Rules

World of Imarel Channel Rules - by T.A. Saunders © Revised 5.6.15

Channel Rules

1. Behave Yourself, Or Else: Before entering this channel for any conceivable length of time understand that people who start or cause drama in any way, shape or form will be banned without warning. This is an absolute zero tolerance policy. If you are displeased with something that's going on with the channel or feel something can be done better the best way to do that is to message an op and share your opinion; that's what they're here for amongst other things. If somebody says something that offends you, wounds your inner child or makes you in some way uncomfortable, message the person and address the issue intelligently.

This is a channel run by adults for a more mature, gritty kind of setting; we expect people who participate to act like adults and handle their issues with things accordingly. Basic respect and common courtesy for your fellow players and the environment is a must; that means both in the playing channel and in the OOC channel. Take a few minutes to discuss things with your fellow player when engaging in confrontations and the like. Make sure you all can agree that something is going to happen and then play it through and avoid snarky comments or nasty rage-quit messages if something becomes irresolvable. Failure to observe any of these things can result in being banned without a warning.

2. Don't Be a Jackass: Going hand and hand with Rule #1, behaving yourself also means not going out of your way to be annoying. Trolling gets you banned. Being a jackass gets you banned. Being a perpetually problematic player will get you banned. No warning, no discussion. The channel administrators simply have more important things to do than deal with childish behavior.

Being a jackass is a sweeping bit of terminology that covers: drama queens, passive-aggressiveness, uncooperative and rude behavior, racial/sexual slurs and harassment, and anything and everything inappropriate. If you are a victim of jackassery, contact an op to address the situation, do not combat jackassery with your own jackassery.

3. The OOC Channel: The OOC channel is for friendly communication between players, discussing ideas and generally blowing off a little steam. What it's not for is for people to idle in, never participate in the role-play and be generally disruptive. If you are in our OOC channel, you are to also join our IC channel, #imarel. While it might be commonplace for other channels to not allow new players into their IC channels right off the bat, we want you to see our RP and be a part of it. Character approval aside (see below), we're more interested in people being a part of the story, than not.

4. IC/OOC Separation is a Must: If you don't like something that's happening to your character, handle it IC. If you don't like something that's being said about your character, handle it IC. Just because a character might be having bad thoughts, opinions or inward reflections, does not mean they are sniping at you OOC. Character narration can be filled with different things, including thoughts, opinions and reflections, that may not be voiced but can set a mood for the character. In short character confrontations happen, do not make it into an OOC fiasco by rage-quitting or flaming; deal with it IC and play through it. That's what RP is supposed to be about; the good, bad and ugly things that happen to characters.

Also avoid OOC role-play. This is when somebody begins acting like their character or saying things their character would say, in a channel meant for player interaction. The occasional comment, for sake of fellow player amusement is tolerable, paragraphs worth of hypothetical role-play is not. This not only becomes an issue of IC/OOC blending but it's generally distracting and damned annoying when it goes over a sentence or two for sake of laughs.

NOTE: OOC role-play does not include vapored interactions moderated by a GM. Sometimes, there simply isn't the time or ability to play a scene out in the IC channel, or the scene isn't relevant to anyone other than the GM and one player. Therefore, at their discretion, a vapor scene may be played out, which involves the GM posting resolves and the player responding. 

Sometimes, dialogue will be necissary for this to be accomplished, but generally simply stating an action and relevant skills is appropriate. If such vapor play is disruptive to an OOC discussion, or is otherwise an issue, please private message the GM handling it to ask if the scene can be handled elsewhere. If the GM opts not to do such, their decision is final.

5. Character Approval: Character ideas must be approved in all instances. While we do allow non-canon characters, it is expected that one of the ops gives a nod to it as well. Prestige Races cannot be played by anybody without at least one chronicle under their belt. In addition, character sheeting your character is likewise, not required unless you participate in channel events that use the dice system, then it's a requirement. Players are free to casually RP and not involve themselves in the dice-driven aspects of this game.

Examples of characters that will likely be asked to not be played in the channel play include, but are not limited to: deity/impossible to kill characters, characters from copyrighted material, genre mismatch characters and characters with strange genetic histories (pixies and dragons for example were never meant to be together).

6. Respect the Game World: This is a semi-free form gaming environment, meaning we accept all manner of character, class and race within certain limits. Our setting is a Neo-Victorian, Near-Earth style setting; this allows us to offer a broad scope of magic-use and Old World technology together for players to utilize in their characters. In terms of era of technology, we consider Victorian/American Civil War era to be the absolute ceiling if the item is based on purely science. Examples of the sorts of firearms for to be found would be similar to the Spencer Repeating Rifle or a Colt Peacemaker revolver. A creative player can find all manner of ways to combine magic with Victorian Era technology successfully, successfully and many examples are included in the lore.
Computers, highly complex firearms or anything that relies on pure science without the assistance of magic could feasibly operate, but are not allowed in play in our setting. Furthermore, modern clothing such as denim jeans or t-shirts, or the like simply do not exist in the setting and should not be included as part of a character's description. We ask that you only bring in the sorts of characters that will fit in with the environment and allow you to enjoy your RP with us.

7. Respect the Semi-Free Form System: As stated previously, this is a semi-free form RP channel. This means no game system rules are accepted as law over another. Do not quote AD&D or White Wolf rules and lore like they're the gospel. It is your job as a player to adapt whatever game system rules you've decided to play by to fit in the environment you're playing in. In the end, if an op tells you it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Arguing with an op, whining because of a bad outcome in an role-playing situation or attempting to force your views onto an op will get you banned.

8. GM Events, Quests and Random Encounters (Events): Often action will take place in the channel or outside the channel in the form of an Event. These events are meant to keep things interesting and to maintain the ongoing story element of the channel. Some will be non-violent, however given the unforgiving nature of this setting many will be violent.With this in mind, the following sub-rules are in effect for events:

A. Participation in any event is not mandatory. However, if you do participate in events, you must have  an up-to-date character sheet. This is not an option.

B. You cannot switch characters in the middle of a event. The character you start with is the character you finish with. Once the event is over, you can switch characters to one that could be helpful in the post-event role-play.

C. If you choose to involve your character in an event of a violent nature, you are by action giving consent to the possibility your character may die. This is a hard rule that has no exception.

D. One op starts the event with this color of text. Once the event starts, those participating are expected to take turns posting. Once everybody has posted, the op may mute the channel to make sure extra actions are not taken, then post his or her narration to the results of everybody's action.

E. Players may take one action within a turn (within reason) that they post for in order to maintain speed of play. Attempting to do several things at once will result in the GM choosing what actions occur and which ones do not.

F. Often events are part of the channel storyline and can effect the direction of various plot-lines. Players are encouraged to involve themselves in these plot-lines as so they can take part in the action.

9. Be Descriptive: Being descriptive does not mean you have to have a ten paragraph litany every time you post, but please take the effort to at least give a little color to the character you are playing. Continual one line posts that add nothing to the role-play can detract from a scene just as easily as a ten paragraph post that says nothing. We are not looking for players to be English majors or write us a novella. Good role-playing is not based on the quantity of one's writing alone, but the story the player is attempting to tell.

This also assumes players will adhere to basic punctuation and grammar in their posts. While role-playing is not writing a term paper, the ability to convey one's story clearly is critical to contributing and involving one's self in the role-play. Players not adhering to this rule might be asked to address this issue and if no real change is made, asked to leave channel play.

10. When in Doubt, Ask an Op: Final say comes from an op if your questions are not covered in the content of the web page. If you need an op for storyline questions or other related issues, please refer to the list below:

Murcalus : Op, Channel Policies Administrator
Puddles : Op, World Lore Administrator
Ryl: Op, Technical Admin
Kiyodai: V-Op, Community Leader

Other Contributors:
Corwyn Greenthorn: Technical and Lore Advisor
Mourne: Channel Founder/World Creator

Contributors are players with a + next to their name. These players are not ops, but have limited powers to run both side-channel events and in-channel events that can effect the game world if they wish. They are people that have been active members of the channel and can answer questions about the game if an op isn't available. While they are not ops, these players have arbitration power as ops do, in regards to what happens to a character during one of their events.

Please remember to be courteous and polite to your ops and contributors. We're all here to have a good time and want you to enjoy your game time with us, so if there is an issue to bring to our attention, feel free to do so but realize any decision we make is for the channel as a whole and is the final word on all matters. We are not here to coddle or feed egos of any kind. And remember, if an Op asks you to explain something off your sheet, or show it for review, make it available. Withholding a sheet on request could lead to a ban. We don't ask unless there's a reason, keeping the game in order is our job!

11. Let's Get Ready to Rumble!: In character fighting scenes are okay! Imarel is a somewhat lawless place but please remember to respect your fellow players when doing fight scenes (see Rule #1). Fights can occur anytime and any place in the setting. Characters will be expected to react accordingly to such confrontations.

It is also worth mentioning and reminding that character power in a free form game is a misnomer; you can write how powerful your character is, tell people OOC how powerful your character is and insist that he/she/it is frightening, but unless its played out and other players feel that their characters are less powerful and/or agree that your character could overwhelm them with whatever awesome you, the player came up with? Nobody is going to care. In short, in a free form game, a character's power is based on how other characters see and react to the powerful character, not on player say-so; bear this in mind when orchestrating any character confrontations.

12. What Happens in Other/Side Channels Stays There: Ops are not responsible for what you do in other channels or play in side channels. If you start a role-play in the main channel then take it to a side-channel, you are taking the role-play under your own care, even if that play includes main channel content/story etc. In short, handle your out-of-main channel role-playing like adults and solve your own disputes.

13. Final Word is Law: All decisions regarding the channel, including the outcome of channel role-playing events, bans from the channel etc. made by the founder are final. Decisions made by channel ops can be disputed through the head op who will either resolve the issue or pass the issue onto the founder. If it's a dispute with a decision made by the head op, it should be brought directly to the channel founder. Most matters are discussed amongst the ops and a decision is often agreed upon in that manner.

That said, there is no hard and fast rule on what it takes to earn a ban. Not following these rules could earn a ban, causing discord amongst the player base could earn a ban, constant complaining/cry babying about how the channel is run or showing a total lack of willingness to participate in the channel could earn a ban. Everything is decided on a case by case basis. This sounds stricter than it really is; we prefer not to ban folks, but there has to be a modicum of control given to an environment such as this to make sure overall harmony exists.