The Rules

"Now no interruptions for this next bit, hear me?" Shar glared around the circle "Good." After a dramatic pause she continued. "Welcome everyone to Harem Hotel, Haunted Castle Edition!"

An elaborate network of lightning arched over the sky and thunder boomed shaking the garden.

"Harem Hotel is a reality show broadcast both to entertain our audience and more importantly to set up our master, Laura Black here, with a perfect harem. Over the next nine weeks the eight of you will be competing for places in that harem. You are all already irrevocably linked to the master, how you do on the show will only determine your place in the harem not whether you join it or not. And as this is as much a game show as it is a reality drama program your progress will be tracked by what we call Victory Points or VP. Once someone gets 100 VP or over they are locked in at the top tier of the harem even if something should happen afterwards to cause them to drop back under. This is important if you want to keep yourself mostly still you but more on that later. If at the end of any challenge you have negative VP" She glanced at Susan who went pale looking at her bracelet "You will be eliminated. Normally once eliminated you would be removed from the competition but we're doing things a little differently this season. Once eliminated you will still be competing but will be unable to earn or lose VP at that point, instead you will be getting rewards or punishments depending but we'll go into those more later. Who knows, maybe it won't come up at all."

"What elimination also means in this season is that you are immediately locked into the lowest tier of the harem. What that means exactly will differ for each of you but it boils down to becoming nothing more than a servant, pet, or toy for the master. Her property, with no more rights or personhood. The greatest risk of losing what makes you you. You do not want this, understand? Those of you who end the season between these two extremes will be placed appropriately though if none of you has made it over 100 VP by then I may just eliminate the lot of you. This is your future, do not take it lightly. Also we have more than just the stick to motivate you of course. Whomever has the highest VP that is over 100 at the end of the season gets a wish. Yes you heard that right. Now unfortunately it's not unlimited, there are some restrictions on what you can wish for. Generally added by the Producers after a previous wish they didn't like... Still it's very powerful and it wouldn't be a bad thing to think on what you might want if you win."

"Now I'm sure you are all wondering just how do I earn VP, well maybe aside from the one of you who figured out how to lose it." Another glance at the still pale Ms. Wagner. "It's fairly simple. First off there will be ten challenges over the coming weeks. Each challenge will be worth an increasing amount of VP depending on how you score. Be warned though that starting with the second challenge it will also be possible to lose VP if you score low enough. That amount will also increase as we go. So yes it is possible to get over 100 VP just from winning challenges, but trust me this is not likely."

"The second, and much more reliable, way to earn VP is by pleasing the master. Mostly this means sexual. The better the sex act the more points, but you are limited to earning points for a particular sex act to once a day. You can't just sit her down and snog for hours to win. You can win points for non sexual acts as well but they need to really touch her heart. Unfortunately for you this also means you can lose VP by upsetting the master. Like say, insulting her to her face..."

"Now I know some of you may be bothered by the idea of having sex with the master, and she may have issues with having sex with some of you. Deal with it. Get over your hang ups, help her get over hers or find another way to earn points. Or just give up and embrace elimination. I don't care, your drama is part of the show. don't come to me complaining about how it isn't fair. I'm not your enemy, despite how it looks, but I am not your friend either. I can't be. Playing favorites would be a really good way to get me replaced with someone a whole lot worse for you and I wouldn't enjoy it much either."

"The last and least likely way to earn VP are the Treasure Cards. Some of them will be worth a set amount, some can even multiply your current score. One very special Treasure Card is worth exactly 100 VP. But that's only a fraction of what the Treasure Cards can do though, they aren't just for VP. I should also warn you that certain Trap Cards can also cost you VP. Hunting after treasure has it's risks, but can also have great rewards. I'll be going on more in-depth with the bracelets later but your current VP total will show on the back as their default setting, currently they are blank for most of you though."

"So that's Victory Points, but that isn't all you can earn on the show. You will also be earning Bonus Points or BP. These can be spent in the shops on a variety of things from clothing to Treasure Cards, though the later are Very expensive. Bonus Points can be found in Treasure Cards, or lost in traps as well, but the main source will be the weekly popularity polls. Yes each week, starting later today, the audience will rank you depending on how much they like you. Playing up to the audience can cost you though as you may drop in score if they don't think you are being genuine. You can always access your BP total on your bracelet at will by thought, changing the display. Though that is also blank for all of you at the moment.

Popularity isn't the only reason you should want the audience to like you though as we come to the heart of Harem Hotel, Transformations! After each challenge round you will each have three possible transformations posted and the audience will decide which to give you. Now transformations are also slightly different this season. The one of you that wins the competition, except for the first one, will be exempt and not be transformed. The next three will receive a positive transformation or Boon. You may not like it but it will be something to help you in the competition or help attract the master to you, or both! The four who come in last however will get negative transformations or Punishments. You will almost definitely not like them but they should still help you find your place in the harem. If the votes on a transformation are close enough to call a tie you will will get both of them. Possibly all three but a three way tie is highly unlikely. Transformations that work against each other will be finagled by me to fit together. I also have limited power to veto transformation so if I don't think one fits I can just give the other or give a different one because I don't think the one that won fits with previous transformations or just don't like it. I will not be doing this often though as it disrupts the show and upsets the audience so don't count on it. Getting eliminated will also earn you an immediate additional Punishment transformation. That one won't be voted on but will fit your new role at the bottom. Also the master will be getting transformations of her own, but only boons for her. They will be to help her in her roll as the head of the harem. And finally yes Boons and Punishments can be found in Treasure and Trap Cards, many of those however are only temporary."

"A last word on transformations, they can be bought or upgraded for yourself or another contestant in the BP store. And a last word to the audience, if your favorite transformation doesn't make the vote don't lose hope. As a new rule for this season the transformation with the second highest votes, unless there is a tie, will be rolled over to the next challenge. This does however mean that if someone had Boons one week and Punishments the next or vice versa one of them will be at odds so it's even more important for the audience to like a contestant when they can have a Boon voted for on a week they score low or a Punishment win on a week they score high. Transformations removed by veto will however not show back up. The dining room has a score card up that shows the current VP and BP totals for each contestant."

"Any questions?"

All nine women sat in stunned silence.

"Oh good. You can always come to me for rule clarifications later if you wish. Now on to the results of our first contest!"