Guide 2

[i]((Still susceptable to being edited))[/i]

[b][u]Introducing Your Character[/u][/b]

Now, hopefully you listened to Naki's guidance and took it to heart, because that plays a lot into how your character will be introduced into the roleplaying threads. But first off, there's deciding where he/she will go. To make this easier, seeing as Survival of the Fittest is probably where you'll want to employ these tips, we'll go with the specific schools. There are four: Bathurst, Hobbsborough, P.J. Gilroy, and Franklyn. Before I go further with that, be sure you've read the profiles of the schools (they're stickied in the topics) in order to figure out what grade you'll have to be in to be able to be in the game.

Know why? Because any other grades or homerooms other than those listed mean that they're not invited. They don't get to kill off their peers and have nice shiny collars. Poor them.

This is something to consider in making your character, as well, but I'd figure that I'd make it clear before I went on with the next step.

Your first post essentially either makes or breaks the initial impression you gave with your character profile, and as such, you should do well with both. You can have the creative, original, intriguing character, but post a one-liner to introduce this in depth character, and he or she is screwed. If anything, your introduction should probably be one of your longer posts, as should any turning point of your character, or even death post, should be. Because it's guaranteed that if no one reads any of your other posts ever again, they'll have at least seen your introduction.

[b]Let's Keep It Real[/b]

We can't tell you what style to use, after all it's your writing and we can't very well take too much depth into telling you how to portray the character. However, we're going to bitch if we can tell you're not portraying your own character. Remember these common sense tips:

Your loner and assholish character is not going to walk straight up to a group and go, "Hey, what's up?"

The shy, quiet character is not going to bitchslap the preppy cheerleader and then go on a rampage of teen angst.

See where I'm going with this? Don't misroleplay your character just because it might draw more attention. Because when anyone else sees that, they look back at your profile and see the exact opposite, and you might as well have a painted red sign that says "stupid" on your forehead. If you cannot roleplay the character you created, then make one you can RP with. It's as simple as that.

[b]Setting the Scene[/b]

Be sure if your character is not the first to be posted in a thread that they are not contradicting the previous character's descriptions. Some of the first posters in a thread get the lucky break of having more to describe about the room, settings, and whatever else they feel like addressing. Do not screw these up. The room is not going to be blue one second then light yellow the next. Any description they left out, just gives you more to work with as you bring your character into the story.

Things to consider with the setting are the amount of characters already in the thread, what they're doing, and what you're planning on doing that will either help the plot, or hinder it. Preferrably, you want to keep it to the former. Just make sure to read the thread, and introduce your character in a way that is unique to the character, but not overbearing to the others.

[b]Save the Drama For Yo' Mama[/b]

Drawing attention is a plus, yes, but is only worthy of doing if it's good attention. And there are so, many, many ways to get the bad attention. Like that of the immediately dramatic introductions. They are, the majority of the time, annoying. If you're moving in on a thread that's already started, the characters are not going to stop what they were doing to bow down to the student's entrance.

This is not to say that your character should be completely invisible. Sometimes, if the post isn't completely moronic, other handlers will post their characters recognizing you. The main trick, I'm spilling the secret, is to advertise your character subtly. That is done through your writing abilities, and how well you roleplay in general. Be descriptive of your character, flow well in your paragraphs, and generally abide by all grammatical and spelling norms and this can be relatively simple to accomplish.

[b]Mingle With The Rest of Us[/b]

The SOTF moderators, members, and administrators are not robots. We are friendly for the most part, and don't bite. So, if you're having trouble getting a good start, and need a little push in the right direction, we're here to help. Really, we want you to ask us if you don't understand something (and have read EVERYTHING). Maybe I should reiterate that little side note: you really have to read what has been posted previously before you ask us lest we suffer from our heads colliding with our computer desks. Sometimes even the wall, repeatedly.

Ahem.

In all honesty, we will help you even then, but at least consider our poor little brains.