Character Creation & Accepted Issues

This thread will contain everything you need to read before you make a character application.

The Basics. All characters must be high-school graduates or aged 18 or above. This means no children running around please. Characters that are not graduates, or of the appropriate age will not be approved.

Characters must be human. No fantasy based characters will be accepted. This also goes for psychics/clairvoyants or what-have-you. Try to keep it realistic.

Characters that are pregnant, or have children may be housed at St. Matilda's Outpatient Apartments or Staff Apartments under heavy staff supervision. The children may not sign up as forum members, and may only be NPCed by the child's parents so long as the parents are in the same general area as the children. Again, this means no kids running around. Children are not allowed within St. Matilda's main building.

Gender and sexual orientation is irrelevant in this setting. Persons with gender identity disorder, or patients with attraction to same gender are not and will not be considered deviant on that basis.




Crane Pharmaceutical is a company that tests and manufactures medications to treat a variety of mental afflictions and disorders. Outwardly, Crane is a well-staffed, cutting-edge company dedicated to ethical science with the goal of aiding the afflicted. Inwardly, however, Crane has a rather shady track record of testing non-FDA approved medications on the unsuspecting masses housed within any number of their own facilities, or affiliated facilities world-wide. If you're unfortunate to wind up in the Crane universe as a patient or resident, you are now a guinea pig.

Due to the dubious nature of Crane facilities and operations, Crane hand-picks its patients. Patients that apply to Crane facilities are carefully screened, and often-times are turned away. Crane prefers to find its patients through contacts in the legal and psychiatric fields, and sends out paperwork to individuals who fit the right categories for testing. As such, characters are encouraged to include some kind of legal or hospitalisation documentation.

Many residents of Crane facilities are signed in either by order of previous psychologists or psychiatrists, or are signed in by their parents or the courts. Some residents sign themselves in. Residents of Drug Rehabilitation Wards are often court-ordered or sign themselves in voluntarily.


NOTICE: Dissociative Identity Disorder, otherwise known as Multiple Personality Disorder is not an allowed issue at St. Matilda's. Unfortunately, too many players seem to gravitate towards this issue and then do not play it realistically or correctly. As such, it is not allowed as an issue here. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Issues that are not on this list, or are on hold, will not be accepted during application. Issues that are on hold are underlined on the lists below.

You may choose one primary issue, with up to three underlying sub-issues, provided the sub-issues tie in with the main issue in a logical fashion, and remain realistic. The sub-issues must be compatible and must be explored in the character application if you wish to use them.

A word of warning: This isn't Arkham Asylum. St. Matilda's will not house the criminally insane. Don't make your character too over the top, unbelievable, or evil, or we'll be forced to deny the application. St. Matilda's houses a lot of people with varying degrees of afflictions, therefore they do not accept mass murderers, for example. I'm not discouraging making an antagonistic character, just keep it believable and realistic.


Personality Disorders

• Borderline Borderline personality disorder is a condition in which a person makes impulsive actions, and has an unstable mood and chaotic relationships. Relationships with others are intense and unstable. They swing wildly from love to hate and back again. People with BPD will frantically try to avoid real or imagined abandonment. BPD patients may also be uncertain about their identity or self-image. They tend to see things in terms of extremes, either all good or all bad. They also typically view themselves as victims of circumstance and take little responsibility for themselves or their problems.
  
  
• Avoidant Avoidant personality disorder is a psychiatric condition in which a person has a lifelong pattern of feeling extremely shy, inadequate, and sensitive to rejection. People with avoidant personality disorder are preoccupied with their own shortcomings. They form relationships with others only if they believe they will not be rejected. Loss and rejection are so painful that these people will choose to be lonely rather than risk trying to connect with others.
  
  
• Narcissistic Narcissistic personality disorder is a condition in which there is an inflated sense of self-importance and an extreme preoccupation with one's self. A person with narcissistic personality disorder: Reacts to criticism with rage, shame, or humiliation, takes advantage of other people to achieve his or her own goals, has feelings of self-importance, exaggerates achievements and talents, is preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, beauty, intelligence, or ideal love, has unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment, requires constant attention and admiration, disregards the feelings of others, lacks empathy, has obsessive self-interest and pursues mainly selfish goals
  
  
• Schizoid Schizoid personality disorder is a psychiatric condition in which a person has a lifelong pattern of indifference to others and social isolation. A person with schizoid personality disorder: Appears aloof and detached, avoids social activities that involve significant contact with other people, does not want or enjoy close relationships, even with family members
  
  
• Schizotypal Schizotypal personality disorder is a psychiatric condition in which a person has difficulty with interpersonal relationships and disturbances in thought patterns, appearance, and behaviour. People with schizotypal personality disorder may be severely disturbed. Their odd behavior may resemble that of people with schizophrenia. For example, they may also have unusual preoccupations and fears, such as fears of being monitored by government agencies. More commonly, however, people with schizotypal personality disorder behave oddly and have unusual beliefs (aliens, witchcraft, etc.). They cling to these beliefs so strongly that it isolates them from normal relationships. Full-blown hallucinations are unusual. However, people with schizotypal personality disorder are upset by their difficulty in forming and maintaining close relationships
  
  
• Histrionic Histrionic personality disorder is a condition in which a person acts very emotional and dramatic in order to get attention. People with this disorder are usually able to function at a high level and can be successful socially and at work. Symptoms include: Acting or looking overly seductive, being easily influenced by other people, being overly concerned with their looks, being overly dramatic and emotional, being overly sensitive to criticism or disapproval and believing that relationships are more intimate than they actually are.
  
  
• Dependant Dependent personality disorder is a long-term (chronic) condition in which people depend too much on others to meet their emotional and physical needs. People with this disorder do not trust their own ability to make decisions. They may be devastated by separation and loss. They may go to great lengths, even suffering abuse, to stay in a relationship.
  

Sexual Deviancy

• Masochism Sexual masochism is intentional participation in an activity that involves being humiliated, beaten, bound, or otherwise abused to experience sexual excitement. Sadomasochistic fantasies and sexual behaviour between consenting adults is very common. Masochistic activity tends to be ritualized and chronic. For most participants, the humiliation and beating are simply acted out; participants know that it is a game and carefully avoid actual humiliation or injury. However, some masochists increase the severity of their activity with time, potentially leading to serious injury or death. Masochistic activities may be the preferred or exclusive mode of producing sexual excitement. People may act on their masochistic fantasies themselves (eg, binding themselves, piercing their skin, applying electrical shocks, burning themselves) or seek out a partner who may be a sexual sadist.
  
  
• Sadism Sexual sadism is infliction of physical or mental suffering (eg, humiliation, terror) on the sex partner to stimulate sexual excitement and orgasm. Most sexual sadists have insistent, persistent fantasies in which sexual excitement results from suffering inflicted on the partner, consenting or not. Mild sadism is a common sexual practice; when it becomes pathologic is a matter of degree. Sexual sadism is not rape, a complex amalgam of sex and power over the victim. Sexual sadism is diagnosed in < 10% of rapists. Most sadistic sexual behaviour occurs between consenting adults. As is the case with masochism, sadism is usually limited in scope and not harmful. In some people, the behaviours escalate to the point of harm. When practised with non-consenting partners, sexual sadism constitutes criminal activity and is likely to continue until the sadist is apprehended.
  
  
• Hypersexuality Hypersexuality, also known as nymphomania or satyriasis, is a condition in which an individual experiences an inappropriately high desire to engage in sexual intercourse. It is characterized by a debilitating desire for frequent genital contact or stimulation which, after achieved, fails to produce adequate satisfaction. Symptoms of hypersexuality include increased sexual activity, increased involvement with pornography, extramarital affairs, excessive use of telephone sexual services, and engaging in other risky sexual behaviours.
  
  
• Hyposexuality The opposite of hypersexuality, a person with hyposexuality has no interest in sexual activity, and no drive. They may often suffer from diminished or absent libido, and may be adverse to things of a sexual nature all together.
  
  
• Fetishism Fetishism is use of an inanimate object (the fetish) as the preferred method of producing sexual excitement. However, in common parlance, the word is often used to describe particular sexual interests, such as sexual role-playing, preference for certain physical characteristics, and preferred sexual activities. Common fetishes include aprons, shoes, leather or latex items, and women's underclothing. The fetish may replace typical sexual activity with a partner or may be integrated into sexual activity with a willing partner. Minor fetishistic behaviour as an adjunct to consensual sexual behaviour is not considered a disorder because distress, disability, and significant dysfunction are absent. More intense, obligatory fetishistic arousal patterns may cause problems in a relationship or become all-consuming and destructive in a person's life.
  
  
• Voyeurism Voyeurism is achievement of sexual arousal by observing people who are naked, disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity. When observation is of unsuspecting people, this sexual behaviour often leads to problems with the law and relationships. Desire to watch others in sexual situations is common and not in itself abnormal. Voyeurism usually begins during adolescence or early adulthood. Adolescent voyeurism is generally viewed more leniently; few teenagers are arrested. When voyeurism is pathologic, voyeurs spend considerable time seeking out viewing opportunities. Orgasm is usually achieved by masturbating during or after the voyeuristic activity. Voyeurs do not seek sexual contact with the people being observed.

Psychiatric Issues

• Body Dysmorphic Disorders BDD is a preoccupation with an imagined physical defect in appearance or a vastly exaggerated concern about a minimal defect. The preoccupation must cause significant impairment in the individual’s life. The individual thinks about his or her defect for at least an hour per day. The individual’s obsessive concern most often is concerned with facial features, hair or odor. The disorder often begins in adolescence, becomes chronic and leads to a great deal of internal suffering.
  
  Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa:Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that involves limiting the amount of food a person eats. It results in starvation and an inability to stay at the minimum body weight considered healthy for the person's age and height. Persons with this disorder may have an intense fear of weight gain, even when they are underweight. Not eating enough food or exercising too much results in severe weight loss. Bulimia Nervosa constitutes a cycle of binging and purging, for the same purposes.
  
  
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is currently classified as an anxiety disorder marked by the recurrence of intrusive or disturbing thoughts, impulses, images or ideas (obsessions) accompanied by repeated attempts to suppress these thoughts through the performance of certain irrational and ritualistic behaviors or mental acts (compulsions).
  
  
• Bipolar Disorder Otherwise known as manic depression, bipolar disorder is characterised by unstable and often dramatic mood swings, usually ranging from severe depression to a manic and agitated state of mind.
  
  
• Clinical Depression Clinical depression is a serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Individuals with clinical depression are unable to function as they used to. Often they have lost interest in activities that were once enjoyable to them, and feel sad and hopeless for extended periods of time. Clinical depression is not the same as feeling sad or depressed for a few days and then feeling better. It can affect your body, mood, thoughts, and behaviour. It can change your eating habits, how you feel and think, your ability to work and study, and how you interact with people. People who suffer from clinical depression often report that they "don't feel like themselves anymore."
  
  
• Social Anxiety Disorder Social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia, is an anxiety disorder in which a person has an excessive and unreasonable fear of social situations. Anxiety (intense nervousness) and self-consciousness arise from a fear of being closely watched, judged, and criticized by others. A person with social anxiety disorder is afraid that he or she will make mistakes and be embarrassed or humiliated in front of others. The fear may be made worse by a lack of social skills or experience in social situations. The anxiety can build into a panic attack. As a result of the fear, the person endures certain social situations in extreme distress or may avoid them altogether. In addition, people with social anxiety disorder often suffer "anticipatory" anxiety -- the fear of a situation before it even happens -- for days or weeks before the event. In many cases, the person is aware that the fear is unreasonable, yet is unable to overcome it.
  
  
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat. People with PTSD have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to. They may experience sleep problems, feel detached, or be easily startled.

• Sleep Disorders Sleep disorders can include such things as Primary Insomnia, Sleep Terrors, Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders, Somnambulism and Narcolepsy. These disorders, in order, disrupt healthy sleep patterns in the following ways. Insomnia is signified as a chronic inability to sleep, while Sleep Terrors manifest as dreams that awake the subject in a state of real terror. Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders are disorders that alter the natural sleep cycle either manifesting as nocturnalism, or strange sleep schedules involving waking and sleeping at inappropriate times of day. Somnambulism is sleep walking, and those suffering with Narcolepsy show chronic daytime sleepiness and often fall asleep unwillingly at inappropriate times.
  
  
• Phobias A phobia is an intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive and unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. When the fear is beyond one's control, and if the fear is interfering with daily life, then a diagnosis under one of the anxiety disorders can be made. It is generally accepted that phobias arise from a combination of external events and internal predispositions.

Psychological Issues

• Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Distortions in perception may affect all five senses, including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but most commonly manifest as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction. Onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood.
  
  
• Psychosis Psychosis literally means an abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality". People suffering from psychosis are said to be psychotic. People experiencing psychosis may report hallucinations or delusional beliefs, and may exhibit personality changes and thought disorder. This may be accompanied by unusual or bizarre behaviour, as well as difficulty with social interaction and impairment in carrying out the daily life activities.
  
  
• Psychopathy Psychopathy is a personality disorder whose hallmark is a lack of empathy. Robert Hare, a researcher in the field describes psychopaths as "intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, sex and violence to control others and to satisfy their own needs. Lacking in conscience and empathy, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse. What is missing, in other words, are the very qualities that allow a human being to live in social harmony." Psychopaths are glib and superficially charming, and many psychopaths are excellent mimics of normal human emotion; some psychopaths can blend in, undetected, in a variety of surroundings, including corporate environments. There is neither a cure nor any effective treatment for psychopathy; there are no medications or other techniques which can instil empathy, and psychopaths who undergo traditional talk therapy only become more adept at manipulating others. The consensus among researchers is that psychopathy stems from a specific neurological disorder which is biological in origin and present from birth.
  
  
• Münchhausen Syndrome Münchhausen syndrome is a type of factitious disorder, or mental illness, in which a person repeatedly acts as if he or she has a physical or mental disorder when, in truth, they have caused the symptoms. People with factitious disorders act this way because of an inner need to be seen as ill or injured, not to achieve a concrete benefit, such as financial gain. They are even willing to undergo painful or risky tests and operations in order to get the sympathy and special attention given to people who are truly ill. Münchhausen syndrome is a mental illness associated with severe emotional difficulties

Antisocial Conduct

• Intermittent Explosive Disorder Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is a disorder characterized by impulsive acts of aggression, as contrasted with planned violent or aggressive acts. The aggressive episodes may take the form of "spells" or "attacks," with symptoms beginning minutes to hours before the actual acting-out. People with intermittent explosive disorder have a problem with controlling their temper. In addition, their violent behaviour is out of proportion to the incident or event that triggered the outburst.
  
  
• Antisocial Personality Disorder "Antisocial Personality Disorder" results in what is commonly known as a Sociopath. The criteria for this disorder require an ongoing disregard for the rights of others, since the age of 15 years. Some examples of this disregard are reckless disregard for the safety of themselves or others, failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviours, deceitfulness such as repeated lying or deceit for personal profit or pleasure, and lack of remorse for actions that hurt other people in any way. Additionally, they must have evidenced a Conduct Disorder before the age of 15 years, and must be at least 18 years old to receive this diagnosis.
  
  
• Münchhausen By Proxy Münchhausen by proxy syndrome (MBPS) is a relatively uncommon condition that involves the exaggeration or fabrication of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker. In MBPS, an individual — usually a mother — deliberately makes another person (most often his or her own preschool child) sick or convinces others that the person is sick. The parent or caregiver misleads others into thinking that the child has medical problems by lying and reporting fictitious episodes. He or she may exaggerate, fabricate, or induce symptoms. As a result, doctors usually order tests, try different types of medications, and may even hospitalize the child or perform surgery to determine the cause. Typically, the perpetrator feels satisfied by gaining the attention and sympathy of doctors, nurses, and others who come into contact with him or her and the child. Some experts believe that it isn't just the attention that's gained from the "illness" of the child that drives this behaviour, but also the satisfaction in being able to deceive individuals that they consider to be more important and powerful than themselves.
  
  

Substance Abuse

• Alcoholism Alcoholism is an addiction to, and abuse of alcoholic beverages, resulting in dependence upon the substance and signified by excessive drinking leading to black-outs and alterations in behaviour and personality.
  
  
• Class A Drug Abuse Abuse and addiction to class A drugs is signified by the use of and dependence upon the following drugs: Cocaine, Heroin, Methamphetamine, Morphine, Oxycodone and Ecstasy.
  
  
• Class B Drug Abuse Abuse and addiction to class B drugs is signified by the use of and dependence upon the following drugs: Amphetamines, Codeine, Dexamphetamine and Methylphenidate (Ritalin)
  
  
• Class C Drug Abuse Abuse and addiction to class C drugs is signified by the use of and dependence upon the following drugs: Cannabis, Prescriptions Painkillers, Valium, Tranquilisers and Steroids