What makes H:OS different?Some might consider us old-fashioned, but we want to return to when roleplay and community sites were fun and low stress. There is no posting limits on this site, either by word counts, or activity checks, or what have you. Our goal is to not take everything so seriously that nobody enjoys roleplaying anymore! The only thing we ask is that you avoid canon characters, mainly because it's just too much stress for everyone, both in upkeep and activity.
You are free to join just for the community section if you wish, and not be involved in the RP. There are no applications, no mandatory house sorting, and you can choose your usergroup when you join. If you want help choosing a house, we will be glad to offer suggestions.
We are post-canon 2009, set at Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic. The canon characters do exist, but they are not directly involved at Hogwarts at this time, and they do not yet have children at Hogwarts.
What are the rules?1. Treat everyone with respect, from the newest member to the staff.
2. Please keep everything PG-13.
3. Please keep to the basic roleplay rules governing respect for other players, such as refraining from godmoding, powerplaying, or being completely out of canon with the books. If you would like more information on these or other roleplay tips, check out our
roleplay help forum.
4. Please do not register with a canon character name or last name. You may
purchase these from the H:OS shop.
What do we ask you to do?These are not rules, per se, but more like guidelines that will make H:OS a happy place for everyone. Continuing bad etiquette may result in a warning, since it is a sign of disrespect for other players.1. Please try to finish out threads before going inactive. Inactivity is fine, but at least try to exit the roleplay threads in which you are participating instead of disappearing.
2. If you want to come and play with a friend, that's fine, but please don't completely ignore the other players on the site or form OOC cliques. We want to be open and welcoming to everyone.
3. Please mark your threads with who is invited to that thread, and tag them with "Open" if they are open to all.
4. If you wish to comment OOCly in RP threads, or mark your coming and going, please do so in (( )) tags and keep it as short as possible.
5. Please refrain from changing the font color or size of your roleplay posts. The font has been specifically chosen for readability. You may change it however you like outside of RP posts, but please try to make it as readable as possible.
6. If you are participating in a group thread and wish to pull someone into a long conversation alone, please start a new thread for that. You may return to the group thread when you are finished, or continue to roleplay with other characters while your character is in the private thread.
What will H:OS not do?1. Require you to roleplay. It is optional, and we do not do activity checks or cleanouts. Come and go as you please. You are welcome to just hang out and enjoy the community.
2. Require applications. Whether you have character profiles is up to you.
3. Require a word count. The shop mod will give you galleons for every word you post, but you can post as little or as much as you would like.
4. Choose your house/group for you. It's completely up to you where you would like to be. If you would like suggestions, we would be glad to help.
5. Allow OOC drama. This should be a safe and fun place for everyone, and those who just wish to cause trouble are not welcome. This is something on which we will come down strongly.
6. Try to be a 'trendy' sort of roleplay. We are here to have fun, and to not get tied up in a lot of trends which seem to silently (or not so silently) govern most roleplay forums.
7. Require things like playbys, face claims, posting orders, class participation, plotting pages, or anything else where someone makes someone else feel obligated.
8. Feature staff at every turn in graphics and lists. We're players just like you, and we're here to make H:OS fun, not spotlight ourselves.
9. Advertise in guest-friendly forums. We do not have a guest-friendly advertising forum, since anyone can join and just be a member.
What is the plot?Instead of announcing our overall plot up front, we are going to slowly give you hints as the plot is developed. We do have a
backstory to the time leading up to H:OS and will add to it as the plot develops. The things you do can influence how the plot plays out. You are also free to start smaller plots or your own storylines as long as it doesn't infringe upon the enjoyment of roleplaying for others. I will give you a hint, though, and say the plot centers around a very unlikely enemy, and is probably very different from any plot you've seen in an HP roleplay.
How do you run Quidditch?We have a dice-based play system for Quidditch, and a dice roller mod. You can read the rules and sign up for OOC teams in the
World Cup Discussion thread.
What about being a professor and teaching classes?We're going to try something a little different, at least to see how it goes. If you would like to be a professor, go right ahead. However, there is no limit on how many professors teach each subject, so the burden is on you to be interesting and attract students and keep them engaged in your class threads. Students are not required to take your classes, and they can choose which classes they wish to take. We will archive class threads which are closed or inactive.
What is the shop mod used for, and how do I get galleons?We will be offering a number of little prizes and advantages with the shop mod, and are currently working on those. You can mainly earn galleons by posting. The more posts you make, and the more words per post earns more galleons. You can also earn galleons by helping out other members and the community-at-large. You are free to offer payments to other players for help in things like graphics or whatever you need. You can also set up a shop and offer things for payment or trade. We will definitely be watching for players that go above and beyond in helping other players without expectation.
What are the guidelines for graphics?The maximum size for avatars is 120x160 pixels, and please keep signatures to under 4 images and an overall size of 500x200 pixels. You are welcome to link to your site in your signature. You can use anything you want for avatars, or have none at all. We do not require playbys or have a face claim. Please do not rip your art from artists, such as professional artists or those on DeviantArt.
How do you choose prefects and head students?Once we get a good number of students per house, we will be discussing choosing prefects and head students. These positions are IC positions only, and have no site responsibilities. They are also not indefinite, but subject to change and reorganization. The staff will be considering the length of time for prefects, and I will be asking for opinions soon.
What about the timeline?We are not linear, so if you want to jump around in time a little bit, that's fine. You can choose to be linear yourself, and only play out things in order. It's really up to you. The general season will be posted at the top.
Can I play someone who is from outside the UK, but goes to Hogwarts?Yes, but they must have at least one wizard parent or grandparent, and the permission of their parents. They do need to be able to speak basic English, but Hogwarts is going more "politically correct" by trying to accept students from around the world in their student exchange program. However, this program has to be applied for by a wizard parent or grandparent, so the student must at least have a quarter blood, and permission from their parents to be in another country.
What about special characters and abilities like vampires, werewolves, and others?You may play special characters found in the HP world only. These include animagi, metamorphmagi, vampires, werewolves, and seers. You must post here and register your special character status for it to be recognized in RP. After some thought and discussion, we've decided to limit everyone to 1 alt special character. It can be your main character, or not, but please play no more than one special character. Please see
our signup list for special characters for more information and to sign up.
What's the history of this site?The impetus for this roleplay was a long time in coming, and was heavily influenced by other factors. I had looked for a similar site for a long time. A very long time ago, I was on a large HP roleplay site that I enjoyed very much.....except....there was an admin that began to harass me by pm with very vague and unspecific claims. It came out to the staff that the admin was harassing me, and another admin apologized for that person, and in doing so admitted this was a bit of a pattern. HOWEVER, the staff refused to do anything else about it, and the problem admin refused to apologize. I ended up leaving, after the admin just kept harassing me for no real reason.
I eventually started a Quidditch forum roleplay, and ran that for about a year before it got hacked. The hacking seemed to be random and unrelated to being a roleplay site. I spent time trying roleplays and running some, but was unhappy with a lot of the stiff trends many roleplays seemed to have. I just wanted to have fun and enjoy myself, and not be subject to a lot of peripheral things like plotting pages or word counts.
Flash forward a bit, and I began to roleplay in HP sims in Second Life. This style of 3D live roleplay (think MMOs) is fast and furious, and kind of a rush. For whatever reason, SL HP roleplays seem to attract the biggest problem people around, and a lot of the RPs do not have strict enough rules to deal with the problems (democracy doesn't work very well in roleplay, unfortunately). Many of the people who have originally joined this site have come from that arena. We love new members, though (and that was a point of contention some had with us who wanted to be more 'elite').
I wanted a place that was fun and friendly, and not bogged down in a lot of trends or requirements. I wanted people to enjoy roleplaying again, and not feel pressured by it. I wanted to enjoy it myself again.
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