3.// Rules | The Game of Life

3.// Rules

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Rin

Feb 4, 2018 13:37:42 GMT -5

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Post by Rin on Feb 4, 2018 13:37:42 GMT -5

OOC Rules

// 01. TGoL is rated PG-13. We would like all members to be at least 13 years old and capable of acting with maturity. Excessive amounts of gore, excessive cursing, and mating/birthing details are not permitted IC, and such things are not permitted OOC at all, no matter what the amount. Images of such content are not permitted either. IC, don't make anyone sick with your gore descriptions, keep cursing to a minimum or just hint to it instead (i.e. "he cursed under his breath"), and fade to black/timeskip when mating/birthing.

// 02. Be respectful to staff and your fellow role players. Rudeness, discrimination, bullying/harassment and the like will not be tolerated. If you have an issue with a player, either resolve it peacefully by compromise or contact a staff member.

// 03. Keep sensitive/controversial subjects (politics, religion, sexuality/gender, mental health, etc.) out of OOC discussion. The Staff of TGoL do not discriminate against anyone on these grounds, we are just trying to prevent heated discussions from occurring and taking the site off topic. The main focus of this forum is to role play, not to seek others who share the above interests/problems or to start debates. If it's anything relating to gender/sexuality troubles or mental health troubles, please seek a support forum instead, as they are far better equipped to help you and can point you to some helpful resources!

// 04. You must join with an OOC account. The first account you make will be your main account, through which you will link all of your characters. More info on this can be found here. The point of this is to easily keep track of players and the characters they play, and to make account switching easier for you. You won't be punished or scolded for making OOC posts from an IC account, since it's out of character and informal anyway.

// 05. Do not post spam. This includes content that is off topic to the thread discussion, content that is in the wrong board, text with extremely bright colors, text talk (abbreviations like lol, lmao, brb etc. are fine, just don't wr1t3 l1k3 th1$), and excessive, consecutive streams of posts from the same person in a thread with numerous people (say all you need to say in one to two posts; don't make a series of small posts one after the other).

// 06. English is the primary language of this site. If you are not fluent enough to write in English, this unfortunately may not be the site for you. Excessive writing in other languages is not permitted because the staff cannot tell whether or not the content you are posting is breaking the rules, and it would be inconvenient to try and translate entire posts/discussion threads. Your characters are allowed to speak in foreign languages, but if this dialogue is important for the other player to know, translations must be provided somewhere in the post.

// 07. Do not steal any of the content within this site. The plot, setting, information tables, char creation form, and main concept of TGoL belongs to me. The skin credits can be found at the bottom of the homepage and here, and should not be taken from this forum, but properly downloaded from the creator (it is free) whilst observing their rules and guidelines. Most graphics found in the website's theme (i.e. location images, images used for banner, background, etc.) are free for use and taken from google/dawnthieves/pixbay/pexels, so if you wish to use them, seek out the original source material. Lastly, character concepts, character images, user coding, etc. belong to their respective creators, and should not be taken unless expressed permission has been given.

IC Rules

// 01. Understand the separation between IC and OOC. The actions/beliefs of a character do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the character's player. Additionally, any actions made towards your character(s) are not directed at you, the player. So, please understand that anything that happens IC stays IC; it is not meant to translate into real life or be taken as a personal offense/attack. However, if you suspect someone actually is using their character to indirectly bully/harass you, please take it up with a staff member and it will be dealt with accordingly.

// 02. TGoL is open to role players of all levels and has a word count of 250. This means punishment for improper grammar, improper writing format, and improper role playing (i.e. metagaming, god modding, perfect chars, etc.) will be light. The Staff understand that not everyone is an experienced role player, therefore not everyone will be aware of the mistakes they are making, so you will receive patience and a guiding hand whenever you make such mistakes. Similarly, we expect our members to act with the same patience if you catch someone role playing improperly. Kindly correct them or get a staff member to do so. The word count means that no matter what your level is, each IC post must be at least 250 words, but you are certainly not limited to this, and we encourage you to write more! Here is what we consider proper role play format:

Written in third person. i.e. "He walked towards her." not "I walked towards her." or "You saw him walk towards you."
Proper punctuation and capitalization. Sentences must start with capitals, quotations "" should go around spoken words, sentences/questions/exclamations etc. should end with proper punctuation marks, and at the very least, break up long sentences with commas. i.e. "He walked towards her, his tail wagging happily. 'Hey, how are you?' " not "he walked towards her his tail wagging happily hey how are you" or "He Walked Towards Her, His Tail Wagging Happily. 'Hey How Are You?' "
Don't make posts that don't advance the thread plot. Don't have your wolf be completely by their lonesome, doing three million things on their own, without any possible place to include other characters when there are other characters participating in the thread. Even if your wolf is shy or a loner, there are numerous ways to include them that might get the other characters to draw them in, like having the wolf attentively listen to their conversations, having them smile or nod to other characters, having them try to interact with objects near other wolves like prey or leaves, etc. Additionally, avoiding three worded sentences could help with this. i.e. "He sat down." Instead, try to write, "He sat down on a moss-covered patch of dirt, eyes downcast and face sullen, debating what he should do next." It gives others more to work with.
No Metagaming. This means your character shouldn't be omnipotent and act with information they couldn't possibly know. This can include knowing personal information/intent/backstory elements of a character just by looking at them, treating a character's thoughts/not visibly displayed actions as spoken dialogue, and overhearing things/having knowledge of things in which the character wasn't present to hear/see and wasn't told about.
No Godmodding. This means your character is overpowered and/or invincible. This can include your character either having every physical strength in the book (i.e. strong, fast, high stamina, agile, etc.) without any weaknesses or weaknesses that don't counterbalance the strengths (i.e. only weakness is that they can't swim or have a fear of bees), or having one very good strength with no weaknesses. It also includes your character being insusceptible to damage or able to dodge every attack thrown at them. These cases are even worse when such things are not possible for the character, i.e. a pup winning a fight against a much larger, much stronger wolf, or a frail, elderly, and/or sickly wolf winning a fight against a stronger wolf.
No Powerplaying. This means you have taken control of someone else's character without the player's permission. This includes writing actions, thoughts, and spoken words made by the character you don't own, as well as deciding the result of your wolf's actions on them (i.e. "Luna lunged for Markus's shoulder, sinking her teeth into his flesh and making him howl in pain." If you don't own Markus, it is not your place to say whether or not Luna successfully bit him and whether or not he howled in pain if she did.) If you want to do something that requires the other person's approval, simply ask them OOC and one of you make it clear in your next post that permission was given.
No human or wolf speak. Wolf speak is fancy (typically inaccurate) wording some people like to use in place of basic words, like using "banner" instead of "tail", "fae and brute" instead of "female and male", "auds" instead of "ears", etc. etc. For all intents and purposes, please just use basic speech, as wolf speak typically doesn't use those words correctly and can confuse others. Additionally, although our wolves have personalities/mindsets, speech, facial expression, and hierarchies like humans, they are still wolves, therefore they shouldn't make exclusively human actions. (i.e. having long "hair", picking things up with their paws, walking for long periods of time on hind legs, etc.)

// 03. You may not begin role playing your character until they have been accepted. After submitting your bio here, you must wait for a staff member to either post and say it's been officially accepted, or until a staff member posts to tell you what must be changed before it can be accepted.

// 04. All IC posts should be made from their respective accounts. Please don't make IC posts with you OOC account or reply with character x from character y's account.

// 05. You can have as many characters as you like. However, you may only have one character starting in a high rank in either pack. This is because high ranks are limited, and we want to give everyone a chance to obtain one. If you have other characters that are subordinates in the pack but they work their way up to a high ranking position, this does not count against your limit, since they did not start off as a high rank. Additionally, although there is no character limit, we request you try to keep genders even and stay active with all of them.

// 06. This role play is semi-realistic. This means no super powers, unrealistic wolf sizes/fur colors, unrealistic wolf actions, etc. The one exception is eye color; your wolf may have any eye color. Also, if you intend to give your wolf a disability/scar of some sort, they must be realistic and believable. If a wolf has it's throat torn open when young, it is not very likely to survive that, so such backstories/scars shouldn't occur on living wolves. If a wolf is blind, they should not be able to see or know anything about what the world/other wolves look like unless they lost their vision later in life, end of story. If your wolf is deaf, they will have to rely on body language because they won't be able to speak English.

// 07. TGoL operates on liquid time. This means your wolf can appear in any thread at any time no matter what other threads they are involved in, provided you keep a proper chronological order of them with a realistic amount of time in between (i.e. your wolf can't be on one side of the valley one day and on the other side the next). You may also make threads that are dated in the past, so long as they coincide with/don't drastically change the present. However, all new threads must be kept within the current season, meaning you can't make a thread dated for the upcoming winter when it's still autumn.

// 08. Mark your threads according to whom may join them. If a thread is Open, anyone is welcome to join. If a thread is Pack Only, only members of the pack in the territory your thread takes place in may join. If a thread is Private, only certain tagged or otherwise notified members may join. Note that leaving a thread title blank and/or failing to specify whom can join in the starting post automatically means it is Open. Also, an Open tag on pack territory permits loners/rogues to join OOC, but does not mean they are excused IC; it will still be considered trespassing.

// 09. When threads are finished, mark them as complete in the title. This lets Staff members know the thread is finished and ready to be moved to the archives. Before a thread can be finished, all characters must make an exit. This means your wolf has officially left the area and is no longer able to participate in the thread. Exits should look like
- [ character name ] exits -

// 10. It is up to the role players on whether or not they want their thread to have a posting order. A posting order essential means that players must post in the order they joined the thread so everyone gets a chance to reply, i.e. Luna starts a thread and Bob joins. The thread will go back and forth between Luna and Bob. Then Steve joins. Therefore, the players must post Luna, Bob, Steve, Luna, Bob, Steve, etc. If a player doesn't have anything to contribute (i.e. if it's a discussion or meeting and their character is just listening), they can post - skip - when it's their turn, and the order continues. Since players dictate posting orders, players will set the rule for how long they can wait before automatically skipping someone (as in, if it's a player's turn and they don't post, it is up to the other players to decide how long to wait).

// 11. Posting tables are permitted. However, if you intend to use a scroll, please make sure the person/people you are role playing with can read it. If they can't view the rest of the scroll because they are on mobile, please change your table to non-scroll or simply don't use one.

// 12. Humans don't exist here and you are only allowed to role play a wolf. Humans or human activity should never occur in posts. Your character's backstory can have humans, but the humans should not actually be in this land. In the future, this may change as part of an event, but currently, there shouldn't be any people present. Additionally, you may only play a gray wolf, which includes the subspecies of Timber, European/Eurasian, and Arctic/Polar. Maned wolves, red wolves, coyotes, dogs, or hybrids of any of these are not permitted.

// 12. Respect the boundaries of whomever you are role playing with. If your partner doesn't want cursing of any or violence of any kind in the RP, please respect this. If they ask you to REASONABLY change things about your post (i.e. the topics just listed, your table, etc.), respect their wishes. If you yourself don't want to change these things, then it might be best you don't role play together.

Activity Rules

Since we want TGoL to be as accommodating and all-inclusive as it can be to current and prospective members, we acknowledge that fact that many of you may have school, jobs, important family matters, and other IRL issues to attend to when not role playing with us. Therefore, activity requirements are pretty lax:

> Characters of non leadership positions (i.e. any characters that aren't "Alphas") or of other roles that aren't driving any major plots are only required to keep up with bi yearly activity checks. All this means is that every six months (or roughly two IC seasons), an activity check thread will be posted in which you as an OOC player simply must post a list of all of your active characters to show you are still around and still intend to be active with them. You are not required to make any IC posts to pass the check; all you have to do is post the list of your characters. This should be done via your OOC account to prevent confusion; don't post with each of your character accounts individually. Should you fail to post any of your characters for one of the checks, they will receive a warning that they are in danger of being made inactive. Should the next activity check pass six months later and you still don't claim those accounts as active, they will be moved to the inactive group/Board and you will need to PM an admin with your next planned IC post for that character to get them back. Though you are not required to make any IC posts to pass the Activity check, there are two things to keep in mind: if you haven't posted with that character for a whole year, they will still be made inactive, regardless of you confirming otherwise in the activity check, and visa versa, if your character has made an IC post within the past six months preceding the check, your character will automatically be excused, even if you didn't post on the check. So, basically, a bare minimum of one post every six months is somewhat required, though we most certainly expect more, seeing how you'd likely be leaving a lot of people hanging if your char only posted once or twice a year.

> Characters of leadership potions (i.e. "Alphas") or characters that have a large influence on the site wide plot are required to post IC twice every three months. A different form of activity check will be held for these characters in which a check thread will be posted once every three months and to confirm your character's activity, you have to provide a link to two threads/posts they made. Once again, if you fail the first check, you will only receive a warning, but if you can't make at least two posts by the next check, they same punishment rules will apply: they will be made inactive and you must PM a staff with your next planned IC post to get them back. In the mean time, the position/plot will be passed on to someone else to keep it rolling. If you character plays an important role like this, you will be messaged by a staff member the moment they become a vital role so you'll know what's expected of you, and you will be messaged once they get bumped back down to average char status.

In terms of making a character inactive, this means it will be moved to the "Inactive" group, restricting them from posting in any IC boards until you apply to have them made active again. It is a good idea to make certain characters inactive if you are struggling to keep up with all of your threads and don't want to juggle so many chars at once, as making them inactive will excuse them from activity checks. Before a character can be made inactive however, you must tie up all of their current threads so as not to leave anyone hanging. This can be done either by finishing the thread or - after discussing this with the other involved players - making an OOC exit, where you will give a brief description as to how the rest of the interaction(s) went, then have your character exit. An example would be, in a hunting thread between Luna and Markus - "After chasing the rabbit for several more minutes, Luna grew exhausted and decided it wasn't worth it. She fell back and allowed Markus to have it, taking a minute to stop and catch her breath before turning to trot away. - Luna Exits -". To apply for inactivity, go here.

However, though inactivity will excuse your character from the activity checks, if they remain inactive for more than one year after applying for inactivity, you will be advised to bring them back and either continue with them or kill them off.

In the event you as a player will be inactive for a while, you may take an absence, which can be done here. You do not need to have your characters moved to the inactive group when taking an absence, as, by having the OOC account they are linked to filed under absent, it is automatically assumed they won't be active, therefore they are excused from activity checks and such. Additionally, you don't have to tie up all threads concerning your characters, but - along with stating how long you'll be gone - you will need to announce what players are allowed to do in regards to your active threads while you are gone. All of that will be explained in the absences thread.

CBox Rules

// -- Pretty much the same as OOC rules, but we are just a little more relaxed in the chat box because the messages are small, quick, and don't stay stored forever. Keep things appropriate, be kind and respectful, etc.

Edited Apr 24, 2018 7:14:34 GMT -5 By Rin