Character Applications: Tips For Making Top-Notch Roleplaying Applications

If you love text-based role-play, then you're probably familiar with filling out character applications. They can take hours of your time and then you have to worry that they may not even be accepted.

I have over six years of experience moderating and have read hundreds of applications. I know what I look for and have only been rejected from one game in my time (their Hermione was a mod and was looking for a more sexy, less-flawed, Ron Weasley). I have had to fill out revisions and have made requests for revisions to be submitted to me, in turn.

This check list won't be fool-proof, but it will help to make sure that your application is thorough and leaves no room for question.

Character Application Checklist

Personality

Flaws: Your character cannot be the super best friend of everyone. What are her short-comings as a human being? These flaws, if concretely defined early on, will not only stop you from being marked as a Mary Sue, but will also give you room for character growth later on.

Sexy Flaws: A not really physically detracting scar or a flaw that is glamourous or can be toughed through is not a real flaw.

Practical Flaws: Your character is also a Mary Sue if their only real limitations are in their head. Practical Flaws are drawbacks that you can't get over or willpower through and you need at least one of these. Examples include: near-sighted, bad at math, bad back, can't swim, etc.

Likes and Dislikes: It may seem simple, but I have seen players scramble to know what their character likes. Even if it's just a meme you put in your journal behind a cut, have a clear list of hobbies, favorites, and things they dislike. It will help the simpler interaction later to know that Ron hates corned beef or that John is obsessed with Oreos.

History

Chronology: Make sure to put everything in chronological order and clearly label the flow of time. Statements like "When she was seven" or "Shortly after" give a sense of a timeline. I have received an application that had absolutely no sense of time or the order of events. I didn't think it was possible to forget time in a history, but it happened. En media res is a trick you can save for your own fiction. In a straight character biography, make it simple and clear.

Mind the Gaps: Make sure that every span of time is accounted for. If three years pass between life-defining events, mention it. Even if all they did was live comfortably and work at a nice job, mention it. We need to know what happened between those years.

Format

Length: An application that can fit on a page with minimal scrolling is probably too short and will make a moderator think you half-assed it. An application that is more than four pages in 12 font will make a tired moderator skim it and miss the details of your character. If you have a novel to write, save some of it for in-game. Be thorough, but don't make your application so much work that moderators will dread it. Length doesn't guarantee it's good, anyway.

Clarity: Html can help (bold form fields like Age: 17, Gender: Male) but it's not needed. On the internet, two scientific facts prevail; Sans-serif fonts are easier to read on a monitor and text is more palatable broken up into smaller, narrow chunks.

At the very least, without any Html, put headers in ALL CAPS and put return spaces between sections.

Experts can put the whole application in a blockquote to make a more narrow column. Change the font-family to Sans-Serif (Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, etc). Bold headers and add return spaces between paragraphs. Indents are hard to do on the internet, and you shouldn't combine paragraph indents with block spacing in a body of text anyway. Avoid scary color choices or white on black text. It's hard to read. Use some design sense if you're going to code it up.

Answer Everything and Then Put it Behind a Cut: Make sure every field is filled out. Proof-read it for silly grammar or spelling mistakes that will make mods want to nit-pick for more, and then make sure it's behind a cut. Nobody wants to add you to their game and then have to scroll through your whole application on their friend page. MAKE SURE IT IS VISIBLE TO MODS. At least once a month I receive an application that the player forgot to unlock.

*NOTE* Since creating this post I have left text-based RP. Working on my own fiction and business endeavors has taken my time away, but mostly the decision was made based on the current climate of the community. For those still toughing it out and fighting through the drama, flakes, and word-count elitism to find good gaming, good luck!