fandomhigh | By the power vested in me

By the power vested in me

Crossposted

Your admins worked and slaved over this list. We polled players in this and other games. We reviewed procedure in other games. We went over the original rules and contemplated each and every addition, clarification, modification carefully.

These rules are not retroactive. They will be applied beginning NOW.

**

I have had approximately three hours of sleep after a long, hard week. I am grumpy, bitchy and seriously beginning to see why Spider does so many drugs.

So. To business. The list of lj-cuts is so that this will be clearly visible on the friends list. Please put this list on your ‘things to remember’ add it to your memories… whatever. It is important. I realize that it’s rather long, but please read the entire thing. Most of it has been discussed, thrashed out and already posted elsewhere, but it is all things that you, as a player, need to be aware of.

If you’re new to this sort of game/set-up, some of this may make your life a great deal easier.

First, a basic reminder. These are the original rules of

fandomhigh.

Item 1: Communities and What Go In Them

The following posts go in the following places:

fandomhigh - Classes, Syllabuses, Teacher notifications, Detention, School Club Meetings, etc.

DO NOT POST HERE if you are not a teacher, teaching assistant or club head. Don’t, okay? We will summarily delete posts that are not directly class/grade/syllabus/etc related.

fandomhigh_ooc - General questions, comments on events that will affect the student body as a whole, helpful hints and listings, administrative notices, sign-up sheets… all of these things go here.

This is not the place for your personal availability. Please put notifications of availability and access in your personal lj. If people want to know where you are, they know where to look. This is also not the place to ask for access or player apps.

If you want/need access to a community, leave a message here to request membership.

If you want/need to ask about applying for a teaching position or something equally important, click here

If you have a suggestion, comment, desire, click here

You can reach your admins
here and here

All of these are set up for a reason. None of them belong on

fandomhigh_ooc.

fandomhighdorms - On-campus business/life that is not classes. Shenanigans, explosions, riots, protests, magical escapades, school club correspondence/plotting, … all those things go here.

fandom_lounge - This is for teacher socialization, discussion, watching the cricket match and the heavy drinking you students drive us to. No students allowed.

fandom_clinic - This is the purview of House and his assistants. If you are grievously wounded and in need of aid, this is the place for you.

fandomassistant - This community is just for teaching assistants/aides.

fandomtownies - This community is strictly for what goes on down in the town. For a complete listing of people, places and shops, try the

fandomtownies Directory. This is an open enrollment community but there are several important rules… one of them being that you go here before you create any character to be certain that a version does not already exist at

fandomhigh.

To request being added to the main list so that people can find you and interaction go to the Directory and leave a comment with the correct information.

If you want to have a scene in town or socialize, please be sure that it’s in a place that’s open to the public (like the Perkolator, the Diner, etc) or outside (the park, the street, outside the Kwik Stop). If you want to have a scene at The Old Firm, for example, please be sure it is open and the proprietor is present. It also helps if you use a subject heading that states specifically WHERE you are.

fandom_radio is run by

likeguidelines and it’s a wonderful, funny place to get caught up on what’s going on.

fandomhighicons - A place to post icons for your character, other characters, or immortalize the funny.

fandom_quotes - The funny goes here. If you want to share the thing that had you snorting your drink? This is the place.

Offers to bear someone’s children, your basic availability, random angst/glee go in your own, personal journal. Full stop. If you haven't friended everyone's personal journals, you have no one but yourself to blame when you miss stuff. Full. Stop.

Friend the other player journals.

There have been several helpful posts on how to do so. Take advantage of them.

Voice-mail and e-mail should also go in your personal journal, but when posting it for the first time please remember to backdate so that it does not clutter friends lists and also remember to link it to your info page. It does little good otherwise.

Item 2: Consideration When Posting

When posting to any community, please be aware of/sensitive to the following:

1. Do not post multiple threads concerning the same plot unless absolutely necessary. Please. Our traffic is very heavy and we’d like to keep it as easy to follow as possible. Example 1

2. Whenever possible, if doing a long, involved plot thread? Try to consolidate it now and then so that someone coming along later after the chaos is over does not have to try to pick their way through several hundred comments and go in and out of the accordion-pleated listing.
Example 2.

This can be done by copying into another document, pasting the consolidated comments into your original entry, and deleting the original comments. Save early, save often.

3. Also, when posting to a long thread, be sensitive to the people who their default e-mail as gmail, wherein the comments become nested. Put a subject line in your comment and it will spring up as a separate lj response e-mail and thus make the responses easier to read and track.

Item 3: LJ-Cuts, Pretty Links, Images and Friends Filters

For those of you less livejournal-savvy than the lifers (so to speak) here are some useful links to help you keep your entries attractive and easy to read.

How to LJ-Cut

How to Link to another journal/website.

How to insert an Image into Your Entry

How to Use Friends Filters

NOTE: When linking to multiple images or large images in a main post, PLEASE lj-cut. Thank you.

Item 4: Character Information Pages

Students

You are required at a bare minimum to have your character’s full name and fandom on your info page as well as contact information in the form of an e-mail address. AIM is nice also, but not mandatory and not acceptable instead of a valid e-mail. If you want to have people interested in/interact with you, it is strongly recommended that you include more.

Some good examples of a student journal info page can be found as follows:

Clean, simple, yet with info

Also simple, but with character history (short)

A bit more complicated

Because it’s grin-worthy

If you want to include roommates, class schedules, links to further information… please do so. It helps other people understand at a glance and makes it easier to find characters that might be compatible with yours. Also voice-mail and e-mail posts are recommended for links on your info page.

Teachers

You are required at a bare minimum to have your character’s full name and fandom as well as a valid e-mail on your info page as well as the subject you teach and also either office hours or voice-mail or both.

Please also include links to your course requirements, sign-ups and syllabus. If you’re feeling generous, links to current homework assignments would also be deeply appreciated. It is nearly impossible to find all the syllabus/course info in the glut of backwash and with new students coming in all the time, it will save your having to constantly re-post.

This is all very easily done if you add them to your memories and then simply link the memory category to your info page and it makes it a great deal easier for students to find the classes they are meant to be attending.

Your info page should be more or less a webpage for your students to easily find all class information and requirements. PLEASE link vital information there.

Some good examples of a teacher’s journal info page can be found as follows:

Clean, simple, and contains the basics

Another very nicely presented one

And one wherein the Professor needs to be on Prozac or something.

Item 5: Posting Requirements.

This is a High School RPG. This means that students are required to attend classes at regular intervals. It also means that teachers are required to post at regular intervals.

Real life trumps all and excuses are acceptable.

However, a large number of teachers and students are getting the axe today due to non-participation. Do not come to me about this being unfair. When you signed up, there was a little notice stating that students had to attend two classes a week (or more depending on the requirements of the professors of the classes they signed up for). Two sign-ins and randomly scribbling a one line note is something that is hardly difficult to accomplish. If you did not want the hassle of actually attending classes, you should have chosen another RPG.

Teachers have a greater responsibility, but it is one they knew about when they signed on. The disappearance of a teacher with no notice equals automatic execution. If you fail at keeping up with your self-imposed class schedule or don't respond to your students, you will be de-aged and sent to find a job in the town. To FIND one, not create one. Your job here is to teach - not to attend other classes, not to crash student slumber parties or keggers, not to make bestest friends with the students. If you want to do those things, please create a student character to do them. Teachers party at the brothel or the coffee shop or the pub. They are not to do so at student residences or in the dorms, where they are supposed to be authority figures. You are supposed to bond with and interact with the other teachers and adults socially. If you cannot or will not adhere to adult behavior, or if teaching isn't what you are here to do, please withdraw and submit a student character.

We do realize that emergencies come up… but if you can’t drop us a line or get someone else to do it for you, we will remove you. You can always contact us when it’s all over and you can be re-instated. Unfortunately, we have a very, very large number of teacher no-shows and they need to be cleared away before some students take the penalty for not being able to show up for non-existent class. An instructor has more work and responsibility than a student… not less.

If your character is removed for non-participation in school activities, don’t kick. This was obviously not the RPG setting for you.

That having been said, there is also a requirement that you be in a school club or have a job of some sort. Unfortunately, half the club organizers seem to be among the missing after never making a single post save the original organizing post, so the school club requirement will be waived until that mess is cleaned up.

Please note, this particular admin is very bitter about people who sign up to do things and then wander off. Very, very bitter. Please do not do this. I have enough on my plate without having to pick up after people who organized something and then disappeared.

There will be a later, separate post addressing the school club issue.

Item 6:Interaction

I have a few minor bones to pick here… and these are administrative concerns.

1. I am not very happy with the fandom circles that are springing up. If you really want to play mostly within your own fandom, you are in the wrong RPG. The point of this RPG is inter-fandom interaction. If you really are hell-bent on making your own little fandom circle, please consider forming a separate RP. I mean it. If you’re not here to interact as a student in a huge school, but instead to play strictly with others from your own fandom or circle of friends… I’d like to ask you what, exactly, you’re doing here. Having a circle of friends from your own fandom (and associate fandoms) makes sense… but be aware that there are people here who’d probably like to play with your character, are excited to play with your character... and are faced with the fact that it's fuckingly difficult because there's now a microcosm of the original universe here at the school.

THIS DEFEATS THE ENTIRE STATED PURPOSE OF HAVING A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL, MULT-FANDOM RPG Please branch out a bit beyond your fandom and/or genre or be aware that you’re defeating the entire reason for this RPG in the first place and it is greatly unappreciated by not only fellow players but also observers. If we wanted fandom specific RPG we would not be here.

2. Please do not complain that people are not playing with you or won’t notice if you’re gone. It will immediately put off any number of players who might otherwise have offered to interact with your character. It is entirely self-defeating for the most part. For those of you who are having genuine problems finding a way to get into the swing of things or connect with other players, we have several options for you.

A. As of Monday, we will have a personal ad service in the town. You can take out an ad for a week looking for other people with similar interests. It is being set up specifically to help you find other people to play with and full cooperation on your part is required.

B. I am always willing to help you out. Always. That is what I am HERE for. Leave me a message here and I will do my best to help you get together with other people and run a plot. There are four plots coming together for next weekend when Spider is in charge, and I intend to create as much havoc and chaos as possible. There will be plenty of chances to interact.

Interact, damn it. Talk to your classmates. Start conversations with characters from fandoms you’ve never heard of. Be aware that there are students who’d love to interact but who’s characters are not drinkers, gamblers or out for cheap sex and they’re having a hard time figuring out where they’d be welcome.

C. Start a club for those characters not into sex, drugs and booze. Stage a riot. Form a prostest group for the color of the lockers. Start a 'Save the Tentacle Monster' rally.

There are lots of options… but please don’t lock your character into either mode one or mode two. Please.

3. God modding.

If you are doing anything that affects another player, their possessions or doing something that a certain player would (through magic or other means) be aware of, you are required to clear it with the player first.

I have received multiple complaints on several fronts on this topic so I want to be perfectly clear about this.

Do NOT do anything to/concerning another character without that player’s permission. An accidental violation is one thing. A second complaint will lead to a warning from the admins. A third complaint will lead to asking you to leave the game.

4. OOC/IC Knowledge.

It is very, very important that you keep a clear line between what you know and what your character knows. Given the number of mages, psychics, aliens, mind-readers, bugs and ‘other’ around here, unless you’re taking insane pains to keep something a secret… someone, somewhere will know.

Fandom Radio or other gossip is IC until you hit a link, when it becomes OOC. Anything you learn from the links is OOC unless you were directly involved or informed of it by someone who was… or if you’re psychic or if you bugged the place. Any bugging and the like MUST be arranged in advance. Saying afterward that you did something without the admin knowing in advance will be disallowed.

Keep what is IC for your character to know firmly in mind and disregard the rest.

If you keep clear communication with the other players. If you check on AIM, write e-mails, check voice-mails… if you speak to each other and clear what you do or don’t know before acting/posting all of this nonsense can be avoided.

Use the posted contact information… and from this point out, it is mandatory that you have a voicemail post for your character – linked to your info page – and a listed e-mail address. In a game this large, there needs to be very clear information exchange between players and I have received numerous e-mails from players wanting to be clear about how their plots will affect others, how others plots are affecting them, etc.

These players are to be commended for their care and dedication. Please emulate them. Talk to each other. Talk to the admin. Communicate clearly. Do not use OOC information and do not god mod.

Item 7:Combat and Magic

A few things here.

1. Never ever do something non-humorous or supposedly permanent to another character without the player’s permission. Ever.

2. Do not god-mode. This means that if you cast a spell or take a swing, you do not control the outcome. That is up to the player you are attacking.

3. Discuss what you plan to do in a combat scene with the other player first. Always. This will make for an easier flow and a better give and take.

4. You cannot somehow detect that someone is under the influence of a spell or has cast a spell at you while attempting stealth unless you are canonically aware of active magical forces in your vicinity.

For instance, I do not want to see any Harry Potter character suddenly declare that so and so is under a spell without some wand waving, an explanation of the suspicion that led to this action, etc. Keep it in character and as close to canon for your character’s magic system as possible. Do NOT use out-of-character knowledge to randomly test for spells after someone has cast one. The mods will point and laugh at you and remove you from interaction with that plot line.

If someone has cast a spell and you want to interfere with it, check with the player first. The mods will be keeping an eye on spells cast, the motivations and the hows, wheres and whys. Do not arbitrarily announce you’ve removed or countered any magic without going through the character who set it in place or, if you don’t know who that is, the mods first. Some of these things are plot sensitive and if you don’t know what’s going on you may not be able to affect it and then you’d just look silly. Let’s try to avoid that at all cost.

5. Evil characters can be as evil as they want OFF CAMPUS. On campus, we are watching you… although you can probably get away with minor shit in your dorm rooms. Off-campus, you are the problem of Lenny and Mike and I wish you joy of them.

If you piss off an evil character and they jump you off-campus? You are so very, very much on your own. The admins will still be available for rulings on spells and combat… but the Principal and rover couldn’t care less if you get your butt murdered off-campus.

6. No player deaths without said players consent. Maulings, maimings and severe beatings are all fine, however. You can always press charges with the police.

7. Keep it realistic, please. If someone decides to hit you with a lightning bolt and you’re a non-magical character in the middle of a field? You do not walk away from that. At the very least, you’re going to be crispy, singed and have a hell of a ringing in your ears for a few days. Feel free to appeal to the mods for rulings at any stage.

8. If you swing on another character, no matter the non-physical provocation, you are automatically the one in trouble. Period. Full stop. I don’t care if you’re the Son of God and you tried to bitchslap Lucifer. You swung first. You’re the one in trouble. You may press charges against the other person once before Spider or the Principal, but if you made the first move, you are in trouble.

9. In the case of school elections, etc, all bets are off. You may lie, cheat, steal and rig things… but again, no one may discover/avert such plots without in character effort. Using out-of-character knowledge to mysteriously catch someone at it is a total no-no. Always communicate with the players in question first and/or a mod.

When in doubt about any of the above? Start with the other player, then one of you grab a mod.

Item 8:Characters

Upon your enrollment, you proposed a specific character from a specific fandom. That character was approved. There are many characters which share fandoms and it is unacceptable to change your character's canon after having been accepted. No cross-fandom alliances/merges allowed save as occurs as a result of RP once play has begun.

Item 9:Always Remember

Principal Connor is God and Spider Jerusalem stands at her right hand. Behave your damn selves or prepare for lightning bolts.

Thank you for your observance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

These are excellent rules. Thank you, and all the mods, for handling this incredibly huge game.

You are awesome ~~and terrifying~~.

Ditto. I quiver in my flip-flops before you.

You rock. In stereo.

I love you and want to fuck you blind and bear your bent, vengeful, hellspawn.

Eep. *guilts* Thanks for the rules. Will behave.

And Item 7 is precisely why Wrestling Club will only meet once a week.

But seriously, perfect rules and should help make everything here run much smoother.

You're a greater man than I, Spider Jerusalem.

I will be sending you an e-mail tomorrow if my carniverous mailbox hasn't eaten the one I need to reply to. I have an evil plan that I hope you'll enjoy.

If you lost it, just drop me a note in my <http://www.livejournal.com/users/names_ash/567.html>voice mail box, and i'll email you again.

Ugh. I win at applying tags properly. Sorry about that.

Excellent job, Spider.

Now go in your cave and overdose on Xanax or something. If I see you conscious before Monday doing anything remotely admin-related, I will shoot you, and I'll let the students vote on where.

... going now.

*disappears*

Thank you so, so much for putting this together.

Excellent rules. You very much rock.

*offers beer and jungle juice she is throwing in her apartment tonight* The jungle juice is fruit punch flavored! :D

You rock. Thanks.

Excellent re-vamping of the rules. It gives a better idea of the overall shape of the RPG, and nicely clarifies the communities.

I have a question. This is my first RPG, and I'm a little lost about the "plot" stuff. I saw in fh_ooc all the plans about the Cameron/John switch, but I didn't realize there were FOUR plots going into affect soon. I don't really understand how those get started, or how they're put into action. I had the impression RPGs were supposed to be more improvisational, less fic-like. More like planning ahead a scene (especially a fight scene), less like plotting a whole story. Anyway, I'm just kind of baffled by that plotty stuff.

I think that was just a case of "Ooh! Idea!" and then people roping other people into doing things. ie: someone comes up with an idea, tells other people, it gets shaped (if it's something big that does requiring forward planning) and then is executed.

But most of the time it's just completely random off-the-cuff stuff.

I have four things that I'm going to inflict on the campus next Fri-Mon while the cat's away. Er, while Principal Connor is out of town. I'll be talking about it more on Wednesday and now I must flee before the principal kicks my ass.

*flees*

I like these rules very very much. Go mods!

[loves] Amen.

Awesome and very clear. Thank you.

Dittoing to the you rocking bit. And am very happy that you pointed out 6.1. It was beginning to grind on my nerves just a tad bit, seeing the "cliques" start popping up.

And the rocking? Yeah, muchly serious.

6.6 says No player deaths without said players consent. Maulings, maimings and severe beatings are all fine, however. You can always press charges with the police.

but in 6.1 you say that we can't do anything "non-humorous" to someone without their player's consent. i consider all of those things "non-humorous" if they're done to my character without so much as a discussion beforehand.

if i misunderstood something basic, just tell me i have nothing to worry about ;)

urgh. i'm not a numbers person. 7.1 and 7.6. sorry!

Hmm. While not sure? I think it means that if Anya feels like stepping up and throwing a swing at Cameron? That's fine as long as you don't write the outcome. Cam could duck, stand there, go defensive, whatever.

However, I could be wrong.

You are correct

*is highly amused at the thought of Cameron and Anya getting into a fight*

I agree. I don't think that any sort of violence or other "non-humorous" things should happen without the consent of the other player.

((This is why I love

sages_of_chaos for having a non-violence field that can only be lifted when the two characters agree to start maiming each other.))

It needs clarification, obviously. The first one is meant to cover ALL of them. Otherwise it wouldn't have been first.

If you kill another player and they weren't okay with it, you get booted, never to return. If you and another player agree to a fight... what happens after that is between you as long as no one dies. We won't step in no matter what you do, short of death, unless we receive a player complaint.

We'll make that a bit more clear later.

Okay, thanks for the explanation!

Thanks for drawing these out.

I love you. Lots.

Thank you for posting these.

I do have a question -- what about supposedly omnipotent characters who can read your email or tape your conversations without you knowing? (So *not* trying to point the finger at *anyone* -- I have seen both in more than one place). It kinda takes the fun out of Secret Plans™ that you have only written about in a post for dramatic purposes. Person X emails Person Y about stealing Person Z's lunch money, and suddently Person A has hacked Y's email and tells Z (without talking to the other involved players first). This sucks even more if X and Z had some sort of plotline in the works and A just ruined it by jumping in without permission.

I do love the spontaneity and playing off each other, but I guess what I'm asking is can there be guidelines of a sort about taking private conversations public? Or is everything public and you can't have "dramatic effect" posts for the audience, and all Secret Plans™ must be kept offline or in locked and filtered posts? [LOCKED TO ABC] in the subject line is a common practice, but I have also seen that ignored.

Well, some characters, like this one, are supposed to be able to hack in anywhere. It's ...what he does for fun.

But I agree, it is annoying when people know more then they're supposed to without a normal reason.

Yeah, but even when they do have the ability, the player should use some discretion in actually doing it. Kinda ruins the fun, no? The "bad guys" are totally hampered with regards to having any communications that involve the readers. It's not like I'm saying you'd be spoiling my chances to take over the world, but if, say, Belthazor and Angelus were planning a panty raid on Buffy's room, all of a sudden someone is "hacking" or "eavesdropping" and telling Buffy without talking to Angelus or Belthazor OOC first kinda ruins their fun, no? And maybe they've got this plot with Buffy wherein they find something strange in her underwear drawer and now the plot has been derailed.

Well, I'm a pretty firm believer of not getting involved in anything remotely major without talking to whom ever is running a plot. And half the time the telling someone else part is ooc anyway.

But yes, nothing is stopping Broots from hacking everyone's e-mails. Sadly, it's pretty canon for him not to get caught. *sigh* Would be more amusing.

And that's why I <3 you. :)

...
Wrong account.

Thanks for the heads up!

*Bows down and worships*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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