Hello there!
Hey, thanks for joining Avery Luella Academy! ALA is an online RP site, a boarding school placed in the great state of Washington. You can make friends, have a boyfriend/girlfriend, and simply get a second life! But before you can jump into the action, you'll need to know some basics.
So what is roleplaying?
Simply put, roleplay is to write a story with others. You create a character that will be in a sense 'you,' even if they're your polar opposite. You can have multiple characters, and every character is here to add their own twists and plots to our site - our one, giant story. You will use your character to go out and do things in our RP world. You can be a jerk to people you don't like, you can go shopping, you can eat a taco, but it'll all just be part of the story. Your character isn't necessarily representing you, so much as giving you someone to enter the RP world as.
Are there any guidelines?
Actually, there are.
Say what now? Your character will have to talk at some point, and when they do, you need to make sure others can tell what's speech and what's action. What some users like to do is to use a different color for speech. Others prefer to bold or italicize their speech. Simple "quotation marks" around what you say works. You can use *stars,* :colons,: and just about anything else. Just make sure that if you're using a more original way to signify speech that the people you're RPing with know what it is.
The Icing on the Cake DETAILS. No one likes a post that sounds like: "Hi there." Said Joey. "I'm new." He said.
That's just plain boring! Elaborate on what your character is doing, why they are doing it, where are they, when is it, etc., etc., etc. ALA does have a word count minimum of 10 words, which really can't be that hard. Short replies also make it harder for your RP partner(s) to respond, because you haven't given them anything good to work with! If you just put some thought into the Joey sentence it could sound like:
Joey stepped out of his parent's car, slamming the door shut before they could give him another set of goodbyes. He hated how they acted like he needed them to do everything for him. Realizing that if he came onto school grounds looking so moody, he'd be at a higher risk of being classified as a freakshow, he quickly plastered a smile on his face. Walking up the front steps, he entered the front office. "Hi." Joey said, smiling a little wider. "I'm new here."
"Hello." The woman at the front desk greeted.
NPC A NPC is a non-playable character, like the lady working the cash register or the waiter who takes your order.
Mary-Sues and Gary-Stus These guys are perfect. Literally. They have no real personality/physical flaws, and are perfect in every sense. Please, don't make these two. They're boring and unoriginal. Flawed characters make things unique and more fun.
Subject: Welcome to the World of Roleplaying 
