The moderators and prefects have worked hard to put together a new guide for RPGs in the CR. The aim is so that you can create a character description that matches your HOL persona. We want the RPG area to be a place where you can show everyone who you are and develop your HOL namesake.
We require everyone who wishes to post in the RPG areas, which include the Fireside and Butterbeer and Biscuits, to create a character description. When you are done, put your name on the bottom and then PM BOTH Terra and Fern the word "CHEERIOS" both in the subject and the body of the PM. NOTE: If you CORNFLAKED us, as we do have a list, you do not need to send CHEERIOS. Thanks. Guests from other houses can send this info via email to RPG_modofdoom@yahoo.ca Remember to include your full HOL name, house and HOL id number.
The character descriptions and the RPG areas are for you to develop your HOL character more fully. HOL is a place to make friends and create your online magical persona. Everyone will be able to read your character description, and you may edit it as your RPGs progress. In the future, you'll be able to use this description in a new area on the web. For now, please let your HOL personality flourish.
Once you do this, you will be free to RPG to your heart's delight according to our new spiffy guidelines. You may edit these character descriptions as you go! That way, everyone will be able to read about you and your HOL history. If you have an idea about another section to add to the descriptions, PM a prefect or Terra and Fern.
For those of you who like more relaxed rules to RPG, fear not! A dueling tower will soon be open for you to practice your skills and have more "relaxed" RPGs that don't have such strict guidelines as in the CR.
Fern and Terra's Guide to Safe RPing
(The rules you should and need to follow to prevent horrible mishaps from happening
to your characters.)
1. Since book 6 is now out I will just point out that nothing, I Mean NOTHING
that in any remote way that is considered new in book 6 will be allowed into
the RPG. Remember HOL circles the globe and many readers anxiously await a copy
in their native language which for the most part come out in October at the
earliest. Have some consideration and don't spoil it for everyone.
2. No RPing here without first read ALL the below rules. We can tell if you
didn't read them first before posting and we will correct your posts or delete
them if they don't follow these guidelines.
3. You Are Not Harry Potter. You did not defeat some evil Dark Wizard at the
age of one nor do you possess all Harry's talents. Harry is special as he is
the HERO of the books. You are not. You are ordinary
-->Nor are you any other Canon character.
4. No Mary Sues (ie: Perfect characters are not fun to RP against. Give a character
flaws. Real flaws, not just minor ones.)
Example:
She tossed her lush wavy blond hair over her shoulder so it shown like gold
coins in the sunlight. Her wide glowing cerulean eyes sparkled with mischief
as she lazily twirled her wand before performing every spell in the book to
glowing perfection. She winked at the boys around her and watched them all fall
to her feet in adoration.
5. No wizard/elf, wizard/veela, wizard/giant, wizard/vampire, Vampires, Werewolves,
Frankensteins, Zombie, wizard/"cool humanoid thing" crosses please.
They are ultra rare in the books and in fact with the two mentioned in the books
it is very much a shock to the rest of the characters.
6. Every RP must be more than 1 paragraph, ideally 2-4 though 1 will suffice
if well written
-->one paragraph means at least 4 to 8 lines.
-->No one liners
7. No using really rare occurrences, especially as 1st years but this goes for
everyone.
-->No Animagi(only 10 registered exist, maybe 20 total), No Metamorphmagi,
No Invisibility Cloaks, No Marauders Map, No magic beyond what you would know
as a 1st, 2nd, 3rd year(ie: You would not know a patronus or a summoning charm
if you are a first year. In fact, the books say Patronus is way past Ordinary
Wizarding Levels meaning probably 7th year or beyond.)
8. On the topic of Brooms. First years are allowed them but it cannot be "the
best on the market". Stick to the common brands from the books. IE: Cleansweeps,
Comets etc.
-->No Firebolts, No Nimbus 200X, No Imaginary Great Brands
-->You are not a star Quidditch player, you may be good but most likely you
will not be.
-->No making up Broomstick brands.
9. No Playing in the Restricted Section of the Library
10. No weird and wild pets. You can have an Owl, Cat or Toad. Rats are also
allowed. Nothing else. No Nifflers, Phoenixes, dragons, snakes, parrots etc.
You are not Hagrid.
-->No multiple pets. You can have one and only one.
-->No mention of owning illegal animals even if they are not at Hogwarts
proper.
11. No heavy duty rule breaking.
12. No sneaking into the kitchens all the time, not everyone would know the
way in! And in fact, in most boarding schools, sneaking into the kitchens at
night would warrant some serious penalties. If you plan to be hungry, simply
have snacky stuff in your rooms that parents send from home.
13. All hidden passages must be WITHIN the castle, meaning no underground passage
ways to the Forbidden Forest, the Quidditch Pitch or Hogsmeade as the chance
of you finding one is close to impossible. Keep in mind that hidden passages
are a rare and valuable find in Hogwarts and therefore should be treated that
way. Only use secret passages if you have to, or have little other choice but
to use it. Else you'd risk having Pringle find out about it, and it won't be
so 'secret' any longer.
-->Finding secret passages in Hogwarts are permitted as long as they do not
lead to these locations:
-Restricted Section of the Library
-Headmaster's Office
-Kitchens
-Inside other House's Common Rooms
-Staff Room
-Teachers Offices
14. No non-HP RP's
15. None of this "visiting the set of HP3/HP4" stuff. You are students
in a world where the books do not exist because you live in the books themselves.
The HP canon characters do not exist in HOL now. They are long gone so you cannot
interact with them. Going on and on about a date with "Draco Malfoy"
or "supper at the Weasleys" or that your "Best Friend in the
whole wide world is 'insert any canon HP name"" is not fun. You cannot
even use professors or older people that might be still at Hogwarts.
-->when in doubt, find a similar HOL prof (ie: Prof Portsea Black or Apollyon
Pringle) to fill in.
16. No purple prose(ie: no getting out the thesaurus to find nifty new words
when plain english is all that's needed)
17. Proper punctuation and grammar please.(Not everyone speaks english natively
but that's no excuse for everything in lowercases or in netspeak (ie:leet) or
for lack of punctuation. Periods are your friend, multiple exclamation marks
are not.)
18. Don't use canon characters unless referring to a commonly known past event.
IE: The War with Voldemort
19. Use proper descriptions, colours, and use detail to describe what's going
on. We cannot read your mind and your post will generally be ignored if we have
no way of telling where you are or what you are doing.
20. Do not assume the following posters understand or know what story you have
in your head. If they deviate from what you had planned, flow with it and don't
complain.
21. DO NOT USE OTHER PEOPLES CHARACTERS WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION!
22. If you have something to say that has nothing to do with the RP itself remember
to include an 'OOC' mark.
-->OOC: Out Of Character. Lets your fellow RPer's know when you are posting
something that does not have anything to do with the RP itself.
-->Use them sparingly, if you have a question, PM the person in question
especially if it's something that only has to do with them. Like asking for
character usage permission.
-->If you go back into the RP in the same post, remember to include a 'IC'
before resuming RPing. (IC: In Character)
23. Always use quotes and 3rd person when RPing. 1st person just confuses people
and some will even outright ignore your post.
24. You do not have to reply to every single post. Let someone else post to
keep the story flowing. There is nothing more boring than reading an RP with
only 2 people posting back and forth or that everyone posts at but is replied
to by the same person all the time.
25. This is not a chatroom environment. Don't treat it like one.
26. Proof read your posts, don't use a word if you cannot spell it. If all else
fails, copy paste the post into MS Word or a similar program and run the spell
check. We understand not everyone is a native english speaker but we ask for
you to at least try.
27. More than 20 posts a day equals spam. Do not use the RP board as an excuse
to get your post counts up or to get extra manes.
28. Remember all HOL rules are in effect here and don't break them in the RP
with the excuse "but I am RPing and that's what my character would do."
29. No modern electronic or things like stereos, tv's, laptops, disco balls
etc. Either use the magic counterpart or nothing. Radios are allowed since there
is the World Wizarding Network but that's it. And they will not be modern radios
but much like old fashioned ones from the 40's. Note: not everyone will have
a radio, there might be one in the common room, that's it. The Radio will not
pick up muggle stations either.
-->Unless you are muggleborn or half and were raised with some knowledge
of the muggle world, keep mention of real bands out of it, use Wizarding ones.
30. Don't use smiley faces in your In Character text. You can describe a smile
on there face, but please don't just put a smiley. (I.E: Bad: Fern went . Good:
A broad smile spread across Fern's face.)
31. No death eater attacks, seriously. Harry Potter is set in the past by a
couple of years, and Harry's final battle with Voldemort would have been in
1997. This is 2005, so either we're all ruled by death eater's or Voldemort's
dead. I think you can make the right decision, but if you can't we'll make it
for you .
32. Please use common sense. If something only happens once or never in the
book, don't do it. Try to be as faithful to the Harry Potter universe as possible.
(IE: no field trips to egypt or transylvania, and no staying at the school for
the summer)
33. If you're muggleborn act like a muggleborn, and refer to muggle things.
If you're a wizard, don't start talking about tv shows or muggle music. When
in doubt, make it up, make up a hit wizarding song, or a cool wizarding item.
But, not to the point of a special unrealistic item, see above.
34. Remember, this isn't HOL's version of the dating game, it's ok if your character
has a boyfriend or girlfriend but stay within a reasonable boundary.
-->Also remember you are all 11-15 year olds. And for the most part, 11 years
tend to still be hanging onto the "YUCK BOYS/GIRLS HAVE COOTIES!"
phase. Act your age please.
EXAMPLES:
Good RPing:
Fern woke up unusually early and begin to stretch and yawn. It was a beautiful spring day as the sun trickled through her window in the Gryffindor Dorms. Having so much additional time on her hands, Fern decided that she would take her Cleansweep 5 and go down to the quidditch pitch to fly around a bit. Fern wasn't very good at quidditch, but she did enjoy flying her broomstick, and it was a perfect thing to do on a sunny Saturday morning, a day so beautiful could not be wasted on her many homework assignments.
After eating a quick breakfast in the almost deserted great hall, she hoisted her broomstick over her shoulders and made her way down the large steps of Hogwarts towards the quidditch pitch. She could see a few figures already up in the air and imagined she would find a companion to maybe play a quick game of quidditch with. She waved to a few people by the lake and finally made it to the pitch, sitting in the stands and retying a her left shoe which had come undone. She waved into the air at the people on broomsticks, smiling and laughing.
"Hey! Would you guys like to join me in a little game of friendly quidditch? I'm not to good, but I love to play!" Fern propositioned, clumsily jumping a few steps and kicking off into the air on her broomstick.
Bad RPing #1:
i walked into the room and giggled at the site of teh 2 people sitting togetrhr on the floor both had apiar of rabbit ears in place of their reel ones i called to my friend to come over quickly and see and watched as she bounded in from under her invisibility cloak in her animagus phoenix shape she took her human shape and blinked cerulean eyes in the pairs directions before toppling over to the floor with absolute hilarity
<---- see the look on their faces" she breathed lushly as she removed herself from the terrace and threw fiery red hair over her shoulder
we watched as draco malfoy and harry potter pulled themselves to their feet and shoved each other back before turning to us they both sucked in their breath before their jaws dropped at the site of my friend with her fiery red locks and glowing eyes the colour of the summer sky
they both immediately moved towards her as if in a trance long enough for me to cast a complecated version of a binding spell 15 words long and a tongue twister to boot
we both laughed so hard we cried as the pair fell to the floor both claiming their undying love for us
as this was happening, fern justt happened to be walking by and jumped into
the room with indignation and fury 'hey wahtare you doing with my best friend
harry you evil person!!!!!one111111111eleven>
we both looked at her like she had grown three feet and i quickly whipped out
my wand again and cast a complex memory charm that only myself and 3 other wizards
who are all charms masters and 80 years old can perform
Bad RPing #2:
rne walked in2 gryffindre towre and seh tunred into a ccat. fren was bpefect
at evthing, esp animagus. she had flowing gorgeous blonde hir zat twinkld w/
the glacne of a thousand suns, and she was soooooooooo popular
OMG GUESS WHAT! IM HAVING A PARTY ISNT THAT kOOliez? fern saked?
everyone nodded and wanted 2 [Naughty, naughty! You are caughty! -5 when I tell
Prof. Black! -=HumfreyB=-]. fern was still a cat, bt a talking cat. she was
so amazing. ev1 loved her. she <3ed them 2.
i luve myself, i do, im so great, yeah, hahaha
hey, does ne1 know where i can find pictures of tom fleton? i luv him so muchful!!!!!!!!!!!!!
omg LOLZ!
fern liked to be a cat, she enjoyed it muchly, and so she talked a mouse, and 8 it not realizing it was ronald weasley, ron was very upset and he yelled at her, so she decided to mrry him!
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Good RPing is loved and will get you nice happy fluffy bunny responses. Bad RPing makes people go "irk" and want to reach through the computer screen and take away your keyboard(in extreme examples) though mostly your post will get ignored and then deleted by the mods.
Hopefully this little guideline has been helpful and we wish you much happy RPing in the future. Now go out and RP, but remember you are responsible for knowing and obeying all these rules so be willing to accept the consequences if you break them. Most importantly, try to have fun !