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Character Guidelines
Character Guidelines
The companion to the Character Profile page on the wiki, this post elaborates on a few aspects of the Character Profile and the general guidelines for characters.
Profiles & NPCs
Initially, everybody will need to create a character profile, either for an original character or a canon character from part 1 of 5D's or from Arc-V to do any RPing on this site. Once that initial profile is finalized and you've played your character for a little while, more freedom opens up in terms of adapting characters from other parts of canon, playing NPCs, etc.
After your first profile is created and you've played that character for a little while, enough to get used to how things work, you can feel free to start creating and playing other characters. Not every one of these characters requires a profile - you should feel encouraged to create and use as many characters as you feel you can comfortably portray. In the case of a character who becomes an important, recurring element of the story however, a profile should be created eventually. Feel free to create as many NPCs as are necessary to flesh out the world we're playing in and the characters around them, but if you become particularly attached to a character and are playing them a lot, don't be surprised if you're asked to make a profile for them to fully cement them as one of your own characters.
Canon Characters & NPCs
All of the canon characters from part 1 of 5D's are immediately playable in this RP, as are the all of the canon characters from Arc-V, with some possible exceptions in the latter case for certain characters who haven't had enough of their personality or history revealed yet (The Professor or Yugo, for example). They can be played without any special circumstances surrounding them (i.e. having to submit a profile for another character first), but in the case of really important characters (the Signers, etc.), care must be taken to make sure that the player has an understanding of the character and that they'll be able to be active enough with the character to keep up with the story when it calls for them.
Obviously, with the diverse casts of 5D's and Arc-V, we can't expect that every single important character is going to have somebody playing them, at least initially, so there will be opportunities to NPC canon characters who do not have a player with a submitted profile currently playing them. Most of the time, this will be taken care of by the mods who will play the character in question until either they decide they've become attached enough to submit a profile themselves or somebody else does, in which case they'll relinquish the character to their new player. If you're interesting in NPCing a character for a while to see if you like them enough to submit a profile and play them on a permanent basis or just to fill a hole in the story for a while, speak to a mod about seeing if something can be done, but just know that if someone submits a profile for that character (and it's accepted) and you don't submit your own, you'll have to relinquish the character. In the opposite case, much like an original NPC, if you become attached to a canon character while NPCing them and they're regularly showing up at important points, you may find yourself being asked to just make it official and submit a profile for the character.
In the case of closely related canon characters, there isn't so much of an ironclad rule as it's just something that has to be played by ear and handled case-by-case. It's not against any rule for a player to play more than one canon character and if those characters happen to interact, that's fine too. But it's still something you have to be careful with, so one player isn't monopolizing a particular character's CR or a particular group. To try and put it in an example, somebody playing both Jack Atlas and Ushio would be fine, but somebody playing both Jack Atlas and Carly Nagisa or both Rua and Ruka or both Yuya and Yuzu would probably be getting a bit too close. Again, this is an art, not a science and stuff like Yuya and Yuzu and their counterparts just throws a wrench into it, so it's something that'll have to be worked out case-by-case.
Character Limits
As implied above, there aren't really any character limits. Play as many characters as you feel you can keep a hold of. It's important to be mindful of your own limits, though. Before creating another full character (i.e. one that would necessitate a profile), ask yourself if you can play that character in addition to the rest of your roster. To this effect, it's perfectly okay to have one of your characters take a backseat for a while, depending on the circumstances of the story, the current location of the main storylines, etc. There's no activity check in this RP or anything like, but if the mods notice a particular drop in activity, especially in the case of characters who are important to the story, they may contact the player in question to see if downsizing their cast, temporarily or otherwise, may or may not be necessary.
Adapted Characters
Canon characters from episodes 65 and later of 5D's, characters from the 5D's manga adaptation and characters from the other Yu-Gi-Oh! series, DM, R GX, ZEXAL and their accompanying manga adaptations can be adapted to fit Arc of Light's setting if you're already playing at least 1 character in the RP.
It must be noted that certain characters have large backstories that are interconnected thoroughly with the plot and setting of their native series, Yugi and Astral being two examples that come readily to mind. While adapting these characters, great care must be taken to make sure that A) Proper respect is given to the settings used in Arc of Light and B) proper respect is given to the characters themselves. That means a lot of effort and a lot of foresight must go into adapting them and planning how to utilize them and their backstory before an app is even written. We hesitate to say that any characters are off limits, but certain characters may take a prohibitively high amount of effort to do proper justice to and will be left alone unless something that can really justify that effort comes along.
To put things as simply as possible:
5D's Part 1 canon characters, Arc-V canon characters (with certain exceptions) and original characters: Can be applied for at any time.
5D's Part 2, 5D's manga, other Yu-Gi-Oh! series characters: Can be adapted if you already play at least one character in the RP.
Anything else: Cannot be applied for.
Abilities
5D's and Arc-V are a couple of series where the characters have some wacky abilities, even outside of the Signers, their dragon marks and whatever the heck is Yuya and Yuzu's deal with their magic jewelry. It's okay to create a character that is a psychic duelist or is part cyborg or just has a weird ability. Just keep in mind simple balance when doing stuff like this. Nothing that would lead to outright godmoding like perfect invulnerability, total mind control or reading the future. If your character has a powerful ability, consider some kind of drawback or other way to balance it out. No "my character's shield is impervious to every kind of attack" or "my character's robotic fists are so huge he punches Crow into a cloud of red mist and orange hair follicles". Y'know, basic stuff. If you have an idea for an ability that isn't quite there yet, don't hesitate to ask a mod or bring it up for workshopping in the OOC comm,![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
arcooc. We'd be glad to help you flesh the idea out, suggest stuff to balance it out, etc. 5D's was, in this respect, a pretty accommodating show, so we should all feel encouraged to get creative here. As for limits, we still have to feel those out, so just use your best judgment for the moment.
Psychics
For the rest of the big wide purview of abilities that can exist in Arc of Light, there isn't much in the way of structure or rules but for psychics in particular, we have a bit of a system set up. Psychics are ranked, according to their level of power and how many different abilities they possess. Most psychics possess only a single ability that they can use proficiently with one other minor ability if they're lucky or particularly well trained. Advanced, powerful psychic duelists can have as many as two or three abilities that can all be wielded adeptly, but cases of this are particularly rare. Many factors go into a psychic's rank, including their level of raw power, their potential power, number of abilities, level of training and their ability to control their powers in relation to their emotions. As a psychic becomes older and more conditioned to their abilities or better trained, their rank can increase or the opposite can happen if their training lapses, they lose control of their emotions for a long period of time, etc.
Ranks:
• Rank D: Unimpressive. Their abilities may be incredibly minor, they may be very poorly trained or have no capacity to tap into them. They may just be trying to make use of their powers in the wrong way and haven't discovered their real ability yet. They may be suffering a significant emotional block. Either way, they can only be considered even mildly proficient with one ability and even that is being a bit charitable.
• Rank C: Decent. Either someone with a decent amount of raw power or perhaps a psychic that would otherwise be a Rank D but has been well trained to get the most out of their singular ability. Usually only have one ability that they're competent with and no supplementary abilities, but they may have one other minor ability with which they have a ''little'' proficiency.
• Rank B: Skilled. Most "average" psychics with years of good training top out here. Also tends to be the average point for those with a high amount of raw power but little training or significant emotional turbulence interfering with their abilities. Either way, will typically have one ability they're very competent with, to the point where they may be close to mastering it. Will also have one minor ability they have a notable degree of competence with. Rarely, they can have multiple secondary abilities but they'll typically be less proficient with both than if they just had one.
• Rank A: The cream of the crop. The most advanced psychic duelists there are. Possess one ability that they've completely mastered and at least one more that they're very competent with, if not two. A Rank A psychic either has top notch training and near-perfect emotional control or truly overwhelming raw power. If they have both, then they're truly dangerous.
• Rank S: Exist only in theory. None have been documented to exist by any of the official bodies dedicated to researching or evaluating psychics, but some researchers in the field believe they must exist somewhere or if not, eventually will. Are theorized to possess a wide range of abilities, which they all have completely mastered. Most notably, what would separate a Rank S psychic from a Rank A, besides the greater breadth of their abilities, would be the ability to manipulate their own bodies, making themselves stronger, only to the limit of what their minds could conjure. It goes without saying that if someone of this classification ''does'' exist, they are incredibly dangerous and should be handled with the utmost caution. Characters of this classification will not be playable at the outset of the RP.
Specializations:
• Solid Force: The ability to materialize solid force. Includes telekinesis and materializing certain duel monster attacks (physical strikes, etc.) by using a card as a focus. Basically any type of ability that involves directly manipulating an object or inflicting raw force on that object with one's mind.
• Elemental Force: The ability to materialize force related to a specific or multiple elements. Includes abilities like pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, etc. and materializing elemental duel monster attacks (like a dragon's breath attack) by using a card as a focus. A psychic with this ability may only be able to manipulate one element or may be able to manipulate several, but the more elements they can manipulate, the more thin that mastery tends to be spread.
• Telepathy: The ability to directly interact with the minds and thoughts of others. Takes a variety of different forms, including perceiving other's thoughts, implanting thoughts and suggestions in other's minds, ingrained lie detection, just to name a couple examples of an ability that manifests in many different ways. It should be noted that if a character has this ability, their player should be very careful with how they use it. No total mind control of somebody else's character, no reading someone's mind during a duel and seeing every card in their hand and deck unless the plot calls for it and both players agree to it. It makes sense to say that Telepathy is an ability that depends strongly on the mental fortitude of the person it's being used on as well as the concentration of the one using it. If you play a character that has telepathy, it may be a good idea to put up a permissions post on their journal orarcooc to explain their ability in detail and let other players discuss their comfort level with the ability being used on their characters.
• Empathy: The ability to perceive and affect the emotions of others. Unlike telepaths, empaths don't directly read the thoughts of others, but can see and feel their emotions and sometimes may "absorb" or relive a person's memories through strong emotions that are tied to those memories. Advanced empaths can also do the reverse, projecting their own feelings and memories on to others in an attempt to affect their emotions. This ability is highly sought after among certain groups of psychics as empaths are the only ones that can directly emotionally "heal" or "damage" others. As a psychic's powers are so closely tied to their emotional state, be it feelings of rage and depression creating powerful, violent abilities or calm, determined emotions leading to precise, controlled abilities, a proficient empath can all but dictate the level of power of another psychic if they know what they're doing.
• Healing: The ability to manipulate the body to heal physical injury and fatigue. Ranges from covering up scrapes and bumps to stabilizing the critically injured and even, at its highest levels, healing and reversing the symptoms of disease. This ability, in addition to power, training and emotional clarity requires thorough knowledge of the anatomy of what the user is healing as the ability scales in power. Healing injuries can be a simple matter of mending broken flesh and bone, but reversing a disease requires understanding it at its most basic, chemical level as well as a high degree of concentration and precision. Most psychics with healing abilities can also produce a, for a lack of better word, "aura" that has a pain-dulling effect on all those affected by it. The aura takes some effort to maintain but can make the process of mending injuries (which normally could hurt a hell of a lot easier, or just take away someone's pain temporarily.
The companion to the Character Profile page on the wiki, this post elaborates on a few aspects of the Character Profile and the general guidelines for characters.
Profiles & NPCs
Initially, everybody will need to create a character profile, either for an original character or a canon character from part 1 of 5D's or from Arc-V to do any RPing on this site. Once that initial profile is finalized and you've played your character for a little while, more freedom opens up in terms of adapting characters from other parts of canon, playing NPCs, etc.
After your first profile is created and you've played that character for a little while, enough to get used to how things work, you can feel free to start creating and playing other characters. Not every one of these characters requires a profile - you should feel encouraged to create and use as many characters as you feel you can comfortably portray. In the case of a character who becomes an important, recurring element of the story however, a profile should be created eventually. Feel free to create as many NPCs as are necessary to flesh out the world we're playing in and the characters around them, but if you become particularly attached to a character and are playing them a lot, don't be surprised if you're asked to make a profile for them to fully cement them as one of your own characters.
Canon Characters & NPCs
All of the canon characters from part 1 of 5D's are immediately playable in this RP, as are the all of the canon characters from Arc-V, with some possible exceptions in the latter case for certain characters who haven't had enough of their personality or history revealed yet (The Professor or Yugo, for example). They can be played without any special circumstances surrounding them (i.e. having to submit a profile for another character first), but in the case of really important characters (the Signers, etc.), care must be taken to make sure that the player has an understanding of the character and that they'll be able to be active enough with the character to keep up with the story when it calls for them.
Obviously, with the diverse casts of 5D's and Arc-V, we can't expect that every single important character is going to have somebody playing them, at least initially, so there will be opportunities to NPC canon characters who do not have a player with a submitted profile currently playing them. Most of the time, this will be taken care of by the mods who will play the character in question until either they decide they've become attached enough to submit a profile themselves or somebody else does, in which case they'll relinquish the character to their new player. If you're interesting in NPCing a character for a while to see if you like them enough to submit a profile and play them on a permanent basis or just to fill a hole in the story for a while, speak to a mod about seeing if something can be done, but just know that if someone submits a profile for that character (and it's accepted) and you don't submit your own, you'll have to relinquish the character. In the opposite case, much like an original NPC, if you become attached to a canon character while NPCing them and they're regularly showing up at important points, you may find yourself being asked to just make it official and submit a profile for the character.
In the case of closely related canon characters, there isn't so much of an ironclad rule as it's just something that has to be played by ear and handled case-by-case. It's not against any rule for a player to play more than one canon character and if those characters happen to interact, that's fine too. But it's still something you have to be careful with, so one player isn't monopolizing a particular character's CR or a particular group. To try and put it in an example, somebody playing both Jack Atlas and Ushio would be fine, but somebody playing both Jack Atlas and Carly Nagisa or both Rua and Ruka or both Yuya and Yuzu would probably be getting a bit too close. Again, this is an art, not a science and stuff like Yuya and Yuzu and their counterparts just throws a wrench into it, so it's something that'll have to be worked out case-by-case.
Character Limits
As implied above, there aren't really any character limits. Play as many characters as you feel you can keep a hold of. It's important to be mindful of your own limits, though. Before creating another full character (i.e. one that would necessitate a profile), ask yourself if you can play that character in addition to the rest of your roster. To this effect, it's perfectly okay to have one of your characters take a backseat for a while, depending on the circumstances of the story, the current location of the main storylines, etc. There's no activity check in this RP or anything like, but if the mods notice a particular drop in activity, especially in the case of characters who are important to the story, they may contact the player in question to see if downsizing their cast, temporarily or otherwise, may or may not be necessary.
Adapted Characters
Canon characters from episodes 65 and later of 5D's, characters from the 5D's manga adaptation and characters from the other Yu-Gi-Oh! series, DM, R GX, ZEXAL and their accompanying manga adaptations can be adapted to fit Arc of Light's setting if you're already playing at least 1 character in the RP.
It must be noted that certain characters have large backstories that are interconnected thoroughly with the plot and setting of their native series, Yugi and Astral being two examples that come readily to mind. While adapting these characters, great care must be taken to make sure that A) Proper respect is given to the settings used in Arc of Light and B) proper respect is given to the characters themselves. That means a lot of effort and a lot of foresight must go into adapting them and planning how to utilize them and their backstory before an app is even written. We hesitate to say that any characters are off limits, but certain characters may take a prohibitively high amount of effort to do proper justice to and will be left alone unless something that can really justify that effort comes along.
To put things as simply as possible:
5D's Part 1 canon characters, Arc-V canon characters (with certain exceptions) and original characters: Can be applied for at any time.
5D's Part 2, 5D's manga, other Yu-Gi-Oh! series characters: Can be adapted if you already play at least one character in the RP.
Anything else: Cannot be applied for.
Abilities
5D's and Arc-V are a couple of series where the characters have some wacky abilities, even outside of the Signers, their dragon marks and whatever the heck is Yuya and Yuzu's deal with their magic jewelry. It's okay to create a character that is a psychic duelist or is part cyborg or just has a weird ability. Just keep in mind simple balance when doing stuff like this. Nothing that would lead to outright godmoding like perfect invulnerability, total mind control or reading the future. If your character has a powerful ability, consider some kind of drawback or other way to balance it out. No "my character's shield is impervious to every kind of attack" or "my character's robotic fists are so huge he punches Crow into a cloud of red mist and orange hair follicles". Y'know, basic stuff. If you have an idea for an ability that isn't quite there yet, don't hesitate to ask a mod or bring it up for workshopping in the OOC comm,
arcooc. We'd be glad to help you flesh the idea out, suggest stuff to balance it out, etc. 5D's was, in this respect, a pretty accommodating show, so we should all feel encouraged to get creative here. As for limits, we still have to feel those out, so just use your best judgment for the moment. Psychics
For the rest of the big wide purview of abilities that can exist in Arc of Light, there isn't much in the way of structure or rules but for psychics in particular, we have a bit of a system set up. Psychics are ranked, according to their level of power and how many different abilities they possess. Most psychics possess only a single ability that they can use proficiently with one other minor ability if they're lucky or particularly well trained. Advanced, powerful psychic duelists can have as many as two or three abilities that can all be wielded adeptly, but cases of this are particularly rare. Many factors go into a psychic's rank, including their level of raw power, their potential power, number of abilities, level of training and their ability to control their powers in relation to their emotions. As a psychic becomes older and more conditioned to their abilities or better trained, their rank can increase or the opposite can happen if their training lapses, they lose control of their emotions for a long period of time, etc.
Ranks:
• Rank D: Unimpressive. Their abilities may be incredibly minor, they may be very poorly trained or have no capacity to tap into them. They may just be trying to make use of their powers in the wrong way and haven't discovered their real ability yet. They may be suffering a significant emotional block. Either way, they can only be considered even mildly proficient with one ability and even that is being a bit charitable.
• Rank C: Decent. Either someone with a decent amount of raw power or perhaps a psychic that would otherwise be a Rank D but has been well trained to get the most out of their singular ability. Usually only have one ability that they're competent with and no supplementary abilities, but they may have one other minor ability with which they have a ''little'' proficiency.
• Rank B: Skilled. Most "average" psychics with years of good training top out here. Also tends to be the average point for those with a high amount of raw power but little training or significant emotional turbulence interfering with their abilities. Either way, will typically have one ability they're very competent with, to the point where they may be close to mastering it. Will also have one minor ability they have a notable degree of competence with. Rarely, they can have multiple secondary abilities but they'll typically be less proficient with both than if they just had one.
• Rank A: The cream of the crop. The most advanced psychic duelists there are. Possess one ability that they've completely mastered and at least one more that they're very competent with, if not two. A Rank A psychic either has top notch training and near-perfect emotional control or truly overwhelming raw power. If they have both, then they're truly dangerous.
• Rank S: Exist only in theory. None have been documented to exist by any of the official bodies dedicated to researching or evaluating psychics, but some researchers in the field believe they must exist somewhere or if not, eventually will. Are theorized to possess a wide range of abilities, which they all have completely mastered. Most notably, what would separate a Rank S psychic from a Rank A, besides the greater breadth of their abilities, would be the ability to manipulate their own bodies, making themselves stronger, only to the limit of what their minds could conjure. It goes without saying that if someone of this classification ''does'' exist, they are incredibly dangerous and should be handled with the utmost caution. Characters of this classification will not be playable at the outset of the RP.
Specializations:
• Solid Force: The ability to materialize solid force. Includes telekinesis and materializing certain duel monster attacks (physical strikes, etc.) by using a card as a focus. Basically any type of ability that involves directly manipulating an object or inflicting raw force on that object with one's mind.
• Elemental Force: The ability to materialize force related to a specific or multiple elements. Includes abilities like pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, etc. and materializing elemental duel monster attacks (like a dragon's breath attack) by using a card as a focus. A psychic with this ability may only be able to manipulate one element or may be able to manipulate several, but the more elements they can manipulate, the more thin that mastery tends to be spread.
• Telepathy: The ability to directly interact with the minds and thoughts of others. Takes a variety of different forms, including perceiving other's thoughts, implanting thoughts and suggestions in other's minds, ingrained lie detection, just to name a couple examples of an ability that manifests in many different ways. It should be noted that if a character has this ability, their player should be very careful with how they use it. No total mind control of somebody else's character, no reading someone's mind during a duel and seeing every card in their hand and deck unless the plot calls for it and both players agree to it. It makes sense to say that Telepathy is an ability that depends strongly on the mental fortitude of the person it's being used on as well as the concentration of the one using it. If you play a character that has telepathy, it may be a good idea to put up a permissions post on their journal or
arcooc to explain their ability in detail and let other players discuss their comfort level with the ability being used on their characters.• Empathy: The ability to perceive and affect the emotions of others. Unlike telepaths, empaths don't directly read the thoughts of others, but can see and feel their emotions and sometimes may "absorb" or relive a person's memories through strong emotions that are tied to those memories. Advanced empaths can also do the reverse, projecting their own feelings and memories on to others in an attempt to affect their emotions. This ability is highly sought after among certain groups of psychics as empaths are the only ones that can directly emotionally "heal" or "damage" others. As a psychic's powers are so closely tied to their emotional state, be it feelings of rage and depression creating powerful, violent abilities or calm, determined emotions leading to precise, controlled abilities, a proficient empath can all but dictate the level of power of another psychic if they know what they're doing.
• Healing: The ability to manipulate the body to heal physical injury and fatigue. Ranges from covering up scrapes and bumps to stabilizing the critically injured and even, at its highest levels, healing and reversing the symptoms of disease. This ability, in addition to power, training and emotional clarity requires thorough knowledge of the anatomy of what the user is healing as the ability scales in power. Healing injuries can be a simple matter of mending broken flesh and bone, but reversing a disease requires understanding it at its most basic, chemical level as well as a high degree of concentration and precision. Most psychics with healing abilities can also produce a, for a lack of better word, "aura" that has a pain-dulling effect on all those affected by it. The aura takes some effort to maintain but can make the process of mending injuries (which normally could hurt a hell of a lot easier, or just take away someone's pain temporarily.