This board is rated PG13-R

Forum Rules and Suggestions

1. No God-Modding: No on is invincible, your characters can die. No matter how much you like a character that does not make them exempt from the rules. Over my years of role playing I've lost many characters I liked, some that I spent days creating and years playing. Thats the way it goes, there is nothing we can do to stop it. And if your character is too powerful that means other people have to create powerful characters to keep up and it just turns this place into a giant (forgive the term) virtual pissing contest. So keep your characters with in limits. Those who have incredibly powerful characters already keep them in check. No one can dodge every attack being sent at them, its just too tiring.

2. No Auto-hits: This is a common problem that people like to ignore. I rarely see rules on this anywhere, yet I view it as being incredibly important. Its not up to the attacker of and attack hits or misses, its up to the person on the receiving end of the attack. There are exceptions to this rule as some attacks are unblockable or undodgable. Another exception to this rule happens if someone keeps dodging your attacks without any reason for it. A mod or Admin can view and fight and tell the attacker to auto-hit due to a violation of the god-modding or another rule. A mod or Admin can also tell a person that an attack hits due to violation of the god-modding another rule. The final exception is if the auto-hits are agreed upon by all parties involved in the attack and defense.

3. No Plagiarism: Do not steal another person's work. If you use some one else's writings or pictures make sure to give them credit. If a website has a disclaimer saying no one is allowed to use something off of it without permission do not use things from that site. Not only is it morally wrong, its illegal. It could get us and you in big trouble. If you don't remember where you got something from, make sure to say so.

4. Respect: This is the golden rule. Treat others as you would like to the treated. No one likes to be treated bad, so don't do it. If you don't like someone don't talk to them. Do not drag arguments onto the main board. If you must argue, do it in PMs. If you have a problem that you can't solve normally bring it the mods or admins, we're here to help you and make this place more fun (note: less rules do not make it more fun).

5. Know Your boundaries: Do not go and send your character into something you know will get them killed or severely injured without their being a reason for it. Having your character appear right in the middle of an anti-mutant meeting will likely get them killed as will having them appear into places they know to be extremely dangerous. Seeing as we allow characters deaths to happen here idiotic mistakes will cost your character their life. Keep that in mind if you decide to go all gung-ho with your character. Some of our members (myself included) do not normally pull their punches when it comes to fights. Though we're not going to try and kill your characters (some exceptions withstanding) if you make a big enough mistake it will happen.

6. No Spamming: This hasn't been a problem lately, but it does happen. If you are going to PM a person don't send them a million at once. Send one and wait for a response. This also applies to Out of Character (OOC) on the main board. Do not fill up a page with OOC talk, especially if no RPing is going on. If a conversation is important enough take it to PMs and talk about it there. Not everyone wants to sift through talks about your personal life to find posts or to catch up on what they missed. We will delete excessive OOC and if someone keeps it up too much they will be warned and banned if they keep it up.

7. Teleporting/Telepathy: For those people here that can teleport, do not just teleport into places your character has never been. basic teleportation powers require you to know where you are going or you could end up teleporting into a wall and that would kill you and anyone you are traveling with. If we see this happen expect being warned and it if continues expect your character to die. Some powers allow teleportation into unknown areas, but the power has to be at a high level and the user has to be well versed in that power. Some other powers make exceptions to this rule, but not most of them. Now to the telepaths. For those of you with telepathy do NOT read just act like you know something about a person you just met. If you read someone's mind post that your character is doing so and wait to see if the other person has some kind of defense against it. Most good telepaths do not like to invade other people's private thoughts without permission first.

8. Avatars and Signatures: The current avatar size is 160x210 (W.H.). While this hasn't been a problem yet, signatures should not be huge. Do not use signature pictures that fill even 1/2 of the screen. Its hard on people with slow connections and annoying in general. Try to be mindful of other people in this. If you have a large picture you'd like to use, make it smaller or ask someone to do it for you (T2 and myself are good at that kind of stuff).

------------------------------------------------------

*=Suggestion, not a rule.

*Make Your Character Act Like a Person: Do not make your character do things they normally wouldn't without reason. If your character is quiet and not talkative don't suddenly make them go and start throwing a party or something (unless there is a reason for it). With your character's fears, make them act afraid when confronted. I'll use myself as an example. I'm deathly scared of heights, so I do my best to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground. If I have to go up more than few feet off the ground I am very careful and move slow when going down. I love roller coasters, but they scare the crap out of me (thats why I like them, I think). I grip the handles on the coaster cars so hard my knuckles turn white. I don't yell or cry or totally freak out, its an expression of fear. If your character is allergic to something or has allergies, don't make them go near those things if you can help it. People in real life get sick, your character should as well. Most people don't stay perfectly healthy all the time. Have your character get a cold or even a simple bug that only last 24 hours. Unless you made your character really weak to illness don't have them get sick too often. Your characters should work to over come their fears and weaknesses, though nothing happens overnight. When it comes to weaknesses having a character overcome them requires admin approval and if you lose a weakness there is a chance that a new one will appear (at admin discretion). The short version: Make your character seem like a real person.

*Proof Read: As much as its nice to see posts moving along quickly its nicer to see posts you can understand. Before you hit that submit button read over your post and look for spelling errors or things that just don't make sense. If we can't understand your post we can't post a response. Its understandable that English may not be everyone's first language, but try your best. If you need help with something ask another member, a mod, or an admin. I promise, we won't laugh at you for asking for help (well, we better not *Glares at everyone.*).

*Detail Detail Detail: As I said above, its nice to see posts moving along quickly. Its also nice to see posts that have some detail to them. We aren't asking you to write a manuscript or even a long post, but make sure what your character is doing is detailed enough for us to get a mental picture. Simple actions don't need to be very detailed, but more complex actions do. Walking, running, and jumping are all simple actions. Touching something is a more complex action. So if your character is going to touch or grab something say which hand they are using. Something as simple as that adds incredible detail to a post.

*Think and Know Your Character: As you gain skill and knowledge with role playing you are able to plan out moves way a head of time, but try to plan at least one or two posts a head of time at all times. That at least will keep you from having to come up with something on the spot (of course, a lot of times you will have to anyway). This also applies a bit with making your character seem real. In order for that to happen you need to know what your character would do. Thats part of the reason for the detailed character profiles, it helps you know about your character. Little things like knowing your characters hobbies, favorite foods, music preference, etc will help you to understand them and plan out their actions.

You may think that this was a lot to read, but its helpful. A few things to take note of before you are finished. There are times where admins are allowed to violate the god-modding and auto-hit rules. This is due to plots we may have in place. No admin is allowed to abuse this power though. If you suspect an admin of abusing their power bring it to their attention first and if that doesn't work bring it to the attention of the other admins. In the rare case you think we may be playing favorites call us out on it. As I stated above, we want to make this place fun for everyone. You may or may not agree with the rules, but rules are better than anarchy. Breaking of the rules will result in warnings and your warning bar increasing. Serious offenses will result in bans.