I'm bored lol. I'm tired of standing in the Entrance Hall trying to think of polite conversation until you have nothing left to say and there's an awkward silence.

So, what is there to actually do around Hogwarts? I know under third years aren't allowed off school grounds; are all older students allowed to go wherever they want? I see older students in the party everywhere from Egypt to Pinboria to London etc.

Say what you like about the old curriculum system; at least it provided something to do with others. I spent many hours in the Forbidden Forest with people doing or helping with our homework. Now homework is just a trip to the library.

Are there any places to explore now that we aren't allowed in the forest anymore?

What about Hagrid's quest to find ant eggs for the skrewts? That used to be fun to try with a group, but Hagrid isn't there anymore. The ants are still there, so it wouldn't be hard to make the quest active again. His skrewt isn't there either, nor the horklump in the garden. The place feels empty.

What do people do for fun? I am aware that I may be the only one who doesn't like just standing around in the Entrance Hall silently lol. Do all the activities happen before I get online? Often when I'm in party people are standing somewhere by themselves just talking on party chat. Some people sit in afk and party chat. Nothing IC seems to happen.

Feel free to tell me that I'm just missing all the IC stuff because of my timezone and I come on at the time when people are tired of IC and just want to chat. DX

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Anastasia McLaren - 4th year Slytherin
Anna Daljera - 3rd year Gryffindor
Shizuka Matsuri - 2nd year Ravenclaw

Try to think outside the box of just standing around holding conversations.
We roleplay witches and wizards, they're very capable of doing more than hanging out and talking.
Just the other day, Sierra had this great idea of a floating chair with balloons tied to it. The whole idea came out while a bunch of students were, you guessed it, standing in the Entrance Hall and talking. And then they did something about it. They went outside, conjured a chair and a few balloons, and had a grand time!

I have a really great memory of Liss and Seril rappelling the wall of a cliff on school grounds once. They were so bored, especially IC, and decided to do something about it. There were no DMs involved, no one told them what to do. They just went outside, conjured some ropes, and climbed down the side of a cliff.

RolePlay won't always be handed to you by someone in higher power. And you can't always expect something extraordinary to happen. Sometimes our PC's have to put themselves out there and make things happen.

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"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room.
There was a knock at the door."
-Frederic Brown

Putting scorpions in Seril's shoes when bored is always fun rp.

And then his HP drops down to -700 right before the big Quidditch match!

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"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room.
There was a knock at the door."
-Frederic Brown

Great adventures with dark wizards bent on global domination -usually- requires a DM. I say usually, because sometimes it doesn't, as long as it's kept in someone's personal RP and not forced on the rest of the server (this usually means they aren't on any brink of actual success). Epic battles at the Ministry requires a DM. Students getting slaughtered, or students slaughtering, requires a DM.

But -so- much more doesn't need a DM at all. So much more. And no, it's not -only- social interaction that's DM-less. Some of the more "active" characters on the server tend toward more social activities, and the less "active" characters sit in the EH and -wait- for something to happen. There are -many- other alternatives.

This server is in many ways a very open RP server. There are few restrictions, so long as it's not disruptive, so long as it doesn't force RP on others, and so long as it fits in JKR's world.

Jade and Peran, Zane and Joki, and Liss and Angel are almost always making up some sort of research project to work on. Others do as well. Some are RPd as curricular, some are RPd as extracurricular. This isn't to gain some power for the character, this is to give our characters something to do.

In the past, students have formed groups. Dueling groups, chess groups, music groups, groups of students formed for the protection of the school or other magical place or knowledge. Clubs, cults, whatever you want to call them. These are completely player-run and provide for a lot of RP- RP which will very often get called on when there's a DM running a plot.

People have gone and RP'd a DM-less class. Mostly the prof is RP'd as making "wa wa wa wa wa, wa wa wa," sounds as the students RP doing whatever it is they are doing in the background of the class. In this case, the content of the class is implied, to avoid any conflicts with established server history, unless it's something well known or some sort of research project, whatever.

Think HP. Have your character mess around with potions, get blown up a little, whatever you like. If your character is actually researching an advanced magic, go for it... just keep us in the loop. Rule 1 about advanced magic RP: If you're in it for the RP, you will be happy. If you're in it to get the end result, you will be frustrated. You as the player should be in it for the RP, your character should be in it for the end result. There's a big difference. But even without advanced magic RP, there are -plenty- of projects that you can come up with for your character. Most, but not all, school projects your character will probably see as a pain in the butt, keep that in mind. It -is- homework, after all.

Several times we have RP'd going to see a movie at the cinema. Everyone meets there, then everyone starts the movie on their computer or TV or Netflix or whatever at exactly the same time. Then through the whole movie, RP takes place. Throwing popcorn, laughing or booing, remarks about the movie, whatever. After one movie in particular, Liss was so inspired by something she saw that it created RP that turned into her NEWTs potions project, and the special knife that she used to stab Bendus Blott at the battle of LAM, as well as a whole host of other things that she hasn't revealed to the public yet.

Have your character go "play" out on grounds. Like Seril was saying, about rappelling or the balloon idea. Play frisbee. Liss took a few younger years who where "waiting" in the EH out to the garden so they could attempt to animate little people made out of apples. Which of course ended up with apple sauce sometimes.

One of the key issues with finding things to do, is that people think of it from the perspective of you as a player. "What is there to do in this server?" Instead, strip away the server, and let your character ask the question. What would your character be doing? Then, instead of saying "that's not possible to do on the server," realize that it is possible (as long as it's within the rules). Just figure out how. Europa can be Antarctica, The Black's place can be some old house, or a museum, or whatever... the Durmstrang mountains can be Siberia, some remote place. And when you need to RP your characters in a car, just park them somewhere, move the camera so you can't see the screen, and go text only. It -can- be RP'd.

Waiting in the EH will ensure you of one thing only... waiting. Go do something. And if everyone else is already off doing things, and you're all alone, there is a nifty thing called an owl. And like Seril said, don't always look for only the extraordinary. "Ordinary" is what brings the characters to life. That "life" is what makes them extraordinary. Especially when something extraordinary actually does happen.

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-Calan

Liss Crest, Slytherin
Kalara Crest, Hufflepuff
Elizabeth Finley, The Moon

SPONTANEOUS IDEAS FROM MY CRANIUM:

- Hunt for pinecones outside to make peanut butter bird feeders
- Go try and feed carrots you got from the kitchens to the rabbits outside
- Draw moustaches on some paintings and end up having to chat with the portrait
- Get into a bubble blowing contest, or something involving candy.
- Tree climbing
- Feeding the Giant Squid apples you picked from the orchard
- Tending to the plants in the greenhouses
- Tree climbing
- Try and tame deers or wildlife
- Origami boats and have boat races in the outdoor fountains or in the large 3rd floor pool
- have a whistling contest, or a bubble gum blowing contest
- Fashion shows, art rooms, drawing contests, candy making, cooking food, owl tending, catching something bad in potions class and being in the hospital wing.
- Pick up a charity and run wild with it! Give your character a cause or a hobby to work for and at. Attempt to learn how to speak Mermish.


Just for fun, get a bunch of balloons and tie a chair to it and see how high you can get!

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Sierra Tillery - Little Lambs Orphanage Manager and Ministry of Magic Education Dept.
Anula Bhaskar - Hufflepuff
Crissy Darby - Gryffindor
"I sense a costume opportunity!"

Some people are born writers, some are only born actors.

Well we need to get some wildlife back first.



Ok, are there any clubs/groups/anything running at the moment? Just want to make sure I don't step on any toes if I try and start something.

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Anastasia McLaren - 4th year Slytherin
Anna Daljera - 3rd year Gryffindor
Shizuka Matsuri - 2nd year Ravenclaw

Pretty sure there are always some kinds of clubs or groups running.
I think the best way of going about this is finding out in character.

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"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room.
There was a knock at the door."
-Frederic Brown

I think there's still squirrels and rabbits and such, but other wildlife can simply be roleplayed. Taming a deer is.. Not easy.

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Local Lurker and Knower of the Unknown and Unknowable. Also a bit full of itself, and an occasional prick.

NWN is our "playing board," it doesn't define our RP. What I'm saying is you don't need pixels on the screen, you need imagination. Sometimes pixels are nothing more than needlessly limiting because it ties people into what's on the screen. Imagination is a lot more powerful, and a lot less limited.



Yes there are.



Don't try and start something, let your character do it. If you're trying to start something OOC, it's going to be riddled with issues.

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-Calan

Liss Crest, Slytherin
Kalara Crest, Hufflepuff
Elizabeth Finley, The Moon

Some berk started an IC band.

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I never saw a squirrel or a rabbit. Where are they? And call me unimaginative, but I do like to have an actual animal to RP on rather than an empty space.

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Anastasia McLaren - 4th year Slytherin
Anna Daljera - 3rd year Gryffindor
Shizuka Matsuri - 2nd year Ravenclaw

This is why you find nothing to do.

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-Calan

Liss Crest, Slytherin
Kalara Crest, Hufflepuff
Elizabeth Finley, The Moon

Oh come on. You could just as easily say why build Hogwarts at all or make clothing for your char or make homework or cast spells at all when you can just imagine it all.

I mean we're playing NWN rather than PnP for the visual stuff.

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Anastasia McLaren - 4th year Slytherin
Anna Daljera - 3rd year Gryffindor
Shizuka Matsuri - 2nd year Ravenclaw