Hello, future RPer! This document is to help guide you along as you work on your Reinventing Hogwarts application. Some of the stipulations might seem nit-picky or stringent, but we as Mods adhere by them and ask you to as well because they help ensure a fun, coherent game for everyone. Furthermore, if anything mentioned seems ridiculous or that we're insulting your intelligence, we're sorry; trust us, we haven't put anything on this list that we haven't seen before.If you have any questions whatsoever, contact a moderator. We are happy to answer your questions and help you along with your application.
Please be aware that you are to fill out and send in your application(s) BEFORE you attempt to join the group. Thank you.
Posting Guidelines
The first rule is the most important: Be good to one another. No bashing, flaming, name calling, or unnecessary drama. We want this game to be fun, and a big part of that is a friendly atmosphere.
Another part of making this fun is that players are proficient writers who submit clear posts using proper English and grammar. Please use grammar and spell check in both your application and posts. If need be, draft the post in Word or something similar first. Ask a mod if you don't have access to something like Word, we know of free products you could use.
Real Life trumps RPG any day, but if you feel that you’re going to be gone for an extended period of time, just drop the Moderators a line and we’ll be happy to set your characters aside or give them a situation where they can try to jump back in at a later date.
The above being said, so long as RL allows you to do so, please try to post at least three times a week. This is especially important if you’re playing multiple characters; a lack of posting in such situations can hold up multiple story lines and leave fellow players with little do as they wait for you.
NO GOD-MODDING. It’s one thing to have your character act upon the anticipation of what another character may do, but to say what another character does without input from the player is not acceptable. It is understandable that accidents happen when you think a character is some place or said something and you act according to that, but to make it a habit is not.
Hogwarts is in its barest essence a middle/high school; teenagers like to push their limits, so swearing and mature (both violent and sexual) content are allowed, but please put an ALL CAPS warning at the start of your subject line to notify those who might not feel comfortable reading something of that nature. Please keep any acts beyond snogging/making out between students of age 16+.
Please head the body of posts made in group with :
Who: (Character(s) involved) What: (What’s going on) Where: Status: Open/Private and In progress/Complete
Please place the body of your post under cut with an appropriate teaser line.
If you want an interaction to remain private, then say so in the teaser. Same for personal journal entries. If you only want certain people to have knowledge of it, then place it under a cut and post ‘hexxed to [appropriate name(s) here’ so that all players know that only certain members should have knowledge of the contents.
Please make sure to have your character behave in accordance to the knowledge he/she has. Your character should not be acting on information gleaned from a hexxed journal entry not meant for him/her, nor should your character be acting on the internal thoughts of a character.
After ten replies to a comment in a thread, start fresh and continue the conversation with a new reply to the original post. After a while, comments get squashed and are difficult to read.
Posts made in the group are to be made in the third person. Individual journal posts are written in first person.
Feel free to collaborate with one another on posts and plots and ask any questions that arise. Making plots together is part of what makes RPG so much fun!
Character Creation
Please use only the biography provided. If there is something you want to add to the profile, ask a mod if it's appropriate, but do not send in applications from any other RPG, and do not alter the biography sheet in any way shape or form unless given permission.
Make sure that your history section mentions what your character did over the years prior to the plots taking place in the RPG. Mention the large events, what occurred during the Tri-Wizard tournament and other events that shaped their personality and lives.Please keep pets among cats, owls, toads, and other small furry creatures. Ravens, Unicorns, Bobcats, etc... are unacceptable.
Please be original with your character.Yes, no one is entirely unique, and your character might share similar qualities/experiences with established canon and original characters, but we start to get suspicious if we see several different (and often really specific) traits that we can trace right back to any one character.
Give us some personality to go on. This helps the mods know if there's a character that can be aimed your character's way to help you ease in. Don't be afraid to use detail when describing your character. We prefer a well rounded, detailed character to a one word response any day.
Keep your back story realistic. Most Hogwarts students had pretty regular lives. No tragic, last member of a family, watched the murders and lived with evil relatives stories. Same goes for unknown princesses, royalty, or amazing student who modeled, traveled, or and saw the whole world with the best of everything before settling down and entering Hogwarts.
Unless a moderator tells you otherwise, writing samples are to be original! Do not submit an old sample from some other RPG completely irrelevant to the game. Likewise, do not submit forum posts from other RPGs in which you play the character. If you need help with a jumping off point for a writing sample, just contact a mod with your character idea (house, name, age,etc...) and one of us can give you a plot to write a sample off of.
Appearance/Uniform
Please keep your character's age and bloodlines in mind when creating him/her. Try not to make characters unrealistically tall or short without due cause (i.e. a believable history of giants or goblin in a family's past). Simply making a character 7'3" because 'it seemed cool' is not acceptable. Keep in mind that the moderators can turn an idea down and provide the reasons why.
Characters eyes need to remain one believable colour. Silver, gold, neon pink etc... will not be accepted as eye colours and they cannot change.
Tattoos and extravagant piercings are not allowed for students enrolled at Hogwarts school. Muggle or Magic, no reputable establishment would serve a student/underage person anyway.
Spells to alter one's body are not allowed to be used by Hogwarts students. Over muscled bodies and exceptionally flawless skin through magic are not allowed.
Do not use models as your play-by character. It keeps in line with the above rule.
Do not alter the uniform or the way it is worn.
Magic
Keep your wand in proportion to your character's height. Shorter witches and wizards will not have 15" wands.
Unless you have a character with a moderator-accepted back story, your wand must be Ollivander issue with one of the three cores stated in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and the wood must not be some super magical, extra awesome wood that we've never heard of.
Spell making is not a job or hobby. As a character grows in his or her magical abilities, tweaking Charms and spells might be a possibility, but as evidenced in the series, creating entirely new forms of spells and magic is not easy or something that everyone can do.
Keep your magic age appropriate. First years cannot cast a Patronus or turn enemies into anything.
Like stated above, even a N.E.W.T. level student will not get spells/potions/what have you correct the first time and even if he/she does on occasion, it will not be every time.
No one really brews/casts potions/spells without there being a description of the spell.There were those few times in HBP,but we all know Harry acts without thinking; this does not make it OK.
Regarding Animagi applicants: If you manage to wow the moderators with a 6th or 7th year character that has a good basis in Transfiguration and is looking for proper mentoring and a believable time line, then it might be considered, but otherwise, don't even try it.
Classes
Please do not turn in a blank character. Unless you are applying with a first year, your character would have favourite and least favourite classes, a favourite and least favourite professor; do not simply leave those slots blank.
Make sure your characters are taking classes that will help them with whatever future you would like for them to take on. Do not say that your character wants to work for Gringotts but enroll him/her for Potions, CoMC, and classes that have nothing to do with numbers, defence magic (especially for field agents), or history for the sake of working with your Goblin co-workers.
Relationships
ORIGINAL CHARACTERS CANNOT BE RELATED TO CANONS! This is non-negotiable.
Originals can have prior/established relationships with canons.
If you have questions about plots/relationships/what have you re: characters and canons that are already established in game, contact BOTH a moderator and that character's player. Please strive to keep relationships canon. For instance, anyone who would be associated with the Malfoys would not be anything less than Pureblood and have no muggle sympathies or credible knowledge of muggle life.
Anyone claiming pureblood history with connections to the Dark Side and those involved do not have any soft spot or affection for the muggle realm. They would not know about The Spice Girls, roller coasters, or 'Friends'. Please try to keep things like that in mind.
Not everyone gets to be chummy with Harry and Co. There are other Hogwarts students around who are of excellent calibre and not everyone outside of Slytherin is mandated to like the Golden Trio.
Please keep your backgrounds realistic in accordance to the bloodline you choose. Pureblood Wizards would not be party-hearty wild children who drink and smoke excessively. That sort of lifestyle is more likely to occur within a half-blood or muggle born; someone with access to the muggle side of life and therefore have the possibility of encountering those kinds of influences.
Misc
Please remember that vigilante groups are not paid positions. If you create a character who joins up with the Order or Death Eaters, this is not his/her job.
There is no student drinking or smoking on Hogwarts grounds. Like tattoos, no reputable tobacconist would sell to an underage person. Even if someone filches muggle smokes and booze off a parent or sneaking into Knockturn Alley to purchase from some dodgy shop, it doesn't enter the school grounds.
Unless a moderator tells you otherwise, writing samples are to be original! Do not submit an old sample from some other RPG completely irrelevant to the game. Likewise, do not submit forum posts from other RPGs in which you play the character.
If you need help with a jumping off point for a writing sample, just contact a mod with your character idea (house, name, age,etc...) and one of us can give you a plot to write a sample off of.
Consider this document to be a living document as it is in no way completely comprehensive of every example because someone will always pop up with something we haven't seen yet. When it happens, it will be added to this list. Until then, remember that the moderators reserve the right to decline any character traits or back story that we find unacceptable, even if you don't see it listed here. Reasons and suggestions will be provided with your application on what to fix, why, and how to make the application more acceptable.If you cannot comply with these rules or any of the other stipulations the moderators set for your character(s), then we're sorry, but Reinventing Hogwarts might not be the game for you.