Stainless Steel Fox Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 I've looked through the threads, and while there's the School for Gifted Unicorns, I havn't seen any other Canterlot schools for colts and fillies. I wanted to run a school based RP for my new character Clawee (think young filly aged Pinkie Pie the Griffon with sports and games instead of parties as her thing). I want to watch the fun as she tries to fit in at some fancy high falutin' Middle school, probably one that takes both boarders and day students.If there aren't any, is it okay to roll up my own, and provide NPC teachers, and possibly students? I'd prefer other player character foals, but I'll take what I can get. The boarders and day students thing would allow charactewrs from other places than Canterlot to take part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manestream Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 When RPing, its okay for you to make locations out of a whim for the importance of storyline or setting- what should be understood is that these places arent typically cannon, and may or may not ever be cannon; they are 'in the moment filler' if you would. If a place becomes popular enough to be used in multiple RP's, then it starts to become a type of community landmark, and then might make it into actual board-cannon when we draw up maps of each city.The trick when creating locations like this is to be more descriptive about the setting, or what your pony notices; its not about building the school and staff up from the ground to every detail- you dont even have to give it a name; or if you do initials would work just fine. Leaving the reader wondering is sometimes what keeps the reader reading. If your pony is having a brief interaction with a teacher, you may not even have to describe the teacher- or even disclose what the teacher is saying, for example:Buttercup opened her mouth to ask the question she'd been waiting all day for- this was it! "Hey teach, I was wondering if-" she quickly stopped herself and changed her tactics as the mare behind the desk gave a loud sigh at the nickname."aw, well i mean, i didnt mean to, i mean..." Buttercups heart sank as her teacher told her yet again how much she didnt like being called 'teach'."Yes ma'am, but-" Buttercup sighed as her teacher rolled over her again- not having any word for disagreement."but I jus' wanna ask you if-!" Her teacher's hard glare sent Buttercup's questions packing. Defeated, and deflated, she moseyed out into the hall with the rest of her classmates. The halls of the school passed by without notice, and before long she found herself on the familiar trail home.The teacher is a minor character, as is the school a minor setting- to get the point of the scene across (but leaving out whatever the focus of Buttercup's question is for ambiguity), and as so i dont need to set up a whole bunch of information about the school, or the teacher, or what Buttercup thinks about the school and teacher. If its really important to the core of the story, then its okay to embellish. If its not, then you can focus on the details that make the experience important, and not have to worry about cannonizing every building or location your pony visits.Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stainless Steel Fox Posted March 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 I've already made my intitial set up post on the Foothills sub-forum. Check it out and see what you think.The point is this isn't just some passing landmark like a shop I stop to buy supplies at. This is going to be the setting for the entire thread, if I can get any-pony to play along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manestream Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 That still works- a thread in perspective of all the RP threads on the board is very small- I wouldnt worry about making it 'cannon' unless there are several RP's revolving around that location and other users are picking it up too. Your school can exist just fine as long as it isnt something that would fall outside the general RP guidelines of not being marysue- for example, there arent multiple schools for celestia's gifted unicorns, but there probably are some snooty high-brow ones (which is a little of what i think your aiming for?), and then there may be the occasional teacher or school member who recommends a filly or colt go to an advanced magic school. Schools are diverse- big small, homey or big-brow; as long as your school isnt all CIA ponies in disguise, or sitting ontop of a secret magical weapon the size of canterlot, it should be fine. In that case, its okay to go into detail about your school and give it character- just keep it within the scope of the show :3All in all, I think its fine to make up a school as long as its RP appropriate (meaning, if it fits in with the MLP universe, doesnt break any boundaries of reality or marysue, and is believable). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stainless Steel Fox Posted March 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 What I'm going for with Miss Teak's Academy is a cross between one of those early 20th century British boarding schools so beloved of children's authors of the time, and a anime style Japanese High school (not an American one). Uniforms, fairly strict discipline, a lot of school spirit, home-rooms, bullies to be beaten, tuck shops and school sports. Not sure I should have houses, which I feel are needlessly devisive, but I suspect there's competition between classes in the same year.There will be no secret laboratories, groups of school fillies with secret identies as sailor suited super-heroines, monster attacks, dueling clubs that decide the fate of the world, giant pony shaped robots, vampires, and no more magic or super-powers than would be natural for a school populated by teenaged earth-ponies, unicorns, pegasi and one griffon. Should I expand that to goats and donkeys as well? I don't like to be thought of as racist.If I do do a school with all of the above, it will be in the Free-for-all RP section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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