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An idea struck Garret like lightning once he saw Alice quickly moving to and from the board. He quickly stood up and moved with a slight bit more purpose than usual and wrote in his tall letters rather quickly something, then erased it because he realized it was eligible and re-wrote the word "Willingness to learn" on the board under the "good player" category. Garret then turned around and spoke to the teacher in a friendly tone.

"I wonder, what would you like to see on this board? I don't think we have mind-readers in this class, or at least none that we know about." He then held the chalk out for the teacher. His heart-rate was a bit unsteady at this, not sure if the teacher would take this as an act of rudeness or if he would respond in a more positive manner. His character however refused to break.

Lloyd nodded in time to the tapping of his heel as his fingers, locked rigidly around a pen, scrawled his chicken scratch in Ilefi - Literally "Mark," the script of the reconstructed post-calamity Elven language - for the written portion. "I shall do the oral first so as not to leave that waiting, I suppose," he abruptly decided, moving his yellowed paper aside as the assignment changed. "For convenience, I shall address using a list." The unbitten cookie sat in his left hand, nestled between his thumb and his index finger's knuckle, standing perpendicular to his palm as his ring finger struck his desk gently in time with the remarkably persistent boot. His right arm did its best to cross with an unavailable left arm, and instead just ended up being quite obviously placing the hand on the left pistol's handle.

"Mayura/kobochi: Venom does indeed know exactly who I am, but that much isn't quite necessary to give a good description. Sure helps, though.

"Alex/Dragn: Lax is perhaps not the right word. Relaxed, yes, as much as I ever am... but 'lax' doesn't keep its hands on its weapons in a relatively safe place like this. Hell, a moment later he even says I'm ready for any sign of danger, which is just about accurate. Not totally sure how my posture is 'misleading," though laid-back-but-serious is also about right. The main allusion to the apocalypse was when I mentioned this world had not experienced a carena - er, a crash - so I can forgive missing that.

"Fang/StealthNeko: Sorry to say, but I'm much more west than south. Not to give away all o' Venom's secrets, but that's why I said west of the Chasm. The Chasm isn't the important part, since I didn't mention that it's called the Hellfire Chasm because it's where a planetbuster left a crack in the earth so deep you can see the core. The important part was dropping that I live west of it. 'West,' you see, functioned as a keyword. The simply concept of west evokes particular things. in one's mind. I didn't go into too much detail on my weapons, so whether they are or are not period-appropriate is up to the reader; evidently, it works. I guess the standing assumption is not for some gear to be anachronistic.

"Garret/Currupted Dart: The dress and the physical aspect are spot-on. My voice is a little Fallout and a little of Rucks from Bastion, which naturally is going to be a major inspiration for anyone like me. All-in-all, a pretty good summation of what the description was all about.

"Basira/Setses: Wouldn't go so far as to say I gave my backstory. I said what it would be about but not quite what it was. Clothing/Words/Body Language is pretty much what it was about, though, as she/they said.

"Mr. Vay... Ivaylo_Sai," Tombstone continued after taking a brief bite of the cookie and reacting in an impressively noncommittal manner. "Dangerous p***k, indeed. I fall in the awkward spot of what would be arrogance but for that, where I come from, it is not arrogant to have total confidence if it is derived from an accurate assessment." The elf's face finally broke its fixed shape as a smile spread over it. "Couldn't be that the player is faculty and Crew, of course. That would be silly. As for the appropriateness..." His shoulders rolled a smooth, laconic shrug as his face returned to its familiar appearance. "You said 'creative,' and Venom figured more people would have some fun with the possibilities - do something new, the like."

"Alices: The imagery and the style choice are good enough options for an answer," Tombstone continued. The expectation that he have more to say about her response set in as he took a larger bite of the cookie. "I guess the bit about 'feeling me' was pretty much what Venom was trying to accomplish, in the sense of communicating a mood with the character. That sort of thing is why he used the Leitmotif system for SOUL, which he should update.

"And last of those, Levi/Keynir: Mostly accurate, save for the alpha male bit. I'm not the type to dominate others. I'm confident, a fighter - or a slinger, rather, but the effect is similar - but I'm not the type to make a point of putting myself in power over others. I'm not a leader or a controller."

Tombstone stood and sauntered over to the board, finishing the cookie as he went. It would not be unreasonable, the elf considered, if someone were to be surprised by seeing him travel in any way other than sauntering, sprinting, or horseback riding. He reached out with his now-empty left hand, took the chalk, and wrote in large, bold lettering, under the Player>Bad section:

COMMA SPLICES

He physically recoiled as Venom authorially struck him and sent the message: LIT 101 is mine, Tombstone, not yours. Give a real answer.

Tombstone grumbled something to himself, swept the grammar admonition away with his hand, and inscribed under Player>Good:

Look up what they don't know

"Sooner or later you're going to write something you don't really know - a character fighting when you haven't been in a fight, a character being shot when the closest to that you've gotten in in real life is the time you got hammered, said 'Watch this,' then broke your leg, that sort of thing. Your character may fire a gun when you never have." As he settled into his seat and his spine melted for proper slouching, he concluded: "Sometimes, you just have to use the Internet to find what you don't know."

Vay gave Lloyd a cattish grin as the elf finally stood up to do his assignments. He nodded at points, smiled at others, shrugged at the 'appropriateness' bit, and mumbled a quiet, "Yes he should," when Lloyd mentioned his player's need to update SOUL.

When Lloyd took the chalk Mr. Vay watched and almost corrected him for the grammar note but Venom beat him to it so he just settled in. When the elf stepped away Vay grinned at what he left on the board and almost said something but Lloyd spoke on his way to his desk so the teacher listened quietly then half laughed at the last.

"Or you could go do it yourself," he paused, "The safe, legal stuff. Thrust me, you don't want to actually get shot. That s**t hurts," he rubbed his shoulder with a slight frown then shook his head and watched as Fang wandered up to the board. Vay gave a shrug at the cat's first questions and then nodded at his final inquiry with a wry smile, "Falls under the etiquette thing."

Once the cat was back on his desk Mr. Vay stood up from his and walked up to the board giving Lloyd and Garret's most recent items a tap.

"And it looks like Pointy-ears has found a way to validate Garret's 'willingness to learn' cuz, really, these two are the same thing. Knew there was a reason I didn't erase it. . . should really not have posted drunk," he trailed off in a mutter then erased them both. "Let's condense this to one word though," he wrote in 'Research' then turned to the class.

"Writers and actors are known for doing crazy s**t in the name of research and as an RPer you are essentially doing both those jobs. Research is expected. It goes back to the 'Convincing' aspect. Like I said, you can't play a doctor if you don't know first aid and so forth. Now, the best form of research is experience but that gets real dangerous real quick so as the elf suggested utilize the Google Overlords to do your research for the more risky ventures. Just use good research practices - those things you should have learned in high school when doing research papers - and don't believe everything teh internets tell you. Another good place to do research is other RPers. More than likely someone in this very Guild, if not classroom, has done the research on whatever it is you're looking into. So don't be afraid to ask around. And this gives me an idea for a Guild project. . ." Vay trailed off a moment then shook his head with a muttered, "later," before tapping the last item on the board.

"Originality is one of the big ones but that doesn't mean you always have to play something weird or never done before," the teacher gave the class a smile then waved a hand at Alice. "As the lovely lady said, the better you get to know anyone the stranger, more original, they get. There's nothing wrong with playing the cliché shy girl, awkward boy," he waved a hand at Levi, "or even the strong silent type," he waved at Lloyd and D'cund. "Yes, I can find a cliché in all of you. I am one myself. We all are. On the surface. But people have layers and it's those layers where your originality really should be. And that is the whole purpose of our next assignment," he paused to look at the class. "Once we finish this one," Vay flashed a grin with a nod as he pushed off his desk again and looked over the board.

"Ok, that's all the class that's still in attendance I believe," Vay gave the now gone shadows of the never introduced students a disappointed look then he glanced at the board before looking to the class again.

"Before I go adding things I'm gonna give anyone that has something to add a chance to come up first. I would really prefer these be for the character seeing as we've got plenty for the player and we're supposed to be focusing on characters here." He held out the chalk to the class with a smile.

A sudden cloud of iridescent purple glitter smoke poofed at the front of the classroom and the dark haired woman previously made example of grinned at the class as Mr. Vay coughed and wiped at the glitter with a disgusted sneer about 'herpes of the craft world' which did nothing to remove the glitter from him.

"Hey guys," the woman waved at the students. "I got bored and made y'all a graphic of the chalkboard to help out. Here ya go."



"I had fun with fonts," she smiled wryly then stepped back to pat the teacher's shoulder. "Have fun with the kids. And don't forget your other RPs, dear," she purred at Vay then pecked a kiss on his cheek before bouncing away to disappear again with a wink and giggle though this time just fading away, smile last like a certain cat.

Tombstone paused, putting his left thumb to his lips, then sauntered (as always) to the board again. Taking the chalk again, he wrote under Bad>Character:

Boring or not fun to write

"Nothing will kill a player's willingness to post, and by extension a whole RP, like not enjoying your character." Back to the chair, back to the steady beat his heel refused not to tap out whenever it had ground to strike.

Still brushing at the glitter from his wife's visit, Vay watched Alex and Alice flirt as Lloyd got up to write again on the board. When Lloyd finished the teacher smiled wryly at his comment with a nod. “Two in one day,“ he grinned as the elf sat back down then started to turn to the board when Levi walked up. Vay returned the boy's nod and watched him write another item then go back to his seat before the teacher pushed himself up from his perch and walked to the board yet again.

“Let's work on your brevity,” Mr. Vay gave Lloyd a grin as he added 'Enjoyable' to the good character side opposite Lloyd's 'Boring or not fun to write'. “This is a game after all," Vay turned to the class. "If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong. Lots of things can make an RP not fun but if you don't enjoy your character you're not going to enjoy the RP. Also if you don't even like your character how can you expect others to enjoy them? Boring characters can quickly drown an RP in tedium causing otherwise good plots to flounder. Obnoxious characters piss people off and cause tensions among other players. Depressing characters can bring everyone's mood down thus spoiling the party. And redundant characters are redundant (any RP only needs so many mages/tough guys/ninjas/school girls/other popular character type). So be sure when making your character that it's something not only you will enjoy but that the rest of the players will as well. Put enough work into it so they'll be interesting and exciting and try not to flood the RP with trivial posts. If you don't have something interesting to say just wait until you do.” Vay nodded slightly then turned back to the board to look over Levi's suggestion.

“Let's go with 'Inappropriate' for this one,” the teacher erased Levi's 'Out of environment' and replaced it before turning to the class again. “I believe that's the gist of what you meant,” he gave Levi a glance before looking to the others again. “I've already hinted at this with a previous comment about Pointy-ears' appropriateness. It's important for a character to fit the RP in which they exist or they're just going to be out of place. Putting Pointy-ears in a classroom,” he waved at Lloyd, “makes about as much sense as dropping shy girl,” he nodded to Alice, “in a post-apocalyptic wild west. Neither are likely to succeed in the other's environment.” Vay paused to give them each a polite little, “No offense.” Then smiled at the rest of the class, “No matter how awesome or fun the character's concept is if the RP's nature does not allow them the chance to show that off then they're not going to live up to their potential and may really suffer for being unprepared for what the RP does allow." Vay paused slightly to watch the class a moment then went on.

"Other considerations for appropriateness require taking a look at the other characters in an RP. As mentioned with the redundant characters just a moment ago, it's best to try and fit your character in with the needs of the existing group. Depending on the RP there might be a role (often healer) that needs filling and that's a good place to start your character, and curry favor with the GM.

"A second aspect of fitting in with the other characters is a matter of party balance. If you're playing a young squire who's just learning to swing a sword you probably don't want to go out adventuring with the seasoned veterans when they go to slay the Dragon God. Because you'll get killed. Also they are likely to treat you more like a pack mule or slave than a viable member of the party. Conversely no one enjoys playing with that one guy who is superawesome much better than everyone else at everything. As said before, we all want to be that guy but we don't want to be around him," the teacher gave a wry grin to Lloyd then looked back at the rest of the class.

"Now, that's not to say it can't be done, just that it's going to make things more difficult for the character, and by extension their player, to play in an RP where they don't belong. A good GM will not allow inappropriate characters unless the player's skill and plans for the character can make up for that inappropriateness of design. Which is why Pointy-ears (and Rocky) is with us, part walking example, part faith in a good player," Vay gave them both a nod then held out the chalk again.

"Give y'all a little more time for other suggestions before we move on."

As Alex sat and continued to watch the class, mostly Alice, a thought occurred to Dragn and he prodded Alex. Alex groaned and wondered why he had to get up again.Because all your doing now is flirting and taking up space in this thread. Go join the discussion! Alex grumbled and picked up the bus shaped note from the floor and set it on the desk. Then he rose up and slouched his way up to the board. Grabbing the chalk he wrote under bad character again 'rping things that you shouldn't know-breaking the fourth wall?'
Aiden turned to Mr. Vay and nodded. "Dragn would like to apologize about this addition as he can't think of the right words at the moment." He made his way back to his seat, giving Alice a friendly smile as he passed her desk in the front. He sat back down and his face returned to its original bored state and he opened the bus note. A small smile twitched across his face as he read it. At least he had someone to talk to now. He wrote a short reply that he'd like to talk after class about books and about her folding techniques. He reconstructed the bus and slid it over to Alice, this time making it right next to her seat.

Mr. Vay waited patiently a while then tapped his watch again with a glance to the clock on the back wall. “Ok then, let's get this finished," he hopped up from his desk and walked over to the board. "First I'll just transfer the inverses of the bad stuff to the good side,” he trailed off a bit as he added 'dynamic' and 'appropriate' under the good character section then pondered a moment and decided, “Trolling and OoCK abuse technically fall under breaches of etiquette so I'll leave it at that. But let's put 'good writing' in place of 'word-choice' here,” he finished that up and gave the class a grin. “Best to focus on the good things,” he explained lightly then added two new items under good character: 'Relatable' and 'Layered' and 'Meaningful' under good player.

“Alright then, let's start with this one,” he tapped Meaningful. “Briefly mentioned in covering enjoyable, meaningfulness is another of those that can bridge the gap in both player and character but since the GM is half responsible for giving your characters meaning and appropriateness basically covers the other half, I'll focus on the player aspect. A meaningful player is one that actually does something with every post. This is largely the reason why most 'advanced' RPs will require at least a paragraph per post, because it's usually hard to do anything meaningful in less. However, this tactic is highly flawed as some situations, conversations and combat for example, can be done perfectly fine in one or two sentence posts and requiring more than that is just asking for useless fluff. That is why I will never play an RP that requires more than a single paragraph per post. RPs that require pages of posts are worse in my opinion than those that don't have a requirement because they actively encourage meaningless drivel. I have neither the time nor the desire to read pages of useless detail and self-centered actions or inner thoughts that will not have any bearing on the rest of the story and only serve to bury what actually is important,” Vay paused then shook his head with a friendly smile.

“Now that's not to say detail, mannerisms, and inner thoughts are bad things. Quite the contrary, they are very good and essential for character development. But as always, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. If a detail is mentioned, action described, or thought laid out it should have a purpose, it should mean something, not just be there to take up space. If you don't have enough meaningful things to make your GM's posting requirement then don't throw in filler just to make it. Wait until something else happens so that you will have enough to make a meaningful post. If the RP is stalled and waiting on you then ask the GM if it's ok to make a short reply. Most of them would rather get a few short posts every now and then than have to read fluff.

“Of course not all meaningless posts come from trying to make a GM's posting requirement. Some of them are the result of pure and simple attention whoring,” Vay flashed a grin at the class. “I have to admit, this is sometimes a slight problem for myself. We all have to keep in mind RPing is a group activity. No one is entitled to any more attention or favor than the next guy. Not even the GM. Especially not the GM. It is common courtesy to wait until everyone involved with the current action has had a chance to respond before making another response yourself. This gives everyone a fair chance to do things. Skipping over turns is something I will occasionally (often) do when I've got a clever come back, particularly with an outgoing character (who would be prone to doing it himself, thus making it the character's fault. . . yes). But the major offense is skipping turns just to insert a meaningless bit of self-centered fluff. This not only interrupts the flow of the action it also makes you look selfish and immature as well as takes away material for you to pad your next meaningful post with.

“A good posting practice is: Always do something that will make others do something back. Whether it's asking a question, making a statement, moving in their way, opening a door for them, pulling out a chair, flashing a smile, anything really that will evoke a reaction from another player. The few exceptions to this rule are situations such as when your character is just standing in the background watching the others do something. Then you should focus your posts on your character's inner thoughts in reaction to what they are watching. Or if your character is alone. Then you should do some character exposition, not just pointlessly random s**t.” The teacher paused to pull back up his smile and straighten his jacket.

“Now, we all want to participate of course and that is done by making posts. We all (should) love our characters and have a lot of things to show about them which is done by making self-centered posts. But if you can't put something meaningful into every one of your posts then what's the point of playing? Just chat in the OOC or post your character to the Character Development subforum. If you want to be able to make a lot of posts in the actual RP then get your character in there doing things. If there aren't enough things going on to do then discuss the possibility of playing multiple characters with your GM or find another RP to join and play them both,” Vay nodded then stepped back to the board again, brushing at a bit of glitter on his shoulder as he did.

“Next one is ' Relatable' here,” he tapped it on the board then turned back to the class. “We don't have to like your character (though it helps) but we do need to understand them,” the teacher summed up the concept simply. “This is the current failing of Rocky over there,” Vay waved a hand at D'cund. “Despite actually being a well developed character with personality, background, world, habits, and even speech patterns, he's missing something fundamental for most of us to actually care about him. And you need your characters to be cared about. Even villains need to cause reason for concern and interest which is a type of caring. Without caring they have no meaning, and we've already covered how important that is. So what's Rocky missing?” the teacher only paused briefly to look over the class before answering himself. “Relatability. He's about as personable as a pile of rocks - literally. There's nothing there for us to grab hold of and care about, nothing to relate to. Now that's not saying there can't be, or even that Jikial hasn't got something planned, but as he stands from what we know now he's the creepy weird kid in the back of the class that no one likes because no one understands him.

“Of course that doesn't necessarily make him a bad character; it actually makes him an advanced character. He only becomes a bad character if his player fails to work around this handicap and doesn't bring out something which we can relate to, leaving him instead just a talking pile of rocks. A good GM would not let an untested player have this character. But. . . Jikial's on faculty so Rocky's just going to have to work extra hard to make friends and be included in the activities going on about campus. Which, when you boil it down, is the essence of any RP – building relationships and doing things within a setting” The teacher paused briefly to glance back at the board.

“Ok, last one, Layered. This is also something that's been mentioned before, explicitly with the originality and implied with dynamic (or non-static) characters. People have layers. What you see on the surface is very rarely the same as what's inside and most people have more than a few layers going on in there. As an RP progresses and you get to know the characters better you should peel away the layers to see what's underneath. In order to do this your character needs to have layers. You don't have to have them all figured out at the start and they can change as you go along, part of being a dynamic character, but there should be more to your character than meets the eye from the very beginning.

“Now that's not to say every character has to be some multilayered, complex enigma. Some people are shallow. Even those people have a few layers. Maybe the selfish, beautiful cheerleader has body image issues. Maybe the idiot jock is actually good at math. Maybe the souless killer has a soft spot for kittens – who doesn't? Layers are those little secrets that make us who we are, the idiosyncrasies that define us from the rest. They make us unique, individual, and much more interesting than the base archetypes most of the world sees us as.

“A good rule of thumb for layers is that every character should have at least one fear, one dream, one quirk, and one secret to start with. More should be added as the RP progresses and you don't have to display any right off but they should build and be revealed slowly. Common fears are anything that ends in phobia but also anxieties such as body image and money problems. Common dreams are fame, fortune, romance, success, you know, the stuff we dream about, but it can also be simple. Maybe a girl (or crazy necromancer) just really wants a pony. That's a dream. They don't all have to be good ones. World domination is another. As for quirks, that's anything unexpected or unusual. Like the jock being good at math. Or a hipster being a decent human being. Usually they are breaks in the stereotype of the character's base but sometimes they're just odd little things. Like having notoriously bad aim or being incredibly naive. Quirks are a good way to give your character slight weaknesses to balance out their strengths. Secrets are pretty self explanatory – something about your character few others know. They can be as simple as a crush or as redefining as being a werewolf,” Vay flashed a grin then rocked on his heels briefly.

“Now that about sums this up. I'm gonna give y'all a bit of a chance to ask questions on what we've done so far before moving on. So if ya don't understand something speak up and ask,” the teacher nodded then leaned back against his desk again to wait for the questions.