InsaneJournal

No Godmoding
If you don’t know what this means, it’s really quite simple. Neither you nor your character is all-powerful or all-knowing. All characters, like real people, are fallible. You can be hurt and you can’t dodge everything. Along with this, you can’t dictate another character’s actions or reactions. Unless you have spoken with the other player and they have specifically told you to write their character doing something, don’t. Even in fights against someone else’s NPC, particularly mod-played NPCs, always give the other character the chance to act or react. You can say that your character strikes but it’s up to the other player whether or not that particular blow is the one that actually hits home. On that same thread, don't pretend to know what another player's character is thinking. Your character might think that they know but it's up to the other player whether they actually do or not.

No Blind Plots
This is a simple matter of courtesy attached to Rule #1. A blind plot is a plot which requires the interaction of a character that is not your own but has not been discussed with that character’s player prior to being started. Any time that you want to begin a plot, however small, discuss it with all players who might be or might want to be involved. If you want to start a plot that might become big and might affect more than a small handful of players, discuss it with the mod first. I like plot, too, and I'm not likely to turn down an actual, viable plot option.

Write Properly
This rule mostly applies to third-person posts in the main community. No netspeak. No l337. Just proper English. Typos are excusable. The occasional mix-up in grammar can be overlooked. It just shouldn’t happen every single time you write something. All that does is make your posts unreadable. In character journals, things are different. If your character can't spell to save his life, then go right ahead and mispell everything. If your character gets super excited and mixes up her words and can't type as fast as she's trying to get her thoughts out, that is absolutely fine. Just don't let your character's writing skills bleed over into your own.

Write Frequently
I don't expect you to be writing something every day or even every week. Once a month, however, doesn't seem too unreasonable. This can be activity via the community or via personal journals. Either is fine. I just want to see some interaction or at least some attempt at interaction. At the end of each month, I'll be doing a check and posting a list of any characters who haven't been heard from. If a character shows up on the list two months in a row, they'll be removed from the game. Now, if you need to take a break, of course, it won't be held against you. All I ask is that you let me know if you're going to be out of town for a month or if you have finals coming up or if you need to take a hiatus for any other such reason.

Don't Abuse the Hiatus
A hiatus can last up to one month. If you have extenuating circumstances, such as a medical emergency, that hiatus might be extended. That decision will be made on a case-by-case basis. Typically, however, one month is the max. Please don't abuse your ability to take breaks, however. If you have to go on hiatus every other month, maybe you need to come to terms with the fact that you just don't have the time to play.

Pay Attention
Characters shouldn't know everything that's going on when they're not around but players should. This doesn’t mean that you have to read everything but please at least skim through. If a player allows their character to be horribly disfigured, it’s going to look really silly if your character doesn’t notice because you weren’t paying attention to something just because you weren’t directly involved at the time of play. We would like players to make OOC notes of anything as important as disfigurement, of course, so please keep up with the OOC community at all times. It's a nifty place where you can share literally anything to do with the game.

Take Pride
Make sure that your playing is something worth being proud of. Describe things, do things, have fun and make it enjoyable for others, whether they’re involved in the thread or just reading it. Think of it as if you and the other players involved in any given scene are working together to draft a short story or a chapter to a book. Replying to something with just a few words or a single sentence isn't often likely to move the story along and, if you make a habit out of short replies, people aren't going to be as eager to play with you.

Relegate Drama
In-character drama stays in and out-of-character drama stays out. If you have a problem with something going on in-character, discuss it civilly with all players involved. Should this not do the trick or an agreement proves difficult to reach, contact the mod. If you have a problem with another player, don’t take it out on their characters. Again, discuss it civilly with the player and, if necessary, contact the mod. I want to keep this a happy and fun place for the players, even when it's not so happy or fun for the characters.

Listen to the Mod
This is my game. You joined it at my discretion. I don’t want to be mean. I want to be friendly and happy and just play. But if you can’t follow the rules and don’t pay attention to plots and instructions, I do have the right to remove you.

Character Limit
Each player is allowed two characters upon first joining the game and up to three characters in total. It is suggested that you start with just one character until you have a feel for the game and whether or not it will be a proper fit for you, as a player, but you are welcome to app a second as soon a you are comfortable doing so. In order to submit a hold or application for a third character, a player must either A) have maintained notable activity (multiple journal entries and/or threads) with both current characters for at least one month or B) have maintained minimal activity (a single entry or thread) with both current characters for at least two months. Keep in mind that, if you already find yourself only capable of maintaining minimal activity, a third character may not be in your best interest.

Posting Scenes
All scenes and real-time play must take place in or later be posted to the main community. If something is played out over a messenger or through e-mail, please post and share. If something is just discussed or supposed to be understood to have happened even though it was never played out, make sure that all players with characters it might affect are notified. A good way of doing this is to make an OOC note about it. Also, when posting to the main community, try to edit dates and times so that they coincide with the time that the event was supposed to have happened or at least begun. That way all events will show up in order on the calendar view.

Post Headings
Please mark what sort of post (thread/log/e-mail/text/etc.) you are making in the subject line. The proper headings for each type of post can be copied from here. If you aren't sure which heading is appropriate, use the ones provided as a guideline for making your own.

Rating
The rating system isn't a strict one. Basically, all we ask is that you note at the beginning of your summary if the post includes anything that might be NSFW (not safe for work). If it starts off safe but you think that might change, feel free to mark it TBD (to be determined) until something happens to make it less than family friendly. If there is no rating at the beginning of the summary, it will be assumed that the contents of the post include nothing worse than maybe a bit of foul language. If you forget to add or change the rating right away, don't worry. You're allowed some buffer time and it's no big deal if you have to be reminded sometimes. It's only going to be an issue if you have to be reminded every single time or else fail to make the appropriate changes when asked.

Person and Tense
All scenes will be played or written in third-person past or present tense story-mode. That is to say something like this: Sam took one look at the monster, quickly realized that he was a bit disadvantaged, and decided that it would probably be best to run. He was so very not in the mood to be skewered. All dialogue should also make use of quotation marks and, when necessary, proper speech tags, such as “Well,” Dean muttered, “that didn’t go quite right, did it?” The main thing is being sure to pick a tense and stick to it. Consistency is key.

Tagging Entries
Each character in the game will eventually have their own tag. All characters actively involved with a post to the community should be tagged. Other types of tags may also be added by the mod at a later date but those are of no consequence at this point in time.

Real-Time Play
Each third-person post begins in real-time. Whatever time and date it is given in the heading is when it began. No matter how long it takes for the interaction to be completed, whatever happens in a post dated January 1, 2012 is going to have taken place before anything that happens in a post dated January 2, 2012. Remember this. If you want to play the same character in two different posts on two different dates, make sure that you and anyone involved with the post that started first know what is going to happen. Last thing you want is to be halfway through a Saturday night make-out scene between Jin and Lila only to find out that Jin is still hiccupping bubbles after Os pranked him on Friday.

Scene Cuts
Any time that a scene or opening post is more than two substantial paragraphs long, place a cut after the first paragraph. Substantial paragraphs are generally the length of any of these rule definitions. If the first few paragraphs are short but the entry as a whole is long, place the cut in a reasonable and appropriate place. If the post contains sex, violence or any other questionable content within the first paragraph, put the entire entry behind a cut. Your cut text can read whatever you like as long as it remains family friendly.