I'm working on a new fushigi yugi rpg and i'm pondering if I should make the members use only manga/anime characters or just animated characters in general, and not real life people what is the best choice?

If you're a purist on anime like I tend to be, I would say to require people to do the FY characters. Sometimes, people make shitty, HORRENDOUS choices on playbys when it comes to RPs, particularly anime RPs - to the point where it turns folks like me away. Sometimes, they end up becoming a big trend board where you see the same exact cast on it that you see on thousands of other boards.

As far as trying to get more members, you can try playbys. I will say, however, that you are competing with several Fushigi Yuugi RPs. I would require players to seriously consider the PB that they want to use. If the face and person doesn't make sense for their character, tell them to try someone else.

Weill, I think to get *your* best answer, you need to just ask yourself some questions about the intent of the RP you're planning. Do you plan to follow canon closely, or do you just want to take the show's lore or universe and put your own spin on it? And, also, how important are looks and avatars to you?

Now here's my philosophy on face claims/avatars/whatever: I don't care too much. To me, avatars are just something to make your posts look a little nicer. Besides, since I run a Star Trek RPG, I can't care too much. If somebody wants to play a non-human character, well, it's nearly impossible to find any quality images that aren't of a well known canon character. For that reason, face claims and avatars as a whole are completely optional on my site. Hell, I'll even let people use art!

So, the point of that ramble was that there's no right or wrong way to look at it. I think you should take a minute to think about your vision, what's important to you as an admin, and what would be practical for your site.

Wait, there're actually several FY rpgs out there? I didn't think it was very well known at all. xD And it's old. And it's the first anime I ever watched, maybe about seven years ago. What a coincidence~

If you like conformity (which I do), you should just let them go with all "drawn" characters. But as everyone else has said, it's really up to you. If you restrict it to just anime/manga characters (for their icons), though, you might alienate a lot of people who don't watch anime.

There are several ways to go about it. Using drawn icons allows you to embrace the awesome of funny-colored hair and crazy eyes and so forth; using real people lets you draw in the crowd that hates anime PBs. It's really up to what you want. My board is real people PBs but limited to those of Asian descent, and with some photoshop work the funny colors aren't that hard to come by. It's worked pretty well for us so far.

I would stay away from using or allowing typical trend PBs, but that's only because it's my personal preference. Do what makes you happy, because if you're happy it's a lot easier to keep a board active.

It all depends on what you want to see. With my site, it's supposed to be somewhat realistic. Therefore animated avatars are not allowed. Period. And if you want to change your face, you'd better have a good reason. So it's a well thought-out process.

If your board is going to be strictly anime, I would think about only allowing anime avatars.