The Rules

Note: Due to adult content, players must be 18 years or older to join.

I. Character Creation
We are an original character game only.

No godlike characters, neither good characters who can swoop in and save the day nor evil characters who are too powerful to be touched. Every character needs flaws, weaknesses, an achilles heel, to be interesting and believable.

No evil characters that have amazing powers but just don't choose to use it. They're evil--why wouldn't they?

No characters who can control other characters (expect perhaps briefly for a particular plot and with the permission of the other character.)

Please note that we do not accept applications for characters who are famous people, or characters who are relatives or in any way connected to famous or historical figures

You must post your character's profile in their user info. For the avoidance of doubt, this means that you must post every part of your character's accepted application into their journal's user info, save for the required writing samples and your own personal details. Any changes to the user info posted must be brought to the attention of one of the mods - we're not saying you can't change anything. We expect a character's profile to change over the course of the game as they develop, but we'd like to know about it, that's all.

Teenage characters beneath the age of 18 must have a guardian of some description. This can be an NPC or asked for on the Wanted post, but we won't have underage runaways flooding the town.

II. Posting Guidelines
Posts can be either scenes with other characters or solo scenes. Scenes between characters and solo scenes should be done in 3rd person, past tense and all scenes should be posted in the community.

Character journals should be used as such. It is not mandatory in this game for a character to keep a journal, but if your character is the type who would, these should be posted in their journal. Journal style would be, by definition, in first person. We encourage journal style entries in addition to scenes; they really help to flesh out a character. It is not necessary to cross-post journal entries to the comm, however if you feel that your character's journal entry is something which the larger comm should know about and may miss, please feel free to post a link to it in the ooc.

No posts or scenes with *actions* between stars. We're going for fiction style, actions and thought written out.

Although we do not have any minimum requirements for each post within a scene, we do encourage players to write descriptive, well thought out paragraphs. This is a community which should be as much fun to read as it is to write. Nobody likes reading 'he said' 'she said' single line per paragraph scenes.

Scenes between characters can either be done via AIM or GoogleDocs and posted as one long entry (many players prefer this style); done via e-mail or PM and posted the same way; or done in comments. Email, GoogleDoc and comment scenes are particularly useful for people who can't be online for the amount of time an AIM scene usually takes.

Save italics for emphasis or shorter passages such as thoughts or dreams. Long posts all in italics are a headache for most of us to read.

Spell check is your friend!

Please don't just disappear for weeks on end without letting anyone know. Real life happens, but drop a note in the OOC if you can't post for a while and let us know how to handle your character, especially if you've made a commitment to a particular plot.

Our current guideline for minimum posting requirements is:

You must show activity with every character active in game (ie, every character not formally on hiatus) monthly whether that post is a solo scene, a scene with another character or interaction in tags. If you wish to remain active with the character you have three days from the date of the activity warning to post a scene for that character, or they will be removed from the game with no further warning.

We reserve the right to post activity warnings once a month. We will not post warnings more than once a month, but if a greater period of time passes without a warning being posted, then the period which is covered when an activity warning is posted will be one month previous to the activity warning (eg, if an activity warning was posted on 1st January 2007 and the next activity warning wasn't posted until 1st March 2007, the period covered by the second warning would be between 1st February 2007 and 1st March 2007. Whether an actual warning is posted or not, you are expected to comply with the above activity requirements.

If your characters show up consistently on the activity warnings and you are not putting forth the effort to participate and be involved in the game, your character(s) is/are subject to being removed at moderator discretion.

Characters who have been placed on hiatus are not subject to activity requirements.

If you are absent from the game for an extended period, one of the moderators will contact you if we do not hear from you first. If there is no response to this attempt at contact and if we do not hear from you within six weeks of your last post, it will be assumed you are no longer interested in taking part and you and your characters will be officially retired from the game.

If you are contacted by the mods about your activity (or lack thereof) and we do not hear back from you, we will assume that you are no longer interested in playing and officially retire your characters from the game at our discretion.

NC-17 posts are fine, just please mark them as such. However, if your character is below the age of 17 or your PB is below the age of 18, we ask that you do not write out NC-17 content for them in the community.

III. Interaction
Play reasonably. Respect other players. Feasibility is key.

Don't play other people's characters or ascribe actions to them without asking. This is especially important if you're doing a scene via comments or email where the other person isn't always around to object or tell you what their character would do.

Don't turn IC conflict into OOC drama. Just because two characters are at odds in a scene or the game as a whole, it doesn't mean one player doesn't like the other. A story needs conflict, characters don't always see eye to eye; it makes it interesting.

On that note: please don't create OOC drama generally. Keep all drama IC please!

No metagaming, i.e. using OOC information IC. For example, no, your character can't just magically know stuff they had no way of knowing IC. One character shouldn't take revenge on someone's character on behalf of another if they wouldn't ordinarily protect that person. This also extends to magically knowing what another character is even if your character does not have an ability to tell. Supernaturally bent people aren't wandering around with blinking neon signs above their heads that advertise what they are.

No having stupidly rare items on hand for no reason.

If you run into problems with any of these, talk to a mod about it and we'll try and help work things out.

If you are having problems with another player, please come and talk to one of the mods about it. We are willing to talk to players in confidence if you would prefer it, but if you are having issues which cannot resolve player to player, please come and talk to us about it. Chances are, it's not just you. We want to help, but we can't if we don't know what's going on.

IV. Multiple Characters

Players are allowed to have more than one character within the game.

It is up to the player to be sensible about the number of characters they think they can cope with.

Each character must be applied for separately by going through the same application that an initial character must go through. Each character will be considered separately.

A player will be expected to establish their initial character within the game before any application will be considered for a second character. If you are having trouble establishing a character within the game, please talk to one of the mods who will be happy to help.

V. Anything else

This game operates on a 'three strikes and you're out' rule. If you fall foul of the above rules three times, you will be asked to leave the game. Each time you fall foul of the rules, you will be given a warning by a mod.

Praelitis operates a one month probationary period for new players in the game. During this initial one month period after acceptance to the game, if it becomes clear that the player is not suitable for the game, they will be asked to leave. See FAQs for further information.

Pregnancy in Praelitis. If you have a character who you intend to be pregnant in game and it is something other than a normal female pregnancy lasting 9 months, please come talk to the mods about the pregnancy before it is put in play. The same goes for the offspring of the pregnancy to discuss character types/ abilities etc for the progeny.