Like every good RP Chat, we too must have our rules. We know these rules are rather daunting, but most of them are the general rules of common courtesy while playing with others. Rules are enforced by a warning-kick-kickban method, unless otherwise stated (At least for the most part). The rules are not meant to limit your RP fun, but to make sure you don't step out of bounds for the setting of Kaerwyn. Ignorance is not an excuse. Read these or be kicked. Yes we know we repeated some stuff, but sometimes we just try to drive these points home.

Please note that rules are subject to change with or without notice. We often post rule changes in the News and Announcements Forum.

-=+ Before you Play +=-

1. Ops (@) are to be treated as Game Masters. What the Ops say /goes/.

Ops, the Kaerwyn staff, are there to maintain the RP for /all/ players. This means that sometimes they may be forced to stop the flow of RP, make quick IC judgment calls, determine the flow of plots, et cetera.  While you don't need to obey an /op character/ (Because the ops RP too) you do need to follow the instructions of an op when given (Usually done in the OOC channel, or in OOC brackets: << >>)

 

2. All players must be in Out Of Character Channel (OOC) while they are RPing.

This means you must join #kaerwynooc before you go into the In Character (IC) channel to play.

3. Keep your characters, actions, and explanations somewhat realistic and logical.

While we know people cannot make fully realistic characters, nor do we expect you to, you should at least take the time to consider what you’re doing. Inconsistencies and unrealistic situations plague the RP community and Kaerwyn is not immune to this. Characters shouldn’t be able to learn magic in a few days, pregnancies shouldn’t end in a few days or even weeks, houses shouldn’t be built in a few days, the town and tavern cannot be traversed in 10 minutes. When you come up with a plot device, make some reasonable explanations for it. “Because the mun said so” is not a valid reason for something to happen the way it does.  Players incapable of keeping up with the standard of logic will be asked to leave Kaerwyn.

4. Any character that can use magic, Telekinesis, or has general supernatural skills or abilities, must have repercussions and limits to this use.

You must list these on the CS along with magical abilities. Magic users seem to be relatively common on Kaerwyn, and it is difficult to play within reasonable realistic limits with magics, however, along the same lines as the firearms, muns often give their characters excessive amounts of magical knowledge. It is unrealistic that a character who does not know magic will learn magic in any short amount of time. Muns seem to forget that using magic takes energy from somewhere and usually from the spellcaster, thus they shouldn't be able to cast spell after spell without some repercussions.  The same goes for Shapeshifters.

5. All characters need to go through the General Omnipotency Denominator (GOD) Test with a score of 30 or less.

When taking the test, always select the answer that is closer, or higher in score to what you feel your character's potentials are. Keep in mind the test scores what characters are capable of, not what they would or would not do. Ops also reserve the right to edit your GOD Test Score (GTS) based on how they are played once they've been approved. Ops reserve the right to take the test for your character, and if any op finds you score significantly higher on the test than you admitted, your character will be removed from Kaerwyn. 

6. The Comic is completely separate from the RP. Do not assume that what goes on in the comics is what is current in the RP.

Do not assume that anything you see in the comic has or will happen. Characters in the Public RP will not be put in the comic. The RP was created for those who are fans of RP or the comic so they can enjoy the Kaerwyn environment.

7. Kaerwyn Dragons are not NPCs, plot devices, or characters you can play/use.

Do not involve the dragons in ANY way with your character or history. This includes anything that happens in the backstory of the character, or anything you do in play.  Unless an op tells you specifically that a K-dragon was involved, they will never get involved.

8. No one controls the Kaerwyn Rifts, Period. No character can control the Kaerwyn rifts. No player is allowed to use "rifts" for any purpose other than what's authorized by the Ops

This means that on your CS's and such, the rift that brought the character to Kaerwyn was not opened on purpose by any other person or entity.  They were not created by 'accidents'.  Kaerwyn rifts open randomly.  The only "rift" we allow characters to control (to a point) is through the Rifting Device.

9. If you have a problem with anything on Kaerwyn, bring it to someone's attention.

If you have an issue with the interaction between dragons, other characters, and your characters, you may feel free to debate the issue in a calm manner in the OOC channel. If you wish to keep the matter between yourself and the ops, you may ask an op to join the Kaerwyn op room to discuss the matter. If you refuse to discuss anything in a mature manner, then you will be treated accordingly. Please don't be a whiney bitch about what happens in the RP.

10. Ops are to help assist the RP and have their own rules to follow.

If you have a problem with an player, tell an op. If you have a problem with one of the ops, tell Jakkal and she will do her best to resolve the situation. If you have a problem with Jakkal or Bowtie themselves, and are unwilling to resolve it with them, you shouldn't RP on Kaerwyn. Do not ignore the ops. If you ignore us, you will more than likely be kicked.

11. This isn't your playground, it's Jakkal's. You will obey all rules and background story settings, or you will be removed.

Keep in mind that Kaerwyn is not just a "RP" room. Kaerwyn is an actual story environment, with background stories, rules, and whatnot. The ops do their best to preserve and maintain the integrity of the settings of the RP. Just as we do not go into your house and take a shit on your floor, do not come into our channel and dictate what should or shouldn't be.

12. The town is nothing more than a plot device. Don't fuck with the town. The town was put there so characters would have a place to live, buy items, or just hang out. Do not make up rules for the town, or make ANY KIND OF CHANGES or anything else that directly affects the town or anything within the town.

If your character needs a place to live, there are apartment like communities where they can get their own room. On an additional note, the tavern is not for permanent shelter, do not “keep a room” at the tavern for more than a week.

13. All characters must be Male, Female or Gender Neutral.

We do not allow physical hermaphroditic characters. If a character is a hermaphrodite, they would be considered 'gender neutral'.

14. Do not abuse the bot. Yes we know you can make the bot do funny stuff by replacing normal barkeeper stuff with stupid bullshit that turns the bot into a sex fiend.

The bot exists to play a realistic role of a barkeeper in a tavern environment. You can also abuse the bot by asking for unrealistic bullshit, or a million items from her. You should /only/ ask for food, drinks, or anything else a typical barkeeper might have in stock or handy (like fire extinguishers or silverware). We won't tolerate this during play, and we will kickban anyone who abuses the bot. This goes for making her spam the OOC channel with stuff as well.

15. Do not use other muns as plot devices.

If they have certain abilities, or give certain items, *dont* fuck with their personal rulesets and limits. If someone gives you a potion for healing, don't decide it'll make your character transform for your own purposes. If you wish to use someone's character like this, you MUST ask the mun of the character FIRST.

16. Anything that directly affects one's soul, spirit, essence, or whatever you want to call their core non-corporeal being, is generally not allowed on Kaerwyn.

The dragons are extremely paranoid of anyone with these types of powers. Thus, they will not allow anyone capable of manipulating the soul to stay on Kaerwyn for long.  However, some plots with this general theme are allowed.  So characters or items with soul mucking powers are bad, but plots around soul mucking is sometimes okay with op approval (As long as it gets resolved somehow).

17. If you have a question about ANYTHING Kaerwyn related, ASK!

If you don't want us to come down on you for holy hell because you didn't understand a rule, ASK US. We will explain it to you if you don't understand. Now don't ask us what's here or what the rules ARE. Jakkal didn't write these pages so you could ignore them. But if you don't understand something, or something isn't clear, feel free to ask an op and they will do their best to help you.

18. All players must have an approved Character Sheet (CS) before you play!

We highly suggest all players start their CS's in the Chaos Rift Critique forum. There you can get help and hints for quicker approval. You may post your CS's in the "The Wayside" section of the Kaerwyn Forums when you think it's ready. A blank CS is available there. CS's are officially approved when they are moved into the Character Shindig Forum.

19. All characters MUST have approved CS's posted before play!

The ops will check over CS's to make sure all characters are suited for RP. In addition, If you are just test running a character, you only need to fill out the required information, you can get to the personal stuff later if you decide to keep the character. The ONLY exception to this rule are NPC's, and named NPCs (Temporary characters with minor information).

20. Copyright Policy: No copyrighted characters unless you own the copyright.

No characters are allowed from ANY Kaerwyn playerworld without permission from the player. You may play a character from a world of popular media, but you are NOT allowed to play one of the characters from the original work.

21. Absolutely no characters are allowed from Raekarta or Kaerwyn. This means no Kaetif as well. So don't even ask.

22. All new players must submit a mundane character as their first.

Essentially, a 'mundane' character is one that is comparable to a vanilla human. This means no special powers, skills, weapons, etc. It might /sound/ boring, but it will get you into the RP very quickly.  Many of our players (who bemoan the mundane rule) find that playing a normal human character in an abnormal environment to be quite fun. We have a very nice post on the forums with specific information on the Mundane Rule and what we consider to be "Mundane" for CS purposes.  Remember, what is considered "mundane" is based on our interpretation, not yours.

 

-=+ RP Etiquette +=-

23. Do not Proact. Proacting is when you force another action upon another player's character.  

This is like poking them in the chest, throwing them across the room, or whatnot. You're not giving them the chance to react at all. Whenever you do something to another character, you must write it as if you're making the attempt.

24. Death, Injuries, and Alterations will be decided by two factors: the affected mun and logic.

 Kaerwyn's RP is heavily based upon logic, and if you, by logic, put your character in a situation where s/he might be killed, then you are giving your consent by participating. You also give consent to being killed in some situations based on the character's actions, words, body language, location, etc. While the mun still determines the overall outcome, if logic dictates otherwise, the ops will call you on it.

25. Do not Munleak. (Also called Metagaming) Keep the player's knowledge separate from the character's knowledge.

Just because you know something, doesn't mean the character will. The player could be considered omniscient, as you might know what will happen to your character, and others. However, your character shouldn't know more than s/he's been told or shown. This also includes using knowledge you've gained from the other character's CS. The only thing your character should know from the CS is the physical description as they can SEE what the person looks like. Muns who frequently "leak" knowledge will be removed after warned.

26. Don't be a bad sport. So things don't turn out your way.

If you want everything to go your way all the time, write a novel. RPing is about randomness, no one player has control over the storyline (even GMs). Just learn to go with the flow and the RP experience will be much more fun for everyone.

27. Keep sexual/intimacy off channel.

 Kissing, hugging, and showing minor displays of affection (as acceptable in RL public institutions) are okay. Do not use Kaerwyn has a pickup channel. Do not join any channel with Kaerwyn in the name for your lude sexual acts. Anyone that needs to RP on IRC to get sex has to be the lamest motherfucker known to man.  Please note that netsexing or cybering is against the Network rules. If you're caught, you could be banned from connecting to the irc network that Kaerwyn uses.

28. Channel wide fights (involve most characters on, or is in the tavern) should not last longer than 30 minutes.

The Ops will be timestamping and making sure that the fights don't take up more than 30 min unless all the muns playing give consent to continue the fight. Any fights that last longer than 30min should be taken off the main channel, to another, and continued there. Fights are fun, but also VERY disruptive to those who do not want to get involved. Fights with godpcs and munchkins will be ended quickly.

29. Do not idle on either channel.

There is a 1 hour idle time limit, after you've been idle for an hour, an op will ask if you're still there. If you do not respond in a timely manner you will be kicked from the channel(s). If you are actively RPing, you don't need to worry about being kicked in the OOC channel. Anyone that is a repeat offender of the idle rule may be kicked without warning. People will auto-rejoin set on their irc clients may be temporarily banned for a few minutes to keep your clients from reconnecting.

30. Recruiting will get you banned.

It is very rude and immature to say the least for people who have nothing better to do than try to recruit our players into another RP channel. If they find your channel interesting, they will go there on their own. Recruiting is nothing more than IRC spam, no one likes it, and no one wants to see it, and we won't tolerate it on Kaerwyn.

31. Don't use colors on channel.

Yes we understand that other RP channels require the use of colors for dialogue within actions and whatever. However, some of our users are on IRC Clients that cannot support color codes. Also, many of us use a different color scheme than default, making it difficult, or damn impossible to read some text.
 

-=+ Role Playing Rules +=-

32. Don't leave your character in the tavern patrons area if you go Out of Play.

Far too many people think they can leave their character sleeping on the couch or at the bar, in a booth or whatnot. What happens when a fight breaks out, or two people are sitting on the couch that don't know your character is there? Sleep outside or get a room.

33. Don't keep a room more than a RL week.

The rooms are for guests and travelers, they are not permanent quarters. There are only 8 rooms up there, people.  Characters that stay there longer than a week will wake up in the woods on the last day.  It is okay for characters to occasionally take a room (Like if they're too tired or drunk to make it home before passing out).

34. Watch your character's alcoholic intake limit.

The ops are laughing at you behind your back when your character puts away whiskey bottles like water. If you are unsure how much your character should be able to drink, take your character's weight and apply it to this BAC chart. Remember, a fast metabolism will just make you get drunk faster, it won't dull the effects of drinking.

35. When you are in a fight with another character, take hits. Be Logical.

 And when you take a hit, you need to make it /affect/ the character. Otherwise the fights are stupid and pointless. You also need to consider the strength and agility of the other person.  Many muns don't realize how stupid they look when they dodge something that can easily be healed (like a dagger wound) but take a kick from a centaur in the chest.

36. Do not just leave your character in play when you, the mun, need to leave suddenly. This is general RP courtesy folks, and if you do it often, people will not RP with you.

If you need to leave suddenly, you need to find a way to have your character leave as well. If you just up and leave in the middle of play (This does not include disconnections beyond your control) then the Ops will play your character leaving the 'area of play'. They will then remove an item of their choosing from your character, including trinkets, gold, weapons, items of personal value, et cetera.  Do this too much and you may be banned.

37. Players are not allowed in the IC Channel unless they are actively playing.

Brand new players may be allowed to watch an IC session just to see how the play works in real time. But overall, you will not be allowed to sit in the IC unless you are being an active player.

38. "Camera" Characters will be removed from play. Repeat offenders may be banned.

Camera characters are those defined as going IC, doing the bare minimum of RPing, not really interacting, just to remain in the IC channel.  If you are not *actively* participating, an op will ask you to leave the IC channel.

39. Vehicles, trash, unwanted stuff, bodies, etc will disappear once "no one is looking at them".

This is the dragon's way of getting rid of things. This does not mean your character can stare at it all day long to keep it viable. Once your character blinks, looks away, or doesn't have it in their direct line of sight, it's gone. This rule primarily affects powered vehicles. Mundane 'man powered' vehicles may be exempt. Ask an op before you try to keep one though.

40. Don't leave other muns/characters hanging. If something happens and you've got some serious connections to other muns, don't just leave them hanging in the middle of play or in general if you have to take a hiatus from the RP.

 If you are involved in RP *directly* with other characters, in the short and long term, you can't just leave the other muns wondering what the hell is going on. This is common courtesy! If your character, for example, lives with another character, you need to tell the mun of the other character what's happened to yours. Otherwise they might make something up to explain your absence! If you suddenly don't have time to RP, post on the forums to let others know and how to explain your character's withdrawal from RP! If you don't do this, your characters will be removed!

41. Players who abandon the RP will lose their characters after a month.

If you give us a head's up, we might be willing to work with you. If you just abandon the RP without a word, your characters will be lost. You won't be able to bring them back. So do keep this in mind.

42. Please do not use Leaps/Rifts as an excuse for your absences.

Leaps and Rifts were made for plot purposes, so people could have fun. They were not made to be excuses for when you need to go on vacation or don't feel like RPing for a while.

43. Players MUST be able to keep up with plots, which requires regular attendance (4-6 hours of RP per week).

Characters need not be played every day, or even every week, they can go into NPC mode so long as players maintain regular attendance.  Players who are gone for a significant amount of time (which varies) and miss a lot of significant plots will have all their characters rifted off Kaerwyn. This is up to op discretion.  If you don't play a character, however, we suggest retiring them.

44. Characters can get housing in the town, or build housing north of town.

Characters that build houses north of the town must get oply approval first (Post it on the forums folks). Anything built south of the town will disappear as always. Please keep what you build reasonable, no castle or McMansions, nor squatting of acres upon acres of land.

 

-=+ Specific In-Play Rules +=-

-Rifting Device Rules-

1. Players must file a "Flight Plan" with the ops and have it approved before you are allowed to play out your rifting trip.

You can post these to the Conspiracy Zone forum. What we mean by Flight plan is a general synopsis of what your character will experience while you're offworld. We understand that sometimes you guys will come up with things when you're RPing them, so we won't ask for hard core specifics. We do want to know what you're up to in general though. After we have done this for a while we might come up with an actual sheet for people to fill out as their "flight plan" but for now we're going to wing it. Ha, wing it... eh.

2. We need to know what characters are going with you, and what characters (could be) coming back.

You can ask this while you're in play, but we'd *really* like to know before you do it.  That gets approvals done faster. Please don't drop the ball on us when you're just about done with your trip.

3. Ops will be regulating anything brought back to Kaerwyn.

We want to know before the trip is finished what you'll be getting, and what it's capable of. Consider it just like the item/weapons/whatever section of the CS where we ask for the information on what your character has on them.

4. Rules that are specific to Kaerwyn's setting don't necessarily apply off world. For example, you might encounter things that affect the soul/spirit off Kaerwyn.

Once you return to Kaerwyn, however, all that is put behind you. If your character has any lasting effects or items that might go against the rules, you'll need to discuss that with an op first. No items that go against the rules will be allowed on Kaerwyn at all. None of this "It gets powered down crap." If it makes the dragons paranoid, it's gone.

5. New characters will be unable to use the rifting device for their first few weeks.

When we say "New" it's a relative term, but we'd like for characters to get their feet wet on Kaerwyn before they leave it and do other things. In other words, if the character is new, you'll be told you can't go once the flight plan is filed. This will be regulated on a case by case basis, however.  ICly, this is explained as a character can't work the rifter unless they believe it will work for them. Anyone new to character isn't likely to actually believe this.

6. Characters can only go to worlds they've actually been to.  This goes for places and times on those worlds (With the exception of op approved plot 'oopsies').

This means that if you're from North Carolina, Earth, 2008, you can't use the rifter to go to Alaska, Earth, 2012 or Rome, Earth, 1259BC.

7. You cannot go to another player's world without their player's permission. This includes if characters have been there, they still need permission to go there again.  This is RP courtesy.

In other words, if anyone plans on going to Raekarta to visit the Order, you can forget it now, unless of course, -I- say it's okay.

8. If a character doesn't return to the exact spot the rift originally opened when the timer runs out, then they are trapped on that world.

The only way to rescue this character is with a chaser plot. So don't miss the bus unless you want to get rid of the character.

9. All RP should take place on another channel. You can name the channel after the plot title, or the world/area they're going to.

10. Typical civilian vehicles can fit in the rifter cave.

But even if you bring a vehicle back, you need op approval for it. If you intend to bring back a vehicle, you need to post that early in the approval process.  This means that full size (not Big Rig) trucks and vans can fit in there. Buses, commercial equipment, Mack Trucks, etc cannot fit.

-Town Rules-

1. Your character must be on Kaerwyn for a full month before they can even try to start their own business.

Far too many people think their characters can be business owner and this is getting to be a serious problem. So thus, no new characters can feasibly have businesses. Also, your characters need to have the necessary skills to run a business if you intend to call it successful.

2. The town does have a guard, and they do protect the town.

Outside of the town, however, characters are on their own.  If you start shit in town, you can bet the guard will be there in short order to break it up or stop it. So don't have huge, loud fights in town and expect the guard not to do anything. Tell an op so they can appropriately the reaction of the guard.

3. The guard might arrest troublesome characters.

This means your character may be taken out of play if they are acting disruptive in town. This also goes for characters who 'lose their mind' (Especially werecreatures) or are possessed, or just whatever. So watch what you do in town.

4. The town does have restuarants, supply stores, book stores, tailors, night clubs, and other venues of entertainment.  

Somehow the town is self sustaining.  Many of these businesses are owned by player characters. So feel free to ask them about what specifics your characters can pick up.

-Vehicle Rules-

1. All vehicles will be taken on a case by case basis.

All vehicles must be preapproved by the ops before they are allowed to remain on Kaerwyn. We have the right to refuse vehicles by characters or players for any reason or no reason at all.

2. Vehicles will be limited to only certain players.

Generally we'll be looking at allowing longtime players to have a character with a single vehicle. We may expand on this in the future, but for now it's a trial run. Currently the only players allowed to have vehicles are ops and + players. (Exceptions are sometimes given for older players making 'mun' characters.)

3. No weapons on the vehicles, period.

If a vehicle had weapons before they came to Kaerwyn, they need to be permanently destroyed/wrecked/rendered completely inoperative before they will be approved.

4. The only vehicles being approved currently are non-commercial, personal land vehicles and watercraft.

We will not be taking any vehicles that fly. Vehicles such as pickup trucks, cars, motorcycles, ATVS, jet skis, pontoon boats, motorized johnboats, etc are allowed. Futuristic versions are allowed. Tanks, Semis, Real HumVees, Buses, etc will not be allowed. Gas or conventional powered vehicles will have more leniency than future tech.

5. If your vehicle uses future technology, you better be able to logically explain how it works.

None of this star trek, made-up-on-the-fly crap, we want to know how it works, why it works, and what makes it work.

6. Gasoline is available in Town.

You don't have to have a federally approved gasoline container to pick it up.

7. We WILL be holding you to physics, logic and realism.

We don't want to see any General Lee's jumping buildings or Corvettes going 100mph down the dirt paths. If you do something that would make your vehicle fall apart, guess what... it'll fall apart and the ops will take the vehicle away.

8. Wrecks will be rifted off Kaerwyn per the original vehicle rule.

The dragons don't want your litter, so if you total your vehicle, there's no fixing it.

9. If a character dies (or permanently leaves Kaerwyn), their vehicle disappears per the original vehicle rule.

This way you guys won't abuse the vehicles by bringing in disposable characters and then having another character yoink the vehicle.