![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Applications
Jun. 27th, 2015 03:22 pmThis is the page for applying to play a character in Raise the Earth! Before you fill out the application, make sure you’re familiar with the rules, and that the character you’re applying for is not taken and not reserved by someone else (and maybe reserve them yourself!). If you’re already in the game and one of your characters has an activity strike, you can’t apply for another - pass activity with the ones you have first!
You can read through the application here; the textarea below contains an exact copy, including directions, of this one. There are a few special kinds of applications, also; if you’re looking for those, skip past this and look there first!
When you post an application, your title line should contain your preincarnation’s name, their canon, and whether or not you reserved that character. That gives you a subject that looks more or less like:
Character Name | Canon | Reserved/Not Reserved/Reclaim
NEW CHARACTER APPLICATION
OOC Information
Player: Your handle! If you already play here, make sure it's the same one we already have.
Contact: Some way we can get in touch with you. A journal, an IM account, Plurk, whatever.
Age: You need to be at least 15 to play in Raise the Earth.
Current characters: Are you playing any other characters here right now? Include applications you're putting in at the same time.
IC Information
Name: Preincarnation and reincarnation, if they're not the same - identify which one's which. If those words don't mean anything to you, see the FAQ before you go much further!
Canon: If there's more than one version, specify that too - manga, anime, comic, TV, movie, whatever applies.
Preincarnation Information
Appearance: Tell us what the character looked like in canon. A picture is great; if you can't find one, describe them. Notable markings, coloration, things they wear often, that kind of thing.
History: Talk about your character's canon and their role in it! The more you have to say, the easier it is for us to approve Echoes based on it. Remember that Raise the Earth doesn't have canon points; your get your character's whole life to work with, so make it count! In most cases, we're just looking for how the character lived their life in their world - this doesn't need to include events that have nothing to do with them. For original characters, you'll want to talk about the rest of the world somewhat, as it establishes what's going on around the character, too. If you have headcanon you'd like to use, that's okay, but mark it somehow - we recommend bolding or italicizing it.
You are welcome to write as much as you like here; if you prefer to link to a wiki of some kind that has more information, that's allowed. However, if you use a link, you still need to write something about your character's place in their canon. Unsupported links will not be accepted!
Personality: What was the canon version of your character like? Be as detailed as you can; this is important! This needs to be written out by you - no links. If you're using headcanon, mark it, just like above. This is one of the most important parts of the application, so don't skimp here!
Abilities: What powers and skills did your character's canon version have? Tell us as much as you can, but don't go overboard; we're looking for enough to give us an idea what to expect, not a primer on how the whole canon's abilities work. If this section gets unwieldy, you're welcome to summarize here and link to a wiki, or if you've got a more detailed list somewhere already, you can link to that. You might want to touch on the ways your character uses their abilities, too, instead of just what they do.
Reincarnation Information
Age: Starting age. Please remember that one year has passed since the invasion! That means, ICly, the game starts on July 25th, 2016.
Species: Usually human; you don’t need to include this if that’s the case. Characters can start as other animal races that occur on Earth; their first Echo needs to return sentience.
Appearance: Any differences between your character’s canon appearance and how they look now?
Starting Location: Many of the old Echo barriers, which were Numbered hotspots, are still functional; Locke City is badly damaged, and Las Vegas is a wasteland. Characters aren’t restricted to specific places, though - they can go anywhere. This is mostly for us to figure out what areas are most busy. Need ideas? Check the locations page.
History: What kind of life has your reincarnated character lived? You don’t need to go into a lot of detail, but talk about how they grew up, their major successes and failures, the things that shaped them… you’re looking to provide a bio about how your character became who they are as the game opens. Please remember that the world of Raise the Earth, while similar to our Earth, has experienced a few major changes that might affect the last little bit of time, specifically about eighteen months leading up to Raise the Earth opening. You can find more information in the FAQ.
Personality: How is your reincarnated character different from their preincarnation? Your character can different as much or as little as you want, but there need to be at least some differences. Our advice is to pick three or four key things to change, and shape the rest from there. Consider the effect that each change will have; if you’re not sure how something will work, bring your ideas together and test them against other characters first - there’s always an open test drive meme to use for that. If things aren’t clicking, look at your changes and try swapping things around.
Starting Echoes: You get a package of starting Echoes to help give your character a little more feel from their original self. When you start play, your character may have up to six Echoes, at most two of which may be Tier 2 Echoes. You need at least one. All of these are plot Echoes, but if you’d like, you’re welcome to make any or all of them recurrence Echoes if you have ideas in mind. Otherwise, these follow the normal Echo rules - they have limits, and if they’re recurrences, what they give back has to match the trigger event. Tier 2 Echoes can handle more at once, usually returning two separate things, but the two things returned need to be related to each other somehow. You can find all the Echo rules, including what counts and what the tiers mean, on the Echo page. Need help? Have questions? We’re happy to help with your Echo needs!
Goals for RtE: What kinds of things are you looking to do in the game? Where do you see your character fitting in? Is there anything we can do to help you reach your goals? While Raise the Earth has an overarching plot, it’s a heavily player-driven game, so it helps us to know the kinds of things our players want to do. We have ways to see to it that certain things find their way into the plot, and we’re not above helping make sure things happen. Please be honest! This can be as vague or specific as you want; it can involve playing with certain Echoes or abilities, making certain CR happen, doing specific things, or maybe something we haven’t even considered. If you don’t have any particular plans, that’s fine, too. Just keep us posted! We want to make sure you’re getting everything you want out of the game, so having a roadmap of what players and characters want helps us guide events. This section doesn’t affect how we judge your application.
Samples
Third-Person Sample
This should be an introspective sample that shows us your character’s thought process, either in conversation with another character, or alone; normally, it’ll look like a log in the game would. It should be at least 100 words, and it needs to be written in prose, not in brackets. This should show us some of the things you talked about in your personality section! If we’re having a hard time seeing the character shines through, or there are factual or logic errors compared with what you told us in the rest of the application, we’ll ask for revisions. You can use a thread from the test drive meme to replace this sample; we’re looking for either a well-written prose prompt, or several prose tags from your character.
First-Person Sample
This should be a sample of the character interacting with others. We’re looking for how the character expresses themselves, so it’ll probably look like a network post. This one needs to be dialogue heavy, which means bracket-style rather than prose. We’re still looking against your personality, but this is more for us to find your character’s voice. If the post doesn’t sound like the sense we’re getting from personality and history, or there are factual or logic errors compared with what you told us in the rest of the application, we’ll ask for revisions. You can use a thread from the test drive meme to replace this sample; it needs to have at least five comments from your character.
Additional Information
Anything else you want to ask us? Other notes that didn’t fit well in the application that we should know? Include other information here that might pertain to your application. If there’s nothing else to add, you can delete this section.
LEGACY CHARACTERS
We’re glad to have you back! Some things have changed since Save the Earth; a year’s passed, and the invasion left some dangerous consequences to deal with. If you’re not already familiar with what’s going on, you might want to hit up the FAQ before you app back in.
You'll need to submit a full application for your existing character; you're welcome to re-use your old one, but please shuffle things to make them fit into the new application format. You'll also need to edit your character's reincarnated history and personality to cover what they went through in Save the Earth, and to cover the time between the end of the invasion and now. Returning characters get up to two more Echoes of your choice; as before, you can use plot triggers to claim them, or recurrences if you've got a handy trigger. We'll accept Echoes from the test drive meme, too. In the application, link to your character's info post, then also add the additional Echoes you're requesting. When you're accepted, add them to your info post as normal.
COMBO PITCH AND APP
You can play more than one character in a slot, if they’re characters that make sense to leave together, via a combo application! Use this for things like twins that are never apart, two characters sharing the same body, and so on. Before you can submit the application, we’re going to want to hear a pitch of why you’re going this route; that’s why there are two forms below. Submit the first in a comment, and if it’s approved, comment to our approval with your normal application, covering all characters involved. Combo apps take up one character slot, no matter how many characters the app covers.
OOC Information
Player: Your handle! If you already play here, make sure it's the same one we already have.
Contact: Some way we can get in touch with you. A journal, an IM account, Plurk, whatever.
Age: You need to be at least 15 to play in Raise the Earth.
Current characters: Are you playing any other characters here right now? Include applications you're putting in at the same time.
IC Information
Names: Preincarnation only, for combo pitches; include all characters that will be covered under this application. If that word doesn't mean anything to you, see the FAQ before you go much further!
Canon: If there's more than one version, specify that too - manga, anime, comic, TV, movie, whatever applies.
Combo Reasoning: Why are you applying for these characters together? What makes them suitable for a combo application, rather than multiple people that each play one of them? Explain your logic. If this isn’t convincing, we’ll ask you to just pick one character. Be honest, but be creative!
GUEST STAR APPS
Normally, this would be where we have information on applying for a temporary character, who starts with extra Echoes, but doesn’t stick around for a long time - it’s a good mechanic for things like short-term villains or mentor-types, or really anyone that you want to throw at the setting for a while, but you don’t think you could maintain for a long time (either because the Numbered would hunt them down, or you just aren’t confident in the character’s longevity). Because the game isn’t open yet, Guest Star applications are closed. Consider apping a character with intent to keep them around, or checking back a little later, once the world is stable.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
