Game Rules

Dark Horizons will follow a three strike policy, so please take warnings seriously. If you have any questions about any of the rules, please feel free to ask.

1. No Harassment, Personal Attacks, Flaming: This is supposed to be a friendly game, so let's keep it friendly. Be respectful and courteous. If you have a concern, email a mod personally, do not post potentially offensive OOC comments on the group.

2. No Autoing or Powergaming: The only character you control is your own. No controlling or defining the damage/outcome to a character not your own. Also, plot-altering posts must be approved by a moderator before they get posted. This includes killing a character, changing the plot in a significant way, or adding unapproved villains. Don't be afraid to contribute, so if you're unsure of an action your character is taking, just run it by the affected player or mod for approval.

3. No Metagaming or Godmoding: Remember there's a difference between what you know and what your character knows, so keep OOC knowledge of anything not revealed in game OOC. Also, the mods don't plan to approve any characters with 'invincible' listed as one of their powers, so don't play them that way. Make sure your character has believable weaknesses or flaws. 

4. Realism/Suspension of Disbelief: Try to be realistic with the consequences of a character's actions. If they jump out of a fifth floor window and they don't have powers to save themselves, landing is going to hurt. If your character goes into a situation and acts in a way that should get them hurt, maimed, or killed, then you may need to generate a new character, so keep that in mind.

5. Activity & Contributing: Players are expected to post at least every three days per character. After three days, the waiting player has an option to repost, move onto other threads, or post over to help keep the game moving. Posting over after three days is encouraged in threads with multiple players to keep things moving, the lagging player can jump in again when they are ready. 

If there is some reason you won't be able to post for a while, just let us know. We know real life happens, and if you're busier than usual, players can also take a full RPG day off, which is usually about a month in real time. For the sake of staying involved and active within the game, consecutive RPG days off aren't allowed (you'll miss a lot in two months!) and only three RPG days off can be taken in a twelve month period.

The reason for this is an active game is a fun game, and if you don't post, the game can't move forward. Every player is important to our game - so please contribute! The mods look forward to ideas and storylines our players bring to the table, so don't be afraid to IM or email us or the other players to brainstorm plots, plans and character development. This is a group RPG after all, not a fanfiction, so everyone should have a chance to contribute and alter situations.

6. Posting: Keep your posts in the third person past tense and try and keep spelling and grammar in mind. If your post is OOC, please label it OOC in the subject line. If you need to write a short OOC in an IC post, please post it at the bottom of the email. No more than four characters to a thread, unless its a mission or a special circumstance, as character heavy threads are extremely slow. Posts need to be at least one paragraph in length, roughly fifty words. More is encouraged and appreciated! :) 

When you post IC, use the following format:

Who: (your character)

With: (other characters in the thread)

Where:

When: (The mods announce days and times)

Once you post, please wait for everyone else in the thread to respond. The exception to this is after three days have passed, go ahead and post again to keep the game moving. Posting can continue until the player jumps back into the thread.

7. Character limit: Initially players will be limited to one main character, with a villain optional. After at least one RPG Day, they may be approved for a second character if they posted consistently since joining. A third character is more rare, as the mods in addition to consistent posting, would have to see the player making an effort to build connections between characters, i.e., if you're making the posting minimum but we don't see JPs from you, we'll be hesitant to approve a third character. Additional characters will only be awarded to players who the mods feel are actively interested in and bring something to the game, demonstrated by consistent posting, JPs, and talking to the mods and other players to create subplots for their characters.

8. Sexual Content, Swearing, Violence: This is an adult game and is intended for those mature enough to handle cursing, violence and adult content. All the mods ask is that you don't go overboard. Warnings are not required with the exemption of sexual content, so please put a warning at the top of your post for those of us who may be reading at work.

9. Character Originality: No canon characters will be allowed, originals only. Actual comic book characters may appear in the game but they will be mod-controlled. Original powers are nice, but hard to come up with. Just stay away from carbon copies of established characters and you should be fine. If a character submitted has powers that are too similar to the powers of another character, the mods will ask you to come up with something else for the sake of variety and character uniqueness. Try not to make them overpowering, either, if it's too powerful I'll have to ask you to tone it down.

10. Three Strike Policy: We'd like to be lenient; some rules aren't as major as other ones, and so an unofficial reminder will be enough. The mods will let players know when they've earned an actual strike. We're not going to be flexible on #1, except that if it's bad enough one violation could enough to get you banned immediately. Once a player collects three strikes they will be removed. Banned members may be allowed to come back after a while, but it depends on the individual situation.