Tips and Tricks

Quotes: the [quote][/quote] feature on the forums is mostly to keep track of who you're replying to when there are lots and lots of replies in a thread. We hope that you will use this sparingly and there really is no need to use it during actual role play. It's more useful for ooc areas. Good role players, can simply describe what their character is seeing and respond to a player without repeating what that player said or did. ESPECIALLY if they are the person who posted directly before you. If you are quoting something the person who's post is directly above you said, you are abusing the quote feature.

Quotes within quotes. When you use the quote feature, it will quote not only your own quote, but any quotes they have quoted as well. Be responsible, and remove all quotes except the one you are referring to.

Speaking: For the most part people are pretty good about this. Spoken words go in quotation marks "Speaking here" and the rest should be description. Make sure when you are speaking to someone you have your character mention whom they are speaking to unless there are only two of you in a thread. For instance:

Say Tamaki posts:
Tamaki turned toward Kyoya and beamed, "Mother, I have the BEST idea!" He clapped his hands together excitedly.

Kyoya would respond:
Kyoya pushed his glasses up on his nose and sighed inwardly, wondering what hair-brained scheme the Host Club president had come up with this time. He shut his notebook and his eyes lifted to see Tamaki gazing at him with large eyes. "A good idea? Do tell."

There's no need for Kyoya to repeat Tamaki's quote, he's mentioned he's looking at Tamaki and responding to whatever it is Tamaki has said.

Using Fangirl Japanese:
We strongly discourage the use of fangirl Japanese. That would be Japanese randomly sprinkled through your dialogue (and quite often misspelled.) ie: "Oh but I think it's CHOU Kawaii!" It completely unnecessary, and anyone who doesn't speak japanese at all, can't even guess what you're saying. I used kawaii which happens to be pretty common knowledge but there's a lot of Japanese flying around the boards.

It IS, however, perfectly acceptable to use Japanese terms that are necessary. Zeta, are a specific type of japanese shoes, Ikebana is a specific kind of Japanese flower arrangement etc. We wouldn't expect you to try and find a western equivalent. If someone doesn't know what they mean, they can ask in the ooc forum. Or they can google them. We actually do expect that most of you will prefer using the Japanese honorific system, so you can continue to use the Sensei, senpai, kouhai, san, sama, kun, chan endings that make Japanese society what it is.

Foreign languages:
If you character speaks a foreign language and chooses to use it in the game, we STRONGLY suggest translating what you've said below the post in (( parenthesis )) ie:

Character: Tengo un gato en mis pantalones!
((I have a cat in my pants!))

Good role players will know if their character can understand the language or not and react accordingly. If the character doesn't understand it, they will proceed as though they have no idea what your character has said.