Dance moved out! What moves in?

[Ron Weasley]

The dance is officially over!

Now we should brainstorm ideas for the next 'big event' to happen at Hogwarts. It doesn't just have to be a dance - it could be the takeover of the Ministry by the Death Eaters, it could be Snape taking over as Headmaster, it can be any number of things. What would you guys like as the next big thing to happen here?

I am also going ahead with adding in the season. Since there were no suggestions as to the month, I think it would be safe to 'start' in October or so, a little before a lot of role plays have taken place, a little after some, but generally a good place if we are going to follow the books. Not only will that give the trio enough time to 'escape' from Hogwarts, but it should flow nicely with others taking over the school and the Ministry.

Of course, this leads to the next question of 'So, what do you want to do about character aging?' since that is the next step. It's going to be tricky whatever we do, and here's why.

1. If Harry, Ron, etc, move on, it will grossly change the overall plot of the site and change the member base that we currently advertise to. 2. It sucks to keep characters that are aging in real time in the same year forever. It seems natural to age them, but then we revert back to issue number one.

If we could find a middle ground in this, that would rock. For example, we could allow original characters to age as we reset the years at Hogwarts, but the canon characters would have to stay in their original year. Or we could do separate categories, one for the 'aged' characters and the other for the younger characters.

I'm mostly torn on this because of our target audience - people wanting to play in the trio's last year.

Help would be awesome in deciding that.

[badfaith88]

One easy way, although it might take someone really dedicated, would be to have one of the adults preferably an order member sneak the trio out once in a while. Eventually with a take over in the school they'd have to go somewhere else for the most part but even then you could bring in Abeforth, thats Hogsmade which is still close to the school. I guess maybe that would force certain key characters to keep everything moving... just a shot in the dark.

[Liberty Martin]

Hm, it's difficult. I think most of our members like the fact that we're in the Trio's seventh year, and to move them up would mean we'd have to change who we're advertising to. I really want to play out the major events from the last book, but I don't think that it would be particularly beneficial to move the canons up a year. We could move originals up and leave canons in the same year, once we've played out the seventh book, but that'd have issues for plots, relationships and things like that, since most of the OCs have some kind of connection with the canons around them, and they'd have to play like they were always in that year. It's difficult, and I'm not really sure at the moment.

As far as the next big event goes, I think the taking over of the Ministry and installation of Snape as Headmaster would be a good place to go.

[Bellatrix Lestrange]

I think the idea of moving up orginal characters, but keeping the canons in the same years, would be the best way to when for this. Perhaps the site could change a few minor details in the plot depending on which characters we have and which ones we don't, but still sticking to the major plot line: that being the trio and the hallows and horcruxes etc.

That said, I'm already looking foward to posting about Bellatrix's birthday. She's going to be moody...more than normal.

[Theodore Nott]

I would eventually feel bored if the characters couldn't age. Original or canon, they should all age. If you move the originals but keep the canons in same years, then what about all the relationships and plots? (like Ron pointed out)

I think that everybody should move a year/graduate when we decide the school year stops (along with all the events).. I mean, in the last book we move nineteen years ahead.. And thats canon. Lol.

Wouldn't it also be exciting to play a canon that graduates? Harry, Neville, Draco etc. Thats a whole new world.
Don't think of it as the end of H&H but merely a new beginning.
Of course the board will need to be restructured a bit and we will perhaps frightened a few possible new members away, but in the end many people will be interesting in this kind of plot!
Its new, exciting, not like any other RP board.

And by the time we decide to move a year along, the site properly wont grow as much as it did in the beginning. Sure, we'll have occasional new members but nothing huge. Then the dedicated members will stay, of course, and be able to develop their chars even further!

But I'll stay on H&H no matter what, of course!! And support whatever decisions we make

[Draco Malfoy]

i completely agree. i would be disappointed if the canon characters didn't age eventually. I in particular am definately looking forward to playing a draco post-final battle. so yeah... there's my two cents.

[Ron Weasley]

Yeah, I agree that it would be odd to never age the canons, but I do hope you understand my concerns about it. I am flexible as always, but it is something I personally need addressed as a creator and operator, and really need the details worked out so I can best explain it to others, as well as develop a new plot, etc.