With the brand new Harry Potter RPG including the RPG Database, the aim is to have an organised and easy way of finding out who is participating in any particular RPG, and full details of characters and RPGs, in only a couple of mouse clicks. There's also an organised way of creating RPGs and RPG characters too, with all RPG scenarios and characters being subject to approval by an RPG Moderator. But most of all, the aim is for everyone to enjoy great RPGs and to have fun! 
A few basics to start...There is no limit to the number of RPG scenarios or the number that you can join. However, for each different RPG scenario that a you join, you must create a separate, new RPG character.
Starting a totally new RPG
To start a brand new RPG you need to go to the Suggest a RPG scenario page. All new RPGs must be started this way. On the suggestion page you'll be asked to give the following information:
Scenario Title:
Scenario Universe:
Scenario Description:
Month in which the Scenario is set to start:
Year in which the Scenario is set to start:
The Scenario Title will eventually be the title of your RPG thread (more on how the thread is created later). The Scenario Universe should be Harry Potter for HP scenarios or Other Universes for scenarios for non-Harry-Potter scenarios like Stargate, Battlestar Galactica or any others including your own uniquely conceived universe. The Scenario Description can be as long as you like (up to 65535 characters which is the standard text limit for the board). The month and year are the month and year that the scenario is set in. If you leave out any fields, you'll get a friendly error message and be asked to page back to complete the parts you missed out. Once you've completed everything and have clicked on "Submit RPG Suggestion", an email will be sent to the RPG moderators advising them that a new scenario suggestion has been submitted, and the scenario suggestion will go into "wait" mode. This means that it's waiting to be approved (or rejected) by an RPG Moderator.
When RPG Moderators log on, they'll see near the top right of the page, a summary of how many scenarios and also how many characters (more about characters below) are waiting approval, complete with a link to their RPG Moderator Control Panel. Once in their moderator Control Panel, the option of whether to accept or reject any particular scenario is given to the RPG Moderator. Whichever they choose, an email will be sent to the person who suggested the scenario to advise that an RPG Moderator has reviewed their suggestion and advising whether the suggestion has been accepted or rejected. If the scenario suggestion is accepted, please allow the Moderators a little time to create the RPG topic/thread (see below) after you receive the email.
The actual creation of the RPG topic/thread
Only moderators can start new topics in the main RPG forum. This should ensure a very organised RPG forum consisting purely of RPGs and any notices the RPG mods may wish to make (all members can, however, start new topics in the RPG Discussion Area) . If the suggestion (which was created by the Starting a new RPG method above) is accepted, the RPG Moderator will create a new topic in the appropriate forum (Harry Potter scenarios going in the Harry Potter RPG forum, and Other Universes scenarios going in the Other Universes RPG forum). The title of the topic will be the Scenario Title, and the first post created by the RPG Moderator will include the scenario description, month and year in which the scenario is set, a credit to the name of the BaO member who created to RPG suggestion, and a link which will allow members to create a character for that particular RPG.
Creating a New Character
To create a character, simply find the top message in the thread of an RPG that you'd like to join, and click the link which will be in that top post. This will take you to the "Create a RPG Character" page for that particular scenario, where you'll be asked to give:
For Harry Potter RPGs:
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* Character Name:
* Blood:
* Month of Birth:
* Year of Birth:
Year If Student:
...or...Occupation If Adult:
* House:
* Best Subject:
* Worst Subject:
* Height:
* Physical Description:
* Wand:
Pet:
* Best Friend(s):
Broomstick:
Quidditch Position:
* Special Ability:
* Fear or Weakness:
For Other Universes RPGs:
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* Character Name:
* Species:
Tribe, Creed, Race or Blood:
* Month of Birth:
* Year of Birth:
* Occupation or principal life activity:
* Height:
* Physical Description:
* Family, and/or brief history of your character:
Pet:
Best Friend(s):
Enemies:
* Special Ability or Weapon:
* Fear or Weakness:
Other trait specific to this RPG universe:
Most of these are probably self-explanatory. The Blood field in the Harry Potter RPGs is in relation to wizarding blood (for example pure, muggle-blood etc) . You can't choose both an Occupation (if Adult) and a School Year (if Student) for your character, but must choose one or the other. Please take into consideration the date in which the scenario is set and your character's month and year of birth when deciding your character's school year (if Student). Pet, Broomstick and Quidditch Position are optional fields. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory and will give you a friendly reminder if missed out.
Once you've completed everything and have clicked on "Submit Character", an email will be sent to the RPG moderators advising them that a new Character has been submitted, and the character will go into "wait" mode, meaning that the character is waiting to be approved (or rejected) by an RPG Moderator.
Similar to the way scenarios are approved or rejected, the RPG Moderators will have details of any characters waiting approval in their RPG Moderator Control Panel. Once the character has been approved or rejected, an email will be sent to the member who suggested the character, advising them that an RPG Moderator has reviewed the character suggestion, and informing the member whether the character suggestion has been accepted or rejected. Once approved, a character can immediately participate in the RPG and is added to the list of participants in that particular RPG.
Please remember
Only members with an approved RPG character for a particular scenario take part in that scenario.
Member Profiles
Everyone's BaO member profile will now show the name of all RPGs in which they are participating, and their character name in that particular RPG. This is presented in alphabetical order, ordered by the name of the RPG scenario. If you click on the scenario, you can see full details of that scenario, plus the names of all characters participating. If you do not already have a character in that particular scenario, you'll be presented with a button which gives you chance to create a character and join the scenario. Also from the member profile screen you can view full details of any character owned by the particular BaO member. Only approved characters and scenarios are shown in the Profile page - if the member has a character in "wait" mode (see above) the character will not be shown until approved.
General rules
The rules in the RPG Rules and Regulations thread will apply.
More about the RPG discussions Area
If you wish, you may create a poll where other members can vote for or against an RPG suggestion which you may be considering submitting. If you start a poll regarding an RPG suggestion, it may take up to a week to be approved (the week is to allow time for votes to come in). Please remember that whatever the outcome of the poll may be, any suggestion will still need to be approved by a Moderator in the above (Starting a new RPG) way.
Have fun!
And please feel free to ask any questions or make any comments, either in this thread or in the RPG discussions Area. The brand new RPG forum is now open!
[edited 18 October 2009 to incorporate Other Universes RPGs - Paul]
Thanks Phoenix in the Ashes for the reminders which boosted my determination to get things running again.