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Characters should reflect average training and experience. Ranks should be believable for the character’s age and length of service, and military characters should reflect the likely deployments and duties of their role.

Usually permitted: regular military personnel, local and state police officers, military support roles.

Restricted and unlikely to be allowed: decorated war heroes with extensive combat records, high-ranking officers, special forces (including international special forces), federal police, international intelligence agencies, and other specialized units.

Science and medicine are broad fields. There is no blanket “scientist,” “doctor,” or “researcher” who knows it all. Stay grounded, and roleplay only what your character would know and be able to do. Losing that grounding, especially in medical roleplay, is FailRP. For example:

• A physicist who understands complex biological patterns.
• A nurse who confidently prescribes any and all medications.
• A therapist who sets a broken bone.
• A biologist who knows how to stitch a grievous wound.
• A CDC researcher who confidently provides evidence-based mental health care.

Other parts of a background may make some of these reasonable, and that’s fine. Every skill should be justified in the application, or be common knowledge for the time.

These roles are encouraged, but skill level and background are reviewed. A master carpenter who works on his car on weekends can’t do what a lifelong mechanic can. Examples of FailRP:

• A civil engineer who is well-versed in woodworking.
• A mechanic who is a skilled tailor.
• A master tailor with expert mechanical knowledge.

Again, other parts of a background may justify some of these. Every skill should be explained in the application, or be common knowledge for the time.

Playing someone who was prepared for the end of the world can unbalance other players’ experience if done poorly.

Likely accepted: preppers who are still ordinary survivors and have lasted a realistic time on proper supplies; ordinary people with a light prepping hobby (canned food, hunting and fishing, gardening, a small survival kit); blue-collar or rural people who would reasonably have tools, hunting rifles, or survival know-how; “weekend warrior” survivalists with limited, self-taught training.

Likely not accepted: a doomsday bunker owner with decades of military supplies, food, water, and medicine; extreme preppers with unrealistic foresight, such as someone who perfectly predicted the outbreak; flawless lone-wolf survivalists who need nothing from anyone.

Antagonistic and criminal backgrounds get extra attention because of the impact they can have on many players. Examples: bandits and raiders, cultists and religious fanatics, major street gangs, international crime organizations.

Portraying, or being associated with, groups that would be divisive or spark conversation against our politics guideline is generally not allowed, with rare exceptions. Examples: perpetrators of genocide, apartheid, or other sensitive recent events; victims of major conflicts, historical or current; refugees; asylees; prisoners of war.

Disabilities and disorders are a complex part of a character and deserve proper weight and depth. All physical and mental conditions must be disclosed in your application. Failing to portray them properly is FailRP and may lead to RPQM concerns (see RPQM and FailRP).

Physical examples include albinism and vitiligo, blindness and deafness, gigantism and dwarfism, amputations, and chronic, lifelong, or terminal illnesses. Mental health examples include schizophrenia and psychotic disorders, severe depression and anxiety disorders, PTSD, OCD, personality disorders, psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, BPD, cognitive conditions such as dementia and amnesia, and neurodivergence such as autism, ADHD, and selective mutism.

Characters whose identities fall outside the traditional cisgender binary get additional review. This isn’t to discourage them; it’s to make sure portrayals are thoughtful, respectful, and free of stereotypes and caricature.

Immigration is a natural part of society. A foreign character’s journey to the season’s setting should be robust and meaningful, not a footnote. Their backstory should answer: why did they leave their home country, why did they come here, how did they immigrate, and how did that process affect them? Caricatures, stereotypes, and wrongful portrayals are not acceptable, and characters who aren’t native to the season’s setting get additional review.

Becoming fluent in another language takes years. Non-native languages should be part of the character’s story, and may be denied if the backstory doesn’t justify them, or if they’re requested only to get around a language barrier in someone else’s backstory.

Our chat system means non-English-speaking characters can’t read what English-speaking characters say, and that’s most of the playerbase. They are very hard to play, and will usually be denied unless the player shows they understand these limits.