Guide To The Site

When you first arrive at the site, your first move would probably be to start roleplaying, right? Not quite.

1. About The Site
2. Registering and Naming Your Character
3. Application Information
4. Guide To Making A Roleplay Post
5. Plotting & Relationships
6. Writing Like An Intermediate/Advanced Roleplayer
7. Giving More Character Information
8. A Guide To BB CODE

ABOUT THE SITE

As you may have noticed, this is a Harry Potter roleplay. It is set during Goblet of Fire, but with a difference. We started the storyline at the point a couple of weeks before Harry returned to school for his fourth year and allowed free reign as far as friendships and relationships were concerned. This in turn changed the dynamics of the year group, with quite a few changes.

There are many different groups of friends now within the roleplay, including but not limited to: Harry's gang, the animagus group, Neville's gang, the older students, the professors and the adults. Many characters are a member of several of these, for example, Freddie Marinov is a member of the first three on the list as that is how his storyline has played out so far.

Old rivalries seem to have been put on the backburner as the structure has changed - there are many loves, hates and disinterests. However, all are united in one common goal - making sure that, if the Dark Lord were to return, he would be defeated as soon as possible.

One thing you will notice about the site is that there are many canons with different sexualities to those stated in the books. This was not a conscious decision made by us, just the way things have turned out so far. However, characters of any sexuality are very welcome and will be made to feel so. If you have a problem with homosexuality then this probably isn't the place for you.

REGISTERING AND NAMING YOUR CHARACTER

Register with your character's first and surname in your username (eg. Bob Smith). Don't use a 'screen name' - eg. xxdRaCoxx or iloveharry06.

Now, the matter of choosing the name.

QUOTE

Naming Guide You have a character planned out; you know their likes, dislikes, habits, qualities and faults. All you need is a name. I feel it is important that names mean something, and that they aren't simply selected because an actress or movie character we like has the same name: originality is important. This guide will hopefully help you in the quest to find the right name for your character. House The first thing I would suggest would be to work out the House they will be in. Although you may disagree with me on this, I think that most of the HP Characters have unusual names, and this is extremely important. -Slytherins, for instance, tend to have unusual names; Lucius, Draco, Bellatrix, Narcissa, Regulus, etc. I think it’s very unlikely that any of your friends have these names, and therefore when selecting a name for a Slytherin character, their name should not be a familiar one. -Gryffindor seems to have a mix of common and uncommon names. Harry, for example, is a common name, but Hermione isn’t. Ron, Dennis, Colin, Dean, and Katie are all common. Percy, Minerva, Ginerva, Albus, Sirius, and Remus are uncommon. Notice that most of the uncommon names are adult names, whereas the common are mainly students. -Ravenclaw is also a fair mixture; Michael, Terry, Roger and Anthony are all common names, whereas Penelope, Marietta, Luna, and Orla are uncommon. Rowena is uncommon, and Lisa common, almost a split amount. Of course, I’m not including ethnic names here. This gives Ravenclaws a fairly steady leeway in their naming. -Hufflepuff almost has all common names. Cedric, Hannah, Susan, and Ernie are all common, Amelia and Amos being the two uncommon names -- and both of them adults. Here I would suggest that all names should be common, with the exception of adult characters. Ethnic The next thing you may choose to look at is the characters ethnic background; if they were born and raised in India it is unlikely they’ll have the name Mary. Although Britain is set in England, there are a few characters from other countries in the books, too. An example of these would be; -Cho -Parvati -Padma -Seamus All of the above four have ethnic names. An excellent place for ethnic names is Behind the Name where they have a wide range of worldwide names. Another good ethnic name site would be Cool-Baby-Names [dot] com, which has an excellent search feature that allows you to search by male/female, and the origin. It then gives you a list of all the results, in alphabetical order, with their name meanings. Perfect for a writer, don’t you think? For African and Afrocentric names I recommend The Name Site which has brilliant name lists with origins, meaning, pronunciation, country, and more. Mythology Mythology is another thing JKR uses a lot in her names. An example would be Minerva McGonagall. According to The Nine Muses ‘Minerva is a Roman version of the greek name Athena, who aided the heroes Perseus, Jason, Cadmus and Heracles in their quests.’ This fits rather well, as McGonagall does help Dumbledore, Harry and the Order a lot in the books, and we have hints that she will be helping Harry in the future (anyone remember the scene in OotP where she promised to help Harry get into Auror training?) Minerva is also ‘the Roman goddess of wisdom, medicine, the arts, dyeing, science and trade, and war.’ This, too, fits in well with Minerva McGonagall’s personality and position. Sibyl Trelawney is another example of a Mythological name. Again taken from The Nine Muses: ‘"Sibyl", in Greek and Roman mythology, was any woman inspired with prophetic power by the god Apollo. The sibyls lived in caves or near streams and prophesied in a frenzied trance, usually in Greek hexameters, which were handed down in writing. "Trelawney" may come from Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's well-known play "Trelawney of the "Wells" (1898), about life in a theatrical company. Pinero is a British author, and JKR tends to get a lot of names from famous British people. Jenna theorizes that she could be named for Trelawney, hero of a Cornish poem called 'And Shall Trelawney Die?' This is perhaps a reference to her custom of telling one student a year he will die before its end.’ Arthur Weasley is another character with a mythological background; ‘Arthur is a possible reference to King Arthur. The World Book says, 'There are two versions of the events that led to Arthur's death. Both say he fought a war against Roman emperor Lucius.'’ For more information on Canon Character Mythology go here, which is where most of this information was taken from. Helpful Sites -Behind the Name // Mythology on Behind the Name -Cool-Baby-Names [dot] com -The Name Site -Godchecker’s Greek Mythology Encyclopaedia -Loggia.com Mythology -Mythology Guide -Greek Mythology Encyclopaedia -Greek Mythology Names Many thanks to Moira for all the help with this, particularly with the Mythology section. Copyrighted to Jess of RPG-D and Envious Magic.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

This is the application form, which should be filled out with as much detail as you can. It need not be overly long as long as it gives detail, which makes it easier for the reviewing staff to make decisions such as house placement or whether to accept the application.

QUOTE

Name: (Your character's full name, as well as any nicknames they might have) Subject: (If your character is a teacher, what subject do they teach?) Height: (In centimetres or feet & inches) Weight: (In kilograms or stones & pounds) Nationality: (All countries are accepted.) Birthday: (Obvious, really) Preferred House: (You won't necessarily be sorted into this house if your character doesn't fit) Year: (Currently not accepting non-canon 4th years) Age: (Quite obvious, this one) Appearance: (Eyes? Hair? Body type? Clothing style? It's all good, and we want to know about it) Personality: (Give lots of information - strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, wants, fears, aspirations... No Mary-Sues or Gary-Stus, please) History: (Detail is the key. Tell us about their childhood, their previous schooling, family - basically anything that has happened to them. Please make this a decent length) Best Subject(s): (If applicable. Why is it their favourite? How long have they liked it for?) Worst Subject(s): (If applicable. What makes them hate it so much?) Other Information: (Anything else you want to share about your character) Roleplay Sample: (Give a sample of your usual roleplay post. We're not looking for a novel, but it should be a reasonable length) What is the key word? (I'll leave this one for you to find out - it's not too far away, if you look hard enough)

Guide To Making A Roleplay Post

This is a basic guide to making a roleplay post. For a more detailed version, scroll down.

First things first, you have to decided what your post is. Is it a reply to an existing thread, or are you starting a new topic? If it is a new topic that has already been planned, you can skip this step. If, however, it is an open topic, you should try to think of something original to make people interested enough to reply. If you are replying to a pre-existing topic, make sure that it is tagged as open before you post as you may otherwise find yourself barging into something.

Please use good spelling and grammar. This is one of the major rules as it is important that your post can be clearly understood and will be interpreted correctly. Don't use text talk, unless your character is reading a text message/email within the post - also, bear in mind that not everyone's first language will be English.

No douple posting - that means, please edit your post if you have something to add instead of posting again straight away. The key-word is jam. There will be exceptions on occasion, but other than that this rule applies all the time.

If you wish for a thread to be over the PG-13 rating (ie. the R rating), please place this rating in the subtitle. If you wish to do an NC-17 roleplay, either take it to the XXX forum (PM TurkFox for the password) or take it to PMs.

Please don't change colours or fonts in your posts - this makes it harder to read and may confuse people or clash with the board colours. This doesn't apply in the Plotting area.

Posts should be at least five lines long, preferably more. I know that sometimes it can be hard to come up with a novel-length post every time, so it will be overlooked on occasion. However, if it becomes more regular, you will receive a warning. This doesn't apply to out-of-character posts.

Plotting & Relationships

There are many ways to get started on the site but the easiest is to ask! PM a member whose character profile interests you, post a general call-out in the chatbox, the list is endless. You could also start an open topic somewhere on the site and wait for people to reply.

Once you've got started roleplaying, you may wish to make a plotting thread. There is an example here. This is the only part of the site where different colours and fonts are allowed, so you can make it very attractive and interesting.

Writing Like An Intermediate/Advanced Roleplayer

QUOTE

Writing Like An Intermediate/Advanced RP'er It is obvious that there is a certain standard you must adhere to for intermediate/advanced RPG boards. You know that writing a post on an intermediate/advanced RPG board is like writing a little novella. It has to be rich in detail, descriptions of surroundings, people and thoughts, but also with dialogue; good interesting dialogue. This is what to do to RP at an intermediate/advanced RPG. However, what you may not know, or are struggling with, or maybe just in need of a little reference, is how to RP like this. The aim of this documentation is to provide tips on how to achieve this combination of requirements in order to create an intermediate/advanced post. Hopefully after reading, you will have an even better idea as to what makes an interesting and exciting post that captures attention and demands to be read. Planning You'd be surprised just how much it helps to jot down what the main points of your post is going to be. You could layout out the rough content of the paragraphs, or you could write the thoughts, actions and speech you character may use, whatever is helpful. Use More Descriptive Language While you must leave some things up to the reader’s imagination, that’s not to say that you should abandon them in a text filled only with dialogue and nouns, leaving them to think up complete descriptions of things themselves. It is supposed to be you telling the story, not them. So, Don’t: Eleanor looked at the dress laid before her as it rested upon her bed. She picked it up and looked at it for what seemed like hours. Her eyes flicked across it over and over, absorbing every detail. ‘Well?’ he finally asked, ‘Do you not like it?’ ‘Oh no! I love it!’ she exclaimed, waving her hand in dismissal of the suggestion. Do: Eleanor looked at the shimmering dress laid gently before her as it rested on her soft bed. Yet then she picked it up and looked at it for what seemed like hours, a look of surprised delight resting upon her face. Her eyes flicked across it over and over, absorbing every detail. It was a silky and delicate green, sparkling and shining in the light. ‘Well?’ he finally asked, a doubtful look upon his face, ‘Do you not like it, is it the colour?’ ‘Oh no! I love it!’ she exclaimed excitedly, waving her hand in polite dismissal of the suggestion. Use Similes, Metaphors and Personification A simile is like a comparison, often making use of the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. E.g. ‘The colour is like that of a raspberry.’ A metaphor is when one thing is said to be another in order to achieve a greater effect or emphasis. E.g. ‘Her eyes are windows to her soul.’ The eyes aren’t really windows, but this does create a more interesting sentence than simply naming the colour or shape of the eyes. Personification is when you apply (usually) human traits/abilities (etc.) to something that is not human, again to make things more interesting. E.g. ‘The cold clawed at them with its icy nails.’ Don’t: The hot sun burnt their skin as they walked through the scorching desert. Do: The sun’s gaze was harsh and unrelenting, beating upon their shoulders like a red-hot whip. The desert was a hell from which they would never escape. Don’t Reveal Everything At Once In order to keep people engrossed in the story you lay before them, you should not hand everything to them on a silver platter. That is, if you have introduced a new scene, or a new person, don’t just reel off everything about them. Instead, reveal bit by bit throughout the paragraph, page, or even post. E.g. Don’t: Eleanor entered the room, she wore a long, white dress that hung to the floor and her light hair lay gently upon her shoulders as she looked at him with blue eyes. She had been in the gardens, singing with the birds, such a beautiful voice she had. She was tired and needed to sleep, such a long day it had been. Do: A gentle knock there was upon the wooden door, yet no answer could he give before it creaked slowly open upon its hinges. A pale hand reached around it and followed a vision of white entering gracefully as if borne in by angel’s wings. Unhurriedly, she closed the door behind her as if she was somehow unwilling to shut out nature, unwilling to place a divide between them as the birds still sang their songs outside, pleading for her to sing to them just once more. Then her eyes turned to his, a knowing glance she cast upon him, looking without permission but unhindered into his soul. They were as circles of blue staring at him, focusing on his true thoughts, his deep desires. A smile stretched across her lips as she walked closer to him, her dress brushing lightly across the floor. ‘Eleanor-,’ ‘Shhh, my love.’ She soothed, her voice tender and calm like the first morning rays of the sunrise. Try Phrasing Things In Different Ways Often, a sentence sounds much more interesting when said in a different way. Hard to explain without examples so here goes. Sometimes one way will sound better than the other, so once you get used to changing the sentence around, you can decide for each case, which sounds better (Hint: a lot of the time, you are changing from active to passive sentences and vice versa). The arrow pierced his heart, mortally wounding him. ---> He was mortally wounded by the arrow that pierced his heart. He ran to save her as fast as he could. ---> To save her he ran as fast as he could Try to Avoid Unwanted Repetition Some repetition is ok, when it is intentional and sounds good. ‘The world hated him, she hated him, and most of all he hated himself.’ However, when you look over your post and notice that you have used the same adjective several times when describing your settings, characters and thoughts, or even worse, if you have repeated similes and metaphors, then you know you need to revise a little. It doesn’t take too long to use a thesaurus or take a moment to think of a different word, but it does make the post look better by far. Obviously you can’t avoid repeating some things, just try and keep it minimal! Make Dialogue More Than Idle Chat and React To Actions Really get into your character, think you are your character when you post. Pretend what the other person has posted, what they have said to your character, they have said to you. If you were that character, how would you react? You react in some way to everything that is said and done to you, so why should you ignore dialogue and actions in your post? So, try to get a reaction appropriate for you character, don’t move out of character. One of the worst things you can do is act out of character and make your profile meaningless. Two Main Reactions React physically or mentally or both! Think of your character as an actual person, and as a person, they will be happy, angry etc. sometimes they might lash out, or even plant a kiss. Either way, make sure you react, keep things interesting, and make the thread more like one flowing story as opposed to two or more people fighting for their own stories, and not reacting to one another. Afterthoughts Don’t forget at the end of the post, your character’s afterthoughts. From all the actions and reactions, how do they feel? Has their opinion changed about the other character(s)? What are they now thinking? With all of the above, you should get a good idea on how you can make those intermediate/advanced RPs you're after! 'Writing Like An Intermediate/Advanced RPer' written by Andy of http://rpg-directory.com

Giving More Character Information

If you feel you'd like to develop your character further, you can post a more advanced profile in the Character Development area. Advanced members and staff will help you with what you need to work on to improve your character.

This feature is also available for those who want to improve their roleplaying.

A Guide To BB CODE

QUOTE

-Introduction BB Code is Basically the [/i]'s and [URL]'s of the world. they are those little diddies that go on either side of parts of posts to enable you to underline a section or make some of your writing bold. With BB Code you can even add URL's to your post. In RPG forums these give your post a bit more fun into it. Makes it like your talking... Kinda Of. You can go about adding these to your posts by...using the buttons above your post (If your not using Quick Reply) or... typing these codes into your post -The Code's Making your text bold. CODE [b]I like bold text[/b] I like bold text Crossing something out. CODE [s]That's wronger than wrong[/s] That's wronger than wrong Making something italic. CODE [i]fancy[/i] fancy Underlining Something. CODE [U]URGENT[/U] URGENT Making an e-mail address Clickable. CODE [email]fakeemail@notrealdomain.co.uk[/email] fakeemail@notrealdomain.co.uk Making a URL Clickable. CODE [url]http://rpg-directory.com/[/url] http://rpg-directory.com/ Making a URL say something else. CODE [url=http://rpg-directory.com/]RPG-D[/url] RPG-D Changing font size. CODE [size=8]BIGger than usual[/size] BIGger than usual Changing Font. CODE [FONT=Times]New Font?[/FONT] New Font? Changing font color. Red Red Adding a list. CODE [list][*]Follow Rules[*]Be nice to other members[/list] Follow Rules Be nice to other members Numbering Things. CODE [list=1][*]One[*]Two[/list] One Two Lettering Things CODE [list=a][*]Aye[*]bee[/list] [list=a] Aye Bee Roman Numeraling Things. CODE [list=i][*]One[*]Two[/list] One Two Superscript things. CODE [sup]Text[/sup] He lived at 42nd and 3rd Written by _thursday at RPG Directory

I like bold text


Crossing something out.

That's wronger than wrong


Making something italic.

fancy


Underlining Something.

URGENT


Making an e-mail address Clickable.

fakeemail@notrealdomain.co.uk


Making a URL Clickable.

http://rpg-directory.com/


Making a URL say something else.

RPG-D


Changing font size.

BIGger than usual


Changing Font.

New Font?


Changing font color.
Red
Red


Adding a list.

• Follow Rules
  
• Be nice to other members
  
  
  Numbering Things.
  

1. One
   
2. Two
   

Lettering Things

[list=a]

Aye

Bee

Roman Numeraling Things.

1. One
   
2. Two
   

Superscript things.

He lived at 42^nd and 3^rd


Written by _thursday at RPG Directory