Draft Policies

This page is for policies that are likely to be formally added, but content is still being workshopped by staff.

Assume Good Faith, aka Hanlon's Razor

The principles of Wikipedia's Assume Good Faith policy are equally valid here.

Hanlon's Razor says "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity". Going further, never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by them (or you!) simply not knowing all the details of the current situation.

Dead Horse

Occasionally, a specific topic of RP may cause so many headaches that staff may dictate how it gets resolved and insist that it not be pursued further.

This is a drastic measure and not to be used lightly. Examples of what will justify it:

• Severe OOC rudeness.
• Attempting to barrel at high speed toward violation of another policy.

Actual past example, of the 'super rude' variety: Player #1, feeling ICly scorned by #2 and #3, wanted to abduct them for a scene, show #2 video of #3 being killed, then reveal that the video was faked and vent about their feelings before letting them go. Had they OOCly explained up front (at least to staff) and been polite, it probably would have proceeded as desired. Instead, they yelled at players and staff alike that they needed to log into the game and do his thing Right Now. Staff intervened, declared that the relevant events had already ICly occurred as desired, and ordered everyone to drop the subject thereafter.

Edgelord

We don't want edgelords here. They are a net negative to the game, and should leave immediately and stay gone until/unless they stop it.

Creating PCs who are ICly racist/sexist/whatever can set up the following perceptions:

• You yourself are OOCly racist(/etc.) and get off on being ICly the same.
• Staff condones all of this.
• Any claims/reassurances to the contrary are blatant lies.

Please do not put yourself or staff in this situation lightly.

Some of these things are more expected of certain splats (e.g. sexism from Black Spiral Dancers), and you should bear that in mind before apping a target who belongs to that splat. Fade to Black, Avoidance, and other relevant policies are still a thing.

Entrapment, aka Casus Belli

Sometimes, Alice decides:

• Bob is a person of interest, but we're not sure what level he's on.
• Let's do X, and if and only if Bob responds by doing Y, then we intend to escalate (and possibly risk-escalate) to Z.

Provided that Alice has reasonable IC motives and legit IC info, this is okay. However, the following is almost certainly not okay:

• Alice and/or one of her buddies tries to set things up so that Bob thinks that not doing Y will screw him over.

This is not measured threat response, this is just bullying. Bob, upon realizing his situation, may just OOCly quit without Alice and company needing to go any further.

Z may include not only obvious direct measures like 'kill Bob' or 'lock Bob up', but also indirect measures like 'blackmail Bob into leaking more IC info'.

Jumping the Gun

If you +request something and staff hasn't done it yet, then don't RP as if it was done, even if you're absolutely sure that it will be approved.

• You may turn out to be wrong.
• Another player or staff unaware of the +request may notice and perceive wrongdoing.

Example: You want to join a faction and then RP with an existing member at one of their hideouts. You can still RP with them, just somewhere else.

If staff has done part of it but not all, then it's okay to RP the part that's done, unless staff advises otherwise.

Let's You And Him Fight

Trying to incite PVP between other PCs / groups of PCs, while you remain safely on the sidelines, may be clever RP or an OOC dick move. Please discuss with staff before going down this road. Staff should update this policy with examples / general principles.

Multi-faction

Each PC can only have one Faction on +sheet. This is intentional and will not change.

Many PCs effectively participate in more than one faction, e.g. a Tradition mage who's also Garou kinfolk.

• This is okay, but one still needs to be selected as primary.
  • You may base your choice on which one you RP with more often, and/or which one you would more likely choose if they came into conflict.
• You can be OOCly granted access to the hideouts/bboards/channels of your secondary faction.
  • If it has PC leaders, one of them needs to vouch that you're ICly in good standing with them. (If this appears to have been skipped, it probably just happened quickly enough not to incur an obvious delay.)
  • This does not affect +census or +roster.

See also: +rules multiclass (and vice versa)

NPC Substitution (generalized)

In general, NPC substitution means that actions RPed by a player based on their own PC's stats/items/knowledge/whatever were ICly performed by a NPC who happened to have the same stats/etc., instead of (or in addition to) that PC.

• This allows those actions to remain IC, but disconnects them from the specific PC.
• This requires mutual agreement or staff approval. Don't do dumb things and then try to weasel out of ICA=ICC this way.

The original use case for NPC substitution was this specific recurring pattern of OOC mistakes:

• Alice ICly does something that Bob wouldn't like.
• Bob ICly finds some evidence and starts investigating.
• It turns out that Bob's evidence was invalid, but it wasn't his fault, e.g.
  • Alice had ICly concealed that evidence, but the documentation of her doing so was overlooked.
  • Bob was operating on hearsay from Charlie, who got his OOC/IC info mixed up.

In such cases, staff will generally approve a retcon that applies NPC substitution to Alice: she still did the thing, but some NPC also did a similar thing, and all of Bob's stuff is switched to this NPC.

PVP

Player Versus Player conflict is not the primary focus of the game, but does form a significant part.

• OOC communication is your friend. Many players worry about getting PKed when the other guy is just going for a whew-that-was-close moment.
• Be familiar with risk policy before initiating PVP, or in preparation for possibly getting pulled into it someday.

Race War

For what should be obvious logistical reasons, staff strives to avoid/prevent situations where one entire race/faction is actively trying to find and kill all the PCs in another race/faction. Even if they're ICly misinformed and risk escalation is not granted, it would be a big complex mess. ICly, too, PC and NPC leaders alike are generally slow to agree that anything that would touch off such a war is worth the results.

ICA=ICC still applies, in a sense: whichever PC(s) committed the inciting ICA, the ICC should ideally hit the same PC(s), while having minimal effect of others in their splat who did nothing to sanction it.

Slap Fight

The following type of thing is considered acceptable:

• Alice and Bob (Gaian Garou) would enjoy the challenge of a fight with Charlie and David (Black Spiral Dancers).
• However, Alice and Bob don't particularly care which BSDs they're fighting, just the greater variety of powers/items/tactics (rather than a ST having to create and direct NPCs). They have no vested OOC interest in ending Charlie or David's RP, may not even ICly know that they're BSDs, and don't want it to affect future social RP with them.
• Charlie and David feel the same way in the other direction.
• The four of them agree in advance to apply NPC substitution: For the purpose of Alice and Bob's RP, Charlie and David represent Wyrm NPCs who just happen to have Charlie and David's stats/etc., and any followup investigation will lead to more NPCs (not to Charlie or David or their PC buddies). Similarly, for the purpose of Charlie and David's RP, Alice and Bob represent Gaian NPCs.

Miscellaneous

• General: In a situation requiring staff involvement, don't continue to add complications faster than staff can keep up.
  • It may not be obvious to a player that they're doing so. Staff should tell them explicitly.
  • If the player keeps doing it anyway, staff will likely apply +policy dead horse.
  • Race wars would compound this problem, another reason why staff strives to avoid them.
• General: Repeatedly making unconfirmed and self-serving claims about what another person feels.
  • Even if you turn out to be right sometimes, this makes you look bad. Put the microphone down and let the other person speak for themselves. "Oh, they're super shy" is not an excuse.
• General: Making mountains out of molehills is drama. We don't want this.
  • Violating '+policy village idiot' is a specific and common form.
  • Pushing for a course of action that would potentially lead to a race war.
• Vampire: Risk implications of feeding.
  • On a PC, without their IC permission: Yes, it's a form of assault. That doesn't mean everyone else wants to commit to a potential messy war of attrition over it. It's okay to avoid the location where it happened, and ICly tell the vampire to knock it off (if you ICly know who it was and how to reach them), but don't expect to get risk escalation above 1.
  • In another PC's domain, without their IC permission: If they ICly learn about it, this is reasonable grounds for ICA=ICC.
• Shifter: Examples of what will reasonably draw a punishment rite, including risk escalation if needed.
  • Renown crew will hopefully come up with a few good examples / general principles.