Character Creation

We require that all players read the Community Rules before creating a character.

To submit a character for FFRP, post their info in the ***#character\_bios*** channel. Guidelines and a basic template are provided below for convenience. The approval process exists so that staff can make sure your character fits into the setting, and has a good chance of making things enjoyable for everyone. **If you want to join a campaign directly, submit the character to the GM(s) for that campaign instead.**

## Guidelines for Character Creation

1. Make your character balanced. This also applies to any technology and gadgets your character comes with.
2. Players are required to have at least one native character before they can submit any alien or naturalized alien characters, and can have no more aliens than they have natives.
3. Players may only submit characters, not entire races, factions or armies. NPCs can be used without approval, but only to serve the story instead of guide it.
4. Staff have the authority to ask the player to modify their characters if necessary, both before and after approval.

## Character Template

All fields in this template with a **\*** are required. Other items are optional, but it's strongly recommended to be detailed as possible.

```
Character name*: (Your character's full name and how you want them be called)
Race/Species*: (Which anthro animal/species they are)
Gender*:
Element*: (This is somewhat related to personality, see below)
Planet/Universe of Origin*: (if not Avalice native, see below)
Height / Weight:
Character Appearance*: (required, unless you have a picture handy)
Character Strengths and Weaknesses: (Keep it balanced)
Special Skills and Abilities*: (Doctor, ace pilot, etc; or if they have any abilities, which level?)
Core Motivations: (What motivates them? What do they truly care about? See below.)
Other Info: (Anything that doesn't fit into the previous fields)

```

## Create your character's page

If your character has been approved, enter their full name in the box below and click create.
<createbox>

```
 preload=Template:Player Characters/preload
 width=25

```

</createbox>

## What should I keep in mind when making a new character?

First, review BOTH the FP Canon and AO Canon. These will tell you what you need to know about birthplaces, available races, elements, and more.

A great resource for fleshing out your character's appearance, mannerisms and personality is QuietBadger's list of assorted OC questions. To use it, simply make a copy and start filling in answers.

Regarding character attachment and self-inserts: a good rule of thumb is that unless you're okay with the possibility of losing a character, you shouldn't use them. **In the venerable words of Punchy: "don't self-insert unless you're content to kill yourself off."**

### Strengths and Weaknesses

Before you can begin to truly build a character, you first need to know who you want that character to be. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and most of us have more weaknesses than strengths. Those we think of as great figures were no different, but they learned their weaknesses, slowly overcame them, and developed their strengths through hard work. It's the same whatever world you're in, and no matter what level of technology or magic is present: being a professional adult is hard work.

When you think of who you want your character to be, it can be useful to consider their weaknesses before you focus on strengths, because working off one's shortcomings is often more rewarding than focusing only on positive qualities. Even if you're writing a character who has already found success, put some thought into the struggles they overcame and how they overcame them and you'll find your character will be easier to play and seem more real as a result.

Remember: Your character is, in many ways, a small note in an ongoing symphony. One person can hardly replace an army, but the best armies are made up of soldiers with varied skills that compliment each other in the field. Even the most talented among us can't become true jacks of all trades without decades of practice, so narrow your focus and find that one thing your character truly loves to do. Or don't, and play with the familiar feeling of having numerous interests but nothing in particular you excel in.

### Core Motivations

Sometimes a character can be written with an interesting and unique concept, but still fall flat when used. Why? For any character to be believable they need to have more than just mannerisms, habits, hobbies, or skills. They should also have a drive; ideals, ambitions, ways of thinking, and long term goals that all work together to push them along and make them who they are. This is sometimes called a Core Motivation, and people can have countless numbers of them. For a character to feel believable, a good rule is that they should have at least three in play at any given time.

For example: if we assigned three Core Motivations to Carol Tea, they might be "rather a traitor than a murderer", the belief that upholding morals is more important than completing a task or preserving your social standing, "I just want to hang out with my best friends", representing her persistently playful and not always serious nature, and "teenage gang biker" for her eventual goals: become rich, become famous, and collect even more sweet rides.

A good player could easily expand on this, but these three elements are important parts of the way she behaves: a code of conduct, something that describes her visible personality, and her ambitions for the future.