Post by KnightxShield on Sept 3, 2016 22:01:55 GMT -6
While many thread creators will have the right to create rules for their threads, it is important to remember these rules for the forum as a whole. Failure to follow these rules, whether it's general chat, In-Character (IC), Out-of-Character (OOC), or what have you, will result in penalties going all the way up to having your account removed (depending on severity).
First, let's discuss something really simple - ratings. There may be younger members under the age of 18, and while we understand relationships are bound to happen in IC threads between characters (I mean, come on, we have an entire section for Romance-genre threads), we have to keep these younger members in mind. So, any IC relationships, or relationships between members, must be kept under a maximum rating of PG-13. Under no circumstances will explicit or pornographic material be allowed on this forum, and, depending on the severity of the offense or material/content, can result in the termination of your membership to this forum. In addition, romantic relationships between an adult and a minor (either IC or between members) are strictly forbidden.
Moving on to actual role-play guidelines, it's generally accepted that Godmodding is not allowed. If you don't know what Godmodding is, it's when you make a post in which your character interacts with another character (usually someone else's), and any actions that take place between the two characters are controlled by you; i.e., your character, Character A, swings at my character, Character B, and the attack autohits without giving me a chance to make a reactionary post to your character's swing. As a general rule, it's a good idea to end your post mid-action (in this case, mid-swing), and let the other person have a chance to either take the hit, block the hit, or evade the hit. However, Godmodding isn't just making autohits; in some instances, it's not being able to be hit by an opponent's move or ability. Example: Character A swings five hundred times at Character B. Character B dodges all five hundred attacks. In this example, Character B is too overpowered because they were able to dodge five hundred attacks, probably in quick succession. My general rule is for every two attacks dodged, you take a hit. But that's my preference, so any disputes are left to the thread creators, and if needed, the moderators/admins.
Remember ratings? Well, here's a little bit more to it. Keeping in mind that there is a chance that younger members may be in particular role-plays, language can also be an issue. While it is almost entirely up to the thread creators to decide how far the language can go, it's probably a good rule of thumb to keep language in the mild to moderate range (meaning sexual slang and the F-bomb aren't really a good idea). Personally, I like to keep it that low, but it's ultimately up to thread creators for this one.
Activity is something that keeps threads going. A general rule of thumb is to post at least once a day, or once every few days. If there haven't been any posts for a thread in over a month, then the thread is considered "Dead", or inactive. If someone wants to revive a thread, they should first notify a moderator and ask if there's a chance they can get into contact with the members participating in the thread (especially in role-plays). If this is possible, the moderator should then bring all members of the thread, plus the member that wishes to revive it, into a private group (temporary) to discuss the revival, or even restarting, of the thread in question. After the discussion has reached a conclusion, all members, excluding the moderator overseeing the discussion, will leave the group and create a revival group for the thread in question (again, it's temporary). Moderators will decide how long the revival group will be up, and how many members will be needed to revive the thread). If a thread has more than ten members, then the moderator will contact the thread creator, their designated second-in-command for the thread, and the members that were most active (maximum of ten).
Discrimination is entirely forbidden. While we do respect the right to free speech, there is a line between what's acceptable and what's not. Being disrespectful based upon race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, nationality, religion, disability, or anything else protected by United States Federal Law will result in warnings, probation, and/or a temporary or permanent ban. Just be careful what you say about other people, okay? We're all here to have fun and create stories, not start a political-or-whathaveyou debate.
That reminds me. Politics. I leave that to thread owners, but I'll have to make a specific board for politics to be discussed. That said, if you're going to talk about politics within a particular role-play (and I mean talk about real-world politics), keep it in the OOC threads. That way it doesn't disrupt the story of the IC threads.
Role-play sign-up threads are also considered OOC threads by default here. Some forums require two completely different threads between sign-up and OOC, but here at Komozo Role-Plays, we view these threads as one-and-the-same; it's a helluva lot easier to 1) keep track of member entries into the thread, 2) discuss the course of the story for the IC thread, and 3) easier for thread creators to moderate their members and settle disputes.
IC posts don't have to be in either first-person or third-person as far as choosing between which one you want to use; the only stipulation is that you choose either first- or third-person and stick with that for that story. In other words, you can post in first-person in one IC thread, but then in another IC thread, your posts are all in third-person. Simple enough, right?
I've delayed this one long enough. Here at Komozo Role-Plays, it's a really good idea to at least be able to read in English. If you can't write or speak English, but you can read and understand it, feel free to use a translation program to translate your posts, then copy>paste the translation as your post. And for those of us that are native English speakers/writers, it's a good idea to try and help someone who may be struggling due to lack of experience with English. After all, English, while one of the universal trade languages (alongside Chinese and Spanish), is one of the most difficult languages for a non-native speaker/writer to learn.
In regards to copyrighted content, Komozo Role-Plays requires that images taken from other websites (such as Tumblr, DeviantArt, etc.) be credited either at the bottom of the post, on your profile, or in your Signature (if used there). YouTube videos should be linked to as well, even if they're embedded in the post. We don't endorse piracy, and pirating will get you banned.
Disputes between members of a role-play will need the thread creator to moderate and act as an impartial judge. If that isn't an option, the thread owner should contact a forum moderator to mediate the dispute and settle it.
Post length can also be an issue; as such, it's a really good idea to make your posts at least two or three lines long. One thing that may help in an IC thread is to control multiple characters (I do this, personally) at the same time to create diversity among your posts' points of view. One-liners will get you into trouble, so ask a veteran role-player for help in regards to how to make your posts longer if you're finding yourself posting nothing but one-liners.
There should be a great amount of diversity among characters; avoid making Mary-Sue characters. A Mary-Sue character is a character that is so perfect that nothing is entertaining about them. An example of a Mary-Sue is a character that is able to instantly befriend any other character, has a tragic backstory (think Sasuke, from Naruto), or is overpowered to the point that Godmodding is essentially all they can do. A good character can have a tragic backstory, but it should break the mould if they do; for example, using the character Sasuke Uchiha from the Naruto series, Sasuke can be considered a Mary-Sue because of an incident which wiped out his entire family, his ability to learn new abilities quickly, and his brash attitude. However, taking these into account, Sasuke still has room for development as a character; he's fixated on revenge, which can be corrected, he has a bit of an ego, which can be corrected, and he's insanely strong, which can be countered by several people. Take away his insane abilities, and he's a great character with even more room for development. Maybe he's average in his abilities and doesn't want to forsake his friends in his pursuit of revenge. That would be an interesting character.
Lastly, and this one's just a heads up about personal preference, some people (myself included) enjoy color-coding character dialogue rather than use quotation marks. I'll use myself as an example. Two of my characters are having a conversation; instead of saying 'he said, "Hello, Character B."', I might shorten that and say, "Character A looks up and sees Character B walking to the table. Oh, hey, Character B. Character B sits down next to Character A. Hey, how's it going?". That's just my preference, and I leave it to every member that participates in a role-play IC thread to decide how they like to post in regards to dialogue.
Veteran role-players should be able to fill in any gaps that I may have missed here. These are the general rules of thumb for role-playing on Komozo Role-Plays, and we hope that you enjoy your stay in Komozo!
First, let's discuss something really simple - ratings. There may be younger members under the age of 18, and while we understand relationships are bound to happen in IC threads between characters (I mean, come on, we have an entire section for Romance-genre threads), we have to keep these younger members in mind. So, any IC relationships, or relationships between members, must be kept under a maximum rating of PG-13. Under no circumstances will explicit or pornographic material be allowed on this forum, and, depending on the severity of the offense or material/content, can result in the termination of your membership to this forum. In addition, romantic relationships between an adult and a minor (either IC or between members) are strictly forbidden.
Moving on to actual role-play guidelines, it's generally accepted that Godmodding is not allowed. If you don't know what Godmodding is, it's when you make a post in which your character interacts with another character (usually someone else's), and any actions that take place between the two characters are controlled by you; i.e., your character, Character A, swings at my character, Character B, and the attack autohits without giving me a chance to make a reactionary post to your character's swing. As a general rule, it's a good idea to end your post mid-action (in this case, mid-swing), and let the other person have a chance to either take the hit, block the hit, or evade the hit. However, Godmodding isn't just making autohits; in some instances, it's not being able to be hit by an opponent's move or ability. Example: Character A swings five hundred times at Character B. Character B dodges all five hundred attacks. In this example, Character B is too overpowered because they were able to dodge five hundred attacks, probably in quick succession. My general rule is for every two attacks dodged, you take a hit. But that's my preference, so any disputes are left to the thread creators, and if needed, the moderators/admins.
Remember ratings? Well, here's a little bit more to it. Keeping in mind that there is a chance that younger members may be in particular role-plays, language can also be an issue. While it is almost entirely up to the thread creators to decide how far the language can go, it's probably a good rule of thumb to keep language in the mild to moderate range (meaning sexual slang and the F-bomb aren't really a good idea). Personally, I like to keep it that low, but it's ultimately up to thread creators for this one.
Activity is something that keeps threads going. A general rule of thumb is to post at least once a day, or once every few days. If there haven't been any posts for a thread in over a month, then the thread is considered "Dead", or inactive. If someone wants to revive a thread, they should first notify a moderator and ask if there's a chance they can get into contact with the members participating in the thread (especially in role-plays). If this is possible, the moderator should then bring all members of the thread, plus the member that wishes to revive it, into a private group (temporary) to discuss the revival, or even restarting, of the thread in question. After the discussion has reached a conclusion, all members, excluding the moderator overseeing the discussion, will leave the group and create a revival group for the thread in question (again, it's temporary). Moderators will decide how long the revival group will be up, and how many members will be needed to revive the thread). If a thread has more than ten members, then the moderator will contact the thread creator, their designated second-in-command for the thread, and the members that were most active (maximum of ten).
Discrimination is entirely forbidden. While we do respect the right to free speech, there is a line between what's acceptable and what's not. Being disrespectful based upon race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, nationality, religion, disability, or anything else protected by United States Federal Law will result in warnings, probation, and/or a temporary or permanent ban. Just be careful what you say about other people, okay? We're all here to have fun and create stories, not start a political-or-whathaveyou debate.
That reminds me. Politics. I leave that to thread owners, but I'll have to make a specific board for politics to be discussed. That said, if you're going to talk about politics within a particular role-play (and I mean talk about real-world politics), keep it in the OOC threads. That way it doesn't disrupt the story of the IC threads.
Role-play sign-up threads are also considered OOC threads by default here. Some forums require two completely different threads between sign-up and OOC, but here at Komozo Role-Plays, we view these threads as one-and-the-same; it's a helluva lot easier to 1) keep track of member entries into the thread, 2) discuss the course of the story for the IC thread, and 3) easier for thread creators to moderate their members and settle disputes.
IC posts don't have to be in either first-person or third-person as far as choosing between which one you want to use; the only stipulation is that you choose either first- or third-person and stick with that for that story. In other words, you can post in first-person in one IC thread, but then in another IC thread, your posts are all in third-person. Simple enough, right?
I've delayed this one long enough. Here at Komozo Role-Plays, it's a really good idea to at least be able to read in English. If you can't write or speak English, but you can read and understand it, feel free to use a translation program to translate your posts, then copy>paste the translation as your post. And for those of us that are native English speakers/writers, it's a good idea to try and help someone who may be struggling due to lack of experience with English. After all, English, while one of the universal trade languages (alongside Chinese and Spanish), is one of the most difficult languages for a non-native speaker/writer to learn.
In regards to copyrighted content, Komozo Role-Plays requires that images taken from other websites (such as Tumblr, DeviantArt, etc.) be credited either at the bottom of the post, on your profile, or in your Signature (if used there). YouTube videos should be linked to as well, even if they're embedded in the post. We don't endorse piracy, and pirating will get you banned.
Disputes between members of a role-play will need the thread creator to moderate and act as an impartial judge. If that isn't an option, the thread owner should contact a forum moderator to mediate the dispute and settle it.
Post length can also be an issue; as such, it's a really good idea to make your posts at least two or three lines long. One thing that may help in an IC thread is to control multiple characters (I do this, personally) at the same time to create diversity among your posts' points of view. One-liners will get you into trouble, so ask a veteran role-player for help in regards to how to make your posts longer if you're finding yourself posting nothing but one-liners.
There should be a great amount of diversity among characters; avoid making Mary-Sue characters. A Mary-Sue character is a character that is so perfect that nothing is entertaining about them. An example of a Mary-Sue is a character that is able to instantly befriend any other character, has a tragic backstory (think Sasuke, from Naruto), or is overpowered to the point that Godmodding is essentially all they can do. A good character can have a tragic backstory, but it should break the mould if they do; for example, using the character Sasuke Uchiha from the Naruto series, Sasuke can be considered a Mary-Sue because of an incident which wiped out his entire family, his ability to learn new abilities quickly, and his brash attitude. However, taking these into account, Sasuke still has room for development as a character; he's fixated on revenge, which can be corrected, he has a bit of an ego, which can be corrected, and he's insanely strong, which can be countered by several people. Take away his insane abilities, and he's a great character with even more room for development. Maybe he's average in his abilities and doesn't want to forsake his friends in his pursuit of revenge. That would be an interesting character.
Lastly, and this one's just a heads up about personal preference, some people (myself included) enjoy color-coding character dialogue rather than use quotation marks. I'll use myself as an example. Two of my characters are having a conversation; instead of saying 'he said, "Hello, Character B."', I might shorten that and say, "Character A looks up and sees Character B walking to the table. Oh, hey, Character B. Character B sits down next to Character A. Hey, how's it going?". That's just my preference, and I leave it to every member that participates in a role-play IC thread to decide how they like to post in regards to dialogue.
Veteran role-players should be able to fill in any gaps that I may have missed here. These are the general rules of thumb for role-playing on Komozo Role-Plays, and we hope that you enjoy your stay in Komozo!