[Headmaster Alan Burdett]

WHY SHOULD YOU JOIN TALLYGARUNGA?

I get this question frequently, and I could go on for hours about how awesome I think the board is. But then, I would say that - wouldn't I? So I throw it to the members, visitors and random guesties that wander through. Why should people join Tallygarunga, what makes it special? What is it like to be a member? What were your first impressions? And most importantly - why did it catch YOUR eye?

[Michael McReary]

I've only been here for a short time. About a week at the time of this post. And I absolutely love this place. I love the set up, the detail, the very concept. But most of all, I love the people. Splotting and relationship threads make it easy for you define a place for your characters in Tally before you make your first post. You character has friends, enemies, stories, plans. So often I have trouble bringing my characters into a new place, but I've had no trouble at all here. I've been made very welcome by the staff and members. I've found everyone helpful in getting my character's rolling, and me up to speed on what's been going on. It's really the most excited I've been about a new forum in a long time.

Go Tally.

[Marcus Hobson]

*wanders in* Hi Marcus here, everyone knows me *waves* I play the Caretaker.. hey stop laughing.. he's cool man!

Anyway heres some stuff you don't know.
Around the start of the year I joined my first forum RP - ever!, I'd never done any kind of role playing at all except for one rather odd game of Dungeons and Dragons with friends and the occasional computer games. In march I stumbled upon this site, no idea where from or why, but it looked pretty and was Australian, it was called Tally and I have to admit I had more then a few doubts about the idea of a Australian Harry Potter style Role Play. But being a Aussie myself I thought it might be interesting to see how it worked - expecting it to be horrible. Boy was I Wrong!!

Tally is unique for having a full range of characters and all the time feels different - and for me better then JK's world itself (Yes start the hate mail now). Tally is a school that has its own unique history and personality that is completely different to everything else out there, It's not Hogwarts and never tries to be, instead it is incredibly lush and detailed, the places, characters and events come across as far realer then at any other role play site I've ever seen. Tally is set in and around a public school for wizards and witches, unlike in JK this is a run-of-the-mill school, poor and constantly on the outer, to me that's the core of it's charm. Tally feels like a real place, it has house elves, teachers, classes, students from all walks of life and a under-staff along with it's own branch of the Ministry of Magic in the rest of the world beyond who are all just trying to go about their lives as best as they can. The action is driven by the players new and old alike, and any player from the brand new to old hats can live out their own plots or even do something that leads to much wider site wide impact.

The other amazing thing about Tally is the way in which there is a real atmosphere of openness and welcome, Mousy, Silver and Co care about newcomers and do all they can to help them improve and find ways to integrate into the events and the site itself as well as bringing their own idea's and creations to the mix, nurturing them to become active and key players from the get go. Tally is also special for being open to almost anything you'll throw at it from rampaging vampires to ADHD suffering hypo-active kids, its a massive area for your imagination to run wild.
Myself? about six months ago I had this odd idea, to make a character who had been stuck at the school for pretty much forever. I never expected the kind of enthusiasm or interest in Marcus, he was just made as a bit of a joke. Yet with the support of Mousy and Silver along with all the other players (who where frankly scary because some of them had been there for years) it's now almost impossible to tell that he was just a newbie a few months ago. It may be a little scary at first but you soon find your own little place in Tally.. or big place if that's more your style

I guess the hardest/scariest part of joining Tally like most sites is the character creation process, to which I have to totally and 100% agree with Mousy in the belief that Flawed characters are fun.. the more flawed the more fun in my opinion! I've never had more fun with a character then Marcus here! despite him being A: No good at magic, B: unable to go anywhere C: Not exactly attractive, D: having the lowest job above the house Elves. It seems strange I know but constraints really help you to find have something to play off. The other thing is not to be afraid to take risks or get your character into a shaky situation, often its the most fun to have them completely lost or useless or come out looking bad from things.. either that or I'm just mean... humm..

The other thing I really recommend with a new character is to make use of the IC Cbox, you'll often see +Marcus and other names with + in front of them. These are characters from the board, they tend to play up in there. and its the fastest.. and fun-est way to really figure out how your character ticks by interacting with the others on the board.. and sometimes that can be really surprising to see how they evolve. The other trick is that it's a fast surefire way of figuring out how your character fits in with the rest of the usual gang of idiots. Although the Cbox doesn't directly relate to the events of the board.. (for example the Cbox Evan is married to Nora yet still angsting over her in the board) you can use cbox events as background or inspiration for threads or relationships, or just for some good ol' fun.

[Delia Stapleton]

I'm gonna see if I can give my two cents!!

Now, as a relatively new person, I can probably see why people would wonder about joining. There are a lot of Harry Potter based RPGs out there and I've realized that I'm not interested in them. I don't know what it is but I just really don't enjoy doing anything with canon characters that much. And not canon for an original RP but for one based on something else. It just bothers me.

So when I first found Tally, I was pleasantly surprised. Especially when I found all the particular differences that the mods and admins took the liberty to point out so we'd all notice. It's similar but it's not in the same universe! That's what appealed to me.

I think if you want an original story line/plot about a magical school without any particular copying from JK Rowling's work, then this is the place for you!