FAQ & Rules

[goosemods]

RULES

Roleplay Etiquette

We want Gooseberry High to be welcoming to new players, especially ones who might not already have any friends in-game or are new to RP. Please make the effort to tag and plot with a wide variety of characters, especially those belonging to new players or don’t yet have a lot of comments on their post(s). Please try to make your character(s) available to others, e.g. don’t only write warded journal posts and locked scenes for your monthly activity. Please don’t abuse OOC knowledge, e.g. playing your character as though they know things discussed in private conversations they don’t have access to.

If you are having trouble with another player and character, we encourage you to discuss it with them directly. Misunderstandings often happen in a text medium, especially when we might be unsure about IC-OOC bleed-over, but we’re all here to have fun and pretend to be magical teens. However, if you’d rather have a mod to help mediate, please contact us, and we will be glad to help.

Submit all IC journals and logs to the main community gooseberryhigh, and all OOC posts to the OOC community goose_ooc. The OOC community is also where the mods will post announcements, activity checks, and monthly plot calendars. Please remember to use your character & player tags when you post.

When posting logs, please use this format (or something similar):

<b>Who:</b> <b>When:</b> <b>Where:</b> <b>What:</b> <b>Warnings:</b> If necessary.
The game is generally rated PG-13. When it comes to R-rated content, you must post clear warnings and keep it under lj-cuts. Please fade to black on sex scenes and other NC-17 content. You can RP whatever you want in private, but we're old and we can't read that.

Character Limits

You can play up to two characters without caveats.

• You can only apply for a third character when you’ve been active in the game for at least 30 days, i.e. you’ve passed AC at least once in that time.


• You can only apply for a fourth character when you’ve met activity requirements for at least a month with your first three characters.


• You can only apply for a fifth character when:
  
  
  • You can provide three pieces of activity per character, rather than just the standard two. This is a one-time activity requirement.
  • You do not have a single strike on your activity with any of your four characters for three months straight.
  • You've submitted a petition to gooseberryhigh@gmail.com explaining your character concept. We're going to be extra hard on things like overlap and special roles (prefects, captains, quidditch players, muggleborns/purebloods), especially if this is your second character for any of the above types.
    
    Name:
    Desired 5th: The character you want to app for.
    Desired PB: Please link the icon set you want to use.
    Who do you currently play?: List your current four characters.
    Concept Pitch: Outline your character's personality and history, and also give us an idea of how they'll interact with others and what you plan to do with the character. If they have a special role (prefect, captain, Quidditch player), please address how you'll be handling that.
    Any possible issues?: Anything you can think of which might cause your petition to be rejected, such as overlaps with other characters in the game (by this I mean, personality, history, focused interests, etc.), needing to interact too much with one of your existing characters, etc. Now's your chance to explain why it won't be an issue. Showing that you've thought about this will only improve your chances of being accepted.


• Every AC will have a place to seek approval for additional characters. You can only hold a new character/submit an app once you've gotten the go-ahead from a mod.


• If you drop a character or fail activity check with any of your characters, any approvals you've received for additional characters are cancelled.

You can't play:

• your own roommate
• your own sibling
• characters on the same team (Quidditch or cheer)

You can play a maximum of:

• three (3) Quidditch players (maximum 2 starting players & maximum 1 reserve)
• two (2) cheerleaders
• two (2) prefects
• two (2) non-halfbloods (i.e. purebloods or muggleborns)
• one (1) exchange student
• two (2) characters in the same year
• two (2) characters in the same house
• one (1) character in the same house/year combo

Activity Requirements

Gooseberry High expects two pieces of activity per character per month. Activity can take the form of:

PRIMARY ACTIVITY:

• A first-person journal post
• A third-person log/scene (open scene or a minimum of three tags by your character)
• A public IC/OOC post created by your character

SECONDARY ACTIVITY (you may submit only one of the following):

• An owl/letter/note/present written or sent by your character
• A comment thread with a minimum of 6 comments by your character
• A mostly prose scene in an IC/OOC post with a minimum of 3 comments by your character. Mods reserve the right to decide if your scene doesn't count as "mostly prose" or isn't developed enough to qualify. Two IC/OOC scenes also count for the equivalent of one primary activity, i.e. you can submit three IC/OOC scenes to pass.

Activity Check will run for seven days during the last week of every month. We use a three strike system: you can fail AC up to two times, but only if you check in for AC. On your third strike, we will ask you to drop one of your characters. Strikes are on the player, e.g. if you get a strike with one character in March and a strike with a different character in April, that will count as you having two strikes.

If you’re struggling to make activity, please let us know! We are very understanding of how RL stress can cut into RP time, and will do our best to accommodate you.

Hiatuses

If you need to take a hiatus, notify us on the Hiatus page so you can be exempt from AC (or have your AC requirements reduced). It is recommended but not necessary for you to make a post in the OOC comm just so all players are aware you’re unavailable.

You can be on hiatus for up to two months before a mod will inquire by email if you intend to stay in the game.

GENERAL FAQ

Is this game Pottermore-compliant?

Yes when it comes to how magic works. Not necessarily when it comes to most things relating to “Magic in North America” or the Fantastic Beasts movies.

Partly this is because we started planning this game before any of the American wizard info came out, and partly this is because we wanted to dispense with the more illogical, racist or just plain silly elements. Since more American lore is bound to come out while the game is going, we’ll just get ahead of that and say any more information that’s revealed will not be considered game canon.

Here’s a rundown of the American wizarding world in our game:

• Both “Muggle” and “No-Maj” are common terms for non-magical individuals.


• The Dragot is the American wizarding currency. It comes in golden coins, and paper bills (magically enchanted to resist tearing) for multi-Dragot amounts.


• Given the size of the continent, there are several wizard-only cities in America, hidden in the more remote regions. (Feel free to make one up!) Plenty of wizards have never interacted with a Muggle in their whole lives. Others might live in magically concealed wizard-only areas in Muggle cities, or mix in Muggle towns.


• For centuries, American wizards lived in enforced isolation from Muggles, but for the past 100 years, there’s been a big push to be more open to wizard-Muggle intermarriage, Muggleborn wizards and immigrant wizards.


• Blood purism exists, but think more “country club” than “blue blood.” There is no Sacred Twenty-Eight document naming the only “real” pure bloodlines in America. “Pureblood” families are those which have married only wizards for several generations, usually from other pureblood families. Emphasis is on where your family comes from and how they behave now, rather than how many pints are pure (i.e. Arthur and Molly Weasley would've been excluded from "pureblood status" if they were American). Nepotism runs rampant; purebloods tend to dominate government offices and major businesses. However, there is the commonplace belief (whether actually true or not) that North America is a meritocracy in which any wizard can earn their way into the “upper class” through hard work.


• The Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) is the governing body of the wizarding population of the United States. It is based in New York, and led by an elected President. The MACUSA functions very similarly to the British Ministry of Magic, with different departments overseeing different aspects of magical law. Depending on the number of wizards living in a place, there may be a MACUSA official at the state, county or city level who communicates between the national government and the local people.


• All witches and wizards are subject to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, which is enforced by the MACUSA.


• There exist many wizarding schools in America. Young witches and wizards typically attend local wizarding schools (think K-12), or boarding schools like Ilvermorny or Gooseberry.


• Wands no longer require licenses. Underage wizards are free to own and carry wands, although are restricted from using magic outside of school until the age of 16. Other age milestones: 16 for an Apparition license, 18 to be legally an adult, and 21 to be able to buy alcohol.


• Quodpot is the most popular broom sport in the United States. As a Hogwarts sister school, Gooseberry’s school sport is Quidditch, but played by American rules. American-rules Quidditch is exactly the same except the Golden Snitch is valued at 50 points. (Canadian-rules Quidditch is when all the Chasers attack each other mid-air after the Quaffle is stolen. Canadian rules are banned at Gooseberry.)

Assume that Canada, Mexico and Central and South America function similarly, with some country-specific cultural differences (e.g. Canada is lead by a Prime Minister). Feel free to specify those differences yourself if needed.

You mention “atmospheric horror elements.” Is this a scary game? Will our characters be in mortal danger?

For the most part, no. In terms of the setting, we’re thinking if you can handle the likes of Over The Garden Wall or Gravity Falls, you can handle Gooseberry. There will be things happening in the game which characters may find threatening. It’s possible events will come up in which characters are injured or frightened, but death is unlikely. We’re aiming for a lighthearted game in which 90% of the time, the most dangerous thing is Quidditch.

How does the calendar work?

Real-time, 1 IC DAY = 1 OOC DAY.

The game is set in 2014 just to free everyone from having to comment on current events. However, we will be following the 2017-18 calendar for simplicity’s sake, i.e. when the game begins on September 1, 2017, the IC date will be September 1, 2014.

When it comes to cultural holidays which change depending on the year (e.g. Passover, Ramadan, Lunar New Year, etc.), we will be following 2017-18's calendar.

How do journals work? What kind of RP can I expect?

The magical journal system was invented in 2011 by Martin Pratt, a Gooseberry alum, and have become very popular with Gooseberry students to communicate with each other while at school. Journal entries written by anyone will appear on the pages of other Gooseberry magical journals, and can be enchanted to be private or appear only to certain people. Each journal is registered with the owner’s name upon purchase, and that name is attached to every post or comment made with the journal. Starting in September 2014, Pratt changed the journals so only the owner can read what’s written in it.

• Strikethroughs are considered completely illegible, although other characters may comment on seeing that something has been crossed out by the author.


• Private wards must be clear and specific. For group wards, “Warded to Girls” or “Warded to Coppertale Quidditch Team” are acceptable wards; “Warded to Friends” or “Warded to Blood Purists” are not. If you want to do something like the latter examples, you must provide a list of characters included in this category (e.g. link to a post in your journal with a list of your character’s friends, or people they consider to be blood purists). “Warded to Prefects” is assumed to include the Head Boy and Head Girl unless otherwise specified.


• Pictures can be pasted into the journal. If an image is very large, please put it under a cut to save everyone’s friend lists.


• The pages will display all liquids. Ink, juice, paint, tears, blood, etc. Get creative!


• Any comments left blank with only an "icon reaction" do not exist in-universe. Other characters cannot see or respond to them. They are simply to be used as way to silently indicate to other players "This made my character smile" or "My character disapproves of this" even when they wouldn't have actually written anything.

Most gameplay will occur through first person journal entries and comments. There will be regular IC/OOC posts, which are events in which you can describe what your character is doing and get some quick plotting. And you can also do third person prose logs. In our experience, most people will be happy to do a scene if you ask, which you can do by email, through a character's dropbox, or by posting in the OOC comm to ask for volunteers.

Can I NPC unplayed characters on the student roster?

Within reason. Please refrain from creating so much backstory for an unplayed character that it might block a future applicant from playing that character how they wish. If you want to abuse an NPC with impunity, unnamed freshmen exist for your purposes!

If a character isn’t marked with a “Has Playable Siblings” icon on the roster, does that mean they’re an only child?

Not at all. Your character may have siblings who are either a) not attending Gooseberry, b) a freshman at Gooseberry, or c) a playable character with a different surname.

While we don’t encourage unilaterally claiming an unplayed name as a sibling, you can feel free to app step- or half-siblings with another player, or leaving it open that your character has a sibling in a particular year or house for someone to pick up later.

Cabins are divided into boys and girls. What if I want to play a transgender and/or nonbinary character?

Gooseberry High, both IC and OOC, welcomes trans or nb students. We’d like to maintain the five-to-a-cabin structure, but are not fussy about gender ratios. Feel free to have your character already placed in the dorm of their choice, regardless of when they “came out.” Regarding other scenarios, we’d like everyone to be able to play what they find narratively interesting, so please ask questions if you’re uncertain about your character idea.

GOOSEBERRY FAQ

How do students travel to Gooseberry?

Students are conducted to Gooseberry High via a fleet of four motorcoaches with similar enchantments to the UK’s Knight Bus. Gooseberry buses can travel to anywhere reachable by road in the Americas, unseen by Muggles and using magic to “hop” between great distances. The bus trip is typically several hours long and takes all students to Gooseberry in the afternoon.

Bus stops are designated in the nearest metropolitan area. Students hailing from island areas such as Hawai’i or Puerto Rico must make their own arrangements to a bus stop in the continental Americas. For exchange students, Hogwarts arranges Portkey travel from King’s Cross Station to a bus stop on the east coast of the United States.

Gooseberry is an “exclusive” school. Does my character have to be wealthy to attend?

Not at all! Gooseberry offers a scholarship program to potential students of great talent or achievement. (This can be in academics, sports, art, etc.) A number of scholarships are offered each year to applicants, and will cover the costs of tuition, boarding, books and supplies for the year. Gooseberry students on scholarship must maintain their grades in order to qualify for paid expenses next year.

Who are the exchange students?

For the past five years, Hogwarts has been running a student exchange program with their American sister school. Fourth years and up can apply to spend the school year at Gooseberry, and are accepted based on academic performance, extracurriculars and letters of recommendation from staff. If an exchange student remains in good standing at their new school, they can choose to continue attending Gooseberry, and potentially graduate there as well. So far, five Hogwarts students have graduated from Gooseberry High. A number of others stayed only one or two years before returning to Hogwarts.

Accordingly, some Gooseberry students were given the opportunity to study abroad and spend a year or more at Hogwarts, one of the oldest wizarding schools in the world. If you choose, you may apply as a student who's spent a previous year at Hogwarts. Exchange students must be in good academic standing, or their family must be willing to pay for the year(s) abroad.

What is the school dress code?

Students are provided with uniforms and expected to wear them during class hours. The exception is Outdoor Education, which is a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers (or whatever is most appropriate depending on the activity or weather).

All students are allowed the option of wearing the uniform skirt or pants. During warmer months, there is a short-sleeved dress shirt variant, and wearing a vest and/or tights is optional. Outside of class hours and while attending clubs, students are allowed to wear whatever they want, however they will lose house points if their clothing is too revealing or has offensive slogans.

What role do prefects and the Head Boy and Girl have? Is it the same as in Hogwarts?

Yes, more or less. Prefects are first chosen by Heads of House in sophomore year, and are lead by the Head Boy and Head Girl. Prefects have the responsibility of being student leaders, and have the ability to discipline other students, among other duties:

• Prefects may add or remove house points from any student except other prefects. There isn’t an official handbook on how many points they can give/take or for what reasons, but abuse of their position will result in their prefect badge being taken away.


• In addition to removing house points, the Head Girl and Boy can assign detention to other students as punishment. They cannot assign detention to other prefects.


• Prefects must check that everyone is in at their campground after curfew (every night at 10PM, until 6AM), and report to their Head of House and the Head Boy and Girl if someone is missing. Prefects within a particular house rotate head-count duties when it comes to the freshmen cabins.


• Prefects patrol house campsites and certain trails at night (usually between 10PM and midnight) to catch students who might be sneaking out after curfew. The Head Boy and Girl are responsible for creating the patrol schedule.*


• The prefect of every cabin is responsible for organizing their cabin’s monthly bonding activity with another dorm in the same year.* Every month, members of two paired cabins spend a Friday evening doing an activity together, such as arts and crafts, improv games, archery, kayaking, overnight camping, etc. We've changed how this works so prefects are no longer responsible for organizing monthly bonding.

* This is not necessarily a job you must do OOC if you play a prefect character. Schedules and event organization can be either hand-waved, or done by the mods. Just be aware it’s part of a prefect’s IC duties.

What is the “senior project”?

Every senior must present a final project at the end of the year to show what they’ve learned in Gooseberry. The requirements of the project are very open, but it’s expected to be something that took weeks, if not months, to develop and polish. Students are allowed to collaborate on senior projects, but their contributions must be equal and significant.

Possible senior projects include: a new or improved spell, a new or improved potion, a dissertation on magical theory or wizard history/culture, a study of a magical plant or animal, the creation of a magical object or tool, an art or photography exhibit, an album of original songs, an original play or novel, a poetry collection, etc.

Does muggle technology work at Gooseberry?

Electronic devices still function on school grounds, however students have found that their gadgets are prone to strange quirks the further they get from the cabins and trails. There is limited electricity at Gooseberry, namely only for lighting major trails and in the Main Lodge, and only accessible through a handful of electric outlets. Students wishing to charge their devices will have serious competition for a free outlet.

Lighting for cabins is done through magical or non-electronic means (i.e. actual lamps and campfires). Most house campsites are too far from the lodge to get electricity, so none of them get electricity.

There is no cell reception at Gooseberry. Wired-only Internet access is available in the Muggle Technology Studies lab, but only to Muggle Tech students.

Who won the Quidditch Cup and House Cup in 2013?

In 2013, the Quidditch Cup went to Coppertale, but barely. Coppertale and Ribbonfin were neck-and-neck for the latter half of the season, and Coppertale ended up ahead by only 20 points. The year before that was taken by Azurcrest.

In 2013, The House Cup went to Ebonhide. This is no surprise, as the House Cup seems to bounce between only Ebonhide and Ribbonfin every year. It got to the point where Mr. Merrill jokingly introduced the "House Mug" (a mug with "#1 House" written on it in Sharpie) for the house which lost the most points that year, just so Azurcrest and Coppertale could win something for once. The closest one of them came to taking the House Cup was Coppertale in 2000, except that year ended with the Coppertale Head Boy starting a cafeteria brawl that devolved into a massive food fight.

In 2014, i.e. last year, Ebonhide won the Quidditch Cup and Ribbonfin won the House Cup. Azurcrest won the House Mug, naturally.

A summary of the 2013-14 Quidditch season can be found HERE.

Which areas of the school and grounds are forbidden?

Students will be punished if they are found in the teacher's residences, Sorting Cave or Grotto. (The last one is somewhat unenforceable since adults can't access the Grotto, and most prefects attending parties won't punish fellow partygoers, but it varies from person to person.) Students are also forbidden from travelling so far into the forest that they leave the anti-Apparition zone, or being outside of their house campsites after 10 PM (unless they're a prefect on patrol duty).

Students are not forbidden from venturing into the surrounding forest, or visiting the other house campsites, so long as it's all happening before curfew.