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This thread is the host thread for the first Snowflake level course.

@Hapi Ever After @Wintermoot @Ender

To kick us off, I'd like each of you to define the following list of terms, in your own words, and if you have prior roleplaying experience, provide examples of each.

Mary sue
Godmod
OP
Powerplay
Direct speak
Indirect speak
First person
Third person

As this is our first lesson, there is no deadline for this assignment. Once everyone has posted, we will discuss answers and continue on to the next segment, which will have a deadline.

Alright, I guess I will start.

Mary sue: it's just a term that is used to describe a character that lacks flaws.

Godmod: I'm not entirely familiar with this one, but I think it was something along the lines of Controlling someone else's actions and reactions.

OP: well it's just something that is considered too strong like a character or an item of some sort that could just throw off balance of a story.

Powerplay: well it's similar to godmodding, it's just the act of trying to actively control someone else's character, I think I could be wrong though?

Direct speak: this is just writing the exact words a character is saying or thinking it's pretty much just quoted speech.

Indirect speak: this would be expressing something that someone else said, but without using the exact same words.

First person: it would be from the narrator's point of view, it's a perspective like when we talk about ourselves, it's usually from our own point of view or it's like the narrator being directly involved in a story and telling it from his or her point of view.

Third person: this is a point of view where the narrator is not directly involved with what's going on, it's just another perspective, except it's from the outside looking in basically.

Yay, it has started!

I assume we're not supposed to look up these terms and just answer how we think we know them. Though I'm suddenly reminded of having to look up spelling words in the dictionary and writing them down every week in I think 6th grade. Anyways...

Mary sue: I have no clue, but I'm going to guess it's some plain, generic character based on how plain and generic the name is.
Godmod: Maybe when you're a moderator and decide things in a way that controls everything?
OP: Overpowered, as in something that is so powerful it's not balanced?
Powerplay: An act that is...powerful?
Direct speak: When you speak directly to someone?
Indirect speak: When you speak about someone?
First person: When you post in the third person, for example 'I am getting bread'.
Third person: When you post in the first person, for example 'Wintermoot gets bread'.

I have a feeling I made the right choice to choose the snowflake level course.

My best guesses without the use of Google.

Mary sue: A boring generic character with nothing of note like that old lady over there Mary Sue.

Godmod: Well in video games godmod is essentially an invulnerable unkillable player right? So my guess is someone who counters your roleplays by making anything you do not effect them.

OP: Overpowered. Something or someone so powerful they can't be countered like every new god in smite.

Powerplay: A term for when your playing with an advantage? Like in hockey a powerplay is playing 6 v 5.

Direct speak: when you are speaking directly as your character?

Indirect speak: when you are describing the actions your character is taking?

First person: describing situations or playing from the direct perspective of the character.

Third person: describing situations or playing from the perspective of someone who is watching the scene unfold.

Alright! We got some awesome responses, and though not all of them are the most correct, the effort is greatly appreciated.

Mary Sue is a term used to describe a fictional character, usually female, who is seen as too perfect and almost boring for lack of flaws. Though less common, Gary Stu is the male term for these types of characters.

Godmodding is taking control of another player’s character during roleplay. This is especially frowned upon if you take control of a character just to harm them.

OP or Overpowered refers to an attribute, apparatus or character that is considered game-breaking or too strong for the storyline. Much like Mary Sues, characters that cannot be hurt are no fun to play with.

Powerplaying is the most common form of Godmodding, and refers to taking control of someone elses character, especially in the context of drawing them into a trap or forcing them to do something the controller would not ever have the character do.

Direct Speak is quoting what someone said directly, or using someone else's words to describe what your character sees, thinks, or feels.

Indirect speak is using the character's senses to describe what someone else has said, or alluding to past feelings and conversations without the direct quotes.

First person generally uses "I" to describe all movements

Third Person uses "She/he/they/it" to describe all character actions.

Lesson Two

Before we can start writing anything, we have to cover what to avoid in a roleplay. So, I've written a sample post for all of you to tear apart. I want you to point out at least three things I have done wrong in your first post, and then you should post a second time with a revised version of the sample that avoids the errors you previously pointed out. There are more than three problems in this sample, so no one should have the same answers. Feel free to comment on your peer's work as well. Your posts can be done at the same time, or spread out.

Note: All named characters should be treated as if they are being played by someone else.

Sam flipped her long hair behind her as she stabbed Alex in the gut with her indestructible sword that could be summoned to her hand in an instant, causing him to double over and die. She effortlessly dodged the attacks of Greta, even though the fire tipped arrows were far too clustered for any normal human to avoid. I am not a normal human. I am a princess that can faze through objects and anything else that is thrown at me at the same time. Sam moved like lightning to knock Greta off her feet before stealing her bow from her rock solid grasp and snapping the magical artifact in half without a second thought. Now there is only one enemy for me to face, Nate. He cowers in terror as Sam approaches, her only weapon being half of the broken bow.

The deadline for this assignment is roughly 48 hours from the time of this post, or 1PM Eastern time on the 21st. Have fun and good luck!

First!

The ability to phase through any object is overpowered since it would almost certainly completely nullify any kind of non-magic attack unless she was somehow completely taken by surprise. The person controlling Sam also appears to godmod in both specifying that Alex dies as a response to her attack, as well as power-play when she specifies that Greta attacks her with fire tipped arrows.

I think that's three things.

Second! My attempt to rewrite the things I listed...I'm assuming I'm to leave the issues that I didn't point out.

Sam flipped her long hair behind her as she stabbed Alex in the gut with her indestructible sword that could be summoned to her hand in an instant. She then moved like lightning like lightning to knock Greta off her feet before stealing her bow from her rock solid grasp and snapping the magical artifact in half without a second thought. Now there is only one enemy for me to face, Nate. He cowers in terror as Sam approaches, her only weapon being half of the broken bow.

I don't know, it seemed to me the best thing to do was to just remove the portions I specified. There was no point in rewriting the part about phase shifting, since she's no longer responding to an attack that she originally created herself. I feel like I was supposed to be more creative here, but I don't see any way to do so that would make sense. I might be overcomplicating it at this point though.

Sorry for being a little late with my response thought I hit post earlier.

Well being able to phase through just about anything seems a bit OP since it can make all melee and ranged attacks besides magic useless,
Sam godmods a bit when she stabs alex in the gut and says that he died as a response to it,
oh and Sam specifying the arrows were fire arrows when Greta attacks is a bit of powerplay I think?
and I guess with Sam as she pulls all of this off flawlessly so I guess Sam is a bit of a mary sue.

Sam flipped her long hair behind her as she stabbed Alex in the gut with her indestructible sword that could be summoned to her hand in an instant.
Sam then invoked the spirits of the wind to avoid Greta's attacks and knock her off her feet, narrowly taking the bow from Greta's grasp and just barely snapping it in half. Sam then stabs the end of her sword into Greta's chest, Now there is only one enemy for me to face, Nate. He cowers in terror as Sam approaches, her only weapons being her indestructible sword and half of a broken bow.

I wasn't completely sure how to do Greta's attack since I took out the phasing part so I just removed the powerplay, but I still kept in the attack to make it so they are not just sitting there doing nothing and I added what happened to Greta because she kind of just vanished from the fight when she lost her bow,
wasn't really sure on how I could have done the first part so I just removed the godmodding
I could have been a bit more imaginative or something with how I did stuff here, but I couldn't quite think of anything that would work.

I dunno if I'm late sorry if I am.

I think the whole thing is wrong lol. "I am not a human I'm a princess that can place through objects and anything else thrown at me at the same time" sounds pretty mary sue to me and boringly OP.

"indestructible sword that could be summoned to her hand in an instant" sounds extremely OP.

I'm also personally bothered by this random first person bit "Now there is only one enemy for me to face, Nate." While the rest is 3rd person. I'm counting it as wrong.


My rewrite:

Sam flipped her long hair behind her and sighed summoning her sword to her hand. She walked up to Alex and stabbed him in the gut. Sam turned her attention next to Greta who fired several fire tipped arrows at her. She tried to dodge them but they were to close for any mortal to dodge and one hit her in the leg as she rolled. A flash of anger and she was off knocking Greta to the ground.

"Now I'm angry," she growled.

Sam grabbed Greta's bow and threw it to the ground out of reach. Now only Nate remained. Sam walked slowly towards him limping on her injured leg, awaiting his next move.

No one is late! Thank you all for responding! I love the creativity and the different approaches. The errors I threw in included Goddmodding, Powerplaying, A very Mary Sue character, Perspective swapping, Incongruous details, and OP weaponry. It seems like you hit all of these between the three of you.

So we're going to work on making characters now. There are four days budgeted for this section, with three posts required. Your first post is going to be fairly simple, just a basic profile on your character.



Using the above image, craft a character that would belong in this environment. Your profile should include name, age, an imagined hometown, appearance, and biographical information. Once you have posted your profile, we will work on revising the characters and adding more details in.

An example character:

Name: Finn Vox
Age: 34
Appearance: An orc with many battle scars on his arms. Tusk like teeth stick out of his mouth. Grey skin, blue eye, white hair.
Hometown: Ydkit, a small town of Orcs and Giants.
Bio: Finn grew up just as the giant wars were starting. He learned to fight for his own survival from a young age, and was conscripted into the orcish military at 15. He has been fighting on the Giant's side of the war ever since.

Name: Leilianna Drakenstone
Age: 125 (Elf) or approximately 25 by human standards
Appearance: A dark elf with light skin by dark elf standards. Shorter and relatively young for elves. Leilianna has a scar on her right cheek. Slender, beautiful with long white hair.
Hometown: Riven, a river front village of Elves on the Alluchian river that was destroyed.
Bio: Leilianna's scar serves as a constant reminder of her town's destruction. She was the only survivor and has vowed vengeance against the orcs who perpetrated the attack. However agrees untrained in combat. Young and hotheaded she's joined up with a band of mercenaries to learn combat arts make some money and plan her vengeance.

Name: Wuldrin Blackbend
Age: 29
Appearance: A dragonborn with many scars, both old and new covering his body. a bit on the tall side and has a bit of a strong build. smooth silver scales, He has a bright frill and Blue eyes.
Hometown: Stoneshire, a massive mountain side town that was mostly built into the side of the mountain the town consist of three races, Humans, Dwarves & Dragonborn.
Bio: The scratches and dents on wuldrin's armor serve as memories of each fight before and after his hometown came under siege by a band of Orcs, against all odds he and a handful of others survived.
due to his time as a guard he has some knowledge in terms of combat. Although strong and shaken, Wuldrin and the others who survived set off from what was left of Stoneshire to find a new place to call home.
eventually, along their journey they became a band of adventurers looking to make a name for themselves.

I see that it's Titanomachy 2: Electric Boogaloo up in here. Poor Greeks/Latins, getting their shit destroyed.

Name: Janon Valenmoor

Age: 27

Appearance: An average-height human with long, brown hair and hazel eyes. He typically wears loose-fitting clothes and the ratty old cape that he was wearing the day his town was destroyed, which hides his slender frame, toned if not a bit haggard from the physical demands of surviving the past several years.

Hometown: Azamar, a small frontier town that was one of the first to be destroyed by the Wave five years prior.

Bio: By the time he started school, Janon had already discovered both a love and talent for all things scholarly, especially when it came to exploring the facts, ideas, and stories of good books. In a frontier town that cherished those with the strength to do the grueling physical labor necessary to survive, this made him a misfit with other kids his age, which made him only want to retreat to his books even more. His parents supported his interests though, managing to buy him a book or two on occasion when their crops and goods brought a bit of extra coin in a larger town.

When Janon started displaying a rare ability to channel magic, becoming a mage or a wizard seemed a natural fit for him. However, his family could not afford to send him to one of the magic academies, and couldn't even afford to lose him at the farm. Instead he learned rudimentary skills and spells from the occasional hedge wizard whose knowledge his parents were able to pay or barter for. Although his abilities weren't powerful, they were practical and varied enough that he became a great help on the farm and was able to eventually begin making some coin on his own by selling his services to others in town.

Over the next few years, he became a respected member of his community for his talents, and his life was comfortable by the standards of a frontier town, but owing to where he was he was neither able to connect with the people around him or find the coin that would advance himself further. So it seemed his path in life was set. Then the Wave hit. That's what they would later come to call the giant, hulking masses of beasts that seemed to sweep the land like a tsunami, starting with the frontier towns and working its way inward. Janon survived out of luck. He and a few others were storing food in the cellar beneath the one-room schoolhouse and was able to hide from the initial onslaught in there, then slip through the wastes back to what was left of civilization.

Since then, Janon has been forced to adapt to life in a land thrown into chaos and war. Sometimes working alone and sometimes in various small mercenary companies, he's learned the basics that's necessary to survive...the ability to wield a short sword, to hunt, and to pick locks when he has to turn to methods he's less than proud of. He still has all his knowledge and magic ability he had before, but in this life taking time away to find a book, much less read one, is a luxury he can't afford, and his true talents remain undeveloped. You might say he's a jack of many trades, but a master of none, and deep down he wonders how he can find whatever is left in life of peace and joy.