Bio Self-Check Guide

Self-Check Guide for Bios

First and foremost, I'm just putting this out there so people can look at their bios before they have Staff take a look at them. It would make it so much easier on us if people would make sure that their bios stick to these basic guidelines that apply to all characters. Just because your character follows this checklist, it doesn't mean they will be accepted; however, if they don't follow these guidelines, it is guaranteed that they won't be accepted.

1) Have I read the rules?
It is very important that you read and review the rules of THG RPG. We expect everyone on the site to adhere to these rules.

2) Are my sections long enough?
You need two paragraphs for appearance, three for personality, and three for history. Simply having the correct number of line breaks, however, is not enough. Make sure that you have at least five decent-length sentences per paragraph, and make sure that the sentences have some substance.

3) Have I checked spelling and grammar?
Seriously, guys, it takes maybe two minutes to copy your bio and paste it into a word processor to go through and check spelling. There's even a spell check feature included in most browsers these days. There are no excuses for an excessive amount of typos.

4) Is my bio coherent? Does it make sense?
Read your bio aloud to yourself and make sure that you can understand what you were saying. If it takes you a moment to figure out what you meant, then it will be ten times harder for someone else to understand it. Make sure that it flows at least a little bit — if you're jumping from point to point, it makes it harder to understand and harder for the staff to critique.

5) Does my character have a decent balance of positive and negative traits? Do they have flaws?
Your character should be a person, and people aren't perfect. Their personality and physical appearance should both contain flaws of some kind. Make sure that they're realistic. No, scars do not count as flaws.

6) Is my character's history plausible?
Make sure that your character's past is plausible. If they've ran away at some point, you're going to need to explain it. Hate the Capitol? Explain it. It's not realistic for them to hunt illegally, or train in the Hunger Games (unless they're in an upper district), or know how to use eight kinds of weapons, or have killed a peacekeeper by their tenth birthday. If you feel like you're trying to get away with something, you probably are.