Character generation on String Theory has seven sections:
- Description
- History
- Skills
- Personality
- Ability
- Goals and RP Hooks
- Profile Info
- OOC Info
While the sections are presented in this sequence, you may complete them in any order you deem appropriate. Chargen requires only written descriptions of characteristics; there is no stats system.
The next question people frequently raise is "But do I have to write a lot?" The answer to that is: Not necessarily. There is no fixed minimum or maximum requirement for any section. You can write as much or as little as seems appropriate. As long as you cover everything that is significant for the character and leave no glaring holes, staff tend to be content. (Accounting for such caveats as 'character must conform to theme', etc.)
Each section is addressed in turn below, with examples of what has been approved.
Description
The most important part is that your character has one. It needs to talk about what the character looks like, and if your character has an actor/actress (which nearly all do), then the desc needs to match up with the chosen PB. (See Taken Actors on the wiki, or use +actor/check <name> on the MUX, to test whether a particular PB is already in use.)
Descriptions typically include some sort of 'typical clothing' mention. It's considered poor form to write actions into a description, such as 'your gaze falls to' or 'he sees you looking at him and smiles'.
The command to set a basic desc is @desc me=<description>. You can use %r within the description to insert a linebreak (twice to print a blank line), and %t to indent paragraphs.
The MUX has a simple multidesc program; see +help multidesc for more information.
Given below is an example description which could be considered average.
Grace is a woman of no particular ethnic heritage. Her short-cropped hair, only a couple of inches in length, is a soft sable hue. Her skin is light, as are her eyes, the clear blue contrasting with dark eyelashes and brows. Very few lines mark her face; in part a factor of relative youth, and in part due to the subtlety typical of her expressions. Grace's body is trim and fit, as though she is accustomed to activity.
Her usual clothes are simple and practical — shirt, jeans, shoes. Color coordinated, at least so they don't clash, but looking nice is not often one of Grace's top priorities. That she doesn't wear makeup is also evidence of that fact. She habitually wears a single piece of jewelry, a dark crystal globe pendant on a silver chain which rests at the base of her throat. There's a digital watch on her left wrist, but that doesn't count.
History
The history needs to cover all major events — which is to say, the ones that were meaningful to the character's development as a person. In some cases, you might gloss over childhood with a few sentences about the kind of environment they grew up in, then expound upon adult life. Others may need more detail on childhood. Perhaps the most important message to convey is that you don't have to write a mountain of detail on every year of their life. Two paragraphs is probably too short for most adult characters, but three may be sufficient if you aren't asking for anything exceptional. Of course, the more skilled and/or atypical the character is, the more background you have to write, because those skills and characteristics must be supported by their history.
The most common oversights in character history are 1) not including mention of the Bomb (Nov. 6, 2006) and its effect on the character's life and 2) not giving any thought to how the public revelation of the Evolved (Feb. 17, 2007) affected them. If you don't recognize these events, read the History page before going any further.
Instructions for setting your history are given in +help history, as well as in the chargen room. Most of the chargen commands follow the same style.
Given below is an example history which is fairly average for the playerbase.
Laura Morgan was, in many ways, raised by a single father. A magician who made his home in Las Vegas, he was never one of the famous stage performers, but made a living (of sorts) from street performances, birthday parties, and the occasional small-stage show. Most of the family's funds came not from his work (which he loved and enjoyed) but from Laura's mother — who was away about as often as she was home, from the time Laura was 5 until… well, even now. Her mother, after all, was a professional burglar — and though her run-ins with the law had been remarkably rare, she spent as much time laying low away from her family as she did planning and executing heists. The only reason she didn't wind up behind bars for a very long time, the few instances where she was caught, was due to the efforts of Daniel Linderman on her behalf.
Despite the frequent absences of her mother, Laura learned the skills of her trade, just as much as she did the sleight of hand and other tricks employed by her father. And she proved to have inherited quite a talent for both. Enough of a talent that a young and not-yet-jaded teen was recruited into the Linderman group — not, at that age, as an agent, but given more formal (and thorough) training for her skills and promised a very well-paid career (if she finished well in school).
Laura did finish well, and — after a couple of years spent doing the normal sorts of post-high-school entry-level jobs, while she finished her training to the standards of the Linderman Group — she established a business as a professional safecracker in San Francisco. The person you hire when you lose the key or combination to your safe; the person the police hire to crack vaults belonging to suspects. And while her mother had arrest records in several cities, including SF, Laura's record remained immaculate, no matter what grief suspicious cops gave her over her poor choice in relatives and her own skills. They never realized their automatic suspicion was actually very well warranted — because Laura was moonlighting as a burglar. Mostly at the Linderman Group's beck and call.
There's only so long a lady can stay in one place before either a) she runs out of things to do, or b) suspicion starts to approach an intolerable threshold, especially when said lady's favored pastime involves criminal acts. Besides, the boss said he wanted something in Seattle. So Laura moved to Seattle when she was 24. At 26, Laura relocated to Denver, also upon request from above. She liked Denver — a lot more than dreary Seattle, although she missed the ocean. A year later, give or take a couple of months, Linderman flew out to pay a personal visit.
Daniel Linderman had a job in New York that required the attention of one of the best. Said young woman didn't feel she'd exhausted Denver's possibilities yet, and put up some resistance to being told to move again. So he brought along a little bit of flattery — enough to make a lady feel appreciated, not so much as to seem insincere. Giving his organization's long-term relationship with Laura, that wasn't exactly difficult to do. Appeased, Laura agreed to relocate. She did the job. And a few others, not to mention personal… errands. She's remained in New York since, amongst cops who don't know her family history and a city whose security is in many ways still as haphazard as everything else. It seems to be working out quite well.
Skills
You are not required to describe the skills that are assumed of an average American. Reading, writing, computer literacy, operation of a motor vehicle… If your character graduated high school, all of these things are expected. What goes here is anything not necessarily average — be it an atypical skill or exceptional aptitude. Martial arts, music skill, foreign languages, public speaking aptitude, firearms, better than typical computer skills… and so forth. This is also a place to note unusually poor skills. If your character couldn't boil an egg to save his life, it might be worth mentioning here. Finally, if they have any unusual resources, those should also be documented in this section.
Instructions for setting your skills are given in +help skills, as well as in the chargen room.
Most players choose to write their skills in 'bullet-point' form, describing each separately. This is recommended if you are asking for many or if something is unusual enough to merit more description/explanation. Paragraph-style is also acceptable, however, if you find that easier.
Given below are examples of both bullet-point and paragraph skill descriptions.
Contacts — Laura is a small cog in a very large machine. A very skilled cog, but a small one nonetheless. The upside of this is that she has access to resources and contacts through this network that wouldn't otherwise be available to her — funds, information, assistants, influence should she ever get in trouble. The reverse is that she can be called upon in much the same fashion.
Education — Of the high school variety, anyway. Laura can do everything your typical high school graduate can do, from drive a car to work her way through algebra. She's better at trig than algebra, because /trig/ has applications in her particular profession. She can quote a few of the classics, and recognizes a few more by name. The real point is, she never went much farther, outside of the specialized niche that is her career.
Electronics — Laura knows her way around electronics. She's no hacker, but she can puzzle her way past the sort of security software your average more-or-less technoliterate citizen puts on their computer. (Crack passwords, etc. Often with the help of higher-tech devices.) What Laura's good at is defeating electronic security systems — sensors, detectors, alarms, cameras, what have you. Really, really good.
Health and Condition — Laura takes good care of her body; it's a critical tool. She doesn't follow a strict diet or anything of the sort, but she eats reasonably healthy — better than your average American by far — and does adhere to an exercise schedule that keeps her in top form. She also consciously avoids chronic behaviors like listening to loud music and reading in poor light which are detrimental to sense acuity in the long term.
Magic — Stage magic, that is. Laura's more than competent at various sleight of hand and card-type tricks — the sorts of 'magic' you find at birthday parties and low-end stage productions. She is very well-practiced in her relatively small repertoire; the dexterity, ability to mislead, and ability to hide small objects are all extremely useful to a thief.
Security — Give Laura a security system, she can 1) tell you how to defeat it and 2) tell you how to improve it. Doesn't mean she will, unless you're paying through the nose for her time, but she can. She stays on top of the cutting-edge advancements in the field of security (with the assistance of the Linderman Group): both how to implement them and how to defeat them.
Kayla's major skills, aside from a university education, lie in the field of nursing. She has a solid grasp of human anatomy even without the aid of her power, familiarity with chemistry, microbiology, psychology, and nutrition, a reasonable capability to diagnose basic illnesses and conditions, can perform first aid at a moderate level of skill, and is familiar with a wide run of pharmaceuticals, both OTC and prescription, unto the point of proper dosages and probable interactions.
She can cook decently, she can clean, she knows a little bit about plants (mostly the flowering kind) and has odds and ends of trivia stuck in the cluttered corridors of her mind. Kayla used to be pretty good with beads, thread, wire, needles, and other tools of that hobby, but lost everything in the bomb and hasn't had much opportunity to rebuild her collection. She has a good eye for color and design to go with the neglected hobby. Sewing is somewhat of a lost art these days, but Kayla can do that too; it's stood her in good stead when patching old and tattered clothes, now that she can't afford to go out and buy new ones very often. Living as a refugee has also taught Kayla a lot about being frugal, wasting as little as possible, hoarding the rest, and not having much in the way of personal space.
Personality
Personality may be one paragraph or several. It needs to show that the character is well-developed, 'three-dimensional' as it were — it needs to address different circumstances and different facets. How a character feels towards the Evolved and such matters as Registration is particularly important because these are major thematic concerns; how they view other people, how they interact with them, the character's preferred behaviors should also be included. Typically, a solid personality will take two paragraphs; three if the writer is verbose.
Instructions for setting your personality are given in +help personality, as well as in the chargen room.
Personalities are more often written in paragraph form, but they may also be done in bullet-point style.
Given below are two examples of thorough (and perhaps a bit excessively verbose) personality descriptions.
Laura is a rather lighthearted person. She has quite a bit of energy at times, and when she decides to be serious about something (like a job), she's very serious — but the rest of the time… she's very much a 'silver lining', 'glass half full', 'too much energy in the morning' person. Making Laura angry is generally difficult because of her positive demeanor — but anyone who offends her doesn't need to worry about her getting mad. Not at all. She'll just get even. Probably in a fashion that involves something embarrassing. There are advantages to being a very good thief. Lack of the whole 'personal property' concept is probably both advantage and disadvantage. Not being strongly attached to most possessions is likely beneficial to her mental health. On the other hand, why other people are so enamored of these things, she'll never understand.
The young woman also has a bit of an ego. She's aware of it, and consciously keeps it in check (most of the time), but it's still there. Laura knows she's one of the best at what she does, on both sides of the law; better than even her mother was. In part as a result, flattery works well on Laura; she's also as vulnerable as any girl to 'pretty things'. As long as you don't overdo either. Just enough to observe the proprieties, thank you. She's also prone to her own brand of cocky confidence. This would be a big problem if she didn't manage to live up to that confidence all the time. As it is, it's possibly a disaster waiting to happen someday.
As far as Laura's concerned, Evolved are fine… in an abstract sense. She knows the head of her organization is Evolved; his name's on the act, and he publicly registered. That's just peachy. She knows other people who are Evolved; also not a problem. What makes Laura nervous is the thought of running into one on a job — because she is not Evolved. Registration, in Laura's selfish consideration, is a good thing — then when she does research on a mark, she'll know what she's up against. Besides, if it wasn't okay, the boss wouldn't have stuck his own neck out.
Hana is a driven woman. Driven by her ghosts, to live up to the examples of her mother and grandmother; driven by her ideals, to take action against the ills in the world. She has a moral compass just as powerful as her stubborn soul, an unwavering belief in 'good' and 'evil'; a desire to fix the wrongs and bolster up the rights. That strength is also a weakness. Hana's desire for action and justice once let Noah get past her guard; her belief that he was honest and true led to her doing the Company's work — something she fiercely regretted once she started digging into the truth behind the facade.
Hana is often cool in demeanor, her penchant for analysis cutting ruthlessly to the core of issues, her determination carrying her through difficult decisions with an apparent ease others may envy. This is the legacy of her family and her extensive training. That determination rests on a heart of strong convictions and feelings. Though most may never see beneath the strategist's surface, it is these emotions that define Hana, above all else. Her emotions may be 'stunted', in the sense that her feelings are simple, direct, and difficult to change, but that does not make them any less powerful for it.
Hana is not a believer in expediency — she believes in doing what is right. Although the right path may require someone to work in the shadows and do unpleasant things; she has no problem with being that person. She is willing to take advantage of opportunities presented, such as Noah Bennet. Even after working with him for two years, she trusts Noah only about as far as she can throw him. (Fortunately, Hana has a pretty good arm. For a girl.) But she can work with him, obviously.
Personally, Hana has a great deal of empathy for PARIAH and other such activists. People who make a stand for their beliefs and act against evil. However, their methods put more innocents in danger, and that isn't part of Hana's personal philosophy. She would rather strike the heart of the beast than a finger, and so she continues to wait for an opportune moment.
Ability
Non-Evolved need do nothing here, and can skip right on to the next piece.
Evolved characters need to describe their power. They need to talk about what it can do — which is the easy part. What people most often fall short on is what it cannot do. Every power needs limitations, drawbacks, consequences. How far does it reach, how much can the character do with it, what happens when they try to do too much and/or for too long?
There are two important things to note about abilities in the universe of Heroes. One is that any Evolved character has only one ability. There are no people who are both telekinetic and telepathic, for example. An ability may have multple facets/uses, but at its core each use is based upon the same single power. Secondly, abilities are far smaller in scope and scale than you often find in comic-based superpower themes. The strongest heroes in Marvel, for example, can toss around 100 tons of material — but in Heroes, super strength is more likely to max out at 2 tons, if it even achieves that magnitude. These are not superpowers as such, they are powers applied within a realistic world. Bear that in mind when writing.
Instructions for setting your ability description are given in +help ability, as well as in the chargen room. You will also need to set a short descriptor, preferably one or two words, for the +census listing; the command for this is +ability/short <text>.
Abilities may be described in paragraphs or bullet-points; paragraphs are the more common, but some people find it easier to describe it facet by facet.
Two sample ability descriptions are given below, both written in paragraph form. These are examples of solidly written powers which cover advantages, disadvantages, and limitations in sufficient depth to be readily approved.
Grant's power is the ability to receive and transmit signal broadcasts. What this means, is he can hear and/or see signals from radio and TV, OR he can transmit to those same things. However, he doesn't yet know that he can work with TV signals. Radio transmission and reception is simple and easy. He can hear radio transmissions without it interfering with his normal day to day workings. He can hear either AM or FM transmissions at will, adjusting his mental 'dial' to the right stations. Television reception, however, when he learns it… will completely disable him while he's watching. TV signals are much stronger. He will be able to see nothing or hear nothing when it's going on.
Broadcasting radio on a random channel is easy as well, simply letting the sounds he hears to flow onto the air waves. However, he cannot filter anything he hears. ANYTHING he hears or says will go directly onto the waves when he's broadcasting. Like with reception, Television broadcasting will render Grant immobile and unable to do anything until he stops. He can see and hear everything, however, he has to focus on sending it all out.
Grant can receive anything a standard high definition radio or standard non-cable television can receive. His broadcast range is limited to a one mile radius from his body. However, his signals can be amplified by machinery (like a signal boosting tower, or a 'news van' or something of the sort). He can, potentially, jam a signal nearby by broadcasting his own signal over what he's hearing. However, doing so will only be short range.
Although he can switch off his ability and see normally, Flint has the basic equivalent of x-ray vision. Kind of like how people used to believe that the eyes produced the light they see by, his eyes emit radiation that they then translate into moving bluish-black and white images.
The degree to which he can see through things is controlled through the focus and intensity of the radiation he puts off. He can stop short at seeing through a person's clothes, or he can strip them down to walking sacks of organs or skeletons — something that he does with such regularity that he can often recognize people from their bones alone. He can see through walls with relative ease regardless of what they're made of, but the more that there is going on in a given area, the harder it is to focus on something specific. That is, while spying on activity the room next door is relatively simple for him, if he tried to look through two consecutive walls, the goings on behind them would too confused and obscured by the overlap for him to make out anything more than possible movement. Distance is also a factor. More often than not, the ability is active, and he frequently uses it to check people for weapons and other suspicious items on their person.
When in x-ray mode, he does not register visible light, or the absence of it. He can still see with perfect clarity when blindfolded or in pitch black darkness, and would not notice if someone were to shine a bright light in his eyes. His pupils expand and contract in tandem with his level of focus, rather than reacting to visible light (unless the ability is inactive, in which case they react normally) which has the potential to give the wrong impression, should someone be paying attention and notice that he looks completely drugged out or even blind because his pupils are dilated and apparently unfocused in a well-lit room.
As a side effect, when the ability is active, his irises put off a pale blue glow. In daylight it is difficult to detect save for the fact that it washes some of the natural color out of his eyes, but in dim or dark lighting conditions, it is much more notable.
In addition to enhanced vision, he has a mild natural resistance to ionizing radiation that would otherwise be a persistent threat to his health.
Goals and RP Hooks
This section of the application is for you OOC plans and/or goals. Down what paths, well-defined or nebulous, do you see your character traveling on the course of their growth and development? Are there any factions you'd like to get them involved with? What RP hooks would you like to have other people take up and follow through? What opportunities does your character present for other players, and what opportunities would you like to have presented to them?
Whether you want to encourage social RP, drop the character into the most dangerous situations you can find, hang out with the good guys, plot to destroy the world? Even if your plans are poorly-defined and vague at best, you had to have some thoughts when you built the character concept. Why did this character concept, of everything possible, appeal to you?
Use +hooks <text> to set your publicly-viewable RP hooks. This is limited to 240 characters so it doesn't clutter up your +finger display. If you need to convey something more detailed to staff, +rphooks/set <#>=<text> will let you enter multiple paragraphs. +rphooks <#> to view the corresponding page.
Profile Info
This section of chargen has instructions for putting up your +finger info, which everyone on the game can see. The fields you need to set are:
| Full Name |
Your character's full IC name. |
+fullname <text> |
| Gender |
Your character's gender.
(Male or Female) |
@sex me=<text> |
| Status |
Your character's Evolved status.
(Non-Evolved, Registered Evolved, or Unregistered Evolved) |
+status/set <text> |
| Occupation |
Your character's IC profession and/or role. |
+occupation <text> |
| Age |
Your character's IC age. |
+age <text> |
| Actor |
The person your character is played by (PB). Optional but recommended.
See Taken Actors and use +actor/check <name> to make sure no one else is using the actor you want. |
+actor <name> |
| Profile |
A short description of your character and RP hooks others may take advantage of. |
+profile <text> |
OOC Info
The last room of chargen asks for a little bit of OOC information. These are not required fields, but completing them is a courtesy to staff.
| Email |
Your email address, in case staff need to contact people via email. |
+email <address> |
| Alts |
Your alts on String Theory, if any. |
+alts <names> |
| Heard |
How you heard about String Theory, if this is your first time through chargen. |
+heard <text> |
Once all of the different sections have been completed, type +apply and your application will go in the queue. If you change something before staff reply on your application, you do not need to use this command again.
