[Accepted] Tbear13's Head of Staff Application

[tbear13]

BYOND key: Tbear13

Character names: Tyler White, security officer, Trevor Hill, warden, Nathan Langston, medical doctor, and Dallas Campbell, detective, Vakaris Dvorak, currently a visitor.

---

---

How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Almost three months.

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: To open up new roleplay opportunities, and to help newer players learn the game, specifically security related roles.

Why did you come to Aurora?: I've always enjoyed the more serious side of games, and Aurora was the best and most active HRP server.

Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?: Yep!

---

---

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each.

Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about: Roleplay is, essentially, putting yourself in the shoes of another character, reacting as they would, interacting with people who do the same thing. A balance should be struck between structure and chaos, enough of both to keep it mature and fun at the same time. The goal is to tell a story, you could consider yourself a character in a book, working with everyone else to write your own story, whether it works in favor of you or not.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: The purpose of a Head of Staff is to keep roleplaying mature and respectful, yet fun. It never hurts for them to allow a small amount of chaos, being careful to keep it fun, but still structured. They should assist new players, teaching them the ins and outs of a department when they are able.

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: A whitelisted player is expected to have a high standard of roleplaying, and be a positive, respectful, and helpful member of the community. They should help newer players, help settle arguments, and follow server rules to the letter. They have the ability to make or break a round, and shouldn't take that for granted.

---

---

Please pick one of your characters for this section, and provide well articulated responses to the following questions.

Character name: Vakaris Dvorak

Character age: 42

Please provide a short biography of this character (approx 2 paragraphs): Vakaris was born on Dominia, in the city of Ondergaandezon, to a wealthy family, and was, in fact, a somewhat distant relative of Akira Washington, the current ruler of Ondergaandezon. He grew up fairly spoiled, a spot essentially guaranteed at Ondergaandezon Military Academy, enough money to get whatever he wanted. When he turned sixteen years old, he was shipped off to the Military Academy mentioned earlier. Upon arriving, he was shocked, to say the least. Nobody around to serve him, not having everything he wanted given to him, and having responsibilities were all strange concepts to him. Within the year he'd become used to it and elected to study to become a naval officer. The rest of his years at the Academy were somewhat uneventful, until he graduated at twenty-four years old. (>just now realizing how long this paragraph was)

After his graduation, he was assigned to the I.N.D. Long Time Coming, manning the ships radar array. The navy was, in his mind, boring at best, until he was promoted to Commander at the age of thirty-five, and given a ship of his own. He was assigned to command the I.N.D. Heavens Dawn, an Orion Class Patrol Cutter, which was officially in the Ondergaandezon's local Defense Force, rather than the standard Imperial Navy. After five years, he was given a promotion to Captain, and exactly two months after the promotion, during a routine patrol, he happened upon a ship which had been stranded due to a malfunction of it's bluespace drive. After a brief talk with the other ships captain, Vakaris ordered a search of the ship. The marines sent aboard found two IPCs aboard the ship, which were then captured and brought aboard the Heavens Dawn. Vakaris finding himself unable to execute them, took pity on the IPCs, as they begged him to allow them to leave. He allowed them back onto their ship, which had fixed its bluespace drive by then. The release of the IPCs was kept secret from most of the crew, only a handful of senior officers knew about the decision.

Despite this, word reached his family, which of course, included Akira Washington. Normally, he would be reported to the Tribunal and be executed, however, he was spared this fate when Washington refused to report it, because a family member being convicted of such a crime would obviously damage the families credibility and have possibly severe repercussions for them all. Instead of being executed, Vakaris was unofficially exiled, keeping his titles and status and yet being unable to go home. Vakaris drifted for around a year, before finally settling in Biesel working odd jobs, hardly getting by. He eventually came to the conclusion that he had a small, if any, chance of going home, and that he may as well get comfortable where he was, leading him to apply to Nanotrasen as a Head of Security.

What do you like about this character?: I find that he's fun to play, mostly due to him being a near opposite to my casual, energetic, security officer. It's a nice break from the quicker paced action of that character.

What do you dislike about this character?: The character is very new, I haven't had time to develop them very far. It can also be challenging to play him after playing my security guard, due to them having, as mentioned before, very different personalities. Vakaris can often seem stuck up, due to his slow, almost condescending way to talking, and displaying next to no emotion in most cases.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: He is, first of all, extremely calm. It takes a lot to anger or otherwise disturb him. He's willing to go against popular opinion and risk punishment to do what is, in his opinion, right. He's able to analyze a situation, and various actions and outcomes, quickly, and can use this to stop a conflict non-violently.

 

---

---

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?: I'd give myself an 8.5, I'm almost always able to stay in character and act believably, though I do sometimes have a slight lack of pain and fear RP during actual fights, I'm working on improving that.

---

---

Extra notes: Sorry if the backstory isn't organized too well, I had the backstory all planned out, but for some reason, whenever I start to actually write things like that out, I get somewhat unorganized and it all becomes a bit of a mess. I don't have the same issues during RP sessions though, only when I'm writing something alone.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Guest

[AmoryBlaine]

This is too early in my opinion. Three months isn't much. I've been here half a year and I still consider myself too early to apply for Head. While you may be a good Officer, you still wear the Corporate uniform and for that I've got to go neutral. But honestly- I think it's too early. You need more experience under your belt.

[tbear13]

This is too early in my opinion. Three months isn't much. I've been here half a year and I still consider myself too early to apply for Head. While you may be a good Officer, you still wear the Corporate uniform and for that I've got to go neutral. But honestly- I think it's too early. You need more experience under your belt.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I see where you're coming from here, the corporate uniform is pretty awful. I stopped using the corporate uniform after the President Dorn event, haven't worn it since. Now onto the less important thing, I can see your point about three months being too early, I personally believe I'd make a good HoS even this early, but that's why you're the one giving feedback!

[AmoryBlaine]

This is too early in my opinion. Three months isn't much. I've been here half a year and I still consider myself too early to apply for Head. While you may be a good Officer, you still wear the Corporate uniform and for that I've got to go neutral. But honestly- I think it's too early. You need more experience under your belt.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I see where you're coming from here, the corporate uniform is pretty awful. I stopped using the corporate uniform after the President Dorn event, haven't worn it since. Now onto the less important thing, I can see your point about three months being too early, I personally believe I'd make a good HoS even this early, but that's why you're the one giving feedback!

 

Yeah, you'r ea good Officer, so my only real concern is general experience.

[Youbar]

This is too early in my opinion. Three months isn't much. I've been here half a year and I still consider myself too early to apply for Head. While you may be a good Officer, you still wear the Corporate uniform and for that I've got to go neutral. But honestly- I think it's too early. You need more experience under your belt.

 

Three months isn't too early. I was accepted as a Head of Staff after spending roughly a month on the server. As long as a player has a decent amount of experience on other servers, I don't see a problem.

 

Vakaris was born on Dominia, in the city of Ondergaandezon, to a wealthy family, and was, in fact, a somewhat distant relative of Akira Washington, the current ruler of Ondergaandezon. He grew up fairly spoiled, a spot essentially guaranteed at Ondergaandezon Military Academy, enough money to get whatever he wanted. When he turned sixteen years old, he was shipped off to the Military Academy mentioned earlier ...the rest of his years at the Academy were somewhat uneventful, until he graduated at twenty-four years old.

 

There's a small issue with this paragraph, in that the type of military academy he went to isn't specified. Going there at the age of 16 is incredibly young, but it makes sense if it serves as a secondary school. Assuming that's the case, he then spends six years, from the age of 18, being commissioned. West Point Academy in America has cadets training for four years, and then they enter active service.

 

After a brief talk with the other ships captain, Vakaris ordered a search of the ship. The marines sent aboard found two IPCs aboard the ship, which were then captured and brought aboard the Heavens Dawn. Vakaris finding himself unable to execute them, took pity on the IPCs, as they begged him to allow them to leave. He allowed them back onto their ship, which had fixed its bluespace drive by then. The release of the IPCs was kept secret from most of the crew, only a handful of senior officers knew about the decision.

 

I might be behind on lore here, but what's the reason for IPCs needing to be scrapped? As far as I understand, they're just robots, some of them with built-in personalities. Any issues can easily be fixed by resetting them, or shutting them down and passing them over to a roboticist. You'll need to expand on this (or just point out a bit of lore I might be missing).

 

Despite this, word reached his family, which of course, included Akira Washington. Normally, he would be reported to the Tribunal and be executed, however, he was spared this fate when Washington refused to report it, because a family member being convicted of such a crime would obviously damage the families credibility and have possibly severe repercussions for them all. Instead of being executed, Vakaris was unofficially exiled, keeping his titles and status and yet being unable to go home.

 

Again, what's the significance of these IPCs? Deciding not to scrap two units is hardly worthy of even being noted in his career, nevermind him having to be exiled for it.

 

What do you like about this character?: I find that he's fun to play, mostly due to him being a near opposite to my casual, energetic, security officer. It's a nice break from the quicker paced action of that character.

What do you dislike about this character?: The character is very new, I haven't had time to develop them very far. It can also be challenging to play him after playing my security guard, due to them having, as mentioned before, very different personalities.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: He is, first of all, extremely calm. It takes a lot to anger or otherwise disturb him. He's willing to go against popular opinion and risk punishment to do what is, in his opinion, right. He's able to analyze a situation, and various actions and outcomes, quickly, and can use this to stop a conflict non-violently.

 

This is the most important part of your application. The backstory is just there to describe how your character came to be. This is where you apply you understanding of heavy roleplay, and use it to comprehensively break down the individual you are playing, and examine both their strengths and shortcomings, and with those two things in mind, use them to explain why he'd fit as a Head of Staff. Expand on this as much as you can, since you will be using this when you roleplay your character.

Overall, you've got a fairly decent application. If you work on patching up the backstory, and really focus on expanding on the personality of your character, I'm sure you'll get through. As you said, an individual who is whitelisted should show "a high standard of roleplaying,", and you've got to show you can do that in this application. It's easy to make up a character - it's much harder to create a balanced one, and faithfully implement them within the game.

[tbear13]

This is too early in my opinion. Three months isn't much. I've been here half a year and I still consider myself too early to apply for Head. While you may be a good Officer, you still wear the Corporate uniform and for that I've got to go neutral. But honestly- I think it's too early. You need more experience under your belt.

 

Three months isn't too early. I was accepted as a Head of Staff after spending roughly a month on the server. As long as a player has a decent amount of experience on other servers, I don't see a problem.

 

Vakaris was born on Dominia, in the city of Ondergaandezon, to a wealthy family, and was, in fact, a somewhat distant relative of Akira Washington, the current ruler of Ondergaandezon. He grew up fairly spoiled, a spot essentially guaranteed at Ondergaandezon Military Academy, enough money to get whatever he wanted. When he turned sixteen years old, he was shipped off to the Military Academy mentioned earlier ...the rest of his years at the Academy were somewhat uneventful, until he graduated at twenty-four years old.

 

There's a small issue with this paragraph, in that the type of military academy he went to isn't specified. Going there at the age of 16 is incredibly young, but it makes sense if it serves as a secondary school. Assuming that's the case, he then spends six years, from the age of 18, being commissioned. West Point Academy in America has cadets training for four years, and then they enter active service.

 

After a brief talk with the other ships captain, Vakaris ordered a search of the ship. The marines sent aboard found two IPCs aboard the ship, which were then captured and brought aboard the Heavens Dawn. Vakaris finding himself unable to execute them, took pity on the IPCs, as they begged him to allow them to leave. He allowed them back onto their ship, which had fixed its bluespace drive by then. The release of the IPCs was kept secret from most of the crew, only a handful of senior officers knew about the decision.

 

I might be behind on lore here, but what's the reason for IPCs needing to be scrapped? As far as I understand, they're just robots, some of them with built-in personalities. Any issues can easily be fixed by resetting them, or shutting them down and passing them over to a roboticist. You'll need to expand on this (or just point out a bit of lore I might be missing).

 

Despite this, word reached his family, which of course, included Akira Washington. Normally, he would be reported to the Tribunal and be executed, however, he was spared this fate when Washington refused to report it, because a family member being convicted of such a crime would obviously damage the families credibility and have possibly severe repercussions for them all. Instead of being executed, Vakaris was unofficially exiled, keeping his titles and status and yet being unable to go home.

 

Again, what's the significance of these IPCs? Deciding not to scrap two units is hardly worthy of even being noted in his career, nevermind him having to be exiled for it.

 

What do you like about this character?: I find that he's fun to play, mostly due to him being a near opposite to my casual, energetic, security officer. It's a nice break from the quicker paced action of that character.

What do you dislike about this character?: The character is very new, I haven't had time to develop them very far. It can also be challenging to play him after playing my security guard, due to them having, as mentioned before, very different personalities.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: He is, first of all, extremely calm. It takes a lot to anger or otherwise disturb him. He's willing to go against popular opinion and risk punishment to do what is, in his opinion, right. He's able to analyze a situation, and various actions and outcomes, quickly, and can use this to stop a conflict non-violently.

 

This is the most important part of your application. The backstory is just there to describe how your character came to be. This is where you apply you understanding of heavy roleplay, and use it to comprehensively break down the individual you are playing, and examine both their strengths and shortcomings, and with those two things in mind, use them to explain why he'd fit as a Head of Staff. Expand on this as much as you can, since you will be using this when you roleplay your character.

Overall, you've got a fairly decent application. If you work on patching up the backstory, and really focus on expanding on the personality of your character, I'm sure you'll get through. As you said, an individual who is whitelisted should show "a high standard of roleplaying,", and you've got to show you can do that in this application. It's easy to make up a character - it's much harder to create a balanced one, and faithfully implement them within the game.

 

Well, on your first point, I assumed that the general school system would be different than that of today, I didn't come up with a specific format it'd follow, just some random-ish stuff. About IPCs, the state religion, the Moroz Holy Tribunal, states that all IPCs within Dominia's territory must be destroyed and that anyone caught disobeying that, or any other of their laws, should be put to death. With my characters personalty, I generally start with a basic outline of what they'll be like and develop the smaller details, such as speech patterns, as I go. I will make a few adjustments after hearing this, so thanks for the feedback!

[Coalf]

Application accepted.

Aocking and lrchiving.