Original character guidelines

Follow these guidelines when creating a character.

Originality

Don't rip off any characters, and don't make a typical Sonic fancharacter.

Nothing is truly original in art or literature. Every author is in some way inspired and otherwise affected by other works. This is to be expected. After all, this is a fan RP based on a video game! However, this does not give you license to be a ripoff or use ideas that are blatantly overused.

• Don't give your character attributes identical to the official characters' unique features (sonic speed, two tails, etc.)
• Do not directly imitate characters from other games/anime/any other source (such as by making a Sonic-ized Fox McCloud or trying to create an animal version of a Naruto character).
• Don't borrow elements from other series that are highly specific. Lightsabers belong to Star Wars. Keyblades belong to Kingdom Hearts. Leave them where they belong.
• Don't make a self-insert. It's okay to make a character you can relate to, who has skills you're familiar with, or characteristics you can otherwise play very well, but if your character is just an animal version of yourself with some sort of token superpower, we will notice. We will smell it on you like a dirty, filthy stank. We will reject it.
• Don't go overboard with clinical conditions. This is an RP about a relatively lighthearted video game series. If you want to make a troubled character, go ahead, but you don't need to write a medical report about his or her clinically-diagnosed psychological disorders.
• Tragic orphans with dead parents lost to some sort of accident, murder, or other violent and/or mysterious ends are overdone. Don't make any.
• Do not use Eggman as the basis for some sob-story character history. Our Eggman does not wander the countryside slaughtering families wholesale. We go with a more official portrayal in which he is dangerous and reckless, but not murderous.
• Artificial lifeforms and genetically-altered test-tube-baby lab experiments are overdone because of Shadow. They can be done right, but seldom are, and usually just end up being an excuse to have superpowers and angst. Approach with caution. Don't use ARK or Prof. Gerald. Don't rip off Shadow.
• When submitting a character, make sure you take the time to write at least a few paragraphs about it. A three-sentence character submission cannot be pleasingly original or well-planned.
• If you do something, have a reason in mind. This means...
  • Don't submit a character who is allegedly some sort of amazing fighter for no justifiable reason. Maybe your character shouldn't begin as an amazing fighter at all. It's good to leave yourself room for character development.
  • Don't submit a character who walks the city streets with a sword for no justifiable reason. Does your character really need to carry a sword at all? It's so overdone, surely there's something more original you could do.
  • Don't submit a character who has elemental powers for no justifiable reason. Have some sort of origin in mind.
• Make your character make sense. Justify things. In summary, think things through.

Abilities

Be balanced and fair, not overpowered.

Be responsible and reasonable when assigning your character's strengths and abilities, and leave room for future development and improvement. The official characters are not the precedent for what is "average" — they are the maximum. Your character cannot be faster than Sonic/Shadow/Metal Sonic, stronger than Omega/Big, better with technology than Eggman/Tails, and so on, and so forth. You cannot dodge this rule by simply being equal to them or closely rivaling them, either. Give your character its own unique skill set and abilities, and don't join with a "meta-gaming" mindset. Invincible superheroes seldom make very interesting characters. They won't be allowed here.

Also, it is acceptable to make your character have secret abilities/skills/powers/whatever, but make sure to clear it privately with an admin first.

There are more rules regarding character abilities. If your character is going to have some kind of supernatural power, read here before you submit: Powers and skills

History

Do not alter official characters or events with your character's history.

• No adding brothers, sisters, cousins, children, or anything to the official characters.
• No inserting your character into the official characters' histories. Your fanfics do not apply here. Your character didn't fight alongside Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, was never Amy's boyfriend, never turned super with all seven Chaos Emeralds to save the world, and certainly wasn't Shadow's prototype made by Gerald on ARK! Be inventive and make your own character's story!
• The above also applies to trying to pass your character off as an official's bestest buddy (or worse yet, rival). Your character is welcome to meet, encounter, and possibly even befriend anyone in the course of the actual RP threads on the forums, but until then, he or she is a total stranger to Sonic and friends.
• Does this preclude the possibility of having fought Eggman in the past? It depends. Yes, it would be in poor taste to act like your character is already some sort of personal rival of Eggman like Sonic. However, it would be perfectly reasonable to say your character has encountered and had to fight Eggman's robotic armies in one of his bajillion world takeovers. (It would probably be hard not to have run into them at some point or another.)
• The Chaos Emeralds are well-tracked in our story. Ask permission if you want to say your character was ever in possession of one at any time, and have a good reason.

Species

Try to avoid overused species and creatures that don't fit.

• Hedgehogs and foxes are discouraged. They're seriously overused. (Also, we have limits in place to avoid oversaturation of any particular species, so we may soon refuse them altogether.)
• Echidnas are a special case. We side with Sega canon and consider Knuckles to be the last of his species. However, exceptions may be made for Nocturnus Clan echidna fancharacters, as we recently absorbed some of Sonic Chronicles into our backstory. It really depends on the quality of the character.
• Under no circumstances will hybrids of any popular species be accepted (such as half-hedgehogs, half-foxes, or half echidnas).
• If you submit a hedgehog, fox, or echidna, there will be higher expectations placed upon it for originality and overall quality. Do your best. Consider using a different species if at all possible.
• Mythological creatures are sometimes allowed. It depends on what they are and whether or not they've already been used.
• We do not allow demons, angels, or any other religion-inspired character.
• No fairies, nymphs, trolls, orcs, gnomes, dwarves, or any other out-of-place fantasy creature.
• Don't get carried away with deriving traits from your character's species. Nods here and there are okay, but one should primarily consider a character's species in a Sonic setting to be little more than a word, a very vague inspiration for appearance, and sometimes an excuse for a gimmick (like Sonic's ability to curl into a spiny ball), but almost never a basis for overtly animalistic behavior. (In other words, your cat character should not lick itself, your dog character should not chase and yell at any cat it sees, etc.)

Styling

Make your character original, but able to fit in with the rest of the Sonic world.

Our RP world's "styling" is pretty broad, just like the games. There are locales that are uncivilized, rustic, old-world-like, modern, and scifi-futuristic. For the most part, we lean toward the modern/futuristic side, so anything too far off from that (like, say, a Japanese-named, katana-toting, geta-wearing samurai) will probably seem out of place and heavily risk coming across like a gag character. So, it's generally advised that you stick to a modern or lightly-futuristic scifi flavor when styling your character.

It should go without saying, but, we'll say it anyway: Please don't make your submission seem like some character from Kingdom Hearts, Naruto, DBZ, World of Warcraft, or anything else of the sort. This is a Sonic RP. If you want to RP something else, go find the right RP.

Fourth wall

Please don't break it too much.

While in-character, try not to throw around real brand names, celebrities, and so forth, if at all possible. It kind of breaks the mood, you know? Nods here and there are a-okay, genericized trademarks are fine (like "band-aids"), and parodies or homages are also no problem, but please don't portray your character listening to Lady Gaga on an iPod and knocking back an ice cold Mountain Dew. Get the picture?

Technology

Be reasonably logical and fair.

If your character is big on technology, make sure to keep it somewhat logical for fairness' sake. Want to use a fictional, blaster-y beam weapon? We're cool with that. We just don't want anything that would be ridiculously illogical or unfair to other role-players (like black hole cannons, or whatever). Check the directed energy weapons article for more info on scifi weapons.

Oh, and no lightsabers or vibro-blades. Sorry, Mr. Skywalker.

Skills

If you can't fake it, don't take it!

That's our motto for choosing character skills. Don't make a character skilled in something that you have absolutely no functional knowledge of yourself. So, in other words, don't try to pass your character off as some master marksman, ace pilot, hyper kung fu master, super-genius, or anything else like that if you don't know enough about the skill to role-play it interestingly. It doesn't mean we expect you to be a scientist in order to play one. You just need to be able to portray it in a modestly convincing manner!

(Also, if you haven't already, please be sure to check the powers and skills article to see what we do and don't allow as far as special abilities go.)

Our Sonic world

... isn't Mobius, and doesn't involve anything outside the games.

We don't count some parts of the Sonic series. The Sonic comics, OAV/OVA, anime, American TV series (SatAM/AoStH/SU), and certain Sonic games (such as Sonic Spinball and Sonic X-Treme) are not acknowledged here. There is no Mobius, Knothole, Robotropolis, or any of that here, so please don't make your character be from any of those places, nor use the term "Mobius" or "Mobian" in any RP post. Also, the stories of some games (especially handheld) aren't taken too seriously. (For example, we acknowledge some elements of Sonic Battle, but do not seriously believe Tails lives in a laboratory shaped like his own head. We also try to pretend the werehog never happened.)

Writing quality

It isn't everything, but it helps a lot.

Having an excellent, engagingly-written profile with perfect grammar does not mean your character will get automatically accepted. It still has to comply with the rules. However, the opposite is true, too: a character submission that is perfectly compliant with the rules, but so filled with grammar and spelling problems that it's difficult to read probably won't get accepted, either.

That said, we do consider content more important than writing quality, and value a "fitting" character even over good writing. All we ask is that you do try your best, strive to improve (This is one of the things RP is great for!), and especially give your character profile's writing some extra love, attention, and patience. After all, your profile will be a near-permanent fixture on the wiki, and something by which readers will subconsciously judge your character and our whole RP group, right? Make it good, and ask for help if you need it!

(For more info on expectations around writing in this RP, see the writing style article.)

Character images

... aren't required, but if you do use one, read below!

• Do not steal fan-art. Get permission or draw it yourself.
• Don't recolor, edit, trace, or otherwise copy any art, including official art!
• Don't use "bases" (pre-drawn blank template characters), even if you have permission.
• Do not use a dollmaker.
• Please don't draw it in MS Paint, and avoid sprite art of any kind.
• Stick at least roughly to the "Sonic Channel" (AKA Sonic Adventure / Sonic Team) art style. We will not use character art on the wiki if it looks grossly outside the series' style. (In other words, hyper-detailed, paw-padded, clawed furry anthro ≠ Sonic character.)
• Just to reiterate the above in different words: Use Sonic-style proportioning. Look at the chart in the height and weight guide. If your character looks out of place, its image probably won't be accepted.

Character template

Lastly, when submitting your first character, please fill out the info requested in the sticky/announcement in the Submit a Character forum. If you're an existing player making a second character, you can skip that and go straight to making a profile on the wiki. Ask Matt or anybody else if you need to know how to do that.

When finalizing your wiki profile, however, remember to look carefully at the star ratings article. No profiles for combative characters will be approved unless they stick to the rules. (Noncombat characters can skip star ratings altogether.) Please don't try to just hunch your way through it. As always, don't be afraid to simply ask for help if you need it. We don't mind!