Writing a Character Profile

This is the character outline! We’ve provided for you detailed descriptions of what every section is and little hints for completing each if you need it. When you're done, you should post this in a thread within the Characters and Resources section :>! Please note that the Crossroads and all of its sub-boards (i.e. Character Fiction) are the RP boards of the BA. Therefore, you may not post in these boards until your character has been approved by a Councilor.

Spoiler: Empty Template (copy this to make your profile)  

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[B]Name:[/B] 
[B]Nickname /Alias:[/B] 
[B]Age:[/B] 
[B]Apparent Age:[/B] 
[B]Sex:[/B] 
[B]Race:[/B] 
[B]Height:[/B] 
[B]Weight:[/B] 
[B]Eye Color:[/B] 
[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B] 
[B]Skin Color/Complexion:[/B]

[B]Appearance:[/B] 


[B]Weapon(s):[/B] 

[B]Armor:[/B] 

[B]Carried Possessions:[/B] 


[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] 
[I]Limits:[/I] 
[I]Side-Effects:[/I] 

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] 
[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] 

[B]Other:[/B] 

[B]Personality:[/B] 

[I]Likes:[/I] 
[I]Dislikes:[/I] 
[I]Fears:[/I] 
[I]Virtues:[/I] 
[I]Vices:[/I] 

[B]History:[/B] 


Please note: all sections with a † marker denotes a section that isn’t required when completing your profile.

Name: Full name of your character! Feel free to talk about what it means or how they got it; if they have a nick name or alias put it in this section! Please remember to be original :)
† Nickname /Alias: - If your character feels the need to hide themselves behind another name, state this here.
Age: - How old is your character? How long have they been alive? If no one knows, just put in an estimate or "unknown".
† Apparent Age: - How old your character appears to be to others. In most circumstances characters will look their age. Put N/A if they don't look older or younger than they are.
Sex: - Male or female? Intersex? No sex?
Race: Choose a race that you want your character to be. Always make sure you understand the basics behind the race. If you’re new to role-playing I recommend that you pick an easy race for your character, for example human.
Height: - How tall are they? (Please include an indication of the unit of measurement used.)
Weight: - What's the scale say about your character? Remember, not everyone's anorexic, not everyone's obese. (Please include an indication of the unit of measurement used.)
Eye Color: - yellow, blue, purple, black, red? What's the color?
Hair Color/Style: - Blond, brown, red, blue? Tell us about the hair!
Skin Color/Complexion: - Tan, pale, fair, dark, freckles, bad acne? Tell us about the skin, or scales, or whatever.

Appearance: - You'll want to be as descriptive as possible with this, because other members need to know what your character looks like and we only have your words to go off of! Do they have scars, birthmarks, are they muscular, are they fat, etc. What kind of clothing do they wear? What does their face/facial structure look like?

Things you're really gonna need to include are things like race (or species!), height, weight, hair/eye colour, how their hair is styled, and skin colour/complexion. Feel free to go into more detail on these things, but if you have them listed in the previous sections above, it'll probably be just fine.

Needs to be at least one paragraph. Even if you have a picture, please act as if no one else can see it and give us adequate summary in words. Pictures alone will not suffice for most things in the profile. This is because pictures might not work for everyone who views it for whatever the reasons, or the location from which your picture comes from has changed or it has been removed. There are a lot of reasons a picture will not be a stable and constant reliable reference for your character's appearance as well as other things. Also, this is a role play writing form. It doesn't need to be super detailed, but you should be able to give enough detail to give people a general idea of what your character looks like in words.

Weapon(s): Describe your character's weapon, if it has one. How did he/she come by it, where is it kept when not in use, does it hold any special powers? Even if you have a picture, please act as if no one else can see it and give us a good summary in words.

Armor: Pretty much the same as Weapon. You can also include a description of your character's clothing here if not in General Appearance. Even if you have a picture, please act as if no one else can see it and give us a good summary in words.

† Carried Possessions: What your character carries on him or her on any given day. Could be potions, clean underwear or a lucky coin. No need to go into detail unless the item holds some significance. Then you can elaborate. Is the item an heirloom, a souvenir from battle or something he/she picked up from a traveling merchant? Even if you have a picture, please act as if no one else can see it and give us a good summary in words.

Powers/Magic/Skills: - Be pretty with details and explanations. List your character's current special abilities, be they magic or fancy sword styles. Where do the powers come from? Were they inherited, self taught, maybe forced upon your character? What do they look like in action? If your character doesn't possess any spells or other stuff we should know about, leave N/A here.

† The below sections are only optional if you haven't already listed them above.
Limits: - What are the limits to your character's powers? How often can he/she use them, will they need to recharge afterwards and for how long? What's the reach of the power? All powers must have some sort of limit.
Side-Effects: - Visible aspects of your character's power, or other side effects. For example, a fire mage having a higher body temperature than normal, or a werewolf having yellow eyes even when not transformed. Be creative.

Rules of Thumb - By rule of thumb, the stronger and more powerful and more skilled your character is the longer and more detailed this section of the profile needs to be. You can't halfheartedly fill it out because a Councilor will come along to approve it and tell you to add more details and limits. This is to prevent intentional or unintentional godmoding.

Very high powered characters can be approved, but only if the details and limits to their powers are to a Councilor's approval. Newbies may be asked to lower powers and improve them later after completing RPs, building the character's strength over time in updates. As a rule of thumb, only one power, magic spell, or skill improvement or addition per RP. However, this will be left up to the judgment of your Councilor as well. If you intend to add an update, consult the Councilor who approved your character. They will work with you on what they will accept for approval later, after it occurs in the RP and then the profile can be updated to show the addition/improvement. If an update pops up unexpectedly in an RP, consult your Councilor as soon as possible for approval (there will be repercussions if you don't). As you gain experience as an RPer, you will be allowed to make more powerful characters provided you have adequately shown that you write your existing characters responsibly and have used them sufficiently.

For more information on editing or updating your character's profile, see the Editing/Updating Policy.

Battle Strengths: - List, describe, explain the strengths your character has in battle. Three to five is reasonable, depending on your character's background. More is allowed, but don't overdo it, please. Be detailed.
Battle Weaknesses: - Yes, everyone's got them. Superman had Kryptonite, so even the most invincible have their Achilles heel. You must have at least enough weaknesses to balance out your character's Strengths. Please detail these thoroughly as well.

† Other: - Anything else we should know?

Personality: - This should be one of your longer sections; everything about your character really needs to be spelled out for us. Every bit of information that your character has out in the open, or maybe doesn't realize that they have, should be presented here. Some sections you may want to include (in listed format if you wish):

† Likes: - What does your character like?
† Dislikes: - Anything your character isn't that fond of? Put it here.
† Fears: - Most people fear something, be it death, spiders or heights. Your character is probably scared too.
† Virtues: Good points about your character that are not covered by battle strengths. Go easy on these.
† Vices: Character flaws--weaknesses and the like. Make sure these flaws will make an impact on your character. Try to mention at least as many vices as virtues. Can be in list format.

History: - Now you'll tell us your character's background, its life from childhood to where ever it is today. Think this through! As your character develops through playing you can add to its history, but not change what is already written. We want at least two paragraphs of at least four sentences each. Now, this may sound like a lot but if you really get into your character it shouldn't pose that much of a problem. Where did he/she grow up? Did he/she have a lot of friends? Even if your character has no recollection of its past (and characters like that do pop up from time to time), you should. And so should we.

Formatting Your Profile

If you are feeling particularly ambitious, you could create a slightly more specific profile with sections and sub-sections designating things not listed here. Feel free to experiment with your profile – some members choose to be creative with their profiles and format them as interviews or reports on subjects. Don’t feel enclosed within the boundaries we’ve set out. As long as you answer the questions posed by the sections from above, you’re still going to be approved :>

Waiting for Approval

So once you have filled out and completed the profile template above for your character, you then post it in Characters & Resources with your character's name in the title of the thread. Then you wait for a Councilor to come by to approve it. Three days isn't an unusual wait period. Sometimes Councilors will get to it within an hour of it being posted. Other times, it takes a Councilor longer. If you ever feel it is taking too long for a Councilor to get to your character, feel free to PM one and request an approval. The Councilor is likely to either do it themselves or point you in the direction of a more active and available Councilor who can. In any case, do try to be patient.

Editing and/or Updating a Character Profile Post-Approval

We have an Editing/Updating Policy for character profile for after their first initial approval. The policy thread covers the finer details. Updates are changes to the character's profile that are acquired through the story-telling of written RPs that your character engages in. Characters can get new weapons, items, armor, powers, magic, and skills through RPs. Characters can grow in strength and items as well as in personality and appearance over time (via RPs). See the editing/updating policy for the specific rules on adding these changes as well as any changes you want to make that are not done via RPing (an edit).

By rule of thumb, only one power, magic spell, or skill improvement or addition per RP. In addition to this, only one weapon, item (of magical or otherwise special properties), or armor per RP. However, this is not a rule set in stone. In some RPs, a character can go through a dramatic and sudden change via story-telling (i.e. turning in a vampire/werewolf/etc.). If you want your character to go through a dramatic change of some kind or gain multiple abilities and items, consult your Councilor. It will be up to their discretion and judgment if your character will be allowed all these changes, only some of them, or none of them.

If you intend to add an update, consult the Councilor who approved your character. They will work with you on what they will accept for approval later, after it occurs in the RP and then the profile can be updated to show the addition/improvement. If an update pops up unexpectedly in an RP, consult your Councilor as soon as possible for approval (there will be repercussions if you don't). If the Councilor who first approved your character's profile is no longer available, consult a new Councilor. Let them know who was the first and/or previous Councilor to work with you on your character's approval. Please contact a Councilor by PM (Private Message) or VM (Visitor Message). Do not assume that silence means approval. Your Councilor must respond in order for changes to be approved.

You may post the desired changes in the character's thread with information regarding how and why these changes are occurring and in what RP they will come from. Provide links to the thread and even the specific posts where the change occurs, if the change popped up in the story-telling unexpectedly. Then notify your Councilor to look at it your post in the character's thread.

Once approved and the event in the RP occurs, you may edit the change into the character's profile. You may post an entirely new thread for the character's update if you so desire. This is recommended for dramatic and multiple changes. Just make sure your Councilor knows where to find the new thread, so that they may approve it.

Below is a profile that was created within two hours or so (gimme a break, I’m busy!) It’s not horribly in-depth – it’s simple, to the point and it gets the job done. Don’t feel required to go overboard with detail; it adds a lot of clutter. Verbosity only proves that you can type a lot.

Name: Paul Montini
Age: 8
Sex: Male
Race: Human

Appearance:
Paul is a short boy for his age, about 3’8 and weighs about 60 pounds (when he’s been tossed in a pond and allowed to soak, of course). On his head is a mop of blonde hair, that hangs straight and loose to his dark green eyes. On his head rests a small green night cap, which he more often than not loses as he travels.

His thin frame is covered in a long light (very light, almost white) blue night shirt which hangs nearly to his ankles, his feet covered in tiny brown slippers which don’t cover his heels and occasionally flop as he walks. Under this he wear tighty-whiteys. He wouldn’t be naked, that’s just vulgar!

Carried Possessions:
He only has two possessions which he carries with him as he travels; a silver pocket watch which sits in the pocket of his night shirt above his left breast and a small hand-held lantern which is always lit in a dark place. Both are gifts from his mother.

Magic:
Paul is a very powerful little mage. Very very powerful. The problem is, he cannot use his magic consciously nor can he even use it while conscious! He sort of leaks magic as he sleeps and that just sorta works itself.

His magic has developed into such a way that it will defend Paul when he is in danger, quickly sending him to sleep. When this happens, every living thing within a hundred feet of him will also fall asleep and all of them will be within Paul’s dreams.

Time within the dream is distorted from that of the real world; a hundred days could pass there and only a minute in the real world could pass. Or perhaps ten minutes will pass within the dream and only one in the real world. It varies from dream to dream.

Everything that happens in the dream to the participants occurs in real life. If you climbed a tree and fell from it landing on your bottom, it would hurt. If you received a cut, it would be there when you awoke.

Battle Strengths:
While Paul has no conscious control over his magical dreams, they inherently function in a manner of defending him. They’ll create obstacles for pursuers; send wild animals after thieves, perhaps they’ll provide him with a hot breakfast of bangers and mash. There is almost no limit to what can occur within his dreams, just as there is almost no limit within dreams.

Battle Weaknesses:
Once something has spawned within his dreams, does not necessarily mean that it will always be on the side. The tiger which chases the thief, is just as liable to go after Paul.

Second problem is that on occasion Paul will fall asleep and enter into nightmare. When this occurs the surrounds of his dream will be distorted and dark and nothing within the dream will help him and very often his worst fears will come to haunt him. Things that occur within nightmares have a tendency to be significantly stronger than within the normal dream. A paper cut might become a gash.

The third problem whilst asleep, he is utterly vulnerable (more than usual that is) to any outside forces that happen to be outside the radius effected by his magic and they could very easily wander up to him and prod him with a stick or something equally mean. :<

Another thing worth note: Paul is as trapped within the dream as anyone else involved. As of yet, he cannot end it of his own volition, it merely ends when it does.

Personality:
Paul is a very tired boy; it’s a side-effect of his narcolepsy. Consequentially, he’s very quiet. He doesn’t like loud noises or fighting and will often run away from them if he can (or else just fall asleep because of his condition). He approaches things slowly, with thought and prudence rather than quick decisions and dislikes being hurried or rushed. Paul enjoys being able to take his time.

The boy is a lover of fiction and occasionally pursues academic expeditions within the small study his father has, but mostly he just likes to read. He often sleep long hours and wake tired. He loves thick blankets that keep him nice and warm and hot cocoa.

Paul is hydrophobic, meaning he is scared of water. As a very young boy he suffered an attack whilst in the bath when his mother took a brief step out of the room to consult with a maid. Though he suffered no lasting damage from the experience, he is incredibly scared of entering large bodies of water and is very uncomfortable with any amount of water that goes past his hips.


History:
Paul is the son of very magically powerful parents; his father a renown enchanter and his mother great sorceress. However as Paul grew older, he seemed quite unable to perform magic as other children his age within the magicking community. And then he was faced with a second trial: narcolepsy.

For those unaware, narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes excessive sleepiness and frequent daytime sleep attacks. It is a nervous system disorder which can trigger sleep attacks when a person is emotionally disturbed (this can be something as simple as just being too excited in the day!) Needless to say, it’s not very fun!

During one episode however when Paul was seven, he had a very lucid dream; so clear, so distinct that it didn’t even feel as though it was a dream! He was playing with toy blocks in his room when his mother entered the house quite mad from a long day at work. She slammed the door, sending a huge crack throughout the house startling poor little Paul.

He jumped in his spot … and fell over asleep.

Oddly enough he woke up in his room immediately after that. He wandered downstairs into the dining room to see a very large bear sitting at the table in a slowly depressing chair. A very large bear who was quite upset, for he seemed to be dressed in very frilly and very pink dress. He slowly plopped into the room and ‘round the corner only to see his mother nervously sitting across the table from a very large bear sipping a cup of tea and pouring milk for the bear.

The bear let out a sudden roar tossing the table aside like a toy and his mother leapt from her chair and from the room grabbing her son by the arm and nearly carrying him down the hallway.

They stopped suddenly at the door to the home, for it was suddenly covered in thick brambles with large thorns. As the bear turned down the corridor into the main foyer, his mother turned and faced the bear as it began to charge them determination quickly taking over where surprise and fear had grabbed hold.

Quickly muttering something under her breath that made as much sense to Paul as “Boobly Googly Mash!” his mother stretched out her arm, extending her fingers and there was a flash of brilliant light.

For a few moments Paul huddled with his face into his mother’s back as she panted, emotions and strain from her sudden use of magic taking its toll on her but they did not get mauled or tossed aside by a large angry bear.

He removed her face from her back and saw that the bear was gone and instead there sat a tiny kitten which mewed up at him as he stared at it.

His mother ignored the animal though; she turned around on her son and stared around him as if seeing something that he couldn’t. Wiping tears from her eyes and hair from he face, she grasped his face gently moving it back and forth staring in his eyes as his head moved.

“Why aren’t you asleep, Paul?” she asked.

When he awoke, his mother, father and some physicians were standing over him. No one really spoke to him, they just sorta spoke over him. The doctors had never heard of the sort of thing. Magic while asleep. The very idea was preposterous! And yet it did happen.

And continued to happen.