[01.0] Forsilvra Game Rules

[Jenn]

THE RULES

The Rules for Forsilvra have been divided into four sections as follows:

• Basic Game Rules
• Character Creation Rules
• Activity Rules
• Posting Rules

These rules are here are so that players can understand the requirements for characters, including explaining what major/minor characters are, adoptables, and rules for posting and holds.

[Basic Game Rules]

1. The number one most important rule for any game is to respect all members. This is a game only, and OOC drama will not be tolerated. We’re here to write and have fun. If you’re having a problem with another member, either quietly resolve the issue between the two of you or bring the issue to one of the mods. There will be no tolerance for back-stabbing or drama-making. If you need to vent, do it quietly, then let it go.

2. No Godmoding. This rule is found in every RPG rule book and is one of the most critical. You cannot control another character’s motions, thoughts, or dialogue. What this also means is that your character can’t infer what another character will think or assume they will react in a certain way until the player RPs them doing so. Some exceptions to this rule do apply. If two characters agree to walk into a shop, one player may RP both character moving forward. In addition, if there is an action you feel would be beneficial to the scene for you to RP, simply ask the other player if you can control their character for a moment and what you’d like to have their character do.

3. No Metagaming. Another standard. In a game like Forsilvra, characters are entwined. Yours is not likely to randomly show up somewhere without anyone knowing about it. Remember 'the walls have ears'! Everything going on may affect your character, so if you're in the middle of something huge/dramatic/on fire/plague ridden (hopefully that darn plague is gone!) your character cannot just toddle about untouched.

4. The rating for this game is R/NC-17. This means that you should be 18 to join. Adult content will be allowed. This includes violence, sex, language and adult situations. All explicit scenes should be marked with a warning. Sex is fun, writing is it is fun, but we adults don't want to be liable for corruption of young eyes and young morals. Consider this a legal matter and not because we think there is something wrong with teenagers.

5. Grammar is required. Take an extra minute to reread your posts. A missed word or an occasional mistake aren't an issue, but if your post is so littered with grammatical errors that it’s illegible we have a problem. Google docs and some browsers have built in spell checkers as well to help you out.

6. If you are going to be gone for more than one week, please post in the Away Thread so that your fellow players know you'll be absent. If you fail to do this and you've vanished, we're going to consider you gone for good.

[Jenn]

[CHARACTER RULES AND CONSIDERATIONS]

1. Forsilvra is a court nobility game that focuses on the upper class. The following character types are allowed: Members of any noble house, knights in the service of a noble house, and lords and ladies of vassal houses that are in direct service of an existing banner house. Any other character type including commoners, servants of households, foreigners, etc MUST be cleared with staff prior to making the profile, and must be in the service of a noble house upon start of character play.


2. Character Limit in Forsilvra is based on a points system. You can have as many characters as you wish until you reach ten points. Please note that if you are at ten points and your character's 'value' changes, you will not be required to drop any characters.

Points are as follows:

• King, Province Lords - 3 points
• Banner Lord / Council Member / Province Lady / Province Lord Heir / Member of the Royal Family / Vaughan Commanders - 2 points
• All others - 1 point

After ten points, you can earn up to 20 max points as follows: 300 IC posts = 12 total points, 500 IC posts = 14 total points, 800 IC posts = 15 total points, 1000 IC posts = 16 total points, 1200 IC posts = 17 total points, 1500 IC posts = 18 total points, 1700 IC posts = 19 total points, 2000 IC posts = 20 total points. The staff keeps track of posts after each activity check and will update the member list with the number points that you have earned.


3. Players may only have One Province Lord. If you play a province lord, you may not play the heir of any other province lord. Players may only have One Province Heir. Players may only have One Council Member, however you may play a council member and either province lord or heir. There is no restriction on other character combinations.


4. Your first character at Forsilvra must be a member of an already created house. The reason for this is that new players are able to learn more about the culture and structure of the game through RP, which is needed to create a new house from scratch. Your second character is more flexible, and if you feel ready you may create a new house. Again, if you wish to create a foreign character or commoner, you must clear your idea with the staff before proceeding.


5. Once made, characters will be considered canon to the game in the sense that if the player of said character quits or goes inactive, the character will become 'open'. Other players may then apply for the character by writing their own profile for the already established character. The writing sample must be written in their own words. All characters will be credited as appropriate in the house genealogy. Anything copied from the original profile will be credited in the profile.


6. If applying for a previously played character with more than 25 posts a few rules apply. Just like applying for a series canon character, elements of the original canon's personality must be used, looks must be similar, and history and secrets must be consistent but can be expanded. The staff strongly encourages applicants to use the same Player Base (PB). A different PB can be used, but the characteristics of the new PB must be in line with the old PB, and admins will need to approve the change. We will not, for example, approve a blond pb for a brunette character. If you feel there is good reason to make significant changes, they may be allowed at the mods' discretion.


7. In creating a new character, a 'Player Base' or 'PB' is required. There's no requirement that the person representing your character be famous or well-known but your character should have an avatar who is a person. No drawings or artwork. You must know the name of the actor/model/musician/etc that are you using, because we must list them in the Player Base thread. In addition, your PB must fit the house you are putting your character into. Lacharn is Asian. Ahestere with the exception of Enos is Persian or darker skinned. If the house is all blonde, use a blonde PB.


8.When creating your character, you should talk to the Lord of the House to understand the direction they wish to take with the house. Most marriages were made for political reasons, and the Lord of the House decides the marriage matches for members of his family. Forsilvra is a feudal setting, with feudal politics. Work with your lord for plots, character ideas, possible matches, and more!

Remember, the morals of Forsilvra are different from modern times. Respect was given based on titles, lands, and money. Those higher than you afforded respect simply by name, those lower often got shat on. Women were considered lesser, and much of their life was dictated by the men who ruled their family, be it father, brother or husband. There was little to no punishment for a man's actions against a woman, where the opposite was true if a woman rose up against a man. Adultery was often considered to be acceptable only one way, at least in secret.


9. Due to the importance of the recently passed plague to the overall plot, if you are making a new family, the effect of the plague must be evident. That is, at least one person must have died of plague.


10. To apply for a character please follow the steps in Character Creation and Application Template. Before your character will be approved, please complete the following:

• Make the character’s IC account. First and last name, as always.
• Have the appropriately sized avatar posted up. 100x100, of the player-base of choice. You may change it everyday once a day after that if it pleases you, we just need it up by the time you want profile approval so that we can grab the link and update the house information. If you need help finding one that is the right size, there are several links posted to peruse on the taken player base page.
• Make sure the genealogy is correct. There have been several mishaps of changed lines and reversed birth-rite orders that get tumbled together in large families from just crossing lines of communication; when in doubt, use the one provided for each household in the house information. If there seems to be a discrepancy, feel free to inform any staffer and we will get to the bottom of it!
• Send secrets to BOTH Jenn and Friday. Not one or the other; both! This saves us from having to track one another down to retrieve secrets.

[Jenn]

[ACTIVITY RULES AND CONSIDERATIONS]

1. Characters are also required to post based on points each month. These are IC posts only:

• 1 point characters - 5 posts / month
• 2 points characters - 10 posts / month
• 3 points characters - 15 posts / month

This is considered the minimum number of posts per character. Forsilvra understands that we all have busy lives. If you have a unique circumstance please contact the staff. We are a highly active game, however, and wish to remain that way. In addition, we want characters to have purpose and plot, and need for posts. If you're struggling, contact the staff.

2. In order to be fair and consistent in how we apply the activity rules, we have decided on the following:

• As per Activity Rule #3, any player with zero posts during the month will be considered inactive and removed from the members list
• Any character with zero posts will be considered unneeded and removed from character list, the profile archived or placed in adoptables, and open for another player to pick up.
• Any character that does not meet the activity requirements will be placed on ‘alert’ status
• Any character on alert that does not pass the next month will be removed from character list, the profile archived or placed in adoptables, and open for another player to pick up.
• Two and Three point character must pass at least four out of every six months of checks
• Characters created during the month get that month free and are marked 'new'
• Staff reserves the right to assess each situation depending on circumstances

3. Any player that has been inactive for one month will have all characters retired for inactivity, including if you are on hiatus. Major and canon characters will go up for adoption, minor characters will be retired or go up for adoption, depending on their role in the game. At our discretion, based on your activity with your other characters and your presence at the site, admins may retire a character earlier than one month. If you wish to resume posting for them, let us know and begin posting. We will move them back to active once you have notified us and posted.

4. If you drop a 1 point character in a month, no penalty applies. However, if it happens again within the next two months afterwards, a penalty applies. Multiple drops, as well as 2 and 3 point character drops are subject to penalty of a one month block of being able to apply for additional characters and the player is expected to pass their activity checks with ALL of their remaining characters before the block will be lifted. This includes forced drops due to failed activity checks. Repeated infractions are subject to special penalties based on the administration’s discretion.

For players who mysteriously disappear from the game, or who had to drop everything and leave are subject to administrative discretion if they decide to return. Typically the administration will have you select one character to pick back up (if available) or apply for, and pass an activity check in the first month before you are allowed to apply for more.

5. To place a hold on a new character, head to the holds thread. However, in order to put down a hold or make a new character, all current characters must have passed the previous activity check per rule 1.

[Jenn]

[POSTING RULES AND CONSIDERATIONS]

1. Sex is fun to write and develops characters, but please keep the scenes to a minimum compared to plot. All mature scenes belong in the 'private' forums, where they cannot be viewed by guests.


2. When posting new threads, please include the thread status in the Topic. Anyone can join Role-play posts marked as [OPEN] in the title. When doing so, please ensure your participation is in character. [PM Only] means the thread creator would like to be asked before characters join. [Specific Character(s)] means only those characters listed can post in that thread. [Closed] also means the thread is not accepting new members. [Solo] means the author would like to post action for his/her character without others interfering.


3. When posting a new thread, please include the DATE and TIME the thread takes place. Date should be month/day. Time can be a specific time (12pm) or relative time (morning).


4. If you start a thread with the wrong character, edit the thread and change the title to 'DELETE ME'. At this time, players do not have the ability to delete threads. This may change in the future.


5.If you make a post with the wrong character, edit the post and select delete. Players have the permissions to delete their own posts.


6.Please tag your threads with the names of the characters in the thread, by clicking on 'edit tags' at the botom of the thread. The only acceptable tags are “open”, “secret”, “npc”, and the first name of the character. So if you are creating a thread with “Adrien Fontenot” and “Cassius DeLauncey” that is also open, the only tags that should be added are “adrien”, “cassius”, “open”, and the first name of any character that joins after.

The following tags will be deleted, and are annoying for the staff to clean up:

• ooc names
• full character names
• last names
• words like ‘awesome thread’
• npc character names
• unplayed character names unless previously played