Character Creation Guide

Creating a character is probably the most important step to joining Timestreams! If you're a newer roleplayer, or even an experienced roleplayer who is new to the science fiction genre, creating your first character can be a daunting task. This guide is here to help.

Character Rules
In Timestreams, you are permitted to have as many characters as you like; however, you have to play them all, so use your best judgement when creating new characters.

All characters must be approved by a staff member before entering the roleplay. You can only have one character pending approval at a time.

Characters may be any species. See the Species Creation Guide for more information.

Your First Character
So, you're ready to start creating your first character. If you're unsure of what to do, I would suggest starting with an established race. Because of the huge variation between different species, the example profile found here will apply most directly to human and human-like characters; the information in your character's profile will have to be slightly adapted to whichever species you choose. For this reason, humans are the easiest to start with.

The rest of this guide will be a walkthrough of what should be included on your character's wiki page. The template shown here can be edited to whatever format you prefer, but you must still include the required information.


 *  Tip : If you're looking for more, after answering a prompt, take it further: tell us why. Why do they like dogs and hate cats? Why do they have low self-esteem? Why do other people percieve them the way they do? There's always more to say! It's better to have a few well-developed prompts than to glaze over all of them. We want to get to know what's important about this person, so show us the things that matter to them.

The Character Page
This information will be put on your very own wiki page! Make the title of the page your character's full name, and be sure to put in in the "Characters" category. As time goes on, you'll have to edit this page to keep the history current. I would also recommend saving a back-up of your character page onto your computer.

Identification
This is information you might find on a passport. Everything here is mandatory; one-word answers should suffice. Include:
 * Name: Full name, first and last. Middle names are optional. It can be any kind of name you want!
 * Age: If your character is human, I suggest having them be at least 16.
 * Gender: Your character's gender identity.
 * Species: Human? Alien? Unicorn?
 * Faction: You can write "Independent", but I suggest aligning yourself with a faction. See Category:Factions.
 * Height: In feet and inches.
 * Weight: In pounds.
 * Hair color: The simple version; you can get crazy with it later on.
 * Eye color: Again, the simple version.

Psychology
Who is this person? What is their personality? That's what you're going to try and answer in this section. It can be in any format you like, but it has to be a minimum of two paragraphs. Some suggested topics that you may wish to cover:
 * Personality summary: If you could describe this person in one sentence, what would you say?
 * Likes and dislikes: What sort of things do they like? What sort of things do they hate?
 * Favorites: What's important to them?
 * Self-presentation: How they present themselves to others. Are they confident? Shy? Attention-seeking?
 * Relationship style: What are they like in romance: one-night stands, serious relationships, quiet obsessions, or some other pattern?
 * Relationship status: Single, taken, married, divorced, widowed, not interested?
 * Sexual orientation: Gay, straight, bi, pan, ace, unsure, not telling?
 * Self-esteem: How do they feel about themselves?
 * Main mood: Are they pervasively gloomy? Generally content? Serious and stoic?
 * Quirks: Anything strange? Do they have certain rituals they do every day?
 * Habits: When they're nervous, do they bite their nails? Chew their lip? Twirl their hair?

Appearance
What does this person look like? How to they appear to others? Similar to psychology, this section can follow any format, but it must be at least one paragraph. Some points to think about:
 * Self-view: How does this person think they look? They may be skinny, but do they feel they're fat?
 * Body build: Are they tall, short, thin, heavyset?
 * Overall aesthetic: What is the overall affect of their appearance? Are they cool? Badass? Cute? Ugly?
 * Coloration: A more detailed view of their hair and eye color, as well as their complexion.
 * Hair type: Straight, wavy, curly, kinky?
 * A special note for style: things like clothing style and current haircut can fall into either appearance or psychology, or a separate category of their own.

Image
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. It is -- but only if you can cite it! Here at Timestreams, pictures are optional, but if you include a picture that you did not create with your own two hands, it must be properly cited using the MLA format. The proper MLA citation for images found on the web, according to Purdue, is this:
 * "If the work is cited on the web only, then provide the name of the artist, the title of the work, the medium of the work, and then follow the citation format for a website. If the work is posted via a username, use that username for the author.

brandychloe. "Great Horned Owl Family." Photograph. Webshots. American Greetings, 22 May 2006. Web. 5 Nov. 2009."


 * ("MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources". English Department. Purdue U, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2012.)

Most of us find our character images on deviantART. Of course, the most polite thing to do is to ask the artist if it's okay first, but most of us are too lazy to do that. So, here's a rule of thumb: if sharing is enabled (there will be buttons on the right-hand side that let you post to Facebook), you can assume it's okay to use this artwork as long as it is properly cited. Which, it will be. Because that's the rule. I'm going to give another example, and cite a popular image from deviantart. Like... this one!



The correct citation for this image, as shown, is this:


 * freaky665. "Fire Within Me." Digital. DeviantART. Feb. 27 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2012.

For deviantART pictures, the citations will all look like this:


 * username. "Title". Digital/Traditional/Photograph. DeviantART. Date of creation. Web. Date right now.

History
Where does this person come from? What do they know? That's their history. This section should be at least 2 paragraphs long and it should include both their knowledge and skills as well as a summary of their past. When you start, this section may feel underdeveloped, but it should grow and change over time. Be sure to update it! It may include:
 * Their family history: Do they have family, and are they on good terms?
 * Past relationships: A recap of their love life.
 * How other people generally view them: Do they have a lot of friends? Are they well-liked? Conversely, are they hated?
 * Special abilities: Is their something they're especially good at?
 * Fighting techniques: Do they know martial arts? Can they use a gun? Can they fly a warship?
 * Social status: Are they rich or poor? Were they rich or poor as a child?
 * Cultural background: Were they raised in a certain religion or culture?
 * Beliefs: What do they believe now? Are they religious?
 * Biography: Where have they been? What have they done?