Howdy!
I'd like to apologize, as this is entirely my fault for not being clear in the guidelines. I was hoping to expand on those properly for applications, but in my error I've left them too vague currently. I'd like to apologize once again for the trouble, and take the time to clarify the Guidelines a bit more.

Yes, characters will be assigned. This is mainly to make sure a wide variety of DR characters get to be included, and to prevent an influx of certain characters getting much more content than the rest of the cast in the zine.
During applications, Contributors will be able to ask for the top 6 (or more depending on the rosters available after the Interest Check) characters they'd like to create for, as well as listing any characters they'd like to avoid being assigned. This is to make sure that even people that like the more traditionally popular characters out of the casts have a good shot at creating who they would like to, aren't generally locked out of being able to participate in the zine due to character preferences, and won't get stuck creating content for a character they wouldn't feel passionate about.
Contributors will be allowed to sign up to create for multiple characters, should they feel confident they can do so. This option will be included in the interest check.

As this zine intends for each character to have their own individual piece dedicated to them, and the large roster that will be worked with (between 48-68+ characters depending on the Interest Check) and hopefully every character to be included, this is what has been decided to be the fairest way to go about making sure every character gets included and that character assignment is fair.

Exceptions to this would be the Cover Artist position, as they would be drawing the front and back cover, would be given more leeway with their character choices for what they'd like to draw. Merch Artists will get a separate checklist, although still mainly following the one character per piece rule, with few exceptions such as full class/game related merchandise to make sure a wide variety of characters are represented.

This is actually similar to how the zines I've moderated for operated, to help diversify character inclusion and to keep variety in the casts without character biases or avoidance. I feel it has worked well in those cases, and so I feel confident in using it for this zine to help keep the balance between character inclusion and contributor choice fair.

The About and Guidelines Pages will be updated to properly reflect this new information.
If there are additional questions about this process, please feel free to send them! I'll do my best to answer them appropriately to help avoid confusion as much as possible.

Thank you so much for the question!