Your original contributions are welcome, but we want to be sure that your writing fits in. Deviate too far from the Setting and your words will have the wrong shape.
- Encountering the otherworld changes people. There's a price to be paid, even if it isn't apparent right away. Sometimes it's something small, sometimes its a change for the better, but often its something that gets at the core of who you are.
- Force is usually the weakest option. What good is a machine gun if Baba Yaga will just turn it into a rose bush? Characters who try to go in swinging will soon find themselves outmatched by stronger or subtler beings. Giants are seldom slain in outright combat.
- Character is useful. A character who has strong internal or external principles and follows them (even at a cost) is paradoxically going to be more successful than a character who has no internal compass. But there's often a price to be paid.
- Both conformity and iconoclasm have their place. If you end up as a servant of the Hag Of One Eye, she'll expect you to do all of the chores without slacking. Even if they're impossible to complete in time without help or trickery.
- No vampires. No zombies. You can be more original than that.