Policies

This page is for the Most important Game Policies. (Yes, we -meant- to capiltalize those words)
Some of this may be repeated in other help/news files as well. See referenced links for other information.

Sphere Specific Rules / Information

Other Related Pages

News and General House Rules

Mage References

Mage Chargen Info

Mage Charts

House Rules - Mage

General Mage Help

Magical Item Creation

GAME RULES

1. All interpretation and enforcement of the following rules is at the sole discretion of staff.

2. Please see the wiki Policy. Information on character pages should be considered IC. See: Wiki Policy for more.

3. Do not be a public nuisance. EXCESSISIVE uses of foul language in public forms (channels, bboard, public scenes, etc) will not
be tolerated. A foul word here and there in common speech is ok, we all do it sometimes. Using this type of speech as your whole
vocabulary is not. If you are asked to stop, stop. Log and send to staff if you are concerned.

4. The use of foul language in private with the intent to abuse or harangue Staff or other players will not be tolerated.

5. Time-Stops: Time-stops can be complex and should be used as a last resort. If Staff determines a time-stop is in order, all
PCs will be considered locked from other scenes until that Time-stop is resolved. Time-stops are typically used for comb
at and other scenes are dice-roll heavy, require staff oversight, and involve more than a few(3) characters.

6. We do not tolerate harassment. If you feel you are being unduly harassed, please log all interactions and provide them to staff
with your complaint so that we may investigate.

7. Pages are a form of OOC communication. Please do not use pages as a method of RP. Staff will not recognize paged role-play as
binding upon characters if conflict or disputes occur.

8. Please remember NPCs are the nameless faceless peoples of the world who inhabit public locations during active hours for those
locations. Using powers, and being reckless with things said in public, in a manner that would attract the attention of the
general public may invite antagonists into the city.

9. Staff would prefer sensitive conversation topics, such as politics and religion, are kept out of public channels.

10. Staff recognizes that pvp might occur in the WoD. We will treat all situations where this occurs per our rules, house rule
interpretations, and our own judgement of the circumstances. We do not encourage a state of war between factions but if
players push such events to occur - on your head be it.

11. An understanding of the lore and themes of the sphere you are playing within is important. If you have any questions on how
house rules might change or alter lore or themes, please feel free to ask staff. While we will not penalize anyone toeing the
line on the theme of a sphere - we might step in to correct issues of understanding regarding lore.

12. Staff hopes such things as permanent game bans will be rare but they happen. There is no expectation of a right to play here
and if circumstances warrant it we will revoke that priviledge. In most cases, bans will be permanent and final.

This Policy must be agreed to in the Chargen Approval room, via +accept policy before you can submit for approval.

HARASSMENT

Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated on this game.
If you are being harassed please log and send it to staff.
A RL court of law won't take your word for it without proof, same applies here.
All complaints are taken seriously and will be investigated.

What is the definition of such you ask? Well here are some examples, although this is not limited to the following.

Private Harassment:

• A player has asked another to stop contacting them in a particular way but they continue
  

to do so.

• Contact is unsolicited and/or ongoing.
  
  

Public Harassment (+bb, channels, ooc in rooms, etc):

• Must be clearly derogatory
  
• Must be targeting a specific player
  
  

Sexual Harassment:

• Making any sexual advances through page, @mail, or over the channels.
  
• Forcing a rape scene without obtaining proper consent. (This includes trying to avoid a FTB)
  
• Forcing a scene involving sexual contact without obtaining consent.
  
• Randomly targeting a PC to sexually harass IC in any way that is not ICLY
  

justified or does not take the target's wishes into account.

Any person, who believes he or she has been the subject of harassment, should report the alleged act immediately to staff A log of such is needed to verify such so please have such ready. It WILL be asked for. If an investigation reveals that the complaint is valid, disciplinary action will be taken to stop the harassment immediately and to prevent its recurrence. This including @nuking of characters or site banning.

PLAYER RIGHTS

1) You have the right to appeal decisions of administrators up the chain of command.
This right ends once a decision is made by a GOD (Immortal). (See: Staff for the staff list)

2) You have the right to page other players and staff to keep a OOC conversations "Private". However,
in the event that staff may be investigating a breech of game policies, they do have the ability to see
your pages as well.

3) You have the right to Fade-To-Black (FTB). Staff nor another player can force you to engage in roleplay
that you, as a player, find offensive or demeaning. You may consent to bad or simply uncomfortable
happening to your character (consensual sex, assassination, torture, or even rape), you are not required
to roleplay that scene merely for other players' entertainment. Unpleasant consequences can be assumed to
take place off-camera if that is your preference. In the event your request a FTB, send a log to staff of
what is the scene was and the result. FTB is not a Retcon and these may come back to haunt you.

This set of right must be agreed to in the Chargen Approval room, via +accept rights before you can submit for approval.

Adult RP

Adult RP (tinysex/erotic rps)
Tinysex? Yes please? (just kidding)
It happens, we know it. So no use in denying it.
It is expected that all players are 18+ years of age. If you are found to be a minor taking part in adult rp, you
will be instantly banned.

There may be certain venues on the grid that allow for adult themes to be played out in public. (Because this is
world of darkness and we know it happens) These venues will have very obvious notes if they allow XXX activity.
Otherwise please keep TS behind closed doors.

Public displays of affection are allowed.

No one is to be harassing other players for such scenes OOCLy. Those who are discovered doing so will find themselves
freezered for an amount of time or banned, and the scene retconned.
If there are any questions about this policy please contact staff.

P.S. These XXX venues are still likely to be raided by IC law enforcement. If these venues become an OOC problem, tags will be removed and all game policy applies. ICA=ICC still applies, Contact Staff with questions.

Alts

Each player is allowed 1 active character at a time.
As staffers are added this limit may be expanded.
If you have alts on the game, please use +altadd to claim them.
Remember all alts must also be registered with the same &SEMAIL.
Only staff have access to see your added alts and we do not reveal this information to other players.

CONSENT / Risk

You have the right to request a Fade-to-Black (FTB) however. This is just a game, and you are not going to be
forced to role-play something against your will.
FTB, if granted, does not negate the consequences of IC actions.
Due to this a "consent level" system has been put in place as follows:
Risk 0: Cinematic effects. Bad things happen but nothing is permanent. Death is not an option.
Lots of handwaving allowed as long as all parties can agree to the consequences.

Risk 1: Cinematic effects. Bad things happen. Death can be downgraded to severe injuries. You may be removed from rp for a time due to imprisonment or captivity. Some handwaving allowed.

Risk 2: Effects are real. You accept everything but death. No handwaving.
Risk 3(Hardmode): Everything is real. You accept death, all effects. No handwaving.

Player Ran Plots

Player Ran Plots (Prps) are welcomed and highly encouraged. A Prp may be opened to all players or closed.
Closed Prps are confined within a specific group.

All prps require staff approval, if for no other reason than to make sure staff are aware of what plots are going on if
they are questioned about it. This is also to ensure that the plot fits within the staff-envisioned theme for the game.

Please submit a full write-up of the plot to: +prp <prp name>=<message>

This write-up should include all the details in case staff have to get involved. Any awards you are hoping the group
will receive MUST be staff approved. The Prp leader must supply logs that support these rewards else they will not
be granted or +noted.

Prp leader must submit logs of every episode of the plot. We suggest using Pastebin (link in the navigation menu to the left)
and giving staff a link to the log. If you use Pastebin be sure to set your logs as "unlisted" to keep them private.

Demon Vs

The following is to inform of the game's view of the Demon sphere. Note the Capitalization.
After reading through various source books we come to the following conclusion that will affect game play.
Many people claim that Demons (from Demon: the Falling) are nephandi or creatures of the wyrm or some other
all-encompassing ultimate nasty. In our research we've found this to be a very lacking approach that is not
supported by available sources.

Thus, Demons are not Nephandi nor are they Banes or any other sort of wyrm spirit. Though any Demon with a
Torment 3+ will -appear- on sense wyrm or other such abilities. This isn't conventional wyrm taint, it doesn't
spread. Rather is a measure of the pain, sadness, bitterness, etc that demons hold from the millions of years
spent in the abyss. There is no wyrm in the abyss.
As stated in the supplement "Infinite Tapesteries" The fallen angels that are represented in that game
(Demon: The Fallen), are indeed, the Lost Host of God that have now returned to Earth for various reasons.

"The 'demons' in various realm of the Umbrae aren't fallen angels so much as creatures from Beyond that take forms
similar to beings from Judeo-Christian mythos. (An interesting question then becomes: Did those beings choose their
form based on such legends, or did they give rise to the legends in the first place?) The demons have goals and
desires not unlike those ascribed to Christian Demons, and aren't above claiming former membership in the Holy Host
if they need to maintain such a ruse (this is especially easy if a character has researched a particular Demon and
expects to see certain things when he travels to the Demon's Realm or summon's it.) However, a demon that carries this
ruse too far often finds that traditional means of binding and warding hellspawn also work against it, meaning that
the hapless spirit can be bound on Earth or even pressed into service.

PC Age

All characters must be 18 year old or older at the time they start rp. Anyone caught playing an
underage character will have it removed from the game.

Object Creation

FYI, building or creating anything in game may require leveraging resources.

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Wars

Let's be clear about this. Wars and conflicts between various groups is a theme throughout the history of World of Darkness.

Nodes/Caerns are fought over. They are rare. They are difficult things to hold onto, especially the larger ones.

Wars are allowed but MUST be approved and run by staff. If any player/character is found to be inciting war of any sort ICly/OOCly
without having staff involved first WILL find their character reaches a horrible end. There are powers that ICly have
their ears to the rumor mills. And nothing travels faster than rumors of war to the Council of Nine or other IC Leadership
and they will react.

In other words, you will lose your character if you incite war without staff involvement before anything happens. If this
occurs, you will be banned.
WARNING: All "wars" will be ran at Risk 3 regardless of what you've set your Risk to normally. Keep this in mind when deciding

if your character would take part.

Wiki Policy

Regarding your Wiki Account

1. Do not share your account log-in with anyone else.

2. Staff can not recover your password for you, nor do we keep a record of them. We like using LastPass to keep track of passwords. (See: LastPass)

3. A player is only allowed one Wiki account. Use that account for all -your- character(s) pages.

4. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, staff will not create a new account because yours became unrecoverable.

Regarding Editing of Pages

5. Edit only pages that belong to you.

6. We realize that not everyone is good at making Wiki pages. Templates have been provided to make the process easier. If you need help building your Wikipage, contact staff.

7. We would prefer you create a page for each character you play. Minimalist pages are fine. The minimum requirement is a portrait and general demographic information. You are allowed the option to not assign your character into a category. If you don't mention you're a mage in the general information, don't include [[Category: Mage]] at the bottom of your page, as this will put your page into the mage roster. If you need help, contact staff.

8. Some players like to put their whole character background on their wiki. Please keep it concise. Screen scroll in a template cell is rather annoying to be honest. Remember if you put it on the wiki, someone could find out all about you with enough investigation.

9. Please keep picture files to a minimum. Where possible, combine them into a collage.

10. Do not post NSFW photos on any page. All pictures should be, at least, minimally clothed and tasteful. No pornographic images. Any picture that staff interrupts at too lewd/erotic/etc will be deleted without warning.

Using Wiki Info In-Game

Please remember information on your wiki page is considered IC. Anything you include on your page can be found out Icly through simple investigation. Note: Mages read [house rules] on Arcane.

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Outside Code

At no time is any player permitted to use code not approved or offered by staff.
If there is code you'd like to import into the game please let staff vet it first.
If you have a suggestion for new code and can write it, contact staff via +pitch (+help +pitch)

FADE TO BLACK

Staff will never make a player play out a scene that makes them uncomfortable or feel in any way ill at ease. Anyone believing they
are being forced to RP such a scene, by staff or other players, should send a scene log game to the head of staff immediately.
Every player also has the right to request a Fade to Black (FtB) on any other role-played scenes. This does not mean that what has
occurred does not happen, it just means that it happened in a sense of being "off-camera" and will still have IC repercussions,
if any, for all characters involved. #Consent

Any player who chooses to Fade to Black during a Staff run scene gives up the right to determine the results of such a scene which
could lead up to and result in character death or other ic consequences, if any.

Idling Out Policy

Idle for 90 days will have your character unapproved and moved to the freezer if the player has
not made arrangements with staff.

After 90 days in the freezer the character will be nuked and a plausible story provided for their
IC leaving.

LEARNING TIMES

As long as the Xp room is active and open there is no learning times on attributes and abilities.
These may be adjusted by staff for game balance as needed.

Mage Spheres:

[Sphere Learning Times]

[Arete Wait Times ]

[Raising Avatar Rating]

Sorceror Paths/Numina: Same as Mage Spheres

Demon Lores: TBD

Judges

Judges are players allowed a minor staff bit to help staff oversee PRPs and emergency calls for staff when staffers are busy.

Judges are responsible for submitting reports and/or logs of scenes they judge to staff. This may be done by submitting a job
to the PRP bucket: +PRP <title>=<log/summary>

Judges, please be sure to indicate at the beginning of your summary if this was a completed matter. IE: if the plot is ongoing
or not. Completed scenes and issues will be deleted after staff review for XP and rewards if any are deemed.

Player Killing (PK)

Player Character Killing is a touchy subject to some players. However, we all know it happens from time to time; because of this, we
feel it is important to explain our standing on PC Killing.

Needless PC Killing, or PC Killing out of boredom is not allowed.

If a PC becomes an IC "problem" for your character, it is always a good idea to log the scene interactions with that character which are
influencing your own plans towards them. Submitting those logs is always a good idea and helps staff in their decision making process.

Contact Staff. Submit a +request detailing the reason you wish to kill another character. Include logs (we prefer pastebin links)
in this letter and the way in which you intend to kill this character, who (if anyone) you intend to involve in this death and why you
intend to involve them. Sometimes staff may suggest other means of dealing with the problem that will not require you to kill the another character.

Staff will see about arranging the scene and running it. This is meant to protect all players involved and so they are aware
in case something comes up in the aftermath. A PK will not be supported without logs to back the action.

Be aware that killing another PC for purely OOC reasons will not be tolerated and will result in the loss of your PC. All avenues
of role-play should be explored before you resort to PK. We hope that with this recommendation, staff can help you find another solution if
possible.

Rainbows and Butterflies Clause

Yes, this is World of Darkness. It can be nitty, gritty and nasty. However, the sun still shines and birds still sing.
In the "Rainbows and Butterflies Clause" staff may handwave a matter and say 'all is well'. We as staff have our limits
on what we are willing to inflict on players.

To quote Maroon 5, "It's not always rainbows and butterflies, it's compromise that moves us along."

Energies

This will explain staff's view on how various energies are converted into other forms. The difference between power centers
Caern, Node and Crays(Mana).

Caerns are the sources of Gnosis for Shifters. Gnosis is another term for Quintessence. Caerns are nodes that do not
generate Tass no matter the size. Shifters can not use Tass. Our reasoning for this is that the totems and spirits that reside
there don't leave enough Gnosis for it to solidify. Thus, if a pack or Sept claim a node, once a totem is assigned the
caern in a matter of months stops producing tass. A Caern's resonance is based on the group using it. Gaian caerns have an
earthy/nature resonance. BSD caerns eminate with evil, darkness and are stifling in their aura.

Nodes are the sources of Quintessence and Tass for Mages. Tass is a solidified form of Quintessence that can be harvested
or created from excess Quint via a Prime 4 rote. Nodes have many different resonances depending on location and the mage that holds
it. The Tass in nodes can take any form imaginable, that can be carried. Once a mage attunes to their node, it tends to take a form
that "works" for that particular mage based on paradigm. (Ie, The mage gets to choose, staff must approve)

Crays are a source of power for Sorcerors and Bygones. Crays only produce Tass. This is usable by Sorcerors by meditating
to absorb the energy, transforming it into mana. Bygones that have crays, graze on tass. Crays held by Sorcerors tend to have a
neutral resonance, while those held by Bygones tends to have a resonance related to the affinity of the Bygone that owns it.
The Tass in Crays tend to take some natural form such as crystals, a specific type of rock, berries, a certain type of grass,etc.

Conversions: 1 dram of Gnosis = 1 dram of Quintessence = 1 Tass.

Quintessence/Gnosis refills at a given ratio per week. Tass refills at a given ratio per month. Thus Tass is the rarest
form of the three, unless someone knows a mage that can solidify quintessence/gnosis or give them tass from a node.

P.S. Faith is a completely different thing altogether and can not be obtained by conversion of any other form of energy.