Respect - All members of this forum are to be treated with respect. We're all mature adults here (or teenagers who are cool enough to hang out with adults), so act like it. Be at the very least polite to everyone, including people you don't like. Avoid harassing your RP partners for posts, and don't keep your RP partners waiting for too long if it's your turn. Try to be fair. If someone doesn't ship your OTP, let it go. And listen to the staff - we don't resort to pulling out the banhammer very quickly around here, but if you can't behave yourself - especially if you've been warned - expect there to be consequences.
Political Correctness - While we recognize that some people like to relax somewhere where they don't need to worry about being offended, this is a site for people who like to relax where they don't need to worry about offending people. By the very nature of our theme, we deal with some very 'sensitive subjects' - like the Holocaust - which we may variously mock, parody, make light of, take seriously, joke about, etc. It's not that any of the players behind the characters think that such things aren't horrible beyond words, it's that some people feel that it is appropriate to treat horrible things with open contempt instead of as that which must not be named. If you are not one of those people yourself, then this is not the right Hetalia site for you. Oh, and if you're a Neo-Nazi, then you're not welcome either.
Adult Content - Generally speaking, this site is rated at the very high end of PG-13. Not that we we're moral guardians who don't want you to have any R-style fun, but it really does solve a lot of problems if anything too explicit is kept off the board - we don't want to get ProBoards on our case, and we don't want to shut out teenagers from playing either. Besides, I suspect that nobody who really wants to do something R would have much trouble finding somewhere off the board to do it.
Nudity/Romance - Allowed as long as parts of the body normally covered by underwear are not touched or described.
Violence - Allowed as long as it's not overly graphic. For example, if you want to stab someone, that's fine. If you want to twist the knife while you do it, go ahead. If you want to explain what that sounds like, please don't!
Profanity - Allowed as long as it's not too frequently. During intense scenes, consider explaining that your character did so without making it dialogue. Examples: he cursed under his breath, he unleashed a string of expletives, he whispered something obscene into her ear.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking/Etc. - Allowed as long as you don't glorify the illegal use of drugs.
Fun - Remember, this is a game: It's supposed to be fun. If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.
Character Rules
Limits - Each player is normally allowed up to three characters. You are allowed to have more, but you must get admin approval first. If you are active with all of your current characters and it seems like you can totally handle more, you will get approval. Any one player may not play more than one of the five main empires (America, Germany, England, Japan, Italy), and no more than two canon characters (as in characters actually featured in the manga or anime, rather than invented from scratch) without admin approval. Extra canons are usually approved if the desired characters are reasonably diverse - for example, if all three of the characters you want are European, that's a no.
Versions - If a character was featured in the manga and/or anime, we accept the main version of that character only - meaning Nyo or other alternate versions will not be accepted. Our theme being what it is, some characters may be appropriately interpreted in more of a 2P leaning way, and some characters would be young enough to be more chibi-style. Characters that have not appeared in the manga or anime are allowed to be as freeform as you want, as long as your interpretation is at all reasonable.
Allowed as Characters - As our timeline puts us just after an AU World War 2, exactly which countries exist is different than what exists during the present day. This is further complicated by the fact that much (most?) of the world is under the control of one empire state or another. But in general, we allow characters who are at the country-level, whether or not they're currently independent, as long as they exist in some form at this point in the timeline. Cities, regions, and other smaller divisions are not allowed as characters unless they have independence at nearly country level (Hong Kong, for example), though may be played as NPCs by their country if they wish. If you want to know for sure if something is allowed, ask the head admin.
Activity Rules
Activity Checks - There will be an activity check at the beginning of every month, at which time you'll be expected to produce a link to an RP post you have posted during the previous month. Players who are officially on hiatus may check in without an RP post. This check is per character, meaning that you need one for each character you play. Posts from the current month do not count. The activity check lasts for exactly one week, and all characters who do not pass their activity check will be declared inactive. If you're going to be absent for an activity check, you can check in early for next month's activity check by sending a PM to the head admin with a link to a post made during the current month.
Inactive Characters - Characters that are inactive are not taken away from their current player, but are marked as available to be applied for. Other players may therefore apply for an inactive character, though they're usually more hesitant to do so than if the character was marked as fully available. To be considered active again, you must pass the next activity check. Or, to regain active status even faster, you may bribe an admin with 5 RP posts during the current month. If someone begins an application for an inactive character, but the character regains active status before they're finished, the applicant will be informed that the current player wishes to reclaim the character but it's up to the applicant whether or not they withdraw their application. If an application is approved, then the original player will lose the character at that time. In other words, if you want to keep your character, do not become inactive. If an inactive character misses two activity checks in a row, the player will lose the character and it will become fully available. To avoid this, the player has the option of checking in without a post. This does not cause the character to be considered active, but it does stop them from being taken away unless someone applies for them.
Hiatuses - All hiatuses require head admin approval, meaning that you can't simply declare yourself to be on hiatus, nor can you demand one. But if you're in a situation where you can't post for over a month, send the head admin a PM explaining why you need the hiatus and when you expect to begin posting again. Normally hiatuses will be granted as long as your absence is expected to be temporary, especially if you have a proven track record and/or the character you play isn't extremely important - hiatuses involving one of the major empire characters are considered more carefully. When you are on hiatus you will normally still be expected to check in during activity checks, just to show that you've not disappeared, but you won't be expected to post. Anyone on hiatus who fails an activity check when they're expected will be considered inactive, though in that case if they simply show up and state that they're still alive, they'll be put back into hiatus mode.
Last Edit: Dec 26, 2016 21:23:29 GMT -7 by Avalikia
