announcements, updates & etc

First things, first: Please touch the friends remove button here. All inactive characters have been removed from the game. Also, make sure to take a look at the PBs list and check to make sure we didn't accidentally remove yours. If you notice a name that should be removed and is still there, let us know as well. The PB list somehow always ends up with the least attention from us.

The Challenge Team list has not yet have the removed characters taken off from it, since that leaves one team with only 3 members and another with 6. It will be updated with the new batch of applicants, which will be done in the next few days hopefully.

Next up, events!

22 December: Home for the Holidays. Since no one replied saying their character is staying at Hogwarts, we take it to mean that there's no need to plan for a Christmas plotty within the school, yes? Then we'll assume all is well at Hogwarts.


23 December: The Dashing Wolves concert for winning team, Phoenix! We're not going to put up a thread for you, but you guys can do so if you wish. As usual per Dashing Wolves concert style the lead vocalist, Gerard Llewellyn will end up with his shirt off (if not completely naked) after five songs, snog his bassist twice and encourage his audience to follow his lead... which, seeing as 70% of the audience members are female, there will be a lot of bouncing boobies. Hogwarts staff will be feeling slightly horrified because they're old when the news of the concert makes the cover page in several witch publications. How would team Phoenix have fared? ;D

31 December: New Years Charity Bash. This is the event for everyone who's anyone to be at to show off their wealth. It's invitation only. For this event, I'm hoping for kids from families who are rich, old money or have parents who are celebrities or Ministry workers to be invited to. Characters can bring dates of course, and formal dress. There is a plotline connected to this, but I don't want to reveal too much right off the bat.

I would like a speculative number of how many and which characters would have the background to be invited to such an event before we plan too much into this plot. So, characters with money or ministry/important parents, raise your hand?

8 January: Return to Hogwarts. Self explanatory.


That's what is planned for the next two weeks. Now here is where we ask everyone if they have any ideas for events to happen in the next following months, or certain macro plotlines they want to see. Major school wide pranks? They can be written into the calendar so everyone knows when they happen. The calendars for the next few months haven't been made yet, and we'd love to include things the players want to happen so, let us know!

Hear ye, Hear ye! Come one, Come all !!

Oye you! Ya you! *Points at you* I'm talkin' to ya! Get over here!

Got your attention? Good, good read on: *bows out of your way*

Okay players time for us mods to roll up our sleeves and get back into keeping this game as active as possible. What does this mean you ask precious minion? Activity check of course silly! We would like you to sign (or re-sign if you will) your name, and your character(s) that you want to keep below. We swear it is no legal binding contract... just an official name call if you will. It just helps us track down who is willing to stick it through with us.

On other non-soul-binding information:

For the challenges we have deliberated and decided what is going on for the challenge winnings and loosings. In other words, the prize for the winning team of the first challenge, and punishment for the team in last place. Mind for the first challenge all, except Team Phoenix, are facing punishment. "What?!" you all say in heated, and frustrated voices. Well let us explain a wee bit then you can grumble some more, promise.

Seeing as how only one team really dived into the first challenge we are forced to punish the remaining teams. It is only fair, and hopefully in the future it will encourage the teams to participate in the challenges to come. Then it will go back to only one team facing punishment for coming in last place (nothing like punishment for incentive right?).

The prize for Team Phoenix is: drum roll please... *drum roll starts up*
Tickets for the whole team to go see The Dashing Wolves! This number one band is having a holiday concert on the twenty-third and you are all going Team Pheonix. So save your money for plenty of concert swag! How else can you really rub it in to the rest of the teams?

For the losing teams, which include teams: Untouchables, Legionnaires, Unbeatable Truffles, Brooms and BOOM, and Team Alpha.

All of these teams face the loss of their dessert till the end of term, no sneaking desserts either. Something nasty will happen to not only you, but the rest of your team if you choose to do so. Trust us, it is bad enough that the Profs will have quite a chuckle at you and your team's expense if you choose to try and sneak one. Also we are sure that your team will not be too pleased with you.

With that said, don't forget to sign below with your name and your character(s) name. Update your flist, also feel free to ask anything of us too.

You are free to go!

Sincerely,
Lux & Skif

P.S. for those of you who still don't know their teams shame on you! look here!

First of all, December Calendar is up!

Please remember to tag your posts in renascentyears with the week, and the people involved. If your name isn't a tag yet, let us know!

-+-+-

Secondly, the Halloween Murder Mystery and Interhouse Challenge threads aren't completed yet. But, by today it's been a good month since then and I have a good feeling that they won't be completed any time soon. It's also sorta affected my own RPing this month so I would rather not drag them on any longer.

So, to conclude the Halloween Murder Mystery game, comment with your guess as to who the "Murderer" was. Comment as the character you play with, I mean, so if you play two you have two votes.

As for the Interhouse Challenge threads... I am not sure how to conclude them and pick the winning team. Suggestions please? I would love to wrap them up, give out the reward for this month and start the new challenges for January (and this time we'll use a different format!). I was thinking of choosing the team who have completed the most so far in the challenge, how does everyone feel about that? Or is there a better way that someone can think of?

-+-+-

Lastly, house points are updated! These points include the points won during the Quidditch match. I decided to add them to the house points because quidditch match points are such a wildcard, if we rely solely on posts to count for points than Hufflepuff will probably never catch up due to the lack of puffs we have. Don't worry Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, you'll catch up to the other houses with the next quidditch match!

Oh, and these house points include deductions by the prefects. Gryffindor has had 30 points removed because of various actions by Andrew Finnigan and James Potter while Ravenclaw has 10 points off because of Abbey Dixon.

Haleigh Harper on the other hand, deserves a round of applause from her house for earning it 90 points during this points count. The most points earned by anyone in the game so far!

( The Current House Points )

-+-+-

I've also done a quick activity check, those of you in danger have been given an LJ Nudge except for grangerweasley because you haven't even friended the mods account yet!? You have one week to post an entry or thread/log to save your characters. As always, if you ever need to take a hiatus please let us know on the hiatus post (except you're not eligible if you've been LJ Nudged if you don't have a good reason since it's been 4+ weeks of inactivity).

So yes, please comment with your murderer vote and if you have suggestions on how to choose the winning team for the interhouse challenge, please offer it!

♥

Since it took so long we're assuming the match raged on all day yesterday. The teams must have been numb from flying in the cold for so long! Those that say G seeker or S beater etc, substitute them with your character if they fit. If they fall off broom or get hit but a bludger, the severity of the fall/hit is your choice as well.

The poll has been closed and the 50 actions/results unscreened. The numbers you guys picked are below the cut!


( Quidditch Match Results! )




P.S. how did you guys feel about doing the match this way? good method, bad method? coconuts?

The First Interhouse Challenge is taking place tomorrow, no more date changes this time. If you're new, you might want to look over the team lists and see which team you're on again.

Then, I need everyone to CLICK HERE and accept the invite to invitation to join ryear_challenge which is where the challenges will take place. This new community is just for where the actual action for the challenges will happen, future challenges as well as group discussions for challenges will still take place in renascentyears.

There's been group tags added for you guys to use for future team discussions, they are: team-alpha, phoenix, unbeatable-truffles, brooms-and-boom, legionnaires and untouchables.

ANYWAYS, how will the team challenges happen? Well, first of all, all future challenges will be different so we might not use this same format again. The format we'll be using for tomorrow will be similar to "Narrative/Table Top" RPGs (just we're going by third person) - if any of you are familiar with that. Basically it goes down to:

Player: Harry Potter walked cautiously into the room, it was dark and he could barely see more than three feet in front of him. He gripped his wand tightly and raised it in front of him, whispering "lumos!" under his breath.

Mods: In front of him stands a statute reminiscent of of a miniature troll, except miniature in this case still meant at least six feet tall. To the right of him lies a silver basin filled with a mysterious liquid. It looks slightly green.

Or in other words, players supply actions, thoughts, reactions, etc, basically everything you guys usually do in threads except this time the mods will be supplying the consequences of the actions. Touch something, throw a hex, use a charm, sing a song, etc? Mods will play the game masters and write the consequences.

I think it's pretty straight forward, this link gives a pretty damn good explanation of the basic idea. We will not be replying to each and every tag, of course, just after the most significant actions and the magical creature's reactions & actions so we'll be butting in as ry_npc pretty often. There will be six threads started by the mods - one for each team. For the tags in the challenge this time, we're aiming for speed, so if your tags are a bit short that's fine.

The starting tags will all be the same but the GM tags afterwards will all be different based on the characters actions. The winning team will be decided after all teams have finished. Whichever team handles the situation given to them best in the tags wins. Remember, the inter-house challenges are meant to promote team unity, creative usages of what they've learned in classes, etc.

You guys can start as soon as you see the threads go up, which will probably be in a few hours. If there are any questions, please ask :D

( CURRENT HOUSE STANDINGS )


( APPARITION LESSONS )


( INTERHOUSE-CHALLENGE/TEAMS )


( HOGSMEADE WEEKEND IS TOMORROW! )


( HOW HALLOWE'EN IS HAPPENING )

Please ask if there are any questions!

♥ Lux

P.S. First Quidditch match is happening in November, Gryffindor Vs. Slytherin.

P.P.S. Please don't actually change the date of the entry in renascentyears when you post a thread/log (or in your journal either honestly), it messes up when they show up on the f-list and sometimes don't even show up at all which makes it a bit of a mess when we're counting house points or checking activity at the end of the month!

EDIT!x3 I updated the Calendar as well. Take a look at it!

EDIT @ 29.06.08 Please update your friends list, as we have new additions to the game as well as take a look at the Challenge Teams list again as (almost) every team has a new member or two!!

Event today!

19; Eaten Alive!
Apparently, some student must have thought Herbology to be a particularly boring subject as they have brought in Flesh-Eating Slugs into the greenhouses and set them loose overnight. Now they are everywhere and anyone who enters the greenhouses (and perhaps even the surrounding gardens, these slugs spawn fast!) are in danger of having a chunk of their flesh digested if their fingers wander into the bushes.

Also, upcoming significant dates includes the 25th were the first challenge will be announced and the 28th which is the second Hogsmeade weekend of the year and the last one before Hallowe'en.

Heads & Prefects might want to decide on what they want to do for the Hallowe'en party, theme, polling, whatever before Hogsmeade weekend as we're assuming that most students will be purchasing their costume then. Or buying materials to make said costume. That or there can be a dramy party and the student body can throw rotten eggs at the prefects/heads in revenge. ;)

By the way, all the team name conversations make us very happy ♥

Okay, major updates, everyone!

First of all, apologies. I (Lux) had a really bad case of Bronchitis that didn't seem to want to go away and when I started getting better earlier this week, Skif ended up with RL issues of her own so we both ended up leaving you guys hanging for a bit longer then our AN hiatus was supposed to be. We're both back now so it's time to brush off the dust that has collected over the last couple of weeks!

First of all, we've cleaned out the character list from the last Activity Check as well as added some new characters. With that said please Update the Friend's List!

Secondly, as a follow up to the activity check, there will be an e-mail sent out to everyone. Please reply to it ASAP (or at least before the 17th) or let us know if you didn't receive it.

All of the lists on rymods [character, contact, parents, quidditch, pbs & friends add] has been updated. Please check them for accuracy, even if you're an old player because we removed a handful, added a handful and noticed that we've been missing one person for awhile! So, just to be sure we don't carry on any boo-boos on the list, take a peek at them for your information.

Third, since we're on the topic of the 'third' as per the FAQ those who have been part of RY since the beginning, cleared the last activity check are allowed their third character - if they wish for one. (We could use more Hufflepuffs or Quidditch players! Bullies, please?)

Lastly (for tonight) we are currently on *week-008 until the 14th. If you're ever feeling a little lost on what to post about, please take a look at the calendar! There's something random scheduled to happen every week so if you're feeling a little lost on a topic to write about, take a glance at it. You're all more than welcome to suggest any events you would like to see happen as well!

♥

Lux here. An activity check was done this morning and of course, at the same time house points were tabulated!




Randomly, no Prefect has yet really taken off any points. C'mon Prefects, be mean!


Aquaredics
It's September 20, folks. Those who have preordered the new broom series will receive it in this morning's owl post! Apologies to any characters who don't have their name listed, those four were the only ones that have mentioned purchase or gifts of the broom that I've been able to gleam from the journal entries. Those who missed the preorder date, but have somehow scrambled enough galleons to purchase it may do so on their own come Hogsmeade weekend (the 31st!)


Activity Check
Unlisted names are safe. Give yourselves a pat on the back! Activity is counted by either a thread/log OR a journal entry (and not a liner entry at that) at least once every two weeks. This means you should at least have two of either at the end of the month.

If your name is listed below, you have until the 31st of this month to take your character off the list by either making a substantial journal entry or playing a thread/log.

If you are unable to please comment to the Hiatus post or reply here before the 31st to save your characters. If anyone knows that the situation is for any of the names listed (computer down, no internet, etc) then please let us know as well!

If you believe there are any mistakes on the list, let us know as well!

In Danger
Hugo Weasley
Olive Nguyen
Wendy Holmes
Callum Hopkins
Charlie Smith
Ryan Wright
Cosette Zabini
Gabriel Nott
Vivienne Moon
Aveline Fenette

Week-change! May 18 - 24 marks September 18 - 24 in game and *week-005.

A lot of things are happening this week, IC & OOC wise!


Events

September 19 - 21 marks the I smell Divinity event!

Professor Trelawney has apparently purchased a boxful of questionable special incense that will help her Third Eyeless students to See. This special incense smells like... lemons?! The incense is sure is strong though, strong enough that her students start to hallucinate See the most peculiar visions around themselves and of others. Have they all discovered their Third Eye? Not just her students either, apparently those who have classrooms close to the Divinations classroom have started having visions as well by the second and third day!

That's pretty self explanatory, isn't it? Trelawney bought some incense that would usually be used for the wildest night parties, used them for her classes and now her students, as well as those with classes close enough are high to their eyebrows!

Of course, the event is optional as to whether your character wants to be inhaling the special incense or not (they could have a stuffy nose or have skipped class & missed it). To my knowledge there are only three students are taking Divinations which means everyone else who wants their character to get a whiff would probably have to say their character has been near the Divinations classroom at some point as Prof Trelawney is burning them all day, everyday. Until the 21st when the other professors catch on and tell her to trash them. :)

The effects of the incense will last for another 24 hours, longer if they went back and caught more whiffs of it. Let's hope no one tries to jump out of the windows ♥


Activity Check

RYear's first activity check will take place this week. As always, activity will be checked on the second last week of the month to give inactive players a chance to save their characters for that month with a post or thread in the last week.

House points will probably be updated during that point seeing how we'll be combing through every post & entry. Has any prefect taken any points yet? :D



.

Prefects, we've finalized a points method for you to exercise your lovely positions ♥ We have also tallied up journal entries and threads between May 1 - May 10 for house points. The Hourglasses in the Great Hall will now display:



Additional information & How Prefects Can Take Points are found HERE. Take a look at it even if your character isn't a prefect. Questions?

On the topic of Prefects, there is a Prefect meeting going on HERE There's still a Slytherin Prefect and Hufflepuff Prefect missing from the meeting that should pop in before the meeting concludes. ;)



On another note, Katiee (Dominique Weasley/Adam Faust player) has left us due to time commitment conflicts so please update your friend's list HERE.

...by the way, everyone reads ryear_reports, right? D:

Lux again, with info concerning tomorrow's event.

Everyone still remembers the basic premise of Renascent Years included Interhouse Challenges, right? If not, well, reminder here!

( This is McGonagall's speech during the Opening Feast... which didn't get posted because I didn't want to spam the comm with too many logs )

Teams shall be posted tomorrow (or in twenty odd minutes when it strikes midnight). Anyways, a few notes about the teams:

** Assume they're actually larger than five people each. From now on when new characters are added to the game, they'll be randomly assigned a team. For IG purposes, assume they've always been part of the team since September.

** The teams will be called Team one, Team two, etc when they're listed, the characters themselves should get together and give themselves a team name, slogan, etc... or disagree and quibble all day long. 8D The teams were randomized, but whenever we saw besties stuck together we re-randomized them again so your characters will get the chance to interact with other characters they would in normal circumstances never talk to.

Questions?

By the way, week change! September 11 - September 17 = *week-004

Lux here, sorry to be flooding the friend's pages with so many modly things.

The September Calendar is up! It's pretty self explanatory, more details on some of the events will be given closer to the date but if there are any questions, ask away!

As for House Points, Characters will automatically accrue house points for their houses with their activity (threads & journal posts). Using this method means that Houses will can only go up in points and never down, right? Wrong! Prefects & Head boy/girl will be allowed to take away points (as well as professors but that's a different story). You also lose points for inactivity, etc. This way, points will fluctuate more and it'll give the Prefects/students more plot toys, house rivalries to play around with as well as compensate for the fact that there are more characters in some houses compared to others.

So, I have two questions which I want all of you to answer: (I would make a poll, but this isn't a paid account so I'll need everyone to reply with their comments/suggestions.)

1) Should Prefects/Heads be allowed to take away points in journal entries?
They will be allowed to do so in threads/log for sure, but most players seem to prefer writing journal entries compared to threads or find it hard to butt into a thread/log just to demerit points so... taking points away in journal entries, yay/nay/other?

2) Should threads/journals so far be counted for house points?
It would mean we start off the school year with house points already stacked up if we do count the summer hols activity. OR, we start counting threads/journals from September 1st onwards, in game time.

News:
Tomorrow's issue of Quidditch Pro Weekly is posted. We're not going to post an issue weekly, of course, but for the game wise, an issue comes out every Monday filled with top notch info about players, games, brooms and other Quidditch related mania for those characters that are Quidditch fans!


Week Change:
Today, April 27, 2008 = 27 August, 2023 in game time and April 27 - May 3 marks *week-002. Those of you who have been properly tagging your posts in renascentyears, we love you ♥


Important Dates:
Returning Hogwarts students are expected to be at Kings Cross, Platform 9¾ on September 1, 2023 (May 1) to board the Hogwarts Express. The train is scheduled to leave at 3 PM, so don't be late! The train is expected to arrive around 6 PM in time for Sorting of the new First year students and dinner will follow shortly after. First day of classes is on September 2 (May 2)!

We'll have up a general thread for both the express and the opening feast on Thursday (or at least one of them).


Other Things:
Keep your eyes on the Calendar, as we'll update it with events. We'll also finalize a method for House Points, as we really would like to give Prefect characters a chance to actually dock points - we just gotta figure out how. :D

If any of you have any ideas for big school wide plots, or feel creative enough to write up (or offer an idea for) a news article (gossips, quibbler, quidditch, scandals, anything!) please do, we'll definitely use it!

Well with the game starting tomorrow, we have a few modly things to get out of the way. First of all, please go and check all the lists to make sure we’ve listed everything properly. We’re human and we both tackle different lists so what’s right in one area might not be right in another. If there’s an error anywhere please leave a comment in this post:


• Character list is linked to your character.
• Parents are named if at least one of their parents are from canon.
• Those who have been accepted to the Quidditch team, check the teams list and make sure you’re present and your position is correct.
• Eye up the PB list and make sure your PB is there.
• All important contact list, some of you don’t have AIM, if you ever decide to get it please let us know!
• Lastly, please fondle the friend add button if you haven’t yet.


Tomorrow’s 18 April, 2008 translates to 18 August, 2023 in game time. Everyone understands that May 2008 = September 2023, yes/yes? The school year begins on 1 September, 2023 so until then, students should be enjoying their last weeks of summer hols, purchase their school supplies, finish up summer homework and a certain few will be receiving a letter from the Headmistress which will contain a badge!

Last but not least, please brush up on the Newbie Guide (it’s the TAGS that we really want you to read, those that have already been using them in the OOC comm, ♥ to you!). April 18 – April 26 marks *week-001. Character tags are listed here.

♥