MryRPG | Rules

About Rules
Here at Mystery we want you, the players, to have the freedom to exercise your creativity to help build our story and therefore we have few rules. This being said, we also want the community to remain friendly and inclusive where everyone feels at home. In order to keep such an environment we have to instill some rules to protect the members. Just remember, these rules are not to hold you back or restrict you but to protect you and those around you.

Strikes
We don't expect people to break the rules, but that doesn't mean it won't happen sometimes. In order to minimize such instances though we will have a simple strike system. For each rule that is broken you will receive one strike. You will be notified of this privately by an admin and it will not be mentioned to anyone else in the group. Strikes are kept track of privately by the admins and we will not tell anyone who has strikes or how many they have. This is a private thing and the last thing we want to do is bring someone out in public to be torn apart by their friends.

Temporary Bans
Three strikes will result in a temporary ban from the group, the amount of time determined by the severity of the rules broken and your attitude in the event breaking them. Temporary bans will be no longer than three months. During a temporary ban you may continue to partake in personal rp's, but you may not submit new art to the group, participate in group events, or interact in the group chat.

Permanent Bans
We hate to ever have to permanently ban anyone from the group, but we will not refrain from doing so if someone appears to be threatening the environment of the group. People will only be permanently banned in extreme cases at the discretion of the admins. Permanent bans will not be administered before a temporary ban, as a way to give someone a chance to correct their behavior. If you are facing a permanent ban you will be warned ahead of time so that you have a chance to revive yourself.

Losing Strikes
Please understand that we are not out to get you, we are simply trying to protect you and those around you. We don't want anyone to feel like they are being attacked or discriminated against, nor that they have been pushed into a corner with two strikes. In order to try and avoid this, you can lose strikes. For every six months that you go without gaining strikes one will be taken away. This only applies to those who already have strikes, you cannot have less than zero strikes.

Reporting Violations
The admins are not all-seeing. There may be things going on behind the scenes that we do not notice and this is where you can come in to report it to us so that it can be properly taken care of. This being said though, please do not be a tattle-tale. Nobody likes a tattler, not even us admins. Let us know if you notice a big problem or something that could become big, but don't flood us with small little slip-ups.

General Group Rules

• Be friendly: The goal of Mystery RPG is to be a friendly, welcoming group where everyone feels like they are just as important as the others. We need you to help us do that. Be friendly toward others, welcome new players, reach out to those who seem lonely, and be encouraging.

• Protect our younger audience: Because this is a group for all ages, please use discretion. While we will not forbid swearing, please avoid using offensive words as much as you can. If a picture/story/rp is violent or sexual, please use DA warnings. Extreme graphic violence and explicit sexual content will not be accepted into the group. Please keep such things private between yourself and your rp partner. Those younger should not be exposed to such things and some of us older people don't want to see it either.

• Respect each other: We are all in this together. We are working as a team to create a unique and exciting story. In order to do this we need to get along. We understand that there will be certain people that you don't really like or who don't like you, that's just normal human nature. However, we encourage you to keep any drama, arguing, name-calling, ect out of the group. Because it is so important to us that this group remains an encouraging, friendly environment we will show no mercy when enforcing this rule. If we see any rudeness, name-calling, insulting, or downgrading in any of the group chats, comments, or forums, we will give you a strike.

• Respect the admins: The admins are here to keep the community as drama-free as possible and to make sure that this group keeps going. They work hard every day and do their best to make everyone happy. Please understand though that it is not possible to make everyone perfectly happy and while we will do our best to do so, don't beat us down if we are not able to. We are all human and we all make mistakes. With that though, we are still the admins and therefore, weather we mess up or not, you are to respect us. We won't turn our backs to gentle criticism so long as it is respectful, but if you attack any of the admins you will be given a strike without a second thought.

• Keep group questions within the group: The admins have a life and while we love helping you and answering your questions, that is not what we want to do all day every day. Please keep any questions or inquiries to the group. Do not message an admin personally (through Skype or notes, or anything else) with group questions. If you do, your question will not be answered, but rather you will be given a strike. If you have questions or ideas, send them to the group through notes and we will get to you as quickly as we can.

• Keep private matters private: As much as we want this to be an agreeable, friendly community, we know that there will be disagreements within, it happens. However, the last thing we want is for a disagreement to spread to the public. Negativity like this spreads like a wild-fire and can tear down a group quicker than you can say "oops". To avoid this, please keep disagreements to yourselves. If you don't like something someone has done, try approaching them kindly and attempt resolving it that way. If there is still trouble and it is directly linked to the group, you can note the group and ask the admins for help. However, we are not judges, we aren't going to clean up every argument. Try to solve it yourself and only come to us as a last resort.

• Do not spam/advertise: We would like to keep the chats of Mystery focused on Mystery. While we understand that other things may come up in conversation, we would appreciate you not spamming the chats with outside groups. It is fine to mention another rp group, for example, but it is not alright if you continue to press it on the others of the group and try to get them to join. Also please do not spam chats with useless repetitious things. Quoting a few lyrics is one thing, but flooding the chat with a whole song is another. Just be respectful of the chat.

RP/Forum Rules

• Be literate: This group is an rpg group, this means we focus on the role play. A good rp is torn apart by weak literature, grammar, and spelling. While we understand that everyone makes mistakes, please take time to proof-read your posts before submitting them. Also avoid super short posts. These can discourage other players and drag down the rp. While an occasional short post is sometimes unavoidable, don't make it a habit.

• Don't god-mod: I'm sure you all saw this one coming. God-modding is very annoying to the other players and ruins the fun and freedom of the rp. Mystery RPG is all about creating a unique story where everyone puts in their part, but if you over-play your character you take that opportunity away from the others. Be respectful of other people's characters and always give them a chance to react.

• Don't take it personally: You probably already realized this, but people's characters are not them, and insults made toward your character is not directed at you. If a character dislikes, insults, attacks, or plain ignores your character, do not take it personally. It is a challenge to keep one's oc in character when they are being pressured not to offend another player.

• Don't make your character do your dirty work: On the other side of the previous rule, please don't get your character involved in your personal problems. If you don't like someone, it isn't fair to take it out on them by making your character attack or insult theirs, especially if it doesn't fit your oc's character in the first place. Let's keep personal and character differences apart.

• Be realistic, no Mary Sue/Garry Stu characters: Nobody is perfect, not even your character. Be creative and dig deep when creating them, make them unique, and give them a weakness. Everyone has their flaws and it is your job as a creator to make sure your character is well-balanced with strengths and weaknesses.

• Don't be an attention hog: While we want to promote freedom and creativity in this rp, allowing for everyone to put in their own piece of the story, we also need to make sure we leave room for others as well. We encourage you to keep your character involved and add your own flare to the story, but please don't be over-dramatic. Throwing in a surprise or twist here and there is great, but please don't constantly get your character in trouble/hurt/fights/ect just to draw attention to them. Make room for others to be involved too.