02-13-2021, 05:22 AM
So, you want to know how to write out a journal and put in for a review? Here’s a straightforward (I hope) guide!
Basic info is relatively easy to set out. This is the very simplest of details about your characters.
Name: Your character’s name, of course.
Date of Birth: The year in which they were born. Not made OOCly, born ICly.
Roleplay Level: Your RPL, easy enough.
Allegiances: Who holds your loyalty? Now, this can be on the micro or the macro level, from cities, guilds, people, even ideologies! The best option here is the City/Faction or Guild you belong to, if any, because that makes it just a little bit easier, but feel free to include the rest as well! For people, we’re talking your closest, closest allies and/or friends, not every person you know!
Magic: What magic do you use?
This is all relatively self explanatory, of course.
Advanced Info
Advanced info is the meat of your journal. This is the stuff that we primarily look at to decide if we’re going to award you a hidden. It's important, however, to keep in mind that there is no wrong way to do a journal so long as this information is present.
History:
Your history is, more or less, your story. This is where you put what your character has been through, in as little detail or as much as you like. Personally, I like to try and separate my entries into arcs. For example, from starting a character to reaching Cadet status in the Second Dawn would be the first entry. From becoming a cadet to becoming a knight might be the second. This way, your individual entries tell small, self contained stories that collectively become the greater story of your character. Milestones are scenes; history is the whole movie.
Milestones:
Milestones are the deep dives into certain parts of the history, the place where you put your dev and your big character moments. I’ll say this now as a journal admin: logs increase your chances of approval. However, unlike the former app system, this doesn’t have to be eight logs of “I go ‘hnnnnnngh’ really hard and then see into time”. Milestones are, in simplest form, the moments that you feel really show your character’s...well, character, moments that have a long lasting effect on them, or moments you just think are neat and want to share. Now, you can separate these out from your history, but personally I like to link to my milestones specifically within my history so that there’s wider context to it. We’ll always prefer character moments to solo logs about making wind bigger, for example.
However, there is an exception to this general rule. If you’re going for an Exalted Hidden, for example, or one that really does have trial and error/study as a requirement -i.e. Tome apps, Medic, Wayfinding/Riftmancy, etc- it's important to have dev logs for those things included in your milestones.
Plans:
What are you going to do? What will getting a reward push you forward towards? Personally, I believe it's good to have a mix of long term and short term goals. For example, a short term goal might be to get Holy magic, and a long term might be to learn White Magic, or become the Stellus! Having ambition does weigh into our responses, and someone who wants a hidden without any plans to show what they intend to do with it is not going to be considered as seriously as someone who has big plans.
Your review thread is a lot simpler than your journal, but still crucial! Without a Journal Review thread, we don’t know you want to have a check done. So how do you make one?
Navigate to the Review subforum in the Journal forum. In case you need a quick navigate to it, its here: https://chronicles-of-esshar.com/forum/f...php?fid=35
Make a new thread. Name it your character name and that’s all.
Post a link to your journal.
Use the following template to ask for what you want. Its very important you do, as if you just follow steps 1-3 and only have what you want in your journal there’s a good chance we’re going to assume you’re not actually asking for a check and miss it!
![[Image: aaaaaa.PNG]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/757305568590430258/810018620624207882/aaaaaa.PNG)
Its as simple as that!
The Journal
Basic InfoBasic info is relatively easy to set out. This is the very simplest of details about your characters.
Name: Your character’s name, of course.
Date of Birth: The year in which they were born. Not made OOCly, born ICly.
Roleplay Level: Your RPL, easy enough.
Allegiances: Who holds your loyalty? Now, this can be on the micro or the macro level, from cities, guilds, people, even ideologies! The best option here is the City/Faction or Guild you belong to, if any, because that makes it just a little bit easier, but feel free to include the rest as well! For people, we’re talking your closest, closest allies and/or friends, not every person you know!
Magic: What magic do you use?
This is all relatively self explanatory, of course.
Advanced Info
Advanced info is the meat of your journal. This is the stuff that we primarily look at to decide if we’re going to award you a hidden. It's important, however, to keep in mind that there is no wrong way to do a journal so long as this information is present.
History:
Your history is, more or less, your story. This is where you put what your character has been through, in as little detail or as much as you like. Personally, I like to try and separate my entries into arcs. For example, from starting a character to reaching Cadet status in the Second Dawn would be the first entry. From becoming a cadet to becoming a knight might be the second. This way, your individual entries tell small, self contained stories that collectively become the greater story of your character. Milestones are scenes; history is the whole movie.
Milestones:
Milestones are the deep dives into certain parts of the history, the place where you put your dev and your big character moments. I’ll say this now as a journal admin: logs increase your chances of approval. However, unlike the former app system, this doesn’t have to be eight logs of “I go ‘hnnnnnngh’ really hard and then see into time”. Milestones are, in simplest form, the moments that you feel really show your character’s...well, character, moments that have a long lasting effect on them, or moments you just think are neat and want to share. Now, you can separate these out from your history, but personally I like to link to my milestones specifically within my history so that there’s wider context to it. We’ll always prefer character moments to solo logs about making wind bigger, for example.
However, there is an exception to this general rule. If you’re going for an Exalted Hidden, for example, or one that really does have trial and error/study as a requirement -i.e. Tome apps, Medic, Wayfinding/Riftmancy, etc- it's important to have dev logs for those things included in your milestones.
Plans:
What are you going to do? What will getting a reward push you forward towards? Personally, I believe it's good to have a mix of long term and short term goals. For example, a short term goal might be to get Holy magic, and a long term might be to learn White Magic, or become the Stellus! Having ambition does weigh into our responses, and someone who wants a hidden without any plans to show what they intend to do with it is not going to be considered as seriously as someone who has big plans.
The Review Thread
Your review thread is a lot simpler than your journal, but still crucial! Without a Journal Review thread, we don’t know you want to have a check done. So how do you make one?
Navigate to the Review subforum in the Journal forum. In case you need a quick navigate to it, its here: https://chronicles-of-esshar.com/forum/f...php?fid=35
Make a new thread. Name it your character name and that’s all.
Post a link to your journal.
Use the following template to ask for what you want. Its very important you do, as if you just follow steps 1-3 and only have what you want in your journal there’s a good chance we’re going to assume you’re not actually asking for a check and miss it!
Its as simple as that!