FAQ — Hogwarts

What are Common Rooms?

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In canon, Common Rooms are headquarters for your house. It is where house-specific groups hang out and sleep. All Common Rooms are secret where other houses do not know the location nor the code word to get in.

How do I enter my Common Rooms?

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To enter your Common Room, hover over the Hogwarts crest at the top left corner. Hover over Hogwarts, your house, and click Common Room.

Can I enter other House's Common Rooms?

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Nope! You can only enter your own Common Room. If you try to enter another house's Common Room, the door will not open. In canon, all Common Rooms are secret in location and all Common Rooms require a passcode to get in.

What is the point of the Common Room?

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In canon, the point of Common Rooms is to have a safe quarter for a group to spend time in. It is a place where your character can sleep and socially get to know other house-mates. On Site, the Common Room is a great place to learn more about your house in regards to announcements, as well as a place where small mini-events could take place.

What About Dormitories?

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Dorms are where you sleep and where your stuff is. Every house has a few dorms to choose from. We do diverge from canon in that we offer male, female and gender-neutral dormitory options. The specifics of the dorm system differ house to house but can be found as a subforum of your common room.

How do I make more money?

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There are many ways to make more money. Every 24 hours, you can collect daily money. If you are a regular student, you can collect daily money in your common room. If your character has an added role on the site such as a writer for the Hogwarts Headliner, serve as a Prefect, or act as a Captain of a Sports Team such as Quidditch, Broom Racing or Duelling, they will have an extra daily to pay for their efforts. Part-goblins also make extra money daily.

A popular way to make money aside from dailies are to participate in errands, or quest-like adventures or events. There are many errands that appear every month for students to participate in. When you complete a task or participate in an event, you can earn yourself not only house points and Chocolate Frogs, but also money!

Another way to make money is by "selling" your talent. You can open up your own shop located in the Our of Character Shops. You choose what talent you want to sell (graphics, coding, etc) and become an entrepreneur.

Finally, if you are a part of the winning house for the House Cup in a given month and earned 6 house points towards that months win you might also be entitled to some extra galleons as a reward. Reward information can be found here.

What can the money be used for?

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Money is used just as we use it OOC: to buy things! You are able to buy many items from various stores in Diagon Alley and-- when you're a third year or buy a Fake Permission Slip-- in Hogsmeade. Items can vary from broomsticks to Chocolate Frogs.

In addendum, players can also purchase spells and potions if they do not want to complete the associated class or there is no class that teaches the spell or potion.

Can I donate my money to others?

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Sure! You have the option to donate or pay others for their services. We have an area where members like to create their own shop and ask for donations in return. To make a donation, click on the profile of who you want to donate to and find the area that shows their currency. You can then "give" them money. You can give galleons, sickles and knuts.

First years are not able to donate money (sadly we have had an issue with members multi-accounting for the purpose of giving themselves more money). They can however trade items.

Can sell back the items I had to pick up before I could get validated?

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No, the shop does not let you sell back these items.

Can I sell back items I have bought before for money?

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Yes, but you will not get a 100% refund.

What is detention?

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Detention is an in-character consequence for breaking in character rules. Information regarding our detention system can be found here.

How do you get detention?

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You get detention for breaking in-character rules. Technically if a Professor or a Prefect is corrupt they can also just give you detention but something like that would require a papertrail out of character to make certain that you are not being harassed out of character.

Who gives detention?

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Prefects, Heads of House and Professors.

What happens if we don't attend or finish detention?

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When you are in detention you cannot join or start any new threads. You can continue the threads that you are in presently but you cannot start new ones until your detention is complete.

Can I request a detention?

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You can ask but you are not guaranteed a detention, the staff are generally very busy keeping the site running and we also want to give players then opportunity to cause trouble without being caught because it makes for good stories. That said, there are limits. Please do not roleplay a psychopath that tortures and murders other players or pets, you won't be getting detention for this... we will be asking you to leave.

What are errands?

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An Errand is a task set by a Professor or Prefect to be completed by one or more Students. Errands can be a variety of tasks and are up to the Staff Members discretion. They can be compared to small scale adventures, that require only one thread from start to finish. They can also be thought of as optional 'chores'. Errands are completed in a single thread and can be completed by one Student, a group of Students or a Student(s) and a Staff Member(s) if they so wish to be a part of it. Errands should be consistently available through a variety of Staff Members and each should offer a unique task and reward.

Where can I find errands?

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You can find errands here. You can find a full write up of our errand system here.

How do you join an errand?

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There is often a sign up page as well as instructions for where to go and what you need to do for an errand. Errands are public, meaning anyone can sign up for an errand. The only restriction is the fact that some errands might have a cap (they will only allow a certain number of players take part in the errand) in which case those that get to participate are first-come-first serve. In addition, some errands might require a certain location or knowledge of a certain spell, so you might need to meet certain prerequisites to participate. Simply read the errand information completely and ask questions if you have any.

Can I have my character participate in all errands?

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There is presently no cap on how many errands a user can participate in, but there is also usually only a couple of errands each and every month.

Can I start an errand?

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Only Prefects and Professors can start errands because there are certain rules that the maker needs to follow and they also have to seek Admin approval before releasing the errand. Players are encouraged to run their own activities and seek staff insight regarding the activity they wish to run but we do not generally micromanage group activities you choose to manage between yourselves.

What if I do no complete my errand?

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Most errands have criteria for completion. If the errand had a goal (such as cleaning a room) your character would have to in character participate in this. If they made everything worse, they would not be getting a reward. Also, all errands have word count requirements or post expectations as well as an end date, you would need to complete the task, satisfy the word count or post requirement and do all of this before the close/end date to get your reward.

If you are not able to complete the errand in time, you can still write their post after the deadline but they won't get any rewards.

Some forum areas are locked - when will I be able to access these areas?

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Some areas open up progressively with each passing year. Some areas require a special item to access or you can access them earlier if you are a certain year.

Hogwarts:

- Room of Requirement - Third year or on possession of fake permission slip
- Prefects' Bathroom - Prefect
- Restricted Section - Sixth year
- Keeper of Keys and Grounds' Cabin - Second year
- Kitchens - Fourth Year
- Forbidden Forest - Fourth year
- Potions Storeroom - Fourth year
- Basements - Fifth Year
- Chamber of Secrets - Parseltongues and Seventh year and Adult

London:

- Knockturn Alley - Seventh Year, but can be accessed earlier with the Trenchcoat of Sneak item for 5th years.
- Godric's Hollow - Sixth year
- Grimmauld Place - Fifth Year

Ministry of Magic:

- Head of Houses' Office - Head of House
- Conference Room - Staff
- Staffroom - Staff
- Prefects' Room - Prefect
- Mentors - Mentor
- Staff Archive - Staff
- Secretary of State - Place where Zach talks to Lear
- Council of the Wise - Sixth year
- Muggle Liaison Office - has no perms associated with it at this time.
- Wizengamot - Second Year
- Auror Department - Second year
- Improper Use of Magic Office - Third year
- Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office - Fourth Year
- Obliviators Headquarters - Third year
- The Accidental Magic Reversal Squad - Fourth Year
- Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee - Fifth year
- Office of Misinformation - Sixth year
- Goblin Liason Office - Second Year
- Beast Division - Third Year
- Being Division - Fourth Year
- Spirits Division - Fifth Year
- Pest Sub-Division - Sixth year
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office - Second year
- The International Magical Trading Standards Body - Third year
- International Magical Office of Law - Fourth year
- Ambassador's Office - Fifth Year
- International Council's Liaison Office - Sixth year
- Floo Regulation Panel - Second Year
- Broom Regulatory Control - Third year
- Portkey Office - Fourth Year
- Apparition Test Centre - Fifth Year
- Knight Bus line committee - Sixth year
- British and Irish Quidditch Headquarters - Second Year
- Ludicrous Patents Office - Third Year
- Broom racing supervisory board - Fourth Year
- Official Gobstones Club - Fifth Year
- Brain Room - Second Year
- Time Room - Third Year
- Space Chamber - Fourth Year
- Death Chamber - Fifth Year
- Love Chamber - Sixth year
- Hall of Prophecy - Seventh Year

Hogsmeade:

- Shrieking Shack - Werewolf or Fifth year
- Other forums - Third year or on possession of fake permission slip