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Okay, a few things were discussed in chat today (Saturday Feb 19th) and this is going to be a brief explanation for those who were not able to be there. The primary reason for the chat was to discuss some concerns that members have had, as well as the founders. We want to be more than a fannish club and so the writing is very important.
First of all, I would like to say that this chat was not about anyone, so if you feel like we are picking on anyone in particular I would like to say-we are not, these are just things we have been notiving that need some guidelines set up.
Okay, The most important way that the group communicates is through writing the story and so grammar and spelling are very important also. Other people need to be able to understand the posts, and so while little mistakes are easily overlooked the attempt must be made for the post to make sense...sentences, spelling, having spacing, etc. This is warning; if we can not understand the message it will be deleted and it will be expected that the post will be rewritten.
Along with that; point of view for the writing. Moving between In Character and Out Of Character it is important to remember that we are using 3rd person for the descriptions of what our people are doing. Keeping all of the posts in the same style helpful to making the flow more even.
In terms of characters it is important to remember that this is an rpg. No storyteller is gonna let any one person get away with being all power, all knowing, god-like, etc. That is why when you have a power it has to have some limitation or there must be a corresponding weakness. This also helps the story because no matter how powerful the character is they can not know everything about how to defeat the enemy...would be boring if they could. Struggle is fun, remember that please.
Also with powers, please remember that we can not just decide out of the blue, when challenged that we now have a new power. This is not super hero land where everytime the strange water from the gutter splashes you there is a new ability. This is also related to the development of characters- when the main character is developed the powers must be thought out already and maybe knowledge of them leaked out slowly- but to come up with a new undeclared ability every time one is challenged is not something that should happen.
Related to that is the desire for this to be a group story. Though some have a lot of time to post and others do not we want everyone to have a chance to get involved with the story line; including the fights. No single character is gonna save the day or destroy the enemy altogether- it is a group effort just like the show. Even Buffy needs her friends to bail her out every once in a while, ya know?
Okay, one more thing about characters. Yes we have a large membership, but it should be pretty clear that not everyone is posting or getting involved with the story. This means that we have a lot of people from the show that are not being used. That is the first point- we are implementing rules so that new people must take a show character before they can have an original character; and there will be time limits of posting so that people do not claim characters and then vanish leaving us to wonder if the character is free for the next interested member. New people taking a show character must post within two days of getting approval and must keep posting on a regular basis or the character will go to someone else.
Likewise, there are limits on original characters- we are Buffy-verse and that in itself limits us to the definitions of some creatures we use. There are also limiations on how many characters we can have...the current standing rule is that each member may have one main character and two extras. There will be more guidelines for this soon to describe exactly what is meant.
Okay, that is all I have for the moment. Hopefully I haven't forgotten something, but this and more will be placed on a club homepage (today i think) so there will be a permanent reference. Included will be a listing of characters from the show that are free to be taken.
One request- and I thank you sincerely if you have made through this long message- please resend the character profiles, new members and old, (i know- again) so we can try to get a posting for the club homepage eventually.
