What do you think they should have/include. Other than the obvisious, Name, Age, Gender, Etc....

I just started a board and I always seem to have trouble decide what to put on the applications. Any help?

Beyond the basics of history, personality, and appearance?

Absolutely nothing.

Honestly, I hate application with a bunch of unnecessary junk thrown in. I can deal with likes and dislikes, but after a while they get annoying. Though, only when they're required right away. Which is an important idea.

Besides the basics, I like to give people relevant optional areas to fill in. Do it now, do it later, do it never, I don't care. Add onto the profile forum with likes and dislikes if you want. Just, please keep it organized. And making sense. Other than that, I don't really care.

I'd like to note however that I often find it ridiculous to include gender in most games, just because it should be painfully obvious at least in appearance for most what gender they are. Definitely by personality, even if just from pronouns. Even if it's not their biological born gender, it's should be obvious what their preferred gender is. [if that makes any sense at all. x.x ]

Haha. Alright. I understand. Thank you so much. <3

Yep. I say if you're gonna do an application, keep it short and sweet (but give people the option of adding more if they really want to; some people like writing more, and if they do, I say let 'em go for it).

But all that's necessary, IMO, is:

• Name
• Sex
• Age
• Personality
• Appearance
• Background

But even personality and background is iffy for me, as someone who fleshes out both in-game. I'd also advise against having any length requirements for any of the sections.

It's all up to you, of course. :3 That's just my opinion.

But I'd suggest short and simple whichever way you go.

Honestly, my own games don't even require people to fill out the personality, appearance, or background sections--yet almost everyone does anyway, in elaborate detail, even though it's not required and even though there are no length requirements at all. From at least my own experiences, players tend to go above and beyond. ^^

Oh, alright I understand. Thank you. :3

Appearance is very useful to other RPers- you don't want to have to PM everyone and tell them, well, actually, you've got four eyes and blue fur all over your body, so they need to edit their post. That's a bit extreme, but the general concept is still there- you want everyone else to be quite capable of seeing your character without prompting, regardless of whatever else you put down. Thus, you don't need to describe your character for everyone you want to RP with.

Apart from appearance, there really isn't anything else that NEEDS to be there. Unless it's a combat-munchy board, in which case you're going to need lots of other stuff- skills, powers, descriptions of the powers, things like that. There are some fundamental elements that should be hammered out.

Hair colour.
Eye colour.
Height.
General build.
Clothing style- believe me, there is nothing more irritating than plowing through a clothes description to get to the character's actions.
Distinguishing marks.

Other than that, there isn't much that isn't put across during RP. Personality should be written, but it's for the player's benefit, not the other players. Background is only important if someone wants to have met them before, or wants to cross paths in the past. But BY GOD put a limit on how much background they can have. No-one reads novel-length background stories. No-one I know, anyway.

It's totally dependent on what the board is. But for the most part, you at least need:

Name:
Age:
Physical Appearance:
History:
Abilities/Talents:
Personality: (Maybe.)


I personally don't like the addition of a personality form, as it constricts too much for my liking, but the issue is making it a tad more difficult to spot mary-sues. It's up to you.

And of course, anything else that applies.

Name
Age
Gender (always good to know; sometimes I can't tell :p )
Appearance (just a general paragraph)
Strengths
Weaknesses
Personality
Background

Nothing too long--just let the members decide on their own how long they want to make it. The only section I generally get people on is the "strengths and weaknesses" because I want to see balanced characters. I want to see up front (rather than reading through a rambly jumble of paragraphs) that the character is well-rounded and has both physical and mental weaknesses.

Edit--I should mention: I don't like writing a huge application, so less is more.

Name,
age,
gender,
appearance (but just like.. eyes, hair, distinguishing features - mainly because I hate writing appearances),
personality (like, two paragraphs),
play-by (just because),
a picture (because I dislike appearances - there's a picture there: there's your appearance),
history (which I like to include parental history, childhood and then any important dates before the current day).

And then the stuff about the role-player, just because people like to know who plays who. Sometimes I don't put on the age, because it's totally someone's choice if they want people to know. And I've known people who /don't/ want to roleplay with me, just because of my age. This was two years ago, mind you. But people always have that "optional" choice. And I don' really care about contact; people just put "pm" anyway. But I also put "other characters" because I tend to limit the number of allowed characters. And I once saw someone lie incredibly; they had five characters, then made an alias for themselves and had another five. .__.

The only thing I can add is the recent revelation I had. Frankly I'm disgusted with myself that it took this long to sink in, but:

Instead of being tempted to have place of birth, have, 'place of residence'. I have had place of birth for ages and never thought anything of it, and then last week I was like, 'well...duh??'

>>;;

The only thing I would add to what's been mentioned above is an optional 'RP Plans' section. Some people will just be flying blind (not that there's anything wrong with that), but some will have an idea where they want to take the character, things they'd like to do, etc. This helps not only to provide plot ideas but also sometimes to weed out the Sues -- if they have some grandiose world-bending aspirations, best to know ahead of time.

Thanks to all of your. You've helped soo much. <3

I'd say the basics and then, depending on the site, you may need to add or not. For example, my site is a fine arts boarding school so I have a little bit about their fine art and how they came to get into it. Otherwise it's just name, age, gender, birthday, appearance, personality, and history

Seems like everyone has different opinions about this. Personally, I like to use long applications. I like to get a real inside look at the character, and it also shows that the person is serious about the site and about their character to sit and fill out a long application for them. Does that make sense? Lol

December, I agree that strengths and weaknesses are important to a character but having sections for them seems redundant since they should come through in the 'Appearance' and 'Personality' sections anyways.

Seanu, I couldn't disagree more in term of play-bys/avatars. Often, I don't even have people representing my characters because it's very rare that I find anyone that looks remotely like them. I resort to symbols and items instead, as they often fit way better. A lot of my friends only use placeholder-type images for their characters, which change when they find a slightly more fitting image. Reading the description gives a far clearer idea of what their character looks like.

For me the only essential ones are Name, Age, Gender, Appearance, Personality and History and well, Gender and History are usually superflouous in terms of what a player needs to know about another player's character. Gender should be obvious and any important events from their past can be brought up in role play.

I don't mind some of the extra sections though. 'Hair/Eye Colour', 'Height', 'Weight' and other such things can be very useful for a player who's just looking for a few specific facts about a character and wants to find them out a.s.a.p. as opposed to reading through a whole bio - some of which can be very lengthly.

i think it matters as to what the fourm is. for example, for harry potter ones you might need wand and broom and stuff. my likes and dislikes on my site are optional.

Agreed, on both counts.

To join, I think all you really need is a few examples of their roleplaying so you know they CAN write, and the information required to add them to tallies and title them.

I'd love to see more sites that have massive applications more as 'profiles' on the characters, which can be filled out at a later point.

If you really want some info on the character, ask for the beginning ideas they have-- Name, gender, age, a bit on their appearance, some of their personality, but requiring over 3 paragraphs is a major turn-off for me, since like Rhi-Rhi, I develop all of that as I roleplay them.

Likewise, if someone needed a long app to figure out their character, they could take the optional parts and fill it out on their own time. P:

I'd just like to see joining cater to a wider variety of players, not just those who know their character when they begin. I think flexibility for new joiners is a good thing, and definitely something that will attract a wider assortment of players. (:

I require applications on my forum and I've tried to weed out the unnecessaries. I have found some things that are completely redundant that save some headache.

Things like height and eye and hair color can be left on it because they are easy for other people to see at a glance and they are the things people will most need to know when RPing with your character. However body type, clothing, how they carry themselves, etc can all just be integrated into a description of their appearance. Also, having them describe a few things at once gives you an idea of their writing style/ability. I strongly suggest leaving 'weight' off. It should be covered under appearance and honestly I've seen people describe a man like Vin Diesel and try to say he weighs 160 pounds (when he probably really weighs over 200 because muscle is heavy) because they really have no idea. Or a semi-muscular guy they try to say weighs 140 (which is actually very skinny for a guy) and all girls seem to have to weigh 125 or less when honestly, how many of us do? It's a superficial question I think because it really doesn't give any real idea.

I've always had personality as a section but I have no word minimums so this can be as vague or descriptive as people like. I moved likes and dislikes to the optional section as well as some other 'fun stuff' like pet peeves.

I have used RP sample always before, but I've found people hate writing it and really you can tell how well they write long before you get to that point so I'm removing it. Matter of fact, I'm going to go remove it now. xD

My opinion of a GOOD app:

Name
Age
Member group (if any)
Likes
Dislikes
Appearance (short)
Personality (maybe a min. of two paragraphs)
History (min. of three paragraphs)
RP Sample (if there is one)

My opinion of a BAD app that will drive people away:

Name
Age
Member group
Height
Weight
Appearance, min. 8 paragraphs
Likes (at least 10, with 1 paragraph explanation
Dislikes (see above)
History (20 paragraph min.)
RP Sample
Why should we accept you?

:]

Tarissa, the weight thing bothers me too. I'm a 5'6", 100lbs female and I'd be okay with someone having a character with a weight akin to mine if only it were played realistically. I'm not a superheroine who could kick ass in a flash, most 100lbs women aren't. If I started working out or joined a martial arts group, I'd gain weight because, like you said, muscle is heavy.

Usually, when I fit out 'Weight' sections in profiles I put 'ideal', 'underweight', 'overweight' etc. rather than give figures.

Satire, I think I'd be put off by both. I don't like 'Likes' and 'Dislikes' sections because you should be able to find those out through reading the 'Personality' part and they're not as specific as height and eye colour that another role player would need them seperated for a quick check of 'can my character look down at this person?' or whatever.

Member group/Alliance/Whatever is something I forgot though. On some role plays, that's certainly necessary.

Here the character app we use on my site:
Name:
Age:
Weight:
Job/rank/occupation:
Height:
Appearance: (A pic would eb nice with 2-3 sentences more)
Personality: (Minimum 8 sentences)
History: (Minimum 5 Sentences)

Erm... biography is history; its definition is 'life story'. I think you'd be better switiching that for what you probably mean, which is 'Personality'.

Oh thanks, I didn't notice that, since I didn't copy it from my site.

Hehe, I feel a bit outnumbered commenting on this subject. Applications make or break a site for me. I "grew up", if you will, on some very strict forums, and I find that a long form gets me thinking more about a character and developing it more. Plus, it's an excellent reference for continuity later when I'm writing.

I judge members by how much they try when filling out an application. I have a lot of list questions and the basic three paragraph questions, plus a post sample, and I don't think the minimum limits are too tough (I personally exceed them, but then again, I'm thorough). The funny thing is, I hate filling out a lot of the questions on applications, but I include them anyway because I like to get a good idea of what a character is like. It gets the brain juices flowing on plots I could play with them. It's also easier for me to tell if a member seems like they can write well enough or try hard enough for my forums, and I always wonder if sites with "easy" applications actually get any members who stay. In my opinion, if you spend a lot of time fleshing out a character from the beginning, you're going to be more dedicated to the character than if you just slap it together in five minutes and call it done.

Having a well-fleshed-out character application is probably more important on forums with admin-assigned magic (like my own) than others, though. ;) And even though I want long applications to being with, members are always allowed to go back and change details when the character gets more in-game development.