The Rules

[Avalikia]

TLDR Version

For if you're in a hurry, you know what you're doing, and just want to say that you've 'read the rules'.

General Rules:

1. Treat everyone with respect, no exceptions.
2. You're either an adult or a teenager cool enough to hang out with adults. Act like it.
3. This site is rated PG-13.
4. Stick to the theme.
5. We like to play rough here.
6. Have fun.

Roleplay Rules:

1. Use good roleplayer etiquette.
2. Keep your canon in canon.
3. Don't be OOC in the IC area.
4. Do not completely reformat your posts.
5. Communicate with your fellow roleplayers.

Activity Rules:

1. Keep your canon character(s) active.
2. We don't care as much about original characters.
3. We use a simple point system to decide who is active and whether or not you may have an additional character. Make smart choices. *The current activity rules are explained here.

Character Rules:

1. Each player must have an active canon character at all times.
2. No player may have more than two of the most popular canon characters.
3. Canon characters from the entire mainstream DC universe are allowed, with some exceptions.
4. Original characters aren't restricted.

Regular Version

For if you have a minute and want to know what the rule means in more depth.

General Rules:

1. Treat everyone with respect, no exceptions.

   
   While it's sadly not the case that everyone on this site will be friends or even like each other, you're expected to at least be polite toward everyone. Yes, even if you're a vegan and the other person hunts endangered animals for sport. You don't have to agree with everyone, and can freely tell them so, but harassment, verbal abuse, or other such behavior is not tolerated here.
   
   You're also expected to listen to the staff members and respect their authority. If you disagree with a staff member, feel free to argue with them about it privately or contact a higher-tier staff member to appeal their decision, but while that is being sorted out you are expected to abide by their decision.
   
   

2. You're either an adult or a teenager cool enough to hang out with adults. Act like it.

   
   This means a lot of things. It means that you take responsibility for your actions instead of making excuses and blaming others - especially when it comes to things like your activity. It means that you can handle things like the other player not shipping your OTP without being a brat. It means that if you're having an issue with another player, you know how to talk to them about it like an adult instead of immediately going to the staff about it. It also means that you actually do go to the staff if talking to the other person like an adult didn't work. Just, you know, act like an adult.
   
   

3. This site is rated PG-13.

   
   It's not I don't want you to have any R-rated fun, it's that it really does solve a lot of problems if anything too explicit is kept off the board - we don't want to get ProBoards on our case, and we don't want to shut out teenagers from playing either. Besides, I bet you know somewhere off the board to do it.
   
   • Nudity/Romance - Allowed as long as parts of the body normally covered by gender-appropriate underwear are not touched or described, and any nudity is in a non-sexual context.
   • Violence - Allowed as long as it's not overly graphic. For example, if you want to stab someone, that's fine. If you want to twist the knife while you do it, go ahead. If you want to explain what that sounds like, please don't!
   • Profanity - Allowed as long as it's not too frequently. Save those F-bombs for when they really count.
   • Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking/Etc. - Allowed as long as you don't glorify the illegal use of real drugs.
   
   

4. Stick to the theme.

   
   This is a Gotham-centric Batman forum. This means that you're expected to explore plotlines that make sense in that context and to keep the 'main action' in Gotham. Characters may travel or even live outside of Gotham, but you're expected to have them doing Gotham-related things - while other stuff is also happening in other places which have nothing to do with Gotham, it's all 'off-camera' as far as the forum is concerned.
   
   Also, while I like to be flexible, the current point of the timeline is also a part of the theme. This means I don't allow canon characters that aren't going to be showing up for a while, and expect the capabilities of current characters to be at least roughly in keeping with this part of the timeline. I also expect, as the timeline advances, for the characters who go through different stages to go through those stages at somewhere near the appropriate time.
   
   For more information, see the Theme page.
   
   

5. We like to play rough here.

   
   The purpose of this forum is to serve as a place where everyone may let loose creatively - or at least as much as they can without breaking the PG-13 rule. That being the case, it is not a place that is supposed to be comfortable or easy - PG-13 still allows a lot of stuff to happen. While every player has the right to not participate in anything they don't like, you are expected to be as open and flexible as you can be. This forum has a lot of players who like to be dark and edgy, and like to roleplay horrible people doing horrible things, including going all the way up to the limit of what is allowed. You're not necessarily expected to do the same, but you're also expected to be able to handle roleplaying with them without having to ask them to suppress or censor themselves more than they already are - at least most of the time.
   
   

6. Have fun.

   
   Remember: this is a game, and it's supposed to be fun. If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.

Roleplay Rules:

1. Use good roleplayer etiquette.

   
   Given how high I set the bar to join this forum, I assume that if you join us you know basic roleplayer etiquette like not controlling other people's characters and not deciding you're invincible. If that's a false assumption because you're a really good writer but you just haven't roleplayed in a forum like this before, let me know and I'll give you a crash course. Knowing about it and doing it are two different things, however, so be sure that you're always doing it.
   
   

2. Keep your canon in canon.

   
   Batman isn't going to suddenly start shooting people, and the Joker isn't going to suddenly decide to be a nice guy. ...Except the Joker might try it for a short time, but you know that's just going to be a phase - he's a chaotic guy like that. While I love to be very flexible with how characters are interpreted, canon characters usually have an established history and personality and there's a limit to how far a character can be reinterpreted before they're just not the same character anymore. This applies to not only the applications for new characters, but also any changes that happen due to character development - they're very much allowed to change over time, but not so far that they're not themselves anymore. Unless it's canon that they do.
   
   

3. Don't be OOC in the IC area.

   
   While it can be fun if the characters invade the OOC area (and some people just prefer to let their characters speak for them), it very quickly breaks immersion if there's OOC chit-chat going on in the IC area. Try to keep that sort of thing in the OOC area or in private messages.
   
   

4. Do not completely reformat your posts.

   
   This design of this forum is not one that I got from somewhere, it's one that I made myself. I work with webpages professionally, so I happen to have that skillset. Knowing that, I'm sure you would never tell me that you don't like the font and other design elements I picked out for us, right? Right.
   
   In all seriousness, though, I did specifically make sure that the fonts, colors, etc. are literally easy on the eyes. Some people like to customize their posts with all sorts of different fonts, colors, changing the spacing, etc. but I strongly hate that - not because it hurts my feelings but because it's extremely easy to come up with something that looks fine to you, but if you're young and have perfect vision you may not realize how difficult what you've chosen may be for other people to look at for a long period of time. And even if you know as much as I do if not more about how to make those choices, it makes people who don't think that it's okay if they mess with all of that too. So do not completely reformat your posts - at least not as a general practice.
   
   You are, however, encouraged to give your character's dialogue a special color - that actually really helps people who read or reply to your posts. I've put up a post here to help you select a good color.
   
   

5. Communicate with your fellow roleplayers.

   
   If you have a cool idea, share it. If you're stuck, ask for help with that. Tell other players when you think they did something cool - everyone loves hearing that. Let everyone know if you're going to be away from the forum for longer than usual, or if there's a reason why you're going to be slow for a while. And, of course, plot and scheme! While the staff of this forum will try to periodically inject fun things into the goings-on of Gotham, don't feel like you can't just because you're 'only' a player - it's not like the staff are any better at it than you are. Though if your villain is going to raze an entire borough or something, you may want to clear it first. Anything less than that, though, have at it!

Activity Rules:

1. Keep your canon character(s) active.

   
   It's important for canon characters to stay active because if you're playing them then someone else can't. This is perfectly fine if you're actually using the character, but if you're letting them sit around and do nothing it prevents someone who might do more with them from claiming the character - this actively hurts the forum. This is a zero-tolerance issue.
   
   

2. We don't care as much about original characters.

   
   Original characters are different because, even if yours is awesome, it's yours so you having the character doesn't get in the way of someone else having one. So I don't care if they go inactive - if they don't have any points left I'll let them sit at zero without deleting them. Original characters only get deleted if you don't have an active canon anymore because that's required (see Character Rule #1). Though if you start applying for a new character while you have an inactive original character you'll be gently encouraged to decide if you really need to hang onto that old character still.
   
   

3. We use a simple point system to decide who is active and whether or not you may have an additional character. Make smart choices.

   
   If you make a roleplaying post in the IC area that is either the start of a new thread or reply to someone else (meaning that it's not a reply to the same character or another character played by you) and that is over 400 words long, you get a point. Posts that do not fit those criteria are very much allowed, but you don't get points for them - and that's entirely to prevent abuse of the system. At the end of each week, I subtract two points from your total number of points, and as long as your points don't go into the negative you're considered active. And if you manage to accumulate a lot of points, you can use them to 'buy' additional characters. See the Points page for more details. *The current activity rules are explained here.

Character Rules:

1. Each player must have an active canon character at all times.

   
   While we allow original characters and you may have as many of them as you want if you have the points for it, each player must have at least one canon character who is properly active. This does mean that your first character must be a canon character. This also means that if your canon character isn't active, then you aren't considered active no matter how active your original characters are and will be treated accordingly.
   
   

2. No player may have more than two of the most popular canon characters.

   
   On the other hand, while you may have as many canon characters as you want if you have the points for them, each player may not have more than two canon characters that are 'popular'. If you're not sure which canon characters count as 'popular', let me know which one(s) you're wondering about and I'll tell you - I base it entirely upon how quickly the character tends to get snagged when it's available. There are actually quite a few well-known and well-liked characters who nevertheless rarely get an interested player, so they're not considered 'popular' for our purposes here.
   
   

3. Canon characters from the entire mainstream DC universe are allowed, with some exceptions.

   
   While this is a Gotham-centric Batman forum, the rest of the mainstream DC universe does indeed exist outside of the city so canon characters from other places are allowed. However, you're expected to provide a good reason for them to be heavily involved with Gotham at this time, which may not be possible for every character. Also, I'm not going to go for any characters who just plain don't pass the sanity check - for example, any god-level villains who only Superman could conceivably defeat. If in doubt, just ask!
   
   

4. Original characters aren't restricted.

   
   Not only are they baseline allowed, but you're also not restricted on how many you may have or what they can do aside from the points requirement - superpowers, secret identities, and all the other trappings of a comic book character are allowed.