This would have to apply to everyone as everyone watches Quidditch at Hogwarts come rain or shine. This means that everyone on the site would have to play along with this particular storyline. So as to not keep everyone's time on the site, games must be short. The problem now arises, all players must be online and conclude in the match in about two days real time.

The captain of each team would have absolute control over the team. It is his responsibility to be online for the longest and direct his team if other players are not there to play their characters. This does not mean that the captain does everything and scores all the points, he must divide all aspects of the game among his team and he will be required to go into some detail the actions of all players that are involved in a certain play taking place on the pitch.

Also for houses like Hufflepuff that are very low on active members, a team would still be allowed but the captain would have to do pretty much all the work as there wouldn't be many other team members to RP with on the team.

Everyone else that is not involved, that are watching in the stands can RP by giving their point of view and can shout encouragement or 'boo' whichever team. If a game is going extremely slow, there will be certain individuals that will RP for a side from the third person point of view. This may be a little unfair, especially if they support a certain house but it is up to the responsibility of the playing team to keep up to date while a game is being played.

Point scoring will be down to the referee. Points will be decided by how well the team has RPed and how well he has used his team. As in real life, good teamwork will lead to goals, points and eventually a win for the team so the same applies here. Bad teamwork and bad RPing will lead to the referee saying that a team lost control of the Quaffle due to a nasty Slytherin tackle or a bludger. If the referee is feeling a little nasty him/herself a player could be taken out of the game due to being hit by a bludger. If two players from separate sides are RPing badly then the referee should say one very badly fouled the other and was sent off while the other had to go to the hospital wing.

In the end the referee's decision is final!

Another idea which could go hand in hand with this idea of point scoring is simply for the referee to roll a dice and on certain numbers a team scores, with good RPing etc. being beneficial to the score and vice versa. The point system is the hardest thing to work out as it has to be fair and frequent hence the need for a speedy game.

Another alternative is to allow the teams to RP how they wish, scoring goals here, hitting bludgers there, fumbling and losing the quaffle at times. The referee would intervine when the game needs quickening. This would mean that the Golden Snitch would be the absolute match winner. The referee would decide when it has been seen by the seekers and from then it is up to extremely good RPing skills from the seekers to see who will eventually catch it. Because the seeker is an important part of the team, the captain cannot play him/her. If the Golden Snitch is seen and your seeker is not online then there is a chance that he/she will miss it completely. There will be a time limit on posts once the Snitch has been seen. If a seeker doesn't reply to the opponent seeker's post after a certain time period then the opponent will catch it.

Getting a team started in Hogwarts:

As far as getting the team off the ground either a single person or a group need to see the Quidditch master, who at the moment is myself until there is a competent full-time professor to take over. You need a captain to have a team so if you are a group you must nominate someone, if you are just a single person then you are the captain. Once the team has been given approval then first you need to get your team members together. The absolute minimum is two, the captain and a seeker but really you need more than that. Remember, the captain cannot be the seeker, sorry!

Once you have your team you need to start training. You can book the Quidditch pitch to practice by having a word with the Quidditch master. You are allowed 3 days (real time) to practice. Afterwards you need to book more time. You can continue to practice after this period but if another team turns up whether they have booked it or not you have to leave. If the team that turned up and kicked you out didn't have permission, you can find the Quidditch master you will give you a letter to allow your team to kick them off the pitch. You have to wait for the Quidditch master to reply before you can take any action against the other team.

The Quidditch master is pretty much in charge of Quidditch when a match isn't taking place. He can suspend your team if they are being offensive or are found out for constantly kicking people of the Quidditch pitch when themselves haven't booked it. Also there are individual punishments like being banned from a game, suspended from the team so they are not allowed to play until after a certain amount of matches or time. They could be removed from the team completely. No-one is immune from this so it is possible that the captain is suspended, this would mean that the team can't play until the suspension is over. Possible choices would be to plead with the Quidditch master, be extremely good and you may get let off your ban early or vote for another captain. Professors, Head Boy or either of the Head Girls have it in their power to ban a player as a punishment. Again the only way around this is to be extemely good and they may let you off. Punishments by these people can only be let off by these people.

Match fixtures will be put up on Common Room noticeboards with a date of when it is going to take place. The captain of the team has to submit his team list to the Quidditch master before the start of the match otherwise your team will not be allowed to play. Unlike the books, you are allowed to have a squad of players if that many people show interest, so if could have 3 seekers in your squad but only one could play in the match obviously. Also they are not allowed to play any other position. One position per team member.

You have to be a good captain as if you are not the team is allowed to vote for another captain. To do this you need to see the Quidditch master who will announce on the common room noticeboard that there is someone wishing to try for the captaincy. The squad must then PM the Quidditch master with their vote. Only the squad can vote, no students! During this time you are not allowed to bring in any new players as the team is too busy deciding about who is going to be captain.

If you have any questions simply take it up with the Quidditch Master.

So a quick idea of the rules so far that are just about decided are:

Teams must at least have a Captain and a seeker in them to play Quidditch, ideally there should 1 member for each position. 1 keeper, 1 seeker, 1 beater, 1 catcher. To have the perfect working team you would need every position filled to its maximum 1 keeper, 2 beaters, 3 catchers and 1 seeker. This will lead to good teamplay and more points!

The referee's decision is final, it is up to him/her to decide when the Golden Snitch has been sighted and also helps decide points if there is good teamplay and RPing skills. He/she will also decide if a player has been hit by another player or bludger, they may be out for the rest of the game and will decide if a player is sent off. There could be a chance that a player is sent off or injured and you did nothing wrong, such accidents can happen in these rough games, there is always the next game.

Points are scored through teamwork and RPing skills. The more convincing you are, the more points you can score. Go for the goal! It is up to the referee to decide if you get them.

If there are long pauses in the game then the spectators may start to RP instead, limit of a single post every 2 hours. With this post he/she can decide that a team scored or that some fouled someone else or if someone was hit by a bludger. It can be as little as someone hitting a bludger to taking the ball and scoring. If a team member has not posted for 6 hours then a spectator can do something.

The captain has complete control over the team apart from the seeker, he/she must control the players if they are not online and is expected to use his full team. Selfish play, only using his/her player may catch the referee's eye which could result in the referee's intervention causing the selfish player to be injured. The captain can still post but cannot use his/her character on the pitch.

Only the seeker in the team can go after the Golden Snitch once the referee says it has been seen. Seekers must be on the ball as if the opponent's seeker has seen the Snitch and is going after it while your seeker is no where to be seen, after a period of 4 hours the opponent will win.

There isn't really a time limit on a game as you are able to post here as splinching is allowed in this care. Spectators could get bored however as they are made to stand in the stands and not doing a lot but chant and 'boo'. After about 2 weeks and in the event of the Golden Snitch not being caught the referee will blow the whistle and tot up the points.

If there are reasons why you can't make it then PM the referee and he/she will see if they can do anything. Regarding to the Snitch, there is a chance that it is late and people start to go to bed. The Snitch will be caught if another member of the team of the seeker that posted last is made and the referee sees it whenever he/she comes back online then it's game over. For example everyone has gone offline during a match and the Snitch has been seen and the seekers are chasing it. The seeker for one team comes online and posts. From then on the opposing seeker has 4 hours to post a reply. It is possible to post after the 4 hours if the referee isn't online, there might be a period of 5 hours between the two posts but the referee was either online too early or hasn't come online. In that case you would get away with it.

If a character has made a shot on goal, the keeper is allowed to post to try and stop it. It will be the referee's decision to allow it or not. The referee will be posting quite short posts as to not to hold up the game. Remember, keep playing till you here the referee's whistle, obviously the crowd will boo or celebrate once they have seen the ref's decision. This includes fouls also, the ref might not have seen it.

To get close to the goal requires you to RP your character there, obviously there are going to be other characters trying to take the quaffle off you. Help out the referee, if someone has made a tackle on your character, rate how well it was done, if you think it was done well then RP that your character lost the ball etc. The referee is there for fouls and goals but if he/she can will help out with decisions then he/she will. The more RPing then the more likely you will score, think of it as getting closer to the goal the more you RP, so the longer the shot, the less likely it will go in, having certain skills which you post about in a post describing your shot will increase your likelihood of scoring. These skills can learned through practice and good RPing during matches. (See below)

If an owner of a character has more than one character playing Quidditch then the following rule applies to them. If the charracters are on the same team they are not allowed to 'go solo' they have to allow the chance for fellow team mates to post unless they are the only one online. If their characters are on separate teams they are not allowed to interact with each other, unless again there is no-one else online that's playing. Even then the referees will be watching to see if any foul play occurs. e.g. The Slytherin catcher fumbles the Quaffle and just happens to fall into the hands of a Hufflepuff player, both these characters are played by the same person.

How to make your character better at Quidditch

I'm also going to try and include a type of 'leveling up' system too. Factors that will be responsible for this will mainly be down to how well your character can RP in a quidditch game. This does not mean that he is super on the field as many times you can learn from your mistakes too. Also practice will help your character be better. This leveling up thing is still down on paper really but one benefit will be the ability to perform certain special moves that are described in the link on the next post, these will allow a higher chance of scoring. Also you may be able to learn ways to pull off a foul without being seen by the referee, that probably applies more to the Slytherin team. When practising, you can pick one of these abilities and practice it, a referee/professor will PM you to say if you learned it. There are some abilities that involve one person, people from the same position or the whole team. You will need everyone involved in an ability to practice and learn it at the same time in the same place obviously.

A list will be made availiable of fouls and moves that your character can learn. Some of these are performed with more than one person, sometimes the whole team so all of the people involved would be needed to attempt to learn this move. Some moves and tactics may not be learned until another tactic has been learned as the one in question may be more advanced and knowledge of one particular skill would be needed to attempt to learn this new skill.

On the otherhand it is also possible for your character to become worse. This will be done if the character is lazy, doesn't post well or enough in a match and doesn't practice. If you get rather bad you will simply be dropped from the team and a lot of practice would be needed to get back onto it.

At the end of the day, you knows, you may get picked for a professional team if you are good enough, perhaps even for you national team!