Welcome To the Official Night World Role-Playing Game!

The Night World Role Playing game, (henceforth referred to as the NW_RPG) is an interactive game to role play and write stories using LJ Smith's characters and characters that would fit into the stories which she created. Characters are either taken directly from LJS's books themselves, or are inspired by the types of vampires, witches, and other creatures of the night found in her books.

What's this role playing stuff all about?

The role playing game, or RPG, is a game in which you take on a character and make it your own, by playing the role. In the game is where the story unfolds. In our case, it will be on the list instead of in a chat room. Creativity is the basis in the game, and the more ideas we have, the richer the experience. Like it was in our legendary list party- when people took the initiative to be really creative, everything became more entertaining.

MC - Major Character (off limits to everyone but the creator)

NMC - Not major/ Minor Character (can be used with permission of the creator)

NW - Our reality, the Nightworld.

RPG - Role Playing Game

OOC - Out of character post. Like off-topic, these posts can be questions to the list about issues that aren't a part of the role-playing.

PR - Private Setting or Plot

JP – Joint post. A post between two or more people from a chat room or instant message that is edited to read like a conversation or situation between the characters.

BI - The Black Iris- popular club for us to go to.

All posts to NW_RPG need to have either the RPG (Role-playing) or OOC (out of character) designations to start.

Immediately after that, ALL RPG posts must have a rating, like the movie system. No one wants to be exposed to sexually explicit material without warning. Some people would also prefer to be forewarned of language and violence, so we'll use the movie system:

PG- no problems

PG13- mild violence and language

R- Violence, language, adult content

NC17- sexually explicit material

Try to remember to rate every post, just as you would rate your stories on the NW_Writings page.

Next, if it were a private plot line or setting, the designation PR would go next. Remember- if there is no PR designation, it is considered a public domain, and anyone can participate in that section of the story. PRs will be limited, since we don't want to be excluding everyone all the time. What fun is that?

Next you designate where, exactly, you are. Like, The Black Iris (BI), New York City (NYC), or even designate someone's house (Cassie's). You can be in a lot of places, but try to keep your location down to one or two words.

Next write a quick summary of what is going on in the post itself and characters directly involved.

For OOC posts, just write a quick blurb about the content of the post.

So your subject line will look like:

RPG: PG: beach: spell (Diana, Cassie, Muse)

Or

OOC: Going away for a week

This allows the players to read the subject line and find out at a glance if it is integral to their posted story line, or if it is something that they can save and read at their leisure. This game is one of the highest volume role playing games on the internet, and at times there are many people posting all at once. Therefore it is very important to designate which plot line you are in, so that when looking through the egroups archives, it is easier to follow the story. There are over 20,000 posts in that archive, and its great to go back and look through where your characters have been.

For the RPG, it is easy to write very long, detailed posts. These can be difficult, since after a certain length it has to be downloaded. If you plan to write a long and detailed memoir, or a story to introduce a NMC, it may be necessary to divide it into parts, P1, P2, P3.

So the subject line would be

RPG: PG13: Japan: History (Shadow) P1.

A good post length should be about 1-2 pages.

PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE, don't paste entire posts when replying to them. Only copy what is relevant for you to continue the story.

Please also try to eliminate one-line posts. Wait until your character has enough to say to write a worthwhile post. No "Bad Post" or "Worthless Post" disclaimers should ever be needed. Any addition to the game is valued, and we all look forward to seeing new faces.

Upon joining The Game, you will use your NW name and character. If you are Maya Redfern in the main club, you play Maya Redfern in The Game. This is always your first character in the game. After you have been introduced and active for a month, you will be taken off moderation, and you will have the option of having a second character.

Please note-- No one should have more than three active major characters.

Everyone has the option of NMCs, Minor characters, and PCs, Plot Characters, which are introduced and then leave at the end of the plot line. Darion and Cassie must approve all character names before the character is allowed in the game.

Remember, since we are the division on the NW club, if a character in the NW isn't on the NW_RPG list, that character is not available for playing. NW members chose their names, and if they decide to sub to NW_RPG and they have been replaced, that is not good. So, you can play your character, and any others that you create, but I can't just start having Jasmine play Stefan or Elena because I want to have a fight. Unfortunately, we will have to use our heads and work around missing characters... even if it is a soulmate or sibling.

Those of you with soulmates that you have created for your characters may decide whether you would like him/ her to be an MC or a NMC. It’s your call, since you'd be the one playing both. Or, you could find someone to play them. Also, keep in mind that the soulmate theory was a rare and special thing. You’re allowed to date and fall in love with people and not necessarily be their soulmate.

You can have as many NMC's as you would like. These characters may include victims, servants, friends, cameo appearances, and random monsters and ghouls. But those are only some suggestions. The possibilities are endless.

NMC's do not need a profile on the page. They can be as detailed as the player wishes and CAN become an MC if the player wishes to submit a profile to become a full-fledged MC.

You can't just kill anyone. Never, never. That is no fun and it wrecks the Game. If you kill someone in your post, how can they react? They can't.

The ONLY time you can kill ANYONE (even a NMC) is with the expressed permission of that character. This is one rule that is strictly enforced. It is considered an MC infraction, which is, pretty much, the biggest rule.

It is considered the most serious violation to act as another character's MC.

Speaking for, Acting for, and Posing as another player's MC are all expressly prohibited without the player's consent. The Major characters are like copyrighted works of fiction, and people have put a lot of creativity and emotion into them, so please respect that.

Power-playing is someone else making your character do something your character would not otherwise do, by direct action or by circumstance, in some of god-moding/ metagaming/ outside-of-character-to-character interaction way, that's usually not agreed upon person-to-person OOC.

However, taking this a bit further. If the person in question did not have permission to read the other's mind then it is circumventing the rules and that is not allowed.

If in doubt, call the person on it in an OOC. Be nice about it, sometimes it's an accident and they're trying to appear cool and such. Sometimes it's not an accident and they need to be reminded they are not allowed to do that without your EXPRESSED permission.

Like this

OOC: Hey Hunter, there's no way you knew I was there, but I'll let it slide this time because it works for me.

Or OOC: Hey Sue there's no way you knew I was thinking that so I'm ignoring your comment

Let the person in question know that if he or she won't play by the rules and play nice you won't play with them. You are allowed to do that

If the person in question ignores your OOC then take it to the council.

Everyone here pretty much knows the rules, if you don't we'll send you the FAQ sheet again. You are all big girls and boys, try the OOC approach in a calm and non-threatening manner to handle the situation amongst yourselves first, if that doesn't work then take it to us okay?

Steps for infractions: handle it in OOC, if that doesn't work take it to the council where the person in question will be dealt with accordingly.

Power playing in all shapes, forms, and fashions stops right here right now. Everyone clear on that?

Still have questions? ASK. We're in the office and the door is open.

There will also be no trying to run another person's character in a direction they, the creator, don't want to take the character. Private communication between characters and shared plotting will ensure that everyone is happy with the story line. We all have each other's email addresses and there is no reason why two or more people can't communicate with one another.

Settings are public, unless specifically designated PR. Public Settings are open to all players and can be used by all players. Private Settings are creations by individual players, and you can only participate by invitation.

As stated before, PR's will be limited, since when the RPG gets clique-y and exclusive, it isn't as much fun. So be considerate of other players.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and please be respectful of that.

We would like to avoid fights both on list and off, so keep other people's views in mind. If you have a problem with a list member, contact the RP Council, and we’ll attempt to work something out.

OOC are like OT/TAN on the NW list. Please keep them limited to specific questions that are relevant to the list. Remember that you have access to everyone's email address, and can contact anyone privately. OOC's will be limited to one a day... since we also have the NW list itself to discuss LJS topics, so we can keep this list for mostly RP.

We occasionally will have open nw_rpg chats in our chat room. They are always widely advertised in our newsletter, the Night Times and on the list. Sometimes they are OOC chats, and other times we will have list parties in the room. We never actually have… but… maybe at some point.

10. Joint Posting

A wonderful way to get to know your fellow members and their characters is to get together in ICQ, AIM, or an internet chat room to have your characters interact with one another. This gets some wonderful results of characterization as well as movie-like flow. Its great to joint post fight scenes, love scenes, conversations, and major turning points with groups of people.

1. To post to the list, mail to nw_rpg@yahoogroups.com. When replying to a post, please remember to delete the original author's name, so they don't get it twice.
2. Website address is http://www.geocities.com/nw_rpg for information, fun, and at-a-glance answers.
3. Each character that you play has a limit of three posts per day. If you play three characters, the most that you can post in one 24-hour period is nine times. Its not a three post per person limit, it is per character.
4. Remember, for more information on anyone, or for the ICQ and AOLim list, visit the Nightworld page.
5. The nw_rpg FAQ is written by Katherine von Swartzchild, copyright 1998. Its format and rules are similar to the Official Nightworld FAQ and the NW rules written and upheld by Poppy North and Cassie Blake.