Akira Bessho
Welcome to Bleach Story, a forum-based Bleach RP set in it’s own non-canon AU timeline! Here at Bleach Story, we focus on building an active world with a focus on interpersonal and inter-factional relationships. No faction is inherently good or bad, they all seek to win out over the others. Now that you’ve joined, your first step is to make a character! While this may seem like a daunting task, this guide was designed to help walk you through the process of creating your first character, whether you’re a veteran or noob in terms of your Bleach-verse knowledge.
This part is as good a place to start as any, considering many races in Bleach Story associate with certain factions by default. At the time of the writing of this guide, there are 3 main factions with more likely on the way! You can find detailed info on the various different factions here. Here’s a quick TL;DR for the three main factions:
The Gotei Absolute: Made up of Shinigami and Vizard, the Gotei seeks to protect the delicate balance of the Soul Cycle.
The Espada: Led by the Cero King Ika Mazi, the Espada are made up of Hollows, Arrancar, defector Vizards and the odd Sinner. The Espada’s mission is self-preservation through the elimination of external threats.
The Holy Inquisition: Made up exclusively of Quincies, the Holy Inquisition seeks to eliminate anything it deems to be a heretical or otherwise a threat to the church.
There are a whole smorgasbord of various races in the Bleach verse, each with their own special abilities and mechanics which you can get detailed info onhere. Here’s a TL;DR for each of the races:
Arrancar: A Hollow that has managed to remove it’s mask and gain Shinigami-like abilities. All Arrancar possess a Zanpakuto of their own, and they occur naturally as a consequence of Hollows growing in strength.
Advent Human: A Human that has grown spiritually aware through some freak accident involving the Spirit World and then begun to train their powers.
Fullbringer: A subset of Advent Humans, Fullbringers come about when a human child is born of a mother who was attacked by a Hollow. Hollow Spiritual Energy remains in the mother like a scar, granting the child the ability to summon an object that allows them to tap into their abilities. You can find information on Fullbringers under the Human Information tab.
Bounts: Bounts are Humans that feed on the souls of Shinigami, Quincy, and other Humans to stay alive and live forever. They possess the ability to summon a Doll which possesses its own supernatural abilities. Be warned, unless a Bount is powerful enough to undergo Doll Fusion - the Bount’s only release state - The Doll is in possession of all supernatural powers, and the Bount is treated as a regular human. Not recommended for beginners.
Hollows: Hollows are Human souls that have failed to cross over into the Soul Society after death and remained in the Human world for over a year. This causes them to despair and lose their human heart before transforming into a hungry beast that consumes human souls.
Sinners: When a Shinigami aids a human soul in crossing over into Soul Society, the soul in question is, at that point in time, judged. If the soul is too rotten and warped, they are cast down into Hell and cut off from the Soul Cycle entirely. Sinners lack any sort of release, and are always at max power.
Quincy: A line of spiritually aware human warriors, their ancestors developed supernatural techniques to fight against Hollows. Unlike Shinigami, Quincy's abilities destroy Hollows instead of purifying them. Generally speaking, Quincy can be regarded as the opposite of Shinigami.
Shinigami: Shinigami are souls with innately high levels of spiritual energy that are recruited from the various residents of Soul Society. Due to their bodies being composed of spirit particles known as Reishi, Shinigami are only visible to other spiritually aware individuals.
Vizards: The antithesis of Arrancar, Vizards are Shinigami that have gained Hollow abilities. Normally, they are indistinguishable from Shinigami, however; they each possess a mask that they don when they wish to access their Hollow Abilities.
It’s time to get to the meat and potatoes of building your character sheet! If you’ve browsed through some of the characters on the site, you’ll notice a general formatting style we use which you can find here. All templates have a special coding box which you can find at the bottom and copy to use for your own character application that look a bit like this:
Copy the contents in that box and paste it normally in your new application! Fill out the personal information as the coding directs, and feel free to ask a mod if you have any questions.
Now that your character’s personal info is filled out, it’s time to move on to your character’s abilities. While it is possible to RP on Bleach Story without having to do any combat threads, a good chunk of plot-based threads are combat related. New users will likely find themselves frustrated by how varied people’s abilities and builds are. The first thing to decide on are your strengths and weaknesses. You can think of these vaguely as stats, and many attributes exist that you can select:
Agility: Your character’s speed and reaction time.
Strength: Your character’s physical strength.
Stamina: Your character’s overall physical stamina.
Durability: Your character’s ability to take damage without passing out or dying.
Sensing: Your character’s abilities to sense other spiritual beings and energy.
Reiryoku: Your character’s internal reserves of Spiritual Energy, think of this like your mana pool.
Reiryoku Control/Manipulation: Your character’s ability to manipulate their own Reiryoku within their body.
Reiatsu: The physical force/pressure created when your character releases Reiryoku from the body.
Reiatsu Manipulation: Your character’s ability to manipulate and shape their own Reiatsu.
Zanjutsu: Your character’s skill with the blade, though this attribute can be used to refer to any special weapon techniques.
Hakuda: Your character’s skill in hand-to-hand combat, and a required strength for brawler-focused characters
Hoho: Your character’s skill in your race’s movement techniques (Shunpo, Sonido, Hirenkyaku, etc.) and their advanced steps.
Etc: While these are all the basic attributes, various races have their own special skills and attributes that you can invest in as well to either round off or min-max your character’s skill set. You can find these under your designated race’s information tab, and if you want an in-depth explanation you can find it here
Instead of number values assigned to each stat, you can think of all characters as being Strong, Weak, or Average in any given field. If they list it as a Strength, then they’re strong in that skill, if they list it as a weakness, they are weak in that skill, and if they don’t list it at all, they’re average in that skill. Now, when listing Strengths and Weaknesses, try to keep in mind what kind of fighter you want your character to be, as well as how their abilities work. Do you want to be a glass cannon that hits hard and moves fast? A tank-type that soaks damage like a sponge? An all-rounder with a varied skill set? Feel free to ask a mod what kind of strengths and weaknesses your character concept would have, and they can help you write up a loadout.
Now that you’ve got a good idea of how your character’s abilities work and what their fighting style is, it’s time to write up abilities. This topic is difficult to condense, as the types of abilities your character can have are only limited by what the mods will and will not allow. Generally speaking, however; there are a few things you should keep in mind when coming up with ability concepts.
Abilities can be broken down into Active/Passive and Offensive/Defensive, as seen in the table here:
As a general rule, your character’s base form is allowed to have up to 2 abilities. These can range from passive skills to simple offensive abilities. You get to add more abilities for each of your releases, and as you gain more releases you get to add more abilities. If you’ve peeked at the sheets of other characters, you may have noticed a lot of values attributed to character’s abilities, you can find an in-depth breakdown here
Keeping all this in mind, and feel free to consult with mods on the creation of your abilities.
Step 1: Pick a Side
This part is as good a place to start as any, considering many races in Bleach Story associate with certain factions by default. At the time of the writing of this guide, there are 3 main factions with more likely on the way! You can find detailed info on the various different factions here. Here’s a quick TL;DR for the three main factions:
The Gotei Absolute: Made up of Shinigami and Vizard, the Gotei seeks to protect the delicate balance of the Soul Cycle.
The Espada: Led by the Cero King Ika Mazi, the Espada are made up of Hollows, Arrancar, defector Vizards and the odd Sinner. The Espada’s mission is self-preservation through the elimination of external threats.
The Holy Inquisition: Made up exclusively of Quincies, the Holy Inquisition seeks to eliminate anything it deems to be a heretical or otherwise a threat to the church.
Step 2: Pick a Race
There are a whole smorgasbord of various races in the Bleach verse, each with their own special abilities and mechanics which you can get detailed info onhere. Here’s a TL;DR for each of the races:
Arrancar: A Hollow that has managed to remove it’s mask and gain Shinigami-like abilities. All Arrancar possess a Zanpakuto of their own, and they occur naturally as a consequence of Hollows growing in strength.
Advent Human: A Human that has grown spiritually aware through some freak accident involving the Spirit World and then begun to train their powers.
Fullbringer: A subset of Advent Humans, Fullbringers come about when a human child is born of a mother who was attacked by a Hollow. Hollow Spiritual Energy remains in the mother like a scar, granting the child the ability to summon an object that allows them to tap into their abilities. You can find information on Fullbringers under the Human Information tab.
Bounts: Bounts are Humans that feed on the souls of Shinigami, Quincy, and other Humans to stay alive and live forever. They possess the ability to summon a Doll which possesses its own supernatural abilities. Be warned, unless a Bount is powerful enough to undergo Doll Fusion - the Bount’s only release state - The Doll is in possession of all supernatural powers, and the Bount is treated as a regular human. Not recommended for beginners.
Hollows: Hollows are Human souls that have failed to cross over into the Soul Society after death and remained in the Human world for over a year. This causes them to despair and lose their human heart before transforming into a hungry beast that consumes human souls.
Sinners: When a Shinigami aids a human soul in crossing over into Soul Society, the soul in question is, at that point in time, judged. If the soul is too rotten and warped, they are cast down into Hell and cut off from the Soul Cycle entirely. Sinners lack any sort of release, and are always at max power.
Quincy: A line of spiritually aware human warriors, their ancestors developed supernatural techniques to fight against Hollows. Unlike Shinigami, Quincy's abilities destroy Hollows instead of purifying them. Generally speaking, Quincy can be regarded as the opposite of Shinigami.
Shinigami: Shinigami are souls with innately high levels of spiritual energy that are recruited from the various residents of Soul Society. Due to their bodies being composed of spirit particles known as Reishi, Shinigami are only visible to other spiritually aware individuals.
Vizards: The antithesis of Arrancar, Vizards are Shinigami that have gained Hollow abilities. Normally, they are indistinguishable from Shinigami, however; they each possess a mask that they don when they wish to access their Hollow Abilities.
Step 3: Character Creation Setup
It’s time to get to the meat and potatoes of building your character sheet! If you’ve browsed through some of the characters on the site, you’ll notice a general formatting style we use which you can find here. All templates have a special coding box which you can find at the bottom and copy to use for your own character application that look a bit like this:
- Spoiler:
Copy the contents in that box and paste it normally in your new application! Fill out the personal information as the coding directs, and feel free to ask a mod if you have any questions.
Step 4:Ability Loadout
Now that your character’s personal info is filled out, it’s time to move on to your character’s abilities. While it is possible to RP on Bleach Story without having to do any combat threads, a good chunk of plot-based threads are combat related. New users will likely find themselves frustrated by how varied people’s abilities and builds are. The first thing to decide on are your strengths and weaknesses. You can think of these vaguely as stats, and many attributes exist that you can select:
Agility: Your character’s speed and reaction time.
Strength: Your character’s physical strength.
Stamina: Your character’s overall physical stamina.
Durability: Your character’s ability to take damage without passing out or dying.
Sensing: Your character’s abilities to sense other spiritual beings and energy.
Reiryoku: Your character’s internal reserves of Spiritual Energy, think of this like your mana pool.
Reiryoku Control/Manipulation: Your character’s ability to manipulate their own Reiryoku within their body.
Reiatsu: The physical force/pressure created when your character releases Reiryoku from the body.
Reiatsu Manipulation: Your character’s ability to manipulate and shape their own Reiatsu.
Zanjutsu: Your character’s skill with the blade, though this attribute can be used to refer to any special weapon techniques.
Hakuda: Your character’s skill in hand-to-hand combat, and a required strength for brawler-focused characters
Hoho: Your character’s skill in your race’s movement techniques (Shunpo, Sonido, Hirenkyaku, etc.) and their advanced steps.
Etc: While these are all the basic attributes, various races have their own special skills and attributes that you can invest in as well to either round off or min-max your character’s skill set. You can find these under your designated race’s information tab, and if you want an in-depth explanation you can find it here
Instead of number values assigned to each stat, you can think of all characters as being Strong, Weak, or Average in any given field. If they list it as a Strength, then they’re strong in that skill, if they list it as a weakness, they are weak in that skill, and if they don’t list it at all, they’re average in that skill. Now, when listing Strengths and Weaknesses, try to keep in mind what kind of fighter you want your character to be, as well as how their abilities work. Do you want to be a glass cannon that hits hard and moves fast? A tank-type that soaks damage like a sponge? An all-rounder with a varied skill set? Feel free to ask a mod what kind of strengths and weaknesses your character concept would have, and they can help you write up a loadout.
Step 5:Ability Writing and Damage Conversion
Now that you’ve got a good idea of how your character’s abilities work and what their fighting style is, it’s time to write up abilities. This topic is difficult to condense, as the types of abilities your character can have are only limited by what the mods will and will not allow. Generally speaking, however; there are a few things you should keep in mind when coming up with ability concepts.
Abilities can be broken down into Active/Passive and Offensive/Defensive, as seen in the table here:
- Spoiler:
As a general rule, your character’s base form is allowed to have up to 2 abilities. These can range from passive skills to simple offensive abilities. You get to add more abilities for each of your releases, and as you gain more releases you get to add more abilities. If you’ve peeked at the sheets of other characters, you may have noticed a lot of values attributed to character’s abilities, you can find an in-depth breakdown here
Keeping all this in mind, and feel free to consult with mods on the creation of your abilities.