full review; callistorp
Remember, everything I say under the cut is constructive criticism. I am not trying to hurt or upset you, only help you, and nothing I say should be taken personally. Please acknowledge this post once you’ve read it.
first impression
My first impression is positive! Your icon and URL immediately suggest to me that this roleplay revolves around space, and as soon as I open up your page, before I even read the text, my beliefs are confirmed. A good roleplay gets the genre or the general concept of the plot across as quickly and efficiently as possible, and you nailed it. I’m a total sci-fi dork, so I’m excited to look further.
aesthetics
Theme: Your theme is pretty, but it isn’t the most accessible. Having to click the down arrow to see the posts is an inconvenience, especially since you have to do it every time you go to the next page, and once you’ve accessed the posts, the scrollbar’s practically invisible and you have to click within the post perimeters to be able to scroll with the keyboard’s arrow keys; a lot of people are going to struggle with that, get frustrated, and leave, so I suggest increasing the width of the scrollbar to 5px or 8px to make navigation easier, if not changing or at least editing the theme entirely.
It’d also be nice to be able to see the date things were posted so people can easily see whether the main’s active or not, because they may be uncertain about applying if they can’t tell either way. The unnecessary ‘callistorp’ at the top of every post could easily be replaced with a timestamp. With all that being said, the links that stick to the top of the screen are great, the pagination is clearly visible, and everything’s easy to read. Scrolling issues aside, it’s a lovely theme and you’ve utilised it well.
Colour Scheme: I adore the colour scheme. It’s simple, calm, easy on the eyes, and nothing clashes against each other. It ties in nicely with your background image and the text is still clearly distinguished from both the grey and brown backgrounds. I have absolutely no constructive criticism to give here.
Graphics: Your graphics look fantastic. I love the pixelated effect on your background, and while the character graphics are a little dark for my taste (I’m being nitpicky here), they’re different from what you’d find in most other roleplays and the dark images contrast well with the white text and the light page background. With that being said, the graphics in your character masterlist feel incredibly flat and dull due to a distinct lack of contrast. If the names were a solid white and/or the grey part of the gradient was slightly lighter, they’d have a lot more depth and – in my opinion – look a lot better. Your “Admin Sarah” name tag is super cute; I love the font you chose. I really like the page headers, too.
plot
Sidebar Plot: Your sidebar plot is excellent. It’s simple, to the point, and gives enough information to reel people in without revealing the whole story. Aliens? Space travel? Sign me up. My one suggestion would be to add a mobile navigation link to your description so mobile users can access your roleplay, too.
Full Plot: I’m going to be talking about both the plot page and the backstory page in this segment since they’re both relevant, and I’ve got to admit, I’m working hard not to spend this entire section geeking out. I’m so into it. Your plot is so original and so fun, and you’ve put so much thought into developing a solid backstory, it’s excellent.
With that being said, I read the plot before the backstory and I was initially confused as to how the sidebar plot and the full plot were connected, so working part of the backstory into the full plot page could help prevent that confusion early on. Just a brief mention of the original mission and the ship malfunction would clear things up and encourage people to read the full backstory, I think. On a technical note, I noticed a couple typos throughout (’ever inch and bolt’ instead of ‘every’ in the second paragraph of the plot), so read through and double-check for any minor errors.
set up
Navigation: The font on your navigation page is difficult to read, and the longer I look at it, the harsher it gets on my eyes. I strongly recommend going into the code and changing it, maybe to the font you use on your main page, or maybe just increasing the font size so it’s clearer. Readability aside, everything is neatly organised, you have all the important links, and it’s clear what most of them are linking to. I suggest specifying that masterlist is a faceclaim masterlist, because I thought it’d be an OOC list or a follow list at first, and also that ship roster is the follow list. This’ll just make it easier for people to find what they’re after quickly. The 24th century and command crew links also lead to empty pages, but everything else is in order and it looks great.
Rules: I have no constructive criticism for your rules. You’ve laid out what you expect firmly, clearly, and concisely, and you express your flexibility where it’s relevant which is lovely to see. I spotted one typo (’loose your muse’ instead of ‘lose’ in the hiatus section, bullet point #6), but other than that, I have nothing to add or suggest.
Application: Your application is excellent. The format is tidy and I love the inclusion of the optional “supplementals” section; that isn’t something I’ve seen often, if ever, and I think it’s really fun and creative. I did, however, notice a conflict. In the “why do you want to play this character?” section, you say the applicants can delete it if applying for an OC, but you answered a question here saying you don’t accept OCs. It also surprised me that you don’t have a para sample section, since you’re a para-centric roleplay. It’s obviously up to you whether you include one or not, but I personally think para samples are super helpful in working out what kind of roleplayer an applicant is.
As a sidenote, I think it would be helpful (and would also encourage people to read your FAQ instead of automatically going to /submit) if you included a link to your FAQ / ask / submit page at the end of your application page.
Other Pages: I’m going to split this into ‘general information’ and ‘callisto information’, because damn, there are so many pages. I’m so impressed with the amount of effort that’s been put into this. I love it.
- General Information: You seem to have all the important information someone could need. Your checklist is simple and thorough, your OOC list is formatted excellently for easy viewing, your inclusion of the trigger list, the hiatus list, and the admin page is thoughtful, and everything’s well-organised. I only have a couple things to suggest.
First of all, the text on the character masterlist is difficult to read. Not the character names, but the age / occupation / status. It’s such a thin font that parts of the letters just aren’t showing up, and such a pale grey that what’s left of the words are hard to see against the white anyway. I suggest a change in font, font size, and font colour to make it more visible. Additionally, I recommend including a link to your bio tag either at the top of this page or in your navigation, so people that want to read all your biographies can do so without clicking each character individually or digging around to find the tag on their own. Lastly, the correct way to tag triggers is #trigger tw, not #tw trigger like you stated on your trigger page. You can find several posts explaining why in my triggers tag.
- Callisto Information: The extent of the information you’ve written up for the ship and the way life works for the characters is honestly amazing. There are few things I love more than roleplays that go the extra mile and then some, and you’ve definitely done so here. However, there are a lot of typos, grammatical errors, and sloppy formatting in these pages, especially the /around page (which also has an annoying habit of sliding by itself before you have a chance to finish reading each section). I’d be more than happy to proof-read these and clean them up for you if you’d like.
I also think it’s worth including The Brig in the around page, and explaining somewhere what being Floated means, because while fans of The 100 will know, others won’t and you mention it in your laws page like it’s a concept everyone’s aware of.
characters
Faceclaims: You’ve got excellent ethnic diversity going on here, but I’d love to see some body diversity, too; all your current faceclaims are skinny and able-bodied, as far as I know. Feel free to correct me there if I’m wrong. I would also suggest age diversity, but I get that the characters being the second generation on the ship is pretty vital to the plot and that that provides a limited age range, so I’ll let it slide. It’s great to see a mix of both rare and popular faceclaims, though, and for the most part, I’m impressed with your choices.
Biographies: You’ve only got a couple skeletons posted so I don’t have much to go on, but I’m pleased with that I’m seeing. The characters currently available are diverse, well-written, equal in length, and contain enough information to get a clear idea of the character while still leaving room for our own headcanons and interpretations. The teasers you’ve given on other characters make them sound very promising, too. I suggest double-checking for some minor typos and errors, but other than that, I have no constructive criticism to give at this time.
administration
You seem friendly and approachable while remaining professional, which is an important balance to maintain. You’ve laid out what you expect from your players and how you envision the world in no uncertain terms, and it’s obvious that you’re passionate and dedicated from the sheer amount of effort that’s gone into putting this roleplay together. On top of it all, you keep the main page clean and relevant, and you seem like a great admin.
overall
Overall, I’m beyond impressed with this roleplay. For the first time in over a year, I’m seriously considering joining a new group; that’s how much my sci-fi heart is singing over this. You’ve got a strong plot, incredible world-building, wonderful aesthetics to tie it all together. With some minor tweaks, some proof-reading, and some work towards making it as accessible and user-friendly as possible, this roleplay could be unstoppable. I wish you the best of luck. You absolutely deserve it.