Buercrat Bricu is Buercratic

[Bricu]

Hi.

I'm working on Yet Another Form, collected from our various Character Profile forms (thanks to Del and Tarq for putting together the two that I use most frequently), that is a combination RP Profile and Permission Slip.

This document is supposed to help flesh out your character in regards to who they are, but also help detail what they have done AND give other folk permission to use them in fic-a-fying. This is why I'm calling it the RP Gospel. In other words, this profile lays out a good chunk of character info and also has spots for stories, plots and vignents that your character can be used for. It also delinates the bounderies for your character. for instance, Bricu personally would not do anything intentionally to screw up his relationship with Threnn. Towards that end, having Bricu seduced by (for Comedy, lets say Javien), is out of the question. It's a core part of his character that I don't think he would violate.

I need some help fine tuning it (thanks to Gabby, Tarq, Ila and Threnn for giving it a once over), so I'm putting what I got up here for public review. In about a week, I'll lock the thread and make a sticky for the document.

Please take a look at it and post your suggestions. Be critical, but be constructive.

---


RP Gospel

Full Character Name:

Nicknames:

Aliases:

Race:

Character's Age:

Character's physical Description
Age:
Height:
Build:
Hair:
Eyes:

Place of Birth:

Homeland:
Relationship to Homeland

Character's relationships:
List PC Friends.
List of PC Family
List NPC Friends
List of NPC Family
List PC Enemies
List NPC Enemies

Personality:

Philosophy:

Bio:

Job:

Hobbies:

Major Life Events:

Level of Education

Currently Resides:

Places the character is Famous
Places where the character is infamous




PLAYER's taboos: (what will you not allow your toon to do or be a part of)
Character Taboos: (things your character wouldn't think of doing, but could be broached)

Are you willing to allow your PC to be used in others stories if the Tabboo's are followed?

Character Ending--

Does the character retire?

As of this writing, how does the Character die?


Art:

[itanyablade]

I would add a line for Aliases (sp?) Not everyone goes by their name. Just for example, Corspilla is commonly called Pill, but her name is Eleana

[Bricu]

---Add Line for Aliases. Done.

[Fingold]

I'm gonna be an ass and point out it's Bureaucrat(ic). Stupid french words.
And I lurves this idea! I'll work on Fin's entry soon.

[uthas]

I'd add a section for "Planned Death", and Family.

[Bricu]

Spell check, endings and family sections: check.

[Bricu]

IF I was very clever, I would turn this doc into a webform that generated PDFs.

I am not that clever.

[uthas]

Maybe "Strange Features" or something like that. I'm not sure how to say it. For example: Uthas looked like a ragged skeletal dude, but was inhumanly strong.

[Fells]

Honestly? I like having this kind of information secret. Very few people know Fellsacanon, IC or OOC, and I think (especially for Fells) that's the way it ought to be. It's the same reason that I don't use MyRP - too much meta information. I wanna find this stuff out ICly. It's like a puzzle - these kind of files are like a cheat code, to get to the good stuff too fast.

[Bricu]

Jul 10, 2008 13:55:42 GMT -5 Fells said:

Honestly? I like having this kind of information secret. Very few people know Fellsacanon, IC or OOC, and I think (especially for Fells) that's the way it ought to be. It's the same reason that I don't use MyRP - too much meta information. I wanna find this stuff out ICly. It's like a puzzle - these kind of files are like a cheat code, to get to the good stuff too fast.

As with anything, you add what you want everyone to know, and when writing up Taboos you make it clear that Fells' history is supposed to be In the Dark.

Let's say I wanted to fic-ify something with Fells in an important role. Of course I'm going to talk to you about her; however, with this sheet in hand, I could start seeing what role she could have.

Again, if you dont' want to do it, don't do it. It is just another idea for encouraging RP between folks.

[Threnn]

It's not anything that's mandatory; it's simply another tool we can use to help facilitate RP. Like Marty said, you can fill out as much or as little of it as you want.

Character has secrets you don't want revealed? That's perfectly okay! Nothing says you have to divulge every last detail of their lives here - and hell, we shouldn't be putting spoilers into the profiles.

Maybe just stick to the physical description. Or for the biographical information, stick to the things that are public knowledge (or things the character lets other people think about them.)

The purpose behind these sheets is to help make it a bit easier when someone is writing characters that aren't their own into a story.

To clarify - I think it's safe to say that no one is going to take these sheets and write a story based on someone else's character (unless they have explicit permission to do so, obviously). But plenty of us write stories that might feature interactions with other people's characters - especially when we don't always get to cross paths in-game - and we want to get those interactions right.

Sure, you can PM/IM/gtalk at one another back and forth, but this adds another option. Let's say I wanted to write up a conversation between Annalea and Ilarra, and I want to have Ilarra smoking a cigarette throughout the scene. I'm fairly certain we've seen her smoking, either in-game or in fics about Ilarra, but I'm not 100% positive. Yes, I absolutely have the option of dropping her an email to confirm, but at the same time, I could surf on over here and find it in her profile.

These profiles don't take away the responsibility of the writer to check with the borrowed-characters' players for final approval, but they make a good quick reference so writers don't accidentally make someone else's character do something that's wildly OOC.

Maybe the best way to look at is as if someone else - an historian, a friend, a detective - was filling the form out about your character. They're obviously not going to know everything. The things your character keeps carefully hidden will stay carefully hidden.

Example! A casual observer wouldn't have to do much digging to know that Kaven Howell is one of Threnn's oldest friends from the Abbey. However, if you're not one of six people - Threnn, Anna, Bricu, Tarelyn, Kaven or Bethamin Howell (Kaven's wife) - then you wouldn't know that Threnn and Kaven were (briefly) romantically involved.

Would Threnn reveal that in conversation? She might, she might not; depends on the situation and who she's talking to. That's where the writer would need to come to me directly, if it's important to the story.

So, yeah, when Bricu gets the final version of it ready, I think it'll be an interesting reference tool, but a reference is its primary function - it's certainly not meant to take the place of in-game RP or stories - Shocking Revelations are best done when there are other people around to appreciate them, IMO.

[Bricu]

Currently I'm working on a version of this document that uses my understanding of Field Theory and Vector Psychology (seriously, I am) that should keep Fell's concerns about Secrets in mind.