Post by Draco Malfoy on Dec 18, 2006 14:12:26 GMT
These are do's and don'ts specifically aimed at your characters. Please use them as a guide and be aware that they are part of the rule structure here at Malfoy Mansion.
DO make a good, original, creative profile for your character whether you are playing a canon or non-canon. It's so much easier to play with someone who has a nice lot of info in their profiles. If this means making up some original non-canon info for your canon character so be it, as long as it fits in line with the character. People do read them before playing with you. The more interesting they are, the more other members will want to RP with you.
DON'T think about making a non-canon sibling of Granger, Weasley, Malfoy and Potter and whoever else in canon that is confirmed to be an only child! We stick to the books as closely as we can.
DON'T be immortal. That's just cheating. Characters may live on in portraits, and there are ghosts, but there are no immortal humans. Even Lord Voldemort make huge sacrifices trying to 'out-do' death!
DON'T make your character a Muggle! Muggles aren't supposed to be able to see any magical places. If you want to play a 'cameo' Muggle character as part of a storyline then please contact admin.
DON'T turn the board into London Zoo. Playing magical creatures (esp canon) is encouraged but non-magical creatures are discouraged; but we can be persuaded if there's a good enough reason for it. We do have a few animals already but don't really want any more. Please ask first and we may be able to make exception.
DO keep in mind what kind of loyalties your character has and stick to it. If your evil Slytherin character suddenly starts acting fluffy with a Gryffindor and decides to have a boyfriend who is in Dumbledore's Army, then I am afraid you will get stopped in your tracks by a member of staff. Play your character as you wrote it in your character profiles, and keep canon characters canon, as JKR intended them to be.
DO remember that you can have a second character, or even a third character (if you are active here enough)! You can now also have a temporary character, known as a 'cameo'.
DO be aware that you cannot roleplay in the Malfoy Manor if your character isn't an associate/friend of the Malfoys or a storyline hasn't been specifically written for you to go in there. You can post OOC in the fanfic section if you want to make a sensible comment on a submission and you can post pics up in the threads in the Portrait gallery. If you arrive at the manor front door, please have a reason to be there, because you are likely to be asked by other residents or the house elf before you get let in. They are a curious and suspicious bunch! If you were invited to the manor by a Malfoy, then that is a sufficient reason for being there.
DON'T write other people's reactions to your actions, leave that to them. Exceptions apply if they've contacted you separately and asked you to do so if they have to leave for whatever reason.
DON'T 'godmode' or 'powergame'. If you get incarcerated or hexed, don't conveniently ignore it or make yourself invunerable all of a sudden. If you are a young witch or wizard you will not have the skills of an older witch/wizard. Use a vaild defence, such as Protego or dive out of the way but you'll have to fall victim to a spell at some point, especially if you have no warning. Otherwise it's no fun to play with you!
You cannot be an all-powerful 'superhero' type. Advanced powers in HP are very rare. Being a Parselmouth is exceptionally rare, as is having an Invisibility Cloak, and so on. Don't make your character have all the special abilities going.
Ie. you cannot be both an Animagus AND a Metamorphmagus. Both are fairly advanced abilities.
DON'T kill off any characters without admin permission. You can get injured without my permission as long as the injury doesn't have life-long effects. (ie. 'turning' into a werewolf after a werewolf bite). This doesn't mean you can't do it ever - it just means you need my approval first. This includes suicide. We do not allow your character to excessively or regularly 'self-harm' either. Sorry.
DON'T be an Empath or Mage, they are not found in the books. However, you are allowed Legilimens skills/Occlumens skills (young character untrained skills, older character more refined skills).
DO have good knowledge of the powers/skills your character possesses. If you are a Quidditch player, you must do some research about Quidditch in order to pull it off convincingly...
DON'T make more characters from other films/genres. There are a few characters on here like that and that's fine - we just don't want any more otherwise we dilute the HP-ness.
DON'T get all trigger happy with Unforgivables. Good characters don't use them because they are good characters. They are 'illegal' and so your character isn't likely to go around Avada'ring and Crucio'ing everyone just for wearing the wrong colour jumper, for example.
DON'T use any Unforgivables on characters who are on the same side as you! That's not a very team-building exercise, is it?
DO consider having a canon account if your other accounts are non-canon, so that the ratio of canons to non-canons stays balanced. Please see the spare canon character lists.
DO go to classes and roleplay in Hogwarts if you have a character that is a Hogwarts student! Please, we beg you. Do some work, pass your exams, get good grades, live in your dorms respect your teachers and keep your shirts tucked in!
A BIG DO!!
DO - stay active!
Signing up to Malfoy Mansion hopefully means you will stick around, get integrated quickly and make some friends while you are at it. In order to achieve this, it is better if you try and stay fairly active on the board. How can we involve you in a storyline if you're not on to take part? Plus, the more people online the better/more interesting for everyone else. We know it must be scary being the new person but despite our outward appearances, we are actually a friendly bunch! And we still aren't that big - so not as scary as a board with a thousand members all flying about!
Obviously we aren't asking to sell your soul to the forum or give up anything in your life to make time for here. We understand that life gets hard and you need a break and so on, but it would be great to have notice if you know you aren't going to be online - so that we can work around that.
Please use this area to tell us if you can't be around for any given time.
If you want to leave the board, try not to leave your character stuck here and storylines hanging off a cliff! Finish off your story or you leave other members hanging and that's not fair to them. If you don't plan on coming back, you can kill off your non-canon (with permission). If you have a canon, please notify someone that you want to stop playing and hopefully we can find someone to take over your account. It would be much appreciated!
DO make a good, original, creative profile for your character whether you are playing a canon or non-canon. It's so much easier to play with someone who has a nice lot of info in their profiles. If this means making up some original non-canon info for your canon character so be it, as long as it fits in line with the character. People do read them before playing with you. The more interesting they are, the more other members will want to RP with you.
DON'T think about making a non-canon sibling of Granger, Weasley, Malfoy and Potter and whoever else in canon that is confirmed to be an only child! We stick to the books as closely as we can.
DON'T be immortal. That's just cheating. Characters may live on in portraits, and there are ghosts, but there are no immortal humans. Even Lord Voldemort make huge sacrifices trying to 'out-do' death!
DON'T make your character a Muggle! Muggles aren't supposed to be able to see any magical places. If you want to play a 'cameo' Muggle character as part of a storyline then please contact admin.
DON'T turn the board into London Zoo. Playing magical creatures (esp canon) is encouraged but non-magical creatures are discouraged; but we can be persuaded if there's a good enough reason for it. We do have a few animals already but don't really want any more. Please ask first and we may be able to make exception.
DO keep in mind what kind of loyalties your character has and stick to it. If your evil Slytherin character suddenly starts acting fluffy with a Gryffindor and decides to have a boyfriend who is in Dumbledore's Army, then I am afraid you will get stopped in your tracks by a member of staff. Play your character as you wrote it in your character profiles, and keep canon characters canon, as JKR intended them to be.
DO remember that you can have a second character, or even a third character (if you are active here enough)! You can now also have a temporary character, known as a 'cameo'.
DO be aware that you cannot roleplay in the Malfoy Manor if your character isn't an associate/friend of the Malfoys or a storyline hasn't been specifically written for you to go in there. You can post OOC in the fanfic section if you want to make a sensible comment on a submission and you can post pics up in the threads in the Portrait gallery. If you arrive at the manor front door, please have a reason to be there, because you are likely to be asked by other residents or the house elf before you get let in. They are a curious and suspicious bunch! If you were invited to the manor by a Malfoy, then that is a sufficient reason for being there.
DON'T write other people's reactions to your actions, leave that to them. Exceptions apply if they've contacted you separately and asked you to do so if they have to leave for whatever reason.
DON'T 'godmode' or 'powergame'. If you get incarcerated or hexed, don't conveniently ignore it or make yourself invunerable all of a sudden. If you are a young witch or wizard you will not have the skills of an older witch/wizard. Use a vaild defence, such as Protego or dive out of the way but you'll have to fall victim to a spell at some point, especially if you have no warning. Otherwise it's no fun to play with you!
You cannot be an all-powerful 'superhero' type. Advanced powers in HP are very rare. Being a Parselmouth is exceptionally rare, as is having an Invisibility Cloak, and so on. Don't make your character have all the special abilities going.
Ie. you cannot be both an Animagus AND a Metamorphmagus. Both are fairly advanced abilities.
DON'T kill off any characters without admin permission. You can get injured without my permission as long as the injury doesn't have life-long effects. (ie. 'turning' into a werewolf after a werewolf bite). This doesn't mean you can't do it ever - it just means you need my approval first. This includes suicide. We do not allow your character to excessively or regularly 'self-harm' either. Sorry.
DON'T be an Empath or Mage, they are not found in the books. However, you are allowed Legilimens skills/Occlumens skills (young character untrained skills, older character more refined skills).
DO have good knowledge of the powers/skills your character possesses. If you are a Quidditch player, you must do some research about Quidditch in order to pull it off convincingly...
DON'T make more characters from other films/genres. There are a few characters on here like that and that's fine - we just don't want any more otherwise we dilute the HP-ness.
DON'T get all trigger happy with Unforgivables. Good characters don't use them because they are good characters. They are 'illegal' and so your character isn't likely to go around Avada'ring and Crucio'ing everyone just for wearing the wrong colour jumper, for example.
DON'T use any Unforgivables on characters who are on the same side as you! That's not a very team-building exercise, is it?
DO consider having a canon account if your other accounts are non-canon, so that the ratio of canons to non-canons stays balanced. Please see the spare canon character lists.
DO go to classes and roleplay in Hogwarts if you have a character that is a Hogwarts student! Please, we beg you. Do some work, pass your exams, get good grades, live in your dorms respect your teachers and keep your shirts tucked in!
A BIG DO!!
DO - stay active!
Signing up to Malfoy Mansion hopefully means you will stick around, get integrated quickly and make some friends while you are at it. In order to achieve this, it is better if you try and stay fairly active on the board. How can we involve you in a storyline if you're not on to take part? Plus, the more people online the better/more interesting for everyone else. We know it must be scary being the new person but despite our outward appearances, we are actually a friendly bunch! And we still aren't that big - so not as scary as a board with a thousand members all flying about!
Obviously we aren't asking to sell your soul to the forum or give up anything in your life to make time for here. We understand that life gets hard and you need a break and so on, but it would be great to have notice if you know you aren't going to be online - so that we can work around that.
Please use this area to tell us if you can't be around for any given time.
If you want to leave the board, try not to leave your character stuck here and storylines hanging off a cliff! Finish off your story or you leave other members hanging and that's not fair to them. If you don't plan on coming back, you can kill off your non-canon (with permission). If you have a canon, please notify someone that you want to stop playing and hopefully we can find someone to take over your account. It would be much appreciated!
