Avoid omnipotence! This might seem obvious, but it's easier than one thinks to make one's elf sound all-knowing without meaning to. There is a fine line between describing what your elf is convinced they know about other elves and know for sure. For example the word "knew" (as in: elf X knew elf Y was upset) can create "false omnipotence". Other players will think your elf is reading everyone else's minds.
This is easily averted by changing "knew" to "believed s/he knew" or "was convinced". You still convey that your elf is sure of something, but that the truth isn't set in stone.

Be polite. No matter how stupid you think a person is. Whatever happens between you and whoever it is that annoys you, on-lookers will side with the one that doesn't resort to childish insults.

Capital letters on names and words such as Recognition. This is to avoid confusion.
Example: If your character says that s/he has recognized someone the other members might think your elf simply knows who the other elf is, instead of you two just having become soulmates.

Don’t ignore others! If someone tags you or just wants someone to role-play with and your character has nothing to do, reply. We’re all here to have fun and I can think of few things less amusing than watching your elf be left out of the game. The same goes for Out Of Character questions. If someone asks a question directed to everyone or to you, reply - if so only to say that you don't know the answer.

Holtmistress’ word is law. Just wanted to make that clear. If you have a plot idea that involves something big happening to your elf you have to ask me first. If I say no it doesn’t happen; simple as that.
This doesn’t mean I’ll be yelling orders all the time (if ever). I do prefer to ask what everyone else think before I make decisions that affect more people than me.

Language! Elves don't use modern swear words, nor do they pray to god or say "okay". Make up your own greetings, swear words and expressions; it's part of the fun.

Leave room for others, but take up space too. I promise you that if your elf reacts to things that happen to others they will do the same for you (unless they’re bad role-players of course). Also, there will be moments in the RPG when the story will revolve around one elf or a few elves. When that happens, don’t try to steal the show. Just because you aren’t the center of attention it doesn’t mean your character is meaningless or that you'll have less fun playing. And don’t worry, your turn will come.
I’ll try to give everyone a spot in the limelight in the main plot. If you’re feeling left out, say something! I have loads to do but that’s no excuse for ignore people. If I do, I want to know so I can better myself.

Magic and skill use. Although this is no dice RPG I ask you all to choose realistic magic and skill levels and to act them out correctly. If your elf is a poor fighter going up against a seasoned warrior your elf will probably be defeated in a few seconds.
No invincible elves! Power-gaming is boring for all players involved and thus not allowed (after all, we’re her to have fun, right?)

NPCs. The Non-Player Characters are everything from villains to friends. Basically they’re anyone who’s not part of the survivors’ tribe. Example: Attacking trolls or members of other tribes.
Some NPCs are so important to the plot that only the Holtmistress is allowed to play them; others may be played by anyone or might even be put up for adoption.

React! If the elf next to your elf is choking on a piece of meat or simply sneezes, include your elf's reaction to that in your answering post, even if s/he only looks on with disinterest. Written role-playing games are all about responding to others’ actions and words.

Recognition will work like this: First the Holtmistress will roll a dice. If I get an even number I’ll ask all players with male characters to pick a number between 1 and 20 (for example, it all depends on how many male elves we have in the Holt). If I get an uneven number I’ll ask all players with female characters. You’ll need to pick a number for each of your affected elves.
When I have all the numbers I need I’ll roll another dice to determent who of the selected elves is going to be "the lucky one". I will then look through the possible partners for that elf and decide what pairing would make a good child or an interesting couple (or fight *grin*).
If I feel there is no obvious pairing I’ll resort to throwing a dice again, but I’ll try to avoid that.

Spell check! No one is perfect and a few spelling mistakes here and there won’t kill anyone, but when half of what you’ve written is misspelled the readers tend to get distracted from what it is you’re trying to say.

Starting “Small RPGs”. This can be done at any time, by any member for any reason. You can invite all members to play or play in smaller groups. You can play in the Yahoo!Group or by private e-mail, as long as you gather all the posts so I can put them in the RPG-archive.
If the plot of your Small RPG involves something big (such as attacks by humans, trolls or the death of a character other than your own) you need my permission to play it.

The major plot is planned out by me (Sofia), but I’m always open for ideas. If you have an idea that would mean a bigger change in the plot (ex: Recognition, troll-attack, finding humans, exchanging soul names…) you need my approval to act it out. Chances are good that you get to do it, if it doesn’t completely go against my future plot ideas and you present it in a good way.
Small plots (such as fur-, love- and lifemating, going hunting, picking berries, injuries due to accidents…) don’t need my approval. If you’re not sure if your plot idea is a big or a small one, drop me a line to be on the safe side.

Time-jumps. There will be time-jumps in the RPG to avoid threads like this:
And they walked. And they walked some more. Still walking. Stopped to eat and sleep. More walking. “Oh look, a funny frog!”
A time-jump can be anything from a few hours to years, all depending on the situation in the RPG. If you feel something about your character has been overlooked or that you want to play out something that happened during the time-jump, your always free to start side threads and play that parallel to the current RPG.

Try to keep up to date with what’s happened and what’s happening in the Holt. Check up on the Holt’s timeline, old RPGs and things like that. If you feel you don't really understand what's happening in a RPG, ask. And remember that your elf doesn’t know all that you do!

Volunteers. If you see this word written in an e-mail, the Holtmistress is – rather obviously – looking for volunteers. This could mean I want help playing some NPC:s, that a magic and/or talent is needed to move the plot forward or that I need help with the website.
The rules of volunteering are simple. All you have to do is reply to the post with the request for volunteers. The one (or two, or three, depending on how many characters/players are needed) to reply first will get the NPC, magic, talent or whatever it now is.
You won’t be able to volunteer for two things in a row (unless it’s about helping out with the website). It wouldn’t be fair if the characters of players with more Internet access would get more plot-points than the others, right? Of course if only one player wants to volunteer s/he will be allowed to do so regardless of who it was that volunteered the time before that.

Wanderers. Players are always allowed to create elves that aren't originally from the Tall Tree Holt. But only three wanderers are allowed to join the tribe each RPG season (otherwise it would be hard to explain why no other wanderers than the bird-bloods ever happened upon the Tall Tree Holt).
If you really want to play a wanderer but all the slots are filled for the current RPG season you can still send in a CIS of said wanderer to be approved. You will then be allowed to play this elf as soon as there’s an opening in the RPG. In the meantime you can either chose to wait or adopt an elf and begin playing.
Where your wanderer comes from and why s/he has left his/her tribe is important. The better the character's reasons for wandering are and the more information you've thought up about his/her past tribe, the better the chances for approval get. Try to keep the number of elf tribes down. This world did have more surviving High Ones, but elves are still much fewer than humans. Only two tribes are allowed for each sort of elf-blood (with an exception for pureblooded elves) and if there are I'd really like these two tribes to have ancestors in common, at least way back in time. For example: The only elves who're allowed to have wolf-blood are the Tall Tree Holt elves and elves from Sunsleaf's tribe - exceptions can be made, but only if the wanderer comes from a tribe that's a "split off" from an already existing tribe of the same blood.
If you really want your elf to have a certain type of blood but there already are two tribes with it you can always have your wanderer come from a tribe that already exists. If you do that I suggest you talk with the other wanderers of that tribe so you get to know what that tribe was like and if your character should have any knowledge of their characters (s/he probably should, unless the other wanderers left before your character was born).

When you reply to a mail in the Yahoo!Group remember to save a part of the post you're replying to and write your reply under the previous player's post. This way it will be easier to read.

Write in past tense, third person. Right: Dawngazer walked over to Branchwalker with a smile on her face. Wrong: I walk over to Branchwalker with a smile on my face.

In this Holt we use these symbols:

“Example” means ordinary speech in the elfin/troll language.
**Example** means open elf-sending.
~**Example**~ means locked elf-sending.
::Example:: means animal-sending.
*Example* means the character’s own thoughts.
<Example> means speech in the human language.

OOC: means Out Of Character. When you’re writing OOC you’re writing as yourself, not as your role-playing character(s).
IC: means In Character. It’s mostly used to show that you’ve switched back from writing OOC.

Questions? E-mail me at shadesofia@yahoo.se