Character Regulation Updates

These handy regulation updates should aid anyone with any questions concerning advanced profile structuring, character development, and any exceptions to either.

First off the bat, however, are general rules. Let us start with Character Development.

Weapon development:
If your weapons have special abilities or typically evolve in any special way through the story, it is acceptable. We do expect your arsenal to grow and/or evolve during the course of the story.


Ability development:
Abilities are trickier. We expect your character to gain more abilities, but the regulations are somewhat tighter in this aspect, as with the more abilities you have, the more powerful your character is, really. Let us tackle normal abilities first.

• Normal Abilities:
  We expect you to gain many more of these, really. However, the general regs are that you will gain abilities for your character as his story progresses, and as he encounters near-death situations, challenging battles, etc. Some examples are as follow:
  -Fighting the gods.
  -Generals
  -PvP
  -Major battlefields
  -Major discoveries
  -Major revelations
  
  Anything short of these examples are not likely to warrant another ability, unless it is a significantly weaker ability than the normal, powerful one. Furthermore, refrain from adding new abilities at the VERY BEGINNING of your story.
  
  
• Special Abilities:
  These abilities are much rarer. The same instances apply to gaining normal abilities, only we expect these to be gained no more than TWO per chapter, at the MOST. We also expect them to be gained at extremely pivotal points in the characters story, and for you to be capable of telling us when, where, and how they got said ability afterwords. As for evolving special abilities, it is considerably easier. Your special ability can progress at the same rate your normal abilities do.
  

Accessories:
You may think that the means through which you gain these might be different, maybe even harder, than normal weapons or abilities... they aren't harder, actually, it's an intermediate between the two, depending on the strength of the accessory.

The really outlier stuff:
This means things like custom mechs, robots, androids, unique accessories, and I mean unique like Jaxe's True Rune or are bound to the person, etc, are actually considered to be SPECIAL accessories. They may be listed like normal ones, or a normal weapon, but are expected to be harder to gain, obviously. If you start with one, it is acceptable, but you may start with ONLY ONE.

Now on to Advanced Profile structuring... let me quote myself from the Profile Structure topic, and highlight specific points.

Quantum Rain wrote:Some important codes include:

• Displaying images on your profiles.
  

  Code:

  [img][/img]

  DO NOT USE THE URL CODE FOR A CHARACTER'S MAIN PICTURE!
  The forum automatically re-sizes any excessively sized pictures.
  
  
• Hotlinking/URL code
  

  Code:

  [url= -address-]Word that links to address.[/url]

  Good for when linking to pictures that describe clothing, pictures, or the likes. DO NOT USE THIS FOR THE CHARACTER'S PRIMARY PICTURE!
  
  
• Listing code: (To avoid the messy format of using characters like: "1), *, >, -, =, ^, #, +, VII," and so forth. The characters mentioned above are to be used SPARINGLY. They are not illegal, I just like the list code for the simplicity and the look to it.
  

  Code:

  
[list]
[*]Place bulletted item.
(Description)

[*]Place bulleted item.
(Description)

[*]Place bulleted item.
(Description)

[/list]


  
  
• When adding descriptions to weapons, abilities, etc, use the list code and then type the description off of the bullet. (In between bullets.) And then space between the description and the next item.
  
  
• As for spacing, please use proper spacing. Single/double space between various abilities, and weapons, as well as between biography sections.
  

---

Following the above requirements, not entirely perfectly, will allow for even quicker viewing and grading by me and Agent (Who also needs to follow the format.) It will also give your profile a more appealing look, and to allow easy presentation of the primary points of interest. (Abilities, weapons, special skills, etc.) Which is what we, the graders, look at when deciding on the acceptability of profiles.

Furthering the advanced Profile Structuring:

Biographies are to include these, if applicable:

• Personality
  (If not mentioned earlier.)
  
  
• Notable History in previous world
  (Keep it simple, describe what he/she is, or was, before Avalon.)
  
  
• How they got to Avalon
  (Again, keep it simple, and name names if necessary, especially god names.)
  
  
• Connection to gods
  (As the primary means to entering Avalon is to be summoned, or the primary theme is to have contact with, the gods, explain any NOTABLE connections with them.)
  
  
• History in Avalon
  ([common_sense]This is to, primarily, proceed by chapter. Your biography is permitted to grow according to their experiences per chapter, and neither Agent or myself really care about this section, seeing as your character would have to be approved for this to be allowed... [/common_sense])
  
  Edit: (Some people have, in this section, described when, where, why, or how their characters gain a specific ability or weapon. This is a good habit, and I encourage it.)
  

However, if you add anything else, we won't really notice. We don't look at the bios as strictly as we do the abilities and weapons. Which brings me to my final point in this update.


IF for any reason you believe your character is to be somewhat stronger than the norm format allows, and your reasoning is different aside from saying that he was in the prelude chapter one, then please contact me or Agent about it, and we will discuss it.

For now, any characters that have carried over from the prelude chapter, meaning before the reset was called, are permitted a small power boost over the norm. (Extra ability or two.)


Okay, I lied, that wasn't my final point to discuss.

The current ability/weapon limits are actually SUBJECTIVE! Meaning, if you take away some abilities, you can have an extra weapon, or two, over the limit, as well as vice versa. Please keep it reasonable, however, and if for some reason you are unsure of how many abilities you get with how many weapons discarded, or vice versa, then please do one of two things:

"FOLLOW THE DAMN FORMAT!" - Format Nazi
"Please contact Agent or myself about it." - Web Administrator

And still going, aren't we?

Alright, so, we move on to the next topic about advanced profile structuring. THE GENERALS!

The Generals of the gods, viewable as a separate topic, were made as a tool to improve the game play with, well, bosses, by RPG standards. They are meant to replace gods when the gods aren't needed. (So I encourage people to use generals instead of gods when wanting to portray an important event or to further the story. I don't want the Avalonian gods to be EVERYWHERE at once.)

But I digress, the main point is this: "How can my character be a general?" It's a fair question, one I must answer with, "Through special circumstances."

What are special circumstances? Well, put simply, generals are not expected to be main characters. Meaning characters, such as Wynn, Rain, Hayle, or Auger, all being primary characters of their respective owners, are not likely to be considered for generalship. As well, Generals are subject to a likely death...

Furthermore, a general is expected to participate in major battles more so than normal, and will be stressed upon greatly. They need to be capable of leading, strategic thinking, tactical plans, forethought, etc. Not some powerful muscle head that THINKS he knows it all.

If you have any further questions or thoughts on these 'special occasions' know that they are subjective to what you are planning. We still encourage that you use the currently made generals, but if you require a more... customized general, then feel free to contact myself.

Alright, moving along, we have one more type of character to discuss in our advanced profile structuring... the godly ones.

Let me first start this off by saying that these types of characters are not encouraged. They are tricky and hard to effectively pull off. They often borderline overpowered.

However, if you INSIST on having a character like that, then allow me to explain some rules on the matter.

• Godly characters are essentially beings such as literally siblings of gods, are gods, or have obtained the power of one from the story they originate from.
  
  
• Godly characters are to follow the format as like any OTHER character. These characters WILL be drained of major powers before, or upon, entering Avalon. I WILL NOT ALLOW ACTUAL GODS IN AVALON! EVER!
  
  
• Godly characters are still tricky, however, as people may be inclined to progress their character at an unfair rate. Please pay special attention to characters like this, and thoroughly explain how they progress, if not through normal means.
  
  
• If, for some reason, you believe your 'special' character should be stronger, and is godly, well, the typical theme thus far is to contact me and we will discuss your reasoning. However, do not waste my time if you don't have pretty damn good, story-driven reason(s).