Welcome to Gaia! ::

Guidelines and Rules

(NOTE: Rules maybe be added, changed, or deleted at any time. A notice will usually be made about any changes to the rules. There will also be more rules specific to each series within their designate subforums.)

First of all, Gaia standards apply.

Secondly, for those of you who are applying to join the guild (as people seem to not understand this), if you click the 'Request to Join' button without sending us an application first, we will deny you entrance without stating our reasons. Please read over this announcement and the announcements for the series(es) you are interested in participating in. The correct way to join can be found within them.

--Characters--

As there are a number of different roleplay realms to participate it, everyone is allowed to take up eight characters total. We don't want anyone being stretched too thin and make it difficult to post, so we'd prefer if you didn't have that many characters unless you're sure you can handle it. You can situate your characters however you like, either dividing them up between all of the realms, or devoting them all to one specific series. However, if you're playing in two or more series, we'd like it if you didn't have more than three characters in any one series. Also, we'd prefer it if you did not take up two characters in one series that would normally associate with one another. (Tatsuki and Orihime, Goku and Bejiita, Naruto and Sasuke, etc.) That takes the fun away, you know?

All characters will need to be accepted before you will be allowed to play them.

Original characters (or characters that we the fans create) have certain restrictions specific to each series, so please read about those within the "Series Information" thread within each subforum.

You can also have temporary characters. Temporary characters are characters that a person plays only when absolutely needed, and do no subtract from your total character limit. The temp player of a character will take over for the main player if he/she will be away for a while. This will help keep things moving so that any threads with the character will not be put on a dead hault for a while. In order to take up a temp character, you do not need to have a bio for him/her, but the Mods of the series as well as the full-time player of the character must agree on the person that will take over.

Note: We will post your character bio's for you. If you want to make changes to your character's bio at a later date (ie, new abilities), then please PM us with what you want to change and why. If you want to fix typo's/grammatical errors, then just send it to us. The reason we do this is so that we are always aware of any character changes that may take place.

ALSO! Presentation is key. When submitting your application for a character, if it is filled with numerous spelling/grammatical errors and/or sentence structuring problems, we can only assume you will write the same in your roleplay posts. Be sure that your sentences make sense, and that your character doesn't spontaneously have uber powers of awesumness without explaining how the character obtained them. If you present us with something highly logical and filled with lots of description, we will be more willing to let things slide in terms of character rules as you will have demonstrated that you have thought out reasoning for your character and will be more inclined to stick with what your character bio describes.
(Awesomeness was misspelled on purpose, btw.)

On another note, if you are writing for a canon character whos history may be considered as spoilerish, write everything in. We want to see your full knowledge/potential as that character. If we feel that there is content in your bio that is spoilerish, we will cut it out for you when we post it after your acceptance.

--Thread Setup--

As there are a number of different RPGs being played out, there are some guidelines on how a new thread is created. Since this is a forum RPG, players are free to create their own threads, as each thread will act like a different scene within the same timeline of the series it is created for. Meaning, you can have your characters in as many threads as you can handle. (If this gets abused, we might limit it to 3 threads per character.) You can have the setting of the scene wherever you like, within reason of course. As a general rule, newer threads happen later than pre-running thread.

Basically, the format for threads is "[Type] - Title" which refers to either RP, AU, or OOC. So an example of what a thread title will look like is:



At the start of each new roleplay thread, members are to list a few key informational points about the thread so that other members will have an easier time joining you. This includes where and when the scene takes place, and who is allowed to join.



A private roleplay would indicate that only invited members are allowed to participate in that specific thread, while an open thread would allow anyone to join (provided it's logical for their character to be there). For the setting, players are encouraged to be creative and even include the weather and season if they'd like to. In case of an AU, the change of the plotline/timeframe should be mentioned to help understand what is going on.

--Posting--

As this is a literate RPG, we expect everyone to write with some amount of effort and skill. This means IC posts are written in 3rd person, never first, and in past tense. Now we don't want you to write a novel for us (You can if you really want to, though. ^^) but we'd like it if you could supply us with the minimum of a 5-6 sentence paragraph for each post. This is pretty easy to do, especially when you write up details on what your character is thinking/doing, and even what is happening around your character. With that in mind, please write coherently. There will be no 1337 or shorthand allowed in IC posts. Good spelling, grammar, and sentence structuring is a must, though we won't get a**l on you for occasional mistakes. We all screw up too. If your character has an accent, spelling during actual speech will be overlooked. The following are some guidelines for extra punctuation.

Thoughts - 'Blah' (That would be italic text surrounded by single quotes.)
Out of Character - ((Blah)) [[Blah]] or {{Blah}}
Telepathy/Demon 'mind-speak'/Whatever-ish - {Blah}
Foreign Languages - "[Blah]"

On a side note, keep your font in a normal size and don't put it in any deathly blinding colors (Yellow, cyan, orange, or violet, for example). It is unappealing if we have to squint, shield our eyes, and/or highlight the text in order to read your post. You may use dark colors if you so desire, especially if you play more than one character and you wish to indicate who you are writing for. Bold and italics should only be used for emphasized or foreign words.

When posting, please have some common sense. If a group of characters is having a secret meeting in an unknown location, your character cannot just randomly appear there and crash it. Or if there's information floating around (either ICly or OOCly) that your character is not supposed to know about, don't have him/her magically learn of this information without finding out about it logically through game play. It's annoying as hell and illogical for Character A to know everything about Character B (down to his/her childhood pet rabbit's name) when the two of them have never met before.

Common sense also applies for characterization. It is expected of you to adhere to the characterization/personality that you create for your character, or the characterization of the canon you have chosen. Meaning, if you're playing some aloof, cold-hearted snot, you shouldn't be suddenly humming cheerily to yourself, smiling kindly, and getting along with everyone like you're buddy-buddy. The same goes for some naive-like character. They won't be broody and depressive all of a sudden, kay?

You are also not allowed to kill any other player's characters without the consent of the player and of the Mods.

--Availability--

We ask for members to be available at least three days a week and have time to post for a few hours each of those days, unless you're gone for vacation or something. It is understandable that we are all busy people, and most of us can't be online all the time. If you know it will be difficult to post all the time, or if you are leaving for more than a week, then please make a comment underneath the 'Away/Busy Thread' sticky and tell us what days you will be gone and (preferably) a reason why. We just want to keep things going out of courtesy to other players so that no one's left high and dry. After you lay idle for two weeks or so, the Mods'll start trying to make contact with you. If we can't get a hold of you with you within another week, we may remove your character and/or you from the roster. Sorry!

Also, please note that this isn't supposed to be some mass-posting RPG where we get 10+ more pages a day, one right after the other. This RPG is supposed to be more relaxed and slow-moving in that each player can take up to an hour or more to write his or her post if need be. Remember this while you wait for someone to reply to your post.

If you have to leave the guild (or a specific series) for whatever reason, please contact one of the Universal Mods! They will help make arrangements for others to take over your characters after you leave. After the Mods have been notified, the character(s) will be noted as open for play, and anyone can take up his/her roll by submitting an application for that character. Until a full-time replacement is found for the character, the temporary player will take over. If there is no temp player for the character, then the Mods may assume temporary control of that character until the end of the scene. If the character is something that can be done without, then they will simply find a way of getting the character out of the storyline. OCs will most likely be written out of the story completely, possibly in a way that the character might be able to come back later, though probably the character will be killed off if there is no other way of removing them. Unfortunate, yes, but necessary.