somapedia | Rules

❦ general rules

❖ stay in character
This is a roleplay, meaning we want to see the characters. Keep your own bad moods out and let your characters' bad moods in.

If you believe a character to be OOC:
❂ You must approach the player and offer them constructive criticism first.

❂ If after attempts to crit have been shunned or completely disregarded by the player in question, then it is recommended to submit an official complaint in the Confidential Contact post.

❂ Once two (or three) official mod complaints against one individual/character have amassed, we will look into it. OOCness is determined through a vigorous review process. The critiquer's comment alone is not sufficient to determine OOCness. Second and third outside opinions will be sought and the mods will engage in their own canon research. How each issue is handled will be a case-by-case situation. We are also more concerned about anything major, not small, minor problems that have no real bearing on the character him/herself.

❂ If we find that the claims are legitimate and the character is indeed proven to be OOC, then the player will be approached with a warning.

❂ If after a period of time the complaints come up again, we repeat the process. However, instead of a warning, we would approach the player with a two-week mod observation period. During these two weeks, the player must make visible efforts to introduce changes to their playing so it will be more IC. If more time is necessary, we will work something out, but the player must come to us.

Note: We do not expect a complete 180-change and/or perfect character. We just want to see signs of improvement.

❂ If by the end of the observation period no visible effort or improvement has occurred, then the character will be removed from the game.

❖ be nice to other players
Don't flame a player, character, or pairing. If you have a problem with someone, either speak to them about it in a rational and mature manner or take it up with a mod. We want to keep the drama to a minimum.

❖ no god-modding
Your character cannot escape Somarium, manipulate the world, hack the journal network, etc. Additionally, you cannot include another player's character in something without consulting them first. This includes assuming important conversations, stealing things, starting fights, mind-reading, killing, and so forth. In short, just contact the other player if what you want to do will affect them in some way.

Please remember that your character is not invincible. If your character does happen to be like God, his powers will have to be reduced or have some sort of limitations on them to keep things fair for the normal humans of this world. Examples of limitations include having more energy drained, having a limited number of uses, or not even having their powers at all (up to you). Knocking down whole buildings is almost always discouraged, and if you plan to unleash destruction on Somarium, please bring it forward to one of the Mods first.

❖ no meta-gaming
OOC knowledge =/= IC knowledge. Characters in-game should not suddenly know what is happening within the game, especially if there are no IC sources for it. The same goes with events. Characters will not automatically know what is happening, though they may be able to eventually figure out or come up with their own theories, whether or not they are right.

❖ be active
As we are now in endgame, we are requiring a lot less of our players in terms of activity. Until July 2014, it will be a simple check-in process and providing only one proof of activity.

❖ no pre-series characters
You can apply for a character from any point in canon except pre-series. It has to be from some point within the actual series itself. We consider prequels and sequels as part of the series, so those canon points are still fair game.

❖ lock mature content
We have no problems if your characters want to have sex: straight, gay, threesome, orgy, whatever. However, please keep all mature content in a character journal as opposed to the one of the communities. If a thread in the main community starts out rated G and starts to head towards R, please make a new entry in your journal, put a link to it in the current thread, and continue in your journal post. Otherwise, member lock the post if you do not wish to move to a journal.

Characters should not be involved in sexual activity if either the character or the player is under the age of 15. No child porn, please.

No pregnancies. Assume that Somarium magically gives all characters 100% pregnancy protection.

Entry cuts and warnings. Please put any potential graphic or trigger inducing content under an entry cut with a warning. Other than what has already been explicitly stated, we do not have any rule against such content existing, particularly within dream posts. However, for the courtesy of other players who may feel uncomfortable about mature-rating content, we ask that such content be placed under a cut with a warning. Examples are anything involving rape, pregnancy, detailed murder, graphic illustrations of diseases, explicit sexual content, etc. If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact one of the mods.

❖ no playercest
Your characters may not interact with each other. Minimal interaction is acceptable. It is perfectly fine if two characters you play have some knowledge of each other, allude to brief offscreen interaction between the two, or participate in a thread together provided there is at least one other character in the thread controlled by a different player. What we don't want is for people to be making huge threads or formulating plots all by themselves. The point of the RP is to interact with the other players, and "playing with yourself" is missing that point.

If for some reason you think playercest is necessary, please contact a mod and we'll try to work something out.

❖ limited fourth-wall breakage
We realize that there are canons with characters who would see and recognize some of the current cast as fictional characters, such as Konata from Lucky Star. While they are allowed to make note of them and even tell the character him/herself, it is required that such actions must be player approved before anything drastically revealing is told to that character.

❖ in case of problems...
We want our players to be able to have fun in an environment where issues can be resolved in a mature manner, i.e. to the player's face. If you have an issue with someone that you don't think they'll respond to you, please ask the mods for assistance instead of resorting to anonymous wank. You can either contact us through IM, e-mail, or through the Mod Confidential Contact.

We realize some drama will happen. We just want to try and prevent it because it's really not worth it.

❦ application rules

✦ You must be at least 13 years old to apply to this RP.

✦ We would prefer that characters under the age of 10 not be applied for. This is for both plot-related and moral reasons, and has more to do with the character's maturity than actual age. If there's a character under the age of 10 that you'd like to apply for, and you feel they would be mature enough to deal with possible violence, sexual content, large scary monsters, or other possible trauma, please explain somewhere in your application what exactly makes this character so mature. We will assess this on a case-by-case basis. (This especially applies to characters from Japanese fandoms who act much older than their age anyway.)

Acceptable child characters would include people like Sunny from Metal Gear Solid and most of the cast of Card Captor Sakura. Unacceptable child characters would include people like Yael from Gundam 00 or Elysia from Fullmetal Alchemist. An explanation of why this character is more mature than their age would indicate is necessary even if we have listed them as "acceptable."

✦You may have a maximum of six (6) characters. HOWEVER. You must have mod approval for the sixth character. If we see that you have been capable of handling all of your other five characters, then you are most likely eligible. But talk to the mods first.

✦ You may only have two characters from the same canon at any time. To prevent playercest, you should apply for characters that would not be required to interact with each other.

HOWEVER there are some exceptions to this rule. For series in which characters may have minor cameos from a different series in an overall canon, such as the Nippon Ichi universe, or those with extreme prequels/sequels like Metal Gear Solid (3 and PO) and .hack, it is possible to apply for a technical third character of the canon so long as there is mod approval and you have discussed it with us. If there are other possibilities, you must talk it over with us before we can determine if that character would fit under this rule. Note: All Final Fantasy and Tales of games are considered separate canons. Therefore, while it is possible for someone to play just from the FF or just from Tales of series, it's not really recommended and a possible cap could be made if it gets out of hand.

✦ About application challenges: It is possible to apply for a character that has already been reserved, however, reservations have first priority. We will only look at the application either after the application is sent in or applications close. This is also true for any pending applications without a reserve. If there are two (or more) applications for an unreserved character, they will be processed at the same time.

✦ Acception process: Your application must be accepted before you can play in the game. If—
Accepted. You have one week to do all of the required steps given in your acceptance notice. If you do not complete those steps within a week, your character will not be considered part of the RP and you will have to reapply. NOTE: If you are on hiatus when your application is accepted, you are exempt from this rule. You will be expected to complete the acceptance steps upon your return, however.

Revision Request. You have one week to make the requested revisions to your application. If you do not submit the revisions by then, your application will be considered dropped. You will not receive a Declined notice if this happens.

Declined. Either your application was not acceptable or the revisions did not adequately fix all of the original issues. You will have to wait two cycle periods before you can reapply for that specific character. Thus if you were declined during the May application cycle, you would have to wait until July. However, you are still welcome to apply for other characters in the interim.