Creating a Character: A How-To Guide

[(Cal)]

Before You Start
The most important question is how this character feels about the two worlds.  What is their perfect world?  Do they want one world, as the world itself seems to want?  Are they working to separate them, and leave the mundane world and the otherworld individual realms, as the gods did originally?  Why?  If you can answer this question -- even if it's a simple "they don't know what they want," then you have a character that will fit in this game.

Site Mechanics
STEP ONE: Register an account.  This can be a character account or a root player account (for example, Cal does this); take your pick.  It doesn't matter at all for how the board operates, it's just your personal preference.  If you already have one account, you will need to create a new sub-account for your second (third, fourth, etc) character.  Do this by selecting Manage SubAccounts from the profile menu on your root (parent) account, and then click "Create/Link Alias".  TAHDAH!  Also, if you have your heart set on a particular canon spot, now is the time where you should reply to the canon list and request a reservation.  This will hold that character slot for one week.

STEP TWO: Fill out your profile.  This is it.  This is all the information you need to apply for a character.  Use as much or as little information as you'd like; a single well-crafted, though easily-fleshed sentence is worth just as much as reams and reams of paragraphs.  However, your profile should paint a basic, coherent picture of your character.  If you think it's enough to garner roleplay hooks, you should be good.  It's all subjective.  Don't forget the gender and birthdate fields, though!

STEP THREE: Post a topic in the Ready for Review board.  We'll give you a quick once-over, work out any bugs that may need working, and then you are totally ready to fly forth and conquer evil!  (or spread it, as is your wont).

General Guidelines
Applying for a character on Perfect World is as easy and painless a process as we can make it.  Decide the kind of character you want to play, register with that character's name (given name followed by surname with proper noun capitalization), and then fill out the account's profile.  All required information is there, and players are encouraged to edit and expound on that information through play -- no profile is ever locked, and you can fill out as much or as little information as you want on preliminary approval.

Both canon and original characters can be from anywhere in the world, but no matter what their heritage they are inexorably drawn to Tokyo, the locus of the joining worlds.  The caveat, however, is that all dialogue is assumed to be ICly in Japanese unless otherwise noted in a story.

Original Characters
Original characters do not have to be entirely mundane.  With the thinning of the walls between the worlds, magic has been seeping back into the modern world for many years, so magicians, demon-hunters, demon-controllers, and religious types who can countermand and work in concert with all of the above are totally awesome -- and please do not consider this an exhaustive list!  Feel free to look up information on shinto demons (which do include varieties of werebeasts and vampires, for that matter) and run from there.  Regular people, non-regular people, we happily offer a home for all of the above. 

For media examples of the kinds of powered characters who would fit, consider Yu Yu Hakusho, X, Silent Mobius, Ghostbusters, Supernatural, Dresden Files, American Gods, Witch Hunter Robin, Darker Than Black, and any other from similar genres.  Regular people with extraordinary talents in an everyday world that's just been turned sharply on its head into magical and religious fantasy would be right at home.

Canon Characters
The theme for canon characters in Perfect World is nature versus nurture.  Barring those mortal characters who are still living the lives they were introduced with in the series, the celestial warriors have all been born in the modern world to new lives and new experiences.  Rather than playing the same character, consider what Ryuen Chou would have been had he not been consumed by guilt to live his sister's life, or had Houjun Ri not lost his eye.

With that being said, these reincarnations will carry memories of their previous lives in the other world.  How strong those memories are and how the individual characters deal with them and relate to them is entirely up to the player's discretion.

The reincarnated celestial warriors do not have to share appearance with their canon counterparts.

Playbys
You are not required to have a playby, and if you do decide you would like one you are not limited in art style.  Cal personally prefers real-life images, but it's entirely a personal preference; if you'd rather use drawn art, manga clippings, or anime icons, please feel free.

If you do use real-life images, please use a representation that is culturally and thematically appropriate for your character.  For example, do not use western actors for Japanese characters unless that heritage is noted in their background.

Do not be afraid to embrace the source material and use funky hair and eye colors regardless of your character's ethnic background.  A number of our players are extremely skilled with photographic recolors, if such a thing strikes your fancy, and it would be a crying shame to have a manga game with no blue hair to be found.