IMPORTANT: Contained in this information are rules that govern the site. Make sure you read all of this thoroughlly and contact the site officials if you have any queries. Once you have submitted your membership application, you are agreeing to follow the rules of this site and any infraction of these rules may cause you to be removed from the site, so make sure you know what they are!
Role Playing
Creating Your Character
Applying For Membership
Staff Applications
Creating Extra Characters
Character Rules
Magical Abilities and Objects
Application Rejection
Flaming
Setting
Hogwarts Year and Year Levels
Message Boards
Classes
House Cup
Non-player Characters
Quidditch
Site Officials
Member Removal and Inactivity
ROLE PLAYING:
The role playing at this site is conducted via message board. This means that one player will write a "post" from their character's point of view and post it to the message board. Another player will then be able to read the post and reply from their own characte's point of view at any time, regardless of whether or not the original player is online.
We role play in third person past tense. This means that we write about our character from a narrator's perspective and, like we read in the Harry Potter books, as if the events have already happened.
For clarity of reading, because the computer is not as easy on the eyes as reading from a book, make sure you always leave a line in between paragraphs.
We also are very pedantic about the way you use another player's character. Unless you are both very familiar with the character and are good enough friends with the person you are role playing with, do not make another character act or react. You do not know whether the other character is in a good mood or a bad mood, whether they will have a witty comeback or be dumbfounded (so even a smile or a frown can be the wrong reaction). You do not know whether another character knows a stronger spell than yours. You should always give the other character the opportunity to make their own decisions.
For instance, if you are having a duel with another character and you put a levitating charm on them, you would only write your character saying the charm, not the result. You do not yet know if the other character knows a counter-charm.
Do not God-Mode! God moding is when your character is perfect. It is no fun for you or for anyone else if your character always gets spells and potions right the first time, always wins magical duels, is a brilliant Quidditch player, gets all of their homework done, knows all the answers, sneaks out at night and never gets caught. You are playing a character, with all the imperfections of a real person and the characters in the books, so make sure you keep your character's abilities (magical and non-magical) realistic. This involves blancing any talents with weaknesses. Remember to bear in mind that fifth year students will be stronger and more skilled than first years, while teachers will be even stronger again.
Respectful, tasteful and realistic role play according to the books is what we aim for, as well as to have fun!
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CREATING YOUR CHARACTER:
Every person applying for membership of our site, whether as a staff member or a student, is required to write a biography for their character. Every character should have a history, a background that effects who they are and how they behave at Hogwarts. The biography must be approved by the site officials and will be displayed on the site for other members to view.
In the books there is no student mentioned attending Hogwarts who comes from anywhere other than the UK or Ireland. If your character is foreign, they must have an exceptional reason for attending Hogwarts instead of a wizarding school closer to their own home.
Your biography should include your character's: place of residence, family background (Muggle or Wizard, occupation, attitudes and values, members of family etc.), personality and interests, appearance and anything else that is relevant (some creative leeway is allowed). It is a good idea to read through some of the character biographies already up on the site if you are stuck.
Your biography should be a minimum of four paragraphs, preferably more. Anything less cannot adequately detail where your character is coming from. It should be written in an interesting way, preferably like a story, rather than listing facts about your character. This biography will be put up on the site for everyone to read. They will use it to find out about your character, so make sure it is good!
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APPLYING FOR MEMBERSHIP:
To apply for membership you must send a biography of your character to the site officials as well as some additional information:
A valid email address where you can be contacted.
The place from which your character comes (city and country).
The age of your character at the time of joining.
The position for which your character is applying (e.g. 3rd Year Student; Head Librarian)
A brief description of your character's appearance and personality, if not adequately described in the biography.
The House you would like your character to belong to. This is subject to the approval of the Site Officials.
Biographies should be copied into the main part of the email or attached as a Notepad file only. You may, if you wish, include simple HTML in the form of italics, line and paragraph breaks.
Do not forget we aim to maintain a realistically high standard of writing at our site and subsequently all applications are subject to approval by the site officials. We are willing to give you a chance to improve your biography if it does not meet our standards the first time. The exception is if you have clearly not attempted to write according to the requirements, which will result in a firm refusal.
Do not make any in character posts until your application has been approved. We aim to reply to your application within the week, so please be patient. If ten days have passed without hearing from us, please contact us in case there have been problems receiving your application or sending your reply.
If, after reading the information about this site, you feel that a different style of role play site would better suit you, feel free to consult our list of links for a site that is more suited to you.
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APPLYING FOR A STAFF POSITION:
If you are interested in applying for a staff position, there are some further requirements as well as what applies to general/student applications:
Applicants for staff positions must have proved themselves capable of being reliable, active members as well as good quality role players.
Applications for teaching positions should include proof of some prepared content for teaching in your desired area (this can be presented in summary or point form and can be very simple). You are not required to teach at every year level, but you need to be prepared to teach at least a few lessons at some year levels. If you have any further questions, please contact the site officials.
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CREATING EXTRA CHARACTERS
You may create more than one character subject to approval. Any additional characters must go through bascially the same application process as your original character. The site officials expect, however, that any new characters you create should be of a higher standard than your original character. We will reject any characters who have inadequate biographies. The site officials must also have confidence that you are capable of supporting multiple characters, so it is not recommended that you submit a second character until you have managed to role play your original character consistently with a good standard of writing for at least a month.
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CHARACTER RULES
If you are a new member, you may currently join as a student beginning first, third or fifth year. We have given a range of year options so we can fill the school ranks, but specified only those three years so that people don't get too spread out while we're just starting.
If you are already and approved and active member, you may currently send in additional character applications for any year level except for seventh year.
Please note: You may not role play any character that appears in the Harry Potter books, nor may you share a name with any of the characters. All characters at this site are original creations of the members.
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MAGICAL ABILITIES AND OBJECTS
Should you wish to be in possession of a magical object, other than standard issue Hogwarts supplies or those given to you by a Professor for a class, you will be required to have approval from the site officials.
You may not possess a special magical ability, one that has been lost for hundreds of years or that is extremely rare unless obtaining prior approval. For more information contact the site officials.
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APPLICATION REJECTION
If your application has been rejected or returned for improvement, there are some things to consider. The first thing is exactly what the officials said about your application. Just because some clear reasons for rejection are listed, it doesn't always mean that the writing is up to scratch even if those things are changed.
If your application has been returned with a request for amendments, really pay attention to what the officials are asking of you. We do not have time to continually send your biography back because you did not make all the amendments we requested. Please realise that if we ask for more detail then we would like you do to more than list things about your character. The best biographies are written like stories, not lists of facts about your character.
Finally, the site officials reserve the right to reject any application simply because the writing or character is not up to standard. We try to give you a chance to improve your biography, but sometimes applicants simply need more writing experience before they join our site.
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FLAMING
We insist that there be no flaming, spamming, taunting, harassment of, or threats made against members of this Club or of any other online organisation. Should any of the officials hear that a Hogwarts Online School of Wizardry and Witchcraft member is causing trouble, that person will receive one warning and an opportunity to explain. The second violation will result in that member's permanent removal from the site.
The officials will, of course, hear all sides of the issue before making any decisions. However, it must be understood that our purpose is role-playing, not starting "wars" with fellow roleplayers. Responding to a flame on the message boards will be considered the same as posting the initial post (that means ignore it!).
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SETTING
Hogwarts Online School of Wizardry and Witchcraft is set in Hogwarts in England as it appears in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. None of the characters in the books, however, appear at our site. The characters in the books belong to J.K. Rowling and we only role play our own original characters. None of the staff and students attending our Hogwarts are from the books.
According to the Harry Potter Lexicon, the books are set in the last decade. Our time period is basically current to the real world, but set after the action that takes place in the books. We are assuming that Harry Potter has defeated Voldemort and everything has gone back to normal. However, because we don't actually know what will happen in Harry's final year at Hogwarts, we don't mention Harry Potter, Voldemort and recent history when in character. We also don't mention which specific year it is because of the discrepancy between real life and role playing times (see the following section).
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HOGWARTS YEARS AND YEAR LEVELS
To prevent things getting confusing there will be a set amount of real time for a year in the role play world. One Hogwarts Year (HY) equals five months of real time. Every five months from the time of our opening, all members will graduate to the next year level (you may, of course, role play your character failing and repeating a year if you wish). The dates of the current HY will be displayed at the top of the message boards. Members joining in the middle of a Hogwarts Year will role play as if they have attended from the beginning of the year, unless they have a valid, in character reason for arriving partway through the year.
Remember that first and second year students are not allowed off the school grounds. Third year students and higher may visit Hogsmeade on specified days with permission from their parents or guardians.
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MESSAGE BOARDS
This site is message board based, which means that all of our out of character (OOC) communication and role playing is carried out on the message boards (sometimes called forums or bulletin boards) provided.
You must be a registered member of EZboards (with either a Local RPHogwarts account or a global account) to post on our message boards. You must be identifiable as your EZboard username by either posting with the same one always, or matching your usernames with the character you are posting as.
Remember that this is a public site for friendly role playing. No foul or insulting language will be tolerated. Please use your common sense when deciding what is appropriate, as behaviour considered inappropriate will earn you a warning and possibly result in the removal of your character from the site.
The role playing boards are for in character (IC) posts only, while the OOC board is for general out of character discussion and questions. The Site Officials reserve the right to edit posts where it is considered necessary.
No variation of text colour, font or size is permitted within IC posts. Obnoxious posting habits (e.g. typing in large text sizes on the OOC board all the time, posting in capitals etc.) will earn the offending member a warning and continued annoying posting behaviour will result in the member's removal from the site.
Role play (in character) posts and threads (a series of posts to a topic) will be relocated to the archives, approximately two weeks after the last post was written. After a period of time, all IC posts will be removed from the site. All OOC posts will be deleted permanently, approximately one month after the last post to a thread was written.
If you intend for an IC posts to be responded to by a particular character, please include "tbcb - " (to be continued by) with the name of the other character/s at the end of your post so that others don't jump in and ruin your role play. Make sure you have asked the person before you leave a note for them to reply. You do not have to specify a tbcb if you have no one in particular in mind.
Please note that only Site Officials may post polls. If you wish to create a poll, please clear it with a Site Official first, or your poll will be deleted.
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CLASSES
Some classes will be offered by Professors at different year levels for role playing. All normal (e.g. core subjects) classes will be studied by students, but only some will actually be role played. Remember that school is about learning and very few students get everything right the first time, so don't be afraid to make your role play class more interesting by having a bit of trouble. Consult the classes page regularly for a list of the subjects currently offered for role playing.
Remember that all first and second year students take required subjects. It is not until third year that students may elect subjects of their choice to complement their core subjects.
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HOUSE CUP
The House Cup will be awarded to the House with the most points at the end of the Hogwarts Year. Students can earn points for their house by doing a range of in character (IC) and out of character (OOC) tasks. They can also lose points for their house in similar ways. The House Cup point score will be displayed at the top of the OOC board and will be updated at least weekly.
Some ways to gain points:
Commendable behaviour in a class (IC).
Submitting a piece of fan fiction (OOC).
A Professor feeling generous (IC).
Winning a quidditch match (IC).
Updating your bio when appropriate (OOC).
Participating in a role playing workshop. (OOC).
Some ways to lose points:
Behaviour incurring a warning from site Officials. (OOC).
Failure to complete study (IC).
Breaking school rules (IC).
A Professor taking out their bad mood on you (IC).
Impertinence to a member of staff (IC).
These are not the only ways to gain or lose points. Do not complain about losing points for doing something not listed - awarding and taking points is left to the descretion of the staff and Officials. Neither should you let this list prevent you from being creative in your IC and OOC quest for house points.
House points earned or lost must be reported on the House Points message board. Any student or teacher involved may do this. The points must be listed beneath the active topic for the House of the student who earned or lost the points, along with the name of the student involved, the authorising teacher and the reason. Please remember that points are ultimately your own responsibility. If the staff member who awarded points does not report them it is up to you to make sure they are listed on the House Points board.
Whenever house points are counted up by an official and added to the tally, the threads will be closed (which means nobody can post to them anymore, although they can still be read) or marked to show these points have been added and new threads begun for each house. It is important, however, that closed topics are checked to make sure you are not reporting the loss or gain of points which have already been reported.
Where there is extreme imbalance in the number of members for each House, handicaps may apply to even out everyone's chances.
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NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
Non-player characters (NPCs) are minor characters that are used to supplement a role play and are not specific to a particular player/member. Examples of NPCs may be a named fourth year who escorts you to visit a teacher or a student who bumps into you and causes you to drop your books. Many members of staff and some prefects may be NPCs until these positions are filled by regular members. While everyone can use NPCs, it is still important to remember that they are not your character so do not get too enthusastic with your interpretation of their character. Official NPCs for the site will be listed on the Roll of Students and staff list and marked with (NPC) so that everyone may refer to them in role plays. If you have a recurring NPC that you wish to add, please contact the site Officials with details.
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QUIDDITCH
Only second year students and older may be members of the House Quidditch teams.
The members of a quidditch team are:
Keeper
Beater
Beater
Chaser
Chaser
Chaser
Seeker
For the current Hogwarts Year, the members of each Quidditch team will be decided mostly by accepting whoever applies first. Applications this HY will be reviewed by the site officials and in later years by House Heads and team Captains. Applications must involve a brief summary of your player's size, shape and ability. Perfect players are likely to be rejected. Remember to balance your character's skills: Size may mean a lack of speed, broomstick skill may be tempered by a weak arm or characters may have trouble playing calmly or fairly. This summary will be placed on the team lists, if you are successful.
Site officials will decide from your application which position you are most suited to. You may send an application in email form to the officials at any time. If your character performs inadequately or you do not role play consistently and with quality during Quidditch matches, you may be removed from the team.
Organised Quidditch Cup matches will be played via message board and will continue until the Golden Snitch is caught. No team member can role play the appearance of the Golden Snitch. To keep things fair, the Golden Snitch will by role played by an independent player and Seekers must wait until it appears before chasing it. Treat the Golden Snitch like another role play character, you can role play reaching out to grasp the snitch, but only the Golden Snitch can decide if it's been caught. Quidditch matches have been known to last a few minutes or days and days. Matches will be organised by the site officials.
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SITE OFFICIALS
The site officials are the people who are responsible for running the site. We devote our free time to creating and maintaining this site, so please respect our decisions and the rules we have laid down. The Headmistress and Deputy Headmistress hold official positions of authority in character as well as out of character, but not all of the site officials hold IC positions of responsibility. If you have any further questions about what is written or anything not included, please do not hesistate to contact the site officials (we won't bite, or perform forbidden curses!). Please make sure any emails sent to the Officials are clearly marked with their topic in the subject line, or if they're for a particular official, that way we can deal with the emails we receive more efficently.
MEMBER REMOVAL AND INACTIVITY
The site officials will remove your character (and possibly all your characters) from the site for any infraction of the rules. In most cases we will email you to discuss any issues or concerns we have, however, the rules of our site are clearly stated on this page. If you blatantly disregard these rules then you will be removed without discussion and an email sent to you informing you of our reasons.
Inactivity is a major reason you may be removed from the site. If you find you are no longer able to maintain your character, or you become aware that you will be unable to role play for a period of time but intend to return, make sure you make a new post on the OOC board so that people you role play with are aware of your hiatus and email the site officials - merely announcing it on the OOC board is not enough. Of course, we are sympathetic to circumstances beyond your control that may have prevented you from letting us know of your absence, but we'd have to be convinced you couldn't have popped online anywhere to send us that email.
If you are inactive for over a month without informing anyone of the reason, your character will be removed from the site and an email sent to you telling you why. Likewise, if you consistently only post once or twice a month, you will be removed. Being an active member means posting regularly, not occasionally. If you are a new member and you have not role played in the first two weeks from the time you are introduced, you will be removed. If you are removed for inactivity you are welcome to reapply with your character, but after disregarding our rules we will expect you to show you mean to become more dedicated by improving your biography from the original. Please note that multiple instances of inactivity without explanation may mean we get sick of giving you chances, so make sure you do the right thing and send us that email if something comes up.
Email: [email protected]
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N.B. This page is under constant review. If there are any amendments to the information here from the time of the site's opening a message will be posted on the OOC board to that effect. It is the responsibility of the members to make sure they read the amendments once they have been notified.
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