Before you can create a character, you have to have a concept to pitch to staff for approval. Staff tend to be pretty open-minded about concepts, but the goal of a collaborative RP experience that is fun for everyone does require certain limitations to be placed upon what people can apply for.
Certain concepts are banned, though usually some adjustments to a concept can make it acceptable again.
When considering your character, remember that at any given time you will be part of what is called an Ensemble Cast. What this means is that all other characters are given roughly equivalent attention. While your character may be the focal point of a scene or small plotline, on the whole they are one of several. This is a difficult concept for some to adjust to, especially if playing a character from established media who is undisputably the sole protagonist. This applies to not just narrative power, but also general character capability. A series which has a single protagonist often, though not always, gives that character far more combat ability and a much wider range of competence than an ensemble, and as such they will likely need to be adjusted or reduced in scope to fit properly within the game.
New players to the game should fill out the Short Application and email it to the address listed in the Short Application's footer. Once this information is provided, you will either be asked for clarification on your concept, or be provided with login information to log on to the game and complete your application.
Players who already have a character on the game can simply use the +altreq command. For details on this, please see +help +altreq on the mush.
If you are not applying into an existing World, you will need to write a World app. For your first character, this should be a Bud or Blossom. First time players should not attempt to apply for a Thorn, Branch, Blight, or Dead World, as these are advanced metatheme concepts that can take longer to approve.
A Bud is a World that is only provided so that characters may be applied from it. It cannot normally be visited, and is still relatively isolated from the World Tree. This means that characters from this World cannot have resources based on that World, and cannot host RP in that World without a staff-approved plot application. This is intended for players who only wish to play a character and have no desire to work through the more complex process of apping a Blossom. It is possible to later upgrade a World from Bud to Blossom.
A Blossom is a World that has some integration with the World Tree, and can be RPed in. These are a little more difficult to apply for.
In both cases, a short description and a full description should be made. Check out some existing Worlds in the World Listing
The short description should provide high level concepts in a generic sense. Avoid using setting-specific words, unless it is a formal name with context providing understanding(Example: The twin kingdoms of Sinestra and Dexter battle constantly in this world of swords and sorcery). Provide an idea of the technological development if possible, and anything unusual like the existence of magic. Keep it simple, you only have 250 characters to work with.
The full description should also avoid technical terms and specialist terms without immediately defining them. Keep it concise, full descriptions should rarely be more than 3 paragraphs, and many are only 1. It is a 'back of the book' blurb explaining the world and what makes it interesting. If you desire more detail on anything, you can create World Notes as extensions, which can explain any unusual background elements or systems in use.
If apping a Blossom, some level of integration must be provided. This should include how the World has reacted to the presence of other Worlds, how major powers intend to react or are reacting, and how the World will respond to visitors or interference from other Worlds. See some existing Blossoms for examples.
It is possible to apply for the World separately from the character application, but this is rarely necessary.
We generally do not advise first time appers to attempt an Antagonist, but it has been done on occasion.
Antagonists are intended to generate content, usually in the form of running scenes or by interfering with existing scenes(with the permission of the scenerunner), usually by setting up a goal for other players to stop. This means that Antagonists are often outnumbered, and are expected to run most of their content with this in mind.
Note that you can be a character with goals counter to what most people want without having an Antagonist tag, if you don't intend to run scenes or make frequent disruptions. The non-Antagonist PCs in this setting can and often will work against one another for various reasons. You can also be an Antagonist without being a 'bad guy' though it is much easier if you are, simply by having a goal that puts you at odds with people often enough to cause conflict and RP.
Antagonists will almost always fail in their long term goals, with the exception being those Antagonists who, by virtue of succeeding, lead to further story and remain viable characters past the conclusion of their goals. However, in the short term Antagonists may succeed in their goals, and both sides should consider what makes for a better story. For more information on Antagonists, see the Antagonists news file.
Picking a Tier is as simple as choosing a letter, but this is actually a difficult choice for many. Here are a few pointers.
Remember that a low(or high) Tier doesn't mean you will have more or less fun than others. Your Tier is also a representation of your role within the scenes you play in, and a high Tier might have more everyday power, but is restricted in Edge and expectations, meaning it is actually much harder for a high Tier non-villainous character to take the focus of a scene. The bulk of the game is C-Tier for a good reason: it's the usual fun protagonist level.
If you want a very simple guideline, your plucky inexperienced hero or heavily support-oriented character would be a D-Tier, most combat-focused protagonists and main characters would be a C-Tier, and very strong and mentor-type heroes who have very little trouble would fill out the B-Tiers. B-Tier heroes are usually mentors or characters who have reached the end of their story, or characters who have their own complex motivations that often bring them into conflict, but are not necessarily antagonists.
For Antagonists, a regular and strong Antagonist would be B-Tier, while a recurring but more easily-defeated one would be C-Tier.
Also note that Tier is heavily a representation of combat ability, so heavy utility-type PCs will rarely have a high Tier.
These are general guidelines on what we expect. F-Tier is noncombat, and A-Tier is Antagonist-only and only for the big villains in a setting. S-Tier is plot-only.
Note that in some settings A or S-Tier heroic characters may exist, but these are not playable characters. These are usually plot device type characters in the setting they represent, and very rarely present a good general-play character.
Your Overview is a simple summary of your character, and it thus has some pretty strict limitations! It shouldn't be too long, because it's a quick blurb. It is also different from the summary you provided as your character pitch, because this is a public-facing field meant to summarize what people should think of your character.
This should be a single paragraph, without indentation or line breaks.
To do this, write a little bit of their background. Don't go overboard, as remember most people won't ICly know this. Give us a little about their personality, usually a bit about how they think of others and their motivation, and finally give a general idea of their most commonly-used or abilities. This can be done in any order, as demonstrated in the example below.
"Marcus is a skilled swordsman who dabbles in fire magic from the kingdom of Lannas. His kingdom distrusts magic, so after a misunderstanding with the authorities, Marcus ended up exiled and made his way across his world as a mercenary and wanderer, until he eventually found the broader lands of the World Tree. His bitterness over being framed makes him melancholy and appear gloomy most of the time, but he's quick to warm to people with good hearts, and much as he grumbles he will do what he can to help the downtrodden."In the above paragraph, we lead off with the character's name and his two most notable skills: swordsmanship and fire magic. We also say he is from the kingdom of Lannas. People unfamiliar with the setting will have no idea what the kingdom of Lannas is, so we follow this up by explaining that Lannas distrusts magic, leading into a brief explanation of his recent history that lead him to the point he is at. We finally finish up the Overview with a summary of what his personality is like to others, and his major motivation in getting involved in RP.
Feel free to make the Overview sound a little more dramatic or poetic, as long as the information is clearly conveyed to the reader. The most important thing is to avoid unfamiliar terms or concepts. If magic-users in the setting are called Squeezels, don't keep referring to Squeezels in the Overview without saying something like 'Squeezels, a type of magic user.'
In addition to the Overview, the Profile area contains many other attributes which can be set, such as picture, height, age, and so on. These are generally not reviewed by staff, and may be set and changed at any time. Staff generally only steps in when someone uses these fields to post offensive or derogatory content(which is handled under the normal rules of the game)
World Tree does not have any specific requirements for a Description, given the variable nature of play. The only loose requirement is that the Description properly fall within the ratings rules. That said, writing a paragraph or two to give an idea of how your character appears is very useful during a scene, and is highly encouraged.
Any significant non-standard deviation from a typical human's abilities and prowess is noted by Traits, which are broadly split into two categories: Perks and Complications.
It should be noted that we do have a limit on the number of abilities a character can have, in order to help curb 'do-anything' situations. The normal cap for the number of total Perks plus NPCs you may possess is equal to 10 or less. Antagonists may exceed this cap slightly, to 12. If an update to your character carries you beyond this limit, you must 'lose' a Perk. Think of this like a long-running comic book character who once used an impressive ability which could solve the current problem, but the authors conveniently 'forget' that the character could do it. It is up to the player to devise a reasonable narrative excuse for why this ability is not available any longer, but in general it's impolite to bring up and we don't require an excuse, merely that 'lost' abilities not be used.
Perks are where your character gets any nonstandard abilities. Equipment unavailable to most, unique items, particularly notable or rare skills, or powers beyond mortal ability all fall under Perks. These should be simple and easy to read, but with limitations as noted in the news files. The point of Perks is to give everyone a little something special they can contribute, so overloading on Perks is discouraged.
Perks are added with the +perks/add command, but NPCs, subcharacters that can act independently, are added with a different command. See the NPC section below for more details after this one.
The number of Perks should also reflect your character's development, and if you expect your character to be learning a number of new skills and abilities, your Perk list will be shorter than someone who is already topped out. The actual limit has some flex, as some Perks may have a more broad utility than others. This is an unfortunately subjective call that staff has to make, as no means of offering the flexibility in Perks that we would like can be combined with an entirely objective system.
Please familiarize yourself with the Banned and Restricted Perks.
The short description for your Perk should cover all the major topics of your Perk's capability. A good measure of whether or not you are putting too much utility into a Perk is if your short description goes over 80 characters. Note that the system will ALLOW you to input more than 80 characters, but it is extremely rare that such a short description will be passed, and you should only exceed 80 characters if a staffer gives explicit permission.
The short description should cover all major points of the Perk. Minor details, the source of the Perk's abilities, and other such details are not necessary. For example, if your Perk is a gun that shoots things and also has exploding bullet that cause the target to freeze over, the short description should read something like 'A gun that shoots exploding bullets that freeze'
Basically, someone should get the general idea of your Perk by reading the short description. Saying 'short-range teleport' is fine for a short description even if the teleport itself has lots of caveats about usage, which would go in the long description. Putting clever or amusing quips in the short description is allowed only so long as they are descriptive enough of the Perk, it is not a space used simply to be witty.
If you cannot cover the major effects, you should split the Perk in some way. Highly versatile magic-users and gadgeteers will often need multiple Perks just to cover their main gimmick.
The long description should cover the limits and full prose description of your Perk. This is not supposed to be a bulleted list nor multiple paragraphs. Though the term is 'long description' it should usually be less than 800 characters, and that's on the long side of most. Avoid describing too much background material or going into too much detail about how it works, as this is often not relevant when interacting with Perks from other worlds. Some level of descriptive flavor text is expected, but it should focus on what the Perk does.
Perk Tags are used to quickly abbreviate important use cases. The most common of these for normal(non-NPC) Perks is the Edge tag, but there are others. A quick rundown of the commonly-used tags:
NPCs are a specialized type of Perk, so distinct they get their own section.
It has to be stated that an NPC who simply sometimes shows up to give advice or a mission is not an NPC that is necessary to app. Apped NPCs are only for NPCs that can either take the place of your character in a scene, or regularly works with your character in a scene. As a large number of NPCs can make it difficult to connect emotionally with a character, World Tree is very careful not to allow too many NPCs, and we prefer that any NPC apped has a strong and very good reason to accompany the PC. Underlings commanded is a common one for this.
Some middle ground exists, for example for NPCs that don't directly work alone but are often used with a player's character. For example, a favored horse may be an NPC, or it may simply be a Perk entry, if it doesn't truly operate alone.
NPC entries require at least two special tags: a Tier tag for how powerful the NPC is, and a Type tag, indicating what kind of NPC it is. For more on NPC Types, see the note on Perk Tags.
When apping an NPC, the short desc should give a reasonable summary of what they can do. Any unique abilities need to be specified in the NPC long desc, and mentioned in the short desc. Note that abilities shared by both the main PC and the NPC, like if both are able to shoot fireballs from their hands, do not need fully defined in the short desc, but a vague implication does need to be present and it does need to be noted in the long desc. If an NPC has a very complex ability that the main PC does not, such as a complex teleportation spell, create a Perk for it and tag both the Perk and the NPC with the Feature tag.
Complications are much like Perks, though they do not(currently) have Tags. They have a short desc and a long desc with similar requirements. However, while Perks are special abilities beyond the normal human abilities, Complications are unusual things that make life... complicated, thus the name.
It should be noted that Complications are not necessarily flaws or disadvantages, simply things of note that make life more complex and do not give a real advantage. Unusual physical limitations like a vulnerability to water can be Complications, but most Complications should focus on changing how a character approaches problems. What behaviors, fears, and considerations does a character have that makes them choose a path that is not the 'ideal' path?
Perk Limitations are not Complications. If you have teleportation, but your teleportation only works for distances greater than one mile, that is not a Complication. The only Perk Limitations that qualify as Complications are ones that are dramatically out of the player's control and are expected to come up reasonably frequently, such as being unable to use certain Perks when a roof is overhead, or the like.
"Bane"-type Complications are also not always applicable. If your character is a dragon, they do not gain a Complication that says 'weak versus anti-dragon abilities' since that requires a Perk alread. This sort of Complication is only valid if the Bane is not expected. In the above case, if your character appears human 90% of the time, then being vulnerable to Dragon Banes is a Complication because it is an unexpected situation. Similarly, if your weakness is something that does not require a specific ability to activate, it can be a Complication. An example being a demon warded off by a circle of salt, which is something that can be produced without having a Perk or unique rare material for it.
Similar to the above, weaknesses that are common to humans do not allow you to take a Complication. A vampire that is killed by a stake through the heart cannot take that as a Complication, because a normal human is killed by a stake through the heart. However, a vampire that is weakened in sunlight can take that as a Complication, because most humans do not have that problem.
Finally, avoid 'all or nothing' Complications. A Complication that literally instantly kills you as its only drawback is not a good Complication, since with consent-level death, you MUST refuse the Complication's trigger if you want to continue playing your character. If you want a Complication that includes something like this, it must alter your behavior in some way that makes it more than an instant death Complication, and we still discourage instant-death or instant-incapacitation Complications. If your abilities can be completely shut off by some contrived means, that is not a good Complication to have as something that can happen during any scene, and is better the source of a small plotline instead.
A lot of people put much more work into the background than is necessary. In many cases, for existing media characters, a simple and quick summary of childhood and events up to the point of entering the World Tree can suffice. Staff has the ability to look up characters on wikis and the like for more information. For more obscure sources, more detail may be needed, but it is rare that more than three paragraphs is necessary.
Background for original characters or alternate-universe media will naturally be much longer, but it is rare that it should exceed 500 words. This is not a hard cap and your application will not be returned should you exceed 500 words, we will almost certainly still read it, but it's an indicator that you may be being too detailed/verbose.
Personality should generally be at least 300 words, though this is a fuzzy minimum as it is possible to cover everything necessary in less. It is not recommended to try, however, and in many cases after staff requests clarification, Personality easily exceeds 500 words. Better to try to be thorough the first time around.
If you are having trouble coming up with a good way to write a Personality, try writing about the following!
Once your character application is finished, you should run +cg/check to see if any problems are detected by the automatic code check. If you are satisfied with the results and believe you are ready, please use the command +cg/submit to send your character. You may also add a message with +cg/submit <message text> to mention any concerns or thoughts to staff during the review.
Upon submitting your character for review, you will be locked out from changing fields until receiving a reply. This process will create a Job, in the Job system, which you can view on your listing with +myjobs and read with +job <number>
If you spot a correction needed before receiving a reply, you may withdraw your application with +cg/withdraw <message text> and make changes, then resubmit with +job/reply <number> to put your job back on the queue.
Your Job will have a Due date on it. Please do not request progress on your application before this due date.
Typically, it takes more than one revision. In fact, 2-3 is the normal number of revisions it takes to be approved. You will receive a job reply with the details of what needs changed, and once you have made these adjustments, you may resubmit with +job/reply <number>=<message text>