Post by Mel * on Jun 3, 2014 22:37:55 GMT -6
THE B.A APPLICATION GUIDE...
For first time appers; use the BASIC application. NO EXCEPTIONS.
A few notes for you to keep in mind before you start on your application; We are not a combat orientated site. Unlike X-Men, and various other mutant based roleplays, we're mostly based on the 'slice-of-life' and 'high-school/small town' role play. We do offer an Arena for those who are interested in using their abilities for something more, and there might be a few events/plots where you get to use your abilities, but we're still not a combat or battle orientated site. Please keep that in mind while writing the power section of your application. Thank you.
AVATAR & DISPLAY NAME:
Make sure to add both an avatar of your character and change your display name to your character's first and last name before posting your application. You can change your display name by clicking 'profile' -> 'edit profile' -> 'personal' -> 'display name'.
Avatar sizes are 150x150 and signature sizes shouldn't be more than 500x300. Application images will auto resize if they're any wider than 500px.
APPLICATION TITLE:
Make sure your application is named after your character's first and last name. Leave a WIP behind it if it's a work in progress, but once the app is done, it should be named 'Jon Dove' and nothing else. Middle names can be included too, for those that want that.
NAMES & NICKNAMES:
Keep in mind that even though this is a mutant based site and plot, we do not use codenames. Of course, you're free to have your character give themselves one, but that's about all it will be. It will make no IC difference, and school staff and teachers will still call your character by their first or last name.
AGE & PLAY BY:
Make sure the picture of your play by fits the age of your character. You can still use an older play by of your choosing, but make sure that all the pictures you use looks the same age that your character is. The staff reserves the right to judge case by case. Remember to use PG rated and appropriate pictures.
IC POSITION:
Please make sure to properly include this part, and the additional information needed. If your character is a high school student at BA, write 'Bellefonte Student', if your character is a college student, write ''Bellefonte College Student', and if your character is a teacher, include the position your character teaches for, and the same thing goes for locals; Include their jobs.
POWERS:
Yes, all three of these needs to be included. First of all, remember to give your power a NAME. Then write down a proper description of said power; Keep in mind that this should be written for ANYONE to understand, whether or not they have a masters degree in science. Focus on two aspects: what the power actually does and how your character in particular uses their power. Remember that each power needs to fit your character's age and level of training. Please look over the powers information for forbidden powers HERE.
LIMITATIONS & SIDE-EFFECTS:
We need limitations to each and every power; Every good point needs to be balanced out with something bad to make sure, and prevent the ability from getting too overpowered. Same thing goes for side-effects; This is what happens when your character uses their ability. This means things such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, restlessness, etc, etc, etc.
CODING:
Do not, under any circumstances, remove the coding. It's there for a reason. And please, make sure to avoid bolding the entire text. We allow for people to change fonts within it, but keep it readable and easy to understand. If there are certain parts of the application (such as for example; Worthy mentions) you can put a 'N/A' behind it, instead of removing it entirely. If you need help with this, feel free to message a Staffer.
MANIFESTATION & RECRUITMENT:
Mutants manifest their powers during puberty, which usually happens between the age of 11-15, sometimes later, though this is very rare. Depending on how severe their manifestation is, and what triggers it, these children or teenagers are recruited to one of the mutant schools WITHIN 3 WEEKS. What school they are brought to, depends entirely on where they live, though if you want them to go to Bellefonte Academy, you need a IC reason for this to happen, so please include this reason in your history section. Make sure we know how long it took the recruiters to get to the student and get them to a school.
We do not use words such as 'X-GENE' here at Bellefonte, and no one has or see any signs of their abilities until they manifest for the first time, which as stated before happens between the age of 11-15. The mutation is located in someone's DNA and can be found through blood samples, power sensors or other means. The recruiters work with some government officials, doctors and the police. We have recruiters everywhere - both in the country of America, and the rest of the world; Your character will be found. Again, no exceptions.
HISTORY & REALISM:
Even though we're a mutant based site, we like to uphold as much realism as we can, all things considered. This goes for the entire application as well as the history. Make sure that the history makes sense, and if something tragic happens to your character, your character will react accordingly. Keep things PG rated, and remember to add trigger warnings if violence, abuse or sex is mentioned.
Make sure it makes sense. Don't exaggerate just for the sake of exaggerating. It needs to be realistic, and even though we understand that people want their characters to be unique and be special, it's not very realistic if every single student or character on the site have lived their life going through hell, yet acts as if they're the most perfect person there is. Actions breed consequences.
APPLICATION REVIEWING & BUMPING:
Keep in mind that the Staff reviews applications as a team. We share the messages delivered to you, and when we ask for a change to be made, please do so. You're not only holding up your own application and play time, you're also holding up ours.
When a staff member asks for edits, do them. And make sure that you read over the message you receive THOROUGHLY! If we ask you to add in more information, on for example the power or the history, don't simply write down a sentence. We don't want to tell people to add the same stuff over and over again, so the staff reserves the right to tell you to read over the previous messages instead of sending a completely new revision.
If you don't put the effort, neither will we.
Once your application is finished, BUMP it by commenting it. A Staff member will get to it as quickly as they can. Sending us a message is fine, but don't nag. One message is fine, a message for each time it's finished is not (The same thing goes for subtle hinting). We have more to do than reviewing applications and we will get to it once we have the time to, so please be patient.
However, some applications gets held up, but don't sweat it. Simply listen to the suggestions given by the Staff reviewing your application, edit it until it fits our site standards and bump it again! If you're still unsure, you can freely take a look at the already accepted applications for help and ideas, or PM a Staff member for tips.
ACCEPTANCE AND CLAIMS:
Once you're accepted, please do your CLAIMS. And check out our Creative Space for graphics, forum games and such. Remember that if you need help designing graphics for your play-by, there are plenty of people who will help. Also take a look at the General Discussion section.
List of claims that NEEDS to be filled out:
HOUSING CLAIMS
FACE CLAIM
WHO PLAYS WHOM
List of optional claims: (unless your character is a teacher/staffer):
IC POSTIONS
SCHOOL CLUBS AND SPORTS
When you're done with that, hit up the character ads to get on with the threadage and other fun!
MAKING ANOTHER CHARACTER:
We here at BA don't have a limit on how many characters you make so long as you keep them active and meet all the requirements. Each character is made to their own account (unless you desire to play twin characters on the same account).
There is a post limit of 25 post on EACH (Just a total of; This doesn't mean you need another 25 posts on your first to make a third) of your characters before you're allowed to have another application accepted. This counts ONLY for IC posts. We trust you to be mature about this, and not abuse it. We reserve the right to judge case by case scenarios.
ON USING THE FREEFORM APPLICATION:
At BA, we provide a freeform application to allow people to creatively construct their characters. This forgoes the basic form, but that doesn't mean that we don't need the same amount of information. Most importantly: if we judge that you're essentially writing a basic application in the freeform app, we will ask you to switch over. This is not something that can be argued about. The freeform is there for creativity, not for laziness.