Reviewing Characters

Most roleplaying plots and threads on Star Army require a brief review of new characters that are joining the RP. This guide is designed to guide Game Masters and staff with clear instructions for how to review and approve characters for use in canon roleplaying plots in the Star Army universe.

Star Army used to have a group of character approval staffers who approved all characters, but we opted to move to a GM-based system to increase speed and to avoid “surprises” to game masters. Currently, the division of approval responsibilities is:

1. Player characters are approved by their plot GM (if for a plot)*. This is the most common type of character approval.
2. Player characters not aimed at any specific plot are approved by the Character Approval Moderators and/or Staff.
3. Non-player characters (for Game Masters) are approved by their respective faction manager.
4. Any other types of characters can be approved by the Setting Manager (Wes).

Game Masters and Faction Managers are allowed to delegate their approval powers to co-GMs and co-FMs.

As a reviewer, your role is to ensure that member-submitted characters fit in the universe and also to ensure that they meet the community's standards. Most of the time, this is pretty easy. Over 90% of characters submitted are approved, and most within a day or two.

Most of the time, but not always, characters will be submitted in the form of a link to the character's wiki, and an indication of who the expected plot GM is. Hopefully the user will tag you, the GM, with an @NAME in their submission but if you run a plot, please check in to the character forum occasionally just in case.

Alternatively, players who find public reviews intimidating may use the private review option where the review is conducted via forum conversation (private message). Private reviews must include the player, the GM, and Wes. FMs and experts can be invited if needed.

As you look over the character's wiki page, ask:

1. Is the page in the right template?
2. Does the character generally fit into the Star Army universe? (existing species, etc.)
3. Does the character fit into your plot, specifically (if applicable)?
4. Do the events in their history make sense and match the Timeline?
   • Was their place of birth colonized at the time of their birth?
5. Are their listed skills explained by their history?
6. For Star Army of Yamatai characters: does the character meet the eligibility requirements?

If you find things that need to be changed, please identify them clearly and give suggestions of how to make them work. For minor fixes like formatting and spelling it's usually best to just fix those yourself instead of nitpicking the player about them.

1. Avoid negative statements. Tell the player what they can do instead what they can't do.
2. Don't just dump a list of problems on the player. Especially not in a large series of quote boxes.
3. If you're not sure about something, bring in the experts like FMs

“Reviews should say 'I'm glad you joined, here's how we make this guy fit my plot' not 'Hey newbie, here's a two page list of how you f—ed up this character submission.'” –Wes

To approve a character, you must post “Character Approved” in the thread, for the sake of clarity. It is traditional to put this phrase in green text to make it obvious.

Immediately after approval, the thread should be moved to the Approved Character Biographies forum with the thread prefix [Approved Character]. If you do not have the moderator permissions to move the topic, use a tag @Wes and Wes will move it or ask a staff member. When moving a thread always check the notification alert checkbox and write “Character Approved” in the notification text box. If you don't do this, it can scare or confuse new players who may not expect their thread to be moved, so please don't forget!

Wes created this article on 2017/10/17 14:33.