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Rules

1. You get to decide on your own story line. However... if you want a story line that involves another character's long terms plans (i.e. their death, marriage, children etc.) you should email them about it first. But for most interactions you are free to let your inspiration take over. OPEN COMMUNICATION IS KEY!

2. Killing characters is allowed under the following stipulations

    A. You can make up characters to be killed to your hearts content

    B. There is no killing of player characters (characters who have owners) with out the expressed consent of that character's owner. (i.e. James wants to kill Jennifer... she has to clear it with the player who writes Jennifer first. And the player has to say YEA!! SURE Kill her!)

3. You may have multiple characters, in fact it is recommended that you do to avoid silences in the game's activity, and avoid feeling left out.

4. If another character approaches one of your characters, it is not acceptable to say "Hey I didn't want William to talk to Natalia!" As long as William has not claimed that he has just killed Natalia off. William is completely with in his rights to involve Natalia in his story line. Exceptions however are obvious if William is in Venice, and Natalia is in Manhattan. (As an example.) you could not do this… just common sense!

HOWEVER! It is unfair, and difficult to follow if you decide someone is suddenly in your scene with out consulting them AND GETTING their okay BEFORE posting. If you want to involve another character in your scene YOU GO TO THEIR CURRENT PLACEMENT IN THE GAME!  If you're unsure where the character is, email the player and ask.

5. Of course no flaming or harassing members of this list. Off topic posts should be limited to the game in some aspect AND should be emailed directly to the owner, who will distribute them to the players as necessary. You can leave us a message that says you will be away for the weekend. Or that you want "Jennifer" to email you, but no "My dog just had puppies" sort of off topic. We do have other lists for that, and email is always a great option for social calls.

6. No use of player knowledge!!! Player knowledge is something that you, your real life person knows, but your character does not. Unless your character has had an opportunity to observe an event firsthand, or has heard about it from another character, they do not know about the event. For instance, if Sophie is having an affair with William, your character does not know about this unless they see them together, or unless they hear it from another character.

7. It is good to have an outline of goals and things you would like your character to accomplish BUT it is IMPERATIVE that everyone tries to be flexible. When interacting with others there is always the risk of surprise. which is what makes this fun, I suggest that if you cannot handle that element you stick to fan fiction.

8. You are allowed to write for your characters. You are NOT allowed to write for other people's. Certain times you may need to write in an opposite character's facial expression, or one liner to keep the conversation going. When in this situation use this rule of thumb.

DON'T do it ...

If it changes what the other character is doing.

If it involves the other character leaving the room or the conversation.

If it defines or changes a character's location.

If it changes the other character's emotional state.

9. Posting Guidelines

If you're busy, on vacation, or just need a break for a few days, post it so everybody knows before they post that they may have to wait for responses from your characters.

If you're going to be gone for longer than this and you have a character in an ongoing story, either ask another player to temp for you or try to get your character out of play. You can write your character out of town on business (or to a spa, or sick in bed, you can see the possibilities), or designate someone to temp the character long enough to write them out of play.

This being said, unless you've posted that you won't be available:

    A. Everybody should try to post at least 3-4 times per week when possible.

    B. Try to respond to posts within 72 hours, even if it's just with something that lets the other parties get out of the scene if they want to. I know that unforeseen things come up, so if someone suddenly disappears from play and has left people hanging for 3 days, upon request of the other player(s) in the scene, a moderator will email them and if they don't hear back will write the characters out of their scenes as gracefully as possible. For instance, have them receive a phone call about Great Aunt Ursula's death and have them rush off to the funeral without finishing whatever conversation they were having.