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Rules
1. Be Excellent To Each Other
Please be kind to your fellow players. Be considerate of others and respect their boundaries. Always remember that there is a person with feelings on the other side of your screen. RP can be an emotionally charged hobby, but keep in mind this is a game of Internet Barbies and not worth causing real-life stress or upset over.
Do not harass or bully other players in any way. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and any other forms of bigotry are not welcome here and will not be tolerated.
We operate on a “two strikes” system. Repeated warnings or serious infractions will earn you a strike. Two strikes and you’re out. Egregiously bad behavior may warrant immediate removal from the game.
The “Wanky'' Clause: The mods cannot control nor take responsibility for anything posted outside of official game channels (on Plurk, private Discords, anoncomms, etc.) However, if you are identified using these channels to create an unpleasant environment for other players, we reserve the right to remove you from the game. Cool? Cool.
2. Communicate!
This is a collaborative hobby, we are all adults, and we expect you to communicate with one another like adults. Please be honest and open regarding your ideas, expectations, and wants. Be clear with your boundaries and respect other players’ as well. We recommend keeping a permissions post on your journal for general reference. Need a code to use? Here’s one. Here’s a kinklist. And here’s yet another kinklist.
Try to work out player conflicts in good faith. Many common RP snafus can be solved with a bit of friendly conversation, and we highly encourage players to try talking things out first.
If talking out a problem hasn’t worked, or if there are other circumstances or concerns that need to be addressed by the mods, please reach out via mod contact. We appreciate screenshots or other evidence to help with mediation/disciplinary action.
3. ICA = ICC
In-character actions = in-character consequences. Expect characters to be held accountable for their actions, both interpersonally and in the setting at large. If your character is rude and treats others badly, do not be surprised when other characters react accordingly. Vice, criminal activity, and general naughtiness are encouraged in Requiem, but if your character causes widespread mayhem and chaos be ready for them to face appropriate consequences.
On a similar note, please respect the clear line between IC and OOC. Be mindful of “character bleed.” Do not let your personal opinions inappropriately steer the IC behavior of your character. Do not use your character to act out against people you disagree with OOCly. Inversely, do not take the IC behavior of other characters as a personal slight against you, the player.
4. No god/info/powermodding
Godmodding is the act of controlling the actions, reactions, or thoughts of another character without permission. Do not assume narrative control of another character either in tags or “handwaving” without asking the player if it’s okay.
Infomodding is the act of giving your character knowledge that they have no way of knowing– about other characters, other canons, the setting, etc. Be reasonable about what information your character would realistically know. Given the prominence of mysteries in the game, be mindful about what information your character has vs. what information you’ve gathered OOCly (you can handwave characters having shared information, but make sure you talk to other players so everyone is on the same page!)
Powermodding/powergaming is when a character is played as unrealistically overpowered– never getting hit in a fight, strong powers that cannot be countered, impossibly intelligent and always correct, etc. This also refers to twisting your character’s abilities on the fly or making up new powers to “win” every situation. Please be willing to compromise with other players. This is a collaborative hobby, and playing off of characters who are eternally invulnerable and can never be wrong in any way is the opposite of fun.
Each of these behaviors is deeply annoying, and will net you a warning to stop. Repeated infractions may lead to a strike.
The current code phrase to include on your application is "I used to ride at the speed of the nite time"
5. Content Guidelines
Neon Requiem is a mature-themed game that takes place in a seedy city of vice, violence, monsters and ghosts. Plots, both mod and player-created, will feature topics such as graphic violence, drugs, and sexual content. As a player, you are expected to clearly mark content warnings on all applicable threads.
Content warnings MUST be provided for the following topics: abuse, graphic violence, self-harm/suicide, NSFW/sexual content. It’s also appreciated to warn for common phobias such as spiders and needles, discussion of mental health, drug use, and other sensitive subjects. We recommend a “just in case” approach on content warnings, as it’s better to warn for too much than too little. When in doubt, warn about!
You will never be required to engage with subject matter that makes you uncomfortable, and any gamewide plots with sensitive content will be opt-in only. However, we expect you to curate your own experience when it comes to other people’s threads. We operate on a “live and let live” principle here. Do not police what other people are playing in threads that do not involve you. As long as the content is warned for, people are free to play whatever they agree to play.
There are only two hard and fast restrictions on content here:- Sexual assault/rape/“noncon” plotlines are not permitted in-game. Out of respect for player safety and comfort, do not create plots that involve sexual assault between characters or NPCs. Please be sensitive and provide content warnings if this subject comes up as part of your character’s backstory.
If you choose to play out any sort of dubcon scenarios, make sure all players are on the same page and in full agreement, and do not retcon the absence of consent after the fact.
(Seriously, we’re not kidding, we have watched plots like this single-handedly destroy entire games. We don’t want them here. Please do not bring them here.)- All explicit underage (16-17) sexual content must be kept off-comm. If your log contains explicit sexual content and any characters involved are under 18, please keep that log somewhere other than the game comms. You may choose to create a post elsewhere and link it, or choose to keep it entirely private.
To clarify this rule, the mods do not care whatsoever if your anime teenagers get into adult situations, but given the controversial nature of this subject we’d prefer a “double opt-in” where it is both clearly warned for and must be deliberately located.
If underaged characters are merely discussing or referring to sexual content, that’s okay on the game comms, but please warn accordingly.
The mods reserve the right to disallow content that is extremely offensive or in bad taste. This would be along the lines of content that is bigoted or otherwise deeply inappropriate for the game setting/tone. We genuinely do not care what naughty things your characters get up to, but include this rule in case somebody decides to push it.
6. Setting/Plotting Guidelines
This game is designed to be a malleable “jamjar” with regularly scheduled plots. Players use the setting to come up with jobs, conflicts, and drama for their characters. We welcome your ideas for locations, businesses, monsters, NPCs, paranormal phenomena, and other worldbuilding. If you have an idea for an event or would like to run a plot for other players, we’d love to help make it happen! The Plotting Page is your best friend, and ours.
That said, some things are going to need mod approval. Plots that have widespread consequences for large portions of the setting, player characters and/or NPCs need to be run by us first. Plots that involve major named NPCs will need mod approval, as well as anything that involves City Hall. While the economy of Requiem and your characters’ jobs/money are largely left up to player discretion, we’d like to weigh in before you give your character a highly prestigious job or any sort of perk that does not come from an AC reward.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of examples:
Please Ask the Mods Before:
- Giving your character a prestigious, influential, or extremely privileged job (executive-level, head of an extensive citywide crime network, etc)
- Working for City Hall in any capacity
- Interactions with major named NPCs
- Causing a widespread disaster that would impact other players/large portions of the setting
- Killing any NPCs
- Plots that attempt to bend setting mechanics (taming a monster, leaving the boundaries of the map, experimenting magically with Shadows, etc - these are not forbidden but we’d like to know what you’re doing so we can give you some results)
The following are examples of things you don’t need to ask the mods about. Go for it. Be creative!
You Can Just Do This, No Problem:
- Changing the form of your character’s Shadow
- Giving your character a low or mid-level job
- Purchasing basic items (clothes, food, anything you could walk into a real world store and buy)
- Adopting an ordinary or common “native” pet (dog, cat, hamster, goldfish, ferret, etc)
- Choosing where/with whom your character lives in communal housing
- Making up an NPC to be your character’s boss, customer, friend, etc
- Making up a business to work at or patronize (a restaurant to eat at, a clothing store that sells a particular style, a nightclub that caters to a specific kink, etc)
- Fighting low-level criminal mooks from one of the gangs
- Committing theft/swindles/robberies against basic NPCs
- Getting attacked by a standard monster
When in doubt, please ask! The plotting page is the place to submit your ideas for consideration, either to add to the game at large or for permission for your personal plots.
In general, the mods try to have a “yes and” approach to player ideas. Even if we cannot approve your initial pitch, we’ll work with you on a compromise. If we really like your pitch, we may ask to implement it into a gamewide event!
7. The General Good Vibes Mod Oversight Clause
The mods reserve the right to act in the interest of curating a fun and welcoming game.
As this is a private, invite-only game, the mods have final say in the environment we want to create. We want this to be a fun, inclusive space and sometimes that means navigating situations we can't anticipate. This might mean new rules down the line. This might mean removing players who are harshing the vibe outside the scope of the rules. This might mean not accepting someone into this game at all. We reserve the right to make decisions for our game, and may choose not to justify or explain specifics out of respect for player privacy.
That said, we will always welcome and appreciate your feedback, suggestions, and concerns, and we’ll take input from our players as much as possible. We will be as transparent as we can, and we will do our best to resolve problems fairly. Mods are human too, and we may inevitably make mistakes. We appreciate your patience and grace as we work together to build our little slice of Limbo. In general, be cool and we promise to do the same.