Character Approval: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 22:46, 22 September 2023

We require that characters be approved before players can use them. Anyone can read the IC channels at any time, but posting to these channels is only allowed for those with an approved character. To obtain approval for a character, you must send a character bio to the staff for approval using the Discord Channel and the Google Doc template. Staff will review the bio and determine if the character is suitable for play here. In most cases, the approval is granted without issue since we have a liberal approach. However, occasionally new players may be asked to make modifications to their character or character concept. We appreciate your cooperation and are happy to assist you in making these adjustments. It should also be noted that as a player gets more seniority and we become more comfortable with what a player is and is not going to do, we generally are more tolerant of character ideas which may or may not bend the rules.

Rules of Character Creation

(v1.62.3 - 6/11/2023)

All character bios must be submitted to the staff for approval.
No player may play a new character (other than some NPCs) without prior staff approval.
Staff may approve their own characters.
Characters must be original and cannot be based on existing professional works.
- Characters can exist within the world/universe defined by a professional work as long as they are not directly from the work.
- Characters from a professional work's world/universe should not be near copies of characters from that work.
All characters must be at least 16 years old.
- Characters under the age of 16 must receive specific approval from the staff.
- Players wishing to submit characters under the age of 16 must provide a compelling reason for the character's age.
- The determination of a "compelling reason" is at the discretion of the staff.
Characters should not be excessively old, such as 1,000 years, 2,000 years, 200,000 years, etc.
- There are exceptions to this rule:
  - Involvement in a time paradox/time travel.
  - Being dormant, hibernating, or unaware of the passage of time.
  - Having connections with past lives as an important incarnation.
- Playing a character with full memory of 200,000 years of life would be nearly impossible.
Characters require approval.
- Characters should indicate their power level (see the Leveled Ranking System for details).
- Characters with abilities above Category 3 require special approval.
- Special approval should be noted on the character's wiki page, along with the staff member who granted permission.
- Character bios containing skills and abilities ranked as Class A or Class B in any category should explain how the character acquired such proficiency.
- Staff members have the authority to request changes to characters, including backstory, personality, attributes, power, and skill levels.
Players can only play individual characters, not entire factions.
- It is not allowed to play as the "Northern Alliance" or the "Japanese Fleet," for example.
- Players may have non-playable characters (NPCs), but this should be reasonable.
The grandfather policy is in effect.
- Players with characters approved prior to a rule change against those characters are still allowed to play them.
- This makes it easier for us to keep track of characters, find them, and post them to the wiki.
Characters should not be designed to be offensive or inflammatory by nature.
- Certain archetypes, such as Nazi, are considered too inflammatory to expect people to be comfortable playing with such characters.
- Similar to our rules against using racist or inflammatory names, playing such a character without a compelling reason is considered akin to trolling.

Banned Character Races and Origins

(v1.25 - 8/2/2023)

Gamermancers
Nazis (playing a Nazi character requires explicit approval)
Doctor Who (no Time Lords, Weeping Angels, Cybermen, etc.)
Clones/copy of TV/Movie characters.
- For example, Captain Kirk's clone, Tiberius, or Commander Spock's split persona, Spock2.
- Starbuck's ascension to the future or Luke Skywalker's secret half-brother, Linus Skywalker.
- Edward Cullen's high school vampire friend who is even more attractive.
- And many more...
Dragon Ball Z characters are banned.
Clones/copy of video game characters.
This includes a variety of fandom-made copies of:
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Megaman
- Super Mario Brothers
- Zelda
- Jazz the Jackrabbit
- Commander Keen
- Metal Gear Series
- Battle Toads
Clones/copy of mythological figures.
- This includes variations on Zeus, Hercules, or any named figure from mythology.
All Warhammer 30k/40k characters (fantasy is still permitted).

Explanation for the Ban on Nazi Characters

Generally, we prefer not to ban characters based on being a particular political or social view point. However, in this case, playing a character who is a Nazi or similar, with the knowledge that it will be specifically inflammatory and offensive to others, causes problems and upsets other players who want to participate. Just as we do not allow the use of racial slurs in names or avatars without requesting changes, because it is considered unreasonable to expect people to be unoffended by such things given their divisive nature, the deliberate act of using Nazi imagery and language is considered trolling in itself.

Therefore, we regretfully do not allow the play of Nazi characters or similarly divisive character types without a compelling reason. Any such reason must be discussed with the staff prior to approval.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-We do require that characters be approved before a person can play.  Anyone can read the IC channels at any time.  However, to be able to post to these channels one will need to have an approved character.  To get a character approve for play you must send a character bio to one of the server's staff.  The staff member will read through it and determine if the character fits in with play here.  Usually this is a resounding yes.  We are pretty liberal.  However, on occasion a new player will be asked to make modifications to a character or character concept.  We appreciate your cooperation and are happy to help you make these adjustments.
+We require that characters be approved before players can use them. Anyone can read the IC channels at any time, but posting to these channels is only allowed for those with an approved character. To obtain approval for a character, you must send a character bio to the staff for approval using the [https://discord.com/channels/230687291071266816/1115205791624994846 Discord Channel] and the [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oDF_P5bi4C8Rcwqe6nXcZCD68dZqtJm4cGP1msAk_h4/edit Google Doc template]. Staff will review the bio and determine if the character is suitable for play here. In most cases, the approval is granted without issue since we have a liberal approach. However, occasionally new players may be asked to make modifications to their character or character concept. We appreciate your cooperation and are happy to assist you in making these adjustments. It should also be noted that as a player gets more seniority and we become more comfortable with what a player is and is not going to do, we generally are more tolerant of character ideas which may or may not bend the rules.
 == Rules of Character Creation ==
-#. Character must be an original character, that is to say the character cannot be a major or minor character from an existing professional work. A character can exist from a universe that is part of a professional work but must be your own.
+'''(v1.62.3 - 6/11/2023)'''
-#. A Professional Work is a broad term for any work that is published in some capacity.  This includes, but is not limited to; books, TV shows, comics, movies, and published short stories.  To be clear, this does not have to do with copyright but it is more about ease of play and the kind of environment for RP that we wish to have.
+# All character bios must be submitted to the staff for approval.
-#. Characters can be based on those from a professional work but have to show significant changes from the original to be consider your own character under these rules.
+# No player may play a new character (other than some NPCs) without prior staff approval.
-#. Players must play a character and not an entire faction.  Players can play multiple characters and play their own NPC's, but this is within reason.  Within reason is to be determined by the sever staff at the time.
+# Staff may approve their own characters.
-#. Existing players do not have to get approval for new characters once they reach the rank of ''Unbeliever'' or above.
+# Characters must be original and cannot be based on existing professional works.
-#. To be approved you must provide all the information requested by our character template.
+#* Characters can exist within the world/universe defined by a professional work as long as they are not directly from the work.
-#. Staff always has the right to ask a player to stop playing, modify, adjust, or change a character in any way they see fit.
+#* Characters from a professional work's world/universe should not be near copies of characters from that work.
+# All characters must be at least 16 years old.
+#* Characters under the age of 16 must receive specific approval from the staff.
+#* Players wishing to submit characters under the age of 16 must provide a compelling reason for the character's age.
+#* The determination of a "compelling reason" is at the discretion of the staff.
+# Characters should not be excessively old, such as 1,000 years, 2,000 years, 200,000 years, etc.
+#* There are exceptions to this rule:
+#** Involvement in a time paradox/time travel.
+#** Being dormant, hibernating, or unaware of the passage of time.
+#** Having connections with past lives as an important incarnation.
+#* Playing a character with full memory of 200,000 years of life would be nearly impossible.
+# Characters require approval.
+#* Characters should indicate their power level (see the [[Leveled Ranking System]] for details).
+#* Characters with abilities above Category 3 require special approval.
+#* Special approval should be noted on the character's wiki page, along with the staff member who granted permission.
+#* Character bios containing skills and abilities ranked as ''Class A'' or ''Class B'' in any category should explain how the character acquired such proficiency.
+#* Staff members have the authority to request changes to characters, including backstory, personality, attributes, power, and skill levels.
+# Players can only play individual characters, not entire factions.
+#* It is not allowed to play as the "Northern Alliance" or the "Japanese Fleet," for example.
+#* Players may have non-playable characters (NPCs), but this should be reasonable.
+# The grandfather policy is in effect.
+#* Players with characters approved prior to a rule change against those characters are still allowed to play them.
+#* This makes it easier for us to keep track of characters, find them, and post them to the wiki.
+# Characters should not be designed to be offensive or inflammatory by nature.
+#* Certain archetypes, such as ''Nazi,'' are considered too inflammatory to expect people to be comfortable playing with such characters.
+#* Similar to our rules against using racist or inflammatory names, playing such a character without a compelling reason is considered akin to trolling.
-== Character Template ==
+== Banned Character Races and Origins ==
-Items in the template marked with a "*" are required, other items are optional but it is strongly suggested that you have a minimum of this information on a character before playing that character in game.
+'''(v1.25 - 8/2/2023)'''
+# Gamermancers
+# Nazis (playing a Nazi character requires explicit approval)
+# Doctor Who (no Time Lords, Weeping Angels, Cybermen, etc.)
+# Clones/copy of TV/Movie characters.
+#* For example, Captain Kirk's clone, Tiberius, or Commander Spock's split persona, Spock2.
+#* Starbuck's ascension to the future or Luke Skywalker's secret half-brother, Linus Skywalker.
+#* Edward Cullen's high school [[vampire]] friend who is even more attractive.
+#* And many more...
+# Dragon Ball Z characters are banned.
+# Clones/copy of video game characters.
+#: This includes a variety of fandom-made copies of:
+#* Sonic the Hedgehog
+#* Megaman
+#* Super Mario Brothers
+#* Zelda
+#* Jazz the Jackrabbit
+#* Commander Keen
+#* Metal Gear Series
+#* Battle Toads
+# Clones/copy of mythological figures.
+#* This includes variations on Zeus, Hercules, or any named figure from mythology.
+# All Warhammer 30k/40k characters (fantasy is still permitted).
-<pre>
+=== Explanation for the Ban on Nazi Characters ===
-* Player ID:
+Generally, we prefer not to ban characters based on being a particular political or social view point. However, in this case, playing a character who is a Nazi or similar, with the knowledge that it will be specifically inflammatory and offensive to others, causes problems and upsets other players who want to participate. Just as we do not allow the use of racial slurs in names or avatars without requesting changes, because it is considered unreasonable to expect people to be unoffended by such things given their divisive nature, the deliberate act of using Nazi imagery and language is considered trolling in itself.
-* Character Name:
-* Race:
-* Gender:
-Height / Weight:
-Hair / Eye Color:
-Age / DoB:
-Place of Birth:
-* Universe of Origin:
-* Occupation:
-* Rank / Skill Level:
-* Body Type:
-* Personality:
-Special Skills:
-Special Abilities:
-Background:
-</pre>
-== Definitions ==
+Therefore, we regretfully do not allow the play of Nazi characters or similarly divisive character types without a compelling reason. Any such reason must be discussed with the staff prior to approval.
-Most of the things on the template are obvious, but here are some bits of information on things people might have questions on.
-; DoB / PoB : Date of Birth and Place of Birth
-=== Universe of Origin ===
-Many of our players play characters from different universes, such as the [[Star Wars]] universe or perhaps Fallout's universe, etc. and as such we'd like to know where your character comes from, so that the moderators have an idea what kind of a universe your character has come from.  If you're making a character from the [[Solas Tempus]] universe, then just put ''Solas Tempus''.
-=== Rank / Skill Level ===
-For military type characters, this is obvious.  Even for characters who are not military in nature though, the characters level of skill at their ''Occupation'' is a good thing to know.  The standard non-military ranks for Skill Level are; '''Veteran''', '''Experienced''', '''Professional''', '''Amateur''', '''Novice''', and '''Trainee'''.  These are not hard and fast though, if there is a better adjective to describe a characters skill level, feel free to use it.
-=== Body Type ===
-What kind of figure does your character have.  This should also include any unique body features a character has (such as wings, gills, one leg, no arms, etc.).
-=== Personality / Background ===
-Both of these speak to who your character is as a person.  Personality is generally for a characters basic outlook on life, themselves, and others.  In terms of D&D this is kind of like a characters alignment but with more detail than the class ''Neutral/Good'' way of putting it.  An actually experienced D&D players can pull a lot of information out of an alignment like that but a lot of people are not D&D players, to just try to have a sentence or two about how your character interacts with others.
-For a characters background, a brief history (if you have one).  There is a lot that can cross apply between a characters history and their personality so just organize it however you want to.  If you don't have a big history, feel free to put it all in ''personality'' or vise versa if the personality is telling the story of their history just put it into ''background'' and call it good.
-=== Special Skills / Abilities ===
-Special skills are unique skills that the character has had to learn, going to school, learned on the streets, taught themselves.  These take refinement and study, time to develop, such as the ability to pilot an aircraft, fire a sniper rifle, or decode cryptography.  Special abilities are more like innate abilities, even though they might have taken a lot of time and skill to learn to use.  A special ability is like shooting lightening bolts from ones hands, turning invisible, super strength, etc..
 [[Category:OOC]]