I'm more interested in you, the player, than I am your character. Characters can be tweaked and changed., but player chemistry is the single most important element of a successful PbP (especially for a game like this, where each character takes up a lot of narrative real estate). If we get the right people together, we'll have a great time no matter what you play. So what I'm looking here is what makes you, the player, a fun and interesting and constructive and beneficial addition to what amounts to a (hopefully) long-term group writing assignment.

Okay? Here we go.

A. CHARJUNK
1. Give me two or three Archetypes you'd be excited about playing, in whatever order or with with whatever notes you think would be useful to me. There's only one of each at the table, so I want to make sure everyone as many people get their first choice as possible. (NOTE: currently, the Vamp and the Revenant are not available)

2. Give me an Elevator Pitch on the character you're most excited about. An Elevator Pitch is a short, quick-sketch, high-concept, high-energy, exciting description of who you want to play and what makes their story exciting. Imagine you're unexpectedly in an elevator with a Netflix exec and you have 30 seconds to convince them to greenlight a mini-series based on this character before they get to their floor and the chance it lost forever. What would you say to them to convince them this story needs to be told? Tell me that.

3. Tell me about your people (faction, Archetype, socioeconomic class, job, organization, whatever you think of as 'your people'). How are you similar to, or different from, others of your kind? What is normally expected of someone like you? In what ways do you meet (or fail to meet, or refuse to meet) those expectations? What is your relationship to your community? How do you feel about that?
NOTE: as a rule, because each Archetype is only used once, you get to decide the lore for your Archetype. So if you're the Vamp, you decide how they react to sunlight, what's their deal with blood, are they immortal, all that. As the MC, I'm also allowed to create lore, but I won't add anything that disagrees with what you say except at greatest need ("Every Wizard can't have their own Infinity Gauntlet").

4. About a year ago, the normally safe (if tense and oppressive) environment in Bay City was severely disrupted and now there's a great deal of chaos across both the supernatural and mundane worlds. Tell me at least one major thing that's changed for you as a result. Have you suffered or prospered? What have you gained? What have you lost? Would you rather things the way they are now? Or do you wish they would back to the way they were before?

5. What are your goals? If this were a solo game and I said, "Okay, scene one, you're standing on a streetcorner. Go." What would you do? It's said the easiest way to generate story is to give a character things they want very, very badly, and then put obstacles in the way of getting them. What does your character want? Why can't they have it?

6. [OPTIONAL] If you like, give me a second Elevator Pitch for your second choice Archetype. Only if you feel like it.

B. PLAYERJUNK
NOTE: If you've played in one of my games in the recent past (or I've played in one of yours) you can skip this part. Feel free to ask if you're unsure.

1. What brings you to Urban Shadows? Is it the Urban Fantasy you're into? The PtbA? My sweet set-up? Have you played this game (or any other PtbA games) before? What kinds of RPG's do you like most? What kinds of stories?

2. Do you think human female characters (in more mechanical games, like D&D) should have a strength penalty? Why or why not? If you think they should, would you balance that penalty with a benefit? If so, what would that be?

3. Imagine we've been playing for a while and everything is going great. And I PM you and say that this thing your character does, while perfectly within the rules, is causing a problem for me  (messes up the story, trivializes a common obstacle, I just don't like it). And I'd like you change it for something else or agree to stop doing it (or change the way you do it, or whatever). What would you say? What if it was the thing you really wanted to do, was in fact the entire point of playing that character to begin with?

4. Imagine we're in the middle of combat and you have a great idea that's just going to SMASH this encounter in two. And halfway into it we hit a tricky rules thing and I make a call and say the plan won't work. Now you're boned. Just boned. You might get killed. You might lose your best magic item. You might use up that thing you've been saving for just this kind of occasion. Further imagine my decision was a bad call. An objectively bad call. So bad that you wonder if I didn't even read the rules. So incomprehensibly bad, in fact, that you suspect I just don't want you to crush my sweet encounter. You politely bring up your concerns, I don't agree. My reasons for not agreeing are terrible. I suggest we just agree to disagree and move on. But you remain totally  boned for stupid reasons when you really don't think you should be. What do you do?

That's it. Thank you very much for your time and efforts. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have!
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:43, Sun 16 May 2021.