Steelsings Tamora Pierce Fansite | Being an Awesome Newbie

How To Be An Awesome Newbie
by Fio and Cams

Step one: Behaviour in the chat

1.1 - Having your character interact

Characters will talk, move and think. How can you recognize what a character is doing? By having a look at the punctuation. A character speaking will look like this:

[Bob] I heard there'd been a bar fight here a week ago.

A character picking his nose as he says that will look like this:

[Bob] *Lifts a hand up to his nose, sticking his pinky into his left nostril* I heard there'd been a bar fight here a week ago.

Your character is Scanran and doesn't speak a word of Tortallan? It'll look like this:

[Bob] *Lifts a hand up to his nose, sticking his pinky into his left nostril and growling in Scanran* :: I heard there'd been a bar fight here a week ago. ::

For more information and help on the process of roleplaying at Steelsings, check out the How to Roleplay tutorial.

1.2 - Making yourself known

Every character has a PM, a puppet master. You yourself are one, and as a member you have a right to make yourself known and to make friends with the others. The simplest way to do that is to introduce yourself like you would when arriving at a party where you don't know anyone. For example:

[Lilly] (Hello everyone, I'm Lilly.)
[Bob] (Hey Lilly, I'm Cristopher. I play Bob!)
[Lilly] (Hey Cristopher! Glad to meet you!)

And that's it! You have just met Cristopher, the puppet master who controls the nose-picking, Scanran character called Bob! Notice the parenthesis - they're here to show it's not the character speaking but the puppet master.

1.3 - Etiquette

Remember that the people behind the characters are real people. When you're talking to them, make sure you stay polite. Please try not to start debates like politics or religion--the chat is a place where people come to relax and have fun. Let's not start on angry matters.

1.4 - Wanna be known?

Your best bets for getting people to care for your character are:

Be present regularly. Come in at least once a week, and hopefully more often than that.
Be active. Don't just sit and watch, get involved.
Be interested in other characters. If your character pays attentention to other characters, listening and giving help and talking, those characters are in turn more likely to pay attention to your character.
Get to know the people behind the characters. Behind all of those characters is another person like you, and you can make great friends. Once a person is interested in you, they're more likely to be interested in your character. You best chances for getting to know other people at the RP are the messageboard, idle chat before and after RPs (and some OOC chat, if it's a very slow RP night), and talking with them over AIM, MSN Messenger, and other such messenger services.

There's an inherent drawback to the internet, in that you can watch people without them watching you. Basically, you can lurk in the chat room and watch other people roleplaying, and after a while of this you feel as if you really -know- their characters. This is all very well - but unless you're in there playing too, they don't know you at all. You may feel as if these people are your best friends and suddenly burst in saying hi and expecting them to greet you like old friends. But all they do is to say hi in return and then continue on their business, and you feel hurt, rejected by these people you thought were so nice. Relax--they ARE nice, they just don't know you, and they haven't had the chance to watch you like you've watched them. Just hang in there, keep coming back and talking to them, and you'll have friends soon enough.

Step two: Some FAQs

How does my character join the Rogue?

Everything you need to know can be found in the Rogue Tutorial. If you don't follow the described joining process, you will not be allowed into the Rogue.

Can my character already be a rogue in Corus?

Only (and we really do mean only) if that character is a very low-level rogue. Even so, you must alert the Roleplay Heads if you choose to do this.

You can, however, make a rogue from another city or country, though this is not usually allowed for your first (hopeful) character.

Why can't I have a Wildmage/Yamani/Shang/Immortal character?

Because they're difficult to play, overdone and often badly done, and because we said so. If you wish to know more, feel free to contact one of the mentors or Roleplay Heads.

What's Art Theft? Why does it matter?

Art Theft is when you take a photo or picture and use it for your character-- either on your website or as an avatar-- and don't ask permission or credit. Not only is this rude, but it is technically a breach of copyright law.

Specifically, we can't use images taken from Getty Images, because the images from there contain a digital watermark that makes it possible to track them across the internet. Getty has recently been getting stricter about use of their art, so there is now a complete ban on using images from this site for banners and avatars.

In all cases, we take Art Theft very seriously, as it could very possibly lead to our RP getting shut down. The usual three strikes and you're out rule applies here.

Why won't you lay off my grammar/spelling/punctuation!! Why does it matter??!!

It matters because this RP is completely text based and no1 really wants 2 r34d i+ if u typ lik this. If you seem to be having a trouble with proper grammar, we'll ask you privately to try and correct it. Mainly we like seeing proper punctuation. If you aren't sure, use a spellchecker or ask a mentor. If you repeatedly use net and leetspeak, even after being asked to stop, we will probably use disciplinary action. It's frustrating for us to read, especially when we're reading your profile. It makes us feel you're not putting any effort into the game.

What are you looking for in Hopefuls and Newbies?

Why, thank you for asking! Mostly, we're just looking for courteous, really interested people. If these qualities apply to you, you should have no problems making a good profile and fitting in to the Steelsings community. We can and will tell if we feel you're being rude. Rude includes no effort put into your profile or typing, being exasperated or snippy with the mentors, or breaking the rules. Check out the other tutorials for more tips and suggestions.

Step three: Asking for Help

If you feel you can't get a grasp of this, never be afraid to ask for help. Some users will have the mention "Mentor" in their status--they're the mentors, and it is their job to help you. Not only that, but they're happy to. They can take you in a private chatroom for a one-on-one roleplay where you can choose which character of theirs you want and try your hand at RPing for as long as you want until you feel ready. We're not here to crit your character anymore - we're here at your service to make your roleplaying experience more enjoyable.

There are also two Roleplay Heads running around. These are the gals who keep the roleplay running, and they're mentors as well. They'll be very happy to help you out just like everyone else, but they're also the people to go to if you have a serious problem, such as feeling bullied or uncomfortable. Specifically, if the problem is with a mentor, they are absolutely the people to go to.

A list of who the current mentors and roleplay heads are can be found on the Who's Who page.

Step four: Unwritten Rules

Just like in real life, your character has to be introduced to someone to know their name. Alternately, you can overhear it from other people, but that still wouldn't warrant walking up to them and saying "Hey Lyra, how's it going?" completely out of the blue.
Don't overpost. This means that when you're RPing with one or two other people and there's a certain posting order (Bob, Jane, Bob, Jane; Bob, Jane, John, Bob, Jane, John), try not to post before other players have had a chance to react to your character's post. Similarly, try not to double post by adding more information onto your previous post; try to get it all in the first post.
There are two ways to enter an RP session: "entering" and "phasing in". Entering is would look like: *walks in, dragging a sack*. Phasing in would be: *is sitting at the bar, drinking ale*. At the beginning of the roleplay session, you can phase in or enter, but once it's started, phasing in and pretending to have been there all along is a bad idea. It's godmodding because things that happened probably would have happened differently if your character had been there all along.
Two words: Spelling counts. Three more: Grammar counts, too. Seven more for good measure: Netspeak is evil. Never use it again.
Don't confuse In-Character (IC) and Out of Character (OOC). If one character is rude to yours, it doesn't mean the player of that character dislikes you. If someone tells you OOC that their character was a circus clown before coming to the Inn, this doesn't mean that your character knows it, too.
If the roleplay is really busy, don't expect everyone to drop everything and greet you. They're not being mean the same way that, if you enter a really intense discussion and everyone is too busy with the discussion to ask you how your day was, those people aren't being mean to you.
Don't poof your characters. You, in OOC, can go *poofs* when you want to go away, but you character will not *poof*. Last time that happened, there was this whole pandemonium because a newbie made their character poof away. Some other char freaked out because he thought it was magic, and other characters went wondering wtf was wrong with the poofing character.

Step five: Guess what? It's a game!

Have fun, relax, and stop thinking about real life for awhile.