InsaneJournal

rules & faqRULES The golden rules of roleplay apply here: OOC stays OOC and is never IC (and vice versa); God-modding is never acceptable; Mary and Gary S. will be tarred and feathered; material that may be offensive or NSFW should be placed behind a cut-tag with appropriate warnings as its descriptor; &c &c. We've all been around the RP block and should be aware of what is generally acceptable and what is not by now. If you think something is liable to stir up unwanted trouble, chances are you're right, so follow that gut feeling and don't do it. The minimum age of players is set at eighteen. Please be civil to one another. We're all adults here. Plot: will be provided on a monthly basis, and will usually entail Death Eater and Order activity. As we move into the latter half of the game (i.e., kickstaring the post-war clean up once Lord Voldemort is defeated by the infant Harry Potter), Ministry plot revolving around investigating collaborators and trials will receive a greater focus. All groups are expected to expand upon the plots we give you, setting the groundwork for future storylines. And your own ideas are always more than welcome -- we like to be surprised, and unless something you're planning will affect the game at large, we don't need to be consulted at every turn. Talk to each other. Communication is the life force of a game. Email, g-chat, AIM, via CDJs -- whatever, just do it. In-game time is not strictly 1:1 (because we all have lives, okay). OOC September 2011 = IC August 1981; OOC October 2011 = IC September 1981; and so on. In-game time will proceed roughly along in this way, except when major events are being carried out (i.e., those that involve a lot of journal interaction); we will announce when this is the case. Activity should be demonstrated by two pieces of writing (one of which must be a log) per character per month. Activity checks will begin on the 20th and carry on until the end of the month. On writing: a. Please strive to use good spelling and grammar. b. Scenes should be written in third person, past tense. c. Scenes (whether logged in Google Docs or threaded), owls, and media pieces should be posted in the main community and tagged appropriately. Headers should include the usual who/where/when/what. Placeholders are permitted. On characters: a. Conditional to showing a decent amount of activity, players are allowed up to four played characters. b. Because many characters may show category overlap (e.g., an Order Auror), we will permit multiple characters in the same category if your additional character fits in one of the following situations: • characters that are playing double agent or are otherwise infiltrating the enemy's group (e.g., Peter Pettigrew, Severus Snape, Dorcas Meadowes). • Ministry characters moonlighting in other fields (e.g., a columnist for the press). • Order members who work at the Ministry/press. This goes for Death Eaters too. • characters slated to die by November 1st, 1981. • In addition, you may have more than one Ministry character, so long as they're involved in different departments. So if your first character is Severus Snape, you may pick up a more straightforward Order member! c. Original characters are allowed in the sense that you may pick either a canon surname and assign it to a character (Muggleborn or otherwise), or create a relative of a canon character. What constitutes a relative? In this case: a canon character's spouse, sibling, or parent. If you have doubts whether we will accept such a character, ask -- you'll make a stronger case for yourself if said "OC" has been mentioned, even if in passing, in the books. d. When applying for characters slated to die by November 1st, 1981, use the abbreviated application. On journals: a. Strikethroughs are unreadable and will merely be seen as scratches of ink upon the page. Text through blood or ink splotches may be readable. b. Wards must be specific. Conversely, characters may charm their comments/entries anonymous. c. Journal identities are keyed to the individual's wand. The first time a person acquires a journal, they must sign their name into its first page, sealing it with a charm that locks signature to wand, whilst vanishing any physical traces of the signature itself. This is the most basic level of security in the journals sold to public; know a user's signature and acquire their wand and their journal, and you can very easily read and respond to what's being addressed to the original user. Note that this can only be done if the original user's journal is in your possession -- it is not enough to know their signature and have their wand, for neither will allow you to read wards directed at them if you are using your journal. (There are ways around this, of course, but these involve complicated algorithms and come at a hefty price from sellers in the black market.) d. Magical journals were initially developed by the Department of Mysteries for internal Ministry usage (owls made too much of a mess; interdepartmental memos were only useful for one-off messages before becoming a nuisance as clusters of them zoomed around the Ministry premises). Ironically, the Unspeakable who designed them was sacked for being too much of a loudmouth, and in an act of spite, took them public. They are now mass produced and equivalent to owning a smartphone. FAQ Nothing here yet!