Hogwarts School: A Harry Potter RPG

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Don't flame. Flaming is when you post or chat anything this site (including private messages) or our Discord server with the sole purpose of putting someone down or hurting them. Similarly, no harassing people IC or OOC - people don't come here to be nagged about posting or to receive an inbox full of complaints and criticisms. Hogwarts School maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding harassment, and takes abuse very seriously.

If you have a problem or suggestion, we are open to hearing it, including suggested solutions to problems. However, criticism and suggestions should be presented in a courteous, constructive manner.

Administrator and moderator decisions are final. Please do not attempt to bypass the decision of one administrator by asking another.

Giving anyone access to your user account is a severe breach of security. Do not do it. You might not think that it's such a bad thing - but remember, you will be held accountable for anything that person does while logged into your account. Lying to any staff member about the activity on your account (e.g. the player behind the account) is a bannable offence.

We are primarily a role-playing site. To ensure your privacy, please refrain from discussing personal issues extensively on the boards, private messages, and our Discord server. If you give anyone here your personal contact information, the administrators are no longer responsible for what happens afterwards, or any interactions that that happen off-site and off of our Discord server.

We also ask that you do not solicit or advertise for other sites, groups, or individual entities within our network of boards outside of the Advertisements forum at the Summer Board. This includes our Discord server as well as the private messaging system.


*Note on graphics:
All the branding images, graphics and codes on this site, including the background and the badges and icons, are private property, and should not be reappropriated for any personal use without explicit permission. This includes use of branding logos and designs from the site in character avatars, plot pages, etc. Using codes created by other players is plagiarism and is strictly prohibited without explicit permission from the creator. Please note that 'using codes' can mean looking at another player's code with the intention of copying their code/the visual effect created or taking another player's code and modifying it in some way. If you like another player's use or style of coding, always ask before attempting to recreate a similar design.

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Hogwarts - Staff & Students

At the Castle, all players are permitted one student character at any given time.* Additionally, should you be selected to teach, you may have a Professor character in addition to your student. However, if at some point you decide you would like two student characters, you may purchase one with your Gringotts points.

_{*As a result of site transitions, existing players who were members prior to October 2013 may have a second student at no charge to their Gringotts' accounts.}

Elsewhere

As of Dec 1, 2013, all character restrictions in Elsewhere have been lifted. You may have as many Elsewhere characters as you feel you can play actively. This includes Elsewhere characters employed with the Elsewhere institutions (St Mungo's and the Ministry of Magic).

In theory, a character may only be fully employed at one place. But if your character works full/part-time at one institution and part-time at another, they may be employed at two places. If you can manage six threads per term, you can pass both Institutions, just as you could pass two classes at the Castle with one character.

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Reapplying characters

This applies only to a character that has already been played in the past, but the player wishes to 'restart' - that is, interrupt the character's existing timeline to either move the character forward or backwards for whatever reason.

e.g. A character that has already graduated but wants another go at the Hogwarts experience; a character that had been a 5th year and should technically be going on to 6th year, but the player wants to redo the character as a first year.

If your character falls into the category described above, you will not be allowed to re-apply with the same character (i.e. same name, face claim, history). This is out of consideration for players and their characters who may have interacted with your old one in the past, and also because we would like to encourage creativity and writing here on this site. Choose a new face claim and name, and shake it up a little!

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Deleting a character

Deleting accounts is something only Admins can do on this site, and so it's not something to be taken lightly. We will only delete your character's account if and only if all the steps in the Retiring Characters process (see below for details) are followed.

How to retire a character:
A Retired character is a character that has been played previously on this site, but will no longer be played. They may be referenced in posts, included as general characters in larger plots, but the player has no intention of utilizing their account again -- and thus, it can be deleted.

If you're interested in retiring a character, here are the qualifications & the process (what we expect/what you should expect):

Qualifications

• Character must have been played for at least one (1) term on the boards.
• Character must have a complete wiki page.
• Character must be one that you will not play again.

Process

• Select the character to be retired.
  Note, characters retired may not be brought back.
• Add 'Retired Character' to their wikipedia page.
• Submit a help ticket under the 'Retired Character' category. Include a link to the character's profile and their wiki page.

Please see here for a more detailed, step-by-step guide to retiring a character.

Please don't feel like your character's story ends after graduation! There's a whole new world of roleplaying out in Elsewhere, and just because school is over doesn't mean the character's history has come to an end.

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• Don't create a superhero. You character is not the strongest or smartest wizard of all time. We encourage creative characters, and of course your character will be very good at some things, but not everything. Make your character balanced; super-hero characters make for boring role-playing.

• Please try and stick to the spirit of the books and maintain a sense of realism in your roleplays. While this is a 'magical' universe, your character may not morph into an elf or suddenly be teleported into some different world, etc. Remember, most of you are students. If you do have an interesting idea for a roleplay, you may ask your House Head (to find your House Head, please click here). We are happy to consider requests, and will gladly approve them if they are deemed feasible and in good fun.

• Given that this is an alternate universe of Harry Potter, no characters from the books (nor their relatives) will be accepted. You are not allowed to have Potter anywhere in your character's name, nor are you related to him in any way.

•  Please do not take names or characters directly from other books, series or movies and apply as them here. Also do not apply as a celebrity or real person. We are a roleplaying site interested in your original characters, not reinterpretations of pre-existing and copyrighted ones.

• All applicants should be human in race, and should possess character features (ex: hair color, eye color) typically found in nature. In addition, neither tattoos nor excessive scarring are typically permitted. However, if you wish for your character to have unusual physical characteristics, you may submit a special request. Please bear in mind that special requests are not always approved.

•  This roleplay takes place during the 1950s - as of May 2019, we will be in the 1956-57 term. Technology and historical references in your application should fit the era.

• Magical artifacts of any kind, special abilities, and any magical creatures other than a cat, toad, rat, or owl are allowed with pre-approval from the administrators only. Please contact an administrator if you would like to request a pet (other than those listed), ability, or artifact. We do our best to work with each individual request, but cannot always accommodate every request.
RELATED PAGES: Special Abilities Request and Special Requests FAQ.

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• Please keep Out Of Character (OOC) conversations in the OOC forums rather than in In Character (IC)/Roleplay forums.
• Please don’t use d00dsp34k, internet speak (U NO WHO U R) or L33+ 5P34| on the boards.
• For safety reasons, please don’t post screen names (AIM, MSN, etc.) or e-mail addresses of students. If you wish to give someone that information, PM (private message) it to their account.  Alternatively, you may include it in your profile if you want to make it available to others. Conversations not occurring on the board or within the site interface are not within our jurisdiction, so do this at your own discretion.
• Avatars representing the appearance of your characters are permitted and encouraged as long as they are in keeping with the rules of our site. Nudity and/or explicit images are not permitted. Shirtless avatars are not permitted, regardless of gender; similarly, avatars in which the FC is only wearing underwear (or the equivalent, e.g. a bikini) are not permitted. If you are unsure about whether or not an avatar will be permitted, please ask an admin before using it. The maximum size of your image should be 200px in width and 300px in height. If it is larger, you will need to use an image editor to crop it to a more acceptable size.
• Links and images in signatures are not permitted. This includes images that are coded as backgrounds, as well as images coded within the [img] [ /img] tags.

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• Our roleplays are written in third person past tense.
• You may control only your character. You cannot post that someone’s character did something or said something without having that player's permission beforehand. This includes impersonating another character, or determining whether a spell your character uses affects the other character. An example of this would be:
                                  Correct: John asked Helen to come along, hoping that she would follow him to see the Squid. 
                                  Incorrect: John asked Helen to come along. Helen replied with a yes.
• Parties, other than in your common room or in an apartment forum need to be approved by your House Head.
• No unapproved gangs or clubs allowed.  If you have an idea for a club that you feel would benefit the site submit a request to your House Head and we will gladly consider it.
• IC 'fights', duels, or pranks are allowed only with prior permission from an administrator.
• If you wish for your character to leave the castle grounds for any length of time during the term (e.g. for an internship, a family event like a wedding or a funeral, etc.), you must request permission from your House Head. IC, permission would come from the headmistress (either directly or via your House Head). The exceptions to this rule are holidays and Hogsmeade Saturdays, as outlined in that term’s calendar.
• You are not allowed to find a dead body, or kill/maim another character without pre-approval from Admin.
• Your character may not "outspell" a professor or administrator in character. The higher-ranking individual's word is always final if not previously agreed upon out of character (OOC).
• You may not take the same class at the same level with two characters. This means that you may only take the same class with two characters if the class is split into lower years (1-4) and upper years (5-7), and you have one lower year character and one upper year character. If a class is open to all years and is not split into two separate lessons, you may not take it with two characters.