MAKING a CHARACTER

Welcome to your one-stop guide to making a character on Set Me Free! This thread will be kept open for questions and feedback so that it can be improved as time goes on. For now, let's dig into the subject at hand: making a character!

The first thing to know is that the character making process is meant to be a streamlined, simple, and painless experience. If you're having difficulty at any point or just don't get something, just about any senior, veteran, staff, or council member should be able to help you along. The world of Slayers, while somewhat traditional in its swords-and-magic motif, is broad and diverse enough that it can accommodate a wide range of character concepts -- creative freedom is a big thing here, and wherever (reasonably) possible we want to give roleplayers the liberty to pursue their ideas and innovations.

Second, and of great importance, is the character profile template, which can be found here. This lists all the essentials for creating a character and gives you a format to start from. Take a few minutes to skim over it before reading on.

Third is the process of making a character. Again, the profile template is vital here, as a starting point if nothing else, but there are two other key elements that influence what can be done with your new character. To wit, they are character race and member rank.

[/b] are by far the most common race -- humans born within the Barrier Lands have a greater predisposition to magic, and a greater measure of magic power in general, compared to their kin in the Outer World. Beyond this, however, the differences between regions are fairly minimal. Beastmen, Chimeras, Monsters, and Demons are extremely diverse and have access to certain Traits, listed here, that other races do not. Beastmen includes Fishkin as a sub-race; these fish-bodied people are natural water dwellers and can sometimes develop bizarre and dangerous abilities. It is worth noting that Demons are vulnerable to Astral Plane attacks, but make up for this weakness by having an additional 100 AP to spend during character creation. Golems are magical constructs, usually of stone or metal, and thus are both extremely tough and strong, though intelligent golems are something of a rarity. Elves are a reclusive race, long-lived and seldom seen by humans. They have a natural affinity towards 'Healing', 'Shamanism', and 'Astral' magic and can purchase spells with these keywords at half the regular AP cost regardless of their class.

Golden Dragons are amongst the most powerful mortal beings in the Slayers world, as indicated by their title as "dragon lords". They are the only race that can use 'Holy' magic without the Divine Knight legendary class, and even in human form they display far greater physical strength than most humans, able to move objects that weigh a ton or more with ease, precision, and grace. Golden Dragons also have two free Abilities to start with, which are key aspects of their race.

[/b] Dragon Breath [element]
DESCRIPTION: This is an 'advanced' ability unique to dragon-kind, both free and automatic for all Dragon, Half Dragon, and Golden Dragon characters. Dragon Breath allows a dragon to shoot a destructive stream of power from their mouth in a beam, burst, or gout. The specific element of this power varies based on the dragon and generally reflects their nature. For example, breathing fire is extremely common amongst wild or feral dragons. Water-based dragons, however, are more likely to have wind, water, or ice breath. Intelligent dragons with high magical power are likely to have dragon breath of astral or raw magical energy. Only Golden Dragons may have dragon breath of holy magic energy, and this is automatic for them. When adding this ability to a character profile, write the element of the dragon breath where it says 'element' above.
REQUIRED RACE: Dragon, Half Dragon, Golden Dragon
AP COST: 0

ABILITY: Human Transformation
DESCRIPTION: This is an 'advanced' ability, free and automatic for all Golden Dragon characters and an optional purchase for other dragon and non-human races. Using their natural affinity for powerful magic, the character changes their form to reflect a human appearance including hair, clothes, and simple ornamentation if desired. This human form is consistent -- the character will always look the same in human form and cannot shift their features as they please (unless they possess a separate ability to do so). This allows non-humans to operate within human society when the need arises.
REQUIRED RACE: (any non-human race)
AP COST: 50[/ul]

Mazoku and Gods are far and above the most innately powerful races and, compared with all others, extremely few in number. This is especially true of the Gods, as only Ceiphied and his four Dragon Gods are known to exist. Mazoku are divided up based on their standing, either as Low-Rank or High-Rank. Low-Rank Mazoku are those who are below the Priests and Generals of the Mazoku Lords in terms of both hierarchy and power; Conzul and Mazenda are examples of the most powerful Low-Rank Mazoku in the series, while Zorom, Zazan, and Seigram are better examples of the average Low-Rank Mazoku. High-Rank Mazoku include Mazoku Priests, Generals, and of course the Mazoku Lords themselves. Roleplayers creating a God or High-Rank Mazoku need special permission to do so from the Admin Council, and all God or High-Rank Mazoku characters MUST fit within the established pantheon of the Slayers universe. Low-Rank Mazoku, while restricted, can be created by certain member ranks; all Mazoku are immune to physical damage (except for comedic effect or from other Mazoku) as well as 'simple', 'common', and 'advanced' spells that are not 'Astral' or 'Holy' (some white magic spells can affect Mazoku; check the spell's write-up). Low-Rank Mazoku start with an additional 500 AP towards character creation; High-Rank Mazoku and Gods are arbitrated by the Admin Council, so starting AP is irrelevant.[/ul]

As described in the profile template, not all character races are available to all members of Set Me Free. This is because, logically, some races just tend to be vastly more powerful -- and significantly less numerous -- than others, and we'd like to maintain this balance if at all possible. This brings us to the other qualifier for character creation: member rank.

There are three non-staff ranks of Set Me Free: regular member, senior member, and veteran member. As explained in the profile template, rising through the ranks unlocks additional races. However, it also increases the starting AP you have to work with during character creation. For regular members the amount is 100 AP. For senior members this increases to 200 AP, and for veteran members the amount is 300 AP. It's worth noting that, in addition to "starting AP", members of all ranks can choose to spend regular AP during character creation as well -- simply make a note of this at the top or bottom of the profile so that the amount spent can be deducted from your total. Staff and council members' characters have the same starting AP amount as veteran members. Starting AP can only be used in character creation; any left over starting AP does not get added to your AP tally.

Fourth, and final, is getting your character approved. A character must be approved before they can be used for roleplaying (though veteran, staff, and council members may skip this step and self-approve their characters). Completed characters will need to be reviewed by a veteran, staff, or council member, who will look to see that all the essential information is present (all the fields from the profile template) and that the character is fair and balanced. This means that the process is open to some interpretation and personal opinion, so if you get a negative review and no approval the first time around you can ask for a second review by another veteran, staff, or council member IF you feel the review was unfair or biased. If a character gets two negative reviews and you still believe the critique to be wrong or unjust, you may appeal to the Admin Council who will render a final verdict via majority vote. Characters that are given negative reviews are not "blocked" or "banned"; if you edit the profile to address whatever issues there are you can ask for a fresh review at any time.

And that's that! Feel free to post questions or discuss character making in this thread. Happy adventures!