[GENERAL RULES]

[Lazarus Carter]

R U L E S

1] Respect is one of the things that we try to prioritise here at Deus Mortuus. Above all, this rule encapsulates a number of things; most of us are all for a good spot of humour and a bit of wit and banter every now and then, but you need to respect each other - and we all just need to be reasonable above all else. Try and be personable, amiable, and friendly, and there shouldn't be any problems, but mostly:

• No flaming/trolling/undue nastiness.
  
• General tolerance of other people's opinions and ideas.
  
• Critique should always be constructive.
  
• Respect what the staff say. We're right. Most of the time.
  
• Respect other people's creative properties.
  

2] As a general sitewide requirement: you are allowed multiple characters, but you must have one separate account for each character. Your username must, without exception, be your character's name.

3] All threads must be date-stamped. Check the forum header for the current year and month - the day is up to you, but make sure your threads follow a timeline. For this reason, we do allow a liquid timeline, and thus multiple active threads. For this reason, it is MANDATORY that ALL users with more than two characters use a THREAD TRACKER. See the appropriate forum under the Character Planning forum.

4] Solo RPing is prohibited. If you want to explore a character on their own, use the Flashbacks/Journals forum under the Roleplay Planning category.

5] All in-character posts will award three points per post, but must be in excess of 150 words otherwise you'll be asked to edit it to make sure it is so. This is to actively attempt to combat one-line posts and try to develop people as writers - push our less-experienced members' boundaries a touch further.

6] The following roleplay concepts are NOT PERMITTED unless explicitly given license to by the staff:

• Metagaming is the act of having your character possess knowledge which they realistically could not know in-character without justification - utilising OOC knowledge in-character.
  
• Powerplaying or Godmodding is the act of making - whether within the bounds of roleplay or not - your character invulnerable, or having them avoid every attack. Be realistic - I know we're playing within certain bounds, but unless permitted to, your character isn't going to be able to swat bullets away with a cattle prod.
  
• Bunnying is controlling other characters - or other characters' creative properties, by extension weapons, equipment, vehicles, and related NPCs - without their owner's permission.
  
• Double-posting or breaking posting order is not explicitly illegal but frowned upon and usually viewed as disrespectful.
  
• Autohitting is the act of playing out - within the same post and without permission - your character's strikes landing on another's. With NPCs this is fine, but don't write "James raised his gun and shot Tony. The bullet ripped through Tony's skin and spattered brains out the back of his skull." without asking Tony's player first. This should be obvious.
  

7] The chatbox is no different to the forum: what applies on the boards applies here. You've been warned.

8] Roleplay should be literate. No chatspeak - and we'd prefer it was kept out of the box too. You learnt all those things in your elementary school English classes for a reason - we try to maintain a good quality of writing. However, if you lack confidence in your skills, please don't let this turn you away: provided you show a desire to improve and are making an effort towards it, no matter whether English is your first language or your tenth, and whether you're a bestselling writer or can barely read, we'll try to help you and encourage that you still enjoy yourself.

9] Roleplay - with the exception of permitted flashbacks in the acceptable forums, or within IC posts and separated - should be entirely third-person.

10] This forum is M-rated. Gore and violence is permitted to whatever extent you might like, and don't feel obliged to censor your cursing: that said, no graphic sexual nudity or imagery, or literature for that matter. This rule will be heavily enforced.

11] Alternate characters - unless otherwise cleared - require the following amount of IC posts to create - these may be across all accounts.

• First character - 0 posts.
  
• Second character - 5 posts.
  
• Third character - 15 posts.
  
• Fourth character - 30 posts.
  
• Fifth character - 50 posts.
  
• Sixth character - 65 posts.
  
• Seventh character - 80 posts.
  
• Eighth character - 110 posts.
  
• Ninth character - 150 posts.
  
• Tenth character and beyond - 200 posts.
  

If you're cleared for a plot-centric character, such as an Archdemon, or specifically informed by a staff member that it's acceptable to, then you may under extenuated circumstances be able to ignore these restrictions. The staff reserve the right to deny you an additional character slot if we think you're not active enough/it'll dampen your activity, that said there is no limit to the amount of characters you can make, provided you can play all of them. A recommendation is that you do not exceed ten, unless you utilise plot-centric characters who are only RPed in a handful of very specific threads.

Note: YOU MAY POST WIPS FOR CHARACTERS YOU DO NOT YET HAVE ENOUGH POSTS FOR. These should be simple WiPs, however, if the apps are finished and you do not have enough posts, still, please put [NEP] in the thread title. (Not Enough Posts)

12] Above all else, to create an adequate roleplay experience, note that whilst this RP will focus a lot on combat and proving, we're trying to create a collective story and not a lengthy wrestling match. Focus on character development, personal plots, and otherwise, if you can: and your character's combat skills as a means to these ends.

13] Spam won't endear you to anybody and will get you quickly banned.

14] Your avatar may be no larger than 150x200 and 64KB. It must be an appropriate picture of your character - if it isn't, it will be removed.

15] You are not the police. If you feel that another member has violated a rule speak to a mod about it. Don’t start yelling at people yourself or you will probably not be very well liked.

16] Bumping/necro-posting should be avoided. It isn’t a huge deal, but keep it in mind. If it doesn’t need to be revived, start a new topic.

17] Bumping your pending apps or continually nagging staff members to look over them won't endear them to you, just as a general point.

18] Do not ask to be staff outright; if there is a position open, you may post an application for a position, which will be considered and potentially accepted. We're not usually looking for more: and if we are, we'll approach you, or ask that you post an application in the appropriate forum. For more details, look at the Staff Applications board.

19] Typically, IC, don't join someone's topic without asking. Archdemons reserve the right to enter any topic in their appropriate sphere, but, come on, guys: be reasonable.

20] Archdemons are always vulnerable to death in any topic they enter, whether it's death-enabled or not.

21] Characters may only be killed off in a death-enabled thread or when pre-determined by the character player.

22] Your signature MUST contain the languages your character speaks and the colour code.

23] Applications posted in pending are given two weeks from their posting date to be completed. If incomplete, they must be marked in the title as "WiP". If you feel you will require longer than this, simply PM a staff member to get an extension for another week or two - you don't need an explicit reason, but this is just to stop new members from clogging up the pending characters board and a bunch of ancient apps stagnating continuously in there.

24] Please bump your application once it's finished so staff can look at it. Unfinished apps must be marked with (WIP) in the title as courtesy so we don't have to weed through the Pending board every time.

25] Staff reserve the right to edit coloured messages into OOC posts in their appropriate colour provided they leave behind a tagline indicating it was them.

26] No cross-classing, people. It's genealogically or practically impossible by site lore except in one circumstance (Demon Hunter/Templar) which sort of has you set up for a life of being a detained guinea pig anyway. So, before you ask: the answer's no.

27] A word on posting. We all have slow weeks and fast weeks - it happens to the best of us. So, whilst we do encourage a tolerance of this at DM, we do understand that it's frustrating to be hung out to dry sometimes when it comes to posts, without having a determined ending to threads, especially those that provide a higher degree of importance for personal character plot. For that reason: whilst we encourage patience, after a minimum of seven days without reply, in a thread with more than one other person, you're permitted to request a post order skip from the other members of the thread. Whether they allow it is up to them. If it's simply a thread with only one other person, after that same time period, you're allowed to consult staff to request they officially notify the member of the post incase they've forgotten: though we do recommend everyone is either patient or sorts these things out between themselves.

28] Character death is something that - see rule 21 - won't happen out of the blue unlike a lot of combat-focal sites. We're a character-driven, respectful writing collective; but if you are planning on killing off your character, or it does eventually happen, or perhaps you kill them off, leave, and then decide to come back, it's not irreversible for humans: dependent upon their karmic balance, they can soon - almost immediately - be reborn as a Demon or an Angel, but you should consult a staff member (Lazarus Carter, Jinhong Jangmi, Cael Gladius, Alice the Chopper or Belial) about this.

THE OFFICIAL RULES OF THE DEUS MORTUUS CHATBOX
1] YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE DIGITAL DIVE
2] YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE DIGITAL DIVE
3] DAI IS A LIVING KIWI
4] JAY SPELLS THINGS WRONG
5] NIKO HIMSELF IS THE SITE'S OVERARCHING ANTAGONIST AND PUPPETMASTER
6] NO SHIRTS, NO SHOES, NO BELTS
7] TWO BOX-GOERS TO A FIGHT
8] DON'T RP IN THE BOX YOU COWARDLY CREAMPIES
9] ROSS IS ONLY ALLOWED TO BE IN THE BOX WHILST DRINKING
10] KENNY IS ONLY ALLOWED TO BE IN THE BOX WHILST STONED
11] A MONTHLY GAME OF EDWARD FORTY-HANDS MUST OCCUR
12] ALL HAIL BEERCULES FOR HE IS OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

[Lazarus Carter]

Updated rule 11 and the character creation constraints.

Added rule 23 concerning the archiving of old and incomplete apps.

[Lazarus Carter]

Added rule 24 concerning WIPs and bumping finished apps. More of a request than anything.

[Lazarus Carter]

Updated rule 3 to reflect that Thread Trackers are only mandatory after the creation of your second character (we still advise you make them though).

[Lazarus Carter]

Updated rule eighteen to reflect the inclusion of a staff application system for when positions are open.

[Lazarus Carter]

Added rule 25 to reflect the nature of administrative OOC edits.

[Lazarus Carter]

Added rule 26 for cross-classing.

Added a relatively lax rule 27 for when it comes to posting, which is more of a guideline regulation in itself.

[Lazarus Carter]

Updated with rule 28 regarding post-death for characters.

[Sponsored content]