The Application Form

What should we put on it?

Basics like name, species, email, etc. aside, I was chatting with Lauren and we thought it'd be nifty if we divided the meat of the app form into the following fields (you can see them on her character score-check sheets in the Workshop, too!):

STRENGTHS:

Natural
(Mundane strengths that you'd find on an average mortal; boring things like intelligence, speed, dexterity, strength, a good constitution, decent charisma or a silver tongue. Things like flying or possessing claws or good night vision would go under here, too.)

Learned
(Skills of the sort your character could either make a living off of, or could've learned in a school or from an apprenticeship; forging, arching, alchemy, languages, dancing, dragon riding, so on.)

Supernatural
(Supernatural abilities or skills that are not inherently magical; the strength of a werewolf, the powers of a vampire, or the ability to turn invisible. This goes for powers granted by trinkets or enchantments, too.)

Magical
(Inherent, personally usable magical abilities or skills. i.e. magical powers whose magic stems from or must be channeled by the character. Anything else goes up in supernatural.)

Personality
(Pluses in personality that are of note.)

WEAKNESSES:

Natural
(Same as above; natural flaws that the character was born with. Maybe they have bad eyes or have had a bad limb from birth.)

Gained
(Weaknesses obtained over the course of their life; a lost limb, internal damage, mental damage, and so forth.)

Supernatural
(Weaknesses that are supernatural -OR- magical in nature. Curses, being bound to something through magic, all of the weaknesses associated with werewolfism and vampirism, etc. go here.)

Personality
(Personality flaws that are of note.)


What do you guys think?

^I like that system; seperates things easily and makes it look like we AREN'T looking at a huge wall of text (as some apps in the past back in NK looked like... or maybe that's just me).

Also... the email thing, we might want to put that in the apps too (in case we need to contact someone where PM/whispers fail); maybe it could be optional though? Some folks are kind of iffy about putting their emails up publicly, I know.

I don't have much time ATM, but let the app be as short as possible! It's stressful to some people to arrive in a cont and want to be a member, but be confronted by all that stuff they have to write out. I almost prefer a more simple "strengths and weaknesses" system rather than splitting it up; but on the app page, where the app is explained, you can go into detail about that.

No wait, scratch that. Strengths should be split into two categories: magical and nonmagical. Maybe name them different things: "Mundane Strengths" and "Magical Ability" or something. So on the app form we can make it very clear: give numbers to the stuff in the "magical ability" field, NOT in the "mundane strengths" one.

*chin strokes* But where would you put things such as Lauren's psychic abilities? Things like that aren't mundane, but they aren't really "magic" either (they're born and bred; she didn't go to school to learn it 'cept maybe to learn how to control it better)... *only uses Lauren as an example because it's one she easily grasps >C*

The Heimderp does have a point!

Could divide it into Mundane and Supernatural/Magical, then. THERE. SLASHES FIX EVERYTHING

^Then again that's still a bit confusing since we won't be assigning numbers to magical things that aren't explicitly cast by the character. Things like enchantments and werewolf powers are given numbers by the mediators like everything else. D: Onoes.

Y'could have...

Quote :

Strengths:

Magical-

Supernatural-

Mundane-

And

Quote :

Weaknesses:

Magical-

Supernatural-

Mundane-

"Schools of Magic" and describe it as magical abilities, either learned or innate, that the user consciously casts? What about innate magics, then, like a fire elemental's subconscious affinity for fire that doesn't encompass the stuff they actively cast?

and

"Other Strengths"

(OR what Lauren posted, lol.)

Though we really don't need to split weaknesses up into categories. The categories, to me, just need to describe "what YOU put numbers on" and "what WE put numbers on."

Yeah I like Kain's idea. The magical field is still confusing since both casted stuff and other stuff would go under it. Maybe we can just have an optional field for spellcasters only where they can fill in their desired number of max preps and their schools of magic, and then a normal magic field for... normal... magic stuff, or natural abilities that aren't learned/cast etc.

BLARGARGLE ARGAWGALAHAWARGH

And this is why we discuss. XD;

WORDS ON A SCREEN

So this is what I'm thinking:


Mundane Strengths
(skillz + natural + personality)

Magical/Supernatural Strengths
(fjkkdkl)

>Learned Magic (optional)
>>Max Preps: 9000
>>Studied Schools and Max Preps in Each: derp: 200, ponies: 42, etc.

EXCEPT FORMATTED NICER. Y/N?

And then just have mundane and magical/supernatural fields for weaknesses.

But why must weaknesses be split up at all? :< It's scary to have to divide your junk up sometimes.

Also, the problem with calling it "Learned Magic" is that innate casters still need to put up their numbers--like, say, a fire elemental. So I'm not sure what the syntax would be... since we are measuring everything in preps, maybe call it "Active Magical Abilities" (ie, shit you cast) whereas anything that's in effect all the time (enchantments, magic rings, etc.) goes under normal strengths.

Personally, I think divisions make things easier! It's not like we're going to be grading people based on where they put things, it's more of a sort of convenience. But I guess we can just mention it on the post the app form ends up on, to suggest a double check in order to make sure you didn't forget any strengths/weaknesses your character might have from any of these types or something.

I guess that works--strengths encompassing all pluses your character has ever, from the boringly mundane to powers like being able to turn into a flying pony. 'N then the bit for wider fields of magical talent.

... Okay, I gotta ask... are we going to use Ed's system of assigning numbers to the magical stuffs (one number for the caster's current control-preps, another number for their potential) and another score-number for everything else? If so, the app should be simple yet should revolve around this system so as not to confuse the &@!% out of applicants by having two different numbering scores in the same (sub)heading.

^Because that's what I'm worried about-- that it'll be TOO simple while trying to use that system and then things just get MORE CONFUSING than they should be! .__.;

I think we are, Lauren. Folks seem to like it!

Then in that case... use my system of splitting up the strengths (and weaknesses?) into physical, supernatural, and magical headings, since Ed's system revolves around that? The only way it could probably get WHOA WTF WALL OF TEXT crazy is if someone has a complicated character and/or just rambles on and on and on about details. Just because there are three headings doesn't mean one has to make their information into a huge paragraph for each.

</half-awake-post, hope it makes sense!>

That works--though, again, weaknesses are best left undivided. The way everyone's been doing it in the character workshop seems good to me! Can we agree on that? :3

I'll say yes or no soon as I finish looking. XD It's like "Oh, Lauren's asleep, QUICK POST 112,323,343,475 POSTS/TOPICS!"

Nah, seriously, I kid. That's what I get for getting up later. xD;

I quite like the way people've been posting in the Workshop. It's been very clear and easy for me and, I assume, other mediators to score. I really love how short everyone's been keeping things, too!

*returns from some score-practice* I too like how things in the Workshop have been going. Although I've only scored 2 characters, I'm already getting the hang of it and am not totally lost anymore. x3

I think this'll do as our app form, then:

STRENGTHS

-Natural

-Learned

-Supernatural

-Magical

WEAKNESSES


Simple enurf? And if somebody has no strengths under a certain category they can just leave it off, of course!

If you guys think this is alright, I can put up a thread in the Applications forum containing the form and some general guidelines so people can start applying for real. I'll need to describe the application system in a clearer way, too.

Aye, that looks fine. *nodnod*

Say guys. When will an app be balanced then? How many members have to do this little check? And what if some say balanced, some say otherwise? Is this dependant on the Mediators and Decider with a case-to-case number or with set rules?

An app is balanced if the strength and weakness totals are within 5 points of eachother. If the weakness number is a little higher than that, that's fine, but if strengths are much beyond, some reevaluation and tweaking will be necessary.

Members won't do this balancing check, but they can, and should, comment with their impression and opinion of the character. Mediators will be the only ones using the numerical system to see if a character makes the number check. The decider has no special role.

If some mediators think that the character is unbalanced, they should say why. 'The numbers don't work' is not a valid reason for this--you have to take a look at the strengths/weaknesses that are making the numbers imbalanced, and bring them to attention. Alternately, if you see a character that works out through the number system but still seems a little off to you, please comment on it anyway!

I'll elaborate on all this in greater detail when I put together a topic for mediators/members reading the app forms in the Applications forum.