For those who run Hogwarts RPGs, or similar AU ones that require students being placed in different houses, how do you sort the students?

Do you let them choose their house themselves? If so, has that proved to be a good choice? What problems have you faced with this option?

Or does an admin pick the house for them? If so, how do you make the decision? Do you base the choice from the member's bio application only? Or are there outside factors, such as the member's wishes or the houses that desperately need characters? And, once again, what problems have you faced sorting this way?



As a member of such type forums, which do you prefer?



On B³, we've done the sorting both ways. We started out with the admins choosing the house. Our decisions we based partly on the application, but mostly on where we needed students and where we thought a particular character would fit in the best. Of course, we did have input from the member; namely which house they really wanted, and which they really didn't. It may not have been the best choice, but we did what we had to in order to keep the houses roughly equal.

As we got more members and our numbers were more comfortable, we began to loosen up and allowed the members to choose their house. And things seem to work well for the higher years. But at the start of a new term (which we're currently at), the equilibrium isn't there; all new first year characters have flocked to a single house, while the others are bare. =/

At AVA, the player can decide what house they'd like their character to be in and list it in their profile; I try to make sure that it sounds reasonable with their character (keeping in mind that some people don't fit the stereotypes, and some people have associated traits in unusual ways). But I do keep in mind house balance, so that one house isn't getting more characters than another.

As a player, I like to have some say in what house my character ends up in, even if I'm ranking the four from best to worst.

At Bridgerton, we sort students according to which house fits them the most. House Information is shown on the sidebar, and each house is given a definition with regard to their traits and ambitions and all that jazz.

We base it mostly on the character's personality in their application. Of course nothing is ever exact, but we compare according to which traits are closer to the personality description. But yes, I agree to house balance as well, and that helps out in sorting muchly too!

I mostly have a field in the application where they can fill out in which house they 'prefer' to be in and where they have to write down why the character would fit there the best. It worked for me really. And if an admin/mod who looked over the application thought the character would be better suited in another house, it would simply be discussed with the member.

If we had one house who got too big we just put up a notice about it that we wouldn't accept anymore of one house until the others were filled up a bit. I'm never that strict on houses though. If a member makes it work, I'm fine with it ^^.

I am with ShinLi here - we allow the user 90% of the vote when it comes to what house they want. At the end of the day, they need to be happy with what house they are playing in but if a house inflates then we "suggest" that a user asks for another house.

A lot of people don't mind which house they are in but I know some members who will leave over being "incorrectly sorted."

And to be honest - is it a problem if one house gets too big? Is there such a thing as too big?

I just let members choose the house their character is in and if I ever get around to looking at their profile and I think their character is really in the wrong house I will talk to them about it. Pretty much everything on NMTB is the player's choice.

I don't care about house balance and I never have. We have 8 in Gryffindor, 6 in Hufflepuff, 9 in Slytherin, 9 in Ravenclaw (heh so few!). Mostly it's fairly even.

As a player I don't mind choosing myself or being Sorted. I like it when there are elaborate Sorting procedures ^_^

I've had bad experiences with houses. Now, I make an admin choose based on the app and such. If someone doesn't like it then we can discuss options. I'd say why I put them in that house and such. Most of time I don't have a problem though so it' okay

It tends not to matter so much with non-Hogwarts schools, although I have had people get stroppy with me because they wanted to be in the 'green one'. When it comes to Hogwarts RPs, the member can sometimes end up thinking of the house as they write the application, because they're familiar with the houses in the book. When the admin interprets differently, you get problems.

Tally's house traits fall differently to Hogwarts, and as I don't expect new members to have a thorough understanding of the house characteristics, it's easier for an admin to sort than the member. This is done through a review of the personality, and picking which house suits best.

Yes - this does lead to the occasional imblance. We've had an unnatural flock of Sturt students (quiet, somewhat cunning, quick), and though we don't actively try to balance out the houses, if a character falls evenly between two or three houses, we will generally pick the least populated house.

It gets difficult sometimes, 'knowing' where a character should be. Some characters you just get a general feel for (and with Tally being open nearly two years, and St Kates (which had the same fall of characteristics) being open two years before that... it comes naturally most of the time. But in those occasions where it's really fuzzy, the less populated house will win out.

Random input from a member's perspective:

I've given up caring. Honestly. Though I have to agree with Mousie about forming the character after the house and then getting frustrated when the admin puts you in a different house. I've had that happen once or twice maybe, but I didn't really make a deal about it because . . . it's a game. It's not like I'm really going to be put into Hufflepuff and that will determine my career in real life.

However, it really does suck getting put into Hufflepuff when everyone else is in a much cooler house. Honestly . . . being alone in any house is crappy. "Hellooooo I'm running naked around my common room because there's no one else to see me!"

We ask for "preferred house" in the application. Usually, the person has written an application that reflects the sort of character that would get into the house they've chosen, so it's fine.

If their character doesn't sound like, say, a Hufflepuff like they've said, we ask that they either change their preferred house or their character's personality.

Because if there's one thing I can't stand, it's the stereotypical Slytherin-bitch-girl but applying to be a Gryffindor...

As a player I don't particularly mind, because sometimes I don't really realize before hand where my characters truly belong. I prefer not to fully develop my characters (which is why I hate long apps that require that sort of thing) right away, because things always seem to change a bit when I'm writing. At the first RPG I was at (hp, of course!) they did it by random, but even sorting. For both characters there, by the time I left the site, I wouldn't have chosen any other house for either of them than the ones they had been given. And here I was thinking I wanted anything but Slytherin for my first charrie. :green: :lol:

As an administrator though, I think it's best to give the players a fair say, because I know some people create a huge history for their characters before joining. So sorting is a "list the houses in order of preference and we'll try to give you what we want as best we can" but I would prefer to keep the houses somewhat balanced so no one gets lonely in one or the other.

I don't agree, TurkFox. My bitch-girl got put into Gryffindor when I was fully expecting Slytherin (though did not request it). Some admins like to look a little deeper into applications. "Meanness" is not a quality Slytherin valued. She was put in Gryffindor, even though she is not a pleasant person, because she is bold and does not back down from her beliefs. I was at first a little surprised at her placement, but that's just because I was thinking they'd just go for generalized stereotypes. I like her in Gryffindor- it's great fun.

i let people choose their own houses.
but if i read the personality and the person's all evil and wanting to be in hufflepuff, even if they claim that they were a black sheep and the sorting hat put them in the wrong place and they wanted to be a slytherin, i'd tell them that it'd change.

Thanks so much for the input! (And more is always loved *hint*hint*).

I think that for B³, we're going to continue to let the members choose their house, but they'll need to explain why they feel that's the house for them.

I'm a mod on a HP board and there people choose a house in their application and nine times out of ten the review team have no problem with it. Occasionally however we will ask someone to either change house or tweak their personality section to fit their original house just because canon is canon, though we have no problem with people who are not stereotypical members of a house so long as they have some traits of it. We also have a limit of six characters per sex, per year, per house, so if someone applied to a full year/house we would ask them to change house or age just to keep balance. If we hadn't we would probably have had a whole school of sixth year Slytherin boys.

I used to run a HP RPG called Always Hogwarts and I let my members choose their own house. Hufflepuff had 2 or 3 members the entire time it was running. I think if I was to do it again, I would choose a house for each member in order to maintain the equilibrium that kind of RPG requires. It's not fair to the one or two people who honestly chose Hufflepuff because their common room is pretty unexciting all the time and like any other player, they deserve a wide range of players to interact with.