Difference between revisions of "Example: Nichirin Mitsuishi"

Latest revision as of 11:08, 16 January 2012

This is an example application for any who's interested to use as a reference and guide for how to write a successful application. It's specifically for use with Persona MUSH, and as a tutorial is geared towards those who've never played at a MUSH before.

1. PLAYER INFORMATION

1a. Personal Information - Please give us your real name, usual personal email address, and age.

Name: This is your name in real life. We use this to identify you from one app to the next. This information is kept private, so please don't worry. If you are really against sharing your real name, then if you have an extremely common online name, then you can use that instead. The point is for staff to be able to identify you.

Email: Likewise. This should be your main email, i.e. the one we're likeliest to get a response from if we need to get in touch with you.

Age: Likewise. We have channels on this game that are only for people age 18+, so this is in fact important. We also exercise caution for players ages 16 and under due to liability issues, as Persona MUSH deals with many mature themes, as befitting the rated-M-for-Mature games upon which we're based.

1b. Prior Experience - If you have prior roleplaying experience on other MU*s, please name a few and what characters you've played there. If you haven't played on any, don't worry! Just let us know and we'll be happy to give you a hand. If you happen to be playing characters here, or happen to be dropping any, please list them as well.

All you need to do here is list any characters you've had recently and the games you played them on. You don't need to go into a ton of detail; just the names of the characters and the names of the games is enough. Again, this helps us identify you, whether we know you already or you're building a base for the future.

2. CHARACTER BRIEF

2a. Character Name: Nichirin Mitsuishi

2b. Feature Character or Original Character - A Feature Character (FC) is an application for a pre-existing character drawn from one of the list of available characters of PMUSH and feature in one of the canon Persona franchise games and select other sources. An Original Character (OC) is an application for a character of your own devising.

Type: Original Character

2c. Sex: Female

2d. Age: 15 (Birthday: July 23)

Birthday is optional, though it's generally good to have for reference since time does march inorexibly forward at a 1:2 rate (one in-character (IC) day for every two out-of-character (OOC) days). Japanese high school is only three years long instead of the more common four in America, so if you play a high school character, they're going to be 15-16 in their first year (10th grade), 16-17 in their second (11th), and 17-18 in their third (12th). Nichirin here is a 10th grader.

3. CHARACTER INFORMATION

3a. History - The History of your character represents is the /story/ of your character up to now. The history of a character can be thought of as a listing of the persons, forces, and events that have shaped a character. In many ways, it is the place where a character's personality traits, arcana, and persona are set-up to be explained later. While we don't expect a book here, detail is appreciated.

Details such as a few important people in their lives are appreciated, but the baseline of what an application requires are the following: information on your characters family (or lack thereof), when and how they acquired their Persona if they have one, and how they joined their faction if theyre a member of one. If they're in school, where do they attend, and in what year are they? If they have a job, what is it? And, of course: where do they live now, and around how long have they been there?"

Nichirin was born the second child and first daughter to a pair of very rich, highly successful businesspeople living in Sumaru. Her mother and father didn't have a ton of time for her and her older brother, but they did spend time together when possible, both children were given excellent educations, and the entire family was loving. Nichirin was in particular very close to her brother, Keiji, who was five years older than her. They also had an uncle named Shou who seemed kindly--but when the Mitsuishis died in a plane accident when Nichirin was ten, their uncle, who took them in and was designated controller of their inheritance (Keiji and Nichirin were to receive 45% each, accessible once they became legal adults at the age of 20, while Uncle Shou got 10%) before they reached adulthood, promptly made them live in cheap arrangements while he grabbed the money for himself.

This paragraph is important in that it sets up the kind of home life and upbringing Nichirin had. You can do something more spectacular than this, or less spectacular, but you want to describe however your character acted or whomever they were close to in their childhood that led to them being who they are today. It also establishes various character conflicts--Nichirin vs. her parents's death, Nichirin vs. her sudden poverty, and Nichirin vs. her uncle. Character conflicts are the crux of building an interesting, fun character both for yourself and other players, and while not every character needs a dramatic and/or tragic past, you will need to establish some kind of issue or issues that he or she needs to work through.

Nichirin, after grieving for her parents, didn't mind the new arrangements so long as she could continue to live with Keiji even if she'd become thoroughly disillusioned at their uncle, but Keiji's sense of justice was offended. While as a 15-year-old he couldn't do anything against their uncle then, he swore that he'd take back the family business and riches from their greedy uncle, not just for his sake but for his beloved little sister's. This put Nichirin and Keiji into conflict, since Nichirin was okay with poverty, and truthfully Keiji didn't care about the money either--he just wanted justice--but the two had very different priorities. While they remained close, Keiji seemed to Nichirin to become more distant, which filled her with anxiety until one day when Nichirin was in middle school and Keiji had just graduated high school. Nichirin didn't know how, but he'd gotten enough money to get a high-rise apartment for the both of them. But just as soon as it seemed like the two of them could live together out from under their uncle's thumb, Keiji told Nichirin he'd continue to send her money, then vanished, leaving Nichirin behind.

This paragraphs takes Nichirin through the conditions of her life after the dramatic change after her parents's death, then takes her to the conditions that she'll be in until present day. It also expands on the previous conflicts and adds another, Nichirin vs. Keiji. Note the implication of how she feels about each of them. The details of how she feels would go into personality, while the background sets up these fundamental building blocks of how and why Nichirin acts the way she does today.

Nichirin was crushed, but being a fundamentally resilient girl, she carried on in the hopes that her brother would return soon, even if she didn't know anything about where he'd gone to or why. She poured her efforts into track team to distract from her empty apartment and her uncle's repeated attempts to convince her to move back home (all rebuffed), and soon unlocked raw talent that quickly made her the star, which in turn gave a huge boost to her self-confidence and good cheer. In the summer of her third year, while traveling to Port Island with her teammates for a competetive meet with the Gekkoukan Middle School track team, they were temporarily laid up in Okina City while waiting for the train connection. Nichirin decided to explore and stumbled across a strange, long-nosed fortune-teller at a crossroad. He beckoned her to take a look at the masks on his table, and intrigued, Nichirin listened to him speak of accepting power and resposibility. She didn't quite understand what he was talking about, but thinking of her absent brother, she knew she wanted to stand up on her own two feet so she could this time support Keiji, and accepted without hesitation. When she awoke later on the train as it was pulling into Port Island Station, she wondered if she'd dreamed the whole thing--but the Sun Arcana tarot card she found in her sports jacket pocket told her it was all real.

Along with expanding on the previous paragraph's set-up of Nichirin's present-day circumstances and establishing crucial details, this paragraph fulfills an important condition, i.e. describing how Nichirin becomes a Persona-User--in this case, via an encounter with the Long-Nosed Fortune-Teller (reference: news persona6). Your character may not yet be a Persona-User, or they may have become one via an alternate method such as an Evoker (news persona3) or the Persona Game (news persona2), but if they're a Persona-User in the present day, you want to specify the set-up as well as the moment of awakening, and if they've played the Persona Game but have yet to awaken, you'll want to specify when and how they played it.

A good thing, too, because her uncle, who'd had a massive chunk of the Mitsuishi assets wrested from him after Keiji turned 20 during the same summer, had grown fearful and impatient. When Nichirin returned victorious from the meet, he used it as a pretext to visit her with a couple of "associates" to congratulate her, and when he realized that her brother wasn't with her and hadn't been for two years, he dropped all pretenses and attempted to have his men physically drag her out. Afraid but refusing to go down without a fight, Nichirin used her tarot card to call forth her Persona Yhi, who declared that she and Nichirin were one and that they would bring forth the light no matter what darkness attempted to surround them, and knocked them flat with just a bit of strength. "Don't ever try to mess with me again!" she yelled at Shou, and freaked out, he swore he'd leave her alone from then on. Thrilled with herself, Nichirin decided to use her power to do good in Sumaru, and after stumbling across a forum called Darkside where people talked about how they were doing exactly that, she decided to sign up. Now, several months later, she's a fresh-faced first year in Seven Sisters High School, ready to take on the bad guys and reunite with her beloved big brother! ...Unbeknowst to her, though, Keiji has thrown in with one of those "bad guys"--the New World Order--as one of their long-time Persona-User experiments and a ruthless businessman. Keiji believes that Nichirin is innocent of all things Persona-related and so fondly protects her from afar, but time will only tell what will become of brother and sister when they inevitably clash.

If your character starts out as a member of a faction, you want to describe how and why they joined. You can circumvent this by having your character be unaffiliated, i.e. not a member of any faction, but this has its own downsides by way of cutting you off from certain avenues of RP. Ultimately, it's the apper's choice, though. Also note in particular the description the moment when Nichirin awoke to her Persona--what she was feeling, what was going on, what it did. A Persona, as will be discussed in more detail later, is not a distinct entity possessing your character; it's an aspect of who that person is, and so should reflect that part of them. And finally, while Nichirin may have settled one of her character conflicts already with Shou, she's now set up for a far bigger one to explode later with Keiji. No matter how you set your character's conflicts up, make sure they're primed and ready to tell a good story.

3b. Personality - The Personality section of your application is a place to show how the events in your character's History all come together. In all cases, your personality should make sense (be justified) by your background traits. Again, personality should be a reflection of the History and will be used to justify the Arcana and Persona sections.

Like history, the personality section has a few required points. We must see information on: your characters strengths, your characters flaws, your characters general temperament and motivations, any notable driving conflicts, and a note about their hopes, goals, or dreams.

Other helpful details to get you started are their thoughts about the world and the people in it, what evokes emotion in them, what they think about the supernatural, and, if they know about them, what they think of Personas, Shadows, and/or demons. Include as much detail as is required to fill the necessary points above and as much more as you think will help you play the character. If your character is in a faction, what do they think of that faction/their teammates/their place in their group?

Although Nichirin is someone who's suffered a lot of loss throughout her life--her parents, her childhood home, her cushy lifestyle, her big brother (although Keiji is at least demonstratably alive thanks to the money he sends her each month)--she remains upbeat and optimistic. The reason she can be like this is because she believes that good things happen to good people, and that you don't really need a lot of stuff to make you happy. As long as you have the people you care about closeby, you can make do no matter what your situation is, and turn bad fortune around into good fortune. This attitude is a direct result of her nature, moral compass, and schooling, since her parents, while good people, were materialistic people, and her big brother, while also a good person, couldn't forgive their uncle's betrayal. Nichirin hasn't exactly forgiven Shou either, but she's willing to let it be water under the bridge as long as he stays out of her life, which is the key difference between her and Keiji: she'll let bygones be bygones, even with someone she doesn't otherwise like.

You can start where you like at the beginning of the personality section, but a good way to start is with a major trait. In this case, since a large part of Nichirin's background involves loss, I thought it would be best to start here, in the positive aspect of it. Since Keiji is an important part of Nichirin's life, even if he's currently only barely a part of it, I also contrasted the two.

That's not to say that she's so easygoing that she'll let evildoing slide if it's happening right in front of her and it's something she can stop. She won't tolerate bullies, and will stick up for and defend the underdog because that's what she believes is the right thing to do. If she spots a purse-snatcher on the street--or is targetted by one--she'll chase after them, yelling at them to give back what they took. Nichirin's a very straightforward person with a strong moral compass, and she's got a temper that flares easily. It dies down easily, too, though, so she's willing to let people off with a smack or a good yelling if they apologise or promise to quit whatever wrongdoing they're perpetrating. If they don't, though, then her stubborn streak kicks in, and she can be at war for AGES. If Nichirin's tempers stay high, then she digs in and won't let go. This same stubbornness allows her to stick up for someone even when she'd suffer for it too, but it also means she can be rendered incapable of admitting she was wrong or backing down. This same stubbornness can also lead her to deciding she's got to do X when actually Y would be the better course of action, or forcing her ideas on other people. Nichirin is capable of sitting down and listening as well as apologizing if she's shown she's wrong, but if she gets the idea that the conversation isn't equal, she can overreact. This means that, at the same time that she doesn't hold a grudge after her temper's cooled down, there are certain types of people that she absolutely can't get along with, while other types of people are likely to find her overbearing and bossy.

Persona MUSH is a game about exploring the human condition, so establishing a character's flaws and weaknesses on top of their virtues and strengths is especially important. Many traits aren't solely positive or negative either; a good idea is to explore how a trait works both for and against your character.

However, Nichirin does genuinely believe in looking out for other people, and she's a highly social person. She loves being around people, and while she doesn't need to be the center of attention, she does enjoy being in the spotlight. She works best in a group, especially among friends; she really dislikes working solo, and gets lonely easily. The irony here is that the loss of her parents and the disappearance of her brother has taught her to be highly independent. She's more than capable of functioning on her own, of doing her own shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and so forth; she just doesn't like it and would rather have a friend tagging along, even if that friend doesn't otherwise help in the slightest. That's also she doesn't really like staying at her apartment--at least, not alone. It's great for inviting friends over for dinner, study sessions, and plain old hanging out, but at night, in the end, she's there all alone, and it bothers her a lot. She misses Keiji and their parents dearly, and the quiet of night is when she's reminded the most keenly of how alone she really is. If a friend needed a place to crash, she'd offer them space at her place in a heartbeat not just because she's generous but because then she can dispell some of that fear and loneliness. If she can't have people over, then she plays music, or keeps the TV on, or has the radio blasting--SOMETHING to fill the silence.

This is the negative side of what's covered in the first paragraph, as well as a continuation on flaws and weaknesses from the second. Don't forget to build on what your background has established--you don't need to rehash it, but a person's past influences who they are in the present, even for a character like Nichirin who doesn't let it tie her down.

This is admittedly something most people won't see, at least not for a while. Nichirin's far from emotionally invulnerable, but she is a resilient girl who bounces back quickly, and is genuinely cheerful and upbeat in front of other people, because being around people is what makes her happy. She's also very loyal; if she's friends with someone, she'll stick by them through thick and thin, and she'll be there for them if and when they need her. Even if someone betrays her, unless like Shou they make it excruciatingly clear that they never felt a thing for her--and sometimes even then--she'll stubbornly try to reach back out to them to bring back the friend she had. Nichirin's lost enough people; she doesn't want to lose anyone else. However, if she's hurt, she won't get mired in the past; she'll keep heading towards the future. This is why she still loves Keiji even though he effectively abandoned her--she doesn't focus on how he left her to live on her own, she focuses on how he supports her from her afar so she'll surely see him again one day. Keiji and Nichirin complement each other--Keiji's very slow to anger but also very slow to let go of a grudge, so where he can calm Nichirin down when she loses her temper, she can make him let go for at least a little bit when he does the same. Part of why Nichirin does what she does is that she thinks her brother's watching over her from afar, and she wants to make him proud of her--when they see each other again, she wants to be able to hold her head high and show him all these things she's accomplished. Of course, Nichirin has no idea of what her brother's doing right now. If she had to fight against Keiji, she'd likely be unable to bring herself to do it at first; once he made it clear he was serious, she'd fight back, but with the express intent of bringing him back home. Nichirin would never give up on her big brother, ever--though at the same time, she wouldn't let him do bad things. He's better than that, she knows it!

It's important to discuss traits that won't be immediately obvious to other characters, because a character's hidden face is just as important if not more important than the face they show other people. It's also important to explore, at least to a certain extent, how the character might react in a hypothetical situation. Remember, the purpose of the personality section is to show you have a good grasp on how your character will behave. It's true that interaction with others can and will change them, and unexpected events can shift character development in a completely different direction, but if you don't have a strong foundation, then you're not going to be able to build upon it well. Just saying 'I'll figure it out once I hit the grid' won't be acceptable.

Nichirin's view of her Persona and other aspects of the supernatural is staggeringly simple, if largely due to her inexperience and lack of knowledge. Shadows and demons are bad guys, Personas are tools for people to do good, and supernatural stuff in general is cool and all but she's still gotta practice her sprints for the upcoming track tourney. It's important, of course, and she even currently thinks of it as fun--Nichirin is a curious girl who loves action and adventure and constantly sticks her nose into things, so the knowledge that the supernatural is REAL is amazing to her. But Nichirin doesn't see it as more important than her daily life. It's the people who are important to her, after all, and while she loves action and adventure and will happily spring into one if it becomes available to her, what she loves best is having friends to share it with and a home to return to when it's all over. Nichirin is a feisty girl, who doesn't pick fights (intentionally, anyway) but will certainly finish them, but to her, that's the greatest happiness anyone could know.

If your character is a Persona-User, then the supernatural is going to be a part of their lives, and they're going to have to have some kind of opinion on it. There is a restriction on characters who are preoccupied with the supernatural to the exclusion of all other influences and concerns--in other words, your character MUST have some daily-life concerns to keep them grounded--but beyond that, this is fairly flexible.

3c. Arcana - Like in the Persona games, the Arcana is a representation of your character in terms of the Tarot's Major Arcana cards (news tarot). It is used in PMUSH's Social Link mechanic. Most characters will actually have several Arcana that will apply in varying degrees, but in this case you must choose a single Arcana that best describes your character. A short explanation of how the Arcana traits ties into the character's history and personality should be here.

The Sun Arcana represents not just the warmth and radiance of the sun but also reason, enlightenment, youthful energy, self-confidence, and good fortune. Nichirin's defining traits involve the strength and resolve to forge her own way and do what's right, to abide by the fundamentals of civilization and do good for society. She's also brimming with energy and self-confidence and always throws herself fully into what she does and believes in. She may sometimes step on others's toes to do what she believes in, and can be bull-headed, but she strives to be someone that others, and especially her absent big brother, can look to, and while Nichirin is not a super-logical brainiac, she also is boundlessly curious and doesn't shy away from the truth when it's revealed to her.

Arcana is usually tough for people to decide on. In Nichirin's case, I knew right away that she'd be Sun, but with other concepts, I've had to switch Arcana multiple times during the application process before settling on one that I liked and felt suited the character. It's perfectly okay to switch Arcana like that in mid-creation if a character shapes up differently from how you first imagined it, and if you have trouble deciding should your character suit multiple Arcana, try figuring out what your character focus is and go by that. Some attention should be given to explaining the choice of an Arcana to show that the apper has given thought to it.

3d. Persona - If your character is a Persona User, this is the spot to choose your Persona. If your character does not have a Persona, simply say "none" here. See "news Persona" on picking a Persona. A Persona is NOT a ghost, a demon, a familiar, or an intelligent creature that attaches itself to a person. Instead, a Persona is a part of their subconscious psyche empowered. It has feelings of its own but it doesn't know anything you don't know already (even if you consciously deny knowing it). A short description of the Persona and how its mythology ties into the character's Arcana, Personality, and History should be here.

Nichirin's Persona is Yhi, the aboriginal Sun goddess who brought life to the dark and frozen world at the direction of Baiame, the Great Spirit. With Baiame's whispers to guide her, Yhi covered the whole world, then went into the dark caves and cold caves and mountains of ice to turn away death and evil spirits and melt the ice to bring forth life everywhere with joy in every step. Baiame was pleased with her work, and Yhi in turn was happy to have fulfilled his will so splendidly. In the same way, Nichirin is filled with joie de vivre, and even if the world is at times a dark and cold place, she's determined to fill it with light and life in the name of her brother, to work hard so that he'll be proud of her and they can be together again.

A character's Persona is literally them--another aspect of themselves, whether it's the person they are under the surface or the mask that helps them deal with the trials of the world. Ergo, it's important to mention not just the background of the Persona but WHY it is that they are a facet of your character's personality. Neglecting to explain this part may well end up getting your application sent back, so be careful to cover this.

3e. Background Assets - If your character has any special assets or abilities not covered otherwise, this is the section to request them. Whatever it is, let us know what your character has (if anything), and describe the scope of these assets and what restrictions if any are on their use. Examples include access to money (from an allowance or a job), knowing someone who's willing to take packages somewhere, or special contacts through parents or friends.

Nichirin has a moderate amount of spending money thanks to what Keiji sends her each month to pay for her apartment and living expenses, and since she tends not to spend too much, having learned to be frugal, she's got a decent amount tucked away. She owns an old bicycle that she mostly uses to ride to and from school with.

If Personality covers who your character is, then Background Assets covers what they do and have. If your character were wealthy, this section might be lengthy, but since wealthy characters are currently a restricted concept, this probably won't be more than a few sentences long.

4. STATISTICS

4a. Personal Stats - What kind of person is this character? Are they fast? Tough? Strong? These statistics should be informed by the history and personality of the character (a bookworm is unlikely to be strong). The stats used on PMUSH are: Strength, Magic, Agility, Vitality, Luck. These statics will be drawn from a pool of points, so it is not possible to be good at everything (for instance to be highest in everything). Statistics are loosely described in a range from highest, high, average, low, lowest. Please use these ranges rather than specific numbers.

Strength describes raw physical power. Strength is used for physical attacks and defending against physical attacks.

Magic is a supernatural quality that describes strength in magic. Magic is used for magical attacks and defending against magical attacks. It is not a measure of "intelligence" or even knowledge of mystical forces.

Agility is a measure of physical agility and dexterity. Agility is used for dodging attacks (both physical and magical). Agile characters are nimble on their feet and fast to respond.

Vitality represents is a measure of stamina, willpower, and health. It is a defensive statistic, used to reduce incoming damage.

Luck is a vague descriptor that describes uncountable tiny factors, none of which are significant individually. Luck influences the chance of getting critical hits and overall hit chance.

Nichirin's never been afraid of fighting back even with a big brother to protect her, so always standing up for herself and being naturally sporty has given her some muscle. She has little spiritual receptiveness and not much imagination besides, so her magic is low. Her time on the track team as a sprinter has given her excellent speed but not as much vitality as an endurance runner would have, while her luck is merely average--bad things have happened to her, but Nichirin never lets it get her down.

Strength - High Magic - Lowest Agility - Highest Vitality - Low Luck - Average

When describing how you envision your character's stats, it's best to give a descriptive paragraph for about a sentence per stat along with a basic one-word description. This helps with your justification, and also gives the admin an idea of just how high or low your character's stat should go. Furthermore, due to the inherently dramatic nature of Persona, characters who are all-around average are discouraged. As uncomfortable as it sounds, a character should have a couple of weak points in their stat listing. Shaving Luck is not necessarily the best thing to do, since it affects various attributes including hitcheck, i.e. how likely it is that your attacks will hit.

4b. Weapon - A character in Persona will have a weapon. This may be as simple as fists but may be more elaborate. Note that firearms are pretty rare in Japan and this is reflected on PMUSH. Improvised or archaic weapons predominate. Name the weapon and give it a class from: Piercing, Strike (blunt), and Slashing.

Nichirin isn't a violent person, but if someone starts a fight, you can be sure she'll finish it. She uses twin chakrams for melee and long-range battle for no better reason than she likes them and thinks they're cool--plus, they remind her of long frisbee games with her brother in the park after their parents died.

Slash - Twin Chakrams

You don't necessarily have to justify your weapon; it's literally enough to just put down the weapon and the damage type. However, the stranger your weapon, or the more out-of-place it is for your concept, the better an idea it is to have some kind of reason. If your character has never been in a sports club and his history never mentions having ever done any kind of martial art, and he doesn't belong to any faction that might have supplied him with a weapon, then it's going to look strange if you claim his weapon is a live-steel katana. Even small things like that can end up getting your app sent back.

4c. Special Ability - Every character has a special ability that can be used once per battle. You can choose any single or double Element for the attack. For example, Jin possesses a Grenade attack which is Fire-based. You can choose to inflict a status with it, but it will deal less damage directly if you choose this option. Additional options include healing or support Special abilities.

Sunshower: Nichirin rushes her enemy to slash them several times at close range with her chakrams, then leaps back and throws one up as a feint, then the other straight for the enemy as another feint before the first one falls down and strikes, potentially leaving them open to the second chakram. This is straight damage with a lot of multihits.

Deciding on a Special Ability can be tough. If your character doesn't have a Persona, it can't be magic-based, because it's your Persona that provides that extra oomph for you. However, your character might still be able to have a buffing or healing special by way of cheering others on, or giving them first aid. If they do have a Persona, they have a lot more range, but you should keep power levels in mind. Things like mind control or instant death are not doable on Persona MUSH's combat system. If you have doubts, ask the admin for feedback.

4d. Persona Stats - What kind of Persona does the character have (if any)? Is it fast? Tough? Strong? This section will be informed by the Persona section of the application. Include information on what kinds of things your Persona ought to do; should it rely on physical attacks, healing, or magical attacks? Strengthen a group, or inflicting status effects? Also note elements for which your Persona should have affinity and use.

The stats used on PMUSH are: Strength, Magic, Agility, Endurance, Luck. Personas use these stats to describe them as well. These statics will be drawn from a pool of points, so it is not possible to be good at everything (for instance to be highest in everything). Statistics are loosely described in a range from highest, high, average, low, lowest. As above, please use these ranges rather than noting specific numbers.

Final discretion lies with admin, but if you give us complete information, we can try to stat according to your desires.

Yhi is a creator and mother goddess who brought light and warmth to even the darkest and coldest places, but her main legend doesn't involve her fighting much, so her combat ability is a little difficult to gauge. At the least, her luck should be very decent, as she brought the good fortune of life to Baiame's world, and her strength should be pretty high too considering she never failed to bring life to the world, no matter where in it she was. Since she's the Sun goddess who traveled literally everywhere in the world in a very short amount of time, her agility should be high as well, though her vitality is probably low since she did have to rest, as well as her magic--as it wasn't mysticism but hard work that allowed her to succeed.

As a Sun goddess who brought life to the world and pierced deep into the earth and cold to warm it up, she ought to have some pierce-type attacks, fire spells and a bit of healing and buffs. I'm not too picky on what I get, but I do at least want Recarm so she can resurrect people as necessary. Her resists should be Fire and Light (as she was the embodiment of life-giving light and heat), and her weak should be Earth (the further into the earth she went, the harder it was to give it life).

Strength - High Magic - Low Agility - Highest Vitality - Lowest Luck - Average

The comments for the character's personal stats apply to their Persona stats as well. Adding in justifications for why you set what where gives staff a better idea of how to configure the stats, which helps in cases like this where Yhi would or should be good even in her average stat. Of course, how good that stat is is up to the discretion of the staffer who claims your app, and being good at three things mean you're less likely to be excellent in one.

Be sure to also mention what resists and weaknesses you want your Persona to have, what sort of attack list you're looking for, and the reasons for both. The physical elements are Strike (fists, clubs, other blunt objects), Slash (swords, claws, knives, other bladed weapons) and Pierce (bows, guns, spears, etc.), and the magical elements are Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Electricity, Light, Dark, Healing and Almighty. You can't have a weakness or resist to Healing or Almighty.

5. ADDITIONAL FINGER INFORMATION

5a. Faction: Darkside

5b. Job: Feisty Firecracker

5c. Quote: "C'mon, let's do this thing, guys!"

5d. Profile - This should have a few sentences describing the character's personality, as well as their background if it happens to be important. A good way to think about this section is what everyone else would know about the character second or third-hand, including rumors, fame, and some basic background.

A vivacious and energetic young woman, Nichirin Mitsuishi lives life like she can't wait to see what happens next. Although she lost her parents to a plane crash five years back and she hasn't seen her beloved older brother in two, she doesn't let it get her down--she's determined to be her best and look to the future as a talented sprinter for the Seven Sisters High track team and a defender of justice in Sumaru. Nichirin might have a hot temper, a nosy sort of curiosity, and a stubborn streak a mile wide, but she's also a team player with a golden heart. And once she gets stronger, she just knows she'll be able to see her big bro again!

5e. Traits - You can summarize notable personality traits, quirks, or background points about your character here. They should be capitalized like the title of a book, and don't need to be entirely serious. Having a few is good, but you don't have to have more than three or four. If you're unclear on this part, +finger some other characters and see what they have.

Traits: A Feeling Like "Love", Dive Into Shine, I'll Be Fine Even If I'm Alone!, Please Don't Leave Me Alone..., Easily Flaring Temper, Just As Easily Cooling Temper, Let's See What Happens When I Do *This*!, Weird Name

This information is collectively called a +finger, since that's the code used to check it. Since this is the part about your character that anyone can read, it's fairly important. When writing a profile, you want to write in full sentences, describing the character's base personality, concept, residence, and goals. If you have any big character secrets, it's best to hint at them but not state them outright; sometimes they might only be hinted at in the traits rather than the profile itself. The point is to give people who read your +finger a solid image of what your character is like, and how theirs might interact with yours. Think of it as a little like the blurb on the back of a book or a DVD. This profile is four sentences long, which is quite respectable.

Meanwhile, you can have as many or as few skills as you like as long as you have maybe three or four--they should look like how they are above, as if they're book or movie titles. They don't need to be actual descriptions of a character's skills; you can just have fun with them if you want.

As a side note, it's okay to start anywhere that works for you. I began Nichirin with her quote and a name, then worked out through her profile and the rest of her +finger into the rest of the app, but some people don't do the +finger--or even name the character--until the very end.

6. FINISH AND SENDING

All done? Spellchecked? All questions answered? Excellent, you're ready to roll. Please send your application to personamushapps@gmail.com with the header:

Application - (Name) - Faction

We will reply as soon as your application is being processed, both to contact you regarding the status of your application as well as to give you your login information when you are approved.

Good luck!

Please do use the header style presented here, which is also shown at the top of the app. It helps us keep the apps in order in our email folders, and while it's not a dealbreaker, not using this header style is a good way to give the charstaff a bad first impression.

That's it, though! Congratulations; if you've made it this far, then you now know what an approvable character application looks like. Yours doesn't have to look EXACTLY like this one, but modeling yours after it will greatly improve your chances of getting approved and on the grid to play quickly. After you submit the application, give staff a week to respond; it can take some time for the charstaffer who claims your app to get the time to give it a close read and think of a response if revisions are necessary, and poking them too soon is considered rude. If after a week has passed and you still haven't heard word, though, then poke away.