RPing in a Quidditch Setting
Guidelines by Prof. Moreen Rastal*

NOTE: It's taken me many hours to write this (and I'm posting it as a series in this thread), so the least you can do is read it from start to finish so that there is absolutely no confusion about how to play the in-character portion of Quidditch matches. Please and thank you.

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Let's start with the basics. There are a few "rules" that you have to understand up front.

1) Quidditch is a game that is played in teams. Each person plays a part, and needs no help from you or anyone else in order to accomplish their role in a given match. In other words, you have control over YOUR character ONLY. Everyone else controls their own.

2) You must be VERY CLEAR about your actions. As you will see in the examples, there are ways to make this easier for other people RPing in the game thread. When it comes to significant actions (such as passing the quaffle, aiming a bludger, or attempting to score a goal), do not leave anything to be assumed. Use specific names when and where possible. See Tricky Moves for more info on this.

3) RPing certain parts of Quidditch can be very tricky. However, there ARE standard ways of going about it. If you understand the position you're playing, always keep in Guideline #1 in mind, and study the examples below, you should do fine.

3) Actions (i.e. quaffle scores, actual bludger hits, goal blocks, etc.) are determined out of character through a set of trivia questions sent to each team member. For examples, the number of correct answers that I receive from Team A's chasers will determine the number of times Team B's keeper MUST allow a quaffle to pass through the goals. Likewise, the number of correct answers I get from Team B's beaters will determine the number of hits that Team A's chasers MUST take when the bludgers are aimed at them. Remember this when deciding whether or not to take a hit (or allow a goal), or evade/block it. The best thing you can do is consult your team captain before making a move when you are targeted by a bludger, or faced with allowing/blocking a goal.

3) Each position is RPed exactly like it would be played if it was a real-life sport.

• Chasers - Chasers RP themselves (but not each other!) and the quaffle as they pass it to one another. While Chaser A has the quaffle, only Chaser A may RP it. When Chaser A passes the quaffle to Chaser B, it then becomes RPable only by Chaser B, and so on. Stealing the quaffle from the other team's chaser(s) is one of the tricky moves, so be sure to read that portion of the guidelines! Once a chaser indicates that they have thrown the quaffle at one of the hoops, it is no longer RPable by ANY chaser. At that point, it becomes the proverbial RP property of the defending Keeper.
• Keepers - A keeper watches the action from his/her end of the pitch. When a chaser indicates in a post that they have thrown the quaffle at one of the hoops, then the keeper defending that hoop takes control of quaffle RP. Depending on how many scores are allowed for the opposing team from the OOC portion of the games, the defending keeper may say whether or not the quaffle actually gets past them. Keepers are bound to the outcome of the OOC portion of the game, but may choose when (or how often) the opposing team's shots are actually successful. Whatever the outcome of a given attempt to score, the keeper is then required to throw it back out to a player (usually, one his/her own chasers).
• Beaters - The beaters RP themselves (but not each other!) and the bludgers. No one else controls the bludgers until one is aimed at a specific person. From there, that person may either duck or take the hit (depending on the OOC portion of the game), -OR- a beater from the targeted person's team may block them (again, depending on the OOC portion of the game).
• Seekers - Both Seekers RP themselves as being in the game, and that's about it. Usually, they're somewhere up above the action, scoping for the Snitch. A Seeker may (at any given point) "spot" the Snitch, and take off after it. However, this is considered a tricky move, so again... read the Tricky Moves portion of these guidelines.

4) As in real Quidditch games, anyone who RPs an illegal action (a.k.a. a foul) will cause their team to be penalized. When a foul is made, two things will happen:

• In Character: The game will be stopped, and a freethrow will ensue. This means that the wronged player (regardless of their position) will be allowed to go up against the keeper of the team that made the foul--without any other players or bludgers around. What will determine if the freethrow is success or not, depends on what happens OOC.
• Out of Character: I will take ONE advantageous action, depending on what's available at the time of the foul, from the OOC list on the side that made the foul, and transfer it to the list belonging to the wronged team. If a goal score is available, then the freethrow shot will be successful. If there are NO goal scores available for transfer from the list of the team that made the foul, then the freethrow will be unsuccessful, BUT the wronged team will obviously have gained a bludger block instead. If there are no scores OR blocks available for transfer, then the wronged team automatically gains an extra goal score for the freethrow, and the team that made the foul will automatically lose one for the next match. I will not pull advantageous actions out of thin air for a wronged team, and allow the team that made the foul get away without some kind of penalty. Furthermore, we will use what's available when it's there, so that I don't have to keep a running tab of things from match to match. If it happens to be the very last match of the tournament, then a successful goal's worth of points will be deducted from the cumulative total for the team that made the foul, and the wronged team will get a successful freethrow.
  
  And all of that can be prevented by simply studying the kinds of fouls you can make, and avoiding them at all costs!

*May not be duplicated, distributed, or otherwise re-used without the expressed permission of the author.

Examples of Quidditch RP: Chasers, Keepers, and Beaters
Written by Prof. Moreen Rastal*

I'm going to give you examples for role-playing each position in a single match (well, part of one, anyway), using non-existant characters, so that you'll see how things are to be RPed, and will hopefully get a sense of how to follow a proper game thread. This example will be RPed through one goal attempt, so the keeper's RP will be the last.

The only position not being RPed here is the Seeker, because I think it's probably the most self-explanatory. Seekers can't actually catch the Snitch unless they are told to do so by the referee, so all they can really do is fly around looking for it (or going after it unsuccessfully if they happen to "spot" it).

If you follow what's going on in the snippet of gameplay below, then you'll recognize the fact that there could be any number of posts from the other players (i.e. those not seen/used in the examples) that would only add to the action. Indeed, things do NOT go in perfect order like I'm demonstrating in the examples below, so you HAVE to watch what's going on in a given game thread, so you can be there when you're needed! What I'm giving you here is just the general idea of how things work in an actual game thread.

If done correctly, Quiddith role-play can be HUGE fun, and even a little intense at times (just like real-life sports). That said, let's get to it.

Blue Team: Balleycastle Bats
-- Chasers: Melanie, David, and Jim
-- Beaters: Steve and Monica
-- Keeper: Jessica
-- Seeker: Lance

Red Team:: Falmouth Falcons
-- Chasers: Vlad, Morgan, and Stella
-- Beaters: Alexander and Victor
-- Keeper: William
-- Seeker: Alana

**NOTE: Not all of the players listed above will be used. Obviously.**

Information to be assumed: The Balleycastle Bats won the toss-up (something that's done OOC), and are allowed to have possession of the quaffle first. All three chasers agreed (again OOC) that Melanie would be the one to capture it when realeased by the referee. For the purpose of this example, it will be assumed that reactions seen (i.e. bludger hits or goal scores) will have been derived from the OOC portion of the game.

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When the quaffle was released by the referee, Melanie made a lunge for it, and captured the ball. Tucking it protectively under her arm, she immediately took off for the other team's hoops. The air over the pitch was total chaos, as it always was at the start of the game. The Falcons' were a tough team, and usually lived up to their namesake. She held on tightly to the quaffle, not wanting to give them any chances to steal it away.

She was almost too afraid to take her eyes off the goals at the end of the pitch. If she did, she'd probably lose her confidence, and end up making a bad move. Realizing that she'd been holding onto to the quaffle too long, making herself a sitting duck, she glanced over her shoulder praying another one of her fellow chasers was coming up beside her...

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David took off after Melanie the second she caught the quaffle, and fell in line behind her to watch her back. Having played the position of chaser so long, he also felt that familiar prickle of anxiety when too much time had passed with the ball in her possession. When he saw her glance over her shoulder, he swooped down and to the left, then sped up to get beside her.

He checked to see if it was safe to make a close pass, but didn't see anything stopping them. She wasn't holding the quaffle out to him yet, so he did his best to keep up with her, while waiting for her to make the next move.

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While the chasers were doing their thing, Alexander took off after a bludger that was heading towards the other end of the field. He was ruthless when it came to playing as a beater, and was itching to do some damage with the heavy iron ball. If he played his cards right, he might even break a few of the Balleycastle chasers' bones along the way.

"Hey, Vic! Get them from the other side!" He shouted savagely. He wasn't exactly sure where Victor was at that moment, but surely he had heard him.

As he gained on the bludger he was chasing, he swung his broom off to the right a little as he drew back his bat. He then hooked a sharp left with both the broom and the bat, as he glanced over to take quick but true aim. A split second later, there was an echoing crack as he batted the bludger hard in the direction of David.

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"Oh, no you don't." Monica muttered under her breath. She had looked up sharply when she'd heard the familiar sound of a bludger connecting with a beater's bat, saw that Alexander had taken aim at David at Melanie, who looked like they were about to make a pass with the quaffle. She urged her broom forward as she leaned low over the handle.

She wasn't sure if she'd make it. The bludger was plowing towards David, and she was still several yards away. Come on... come on! She silently willed the broom to go just a little bit faster as she bent even lower in order to slice through the air as cleanly as possible.

As she came up on David's left, she readied her bat and chose her target. With not a second to spare, she got to the bludger, and deflected it towards William. The backswing of her bat harmlessly hit David's broom.

"Sorry--sorry!" She said as she took her broom down and to the left to give the chasers room. Man, she really needed to work on controlling her backlash.

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Jim was having to dodge flying people left and right, and was starting to wonder if his typical bad luck was taking that particular opportunity to rear its ugly head. His broom had been acting a little funny the past couple of days, too, and he hoped it wouldn't become a problem during the game. That was the last thing he needed.

When he finally broke free of the start-of-game rush hour, he took off after Melanie and David. Even when he saw the bludger flying towards them, he didn't stop. If they got hit, he'd have to be there to recover the quaffle if it was to stay on their side. Otherwise, the other team's chasers would steal it away.

Not only did he make it, with much thanks to Monica for deflecting the bludger, he was able to speed past them into an open area closer to the hoops. "Right here," he hollered to Melanie and David. "I'm wide open."

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Swooping down on the two chasers hoarding the quaffle, Stella took her usual approach to trying to steal. She knew that she couldn't rip it out of Melanie's arms since the girl usually had a death grip on the ball, but if she happened to drop it....

With a smirk on her face, she sped up a little then dropped down in front of her. Looking back over her shoulder, she started to zig-zag left and right in an attempt to screw up her concentration. She couldn't tell if it was working or not, so she took a more drastic course of action. What she had in mind was a tricky move, as she risked causing injury to herself in the process, but Stella liked to play on the edge.

Grasping the handle of her broom tightly, she counted to three, then gave it a quick, upwards jerk to activate the braking charm for a split second, then pushed down again to drop herself beneath them in case Melanie freaked and dropped the ball.

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David had nearly messed himself when he looked over to see a bludger coming directly for him. There was no way he could have escaped it. Thankfully, Monica got there just in time to cover him, but she caused his broom to wobble slightly when her bat struck the handle. "Easy." He said as he steadied the broom.

Suddenly, he got the feeling that something wasn't right, and looked up to see a Stella braking in front of them. He didn't have time to register what she was playing at as he pulled the handle of his broom to the left in order to miss running into her. Unfortunately, that threw him off Melanie's path, but that's when he heard Jim shouting at them.

"Pass to Jim!" He shouted as he tried to catch up with Melanie again. He knew it was no use now, though. "He's open!"

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First a bludger, and now a reckless chaser. This was going to be one hell of a match. Melanie swerved to her right to narrowly escaping being hit by Stella. She made a quick scan of the area around her, then pulled the quaffle out from under her arm.

She wouldn't throw it while there was too much distance between them, but once she got close enough, she took her free hand off her broom to clasp the quaffle, and which a quick snap of her wrists, passed it off to Jim as if she were passing a basketball on a court.

Catching hold of her broom again, she made a wide arch to get out of the way, and bring her back around in case she had to be there for a rebound.

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Jim was ready and waiting, so he caught the quaffle without a hitch, and took off the rest of the way to the goals. Getting past the keeper was the hardest part of being a chaser, and though he seriously doubted he would be able to make a goal, he was going to try his best, anyway.

He slowed down almost imperceptibly as he inched closer, and quickly chose to go for the hoop on the far right. He turned his broom left to try to fake a left-goal score as he shot the quaffle in the direction of the hoop he'd chosen. He held his breath as it soared through the air, willing it to go in.

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At the goals, William watched in keen anticipation as the Balleycastle chasers rapidly approached their end of the field. Since it was the first attempt at a goal, he was ready for anything.

Well, anything except the larger-than-life bludger flying at him. "Vic, Alex! Where are you? I'm in trouble over here!" Too late. There was no way they'd make it in time. Oh, that's just great! Leave your bloody keeper wide open to get maimed by a bludger at the very start of the game! He thought. Nope. He wasn't having that. When it was right there in his face, he quickly leaned to the right, and watched it fly past him, right through the hoops.

He righted himself on his broom, and went back to concentrating on the chasers, who had just passed the quaffle. His hands were wrapped loosely around the broom's handle, and every muscle in his body was tensed as he tried to anticipate any possible move they might make.

When Jim started to go left, Will waited half a beat, then shot over to his right. His hand lunged out just in time to catch the quaffle before it passed through the golden hoop. "Haha, sucker." He said. Well, the Falcons were notorious for their bad attitudes. Why waste the opportunity to gloat?

He held the quaffle as he glanced around for someone to pass it to, and then he reared back and threw it to Stella.



*May not be duplicated, distributed, or otherwise re-used without the expressed permission of the author.

Quidditch RP: Tricky Moves
Written by Prof. Moreen Rastal*

1) "Stealing" the quaffle: Strictly speaking, you are not allowed to steal ANYTHING unless it is under very specific circumstances. I will give those to you now.

• When Chaser 1 passes the quaffle to Chaser 2, then Chaser 2 has 48 hours to reply to the thread to RP their character catching the pass.
• In the event that Chaser 2 does NOT reply within 48 hours, then two things may happen, depending on who gets there first:
  -- The third chaser from Chaser 2's own team may step in and grab the quaffle (thus, retaining possession of it for their team).
  -- A chaser from the opposing team may step in, and "steal" the quaffle out of midair.

In other words, if the chaser has not passed the quaffle, or if 48 hours have not gone by since they did, then you can't do anything.

NOTE: If the chaser in possession of the quaffle specifically says that he or she accidentally dropped it, then if you're there to catch it, go for it. However, this is not likely to happen, as I don't think anyone would be that dumb. It's kinda like falling off your broom....

2) "Random" bludgers: For the most part, you should leave the RPing of bludgers to the beaters of either team. However, you are allowed to RP random bludgers during a game, as long as you do NOT say that they came specifically from someone. Saying that Billy Bob aimed a bludger at you when Billy Bob did no such thing is considered RPing the actions of Billy Bob's character. That is a No-No. Do it, and you will be in serious trouble.

3) Physical contact: Quidditch is (partly) a contact sport. As long as the move you make is not considered a foul, you may come into physical contact with another player. When this happens, remember: You are ONLY allowed to RP the actions of YOUR character. When RPing her character, Dottie Mae cannot say she "slammed into Sally Sue, and caused her broom to go flying off to the right." Only Sally Sue can say what happens to Sally Sue's broom (or herself, for that matter). On the flip side of that, it should be noted that Sally Sue would become Mary Sue if she tried to say that the hit from Dottie Mae did absolutely nothing to her.

4) Non-specific moves: There may come a time when you can't (or don't care to) name someone specifically when aiming a bludger or passing the quaffle. This is tricky, because you're leaving it to be assumed by other players, which is never really a good thing to do. However, if Billy Bob decides to leave it to chance, and simply say he "aimed the bludger at a chaser," then you can be certain that the chaser in question is NOT from Billy Bob's own team. Likewise, if Dottie Mae says she "passed the quaffle off to the chaser to her right," you can naturally assume that Dottie Mae is leaving it open for the other two chasers on her own team.

5) Snitch "spotting": Because seekers are NOT allowed to RP themselves catching the Snitch unless they are contacted by the referee of the game, "spotting" the Snitch is considered a tricky move. Either seeker in a game may say that they spot the Snitch, and may even take off after it (heck, get into a chase for it, if you want!). However, if either seeker RPs even the slightest brush of their fingertips on the Snitch, it will result in the automatic forfeit of the game. I will not have anyone causing a false end to a match thread by making the others think that the Snitch was caught.



... Okay, I can't think of anymore at the moment, but if I think of any more of these (or should someone bring some more to my attention *hopeful*), I will be sure to update these guidelines



*May not be duplicated, distributed, or otherwise re-used without the expressed permission of the author.