Rules & Guidelines 2

This page will outline all of the rules in guidelines in one place, both IC/OOC rules and the specific RP Rules that arise in RP. If ever you are unclear, please check this page. If you notice a rule that should be on here but isn't, contact an @Admin member on discord.

*Updated February 10th, 2021*

## Universal Rules

### OOC Guidelines

* Profanity is allowed, but explicit language and adult themes/content is strictly forbidden.
* Bullying, discrimination, slurs, and personal insults are strictly forbidden.
* Do not share personal information or doxx yourself or other members of Model Hogwarts. For safety reasons, using your real name as your character name or discord name is not allowed in Model Hogwarts.
* No spamming.
* No advertisements unless given explicit permission by an Admin.
* Be polite to new players; do not trick them, maliciously lie to them or accuse them of being an alt.
* If you make an alt account, you must inform an Admin.

### IC Guidelines

* IC channels all have strict guidelines on what is and is not allowable. These are listed on this page under the IC Server Ratings heading.
* Do not give your character your real name.
* No godgaming. Do not control another character’s actions, injure or somehow change another person’s character without the player's permission.
* No metagaming. Do not act on information that you know OOC, but your character does not.
* Be mindful of others. Everyone has the right to ask for an RP to be toned down if it is making them uncomfortable.
* Don’t let arguments IC get personal. Hate the character not the player!
* All spells must be cast using the spell bot. You must RP attempting to cast the spell, and may attempt !cast once per description.

## IC Server Ratings

These guidelines all relate to in-character behaviour that is or is not acceptable to roleplay about on Model Hogwarts. Behaviour that is within these rules may still be subject to IC consequences if the behaviour is illegal or against school rules (e.g. swearing). If you want your character to break school rules and not be caught, you will need to be RP the rule-breaking as discreet, and/or use a token to purchase help in avoiding discovery.

### Violence and Gore

No excessive violence or gore is allowed. Violent actions, blood, and injuries are permissible, but they should not be described in detail, with intense imagery, or in a sustained manner over a long period. No explicit descriptions of psychological torture or abuse are permitted. Violent, dangerous and malicious behaviour must not be endorsed.

### Alcohol and Drugs

Any roleplays that show or reference drunkenness or drug use must not glorify addiction or unsafe behaviour around alcohol or drugs. Depictions of alcohol consumption should be kept realistic but tasteful, keeping in mind the age of the character(s).

### Nudity

Nudity can be stated or implied in a scene, but must not be described. (For example, "so and so's underpants were vanished" is okay, "so and so's [insert body part] was out" is not.)

### Gambling

Gambling, and references to gambling, is allowed in character, as long as nothing worth OOC value is being used or gambled with through Model Hogwarts.

### Profanity

Uncensored swearing is allowed provided it is done sparingly and respectfully, keeping in mind the word and context. Slurs, discrimination and sexually charged language are not allowed OOC. If you are unsure about language IC, use your best judgement. It is strongly suggested that you seek consent from your RP partners before using offensive language targeted at their character.

### Relationships and Sexual Content

Permissible sexual activity and references depend upon the ages of the characters involved. First years should not go beyond light kissing, while mild suggestive themes are allowed once characters hit their early teens. Overtly sexual behaviour by characters under the age of 16 is expressly forbidden in roleplay: this includes "fade-to-black" scenes, offscreen scenes and monologues. Sexual activity between characters aged 16 and over may be referred to but not described. Explicit sexual behaviour and crude references are not acceptable regardless of age. Pressuring someone to begin or continue an explicit sexual scene elsewhere or in DMs will lead to OOC consequences.

## Punishments and Reports

Any breaches of the server rules, guidelines and ratings, as well as any other case where a user has made others upset or uncomfortable, are investigated by the Model Hogwarts modmin team, consisting of all admins and moderators. Depending on severity, punishments up to and including a permanent ban from the server may be issued. All players are encouraged to report any wrongdoing they become aware of. For more details on punishments, and how to make a report, see The Moderation System.

## Doxxing

Doxxing is the posting of identifying information about yourself or someone else. Doxxing is against the rules on Model Hogwarts. Even if you are an adult, doxxing yourself may encourage younger members of the model to do the same, so all forms of it are banned. There are several things that constitute doxxing.

### Posting your real, full name

Don't post your full name on the server in any way. Whether that's saying it OOC or using it for your character's name, it's against the rules.

### Posting identifying information about yourself

Don't tell people where you go to school, where you work, or where you live. The country and state you live in are okay to share, but anything specific falls under the doxxing rule.

### Posting pictures of your face

As well, posting pictures of any part of your face is not allowed. This includes pictures of your eye or eyes. If you'd like to show off your new shoes, a tattoo, or include your hand in another photo, that is totally fine.

## Spamming

Spamming generally refers to posting a lot of irrelevant or unimportant information. This can be a concern on Model Hogwarts because there are a lot of people, and spamming can disrupt conversations. The following behaviors fall under the category of spamming.

### Posting a lot of bot commands

The bots on Model Hogwarts can be a lot of fun, but it's important to remember that for each time you send a bot command, another post will appear from the bot. Since this can push conversations up quickly, we'd like to remind everyone to be mindful of others and use the info-and-spam-1 or info-and-spam-2 rooms for bot commands. It's no big deal to do a roll or two is okay if it's relevant to the conversation, but keep in mind that it might encourage a lot of people to do the same.

### Posting a lot of irrelevant pictures

Posting pictures is fine, but try to keep them on-topic. Like bot commands, pictures can push the conversation up quickly.

### Posting copypasta

Don't post long, irrelevant chunks of text like copypasta, especially while others are talking. Long messages are okay to post.

## Miscellaneous In-Model Rules

### Forbidden Items

Knives and other sharp objects are not allowed on school grounds, and if you are found with them they will be confiscated.

However, the protection that used to cause them to disappear upon entering the campus has been broken during a recent encounter in the school. You may now bring them into campus, but if you get caught with them they will be taken. Please be respectful with this rule OOCly, and don't abuse it.

### !learn Roleplaying Guidelines

Spell learns should be accompanied by some roleplay! Below is a list of guidelines and suggestions, accompanied by a few rules regarding the spell RP system. Please note that the vast majority of these are **guidelines** and can be tweaked to suit your tastes, they're not mandatory and mostly intended to be prompts on how to get the brain juices flowing!

* First learns should have some form of RP, these are recommended to be outside of learn room whether that be in a specific location, monologue or off screen scene. These scenes should work to establish motive for learning this spell; this can be as simple as ‘for class’ to as complex as it being part of a character’s life long goal, Later learns can be done in the learn rooms, but we do encourage some RP to go along with them, even if it’s basic.
* If you feel learning in a scene would break its flow you may !learn in #learns-and-trains, however you **must** link back to the channel with the RP by doing #channel-name with a search term to make it easier to find. The RP must also be done prior to you doing the !learn in this instance. This same rule applies to the s!train and c!frog commands.
* You can put multiple points in at once, so feel free to mix this up and base it on how much you feel they learned. You can put these points in any time, so take it at your own pace! Maybe one week they learn one points in Flipendo and the next week five in Diffindo, that’s up to you!
* Upper years and Professors may know more about spells than you; sometimes it can be a fun RP prompt to have them walk you through their own casting process and teach you a thing or two for a learn scene. This is especially the case for more difficult spells (you can see a spells ‘difficulty’ under !info).
	+ Speaking of spells ‘difficulty’ we recommend starting off with lower difficult spells and building up to the higher one's, especially with lower years. This helps show a character’s growth at spellcasting. However, this is not enforced! Go with what you feel is true to your character.
* Learn modifiers don’t necessarily make you a master of that spell. Some spells require additional knowledge outside your characters ability to cast the spell. One such example is *Episkey* which requires an in-depth knowledge of the wound you’re trying to heal on top of your learn modifier.
* As learns aren’t strictly tied to rolls this gives you a variety of ways to approach the in character learning, some such examples include:
	+ Maybe your character is a big reader; rather than focusing on the practical elements of spellcasting they might study and study and study *before* they even begin to cast, allowing you to input your !learn prior to doing any spellcasting at all. This means when it comes time to cast, they’ll be ready. Likewise in classes you may do !learn during your teacher’s theory of said spells prior to the casting practicals.
	+ Perhaps your character learns through succeeding; prior to inputting your learns you can do a !cast and see if they successfully perform the spell. RPing this situation out you then either apply the learns or leave them for another time.
	+ Or perhaps your character learns equally well - or even better - from their mistakes. In this instance you can do the same !cast, but even on a failure add some learn points to the spell. Maybe they figure out their wand movement is sloppy, or they’re pronouncing the incantation wrong.
	+ If you feel like your character has an affinity for a specific spell (maybe they grew up with it, maybe they have some sort of mundane talent that helps them with the magical side of this spell, such as a tattoo artist understanding Imprimo). You may put points into this spell to start off with, prior to any study or practise. However, you, you must still write some form of RP for these learn points showing *why* your character has a natural gift here.
	+ Using the above methods, if you so wish you may place negative modifiers on your !cast by doing !cast Lumos -5 if you wish your character to have a particularly hard time with a specific spell.
	+ The flexibility of our spellbot allows you to tailor your learn narratives to fit *your* character, so don’t feel constrained by these suggestions even, developing the method in which your character’s learn can help create some extra flavourful RP that helps show off who they are as a person.

### Dark Items & Books

Items related to Dark Magic, like books or cursed objects, are strictly regulated and require OOC permission to bring on campus, or they will be confiscated ICly or Retconned depending on the nature of the item or the book.

Some restricted books may be allowed, but talk to a staff member first before you bring it into the RP. **All items involving Dark Magic must be cleared by a staff member OOC.** This is non-negotiable and you will be warned for repeated offenses.

### Dark Magic

Dark Magic while able to be learned in the model, requires an application to be submitted before you start learning it.

Use the **Dark Magic Access** Category on the Model Hogwarts application form to apply.

There are two things taken into account for these applications: Your OOC standing in the model, as well as whether or not your character has shown interest in learning these spells up to that point. It is recommended that you begin RPing interest prior to your application, as that will make the application process much quicker.

Besides that, there are two extremely important rules:

1. Your characters use and learning of Dark Magic must be kept secret IC, or they will risk expulsion. Secrecy is an important aspect of accessing Dark Magic, and failure to abide by the secrecy IC causing multiple infractions *will* lead to dire OOC consequences.
2. **OOC permission is required before you cast Dark Magic on someone else's character**. Casting dark spells (or spells tagged semi-dark) on someone's character without permission will result in an immediate warn, and further infractions may lead to you being removed from the server. You cannot push for consent either, you may only ask once, and if they refuse, *you must respect their choice*. If it comes to light that consent was pushed for after the initial answer, you will face serious OOC consequences.

Failure to abide by either of these rules will have your access to Dark Magic removed *or* a ban, depending on the severity of the infractions.

### Expulsion and In-Character Consequences

You will not be punished for your character's actions in roleplay: if you want to roleplay a malicious or evil character, that is allowable. However, harmful actions IC will have logical consequences for your character. It simply isn't realistic for someone to openly break rules or harm others and get away scot-free, and so in-model consequences are required for such actions.

The following are all grounds for **immediate expulsion** for a Hogwarts student, and a **criminal case** against any character:

* Murder.
* Attempted murder with a reasonable chance of success, if the intent to kill is provable.
* The usage of harmful Dark Magic (such as the Unforgivable curses, and curses that are life-threatening or permanently scar), if awareness of the spell's effect is provable.
* Deep-delve Legilimency without consent.
* Any other actions taken to knowingly cause major and incurable harm, mental or physical.

Additionally, for Hogwarts students, any offence that requires major Professor intervention will incur a strike. After **three strikes**, the character will be expelled. Examples of actions that might incur a strike include (but are not limited to) dangerous or harmful bullying, or majorly endangering the Statute of Secrecy (potentially revealing the wizarding world to Muggles).

All of these consequences apply if the misbehaviour is either impossible to be realistically hidden (for example, dramatically attacking someone in the Great Hall), is witnessed and verified by an authority figure, or otherwise discovered and proven. If you want your character to avoid these consequences, it is recommended to roleplay their rule-breaking in such a way that it is realistically unlikely they will be discovered, such as doing so in an out-of-the-way time and place, and using stealth/protective magic to keep others from finding out; note, however, that Professors and other school authorities have power to enter scenes in order to discover rule-breaking. You may also purchase, for a minor token, an extra level of protection against discovery such as a NPC's help, but even this does not guarantee that your character will not be found out.

In summary, if you decide to have your character break IC rules, you are doing so at your own risk!