Applications

[Secutor]

Hey guys. I've been reading applications lately and I have a few thoughts for you. Recently, there have been some very good apps and, frustratingly, some very borings apps. There is a fine line between a "boring application" and a "bad/inappropriate application". The latter is exactly what it sounds like, and will be rejected or require reworking before approval. The former gives us no reason to vote "no" other than its complete lack of impressiveness, and that just puts us in a bind. If we approve these applications, we flood our setting and factions with unimpressive characters, and give them perks that they probably would not utilize in any exciting or innovating fashion. If we reject them, we do not have a good rationale to give you for turning you down, and that's not a place any of us want to be in. It leaves you frustrated with us for being jerks, and us frustrated with you for being a lumpy, banal clod.

So! For the betterment of everyone's personal-well being and the setting's scale of excitement, here are some things I would be ecstatic if you kept in mind when thinking about and writing an application.

0) This comes before anything else. Your goals are not a justification for your perk. Please, never ever click Submit New Thread in the Submissions forum if your goals include obvious, obligatory fluff.
[hide="Examples"]E.g.: A Stygian whose goals consist of "destroying all enemies of the Armada" and "showing off his martial prowess as a warrior", a druid of the Stewards who wishes to "protect the balance" and "learn as many herbal remedies as possible", or a werebeast who intends to "strike fear into the heart of the colony".[/hide] These are all ENDS, your goals should describe your MEANS.
[hide="Examples"]E.g.: The Stygian shall defeat his enemies by acquisition scandalous or implicative information about his opposites via his PC spies which he uses to blackmail them for their wealth, then denounce them into exile. The Steward will preserve the island's balance at all costs by uncovering ancient, lost druidic lore to use as a terrible weapon against the colony, that creeping, hateful blight that will soon destroy what he holds so dear, even if it costs him his soul. The chaotic-aligned werewolf will do his cunning best to prevent any to link his two identities, using his human shape to cultivate an impending sense of fear among the people masquerading as a retired werewolf hunter, and his beast forms to challenge roamers of the wilderness; killing some, cruelly sparing others, and befriending a few.[/hide] Go beyond the basics of your class and what you are applying for.

1) Get fucking imaginative! I mean this as peppy, enthused, and unphased as possible! Take a faction, a subrace, or a simple concept (cultist, archaeologist, merchant) and carry it outside the box. Waaay outside the box. I know you guys can do this. Memorable Watchmen are secretly slavers, famous gang warlords are as flamboyantly gay as they are terrible and powerful, distinguished scholars raise armies of the dead just to prove the benefice of necromancy, and bohemian freedom fighters run illegal gambling and smuggling operations in the back rooms of their stew shops. Don't get silly though: monster races are evil and acting outside of a faction's prerogative requires slyness.
Futhermore, don't be afraid to make sacrifices just for fun. Gaining levels, money, and loot falls under "boring" to me. Don't save, use! [hide="Ejemplos"]Your death cult calls for you to kill yourself and your new recruit in the initiation process in order to form a bond through a "true death". Your robin-hood-esque vagabond bard heroically attacks slavers and gluttonous merchants who will unerringly kill him should they catch him, shouting some warcry or his own name to onlookers before disappearing under invisibility, just to promote himself or his cause. Your scheming archaeologist makes gifts of rare artifacts to powerful benefactors to protract their good will in order to reach some perilous goal with their needed aid, instead of donating those finds to the museum.[/hide] Some of these are a little ridiculous! but you get the picture. Do what people don't expect, get yourself out of the normalcies of your character's function in the gameworld, as a certain class, as a politician, or as an advocate of this or that cause.

2) Make your goals as player-friendly as humanly possible. DMs love to help you make sweet characters, reward you, and run you quests and plots to make you problem solve and allow you to showcase your amazingness. What we don't like to do much of (or don't have time for) is the daily intrigue, socialization, haggling, and character bonding that makes roleplaying that much deeper in a persistent world. You, as a player, will probably be logging many more hours in game than most DMs will. So will many of your fellow players. Use that to your advantage. Figure out methods to pursue your goals with and against other players. You will get bored if you do not. Finding new ways to make non-DM supervised EfU:A interesting to yourself and everyone you involve yourself with is probably one of the most impressive things you can put on an app. Applications can be boring to us because we may foresee them boring you. That is the sole reason we promote player conflict as much as we do, to keep you interested when we are busy building, preparing, or taking time off. As much as I would like to be in game every day for hours, possessing beggars to throw their turds at your pretty adventuring mugs, I have a busy life.

3) Look back at your application after you finish it. Stop pondering about how sweet it would be to play this character and consider what you would think of it were you a DM and had this in front of your face.

4) If you are unsure of your concept, ask opinions from fellow players and DMs. Get feedback questions like: "do you think I will have fun with this concept?", "do you think others will enjoy playing with this character?", and "is this going to capture people's imaginations?".



To long; didn't read: In your applications, especially in your goals section, make the readers as interested in the concept as you are.

[Kotenku]

Post is not long enough.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

Good advice.

[TheImpossibleDream]

I'm going to add nothing constructive but give a thumbs up to increase my post count. Here's a smiley face so it appears less shameless :)

[KRUNTO]

tldr

[Gippy]

Very great post.

[Caddies]

I love when someone else articulates your thoughts for you, saving you the trouble. Good post.

[Dr Dragon]

Epic post

[Secutor]

5) Tell us more about the situations that your character is planning to instigate. Tell us less about how your character is going to react to foreseeable events that were instigated by others.

[Jasede]

I don't like this being urged to be thinking outside the box and be something "innovative". A well-played stereotype > a character who is weird and non-stereotypical for the sake of it.

I don't think it's right to encourage players to "have" to have some outside the box, weird or extremely unique idea- I am sure there are plenty players who'd rather play something traditional: cunning merchant, vile werebeast, something simple that they'll do to the best of their ability. And I am sure some of them are able to play such a "boring" stereotype so well that it'd be a great addition to the setting, not a detriment.

So, yeah. Being unique just for the sake of it defeats the purpose. It's much better if your character is organic and makes sense than if he's just made for the sense of being "interesting".

(Still good post, I am just rambling. It's late, I am sorry. In before Caddies-flames.)

[Daemonic Daz]

Don't forget that #efuapps is there for a reason, we're not going to ridicule you if we think your app is boring/ not unique/whatever. We'll be more than happy to poke you in the right direction to make a excellent application/character that will benefit the server as a whole.

[Secutor]

You're right, Jasede. Well-played traditional character types are just as good as unusual devices. However, if all that cunning merchant does is sit around and sell shit, nobody's going to to care. The what doesn't matter nearly as much as the what they do.

[derfo]

initative* is cool