How to Create an Acceptable Character

Hello there!

This post is intended to outline what will make a character bio acceptable. There are many wonderful guides in the Character Creation Guides section that will help you with creating/elaborating on/fleshing out a character bio. You should take a look at the guides eventually but if you just want your character accepted for now, read this!

Character Bios...

• Must be written with few to no spelling/grammar errors. It should be easy to read -- whoever you end up roleplaying with will thank you if your writing is readable. Use a spell check program (or copy and paste into Microsoft Word) if you need it.
  
• Must be realistic. Characters may have talents and quirks. They just can't be utterly special and amazing and lovable while leading a great rebellion through Panem.
  
• Must be able to reflect the socioeconomic status you give them. Seam children from District 12 cannot eat gigantic feasts every day and cannot wear expensive clothing.
  
• Must not be a list of qualities. "Bob is tall. Bob is green. Bob has blue hair" will not be accepted.
  
• Must follow the paragraph rule or exceed the number of paragraphs required. We require eight paragraphs total in a character application split between appearance, personality, and history sections. It is up to you to choose how many paragraphs you want to spend on each section. Just please have eight.

In the format of the character template:

Name: Something reasonable and perhaps fitting to the district in which they live in or the career their parents pursue. Notice that Rue, Primrose, and Katniss are plants and Gale is a wind while Peeta may have something to do with pita bread.
Age: Something reasonable that matches your character's current abilities. Prodigies are cool, but know where to draw the line of reason.
Gender: Your choice.
District: Remember the socioeconomic implications of this. If your character is in District 12, they are most likely poor. If they live in the Capitol, then riches galore. Wanderers are wanderers, avoxes are in the Capitol.

Appearance: 

Although the setting of this site is WAY into the future, people have not changed that much. Brown hair, brown eyes, green eyes, black hair, etc. are all acceptable and common in the districts.

When writing this section, please remember to mention all of your character's features that would be needed for a rough sketch of them and then expand on how this is significant to your character. Is he muscular and to what extent? Could he lift 50 pounds or 100? Is she tall and pretty like a supermodel? How does this help her -- are people nicer to her than normal? Does she think of herself as pretty and does she do anything to enhance her appearance?

Flaws should also be put into this section, as can the clothing that your character prefers to wear.
Mentioning height and weight with the help of a BMI Calculator for Adults or a BMI Calculator for Children is always nice.

If your character is not from the Capitol or the Career districts (1, 2, 4) and is not wealthy, they should not have access to hair dyes or tattoos or stuff like that -- those are simply too expensive.

Keep the Hunger Games in mind in this section. Is your character a fast runner? Do they have quick hands or brute strength?

Personality: 

Your character is a person...so make them realistic! Flaws are of course subjective so it's the context in which a quality is used that makes it a flaw. For example, one can be angry to the point where it makes them work harder for a goal OR one can be angry to the point where they are commonly punished by those in authority for lashing out.

Describe the qualities that you give to your characters. Make them human.

As in the Appearance section, feel free to address what your character would do the Hunger Games. Is your character so trusting that they will surely be killed or betrayed? Are they standoffish so that no one will ever want to help or sponsor them?

History: 

This is the trickiest section because it's where everyone wants to be creative and it sometimes gets out of hand. This site is all about using your imagination and making your characters what you want them to be, but there are things you must keep in mind:

1. All minors (children not yet eighteen years old) except for Wanderers must have a parent and/or guardian who takes care of them. It's a dictatorship, and part of keeping a country in check is keeping the children in check. The Capitol does not want children to run wild. Children without guardians are sent to the community home.

2. All minors except for Wanderers must attend school. Proper brainwashing by the Capitol must be distributed.

3. Absolutely no travel between districts without good reason.

4. Characters may not have siblings/relatives/friends in the 54th Games onwards unless the tribute was made by the same member or given permission to be acquainted by the member who owns the tribute. As the Hunger Games here started from the 54th, all tribute spots from then to the current Games have been taken.

5. Wanderers and Peacekeepers must have good reasons for being so, and their biographies must be very detailed. Wanderers must discuss what led them to run away, how they did so, where their family is, what their family thought, and how they now live (food, etc) without getting caught by the Capitol.
Peacekeepers must discuss what motivated them to work for the Capitol. Their biographies must detail why they chose to become a Peacekeeper, how they feel about punishing people, and their leniency/lack of such as a Peacekeeper. Peacekeepers are usually in their twenties or older and do not have families.

These are just minimums -- you MUST expand more on their childhoods if you want peacekeepers and wanderers to be accepted.

6. No hunting without good reason. Remember that only Katniss and Gale of ALL of District 12 wandered away from the fence.

7. Since it is considered an honor to have made it through the site's Hunger Games as a victor, we do not allow victors to be created or for you to be related to an unplayed victor without the permission of the respective writer.

8. Characters may not be related to President Snow. Characters may be related to district mayors or the president(s) of D13 with permission from their respective writers.

*District mayors and the president(s) of D13 are elected by the site every five Hunger Games (see here). You may enter a character to run for this position at that time.

9. Characters may not be stylists or gamemakers.

10. Characters who commit murder or other crimes may be subject to being sent to the Detention Center. Characters who have evaded being caught for a crime in the past should specify how they avoided being punished.

Once you are ready for a staff member to check your bio, reply to your bio thread with "@ ripred" (without " " and the space) and staff members will be immediately alerted to take a look.