passingmod | Rules and Setting (Reply)

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RULES & SETTING ↓
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OVERVIEW

Passing is a game run on mutual respect and collaborative playing, and it's expected that everyone treat each other in that spirit. In short, be considerate and respectful, and keep open and clear communication. The mods want to operate in this way as well: if you have any input or suggestions on the way things are run, please let us know. No comment is too small or too big. There are not a lot of hard and fast rules here, because we like to keep things open and flexible.

The mods are here to help you. Come talk to us for any reason whatsoever, including player conflicts-- we will not share what you say with anyone else without your express permission.

In light of this approach, please do not delete comments under any circumstances. Whether they're apps, in character comments, out of character comments, anything-- if you don't want it visible anymore, ask a mod and we will screen it. We will always screen something when requested. The exception to this is if you're deleting to edit because you don't have a paid account, but really, no one likes having comments disappear on them. It's not cool.

CHARACTERS

Every character is allowed here. Every. Original characters, alternate universes, genderswaps, those with little canon material, historical or mythological characters, they're all allowed. The only characters that cannot be applied for are living people as themselves. Stephen Colbert the stage presence would be fine, Stephen Colbert in his personal life would not be. If someone feels this rule is unfair, feel free to challenge me on it, and I'll see if we can come to a resolution.

Bringing in development and CR from other games is allowed as well. Sometimes characters change significantly due to their time spent in games, so if you have any question about whether they'd still count as canon or AU, please use the potential applications page. We'll help you figure it out. Keep in mind that playing a character with imported CR does not mean that the characters they knew, as represented in Passing, have any obligation whatsoever to recognize or know them - in fact, unless they're from the same version as yours, they shouldn't.

You are allowed to have seven characters, and two from each fandom. If you're active and want to go over either of these limits for whatever reason, talk to me individually and I might give you an exception.

In total, we will allow three versions of each character. Once again, it's not impossible to get an exception. In general, though, you can only play one version of each character, to keep it fair and open to other players.

VERSIONS

Characters will be marked with V1 if canon, and AUs will be V2, V3, and so forth as they are apped. This way if someone joins someone else in their AU, the characters from the same world will all be marked with the same number. Each incarnation of a character is referred to as a version, and their particular setting, separate from other versions of that character, is their verse or world.

V1.# means that they are still canon, but a different version from what is usually thought of as canon, and do not count toward the three versions for each character limit. An example would be the vampire versions of Willow and Xander in Buffy - they're canonly AU, so they would be V1.1 so as not to take up the V1 slot.

Duplicates will be allowed only if they are sufficiently different from preexisting versions - for example, not a female version of a male character if that's the only thing about her that's different from canon. AUs should be full and well thought out AUs, not minor tweaks of canon. This is to prevent people from feeling that their character is usurped. If the change to canon is minor, we will take them as V1 and not V2+ despite the slight AU.

DREAMING

Saying that the characters are dreaming is deceptively simple, and raises a lot of questions, but the long and short of it comes down to whatever you as the player would like to do provided it isn't godmoding. (That is, if it's going to involve someone else's character, ask them first.) Otherwise, things can be as dreamlike as you want them to be, or as undreamlike.

Characters can be aware they're dreaming, or buy into it completely; they can remember every past interaction they've ever had, or they can get somewhat fuzzy like in real dreams. They can believe wholeheartedly something they would never believe in real life if that's what you want, though of course this should not be a long term alteration to the character unless it was part of your app. It's only a temporary dream.

The fact that it's a dream also means that characters can manipulate their surroundings to some extent. It's really more accurate to say that the players can: if you want them to be in a library, they can be in a library, and so forth. Everyone's had dreams, and fuzzy dream logic is very welcome here. All this said, some amount of consistency is preferred for hopefully obvious reasons. It makes it difficult to get anywhere long term if crazy things are always happening for no reason and the characters always buy into it. Some variety is encouraged.

Dreaming also means that waking dreams may be possible; that is, dreams where the character can interact with their environment and believe themselves to be awake, but in reality it is still a dream. To them, it may be something similar to hallucinations as they may see people or objects in their room that are not truly present. Characters replying to this type of post may be able to very slightly affect the world they visit, in ways similar to poltergeist activity. However, as their presence there is not physical, they will not be able to do much more than that.

Characters from the same world are also welcome to have "real life" logs, and interact during their day time ordinary lives. The things they've been dreaming might change how their canon progresses, and they might eventually notice that they've been having the same dreams as their friend.

MONTHLY THEMES AND EXPLORATION

Each month will have a theme, and the setting of Passing will change. No one is required to participate in any of these themes, and posts can be made that have nothing to do with them. Suggestions are always being taken for what these themes should be, and the next month will be determined, by and large, by vote.

Some examples might include a fantasy magic setting, musicals, pirates, steampunk, something Tron-esque-- the sky is honestly the limit here. There will be a post each month detailing the setting and outlining some of the things that can be done with it. In a pirates theme, characters might have dreams where they're a member of a crew: players could plot and make up the crew, and the dreaming characters could fight another player-plotted Navy crew. Everything is intended to be very much player run. New themes can be suggested here to be added to the list for voting.

Each month beginning with November 2012 will also bring with it the opportunity to explore a dream world. A post will be made with information about the world, and characters will be free to explore it at will. They can be from fandoms represented in the game, other fandoms, or even completely original. Worlds, like themes, will be voted on from the list of player suggestions.

Other events are of course also possible as well, and will be scheduled if enough interest is expressed. Anything involving ten characters or more needs to be scheduled; otherwise, as long as you have the okay from everyone involved, you can do temporary bodyswaps, randomly falling in love, gender switches, what have you. Small, individual changes don't need to be mod approved.

There may, eventually, be a case in which the characters meet up in real life cross-world... But that's a long ways off.

ACTIVITY

Activity checks will be held bimonthly, starting a month after the game's opening date. These are simple check-ins to demonstrate the player is still interested and active with the relevant characters, thus there is no required amount of activity.

Unless you speak with the mods and get an exception for extenuating circumstances, an ordinary hiatus gives you a free pass on one activity check. This means the longest you can be on hiatus for without speaking to us about what's going on is potentially four months. Only hiatus comments on the designated post, not the OOC comm, will be counted for AC purposes.

Tag every post your character comments on with their name. This deserves the bolding because these tags will be used for activity checks, so you need to keep up with this.

OTHER

No godmoding, absolutely no infomoding, IC ≠ OOC, and no fourthwalling without permission. Simple.

Tag appropriately with the "!real world" tag or "!waking dream" tag so that everyone is aware when posts are only open to worldmates, or slightly mingle dreams and waking.

Any graphic or potentially triggering content should be put behind an lj-cut if in a post, and warnings should be placed liberally. Topics to be warned about include but are not limited to: sex, violence, torture, pregnancy including miscarriage and abortion, any mention of suicide, self-harm, abuse physical or emotional, and so on.

The mods reserve the right to make changes to these rules at any time; if changes are made, it will be announced on the OOC comm. Every player is responsible for being aware of and adhering to the rules.

Rules and Setting

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