The Basics

We love to see a mix of experienced and new players. However, we know if can be hard to know where to start. If you're new to forum style RP-ing, here are the basics.

• CANONS. This is a list of all the individuals on the island. You can take anyone who is listed as "open" and develop them as your own character to play.

• APPLICATION. At Springwell, we have a freestyle app. That means you can essentially write however you would like. Some ideas include writing a narrative, creating a mock interview with your character, sectioning out the parts of their lives, etc. If it absolutely up to you. The point of this app is to help you get into your character and to help other players get a feel for them as well.

If you are unsure on technicalities of posting the app, please let an admin know and we'd be happy to help out.

• PLAY-BY. A play-by is any famous person whose face you use as the face of your character. It helps everyone to have a visual! The choice of person is up to you.

• CLAIMS. Once you are accepted, you will post a face claim. This just ensures that your play-by is yours, and helps everyone know whose face goes with which character.

• SHIPPING/PLOTTING Your next step is to make a shipping post. Here you should outline the basics of your characters' personality and describe what kinds of people would be his/her friends, enemies, and romantic interests. You and other players can then plot what sorts of interactions you might want between your characters. You can post in the shipping threads of any other character as well.

• THREADS. The real playing happens here! If you have something figured out with another player, one of you will start a thread and you can go back and forth with interactions and dialogue (bolded). Include as much detail as you would like.

You can also post open ended threads, which allow any player to jump in. In the "topic description", make sure to note whether the thread is open or for a particular character.

• FORMATTING. You may notice many of our players use formatting to pretty up their posts. You are not required to use formatting. If you aren't familiar with it and would like to learn more though, please ask us. We also have very simple text-only formatting codes available in the Help Desk forum.

If you have any questions about any part, you can PM the admins (Bee and Phoenix) or just post in the cbox--the chat section in the left sidebar.