I know it isn't an excuse, but real life + college + a bunch of other stuff happened and I sort of let my arts boarding school roleplay die. I'm bringing it back because it seemed very popular as I tried to make it unique, so I'm in the process of clearing it out. One thing occurred to me:

Girls who sign up as dancers and say the girls are uber-thin (almost anorexic), whose height-to-weight ratio would be too thin for a catwalk model - do you even know what's involved in dancing?!

I dance full-time and I'm surrounded by others who do too. Even the girl who is naturally very very skinny has very obvious muscles built up from dancing. Everyone else has well-defined thighs and calves, strong defined arms and such. Even ballet dancers that you see with Russian companies, while skinny, have a decent amount of muscle on them! So if you join my site and try to tell me that your dancer girl is 5' 8" and weighs 100lbs, I will laugh in your face. There's a girl in my class who is uber-skinny but still has obvious muscles and she's 5' 8" and weighs 120lbs at least!

This is just a rant as I prepare to open my normal British boarding school site. I'm expecting a ton of exchange students and emo/scene people to apply... but the school rules are pretty much spot on to a school in south-west England's actual rules, so that sort of stuff won't be allowed. Any bets on how long it'll be before someone says "that's not a realistic school!"? And any bets on how many of the people who say that will actually be British?

Today is a day of great annoyance for me.

</rant>

I know totally how you feel regarding realism. I run a medieval/fantasy board and we have been running for nearly 2 full years now but still we get characters that are not realistic. It is harder to control in a fantasy world where people are allowed to create their own races and magic is rife.

One particular event that got to me was a chap on the board who had got himself into a situation that he could not get out of. He had got himself arrested for murder, witnesses had seen him and he was contained in the holding cell. He attempted to heat metal of a stolen sword and then push it through the stone floor in front of the door to stop it from opening.

I may not have done exceptionally well in science at school but I was always under the impression that hot metal became pliable? Like when a blacksmith is forging?

Oh dear.

Hot metal also expands. Therefore his sword would have become thicker, and therefore less likely to fit in the gap between floor slabs.

Thank you, I did not know the full scientific in's and out's but I knew it was not possible.

<3

I love realism, even in fantasy games. Realism is the stuff that dreams are made of... well, for me. Realism makes me happy even in unrealistic environs.

And people seem to always get body/height/weight issues all out of wack. I think it is from the fixation on skinny=beautiful. I'm only 5'6, and my -doctor- told me I shouldn't weigh less than 115. So figure that into your math.

Not to mention, muscle weighs more than fat.

I am totally with you on that. I love realism and I think it is really important, especially in Fantasy Roleplay where many things are possible. It is one of the reasons I don't allow characters to be represented by Anime on my site, I like a realistic feel to the game and pink hair and massive eyes just don't do it for me.

What's the point of having heightk, weight in a bio? hy not just have build? Tall, short, slim, fat, svelte, etc...

I don't have them as separate sections, people just seem to write them under the "appearance" section.

I concur, Wilde. I think having height/weight almost encourages that sort of stuff. Turkfox, I suggest that if you do keep the height/weight, you include a link to a website such as this. I don't think it is 100% accurate (my opinion), but at least it'll give people an idea.

As far as ballerinas go, I knew a girl who was a ballerina, and really--she's my idol. I know a lot of dancers become anorexic (knew one of those, too), but this girl was amazing. She definitely had muscle but she was--oh noes!--chunky, dare I say. She was very beautiful nonetheless, mind you, but she definitely did not fit the whole "dancer" stereotype.

With the realism in your school, why don't you make a note in the rules saying that this is how real schools actually run? I think it'll save you the trouble of having to answer to whiny people, and if they don't like it, they don't have to join. I'm actually curious about what the rules are now.

Oh, and with that, I live in California and I once saw a roleplay that took place here, but was filled to the brim with English colloquialisms (I can't spell). But at any rate, they didn't even attempt to get California slang right and instead just used some British stuff--stuff that I had to actually go look up because I didn't know what it was.

But I don't have height and weight sections (as I stated in my last post). People just include it off their own backs while writing the 'appearance' paragraph.

As for my board, I'm just about to post it up in directory submissions, if you're curious to see the boarding-school rules. xD

Oh. I had to read that a couple of times and when I scrolled back up, I saw a post had magically appeared before mine. (Actually, when I posted, your post wasn't there. Guess it took me awhile to post, eh? ;) )

At any rate, yes, I am interested. *waits to see these rules*

I am not a big fan of 'realism' because I like magic and hate science - so if there's a scientific explanation for why my character's action is possible I don't want to hear it. Things like height, weight, hair/eye colour, though, I do like to be rational. I always include a height and weight because my characters always make comments on other people's height/weight and I usually say 'she was an inch or two taller than the man in front of her' or something to that effect. I am really interested in things like that, so I take care to research them!

If you find that people are adding height/weight into their applications and are getting it wrong, I suggest that you suggest this site to prospective members. It's great for working out what your character might look like at a certain height or weight.

My feelings on realism vary depending on the situation, so I'll repeat what I said earlier and say I'm not a big fan.

That site is amazing. Emma, thank you!!

I second that, Hikari. :o That's a great site! Wow.

My site's up in directory submissions now, the school rules are pretty easy to find when you get there.

That photo site is really good, might use it for a site I co-admin on if the height/weight thing gets silly there. Just not sure it'd work for a dancer because I looked up my friend's height/weight together and it was quite a 'round' person, even though the girl in question is slim and muscular. The people who're putting the almost-anorexic weights would probably see that and think "oh, well my character must weigh less that that 'cos she's thin".

*sigh* I always research the stuff I do with my characters so I'm not talking complete nonsense - why can't other people do the same? :p

I couldn't RP on a board that wasn't realistic, a board with problems like those described--simply couldn't. I find a selective admissions policy helps; the more mature and intelligent the members, the more likely it is that they'll know what the hell they're talking about, or at least figure out how to use wikipedia. On the other hand, it is NOT all on the members. I try to include plenty of accessible and useful information on my site, precisely so people don't make ridiculous misjudgments.

The only one that surprised me (a lot!) was the one about the girls' hair. I have never seen a school say that girls cannot have long hair!

Awww, darn it! You take away my fun!

Yep, that hair rule was in the original list of rules I used for reference - and they were the rules of a real boarding school in England. xD

Also, I figured that keeping it would stop the usual high-school flood of girls with "beautiful waist-length hair". xDD