RULES

[wildermods]

RULES
1. DON'T BE A DICK.

This is rule number 1 for a reason, and a nice catch-all for a lot of behaviors. We will not list every single little bit of bad behavior you shouldn't engage in, because someone can always come up with something we don't list, but there is a short list at the end of this rule of some basics.

Generally, players will have two strikes and then be banned on the third strike. Sometimes for minor non-repeat offenses we may give a warning instead of a strike, but we will track these. If we notice ongoing patterns of warnings with a player, we'll convert them to strikes. This is to prevent those kinds of players that constantly rack up very minor offenses from getting away with it in perpetuity. So, please consider even non-strike warnings as something to take seriously. They may add up depending on how you act.

Also, we will consider some actions severe enough to warrant two strikes or even an instaban, such as a player putting another player in uncomfortable sexual situations, or instances of extreme abuse or harassment.

For rule-breaks, we will usually publicly announce the warning/strike/whatever on the OOC so players know a negative action has gotten a proper consequence, but this will only be a simple summary. That is the one of the only things mods will break mod confidentiality on.

POTENTIAL RULEBREAKS

❧ No godmoding. Please ask if you can god an action or be willing to change something if you forget to ask. If you're on the receiving end, if someone has godmoded your character, please ask them to change it first, because sometimes people don't always realize something is godmodey. If they refuse, then come to the mods. If you correct them once or twice and they still don't learn and keep doing it, come to the mods

❧ No info-moding. If you're not sure if your character would know something about another character, ask first. There is a measure of handwaving we'll have to do since the PCs will have some downtime during camp, so naturally some characters will have offscreen contact, but work that out with the other player instead of assuming your character knows things.

❧ No being hostile over minor issues. For example, treating someone as if they're committing a high crime for not having time to tag. This is a hobby for all of us, not a job. If they don't have time, work out a handwave/permission to god, bring it up to the mods for a solution, etc. Rules exist to weed out inactive players and all that so we don't want to see anyone getting hostile over small issues like waiting on tags.

❧ No harassment or abuse of other players. If a player is rude to another player in the OOC comm or in any game-related communication (wherever it's located), this will count against them. Generally, for non-game related communications, we will consider these out of bounds but we make make the occasional exception if we feel a player is doing something severe enough to make other players uncomfortable. Please see the last rule below.

Also, please note that even if we have certain people friended we may not be paying attention to everyone's plurks at all times, and may even accidentally miss something someone said in a plurk we're participating in (sometimes you can miss something in large plurk), so if a player misbehaves, make sure to bring the problematic statements to our attention rather than assuming we'll see it on our own/have seen it.

❧ No threats. Saying that something is bothering you and making the game unfun and that you're not sure you'll stay unless it can be fixed is one thing. Trying to hold the mods or other players hostage and saying "Do this or I'll quit!" is entirely another, and we will call your bluff and outright ban you. Same with "If you don't do X, I'll delete our RPs" or threatening suicide over not getting tags. Actual non-joking threats of violence or the like will also get you booted out on your butt. The more extreme the threat, the more severe the consequence.

❧ No hate speech in the OOC or game communications. This is just a given.

This is only a short list. The mods reserve the right to deem any unlisted behaviors as rule-breaking offenses if they're overly hostile towards another player/the mods.

PREBANS AND NON-COMM ISSUES

❧ We reserve the right to preban players based on reputation. Or admit players on probationary status where they already have one or two strikes. We won't do this lightly but if players come to us with solid proof of players that are apping in being malcontents in other games (such as pastebins), we may possibly not allow them in, especially if said proof is recent.

❧ We reserve the right administer disciplinary actions for non-game-related communications if the incident is severe enough and demonstrates hostile attitudes towards other people. While we do consider most non game related communications out of bounds, we will consider some issues case by case if we feel the issue involved is serious enough and demonstrates hostile attitudes towards other people. Examples: Bigoted statements, a player having a wank meltdown or deleting a game out from under the players at a different game, a player indicating that they've perpetrated a crime IRL against another person, etc. Wilderlands is a small game and that makes it difficult for players to avoid people that demonstrate attitudes or behaviors that make them uncomfortable. Therefore, we do have to consider if some non-game-related incidents are severe enough to warrant mod action to create a healthy environment for our players.

2. CHARACTERS MUST BE IC.

This is obviously something that's going to be flexible because a lot is down to interpretation but if there are any complaints about ridiculously ooc characters where they are very obviously not in character, we will talk to the player and you can accrue warnings or strikes. Superman's not going to randomly start murdering people, Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender isn't going to randomly turn into a weepy coward, etc. Some OOCness is obvious enough for mods to put their foot down and we will if there are repeated complaints.

3. MAKE SURE TO SPELL AND GRAMMAR REAL GUD.

Obviously, the odd typo or grammatically whacky sentence here and there is fine but if people complain and there are ongoing patterns of a player having terrible spelling and grammar left and right we will consider it a rule infraction.

4. IC /= OOC. (IC DOESN'T EQUAL OOC.)

Respect the line between character and player. Ex: if a character hates your character IC because it's just a natural reaction you're not allow to get hostile at them OOCly over it.

5. ICA = ICC. (IC ACTIONS GET IC CONSEQUENCES)

If your character punches a friendly npc in the face there will be consequences. If your character breaks into a cackle at camp and monologues a villainous plan there will be consequences. Obviously the mods will work with players to try to make those consequences fun but keep in mind they'll be there.

6. YOU MUST BE 16+ TO PLAY HERE.

Pretty self-explanatory.

7. PLEASE TRY TO WORK PROBLEMS OUT BEFORE COMING TO THE MODS.

While our modly door is always open (ALWAYS), for problems with other players that don't involve rule breaks, try to talk issues out with your fellow player first. In many situations, just talking to each other tends to work out better than modly intervention.

However, if you can't resolve something with another player on your own please bring it to the mods for mediation. Please note that if you do this, however, you'll be expected to follow the mods' instructions on how the issue is to be resolved, at risk of strikes if you disobey. So if the mods say "we expect both of you to only communicate on ooc posts/plotting plurks and to keep it civil," or "don't tag each other in the future," there can be consequences to not listening to that.

8. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH A SPECIFIC MOD'S BEHAVIOR BRING IT TO THE MODS.

If you have an issue with a particular mod's behavior, our policy for issues between a player and a mod is to immediately bench the mod in question and have only the other mods not involved in the incident investigate it.

We take complaints against mods very seriously and feel that there should be severe consequences if a mod acts out of line.

9. CUT AND WARN FOR NSFW AND TRIGGERING CONTENT.

We ask that players cut and warn for nsfw/smut. While people can't cut for every possible trigger people might have, for common major trigger issues like suicide, sexual abuse, rape, cutting, etc. We hope we don't see those overdone, but if they do show up, cut and warn. Please also be conscious of your castmates/CR being forced to deal with this material and help them find ways to opt out of dealing with it if it makes them uncomfortable.

Also, if you are an adult it is against the rules to RP NC-17 material with underaged players. The consequence is an instaban. This is to maintain a safe and friendly atmosphere for younger RPers and avoid situations where predatory players try to pressure younger RPers into nsfw rp and uncomfortable situations.

Alternately, if it can be proven that an underage player knowingly and purposefully lied about their age to an older player to convince them to RP smut with them, they will be banned.

10. CANON PUNCTURE IS ALLOWED BUT ONLY WITH THE OTHER PLAYER'S PERMISSION.

Characters are allowed to recognize other characters if the canon explicitly exists in the first character's canon or would realistically exist (for instance, the prevalence of pop culture in a show like Buffy makes it clear that it contains most real world pop culture) but they cannot say anything unless the other player gives permission.

Also, it's fine if the game's npcs are canon punctured, since some of them will be very familiar fantasy characters. They'll just have no idea what the PCs are talking about.

11. ASK ABOUT MAJOR SETTING CHANGES.

Players will not have to ask about minor modifications to, say, their tent setups at camps, but for anything major, please don't make drastic changes to the setting without first clearing it with the mods.

12. MEET AC OR GET SWEPT.

We allow an AC skip, 1) if a player had RL difficulties during the AC period, 2) if a player asks ahead of time to be exempt from an AC due to a trip/vacation/surgery/some kind of issue they know will make them afk. You are allowed only one instance of being exempt from AC per year (and that's a rolling year).

For any people that fail AC that don't have extenuating circumstances or have used an AC skip already, there is a warning system in place. Please see the AC Policy for for more information.

13. WRITING FORMAT RULES.

To keep plots brisk, mod plot logs will be posted in bracketspam format, and players are expected to follow it.

The network will also be in bracketspam format, but if players move to action in a non-plot network thread, they can either keep using bracketspam or switch to prose based on preference.

For non-plot logs, players can use either bracketspam or prose, based on preference.

Everywhere in game, players can use past or present tense, based on preference.

14. WE WILL NOT POLICE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ANONCOMMS UNLESS SOMEONE BRINGS US CONCRETE EVIDENCE OF ANON BULLYING.

We won't be watching the anoncomms, period. Please understand that complaining to anon comms about this game is essentially complaining to the wind. So if you complain about something anon somewhere, please at least also bring it to us on the mod hmd or somewhere we can see it so it can actually be fixed.

We also won't try to police anyone commenting to the anoncomms (because how??), however if someone brings evidence to us that a player posted something super wanky/bullying and they either provide proof that they bragged about it elsewhere logged in or they anonfailed, that's an instaban. That said, it has to be genuinely hostile or wanky. If it's just a reasonably worded complaint about the mods, the game, another player, whatever, we don't consider it actionable. It has to also demonstrate hostility just like other communications would have to demonstrate to receive consequences.

Also, if you do catch someone doing this please bring it directly to us instead of assuming we'll see it because we're not going to actively be looking for anon stuff.

15. MAKE YOURSELF AVAILABLE TO OTHERS FOR HMD IN AT LEAST ONE WAY.

You can do this one of two ways: participating in the gamewide HMDs or putting up an HMD in your character's journal. But we will not force players to make themselves accessible to anon if they don't choose it, so if they have a personal hmd with anon disabled we will allow it.

That said, if you want to give anon crit to someone that doesn't have anything enabled to allow anon, you can post anoncrit about another player to the mod HMD page and it will be passed to the player. When doing so, please note if you just want said crit passed to the player or if you'd like to also register a formal complaint as well (that way we know if you JUST want to pass crit or feel it deserves the attention of the mods seeing if it breaks the "Be ic" rule).

16. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PLAYERS TO FOLLOW MOD COMMUNICATIONS.

The mods will be communicating with players via the OOC comm and the official mod plurk, and will also maintain a Game Calendar so players can keep track of things like Activity Checks. While we may occasionally ping players individually over certain issues, for the most part, it is the responsibility of players to follow along with mod communications. The mods will rarely be tracking down players or plurk pinging people to make sure they see new updates to plots or regular events like Activity Check. While we wish we could take extra care to make sure individual players see things that are relevant to them, the game will be very plotty and work intensive, so we have to compensate for that by asking for players to take responsibility into their own hands for staying updated.

To help with this, there will be a post stickied at the top of the OOC comm that has helpful links like one for the mod plurk, the state of the plot post tag, and the game calendar, so players can go to the ooc comm and have easy access to places that discuss the state of the game.