Hogwarts Update Notes

Over the next few months, Hogwarts will be running a little differently here at PA as we have updated the system. Well, I say update, but in reality what we are doing is bringing back the old Hogwarts system, albeit with a few changes.

In short, pods are gone, marriage law is gone, classes are back, quidditch is back, clubs are back, house points are back and school events, plots and subplots will be far more frequent for the next few months. We originally moved away from this system as PA shifted towards a more post-Hogwarts graduate focused roleplaying site. With this revamp we are trying to regain the balance we had previously.

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The reason we ditched so many of these features was a lack of student characters, and the lack of features meant there were less incentives to make student characters. That shouldn’t be the case now, we want Hogwarts to be as active as it was before, but to do that we need members to create student characters.

While you are welcome to make a student character of any age, I would specifically like to see 5th year students. Students in the same year are more likely to know each other, and perhaps if we get enough students we can simulate a full Hogwarts OWL year experience!



Classes
Classes are back, but they will happen far less frequently. We realize that having so many classes all at once made each one quite dull and a chore to post at. Instead we will have one class for each group every month, and will work with the professors to make sure each class is interesting. Classes will often tie in with the Hogwarts plot in some way, so make sure to post! Read more about classes and make sure to sign up HERE.

House Points
House points are recorded with the points system (you can see your points in your character profile.) Each post a character makes in Hogwarts earns them 2 points, each post you make in a common room earns 5 points, each post made in an event earns 10 points and each post in a class is 20 points. These points are tallied at the end of each month. If you multiple characters but feel like supporting only a single house, you can opt characters out of this.

Clubs
Clubs sign up is also open HERE. There are three clubs for now; Wizards Chess, Music club and Dueling Club. These are mainly here to provide extra roleplaying opportunity, but we are probably going to do more with the dueling club in the future, so make sure to sign up for that one in particular.

Quidditch
Once we have 7 active students on two teams of at least two houses, we will begin the quidditch season. In order to participate, sign up HERE.

Mass Threads
Mass threads like the common room threads will be brought back. Mass threads encourage you to roleplay with people you may not have roleplayed with before, and that's always a good thing.

Hogwarts Events and Subplots
Lastly, we are working on a Hogwarts subplot that might give the Hogwarts factions more to do. Will be revealed soon.



Besides students, we also need staff members – especially professors. I recently purged jobs quite a bit so there are many openings, especially in Hogwarts. It would be nice to have most staff positions filled soon, but we need professors as soon as possible so that we can get classes started! You can apply for teaching positions with an existing character or create a new character specifically for the job. However, before you apply as a professor, keep in mind:

1. You have to be consistently active. Being inactive for a month will result in you losing the job.
   
2. Your classes have to be interesting. Since we have less classes this term (please see the new classes explanation guide HERE) you have more time to plan out interesting classes. In fact, you will have to co-operate with the admins to ensure each class is interesting.
   
3. Your character should be interesting. This really is an extension of the previous note but I think it deserves special mention. In the books most professors were memorable in some way, whether they were insane, openly biased, completely inept, werewolves or very strict. Your professor character should be similarly interesting.