RULES@ENTEREMPIRE (updated april 2016)

BEFORE APPLYING

MATURE CONTENT: This is a LGBTQ, kink and mpreg friendly game. Mature themes will be handled in the roleplay, so you have to be 18+ to participate. By applying, you have stated that you are older 18 or older. There will be mature content as well as triggering content that will not likely be tagged, including sex, violence, drug and alcohol use and abuse, etc. There is also an age limit set for characters. That means no characters younger than 18.

JOURNAL: Your journal names need to be related to your character so it is easier to identify them. They can be IC, in some form of your character's name, or OOC but they must relate to your character in some way. As of April 03, 2016 AIM is required for IC chats. The screenname can be OOC and used for other characters in the game. Set up an OOC contact post and a "friends only" post within your journal, dated on the month on which you are applying. Potential members should apply with no outside friends or sub-communities linked to their journal. Display the game name [enterempire] somewhere in your journal. Make sure to friend everyone. Cut your posts, it makes for a much cleaner friends' page.

PRIVACY: Our top priority is that in-character and out-of-character lines are not to be crossed within the game, and that our members feel safe. Therefore, first and foremost, we encourage members to only enable commenting from registered users. Please do not utilize stat counters/IP address logging in your journal, as we wish to preserve our members' privacy and safety without use of invasive techniques such as this.

REJECTIONS: Please note and agree upon applying that we will not answer questions about why an application was deleted. We will let you know if a rejection could be pending for other reasons (ie. a friends list that needs to be cleared out, or if we cannot access your examples). If this happens, you may feel free to provide more in depth or current examples and apply again at any time in the future.

CHARACTERS

PBs: Please check the taken list, located here, so you know which PBs are being used and which ones are up for grabs. We accept a variety of characters and don't have any banned PBs. The only limitation are deceased celebrities or anyone under 18 years of age. You can play musicians, alternative models, athletes, etc. We know how hard it's to find the right muse sometimes and believe that no games should limit that. If you need suggestions feel free to ask and we will be happy to help! We also allow PB change requests once per character.

CHARACTER LIMITS: The character limit is seven. We ask that you make sure you have the time to commit to each of your characters. Posting with one character doesn't count as activity for another character. We do ask that you wait a week before applying for a second character, if you are new to the game. This is to give you time and opportunity to make friends and have people get to know you and to give you time to develop your brand new character before making a new one. If you are in the rp already, or if we've rped with you in the past, we will allow multiple applications at the same time. This goes back to the fact that you've already made connections in the game.

BANS: We do not want bans on any kinds of characters. From time to time if we see that we have way too many of one type of character, we'll put a temporary ban until the numbers are more equal.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

FIRST STEPS: Make sure to request to join the following communities: empiregames (ic journal), empirememories (diaries/narratives journal), empirethreads (threading journal), enterempire_ooc. Then run the friend adder and introduce your character in your journal within the first week.

ACTIVITY: This role play is character driven. You are expected to develop your character and his relationships, and to be active. Activity means actual posting (journal updates, scenes, narratives, etc. and does NOT include posting youtube videos, memes and pictures alone). If showing your activity through journal updates only, be sure to update at least twice a month. Activity checks are made once a month. If you have not posted anything within one month, your character will be removed. Please note that members who have not responded to half of the comments they have received on their last two entries on the friends page become eligible for override/removal. If you have been removed, it's still not too late, you can contact us about the inactivity and ask for a second chance, and we will welcome you back into the game.

THREADING & LOGS: Both threading and AIM logs are allowed. If Rp is done in AIM (or through googledocs, or email), then the log must be posted in normal, storybook format. No asterisk play is allowed, and AIM logs must be edited to remove the ID tags/timestamps. Please always use an lj-cut when posting your threads and logs to our threading comm and tagged them by full names of all characters involved. Please use our OOC comm for all OOC interaction.

HIATUS: Real life is important and sometimes interferes with RP and nobody understands that more than us. We also understand that characters are sometimes flighty creatures. If you need one, we are happy to put your character on HIATUS for up to a month (if you don't expect to be around at all). However, HIATUS is not to be used as a way of avoiding the activity check. If we see the hiatus being abused we will confront the player about it. It goes without saying that once you're on a HIATUS, no form of public activity will be tolerated. Public activity constitutes as commenting the friends page or 'friends only' posts, updating your user info or icons, or joining in on community-wide activities. We can't monitor what happens in private interactions in customs, OOC posts, or on AIM, but we hope this option will not be abused. If you break this rule, your hiatus will be revoked, and you will be expected to update your journal by the following set of removals, or risk being removed. Similarly, the right is reserved to deny members' requests who frequently ask for hiatuses and extensions, especially if they do so without showing much public activity in between.

ROLEPLAYING

BIG PLOTS: Mod approval is required before starting any plots that will affect the game on a massive scale or affect more than 3 characters (ie. character altering disease or injury, death or suicide attempts, etc.) Most of the time we will give you the green light or might ask for more information but a mod's say is final.

PREGNANCIES: Mod approval is also required before starting a pregnancy or an adoption line. This can be done via dropbox. Pregnancies are regulated and if you do not have a mod's approval, you can't go ahead and have your character conceive. Any existing children over 2 years of age do not require a mod's approval.

COMMUNICATION: Your character should not have out-of-character knowledge when scening with another character unless the player has given you permission. You have no control over a character's thoughts or actions that is not yours. It is best to speak with a player and decide what you both want to happen in a scene so that ground rules can be set beforehand.

ETIQUETTE: While in character drama is certainly encouraged, out of character drama is not. Characters can be jerks but you shouldn't be. Don't powerplay or god mod. Don't take what a character does in character as a personal slight against you. If someone is being rude to you or causing problems, please bring it to the mods so it can be handled accordingly. If we hear of any ooc drama going down repeatedly, we will ban you. Be kind and respectful to other members, and they will be the same in return.

INTERACTIONS: The more fun ships, connections, and plots you make, the more fun you will have. We hope that nobody will purposely try to exclude anybody or bully them out of the game. We like to see everybody interacting and having fun. SLUT SHAMING, KINK SHAMING, AND BULLYING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!!!! No one should ever feel uncomfortable or threatened here. Offensive behavior and/or harassment is not tolerated when addressing any member.

BUBBLE ROLEPLAYING: Sometimes, you have great chemistry with a set number of people and they're who you want to write with most - keep in mind, this is a roleplay group, meaning everyone should be included. Friend everyone's journals and comment to others, don't just ignore people. No one likes to feel like they're not wanted in a game. Make an effort to toss characters together that wouldn't normally be in the same room. It makes things a lot more fun that way. If it's seen you're only writing with certain people and not reaching out, the mods will politely contact you and ask you to branch out.

FRIENDLY REMINDERS TO TAG: While we encourage a gentle reminder from time to time, please don't pressure people into posting replies. If you are being repeatedly ignored by a person, come talk to us about it and we'll see what we can figure out. If you are being bullied by a person, come talk to us. We want this to be a happy, safe environment for everyone to rp.

LITERACY: it will be expected that you write in third person/past tense and don't use [] ** () or any other placeholder for actions. Of course, no one is perfect, so if you make a grammar or spelling error, we aren't going to come for you with a lynch mob. Do the best you can to match your partner's length, unless they tell you before hand that it isn't necessary. Nothing is more disappointing than writing a four paragraph reply and only getting two lines in response.

Mistakes do happen, but please feel free to contact us to correct us on any that you notice. Furthermore, don't hesitate to bring us your feedback! Any and all comments can be directed to our dropbox, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

The mods reserve the right to change these rules at any time. Stay tuned.