User blog:Sophia McLaren-Cobb/A Guide to Character Approval

Hello everyone! It is I, Sophie, back again with another blog. Today, I'm going to talk about Character Approval, and this blog will mostly be the 101 on getting characters approved and ready for RP!

What is Character Approval?
Character Approval is a new approval system put in place to ensure that no character is overpowered or unrealistic. Overpowered characters can actually ruin an RP by being simply that: overpowered. Ensuring that these kinds of characters don't come to be as early as possible is essential to keeping RP fun and fair. Unrealistic characters are a different issue; these characters usually don't make sense in the realm of KoTLC, and while they are less of an issue as compared to overpowered characters, it is still best to ensure that such characters can be made realistic to the world of KoTLC.

The 101 on Approval
Since character approval is very much new, I myself did realize that a lot of people might not have a clue what everything on the approval form is, so I am here to break it all down to the last detail, so that everything becomes more clearer :) I will be using my own two characters Demelza and Adrijana as examples! The guide will be up to date with the approval form format as of October 27th.

The Basics
The Basics refers to the first four questions of the approval form. These are: Allow me to go in depth about each and what they are asking.
 * Describe your character's backstory.
 * What is your character's personality like?
 * What does your character look like?
 * Describe your character's skill set.

The History
A character's history/backstory tells the story of your character up until the present day in-character. Some characters may have had an exciting story prior to present day IC. Others may have had a boring one. But either way, here are some good tips to make a good backstory for a character!
 * Two paragraphs are the minimum required for history; but you can tell a much bigger story if you write more. Don't hesitate to write more; the more descriptive, the better!
 * Make sure to keep in mind the world of KoTLC; this means that deaths should be kept to a very low minimum, or avoided completely.
 * This also means that twins are rare and frowned upon, and that multiple children might not be a good thing for families.
 * Some things you should definitely mention in the history are:
 * The character's parents and how the character came to be
 * Their childhood
 * If they have manifested, when and what happened?
 * If they are currently a Foxfire student, how have their studies gone so far?
 * If they are a graduate, what are they currently doing?

The Personality
Personality is what gives characters their zing; it's what can make them stand out IC. Here's some tips for a strong personality:
 * Be descriptive! The minimum requirement is one paragraph, but the more you add, the better!
 * Be creative! Not all characters are innately moody or edgy; some might be happy-go-lucky, or complete rays of sunshine. Get creative with personality!

The Appearance
This might not be nearly as important, but how your character looks can help come up with some interesting interactions in RP! There's no real requirement here; if you have a model in mind, just saying who they are is good enough for this question :) Make sure your model is free for use in the User Model Registration though!

The Skillset
The skill set is merely a small list of things that your character might be good at doing. But of course, if a character didn't have weaknesses, that would make them what is called a Mary Sue, or an overpowered character. So ensure that your character has balance, and that they're not just good at everything. Also, get creative with your character's strengths and weaknesses! There's a lot of things that could be both, not just skill with their talent :)

The Ability Questions
The remaining part of the approval form are the Ability Questions. This includes the following: Let's break them down!
 * The Talentless Question
 * The Manifest Question
 * The Ability Quiz
 * The Second Ability Question
 * The Desired Talent Question

The Talentless Question
Is your character Talentless? That is the Talentless Question; it asks if your character is Talentless, or they essentially have no ability. The way you answer this question affects whether or not you'll need the remaining portion of the Ability Questions.
 * If you answer yes, then you'll not need to do any of the Ability Questions that follow.
 * If you answer no, then you'll have to at least do the Manifest Question, which will in turn be used to determine whether or not you'll need to answer the remaining questions.

The Manifest Question
Has your character manifested? This is the Manifest Question. It asks whether or not your character has manifested an ability; how you answer this will determine if the remaining questions are needed, and this question determines it if you answered no in the Talentless Question.
 * If you answer yes, you will not need to do the rest of the Ability Questions (those being the Ability Quiz, Second Ability and Desired Talent Questions)
 * If you answer no, you will have to do the Ability Quiz and/or either the Second Ability Question or the Desired Talent Question, depending on whether or not a special condition is met.

The Ability Quiz
The Ability Quiz is used to determine what ability your character will have, on the condition that they have not manifested yet. If they have, you will not need to do this. This will be divided with two collapsed section, because they'll be big. The first will discuss categories, and the second the talent answer groups.  

The Second Ability Question
If your character is a Polyglot, what is their secondary ability? This is the Second Ability Question. This one has a special condition attached to it: the character in question must be a Polyglot. It is there, because Polyglots more often than not have a second ability. That is all the question asks: what is that second ability? Don't answer it if your character is not a Polyglot.

The Desired Talent Question
If your character has not manifested, what talent would you (the user) like them to manifest with? That is the Desired Talent Question. It's pretty new, but its purpose is simple. It gives you the power of deciding what talent you want your own character to manifest with. This also has a special condition: characters who have not manifested yet will have this option open. This question is not required, but it is there for anyone who wants to have that choice.

Your thoughts?
So that was a handful, but hopefully this will help you guys get those characters approved quickly and ready for RP!

p.s. i know this is not completely finished, i will add the remaining bit tomorrow as i need to sleep, so hang tight! i will get it all done as soon as i can :)