Rules

Welcome to rEvolution! We are a collectively run roleplaying community, where all community members have an equal say in how we organize ourselves. As such, these community norms should be considered an ongoing work, open to reconsidering and change at any time if people feel they are not working to make the community we'd like to have.

Currently, here are the rules and norms we've established for ourselves:

Social Contract

We strive to make rEvolution a safe and welcoming community for all our players. For us, this means we value treating everyone here with respect. Players should try to treat one another as the other would like to be treated -- which requires an intentional and good-faith commitment to open communication, to accepting feedback without defensiveness, to respecting each others boundaries, to asking for folks' preferences and needs -- and for volunteering your own boundaries and needs rather than assuming people know what they are. This also means that we do not tolerate discriminatory or bigoted conduct, and have no place for players who are found to engage in it.

Staff

Guides and Wizards are volunteer staff but do not have greater decision-making power than other Members. Any Member who wants to become a Guide or Wizard may request the role.

Membership

Barring any objections, new players may be automatically considered full members of the game and assigned the Member role along with its decision-making privileges after being on the game for two months, as well as having eight scenes logged and posted to the wiki. Vignettes and non-canonical/AU scenes do not count toward this limit.

Age

Currently our community is open to players 18 and over.

Consent

rEvolution is a limited consent game. You have control over your character's actions, and can expect to some degree not to have any serious harm come to them without your consent — but always keep in mind ICA = ICC, that is, In Character Actions lead to In Character Consequences. If your character picks a fight with someone, don't be surprised if they get hurt. If they commit a crime, don't be surprised if the cops are looking for them.

The game is focused more on story — character development and plot — than on flashy superpowers and combat. There is no stat system on our game governing combat and skills; in combat situations, we expect players to be responsible and mature about the interactions. Just as you should not powerplay by assuming other character's actions or harming other characters without serious reason or their player's consent, it is also players' responsibility to not use 'consent' as a way to avoid the consequences of their actions. ICCs will happen, and in a disputed situation, the outcome will be resolved through mediation.

Conflict Resolution

If any player experiences communication barriers, conflict, friction, etc, that they feel cannot be worked out via direct communication with the other parties involved, we encourage seeking mediation from others on game. A comprehensive guide to mediation can be found here.

Harassment

rEvolution defines harassment as any unwanted attention that continues after a player has asked for it to stop. This includes but is not limited to sending private messages people who have told you not to, badgering another player for scenes, or using any sort of bigoted/abusive language OOCly -- while characters are free to hold whatever IC viewpoints you wish, things like racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. will not be tolerated on this game OOCly from players, ever.

Alts

There is no current limit to how many alts a player may have. However, there is a waiting period in between submitting new applications. If you have had an application approved -- whether for a totally new character OR a re-app/update/extension for an existing character -- a new application will not be reviewed until you have had at least four scenes on the character you most recently submitted an application for. Scenes must be logged and posted to the wiki to count towards this number. Non-canonical/AU scenes and vignettes do not count towards this number.

Log posting

Unless otherwise discussed before a scene begins, it is assumed that the game is a public place; there is no requirement that players ask permission from others in the scene prior to posting logs. Keeping logs is a great way to keep up with what's going on in the game. While it is not required, we strongly encourage players to submit their logs to the logs section of the wiki.

Idling

We're a fairly relaxed roleplaying community, and do not have strictly enforced regulations around activity and idling -- we understand that life takes priority and welcome people to participate in roleplay to the extent they are able! We do like to keep a general sense of what characters are active at any time, and may go through the wiki on a quarterly basis to mark characters as 'Active' or 'Inactive' based on if their players have been around and participating in Discord recently. However, being marked 'inactive' in no way removes someone as a member of the community -- once you've been approved, if you have to go idle for a while, no worries; just return when you're able and you're free to pick up where you left off!

The exception to this policy comes with feature characters; because canon characters can be in demand, if a feature character has been idle for a period of three months, they will be released to any interested players who wish to apply and actively play them. This only applies to FCs who have new players wishing to app them; idle players are welcome to pick their old FCs back up after returning if nobody else has claimed them in the interrim.

FCs

Our game values original characters as much as feature (Marvel canon) characters. In the IC world, characters are equally important, regardless of whether they are canon or original creations. Because Feature Characters are often in high demand among players, and because FCs can change hands over the course of their on-game history, the OOC policies regarding FCs are stricter than those regarding OCs. FCs must remain active (see idling policy.) Additionally, any serious permanent changes (including, but not limited to, permanent injury and death) to a feature character must have very good reason. If the community feels that a player is seriously deviating from the characterization of an FC, the matter will be discussed with the player, and the character may be put back on the FC roster if it continues.

Applications

Any member who wants to volunteer to help vet incoming apps can request access to the application form. The first person to notice a new application sends a ping to @Member in #applications to see who can help check the application. The first three members to volunteer become the application committee for that specific application. These people are responsible for reading over the app to ensure that it fits with the theme & power level of our game; they are also responsible for communicating with the applicant about any necessary edits. Once they have all agreed that the app is acceptable they may approve new players. The 'descriptions' that accompany questions in the application should be used by the volunteer app staff as a rubric for app approval. The application team should use these explanations of what we are looking for as the minimum guidelines for whether application sections have been properly answered.

Explicit Content

rEvolution is a game for players 18+. In scenes and in logs, we do not have a requirement that players censor their roleplaying for graphic content. However, it is always important to make sure that your roleplaying partners are comfortable with the content of your scenes -- this policy should never be taken as license to roleplay any content that people in a scene are not comfortable with. Additionally, this policy specifically excludes characters who are underage: if you are roleplaying a character who is ICly a minor, writing explicit sexual or graphically violent/abusive material with them is not permitted in this community.

If a scene contains any subject matter from our spoiler list, players must post an appropriate content notice in ⁠scene-info as well as putting a content warning in the subtitle section of the log when posted to the wiki. Additional content warnings for potential triggering material (for example, graphic violence, rape/abuse, bigoted/hateful content, etc.) may be added if players feel it is necessary -- as nobody has the same baseline for this, please respect others' wishes if you are asked to add a content warning. If you are uncertain if a particular subject requires a content warning, feel free to ask the game at large.

Decision-making

Decision-making on rEvolution happens by a loose consensus process. We aim to organize and run our community in a nonhierarchical fashion, which for us means that all community members have an equal say in how the game is organized, both OOCly and in terms of plots and gameplay. Our #v-srs-game-bsns channel is where we discuss game issues, including bringing up new ideas for things we'd like to see change about rules or game structure. Concrete proposals go into the #modest-proposals channel, which is solely for showing feelings on proposals (through reaction emojis and not discussion.) Proposals that are agreed upon become new game norms, but are always open to revisiting if someone wishes to bring a topic back up.

Writing style

On rEvolution we understand that people come from a wide range of backgrounds in roleplay and writing styles. On this game we hold to some consistent standards of writing structure. Poses should be written in the third person, present tense, and should include your character's name in the pose as well as clear descriptions of what your character is doing. Check out Logs:Images for an example of our prose style.

Player-run plots

Player-run plots are an exciting and valued component of our game! We encourage players to take their ideas and bring them to life. Players are always welcome to come up with their own events and TPs and run them.

Any time newsworthy events happen in the course of player-run scenes and events, we ask that the player running the scene ensures a newspost is posted to the #ic-news channel, so that everyone can stay up to date with what is going on.

If players are going to be running plots, events, or scenes that have far-reaching implications, please submit a plot application first. Plot application can be found here.

Submit a plot application any time you plan to: - Run any scenes/plots/stories that, by means external to the direct actions of a PC, trigger events that make the news in a way where an average New Yorker who pays moderate attention to current events would have a difficult time ignoring it. This does not mean everything that hits the news needs to be an apped plot! It means it needs to be an apped plot if the event has an impact that would be difficult for the average person to avoid engaging with. - Run any scenes/plots/stories that, by means external to the direct actions of a PC, trigger events that significantly change the structure, atmosphere, or makeup of one or more faction OR demand the attention of the majority of characters in one or more factions.

NPCs

The world that our characters live in is heavily populated with NPCs. They make up characters' families, neighbors, and friends; they populate the city. Players are welcome to make up NPCs to populate the world. When playing NPCs, keep in mind:

• Remember that, ICly, NPCs are no less important than PCs. If an NPC gets attacked or killed, their friends and family -- and law enforcement -- are going to treat it identically to the same happening to a PC. We welcome chaos but be prudent about what will attract notice and consequences.
• Using NPCs just to buff up your character and make them More Badass is frowned upon. If you are playing NPC cohorts just to gain an advantage over other characters, don't.
• Before NPCing a character, consider:
  • is this character related/associated with an existing PC? if yes, consult the player
  • is this character tied to a specific faction? if yes, consult faction players on channel/faction page on the wiki
  • does this character have an outsized impact on the game at large? if yes, consult players on channel
• NPCs who make recurring appearances in ways that have impact outside the scope of their immediate scene should have their own app explaining who they are and for what purpose they are being played. NPC app can be found here
• Players should never be proactively soliciting non-sandbox RP for their NPCs, outside the scope of specific plots with their own plot apps. If a player is soliciting RP for specific NPCs, that NPC needs to be attached to plot or turned into a PC.

If you have any questions or are ever unsure about the use of NPCs, feel free ask! As well, many people on game are often happy to NPC as needed; don't hesitate to contact reach out on ⁠find-rp and seek assistance if a plot or scene requires NPCing!

Channel Spoilering/Content Notes

We want the game to be a comfortable place for our players. When a player on the server has requested that a topic have content warnings, we expect other players to respect that request. Our policy is that all topics on the following list must:

• Be discussed/posted using spoilers if posted public, non-scene channel on our server.
  • To spoiler your text in Discord, put the text in between double pipes ||like this||. To spoiler an image, on mobile Discord -- after uploading the image, make sure to hit the checkbox above your message for "mark as spoiler" before hitting send. On desktop, look for the 'eye' icon in the top left of the image preview and click that before sending. Please mark the content of your spoiler outside the spoiled text. For example: cn: dog ||my dog is the cutest pup on earth||.
• During scenes you do not need to use spoilers, but if the topics comes up, you must post a notice in #scene-info channel with the relevant content notes.
• When posting logs to the wiki, include relevant content notes in the subtitle section of the log.

Content Note List: (will be updated as needed -- please let us know if there is something you'd like us to add!)

• Any mention of rape & sexual assault. use `cn: rape` or `cn: sexual assault` to tag.
• Any mention of child abuse. use `cn: child abuse` to tag.
• Any mention or images of injury/trauma to eyes. use `cn: eye trauma` to tag.
• Any mention/description/images of the specific occurence of

cn: dentistry

metal or wood touching teeth.

use `cn: dentistry` to tag.

• Images of clowns. Discussion is okay with no spoiler. use `cn: clowns` to tag.
• Images of small clusters of holes or bumps. use `cn: trypophobia` to tag.
• Images of bugs/spiders/bug-like creatures. Discussion is okay with no spoiler. use `cn: bug photo` to tag.
• Unreality. Discussion of the concept of unreality does not need to be spoilered, but please spoiler any jokes, memes, stories, media, etc. that imply that our world is not real/we are not real/this might all be a dream/etc. use `cn: unreality` to tag.
• Suicide & self-harm: Any ooc mention of suicide or self-harm ideation or behaviors by real people, as well as any in-scene depiction of suicide/suicidal ideation or self-harm by characters in a scene. use `cn: suicide` or `cn: self-harm` to tag.
• Police violence: Any ooc mention of real-life instances of police violence, as well as any in-scene depiction of police violence in a scene. use `cn: police violence` to tag.
• Shootings: any ooc mention of real life-instances of shootings, as well as any in-scene depiction of school shootings specifically. use `cn: shooting/cn: school shooting` to tag.

Faction Heads

Some factions are fairly integral to the ongoing narrative of our game, and as such, so are their leadership positions. We aim to make this game a relaxed environment where people do not feel burdened by rigid activity requirements -- in an effort to balance this with the fact that some IC positions occasionally require a more consistent presence in order to keep plotlines going, our activity policy for these faction leaders is slightly modified. If a character who holds a leadership position in a faction is idle -- 3 months or more without any posted scenes -- game policy, in order of priority, is:

• Their player should, if possible, communicate with their faction about how to handle their absence on-screen. This can be as simple as "they're still conducting business as usual in the background" or as detailed as necessary to suit the needs of the faction.
• If any faction storyline arises where standing instructions are not sufficient to make plot decisions, the player should be pinged to check in about how to handle the new plot(s).
• If the player is unavailable or unable to provide sufficient answer, the faction as a group can decide on what their faction leader has been doing as-needed to facilitate plot. In these cases faction players should aim to make only the decisions needed for continuing the storyline while leaving the character playable as best as possible in case of their player's return.

Players returning to faction lead characters after a period of idleness are not required to re-app, but will be held to faction decisions made in their absence.

This rule applies to leaders of the following groups:

• Avengers
• Brotherhood of Mutants
• Friends of Humanity
• Hellfire Club
• Morlocks
• SHIELD
• Xavier's School
• X-Men