rpanons | Make a Life Upgrade to Sony's PlayStation!

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rpanons is an anonymous community for role-play related topics. This place serves as a forum for game discussions, canon discussions, RP solicitations (ATP, game ads, open memes), and advice. The occasional off topic comment is inevitable, but please keep heated social and political topics to their respective communities. Posting them here will only get them frozen. Subsequent threads made to bypass a freeze will then be deleted.

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~~put here because I wasn't sure where else to put it derp~~

Hey, anons! Application season is coming up in a lot of games soon so I figure maybe it might be nice to try throwing out some pointers to anyone that's struggling or nervous about their app. I've been an app mod for close to two years now and have been through the ringer on everything from the most obscure fandoms that the darkest corners of the internet are confused about to original characters whose applications could very well be a novel on their own. I might not know your character but I damn sure know a good application, and I also know that it isn't the easiest thing in the world to write.

So ask me your questions! If you need advice on how to write a good personality section or whether or not this link can work for that sample, I'm here to let you know. Applications always seem to be more daunting than they should be. I'd like to help change that.

I'm rooting for you, fellow anons! Knock them apps outta the park!

what counts as headcanon in an app? pure speculation, or do reasonable guesses that could be supported by canon events fall under that umbrella too?

Anything that you can't back up with a specific moment in canon is going to be considered headcanon and should be left out of your app. It's always good to extrapolate and build on canon but if there's something that seems completely out of left-field to us, we'll question how reliable your interpretation of the character will be. If you want to include something you think is important but isn't explicitly stated in canon, make sure you give a good amount of evidence to back it up. We like seeing depth and creativity, but we don't want anything completely assumed.

thanks so much!

hi there! thank you for doing this; it's really cool.

so, personality sections - what do you think makes a strong/exceptional one? i don't rp atm but i used to write very meaty ones with all the material being inference from canon examples. while i was never rejected or given revisions, looking back it seems a little too thesis paper-esque for roleplaying. but i'm not sure i would've gotten the same positive results if i'd condensed it neatly into a few strong paragraphs considering a few different mods i used to know personally each admitted to me that if it looks "long enough" and doesn't have anything conspicuously erroneous, then it's passable. this bothered me a lot and consequently affected how i look at the app-writing process, but i would love to hear your opinion on this.

is there any particular range of word count you think is appropriate for app-writing (e.g. x-y is good; anything beneath x is too little, while anything past y is excessive)? what are some solid ways to spot a bad app team/game with poor standards so as not to rely on anoncomm hearsay?

Thanks, anon! I hope it helps at least a little bit!

This is a really good question, since personality sections are where you really have to sell us your interpretation of the character. As a general rule of thumb, anything less than 300-400 is too short, because at that point, you're either not getting into the depth of the character or you're bullet-point listing off character traits without any canon evidence or explanation for them, both of which make your character seem shallow or carbon-copy. On the flip-side, if your app is reaching dissertation levels of wordy, we're going to struggle to get through your app. I'm side-eying anyone that assumes long app means good app, because that's generally a sign that your app is a fluffed up history section more than anything. We know you read/watched/played/etc your canon, you're applying from it. We don't need you to regurgitate it back to us. That's a big sign that you don't really know much about your character beyond what's blatantly stated on screen. One or two canon examples is fine. Anything beyond that, and we're losing interest.

My biggest suggestion is to forget about length and focus on substance instead. You can write a good app in under 1000 words if you hit all the main points of your character and explain why your character does those things or behaves that way. If Bob smiles a lot even when he's sad, tell us that he tries to stay optimistic at all times to save face with his friends. That's one sentence and now we know that Bob is cheerful and friendly but probably a white-liar and sheltered in their emotions. It's really easy to give substance to a simple observation. If you can knock out the things that make your character unique and interesting in short, precise, but revealing statements, your app will be perfect.

I can't speak for app standards, since I've only been in four or five games myself including the one I'm on the the app team for, but I think history sections are a massive waste of time and appearance sections make me roll my eyes because the third person sample should show whether or not you know how to describe a scene or character. Extraneous bullshit that makes you go out of your way for something that should be obvious is just fluff and I wouldn't want to have to read through it, personally, since I don't think it's really a sign of how well you play your character. Any half-decent app team will work with you to better your app by giving you revisions and being willing to explain what they're looking for without telling you outright how to write your app. Any game that auto-rejects for something slacking is either stupidly nitpicky or just full of dicks, because apps aren't 100% foolproof to whether or not you know your character. It's like being fully qualified for a job and not getting hired because your resume was formatted with the wrong margins. It's just dumb.

I'd look for games that have high revisions and low rejections. That generally means they're not insanely strict, are willing to give people a chance, and actually want people to succeed and have fun in their game. High rejections and low revisions means one fuck up and you're out, which is utter bullshit. High acceptance with low revisions means they either are willing to let shit slide or don't really care much either way. This scale won't be wholly accurate to the quality of the players, but it definitely speaks to the openness of the game. I'd rather have friendly and willing to crit with a handful mediocre players than strict and unforgiving with a few "high quality" players.

thank you very much for such a detailed answer! this helps a ton and i really appreciate it.

No problem! Best of luck out there!

what sort of things do you look in an oc app? what are good things to focus on, personality-wise?

It's gonna sound weird, but hand to god, the first thing we look for in an OC app is grammar and structure. This is important in any app, but it's even moreso in an OC app because the only thing we have to work with is what you give us. If we struggle to understand what you're trying to convey, we're going to reject you on principle and ask you to reapply with a more comprehensible application.

Once you're past legibility, the most important thing is consistency. Your world information needs to be solidly nailed down and cohesive for us to understand and accept it. If you want to make a society of spies that all grow up together and go off to work for opposite agencies, develop the general sense of distrust and suspicion that will be commonplace in that society. Get in deep and tell us that you know exactly what it would be like to live in that universe.

Personality-wise, you want to focus on rounding out the character. You don't necessarily need to counter every positive trait with a negative trait, but you definitely want to have a good amount of both. If you focus too much on positives, we'll think special snowflake. If you focus too much on negatives, we'll think drama monger. You can use the same techniques you would in writing a canon character app. Tell us what's important to know about them, why those things are important, how it shapes the way they behave. Going back to consistency again, make sure everything you tell us makes sense and ties together. Tell us how the world they live in affects them as a person. If they live in a society of spies and all they want is to be a gardener, do they hide a .45 between the cabbage and the radishes?

Tie everything together for us in a nice, consistent bow. If everything sounds cohesive and makes sense, we'll want to see you in our game!

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