Your Life in New Haven City [Role Play Guide]

A basic and simple guide to help those new to Role Playing or Members unsure of where to start on the site.

Table of Contents

• Role Playing & New Haven City
  
• Before, During, & After Creation
  
• Waiting for Approval & Review from Staff
  
• Starting to Role Play

What's Role Playing? Role Playing generally means that you are pretending to be someone else. You are 'playing' the 'role' of an imaginary figure that you create. You are essentially putting on a mask and living the life of said imaginary figure of your creation and interacting with others doing the same.

There many different types of Role Playing Games. By far, the most famous and known types are video games where you create a character, often times choosing their name, appearance, weapons, skills, and attributes and taking part in a storyline with said character. In these kinds of RPGs you generally move about and interact with others through graphics on a computer or video game console. The best examples are the Final Fantasy series and Pokemon series.

So what's the difference between those kind of RPGs and this RPG? Well, to start off with there are no graphics or fancy program to keep track of how your character levels up, grows, and so forth. Nor do we know how the 'game' is going to end. Why? This is a Text-Based RPG. Meaning? You get to make your own character and pick your own weapons and what not, but you have to write it out with words.

But I suck at writing! No problem. All we ask is that you try your best: write in English, use punctuation marks, and Spell-Check above all else. Even if you're horrible at writing and don't know where the hell to put punctuation marks, as long as you can write in English and spell most of your words, then we can manage. The biggest problem is if you don't know how to write in English (which makes me wonder why you're here in the first place) and don't have the common sense to use a Spell-Check or Online Dictionary because you can Spell-Check your writings online and look up words online.

Yeah! I'm so ready to RP! ... But um... where do I start? That's easy. You see the Creation Section? Start there.

Make sure you read all the Rules, Guides, and Templates first though. This is where you'll start every-time you make a character. Before you actually start doing anything, think on a few things:

• Are you going to a boy or a girl?
  
• How old are you going to be?
  
• What Race & Class are you going to be?
  
• What rank will you be?
  
• What's your character going to be good at?
  
• Do you want special weapons?
  

Okay, so I've looked over the rules, guides, templates, AND managed to answer all of your questions. What now? Now you begin filling in the templates. Does it matter which one I do first? Honestly, it really doesn't matter what you fill out first, but most people do their character first, so I'd go with that. The only time I wouldn't do that is if you plan on having a bloodline and you're not sure if it'll get approved or not and it'll be a big part of your character's life. Then you might want to put up the bloodline first instead. But usually, go with the Character.

Alright, so all I gotta do is click "Character Creation", "New Topic", and copy and past the template and just fill it out, right? Wrong. Copy and paste the template to a word document. Save. Now, start filling it out on your word document. Just fill in the simple stuff like Name, Age, class, and so forth. When you're done with that save. Now start filling the more complicated things like appearance and personality. Save.

You sure like to save a lot... And why can't I just type it straight on the site? Well, I'd rather have my stuff saved than have to do it all over again because the computer crashes, screws up, or the Internet crashes. Its a lot easier that way. Anyway, if your character isn't going to have a long history, just type up their history and role play sample. Save. Now, Spell-Check it on the word document or copy and paste it onto an online Spell-Checker. Save. Re-read your history and role play sample. Fix any grammatical errors you might have. Save. NOW start a New Topic. Make sure you label the title correctly: Name [Class/Rank]

Hey wait, what if I have a really, really, REALLY long history? You can do the same thing, type it up on a word document and then post it up, OR just to let the staff know that you're still here and do plan on role playing, post it up in the Character Section, This is so that we know you're not done yet and don't reply to it with a bunch of "Add in your history" "Add a role play sample". Once you've posted it up, you type up the history on a word document and then post up parts of it onto your profile until you're finished.

Daaamn. That took forever! But I'm done now. Sooo what do I do? Well... basically after you put up your creations, wait for someone on the Creation Staff to check your things.

X.X You guys aren't checking my things! Make sure [WIP] isn't in the title before you start doing anything else. [color:7c52=blue]Its not in the title. How long has it been since you last posted in there? If its just been a few minutes or less than a day, just keep waiting. Its been two days since I last posted in there! Just post saying 'Bump' once a day until someone looks at it. I'VE BEEN DOING THAT FOR A WEEK NOW! Don't start yelling, that's for sure. Sorry, but I just don't want to wait this long. Well, remember that the Staff DOES have a life. But, if its been a week or more, GO ASK A CREATION MOD! YES ASK THEM! But I thought we weren't allowed to ask the Mods/Admins to approve our stuff? Its okay if its been at least a week and no one's looked at it. Just don't spam it into their Inbox or the Chat though. Just ask two or three times a day at most. They should get on it then. And if they don't? Well then, that's a serious problem right there. By now someone should have looked at it. Still, if for some reason they don't, PM an Admin right away or talk to them about it on the Chatbox if you can catch one.

T.T They finally started to check my stuff, but its not getting approved! What's wrong?! Well for starters, if you don't get an immediate Approval (most things don't), it usually means something's wrong. And most often, it means that your stuff are breaking the rules or aren't clear enough, meaning you COULD break the rules. Usually for Characters this means your rank is wrong, or your history is too short. Although sometimes it could just be that your writing skills don't live up to the rank you're applying for so they want you to start out at a lower rank unless you can show us that you're able to handle it. And in everything else it generally means that you're missing a weakness, you're not clear enough, or your weakness isn't that much of a weakness.

Awww, so I can't have it at all? Not necessarily. If you edit it some more you might get to keep it, but if they say its completely against the rules... you better remove it or edit it big time. The Mods should tell you what's wrong with your application and how you can fix it. So go from there. If they say you don't have a weakness, add in a weakness. If they ask you to clear something up, explain it a little more.

-_- All I've been doing is editing my stuff, and I made sure they weren't OP or breaking the rules either! They've even been approved on other sites I've been on, and those were pretty strict. So why aren't they getting approved? What's wrong now? Hmmm, Mods have been telling you your stuff doesn't fit the rules but you're 90%+ sure that your stuff fits the rules, huh? Prove that your things are okay and fit the rules. BUT DON'T ARGUE OR FIGHT. That'll only just make it worse. If a Mod is still saying your things aren't appropriate, ASK AN ADMIN. Yep, ask an Admin to look at your stuff. But don't do this with everything. This is only if you're 90% sure your stuff are good to go, you've tried to prove how its okay to the Mods, and they're still insisting that your stuff is OP. Whatever the Admin says, you go with.


WOOT! I AM READY TO RP! Hold up. Before you actually start RPing, at least make sure you're aware of the current storyline on the site and double-check any specific rules in your race/class. Don't start your own topic right away either. Check around, see if there are any open, promising topics that have just been started that your character could be involved in. Its a lot better to be able to RP with someone instead of ignoring an open person and making your own topic only to end up waiting days for someone to reply to.

And always, always, ALWAYS make sure you check the date that the topic was started on and the date of the last post after checking the title for [Private]. (Of course, never post in [Private] topics unless you've been told that you need to or was allowed to). There really is no point in posting in dead topics. Most of the time we'll be able to move the Dead Topics, but we may miss some on occasion. As such, just kindly PM a member of the staff that said topic is dead. What's a dead topic? Generally speaking, a dead topic is a topic that hasn't had a post in a week or more.

This should be obvious but... NEVER post in the Historical Archives unless its Creation Related. Say what? Meaning, if you posted up something but never finished it and you find it say, two months later and decide you are going to finish it and use it, you can post in it and ask for it to be moved back. (But it'd be better if you just PMed a member of the staff to move it back for you.)

That's it, RIGHT? No. WHAT? Kidding, kidding. That's pretty much it. Just remember: obey the rules! Yea, yeah, whatever. I'm serious! Long as you follow the rules you should be okay! Suuuure thing. Well, have fun then Guest, enjoy your time here on New Haven City.

--New Haven City Staff

These rules apply to when one is Role Playing and In Character.

When To Role Play

General RPing

Basically, once your character has been approved you may start RPing, but you can not use any jutsus, weapons, items, bloodlines, seals, spirits/demons, summonings, or creatures until they have been approved. It is suggest that if you do begin RPing after your character is Approved you only participate in Conversational RPs.
Violent RPs

For RPs that invovle fighting or violence of some fashion, you may participate in them even if only your character has been Approved, but you'll be limited to only what a human's physical body can do and the Basic Academy Jutsu. If your weapons/items are approved you may use them in a fight. If your bloodline gets approved you may use them in a fight. So, if your stuff is approved you can use them. If they aren't, you can't. Keep this in mind when entering any topic. It is not the staff or the site's problem if your character gets killed because you were 'defenseless' when you yourself knew none of your creations were Approved.

Topics

Titles

When make your own topic, please make sure to name your topic accordingly. The topic should be similar to a title of a book, meaning, it should show some insight as to what you wish to do in the topic. Generally there are three categories: Fighting, Conversing, and Surprise. Fighting generally means your topic is going to 99% have a fight in it from the beginning to the end. Conversing topics generally mean there won't be any violence and is primarily there for characters to get to know each other IC and not MetaGame. Surprise is well... surprise. Whatever happens in the topic happens, meaning it could turn into a fighting topic or a conversation topic. So, keep this in mind when choosing a title. If you put something like "Full scale war" you're probably going to get high leveled characters and get involved with a fight. "Going out for dinner" sounds more like you're out and about for a stroll, making new friends, finding out more about the world around you rather than causing fights or dying. "What Awaits in the Forests" seems like it could go either way or even go both ways. Choosing a title can make the difference between being ignored or getting someone to RP with, so make it brief, sensible, and descriptive.
Tittle Tags

When you're making a topic or about to enter a topic, pay attention to what tags are in the title. Generally we'll use these tags: [Private] for closed RPs that may only involve certain people of the person's choosing. [Death] for RPs that have an extremely high risk of the death of your characters in it. [Mature/X Rated] for RPs that may contain X Rated material. [Open] for RPs that are generally open to anyone who wishes to join (this does not have to be added as its understood to be open unless you have [Private] in the title). [No Death] for topics that won't end in death or have the possibility of death (again this does not have to be added as its understood to be no death unless stated otherwise in the title). Sooo, lesson here? Enter a [Death] Topic and die, too bad for your character. Enter a [Private] Topic and get yelled at or flamed, again too bad, you were already warned. Enter/Read a [Mature/X Rated] Topic and complain, too bad. You were warned and we're not responsible. (NOW, if someone didn't label their topic properly, you can complain and probably should.)

Posts
[list]Size/Length

Additionally, do not post one liners. The only place you could post one liners and get away with it is in the general discussion in spam topics. That place is meant for one liners and spam and what not. But everywhere else you should give at least a paragraph or if you can't do that, two sentences. Don't just put something like 'I don't like it.' or 'I love this idea.'.

]Grammar & Punctuation[/u]

Also, please try to use proper grammar when posting at all times (unless its in general discussion, spam topics). And this should be obvious, but type in English please. It doesn't help at all if you're typing in a language we can't understand. (And quite frankly, if you can't type in English or read English... we are wondering why you are here in the first place. You don't have to know it well, just enough so that you can RP with other people.) Use a spellcheck! (And don't you dare counter with 'I don't have spellcheck.' You have access to the Internet; therefore, you have access to an online spellchecker. USE IT!)

Remember! Hit preview before you post things and just skim through your post. Fix errors, and change things if it looks weird, too small, too big, unreadable, etc. The old excuse of 'I didn't know it'd look like that.' isn't acceptable at all when you have a preview option. So add in those periods, commas, question marks, and quotation marks.
Formatting

Do not CAPTILALIZE, bold, italicize, underline, blind, size, or font your posts in a manner that we can not read. (Do not capitalize, bold, italicize, underline, blind, size, or font your posts in a manner that we can not read.) Please. Use common sense on this one: if we can't read it, we won't read it. Its okay if you do it for small sections of your posts, but if you do it for your whole entire post it hurts the eyes and no one will actually read it. It's just wasting your time and our time. If you're going to change the font for the whole post, please keep it to a readable font like Arial or Times New Roman; and if you're going to change the size for the whole post go up or down one size only. Everything else should be common sense.

The DO NOTS

Meta-Gaming

You can not and do not know everything about someone else’s character. Even if you are their sister or brother or mother or father, you do not know everything about them. You may know a lot about them, but not everything.) Your knowledge about other people’s characters grows as you continue to Role Play. What you know about people can be learned about in their "Public Profile", things not listed or told of there shouldn't be known by you unless you're related to them IC or have RPed with them before and learned it from them.

Additionally, most, if not all, RPs are happening at different time frames. The general rule of thumb is that if a topic was started before you started a topic it could have been weeks or even months ago. If the time frame between two different topics are only a few hours apart, then you may or may not use that to your advantage in your topic (but your character must know of this IC in some way or it will be considered Meta-Gaming). But, doing so when topics are a day or more apart is an absolute no. And said topic may be voided or asked for an edit (if caught early enough).
God-Modding

You can not absolutely positively control anyone's movements asides from your own or your NPCs. And in regards to this, you CAN NOT dodge every single attack thrown at you. And you CAN NOT hit everyone and everything. Just because you can walk on walls does not mean that you're G/god. Nor can you 'suddenly' appear behind your opponent or somewhere else because you are 'fast'. Granted, SOME people can move extremely fast on this site, but not everyone can. And even if you can move extremely fast, you can not suddenly stop either, you have to gradually come to a stop.

It is advised that you do not use absolutes, but rather 'if' words like possibly, likely, might, should, would, could, probably, ought to, may, etc. These kind of words will definitely mean that you aren't God-Modding, or they should...


Controlling Time

The time in an individual topic is dependent on the one who created the topic. If the creator did not state the time or even hint at a time, the next poster may do so. Until the time is established by someone its up for grabs, after that you must comply to whatever time someone chose.

Do note that in most RPs, the time is very different from real life. In fights, the longer the battle progresses the less and less the time frame gets. Attacks are now happening in minutes and seconds rather than two or three minutes at a time. So be extremely careful in how you word things. In fighting topics what you type can determine whether you live, die, or abuse the rules. In conversational RPs this really isn't that big of a deal, since this can usually be edited quite easily with little harm, but in fighting topics? No. Generally, when you misuse time you have to rewrite your whole entire post and the other person has a better idea of what to expect, so to save yourself the trouble, arguing, and so forth, please, please, please remember that in fights you have less and less control of time. If you ever want to confirm on the time in an RP, OOC it, ask it on the CB, or through a PM.

This rule does not apply to the setting though. If you started an RP and didn't explain the area in detail and your opponent does so in a way that is to their advantage before you do it is completely fair. You'll just have to deal with it. So, before you come complaining that someone's controlling the time and setting, make sure you didn't just forget to describe the time and setting and they just took advantage of that.