Rules

Please read through and understand all of the group's rules, as these are crucial to maintaining the health of our community!

Rules of Conduct

Treat others the way you want to be treated

Don't act rudely towards any one person in the group, mods and members alike! If you want respect, show some respect back to others! If you are harassing others in the group, you may receive warnings/strikes or be kicked from the group.

The group is 18+

As of 2024, Beyond the Sea has become an 18+ group. This does not mean that sexually explicit content and overly groteque descriptions of gore, horror, or other disturbing subject matter is allowed by default. There are still rules to submitting content that covers matters with an 18+ rating that can be found in the Content Rules section on this page.

Tourists under the age of 18 will have to wait until they are old enough to join.

You must join the Discord server to participate

PMD Beyond the Sea is a Discord-based RP group. If you want to experience the group, having Discord is a must. Announcement, group updates, community polls, some events, and more will be posted about there.

In the past, we used a DeviantArt group. While it is no longer being maintained regularly, you may request access to the group upon joining and we will let you submit things to the group's gallery.

Wait at least 7 days for a response

Please give mods at least 7 days for replying to questions, design checks, character submissions, and any inventory-related concerns. Normally, rewards are taken care of every day or every other day! Please understand, sometimes life gets busy and we may run behind a little! If a submission or other query has not been addressed for at least 7 days (or if it has been buried beneath under concerns), feel free to give the mods a little nudge.

Contact the mods via Discord Tickets

If you have an issue or question, then consult the group! Ask on the #questions portion of the Discord or you can file a ticket in #submit-a-ticket and we'll get back to you! If your question isn't something that needs to be asked privately, please stick with the questions channel!

In addition to the 7-day rule, if you have not responded within 7 days of the mods responding to your ticket, you will be pinged! The ticket will not be closed until you give us the okay or unless we deem it's an appropriate time to do so, so don't worry! We're just checking in!

Moderators have final say on approvals

While it is understandable to be frustrated if you are told that a design or a character's backstory requires changes or if a concept you pitched was not implemented into the group, please respect the final decision of the mods. Mistreatment and disrespect of the staff, passive-aggressive remarks, and arguments started in public or in staff members' DMs will not be tolerated and may result in a warning or a strike.

If you wish to discuss possible solutions, open a ticket via #submit-a-ticket.

Multiple accounts are not permitted

Having multiple accounts in the group/joining multiple times with different accounts is not permitted and anyone found attempting to do so will be permanently removed from the group on all accounts. On the same note, block evasion is not acceptable in any form, including attempting to make new/alternate accounts to get into the group after being removed or attempting to circumvent personal blocks by utilizing different platforms or accounts to contact someone who has blocked you.

Username changes and account deactivations must be reported

This will only keep things easier for the mods! If you change your username, please let us know either ahead of time or right after you change it so we can fix anything in the group's records containing your name.

Additionally, it is highly preferred that submissions are made using the username listed for you in the Group Inventory Sheets! If you want your username to be changed on your inventory, please let us know!

Activity checks

Every April and every October we will hold an activity check. This involves submitting something to the group via one of the graders, and then filling out and sending a Google Form that will be made available when a check is active.

If you feel you will not be able to make an activity check, you may also request to go on hiatus in the group. For full information on how these checks work, see the Activity Checks page.

Content & Submission Rules

Use the graders to submit your work

All submissions must be made through one of the group's graders to be valid. They are essentially calculators that will automatically determine your earnings and your rewards. All submissions will be archived in our Submission Gallery upon submitting and you should always check to make sure your work was submitted correctly.

If there are any issues you must contact the staff as soon as possible in order to rectify them. If more than a few hours have passed since your issue came up and it was not reported right away, we may not be able to help. This is to avoid possible cheating of the system we have in place.

Images must be hosted somewhere publicly available to view

To submit to the grader, you must link to your submission wherever you have it hosted. This can be on DeviantArt, Toyhouse, a Discord message in a public server, Tumblr, Google Drive, etc. You will be contacted if your post is not viewable upon grading.

If you're looking for a place to host your work, we have a public Grading Discord Server that has been repurposed to allow people to host their work.. Additionally, if you wish to have access to the group's old DeviantArt to submit to the gallery, let us know as part of your join request or at any point via #submit-a-ticket or the #questions channel.

Be sure not to use direct image links via discord! These disappear after some time and will not link back to your work. As stated above, link a Discord message from either the main server or the Grading server!

Mature and darker topics must have appropriate content warnings

Some darker topics can be allowed in storylines and plots as well as in character backstories. Things that may or may not be included or alluded to in plots will be: murder, sex, drugs, violence, heavy injuries, and death.

That being said, we ask that you avoid overly grotesque descriptions of gore, do not include sexually explicit content in backstories and submissions, and refrain from including any other detailed descriptions of mature subjects.

Please be mindful and be sure to add filters and content warnings where needed! For more information on what should be tagged, please check the Mature Content Rules section below!

Do not trace, copy, or steal artwork

Though tracing and bases can be fine to play and practice with, any work that uses bases or tracing is not permitted in the group and will be removed with a warning or strike depending on the situation. Art theft is not tolerated in this group. Remember, you don't need to be an amazing artist to join! Just do your best, and that's all that counts!

You may heavily reference artwork, stock images, or otherwise with proper credit.

You may post artwork on bases or that were traced or heavily referenced to the Discord (such as in the case of studies or concepts) with credit. But please do not use it in any official artwork submitted to the group!

The use of AI "art" in this group is strictly prohibited.

Collab etiquette

The group actively encourages collabs, but there are some things to keep in mind when collaborating with others:

✦ Notify your collab partner(s) if you're not going to complete a collab as soon as possible as a courtesy.

✦ Be sure to be mindful regarding finishing a part very last-minute into a deadline and giving your partner(s) little time to complete their part(s)!

✦ Communication is key! Try to always communicate with your collab partner on how far along you are or if things can't be completed by X amount of time.

Mature Content Rules

Specific content warnings must be included where needed

The following content must include a content warning:

Drug usage
Mentions of sex
Abuse
Intense violence, gore
Murder, death
Any kind of terminal illness
Discrimination such as homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, etc.
Near death experience
Arranged Marriages

Additionally, you must specify the context in which warnings appear, for example:

e.g. for mentions of Sex: abuse, sex work, in general, etc.
e.g. for mentions of death: murder, familial death, in general, etc.

If you're ever unsure of what might need to have a content warning, you're free to contact us privately via #submit-a-ticket. If you've found a history that goes against these rules or isn't properly tagged, please let us know!

Explicit descriptions must be omitted and/or hidden

Any content that involves detailed descriptions of sex, gore and violence, abuse, etc. must be left out entirely and will not be accepted into the group.

In general, please hold back on graphic descriptions of sensitive topics in your applications as they are reviewed by real people who may be upset by such things.

Lived experiences must be treated respectfully before/when being used in fiction

Please be sure to research any topic you are unfamiliar with before including it in your characters' stories. It goes doubly so for mature topics that may have been traumatic to real people. These subjects must be taken seriously and any depictions of such things that are deemed offensive or incorrect will require correction before it is accepted into the group.

Character & Roleplay Rules

Establish when you are speaking IC or OOC

When roleplaying, it's common courtesy to let people know when you're talking in-character (IC) and out-of-character (OOC). If there's no OOC room for people to talk in, then use brackets when you and the other player are talking!

For example:

((This indicates that you are speaking out of character.))

No godmodding or powerplaying

Godmodding means to take control of other people's characters (without their consent) in a scene, while powerplaying means to make your character overpowered and essentially invincible. Unless it's for fun or silly, non-canon reasons, and as long as everybody has consented to the experience, avoid doing these things so that everybody can have a good time!

Policy on canon/characted-based characters

Characters are allowed to be inspired by different canon media! Popular inspirations include: Genshin, Honkai Star Rail, various anime/donghua, TV shows/cartoons, and other video games.

However, while inspiration is fine, we do ask that your character not be a carbon copy of the character! Changing their appearance/history/personality to make them your own character is required and if our design checkers see anything that may lean too close to the inspiration, they will let you know.

That being said, if you do make a character inspired by canon characters, please be sure to say so as part of your #design-check as well as on your character's application! You won't get in trouble for inspiration! Worse comes to worse, our design checkers will work with you to make it so they're able to pass if they can't the first time!

No personal relations to the NPCs

The canon anime Pokemon world does not exist and neither do many of the game's timelines. For the purposes of the group, only the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games are considered canon as events from the distant past.

Your character may have heard stories of them passed down through legends, and some of the characters involved in those times may even be present in the current Beyond the Sea events, but otherwise your character would likely not personally know of those events or characters!

Legendary, Sub-Legendary, and Ultra Beasts are off-limits

Legendary and Sub-Legendary (including Ultra Beast) Pokemon are currently off-limits for members to use. Mythical and Paradox Pokemon, however, are available for use! You can read about recruiting both Mythical and Paradox Pokemon here!

Check Character Creation for more information

For a full breakdown of what is and is not allowed for characters in the group in terms of backstory and design, see the Character Creation page!

Discord Server Rules

Do not spam or advertise in undesignated channels!

This includes artwork or groups alike. Please refrain from spamming in undesignated channels. We have a #self-promotion channel in our Discord for things like this! There you can promote commissions, groups, and other things!

Try to use the appropriate channels for discussion

Try to keep topics in their designated channels. This is not a hard rule and at times discussions can get carried away, but be mindful of where you are. RPing, mentioning anything NSFW, or venting about sensitive situations outside of the specific channels regularly however may receive a warning.

Venting and sensitive situations

The server has a #vent-away channel for those who wish to let off some steam. Any touchy subjects or even just general complaining can be done here. If you feel as though your venting may involve triggering matters however, please be sure to put it in a spoiler by adding || to both sides of the text.

Additionally, venting about severe mental health issues should be left out of the server entirely and we implore you to seek professional help. The members of the community are not equipped to help you through a moment of crisis and we want to make sure you have the support you need.

Do not publicly vent about other members or talk negatively about other groups, and avoid self-deprecating or self-critical comments.

Do not use harmful slang

Our group consists of people from all over the world from many different countries, religions, genders, and races. Do not use slang or slurs that could be considered offensive to anybody from any group, even if you yourself have reclaimed a particular word. If we see any harmful vocabulary being used, then a warning will be issued.

NSFW Channels

Though our group is for people 18 and over, our group is not inherently sexual by nature. You can gain access to those channels by going to the #roles channel to pick up the reaction role! We also have an NSFW Grader available for members who wish to earn group currency with their artwork.

Warnings, Strikes, and Banning

The group runs on a "Strike System", meaning that if you have received a total of three strikes due to repeated bad behaviour or violation of the rules, you will be removed from the group and your inventory, teams, and characters will be rendered void.

We do not hand out strikes lightly, and will typically send a warning if you have broken or come close to breaking a rule. This is your chance to correct your mistakes and try to remedy the situation. Depending on the severity of the offense(s) however, a member can be removed outright.

Removal from the group may also come with a server ban, preventing you from rejoining the Discord server at a later date.

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