November is coming soon, and that means that National Novel Writing Month [NaNoWriMo] is arriving with them. This may be familiar to many of us on site, but for those who are not, NaNoWriMo is an event where participants try to write 50,000 words toward the creation of a novel throughout the whole of November.

As Hogwarts.io is a writing site, we know many of our users participate in this event, so we wanted to make a support group for these brave individuals, and wanted to incentivize your efforts to encourage you to finish the novel, or complete the word count.

For the month of October players are invited to start a thread in the Prep Room [Link], a sub-forum in the Library to plan your book. This is a place for you to brainstorm and for helpful players (if they want) to give their input. There are FIVE tasks for the month of October, each worth 10 sickles.

1. Create a setting. This would be where it takes place, be it a school, a house, a city, an imaginary world, etc. We want you to be detailed in this. It needs to be 1000 words or more (you will thank us for this later).
2. Create a main character. This would be your main protagonist. Tell us about them - what do they look like, where did they come from, what are their strengths and weaknesses and what are their flaws. Why are they in this story and what do you want them to gain from their adventure. Be as detailed as you can regarding this. It needs to be 1000 words or more (you will thank us for this later).
3. Create a main plot. This is where you talk about the main story itself. What are they doing? Is this a journey, a coming of age experience, a battle against a terrifying nemesis, etc. Is there a conflict? What’s drives the story? Consider doing this in an outline format or as a timeline to make things more organized. It needs to be 1000 words or more.
4. Create 2 subplots. Subplots are other important and relevant stories that are ongoing but are not a part of the main story. Love interests or dealing with a school bully/rival are a few examples of this. Again, consider writing this in an outline format to make things more organized for yourself. It can also help you determine if it clashes with the main plot at some point. It needs to be 1000 words or more (you will thank us for this later).
5. Create at least three secondary characters. Who are they? What is their relationship to the main character? No story is ever only about one character, there's a whole world full of people around your protagonist! Think about why they are important and what their function in the story is. There need to be 300 words per secondary character.

In the month of November you will be encouraged to start writing your story. Each post in a single thread can serve as a chapter and the thread as your book. We will have various milestones with progressive rewards for each one.

We will share the details of the milestones and rewards soon.

Keep track of your word count totals, the moderators will not manually count out the words for you. rewards will be given out at the end of the month/beginning of the next.

Restrictions:

• Because this will be published IC in universe and on site, this cannot be a Harry Potter fanfic as it will take too much time for the moderation staff to monitor and review to make sure that the writer adheres to the canon. This cannot be an AU story of this community that uses the players here, these players belong to their owners (their writers).
• Since the prep + story will exist on the site, it still needs to follow the site ratings in both threads. Specific information can be found about the site rating here.

A maximum of 4 stat points can be earned over the course of the year (not including the 5 gained during graduation). These opportunities come from the three sports games held during the school year and a summer sports game.

We aim to have it so that a single person only participates in one summer game. So if your PC gets the opportunity to play a summer game, ideally your iNPC would be sitting out their sports game that summer (ie someone already participating in a summer game is lowest priority during sign-ups for a second game). However, as we build up our iNPC population, times like this past summer may call for one player to be in two summer games (PC and iNPC).

If you participated in two summer games, you are getting two chances at a single stat point. To be clear: in the event that you win both of your summer games, you only get a single stat point.

However, you will get a house point for each game that you win.

There are five magical schools visiting for the upcoming Fall Ball. Ilvermorny, Koldovstoretz, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Mahoutokoro. We are having a Welcome Feast for them on their arrival date: October 22nd. Check it out here: [link]

In time for our visiting schools to also witness a display of athleticism, the first Quidditch Game of the 2021-2022 school year has started. Canonically this is taking place on Sunday, October 24, when the other schools are also visiting us. Feel free to watch the game out of character or cheer your favorite team on.

Quidditch Matches
Slytherin v Ravenclaw: Link
Gryffindor v Hufflepuff: Link

Spectator Threads
Slytherin v Ravenclaw: Link
Gryffindor v Hufflepuff: Link

With the completion of the summer race, we are moving onto the next phase of development for Broom Racing. Broom Racing being our newest and potentially most violent sport, it combines many of the facets we enjoy in dueling as well as quidditch. More than that, this system allows moderators to create maps and various obstacles to challenge the players that they are moderating.

We thank the users who have participated in the previous races and look forward to making Broom Racing a part of Hogwarts life. The system will be having several refinements over the next year as we hone to to be something we enjoy, find relatively balanced and can moderate with relative ease. Some fine tuning has already been done to ease the burden of moderation in fact and we will be learning the system together as we make this system go public.

Of course, this means that we now have an open Captain position for our racing team that wants to be filled! We're looking for an engaged, friendly, and reliable member of our House who is interested in shaping the future of the Racing system.

As a captain, you will have to
- Moderate broom races, there will likely be three race dates a year (with multiple races ongoing on these days to reduce the burden of moderation), the first race starting hopefully in the next few weeks.
- Help with strategy and team discussions
- Contribute to the further development of the broom racing system
- Develop challenging race courses that may help you better your own moderation skills.

So why apply?
- First of all, you get to help your house win!
- This is a moderator-level position and comes with a certain level of responsibility but also privilege
- There's also Sickles in it for you
- It is an expectation that you would also be an active member of the House's racing team to apply.

If any of the above entices you, please fill out the following form and owl it to two of the following, by the end of October 17^th to: at least 2 admins (this being any Head of House of Solomon Lear).

Student Name:
Moderation Experience (if any):
Broom Racing Experience (if any):
Why do you OOC want the position?
Why do you IC want the position?

Please note that after sending in this application you will have to complete a short test to show you are proficient with the the concept of moderation and can adapt to written rules and do basic math and rolls. This is necessary to ensure you are able to moderate a match.

I'm hoping to hear from many of you!

DUELLING ANNOUNCEMENT

The new year has started, and with it, a new Duelling Championship is fast approaching. Will the Vipers manage to keep their throne, or will Hogwarts see a new Duelling Champion this year?

Hence, the duelling moderator team has a few announcements to make.

1. The first stage of this year's Duelling Championship is set to start on October 26th, and will feature duels of Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff vs Slytherin. IC, they take place on October 16/17.
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2. To make the duelling rules easier to find and understand, we have reorganised them and posted them as one thread in the Rules subforum of the Encyclopedia. You can find them now here.
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3. Changes have been made to the organisation of the Championship and the mechanics of the duelling system, including 13 exciting new spells. Read all about the patches here.

It is that time again everyone and Duelling has started! Come out and support your house or your friends!!
For stage one you have Ravenclaw VS Gryffindor & Hufflepuff VS Slytherin!

To follow along with the duels throughout the year, find duel thread links, & Spectator links head over to Duelling Championship Leaderboard [2021/2022]
Links to the individual duels and the timetables can also be found in the spectator threads!:
Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor
Hufflepuff vs Slytherin

The Fall Ball has Come!

Your Fall Ball committee is overjoyed to announce that the 2021 Fall Ball has officially commenced! Come and enjoy a respite from all the wild goings on and have a fun and peaceful time dancing and celebrating the autumn season with your friends!

Fall Ball: viewtopic.php?t=18516
Samhain Festival: viewtopic.php?t=18515

Once you've entered the ball, there are a few additional activities to partake in.
For quick links:
Matchmaking Booth (Quidditch Pitch)
All these muds are making me eel (Grounds)
Darling, you look radishing (Grounds)

Banner credit to Aurora Ranvier

For the sake of requested transparency, we are announcing the planned House Cup rewards for the year. This will cycle, so next year the rewards should be the same. It is not possible to give players a clear statement of what an adventure would entail so there are no anticipated adventure rewards.

For more information regarding House Rewards, please follow the link: [Click Me]

Wanted New Professors

Professor Ivar Eide and Professor River Jemari have announced their intention of stepping down from their roles as Professor of Care of Magical Creatures and Professor of Flying respectively. The both of them have been with us since 2020 and have become invaluable members of the community, the staff and have fostered positive, friendly relations with many of us. They will be missed as they embark on new adventures.

We are opening up applications for a new Care of Magical Creatures (COMC) Professor and Professor of Flying until December 14th.

For more information please refer to the following link: Click Me