Character Apperal

Some people would think this would be a very easy section to write. Actually, this is the section where I have normally seen the most mistakes on a consistent basis from several members of every site I've role-played.

Having an image loaded into the profile is very nice and very simple. We can actually visualize the character with ease. I was very happy when I finally started using that option in my profiles, however, I never skimped on reasonable details.

Most pictures that are submitted do not give profiles of a character's whole body, size, or appearance. Oftentimes I have seen shots that are only from the chest up. Headshots, while nice, don't score you many creativity points. Even with full-body shots, anyone will be impressed that you can describe what is shown in writing beneath the picture. Any moderator worth his/her weight in salt will be impressed by that. We want to see that you can describe what you envision. It gives us an idea of your skill level.

What I always tell people to do is to make a picture in their mind, hold it, and then describe everything that they see in prose, keeping poetic licensing to a minimum. This lets us know that you can use your imagination and express it well enough to make your character easy to recognize and envision. A little bit goes a long way.

If you have a full-body picture of your character, it is an excellent reference for you to simply write out what you see. Otherwise, when we roleplay with you, all we get is:

Quote:
Kentakyuhanamitsurugi wears a tee-shirt and jeans with tennis shoes. He wears sunglasses carries a knife and a cane, and is usually accompanied by a dog.


This paragraph doesn't give us much in the way of identifying Kentakyuhanamitsurugi except that he looks like a blind person with a seeing-eye dog.

Some questions that could be answered with only a few moments' thought:
What color is the tee shirt?
Does the tee-shirt have any designs on it?
Are his sunglasses black, red, blue, green, etc.?
What color are his shoes?
Does he have a weapon?
Is the weapon smooth and sharp, or is it serrated and savage?
What color is the blade?
Does it have a sheath?
Where does he keep the knife?
What is the cane made out of?
What color is the cane?
What kind of dog does he have?
How big is the dog?
Does the dog have a name?
Is it wearing a collar or any other kind of apparel?
-This list can go on and on-

It's like drawing. You're not going to create a good picture if you spend 5 minutes on the task. One of the best artists I know, Allison Theus, spends hours with her illustrations. She's nationally known and has a lot of copyrighted material. She has achieved this not only because she has a high talent for drawing - which she does - but also because she is not afraid to show how deep her imagination goes.

Now, I'm NOT saying that you should spend hours at a time on just one of your character's sections, but I AM saying you need to go into good depth with it. The following paragraph took me less than ten minutes to figure out:

Quote:
Kentakyuhanamitsurugi has fair, perfect skin. He has dark brown, epicanthic eyes that slant slightly upward within the frame of a narrow face and chin. He has a lanky type of build, as his arms and legs are slim and seem a little long in proportion to his torso.

He can be seen wearing a white tee-shirt with black and blue skull designs on the sleeves and shoulders. his shirt is one size too large, so it seems to sag a bit from his shoulders. He also wears plain blue jeans that are tattered at the ankles and white tennis shoes with black laces.

He wears sunglasses with blue lenses and he carries a knife with a folding blade. The handle is made of stainless steel and swirling designs are etched into the material. The blade is serrated on the bottom half toward the handle and smooth on the top half. His ceramic cane is an off-white hue and he holds it comfortably in his hands.

A large dog can usually be seen where he goes. It has grey fur on its back and white on its underside and legs. Its eyes are mismatched in color, one being green and the other blue. It is powerfully built, blindly obedient to Kentakyuhanamitsurugi's commands and its name is Buttons.


Quite frankly, if I put in just five or ten more minutes, I could double what I just wrote. The above is exactly the minimum/average of what we are looking for. If you go into further depth, we reward you with a higher power-status, should you accept it. If you slack on Apparel, your other sections had better be able to make up for it.

How far are you willing to express your imagination? If you are afraid to tap into that it will show in your application and subsequent posts.

You should be applying this information to your Guns, Blades, and ETC.


Here's a breakdown of what each of the paragraphs should be:
Paragraph 1 - Physical characteristics (Face, hair color/style, body type, skin color, etc.)
Paragraph 2 - Clothing (shirt, pants, footwear)
Paragraph 3, 4, and/or 5 - Accessories (weapons, jewelry, special adornments, familiar/kindred spirits, etc)