HOW TO MAKE A GOOD CHARACTER SHEET
by Mr. Justice

The following guidelines have been put together after many hours of character reviews and critiques by me. I, as the Academy Administrator kindly ask that any person considering creating a character for submission to any of the UN Spacy Schools, please read the guidelines and follow them. If you have questions, read the guidelines again then go back. If you still have questions, then please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to help you out. Believe me when I say that following these guidelines will virtually guarantee that your character is accepted on the first attempt.

To be even more helpful, I have written up a character sketch as an example. DO NOT COPY MY CHARACTER. It is for reference, to get your creative juices flowing so that you can create your OWN UNIQUE character.

Basic Notes

First, it is important to point out that some of the information contained in this document was first created by Mute, Hellfire and Heather. I am simply adding on to the work that they have done in order to better equip potential players with the information they need to create living, breathing anime characters. Without the previous efforts of these people, my work would be much harder.

Secondly, said information can be found on the "Join" page and should be reviewed in addition to this document.

Basic Requirements - Things that must be followed

1. E-mail address
In order to play a character on the AMRN, you must e-mail the Academy Administrator your character sheet from the address you will be using to receive correspondance for that character. This e-mail address must be stable and you must have steady access to it. If this is not you, then turn back now.

2. E-mail title
When you are submitting a character to the Academy Administrator, you must put "Joining" in the field for Subject. If Joining is not written there, then there is no guarantee that your character submission will be read as it might be considered spam or junk mail.

3. Format
Do not send any character sheets in Word document format. This is to prevent the spread of Word Macro virii. Please use either e-mail or .txt files only. If a character is submitted in .doc format, it will be deleted without being read.

Character Submission Tips

Name
This must be a realistic name. In an anime series, what does that mean? Good question. It means that it must be original and it must fit in with the basic conventions that you have undoubtedly come across. Jenius, Hayase, Tanaka, Johnson, Smith, all common last names and all acceptable. Loughran, Youngman, Kalhoon, not so common last names, but still acceptable because they aren't completely off the wall. Starfire, Grimreaper, Bertenstantanoski, not so common and generally not acceptable. Why? Because they are *too* far outside the normal conventions of naming. If you want something original, go look in a naming book for the nationality of your character. Think of the names of your friends, relatives, friends, co-workers, etc. Think of people on TV and in the movies. Try not to think of names from other popular anime, popular science fiction or fantasy books. Remember to be original.

There is an exception to this naming convention. If you can justify the last name in the Background section, then I might let you slide. Be forewarned, however, that the character has to be pretty tight and the background has to be very good in order for me to relax this.

Age
Generally speaking, the characters in the Macross Universe are young. Most characters are between 16 and 24 with a few under 16 and some (mostly more established characters and a couple of exceptions) are over 24. That doesn't mean you can't have someone who is 25 or 26 (I have one who is 32), but you need to explain in the Background section *why* that character is outside the "norm." What has that character been doing for that time before joining the Spacy?

For example, if you have a character, let's call her Anne, and you want Anne to be 27 years old. In the Background section it should describe what Anne has been doing for that time. Perhaps she picked up a couple of degrees, one in astrophysics and another in Biology. She may not be the best candidate for a pilot (easily the most popular position in the Macross Universe), but she'd be perfect for a science officer or medic or ship's doctor.

Or if you have a guy, let's call him Barry, and he's 25. He wants to be a pilot. Maybe he flew cargo transports for a company on the colony where he was born. Or perhaps he is an experienced mechanic and has always had an interest in flying the things he builds/maintains. Write up such things in the Background section and justify the age.

It's a bit harder with younger characters since 16 really is the youngest we can have for Spacy positions. People of this age would be better suited as civilian family members or shop workers, etc. Not exactly the most glamorous characters, but playing "normal" people can be very fun in and of itself.

Height and Weight
Pretty self-explanatory, though these have to match up with any Fuzion stats you may have. Your character can't have one leg and a high SPEED attribute. Or they can't be 5'2" and 105 lbs. and have a really high STRENGTH. Use common sense here.

Birthplace
Be creative. It doesn't have to be Earth. Remember, this is a futuristic society built on galactic colonization. It's okay to make up a place (the caveat is, you have to describe it and talk about it in the Background section...)

Distinguishing Features
Pretty self-explanatory, but tell me how/why they have those features in the Background.

Eyes
NO GREEN EYES.

While green eyes are not very common in real life, they are *exceedingly* common on the AMRN (people felt a need to make up in art what lacks in real life). Remember that the setting is in the future. If ships can fire massive weapons of destruction and fold across the galaxy, they sure as hell can change a person's eye color. Don't constrain yourself to brown, blue, hazel, green. Pick violet or cyan or red. The caveat is, you need to tell me why. If they are alien, it's going to be apparent why. But, if they are human, tell me, again in the Background section, that they have colored contacts. Maybe they had a quick cosmetic surgery. Maybe it was medically necessary. Or maybe it's common for the colony world where they are from.

Family
Appropriate terms: Single, unmarried, married, divorced, widowed, etc. Then I want to know about mom, dad, sisters, brothers, etc.

NO "NONE's" allowed!

I'm setting my foot down right now. Characters without families (like green eyes) are too common on the AMRN. Yes, I understand there was a big battle in space and that a majority of Earth took a big hit. Our current story is a generation or two later, which means people have been makin' babies for some time and that orphans and people without families aren't going to be nearly as common as they were back near the culmination of Space War I. (Note from Illusion: In addition, there was a massive amount of cloning during that time, before it was discovered that some of the clones had genetic defects. You could be the child of one of these clones.)

I don't care if you write a great Background or not. NO "NONE's." I know this may put some of you out, but, almost invariably I get "no family" quickly followed by "they died when s/he was very young and s/he never knew them." And, more times than not, this is followed by "all s/he wants to do is fly, chase girls/guys and be the best" (see below for more details on these very bad things).

Make up a family and talk about them in the Background. If mom and died early, tell me why. Who raised the character in the meantime? What was it like growing up in a family with 5 brothers and sisters? Be creative.

NO "NONE's" allowed!

Hobbies
This is what your character likes to do in her/his spare time. These are things that your character could be doing during non-combat time. These are things that your character can talk about during actual role-playing.

Some examples are sports, perhaps anime, writing, gardening, building models, etc. It doesn't have to be really weird (but it can be!), just something the character does in her/his spare time.

I will NOT accept: Women/Men, Fast cars/planes, swords/weapons, winning. (These have been way overdone and winning is not a hobby. Be creative.)

I will NOT accept: NONE (Everyone has a hobby. If they don't, then it's an interest. If it's not an interest, then it's something they do when they are bored. Whatever it's called, put it here and talk about it a little.)

Goals in Life
This is what your character wants to do in her/his life. These are the aspirations and dreams of the character. If the character has had a troubled past, perhaps she wants to settle down. If a character has had a dull childhood, then may he wants to take some risks and experience life.

I will NOT accept "To be the best X in the Y Branch of the military." This is usually a given and is often coupled with a character having green eyes, being an orphan who never knew their parents, having no hobbies other than women, winning and flying, and being a "natural born pilot" (see background below).

Misc. Background
Ah yes, the sweetest part of the fruit that is a character sheet. Without a doubt, this is the part of the character sheet where I see the most issues. The Background is what makes the character live a life, breathe air, eat food, feel pain, give love. This is what makes a character a person. That's what we want on the AMRN because we, the GMs, take that person and make them into an anime hero by throwing them into bizarre situations and expecting them to walk out alive. We put the speedlines in their charges, the sweatdrops in their mistakes and crackling energy in their weapons. But before we can do this, the character must step off the page with three-dimensional goodness. You don't have to be an English professor at Harvard to submit a character here, but you do have to be a better than your average role-player. That's why we demand such extensive backgrounds. Here's how you do it.

Write about everything.

That's really it. That's the secret. Write about everything. The more detail we have on what makes your character tick, the more fun you are going to have and the more fun we are going to have. Because that's more information that we can use to help make the story more compelling for your character. If your character has an older sister back home, a GM can write up a letter from her, thus enfusing a little bit of drama into your character's life. Or maybe your character is deathly afraid of dogs but is walking home late one night from the bar and encounters a stray German shepherd. What to do then?

Some questions to ask yourself when writing the background:

What was life like for this character growing up?
Were they close to their family? Why?
If the character experienced a traumatic event in their life, how did they deal with it?
Why did they decide to join UN Spacy?
What are they hoping to achieve by joining the military?
If the character is older, what were the teenage years like?
If the character is married, what's her/his spouse like? Any kids?

Just think of it as an interview; you want to find out as much as possible about this character.

Examples

The following are examples of characters. They are my own creations and are not intentionally based off any characters I have received. Please do not copy and/or submit these examples.

The first one is an example of what not to do and what I get the most of.

Name: Isamu Dyson Smith
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Birthplace: Moon Colony
Hair: Spikey Brown
Eyes: Green
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 185 lbs.
Features: Scar across his left eyebrow
Family: None
Occupation: Pilot
Rank: Cadet
Hobbies: Flying, fast cars, women, winning
Goals: To be the best pilot in UN Spacy and get girls
Background: Isamu is a born pilot and ladies man. Ever since he was little he's loved airplanes and wanted to fly them. His parents died when he was young so he never knew them. One day he decided to join UN Spacy to become a fighter pilot. Now he wants to be the best.

The next example is what I consider to be a very thorough character sheet. This is what I hope to find in my e-mail box whenever I see "Join" as the subject line because I get the opportunity to really get to know the character and see what makes them tick.

Name: Natalie Charlene Patrick
Age: 25 (Born August 16, 2025)
Birthplace: Mystery Lake, Manitoba, Canada, Earth
Hair: Brown w/ blonde highlights
Eyes: Dark Brown w/ red flecks
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Distinguishing Features: GSW to left, upper shoulder (back)
Family: Mother Naomi Wells (63), Brother Frank Wells (30), Niece Ann Wells (6)
Occupation: UN Intelligence Officer
Rank: 1st Lieutenant
Interests: Hiking, Ice Hockey, Photography, Chemistry, Astronomy, Long Distance Running, Tai Chi Chuan
Goals: Succeed in the Spacy so that she can eventually move back to Earth to be near her remaining family and provide for them. She also wants to go to school to finish her Masters Degree in Astronomy and work for the Deep Space Network.

Background: Natalie was born to a poorer family in a small town in Manitoba Canada near the United States Border. She has one older brother, Frank, who lives in New Pensecola, Florida with his daughter Ann. Frank's wife, Lisa, died in an Anti-UN demonstration in 2046. Natalie's mother, Naomi, still lives in Mystery Lake surrounded by close friends, though she sometimes ventures down to New Pensecola to visit her granddaughter. Natalie's father, Wilson, was killed on active duty service with the EDF in 2038. Natalie was married to Trevor Patrick for four years until their divorce in late 2049. She found out about an affair he was having with a married couple.

Growing up in a small town was very beneficial for the Wells family who were not exactly blessed with the best of circumstances. Natalie's father, Wilson, was often stationed off-world with the Earth Defense Force and didn't get many chances to visit. Naomi Wells worked at a local beverage bottling plant as a shift supervisor but, having no education beyond an AA degree, wasn't destined to move up much higher.

The town itself was fairly rural, being about 25 miles south of the the nearest big city called Thompson. As such, people depended upon one another when times were tough which, in Canada during harsh winters, could last for awhile.

Natalie, being the younger sister to her brother Frank, grew up around Frank's friends and, in Canada, that meant lots of ice hockey. She was on skates and playing by the time she was six, always following Frank around whenever he went to play. All of Frank's friends loved to have her come play, though they made sure never to get too close for fear of incurring Frank's wrath. That, and there was usually a significant age gap between any would-be beaus. The younger brothers of some of Frank's friends were another story altogether. She curried the favor of many a small town boy while she was growing up. There was just something completely overwhelming about a good looking girl who played hockey. And played *very* well.

Natalie went to school and did well in her classes. She was never at the very top, but she was always in the upper ten-percent. She took to the sciences, which was quite the relief for her folks since that gave Natalie a good shot at going to University, unlike her brother who was an average liberal arts student. Though this could have been a point of tension between the two siblings, Frank was nothing but supportive to his younger sister. He always did his best to help her succeed even as he slipped into mediocrity.

When she was thirteen, Wilson was killed during an Anti-UN rebel engagement. The family took the loss hard, as would be expected, but Wilson was also the main bread winner. Natalie was fully prepared to drop out of school to help support her family, but they insisted that she continue her studies. Instead, Frank finished his AA early and went to work in town, adding his wages to the household pool. With his sacrifice, the family never went without the necessities and, on occasion, had the opportunity to go out and do nice things together. Often times, though, Natalie was the recipient of items to help her with school, like a telescope, and a chemistry set, or things to make her life easier. The family clearly had their hopes pinned on Natalie.

This caused Natalie to put a lot of pressure on herself, pressure to succeed. She finished high school with honors and received enough scholarships to attend Cornel University in New York where she met her now ex-husband Trevor. He seemed to be the prefect man; always polite, considerate, loving, caring, blah, blah, blah. Even Natalie's mom liked him, though Frank always remained wary if polite.

But in reality, Trevor was a scumbag. He pretended to attend classes when, in fact, he was selling drugs on the side to finance his carefree lifestyle. He made enough money to bribe the Dean of Student Affairs to let him graduate with, wait for it, a degree in Business Administration/Marketing. He did a perfect job of hiding his less than appropriate lifestyle from Natalie while she worked on her MS in Astronomy. But, coming home early one morning from an observation lab, she noticed one of their cars in someone else's driveway. Pulling off to the side of the road, Natalie waited, fearing what she would find out, but knowing that she couldn't leave until she knew. What she found was not what she expected at all; Trevor was having an affair, but not just with another woman, but another *couple*. Turned out that Trevor developed a liking for both men and woman and found committing to one woman a crimp in his lifestyle.

Of course, being involved with drugs, the separation that Natalie wanted didn't come easy. During one of their numerous fights Trevor pulled a gun on Natalie and shot her in the left shoulder as she was trying to get out the door. Natalie drove to the hospital and called the police when she arrived. The police rushed to Trevor's apartment but he had already picked up shop and left. He still remains at large.

They were divorced soon after.

Natalie had a hard time recovering from the loss and the sense of violation that came with the divorce. It was one thing to have irreconcilable differences, but another thing completely to be lied to for so long and to find out that your spouse wasn't just cheating on you with another woman, but another couple. She took a leave of absence from her studies to live with her brother Frank who had, in the meantime, moved to New Pensecola, Florida in the United States.

While staying with Frank, who was a civilian contracted to work at the UN training base there, Natalie received her first real dose of military life outside of occasional stories from her father. She also found her interest in life revitalized. At first she considered going in as a science officer, but a hot and passionate romance with an Intelligence Officer persuaded her to join the ranks of the spooks.

Remember that Fuzion is recommended, but not required.

Your character should strive to fall in between these two extremes. If you end up writing a character like Natalie, then great! If not, as long as you follow the suggestions in this document, then you'll likely have little to no trouble getting your character accepted.

Good Luck!