Difference between revisions of "Characters"

Revision as of 21:31, 5 October 2018

Characters are the "Roles" in "Role Play". This news file covers Multiverse Crisis MUSH's character policies, including alts, alt interaction, idle policy, etc.

1. Players may have up to 6 characters.
2. Players may have secret alts, but this is a privilege that may be revoked. Staff will ALWAYS know who you are, and facheads are often told. Special circumstances may see other people informed.
3. Limited alt interaction is allowed, but discouraged. It shouldn't give either alt an undue or unfair advantage, or deprive other players of RP. Don't self-RP or use alts for self-promotion.
4. Players may not (usually) play two closely-related characters, like Dr. Wily and Megaman or Dumbledore and Voldemort.
5. Idle Policy: Character idleness is determined by a combination of recent logins, and logged scenes. Any character that hasn't been logged on for 180 days may be considered for purging, with a certain amount of discretionary slack. Sufficiently out-of-date characters may be unapproved and require re-approval to re-enter play. FCs may be subjected to a greater amount of scrutiny in terms of activity if their inactivity is put at issue, but will by-default not be treated differently from OCs.
6. The Fetish Rule: If it appears that you want to (or do) play a character for reasons of sexual interest, you may be denied that character or have approval for an existing character withdrawn. Individual character traits may also be denied for the same reason.
7. The Heel-Cool Rule: Pursuant to a desire for people to apply for characters that they have a more-than-impulsive interest in, "Flash Fads" surrounding specific characters or source materials may result in a month-long cooldown period for applications from that source material. A prominent example of what would trigger this is the "Bowsette" Flash Fad of September 2018, or fandom explosion of Undertale.
8. Character Sexuality: A canon character's core sexuality may not be altered, and where canon sexuality is undefined, characters are assumed to adhere to biological norms established by their source material. Ambiguous cases may be discussed with staff.
9. Rule 63: Canon characters may not have their genders altered, and in certain circumstances (jokes, one-offs, etc.) we may not allow it even if it occurred in canon.
10. Really 700 Years Old: All characters on MCM are expected to be mentally and physically young adults, especially if they're going to be romantically involved. 700 year old ten year olds aren't acceptable.
11. Pregnancy in RP: We're not the place for this. If you insist on an arc like this, inquire to staff and be prepared to defend the necessity of it. We will probably say no.
12. Aging: On a themelist-by-themelist basis, players have the option to elect for the people in their theme list not to age, or to age at a dramatically reduced rate. This is to allow settings to retain their tone where characters might otherwise grow up and experience a genre shift, like Cardcaptor Sakura or Nanoha. This option applies to ALL characters in a themelist though, and is not available in settings where mortality and death are major themes, such as Harry Potter. While this is a phenomenon that is known to occur in the Multiverse, it shouldn't be examined too closely or discussed at length.
13. Character Death: Permanent damage or death to a character is consent-based. Unless you do something outrageously stupid, your character won't die without your say-so. In the case of FCs and OFCs you will be expected to have discussed the matter with Admin and your cast mates in advance, and it may not always be acceptable for a character to be permanently removed from play in a given theme listing. With OCs it is entirely up to the player, but Staff does want players to discuss it with them to make sure they know what they're getting into. Lastly, unless a death is set up with resurrection in mind, character death is permanent.
14. Running Gags: Sometimes characters have recurring jokes attached to them, like Edward Elric being short, Roy Mustang's obsession with miniskirts, GLaDOS's association with cake, etc. While it can be amusing to play with these gags, it can become incredibly obnoxious for the player(s) involved and some people have had their running gags driven into the ground so hard they've quit. In summary: If somebody asks you, individually or as a group, to stop it with the memes/running gags as pertains to them, DO IT, and don't make them ask you to stop again.

Character Consent

Multiverse Crisis MUSH is a consent-based roleplaying environment. Under ordinary circumstances, this means that any lasting changes or damage to your character require your permission. In this way, you're protected from somebody making hard declarations about what happens to your character without your input, whether it be mere physical violence, or something as in-depth as taking control of your character's mind. There are a few caveats to this, however:

1. Staff has discretion in revoking your right to consent.
2. In Character Actions = In Character Consequences. If you get into a fight, you're implicitly giving consent to get hurt and can't invoke consent to avoid losing. Extreme actions can result in more extreme losses of consent.
3. Disadvantages being approved are not a "Get-Out-Of-Jail" free card, IC or OOC. It's a Disadvantage for a reason, and can be acted upon by people around you. As above, ICA=ICC.
4. Plots may require participants to waive their right to consent. Your right to a consensual death may not be waived in this way, and the details must be approved with staff in a relevant TP Application. Players must also be made aware of the general risks beforehand, but not the precise details.

Implied Consent

"Implied Consent" is an added clause to many powers - in fact, all powers that are 'outwardly focused', such as 'Sorcerous Sight', Mind-Reading, transforming other characters, etc - that was in the past handled with tags such as "Consent Applies". The large problem with that is that its omission sent the wrong message: that powers that lacked the Consent Applies tag did not have consent applied! This is not the case. MCM is a consent-based game, and in general the massive umbrella of powers that consent does always apply to. Furthermore, it is an issue in approving applications where certain powers generally needed the tag, but others only sometimes did, and it was not consistently applied.

In general, consent applies whenever you affect another character, be it a punch, or your magic power to see their favorite color, or mental domination - this is the core of "Implied Consent".

Patch Notes

10/1/18: Alt slots are now limited to 6 instead of 7-8. No further exceptions. 10/3/18: Folded Consent into this file.