Applying for Special Races, Factions, Prestige Classes or Appearances

We want to clarify that the only way to apply for membership in a DM Faction, a prestige class or a special character (noble, subrace, Harper, Zhentarim, etc) is by using the following template. The filled out template must be then sent cityofarabel@gmail.com: subject="Character Concept Application"
Don't expect an answer right away, since we barely have time to read the mail.

Furthermore! Writing a random letter to the warden accomplishes nothing! NOTHING! Contact individual guards for your concerns, the warden has better things to do than talk to you.

Try to include briefly: 1. Race/Class/Alignment/Level 2. Faction you want to join/special thing you apply for 3. Whether you've been in a faction, which one? 4. Account name(s), characters played recently, usual playing times (time and time zone) 5. Why you (not your character) want in that faction/that special favor? 6. Very brief bio of the character. 7. General outline of goals, plans, storylines to pursue. 8. Anything else you want us to know.

Please try to keep these brief enough that I can sort through them and pass them along. 250 words or less. Feel free to add a lengthier background SEPARATELY, but we'll make our decision based on those 8 points, and if they are too long to read we won't bother.

I'm going to list out our commitment as DMs to getting these applications in and out as quickly as possible, and the responsibility of the Players to follow up on their applications.

1) After you send in an application, when the Application is received, a DM will send a return message that will indicate that we have receive the application. This indicates the app is up for vote and you should check back on it in about 2 weeks. If you do not receive a message in a few days, ask a DM to check if it is up for vote.

In some cases, we may send back comments and tell you to rework some aspects of it because we can see right off the bat that there may be some problems with it. This is to help our players immediately so they can quickly make changes before having the application submitted to the DMs for vote.

2) The DMs will spend approximately 1-2 weeks discussing the application and vote on it. If the application is approved, we will post it on the Approved Concepts Thread in bulk. In other words, we will often wait until we have a few updates to make in order to make the update.

3) Players are advised to follow up on their application at the end of the first week, at which point if the DMs have overlooked the application, they can get the discussion rolling again quickly. This is not required, but it is recommended so that if the application has been buried in the e-mail or faction application forum, we won't have to tell you at the end of the 2 week period to wait for us to dig it up and discuss it.

4) If the player has not been added to the approved faction list within two weeks of application, they are recommended to speak with a DM to gain insight on why. This is not required, but if you wish feedback or to check to see if we may have just overlooked your application, it is the player's responsibility to follow up.

We as DMs will not approach players to notify them their applications were rejected in most cases. Please note that we don't do this to give you a cold shoulder, but simply because we receive so many applications, and it will be tiring for us to have to contact each and every player that has submitted one. We will commit to the players who take care to follow up and demonstrate a desire to understand why their application was rejected. It's our commitment to try and help you make your applications better in the future, but only if you are proactive enough to follow up and request an explanation.

There are also some cases where we may approach players to discuss their application, even when it is rejected, but this is done so on our own accord.

5) Promotions and "inductions" into factions are done so when the DMs have time. We do try to organize factions so a specific DM will handle certain factions in order to provide a consistent and set direction for the faction that isn't influenced by 10 different minds. Therefore, in some cases, we may require you wait for a specific DM.

I hope some of this is helpful. Keep those applications coming.

Okay...we've already had a few players send me PMs about their apps that they just sent in over the past couple of days. It's recommended you follow up a week after you send it in.

A friendly reminder. Applications that don't follow the template format and give all the information required will be routinely dismissed. If we aren't in a hurry we'll send an email right away so you can reapply, but honestly, if I see an application that doesn't tell the class of the character or the reason why the player is applying I can pretty much say he's not taking the application seriously.

Obviously, other groups exist for which you could apply that are not listed on this website. Any canon organization from the Forgotten Realms still requires approval even if it isn't a DM faction. That includes membership in the Harpers, the Zhentarim Network, the Cult of the Dragon, or even the Knights of Myth Drannor or the Harkel family.

AGAIN, not every concept MUST adhere to these guides. If you have an excellent idea for an evil guard, or a good Red Wizard we might still approve it. However, it must be a very, very good idea.

We want to clarify that the only way to apply for membership in a DM Faction, a prestige class or a special character (noble, subrace, Harper, Zhentarim, etc) is by using the following template. The filled out template must be then sent to href="mailto:cityofarabel@gmail.com">cityofarabel@gmail.com. Don't expect an answer right away, since we barely have time to read the mail.

Furthermore! Writing a random letter to the warden accomplishes nothing! NOTHING! Contact individual guards for your concerns, the warden has better things to do than talk to you.

Try to include briefly:

Subject line: Your account name/Character name/applying for (PrC: Assassain, House: Fezznick) etc 1. Race/Class/Alignment/Level Name of the Character you're applying with, so we know who to watch 2. Faction you want to join/special thing you apply for 3. Whether you've been in a faction, which one? 4. Account name(s), characters played recently, usual playing times (time and time zone) 5. Why you (not your character) want in that faction/that special favor? 6. Very brief bio of the character.

7. General outline of goals, plans, storylines to pursue. SEE NOTE BELOW 8. Anything else you want us to know.

Please try to keep these brief enough that I can sort through them and pass them along. 250 words or less. Feel free to add a lengthier background SEPARATELY, but we'll make our decision based on those 8 points, and if they are too long to read we won't bother.

Factions controlled by the DMs include.

House Factions: 1. Thond 2. DeSchurr 3. Bhaliir 4. Fezznick

Guard Factions: Purple Dragons War Wizards City Militia

Good/Evil Factions Local Theives' Guild Thayan Enclave Knights of the Merciful Sword

Special Characters Drow Duergar Deep Gnomes Half Dragon (Red and Gold only) Avariel Lycanthropes (Rat, Cat, Wolf) Aasimar Tieflings Children

Nobles NPC skins

Maybe others. Use the Ask a DM forum if you need assistance.

Faction level caps. Take these into account before writing your applications.

Addendum:

This is something Ashuram mentioned and I thought it was a really good point to remind people about since I've seen quite a few requests so far and almost none that mentioned this important aspect:

Quote:

Also, the reason for wanting in the faction, I want more than "Just to be in a faction" or "It goes along with my characters story". Come up with something good. And don't rush it, you have plenty of time.

I.E. I assume if you want the DMs to give you a nice spot in a fun faction that you've got more to offer than just your desire to be in that faction. Do you have any ideas on things you will want to do in the faction?

An example: I want to be a Red Wizard of Thay, as a Red Wizard I will try to organize the local merchants in the city into a Merchant Guild-this guild will set prices, help train new merchants, and secretly run a mafia-esque enterprise wherein we mug/threaten/kill merchants that try to compete with us.

-Or-

I want to be War Wizard. However, and my War Wizard follows Helm. As such, I tend to believe that Cormyrian justice is rather lax- all this nonsense about trials in the case of capital crimes. If we enforced a more strict order, then we wouldn't have all these Sharrans running around the streets. So, I've taken it upon myself to hire a group of spies that I pay directly to snitch on anyone that may be doing anything illegal. Then, whether the Baron agrees that something needs to be done or not-I take matters into my own hands. Afterall, someone who is stealing from merchants today-maybe end up selling weapons to orcs tomorrow--and I can not let that happen even if some people think we need to wait for them to break a serious law before we hand out serious punishment.

Notice these concepts tend to involve other people in what you're doing. I'm not going to say we require this kind of stuff obviously, but it sure as heck will help out when we have to decide who really stands out compared to the rest.

Just some advice for people sending in applications.

1. "it will add to roleplay" is in no way a useful answer to the question about why you should be allowed to play a specific character. In fact, it'll probably just get your application deleted. Give us a real answer, tell us what specifically your character will do on the server. I want goals and plot ideas, not lame "it'll help rp or give me something to do."

2. Wanting to play something unique for that sake only will never get you approved.

3. Good drow just don't happen folks. Drizzt is a one in a billion chance, and there are only a million drow alive these days--do the math.

4. I don't care how much fun you'll have playing a halfdragon paladin of Torm. I want to know why other people will have fun playing with you, tell me that in your application--what will you do for the people who play with you that justifies that you got this special perk and they don't?

We have stated this for a long time and it can be easily derived from the requirements in this thread, but since there has been some confusion lately and there isn't a proper sticky to make this clear, let this be a reminder.

A character's belonging to ANY official organization in the Forgotten Realms, regardless of its official presence in the server, MUST be approved by the DMs via the usual application process.

There are two main reasons for this: - We may intend to support an organization in the future as a full blown DM faction, and having "official" members running around at that point becomes a serious problem since we cannot process faction applications retroactively and asking a character to be remade or to change background after who knows how much time of play is very hard.

- We routinely run plots involving these organizations, and play their members with NPCs. When one of the players involved in the plot finds one of these "official" members in game, the potential for disruption of the plot is huge, since we DMs don't know anything at all about this character and he's completely ignorant of the details of a plot that he should be privy to according to his alleged position. Entire plots have been cancelled due to the damage a simple character has done in terms of spreading wrong information under the impression of DM approval.

The chances to get approval for these non supported factions depend of course of what's being asked for. If your character doesn't get any benefit from the position, and is not actively taking part in its politics (for instance, en ex-guard of Waterdeep, or a monk trained in the Order of the Hin Fist) those apps will dart through. If your character is an active member, or has a mission to fulfill, or should get a tangible benefit from his position, you will have to convince us of why we should take the time and effort to deal with a new faction, in terms of benefit for the server community at large, much like any DM faction. But with the added difficulty that since we are already spread thin to cover all the existing DM factions, the justification will have to be very good for us to open the gates for a new one.

If we find characters claiming to be part of a faction, we'll politely ask them to either change their backgrounds or to apply for the faction. Of course, if an application is sent and denied, we'll expect the background will be changed without us insisting on it. Since it's an OOC issue, it doesn't have to make IC sense. In extreme cases of disruption and stubborness of unapproved players, we may just delete the characters.

And last but not least, any player caught lying by falsely claiming that his special character has been approved by the DMs will be banned on the spot.

Applications for anything: Plot perks, Faction Characters, Non supported Faction Characters, PrCs, etc should all also be submitted via the e-mail (CityofArabel@gmail.com). If you want to ask individual DMs for opinions prior to submitting, feel free and they will help you if they are able.

Do NOT expect a DM to approve your application on the spot. Applicants who push that issue will be more likely to have their application denied. We do have a process for approving factions, so let us do that And in case you are wondering why we are so adamant about procedures: the application sums up all the information we need to know about the character (except playing style, that can only be judged in game). We can read it at leisure, see how to adapt plots and generally discuss it ("Here's another corrupt guard. How can we arrange it so he does not find out all our War Wizards worship Bale?"). Do not see it as a penalty or duty to put the application together. See it as the normal process how a character should be made. Writing it up gives you time to think about a background and personality of the character and check if the application makes sense ("My character is a former Storm Lord of Talos who wants to join the KotMS. Wait a second..."). It also allows us to determine if you are serious about a position. People who just decide "Hey cool, I want to be a guard, it sounds fun" will probably ditch the position quicker than we can set them up due to the effort involved. We had problems like that in V2, and do not want to repeat that.

SPECIAL NOTE: #7

Generic and large scale goals without sub-plans will now hinder your application. As DMs, we like to see solid plans, concepts, and ideas. If your goals sections consists of, "Strive to be the best (Insert whatever you're applying for here) I can be" I personally know I won't post it because it wastes your time and ours.

What a Goals, Storylines and Plots section

SHOULD consist of is a brief OUTLINE of your pursuits. If you want to take over Arabel, you should give us brief sub-goals that would strive to acheive the greater end.

When we say generic outline, we mean, "Hire adventurers to investigate Lahl, then use this information to work with the Thayans to overthrow the city"

Things such as that make up good applications, so please, put some more time into your applications, and post solid goals with outlines.

Brief Tip as well:

Have both subgoals and big goals. Every app should have two or three big goals you want to achieve, and most players don't forget to do this. What most players forget is to insert their subgoals that will be done to work toward that main goal.

When you give us a big goal, but no path to achieve it, we would be accepting your application on a "promise." Kind of like if you invest your money in a mutual fund when the broker just says "we'll be working to get you a 100% return over 10 years" without telling you how.

Keep the big goals, but spend some time showing us how you're going to get there.

Due to the volume of e-mails we recieve, it'd be a GREAT help if players could use their subject line to help us out by placing the following information:

Account name / Character name / PrC, faction, Special etc

It helps us search for your e-mails faster

Not so long ago we had a level cap system in place for DM factions. Although we never formally removed it, we relaxed the enforcement to the point where nobody remembered the caps or the rationales behind them. We have decided that now that all DM faction members fall within the caps it's a good time to restate them and enforce them, specially at application time.

The level caps go:

- Noble houses. Apply by level 5. All retainers need to leave the house above level 12. This doesn't mean retiring the character, or losing ties with the house. It means to stop working for the noble and living in his house. The rationale is that characters with such high levels (higher than their masters) should take bigger roles in the setting that those of servants. - Knights of the Merciful Sword, Militia and Purple Dragons. Apply by level 3. - War Wizards. Apply before they can cast 4th circle spells. - Red Wizards, Red Knights, subraces. Apply before creation. - Prestige Classes. Apply before creation. This is a big one, and the main reason is since we need to watch characters to see if they've earned the necessary prestige, we might as well do it from the beginning. Not less important is the fact that given the time it takes to process applications, players who apply for PrCs when their characters are close to the minimum requirements often have to delay leveling while we make a call. - Churches, Zhentarim, Harpers, in general factions that recruit in game. Apply by level 5. If your character's background involve being in one of those factions from the beginning, apply before creation.

In addition to that, we will continue enforcing upper level caps for the guard factions: War Wizards - Level caps: 10,14,16 Purple Dragons - Level caps: 9,11,13,15,16

Arabel City Guard - Level caps: 7,8,10,11,13

We will grandfather any applications received until today, even if they don't meet the required levels. But we will start to enforce the application level caps for any new applications.

This is a reminder that PrC applications will be routinely dismissed if the applications are sent after character creation.