Board Rules It's VERY IMPORTANT that you learn about our policies. If you're very used to role playing, you might already know some of this stuff, but I suggest you take the time to read it anyways. You can't be too informed, right?
Three strikes • The three strikes system we have for the staff of the board is our way of keeping records of infractions, and why they were handed out. Not all rules are equal and some rules carry much heavier prices than others. This is twice as important as this is an honor-based site and lots of things are subjective. Don't let this scare you though. We're all very nice and will talk things out with you so we're all on the same page. Remember: We don't want to ban you anymore than you want to be banned!
Out Of Character (OOC) Rules
• Respect your peers • No flaming • No copyrighted stealing • Do not link to harmful, pornographic, or illegal material • One account per user
If you're unclear about any of those rules, or would like more specific information on them, click the spoiler tag.
Spoiler • R-E-S-P-E-C-T ♪ – The key factor to this community, we completely understand that not everyone will get along, but everyone needs to respect everyone else.
• Flaming – Any attempts to insult, harass, or attack another member personally for beliefs, lifestyle, or for who they are. Is an offense that the entire staff takes very seriously.
• Stolen Content – Stealing characters from other sites, animes, or stories is not an accepted practice here at Betwixt Hedgegroves. Referencing pictures and art for appearance is acceptable, however if there's a request to take down the content, we will require you to find a new picture. We encourage all our members to invent, and innovate new content to bring to our community.
• Outside Linking – We require that all links outside of our site to not connect to harmful, pornographic, or illegal material. It's against ZetaBoard's Terms of Service.
• Accounts – No more than one account per user. If you share a computer with another member of Betwixt Hedgegroves, please let us know. (Trust me, it'll benefit you more than us if you only have one account!)
There is no way to cover every situation and every case that will come up in a wide range of creative and passionate people, collaborating, and clashing. The staff reserves the right to decide what is permissible and not at Shadowside.
In Character (IC) Rules
• No Godmoding • No Meta Gaming • No Adult Content (Implied is fine.) • Owner of a Storyline holds the right to move characters along during absence • Don't abuse the system
If you're unclear about any of the rules, or need more definition on them, please click the spoiler tag.
Spoiler • Godmoding – A multi faceted form of cheating in a free writing community. Below are several listed forms of godmoding. however please note that when you are going to excess of your characters abilities to control, or deflect another players efforts that you may be godmoding. I highly recommend looking them over, even if you're familiar with what godmoding is. Spoiler Auto dodging: Avoid every hit? Effortlessly brush off a characters attack repeatedly? This falls under Auto Dodging a form of god moding where you never take a hit and never make a mistake. Character makes mistakes even super powerful characters can slip up and take damage.
Auto hitting: Making every hit impossible to dodge? Telling the other player how much damage they took from your attack? This is auto hitting, where you the player decide that they can’t do anything but take your hit and thus tell them what you did to them. You have no rights to someone else’s character as such stop your attacks before hitting or leave it to the other player to decide what happens to them.
The Hat Trick: When you write your powers you are stating what your character is capable of doing, and what the reasonable and balancing limits should be. Pulling additional abilities, or performing beyond the limits that you set for your character without clearing it with the staff is pulling a hat trick. This is not a limit on creativity or cunning in a world with infinite possibilities, there are thousands of ways that your powers could interact within this world. Being cunning and crafty with the use of powers is a time honored tradition in RPGing. However pulling a power or endurance beyond your characters ability and without any reasonable explanation is unfair to the other players and will result in punishment and limitations.
Impossible Time: In the several seconds your opponent draws his sword, you’ve thrown 10 fireballs and ran up to higher ground. An example of impossible time, you need to keep how much you do to the relative speed of your opponents speed. If they are doing 1-2 actions unless your character is in fact faster keep the time in mind.
One Man Party: The use of more than two of one players characters against one player character creating a situation where you stack all your characters attacks against just one player character. Working together with other players against another player is perfectly acceptable but a perfect crew of characters used all by one player is an effort in cheating.
Final Note: God moding in all the situations above is keeping a level of reality and fairness to your fights. It comes down to the temperaments of the two players fighting to determine how the fight will progress and what will happen within. Keeping an open communication with your partner/opponent in the fight will make the event more interesting and less likely for god moding to happen. • Meta Gaming – The use of Out of Character knowledge, against a player In character is not permitted. Keep things In Character, and keep OOC comments to a minimum in IC forums. Noteworthy is that, regardless of the organizations a student may be affiliated to under NO circumstance will it have more knowledge about another character without the authorization of the owner of that other character. • Adult Content – This community is open to a wide array of people as such we require any extreme gore or violent posts to be Marked Mature. To add sexual content is not allowed, Romance is fine but bedroom scenes are not allowed under Zeta ToS. • Storylines/Community Events/Closed Topics – Please note that when signing up for a storyline that the storyline owner has the right to move or remove players/characters from their storyline if their absence is holding up story progression, or causing a purposeful breakdown in the plot (malicious intent). This however does not include harming or killing said character without express written consent of the owner. It is also illegal to purposefully disrupt community events and closed topics without the permission of the topic's original author(s). • System Abuse: – No system is perfect, every attempt can be made to string out a great series of rules and systems on any web site however loopholes and glitches can exist. Be aware we do not tolerate the practice of abusing our systems in an attempt to “elevate” or “exceed” in the system, even though Hedgegroves is an honor-based site. Many of our rules and regulations exist to make the community fair to everyone involved, and to reward commitment and passion to the site. Abuse of these systems will result in penalties.
Originally drafted by Brian Ronin, ninja'd by Shadow Dragon 24. Modified by SafiMoyo, and then added on again by SD. Minor edit on Meta Gaming by Fen, then Ninja'd again by Rain Redbriar with permission
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