DO
* Work hard to give us your best writing. We don't care if your work is up to Pulitzer standards; we want the best you have to offer of your own free will.
* Take the plunge! Scared your writing won't be up to par? Don't worry! Observe, remember, learn! Even take notes if you want. We all improve our skill and accuracy with time and practice, and there are always people willing to nitpick - er, help...
* Be creative, positive, and enthusiastic! These qualities are what make good role players, and they're all contagious. Don't be afraid to start an epidemic!
* Remember we're on a kid-safe site. Try not to get the rating of a role-play above PG-13. If you have to, use a "fade to black" (i.e. the end of a mating flight), or ask someone to help you re-word your writing to be deemed more appropriate.
* Be descriptive! Paint us a mental picture of your work, give us details, put your audience there! Emotions, settings and backgrounds let us know your characters better, and enhance your character. Depth is good...
* Be active. We cannot stress this enough. Try to get on as much as you can. Don't show up once a month and expect someone to drop everything to help you catch up in the times. If you're going away for a long time, tell us so we know you haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Even dropping in every now and then and letting us know "hey guys, I'm still alive!" is better than never coming on.
* Check the lists of current characters, dragons, fire lizards, etc., just to make sure you don't end up giving your character a name exactly like or very similar to the name of a character already in existense.
DON'T
* Be repetitive or monotonous. It gets really old really fast is you're always posting messages like "K'nex walked ou to the lake like always" or "Health dove. Health flapped her wings, because Health knew the male dragons would not catch Health," and so on. Variance in wording is fantastic!
* Expect anything to come easily to you.We all work hard, and if you want something important (gold or bronze dragon or fire lizard, Holder, Craft Master, etc.), you will have to prove that you deserve it.
* Forget your ABCs!
* Be stereotypical. Sure, a lot of us have characters with bad pasts and whatnot, but it reeks of uncreativity to see someone who has seven two-dimensional characters who've all been beaten by their fathers. We do occassionally get sick of hearing sob stories.
* Forget your characters. Too many times privelages have been lost and characters have drifted into NPC because their player forgot. This is a waste, and in general just sucks... True, your string of characters may include lesser individuals, but they ALL play a part.
* Neglect to check back in the message or read the News page to find out what's up.
* Take it personally. Just because the characters of two people hate each other doesn't mean the players do. Most of us get along extremely well, though our characters may be tearing out one another's throats.
* Repeatedly bring your real life problems to us. Leave whatever the heck it is at the door, Valihi is a place of happiness for writers, and occassionally torture for characters. Leave it that way. We are writers, not psychologists, and in most cases we are hundreds - if not thousands - of miles away from you. Much as we may want to, we can't help you, and we promise to be extremely annoyed - if not all out pissed - with you if you keep belly aching to us...
* Touch Tessa. Ever. Especially you, Wile.