Basics : Appearance

Your character is slowly taking shape! We know who it is now, how he or she acts, and his or her backstory. However, something's still missing in the equation. What does the character look like?

This is the part which most people will often prefer writing, since it allows them to exert fashion sense, to give the character some flair, or to give an overall feel of what the character inspires at first glance (or all of the above). This is the time to be the most creative; your character needs to know what it looks like before stepping into action.

Although you might want to give a thousand accessories, multiple hair colours and epic clothes to your character, remember that moderation is the rule of thumb. Additionally, anything you add about your character's appearance should fit with it in some way. Though some people may be able to successfully pull off an ironic appearance for their character (I.E., a lord of evil in a tutu), I wouldn't recommend for newbie roleplayers to try it; a flashy or unusual appearance implies that your character will draw a lot of stares from people, and if you want to make your character flashy, you should be ready to face the realistic consequences of it. The main consequences would be that it might be easier to begin interaction with that character and another, but the interaction would have to rest upon appearance for a while before the actual character/character interaction begins and the plot truly takes over. Everyone would also constantly be looking at your character when seeing it walking down the street and may even speak to it.

Let's read about one of Kara Chter's forms right now to give an idea of what an acceptable appearance section looks like:

A dark-skinned human woman with orange eyes and black, silky hair reaching down to the middle of her back. Kara has a face which might be considered "sexy" among humans; wide amused eyes, a thin and elegant nose, perked slightly upwards at the tip, and lips that look like they are always about to curve into a smile. She isn't very tall; 5'2" when standing straight. She does have a potentially graceful body, although this grace is often hindered by her stiff movements. Her clothing consists of a long-sleeved green kimono-type vest and a purple and white striped shirt, along with long white pants, held around the waist by a blue sash.

Now, I myself like it when my characters have a slightly uncommon appearance, just common enough to not stand out too much in a crowd. In this case, eye colour is the only truly outstanding characteristic about Kara; no realistic character would have orange eyes...
There's something that should be remembered about a character's appearance: certain characteristics are fixed, while others can be changed.

The fixed characteristics of a character are basically what your character looks like naked and without hair. This means skin tone, face structure, eye colour, hair colour (arguably), body type, height, posture, and any outstanding proportions. This list is not exhaustive, but it should give you a good idea of what can't be changed about a character without surgery or another extreme means (yes, shapeshifting is an extreme means, in case you're wondering about Kara). I chose to keep Kara's fixed characteristics relatively generic, since I didn't really want to draw attention to her through that, but you may choose to spice your character up with, say, long legs, large hands, grotesque facial features, a slump...

Fixed characteristics may affect a character's personality (I.E. a handsome character might be haughty and proud, a hunchback might think everyone hates him/her and be hostile...).
Changeable characteristics, on the other hand, may be influenced by the character's personality (I.E. colourful clothes for bubbly characters, hats and shrouds for mysterious-like characters...). It's a two-way mirror; in a sense, the fixed characteristics could affect the changeable characteristics indirectly through personality.

Changeable characteristics involve anything your character added to or changed about itself. This includes clothes, hair style, tattoos, piercings, jewelry, and any other such thing which couldn't be found on them from birth. The only exceptions to this are scars and changes in posture, since those can hardly be changed, even though the character may have gotten them from this or that event after birth. Kara's appearance, for example, features a fair amount of outstanding changeable characteristics, such as an obviously defective fashion sense (haha... that's me, folks) with several different colours to her clothes. I could have added earrings, bracelets and other such things, but I myself am not a fan of them. Don't restrain yourself from adding them if you like them, however; it's your character, so you decide what it should look like.

HOWEVER! There is a certain limit to the acceptable amount of detail you can add to a character's appearance. If it seems like more attention was given to the appearance than either history or personality, then there's a problem. If such is the case, you should minimize on the details and make your character's appearance simpler.

Additionally, try to keep your character's appearance relevant, as usual. If your character is an assassin, they shouldn't be wearing clothing too loose. If your character is poor, they shouldn't look too healthy and shouldn't be wearing expensive clothes. You should also make sure you can explain any unusual fixed characteristic of your character. Kara's orange eyes can be explained by the fact that she changes her appearance at will, but let's say your character has eyes that change colour (I've seen that often...) and isn't a shapeshifter; there should be a reason for that other than "they were born that way" (explain more in detail if so...), or to make it look cool and to mention "eyes changed colour" in your posts to make them a few words longer; it could be explained in history, or defined directly in appearance, but there should always be a valid reason.

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I think that's about it for what you should know about appearance, and this concludes in-detail character sheet sections. After reading about Personality, then History, then Appearance, you should be able to make a decent character sheet, if not a great one! Have a last look at your completed character sheet, and make the final adjustments now; even though you can change it at any given time in the future, you should make sure the character fits your tastes for now. Your finished sheet is what your character will have to live up to while you roleplay. If you ever feel like changing it, feel free to do so, though; a character is never done.