Characters

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. Players have the privilege to vet the players of characters directly and closely tied to their own. Primarily this takes the form of romantic and family ties, but may be extended to other close relations at staff discretion.
6. Characters must, where relevant and applicable, have the @name their player wishes the character to be known by most of the time. If for example you play a superhero, and want people to generally know you by your superhero moniker, your @name should be that moniker instead of their concealed identity. If a player finds themselves correcting people (I go by Y, not X!) regularly, it is the responsibility of that player to have their @name changed.
7. 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 Sufficiently out-of-date characters may be unapproved and require re-approval to re-enter play.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.
8. Gestalts Character Bits: In situations where a character concept is about multiple tightly interlinked individuals who would be difficult or impossible to play as individual character bits, or else cannot plausibly be arranged into a single central figure and multiple interchangeable sub-characters, it is possible to apply for the pair or team under a single name, referred to as a Gestalt character. Because a Gestalt character is splitting the efficacy of "one whole PC" between its constituent members, and must still meet our minimum requirements in any configuration of them, there are a couple of small special considerations for them. See pertinent notes in Advantages and Disadvantages.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. Aging: In themelists where the age bracket of a cast is integral to its genre and sufficient aging of said cast would result in a major shift in tone, we typically permit players of those characters to fudge the relation between real time passed and their character's age and to generally mumble into the back of their hand when their exact age comes up, so that they are not beholden to a strict countdown of playability. It should be noted that this isn't some mechanic of the Multiverse, but a courtesy we extend on a case by case basis, and may be altered when a character has been played for a sufficiently lengthy period of time.
16. 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.
17. 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.

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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 necessarily the precise details.

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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.