Original Characters

Original characters can be a fantastic RP experience. They can bring new depth, creativity, and unexpected twists to a game. We welcome OCs (original characters) in Polychromatic.

OCs are characters whose personalities, backgrounds, details, and characterizations are invented by the player. They can come from a player's own creative works, from a character developed for a table-top or live-action RP, or from just a flash of inspiration.

However, they can be difficult. The best OCs have the same kinds of balances and mixes of positives and negatives, abilities and weaknesses, quirks and details as the best canon characters. The best of the best OCs make you forget that they're OCs at all: they're just good characters.

 

Canon!OCs

Of late, though, an interesting trend has emerged in applications: the "canon!OC". A canon!OC is a character who appears briefly in a book, television series, movie, manga, anime, or other source, but about whom very little is known and about whom little will likely ever be known.

Canon!OCs vary from source to source. They can range from a very minor (but memorable) drunken buffoon with little to no background, to a deceased sister who is physically absent but present in the thoughts of the other characters.

A canon!OC has gaps in his or her canon characterization that will probably never be filled. If you want to apply for a canon!OC, you will have to fill in the gaps as realistically as possible, and with details coming from what is actually known about the character in canon.

→ To apply for a character as a canon!OC, the character must appear in his or her canon in some shape or form, but in a small, brief, or absent role. There must be some amount of characterization given, but not quite enough for the character to be applied for with a standard application.

You'll have to build the characterization bridges between the details, making sure to keep the character true to his or her characterization in canon. Work with what little or much you're given in the canon first, and then fill in the rest of the gaps. Sometimes you'll find there's more in the canon than you first expected. Work with the canon. We can't stress this enough. Please use what you're already given as a starting point, and then continue on that same track, keeping the character true to his or her characterization.

Canon!OCs from finished canons are easier to apply for than canon!OCs from currently on-going canons. When a story ends, the reader knows all he or she is going to know about the characters, so piecing together an OC's past and personality is much easier. It gets tricky for all of us if you apply for a canon!OC before all the details are out, and suddenly your canon!OC is really a canon character, with a different past than you ever imagined for her.

Above all, when applying for a canon!OC, please contact the other members of the crew and discuss your application with them. Sometimes, as in the case of long-absent or dead family members, a character's reappearance will change the characterization of other characters. Talk to the rest of the crew and make sure they're comfortable with the character you're applying for being in the game.

The moderators reserve the right to request that a standard app be submitted as an OC app (in the absence of sufficient information), and that an OC app be submitted as a standard app (given sufficient information). Contact a moderator if you have any questions about which application thread your application belongs in.

 

Thoughts and Guidelines for OCs

It's just a handful of rules. Original characters are called "original" for a reason.

 

 
 
 

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