Official Character Critique Depot - TEMP CLOSED

[Island of Moreau]

Every character here on the island is unique and individual. It wouldn't be very much fun roleplaying the most boring person in the world, would it? However - almost everyone had something special about them when you know where to look!

Certainly, the Island has some pretty unique characters! From a ex-Hollywood moviestar, to a long-term sexual abuse victim, to people running from the law. But we also have people who would apprear to be normal, or even dull, from outward appearances, but gain their uniqueness from their quirky personalities, like Greer the entomologist or Cassidy the sci-fi obsessed housekeeper.

The point is, the Island is a horror based RP, and one of the things that keeps it scary is the creepy feeling of pseudo-normalcy that constantly reminds you that this could have been you. While we encourage unique and interesting characters, keep in mind when creating them that they should be overall "normal" people. They could be your quirkly professor, or a friend of a friend, your black-sheep cousin, or some guy you saw on your local news.

This does NOT mean you can't create characters that have something special about them. But this is not a typical fantasy or anime-inspired roleplay. There's a difference between a former Olympic gold-medalist in gymantics ... and a secret spy from the CIA who's 21 and is a master in 37 martial arts and knows Japanese, has blue and green hair, and has a convienantly placed x-shaped scar on his left cheek.

In short, before anyone can come to the island they have to be "approved." We will not allow characters on that we feel will detract too much from the setting. We are, however, willing to work with you and come up with a compromise. We will strive to work hand-in-hand with you to take you concepts, ideals, and goals for the character and help mold them in a character that is "island ready" for the shop.

The purpose of this thread is for the staff to give HONEST critiques of your quest character. Hopefully, if we can make your character "island ready" before a serum is acquired, questers will be more secure in their questing, knowing that they won't get a serum and have to be told they can or can't do something.

You do not HAVE to get a seal of approval before securing your place on the island. But if you don't have a seal already, then you will work with the GMs then to get the character approved/island-ready before getting access to the RP guild.

A warning - these will be honest crtiques. We will say when we find interesting and what we would like to see changed or improved. We might comment on anything from character appearence to personality to animal choice. We will say what would be required to change and would merely be a suggestion.

While we might comment on liking or disliking the concept, DO NOT use this service hoping to fish for compliments. We will avoid - very strongly - from "playing favorites" so you will NOT see a critique that reads "Wow, this is one of the best concepts I've seen yet!" Even if its true, we don't want that kind of favorism going around.

Critiques are meant to be just that - critiques. They are not insulting your character. If we make a suggestion to change something you really don't want us changing, talk to us about it. WE ARE WILLING TO COMPORMISE AND WORK WITH YOU as much as possible. We want everyone to be happy.  

[Island of Moreau]

Official Rules (from the main thread) related to character creation.

the official shop rules

- Character backgrounds/profiles may be requested to be tweaked in order to fit the setting or method of arrival on the island so as to not break the setting.

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No Powergaming, or twinked characters (Characters who are unrealistic, uber at many different skills, etc).

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When choosing your serum, if you do, we have a max limit of three of each species (ie, no more than three tigers on the island). Also no more than two of the same gender of the same species. Dr. Moreau likes to encourage genetic diversity. This limit applies to serums acquired in any fashion.
~We may eventually incorporate a cap on 'broad categories' (ie Big Cats, Wild Dogs, snakes, lizards) if we end up getting an overwhelming number of subjects in one of these categories.
~There can not be any EXACT repeats of animals. There can be overlaps in species as long as there is something significantly different a bout them. For example, Madison Moreau is a typical Red Fox. Vasile DiRossi is a red fox as well, but the silver phase version, which is a naturally occurring color mutation. So while no one else could be an albino grey squirrel, because of Antony, if someone really wanted they could be a regular type grey squirrel. Or a red squirrel, or any other squirrel species. However, we encourage as much diversity as possible, so questers I highly encourage you to check out this thread if you want help finding a truly unique animal.

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You can not dictate mid-stage appearanaces to the artists. Some exceptions may be made if discussions are made with the artists collaboratively if they are willing, but in general, past the initial character design, the serum is taking hold and the subject can't pick how their progression will go. Sometimes a player might have more or less say in how their final stage appears, depending on the method of acquisition, purchase of additional features, discussion with the artist, etc.

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Q: "My character isn't human, is that okay?"

A: Not for the role play setting; the impact of the transformation and the role play would be lessened by playing anything but a non-magical human. If you wish to purchase an auction and have anything but a full nonmagical human, then you will not be given role play access. If you need some help adapting an existing original character into a modern Earth setting I'd be glad to help.

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Q: "Can I make my fursona into a subject?

A: This is a bit tricky. If you have a fursona that will fit the feel of the island that you want to start out as human and have progress into their anthro-form, that's fine. Do keep in mind that the setting is, once again, real-world and that your characters will come from a background where anthro animals are not a scientific or magical plausibility. HOWEVER, we really want to avoid the completely unnatural, unique combination animals that is not uncommon in the furry community. We have nothing against unique-designed fursonas (like blue and purple striped tigers, a wolf-emu hybrids with rams horns and cloven hooves, or iguana/fox-taurs with four sets of wings) for use on the Net, Furcadia, or other RP settings. BUT, this shop is not the place for such characters. Such characters are generally designed to be highly personal and unique based on physical appearance for art purposes in a massive online community that is overloaded with your standard fox or wolf morphs. This shop, on the other hand, is a smaller community where the characters are individuals who are distinguised as much based on personality and their 'pre-change' as they are their final form. Also keep in mind that for the combinations and additional features, there generally has to be an in-character reason the staff would choose to add these features to a character (like testing aggressiveness on personality with Chubb's combination, or attempting to create a 'dragon' with Zachary). Some of the strange combinations without a specific reason in mind, in general, is just very inplausible and breaks the feel of the island. Out of character, it might either make current subjects feel inadequate or initiate a 'one-upsmanship' chain that we really don't want to get into. In summary, when designing a combination creature, you may very well need staff approval to get the character on the island.

Addendum - You MAY, however, if you are able to procure a combination serum, pick two (or three) unrelated animals to go into your mixture. The staff very well might want to test more how those affect subjects. BUT, it will be up to the staff to determine the RESULTS of the combination. The only times the staff will use the more expensive (IC) refined combination serum is when they are shooting for a very specific effect (as stated above).

 

[Island of Moreau]

Just...no
These are a few of things we saw a lot of in concept contests. While they may seem small or weird, please be aware of them.

- Japanese Names. If you're character is Japanese or Japanese-American, this obviously isn't a problem. But if your character if NOT Japanese, please do not give them a Japanese name. Or a 'fan name" from an anime. They might have a Japanese nickname, IF you work it into the background somehow.

- Unnatural hair/eye colors. Without the use of contacts or hair dye you cannot have hair or eyes that are unoccuring in the natural world. Or make no sense at all - like have fire-engine read hair on a pureblooded Japanese character. Hair eyes/contacts are allowed, but keep in mind they may be unable to keep their dyes/colored contacts on the island during gameplay, so their natural colors will need to be known.

- "perfect" characters - No one is perfect. Good character have some kind of character flaw, whether it be in their personality, appearance.. or perhaps they just don't realize everyone finds them fecking annoying because they seem to bubbly. Basically, a true, well developed characters will have the good, along with the bad.  

[Island of Moreau]

Critique Request Form

Please fill out and post to request a critique.

[color=red][u][b]Official Critique Request[/b][/u][/color]
[b]Gaia Username:[/b]
[b]Character Name:[/b]
[b]Serum Animal(s):[/b]
[b]Quest Thread:[/b]