00. rules of the site.

[flora ☮]

out of character rules.

i feel as though these rules will go fairly quickly. these are, after all, the general rules of any site. i'll begin with the chat box. don't advertise in it. that's not what it's there for. it's extremely annoying and rude. linking your site to someone you were having a conversation without about it is one thing, but straight up advertising is another. spamming is a no-no. posting a lot while no one is online won't make people get online. so, why post a lot of stupid stuff that no one is reading? if you were denied or asked to change something: don't whine about it. no one wants to your world's tiniest violin solo about how upset you are. if you feel like you were treated unfairly, pm me and we can talk it out. if your biography is still pending and you see me online: don't ask me to look at it in the chat box. i see it and i will get to it as soon as i can. that goes the same for asking for a post. reminding someone they owe you a post is different from: post in our thread!

moving on to graphics and formatting. an icon is 100 by 100. i don't want them any bigger / smaller than that. standard signature size is about 500 by 250. try and stick to those dimensions. this may sound a bit bitchy, but if your signature looks like a four year old scribbled something in paint and slapped it on the board, you will be referred to the graphics board. and asked that you request a better looking signature there. when you post, i ask that you refrain from using colors that clash with the skin. yellow, for example, will probably never work on this site. ever. don't use size 0 as a font size. some browsers make it show up huge. keep away from illegible fonts. rockwell at size 1 isn't very appealing. and i for one wouldn't consider replying to your thread. because i can't read it. please use blockquotes. they are a roleplayer's best friend. they make things look a little neater. and hey! they make your posts look longer, too. which is always a good thing! one more little tick that i have: break up large walls of text into paragraphs. it's really annoying when i look to join a thread and all i see is text.

if you can't already tell, we do have some guidelines to read over on registering and creating an application. when you decide to join us, make your display named your character's first and last name in lowercase letters. we are indeed one character per account. if you make some cookie-cutter character who wants to be the best pokemon trainer ever seen who is never anything but happy, i will personally put a nice big unaccepted graphic in your biography thread. also, make sure you have a strong grasp of your character's motivations. sure, you may know how the character's act, but.. why? make sure you have a plausible answer for that. we fully encourage members to have all that characters they think they can handle, but we'd also hate to see a bunch of accepted characters inactive, so we have one rule regarding creating a new character. before your face claim is put on reserve and another character will be considered, all of your current characters must be at 20 posts. otherwise your claim will be deleted. players must post at least a few times per month per character to remain active unless they have told us they will be away or they risk the chance of getting deleted.

and, last but not least, showing respect. most of you are probably wondering why this is gonna have a paragraph of its own. and it's because there are plenty of instances you need to respect folks on this site. obviously, show the staff members some. i might have denied your application, but that doesn't mean you have the right to tell me off. it is my site. and i believe i know what's best for it. the members come next. as the site grows larger, people will come and go. but some of the members will stick around for a long time. and they will know a great deal more than your about us. so, take their advice about applications and the like. the next two points are two of the most popular ones on proboards, i believe. which you why you should know of them. powerplaying and godmodding. members will most certainly lose their respect for you if you kill off their characters without permission or win every fight you ask them to join you in. joining as so-and-so's long lose twin brother and expecting the member to totally go along with it is not okay. ask before creating a family member or things of that nature.

[flora ☮]

in character rules.

well, i'm glad you made it through the general stuff. now onto the in-character rules. first and foremost: posting length. ahh yes. most sites these days have word count minimums, but not this one. all we ask is that you post three well-written paragraphs. i feel as though i should classify a well-written paragraph as opposed to a poorly-written one.

"chantel had little time to stop and chat. she and penelope were on their way to the courtyard. to hide behind a few select maple trees and practice. the blonde-haired beauty didn’t really enjoy socializing with others. it made her lose focus of the real dream: being a coordinating genius. the third year wanted to make it big; penelope had the same drive, though the bird liked to show it though the bird liked to show her zest through fighting and being as ass. chantel had little tolerance for her pokemon’s shenanigans, but didn’t do too much to attempt to stop her. it was blatant ignoring that showed her agitation. the bird had no such attitude today, however. penelope was perched happily on her shoulder and had her feathers puffed out to catch the wind. she gripped chantel’s shoulder hard before taking off and soaring through the breeze. the taillow gave a cry of delight and turned to spy her companion glowering at her and rubbing the spot penelope had just taken off from."

the qupted paragraph above is considered well-written because of its description. take note of how the emotions were discussed on. that and a tidbit of scenery and setting. although the post does get more in depth later on. the word count for that one paragraph is 163 words. for those of you who prefer to have a word count, i'd say reach for 150 per paragraph. that's 450-ish words per post. now, onto a bad example of a paragraph. in my opinion, anyway.

"chantel didn't want to talk to anyone. she and penelope were going to the courtyard to practice. the blonde didn't like talking to people. she liked to focus. penelope did, too. she likes to fight and be an ass about it though. chantel ignored her most of the time. penelope sat on her shoulder and gripped hard before taking off. the taillow cried happily, and turned to look at chantel. she looked angry and she was rubbing her shoulder."

a paragraph is technically 5 sentences. so this, being at 9, is a paragraph. the same one as above, but condensed. see how the wording is choppy and non-descriptive? those are the kinds of things that allow your fellow roleplayers to understand how your character acts and what his/her thought process is. it lets us grasp your character along with you. which also lets us form plots with your character because personality is described in-character.

take heed of mature topics in threads. there will potentially offensive language, situations, and subject matter touched on in some threads. it's a safe assumption that most threads will be rated 'pg-13' or below. you don't have to mark them for such a rating, but if you aren't completely sure whether or not it's too offensive, ask an admin or a fellow member for their opinion. generally; however, you can tell by using common sense, we will allow trauma situations to happen. that does not mean that every character will have some tragic scenario. but something like rape may be rolepalyed out as long as it is done maturely and uses the fade-to-black approach.

another touchy subject is in-character knowledge. just because you know about a character's personal life our of character does not mean your character knows it. if you know __'s character is dying, pregnant, or what have you; your character won't have a clue until it is revealed to them in game. whether your character knows in advance or note is a different story and should be discussed beforehand with everyone who is involved in the plot.

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[flora ☮]

pokemon rules.

your character cannot begin school without a pokemon, but it can't bring one from home, so you will need to receive a starter. your pokemon starter is not allowed to be chosen by yourself. posting in this thread will allow me to randomize a pokemon for you. while you don't get to choose between different pokemon, you will be allowed to offer up three types you would prefer your character to have. the first pokemon we see with any of the desired types will automatically be give to you. unless it is under the unallowable starters list which can be viewed here. this means that there is no such thing as an orientation or anything in order to get your starter. all starters are level five with a basic moveset and ability. there will be plenty of chances to obtain more pokemon, so don't freak.

because all the starters are weak, you're going to need to be aware of just how the battling system works. to be fair, every participant in the battle will gain one level. that level will still be awarded even if you lose. if you come out the winner, you will be given an additional level. i take a real interest in reading battle threads, so if one happens to catch my eye and is written exceptionally well, then you may gain the same amount of levels as the winner; even if your character might have lost. if you are battling someone, it is common courtesy to included the pokemon's moveset, type, ability and level. not that if you being the thread with a level 5, but your pokemon gains another level and another move in another thread; you can't change from the original stats. it remains at level 5 in the battle threads, but is free to be a level 6 elsewhere. when writing out your battles, use a little common sense. don't dodge all moves that come your way and don't make it seem like your pokemon is totally okay when something hits. countering attacks is something that is in your best judgement. trying to counter psychic with swift won't get you very far. have your pokemon be hit with status-affecting blows. get weak and be aware of the type advantages and disadvantages. if your pikachu is slammed in the face with rock throw, don't act like it wouldn't be badly, badly affected.

once you've gained enough levels, you will want to start evolving your pokemon. there are many different ways to evolve your pokemon, but that most common would be by leveling us. which can be done by battling. if you wish, you may evolve your pokemon in a thread. or you may chose to just update your pc with the evolved form. happiness and beauty evolutions must be done in a slightly modified fashion. in order to evolve the babies like pichu or igglybuff, you must gain their trust. which is why you need 20 posts where that pokemon is referred to. a beauty evolution can only be done by the pokemon wearing the beauty scarf. this item will be randomized in occasionally. you'll need to be checking the store often and make sure you're loaded with cash. it won't come cheap. trading evolutions will need to be done in-character. but i don't feel like i need to explain it to you what should happen there.it's common sense. i suppose hatching pokemon is the same as evolving them, so in order for an egg to hatch, you'll need 10 posts where the egg is mentioned in-character.

now, to the part most of you have been waiting for. you have one pokemon. and you want more. so, you go about it by adding more pokemon to your team by catching pokemon in the wild. the only people able to control and roleplay as a wild pokemon will be mods and i. we will randomize the pokemon. don't complain if it isn't the type you're looking for. you may choose to shoo it away or battle it, but don't complain if it isn't the type you're looking for. you may choose to shoo it away or battle it, but don't expect us to take requests for a type you're wanting for the next pokemon generated. don't pm mods bitching about how you're waiting on their replies. they may have more priority over yours at the current moment. now, actually catching a pokemon in the wild is different approach you and act sweet, while others will have the pokemon be territorial and attack your partner pokemon.

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