This is a temporary holding place for the character sheet format information. This section includes how we character build, what we expect of people as far as powers go, what we expect of players and so on, so forth.

Contents 1 IC Student Expected Conduct 2 Attributes 3 Personality Traits 3.1 Diligence 3.2 Knowledge 3.3 Courage 3.4 Understanding 3.5 Expression 3.6 Recruiting

IC Student Expected Conduct

While we don't want to dictate how people should play their character Blackstone Hills does have a few requirements of its students. We want a realistic setting, and, we want a fun setting. We want to cater to our players who make choices with the expectations of the reasonable consequences but we want students to get to have a "teen experience". In trying to balance this, Blackstone has the following set of rules. It should be noted that eyes aren't everywhere. Certainly teens have snuck a cigarette here or some alcohol there and by no means do we want people to stop this. However, before any of these things happen we would like a PM to one of the officers so we know what's happening in the setting and can use it to build story.

Remember we're not the PPD. We're not Longbow. We're high school kids with the privilege to fight crime because of permissions from various groups and our school's legal status to do this is a gift. In the real world people become panicky very easily with teenagers and are almost always willing to believe the worse (iDosing, anyone?) no matter how ridiculous. Teenagers walking around with bloody swords for whatever reason is not going to settle the populace regardless of how many drugs were stopped.

• Medical conditions must be disclosed to the school.
• Parents or guardians must legally grant permission to patrol every trimester.
• Students are expected to obey curfew laws and be on campus afterwards.
• Students are expected to swipe their student ID cards in for the dorms each evening.
• Uniforms; either formal or informal are to be worn Monday through Thursday during the school day (from 6am to 5pm) both on and off campus; Civilian clothes are permitted Friday through Sunday and at specific school events.
• Patrol uniforms are required to be worn on all school focused patrols.
• Students are expected to participate in at least one community service act per month with their fellow students; this includes school sponsored patrol units. (This is mostly an IC requirement though we will have events)
• Students who attempt use lethal force during patrols will lose the privilege of their license for at least 30 days and be brought up to ethical review by the school board.
• Students who break the law by way of committing a misdemeanor during patrols or while in uniform will lose the privilege of their license for at least 15 days and be brought up to ethical review by the school board.
• Students are expected to obey curfew laws and be on campus past 11pm (If your character is off campus or expressly breaking curfew, tell us. Otherwise we'll just presume by "actual" time they are not)
• Students who are caught with illegal substances will lose the privilege of their license for at least 30 days and be brought to ethical review by the school board.
• Third offenses for any review board automatically will equal expulsion with the exception of an unanimous vote by the prefects towards extenuating circumstances in which case it will be treated as a first or second offense.
• Students caught in insubordination for a previous punishment, fighting with another student without power useage, stealing from another student, or breaking and entering into a restricted location will lose the privilege of their license for at least 15 days.

Attributes

Attributes are the classifications players can use to fill out their character's school life. Even when they aren't being played, each character has a life and personality that goes on behind the scenes.

Personality Traits

The attributes here are listed here on a 1 through 5 scale with 1 being the lowest and 5 benig the highest. 1 should be considered slightly below average, 2 is average, 3 is above average, 4 is highly talented, and 5 is exceptional. These should be considered your character's natural, average abilities if they were to not put any effort into things. Another rule of thumb to consider with these attributes are that 5's should involve activities that your character gains energy and happiness from and 1s are things that would cause your character stress to have to do or show. Of course, every rule has exceptions. Even the most cowardly person can stand up to the school bully one day - but these stats here are for more of the day to day. The big RP moments when you step above and beyond yourself... we leave to plots. Each number may only be used once.

Diligence

This attribute serves to show how diligent your character can be with their work. While students may not act up to their full potential in things, having a high diligence score means that your character is highly capable of focusing on long term, potentially boring activities and pay them exacting detail. Diligence is used in the following activities: Studying, Investigating, After School Jobs, etc. Whether you're staying up all night to study or you're trying to put the roses on the school float on exactly... diligence is the default understanding of that task.

Diligence 1 represents someone who may be flighty, may simply be unconcerned with the world or may be devil-may-care and carefree and unwilling to "sweat the small stuff". The world is full of interesting things and people and work just isn't one of them - focusing hard on long term projects is a task, not a joy. Huckleberry Finn, Sailor Moon, and April Ludgate from Parks and Recreation are all diligence 1.

Diligence 3 represents someone who can delay getting what they want, who is comfortable with handling tiny minutia without frustration, or who takes pleasure in careful planning and organization. It can also represent someone who's able to focus for things they care about but wanes when its outside of their focus. Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, James T. Kirk from Star Trek, most Blue Rangers, Tom Haverford from Parks and Recreation are all diligence 3.

Diligence 5 represents someone who's obsession with exacting detail would satisfy the fussiest bride or the pickiest teacher and may quite possibly be a compulsion. Maybe they just deeply enjoy planning or maybe they're terribly afraid of getting something... anything wrong. Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation, Dwight Schrute from The Office, and Batman are all diligence 5.

Knowledge

This attribute serves to show the wide knowledge base. We accumulate vast amounts of information over our lifetimes and the knowledge attribute shows how well a student can pull that information and even in passing how much familiarity they have with a wide variety of subjects. This attribute is as much base of information as it is remembering said information. Knowledge is used in the following activities: Hints from Clues, Familiarity, and Final Exams all depend on your knowledge score. Whether you’re trying to remember what those sugar candy skulls mean in the barrios or recalling information for your finals, that’s all knowledge.

Knowledge 1 represents someone who probably has a few specialized areas they know about but generally doesn’t have a wide assortment of information. They may be an expert on computers or a genius when it comes to magical ritual but they probably couldn’t tell you anything about where Napoleon surrendered or the changing idea of black each season. In their areas of interest few could probably question them... but take the computer boy or the young witch to a cheer competition and the announcer’s words might become all sound and noise. Giles from Buffy, Parker from Leverage and Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon are all knowledge 1.

Knowledge 3 represents someone with a good and wide variety of information they can draw on. It may not be particularly in depth but they are familiar with a wide amount of subjects and can draw on that well for a host of things. It represents someone who is a good dilettante; having dabbled a bit in this and a bit in that. They may not be intelligent necessarily, but, they have a certain genre savviness that makes up for it even if they have a blind spot. Randy Meeks from Scream, Cordelia Chase from Buffy, both Vinnie and Lisa from My Cousin Vinnie

Knowledge 5 does not mean your character in a genius. In fact they can be quite salt of the earth or even simple. What it means is that the student has seen a lot of different things in their time and remembers it all. They have experienced an incredible amount of information from comic books to fashion columns, from ancient Greek rituals to modern Korean honorifics and have at least vague passing familiarity if not expertise in them all. Eliot Spencer from Leverage (It’s a very distinctive...), Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, and Ozymandius from Watchmen are all Knowledge 5.

Courage

This attribute serves to show how stalwart a student is in the face of trouble. This is not meant to represent the student at their best for whether they could opt to stand up to that bully one day, but, meant to represent the student at their general average. This attribute is both the willpower and the confidence to strike out on your own. Courage is used in the following activities: Standing up to peer pressure, standing up to parents or authority, confronting friends and enemies. A courageous student can push past all of these things head on and look them in the eye.

Courage 1 represents someone who might be very giving, sweet, or simply unwilling to cause ripples. They may the oldest child used to always helping others and putting their needs first or they may simply slink away when confronted with troubles rather than meet it head on. Either way they aren’t particularly interested in making waves and would prefer to take the path of least resistance when it comes to their peers and others. Fluttershy from My Little Ponies Friendship is Magic, Kaylee Frye from Firefly and Ty Lee from Avatar are good examples of this.

Courage 3 is someone who is willing to risk embarrassment or being ostracised on occasion to stand up for what they want. They will defend their friends even when the choice may make them unpopular or stand up for someone that is “okay” to tease. They’ll tell their parents that this isn’t what they want to do or tell teachers they think that something is wrong or incorrect. While they may not butt heads all the time and while they may decide to do things for the greater good, they know that sometimes you need to walk through the fire even if it makes everyone uncomfortable around them. Annie Edison from Community, Starfire from Teen Titans (The TV variant), and Xander from Buffy are Courage 3.

Courage 5 means that the character is immune to peer pressure for good or for ill; whether it’s being pressured into drugs or pressured into study. The social concern that some might feel from going against the waves doesn’t really bother them and the awkwardness they might cause for going their own way is also not enough to necessarily sway them in and of itself Conflict may be their bread and butter - thriving off of it instead of gaining stress from the idea of butting heads and fighting. Rorschach from Watchmen, Laura Rosalind from Battlestar Galactica, and Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan.

Understanding

Understanding This attribute is a combination between social understanding and empathy. A character’s understanding score isn’t necessarily whether they always act on other people’s desires but whether they really understand why people feel the ways they do. The choice of what to do with the information, of course, is theirs during roleplay. Both the Mean Queen bee and the Gentle Granola Girl show understanding - it’s just whether one person uses it to break down others and the other uses it to help. Understanding is used in the following activities: Asking for information behind reactions, analyzing gossip or rumors. An understanding student will find the confusing twists and bends of high school perhaps a little more clear.

Understanding 1 can be someone who takes for granted that people don’t always say what they mean. When a girlfriend says fine, then, obviously everything’s okay isn’t it? They could be an open person themselves unused to having to dig for meanings or they simply could be unaware of the layers of social depth that some people express behind their words. There can be an innocence about their seeming meanness not recognizing the social grace and tact other people might desire to hear. Pierce Hawthorne from Community, Sheldon from Big Bang Theory and Brittany from Glee.

Understanding 3 is someone who is aware there are lines to be read between at times though they might miss a few cues there. They know to ask ‘really’ when someone says ‘fine’ in response and to look to the eyes for a real smile. Whether they use their insight to cut people down or build people up, however, depends entirely on the character at hand. Cordelia Chase from Buffy, Dr. Wilson from House and Pepper Potts from Iron Man all have Understanding 3.

Understanding 5 might be your best friend or your worst enemy. Perhaps they manipulate people with sociopathic glee as they understand what makes them tick or maybe they’re always there to say the exact right things that need to be said in order to keep someone else on track. The good, or bad, they do while in your head goes from person to person but few people could deny they can immediately break people down and see what makes them tick. Dr. Hannibal Lecter, The Oracle from The Matrix and Inara on Firefly fill this role.

Expression

This attribute is the student’s ability to express themselves emotionally through various media or subjects. Whether it’s a particularly moving speech, a wonderful ability as an actress, or a beautifully performed concerto a student’s expression shows how well they are able to do things that emotionally resonate with others. This is notably different than technical skill; a character can be highly skilled but not play or perform with feeling. Expression is used in the following activities: Playing instruments, creating artwork, giving speeches, performing in plays. A student with expression can find that few question the sincerity they feel.

Expression 1 is someone who is just unused or uncomfortable showing their real feelings. Maybe they’re remarkably guarded as a person, maybe they put up so much of a front to put themselves out on the page, maybe they’re overly obsessed with the technical minutia of the page to get any feeling, or maybe they’re just giftedly bad at the arts. Either way one could imagine their efforts to be bland or false seeming from one directions or just simply out of tune and off choice from another. Tobias Funke from Arrested Development, Sophie from Leverage (when trying to act), and Denise Richards in Drop Dead Gorgeous show Expression 1.

Expression 3 is someone who can put themselves out on stage if not show the world their bleeding heart. When they give earnest speeches people feel compelled to listen but believe them and if they sing a love song to someone they care about the emotion of their works is entirely evident. While they may not be the most technically proficient performer amongst the group all of their performances have a quality of ‘soul’ that makes them feel real rather than simply feeling rehearsed. Rei Hino from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Giles from Buffy and Stan from South Park all are good Expression 3 characters

Expression 5 shows that a student can become entirely believable and earnest when they wish... whether they truly mean it or not. The manipulative power of someone at this level is great and perhaps even as other students listen they might remember how skilled an actor the character could be. When they play piano it brings memories of moments past. When they paint it makes people stop and wish that they were a part of the world they’re viewing. Lynn Minmey from Robotech, and Ariel from the Little Mermaid.

Recruiting

Thank you for being interested in Blackstone Hills Preparatory School first and foremost!
We have a few guidelines here that are in place to make sure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to what we're looking for and what would have the most fun in our organization. Again, these are not hard and fast rules but guidelines. Our setting is a bit smaller than what City of Heroes may suggestion. While students from Blackstone Hills might fly in to save the day as a squad; we're the ones that stop grocery stores from getting robbed. We're the ones that find kidnapped local kids from a super villain out to try and put them in a dream-stealing machine. We're even the ones taking on Troll Raves and Freakshow rallies. We're not saving the world or even necessarily saving Paragon... but, we might just save the day.

First and foremost, Blackstone Hill Students should be teenagers who are primarily defined by their interaction with other students within the school and the school itself. While we recognize there are many valid, reasonable teenage characters due to the nature of the school and the responsibility entrusted with its students there are a few things which will not fit within our setting:

• Students that have already had a reputation for flagrantly breaking serious laws (eg. students that have committed felonies)
• Students that inherently have a problem with all authority figures or "terminal contrarians"
• Students that do not fit the scope of reasonable teenager (de-aged with all of their memories, no previous concept of teenage life in any culture "what is ketchup?" "what is a video game?")
• Students that have no desire to any public service without extreme protesting
• Students that are inherently present to protect/destroy the school
• Students that have become inherent BIG heroes well within their own right (Again, use Teen Titans as a guideline. Robin is fine; Nightwing is not. Learning HOW to be that Big Hero is acceptable to a certain degree; being them already, less so)

Applications for Blackstone Hills are accepted the first two weeks of every month and follow a process meant to introduce characters at a rate wherein the SG can get to meet and know them well. An application is available on our web page and we will get back to you as soon as possible for when we can sit down as a group and discuss your character and give our OOC interview. We feel this is very important so both sides can really get a feel for each other, the character, and the character in the group.

The third week of the month is typically when we have IC interviews and meetings though scheduling conflicts may push these to alternate time periods. Characters will be officially accepted or rejected after the end of this IC interview. At that time they gain the rank Recruit and are considered a probationary member.

In order to more fully welcome characters as well as introduce plot and story, the fourth week of every month during our IC meeting, new applicants are introduced (or re-introduced!) to the school as a whole. Excitingly, students will typically get their permanent assignments to squadrons during these meetings. Also during these times squadrons would potentially break off and discuss upcoming events, do whatever games or what not their leader might have planned, go on a team-building patrol or just hang out and RP.