07-11-2020, 07:17 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-21-2020, 01:19 PM by Storyteller Dark.)
I. OOC Conduct, Posting, and Activity
I. Treat each other kindly. No bullying or slurs, no harassment of any kind, is allowed. This is an open forum and a safe haven for those of any gender, race, nationality, religion and so forth to explore creative writing.
II. There are no minimum activity requirements, though if you begin a thread you are expected to post at least once weekly out of politeness to your RP partners. Threads that have not seen a reply in one month may be exited by the thread partner(s), and the inactive player may not claim rewards for that thread. However, inactive characters will never be deleted. We allow liquid time threads here to help with activity, so you may create more than one thread with the same character at once, so long as their travel between the threads makes sense (ex. being in a thread in the Pines, as well as in the Prairie in a thread dated a week earlier).
III. There is a posting order. Those who post once should not post again until all other members in that thread have posted. There may be exceptions in the form of Story threads for expediency.
IV. There is no minimum word count, but you should give your roleplay partner something to respond to. We are open to writers of all skill levels, ages and language abilities, but posts should be more than two lines, should at least show your character responding to the thread's events and dialogue, and offer something new to the thread in the form of events or dialogue of your own.
V. No character, art or photographs should violate copyright. While we encourage art use on site, please be sure stock used is marked with a CC or similar license before using it, and do not use someone else's art without permission. (A good site for stock is Unsplash.com.) Characters should be original creations, and not based on or imitations of existing fictional characters. Please do not hotlink images here directly from other websites (bar image-hosting sites), as the content can change without warning.
VI. To respect those living with any of the broad number of conditions termed mental illnesses, roleplayers wishing to create a character with one must first contact staff. This character must be auditioned, with the roleplayer able to demonstrate strong knowledge of the condition and a good reason for wishing to roleplay it out. The condition may not be the character's defining trait; it must have a personality beyond this.
VII. If for some reason you wish to start fresh, under a new OOC name, you must inform a Storyteller, preferably through Private Message, of your prior username and characters. This is to avoid issues where one set of character accounts might avoid consequences through the player pretending to be someone else.
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II. Our site RPG rating is 3/1/3. This means that swearing and mature language is fine, but only mild sexual innuendo and references are allowed. Violence is unrestricted, but we do ask that the 'content warning' rule be adhered to in these threads, and that violence not be gratituous: i.e. the violence should have a reason, and serve a purpose. Characters who create violence merely for the OOC novelty of it are not permitted. To expand on this, we include the following rules.
I. No in-character, backstory, implication, or references of any kind to sexual assault, sexual abuse, or underage sexual activity.
II. Any consensual sexual activity must occur in a fade-to-black; the site does not allow sexual imagery to occur explicity on-screen. Vague references are allowed, but please remember that this site does not have an age requirement, so references should be PG at most. Such roleplay should not be continued off-site; remember that this site allows roleplayers of all ages.
III. Other possibly sensitive material including extreme violence or gore, child neglect and so forth should be tagged with a [Content Warning] in the title.
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III. Roleplaying
The Hereafter is an interactive story with its own setting, history and ongoing events. Players interact by using roleplay to simulate fictional characters' interactions with one another and the world around them. This site's story is intended to be highly dynamic, organic, and interactive. To that end there are three rules:
I. Minimal planning: predetermining plots is not allowed. While you can certainly decide that two characters will meet in a thread, you cannot decide the outcome, nor should unlikely or complex plots be planned to occur in advance. Larger-scale plotting should be left to real interaction, and to chance. We want this to be a dynamic, organic, interactive world with surprises and unexpected development, as much as possible in a forum setting. Likewise, character deaths should never be pre-planned, and are not permitted to happen off-screen. If you don't want to roleplay a character anymore, shelve them as inactive and doing other things off-screen for now.
II. No thread is private; all are open for anyone to join. However, no character can use meta-gaming or god-modding/power-gaming to join a thread that they cannot reasonably join, either due to distance, a lack of knowledge, defenses in place by the already-present parties, and so forth. Example of okay: a spy with prior knowledge of a private two-character meeting slips in to watch from the shadows, though at risk of being detected. Example of not okay: a spy bypasses several defenses after having travelled a half a continent in an hour to listen in on a meeting they didn't know existed.
III. No character is immortal, or impervious. On the flip side, no player can force another's death. This is a bit of a sensitive topic--no one wants to lose their long-developed character to a sudden attack. As such, we have guidelines in place, and any disagreements should be brought directly to site admins to mediate. On the attacker's side, there should be a good in-character reason to aim for the other's death. Random attacks, and randomly-murderous characters, are not encouraged. Dark-aligned characters should bear in mind that random violence is not conducive to one's own survival! On the defender's side, however, please remember that in-character actions have in-character consequences. Stepping on the wrong toes, causing suffering or death in others, opens the character to injury and death in turn, and the consequences may be more severe based on the characters involved. Liquid time may not be used to evade consequences; if you create a thread taking place later on while in a thread in which your character is in danger, it is your responsibility to figure out how to solve the issue--the later thread does not protect your character from consequences.
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IV. RP Etiquette
There are a number of standard roleplay rules that Hereafter ascribes to. If you have roleplayed in the past you should be familiar with them; there's nothing particularly new to see here. If you are new to roleplay, however, please familiarize yourself with them!
I. IC is IC. OOC is OOC.
IC actions should not cause OOC strife. A character is not an extension of a player. They are, at least in part, a way for a player to explore personalities not their own. Therefore, a cruel, manipulative, or treacherous character's player might be a very kind, friendly and understanding person. If your character faces injury or betrayal, please do not take it out on the player! Likewise, if there is a player you dislike, you should not target their character; instead contact a site admin or moderator for mediation. On a related note, characters should always behave according to their personality and experiences; character actions should not be tailored toward a specific result that you, as a player, wish to see.
II. No Meta-Gaming.
Your character's knowledge is limited to what they have learned in-character. Though some general knowledge can be gained off-screen, players cannot assume that characters have learned anything private, sensitive or advantageous, etc., without actually roleplaying it out.
III. No Power-Playing; No God-Modding.
Players can never write the results of their actions ex. against other players. "Steve strikes at Joe, aiming to punch him right in his smug nose!" is fine, but "Steve strikes at Joe, punching him and breaking his smug nose!" is not. Write your attempt; allow the other player to respond with the results. Likewise, Joe's player cannot come back with, "Joe dodges with the speed of a comet, and runs out of the thread without being touched, since he's the fastest guy alive." That would be power-playing, which is also bad. On a related note, exiting a thread in which your character is being confronted, or in danger, should be tagged at the end with not just the standard "Exit," but "Exit Unless Stopped."
Thank you for reading through these rules; it's certainly a long list, but with them we hope to provide the framework for a welcoming, fun, and fair storytelling environment.
I. Treat each other kindly. No bullying or slurs, no harassment of any kind, is allowed. This is an open forum and a safe haven for those of any gender, race, nationality, religion and so forth to explore creative writing.
II. There are no minimum activity requirements, though if you begin a thread you are expected to post at least once weekly out of politeness to your RP partners. Threads that have not seen a reply in one month may be exited by the thread partner(s), and the inactive player may not claim rewards for that thread. However, inactive characters will never be deleted. We allow liquid time threads here to help with activity, so you may create more than one thread with the same character at once, so long as their travel between the threads makes sense (ex. being in a thread in the Pines, as well as in the Prairie in a thread dated a week earlier).
III. There is a posting order. Those who post once should not post again until all other members in that thread have posted. There may be exceptions in the form of Story threads for expediency.
IV. There is no minimum word count, but you should give your roleplay partner something to respond to. We are open to writers of all skill levels, ages and language abilities, but posts should be more than two lines, should at least show your character responding to the thread's events and dialogue, and offer something new to the thread in the form of events or dialogue of your own.
V. No character, art or photographs should violate copyright. While we encourage art use on site, please be sure stock used is marked with a CC or similar license before using it, and do not use someone else's art without permission. (A good site for stock is Unsplash.com.) Characters should be original creations, and not based on or imitations of existing fictional characters. Please do not hotlink images here directly from other websites (bar image-hosting sites), as the content can change without warning.
VI. To respect those living with any of the broad number of conditions termed mental illnesses, roleplayers wishing to create a character with one must first contact staff. This character must be auditioned, with the roleplayer able to demonstrate strong knowledge of the condition and a good reason for wishing to roleplay it out. The condition may not be the character's defining trait; it must have a personality beyond this.
VII. If for some reason you wish to start fresh, under a new OOC name, you must inform a Storyteller, preferably through Private Message, of your prior username and characters. This is to avoid issues where one set of character accounts might avoid consequences through the player pretending to be someone else.
II. Our site RPG rating is 3/1/3. This means that swearing and mature language is fine, but only mild sexual innuendo and references are allowed. Violence is unrestricted, but we do ask that the 'content warning' rule be adhered to in these threads, and that violence not be gratituous: i.e. the violence should have a reason, and serve a purpose. Characters who create violence merely for the OOC novelty of it are not permitted. To expand on this, we include the following rules.
I. No in-character, backstory, implication, or references of any kind to sexual assault, sexual abuse, or underage sexual activity.
II. Any consensual sexual activity must occur in a fade-to-black; the site does not allow sexual imagery to occur explicity on-screen. Vague references are allowed, but please remember that this site does not have an age requirement, so references should be PG at most. Such roleplay should not be continued off-site; remember that this site allows roleplayers of all ages.
III. Other possibly sensitive material including extreme violence or gore, child neglect and so forth should be tagged with a [Content Warning] in the title.
III. Roleplaying
The Hereafter is an interactive story with its own setting, history and ongoing events. Players interact by using roleplay to simulate fictional characters' interactions with one another and the world around them. This site's story is intended to be highly dynamic, organic, and interactive. To that end there are three rules:
I. Minimal planning: predetermining plots is not allowed. While you can certainly decide that two characters will meet in a thread, you cannot decide the outcome, nor should unlikely or complex plots be planned to occur in advance. Larger-scale plotting should be left to real interaction, and to chance. We want this to be a dynamic, organic, interactive world with surprises and unexpected development, as much as possible in a forum setting. Likewise, character deaths should never be pre-planned, and are not permitted to happen off-screen. If you don't want to roleplay a character anymore, shelve them as inactive and doing other things off-screen for now.
II. No thread is private; all are open for anyone to join. However, no character can use meta-gaming or god-modding/power-gaming to join a thread that they cannot reasonably join, either due to distance, a lack of knowledge, defenses in place by the already-present parties, and so forth. Example of okay: a spy with prior knowledge of a private two-character meeting slips in to watch from the shadows, though at risk of being detected. Example of not okay: a spy bypasses several defenses after having travelled a half a continent in an hour to listen in on a meeting they didn't know existed.
III. No character is immortal, or impervious. On the flip side, no player can force another's death. This is a bit of a sensitive topic--no one wants to lose their long-developed character to a sudden attack. As such, we have guidelines in place, and any disagreements should be brought directly to site admins to mediate. On the attacker's side, there should be a good in-character reason to aim for the other's death. Random attacks, and randomly-murderous characters, are not encouraged. Dark-aligned characters should bear in mind that random violence is not conducive to one's own survival! On the defender's side, however, please remember that in-character actions have in-character consequences. Stepping on the wrong toes, causing suffering or death in others, opens the character to injury and death in turn, and the consequences may be more severe based on the characters involved. Liquid time may not be used to evade consequences; if you create a thread taking place later on while in a thread in which your character is in danger, it is your responsibility to figure out how to solve the issue--the later thread does not protect your character from consequences.
IV. RP Etiquette
There are a number of standard roleplay rules that Hereafter ascribes to. If you have roleplayed in the past you should be familiar with them; there's nothing particularly new to see here. If you are new to roleplay, however, please familiarize yourself with them!
I. IC is IC. OOC is OOC.
IC actions should not cause OOC strife. A character is not an extension of a player. They are, at least in part, a way for a player to explore personalities not their own. Therefore, a cruel, manipulative, or treacherous character's player might be a very kind, friendly and understanding person. If your character faces injury or betrayal, please do not take it out on the player! Likewise, if there is a player you dislike, you should not target their character; instead contact a site admin or moderator for mediation. On a related note, characters should always behave according to their personality and experiences; character actions should not be tailored toward a specific result that you, as a player, wish to see.
II. No Meta-Gaming.
Your character's knowledge is limited to what they have learned in-character. Though some general knowledge can be gained off-screen, players cannot assume that characters have learned anything private, sensitive or advantageous, etc., without actually roleplaying it out.
III. No Power-Playing; No God-Modding.
Players can never write the results of their actions ex. against other players. "Steve strikes at Joe, aiming to punch him right in his smug nose!" is fine, but "Steve strikes at Joe, punching him and breaking his smug nose!" is not. Write your attempt; allow the other player to respond with the results. Likewise, Joe's player cannot come back with, "Joe dodges with the speed of a comet, and runs out of the thread without being touched, since he's the fastest guy alive." That would be power-playing, which is also bad. On a related note, exiting a thread in which your character is being confronted, or in danger, should be tagged at the end with not just the standard "Exit," but "Exit Unless Stopped."
Thank you for reading through these rules; it's certainly a long list, but with them we hope to provide the framework for a welcoming, fun, and fair storytelling environment.