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Hogwarts Between

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Index | Hogwarts Between | Game Rules | How to Play

Game Setting

This game will be starting in 1983. He Who Shall Not Be Named is dead (“Hoorah!”) and his Death Eaters are all (we think) locked away or fled. Harry Potter is three years old - and you are eleven, and just starting at Hogwarts School.

We are setting the game carefully so that you are between the dangerous Voldemort years and the years when Harry Potter is at Hogwarts. You’ll start the school when Bill Weasley is in Year 2 (and Charlie Weasley will start the following year).

We have tried to create a period when you will have most of the teachers that you know from the books. However, you should try not to do anything that might disrupt what happens in the later books. Killing Snape, or blowing up the Dining Hall would probably not be a good idea!

Game List

The game will be played by email, on a specially set up email list. You will find it at:

The game posts will appear here.

In addition, there will be three other lists:

a. Chat list - for all Out Of Character (OOC) discussions of the game: b. Secrets list - for posts between you and a Mod (perhaps one or two of you, and the Mod). This list provides a back up for all the secret plotting that will be going on. You’ll be able to post to it, but the posts will be hidden from all but the Mods: c. Pregame list - for all the threads that will run, probably in a less structured way, before the game starts:

Game Information

Information that relates to the game will be supplied on the OOC list. You can ask questions about the Harry Potter canon here, but you might also find it useful to check things out first on the lexicon at: http://www.hp-lexicon.org/

Please make sure that you read and understand the Posting Guidelines

Mods

This game will be monitored and controlled not by a single GM (Game Master) or even by two GMs. Instead it will have a group of Mods who will play the teachers and other NPCs (Non-Player Characters). If you have any problems, you should approach a Mod, or all the Mods collectively.

BE POLITE!

The first and most important rules of PBEM games is that you must be polite to the Mods and to other players. Even if something has happened that has made you really cross or even angry, you must make every effort to respond politely. Always think before you post - whether you are sending a story post, or an OOC post. If you are not sure of something, always check with a Mod before sending it to the list.

The Mods for the game are:

Name: Email:

Flexibility

There are many types of flexibility in this game. We’re prepared to work to accommodate different posting rates, for example, and will help you move to a place where you can take a scheduled break (for a holiday, or an important test, for example) without disrupting the game. For this to be done successfully, we’ll need you to be flexible too!

There’s also flexibility in how you post - whether it’s long narratives, or short and punchy. Both work; we all love long narratives, but we can be equally happy with quick dialogue posts that keep a plot bouncing along. But do try to make sure that most of your posts are not just a single line.

NPCs

NPCs are Non-Player Characters. In this game, they will be the teachers, students in other years and also some students in your own year. Generally, these NPCs will be played by the Mods, but there may be certain times when you are allowed to play NPCs yourselves. You will certainly be able to play your family members in your opening posts, for example, unless you want a Mod to do this (or even to recruit a fellow Player to ‘be’ your brother or sister for a few posts.

A few points to bear in mind: 1) NPCs are fair game for the Mods. If you’ve made them, they can pick them up and play them.

2) Other players can hurt or (very, very rarely) even kill NPCs in the right circumstances. But you would need to discuss it with the Mods first.

3) Other players can play your NPCs if you and the Mods agree.

4) Your NPC is either onstage with your PC, or chatting with another PC (under your or the Mods’ control). Your NPC will not go off and have adventures on his/her own.

Leaving the game

From time to time, people may leave the game. This may be for personal reasons such as a change in school or life circumstances, or may be because, for one reason or another, there has become a mis-match between game and player, or Mods and player. This is something that will, we trust, always be concluded amicably. Discussions will be conducted privately, and an appropriate announcement will be made to the OOC list.

When a player leaves, they can say what they would like to happen to theircharacter and where possible, the Mods will respect this. However, players (or rather ex-players) should accept that there is no obligation on the Mods to carry out those wishes if doing that would upset the game. Once a player leaves, they have no further control on what happens to their character.

Other points

We’re happy for players to work with other players to create back story oreven do some mutual plotting. But we will squelch anything that interferes with the main game arc. Remember, we know things that you don’t.

For this reason, if you have a major plan for something you would like to do in the game, please run it past us first. That saves the pain of having to withdraw posts.

Any questions about the stuff here, or other aspects of the game . ask a Mod.