Lets start off with a good one. This is an actual application, and it’s EXACTLY what we want. You notice the information is concise and to the point. Not too wordy (We don’t want a novel) and yet gives important information about the character in question. My favorite answer is to the worst thing. Because in two sentences he lets us know something, and then goes a bit further and lets us know more.

Character Nickname:    Klamber
Character's First Name:   Klamber
Character's Last Name:    Pendrake
Character's Sex:    Male
Realm of Residence:    Ravnglade
Does your character have any titles?   No
Where was your character born?    Ravnglade
What is your character's race?   Human

What significant events happened in your character's childhood?
   His grandparents died mysteriously. His parents died mysteriously. At 16 he was charged with their murders. He was later acquitted and received a huge inheritance. As a result, the stigma and suspicion remain.

Does your character have any living relatives?
   Sadly, no. If he did he wouldn't be so ostracized and treated like someone who's committed patricide.

What was the best thing that ever happened to your character?
   His blessings are always mixed. Inheritance was good, but created motive. Winning an marksmanship contest was good, but suddenly people say he is dangerous. His house is nice, but people think he is a criminal.

What was the worst thing that ever happened to your character?
   Going to the Ravnglade dungeons for three months after his parents died. He actually had to eat a rat.

What would your character like to achieve within the next year?
   He'd like to clear his social standing.

What are your character's life long goals?
   To become someone so prominent that nobody remembers the rumors and lies that hound him currently.

What is your character's greatest fear?
   Going back to prison, and also rats.

What does your character like most in the world?
   Rabbits in poachers traps (Kidding!) No, he likes feeling that he is appreciated and considered a "good guy".

Is there anything that your character just hates?
   Unfounded accusations.

Wandering through the woods, your character happens upon a rabbit that has been snagged by the foot in a poacher's trap. What does he/she do?
   He waits until someone comes along. Then he frees it in front of them to show he's a hero! If it takes too long he'd feed the rabbit a carrot so it survived until then.

Description:
   A fine looking fellow to be sure! Expensive half cloak, tight sleeveless shirt, and fringed boots. His pants are adorned with belts that hang his two hand crossbows and a rapier. His hair is long and blond and eyes blue. Simply dashing!

Now an example of a bad application. I’ll be honest, this wasn’t one application, but rather three smooshed into one. But, every answer is real, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. My point in making this one is it encompasses what so many of the bad applications look like. It’s not just that we’ve received one like this. But we’ve received dozens along this same template. I’ll address each problem by number below.

The Applicant

1) Character Nickname: TheExtermonator
2) Character's First Name: Zrtaitlaki
3) Character's Last Name: Glorious
4) Character's Sex: Male
5) Realm: Olath Xal
6) Titles? He who makes the gods tremble
7) Occupation? None.
8) Born? Unknown
9) Race? Trillao
10) Childhood events? When Zrtaitlaki was a child, his ancient grandfather dragon know a Sshrill possessed the young boy even to this day Sshrill remains in the boy's spirit. His ancient grandfather dragon killed Zrtaitlaki’s whole village for fun.
11) Living relatives? No, everyone in Zrtaitlaki’s family was killed.
12) Best Thing? Zrtaitlaki found a dragon egg
13) Worst Thing? The worst thing to happen to Zrtaitlaki is when his ancient grandfather became angry and killed his whole village for fun.
14) Year Goal? To kill the one responsible for his family’s death and hang his head on a pole.
15) Life goals? To find a soulmate and have children.
16) Fear? That he will never find revenge.
17) Likes? Dominating women
18) Hates? He fits of rage caused each day he does not get revenge.
19) Bunny Question? He frees the bunny and nurses it back to health and keeps him because he needs a friend. Unfortnely the bunny would “betray” Zrtaiklaki eventually and then I will have to torture him for revenge for a year.
20) Description: Zrtaitlaki is flat out gorgeous.
21) Power: 9.5

My responses

1) TheExtermonator. First off, it’s not really indicative to role-playing in a fantasy world. Secondly, it’s misspelled.
2) What a first name. Because the nickname was not acceptable, that means this will be the name we use. Can this name be pronounced or typed? I really don’t know.
3) Glorious as a last name? With as unique a first name that this character has, his last name is a real word. Well, ok.
4) Not a problem.
5) We try to give applicants some benefit of the doubt. But Olath Xal is where the drow live. Not only that, but it hasn’t been around that long. It’s a new city. Of course, part of being new is not knowing these things, and we understand that. So we let this one slide.
6) One must be given a title, so he earned this name somehow? Is he making gods tremble? Lets read on and see….
7) No occupation, other than making gods tremble. Well, how does this character make money? Is he like Bruce Wayne and just independently wealthy?
8) Just because the world or even the character doesn’t know where he was born, doesn’t mean you put unknown here. What we want to see is that YOU, the player, know.
9) This race tells us nothing other than that you can type some random letters on the keyboard. If you come up with a unique race, and that’s fine, please let us know something about it.
10) I had to read this 5 times to figure out what it meant. And looky there, the always present, “XXXX thing killed his family.” If you take our weekly pile of applications, 80% of them include this in their character’s history.
11) Yup, everyone’s dead.
12) Finding a dragon egg is a nice thing to happen to a character. But you could let us know a bit more about it. Did it hatch? What color is it? Where did it come from? Why was it such a happy event? Does the character still have the dragon?
13) Yup, everyone is still dead and it was sad.
14) I thought your great grandfather dragon killed your family. Regardless, again, the family is still dead and apparently that’s all that this guy thinks about.
15) Oh wait! I guess not, he also wants a family. Because all Tillao want romance and love in their lives.
16) There is that issue over his lost family again.
17) You know, honestly, the first time I read this, I literally spit my coke out on the screen. We went from family man with a vengeance issue to wife beater in two lines. And his last name is Glorious? Hello, I’m He who makes the Gods tremble, Glorious woman dominator!
18) Revenge again. Yah, we’re learning a lot about this guy.
19) I kid you not, this was the actual answer. Now, it did make me laugh and considering the earlier answers in the application, I almost approved this guy on this answer alone. It was unique, to say the least. But the rest of the application was so bad, there was no way this guy was getting in.
20) I think My Realms is populated with gorgeous people. Not just nice looking, but gorgeous. Unfortunately, this tells us nothing. We don’t even know if this guy is humanoid, much less what his hair and eye colors are. Just goes to prove that not much thought has gone into this character, other than…
21) He is powerful. But not the most powerful, that 0.5 away from 10 makes all the difference, right?

More to come as they are received.