Grammar, Third Person, Use of Past Tense
When you join this rpg, God help you if you don’t understand the concept of English grammar. You must use all the conventions of English grammar, such as capitalization, quotation marks, commas, periods, etc. When you post, you must also use third person. Sure, LKH used first person in her books, but we use third person in rpgs. It keeps things from getting too confusing. An example of third person would be "She smiled. Suzy really liked Jim." Versus first person, which would be, "I smiled. I really liked Jim." Never, EVER use first person.

Along with this goes past tense. The importance of using past tense cannot be stressed enough. It is extremely annoying to read someone’s post when it is entirely in present tense. So always make sure your posts are in past tense. (Ex. Of past tense - Murielle looked at him, amber eyes hooded.)

You’ll get a free pass on these the first few times you post in the rpg. However, if you continue to have problems, reminders and pointers will be sent to you. If in about two to three weeks you are still having difficulties, after receiving pointers and reading other people’s posts, you will be put on moderation. While you’re on moderation, any posts you send to the list will be held by the list until a moderator reads the post. The moderator will read your posts, and either approve or reject them. If the post is not approved, the mods will send your post back to you with specific instructions on what to fix before they allow it to pass on to the list. This is not designed to be mean or infringe on your creativity. This is designed to keep the quality content on this list high, so it remains enjoyable for all the list members.

Character Creation
First things first: this rpg only accepts original characters. In other words, we do not accept book characters. LKH's characters are hers, so leave them be. Similarly, if you submit a character which is blatantly similar to a character from another fandom (eg. X-Men, Buffy, L.J. Smith), we will not approve it. We aren't stupid, so please don't jerk us around on this one.

When creating a character, keep it realistic. A vampire can't have immunity to sun, just like normal lycanthropes can't resist being rolled by a vampire, and if your character had a run-of-the-mill history, it would hardly make sense that they are suddenly proficient with guns. Keep an equal balance of strengths and weaknesses and make sure the strengths are in keeping with the books. When it comes to vampires, non-master vampires over 1500 are not allowed nor are master vampires over 1000.

Keep a balance of characters. For every two dominant [alpha] characters you create, at least one submissive [beta] character must be made. You can have more beta characters than this, of course, but the alpha ratio isn't flexible. This is to keep the numbers of dominants and submissives relatively equal.

In the same vein, variety is a good thing. Don't play all lycanthropes, or all females. Stretch your creative legs and try playing a wide range of characters. You might be surprised by how enjoyable it is.

Pay attention to the instructions on the character page! The tips there are sure to save you some time and frustration when creating a character.

The Council, as always, reserves the right to reject characters outright. They also reserve the right to deny you any future characters, or to remove characters from you if necessary, although these would be extremely rare occurrences, and would always be accompanied by an explanation of some sort.

Power Playing
Quite possibly the golden rule for all role-players: never write the actions of another person's character without their permission. This includes making them say something, think something, moving them, hurting/killing them, etc. It is also considered power playing if you randomly create a history between your own and someone else's character without first arranging something with the other player.

Please be aware that if you place your character into a situation that there's no way to get out of without harming the integrity of other characters, your character can be killed or harmed. Such an example would be having a character enter the Master of the City's residence and trying to kill him. In such a situation, there is no realistic way the character would be allowed to live if caught. Be aware that in-character actions do result in in-character consequences, and sometimes those consequences may be death. This would be extremely rare and could only be done with permission from the council, however, it is a possibility that you need to keep in mind.

Power play once, you’ll get a polite warning. Do it twice, and you’ll get a not so nice warning. Do it three times, and you’ll get booted. The point of playing in an rpg is to actually be able to play your character, not have other people play it for you. On another note, if you want to let someone control your character while you’re way for the weekend, let them have a history with a character, or know another character because of some other such thing, that’s great. Just let the council know. It's wonderful that you're plotting, but we need to know, because otherwise we’ll think someone is power playing and some unnecessary booting may occur.

Godmoding
Godmoding is generally making your character perfect. They can never do wrong, they are powerful to the point of being omnipotent, omniscient, can never lose a fight, etc., etc. These sort of characters will NOT be approved, and unapproved characters cannot be played on list, no matter what the circumstance. So simply don’t do it and save us both some time.

Content
Laurell has sex, violence, and profanity in her books, so we’ll have it in our posts as well, but under the condition of a rating system.

The scale:
G - Appropriate for everyone. No curse words or violence, pretty much mild content.
PG - Mild cussing, perhaps a little dramatic content.
PG13 - Slightly violent or sexual. Mild cussing. More mature content.
R - Heavy on the sex, violence, and profanity. Mature content, with some heavy stuff happening.
NC17 - Very explicit sex.

Having said that, though, note that that sex in every post isn’t cool. Neither is every other word being a curse word. In regards to the former, when there are explicit sex scenes, they are expected to further the plot and/or your character’s development in some way. Otherwise, with a few hints, most of us on the list can guess what’s going on.

Posting policy
You must post for each character at least once a week, unless the character is sleeping. If you can't, tell the GM why. Lurkers will not be allowed, period. What's the point of being part of a game if you're not going to take part? New members to the rpg can (and probably should) lurk for about a week or so. We’re a high volume list, and it may take a few days to make sense of all the different threads. By the end of your second week, though, you need to have a profile written and submitted to the council.

You may not post until your character has been approved! If your character is not approved and you’ve already posted for it, not only does it make you feel embarrassed (which we’d really like to avoid), but it makes the council feel bad too, since we have to delete the post. So, try to curb your enthusiasm until your bio is up on the site or you've heard back from one of the mods. Then, and ONLY then, can you go wild.

You must post for a character within two weeks of having it approved or you will be sent a warning. A week later, if you still haven’t posted, you will be sent another warning. If you haven’t posted within three days of the final warning, that character will be deleted. If that is your only character, you will be unsubscribed from the list.

Flaming
Absolutely no flaming. For those of you who don't know, flaming is sending nasty emails/messages/IMs to other list members either on or offlist, being deliberately ugly and mean. If we hear that this is happening, the member who initiated the flaming will be immediately unsubbed from the list.

Powers of the GM
Simply understand this: the GMs (A.K.A. the council), as far as this rpg is concerned, can do whatever they want. We are the ones who have put this all together and who have put time and effort into running it smoothly so that you, the members, can get as much enjoyment out of it as possible, so this rpg is ours to control. If you don't like the way we do things, that's fine. Go ahead and make your own rpg and run it as you see fit.

However, in this rpg, the council can change the rules whenever they want. They can remove a character, even if it has been previously approved. They can withdraw privileges from a player. They do not need to give a reason for denying a prospective member, character bio or for booting a member (although this will rarely happen).

Having said that, the council isn't some crazy group of egomaniacs on a power-trip. We try to explain every decision we make, and we don't just arbitrarily change rules or deny/remove characters- I guarantee you there's always a reason. We're here to help and guide members, so if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Site content
Do not copy any of the content of this website, be it species terms, characters, the rules, the FAQ, or anything else. What Laurell K. Hamilton created is obviously hers, and what we have created is ours. Do not use what we have created when playing in or creating another RPG. If you are not sure whether something on this site is from the books or of our own creation, ask us- do not assume that it is free for the taking! Copying anything on this website and claiming it as your own is grounds for immediate removal from the RPG and permanent banning.

Strikes policy
We’re going to go on the three strikes you’re out rule. First time you break the rules, you’ll get a warning. Second time, you will get a more serious warning. Third time you will get emailed again, as well as being booted from the list. An easy way to avoid this is to actually read and abide by the rules. Being that you're at the end of the page, hopefully it means you have done this. So prove it to us. When you're on the yahoogroups page trying to join look for a box in which you can make any kind of comment. In said box, be sure to write "I read rule number four." Oh and note that if, after joining, you become a godmoder and suddenly start lopping off the heads of everybody’s characters, you’re not getting the three warnings. Just try to be a good player, then everyone wins!