Post by Avalikia on May 13, 2020 19:33:05 GMT -7
This is a Gotham-centric Batman forum set in a very similar, but not quite identical, alternate reality to the 'Modern Age' comics (roughly 1986-2011), and other similar media from around that time like the animated series.
When it comes to the timeline, while we like to assume that it's about the same time of year in Gotham as it is in real life at the time of the first post in a thread (because, seriously, otherwise it's always summer in every post), we like to make time progress as far as the characters actually advancing in their careers on more of a 'when it feels right' basis. I make this as simple for everyone in the forum as possible by bossing around the Bat-Family and telling them where they are at in their scheme of things, and letting everyone else figure out what they're doing by using that as a reference point. At the present time, we're at right around the point where Dick Grayson is about to become Robin. This means that Batman has been at it for a solid handful of years, as has a number of the earliest villains, but many others are quite early in their careers or will get started soon. Also, the Justice League hasn't quite formed yet, but that will happen soonish.
As long as you're not in the Bat-Family, we do allow slight alterations to the timeline so that if you really want your character to be a bit earlier or later in their career than they 'should' be. A lot of the specifics about the timeline are somewhat in dispute anyways. Though such alterations should be slight and not disrupt things for someone else - there are some pretty solid instances where one thing has to happen before the other, so we do want to make sure cause and effect still makes sense.
When it comes to how canon characters are portrayed, rather than choosing one particular source of inspiration as the correct one and expecting everyone to adhere to it closely we honor the fact that these characters have been reinterpreted many times by many different authors. That being the case, why shouldn't the player of each canon character have the freedom to do the same? We still expect these characters to be clearly recognizable as themselves, specifically the way they are in the comics, but we like and encourage players to pull inspiration not only from the comics but also from any of the (actually good) animated series, video games, movies, etc. as well as their own personal 'take' when deciding on the particulars. Some of these sources manage to get some aspects of some characters better than the others, so feel free to mix and match.
But for the sake of establishing some semblance of a default canon, we consider the 'Modern Age' comics from around the current point of the timeline to be the most canon, along with the animated series and such. Why that and not the newer stuff? Because core founding members of this site grew up on that stuff, and pretty much agree that it was good stuff, and we either can't be bothered to keep up with what is going on with most recent comics or we have mixed opinions about any changes.
However, you don't necessarily need to be very familiar with those sources to play with us, because we mostly use it just as a reference for what sort of relationships different characters tend to have with each other and what sort of transitions different characters go through over time - all of which is easy enough for you to either look up or just ask other players about if you're willing to do some research. It isn't hard to find someone willing and able to ramble on forever about how what is different and what is the same between the version of a character in the comics and the version of that character you're familiar with from some other form of media - and with a few notable exceptions, they're usually not so different that you couldn't play a canon character as you know them from whatever source you're familiar with, as long as you pick the right one.
Speaking of picking canon characters, we primarily accept characters that appear in the mainstream DC universe, including the comics, the animated series, and other media that closely adheres to that stuff. This includes characters that aren't normally considered 'Batman' characters, but because this is a Gotham-centric forum you're expected to provide a good reason for why your character is heavily involved with Gotham at this time if it's not their normal stomping grounds - they're allowed to go visit or live in other places, but they're expected to be doing Gotham-related things with their life.
I'm also willing to consider canon characters from a bit further afield like the movies and video games as long as I agree that they still fit in nicely with the other characters - though if you pick a character from one of these other sources, they are not automatically granted all the same relationships that they had with the other characters in their source material. For example, if you want to play as Rachel Dawes from the Nolanverse, exactly what her relationship is with Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent are up to the players of Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent - which is unlike if someone signs up for Harley Quinn, who is so well-established as the Joker's girlfriend in everything that her relationship with him is just assumed.
When it comes to the timeline, while we like to assume that it's about the same time of year in Gotham as it is in real life at the time of the first post in a thread (because, seriously, otherwise it's always summer in every post), we like to make time progress as far as the characters actually advancing in their careers on more of a 'when it feels right' basis. I make this as simple for everyone in the forum as possible by bossing around the Bat-Family and telling them where they are at in their scheme of things, and letting everyone else figure out what they're doing by using that as a reference point. At the present time, we're at right around the point where Dick Grayson is about to become Robin. This means that Batman has been at it for a solid handful of years, as has a number of the earliest villains, but many others are quite early in their careers or will get started soon. Also, the Justice League hasn't quite formed yet, but that will happen soonish.
As long as you're not in the Bat-Family, we do allow slight alterations to the timeline so that if you really want your character to be a bit earlier or later in their career than they 'should' be. A lot of the specifics about the timeline are somewhat in dispute anyways. Though such alterations should be slight and not disrupt things for someone else - there are some pretty solid instances where one thing has to happen before the other, so we do want to make sure cause and effect still makes sense.
When it comes to how canon characters are portrayed, rather than choosing one particular source of inspiration as the correct one and expecting everyone to adhere to it closely we honor the fact that these characters have been reinterpreted many times by many different authors. That being the case, why shouldn't the player of each canon character have the freedom to do the same? We still expect these characters to be clearly recognizable as themselves, specifically the way they are in the comics, but we like and encourage players to pull inspiration not only from the comics but also from any of the (actually good) animated series, video games, movies, etc. as well as their own personal 'take' when deciding on the particulars. Some of these sources manage to get some aspects of some characters better than the others, so feel free to mix and match.
But for the sake of establishing some semblance of a default canon, we consider the 'Modern Age' comics from around the current point of the timeline to be the most canon, along with the animated series and such. Why that and not the newer stuff? Because core founding members of this site grew up on that stuff, and pretty much agree that it was good stuff, and we either can't be bothered to keep up with what is going on with most recent comics or we have mixed opinions about any changes.
However, you don't necessarily need to be very familiar with those sources to play with us, because we mostly use it just as a reference for what sort of relationships different characters tend to have with each other and what sort of transitions different characters go through over time - all of which is easy enough for you to either look up or just ask other players about if you're willing to do some research. It isn't hard to find someone willing and able to ramble on forever about how what is different and what is the same between the version of a character in the comics and the version of that character you're familiar with from some other form of media - and with a few notable exceptions, they're usually not so different that you couldn't play a canon character as you know them from whatever source you're familiar with, as long as you pick the right one.
Speaking of picking canon characters, we primarily accept characters that appear in the mainstream DC universe, including the comics, the animated series, and other media that closely adheres to that stuff. This includes characters that aren't normally considered 'Batman' characters, but because this is a Gotham-centric forum you're expected to provide a good reason for why your character is heavily involved with Gotham at this time if it's not their normal stomping grounds - they're allowed to go visit or live in other places, but they're expected to be doing Gotham-related things with their life.
I'm also willing to consider canon characters from a bit further afield like the movies and video games as long as I agree that they still fit in nicely with the other characters - though if you pick a character from one of these other sources, they are not automatically granted all the same relationships that they had with the other characters in their source material. For example, if you want to play as Rachel Dawes from the Nolanverse, exactly what her relationship is with Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent are up to the players of Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent - which is unlike if someone signs up for Harley Quinn, who is so well-established as the Joker's girlfriend in everything that her relationship with him is just assumed.