[Rules & Tips] Character Creation Guide

((JEDI Rules & Tips to help you get the best start within the community))
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The Jedi Council
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[Rules & Tips] Character Creation Guide

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~ Character Creation Guide ~
The following includes a list of rules and recommendations to consider when creating a character.

Welcome to JEDI. As you likely already know, we're a strict role-playing clan living in the world of Star Wars. There are requirements when playing on our servers, one of which is adopting a role of your creation and possessing a firm understanding of that character. This guide should help you establish the character you're going to use when you role-play with us. Keep in mind, your character is a separate entity to yourself, but you may wish to introduce values and personal experiences you hold outside of the role-play into your character if you feel it'll benefit your role-playing performance. This may include your gender, cultural background and even your interests. However, please note you are required to separate your OOC (out of character) self from your IC (in-character) self at all times.



~ Creation Steps ~

Gender
First and foremost, there are no rules defining what gender you choose; it’s a matter of choice as to whatever is most comfortable. When deciding the gender of your character, choose whatever you wish; no judgements are held. However, consider ways to realistically role-play your gender, especially if it is outside your comfort zone. While it is acceptable to have similarities with your character, gender can be an instrument to make your role-play distinctly different from yourself. These are the things you need to think on meticulously.

Age
Preferably, the Jedi Order has traditionally always recruited members for training between the ages of 5-12. The age is an important factor to both your characters development, and also how you’re perceived and engaged with by others. While it is a small age bracket, choosing a character that's five years old and a character that's twelve years old can make significantly impact your role-play, especially if you struggle or excel at role-playing a child.

Species
It is encouraged that people consider an alien species when creating their character. However, keep in mind that the Human population is currently the majority throughout the galaxy, thus much more common. For this reason there is no issue or judgement for Human applications, as species is only one factor in creating a diverse and unique character. If you feel you've appropriately gathered an understanding of a species, found or arranged an appropriate model and is approved by the Council (issues with species are addressed through the application process); then go for it! For those who are new to role-play and have a limited understanding of Star Wars lore, its may be easier to play as a Human for your first time, but it is certainly not the practice of JEDI to limit players. If help is required in finding a suitable species, whether it be humanoid or alien, visiting this page will prove helpful.

Home Planet

After discovering your species, you’ll be required to develop an additional backstory which includes your characters home planet. If you’ve decided on a species then you’ve potentially also found out a homeworld for this respective species. Please note that homeworlds do not always need to be the default homeworld of your selected species. Wookiepedia can be an invaluable resource when searching for a homeworld and discovering things about it that could be harnessed in your biography, such as capital cities, the main infrastructure of the planet, main exports and interplanetary relations.

An additional resource would be the Galaxy Map which is regularly updated and based on JEDI’s timeline. It contains the up-to-date political activities of each of the main powers and territorial boundaries, meaning you can find your homeworld and find out its allegiance. Note that coming from a planet in territories that are currently tense with the Republic are notably unfriendly to the Jedi Order by extension, so consider this when you are crafting an explanation as to how you came into the Order's care.

Names
When choosing your name, keep in mind that we’re in the Star Wars universe. While common names, such as Tom, Eric, Alexander, Mitch, Mark, can occur it is sometimes less believable particularly when done to excess. It’s suggested when choosing a name for a humanoid; be creative and form a list of potential names you may want to utilize. While names can be tricky, try and make it sound as different and unique as possible, without being ridiculous.

When choosing an alien species, you can look to the notable figures in the Wookieepedia page, and reference your own name from these resolutions. The name format used in the servers on JEDI are =Firstname=Lastname=. You may used whatever name colours you wish. Be sure to not copy the same colour system as other members/players. Do not add the ::JEDI:: tags, as they are reserved for when you become a member.

Biography
Once you’ve decided on all these things for your character, you can commence with writing your biography. Your biography must meet a requirement of 300 number of words, at minimum, in order to showcase your ability to competently utilize the English language and appropriately explain how your character ended up arriving on the Jedi Temple as well as provide some information about the character's personality and life prior to the Order. Also, try to keep it as realistic as possible and consistent with Star Wars and JEDI lore. Avoid cliches and try to be original and creative with your backstory. While your biography should not be over the top, it is an opportunity to make your character unique through your own creative power.

Traditionally, the Jedi Order uses Watchman and Recruiters to pick up potential children (between the ages of 5-12) and bring them back to the Order for training; so consider this for your biography and think of ways your child character may be discovered by a Jedi. Remember, however, that your character could not have been proficient at any aspect, or usage, of the Force. Of course there are other ways your character could find themselves in the care of the Order. Feel free to be creative!

Character model and skin
Whilst we try to encourage as diverse a range of aliens and gender as possible, Jedi Academy is restricted in terms of what assets are available. We advise that when choosing an unusual species, you consider what models (the 3D shape of the character) and skins (the images that wrap around the model) you can use. You can explore external resources, such as JKHub, or our Alien and Youngling Packs to help find a suitable model or skin.

As a hopeful you are not able to submit your character to the JEDI pack. However, if you have a unique skin you can upload it to an external sharing site and share a download link in your hopeful introduction or in your signature. If you are initiated, you will be able to add and update your character in the Skin Repository.

No member is allowed to use an anime/cartoon inspired model or skin. JEDI attempts to blend with JK's aesthetics and obtain some manner of Star Wars realism, and we believe anime/cartoon skins break immersion and makes the character look like a pristine doll or out of place. If an anime/cartoon inspired model can be skinned to blend with JK's aesthetics, it will be judged on a case by case basis.

In addition to this point, whilst the Council appreciate players borrow model/skin elements from a wide variety of video games and digital media, if a skin/model is clearly identifiable as another character from any other form of media (e.g film, TV or video games) to the point of disrupting immersion and RP, the player will be asked to remove the model/variant. This will be judged on a case by case basis, with some leniency afforded to Star Wars themed models.

The Jedi Council of Duneeden

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