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 Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:14 pm
 School’s starting back up and what better way to keep your creative juices flowing than Role Playing? Role Playing here at Salem can either be really enjoyable and easy to do, or it can be a hassle. That’s your choice. We want it to be fun and creative but at the same time; we can’t, and won’t, put up with a jumbled mess of a post that could’ve been written by a blind monkey with two fingers. (No offence to blind monkeys with two fingers) Over this guide we’ll cover basic grammar that should be easy little tweaks to your posts, nothing horribly complicated. It’ll cover the basics of any post, where it’s an all action one-liner, or an incredibly long and detailed dialog, you should know how to set it up. -Table Of Contents-
What is Role Play?
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.
Come on, Comma.
“Quotation Modification,”
‘I Hear Voices…’
Color Coated
You're There!
Pulling It All Together.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:24 pm
-What Is Role Play?-In roleplaying, participants adopt and act out the role of characters, or parts, that may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. Roleplaying, also known as RP to some, is like being in an improvisational drama or free-form theater, in which the participants are the actors who are playing parts, and the audience.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:27 pm
-The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly- Here we’ll show you an example of a Good post, a Bad Post, and an Ugly Post. Now you might be wondering what exactly a “Good” post is. So really, what is a good post made up of? A Good Post is Made Up of
Punctuation,
Capitalization,
Flow,
Details,
A proper understanding of the situation,
And it’s easy to see what’s going on.  Ok, everybody, this is Sammy. Sammy will be our model for this tutorial. She’s going to show us an example of a good post. Sammy walked through the fall leaves, her favorite book in hand. She smiled, looking at all the wonderful colors. A warm breeze stirred some of the piles up, a few of the leaves falling along the sidewalk, crunching under her feet.Now Let’s see that same post as a “Bad” post. sammy walked through the fall leaves her favorite book with her. she smiled looking at the colors, a breeze stirring some of the piles up a few of the leaves falling onto the sidewalk under her feet.Ok, so it’s not too terribly bad, but it could use some TLC. Now show us an “Ugly” post. sammy walk thru the leafs wit a book she smiles at the fallin leafs when a breeze puts sum in her wayUgh. I almost gagged typing that. Now go back up and read the Good Post. See the change a few words and some punctuation can have? It makes a world of difference.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:33 pm
-Come on, Comma-Ah, the wonderful world of Commas! On this section, I’ll just be showing you the difference between two posts, one with commas, and one without. Sammy’s back, let’s see what’s up.  Sammy, a junior prosecutor, argued that the defendant, who was at the scene of the crime, who had a strong revenge motive, and who had access to the murder weapon, was guilty of homicide.Now, let’s see that same sentence without the commas. Sammy a junior prosecutor argued that the defendant who was at the scene of the crime who had a strong revenge motive and who had access to the murder weapon was guilty of homicide. Is that a jumbled mess or what? I think so. Commas can be very important, and are very helpful, but be careful of run-on sentences. Just make sure it makes sense. Commas help a sentence to be more detailed, and sometimes flow better.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:35 pm
-"Quotation Modification,"- Quotations! These are probably the single most important thing about a successful and understandable Role Play. Without quotations, we’d all be running around hitting each other over the heads with large sticks trying to get our point across. Well, thankfully we don’t have to do that. We can (and absolutely will use) quotations for when our characters talk. Sammy? Do your thing.  “Ok!” She cheered, waving at the members reading this tutorial. Sammy smiled, “It’s great to finally have a voice,” She said warmly. See that? It’s easy. Make sure you use “Quotations” when your characters talk. It’s just plain annoying when you don’t. It also confuses the other members; take the time to clean it up.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:37 pm
-'I hear Voices...'-So you know what to do when your character is talking, we use those little things called, “Quotations”, but sometimes your character needs to think, and what better way then letting the other members read your thoughts, although sometimes you should keep your thoughts to yourself, this section will cover thoughts.  ‘I love my new Cary Brothers CD!’ Sammy thought, singing along in her head, ‘Cause Blue Eyes, You are destiny's scene, Cause Blue Eyes; I just wanna be the one,’ she looked up, “Oh hey everybody, have you heard ‘Blue Eyes’ by Cary Brothers?” See that? You can also use these little guys when you’re talking about a song title, or a book, or even a TV show. And if the difference between "." and '.' are too confusing, you can always just Italicize the thoughts, like this. I love my new Cary Brothers CD! Sammy thought, singing along in her head, Cause Blue Eyes, You are destiny's scene, Cause Blue Eyes; I just wanna be the one, she looked up, “Oh hey everybody, have you heard ‘Blue Eyes’ by Cary Brothers?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:40 pm
-Color Coated- Ah, I’ve noticed quite a few of you like to use color in your posts, that’s totally OK as long as your post still meets the criteria above. Of course, if you are comfortable with just plain ‘ole black and white, that’s fine with me. But sometimes you’ll have more than just one character talking, and in that case, sometimes you might want to color coat your words, and make sure you break up the different parts of the post, so that it’s not confusing to everybody else. The ‘Enter’ key is your friend.
Hey, Sammy has a friend, let’s see what’s up.  “Hey guys and gals, this is Ren, isn’t he just dreamy?!” Sammy said excitedly, blushing a little.“’Sup?” Ren asked causally, looking around, seemingly bored.See? It’s easy to tell who’s talking, and it’s not all jumbled together so that it’s hard to understand, like this, this would be an example of how not to put together a post with two (or more) speaking parts.“Hey guys and gals, this is Ren, isn’t he just dreamy?!” Sammy said excitedly, blushing a little. “’Sup?” Ren asked causally, looking around, seemingly bored.It’s not too terribly bad, but it could still use some space, don’t you think?
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:43 pm
-You're There!-Ok guys; hang on just a little bit more. On this section, we’ll cover those tricky little sets of words a lot of people have trouble with.
We’re gonna all have to say bye to Sammy for now, y’all are stuck with me. I won’t bite, promise. Alright, let’s have a look.
You- Ah, that little word that likes to grow a tail and confuse people.
Your- possessive, as in, “Is that your nasty looking post over there?”
You’re- You Are. As in, “You’re pretty good at posting, aren’t you?” is the same as saying, “You are pretty good at posting, aren’t you?”
There we go! And speaking of ‘There’, let’s move on to the next set.
There, Their, and They’re
There- location, where something has been placed, or where something will move to, as in, “The trashcan is over there, spit out your gum,”
Their- Similar to ‘Your’; It shows a group possession. It would be used like this, “You’re on their team.”
They’re- They Are. As in, “They’re a mean bunch, aren’t they?”
The Three Tiny T’s
To- Simple, most of us are very familiar with ‘to’. I don’t really need to explain this, but you use it like you normally would, “Go to the store and get me some milk.”
Too- Catch the extra ‘o’? Too is used as a synonym for ‘also’. Too shows something extra, and can be used a few different ways, like “Is she going, too?” See how ‘to’ wouldn’t work there? Let’s look and see why. “Is she going to?” What is she going to do? Where is she going? It doesn’t specify. “Is she going, too?” Shows that ‘She’ wants to tag along somewhere.
Too can also be used as an adverb, showing 'to what extent'. Example: "Clean up your grammar; it's too confusing.
Two- as in, the number. 1+1=2. Don’t confuse this two with the others. And as a rule of thumb, numbers below ten should be spelled out, instead of using the symbols (1, 2, 3, etc…).
We’re where you were
We’re- We Are. It’s a conjunction, just like you’re and they’re. “We’re over here!”
Where- Just like There, it shows location. “Where did you put the keys?”
Were- It’s like a past tense of ‘are’. “We were over there, but now we’re here.”
See, that wasn’t so bad. You’re almost there!
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:45 pm
-Pulling it all together- So you might’ve learned something new, or this might all just be review. Either way, you now have a comprehensive study guide for Basic English. You should incorporate these different elements into your posts. I’m going to show you one last example that pulls in all the different parts of this guide, and then you’re free to go.Sammy sighed happily, remembering her date with Ren. ‘He is such a gentleman!’ She thought, looking at the little bouquet of flowers lying on her lap. Just as she was about to lay down, her cell phone rang, a familiar tone calling her to answer.
She grumbled under her breath, reaching over and picking up the little bugger. “Hello?” She asked, “Oh hi Mom. How’re you?” Sammy smiled, listening to her mother, “Uh-huh, ok, I’ll be over soon, ok, bye Mom.” She said warmly, hanging up and pocketing her phone.
Sammy grabbed her keys, slipping on a pair of flats, going out the door, and sliding down the banister to the parking lot, unlocking her beat up truck. She climbed in, starting up the engine. It whined a little as she pulled out of the lot, heading up the road to her mom’s house. See? That’s a nice post, a little longer than what most are, but that’s ok, you can clearly see what’s happening in this scene. There is punctuation, capitalization, quotations, thoughts, action, a fluid movement, detail, and closure. Over all, it’s easy to understand and would be an excellent post.
Just keep these things in mind when you go to post next time, take the extra few seconds to clean it up. It’s worth it. It isn’t hard, it’ll help you with your school work, and it’ll keep you out of trouble.
And a note you those of you who can post well, thank you for taking the time to make it understandable. I strongly encourage the rest of you to use this guide for your own benefit. It’s going to pay off in the long run.
Thanks for your time,
~Shelby & Staff
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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:21 pm
Alternative Vocabulary
Colors
Black: charcoal, coal, dusky, ebon, ebony, jet, livid, murky, obsidian, onyx, pitch, pitch-dark, raven, sable, shadowy, slate, sooty, starless, swart
Blue: azure, beryl, cerulean, cobalt, indigo, navy, royal, sapphire, teal, turquoise, ultramarine
Brown: amber, auburn, bay, beige, brick, bronze, buff, burnt sienna, chestnut, chocolate, cinnamon, cocoa, coffee, copper, drab, dust, ecru, fawn, ginger, hazel, khaki, mahogany, nut, ochre, puce, russet, rust, sepia, snuff-colored, sorrel, tan, tawny, terra-cotta, toast, umber
Gold: aureate, auric, auriferous, aurous, aurulent, blond, blonde, caramel, dusty, flaxen, gold, golden, honeyed, mellow yellow, ochroid, straw, tan, tawny, wheat
Gray: ash, ashen, clouded, dappled, dove, drab, dusky, dusty, grey, heather, iron, lead, leaden, livid, oyster, pearly, peppery, powder, shaded, silvered, silvery, slate, smoky, somber, stone
Green: apple, aquamarine, beryl, chartreuse, emerald, fir, forest, grass, jade, lime, malachite, moss, olive, pea, peacock, pine, sage, sap, sea, spinach, viridian, willow
Orange: apricot, bittersweet, coral, peach, red-yellow, salmon, tangerine, titian
Pink: blush, coral, flesh, flush, fuchsia, red, rose, roseate, salmon
Purple: amethyst, bluish red, heliotrope, lavender, lilac, magenta, mauve, mulberry, orchid, plum, pomegranate, reddish blue, violet, wine
Red: bittersweet, blood, blush, brick, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, cerise, cherry, chestnut, claret, copper, coral, crimson, dahlia, damask, flaming, florid, flushed, fuchsia, garnet, geranium, magenta, maroon, pink, puce, rose, roseate, rosy, ruby, ruddy, russet, rust, salmon, sanguine, scarlet, terra cotta, titian, vermeil, vermilion, wine
Silver: argent, argentate, bright, chrome, lustrous, magnum, mercury, nickel, pale, pearly, plated, silvered, silvery, sterling,
White: alabaster, ashen, blanched, bleached, chalky, frosted, ivory, light, milky, neutral, pallid, pasty, pearly, pure, silver, silvery, snowy
Yellow: amber, bisque, blond, buff, cream, gold, ivory, lemon, saffron, sand, tawny
Body Parts
Arms: appendages, fin, limb, member, wing,
Eyes: hues, opticals, orbs, pools, spheres, windows to the soul
Hair: fiber, fluff, fringe, fur, hairstyle, lock, mane, mop, ruff, strand, tress, tuft
Hands/Fingers: appendages, claws, paws, phalanges, talons
Face: appearance, expression, features, mug, profile, seeming, visage
Legs: appendage, column, flipper, limb, member
Wings: appendage, down, feathers, pinions
Clothing
Clothing General: apparel, array, clothes, costume, covering, drapery, dress, duds, ensemble, equipment, frock, garb, garments, gear, get-up, outfit, rags, raiment, threads, ensemble, wardrobe
Jacket: coat, fur, hide, parka, pelt, trench, tunic
Glasses: bifocals, contact lenses, eyeglasses, four eyes, frames, goggles, rims, shades, specs, spectacles, trifocals, windows
Robes: cape, cloak, cassocks, frock, mantle, shawl
Shirt: bodice, bodysuit, middy, pullover, shell, slipover, t-shirt, turtleneck
Pants: bell bottoms, bells, bloomers, breeches, britches, chaps, cords, corduroys, denims, drawers, dungarees, jeans, knickers, overalls, pantaloons, shorts, slacks, trousers
Shoes: boots, soles
Other
Animals: beast, being, brute, creature, critter, devil, fiend, living thing, monster, wild thing
Area: breadth, compass, distance, expanse, field, range, space, sphere, stretch, width
Forest: backwoods, bramble, chase, clump, cover, grove, growth, jungle, scrubland, shelter, thicket, timber, timberland, vine, wild, wildwood, wood, woodland, woodlot, woods
Man: ape, beefcake, boy, bruiser, buck, bull, chap, dude, father, fellow, gent, gentleman, guy, he, he-man, hunk, jock, john, lad, macho man, papa, stud, tiger, tom, wolf
Tavern: alehouse, bar, barrel house, barroom, beer joint, beer parlour, bucket shop, dive, drinkery, gin mill, grog shop, honky-tonk, hospice, hostelry, hotel, inn, joint, lodge, lounge, night spot, nineteenth hole, pub, public house, roadhouse, rum room, saloon, speakeasy, suds shop, taphouse, taproom, watering hole
Woman: babe, bird, bride, broad, chick, chicken, companion, dame, debutante, doll, gal, gentlewoman, girl, girlfriend, inamorata, kitten, lady, lass, love, lover, maid, maiden, mama, mate, matron, miss, mistress, moll, Mrs., nymph, old lady, paramour, partner, pigeon, rib, she, skirt, spinster, spouse, squaw, sweetheart, tomato, tootsie, virgin, wife
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