Character Creation FAQs

[Admin Roc]

A short list of what are (likely to be) some of the most common questions regarding character creation, in no particular order.

[Q] Do I have to register a new account for every character I make?

No, but it is encouraged. Separate accounts for each character makes it easier for staff members to manage Points and keep track of RP actions. Still, if you can do so clearly, you can RP some or all of your characters through a single account.

The exception to this is members of sufficient rank to make Weapon-Meister teams, dual-Weapon and multi-Weapon teams, or entire Spartoi squads (or the non-Shibusen equivalent) of their own characters. When characters are combined into unified forces like this they must be roleplayed through ONE account.



[Q] Are face claims required, and what types of resources am I allowed to use for my character's appearance section?

Face claims are not required in any way, and are just treated as supplements to a word-description of your character's appearance. It does not need to strictly be a character claim from an animanga series, and it can be original art, by someone else or made by you, art from commissions, or created from bases, etc.



[Q] What are OC, Canon, and AU characters? What are the important differences?

'OC' stands for 'original character'; basically, a character you made up yourself. OCs should be at least passingly original in appearance, personality, talents, and backstory -- or at least different enough that they can't be mistaken for another character from some other source. To make an OC simply fill out the character profile form and post it up for the staff to review. When it's reviewed and approved you'll be free to roleplay them; you can still roleplay while a character is pending, but they cannot use Abilities or take on Missions until they're approved.
Canon characters are characters from an official media -- in this case, Soul Eater. Unlike OCs you cannot just post a profile and go at it; you'll need to audition for the character -- if they're unclaimed and available to you at your current Member Rank -- to prove you're a good roleplayer for that particular character. See the Canon Auditions section for more info.
AU stands for 'alternate universe', and in this particular usage refers to characters that are neither from the Soul Eater series (inclusive of 'Soul Eater NOT') nor original characters. They come from other manga and anime, or maybe books, games, or TV shows. However, these characters are not, as one might assume, "visitors from another universe" -- AU characters are "remade" as if they'd been born and raised in the SE world setting, replacing their previous history and abilities with variants appropriate to an SE roleplay. Only those with an Advanced member rank or higher can make AU characters, and like Canons they have to be auditioned for before making up a profile.



[Q] What are the Specialist Classes? What do they offer?

The three special classes, described below.

Resonance Expert is a Specialist Class modeled after Maka Albarn and Soul Eater Evans, the main Soul Eater protagonists. This class forgoes lower-level Abilities to go straight for the big fish, Resonance and Epic Resonance Abilities. A Resonance Expert character has to pay twice as many Points for Weak, Average, and Strong Abilities but can get Resonance and Epic Resonance Abilities at half price. There's a catch, however: a Resonance Expert can only have Team Resonance and Team Epic Resonance Abilities, not "self" Resonance or "self" Epic Resonance.

The Overseer Specialist Class focuses on bringing Minions to the field to supplement the character in various ways. Examples include golem engineers, witches with summoning magic, and Exorcist field commanders. Examples from Soul Eater include the enigmatic Noah and the Demon Chainsaw Giriko. Overseers pay double for all Abilities purchased, but are the only characters with access to Minions at member ranks below Advanced Member. The Overseer characters of Veteran Members can purchase Minions at 50% off and Abilities at regular price.

Exorcist Agents typically lack the same supernatural advantages held by other characters. They can be Meisters, Weapons, and even Witches (though many are just normal humans), but their skills and powers usually pale set astride their counterparts in other Factions, having to pay double for any Abilities purchased. However, what an Exorcist lacks in power they make up for in resources. Well funded and with broad, sweeping authority, Exorcists can purchase Equipment and Vehicles -- even the military-grade stuff and experimental gear -- at half cost. These characters can start with guns, bullet-proof vests, and all the trappings of paramilitary service, and have an additional distinction: unlike other characters, Exorcists don't lose purchased vehicles if they're destroyed or, say, driven off a cliff. The Exorcists organization is well funded enough that their agents are automatically given replacements for any vehicle lost in the line of duty.



[Q] What does it mean if a mod says my profile is "insufficient"?

Shades of Vertigo is an intermediate-to-expert level roleplaying forum with certain basic quality and quantity expectations on its members. Full sentences, a modicum of accurate grammar, an awareness of Soul Eater and the forum's own plotline is really all we ask. Typically if a mod says something in your character profile isn't sufficient it comes down to either (A) imbalanced Strengths and Weaknesses, or (B) an important section (Description, Personality, History) not having enough information in it. Don't worry; if you run up across this problem the staff will help you to expand and elaborate as needed.



[Q] What is a Mary Sue? How can I tell if my character is one?

A Mary Sue is a character, hero or villain, who's a little too "perfect". A typical Sue has no real character flaws -- besides being "perfect", "too popular", and much too egregiously unrealistic. Their skills, power, and abilities favor them massively in virtually any situation, they manage to somehow be insanely intelligent or just "know things" without having a hint of antisocial nerdiness about them, and they're so unbearably attractive that not only does every (decent looking) NPC of the opposite gender have a secret crush / overt romantic attraction but they also turn all the (decent looking) straight people of their own gender gay with merely a bat of their eyelashes...

In short, this is the Sue. You will not make the Sue.

If you still need help determining if your character is a Mary Sue (or Gary Stu, the male version) then there are online test such as this one that can tell you how close to Sue-dom your character is. If you get a 32 or higher consider some revisions -- however, in this regard a C-Mod or other staff opinion is the real litmus test, so if WE don't say anything about it then don't worry.



[Q] Can I have a witch who's also a Meister?

Yes, however such characters will be reviewed much more closely and with higher expectations than most others. In SE canon Kim Diehl is almost certainly the first witch to attend Shibusen -- at the very least, the first we're aware of -- so Shibusen-sanctioned witch-Meisters are beyond question a very rare breed. Outside of Shibusen, however, the rules change; witch-Meisters are still practically unheard of, but since Kim has proven it a possibility then non-Shibusen witch-Meisters CAN exist.



[Q] Can I make a male witch?

All of the witches that have appeared so far in the manga have been female. Even the reveal of the witch realm has made it seem as though they are an all-female society. Until a confirmed male witch has made his manga debut, we will continue to assume that there are no male witches.



[Q] Can I have a Meister who's also a Demon Weapon?

Officially, such a "cross-class" character has never been witnessed (outside of the last fight in the anime, which deviates grossly from the manga). True, we have seen Liz and Patti trade off being gun and shooter once or twice, but that doesn't mean they could learn Soul Purge or Soul Perception or any other Meister-specific techniques. So no, no "MeisterWeapons". If you really, really, REALLY have to have a character who does this then work yourself up to the Advanced Member rank and put together an absolutely fantastic character profile for the staff to consider. I'm not saying it'll be approved, only that it'll be considered.


[Q] Am I allowed to have a gunblade, gunlance, or any other iteration of "two weapons mashed into one super weapon" that retains full functionality of both component weapons?

No. Demon Weapons are magical weaponry, and so do not require reloading. Nor do they require ammo at all, as they utilize their own or their meister's soul wavelength to create compressed soul bullets. As such, making a Weapon that's effectively TWO weapons at the same time is overpowered.



[Q] Can I make a character who is part of Free's Immortal clan, or a vampire like Mosquito?

Immortals are by definition impossible to kill. This makes for broken combat, at any level, which is definitely not what we aim for. Immortals such as the vampires and werewolves that we have seen are not allowed as character types, BUT at the Veteran character rank you may make custom Immortal characters that have been sufficiently balanced to make combat fair for everyone involved.



[Q] Can my character be related to {insert canon character here}?

We'd REEEEEEAAAALLY prefer you didn't, especially if the relation is to a main character. Still, this isn't an absolute 'no' -- if you can make it work in a way that doesn't leave people rolling their eyes or groaning in disbelief, then more power to ya! If Stein had a sister, for instance, that could get rather interesting...



[Q] What kind of characters can I make?

This depends on your Member Rank. See this thread for details.

***As of August 11, all new members creating their first characters have full access to the character creation privileges accorded to the Full Member rank. However, the staff reserve the right as part of assigning you to the Mentorship Program to ask you to modify your profile to fit the Initiate rank restrictions if they feel that you have serious technical issues that may easily lead to abuse. ***



[Q] What Abilities can my character start out with?

This also depends on your Member Rank. See the thread for details.

[/i]: An Initiate's characters can only have (A) two Weak Abilities or (B) one Average Ability to start with. Demon Weapons are limited to one weapon form (not itself an Ability) and one partial transformation Ability. Neither of these count against your starting Abilities limit; an Initiate's Demon Weapon character can have two Weak / one Average Abilities/Ability in addition to a full and a partial transformation.

FULL MEMBER: A Full Member's characters can start with up to two (2) Average Abilities upon creation. Witches get a free Weak vehicle -- a flying broom -- as a starter and are limited to one animal form. Both are freebies and don't count towards the starting Ability limit.

ADVANCED MEMBER: Members at this stage can create new characters that can start with up to five Average level Abilities and one Strong Ability.

VETERAN MEMBER: Members at this stage can create new characters / character teams with up to ten Abilities, of any strength, including up to three Resonance-level techniques or a single Epic Resonance.

VANGUARD MEMBER: Vanguards do not gain any additional bonuses to character creation. Seriously, if ten Abilities isn't enough for you to start with there's something wrong...

CHAMPION: Champions have the distinction of being able to give their characters however many Abilities they want during character creation. Equipment, Minions, Vehicles, Upgrades, and Bases / Hangouts / Lairs still have to be purchased with Points, however.[/s][/ul]



[Q] What Equipment and/or Vehicles can my character start with? What about starting Minions?

This is largely up to the discretion of the C-Mods, who will make the determination based on how balanced your character is and what's appropriate for your member rank. If your character's a Shibusen student and you want a small car or motorcycle for them to get around with, that's probably fine. If they have a special pendant or charm that helps steel their mind against Madness influence, that might be okay dependent on how it's handled. If they have a small car or motorcycle with machine gun mounts, bulletproof construction, and a nitro injector... that typically won't fly, especially for Initiates.
There are some special rules about what Exorcist Agents can start with, however; they may have a single military or non-military light vehicle (such as a small patrol helicopter, boat, or one of these) and at least one gun of some kind (you might consider the Exodus rifle and Exorcist Issue Desert Eagle for this). C-Mods may also award additional hardware and resources as they see fit.
Similarly, an Overseer is allowed to start with one or more Minions or Minion Groups, but nothing higher than C-Rank. The more Minions you want to start with, the lower the "ceiling" on Minion Rank gets. The most Minion Groups you can start with is four, and they all must be F-Rank. C-Mods and other staff will determine what's appropriate if there's any question.[/blockquote]