GAME RULES AND HINTS (old)
Welcome to Cougar Ridge, a small Colorado town nestled in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. Population...
...well, that's for you to decide. Fancy spending some time here? Then scan through the rules below, and proceed to drop in any time!
GAME RULES AND HINTS
From October 22nd, the latest news from the town of Cougar Ridge will be posted here in Weekly Entries. If you want to be part of things and interact with other townsfolk then first you'll need to create your character(s). This will involve the generation of a new LiveJournal (LJ) account specifically for posting here. For those who don't regularly use LiveJournal, don't worry - it's as free and easy as a free and easy thing. Just follow the prompts at the top of the page, and bear the following stipulations in mind.
Your LJ username MUST be your character's name. First and last name should be separated by a deep hyphen, (eg. james_smith). If the name you want isn't immediately available then prefix it with 'cr', (eg. cr_james_smith). In the interests of the game you can't choose celebrity names, obvious puns or overtly silly names (so no tom_cruise, ivan_itchyarse or billybob_bumblebutt, please). Also, try not to choose a name that's too similar to a character already in the game (so, if there's already a James Smith, preferably don't call your character James or Smith). You'll also need an avatar picture that depicts your character's face. Similarly these pictures also shouldn't be of famous people. A good source of purloinable portrait photographs can be found at hairstyle gallery sites such as THIS - or, if you want something a bit more snazzy, there's THIS . In most cases you'll need to crop your avatar to LJ specs; 100x100 pixels should be fine. (Don't feel bad about stealing. Life's too short.)
LJ requires you to enter an email address for validation and activation. You DON'T have to go the trouble of creating a bogus email account for your character, but once your new account is open it IS crucial that you then go and edit your profile to hide this address so that other players don't work out which players are in control of which characters. The key to total immersion in this game is for every player to remain anonymous behind his or her characters, to establish the integrity of this fictional world. Don't enter any 'real' information that may give you away.
Players can create up to THREE characters and diversity is encouraged as much as possible, in terms of gender, age, personality and occupation. In other words, a population composed entirely of ultracool Johhny Depp-a-likes, nubile cheerleaders and tough-as-nails ex-cops would get boring pretty quickly; as well as these types of characters we need a healthy cross-section of townsfolk such as schoolteachers, firefighters, doctors, bookstore owners, accountants, watchmakers, and whatever else you can think of. Surprise your fellow players; even if your occupation is normal, you can be strange as a pink porcupine underneath, right?
The Game Moderator will post a new Main Entry every Monday designed to advance the story of Cougar Ridge and its townsfolk. Each character can reply up to FIVE TIMES to each Main Entry by clicking on 'Leave Comment' at the bottom of the entry. Replies should be made to the Main Entry ONLY, NOT in reply to other characters' entries. And, I can't stress this enough, characters should also NOT write in their own journal. Characters should develop and interact only through commenting on the Main Entry, so that other players can keep track of events and character progression simply through reading THIS journal and not having to go searching through individual player journals.
Players should attempt to limit their posts to under 500 words (spare a thought for those reading through them all) and they must be written in first person, either as standard prose or in the style of a diary entry.
Your character can be whoever and whatever you want them to be so long as they are NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS - so, no aliens, robots, vampires or lycanthropes, no psychic powers or astral projection or flying, no talking cats, etc. However, mystery, dark and dirty secrets, salaciousness and disturbed mental states are all welcome, and you'll soon discover that the town itself has its own ambience of the supernatural. Humour is also encouraged, but NOT slapstick piss-taking that detracts from the game (eg. a character such as Billybob Buttbumble, the third Baron of Bumchester, will probably be amusing for about ten seconds but will then be utterly annoying. So, please, don't do it).
Characters can freely interact with any of the other townsfolk, with only one provision - you cannot impose direct consequences on another player's character. For example, your character can make romantic advances towards another character, or attack them with a bread knife, or spy on them, or claim that you think they're having an affair, but you cannot explicitly state that the other character in question returns those advances, or dies from blood loss after being attacked, or reveals that they're a secret transvestite whilst spied upon, or declare DEFINITIVELY that they're having an affair. It's the responsibility of other players to respond to whatever scenario is presented to them and their characters. It's often a lot of fun to pick up the threads other players leave and run with them, but sometimes a player will want to steer their character clear of a potential storyline rather than embrace it and they should always have the courtesy of that option.
In the interests of the game, all posts will be strictly moderated. If any character posts more than five times against a Weekly Entry then the additional posts will most likely be deleted. If any player posts out of character, either by accident or design, that post will be deleted. If anyone sets out to flame another player or character the post will be deleted and that character banned. If any post flagrantly contravenes the No Consequences rule, the post will be deleted (unless the character who is on the receiving end is completely happy to take up that thread, in which case it can stand). If any character does not post at least once in any 21-day period (three Main Entries) they will be removed from the game. A player has the right to permanently remove one of his or her own characters from the game at any time, either by killing them or having them leave the town, and thus be able to create a new character without breaking the three-character rule, but in this instance the departing character can never return.
If you want to leave the game temporarily but want your character to continue to exist, contact me at themadhooker@gmail.com with the LJ account password and I can take over for you for the interim. If you particpiate in this game for a period but then decide you want to stop completely, through boredom or lack of time or for any reason, please show fellow players a measure of courtesy by either attempting to close out any storylines you may be involved in or by sending me your account details at the above address. The previous Cougar Ridge game suffered from characters vanishing mid-story as players drifted away, and this is unfair on other players.
As the voice of the town the moderator also has to abide by the No Consequences rule, but can introduce story elements in the Main Entries at any time that will inevitably encroach upon the lives of your characters. The moderator can personally create and control more than three characters at any time for the express purposes of the game. The tone that will be strived for is an edgy, twisted version of The Sims, with elements of quirky tv shows such as Twin Peaks, Lost and Northern Exposure, but the potential is always there for the narrative to head off in completely unanticipated directions.
It shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to create a character account, including finding a photograph. Thereafter it's up to you how much you interact with other characters, how creative you are, or how often you post (provided it's at least once every 21 days per character just to 'check in'). That's not much effort on your part to enter into what could prove to be a very rewarding and entertaining environment. So what are you waiting for? Go create! New players and characters can join in at any time.
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS POST. If you have any questions or comments, please E-mail me with “Cougar Ridge” in the subject line.
NOTE: If you wish to read the original Cougar Ridge game it can be found HERE , but this isn't necessary to enjoy or participate in this new game.