On this page you will find some questions (and answers to those questions) that are commonly asked by people who are new to the warren, thinking about joining, or just visiting us.  The FAQ is here to prevent me from having to answer the same questions over and over again each time a new person decides to ask it.  Hopefully it will also prevent people from having to take time out to ask me the question that's been asked over and over again in the first place!  So before you decide to ask me (or any other warren members, for that matter) a question, it's a good idea to read the FAQ first.  Your question may be answered here, which then means that you don't have to take the time to ask the question, and none of us have to take the time to answer it for the hundreth time!  (Phew!  Kinda confusing and frustrating, isn't it?)

Use this to help you locate a question on this page. Try clicking "Find" more than once to locate the next instance of the search term on the page if the first click didn't turn up what you were looking for.
 

Q: Who is the rabbit in the "logo" image on the top of every page on the site, and who drew him?
A: The rabbit is Blackadder-rah. I drew him. :-)

Q: After I submit my form to join the warren, can I start role playing right away, or do I have to wait a few days until my member page is put up?
A:  After sending me your signup submission, you have to go ahead and start role playing in order to be accepted and have your member pages put up. You just start playing and if you're not just posting junk, you'll be accepted as a member and your pages will be put up.

Q:  What happens if a rabbit from another warren travels to Nildro-inlé?
A:  When a rabbit from another warren comes to visit our warren, we usually are expecting them to come, or they've come before so we already know who they are and where they're from.  Usually the player of the visitor lets us know in some subtle way that they're from, say, Nepenthes Warren for example, by including that information in their first post on the board.  "Crabgrass was tired from making the long journey from Nepenthes to Nildro-inlé" is a great example of this.  Now, when other members become curious about Crabgrass and his player, they know to look at the member listing at Nepenthes Warren to find out more about him, and perhaps more importantly, they know that Crabgrass isn't a weirdo or spammer who happened to randomly come across our role playing board and disturb us.

Q:  How do I make the accented 'e' in 'Nildro-inlé'?
A:  That's a really good question.  I asked it myself when I got my new PC.  On a Mac, if I remember correctly, to make any accented letter, it's Ctrl+ '+ the letter.  On a PC, there are a couple ways of doing it.  The first is Ctrl+ ' and then the letter, according to some instructions my dad had the computer spit out for me ("spit out" meaning "print" ;-) ), but for some reason, that doesn't work for me.  What DOES work for me is Alt + 0233 on my PC, which specifically makes the accented 'e'.  Also, Alt + 0250 will make an accented 'u'.  Thanks to Tormentil for this information :-)

Q:  What's with all the rules and regulations?  I thought this was supposed to be fun!
A:  It is fun!  After all, it's a game.  And just like any other game, rules are needed to keep things running smoothly with a minimum of misunderstandings and stomach ulcers.  And compared to, say, Monopoly, there really aren't that many rules here.  Check out the Role Playing Rules and Guidelines page for more information.

Q:  Can I play an elil (rabbit enemy) here?
A:  Yes and no.  You may create new characters who are elil to fit in with new story lines on the board, but once that story is "over", the elil needs to leave, although you may bring it back for use in future story lines.  It doesn't necessarily need to be killed off.  Only rabbits can be permanant members of the warren and the RPG.  I've made this decision based on past experience in this and other warrens, so please don't argue with me about it.  That's why I created Fox River Valley, an RPG specifically for the elil of Watership Down.

Q:  Who is Posy-rah?
A:  Posy-rah was the original founder of Nildro-inlé Warren, although back then it was called "Posy-rah's Warren."  You can find out more about Posy-rah on our Posy-rah Page.

Q:  What does "Nildro-inlé" mean?
A:  "Nildro-inlé" is Lapine.  Directly translated, it means "Song-moon", but in English, that would be "Moon-song." The "i" in "inlé" is NOT capitalized in this case, because here the word "inlé" means "moon," not "Inlé" as in the Black Rabbit of Inlé. So, please don't capitalize the "i" in the word "inlé" of "Nildro-inlé," because it annoys me greatly. ;-)

Q:  How can I get to the other warrens that Nildro-inlé sometimes role plays with?
A:  You will find links to these warrens and information about their relationships with Nildro-inlé on the links page.

Q:  What do I do if I decide I don't want to be a member anymore?
A:  We'll be sorry to see you go, but if you want to leave, all you have to do is e-mail Blackadder-rah (me) and say you don't want to be a member anymore.  Then, I'll remove your character(s) and your player profile from the listings for you.

Q:  What do I do if I want my player profile or any of my character profiles updated or changed?
A:  Just e-mail me from the e-mail address you signed up with, and tell me what exactly it is that you want me to change for you.

Q:  Will you draw my character for me?
A:  YES, but not for free. Since I've become so busy lately with college classes, and since I'm in desperate need of money, I have decided to take commissions from people who want me to draw their characters. I charge a flat rate of $20 U.S. dollars for a basic computer graphic of your character with a simple background. If you want a more complicated background or you want your character to be in a special pose other than just sitting up on their hind legs, the price will go up. If you're interested in having me draw your character, just e-mail me and tell me what you'd like, and I'll tell you how much it will cost you and how long it will take me to do. Once you have a final decision on what you want and I tell you what it will cost, we can discuss payment methods and everything else.

Q:  Who is Gelphi-rah?
A:  Gelphi-rah is Blackadder-rah's mother, and the previous Chief Rabbit of Nildro-inlé warren.

Q:  Who is Blackadder-rah's father?
A:  Although it was once believed that Gelphi-rah's 'sort-of' mate Talec while her real mate was missing was their father, he is not.  Lilian, Gelphi's true mate and the former Supreme Captain of Owsla, is.

Q: Does Blackadder-rah have any siblings?
A: Yes, he has one sister, his littermate Wysteria, who now lives at Nepenthes warren.

Q:  How many characters am I allowed to play here?
A:  This is a kind of touchy subject. My original policy for this was that a person could play as many characters as they wanted here as long as they kept them all at lest semi-active. Now, however, I've decided to change the rule. You may play at the MOST between 3 and 5 characters, if you can keep that many active. (If any of your characters are inactive for a month, they will be removed from the character listing.) This is so that if you go on vacation or something of the like, the plot won't have to come grinding to a halt until you come back. I hope everyone understands why I had to revise this rule.

Q:  How do you mate?
A:  If you want your character to become a parent, he/she needs to have a consenting mate. If you really want your character to be a parent and none of the other existing characters want to be your character's mate, then you can go ahead and sign up another character of the opposite sex that will be your other character's mate, although that's no fun. Now comes the tricky part. Since nothing graphic or of a sexual nature is allowed on the board, you kinda have to skip the writing of that part. Then at the appropriate time in the plot, you can announce somehow that your female character is pregnant. If the female isn't played by you, you'll have to leave that to them pretty much. Otherwise, if they don't plan on having kittens for the time being, your character and their mate can just be a happy pair of G-rated lovebirds.

Q: Are my character's kittens considered NPCs, or played characters?
A: Your character's kittens can be whatever you want them to be. You can arrange for other players to "adopt" one of your character's kittens that they can then play themselves in the RPG. Keep in mind, though, the rule regarding the maximum number of characters a person may play, and choose a person that you trust to be a good player of your character's kitten. If that player allows the kitten character to become inactive for a month, then the kitten will be removed from the character listing, just like any other character. In all honesty, it's much easier to have NPC kittens that you can pretty much forget about when they grow up, unless you decide to let someone else play one of them. Some kittens are fully played characters and active members of the warren, even when one or both of their parents has died or become an inactive character.

Q:  How do you fight?
A:  Fighting is a little bit like mating. When you fight another rabbit in character, you're still restricted to playing your own character. That means that you can only make your own character's moves, and it's up to the player of the character you're fighting whether their rabbit jumps to the side and yours misses them completely, is injured, or even is killed. For example, you can write that your character is lunging at another person's character with their teeth and claws out and is aiming for the other character's left foreleg, but you have to stop at that. Now, it's up to the player of the character your rabbit is attacking to decide if and how their character is injured. It might get frustrating at times, but there's really nothing you can do about it, unless I become annoyed and yell at the player of the character that your character is fighting. Awhile back, just before Nepenthes Warren was created, a fox played by an anonymous guest player (those aren't allowed anymore!) took the liberty of ripping one of my characters' shoulders out during a fight scene. Had that person been a member of the warren, they would have been kicked out immediately for what they did.

Q:  What's up with this thing where deceased characters are labeled as such instead of removed from the character listing?
A:  I realized that just because a character dies doesn't mean that it never existed in the Nildro-inlé "universe". So now, instead of just deleting deceased characters from the character listing, they are left up but labeled as being deceased. A deceased character was a living, played character at one time, but now that it's no longer living, it just isn't played, which isn't quite the same thing as being inactive.

Q:  What if I join the warren and I never actually play my character?
A:  You used to be able to do that, but because so many people were doing it and making me waste my time putting up character profiles for characters that never showed up in the RPG, it's not possible for you to do that anymore. This is because of a new rule. The new rule is simple: After sending me your signup submission, instead of waiting for me to e-mail you telling you that you've been accepted, you have to go ahead and start role playing in order to be accepted and have your member pages put up. That's right, no more waiting for an e-mail from me that never came or for me to actually put up your pages. You just start playing and if you're not just posting junk, you'll be accepted as a member and your pages will be put up. Characters and players who are inactive for 30 days will still be removed from the listings without warning.

Q:  Am I too old/young to be a member of the RPG?
A:  No one's ever too old to be a member of the RPG unless they're perhaps 90 years old and the arthritis in their hands is so bad that they're incapable of using a computer keyboard. As far as being too young, this is the rule: If you're under 13 years old, you need to get your parents' permission to join the RPG, as stated on the Join page. I consider this to be a pretty safe environment as far as online environments go, but it's still a good idea to let your folks know what you're up to when you go online so that they can keep watch over you, and protect you. Not only that, but fairly recently a law was passed in the United States which requires kids under 13 to have their parents' consent before submitting any personal information on the internet.

Q:  How can I "adopt" a character that another player is giving up?
A:  You must work that out with that character's player. If they give you the O.K. to take over the character, then they (not you) need to e-mail me telling me so before you can let me know what changes, if any, you want me to make to the character's profile page.

Q:  How do I go about playing a character that I adopted?
A:  If you adopt a character, you should really do your best to play that character as the original player did, keeping in mind the character's personality, past, etc. Unless the original player says otherwise, be consistent in your continuation of their character. If you want a unique character of your own creation, then create one!

Q:  How does character aging work?
A:  It doesn't. LOL. ;-) Seriously, though, I've set up a new aging system that should work pretty well. There are six different life stages characters can be at: newborn, kitten, adolescent, adult, senescent adult (senescent is a fancy word which basically means "aging"), and senior. You can create a character at any life stage you wish, and when the time is right, your character will advance to the next life stage. At that point you must e-mail me letting me know that your character has advanced a life stage. The trick is knowing when your character should advance a life stage. Pay attention to the seasons in the RPG, and how much your character has progressed. It's mainly based on your own judgment call.

Q:  I need to contact another role player privately, but their e-mail address is secret! How can I e-mail them?
A:  One way to get the player in question's e-mail address is to e-mail me and ask for it. Another way is to take a peek at the HTML source of the player's profile page. Maybe then you'll find what you're looking for exactly where it should be. If you can't figure out my mysterious clue, though, just go ahead and e-mail me asking for the player's e-mail address. ;-)

Q:  What's with the PayPal "Donate" button on the navigation frame? If I make a donation, what exactly am I supporting?
A:  I had originally planned to raise money through donations to put towards making the role playing and message boards ad-free for a year. Since everyone I know hates online ads, I figured that the role players at Nildro-inlé would eagerly donate some cash in order to get rid of the ads on our boards. I was surprised to find that that was definitely NOT the case. Not a single person donated any money in the few months after I put up the donation button. I take this to mean that I am the only person who is irritated by the ads on the boards, so I have decided to discontinue that fund raiser and forget about making the boards ad-free. The donation button will stay up, however. Now, instead of having the option to donate to the cause of making the boards ad-free, you have the option to donate to support this site in general.

Q:  Do I have to make a donation? How much money should I donate?
A:  As before, no one is obligated or should feel obligated to make a donation. Donations are very much appreciated, especially if you can spare at least $5 U.S. dollars.

Q:  What's up with the "Shop" page? I think you're just trying to get money out of me!
A:  The shop page was added to the site first and foremost as a convenience to anyone at the site who wants to buy Watership Down merchandise from Amazon.com. It isn't there just to make money off of you, as someone once accused me of (I won't name names, of course). It is true that if someone buys something through the "Shop" page at this site, I get a very small percentage of the sale from Amazon.com. To this day, no one has bought anything through the "Shop" page, and I have not recieved any money from it. Yet I have never said anything to anyone about the "Shop" page on this site or tried to advertise it at all. If that doesn't prove that I'm not just interested in getting money, then I don't know what does. I have to say that I do NOT appreciate being accused of having the "Shop" page up just to get money.