Perhaps your character is a biologist, drawn in by rumours of strange behaviour in the local fauna, or an astronomer, baffled by the reported impossibility of the local lunar cycle. Perhaps they're an oceanographer, intrigued by the recent alterations in Antarctic tidal patterns, or a high-ranking military official, anxious to assess the dangers that might be posed by these scientific anomalies. Or, perhaps, your character is someone else entirely, arriving via their own unique mixture of personal interest, qualifications, and other motivations. When it comes to APERIS, no two people are alike.

Character Creation in APERIS consists of the following components:

• OC information: Inform the GMs (and eventually your fellow players) about your name and pronouns. In addition you will need to supply an email address, and if you are under 18 you will need to alert the GMs for safeguarding reasons (this information will not be shared, as per our Privacy Policy).
• IC name(s) and pronouns: Select a name for your character. Please also tell us your character's pronouns.
• Character Questionnaire: You will be asked to provide us with important details about your character.
• Private Bio: A biography of your character visible only to you and the GMs. This is where you should write details about your character's backstory that are not already covered by the questionnaire. Things to think about might include: what is your character's job title and what does it involve? Why is your character a good fit for a polar research station? Is your character keeping a secret from others in the base that might cause conflict? What, if anything, will keep your character going in such an inhospitable and isolated setting?
• Public Bio: A short biography that will be published on the Player Characters page on this wiki, visible to all players, encompassing what is publicly known, rumoured or speculated about your character. This can also include a physical description.
• Quirks: You take three resource/skill quirks, and any number of Playstyle Quirks. See the Quirks page for information about the quirks you can take.
• OC Notes to GMs: An optional message to the GMs, primarily to inform them how they can make the game more comfortable or accessible for you.

If you have any questions for the GMs concerning character creation, or are simply looking for inspiration for what sort of character to play, we will be running a joint character creation session with the GMs of Contagion which will run both in person and online simultaneously. See the When and Where page for more details.

APERIS takes place on Earth in the year 2011. As such, we expect player characters to have reasonably modern names. APERIS is also a multinational research station, one that widely displays both ethnic and cultural diversity. Players may wish to consider this when choosing names for their characters.

In addition, please tell us your character's IC pronouns, so that we and other players know how to refer to them. These will be visible beside your character's name on the wiki.

The Character Questionnaire is a set of questions that helps make sure players have decided, and GMs know, some important details about the submitted character. This includes four general questions for all characters, and a few faction specific questions.

Antarctica is not a prison, but it is hundreds of miles away from the nearest human civilisation. Your character will be spending long stretches of time holed up in a small building, surrounded on all sides by a boundless frozen wasteland. What particular events or motivations prompted your character decide to make this journey? Are they looking for something, hiding from something, or simply ensuring a job is well done?

Is your character leaving anyone behind when going to APERIS? Are they traveling there together with someone? Might someone they know be waiting for them there? What form does each of their relationships take—a friend, a bitter rival, a colleague, or something else? How might these relationships affect your character's time at APERIS?

This question is an opportunity for you to make GMs aware of any links your character might have with NPCs and other Player Characters.

Some people are born firebrands, others are natural peacemakers. How much opposition is your character willing to tolerate, and will they be content working alongside others? After all, APERIS is a real melting pot of national, personal, and corporate interests.

Isolation from the world, the claustrophobic living conditions, and the white, aeon-dead world of the ultimate south are bound to cause anyone of sound mind appreciable mental strain. But is there something… more? A fear that titillates and stings? A terror so visceral that you can only hope it does not follow you here? If so, tell us about it.

To ensure a high quality game and maintain a healthy work-life balance for GMs, APERIS will accept a maximum of 24 players. In the event of oversubscription, we are using a computerised balloting system to decide who these places will be allocated to. The ballot will be done jointly with Contagion with a view to ensuring that as many people as possible get to play in at least one of the games. You will be able to state which if either game you would rather play in, whether you would be willing to play your second choice game instead, and whether you wish to play both games if there are spaces leftover. Balloting will be done in the following priority groups:

1. People who are running one game and wish to play the other game. This group is skipped entirely before everyone else is given their first place, but is considered before anyone intending to play both games is given a second place. This was decided as a compromise between recognising the work done by GMs and maximising how many people can participate in Society Games.
2. Oxford University students who have never played a Society Game before.
3. Oxford University students who have played a Society Game before.
4. Non-Oxford University students.

To express your preferences, please complete this form by 23:59 on Tuesday 14th October (1st Week). Results will be released on our Discord servers at 18:00 on Wednesday 15th October; if you do not have access to these, please let us know so we can send you the results by email. After this, if there are any places remaining, anyone who did not participate in balloting for any reason will be able to claim them from the CAMPOs, at their discretion and on a first-come, first-served basis.

The source code of the program that will be used for balloting is available here. A plain-English description of the algorithm used is also provided there. While this is a newly created system, it has been extensively tested, and is intended to be able to be reused for other ballots in the future.

After your place in APERIS has been confirmed, you should start completing the Character Creation Form. It contains the questions described above.

If, for whatever reason, you would prefer not to use this, we will also accept character submissions by email to: gm@aperis.oxfordrpg.com.

The deadline for character submissions is Thursday 16th October 23:59.