Before Playing
1. Set yourself up with stats. You can do this in the Quidditch Points Room - get there by typing +ooc from anywhere on the game to get into the OOC Commonroom and then type 'qpr.' Initiate the setup process by typing +quid/setup. It's fairly straightforward. If you need help, check out the Stat System page or talk to a newbie greeter on the MUSH. Don't forget to type +quid/finish when you're through!
2. Join a team. Students can @mail the captains in their house. To find out who your captains are, check out the Hogwarts rosters. Adults can @mail the captains of the team they'd like to join - see the adult rosters to find out who they are.
Practicing
Practicing is the main way to gain more stat points to get better at Quidditch. You gain one stat point per practice, regardless of whether it is an "official" team practice or not, to a maximum of two points per week. (You're certainly welcome to RP more than that, you just will only get two points.)
Some practices are scheduled by your team captain. Watch @mail and bboard 21 for your captain to announce an upcoming practice.
More common are impromptu practices, frequently planned spur-of-the-moment on the Quidditch channel (for Hogwarts students) or the SSSQ League channel (for adults). If you're on a team, you're on the appropriate channel! The channel tag for Quidditch is =qui and the tag for SSSQ is =ssl. Feel free to grab whoever's online and head down to the pitch to throw a ball around.
In order to ensure you get your practice points, one person at the practice needs to @mail Collin with a list of those present. Try and coordinate amongst yourselves to make sure only one person sends the mail or it gets confusing come points day. Points are handed out every OOC Saturday.
Playing Games
The game is started by the referee using the +tossup command. This will decide which team goes first.
Rounds
The new code runs on a rounds system. The round system allows for better inclusion of all players. Basically, each of the 7 members of the team have the opportunity to execute a command and pose each round. No player may execute commands twice in one round. So the code recognizes that all players have had their turn, there is a +skip command that allows the player to elect not to attempt anything with the code in their turn. That player may then pose simply doing nothing.
You always enter the command first and pose the result second. You should include in your pose whether your command succeeded or failed (i.e., you pass the Quaffle and it succeeds, so say that your teammate caught it; you take a shot with the Quaffle and it fails to go through so include that no goal was scored) but you don't need to include details where other players' actions are concerned - this way no one is really powerposing. Poses should be kept to three lines or less as much as possible once the game has started.
The teams alternate in poses. Take the following example:
A player from Team A uses a command and poses the result.
A player from Team B uses a command and poses the result.
Another player from Team A poses, but not the the same as before.
Ditto for Team B.
This continues until all 7 players on each team have had a turn to execute a command and pose.
The order in which the players pose in one round does not have to carry over into the next round. If the captain directs his team in Round 1 so they play in the order Seeker, Beater, Chaser, Chaser, Keeper, Chaser, Beater, they can have their players go in a different order in Round 2. This allows for a lot of strategizing.
Quaffle Scores
Although ICly they are still worth 10 points, the code awards 30 points for a Quaffle score. This makes the end scores look a little more realistic.
On Teams
The code depends on rosters being up to date on the Quidditch channel, right up to who plays what position and who is or isn't an alternate player. This is why so many commands no longer require targets to be specified.
All games will now be played with seven players. Although four of these must be played by actual humans, the captain will be allowed to +force (same idea as @force) three unconnected players to use their commands, which will all run off of their own stats. If a team does not have a full seven players, no NPCs will be created for them - they must do without. This means if you have no Keeper the code will have all opposing Chasers take shots against straight zero stats. (So recruit, captains!)
If you have five human players it is definitely recommended you allow them all to actually play and RP, regardless of whether they are alternates or not. (If two of your first string Chasers and one alternate Chaser are on, ask the referee to switch that alternate in so they may play.) If someone logs on who is currently being +forced, they may start entering their own commands without fear of messing up the code. Conversely, if a regular player needs to leave during a match, they can safely disconnect without hurting anything. (Just don't go 'home' first.) The captain can then +force them. Captains can use +force on players who are connected as well.
Note that the code automatically emits something for players who are not connected when they are +forced. However, if a captain is +forcing a player who is connected for whatever reason (they're AFK, idle, whatever), the captain will need to emit something for that player.
Also note that the code requires that all non-alternate team members are present on the pitch. Unconnected players will be @teleported to the pitch before the game starts so the code may access their stats. Team members who connect during a game must remain on the pitch to allow the code to access their stats.
Substitutions
As the code now allows for players to be knocked off their brooms (and therefore right out of the game), there will be occurences where teams find themselves without full rosters of seven mid-game. No substitutions will be permitted to cover for fallen players! Captains will have to insert a blank turn (+blank turn) in place of these players on any turn during a round. (They don't have to go at the end or the beginning - captains can continue to use these blank turns strategically.)
Alternates
The code pulls stats of players depending on who is on the Quidditch channel, and who is set as an alternate. In order for a team to be "full" they must have only seven players in the correct positions (three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper, one Seeker) with their 'alt' fields on the Quidditch channel set to 'No.' (This tells the code they are "first string" players.) Captains who do not have their teams arranged in this manner need to contact Collin to have it fixed. You can check the team rosters with the command +quid [team name] where [team name] is sly, gry, hfl, or rav. Alternates cannot be subbed in during a game.