Non-Player Characters

Yo, welcome to this guide. This thread is aimed to provide an understanding of how to make a character that is not attached to your cast of characters but designed to add to the setting of the forum.

» Arc characters: An arc character is a character which is designed for the purposes of the site plot. To draw an example to the Bleach manga, it would be comparable to the arrancar, vizards, or even the shinigami from the soul society arc. These characters are all introduced as elements of the arc with characters like the Espada being designed to serve as antagonists while fleshing out the storyline.

» Personal Plot Characters: Personal plot characters are NPCs which are generally only connected to your character. They don't necessarily occupy any position in the setting, an example of this might be your character's parents, their childhood friend, or their colleague. They may overlap with a setting character, say your father is a seated officer in one of the Gotei divisions as an example.

» Setting characters: While similar to arc characters, setting characters are designed to enrich the forum's environment in general. They can come in a couple of forms be it personal npcs or ones that occupy a position. Characters that are retired by their player may also be optionally turned into an NPC, or people that leave the site may find their characters turned into these types of NPCs due to occupying positions until they are replaced. These characters are not tied to the site plot, but may be tied to personal or smaller plots ongoing on the site.

» Sheetless Characters: NPCs which do not have sheets may be employed at the discretion of NPC players, these characters are only employed where all parties are consenting in the thread for a sheetless NPC to be present due to their nature of having no foundation. Cases may also be made for situations such as subordinates, unfilled minor rank positions, and so on but they should be made appropriate to where they would sit in this position.

Now that we've created the distinction between these types of characters let's tackle the guidelines on them.

— NPCs may be played solely by the creator*.
Particularly with characters that are created as personal plot characters as opposed to ones that occupy positions or plot-relevance. In the event that you are unable to play them though, another NPC player is able to play them in your stead.

— NPCs may not have face-claims.
It is recommended that you try to use characters from non-popular sources, and generally the face-claim used by the character will be solely taken as a reference image, not a 1:1 of their appearance e.g. NPC uses Goku as its reference image will be taken as the character is a muscular man with black hair.

— NPCs do not grow or progress with some exceptions.
Generally, an NPC will not improve in any capacity after their approval. An arc character may see some exceptions to these such as if they acquired some form of power-up through their efforts in the site plot to grow but an NPC does not undergo any kind of upgrade process after approval for the most part.

— NPCs cannot be used to supplement your own character's power.
It is frowned upon to make an NPC with the intention of using it to justify your own character's power upgrades such as making an NPC and using them as a major driving force of your character's development.

» From NPC to PC.
— Arc characters must be bought with arc points.
— Setting characters can be reapped as player characters.

* Both situations must also be narratively appropriate, if the character died or is unable to justify continuing to exist then they would not be able to be converted to a character on the member's cast. Both may be subject to a proper review process, and powers may be graded as such.


What specifically goes into the creation of an NPC, setting or arc-related? Well due to their nature, they are granted more leeway in terms of creation. An NPC does not require as much information as an app due to their nature which means that they can be approved

» Personality: An NPCs personality can be covered as a brief summary, dot points are also acceptable with a list of personality traits. Keep in mind that while this is fine, if another person has to play the NPC then it might be vague and played drastically different.

» Background: An NPC does not require a history, only a summary of it and a purpose for its creation. We do not need to know how this character came to be, only what it is.

» Powers: NPCs ideally have more simple and shorter powers than normal characters, they are not the protags of the story so to speak. They are given more leeway with their powers in the grading process but a fight with an NPC may also be overseen by a staff member if there are concerns that the power scope is being played far beyond what they present with on their app.


This section will cover mass NPCs, they are broadly used to refer to groups of NPCs. An example of this is armies, squads and collectives of NPCs that make up a unit. Mass NPCs are generally weaker and focused on their numbers; grunts and footsoldiers. For example, the general shinigami in the Gotei make up a collection of NPCs which are quite generalised, and can be used by people.

While situations where your character would justify some seniority ie. your shinigami is a seated officer would justify you referencing and using some npcs to supplement your actions in a post are appropriate, for the actual playing of mass NPCs themselves it would require the person to be an NPC player or be acting in their capacity as the authority. In the case of a person playing a group of shinigami NPCs following orders of their character (a vice-captain or captain).



In this section we will be breaking apart who can play NPCs. We will break this down by roles and the general scope of those roles.

» Member: This covers the scope for members, though some members may showcase more scope than others for example, the person has a character is a Gotei captain, a country leader, or a squad leader they would naturally command more capacity to play through subordinates and so on. There are brackets to this and while scope is different for example the org leader is able to exert far more authority than a section commander, the actual premise is the same.

The following NPCs can be played: Arc characters created by the member, personal plot NPCs, NPCs created by the member, Mass NPCs to the extent of their character's authority, setting characters which are subordinates of the member's character.

» NPC Player: A tag which is given to those who are given permission to play NPCs in general. An NPC player does not need to have made the NPC they are playing, and they are able to employ sheetless NPCs. In order for a person to become an NPC player they must undergo a trial period where they will hold the role for three months.

After the conclusion of their trial period they must be able to demonstrate three instances of using NPCs, have created at least two NPCs, and not had any reported issues relating to their usage of NPCs.

The following NPCs can be played: Arc characters created by themselves, and others if required. NPCs created by the member, and others if required. Mass NPCs as required. Setting characters. Sheetless NPCs.

» Event Coordinator: Event coordinators are members that assist and initiate events, from creating missions or assisting in site plot developments to take pressure off staff members running events and support other members in their plots. Due to this additional responsibility they carry many of the same caveats as the NPC players, as it is currently being trialed we are not currently taking candidates for this role.

The following NPCs can be played: Arc characters created by themselves, and others if required. NPCs created by the member, and others if required. Mass NPCs as required, and setting characters. Sheetless NPCs. Event-related NPCs.