Navigation: WikiStart - Rules

Frequently Asked Questions

Sorting

How do I get Sorted?

The sorting process on HSOM is very simple

  1. First you need to register your account by clicking on the Register link
  2. Click on the validation link in the email you receive to validate that your email is real
  3. Once you have logged in you will receive a welcome PM from Lord Darkbeholder with links to important orientation posts and the create character link
  4. Click on the Create Character link in the PM from Lord Darkbeholder or in the character warnings box on the index (see screenshots below for more help)
  5. Fill in your character details. Be sure that your character complies with the Character Rules (For more details check the character creation FAQ below)
  6. A member of the senior staff will sort you generally within 24 hours. You will receive an email letting you know which house you are in. You will also be able to see 1 of the 3 common rooms and your username will now appear in your house colour.

While you are waiting you should read over the Board Rules and check out the Orientation Forum.

How do I change my House?

Generally you are unable to change your house. If you have a good reason that you shouldn't be in a house then you can send an email to changehouse@… and detail why you should change house. Your request will be reviewed by the Senior Staff and you will receive a decision. Please note that it may take a week or two for your request to be actioned as there is many factors to consider such as maintaining balance between the houses to keep competition between them.

Do not simply abandon a character and re-register in the hopes of getting into the other house as we can tell and you could find yourself banned

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Character Creation

What information do I need to provide?

The character creation creates your character and places you in the sorting hat. Your character name does not have to be your username so you can pick something simple for your username and then have a proper name. Eg your username could be hpfan123456 but your character name is James Smith. You will see James Smith on posts and PMs and most other places on the board but you still use hpfan123456 to login.

By Default your character name is the same as your username but you can change this.

The Character Biography section is very important as this is what the senior staff reads to help determine your house (along with other factors). Include your characters likes, dislikes, hopes and dreams, general biographical details and anything else you can think of. You can leave out age, height, eye and hair colour as these are specified separately. Please make sure your biography complies with the Character Rules as you will not be sorted if your biography does not comply. If we deny your sorting you will get a PM with the reason.

Why was my character rejected?

The most common problems people have with sorting is that they are trying to be a character from the books, be related to a character from the books or state their character has a special ability without asking permission first. If you want to have a unique ability then you must seek approval before stating you have the ability and using it. If you have been given an ability it will appear in your character sheet.

If you have any problems please reply to either the email or PM you received when you joined or ask in the help forum

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Wand

How do I buy a wand?

Once you have been sorted you need to get yourself a wand before you take part in classes. To purchase a wand either click the link in the Character Warnings box
or scroll down to Ollivanders and click the Purchase or Update Wand Link from the main index or read the announcement inside Ollivanders.

Can I choose the wood and core of my wand?

As you know the wand chooses the wizard so when you purchase your wand you are just presented with optional additions for your wand. You can add a custom grip or an Embellishment such as an engraving or sacred stone. There is also a check box to have a receipt sent to you by Private Message.

How do I change the customisation on my wand?

To add or change a custom grip or embellishment you need to scroll down to Ollivanders again and click on the Purchase or Update Wand link and it will take you to the edit wand page. You will see your current wand details. You will be charged 5 galleons to change or add a custom grip (such as a leather grip or dragon scale) and 3 galleons to add or change an embellishment.

To remove a customisation simply clear the box and submit the form. Removing the customisation is free but you will still need to pay to add a new customisation at a later time.

If you need more help make a post in the shop or in the help forum

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Pets

How do I buy a pet?

Pets provide additional Role Play options and as a first year you will be able to have 1 pet. Unlike the books you are free to have any pet available from Magical Menagerie. The easiest way to get your pet is to use Magical Menagerie Express which is a self-service pet service where you can buy cats, dogs, owls, hawks, eagles and other misc animals(such as ferrets, gerbils, rats, mice. goats, hamsters and jobberknolls). Buying in MME means you don't need to wait for the staff to serve you.If you are looking for a pet that is not in MME you will need to place a special order.

Can I get a XXXX or XXXXX Pet?

Please note that pets classed as XXXX are only available with your head of house's prior approval and pets classed as XXXXX are only available with the headmasters approval. You will need a good reason to request these pets in order to gain approval.

How do I use Magical Menagerie Express?

To purchase from MME simply select the Pet Species and then the Breed. The dropdown list will have breeds in white and red to indicate if you can afford to purchase that pet or not. Breeds listed in red are unable to be purchased as you do not have enough money. Once you have selected the breed you will be able to enter your pets name. Once you have entered the name click on Purchase Pet and you will be charged for the pet and it will appear in your profile under the pets tab.

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Classes

Which Classes am I required to attend?

You are not required to attend any classes that you don't wish to. All classes are optional.

If you sign up for a class then try to attend all lessons for that class.

There may be some required classes in the future but at this time there isn't.

How do I sign up for a class?

Each professor teaches differently. Visit the classrooms to the classes you are interested in taking, and look for a sign up sheet. The school is organised by floor, rather than alphabetically. Read each floor carefully to get the layout. Some professors require you sign up; others hold open classes where as soon as there’s lessons, everyone is welcome.

If there’s a sign up sheet, sign up, if not, wait for a lesson to be posted. Do not post “Will there be lessons here” or “Boy this place looks empty” or “I can’t find any friends here.” Like you, the other people on this board have other obligations besides role playing, and will get to their classes as soon as they can.

How do i sign up for a mythology class?

Mythology is different to all other classes on HSOM. In effect it is the Mythology Department. There are 2 classes covering Egyptian Mythology and Greek Mythology. To Apply to join a class you need to:

  1. Go to the User Control Panel
  2. Scroll down the options sidebar, hit usergroups
  3. Scroll down to the Non Membership section
  4. Select the little button of the group you want to join
  5. Go to the bottom...see the drop down menu, hit join selected and then submit
  6. You may have to be approved for the usergroup before you're really in. Be patient.

Is there a limit to how many classes i can take?

No, feel free to take part in as many or as few classes as you want. Remember that you should only sign-up for those classes you are actually going to take.

How do I become a professor?

See the Applications Wiki Page for more details

There doesn't seem to be a professor, is the class still running?

If it is near the start of term the professor may still be creating their first lesson for the term.

If it has been some time since the professor was last on you can send them a PM asking if they are still teaching the subject. If you do not get a reply after a week or so you can send a PM to Lord Darkbeholder and he will look into it. If the class is truly abandoned he will open it up for general applications and you can simply apply like normal (see above).

The last post in the Crystology Lessons was in 2004. Is it still running?

Crystology is run differently to most other classes on HSOM. It is designed to be done at the users own pace. At the end of each term the class is marked and the submitted homework is moved to the pensieve so the lessons last post will go back to its original post date which for the early lessons was in 2004. As people complete the cystology lessons new lessons are added. Each student can only do each lesson once and a list is maintained to show each students progress. More details can be seen on the Crystology page and in the Crystology Forum

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Exams

How do I sit an Exam?

During the exams period exams will start appearing in the Exam Centre. To sit an exam you simply click on it and answer all the questions and then submit the exam.

If the professor of a particular class wishes to create a different exam they may have their exam listed in their classroom instead of being in the exam centre. (This is the case for exams that require written responses instead of multiple choice at this time)

Can I resit an Exam?

Once you have done an exam it will appear crossed out in the exam centre. Once an exam is crossed out you can't resit it.

If you accidentally submitted your exam before you had answered all the questions send the professor a PM asking to be allowed to resit it. If they agree the exam will no longer appear crossed out in the exam centre and you can resit it.

How do I know my mark?

Once you have submitted your exam it will be marked and the mark will be sent to the professor. For written exams the professor will manually mark it. It is up to the professor to provide students with their marks.

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Gringotts and Money

How do I open an account at Gringotts?

There is no need as one is created for you when you are sorted. Your account starts with 200 galleons.

How do I earn more money?

There are several ways you can earn galleons.

  • By doing lessons and homework. Professors award both House Points and Galleons for your work.
  • Working in a shop earns you a percentage of all sales from the store. Your share of profits depends on how many staff and what percentage of profit you are allocated by the store owner. Please note this is a percentage of profit and not of sales price. The system automatically takes out taxes and other business costs such as rent, inventory, warehouse, security etc)
  • Professors earn 100 galleons per completed lesson.

How do I remove the warning notice about having less than 10 galleons?

If you have less than 10 galleons you will get a notice in the Character Warnings box. To hide this warning simply click on "hide low balance warning" in the warning box.

To show the warning notice again simply visit Gringotts and then click on "Display low balance warning"

My balance is wrong. How do I fix it?

If your balance doesn't add up properly first check the transaction logs to see if you were double charged or if there is a mistake. If you find a double charge or a mistake please send a PM to Lord Darkbeholder so he can fix it manually for you.

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Premium Membership FAQ

How do I purchase Premium Membership?

To purchase Premium Membership click on the Premium Membership link on the sidebar and then click Purchase Premium Membership

Australian users can send an email to premiumbank@… to request either postal details for a Australian Money Order or bank details for a Bank Transfere instead of filling out the form and using PayPal?.

International users can only purchase using PayPal? and should just use the form provided by the Purchase Premium Membership page.

You can purchase premium either for 6 months or 1 year. Simply select which option you would like and then click the Buy Now button on the next page. This button will take you to paypal to complete the purchase.

Once the money has cleared and has been verified by Darkbeholder you will receive a PM about your account upgrade.

What do I get for my money?

Premium Membership provides a number of benefits

  • Image hosting for your signature and avatar
  • your_username @hsom.net email address
  • Webmail and pop3/imap/smtp access
  • Custom title that appears below your user rank
  • Priority Support
  • Option to hide ads in the sidebar and in posts
  • You are helping to keep HSOM alive

How can I hide the Ads in posts and on the page?

Only Premium Members can hide ads on the board. If you have Premium Membership there is a link next to or below ads which you can click to hide them. You can also control the ads from your Premium Options page (only visible to Premium Members)

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Other FAQ

What time is HSOM set in?

HSOM is set in an alternate reality in which Harry and "he who must not be named" and other book characters never existed. The only canon characters to exist are the 4 house founders. It is in a world similar to earth just with minor differences. As for the year its set in the current year.

Why are there only 3 houses. What happened to Hufflepuff?

Officially this is due to the vast negative reactions many people had from being put into Hufflepuff House. Many people use to react badly and some sent emails and PM's to the senior staff containing abuse and threats. Due to this we decided to remove Hufflepuff and only have 3 houses. Having 3 houses instead of the 4 helps make HSOM more unique than other Harry Potter RPG's that revolve around Hogwarts.

For a roleplay reason as you know from the previous question HSOM is not in the same dimension as Hogwarts and as such it has a different history. HSOM never had four houses due to an argument between Helga and Salazar which lead to Helga never joining the others to make HSOM.

How do I go up years? / How do I become a 2nd year?

Everyone starts as a first year and progress years based on the number of terms they have been here for. This may change in time if we find it too slow but it is an improvement over the old system that encouraged spam posting

Hey what's with all the weird things going on right now?

It's quite possible the events you are seeing are part of the Term mystery. You should check with other members of your house to see if they know

My question wasn't answered here where should i go next?

You can either send a PM or EMail to Lord Darkbeholder or post in the Help Forum and someone will answer your question ASAP. New questions will be added to this page as needed.

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