Rules

Please read the rules thoroughly before creating your first character.

Usernames
Your username should be your character's first and last name, properly capitalized.

Multiple Characters
Only one character is allowed per account. You may create multiple accounts for additional characters, as long as you can keep all your accounts active. Any inactive additional characters will be deleted according to the inactivity rule below, even if a different account is kept active during that time.

Please note that while Forumotion requires you to sign up for each new account with a separate email address, if you PM one of the admins, we’ll be happy to change your email address to match any other accounts you have. If using a separate email account for setup is an issue for you, we’d be happy to set up a new account for you. Please contact us by PM with any questions regarding this.

Inactivity
If your account is inactive for more than a month with no prior notice, your account may be deleted. If you are aware that you won’t be able to post for a while, please communicate that with the admins and we’ll extend this time.

Playbys
Playbys are required for all members, but do not necessarily have to be real people. Pictures/artwork found on the internet may be used as long as they are not subject to copyright. However, the playbys must comply with the content ratings of Forumotion. For a list of playbys that are already in use see this thread. For help finding a playby see this thread, or ask in the Graphics forum.

Graphics
Feel free to choose an avatar and signature that you feel represent your character, but keep them tasteful. No visible genitalia, breasts, or excessive gore. It’s your responsibility to ensure that you do not post copyrighted images, and that you give credit where credit is due. Please limit avatar size to 150x200 and signature size to 550x250. If you need help resizing your images accordingly, or would like to request help creating an avatar and/or signature, post a request in the graphics forum.

Mature content
In keeping with the Forumotion Terms of Service, all content must be PG-13. Since we know that PG-13 is difficult to define, we’d like to use the RPG Rating system as a guideline.

Language 2: Swearing is generally permitted. However, the language cannot be used to severely abuse.

Sexual Content 2: Sexual content is permitted. References and writing about genitalia and sex acts are permitted, but explicit detail is not. Fade to black, or mature tagging are recommended.

Violence 2: Graphic violence is permitted. Explicit description or in-game narration violence is allowed.

The changes we would like to make to this include:

• Sex scenes must fade to black—mature tagging will not make you invulnerable to the rules
  
• Explicit descriptions of violence and gore must be avoided
  

Death and defeat
As role players, we understand you not wanting your favorite characters to die. As role players and administrators who have seen it happen too many times before, we understand that plot often stagnates when each character refuses to accept defeat. To allow you to keep your favorite characters alive and to allow the plot to continue apace, we have created a defeat system. As on many other sites, characters may only be killed with the express permission of their creator; however, when a character is defeated in battle, rather than dying or continuing (unrealistically) to fight, that character will be out of commission for a set amount of time but eventually recover. The method and length of the recovery will vary by race and be listed on the races page. This only applies to defeat in battle (i.e., you cannot intentionally sacrifice your character's life for some cause and claim to have recovered from this death).

We hope this system will make all members comfortable with accepting defeat when appropriate and help curb the epidemic of undefeatable characters so many people feel the need to create.

Perfect characters...
...do not exist. All characters must have weaknesses to balance out their strengths and abilities. Is your character a human with no special abilities? Great. Any well-developed character will still have flaws: bad habits, detrimental personality traits (overconfidence, vanity, a short temper, etc.), emotional baggage, and the like, to balance out all the positive traits.

Forbidden characters

• Any character from an existing book, movie, television show, anime, comic, etc.
  
• Gods of any sort, fictional, historical, or original
  
• Animals or any other beings that have no way of communicating with humans
  

Godmoding/metagaming
Don't.

Explanation and examples:

Double posting/posting rotation
In OOC threads, double posting is only acceptable if you have not received a reply in one week. In IC threads, it's common courtesy to rotate through posts from all participants, but this wil not be strictly enforced, because naturally there will be times when it would make sense to skip a character not involved in the current goings-on.

Post length
Try to match the length of the posts of others you’re roleplaying with in general. No one wants to role play with someone who won’t put in an equal amount of effort. We do have a 200 word minimum. If the occasional post is shorter than this, it won’t be deserving of a warning or ban, but don’t make a habit of it.

Grammar
All posts should be written in third person past tense. Decent grammar is expected, so please reread your posts before submitting them, but slip-ups will not be penalized in any way.

New content
We welcome your ideas for additional races, magic systems, plots, and more. However, new content may not directly contradict preexisting content. For example, if it has been determined that demons on Earth cannot travel back and forth between Earth and Hell freely, you cannot make a demon with this ability.

Warning system/tolerance
No one will be banned without at least one warning. The amount of leniency granted will depend on the severity of the offense. If we have many issues, we may institute a warning bar policy.