Information for Parents

information for parents and guardians
basic information
If you're reading this, it's because a minor in your care has expressed an interest in joining Shaman and wants your approval. Congratulations on raising a writer!

I should imagine your first question is, just what the heck is this place? Shaman is a literary roleplaying game; an online community of writers who just want to practice their writing and have fun. We're a support network of like-minded people here to help your son or daughter to develop his or her passion for writing. On Shaman, members will roleplay as fictional characters in fictional situations.

History begins with the invention of writing. Prior to writing, the timeline refers to 'prehistory'; once writing develops, so does civilisation. Even if your son/daughter doesn't want to be a novelist or a journalist when they grow up, writing is an incredibly powerful and useful tool which will help them throughout their life. Simply being able to write with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation will skyrocket employability, and the ability to write creatively is a wonderful skill to bring to any job application.

Roleplaying:

Teaches the technicalities of writing, including grammar, punctuation and spelling.
Gives lots of practice. If someone is writing every week, then they are bound to get better at it.
Helps young people to express their emotions in a healthy way. Teenagers can be very emotional and hormonal; writing is an expressive activity which many young people use to work through issues, especially if they feel they can't talk about these things to other people. It also helps to put things in perspective if your character is going through a tougher time than you are!
Provides a support network of like-minded people who are ready to help with anything at the bat of an eyelid. Your son/daughter has the advantage of meeting people who may be able to help them with things like university or job applications, as well as making friends for life. Most people find it easier to talk through their problems with someone through the internet rather than face-to-face.
Teaches creative thinking skills and helps to develop the imagination.
Teaches critical thinking and analytical skills.

is my child safe?
As a concerned parent, it's only natural to be worried about your son/daughter interacting with other people from all over the world and of varying ages on the internet. We encourage parents who let their children play online games unsupervised to take these safety steps:

Make sure you know your stuff! There are loads of websites which help teach parents internet safety. You can try Love Our Children or Kids Health.
Make sure your son/daughter is aware of the dangers of the internet. Let them know that if they're unsure about joining a game, you're there to help them if they need you.
Encourage your son/daughter to adopt an "online alias" so that they're not using their real name when interacting with others over the internet.
Make sure your son/daughter doesn't give out specific personal details (such as full name, phone number, address, school name) to anyone over the internet.
Trust your son/daughter. Respect works both ways, and your son/daughter is more likely to take their safety seriously and to take responsibility for themselves if you give them a little leash. Encourage openness with your son/daughter and let them know that you're happy to talk about anything to do with the internet with them, but try not to snoop.

is shaman suitable for my child?
We don't like to give Shaman a 'game rating' for two reasons. Firstly, it's down to the individual post (piece of writing) rather than the game; different posts can be rated different ages. Secondly, it encourages the idea that all young people of a specific age have the same maturity level. The type of people who roleplay tend to be maturer-minded people anyway. We leave it down to parents and to the prospective members themselves to decide if they're mature enough for Shaman.

Shaman can contain references to sex or violence and swearing. Some fictional characters on the game may incite hatred or express racist, sexist or other offensive comments. We ask all members to put a warning at the top of their posts to let people know whether their writing contains any of these themes, so that other members can simply avoid it if they don't want to come into contact with them. We ask players to keep graphic descriptions to a bare minimum and pornography and graphic sex scenes are banned.

Shaman, its parents, affiliates and players accept no responsibility for your son or daughter coming into contact with any unsuitable or inappropriate material. We do what we can and we respect that there are younger members on the site, but there are also older members who are mature enough to handle these themes.

who runs shaman?
There are currently two female administrators: Aspelta and Merlin, two 22 year-old Brits who are long-time roleplayers with experience in running roleplaying games.

who plays shaman?
You're never to old or too young to write. Shaman incorporates players from all over the world (primarily in the UK and USA) of varying ages from as young as 12 to the late-20s. For a roleplaying game, we have an unusually high proportion of players from the UK (about half), most players fall into the 17-25 age bracket and we are almost entirely female. Male roleplayers and roleplayers older than 30 do exist, but they aren't very common. All of our members are English speakers (although some may not have English as a first language).

All roleplayers are united by a common passion and talent: writing.