[GUIDE] Student Growth - Points & Tallies

[TiH Helpful Guide]

Growth Points, Tallies, & Student Growth

[note: this guide is for Amityville Academy students only. Information for Hunters can be found here.]

In a nutshell: roleplay allows your student to advance through Amityville Academy. Roleplay and other types of shop participation will give you growth points; once you've obtained a certain number of growth points, you can apply for your student to enter the next year! You do not need an art upgrade to begin RPing your student as having moved up a year - the only thing you need is to have met the requirements and passed the assigned exam.

In order for your student to move up to a new year, you must keep track of your growth points in your character's dorm room thread - provide links to document everything, as we will be checking when you submit your student for advancement! It is your responsibility to accurately tally and claim your growth points.

Also, note that when your student moves up to a new year, all the growth points they earned to that point vanish. Everyone starts each new year with a clean slate.

Exception: Once you reach Y3, your growth points do not get wiped when you graduate - only the ones you 'spend' on the graduation requirement itself. You can use additional points to 'purchase' extra bonuses for your character as seen here!


Growth Points:

You earn 1 point for every:
*NEW*- One playlist created by you for anything related to the shop. This can be your character, events, and other people's characters as well. Each must have a different theme. (max 5 points per year this way). Playlists can be added to your journals or shared to other people's journals/ messages for them to add (10 track minimum). Should be made on youtube and/or spotify.
- One piece of fanart drawn OR commissioned by you for anything related to the shop. (max 5 points per year this way)
- One complete RP; you must have written at least 600 words in that RP for it to count as a point.
- One complete classroom RP; you must have written at least 600 words in that RP for it to count as a point.
- One complete homework assignment for a class that assigned it.
-----NOTE: For 'homework' that involves growing a minipet from a class, you must do an RP or solo (of at least 600 words) involving that pet to get a point. Merely growing the minipet does not count!
- One complete battle, with just rolls (600 word count not required)
- Five minipets grown to their final stage. You get one point for every five minipets; you can claim a maximum of 5 points per year this way.
- One complete solo, at least 600 words long

You earn 2 points for every:
- One complete battle RP; must have filled-out RP actions, not just dice rolls. Please note rps must be 600 words.
- Character 'plot assistance' (ie for events). 600 word limit still occurs.
- One complete GM'd classroom rp 600 word limit still occurs.

You may earn ??? points for:
- Special events run by GMs may have point prizes for participants; to claim these in your tally, make sure to link to the post where points were awarded. Be sure to also link to your post that fulfills the requirements on the tally.


You may earn bonus points for:
- EXTREEEEEEME! WORDCOUNT! Those who choose to write particularly prolifically - perhaps an involved solo plotline, or a very involved single RP, may earn bonus points. You can get +1 bonus rp point for every 10k words you write in a single RP/solo, up to 50k words. (So the most you could get from any RP/solo would be 6 points: +1 for over 600 words, +1 more when you hit 10k, and +1 more point for every 10k you hit after that point.) Please note that GM/event ORPs do not count for these bonuses.


Growth Requirements:

Year 1 to Year 2: *( There is a 4 month OOC cooldown from Y1 to Y2)
50 growth points + final exam (pass or fail) = graduation to Year 2

Year 2 to Year 3: *(There is a 6 month OOC cooldown from Y2 to Y3)
75 growth points + final exam (pass or fail) + teacher battle (pass or fail) = graduation to Year 3

Year 3 to Alumni: *(No OOC cooldown from Y3 to Alumni)
50 growth points + completing the prerequisites + final exam = graduation from Amityville Academy



Alumni have full access to the school. They may choose to continue learning with their teachers in very advanced, exclusive classes, and may spend most of their time outside of school doing other activities. They may also be employed by the school to help in tasks such as teaching, library book-keeping, club assistance, event coordination, and so on. Graduation does not mean your character has done all they can do - far from it!  

[TiH Helpful Guide]

Moving to the Next Year:

If you'd like your student to move on to the next year, please go through this checklist to make sure they're ready to go!


- Make sure your student meets the point requirements listed above for the next year. If not, keep RPing! If so...
- Sign up for an exam. Exams are required to move on to the next year! They are offered every so often, as demand warrants. They come in traditional RP form or automated form
- Once your student has satisfied the exam requirement they are all set, hooray!



As a reward for moving up a year from Y1->Y2 and Y2->Y3, your student may upgrade BOTH their natural ability and their FEAR ability!

For FEAR abilities: students' original/Year One FEAR abilities upgrade to a Year Two ability, meaning their original attack is now more powerful and can do more damage! They may also add on a new, less powerful FEAR ability. More information can be found in this thread. All new abilities must be approved in that thread before they can be used in battle.

When your student moves from Year Two to Year Three, their original FEAR attack upgrades to Y3 level, their secondary FEAR upgrades to Y2 level, and they can add one new Y1-level ability.

Y3->Graduate must use RP points to purchase any FEAR upgrades; see here for more details!

For natural abilities: students may either upgrade their current natural ability to be more powerful OR they may add on a new minor natural ability! Information on that can be found in this thread. All new abilities must be approved in that thread before they can be used in RP.

You get one natural ability upgrade/addition at Y2 and another one at Y3. Choose wisely! As above, Y3->Graduates do not get to automatically add another natural ability at Graduation and must purchase one with RP points as seen here.



Student Art for Year 2 and Beyond:

All student art at This Is Halloween is on a per stage contract - when you got your character originally, you paid for (or won, or got for free, etc.) only the art you received at that time. That means to get the second stage (or more) art, you will need to enter for art slots/customs/bribes etc. TiH is a huge shop with a massive population; this system helps keep our artists from being overworked and avoids potential drama pitfalls.

You may request art when your student moves to Year 2 and when your student moves to Year 3. Graduates do not get new art - you must try for a custom/alt art slot if you would like additional art of your graduated character.

If you don't want new art for your student, you do not have to get it - you can RP all the way through graduation with the same art if you want! That is totally fine. New art is simply a bonus that you can work for if you'd like. It is not guaranteed in any way and does not affect roleplay unless you want it to.

If you'd like new art for your character as they grow, please check The Alley to see if there are any slots open, either through customs, bribes, or special events to provide free growth slots. We try to make growth art as available as we can, though since there are a huge number of students at TiH (not to mention the demand for new students) this may not always be possible. If you put in a bribe/custom/etc. for growth art, please make sure to provide proof that you've met the growth requirements.

PLEASE NOTE: You cannot commission official character art outside of the shop! All growth art - anything official that will go on a cert - must be obtained via TiH staff within the shop. (Naturally, commissioning fanart/reference art is still completely okay! This is for growth/official art only.)  

[TiH Helpful Guide]

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: I did a REALLY REALLY long RP/solo/etc., way more than 600 words! Can I get more than one growth point for that?

A: You sure can - see the bonus points section above.


Q: I had 100+ growth points! Do I have to get rid of all of them when my student moves up a year?

A: Yes. If you earn more points than those required for growth, you can't save them. Every new year starts from scratch, and you can only claim points for RPs that happen after the student passes their exams.


Q: My student moved on to Year Two. In Year One, I claimed points from fanart and minipets. May I claim those points again in Year Two?

A: Yes, you may, but you must use different fanart and minipets to claim those points again.


Q: Can I get Y2+ art before I've finished earning the growth points, even if I don't RP it until I've satisfied the requirements?

A. Only as a bribe. Customs, free slots etc. are reserved for those who have met the requirements.