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The Hands of Darkness is a Sith RP guild. We take RPing seriously and as such, have a very stringent application process. We WILL be judging you on your characters biography more than anything else. We look at your writing skills, imagination and the effort that you have put into the application. Posting an application full of grammar and spelling mistakes could cost you a place amongst us, so PROOF READ your application carefully.
The story side of your application MUST be feasible and obide by the canon of the Star Wars Universe. We suggest not including famous characters of the Star Wars stories unless you know how to do it properly. Remember that this is set 300 years after your adventures as the Exile, so being the apprentice of Darth Traya/Malak/Revan would not only be ridiculous and unoriginal but impossible.
Please fill out the application the best you can, placing it within the Creation of Monsters section of the forums as a new thread with your characters name as the title. Short applications will be turned away to help maintain the high quality of rpers within the guild. We also advise all applicants to at least read the information supplied on the webpage about the guild. Please keep in mind that quality is far more important than quantity, if you have a very long bio which lacks detail it will not be looked upon favourably. Remember that we will be reading your bio's with our decision mainly resting on its content, so walls of text are not appreciated, so be reasonable with it's length.
Once you have answered the questions below and posted your application on the guild forum it will be reviewed by a an officer in the guild who may ask you further questions to make sure you are right for the guild.
This trial period will last anywhere between 1 - 4 weeks and we will use this time to assess if the trial member would make a worthy addition to our guild. Once we are satisfied that the Initiate has proven to be a quality member we will announce their full membership on the promotions thread. We reserve the right to accept or deny the Trial Member anywhere between the 1 to 4 weeks. So the process will be as follows:
Accepted Application
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Trial Period as an Initiate
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Full Membership at either Adept, Bounty Hunter or LieutenantYou will, however, still have full membership access.
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Application Form
In Character
Name:
Age:
Race:
Gender:
Birth Planet:
Profession:
Appearance:
Personality:
Out of character
Name:
Age:
Location:
Username on Official SW:TOR Forum:
In-Character History (Character bio):
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IC Questions (Respond via RP): (Please do not bunny the NPC. Only control the actions and speech of your own character)
*You find yourself in the stone room of a temple. Darkness surrounds you and a bitter cold can be felt in the air, from the shadows a deep voice speaks* "Tell me, Initiate, why do you seek us out?"
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*The ground itself shakes and the rocks of the temple ruin begin to cave in. You feel as though the mysterious Sith is long gone, leaving you alone in the crumbling structure; which could soon be your tomb*
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OOC Questions:
Any previous MMORPG experience?
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Any previous Roleplay experience?
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Please put the following in order of importance to you, and explain your reasons: PvP, PvE, RP.
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What attracts you to the Sith?
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What constitutes your knowledge of the Star Wars Universe?
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What can you bring as a character and as a person to the Hands of Darkness?
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Who is your favorite Dark Lord and why?
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Where did you learn about the Hands of Darkness and why did you decide to apply? (If someone informed you, please say who)
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What time zone are you in and what would be your usual playing hours, if outside of the EU why would you like to join??
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Section one - In-Character information
This is generally considered the 'easiest' part of the application and thus many people choose to rush through it, seeing as how you will (Or should) have a general idea on these quick facts about your character. You can still pick up a few Browne points here however.
Your Name
Your name is important. It's your identity, it's how people will recognise you and it is a 'title' that will stick with you as long as you play. Real-life names (Bob, Keith, David, Paul, Alice, Sarah etc) are frowned upon. Granted, 'Luke' Skywalker had a name shared in-real life but he was perhaps the only character in the Star Wars IP that did. A rather simple way of coming up with a name is replacing a few letters in your own name, jumbling up the words etc, EG: Alex becomes Ailex.
Alternately you could use a Star Wars name generator (EG: http://www.dimfuture.net/starwars/random/generate.php ). These things are great and can find you a name you like and that fits the Star Wars ethos in a few clicks of your mouse. If you are stuck for a name I highly recommend it (Heck, it's where I got 'Gestahl' from).
Writing out your details
A little tip I picked up from my days of writing applications for the numerous factions on San Andreas: Multiplayer is fully writing out details. What I mean by this is instead of putting "Age: 17" write it out fully so that it becomes "Age: Seventeen". Little things like this help you immediately stand out against other applicants and give the reader a good impression for the rest of the application.
Choosing a Race
Most people here will of course be playing a Human, therefore you can safely ignore this little segment here. For others however you may be choosing something more...'exotic'. BioWare EA has been extremely tight lipped on revealing information on races (We only know of Humans and Twi-leks) thus knowing which one you will be playing as can be difficult.
What I do not suggest however are the more rare, obscure races that are not generally seen in the films. Why? Because A) Theres a big chance they will not be a playable race and B) Many people will not have heard or know about the race in question. As a general hint, pick a race you have a good idea will be in The Old Republic. In the end however the decision is yours and Officers will not look down on your application because of race. Chances are they will ask you "Do you realise there is a chance you will not be able to play race in The Old Republic?" but to save yourself from changing later, editing back stories, stop confusion amongst players etc I highly suggest choosing a race that is likely to be in-game.
Profession
Simple really. What are you? Sith Assassin? Soldier? Combat Medical Technician? Bounty Hunter?
Things to avoid are "As if..." professions that give the immediate impression you powergame or make your characters too powerful. These include 'Sith Lord', 'Captain', 'General', 'Jedi Master' etc.
Titles
Many members choose to name themselves "Darth ". Be aware that when you join The Hands you will not have the Darth title, no matter your characters backstory. Instead, it is suggested that you pick a first and second name and use these when filling in your application. Darth isn't a name anyway - It's a title. For non-Force sensitives you won't be using the title anyway, thus it doesn't matter.
Section two - Out of Character Information
Name
Give us your first name only or your full name, it doesn't matter.
Age
We do ask that all members be at least 16 years and over of age due to certain subject matters that could offend those that are younger.
Location
You ought to be aware of this anyway but I will repeat it here. The Hands of Darkness are a EUROPEAN roleplaying guild. This means we will be playing on EUROPEAN servers at launch. This DOES NOT mean that we exclude members from the United States, China, Australia etc however applicants from these parts of the world are judged more carefully than those from Europe to show how much effort they will go to in order to join. The main reason for this is that we do not want a player from the United States joining us and then buggering off to the North American servers at launch.
Section three - Questions
In-Character History (Biography)
This is without a doubt the most important part of your application. It is here that the officers will judge your roleplaying, writing and language abilities. Granted, many people have horrible writing ability but are great roleplayers. Until the launch of The Old Republic however, we have no other way of judging your ability. Perhaps after launch this will change to both a in-game and out of game application process but that is a long way away.
Quality over quantity is the main factor. However despite this, quantity still goes a long way when somebody is judging your application. Lets face it - How many of you have scanned over previous applicants and gone "Wow, that's a long biography!" even if the writing itself is horrible? Quite a few of us I'm sure.
The biography itself should detail the events of your characters life from birth up until...well until you deem suitable. This could be up to when they became a Sith, a few years afterwards etc. A hole to avoid falling into is referencing The Hands. You character does not know about The Hands. You should not make any reference to us at any point , EG: "Bob heard about a secret sect of the Sith Empire known as The Hands of Darkness. He now searches for them, hoping to become one amongst their number". We are secret in-character for a reason and if every Tom, Dick and Harry 'heard about us' and 'sought us out' we'd have to loose the 'secret' title.
Your character should also not have been the apprentice, studied under, or even MET any of the Knights of the Old Republic characters. Why? Their dead. Despite it's title, The Old Republic is set 300 years after The Sith Lords, meaning that Basilita either has one hell of a medical plan, or that she is dead and buried. Yes fans, Revan is gone too. Sorry. On the note of established characters, it is generally suggested that you don't make your character seek to be like Darth Nithilus, Sion, Malak etc. The reason for this is, we find people who aspire to be like their favourite characters often create a backstory that is almost exactly like that of the character which of course, shows a lack of originality.
Another cliche is related to your parents birth. Ninety percent of biography's whether it be Star Wars, World of Warcraft, Warhammer etc have something along these lines: "My parents were killed when I was young by . I now seek to become as powerful as so that I can kill and avenge my parents death". I'm sorry, but I personally face desk every time I read an application with this in. While it certainly adds a good reason for your character to become filled with hate, it has been done to death so many times already that it's not even funny. Don't want to reference your parents? That's fine, just have them sipping tea in Corusaunt or something. That's not to say of course you couldn't kill them off in some other manner, but the revenge plot becomes old fast.
Suggestions when writing your biography
I'm going to sound like an English teacher but big, posh, flashy words impress. One of the best things to do when writing is dust off that old thesaurus from the back of your bookshelf and use it. Every time you finish a paragraph, reread it with your thesaurus in one hand to see which words you could replace with something better.
Spelling and grammar are another major importance. Capital letters, fullstops, commas etc are all extremely obvious things but you would be surprised at how many people choose not to use them. Not a good speller? Write up all of your posts in Microsoft Word and regulary use the spellchecker. Many Star Wars related words it will of course not recognise but chances are if you are writing them, you'll know how to spell them yourself. Save regularly as well - You have no idea how many times I have written up about three pages worth of text on a forum only for my Internet to crash as I'm about to post, deleting it all.
Don't have Microsoft Word? Use Google Documents. It's essentially a free, web page based version of Microsoft Office that you can access from any computer via your google account (Which is the same as making a forum one). Even if you have Word, I suggest using Google Documents as you don't need to cart around a army of memory sticks if you should ever be going on holiday, away, at school etc.
I'm going to say it again and I'm not going to stop until it's drilled into your head. Detail. Detail. Detail. DETAIL. DETAIL. DETAIL. DETAIL!!!!. We want that detail! Your biography will never be perfect. It will never be complete. You will never make it so good that nobody will find something to judge. More on this later.
Section four - The other questions
Breath. In and out. Slow, deep breaths. The worst part is over. Now we're just onto the questions about you and your experience. There is no right or wrong answer here, so don't worry. Detail is still a key however.
Any Previous MMORPG experience?
Simple. What MMORPG's have you played in the past? How long did you play them for? What did you do on them? PVP? Raid? Roleplay? How often did you do each thing specifically? If you can think of any other 'answers' to hidden questions related to your experiences in MMORPG's put them down.
Any previous, if any roleplaying experience?
Don't start worrying if you haven't been roleplaying for along time. The Hands of Darkness has both experienced roleplayers and those who have never done so before. Don't feel you need to lie about this. We're here to help you. Explain where you have roleplayed before, this question relates to every sort of roleplaying and not just in MMORPG's. Forum stories? MMO's? MuD's? LARP? Never roleplayed before? That's fine. Put it down.
What attracts you to the Sith?
Why do you want to join the Sith Empire faction? Is is their freedom? Their code? Do you just want to decapitate some Jedi? Do you think they look cool? Or are you a Bounty Hunter character who joined to play that class?
What constitutes your knowledge of the Sith and the Dark Side in general?
Was it the Movies? Have you read any of the novels? The Comics? Video Games? Do you regularly read Wookipedia?
What can you bring as a character and as a person to the Hands of Darkness?
No matter where or when a question like this is asked. Job interview, Guild application, test, etc - Everybody hates this type of question. The most simple thing to do is list (What you consider) to be your best points. Are you friendly? Charismatic? Great leadership skills? A good roleplayer? Do you wtfpwnz0rnubz in PVP? Can you organise things? Etc. Listing your flaws to a certain degree can also help give a good impression of you as well.
OOC Who is your favorite Dark Lord and why?
Darth Vader? Darth Revan? Count Dooku? Darth Bane? Is it because what they have done? Is it because they look bad arse?
OOC is there a particular Sect of the Sith that has interested you?
The Nightsisters? The Sith Assassins? Don't know of any? Like them all? No matter what you pick, it's fine.
OOC Where did you learn about the Hands of Darkness?
Was it on our Official Forum thread? Saw our Official Forum signatures? Our Official Forum roleplay? A real life friend? Did one of our members recommend you join? Who was it?
OOC What time zone are you in and what would be your usual playing hours, if outside of the EU why would you like to join?
BST? GMT? GMT+1? Which days do you think you'll be able to play? How many hours each day? More on Saturdays? Less on Mondays? Any particular days you won't be able to play? Not in the European Union? Why do you want to join us? Do we look like a good guild? Do you prefer to play on European servers?
Section five - Final thoughts and after you've submitted your application
Congratulations - You've successfully completed your application to The Hands of Darkness. Have a cookie on me. Now it is merely a case of waiting for one of our Officers to review it. No application is ever immediately accepted off the bat but they will often post a reply informing you of when they have done so. They will also give you some constructive criticism (EVERY applicant has some given to them), how you could improve and finally tell you that they are taking your application into consideration and deciding whether or not to accept you.
Members (By which I mean - Non-Officers) may also come into your thread, wishing you luck and/or giving their opinions on your application. Any criticism given is done so to help you improve your application and increase your chances of joining, no matter how they put it.
Eventually, a Officer will mark your application as [Accepted] or [Denied] in the topic title. If no tag is given, they are still deciding. This could take hours or days, but be patient and don't pester them to come to a decision. If your application was marked [Denied] then unfortunately it was not up to the standard required. You are however free to re-apply at any point you wish, although it is generally preferred you do so a few days afterwards so the Officers feel you have had enough time to contemplate what they have said.
If you are marked as [Accepted] then congratulations, you are now a Adept of The Hands of Darkness. Member privileges include access to our private forums and...uhmm...well, that's about it (Until launch anyway). The first thing you should do is jump over to the 'Biography' forum and place your characters biography into a new thread, with some updated details of course. Then you are free to jump into one of the many 'Open Roleplay' threads in the Korriban Academy forum and work your way into The Hands in-character, so to speak.
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