True Cross School of Roleplay

New you say~? Well allow me to welcome you to the community!

Created? I am not sure what you mean by that.

If you mean the character already exists in the fandom then it is either a canon character, or an OCC depending on a few things.

An OCC (I believe this stands for original canon character but I could be wrong) is a character that does not get enough screen time for the fans to really get to know the character's personality. Many of the demon kings in Ao no Exorcist would be an example of that like Egyn, Beelzebub, Iblis, Azazel, or Astaroth. We know those characters exist in the series but we have not seen them or seen enough of them to know for sure what they are like. 

A canon character would be like Rin, Amaimon, or even myself. We see enough of these characters to know what they are like and so on.

If it is a character that does not exist in the fandom at all but is one of your own creation it is an OC short for Original character.

Ah how nice to see someone appreciating my infinite wisdom~

A death scene you say~? Well that really depends on a few things. Here are some things you should ask yourself before you begin:

     Ein: In what manner would you like your character to die? EX: accident, murder, etc.    

     Zwei: How do you want this to affect your relationship with other rpers? Death of a character will impact almost anyone you rp with. How it affects them might depend on how your character dies.     

     Drei: Will this be okay with your rp partners? There are some rpers that don’t like it when someone kills their character just to have them come back. You might want to talk to your partners before hand.

How exactly you write it really is up to you. You can choose to write a drabble in which your character dies or you can ask one of your partners to have their character kill yours. There are some people that are willing to kill characters when asked especially if they play a villain.

Ah! Of course! Anything for my dear students~<3

If they have canon relationships the rpers that play the canon characters probably already know about the relationship their character may have with your occ. If you want to be safe the best way is to simply talk to whoever it is you would like to roleplay with. It never hurts to ask!

The only thing I can think of that you should avoid is contradicting any little bit of canon information you have on the character and as with OCs make sure their abilities and backstory mesh well with canon and make sense. If your character is manga only make sure potential rp partners rp according to the manga. If the rp partner rps based on only the anime they might not be a good rp partner for you.

Basically make sure all parties involved are on the same page.

Communication is always one of the most important things in roleplay so talk to your rp partners or potential rp partners and make sure they are on board with you and your occ.

Oh! I almost forgot! If your character is based on something preexisting do some research on what they are based on. For example; the demon kings in Ao no Exorcist are almost all based on demons or fallen angels in mythology/religion, I am no exception. If you google my names you can find a lot to base head canons off of. Or if you plug Azazel into google you will find that he was very into beauty and perfecting one’s image. He taught humans how to be beautiful with makeup and jewelry. Azazel is only mentioned in the manga but by doing research I can make up how he might behave and what his personality might be like.

There will be some OCCs that you can’t find any information on like my brother Egyn. I tried to look him up on google and I found absolutely nothing on him after hours of searching. At that point you just have to do your best and make sure you don’t contradict what is already established in canon. 

I just noticed the sudden influx of notes my post about oc's got! Thank you all so much for the support! I am surprised I didnt get any greif for it and for that I am grateful. I will be posting more in the future as inspiration strikes but until then feel free to ask me queations and I will help you as best as I can. If you want to as me something privately just preceed the ask with "do not publish" and I will answer it privately.

Now~ my dear students, before I begin I would like to clarify that you are all free to disagree with what I am about to say. However, if you have a problem holding onto rp partners you may want to lend me your ear and perhaps consider what I have to say. Any information I am about to share with you is information I have gathered from many years as an rper myself. These are things I have noticed along my travels that seem to be a common problem for OCs and OCCs and a reason some rpers of canon characters may be weary to rp with them.

Alright let's begin.

Bios:

When making an OC it is important to keep your story straight. Writing up a bio before you begin to rp is always a good thing. I personally will not follow an OC that does not have a bio. Why? Because it's like jumping on a bus without knowing where it's going.

Now don't start thinking it's just me~ I have a great deal of friends that are also like this and know many other people that will simply refuse to so much as talk to an OC without a bio. It's not just OCs either I know a lot of people who want nothing to do with canon characters without a bio as well.

Bios give us rpers something to work with. It gives us an idea of what your character is capable of and what we can expect while writing with them. Bios are your friend. Do not fear the bios. 

"Ah! But Mr. Faust my character is supposed to be a mystery and one should get to know them by talking to them~ :D"

Bullshit. That is little more than a cop out. However if you don't want to write a bio it is, at the end of the day, up to you. Just don't complain when no one wants to rp with you. 

Background: 

So you have decided to write a bio~? Fantastic! But what are you going to say? Well a good place to start is where we all start. The past or their background. Tell us a little about their child hood. 

"Orphaned as a child. Watched parents die. Is half angel, half demon, half elf. Holder of the long lost eighth millennium item." 

Whoa! Hold on now. If I may~

Orphaned has been done. Now there is nothing wrong with having an orphaned character but do keep in mind it is somewhat cliche at this point. If that is going to be part of the background for your character try to spice it up a little. Perhaps not make the rest of their past as tragic. I can not tell you how many OCs I have seen with the same exact tragic background. 

As for the half half half please see below~

Hybrids:

Now. There was something about jumbling up a bunch of things onto one, yes? Ah~ Well. You see... that too has been quite over done. Now! There is nothing wrong with having a hybrid character but... do at least pick a hybrid that makes sense... If you can not rationalize why a demon and an angel got it on and made a baby don't do it! Being a demon myself I can already tell you it is quite unlikely for an angel and demon to, erm.... do the do. Human and demons are a fine hybrid though this has also been done a lot both canon and OC but it makes sense! 

I think the biggest problem people have with hybrids is they try to give them all the powers of both parents and that simply does not work. A few powers from each parent would be more appropriate. Also do not make a hybrid more powerful than the strongest pure bread and do not give them full control of their powers right off the bat. Power is obtained through years of training and hard work. There is nothing more annoying than a character with every power. -cough-Ichigo-cough-bleach-cough- Excuse me. 

Just like with backgrounds try to avoid cliches. If you have seen it done a million times perhaps it is wise you try something else. 

Messing with canon:

Don't do it. DON'T DO IT. Unless it is AU and all parties are in agreement DO NOT CONTRADICT WHAT IS IN CANON. 

For example: There are seven millennium items canon in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist. Do not make a character with the eighth millennium item. ... er... well... you can.... but prepared. Some people may be fine with it and that is all well and good, however, some might not be so open to the idea. From what I have seen many rpers don't like it when you contradict canon.

Another example is there are Eight demon kings in Ao no Exorcist it is probably best not to make a ninth, tenth, or three hundredth king. Sure you can, but idon't expect everyone in the fandom to like or accept it. there are some people who like things to remain as close to canon as possible. Do NOT send them hate about it. Just as you are free to do as you please they are free to rp with who they want. 

"Free? You just listed a bunch of things not to do!"

Ah~ that I did. But these are mere guidelines. Whether or not you chose to follow them is strictly up to you. We are all free do do as we wish in this wonderful world of roleplay~ but do not expect everyone to agree with your character or want to roleplay with your character. The above are simply common complaints I have seen. 

Power:

Now before you get the wrong idea I have had my fair share of OCs and OCCs in my many years of roleplay. Some people didn't like them and some people did. In fact one of my most popular ones was a rather over powered character but his power was balanced by weaknesses. 

Balance in a character is important. Perhaps your character can control time and space, for example of course, but that character feels no desire to use such power. That is balance. Maybe your character is unable to die, but he can be incapacitated. That is balance. You can have vastly overpowered characters but give them a reason not to use their power or give them something that counteracts that power a little.  Give then a restraint. 

Consistency:

One final point I would like to make is BE CONSISTENT. Now what does dear old Johann mean by that~? Well let me explain~

Keep your characters abilities, bios, backgrounds, and power consistent! It isn't fair to those you rp with to constantly be changing what your character is and isn't capable of when/if it suits you. Now development is one thing. To have a character gradually learn a new power is fine but it should be foreshadowed and put somewhere in that handy little bio of yours so other rpers can expect it. However, if just suddenly POOF your character has a new power out of no where there is a good chance people are going to call bullshit. 

You can't just change your character out of the blue and expect everyone to be okay with that. It isn't fair. Before you make any changes make sure your rp partners know about it before hand. Rp is about communication after all. 

"But this is what I want! It's my OC! I can do what I want, you elitist prick!" 

Is this what you are thinking~? Well before you hit that anon button and type me up a rude, grammatically incorrect, strongly worded ask allow me to explain~

Whether or not you take my advice is up to you. I can not actually hold your hand and tell you how to write for your OC. Clear~? I am simply sharing things I have learned along the way to make your rp lives a bit more enjoyable and to, hopefully, help you avoid ooc drama with other rpers. 

It is true that you are the only one who can write your OC but I have seen so many people complain about canon characters not rping with OCs that I wanted to highlight a few common complaints I have seen about OCs.

In all honesty I am sick of seeing OCs acting like martyrs. OCs have been given a bad reputation because often they are abused. They are given too many powers and they change their abilities left and right and they all have the same cliche tragic background.

I personally like OCs but only when they are done well and not forced down my throat. 

Remember, I also have run OC blogs so don't think I haven't been there, because I have. I am not picking on OCs I am just trying to give guidance on how to make your rp time more enjoyable and what canon rpers look for in OCs in case you are interested in rping with canon characters.

I have seen many successful OCs and there are many OCs I and many others enjoy rping with.

Hello students! I am happy to announce that we at the True Cross School of Roleplay have gained another affiliate! may be now we will get the funding to fix the heating system because I accidentally spent the budget on anime figurines.

Our new affiliates are the wonderful folks of ethereal-rp! For more information about this rp group visit their page and check out the about section~ 

That is all for now! 

Sincerely,

Johann Faust V

Well I suppose I should apologize for the lack of activity as of late~ I haven't been overly inspired to write any new lesson plans and my ask box has been rather empty, well, aside from the moths that have taken up residence in it... BUT it is all cleaned up and moth free now so feel free to leave me any RP related questions. I will try to come up with a new lesson plan soon. 

Remember I am open to ANY rp related questions from character development to how to write a proper starter~ If it has to do with roleplay I will do my best to help~<3

Hello my students~ Headmaster Johann Faust V is here to inform you all that this little blog is now affiliated with souleatersources. 

Soul Eater Sources is a wonderful blog run by two of my close friends. The blog's objective is to give artists their well deserved credit on the fantastic masterpieces you see floating around the Soul Eater fandom that, unfortunately, are stolen and posted without proper credit to the original artists. We need more blogs like this if you ask me~

If you have any Soul Eater fan art you would like to find the source for they will gladly help you out. They also post a lot of great art with proper sources AND correct posts already posted by adding the source.