First off allow me to be the first to welcome you to Dark Times RPG! We are a unique role playing site, in that we focus on actual role playing here. We do offer other fun and interactive aspects such as pets, classes, items and so much more. However, at this point you are probably asking yourself, what should I do now? Well that is easy! Just follow the steps below to get immersed in the world of Harry Potter. Before you start to go down this list, please be sure to Enroll on the site. Be sure to register with the name of the character that you want to play. If the name you are wanting to use is currently in use, you are welcomed to make another account, but please do not use canon character names unless you intend to play that character. Also, we are able to make your username say your character name. JediSerena is a member on the site, but she plays Hannah Abbott, so her username on the marauders map is Hannah Abbott.

We have a 250 word minimum RP sample to get on the site. You are welcome to copy this from existing communitities or games that you are in, but please keep them PG-13 as we are a 13 and over site. We know that some of you wish to play in older communities, but please be informed that we do have Adult Forums for you to play in that regular users do not have access to.

Once you are done and your account has been accepted, please move down from this list and do things in the appropriate order. Thank you, and welcome to Dark Times.

1. Get sorted!
No matter what you decide to do, your character must be sorted into a common room. Death Eaters, Ministry Officials, OOTP members and regular students all have common rooms that they belong to. This is our way of assuring that you will see all announcements and site wide plot advancements. If you decide to be either a ministry of magic, order of the phoenix or death eater, then you will need to be an adult character. If you decide you are going to be a canon character then say so in your sorting application since you will need to be that house. Otherwise, we will try to respect your choice of house but we need to make them all equal in numbers.

2. Read the rules within the RPG Sign up Forum. There are a few things in there that you may find important and helpful, including:
Special Races/Characteristics
Play-By List
Example of accepted competed character forms
These will help you while creating your character.

3. Fill out your character sheet.

All Characters

Please keep in mind that while filling out your applications, no original characters may be related to ANY CHARACTER IN THE HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE. This is to protect from unsightly roleplays, mary-sue/mary-stu(s) and it makes you think about your character more. Even more so, YOU MAY NOT HAVE YOUR ORIGINAL CHARACTER MARRIED TO A CANON CHARACTER FROM THE BOOKS. This is for the same reasoning as above. With that said, you need to decide who you will be here and then copy and paste the character sheet and fill it in by starting a new thread, copying the application form and filling it out in that new thread. Post it when you are done, and viola. Fabulous.

4. Check the Accepted Character Applications to see if your character has been approved for role-play. If it has not been accepted, please check your application to see if the admins have made points or revisions on your application for you to consider and correct. Once you have been accepted, head over to the Avatar Thread and sign up to get one. If you want to make one yourself, then use the same style and make the background transparent and save as .png or .gif. You are not allowed to use any avatar on this site unless it was made on that site. This is to keep things uniform and to give other characters an idea of what your character looks like.

5. Check out the Role Playing Plots forum and see if someone is looking for a role playing partner. This is to save you from jumping into established Role-Plays between existing characters.