Rules

Rules

1. Stay In Character
While making a post in the actual roleplay forums always keep it in character. It does not matter if you write past tense or present tense; in first or in third person. Always keep your posts in character. If you must ask a question or make a comment, do so at the beginning or end of your post, and make sure the out of character part is clearly marked and separated from your main post. This is usually done with brackets, or announcing OOC:. Examples below.

OOC: This is OOC.
((OOC: This is OOC.))
[This is OOC]

2. Keep It Somewhat Realistic
While Mass Effect is Sci-fi fantasy pretty much, it's still a fairly realistic setting. Stuff like medical-gel and biotics might occlude that a bit, but anyone that plays the games on a higher difficulty than the easy setting will know that Commander Shepard and friends don't take too many bullets to go down -- even with futuristic über super cool shiny space armor. Keep in mind that your character will more than likely have a nervous system and feelings, take account of all of that. Also, unless your character is clinically insane, try and make sure that they have reasons behind their actions. Do NOT Godmod under any circumstances. Eg. If you agreed with someone that your character will get shot in the leg at point blank range, the bullet can not magically ricochet off the skin.

3. Make Posts Worth Posting
Put a little effort into what you post in your plays. At least two paragraphs with five to seven sentences each is usually the bare minimum someone expects. Sometimes it can be a little tough to do, especially in a thread reliant on lots of important back and forth actions between participants. Always remember to at least run spell check on your post, it's the least you can do to keep quality up. Seriously, it isn't that difficult to make your stuff legible.

4. One Place At A Time
Remember that your character can only be in one place at a single moment in time when NORMAL threads are concerned. It might be a good idea to always be sure you know the date of each and every role play your character takes part in. Also, if you list their involved threads on your character page, it would be a good idea to keep them in chronological order. Another good idea is to state the date in the opening post. Either vague with just the year, or even down to the very hour. This rule however, does not apply when the following types of threads come into question:

- Staff approved.
- Forum wides.
- Character development.

To reiterate, make sure your character is in only one normal thread at a time; however, the types of threads listed above do not count in this specific rule. Your character is NOT Chronos Be-everywhere-at-oncenicus. And no. He can't magically clone himself for that purpose either.

Also be sure to make it clear when your thread is over and try to get somebody to archive it as soon as possible. This is to prevent cluttering up the forums.

5. Communicate and Stay Fair
Staying fair is applying rule 2 to your interaction with other characters. If Garyus Stukarrian pops around the corner, shoots your character in the head, then goes home to bang his mate, and does it all in one post you would probably be pretty confused. As a general rule of thumb, never take control or incapacitate/kill somebody's character without their permission. We have a zero tolerance policy on this.

Also be sure to communicate to your roleplay partners. Make sure everyone knows what's going on to avoid any sort of confusion down the line. Whether this is through OOC notes, MSN convos, the shout box, PMs, or otherwise.

Some other things to keep in mind 

 Canon:
Our canon is based without exception on the original Mass Effect. Species, governments, armies, and everything else are more or less how they were in the Games. This is to prevent the retconning of certain things by future writers. The events of the novels, comics, and everything else still happens -- provided they do not conflict terribly with the codex and descriptions found in the games.

The traits of other species
We do not intend for MEU to be an elitist jerkoff's paradise. But we do however, ask that you generally try and stick to as well as respect the racial traits of aliens. Turians believe in military discipline and honor, Krogan are territorial, Hanar are polite, etc. After all, why bother playing an alien in a vast Sci Fi universe if you are going to handle it as a human? However, you may take certain liberties with the appearance of characters if you so desire, as long as these do not end up being an "outrage!". Common sense will get you far. When tiny details are concerned, discuss and decide these with your fellow roleplayers.

 

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Alliance News Network CEO
Systems Alliance Navy - Retired