Help » Forum Use Rules And Terms

All the basic site rules still apply.

Please be familiar with the overall Rules And Terms and rating guidelines.

Make an effort.

Try your best to use correct English grammar. It makes you easier to understand, and helps to get your point across. On the internet, often the first and last impression that you can make is through text. Using l33t speak, txt speak or typoing excessively can make your messages confusing and your RP less immersive for others, may make you look stupid, childish and/or lazy, and most of all, sets a bad example for other RPers.

More importantly, l33t and txt speak are against the rules on the public forums.

While we acknowledge that not everybody is a native speaker of the English language, it is very easy to distinguish those people from those who are merely lazy. We are RPers. We create whole universes with our words. Let's make them good words.

Stay on topic.

Every forum has a description. Before you post, please read the descriptions carefully and try to create topics in the section that most closely matches what your post is about.

Not only should topics be placed in the correct forums, but replies to topics should have something to do with the conversation occurring in that thread. If you want to change the topic entirely, by all means, make a new topic in the appropriate forum. Making sure that you post in the correct areas will make it much easier for everyone to find the subjects and conversations they are looking for.

Title your posts appropriately.

When you start a topic, try to give it a title that will give people some idea of what's inside.

For example, titling a post in the suggestion forum "A Suggestion" doesn't really help anyone, because ALL the topics in the suggestion forum are going to be suggestions. A better title might be "A cool widget idea for DnD characters"

Respect mods and admins,

If a moderator or staff person asks you to stop doing something, stop.

If a post or topic gets deleted, please do not simply recreate the same or a similar one.

If you disagree with a decision that was made, you are welcome and even encouraged to contact a mod or a staff person and discuss it civilly. Politeness will get you lots of places, and we're happy to hear your concerns.

On the other hand, being rude to or abusing the mods won't get you anything -- except possibly in more trouble.

Keep it civil.

Please, no abusive language or profanity. No personal attacks. No messages intended solely to upset people, spread false rumors or otherwise drag down the atmosphere of the community. Nothing R-rated. Please refrain from posting links to inappropriate material out on the general forums. These forums are used by people of all ages.

We are here to game, not to argue.

If you want to start an in-depth discussion of (real world) politics and religion, or anything else likely to instantaneously start flame wars, you should probably find a site dedicated to discussing politics and religion instead.

You are welcome to identify yourself as part of a religion, holding certain religious beliefs, or even as part of a certain political party when getting to know other members. However, we ask that you do not cite those affiliations as a basis for your opinions or arguments in other discussions, to avoid "locking" or stonewalling topics that weren't previously religious or political in nature. Your religion or party probably has an explanation for its own policies; explain the reasoning you are using instead of the simple fact that you are a member of a group! You might even change some minds. :)

Place RP Requests on the appropriate board.

We have two Looking For RP boards: An all ages one, and an adult only one.

In many ways, these forums are nearly identical. However, the "Looking For RP - Adults Only" forum is provided to help adults who feel safer not RPing with minors have that much more confidence that they are addressing other adults.

We REQUIRE that RP that is going to have "on-screen" sexual themes, even secondary ones, be requested in the Adult Only version of the Looking For RP forums and have a relevant warning flag.. In addition, keep in mind that just because the forum is "adults only," it is not anything goes. It is still considered a public area of the site, and you should familiarize yourself with the specific rules for it.

For more info on this board and how to get access to it, check out this FAQ.

In RP, maintain healthy boundaries between IC and OOC

It is important to remember that users are not their characters, and characters are not their players. There are two main places where we see people mix this up:

Confusing genders of players and characters
Although you may ask to play out a romantic RP with a character of a particular gender, you may not ask that the player of the character match that gender. You are writing fiction together; no questions about the other writer's RL physical characteristics should ever come up. Please also see this is not a dating site.

Confusing the beliefs and actions of a character with those of their player
Just because someone is writing the part of a villain, does not mean that they endorse villanous behaviors IRL, or have any ill-will toward you as a player. Remember that the beliefs and actions of a character are not always those of their player. If a character insults your character, try to look at it from the perspective of reading about it in a book or seeing two characters on TV: Without conflict, a story gets boring. It doesn't mean the writer has anything against you!

This doesn't just apply to other people's characters. Remember that characters that you write are not the same as you personally.

All that said, you can still roleplay villains.

Not all (or any!) of your characters need to be sweetness and light. We understand that you might play a grouch without being one in real life, or having anything against the other players. We do ask that you keep your public RPs within our rating guidelines.

Respect other people's fun.

Before joining in a RP thread, please read whatever guidelines the original poster has put up and think carefully about whether your character fits into the sort of scene they're setting up. If not, instead of hijacking their fantasy world, start your own thread more appropriate to the sorts of characters you want to play.

Don't bump threads.

"Bumping" is when someone makes a meaningless post in a thread in order to move it back to the top of a forum, such as simply saying the word "bump" or "up" without adding anything else to the conversation. Do not bump threads that are still on the first page of a forum.

Bumping threads that have fallen off the front page is allowed, but frowned upon. If you want to revive a conversation, say something interesting and relevant instead.

Don't spam.

Because you should already know better.

"Spam" is defined as any pointless, disruptive, annoying message. That could be posting Shakespeare quotes a thousand times so no one else can get a word in edgewise, and it might mean posting a single message of jumbled letters.

This is not a dating site.

Please don't use our site with the intention of finding your next real life date. At no time should you be planning a romantic or sexual meet-up from the RPR.

Romance RP is allowed, but make sure it follows our rules regarding legality and consent and aligns with our rating guidelines. Please also see "In RP, maintain healthy boundaries between IC and OOC"

If you find that your forum RP is heading in a direction that is inappropriate for the public areas of the site, you can contact Kim to have it moved into a private group.

Cybersex on the public forums may result in your account being suspended or deleted.

Other guidelines may apply on a per-forum or per-thread basis.

Before posting in a forum, check to see if there are any "sticky" posts at the top that contain rules of guidelines specific to that forum.

Violating our rating guidelines can get you suspended or deleted.

Sexual content - or content that otherwise violates our ratings guidelines - is against the rules on our public forums. If everyone is of appropriate age, consenting, and there are no other legal issues, it is allowed in private messages or in properly tagged groups' forums. If you find yourself in a RP that is heading in a direction too adult for the public forums, contact Kim for help moving the thread into your own private group.

For extreme enough violations of this policy, a first warning may result in a one-week suspension from being able to use the public forums so that the offender has time to re-familiarize themselves with the site terms, the forum rules, and our rating guidelines.

A second violation will result in a permanent suspension from being able to use the forums.

A third? Your entire account may be deleted without warning.

PLEASE don't make us do this. We hate doing it.