Required Character Creation & House Rules (All Types)

"I feel very strongly that there is a move to sanitize literature because we're trying to protect children not from, necessarily, the grisly facts of life but from their own imaginations... And the child that has been protected from Dementors in fiction, I would argue, is much more likely to fall prey to them later in life in reality." - J.K. Rowling on BBC Radio Dec. 10th 2005


Here at Hogwarts by Night we welcome all characters from your imagination. We strive to maintain 'free form role-playing' which means we intended to not boggle you down with too many 'rules'. There will always be a need to ensure the game is 'balanced' in a basis of semi-moderate realism, so please keep that in mind when you create your character.

Game Setting: We are White Wolf's Old World of Darkness (Masquerade/Apocalypse/Dreaming), Set in the Magical World of Harry Potter (Current Time & Date). This falls within the book time line of 'Cursed Child', please be aware of spoilers being present in the game. Please keep in mind that our game is self-driven plot, with occasional plot tossed in for flavour. Our story goes wherever your imagination takes us!


Our Game's House Rules:

• Please be as Respectful, courteous, welcoming, and friendly to the other players. All deaths must be meaningful to the story.
• CURSED CHILD SPOILERS: Yes, you may play cursed child characters as they are in our current timeline and in play. Please be aware that you may have plots come up in game that are in the book/play. We do recommend you read the play book so you understand what is happening.
• Vampires: We are playing Vampire: The Masquerade mixed with JK Rowling's Canon from Magical Beasts. Vampires and born half-vampires [Dhampir] cannot have Wizardry powers. Wizards who are embraced and become vampires lose their wizardry powers. Though they may remember the mechanics of their magical training, they cannot cast spells or brew potions or otherwise conduct wizardry magic.
• Born Werewolves are World of Darkness [OWOD] characters and do not have magic, bitten ones can still cast spells.
• If you seem to have too many abilities and/or ridiculous amounts of powers, you may be asked to tone it down, we do expect requests made by admin/moderators are upheld without question.
• No explicit threads outside of the special forum. To get into the forum you will be required to prove you are over 18.
• Squibs and muggle borns would be rare for our time period. Go ahead and make yourself pure blood or half blood. You can transfer in from other schools around the world if you want to be muggle born. Just be aware that your characters may be ridiculed as most witches and wizards left in the UK Magical World will be pure.
• Student's are expected to be in the school at all times during the school term unless escorted by an Adult (not played by you). If you are found in the forest you may be altered into a magical creature and will lose your magical abilities. You play in off limit places at your own risk.
• Wandless Magic is capped for all players at 'Mundane Spells', IE: Unlocking Doors, Washing Dishes, making something levitate. (This will be monitored). Please vary your wandless abilities by your wizards age. School kids may only be able to tie their shoes etc... Wands are stabilisers, you will need them for hard magic.
• Please try to use proper spelling and be as grammatically understandable as possible. 200 Words is the goal we aim to reach each post with a 3 sentence minimum if you know you won't be reaching it.. You will see a Hallows Symbol achievement if you were successful (ST's will need this to determine if you've learned a new power as it will take a lot of RP and description). Please avoid 'one liner' posts if possible. We do understand it will happen 'sometimes'.
• Research the type of character you want to play before submitting your character.
• Keep in mind that you're playing with other people, make characters that aren't Gods, nobody likes a God-moder, and we can always sic one of ours on you.
• Please submit a character concept as soon as possible, following the info on this page.
• Rules may be added or removed at any time. Special permission may be given to 'bend' rules at admin discretion.
• Ask a question, if you don't know, and we will help the best we can.
• You can post in more than one thread at a time, but be aware of your timeline as messing up info can confuse and upset other players. At least attempt to finish all threads so none become abandoned. Please don't make other players feel rejected by disappearing.
• Any characters made with references to any culture or religion need to be properly researched. This is to maintain respect and integrity to the game in and out of character. If any character is found to be offensive or uncomfortable it may be removed or the player asked to have it re-written.

Sounds simple right? They are, and we will be lurking around to make sure that these house rules are followed on the board.




OWOD HOUSE RULES: Please also take a look at this page for our House Rules concerning the Old World of Darkness Characters. We suggest that you do research before jumping into the venues so you are aware of the games flavours and histories.


RESEARCH FOR CHARACTERS:

• Harry Potter Wiki - We are in current time/year post war on Hogwarts. You can take the following timeline as CANON on this board: **Warning, Cursed Child Spoilers, keep the secret!** HP Dating Conventions.

[/a].
[li]Vampire: The Masquerade - Clans, Sects of all types[/li]
[li]Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Those of the blood, good and evil[/li]
[li]Changeling: The Dreaming - Faeries, Courts, The Dreamland[/li]
[li]Call of Cthulhu Inspirations/HP Lovecraft & Pulp Cthulhu Quick start PDF (Free and safe download): Maddened Muggles who have seen 'too much', spells have a hard time working on them. They pay the price as they will always be seen as raving lunatics that NOBODY trusts or believes. They've lost the plot.[/li]
[li]Favourite Classics: These characters can be inspired by your favourite books and movies. When creating these characters please write as much as you know about them into the biographies along with what book they come from, someone else may want to join in![/li]
[/ul]


Please follow directions the best you can. Read this entire page before posting your application. If you need any help you can post questions under 'Ask Peeves'.


Character History

When considering the very most important part of your character you should take the time to completely understand what you are playing. Characters are just sheets of paper created from our imaginations but they have a life of their own. They had parents, maybe even brothers and sisters. Making a good strong thorough background helps you to get into character and understand how they feel.

Consider these following ideas when writing your character History. Where they were born, why did they leave home? What are their dreams and aspirations? If they are angry, sad or happy all of the time, what makes them that way, what event in their history caused it. A detailed history is crucial to keep your interest in your new character, if you were simply ‘Sally from Idaho’ and you have nothing to do, then you have nothing to do.

So do not skimp out on your history, it could mean the difference of a very boring game, or a very exciting adventure.


Character Goals

The characters I would fear the most, are the ones who have a purpose. The ones who will drain another characters blood to get anything they want, who have a reason to lie, cheat, or steal. The well thought out characters make the most important events occur in our world, they keep it moving.

In our creation we require all characters to have at least one character driven goal. This is just as important as the character history. This is your chance to tell us in some detail what you want to accomplish with your character. Make it hard; if there is nothing to fight for then there is no reason to play.


Character Powers

Our game is honour based. It means that we have no character sheets to keep track of our characters powers. Free form Role-Playing is based around freedom and creativity than dice and numbers. If you choose to play a character that has powers than you accept the terms of playing in our game.

The terms for playing free form are that the Storytellers have absolute decision-making power to decide if your character used an inappropriate power or ones it were not given permission to have. When you make your character keep in mind all of her flaws, no one is a God, and no one can defeat another character without playing out dodge.

As a mechanical request we ask that players try not to make a character with too many 'high level' abilities. We want to keep the game balanced and fair. For the sake of making World of Darkness easier, we would like you to use powers as an essence instead of levels. For Example: Auspex can see auras, read minds etc... instead of listing levels, work with the person you are using powers on in private to create a story before posting to prevent a meta-game. No vampire will be more powerful than any other, the main concern is using it against mortals.


Board Mood
We are a dark Gothic board with intonations of evil and destruction. Please do not take anything that you read on our board as intentional hatred against your out of character self. Since HBN is a dark Gothic epic of Harry Potter and Vampire: The Masquerade we will have a lot of characters full of angst, this is normal.


Family Interaction

Ever consider making your new character part of a family? Being someone's Sire, Childer, Great Grand Childer.. Uncle, Son, Daughter with the same last name is a great way to form social connections and plot between new players. If you see another character you know you could match the concept on in values and goals, PM them, see if your new character fits into their 'family' or 'lineage'. I Guarantee the new links and background associations will get you RP you never even thought Possible.

Guilt by Association™ - Try it with a Stranger today!


Magical World of Harry Potter School Terms
HBN follows a school year schedule, we are currently in our own current story and time-line, please try to keep students on school property and in class during the school year to keep the Professors happy. This applies to all Wizarding Schools around the Globe (Our school will be primarily taking place in Hogwarts, however if you can assemble students for other schools, we will make a forum for you all to play in).


Other Mumblings
HBN is active and encourages self-driven story-lines and participation. If you are a new player please try to find someone who you like to play with then expand from there to other characters. Also take note that we encourage players to try to post more than 2 lines of text to create the illusion of being a book, you may get a note from time to time requesting more detail in your posts.


If you think you can handle that, Welcome to the dark side!

-Administration




CHARACTER SHEET:

Note: The more information the better. We will need to know all things like what house you are in, give us as much detail as possible.

1. Character Name:
2. Real Age and Birthday (vampires/Fae add Apparent Age):
3. Birthplace of Character:
4. What does your character look like? [Details and OWOD true apperance]:
5. Character Personality:
6. Game you are playing (HP, OWOD, Cthulhu):
7. HP Student Characters [House and Year]:
8. Race/Clan/Kith [OWOD characters]:
9. Special Powers (In-Clan Discilplins only for OWOD):
10. Pet(s) [Familiars, Ghouls]:
11. Does your character come from a movie/book? (If yes, which one):
12. Character History aka Biography [Minimal 1 paragraph, include tidbits like ties to deatheaters etc...]:
13. Character Goals [Looking to Accomplish anything in their story?]:
14. Any PC/NPC connections (Current/Dead Character links):
15. What type of Role-play are you looking for [do you see anything from us]?: