BOOK OF LAWS: Rules

[Irobashi Chronicles]

Main Rules
*Please check the site guide for any new rules that may be added, as some of them will show up in this thread later! New additions to the rules will be highlighted in white for 14 days, after which time the highlights will be removed.*

The Golden Rule - Please treat otherS how you wish to be treated. Be respectful and kind to others.

• All new members have a 30 day grace period. By that time all new members should know and understand the site rules and site protocol, and well understand how this site is run and what is expected of them. There is no excuse for not knowing the rules and claiming ignorance of the rules is not acceptable.
  
  
• New major rule: we are doing monthly activity checks. You MUST keep up with these and be active in your threads. We need to know what's going on because there are too many characters dependent on others RPed by other people. We've had problems with this in the past and we're trying to keep it from happening again. Don't like so many activity checks? This site probably isn't for you. ~updated August, 2011
  
  
• If members begin causing problems, they are given a 15 day probation to straighten out their attitude. This includes failure to follow directions, arguing with or ignoring staff, and repeated breaking of the rules. If in that time the member continues the negative behavior, they become subject to deletion of all accounts and Original Characters, and their Canon Characters will be adopted out.

Conflict Resolution - If there is a fight, please keep it in a Private Messaging assembly, if it gets out of hand, contact the staff. Before it gets out of hand though, try to resolve the problem peacefully.

Theft - Do not copy or steal another's work! As an artist myself I know not to steal work! Meaning writing, poems, songs, art, anything someone else made and you claim as your own! Of course people use say Bumble Bee right out of a picture from the movies and make a cool sig or something of the sort, but it's considered theft if you say you yourself made that. I find it rather serious and it's called plagiarizing, meaning illegal.

Ratings - Hey guys, keep it to an understanding rate of sorts. If you write a detailed rp of your lover couples going at it, put a warning in the title. Just put a big M for mature in the subject title and it should all be fine. I've seen some gruesome rp through torture wise, I don't see why that can't be allowed. If it bothers you then don't write/read it! Just remember, we're all respectful and mature young adults/adults.

IC vs OOC - Don't take things personally in role play as if someone just said it to you in reality. Maybe two characters hate each other, must both the role players hate one another as well?

Absences - If you are going to be absent, post in Going Away. It helps especially when others are waiting on you to post.

• If a member fails to post in any RP threads for 30 days or more without posting a notice in the Going Away board that they will be absent for a time (if a member is going to be away for more than 7 days, an Absence Notice post is required), all of their accounts and characters are put on the inactive list.
  
  
• If a member remains inactive for an additional 5 months (totaling 6 months) or more without posting a notice in the Going Away board that they will be absent for a time (an Absence Notice post is required), all of their accounts and Original Characters will be deleted and their Canon Characters will be put up for adoption.
  
  
• If a Staff or Senior Member remains inactive for an additional 11 months (totaling one year) or more without posting a notice in the Going Away board that they will be absent for a time (an Absence Notice post is required), all of their accounts and Original Characters will be deleted and their Canon Characters will be put up for adoption. Under certain circumstances (judged on a case by case basis by the Staff) the time limit can be waved for Staff and Senior Members.

Spamming - Spamming and posting more than once without anyone else replying is a don't. Spamming is pointless and meaningless, and just annoys everyone. If you're going to just say Hi, or I'm a banana king, or anything like that, just say it in the chat box please.

Images - Maximum Banner/Signature image size: 650x300. Please no gargantuan banners or signatures for your characters or anything else unless you put it in your character log. There's also a way to put the link of your character log where you would put a signature banner, just link it if you want. PS: I never said banners can't be done go for it! [url=LINK FOR CHARACTER LOG GOES HERE]My Character Log[/url]

Advertising - Please keep all Advertisements on the advertisements board, there's also a part in your profile where you can put your Site's name and link. If we get complaints about someone doing otherwise it will be taken accordingly by the Warning System. This includes advertising in the chat box leave that to private chat please and don't harass others about joining your site!

Sexual Harrassment - Sexual Harassment will be taken by one warning, then permanent ban; I have been sexually harassed and worse before and we will NOT tolerate it.

First Warning
Second Warning
Third Warning
One Day Ban
Three Day Ban
One Week Ban
Two Week Ban
Three week Ban
One month Ban
[glow=red,2,300]Permanent Ban[/glow]

- Don't be afraid of the Warning System! It's only used for emergencies and believe it or not it's been done in the past just not on here. So far nothing extreme enough has come up so pretty much consider getting lucky and just getting a warning most of the time xD Iro doesn't like to ban people or suspend them you'd really have to be that bad or misbehave that often in a crude fashion for such to occur.

Accounts - All players are required to have a separate member account and should be the same as their Chat Box screen name to avoid confusion. This account is required for "Spotlight Voting", "Activity Checks", and posting in all boards under "General" and "Nest Files" except the "Character Transcript Generator" where character profiles are posted with character accounts and the "OOC" board (which is for general goofing around role play threads). From there, each character a player wishes to play must have their own separate character account to post their bio in the "Character Transcript Generator" and in all In Character Role Play threads in the "Tranquility California", "Other Territories", "Other Planets", and "Other Times of Our Choosing" boards. This is to avoid confusion of what character is posting in a given thread and allows other players to see at a glance who has posted as well as makes it easier to find specific posts a given character needs to reply to.

Member and Character Account Names - To avoid confusion and potential issues with other members, do not use Character names for your Member Account, especially Canon Character names. This creates confusion and can potentially create hard feelings where none were intended when people start using Canon Character names for their Member Account names and someone is already playing that character. Also, do not use names for Member or Character Accounts that are offensive to others, especially derogatory terms. If you are unsure if a name is offensive or derogatory, it's best not to use it.

Site Cash - You may purchase specials such as Custom Titles for your Member Account for $500 site cash (100 posts). Additional items for purchase by members may be added later, such as Icons and Signatures (unless you make them yourself) from the graphics designers on the board.

Staff Positions - Please don't ask to be made staff. I think we have plenty, but you never know, so don't lose hope for the opportunity.

Characters, Dialogue, and Threads

Creating Your Character - Please go by the biography form when making your PC (Permanent/aka Player Character) and follow how it is to be filled out. Please don't change the coding in it, it will make it a big mess. As stated above, character bios are to be posted with that character's account. The ONLY character bios posted on site are for the site RP. DO NOT post character bios for fan fics or from other RPs off site as it causes confusion and misunderstandings we would rather avoid.

Canon Characters Allowed - As there has been some questions regarding this, so a definitive ruling was needed: This RP site is centered strictly on the Transformers Live Movie Universe and it's related media. Aside from the two existing movies, additional information can be found in the books and comics listed here. That being said, additional canon TF characters not in the Movie Verse literature are allowed strictly from the original G1 cartoon series only. Also, some canon characters will be allowed on a case by case approval basis from TF:A or RiD (non-Predacon/Beastmech only). No other TF continuity characters are allowed! This includes the Japanese Energon/Armada/Cybertron series as well as Beast Wars/Beast Machines series; and while Shattered Glass is G1 alt verse, the characters there are polar opposites from what they would be in G1 proper and thus are also not allowed. Sorry guys, but the staff must draw the line somewhere.

Character Limit - There have been changes to this rule. Due to an increase in original character creations and canon claims, we have put a cap on the amount of canons each member can have. The only ones who are exempt from this rule are those that were there before the rules were made and already had 'x' many canon character profiles made. No more than three canons can be made per player. If your lowest posting character (not including NPC's) has more than 100 posts, then you can buy up to two extra Canon characters with posting earned cash on your profiles for $5,000 site cash (500 posts) each. Please check Arctic's Canons Record

[/url] to see what characters of what type are still available. You may, with staff approval, trade in your TO slots for canons if the trade is warranted.

Thread Limits: Yes, we have them! Please pay attention to this section! Regardless of how many characters you have, each character is allowed no more than five threads to participate in after their introductory threads. There are exceptions to this:

• Newest Rule (March 26th, 2011) = threads with more than five roleplayers in them do not count in a character thread limit.
  
• Follow up threads do not necessarily need to wait. If you have a plot with a certain amount of characters going, you don't have to slow down until a completely new plot pops up with one of the characters. We are overrun with threads and we are still trying to get rid of older ones! Once they get reduced, RPers can go further into the timeline and make new plots. Some characters have exceptions to this. As well as the Site Protocol Guide linked at the end of the rules sheet, please refer to the Character/Thread Limit post for details. If you have a canon that meets this exception, you can join as many threads as needed, but making new threads still applies to each and every character.

Techno Organics -We also have a rule for creating Techno Organics. As stated in the Techno Organics List, staff may have up to four TO's and members may have up to two TO characters. If your lowest posting character has more than 100 posts, then you can buy up to two extra TO characters with posting earned cash on your profiles for $5,000 site cash (500 posts) each.

NPC's, SPC's and Plot Characters- NPC's (Non-Permanent Characters) are temporary killable characters that can be created for the sole purpose of making characters that are for fleshing out numbers and letting them be killed off, and SPC's (Semi-Permanent Characters) are characters created for non Site Plots or other purposes where a Permanent Character can not be used but an NPC is inadequate for the task. Templates and special rules for NPC's and SPC's are found HERE.
Plot Characters are strictly for the sole purpose of engaging or furthering a Site Plot and after a Plot is completed can be killed off if you don't want to continue using them or put on inactive status and adapted for future Site Plot use. Each Site Plot will have a specialized bio for Plot Characters to be created with and will have a set of rules listed for those characters. The current Site Plot we are preparing for is Preservers of Earth. Follow the directions given for that Plot if you wish to create a character for that plot. On a case by case basis, some Plot Characters may become permanent characters. To do this, the Plot Character's bio must be expanded into a full character bio with all pertinent information. Plot events and in character role play may be used to help flesh out the character's full bio.

Standardized In-character Dialog Text Symbols - Because there are MULTIPLE methods of communication between factions and humans, Leathurkatt and Jetta have created a list of dialog symbols that members can use universally for the sake of consistency in their posts to make it easier to distinguish what method of communication a character is using, whether it's Texting, Open Communication Links/Open Radio Transmissions, Secure Communication Links, etc. Please refer to Leathurkatt's character thread limit and standardized dialog text rules thread[/url].

Always refer to the RP timeline when making threads - Please do not disregard this, we're serious about the order as plots of all types take place so events are easier to track. You MUST establish dates according to the timeline any time you make a thread, please refer to Leathurkatt's RP Timeline for the dates other threads have occurred. It will make planning future threads easier. PLEASE PM Leathurkatt via Site PMs once you have the date set.

Roleplay Etiquette

God Mod - God Modding is where you're character is super powerful, has god-like abilities, or dodges every hit. Yes this is a transformers rp and it has techno organics so of course there will be some abilities, you know what I mean though.

Powerplay - Power play is where you play another person's character without permission. I'll show you the difference in the do and don't.let's say my character is Lionfang and Thunderclaw:

Incorrect

After dodging the bite that was cleverly planned and impossible to dodge, Lionfang ripped forward and slashed claws across the throat of Thunderclaw, making the cat drop dead.

Correct

Lionfang yowled in pain as Thunderclaw's fangs sank into his back ankle after trying to flee the enemy territory, then turning around and lashing forward for the tom's throat for a death blow.

Lionfang attempted to get Thunderclaw, and didn't dodge every hit. I can do better but eh I'm stating rules not trying to bore you.

Posting Length - Be creative! Come on we wanna hear your character's thoughts and feelings, some inspiration and motivation if you have any at the moment of truth/writing! What no one likes is someone working hard on a well detailed post and getting this in return:

He sat down.

As he slumped down into his seat, his greasy haired slid over his eyes which seemed hollow and haunting-like. Obviously Ryan had had a rough day, with an exhausted sigh he let his arm hang at his side passed the chair's arms.

Spelling- There is also something called spell check, I understand typos but that helps lots. I have noticed people saying 'there' and using it in sentences such as; "It was there turn." Try using proper spelling and grammar with those kind of things please, it should be: "It was their turn."

Chat Speak - Please, chat speak stays in the chat box. We don't want to see it on any boards of the site period.

Killing Another - Please ask the role player before killing their character, but I can not argue if you lead your character into a death wish obvious trap, I'm sure others could though.

Keeping It Real - Here's a perfect example; Your character is a pure human, five year old little kid and gets blasted by Megatron's cannon on direct target. That's a dead kid! '' they can't survive that and just be hurt! I don't think there'd be much if not anything left of that poor kid x.x Casualties happen, I think it's more fun the see how it goes not plan how it will end.

Other Site Protocol - You will find a list of general Site Protocol that are additions to the rules listed here. These can be found by clicking HERE. Be sure to read them as these apply to all portions of the site as well. These protocols are just as important as reading these rules! You must read these to get access to the Character Creation Board.

Character Bio Pass Phrase -

> Check the pink letters/characters above for the "Character Bio" Pass Phrase! <

~Rules updated by Jetta and Leathurkatt
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