GUIDELINES/RULES

[GRIMM]

THE RULES
please read them all.

~ GENERAL RULES ~

+ Warning System.
First offence means you get a warning. Second offence result in a two week suspension from the site. Let it be a ‘cooling off’ period for you. After the two weeks are up, you will be welcomed back on the site. Third offence is, unfortunately, expulsion. If, after we have welcomed you back after the second offence, you are still acting like a git and breaking the rules, you get expelled from the site. That’s it, game over; you will not be welcomed back.


+ Golden Rule.
This means that there will be no bullying members or admin, on the board, via PM, or in the chat box - basically, anywhere on the site.Treat others the way you would want to be treated. You should have learned this rule when you were five. If you are having a disagreement toward another person, stick to Personal Messaging. The cbox is for friendly chat only, not for knock-out-drag-out arguments. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and with respect, the admin will make sure of this. Also, as a sign of respect please be PATIENT while waiting for admins to respond to pms/apps and the like. Sometimes they wish to discuss it with other admins and it may take a little time. Please don't be bothersome in your impatience, it can get annoying and make things take longer. Don't ever nag other members to post or plot with you. It's not fair, and they may have lives or things that need doing before RP.


+ Graphics.
Banners and graphics of any kind must be no wider than 500 pixels, and the ideal size for icons is 100x100, however you may choose to have a smaller one or one up to 150x150. This is so that the neither the banner nor the icon stretch and distort the board and the general site graphics. We also ask that you do have both, seeing as we like to know what your character looks like.


+ Guests and Advertising.
Place your advert in the appropriate board: First Timers or Link Backs depending on whether we have advertised on your site or not. Once your advert has been checked and verified, we will move it to our accepted adverts section. Any adverts placed in the wrong section will be deleted. You are not allowed to post your advert more than once. Please no advertising in the cbox, if we see a link to another RP site, it will get deleted. Guests may post in the advertising board as well as the questions board, and any questions one might have is welcome in the cbox.


+ Cbox.
All the site rules apply for the chatbox. Also, there is no In Character chat allowed in the chatbox, and you are not allowed to pester people to post. People know what commitments they have, they will get round to posting in their own time. If a fight breaks out in the cbox between members, please refrain from continuing it and take it off the site. There is an auto spam-ban on the cbox and we ask you to not spam anyways.


+ Staff.
Please do not ask to be staff of this site. While we appreciate the offer and your interest, it could be considered disrespectful. It is up to the Admins of the site to decide who they want on their staff team (and who will cover them if they go on absence). The staff are the head's around here, and they're say so goes. that goes for admins as well as moderators.


+ General Profile Rules: Your mini-profile should display your character’s name. Not ‘Sexykitten43’ or your nickname. When Applying for your application, please put your characters full name for the title, and if it is complete or a work in progress (WIP). Applications can be found here. You may not start roleplaying until your application is accepted! Only one character per-account. You are allowed up to four characters.


~ ROLE PLAYING RULES ~


+ No God-moding.
A simple rule that should always be followed, unless granted by other members is that you only ever control your character. It's a common RPing edict here and everywhere. Also, don't ever god-mod. This is where your character controls everything, can do anything and not get injured or face the consequences; it's unfair, and egotistical, and ruins the fun - don't do it. No Mary Sue either. Or her partner-in-crime Gary-stu are not welcomed on this board. Mary-Sue’s are defined as being ‘special snowflakes’. Characters who are essentially perfect people. On the same note, Harry Potter doesn’t have a secret cousin on his father’s side. Nor does Sherlock have any secret children with Irene. Try to be real with your character.


+ RP in Third Person.
You can fill out your app (or journals) in first person but we do not allow that into RPing. You must RP in third person on DR. Also, you must reply in past tense. For example, “Harry went into Potions Class” not “I went into Potions Class”. We also don't have a word limit. However, we do request you do your post justice. Quality before quantity. Give them something they can reply to. No one liners, but you must post at least five hundred words in a reply.


+ Filling Out Your App (canon characters).
Apps are hard work. And that's the point. If you copy your history/personality or appearance from the work of another (be it a previous app here, wikia or anything that you personally did not write) we will deny it. That is plagiarism and we do not allow it. It's illegal. You're welcome to use sites like wikia as a guideline to double check, but your app must be in your own words. Before we can accept a canon character, we must be sure you know them. For the sake of those RPing with them. We understand that all people view characters a little different, but if the admin and members feel you do not hold an understanding of the character, we reserve the right to deny an application. If you play(ed) your character on another site and want to reuse your application, that is fine, just make sure you let us know so there's no confusion or thought of copying.

If the staff find your application unfit for this site, they have the right to deny you. Try to use proper grammar and spelling and fill it out to the best of your ability. A hundred word personality or history will not pass approval. This is your chance to show us you know the character inside and out. If you do not meet our standards or fix mistakes we ask you to, you could be denied.


+ **Available Characters**.
Okay. This is where things get a little complicated, so feel free to ask questions if anything is unclear. This site is mostly open to live-action movie and show characters. So, Doctor Who, Marvel's Avengers, Almost Human, The Walking Dead, Star Trek… Pacific Rim... And characters like Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy and Scooby Doo from the live action Scooby movie will remain animated in their regular form.

Now, another thing that has come up. Say there's a movie adaption of a book series (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, even comics) and you want a character from a future book, or a character overlooked in the adaption? We accept that. If you wanna scoop up Peeves from Harry Potter, or a Carol Danvers from Marvel comics so long as you pick a face claim you're good to go. Again though, partially case-by-case.

If you want a character from a book that is getting a movie there are rules. Major rules. 1) The movie must be have a official cast already... 2) The release date must be within a reasonable time. If there is no release date at all yet, the answer's going to be no. If there's a trailer, you're probably safe. For example, back, years ago when I was in middle school I found online, that a book series I loved was coming out as a movie. This was eight years ago. The movie finally came out two years ago... So... You may get declined.


+ WIP Applications and Reseved Characters.
Some people like to finish an application before they post it, and others like to have their work in progress up. That's fine, just make sure you put [WIP] in the title so the admins are aware that you're not finished. After you post it, you have two weeks to finish it before you will be denied. When you do finish, remove the [WIP] AND post on the thread to say your finish. That way the application will jump up to threads that have been done recently, and the admins will see it.

That two week time limit also goes for reserving a character. Your reserve also lasts two weeks before the character goes back up for grabs. Of course, if you need more time for a reason that is not just laziness or procrastination, talk to an admin. When admins go over your application, if they ask you to make any changes you have three days to do it. If you do not, it will be denied. Also you must do everything the admins request, or risk denial.


+ General Profile Rules.
The limit of characters on this site is four canon characters. The limit entirely is six, if you can handle that. If you cannot, and it is apparent, you will be asked to drop some. Canon characters have activity needs, we don't want a major canon with a lot of plot ability to go unused. Canon characters must post weekly. Before you can pick up another character, your first must be active. You have to wait one week, and have a number of in character posts within threads. When your application is approved, make sure you fill out the who-plays-who and character claim forms before you're fully approved and allowed to post on the boards. We don't want people thinking a character is free, when they're not. You will not be admitted as a member until they're filled out. When those are filled out, jump into plotting and go nuts.


+ Switching and Dropping Characters
Try not to create a character on a whim, make sure that you're fully committed to seeing their story unfold before unleashing them on everyone else. Once they've begun interacting with other characters, they have connections which other people might not want to see broken. This not to say that you can't get rid of a character, that's your prerogative, but be sure to discuss it with other people first, make sure that your needs are clear.

I know members can lose muse (I’m guilty of it) and wish to switch out your characters for another. At the end of the month there is an activity check, just tell us which character you are dropping and we will delete the account. DO NOT just switch out the account for the character you are dropping and put in a new name/ fill out an application, as this gets confusing for others and it takes a lot of time for the admins to go through and sort everything. And please please please do not delete the account yourself. Clean-up and archiving is much easier for us if you leave the account around.



+ Crossing Over
As there is going to be a lot of characters from various shows, there are bound to be crossovers, i.e. someone wants to play Ian Somerhalder as Boone Carlyle, and someone else wants to play him as Damon Salvatore. This is allowed. You are also allowed to use an actor from a show as your own made up character, as long as the actor isn't already used in that fandom. Special exceptions may be made, please ask admin if you have any queries. Two people may not play the same TV character, so there will not be two Rubys from Supernatural because one person wants to play her as Katie Cassidy, and the other as Genevieve Cortese.

If you want your character to have an important relationship with a existing DR canon, make sure you run it by that member first. Don't just assume that the character is going to be your character's friend, if it's not canon within the fandom. (For example, don't just make your OC or female character in love with Loki when you create them). If you want to make a relationship of any sort with a canon that hasn't yet been created, don't. You don't want that member when they come along to feel obligated to follow that without asking. And we really don't want them to not take that character because they don't want it. Always wait, always discuss those ideas with them. And give them a choice. Of course, it's fine to create Rhodey from Iron Man and assume, since in canon, he's Tony Stark's best friend.


+ Activity
Please, please, please stay active. Especially if you take a canon character. A major one. There will be an activity check once a month and if you don't reply to it, you will be deleted. We ask that if you have a canon, you post at least once a week, but preferably more. If you aren't going to be around for a few days, let us know in the absence board. Just as a head's up.