[quote=@Lugubrious]Hey there! First off, welcome to the forum in general, and welcome to the RP in particular. I'll gladly accept all your lavish praise for the World of Light, but there's no need to worry about fitting in, comparisons, or experience levels, we're all just here to have a good time and I think I speak for everyone in saying we'd be happy to have you! Kudos to you for doing your homework ahead of time, you've already pretty much gone above and beyond. It's great to see your motivation, and I'd be happy to extend you all the time and help you need to get situated and started.[/quote]
Hey, thank you so much!! That really means a lot. I admit this all felt super daunting at first, diving head-first into a hobby I haven’t participated in for a good while, out of the blue like this. But I feel really reassured now. Thank you and everyone else for such a warm welcome, I truly can’t wait to get started!

[quote=@Lugubrious]Your character sheet is mostly good. A different flavor of support sniper than Sandalphon, definitely. I have no problem with your skills or abilities, I would encourage you to add more numerical details if you want, though you don't have to be too specific either. I do have a couple of small notes. One is that your starting level should be 5, the sum total of the number of starting Abilities and Skills.[/quote]
I did try to lean more into an enabler/disabler role with Marie through crowd control yes, to help differentiate her from Sandalphon! And also with her being a total fish-out-of-water in close combat. Now that you mention it, maybe ‘Backline support’ does stray a little too close to Support Sniper, so I think I’ll change that to something a bit different. (I’ll also update the original Job title to Occupation, to give her an actual in-world job (class) in the RPG sense. Oh, and I’ll expand her abilities to include more precise numerical values too!)

Speaking of treading close to other characters, I realised Bowser Jr.’s signature colour is also spring green! So I’ve gone ahead and changed Marie’s to an equally fitting yellow-green instead (which might come in handy to others too, as you can simply use the name yellowgreen without needing a hex code).

And oooh, I see. Sorry, I completely missed that somehow, but it makes perfect sense!

In that case, would it be okay for her to still start at level 1, just with a single ability (her signature, Low-Tide Ink Shot)? I can imagine the progression element being really fun and a good way to keep me engaged, levelling her up and gradually unlocking more abilities and skills. And Low-Tide Ink Shot seems strong enough to give her something to do even at just level 1. So if it’s alright with you, I’d like to stick with one ability for now, then. I’ll of course hold onto the others, and maybe we could even workshop those together in the future before they debut to ensure they’re good!

I do have a question (and apologies if this sounds dumb) – I’m not entirely sure how EXP scaling works here. I think I saw a reply where you mentioned that starting at a higher level gives you immediate access to more skills, at the expense of slower levelling. Does that mean that by starting at level 1, Marie will level up faster? In other words, will it always take 10 EXP to reach the next level, or does it scale with level (e.g. 20 EXP to go from level 2 to 3)? Hope that makes sense!

[quote=@Lugubrious]The other note has to do with the 'In the Now' section. The whole 'starting cities' thing was more for new characters at the start of the RP. Right now, the PCs are divided into White Team (following the Midnight Walk on an expedition through the Frozen Highlands to Moon Mountain) and Gold Team (participating in tournaments in the fighting game inspired city Esaka). In order to link up with a group I would recommend some changes. You could keep Marie's situation at Meridi-at-han, but she would need to be in Esaka for a music festival or some such instead. Or, you could put her somewhere in our path in the Frozen Highlands.

Right now, the team is at Krat Zoo and will be for another 2-3 weeks. The next stop on the expedition, 2 weeks after we leave, is Orca Space Center. The Frozen Highlands may not work as well in terms of theming, but White Team would probably suit her better than Gold Team since she isn't a physical fighter. Of course, she doesn't need to participate in the tournaments to be part of Gold Team, but it is the main event we'll be focused on while there.

Regardless of what you decide, I'm eager to see what you can do, and to welcome you to this all-star roster![/quote]
Aaah, I love the idea of her being out for a music festival somewhere in the world, that sets up the scene perfectly for her to cross paths with the team. It feels like a really natural way for her to be approached (or to approach them), since under normal circumstances I think Marie would probably keep to herself. But being out of her element in a strange, unfamiliar place sounds like the perfect motivator for her to approach and form a bond with the others. I think putting her somewhere on the path to the Frozen Highlands is a brilliant idea! I’ll spend some more time this weekend reading through the IC events, and if it’s alright, we can work on her entry point together when I feel a little more prepared. (Thank you so much again for the patience you’ve extended to me!!)

I’ve gone ahead and edited my original post to implement a lot of this feedback, and made a few other changes here and there. Hopefully now, only the In the Now section needs to be developed further, but let me know if you’d like me to change anything else!

Small note: I’ve also de-aged her to 26. Splatoon characters age in real time, so originally I was going to make her 27 (which would be her age in 2025), but I decided it makes more sense to keep her at the age she was in her last canonical appearance, since, in my mind, the events of this RP follow directly from there. I also made a few other adjustments here and there, because I can never stop myself from the urge to keep prettying things up… Aaand I just discovered you can justify and indent text… Looks so neat now…