[Royal Guard] My suggestion...

[Dan]

I already do something of this sort informally when somebody I don't 
know well is applying, to try to get a sense for how he or she RPs. 
However, I don't agree with this suggestion for a couple of reasons.

1. Just about everybody was a shitty RPer at one point or another. I 
know I did some stuff I'd rather forget about when I was a newbie. Being 
in the Guard can be a valuable opportunity to help people improve. And 
if the person doesn't work out, that's what the recruit period is for. 
If someone doesn't work out, he or she can always be terminated during 
the recruit period.

2. I don't like making judgements influenced too heavily by OOC 
knowledge. I certainly like to go into more detail about a character's 
background than somebody might find out in a strictly IC process, but I 
don't like rejecting applications strictly for OOC reasons. And, as a 
channel op, it's my job to encourage RP, and telling people that they 
can't be a guard because they suck at RPing isn't in the spirit of what 
I ought to be doing. That's not to say that I'll green light just 
anybody, however. There's a big difference between rejecting an 
application because the character is ridiculously overpowered or an 
inappropriate candidate for the guard and rejecting a character because 
I don't like the mun or the way he or she RPs.

I'd rather give somebody a chance and find out that they don't work out 
than tell somebody to get lost right out of hand.