Halp- Questions About Character Design

Hey guys! So I've tried bringing in a new character and I'm not sure why they got denied a second time. Their birthday is correct, they were born offsite, the dog DNA justifies the spots on their face, and I've put my main account's link in all of the prompt posts. Does anyone have any ideas?

https://wolf-rpg.com/member.php?action=profile&uid=6755 << link to profile

Might require a personality, even a basic one. Not sure if the ink-blot face marking is acceptable.

It might be because the dog breed specified wouldn't naturally result in the markings? I believe Samoyeds and almost always all white with them sometimes having tinted features rather than patches (Correct me if I'm wrong, this came from a quick poke around on google)

I denied it last night once, because we've denied markings that were identical to symbols in the past. When I denied it there was no mention of the reference being inaccurate. Two exact Rorschach inkblot markings didn't seem like it fit in with our Realism Guidelines on markings: https://wolf-rpg.com/showthread.php?tid=16171

Character Designs
WOLF has a semi-realism policy that extends to character creation, in that players are free to design wolves with unusual markings or patterns, but all wolves must have realistic coloring.

Wolves can come in any shade of black, grey, white, tan, or brown -- and any agouti derivative of these colors. Depending on subspecies, some wolves can come in shades of russet brown or orange-tan. Iberian wolves, ethiopian wolves, and mexican wolves all demonstrate higher saturation of "rust", while arctic wolves, tundra wolves, and other subspecies tend to typically come in whites, greys, and agouti.

Patterning and markings can vary by subspecies, but please keep it realistic! Piebald markings, tri-color, dilutes, merles, and brindle are all unlikely to occur in purebred wolves and should only be used in wolves with direct dog ancestry.

Players are free to select any eye color.

Unrealistic Designs
Wolves cannot be blue, purple, red, green or any other color that is not explicitly mentioned above. Included in the non-permissible category are stripes and markings resembling stripes. Wolves may not have accessories unless they have a compelling backstory, and these accessories must be limited to realistic means such as: collars, tracking collars, harnesses, or tags.

Do players feel the reference fits in with the above requirements on our designs? Sometimes there is a degree of subjectivity when it comes to weighing designs and whether they meet WOLF's criteria on designs. We have denied markings in the past that were markings of symbols (triskelion, celtic symbols, etc) so I was trying to keep it consistent. This is a rule where it's hard to draw a hard and fast line, but I think smudges on the face are perfectly fine where exact inkblots toe the line too much. It gets confusing when the description doesn't match the reference and vice versa because many players will reference both. I don't have an issue with the said design as smudges/blots, if the rest of the CM is on board and the disclaimer is somewhere obvious as long as the reference is used (which defeats the point of a reference, I guess, since they're meant to be accurate 'reference sheets' for the character). Thoughts?

Isn't there a character with a literal heart on their forehead? I would err toward not accepting any designs of markings that seem that exact.

Isn't there a character with a literal heart on their forehead? I would err toward not accepting any designs of markings that seem that exact.

I'd usually agree with you but heart markings can be found in animals! Maybe its a case of needing to be part dog again, but it's at least reasonable.

EDIT:

looks like they can be on wolves too

1602208545[/url]']

1602200081[/url]']
Isn't there a character with a literal heart on their forehead? I would err toward not accepting any designs of markings that seem that exact.

I'd usually agree with you but heart markings can be found in animals! Maybe its a case of needing to be part dog again, but it's at least reasonable.

EDIT:

looks like they can be on wolves too

This!

I can try to edit the images to fix the markings to not look exact, but I did specify this time that they're not perfectly accurate to how they actually look. I have seen other characters accepted because they specified that the references were not 100% accurate, and I'll be making more accurate ones in the future ^^

The hard line on the markings thing is a bit weird for me because we've got characters on here with exact patterns of other animals which doesn't occur in real life so I figured that smudgy faces would be okay too

I stand corrected. Although hearts are still pretty exact to me, lol. I guess it's a fairly easy shape to occur naturally.

I can try to edit the images to fix the markings to not look exact, but I did specify this time that they're not perfectly accurate to how they actually look. I have seen other characters accepted because they specified that the references were not 100% accurate, and I'll be making more accurate ones in the future ^^

The hard line on the markings thing is a bit weird for me because we've got characters on here with exact patterns of other animals which doesn't occur in real life so I figured that smudgy faces would be okay too

Smudgy faces are okay - but the design in question isn't smudges. We've approved the character -- provided the note about marking accuracy is included until an accurate reference is obtained.

I'm glad you brought up the bold as this is an important thing to discuss -- there shouldn't be inaccurate reference sheets for characters on WOLF. At best, it misrepresents the character and confuses players trying to describe the character while threading with them. At worst, the player is using the footnote as a way to bypass our Guidebook rules about realistic designs, while still describing and playing the character as something that doesn't fit into our Guidelines.

Regarding hearts -- these happen naturally.

This thread serves as a good reminder for players looking for unique designs to refer to our Guidebook first, since there are definitely designs out there that would not pass muster under our current rule-set. Hope that all helps, but I'm happy to answer any other questions while the thread is up!