Darth Sin Applications

I have avoided this for a long time now, but I have come to realize that it is something that I need to do. I have come to accept that I will one day in the distant future not be able to be here as often as I'd like to. One day many moons into the future, I will have to accept my responsibility as Ruler of the Universe and will be forced (kicking and screaming) to put the priorities of a ruler ahead of roleplay. I have known this for a while, but I have always feared taking on an apprentice. My teachings possess the secrets behind my power, and that if revealed they would grant the ability to overthrow my rule. I have feared that my apprentice will be my undoing, yet at the same time have felt that an apprentice is necessary for me to live on even in my absence. So, even if it is my undoing I will train at least one individual who I can see is strong with the force to bare the fruits of my experience. And if I am overthrown from my position of absolute power, at least it will be to a worthy individual who is in part a portion of myself. Who knows, maybe one day the apprentice will be the Master to pass along the same principles.

I will teach to anyone of any experience level and background. I will explain the intricacies of both the Light Side and the Dark Side to truly be one with the Force. I will answer the “WHY?” of roleplay as opposed to the “WHAT” which is so often the focus. I will emphasize the importance of balance, explain the hows and whys of mixing Roleplay with fighting, as well as the necessity of conflict in standard roleplay. My major emphasis is on diversification and will require the apprentice to be fluently able and willing to play a wide array of personality types to complete mastery (which will be determined after a series of hands-on evaluations). I expect this will take anywhere between 3-6 months to complete depending on initial proficiency, but the learning is an ongoing process that never ends. By the end of the trainings, you will be able to better yourself on your own by self-checking and adhering to your character as opposed to your character adhering to you. You’ll also get to wear the name “Darth Sin” while under my training.

However, since this is something that I will be devoting a lot of the time that I spend here to, I will only be selecting those people mature enough to respect my time and effort. This is different from the Roleplay Academy in that I will not accept everyone. To help me decide which of the possible candidates are best suited to learn regardless of experience level I have developed a simple application process. This will be an ongoing application process, even after an apprentice has been chosen. There is always the possibility that my judgment may be wrong, and the initial candidate will either leave or otherwise prove themselves unworthy to be trained. I haven’t decided yet if I will train more than one at a time in the future, but for now just one.

I stress again that I will look over the whole application, and not necessarily judge simply based off of existing experience. I value honesty as an example of character.

Application Requirements:
*Your primary character’s name if applicable.
*Your current amount of Roleplaying experience and from where, if any.
*If applicable, a short list of characters you’ve used before (no more than 4) and a brief description of their personalities or other notable traits.
*Finally, what you expect to gain from being my apprentice (Around two lines or less).

There were some questions sent to me that I realized I should've answered to make this a bit more clear. With the person's permission, I'm going to post the PM I received and my response so that it may help other people who are interested in this.

Question:
Hello, as you can see, I am writing in response to your 'Darth Sin Applications'. Now, you've definitely piqued my curiosity, but I'm afraid I will need more than that. From what I understand, you would be working independant of the RPA? Meaning their rules would not apply, and therefore teaching something that couldn't be learned in the Academy. Now, I already graduated this academy, but I feel as if I could still learn much, much more. I feel my writing is still lacking, and that there is something along the lines of an... artistic flare, which is missing in my writing. I would apply here, but I am not exactly sure what it is you plan to teach, and so would not want to waste your time. Of course, asking follow-up questions might just waste more of it, but this once again falls into my need for further tutoring. I notice that you do not forum roleplay as much as one might (no offence intended), while I do not actively participate in chat roleplay (mostly because I don't understand it). Could this cause a problem? But that is just another question. Let's focus on the first.

What would I be learning?

Would you be 'passing on' what you have learned through your time roleplaying?

If so, what would such things entitle? Grammar? Character Development? General Etiquette? Or a whole encompassing of all aspects of roleplaying?

Anyway, I thought I'd ask, because it definitely interests me. Thank you for your time.


My response:
Sent at: Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:51 pm
by SinfulSoul
Awesome, I'm glad to see such enthusiasm to bring your RPing skill to the next level. Here's some answers to your questions.

Yes, this venture of mine is entirely independent of the RolePlay Academy. RolePlay Academy gets people on the right track to Roleplaying, makes them independent and have basic understandings of how to roleplay. If RPA is like kindergarten through highschool, what I'm doing is like K-12 plus college through grad school, or just the college through grad school depending on how skilled the the apprentice is that I choose.

So yes, since I will be teaching the apprentice everything that I know, this will be like "passing on" everything I've come to learn through nearly a decade of roleplaying. That is why I am running an application process to find a candidate worthy of me spending my time to teach a decade of trial and error to another person in less than 6 months or round about.

The things you listed, Grammar, Character Development, General Etiquette, those are all still part of the elementary section of Roleplay and will be taught if it is necessary. That isn't exactly the benefit of my training though. I will teach you more in-depth skills and emphasize the importance of diversification in my training. I will teach basic theories of roleplay and expand on these fundamental principals to show how roleplay can be furthered. I will explain how to be someone that moves RP along instead of someone that simply participates. My goal is to expand off of the basic linear path that basic roleplayers follow and have them branch out to play on a higher level. I will take your style that you have now, critique and improve upon it, then force you to apply your own unique style to a multitude of personality types. I expect a lot of this to be hands-on training to provide practical applications, and so while being trained you will also be gaining experience in real roleplay situations. However, for any of this to work I will need to spend a few days seeing how you roleplay and then tweak from there.

Most important of all, roleplay is supposed to be fun. Too often is roleplay secluded to a small group and I teach how to nurture a roleplaying environment that is fun for all characters involved and open to allow more to join in.

And finally, roleplay is not bound simply to a chat. Although it may seem that I do not roleplay often in the forums, it is something that I do enjoy and do often. Right now I'm currently a participant primarily in the Gundam Wing Continuing Legends roleplay. I will also be teaching how to roleplay on the forums, but I will admit that section is a little bit later in the training since forum RP requires an application of all skills from the very beginning. Hopefully within a few weeks you'll have perfected your own artistic style enough to begin work on your forum roleplay skills.

So now I have one request for you. You asked some good questions and I wanted to know if I could copy and paste both your PM and my response to the forum thread? Maybe it'll help someone else who has questions too.

Thank you to those of you who have sent me your applications. I will run this for about another week or less and then make a decision to begin training one individual.