Rules for the Site

You can skip the "Rulish Rules" section if you have any experience as a roleplayer.

Rulish Rules------------

1.For those who really have no clue what this site is about:

This is a ROLEPLAYING COMMUNITY. Online Roleplaying is similar to theatrical roleplaying or children's make-believe games, except that you type it, instead of acting it out (with or without plastic ponies.)

Some other ways to describe roleplay: Like a word-at-a-time story, except, instead of word-at-a-time, it's character-per-person. Or: collective storytelling. The key thing is that you control only the characters you've invented, nobody else's.

2+ Read shit. Do as admin-people tell you to. Don't be an idiot. Don't be hatin'. Be active, or tell us that you'll be otherwise. Use common sense and common courtesy. If you're unsure, ask.

General Rules------------

Content: This site isn't rated. If you're going to discuss/ RP something that might be 'inappropriate' for some, post a warning. Use your own discretion.

Regarding Accounts and Characters: It's much nicer for the admins to keep track of everyone if they have individual accounts for every character... but if you insist, we'll allow more than one on the same account. Maybe three per account tops? Prefferably no more than two, and prefferably they be frequently seen together or something, like... conjoined twins... or something... (Side-characters, such as subordinates or family members, don't count. Unless you're playing both siblings as major characters, or something.)

Character Rules------------

Name: Their real name ought to be realistic. In this I don't mean you have to name your aliens Lucy Smith, I simply mean that they should be... pronouncable... and please don't name your characters Raven... that can be their Alias if you like but please not the name...

Species: No, there are no exceptions to rules posted. Humans don't naturally have fluorescent pink hair. Chemically altered or dyed, yes, but no natural. If, however, something isn't specific enough, that's our fault, and you can take advantange of it. ...or you could be nice and use common sense, or ask.

Realism: Avoid two-dimensional, overly-stereotyped, perfect, or otherwise unrealistic characters. (AKA, Mary Sues.) Make sure your characters have strenghts and flaws. A good starting point are the online Mary Sue tests, such as this one. These tests can be wrong, but it's decent resource nonetheless.

Regarding insanity: Perfectly acceptable, although we'd prefer a limited number of absolute psychopaths roaming the site, you know. Dangerous and all that. However, if you're going to make your character insane, don't just use it as an excuse for everything, and even with personality disorders we expect to see something unique about them. Do research on your character's mental illness.

Sex, ethnicity, sexuality, religion...: We don't care. Other characters might, but none of the real people playing on this site ought to, or at least you ought to be able to keep your opinions to yourself.

Canon vrs Original Characters
You may skip this relatively lengthy rule if you are inventing your own character entirely.

What, you may ask, is a canon character? A canon character is a character from the universe off of which a site is based. For instance, in a Hogwarts RP, Harry Potter is a canon character- so are Snape, Ginny, Rita Skeeter and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Clearly Helveticus does not have a 'canon' as I invented it. However, as a multi-dimensional RP, it has the capacity to transgress all dimensions and therefore, in some dimension where Harry Potter actually exists, he could be sucked through a wormhole into Helveticus, yes. Meaning you can play a canon character, from any fandom or other universe.

However, we strongly discourage it. We would prefer if you invented your own character. They can be from a fandom universe- as in, a random witch who went to Hogwarts, some doctor who worked with House, a mutant at Xavier's institute- or they could be entirely from your own mind.

Canon-character applications must be IDENTIFIED as such somehow. If the admin or anyone she trusts recognizes the character and the fandom, your application and especially your RP sample will be heavily scrutinized to see if you have properly captured the character. Basically, it's about a kabajillion times harder to make it into the site with a canon character than an original one. This is because it really annoys people (especially me) to see their favourite characters played badly.

As of present I have not made a final decision on 'what if' or older versions of the characters- "What If Luke Skywalker joined the Dark Side?" or "What if Jack Sparrow stabbed the Heart?"- but I think those'll be even more dubious than a straight-from-canon character. (They would be easier for you to play because you wouldn't have to live up to everyone's expectations, but it would still be just as if not moreso annoying for most of us as an otherwise badly-played canon character <3)

Roleplaying Rules------------

Content: Again, content isn't rated or restricted from anything, but explicit violence, gore, sex, and boringness ought to be labelled.

Post length: There is no required minimum, but if you're consistently posting very very little you will be deleted. (Very very little being... less than 100 words.)

Post Frequency: We don't require you to post every day, or even every week, just make sure that if you're in an RP with someone you try not to keep them waiting too long. If you're away, tell us and them.

OoC-IC feuds + allies:Don't like Joey the character? That's fine. Don't yell at his player. Don't like Bonny the player? That's fine. Don't murder her character for vengeance. Likewise, if Bonny is your best friend, don't have your scientist character genetically engineer hers to be God. Stronger is fine, but don't help anyone godmode.

Right, Godmoding. Don't do it. It's bad. We don't like it. (Godmoding is making your character all-powerful or all-knowing, therefore, godlike. We therefore discourage, although we certainly do not prohibit: mindreaders, people with magic, foreseers, etc.) If someone- even the admin- are making their characters a little too powerful, let them know they'll have to be careful.

And of course Powerplaying... Don't do that one either. Powerplaying is where you take control of someone else's character without their permission. Sometimes you can assume some things- such as that a person will shake your hand when you meet- and put it in for the sake of speeding the RP along, but if there are any complaints, fix them. Maybe their character has a phobia of hands, they en't gonna shake it. (A far cry but... you understand the gist of it.)

Be specific. By this I don't mean you have to write the exact velocity at which how many of George's hairs are moving in the wind of what precise temperature, I mean make sure people can understand what your character is doing. If you simply say that Clyde jumped, we don't know if you mean forwards, backwards, upwards, if in shock, if in a suicidal manner off of a building... If they ask you to clarify, please do.

Deletion Rules------------
But ma, why was I deleted?

Breaking Rules: If you are breaking rules left right and center we will warn you, or maybe delete you outright. If you honestly didn't know you can reapply, but chances of acceptance are low.

Offensiveness: Telling the admin what a stupid fuckup she is probably en't gonna help ya out dearie <3

Inactivity: So I didn't say you have to post all that frequently. But check in on us every now and again. If you're not planning on coming back, say so and we'll delete you for the sake of activity. If you don't login for more than a month without telling us that you'll be away, we will delete you no questions asked. If you don't post for over three months we'll also delete you.

...but what's singing songs is a snake