Post by Ido on Apr 5, 2008 13:41:08 GMT -5
Cowdog Up is set in Oregon during the mid to late 1880’s. It primarily takes place in the Willamette Valley region, an area that is thick with rich soil, and composed of green hills as far as the eye can see. It is within several days travel to the Pacific Coast, and the region is known for its impressive agricultural production. Post civil war, with the expansion of the railroad, Western expansion was not only more facilitated, but Oregon’s lumber, wheat and other agricultural exploits boomed.
Cowdog up focuses on the lives of the working dogs in this day, although other canines that are not necessarily employed in agricultural work are also welcome to join. However, the one thing that deters many potential members, but also makes us unique, is that we are to remain 90% mongrel at all times. It was rare during the 1800’s to have a specific breed of dog, if it could do the required work it was usually fed and thus lived. That is not to say that specific breeds weren’t in the United States for perhaps the dog fighting sport or cart pulling, but they would be considered rather exotic. Please, before you start to create a character, take note of in our status if we are currently accepting purebreds. The likelihood that we may be is low, but you can always try. Playing a purebred dog is also a privilege that can be earned here, and we will hold at least one contest every two months to allow another person to try for a purebred character, if they so desire.
As far as wild canines go and wild canine hybrids, we do welcome them, but we will be taking care to ensure that it does not exceed 50% of the site. The only wild dogs that we allow are stray domestic dogs, timber wolves, coyotes, wolf dogs and coy dogs. As you may notice, we currently do not have any packs for coyotes or wolves established. Currently, all wild canines are considered nomadic until there are enough members and enough character development for one character and perhaps their established mate to earn pack lands.
We are an intermediate to advanced role playing site, and I will not necessarily count every post to make sure it is in compliance with our 150 word limit. I am far more concerned with content. If you can post 700 words of description, but don’t provide any action for other characters to react to, then you may get cited. Getting cited here isn’t necessarily negative; you’ll just get a discrete PM from me, and if it has anything to do with post length or content, you will just get a citation. Three citations add up to a warning. Other more serious violations of our rules, such as abusive OOC content, delinquency of greater than one week in replying to a thread without notifying your other thread participants, or posting without first being accepted, will result in a warning. More than two warnings will get you and your IP address banned from this site. I’m not much of a hard ass, so accidents I will overlook, but blatant disrespect to me or your other members will not be tolerated.
One last note on content, I would like to keep this site as historically accurate as possible. For example, most of the dogs, regardless of if you are owned or not, will probably spend most if not all of their time off leash and roaming as they please. Because of this, bands of dogs will become established in town, regardless of if you are a stray or an employed canine. Also, if you get a chance to make a purebred, or you’re constructing a mutt for which the percentage is known, please keep in mind what breeds were even in America at that time or established. For this site, it is much easier to just find a picture of a dog that you like instead of worrying about percentages and purebred history. Do your research if you would like to play a purebred, and be capable of providing me a link to a website or a reference to a book to provide historical accuracy. This is the only thing I will be necessarily stringent about, but realize that this is essentially the Wild West. Don’t incorporate technology that doesn’t belong here and other such components of the modern era.
Thank you for your time and I hope you choose to join us and have some fun!
Ido
Administrator and owner of Cowdog Up!