Post by dcwazzy on Sept 26, 2009 19:35:57 GMT -5
LACONIC RULES
If that is still not enough for you, or if you are a masochist, please continue reading.
GENERAL RULES
QUICK THOUGHTS ON "REALISTIC CHARACTERS"
ON APPEARANCE
ON PERSONALITY
ON HISTORY
We are not going to make a blanket statement like "show, don't tell" because you can't really 'show' everything without getting off-track and making the profile obnoxiously long (which, if this is what you want, is fine, but sometimes it gets tedious and annoying and sort of a case of "get on with it already.") "Show" when you think it's appropriate and/or needed. "Tell" when it really isn't.
Furthermore, "show" does not mean "write copious amounts of description". It means something like writing something like "Rick kicked the door open and stormed off to his room" instead of "Rick was angry". Instead of being told the character is angry, you are being shown it and are allowed to draw your own conclusions about how the character is feeling. (The "lots of description" definition of "show, don't tell" plagues the writing community like swine flu. Seriously.)
- Type well, write coherently, and above all, stay on topic.
- Be realistic both in terms of this Pokémon setting (e.g. no Digimon, you follow time travel rules) and in reality (e.g. people don't do bizarre, unjustified actions just for the sake of getting your character on a boat to Avalon).
- Your character can't start with items that can be used in battle/on a Pokémon (e.g. a Fire Stone, a Quick Claw), Pokémon or anything like that.
- If you can properly justify it and it doesn't interfere with any of the above rules, go for it.
If that is still not enough for you, or if you are a masochist, please continue reading.
GENERAL RULES
- Use your best grammar, punctuation, and spelling. As long as it is comprehensible, not an eyesore, and it's clear that you really tried, you will not be attacked by any staff grammar Nazis.
- Write in paragraph form. Do not list things in the history, personality or appearance sections unless you want to do both a list and paragraphs for these sections (e.g. "This is my character in a nutshell, scroll down for more in-depth descriptions").
EXAMPLES:
"Karma is cool, awesome, egotistical and very silly." Not okay.
"Karma acts egotistical at times, often giving herself flattering descriptions in threads. However, because she can usually be found joking around and generally treating everything without any serious thought, the egoism is nothing more than a running gag for her... usually, at least." Okay. - Characters that do not belong in a Pokémon setting do not belong here. This includes, but is not limited to, Digimon, anthropomorphic animals
(mostly so Karma doesn't overrun the forum with her furry characters), supernatural/mythical creatures, beings of super power, and George Bush. If you are confused about what you may role play and what you may not, a general rule of thumb is that if it is a Pokémorph or a human, you will most likely be accepted, or at least won't have your character rejected on account of their species. - You may not role play canon characters from any series (not just Pokémon) or infringe the continuity/canon of either Avalon or Pokémon. While not role playing canon characters is generally self-explanatory ("But I wanted to role play Ash Ketchum!"/"YOU ARE ROLE PLAYING THAT CHARACTER SO WRONG!"), some people don't see why they can't mention a political uprising in Kanto that caused their character to flee the region or add onto the forum's continuity.
As for Pokémon canon, it simply gets messy. If we allowed people to write their own additions to Pokémon canon in their profiles, then people would contradict each other at every turn. To take the political uprising from above, let's say we have several characters' profiles mention it, but then we get a few characters who came from Kanto at the exact same time as the political uprising refugees... and explicitly say that nothing of the sort was going on in Kanto. Or, a more simple example, if we had one character say, "This character beat Lance of the Elite Four and was the first one to win against him since Ethan/Gold/Lyra/whoever of Johto" and had another one say, "No, mine was", then who's right?
Avoid making drastic implications on canon. If you absolutely must have something drastic happen in your character's backstory but can't do it without infringing on canon, simply make up your own region for your character to come from! That way, you won't have to worry about stepping on the Pokémon continuity's toes.
As for making "edits" or "additions" to Avalon's continuity, it's the same as above, but it'd contradict even more than other profiles: it'd contradict NPCs, board descriptions, the plot, the whole nine yards. If you absolutely want your character to be native to Avalon and aren't sure how far you can take certain things in your profile, talk to a staff member about it, particularly an admin. (Karma, being the one who made most of the region's history and general canon, is a good option to talk to.) - Personality, history, and appearance should all mesh together properly. For example, if you mention your character is very self-conscious and thinks he/she is so ugly because everyone told him/her that when he/she was young, it's unlikely that the character will be wearing those super hawt clothes from the Pokémon world's equivalent of Abercrombie and Fitch without some sort of explanation. (And that'd better be a very good explanation, too.)
QUICK THOUGHTS ON "REALISTIC CHARACTERS"
- Characters who are overpowered and/or practically flawless will not be accepted. However...
- ...Characters who are not flawless, but have flaws seemingly just "tacked on" in a hasty way to "prove" the character isn't a Mary Sue will also not be accepted.
- Characters with "tragic" or "dark and troubled" pasts will not be denied outright simply because "this is Pokémon and Pokémon is happy and YOUR CHARACTER MUST BE HAPPY TOO". However...
- ...If your character doesn't have any repercussions of any sort (mental, physical, emotional, etc) from whatever abuse they suffered in the past, then you'd better have a very good explanation in the profile.
- Explanations in general are your friend. For every action your character takes, for every attribute they have, you need an explanation. Now, of course you don't have to put every explanation in the profile (please don't), but for drastic or odd actions/attributes, you might want to consider putting the explanation in there.
For example, let's say Rick's parents are murdered in the night, and he discovers their bodies when he comes home late from a party several hours after they're killed; fearing for his life, he runs away into the wilderness, then hops onto a boat to Avalon and decides to go into hiding in this new region. Now, several questions could arise from this behavior:- Why didn't he call the police?
- Why didn't anyone go looking for him?
- Why Avalon, of all places?
These kind of questions probably should have answers in the profile because many (not all, of course, but many) would call the police if they found their parents dead, or they'd have people looking for them if they ran away.
"Why didn't he call the police?" Because Rick stopped trusting the police after his dad kept complaining about how corrupt and lazy they are. Furthermore, Rick wasn't thinking all too rationally at the time, and after he was far away from his house and had gotten over the initial shock, didn't think that calling the police to report the crime would amount to anything.
"Why didn't anyone go looking for him?" None of Rick's relatives heard about the murder until months after the fact because they all lived in a different region, the police were, again, corrupt and lazy and thus couldn't be bothered with finding a stupid kid, and he had friends who did go looking for him, but couldn't find him because he didn't try to contact them while on the run.
"Why Avalon?" He heard a few things about the time portals and, because he misunderstood what was going on in Avalon, thought he could go back in time and stop the murder of his parents from happening.
By supplying explanations, you not only justify the character's actions, but you also show more of their personality. Characterization is rarely a bad thing to show off. - Why didn't he call the police?
- Characters who display superpowers and/or special gadgets that are not necessarily overpowered but do not fit in Avalon's setting (e.g. can time travel without a portal but only when very specific and often ludicrous requirements are met) will also not be accepted.
- It may be a shocker to some people, but a realistic character isn't really the antithesis to the "popular" definition of a Mary Sue. Realistic characters are about balancing the flaws and redeeming features, creating a person who, even if they travel around with a colorful dog that spits fire and a fox that poops darkness, could potentially be someone you could meet in the real world. It does not mean "pile on the flaws and screw redeeming traits".
ON APPEARANCE
- Avoid subjective words like "handsome", "good-looking", "ugly", "beautiful" and "gorgeous". Beauty itself is subjective, so it naturally is different from person to person. As such, while it may seem very telling to you if you say "She has a gorgeous face", this really doesn't give any concrete imagery for the person reading. As such, if you use subjective words to describe your character's looks, you might want to consider adding something like "She thinks she has a gorgeous face". Adding this kind of thing also helps characterize your character, which isn't a bad thing most of the time. However, if you can, try to be as objective, rather than subjective, as possible. (Unless your profile is in first-person, in which case it's more acceptable to be subjective.)
- Try to describe as much of the character as you can. If you spend a few paragraphs on their eyebrows but never make mention of what their hair color is, that's a problem.
- Unless your character truly only has one or two sets of clothing, you might want to be general about what they wear ("Rick usually wears jeans, T-shirts and a baseball cap") because otherwise you may indirectly imply that they are like our favorite cartoon/anime/comic book/manga characters that have limited wardrobes.
ON PERSONALITY
- Just as you shouldn't use subjective words to describe your character's personality, try to be objective with personality, too. "Rick is an evil young man" doesn't say much, and neither does "John is really funny", whereas "Many people think Rick is evil, and he often agrees with them, because sometimes he finds his own murders to be abhorrent" is a lot more telling.
- Very few people act exactly the same no matter what situation they're in; if you're having trouble writing enough on your character's personality, consider some "extreme" or just flat-out bizarre situations and how your character would react, like...
- Someone just confesses undying love to your character. What do they think of the person for saying something like that? Are they flattered? Annoyed? Embarrassed? Do they think it's a joke?
- The police come up to your character and say that he/she is under arrest. Does your character think it was some sort of mistake? Wonder how they could have been caught for "that" crime because they covered it up so well? Does your character run away? Attack the police?
- Your character spots a Legendary Pokémon. What is their reaction? Do they try to take a picture? Strike up a conversation? Capture it? Try to figure out if it's a real Pokémon and not just a Ditto or something?
- Someone just confesses undying love to your character. What do they think of the person for saying something like that? Are they flattered? Annoyed? Embarrassed? Do they think it's a joke?
- Let's try to go beyond good and evil; there are truthfully very few irredeemably evil people and very few perfectly good people in the world. Even criminals might have good sides, and even the nicest people you know just might be incredibly scary if ticked off. If you want to role play a character who is really EVIL, then consider the following:
- Does he/she act evil all the time? Wouldn't he/she at least have a persona to use when in public so that the police don't come after him/her?
- Does he/she even think of himself/herself as evil? (People who do morally wrong things under the impression that they're doing the right thing are very common in the real world, both living and dead.)
- Why is he/she evil? Why does he/she do the things that he/she does?
- And finally, are there things that your character thinks are wrong or just plain wouldn't do, even if they seem "evil"? For example, maybe your character really doesn't care about Pokémon and sees them as tools of war, but outright abusing a Pokémon is something he/she would never do. Maybe your character is okay with murder, but prolonged torture and agonizingly slow deaths cross the line for him/her.
And if you want to play a character who is really GOOD, then consider the following:- Are there things that make your character upset? What happens when your character gets angry? Does he/she get violent? Scream a lot? Try to obsessively correct whatever wrong was wrought?
- What is your character's personality aside from being "good"? Too often people make "good" characters that only have personality traits like "likes Pokémon" and "tries to make friends wherever he/she can".
It is very easy to fall into the trap of "stereotypical hero/villain" when making characters with the intention of "I want them to be a good/evil person!" Make sure you could still imagine this character living in the real world (minus the Pokémon) and never think to yourself, "Gee, this person is like something out of a bad fanfiction!" - Does he/she act evil all the time? Wouldn't he/she at least have a persona to use when in public so that the police don't come after him/her?
ON HISTORY
- Again, sensible histories that do not contradict the continuity of the forum or Pokémon are the only things that are gonna be accepted.
- Histories must take your character to the present-day. As in, even if you have a really long section on their childhood, you must take them up to the point where they're arriving in Avalon (or otherwise going to the Little River farms to get their starter).
- Some quick facts about Avalon's continuity that might otherwise be overlooked:
- Pokémorphs were created about forty years ago. Keep that in mind as you make your character if he or she is a 'morph, or if their history mentions 'morphs.
- Time travel only recently started happening, so characters who time travel in their childhood are probably a no-go. ("Probably" is the keyword here; you may find some way to make it work.)
- If the second apocalypse is averted, then an entire future could cease to exist past the year 2031 and be replaced by a new one. Your character may or may not believe this or even consider it, but it's definitely something to keep in mind if you're making a character who is die-hard "stop the apocalypse" or just as crazy about making sure it happens.
- Pokémorphs were created about forty years ago. Keep that in mind as you make your character if he or she is a 'morph, or if their history mentions 'morphs.
We are not going to make a blanket statement like "show, don't tell" because you can't really 'show' everything without getting off-track and making the profile obnoxiously long (which, if this is what you want, is fine, but sometimes it gets tedious and annoying and sort of a case of "get on with it already.") "Show" when you think it's appropriate and/or needed. "Tell" when it really isn't.
Furthermore, "show" does not mean "write copious amounts of description". It means something like writing something like "Rick kicked the door open and stormed off to his room" instead of "Rick was angry". Instead of being told the character is angry, you are being shown it and are allowed to draw your own conclusions about how the character is feeling. (The "lots of description" definition of "show, don't tell" plagues the writing community like swine flu. Seriously.)