The Approval Process for Character Backgrounds

This section answers the most commonly asked questions about the approval process. PLEASE read through it before paging to ask an admin about approval.

The final step of character generation is admin approval of your character sheet and background. As soon as you finish inputting your background, the admin are automatically notified that your character is ready for review. You are free to leave chargen and resume role-playing on Cuen at this point.

Can I Role-Play?

You are free to resume role-playing as soon as you finish generating your character. HOWEVER, there are certain character abilities that you may not play until your character is approved. These include all restricted characters.

For example, Jane selects the Aes Sedai Asset for her character, Suzal. She cannot role-play that she is an Aes Sedai, nor that she can Channel, until she has been approved. She is free to role-play the other Skills and characteristics abilities that she selected, however.

This may be a little difficult for some character types, but usually there's a way to role-play around this limitation. If Suzal is approved, Jane can say that she was on an "undercover mission" or on retreat during the time when she wasn't acting like an Aes Sedai. See CG RESTRICTED WAIT for RP tips while waiting for approval.

Who Approves Characters?

The following types of admin are eligible to approve characters: Wizards, Staff, and Area Leaders. Any one of those people may approve your character background.

DO NOT page an admin and ask him/her to approve your character immediately. You are free to role-play while awaiting approval (with some limitations, see CG APPROVE), so there's no reason to pressure the admin. When you complete your background, your name is automatically added to the list of people awaiting approval. Approval admin have access to this list and check it regularly.

Characters with restricted or powerful abilities are approved by the wizards. There's more information about restricted character approvals in CG APPROVE8.

How Long Does Approval Take?

It can take anywhere from a few hours to a week for your character to be approved. We strive to approve characters quickly, but there are sometimes factors that prevent us achieving this goal. These include:

	How many admin are available. During the holidays, exams, flu epidemics, etc., there may be fewer admin online than usual. Those that are online will be working double-time on all admin tasks to make up for the shortage, so may not have time to do a lot of approvals.
	How busy the admin are. If all the admin online helping new players, or all the RP Staff are busy preparing a huge plot, they won't be able to get through as many approvals as usual, and it might take a little longer.
	How many characters are on the list. If double the number of people than usual go through chargen around the same time, it will take the admin longer than usual to get through everyone.

What Do the Approval Admin Look For in a Character?

When an admin reviews your character for approval, s/he will be considering the following factors:

	Is the character well-developed? Does it seem like the player has a good idea in mind about who the character, or is the background a rough sketch?
	Is the character consistent? Do the character's selected aspects fit into the background created for him/her, or does it seem like perhaps the player was selecting aspects s/he thought would benefit him/her during play?
	Does the character fit the Wheel of Time world? Vampires, space travelers, elves and similar characters are clearly out of place, but the admin also check for more subtle theme issues, such as a Tairen peasant described as training with the sword in Tear City. (According to the books, Tairen commoners aren't permitted to carry arms within the city.)
	Does the character fit the MUSH world? Not all characters that are consistent with the books are appropriate for Cuen. A follower of the Prophet Masema or a member of the Dragon's armies would not be acceptable, because we don't yet have a Dragon Reborn and book characters like Masema don't exist on the MUSH.
	The admin may also consider potential enjoyment issues. These are unlikely to cause problems for your approval, but the admin may point them out to you so you can change them if you want before the character is finalized. For instance, a character designed to live as a hermit in the forest would be difficult to play since the majority of role-play takes place in cities.

Approval Review Results

Three results are possible with the approval process:

1. The admin approves the character. When this happens, a notation is placed on the character that it is fully approved, and you are free to play all the elements selected in chargen and everything described in your background.

2. The admin finds some minor thematic or chargen problems with the character. The admin will send you a note indicating the problems if this happens. Once you've edited your background or made any other necessary changes, you add your name back to the list and the admin review your character again.

3. The admin finds that the character is unacceptable for play on the MUSH. This happens very rarely. If you're familiar with the theme and the game world, this is very unlikely to happen. An example might be a vampire character or something else that's dramatically out-of-theme. If this does happen to you, it does not mean that you're not welcome on Cuen! All it means is that you should probably spend some more time on the game and read a little more about the world in the game THEME or on the Web pages before you try creating another character in chargen.

What If I Disagree With the Approval Decision?

If you disagree with the approval decision, please be aware of the following:

The decision is not personal. The role of the approval admin is to ensure that all characters are reasonable to the game world, and there are limitations on what fits. The admin's comments are no reflection on you as a person or your creative idea, they're just an attempt to ensure we have a consistent world.

The approval admin are instructed NOT to review characters played by people they have strong positive OR negative opinions about. This is to ensure that their personal feelings don't get in the way of their assessment. Your character is usually reviewed by someone who either doesn't know you or only knows you slightly, so any negative comments are not a result of bias.

Approval admin are also instructed to get a second opinion from another admin before making a decision if there's a grey area. Again, the aim of that is to protect you from any possible bias.

If you strongly disagree with the admin decision, please notify a wizard, and s/he will look into the situation.

Restricted Character Approval

If you selected any restricted abilities during chargen you CANNOT role-play those abilities until you have been approved. See 'cg approve2'. If you do so, you jeopardize your approval. Restricted characters have powerful abilities, their players need to be people willing to learn and follow the rules.

Only wizards are eligible to approve restricted characters.

In addition to the points listed in 'cg approve4' and 'cg approve5', the wizards also consider these factors when reviewing restricted characters:

Does the player have a history of serious conduct issues? Players who repeatedly and blatantly disregard the rules listed under NEWS CONDUCT, particularly if they have already been warned about their behavior, may lose the right to be considered for a restricted character. There are a lot of people who wish to play restricted characters, and they are considered models of appropriate conduct and role-play on the MUSH. We will not approve people for restricted characters if they have made it clear to us that they're not willing to play by the rules of the game.

Does the player have a history of serious role-play issues? Those who blatantly ignore the role-playing rules of the game after being advised of them may lose the right to be considered for a restricted character. Restricted characters have powerful abilities that can affect other characters, and they are seen as models of role-play. We will not approve people to play restricted characters if they have shown us that they are not willing to play by consent and negotiation role-play.