General
USE YOUR COMMON SENSE
Canon
Canon is a sticky topic. We are playing within someone else's world, they own the copyrights and to break away from what they have set up as 'truth' can lead to lawsuits and other unpleasantness. On the other hand, not every aspect of life is touched on in the books and since the series is not yet complete, as things progress, assumptions that we make about things may be confirmed or contradicted.
This being said, we accept the books as our 'canon' the movies and other credited sources (interviews, etc) will also be accepted providing they do not contradict the books. Fan Fiction will _not_ be given credence and are not to be considered as part of the canon _unless_ specifically authorized by JK Rowling or some other authorative figure.
As the new books come out, we will do our best to incorporate their developments into our past. If it comes to a point where we can't do so.. I'll have to wing it. (IE if the next person to die is someone we still have IG).
However since it is my game, I'm the one to take responsibility for any ramifications and backlash SO.. I am not planning to place myself in that position for subplots and plot twists that I do not specifically allow to be added to the plot. In other words before you come up with a great idea that really isn't supported by the books, you had better get staff approval before you run with it or you may find you carefully developed scene being retconned out of existance.
Building
At this time the main limitation on building is that rooms to be added to the grid must be checked by staff before being added. All room building should be done through the Building Nexus located off of the Common Room
Idle Dest
Our policy on IdleDest is rather strict. Without active players, games stagnate. Inactive players also cause the extra disadvantage of giving the game a sense of inbalance as it appears that different groups are more populated than they truly are.
At 14 days idle an email reminder will be sent out. At between 21 and 28 days idle, the character will be idle_dested. If someone needs to be absent longer than that, they are requested to set a &vacation attribute and the time will be extended to 60 days unless a specific, reasonable date for return is noted in the attribute.
Note Inactivity of a character in game includes those that log in but simply log back out again. Whilst resetting ones information to prevent auto-idling out, we require players to contribute to the game in order to keep things moving. This means we have a minimum level of activity we expect from players, at present this is one hour per week.
Those players who are unable to keep this up will have their approval from the grid removed temporarily. If we are unable to get in contact with you for a week, your character will be deleted. You should always contact Kay or Amy if possible to keep us informed of any foreseeable inactivity so that your character can remain safe.
The previous policies are for 'regular' characters. Those who take on more responsibility, be it someone who apps a teacher or someone who plays a feature, there will be stricter guidelines. These will be determined as part of the application process and will be noted on the character at the time of approval.
Consent
Regarding consent, our game goes with the ICA=ICC. If you take your character into a dangerous part of town, there might well be unpleasant consequences. Staff will NOT intervene or retconn a situation because it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to. The only aspect of Consent is enforced by limitations on what you will actually have to RP out. For instance if you get your character into a sitation where violent death is inevitable you can ask for a Fade To Black. The end result, death, would still occur but you will certainly not be forced to play it in any sort of detail.
Logs
As you know HP:I&D has an ongoing theme which you can familiarise yourself with via news theme. In a characters average gameplay there are bound to be scenes which you may feel should be included in our approved timeline.
Our current policy is that if you want your scenes to be contributed you need to send staff a log of the scene(s) in question for approval.
Logs should be e-mailed to the HP:I&D address rather than sent via +mail due to size constraints. Notepad or Wordpad documents are ideal.
They *must* be tidy -
- properly formatted (i.e. double click word wrap to avoid text appearing odd on the page).
- all +ooc, channel messages & other superfluous text should be removed from the log. All that we need is the relevant poses that show the scene.
- please include the date & the name of the character whose POV it is from.
If approved logs will be included in our official time line and posted to the logs section of our website.
There are several reasons why a scene may be rejected, for instance if any of the aspects of it go against our policies, or if the scene contradicts an upcoming storyline. In the instance of rejection you will be contacted by either e-mail or +mail with the reason and in the case of rejection the scenes played will be either retconned or deemed 'what if' as appropriate.
Alts
This policy was originally called 'multiplaying' and it has been changed to 'alts' because technically multiplaying and alts are not exactly the same thing.
Alts are characters controlled by one player. Multiplaying is the act of having more than one character controlled by one player logged in at the same time.
Many games have rules against multiplaying but no rules against alts.. In other words they may allow you to have several characters but only one may be connected at a time.
HP:I&D has no rules against multiplaying and unless a problem develops with the server, it is not expected that we will ever have a policy against it as long as alts are permitted.
At this time we have no policy against alts either. However we do have guidelines. New users need to wait at least two weeks before applying for an alt, in some cases we will ask for a month. If a user wants to take on a book character, they will need to fill out an application. Part of the application process will include at least one scene or perhaps more to show us your take on the character for which you are applying.
If you take on an alt, it is expected that your other character(s) will be kept active. If this is not the case, disciplinary actions may be taken.
Additionally, alts may NOT be used to share information. Currently we have no limitations on people having alts in multiple houses but if that privelege is abused, it can be altereed.
There is also etiquette involved with alts and your knowledge thereof: please keep in mind that even though you may be willing to share your indentities, others may not feel the same way. Additionally it is NEVER! proper to reveal someone else's alts. You may know that Person A plays characters B and C.. It doesn't mean that everyone else is privy to that information. If Person A wishes others to know it should be by he or she sharing the information, not by someone else doing it.
Angst
Throughout the Harry Potter stories there is quite a bit of angst. However for the most part, the majority of that angst involved three to five people. There were any number of other people in the school that were living relatively NORMAL lives. Yes we will have time for angst in the game but not everyone can play a Harry Potter-wanna-be. Staff has underlying plots going on and will start and encourage subplots to move the game in that direction, but if everyone comes in wanting ties to DEs and the like it makes things very difficult to organize because a Hogwarts overflowing with Dark Wizards would be shut down by the Ministry in no time flat!
REMEMBER! ALL ties to Dark Wizards and similar themes MUST! be approved by staff before coming IG. Scenes of that sort that are popped in without previous approval will be subject to retconn and potential banning of the character and/or player should this behaviour continue. This game is not the personal fan fic of any ONE person and must be developed to accomodate several ongoing plots as well as numerous subplots.
Channels
Channels are the chat system that we use. Most of you are familiar with =gen (for further details see +help borgcomm). There is some etiquette that needs to be addressed with regard to them.
- The channels are OOG. When you are talking on them, you should be expressing the opinions of the player behind the character rather than the character. Because of this, people chatting with multiple alts all chiming in is discouraged. There are several reasons for this. First, it gets very spammy. Secondly, it's considered poor form to use multiple aspects of yourself to lend credence to an argument. NOW this being said, there are times when it may be unavoidable. Perhaps you have an alt you are really trying to keep hidden.. it might be too obvious if that alt shut up altogether.. But please try to keep the comments to a minimum.
- Because the channels are OOG, RP should not be taking place on them. If you want to RP, by all means DO so.. but do it in person on the grid, not over the channels.
- If what you are saying is relevant to only one or two other people on the channel (and there are more actually logged in) PLEASE consider taking the conversation to page. This has been a problem recently because often only one or two people are logged in at a time and those people begin talking on the channel and it's not an issue, there isn't anyone else on to be spammed. But if others start to connnect and the conversation on the channel is only related to a small percentage of those connected, please move it to page.
- This one has not been an issue and i hope it never is.. but so I don't have to go back and add it later. Channel chat should be kept to rated G or PG at most. While some RP may go beyond that due to TP constraints, there should not be a reason to blast across a public channel with anything stronger.
Channels are NOT to be a venting place for racist or sexist remarks. Channel use is a privelege and can be revoked at any time. Generally a first warning will be given with no other repercussions. Second warning will result in losing channel priveleges for approximately 24 hours. Third warning will result in losing channel priveleges for a week. Fourth warning will result in losing channel priveleges permanently and may well also result in site banning. (i.e. if you can't mind your manners on channels how in the world can we assume you are minding them elsewhere.) All of this is, of course, dependent on the severity of the problem. It may well be siting banning could occur in conjunction with the first, second or third warnings depending on what exactly was said/done on the channel.
Afterlife
Because there is combat, characters can die. When a person's hp falls below the 'acceptable' level the character dies. Dead characters become ghosts. People can also choose to apply to be Ghosts at chargen.
Ghosts can wander the realms. They can not pick up anything as their forms are not corporeal.
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