Rules & Guidelines

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Welcome to Order of Merlin

Current Staff

Anna: Harry Potter , Headmistress McGonagall , Sorting Hat
Brittany: Callisto Havik-Pucey , The Grey Lady
Mel: Professor John Smith , Nearly-Headless Nick
Vulpes: Professor Abigail Bellamy , The Bloody Baron , The Fat Friar
Moderators: Say (Lizzie Baxter )

Table of Contents 

This thread contains everything you need to know about the site. Use this table of contents for easy navigation.
Site Rules
Character & Site Guidelines
Custom Site Graphics
Frequently Asked Questions

Site Rules

• Per the Proboards Terms of Service
  You must be 13 years old to join this site. The site may not contain the detailed use of illegal drugs, sex, pornography, nudity, or any other form of adult content, hate, "spam", fraud, racism, pyramid schemes or promote other, not-mentioned, illegal activity.

• Applying for Characters
  Admin hold the right to refuse the application in its drafted/completed form at any time. An application - even one heavily discussed with admin - is not an immediate approval of the character. Not all refusals are a refusal of a complete idea. We also look for issues within the execution of a character.
  
  
• Fighting
  We do not tolerate OoC (out-of-character) fighting, bullying, stalking or anything that makes another member uncomfortable via PM or Discord. Absolutely no alienation of members or characters will be tolerated in any way, shape or form. Likewise, attempts to cause issues between members, including staff, will not be tolerated. 

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Order of Merlin Character & Site Guidelines

Character Creation

General Information
Players are allowed one student and one adult when you first join our site. After that, you must have at least 50 posts combined with those characters before you can be approved for additional. 

Canon Characters
At this time, we are only allowing tenured players picked by staff and staff to pick up canonical characters of the Harry Potter universe.

Hogwarts

Prefects, Head Students
This is determined by the admin, and usually chosen specifically when we see spikes in activity around student characters.

Clubs
Student clubs are what brings people together to make friends! Want to start one? Let staff know, and we'll talk it out with you to see if it works as a club at the school and if any professors might step-up as advisers. Students are also welcome to join any clubs already in the School Clubs Registry thread. 

Hogsmeade
Hogsmeade is open to adults, but it is only open to of-age students during vacation and weekend trips. Your character can sneak into Hogsmeade any time but if they are caught they may be given detention. 

Character Genetics & Identity

Face Claims
We allow for original characters here, with face claims of your favorite celebrities. Please make sure all face claims are of famous celebrities (or popular, notable figures in the online entertainment industry, at least). We are not an ani-manga, comic, cartoon or other animated fandom roleplay. 

Semi-public or private persons are never accepted as we cannot validate the identity of those figures, and we will not be held responsible for invading someone's privacy.

Blood Status 
We currently will not accept any Purebloods. The only exception is first-time players to our site can have one pureblood. Otherwise, if you were hoping to play a Pureblood, it's time to examine life as a Muggleborn, Half-Blood or even Squib. Get creative! 

Gender Identity
At OoM, we're all for inclusivity. We are still catching up our member groups to appropriately sort players into various gender roles. Please reach out if you would like more options for character gender choices (or inclusion in established, canonical places). Admin will look over the request and take you/your needs into consideration! 

Abilities 
If you would like your character to be an animagus, metamorphmagus, vampire, or possess some other ability, you must state this in your character application. We do not accept a character with more than one ability - werewolf & metamorphmagus, or parseltongue & legilimency. 

Abilities+

• All werewolves have to be approved by admin first. New members cannot be werewolves at this time.
  
• We are no longer accepting parseltongues or seers. We apologize for any convenience.
  

Creatures & Halflings
If you are interested in playing a creature (selkie, centaur, troll, giant, etc.) or a half-breed, talk to staff about your character! We want to make sure you don't feel isolated/incapable of play with a character's environment or inclinations. 

Roleplay Guidelines

God Modding & Bunnying
These are terms used in role playing. Bunnying is taking control of characters other than your own in order to make the storyline go the way you want it to. Closely related to bunnying is god modding. God modding occurs when someone’s character has the ability to do practically anything without limitations or boundaries.  

Posting Style
The site operates in third person, unless your using internalized thoughts, where your character can refer to themselves as 'I'. Another example might be forms of telepathy used between characters. And obviously dialogue. 

Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling
Make sure to enclose all dialogue in quotation marks <"">. It's difficult to want to RP without knowing what is actually being said by another character. While OoM can be laid-back, we do request that all players try to follow as closely to correct spelling (spellcheck is your friend!) and be as grammatically correct as possible. If you are not a native English speaker, or you have a handicap you would like to privately disclose with admin that may make you an exception to this rule, please feel free to let us know! You are not alone. 

Non-Playable Characters (NPCs)
NPCs are accepted on the site. Anyone can play a NPC with permissions from the member who originally created them.

Apparition
Your character must be at least 17 years old to be able to apparate. This is both to keep to the laws of the EU wizarding world, as well as maintain fairness of the aptitude of younger characters. Apparition is not allowed on St Mungo's grounds and Hogwarts' grounds. Your character will need to leave these grounds before they will be able to apparate to another location.

Sexually Explicit Content
As mentioned, due to the Terms and Services of Proboards, RPing sexual acts on the forums is prohibited. This rule has been in place since 2005 and should we get caught doing the nasty, the site could be terminated. Anyone breaking these rules will have their posts permanently deleted and either receive a suspension of permanent ban.  

Depictions of serious abuse (rape, physical assault, etc.,) and the consequences of that (trauma, addiction, etc.,) can be very hard for other players to deal with. We will not allow any sexually abusive scenarios to be played out in a thread on OoM. If your character has a traumatic story in their past, this will be worked out during the application process. Do notsubject other players to these triggering scenarios, however, without explicit approval before threading. Roleplaying is a team-effort. We do not want to harm other players with topics that may be off-limits for them. 

Relationships, Marriage & Children
No student marriages - you can wait until graduation, at least. Feel free to explore LGBT+ relationships and marriages, as they would be received and function as they do in the real world.

If your character takes someone else's surname in lieu of a marriage, please update the name yourself. Babies and young children on the site are permitted, and can be played, as an NPC might be through the creator of that character.

Killing Characters
Your character cannot murder another character unless you have that player's full permission. Please notify an admin if your character has been killed so we can sort them into the 'dead' group.

(Instead of completely deleting dead characters, they are sorted into a dead group. People can still read all their old threads and access their bio. As time lines are fluid the person could if they wish continue to post in old threads, assuming these events happened before the character died.)

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Custom Site Graphics

• SIGNATURE SIZE
  725 (width) x 200 (height)
  We have a plugin that will automatically resize your signature if it is too large on the site. 
• AVATAR SIZE
  300 (w) x 300 (h) 
• HOVER IMAGE 
  750 (h) x 225 (w) 
  More info regarding hover image can be found here .
• MAIN PROFILE BANNER
  990 (w) x 300 (h)
  This is the big banner in your profile. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I apply?

The Character Bio is used for adult and student accounts. Click into this thread and copy the bio template code. You will then need to go back to the enroll board, and create a 'new thread' in that section. 

How long does it take to be accepted?

We're busy folks! It does take a while for the staff to read through all the information, so please be patient. Don't worry, it hasn't been forgotten. You only need to PM or post in the chat if we've requested you to amend your application with the updates.

Does my character have to go to class?

No, you don't have to attend classes, however isn't it fun to keep your character active and interact with other students at Hogwarts? If a professor starts a thread and tags you as a member of the class, join in!

Where is my Common Room?

Once you are accepted as a Student you can RP in the common room of your house. You can find yours in Hogwarts, where it canonically is, or in the navigational bar & sidebar dropdown menu!

What is plot planning?

Plot planning is where you get to recruit people into your RP. For example; you want to have a duel with someone then you go to the plot planning and ask for people who would like to join then there is where you plan things out and how the thread will progress.

You can also arrange who is friends, enemies, lovers with your character. This makes the RPG more interesting and helps build your character.

What does OOC mean?

OOC is the shortened version of "out-of-character". This means that when you're speaking out of character you can let other people know that you are, by typing OOC in your threads.

How does the in-character timeline work for the site?

Because of how laid-back our posting activity can be here, we have instituted a simpler timeline. Each new year we declare what in-universe year it is. You can play at any point of that year - though you may find a lot of players prefer to stick to their real-world seasons with muse - as long as you stick to that declared year.

Not autumn where you are, but you want to do an autumn thread? Go for it. We make announcements whenever the year changes on the site, so you'll always know your character's year/age in regards to the site's progression.

What do I do if someone is hassling me?

We don't take kindly to bullying on the site, in any form. If you can't resolve it between yourself and the other person, then please notify a member of the admins and we can deal with the issue at hand.

Unsorted Character?

So, we've recently just done an activity check, and you've come back to find that your character/s are "unsorted". This means that you may not be able to see any boards, your characters are no longer listed in the celebrity claim, and you've lost character abilities, ultimately you're unable to do anything with your character. This does not mean we have deleted your character!

If you want to pick up where you left off, let the admin know. We'll fix you right up!

Where can I get graphics for my character's profile?

There are a few Graphic Shops on the site who would be willing to help you out. You can find them in the General Board. Please follow the graphic artists request thread and they will get to it as soon as possible. Please respect their time and do not push for your graphics to get done before others, as they may have other things which were a head of your request. You're also welcome to create your own! Please keep in mind legibility, no flashing colors (due to sensitivity for other players), and the dimensions we currently have for each element of the profile.