InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "...aliens"

Mod Account (venefici_mods) wrote,
@ 2007-05-22 07:53:00

Premise

the premise

It is the year 2022, and the wizarding world of Britain has flourished since the fall of Lord Voldemort. With Kingsley Shacklebolt as the Minister of Magic and reconstruction after the war complete, life is rather ordinary for the next generation of wizards and witches attending school at Hogwarts. That is, until they discover that the Triwizard Tournament has returned. With the introduction of twenty new students and the temporary hiatus of interhouse competition for Quidditch and House cups, the students must learn to cast aside their differences and work together while enjoying the differences that make everyone unique. But they are, after all, teenagers and most everyone knows that things can always turn unexpected, especially when magic is involved.

The Triwizard Tournament is this year's setting for Hogwarts. It is the overall background plot of the game, and it is not mandatory for all characters to participate in it. The game focuses on character development and individual character plots, as we feel it is the characters (and the players behind those characters) that drive the game, with the background plot remaining in the background to tie the characters together. Subplots and small events will happen on a monthly basis, dependent on activity level, which may or may not tie into the Tournament. The game is designed basically for fun, and though we may throw a dark plot or two in later, there will be no resurrection of Voldemort or any sort of heir to his throne.

The game follows canon rules and history. We are canon up through the DH epilogue for most points (as well as JKR's interviews), except we've kept McGonagall around and placed her as the Headmistress. All professors are NPCs.

the journals

Headmistress McGonagall issued each student a magically-linked journal, as a mode of communication as well as a standard diary. Entries may be marked "Private" and "Private to --" to denote whether other characters may read it; entries not marked are considered "Public". Because of this, use of the owl system is discouraged; exceptions may include anonymous notes (e.g. secret admirers or insult wars) and the like. It is encouraged that all characters "friend" each other's journals as a way to communicate.

Crossed-out words, phrases, and sentences such as ~~I love Scorpius!~~ are considered scratched out and may not be read (unless noted by plot). Remember, these are journals and not "dialogue" (as in your characters are writing back and forth to each other, and not "speaking aloud"). If you wish to speak in dialogue / first person form, please post it as a "thread" in the main community and not in your character's journal.

the rules

No OOC Drama! If you have difficulties with another player, please contact a mod.

No Godmodding! This means do not control anyone else's characters but your own. In threads, it is always wise to ask your fellow player first before writing out any actions that would affect their characters. However, there will be no murders or suicides in this game. When in doubt, ask!

Also, please do not godmod the Hogwarts staff (e.g. the Headmistress or the professors). Simple things like detentions or docking points are fine, but we'd prefer not to hear that they abused or assaulted a student or they had a heart attack and collapsed in front of your character. If you would like to involve a Hogwarts staff member in your plot, please contact a mod. However, there will be no sexual relationships between staff members and students.

Activity. Please make an effort to keep active. We understand real life is more important, as it should be, but please don't join the game simply to go inactive. We would like at least one post per two weeks, either a journal entry or a thread. If you need to go on hiatus, please leave a comment in the mods' box.

Threads. Third person format is required for threads, while first person format is acceptable for journals. Third person logs are also accepted. Please use an lj-cut when posting to the community, and use this or an acceptable (who, what, when, where) format to start your threads:

Please label your threads with appropriate warnings if venturing into Rated: R and NC-17 material, and friends-lock those threads.

You may also use this format for Owls and Bulletins. Simply state that under "Summary". An Owl is usually between two people (please do not include NPC family member owls here; if an NPC owls your character, your character can use his/her own journal to say they received it and what it was about); and a Bulletin is usually a public message (like a flyer) that is tacked onto a public place (like the Common Room or in front of the Great Hall). Characters are free to respond to Bulletins on the post; e.g. they scribbled under it or put their own flyer in response to it.

Because threads are the basis of our storylines, we ask that players put some thought into their threads and tag with a minimum of two paragraphs or ten sentences. While it's perfectly fine to have a short post every now and again, we don't want it to become the norm. We strive to keep the game a quality rpg, and threads full of one-liners with no descriptions nor exposition (for example) do not show this. Remember, third person point of view partial omnipotence is perfectly fine; after all, your characters are yours; you should know what they think even if they do not voice their thoughts out-loud. Obviously, we won't remove you from the communities if your posts are shorter than this on occasion, but we are watching tagging closely.

The game is set in "Real Time". This means that one in-character day equals one out-of-character day. Because the game will start in July instead of September, we will equate July 1, 2008 into September 1, 2022; and since July 1, 2008 is Tuesday, we will make September 1, 2022 a Tuesday too.

Because we understand time constraints and such, you may backdate and postdate threads as far as two weeks back or two weeks forward. Keep in mind of the game's current plots as well as your own to prevent splinching your characters or having them forget something that had happened. This also means that if you post a thread on July 1, 2008, you may continue to reply to it days after and we will consider it as dated the same date (i.e. your character will not be seen as having a week long conversation with another character; the conversation itself will be seen as taking place over a few hours despite how long it takes for you to complete the thread.) The same will be applied to journal entries. Characters may respond to journal entries dated on any date, and it will be seen as being replied to on the date that the entry was created. If this is confusing, please ask a mod for clarification.

Please use proper English (either American or British is acceptable) and spell-check. (The exception would be if your character speaks a foreign language; even so, you would translate it to English for the rest of us to understand.) While we can't cite you too badly for improper grammar, no one wants to read netspeak.

Currently, there are no maximum number of characters allowed per players. However, you may only start with two; and if you choose a foreign character as one, the second character must be a Hogwarts student. If you remain active in the game and would like to expand your number of characters, please ask a mod. We're flexible, but we don't want one player to have ten characters and only play one once in a while. Because activity is important, we have established a waiting period before accepting your next character; it may fluctuate between 1-2 weeks or longer depending on your activity.

We are open to het, slash, femmeslash, etc. but please keep in mind, not all characters should be gay or bi. We would like a variety if possible.

On that note, the game is open to players ages 15 and older. For this reason, please remember to place threads behind an lj-cut and place warnings if material becomes rated R or greater.

Because we strive to remain canon, there will be NO pregnancies (female or male), NO comings and goings from Hogwarts at will (students may only leave during designated times, such as Hogsmeade weekends), and NO killing major canon parents. True, many students break rules all the time and we allow for skiving off classes once in a while, hidden bottles of fire whiskey by the older students who are of age, smoking behind closed doors and out of prefect sight, and sexual relationships, but please realize that the first two would be immediate expulsion from the school and the third would just really make us mad. We feel this is common sense, but we've seen it happen in other games and so it has become a rule.

Last but not least, have fun! That was what the game is designed for and what we all want, so let's do it!