Student Guide

Membership

To become a student of Columtreal, you must first read and understand the guidelines below, then apply for membership. If your application is approved, you will receive an invite to the Columtreal University Roleplay group with the title of CU Looter. With the group invite, you’ll also receive an IM with instructions to either pay the one-time L$500 donation at the admissions office for an invite to the CU Student Body group, or work through the in-character financial aid process for the invite.

Membership Benefits

Students and Faculty of CU who are approved will enjoy the following:

  • Invitation to the exclusive Columtreal University Roleplay and CD Citizens groups
  • Access to instant-invite using For Hire signs to business groups in Black Bottom and Hathian
  • Personal Character Evolution profile which tracks police, medical, employment, and course transcript records
  • Access to all Alterscape community websites: forums, events, groups, personal Character Evolution dashboard, and member-only information
  • Ability to join and propose student organizations, greek fraternity/sorority, or campus businesses

Character Evolution System

Columtreal University is an ALTERSCAPE community which features the Character Evolution System. It’s a role-play system with features designed for text-based role-play, doesn’t require a HUD to use, and rewards members with exclusive group titles while tracking their role-play history / character development via different groups who submit content like police reports, medical reports, and advising reports. Additionally, the time spent on sim, in different business venues, and participation on forums help you earn new roles quicker. Members can access their history by logging onto this website.

Basically, the more you interact with the police (get cited, arrested, etc.), hospital (get treatment, recover, etc.), work (RP at one of the many official businesses as an employee), spend time on the streets of Hathian or campus, and teach or attend courses, your character will evolve and you will earn special titles indicating your experience and status in the community.

Freshman to Alumni

New students will begin as CU Freshman and will have to spend time on campus, attend events, and classes to accrue the necessary credits, as detailed in the section above, to advance in the following order:

  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
  • Alumni

Every time you meet with faculty for a 1-1 advising session, your earned credits from attending classes and time on campus will be automatically reviewed and rewarded if you meet the next grades’ criteria. Be sure to participate in advising sessions on a regular basis!


Paying Tuition vs. Financial Aid

When a student registration has been accepted, an invite to the Columtreal University Roleplay group with the CU Applicant title is sent. At this point, the student has two paths to obtain the CU Freshman role in the CU Student Body group:

  • Tuition: For an instant invite to the CU Freshman role, visit the Administration building. At the counter, pay the cash register a one-time donation of L$500 for lifetime membership. Proceeds go towards the upkeep of the sim.
  • Financial Aid: Not everyone can afford the fee in Second Life; for this reason, we’ve setup an alternative way to join as a CU Freshman without payment. First, you must be a member of the Columtreal University Roleplay or CD Citizen group by registering online and receiving an invite. Second, you must obtain a job on campus by visiting one of the various businesses with the orange "For Hire" sign; use the sign to select your desired role and you will be instantly employed. Finally, RP and accrue up to 20 hours of time on your employer’s timesheet before returning to the Admissions building and using the orange computer terminal to process your financial aid request and receive an instant invite to the CU Freshman role. We recommend you pursue working on campus when you’re not in class or attending an event; it’s a great way to meet new people and start role-play scenes.

Classroom Features & Systems

Every working class room has an overhead projector (themed with CU colors) in the front. These projectors can be clicked on to interact with the Class Registration System to create and track classes.

Instructors will first need to click on the projector and START a class (note: instructors must appear on the faculty roster in order to have access to start classes). The option will load a short web form to fill in the class title, what major it applies to, and a brief description. Upon submitting, the classroom would now be booked for the next 90 minutes. If another faculty member clicks on the projector, it will inform them that the class is currently booked and how much time left until it becomes available (we have 3 classrooms, so try another!).

The recommended flow for anyone interested in running a class on campus is to use the events calendar on the site to post the date and time of your class/workshop. On the day of the event, when you’re ready to start, just follow the instructions above. Posting on the calendar is not a requirement to start classes; it’s just highly recommended to get the maximum students. The more students attend, the more credit a faculty member will earn towards advancing their rank on staff. We also didn’t make it a requirement in case there are enough students on campus and someone wants to hold an ad hoc workshop/class.

Students at this point can click on the same projector to immediately enroll into the class. If an instructor has not started the class, it will indicate so. At this point, students can just RP in the classroom. Depending on when they enroll and how long they RP in the classroom, they will up to anywhere between 1-3 credits for the class and it will appear on their transcript. If a faculty member wants to attend a class as a student, clicking on the projector will give them an additional option to enroll.

Class/Course Ideas and Best Practices

Read this threadfor ideas on what kind of classes and how to best run them…

Roleplay Guide

Welcome Roleplay Guide

The following guide is required knowledge for participation. It’s a quick read and will help you get started in the unpredictable and exciting world of role-play in The Crack Den.

What is role-play?

Role-play (RP) is a social activity in which players assume roles of their own fictional characters and interact with one another. There are specific community rules, player guidelines, and the city background to consider while participating.

General Sim Rules

  • AGEPLAY IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED – All characters aged under 18 yrs must apply through the Seaside Roleplay group, may not participate in any sexual RP, and may not play in the adult zone.
  • FIREARMS RESTRICTED to CD Armed Citizens only. ONLY modern day melee weapons are allowed (non-projectile). Be prepared for IC consequences for any large and/or unconcealed weapons.
  • KEVLAR/ARMOR/MILITARY-GRADE WEAPONS RESTRICTED to admin approved scenes or on-duty police officer characters.
  • COMBAT IN HOSPITAL IS RESTRICTED to those who have given consent ONLY. There are security cameras, NPC personnel and guards on staff at all times. Keep it realistic.
  • DRIVING VEHICLES RESTRICTED to permit-holding members only. Learn more about vehicle permits and their availability.
  • NON-HUMAN AVATARS RESTRICTED (furry avatars only temporarily allowed as humans in costumes), exception being animal avatars for 100% domesticated “pets”. No animal character may operate under a death limit. Non-domestic animals,  farm animals or any attached or rezzed animals/pets must have admin approval.
  • UNOFFICIAL “CD” GROUPS AND TITLES RESTRICTED – No personal gangs or groups which have “CD” preceding in the titles are allowed unless approved by admins. No Gangs will be recognized until a group proposal has been submitted and approved.


In-character (IC) vs. Out-of-Character (OOC)

This is the most important concept to understand for role-play:

In-character (IC) describes the state of acting through the eyes, ears, and body of your fictional character. Basically, all physical actions and conversations would be based as if you are really the character, through the emoting and writing guidelines detailed below.

Out-of-character (OOC) describes responses and interactions with others as your real-self, in out-of-story context. Basically, being OOC means you are not role-playing and are restricted to communicating in IMs and group chats. If you need to break character temporarily, you may do so by surrounding your text in brackets, for example: (( I need to use the restroom, I’ll brb ))

IC versus OOC also reflects the nature of your relationship with another player and understanding the difference between what characters say or do In-Character and what goes on Out-Of-Character is paramount to a healthy storyline and preventing metagaming.

Voiding

Voiding is when IC actions or details in a storyline are nulled and are decided to have never occured. Sometimes it can be whole scenes or storylines. This is usually the result of Metagaming, powergaming or other rules that are broken. More on voiding can be found in our forum: Voiding: Rules of Disengagement.

Consent

As spontaneous and unpredictable role-play situations can be, all players are entitled to personal limits. Since forced fantasy is a prevelant theme, consent may already be established. If you are uncomfortable with certain actions being imposed on your character, IM the other player and inform them immediately.

If you are in the middle of a scene and find yourself unable to continue playing, you should IM the other player and indicate you want to “void” (never happened) the scene or “fade to black” (agree to skip details and jump to conclusion). Voiding a scene is generally bad practice, especially if there are multiple players involved and time spent is wasted.


Always Emote

Emote ( /me )

To communicate and interact with other players in role-play, you should emote. In Second Life, this means to use the /me command as you portray yourself in the third person, followed by the physical actions, thoughts, feelings, and/or speech (in quotations) of your character. The following examples are responses you could type if you were playing this female character:

/me sits upright as she notices the cop enter the lobby. “Oh hey, Officer. Is there anything I can help you with?”
/me feels the cold damp bricks on her back as she remains trapped against the wall; she feels his hand slide under her skirt. “Please,” she whimpers, “please don’t do this…”


Remember, gestures and chat abbreviations (ie. lol, omg, etc.) are not allowed in role-play. Always emote and be descriptive in your posts.

Take Turns

Role-play is a turn-based activity. When someone posts, you should respond with a single post, then wait for your turn to respond again. If there are multiple players involved, take your turn in order. This allows everyone a fair chance to respond to a situation before it is your turn to post again.

Busy locations such as restaurants and bars may have a more lax posting order to allow workers to better serve and private conversations to ensue.


Playing Fair: Powergaming and Metagaming

As emphasized above, role-play is consensual. If your character is interacting physically with another, every action you post must always be an attempt, or what you are trying to do to the other player. This gives the other player flexibility and chances to either accept or deflect what you are trying to do to them. Combat and forced fantasy scenes are especially handled this way.

Powergaming

If one attacks without any social interaction, uses excessive force, or post the result of an attack on another character, then they are powergaming. Besides losing respect from other players, if reported, the offenders may find themselves ejected from groups and banned.

Good Example: /me snarls angrily, draws his pipe back, and then charges towards the hobo in hopes to strike him. “I’ll show you!” he screams.

 

Bad Example (Powergaming!): /me snarls angrily, draws his pipe back and jumps on the hobo. He then swings his pipe at his head and knocks him out cold.

Metagaming

Metagaming occurs when a player uses knowledge their character would not be privy to (obtained through OOC means) and uses it during in-character role-play to alter outcomes in a scene or storyline in their favor. A common example of this violation is to read an avatar name and use that name in-character to address someone. Unless your character actually met this other character or had knowledge of them through role-play, there is no possible way your character would have known their name (the same goes for character background, history, and any other life detail that has not been role-played out).

Creating Your Character

Establishing a backstory is the foundation to your character’s appearance, mindset, and history. Think about where he/she grew up, any traumatic or major events that help define character, and the events that lead to their arrival in the city. Create a profile pick of The Crack Den and put a summary of your character’s backstory in the description.

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Interested in Teaching?

Any adult citizen is welcome to teach a workshop or seminar on campus! Earn extra street cred by becoming an instructor on campus and teaching a single or short series of classes on a subject of your interest and choosing!