Rules

[afterlifer]

Rules
UPDATE 10/7/2013:
RULES REGARDING IC CONTACT/PHONE CONVERSATIONS IN ACTIVITY CHECKS


01. Respect the other people in the game.
When speaking OOCly, play nice and treat others with respect. This means no flaming, no discriminatory remarks, no being a general douchebag.

02. No godmodding, metagaming, or self-cest.
It sucks when other people aren't playing fair with you, so don't do it with other people.

x Godmodding means you only control the character that you play and no one else's. Allow other characters time to react to your character's actions too. If your character goes to shoot another character in the face, the other character's mun gets to be the one to decide if they get hit or not.

x Metagaming means confusing IC and OOC knowledge/feelings. If your character knows something that they shouldn't, but you do, that's metagaming. This applies to information about the game, information about other characters, and information said ICly that was either in secret or unhackable/marked as private. In the same manner, OOC drama should not leak into IC actions or vice versa.

x Self-cest is when you have two characters who need to interact each other and end up roleplaying with yourself. Example: Character A could be aware of Character B, but if you're playing out character A and B dating, someone else has to be playing character B if you're playing character A.

03. Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation
These are necessities. It's okay to make a typo every now and then, but please make sure that you're using spell check for posts and not typing in txt spk. Unless it's IC for your character to do so, but it shouldn't leak into action brackets.

04. Don't over-do it.
IC Drama is fun for everyone as long as it doesn't get out of hand. If your character is having a breakdown twice a week, you need to re-evaluate your characterization.

As for sex? This isn't a sex game. However, we won't stop you from having smut as long as you visibly slap a warning label on the top of the post/in the subject of the thread it starts in, but please don't have your characters have sex in every single thread they've got. Keep it classy guys. Or better yet, fade to black and continue in a musebox, though that isn't a requirement.

05. Put warnings where warnings should be.
Make sure you warn for the usual things: mutilation, suicide, sex, gross/really depressing stuff. Violence if it gets excessive. The only abnormal thing you should not bother warning for is death, since this game is about being dead. If someone's peeking around here and doesn't know that, they probably need to re-evaluate their browsing choices.

06. Your characters should behave ICly.
If your characters are acting completely out of character, including acting completely out of the character's sexual preferences. For example, if Kurt from Glee suddenly started hitting on women or if Johnny Bravo starts chewing on some guy's ear, you'll probably hear from the mods about it.

07. Some rules about apping characters.
X We are allowing 6 characters as a maximum allowance for any player. If you are fully active with 6 characters, you may ask mod permission to app more with proof of sustained activity for all 6 characters for at least 3 months.

x You cannot play more than 2 characters from the same series and you cannot play two characters that need frequent interaction. (For example, you can't play Buffy and Angel, but you can play Buffy and Amy, who barely interact.)

x Character doubles are not allowed. If someone apps Peter Pan from KH, then Peter Pan from the Disney movie is off-limits. If someone apps Bruce Banner from the comics, then Bruce Banner from the movie universe and the cartoons is off-limits; so on and so forth.

x Other than that, characters from any media that has sufficient information about the character is allowed.

x Your application should be written by you. If you are found plagiarizing other players, books, wikipedia pages, websites, or other sources, your application is subject to automatic rejection and an automatic ban from future applications. afterliving has a zero tolerance policy for plagiarism. If you're coming here to write as a hobby why would you use the words of others in the first place?

x We do accept original character applications! If you are apping an original character, please make note that we do not accept fandom OCs, only original universe OCs. This also means that you may not apply for your MMORPG character that you created (i.e. World of Warcraft, Perfect World International, etc.) so please make sure that you think through the way their world works as well as their personality and history within it. For OC applications, we will expect thorough detail and well fleshed-out characters.

x You may only submit up to three applications per month per person. If you delete your applications to get around this, there may be consequences.

x If your application was rejected for whatever reason and you are reapplying there is a one-week waiting period during which you may not submit an application for the same character. You may not reserve the character during the waiting period.

08. Be active. No character sitting.
Activity Checks happen every other month on the last Friday of the month. So if an activity check happens in January, the next one will be in March. You must be active within the game in order to continue playing here as we will not tolerate character sitting. Here's how the activity checks break down:

x The activity check will last a total of 7 days (one week). The moderators will give a notice in the OOC comm and on the plurk a week beforehand to provide adequate advance notice. The dates will also be marked on the events calendar.

x The minimum requirement to pass an activity check is 20 comments. The thread the comments are from must have occurred after the dates of the previous activity check.

x During an activity check, you will provide your name, the name and series of your character, and your links. The links can contain any combination of threads, posts, or logs totaling in at least 20 comments*. You may provide a maximum of three links. This is intended to discourage frequent thread dropping (and so that the moderators don't have to count through 10 links of 2 comments each).
*IC Contact/Phone conversation threads may also count for this, provided that they are substantial. (Text speak replies like "lol" do not count toward your AC.)

x If you do not have enough comments to make the activity check, your character will be dropped. If you are dropped from an activity check, you will be subject to a waiting period of two weeks before you may reapply for your character. The only exceptions to this rule will be made if you speak to the mods directly to explain why you were unable to get your AC in (for example, you were gone the week AC went up and didn't post it in time, NOT because you didn't have enough comments). Otherwise, the consequence for failing an activity check will be that there is a period to give other people a chance to app for that character.

x If your application is accepted during the month of the activity check or in the last week of the non-AC month, you will not be required to participate in that first activity check. It will be stated in your acceptance comment whether you will or won't be required to participate in the next activity check.

x If you are taking a hiatus of less than two weeks during the period of the activity check, you will be required to fill out the appropriate "Hiatus with AC" form. Because you have an entire two months to make these comments, unless you are exempt from recent application acceptance you will be required to submit links with your hiatus.

09. Big plots need to be run by the mods.
It's fine to have character-run plots, but if it's something that will affect all or most players, please make sure to make an event request on the events request page. You need to put the date of your event at least one week after the day that you request it or it will not be approved.

10. Have fun.
If you are not having fun in the game, then it probably isn't a game for you. It's unfair to yourself to force yourself to continue playing and it's unfair to the other people in the game who, more likely than not, are picking up your reluctance to do your tags and lack of enthusiasm. This game is here for fun, so if you're not having it, then something's wrong and you should probably think about what's causing it to not be fun. If it's something the mods can help with, let us know. If it's just you, then we won't hold it against you for moving on with your life.

Consequences
If any of the above rules are broken, you will get one warning. A warning consists of a written warning describing the details of the rule that you broke. The mods might not catch all rules being broken, which is why players are encouraged to contact the moderators with any unlawful behavior within the game.

If you already have one warning, you may be dropped from the game. You will be given a written description of your misbehaviors and you will have the right to challenge this decision with a moderator using the appropriate form.