* Character Guidelines

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Name, species, gender, faction, gift, ability, hold item, attacks, talents, personality, description, and history. These are the components of a character's application form in RS. Of them, only gift, hold item, and talents are optional. As with many role playing sites, characters must be submitted and then accepted by the staff members. You may not role play a character until it has been accepted. You may play extremely minor characters, such as prey (we have real animals here, just to make the whole 'food chain' thing a lot easier to understand deal with it please), and random cameos that don't really matter, but that's it.

The name of your character is, well, just that. A name. Your character might choose to go by its species name, although Pokémon generally have names of their own. You may also include aliases and common titles. Gifts, abilities, hold item, attacks, and talents we will go over later. Your character's gender and species should be self-explanatory enough. Legendaries are off-limits.

The faction your character is part of should be stated as either no faction, or one of the many groups of Pokémon there are in Sootopolis. This includes the many guilds/parties and, of course, the main gangs, and the Aureole.

The personality of your character varies in minimum length- please see the post below for details. Try to answer questions like, "What would your character do in x situation?" and, "How does your character react to strangers?". The description of your character also differs greatly and you should try and make this as detailed as possible. In the post below you will find the different profile minimums depending on your character's appearance/abilities. For example, oddly coloured Pokémon require a minimum of three paragraphs to be accepted, while Pokémon with canon colours (normal or shiny) mean almost no description is needed at all.

Your character's history depends on how long your character has lived. Some may be old and others may be young. As a result, the history of your character can be from a few to... well, a lot of paragraphs/sentences/whatever. Par norm, the minimum is two paragraphs. If you don't have much to say, try and describe your character's ancestors, in order to give us an understanding of who your character is.

Now, coming back to the unexplained parts of your character: gifts, abilities, attacks, and talents.

Gifts are a special part of Ravaged Sootopolis. Most Pokémon here have abnormal 'super powers', and they vary from individual to individual. Some gifts may be found often, others might be rarer. Not all Pokémon have these gifts, but a number of them do. These gifts are abilities Pokémon do not normally have. Remember, you may only have one of these. A water-type breathing underwater is not a gift, because it's natural for a water-type to do this. However, it is abnormal for a Luvdisc to possess super-strength (speed, maybe, considering the Swift Swim ability, but it would have to be raining/wet), and that would be a gift. Do not make this gift too strong/outlandish (TIME STOP TIME GO TIME STOP. INVINCIBILITY. MIND CONTROL), and if they are, they better have a serious drawback.

An ability is, uh, the ability your character has. All Pokémon have one. The above mentioned Luvdisc's Swift Swim ability is an example of this. Due to Swift Swim, Luvdisc can go much faster in the rain/if it's wet. This is normal for a Pokémon and does not count as a gift because of that. Your character may only have one ability, and cannot be a mixture that makes him/her/it invincible. The skills your characters will have that differ from the ones they should not normally learn are measured by the length of their profile. Again, see the bottom post for details.

Your hold item is optional. It is basically an item that gives your character some sort of edge. They are exactly the same as hold items in the actual game. You may only have one if these on your character and it has to be a real, in-game item. It might look different and be differently applied, but it should still be fairly simple. * (Hold Item: an item that gives the user a slight advantage in battle. Does not include items which have no effect on the holder. ex: a Destiny Knot is a hold item. An evolutionary stone is not. In addition, berries do not count as hold items.)

Your attacks have a limit of ten instead of four. Once your character is accepted, you cannot change its attack list.

Lastly, your character's talents show us what your character can do. These talents are basically things your character can do that are not of the norm, but still quite possible. This includes perhaps acrobatic skills, slightly faster speed, etc. These talents are not limited, but try to keep yourself from going overboard. While I'm at it, try to keep everything your Pokémon can do to a limit. This is especially important in psychic Pokémon, so no super long-distance teleporting and constant mind reading, etc. Not unless it's their skill, and even then, you only get to pick one.

If your character has skills which greatly differ from normal Pokémon, such as a completely different attack list and type, please explain what they can do with this. We don't just want to know if your Skitty is a water-type, we want to know what it can do with this water-typing. Can your Skitty breath underwater? Swim abnormally fast? Your character's talents should take up a minimum of two paragraphs if they are radically altered (once more, see post below).

So, right. This all you need to know to have a character. Remember to not post in the finished board unless you're finished. Finished profiles are moved to the accepted board when accepted.

[Ex]

Character Guidelines: Too Long; Didn't Read (TL;DR) Version
^{* = mandatory
disclaimer: the reaction to the minimums/limits of certain staff members vary}

NORMAL/SHINY POKÉMON
* NAME: _______
* SPECIES: _______
* GENDER: _______
FACTION: _______
GIFT: one (1) gift
* ABILITY: one (1) ability * note: must be an ability the Pokémon species can learn naturally
HOLD ITEM: one (1) hold item
* ATTACKS: ten (10) attacks * note: must be attacks the Pokémon can learn in-game
TALENTS: _______
* PERSONALITY: three paragraph minimum
* DESCRIPTION: if your character is normal, you can just use a point-form description, listing a few oddities. this applies for shinies as well, because shiny pokémon have a constant appearance depending on species.
* HISTORY: two paragraph minimum

ODD-APPEARING/NON-CANON APPEARING POKÉMON
* NAME: _______
* SPECIES: _______
* GENDER: _______
FACTION: _______
GIFT: one (1) gift
* ABILITY: one (1) ability * note: must be an ability the Pokémon species can learn naturally
HOLD ITEM: one (1) hold item
* ATTACKS: ten (10) attacks * note: must be attacks the Pokémon can learn in-game
TALENTS: _______
* PERSONALITY: three paragraph minimum
* DESCRIPTION: three paragraph minimum
* HISTORY: two paragraph minimum

DIFFERENTLY SKILLED POKÉMON
* NAME: _______
* SPECIES: _______
* GENDER: _______
FACTION: _______
GIFT: one (1) gift
* ABILITY: one (1) ability * can be any ability
HOLD ITEM: one (1) hold item
* ATTACKS: ten (10) attacks * can be any mixture of attacks
* TALENTS: two paragraph minimum, state type if it is different than normal. do not create invincible pairings such as wonder guard + ghost/dark-type.
* PERSONALITY: three paragraph minimum
* DESCRIPTION: point form, no minimum.
* HISTORY: two paragraph minimum

DIFFERENTLY SKILLED AND ODD-APPEARING/NON-CANON APPEARING POKÉMON
* NAME: _______
* SPECIES: _______
* GENDER: _______
FACTION: _______
GIFT: one (1) gift
* ABILITY: one (1) ability * can be any ability
HOLD ITEM: one (1) hold item
* ATTACKS: ten (10) attacks * can be any mixture of attacks
* TALENTS: two paragraph minimum, state type if it is different than normal. do not create invincible pairings such as wonder guard + ghost/dark-type.
* PERSONALITY: three paragraph minimum
* DESCRIPTION: three paragraph minimum
* HISTORY: two paragraph minimum