you wish to reapply, they'll also give you some pointers.
In conclusion:
Being accepted to the roleplay can seem like a very hard thing to do. It's entirely frustrating, we know, but the system is there for a very good reason: when we look at profiles, we realize that without the system, the RP would be invaded by Gifted Shang, Yamani princesses, people with Wild Magic coming out of their butts and there was even an application once for some half-animal character. Your best weapons in this fight are patience and courtesy, and they are to be used without limitations.