Basic RP Guidelines (Player Handbook)
Applications: Applications for students and teachers open a few weeks before the start of every semester. This is the only time that new students and teachers can join the game. Applications for townies are always open. You can find further details about applications on the Fandom High Index page.
Communication: Communication is your friend. When in doubt, talk it out. If you have a conflict with another player, please try to work it out between yourselves first. If that fails, then bring the issue to the admins. Please note that if you bring something to the admins and you haven't tried to work it out yourself first, they will instruct you to give it a try before they intervene.
Your Fandom: Don't assume anything with regards to how characters in the game already view your fandom. Be sure to contact the players of other characters from your fandom to check what the precedent is and find out who is from which part of the timeline so you don't accidentally step on each others' toes.
Canon Relationships: Canon relationships don't automatically translate to your character's relationships at Fandom High without the express permission of the other characters involved. Talk to people, plan ahead; that's half the fun!
Approved Journals Only: Only approved character journals are allowed to participate in official Fandom High threads, including those on character journals. If there's an unapproved journal commenting on one of your posts, tell them to stop it and then bring it to the admins. Players of unapproved journals may have their membership revoked (if they're a current player with other characters) or be banned from joining in the future (if not currently a member).
Former Characters Once a character leaves the game completely, they are not permitted to interact with the current characters in game comms or character journals. They can be mentioned in narrative and handwavily visited offscreen, but can't appear "live" without specific permission from the administration to be an approved guest star.
The exception to this would be if that character returned to the home universe/timeline of a current FH character and became their NPC. At that point the former character would be under the control of the player of the current FH character, and may appear off-island under the same rules as any other NPC.
Alumni/Expatriates: those characters who have graduated from the school and left the island count as alumni. Those characters who have spent more than one year (or a full school year for students) in the game and left the island on or after January 2007, count as expatriates.
Both of these character types are still in the game and may interact with current islanders under the rules found here.
Guest Stars: You can have the occasional guest star for your plots. To cut back on the amount of guest stars running around Fandom (as people often get carried away), we do ask that you have a legitimate plot-related reason for that guest star to be in town (ie: their presence is necessary/they're not just there to hang out). Please run your guest stars past the administration so we can moderate the number of characters coming in at any given time.
ICA=ICC: In Character Actions = In Character Consequences. Think before doing something, because you will be expected to deal with the consequences of your character's actions. However, there is such thing as OOC decency. Do not hide behind ICA=ICC as an excuse to be rude to people. If you want to deal with in-game consequences, arrange it OOCly with the other player(s) involved first.
Diversity: Try to branch out from your fandom. This is about mixing up characters from all fandoms, not clinging together.
Time and Timing: Your character can't be in two places at once. (Unless they happen to actually have that superpower...) Pay attention to when posts/threads are set and take care to make sure you're not doubling up.
OOC vs IC: What you know as a player and what your character knows are two totally different things. This includes anything you learned from an unofficial game community. Don't use OOC knowledge IC. Period. When in doubt, talk to the other people involved OOC to clarify what should or shouldn't be known before posting. Also, IC issues remain IC. OOC issues remain OOC. If you let an OOC issue leak into IC interactions, you will be called on it.
Godmodding: Godmodding is indicating that another character carried out an action without permission of that character's player or doing something that will affect another character without the other player's permission. Don't do it. It's bad cricket. Ask before affecting other characters. Mistakes will happen, but if it's a regular habit admin action will be taken, including possible removal from the game. That would be bad.
Retconning: Don't go back and change the past in a way that forces other players to amend their own character's history and memories to deal with your changes. In other words, don't go back and re-write scenes that multiple people have participated in, top-level posts, events that affect more than just the people in that scene, and descriptions of what happened in the past that are known by the game at large.
However, in a private conversation, it's fine to edit or delete a comment, or to delete multiple comments and re-write, as long as everyone in the conversation agrees to it. If you need to fix a mistake/accidental metagame/conversation that's just going in an uncomfortable direction for both players, and what you're changing hasn't been mentioned on the radio or by one of the characters in a later conversation with someone else, go for it.
Magic and Combat: This is pretty much covered under 'godmodding.' If you take a swing or cast a spell at a person, you don't get to control the outcome. That's up to the player of the character you are attacking. It's much easier if you just work out the scene beforehand with the other player/s involved. The scene will flow easier. You cannot detect that someone is under the influence of magic or has used magic unless it's canonical for your character to be aware of such things. However, there are magic-sensitive characters in this game. Don't think you can cast a big spell and not have it noticed. No major magic is to be performed on the island without administrative permission.
Alternative Role-Playing: Playing by email or IMs is allowed. In order for your playing to be considered as game canon, you have to post the finished logs in your own character journal or in the appropriate community in a timely fashion (ie: ASAP). If it doesn't show up in your character journal or in the communities, it didn't happen. Also, you may not include external role-playing sessions with players that have left/been asked to leave/players who aren't part of the game without admin approval. Try to keep external role-playing of events in public places to a minimum because it rules out the possibility of witnesses or possible consequences.
Deleting Journals: If you delete your journal or delete past entries or make them inaccessible, you are out of the game and will be on a permanent ban list. This is a one-strike offense. For real, don't do it. (If this happens due to an emergency/privacy issue/accident, just contact the admins and explain the situation; we'll work with you. Just don't deliberately delete or hide established game history.)
Interfering/Getting Involved With Plots: If you want to participate in someone else's plot, ask OOCly first. New twists to our adventures are often fun, but make sure the person running the plot is okay with it before getting your character involved.
Deaths: No player-character deaths are permitted without prior admin permission. Character death plot proposals will only rarely be accepted as death has a huge effect on the other characters in the game and it's unfair to impose that kind of trauma on everyone on a regular basis, so please take that into consideration. (If you plan to take a character through to their canon death off-island, we're very likely to be fine with that, but you still need to let us know.) We get a lot of character death requests. Don't take it personally if you're told no. When it really does happen, we want death to remain significant. If people die too regularly and then come back to life, it lessens the impact.
Realism: We're wacky enough as it is. Try to keep things a little bit realistic. (ie: if you get hit by a bolt of lightning, play out the consequences!)
Extreme Plotlines: Please get admin approval before running any extreme plotline. This includes anything involving a lot of violence and/or controversial issues such as rape, torture, suicide, kidnapping, etc. This is not to infringe on anyone's creativity, but there may be other issues going on with players that may make the situation inappropriate at that time. You can't be expected to know what's going on with every player in the game, but the admins do have a better idea of it. Please just check in to be on the safe side. Also, please read over the Guidelines on Handling Sensitive Topics post.
Changing Character Type: Townies are allowed to become teachers and vice versa, but students are to remain students (until they've graduated and become alumni, or leave the island and become expatiates) and townies cannot ever become students. More specific information on all of this can be found here!
Everyone is Fictional So No One is Fictional: All characters in Fandom are fictional, so we pretend that no one is fictional. This means that your character will not recognize any of the other characters in the game from TV shows, movies, books, plays, comic books, etc. They just won't. The way we get around this and still manage to keep pop culture references that are so important to some characters is to "meta" everything. We use alternate names for canons and the characters in those canons. For example, Bitterwoman is the Fandom version of Wonder Woman. Vanessa Saturn is the Fandom version of Veronica Mars. Space Battles is the Fandom version of Star Wars. Wormhole X-treme is the Fandom version of Stargate. Each of these shows have 'fake' names for the characters as well. Read more about Meta and the 4th Wall here, and check the FH Meta Wiki to see if a meta name already exists for a reference you want to make - if there is none, go wild and make up your own! (Then add it to the wiki so other people can use it.)
Using Other Peoples' Canon: When your character visits a universe that isn't their own, there are several guidelines to follow. If you're just passing through or brushing past known NPC characters and there are no characters in Fandom from that canon, then it's okay to have a few scenes and move on. If you intend to have more than 2-3 harmless scenes in that canon (ie: more than a brief visit, any kind of plottiness), you will need to write in for admin permission in advance. If you wish to visit or plot within a canon that is not your own but that does have characters in Fandom, you are required to contact every player involved in that canon and get their approval. It's only polite, so please be sure to do the legwork before messing with someone else's canon.
Keeping Traffic Down: If there's already a post for a particular location (eg. the second floor common room or the Perk), start a new thread in that post for your purposes rather than starting a new post. Just label it with where exactly you are and when to keep things clear.
OOC comments in IC threads: Try to keep OOC comments to a minimum in IC threads. If need be, just start a new thread dedicated for OOC comments so those involved can keep track easier.
Slow-Play: Due to the pace and international nature of the game, slow-playing scenes (continuing to play beyond the real-life day in which the scene is set) is allowed. Please try to be courteous about this, and restrict it to threads where everyone involved is good with the slowplay, and nothing is happening that would affect or contradict events in the game at large, which will have already moved on.
Pre-Play: If you know that there will be scheduling problems when trying to finish an important post (plot-related or not), it is acceptable to pre-play the thread. This involves playing with the other people involved either via instant messenger, email, GDocs, a filtered LJ post or some other means, coding the finished product into a table and then posting it in character journals at an appropriate time. There's also a Pre-Play Coder to help automate a lot of the table creation for scenes pre-played in an LJ post!
Not Work Safe and Sensitive Topics: Any content (major swearing, sexual content, graphic violence, drugs) that would not be safe for people to read at work should not be posted in the communities. You're welcome to post such things in your character's journal, but please label the post as "NWS" (not work safe) or with references to sensitive topics inside, so people can carefully avoid it if they want to. Detailed Guidelines on Handling Sensitive Topics
Due to LiveJournal's wavering standards on adult content, we do request that you friends lock posts with NWS content. This isn't a requirement, but it's probably safer so your journal is at less risk shenanigans from Livejournal's abuse team.
Jaaaaaaaazz Haaaaands Handwavery: If you don't have time to play out a scene, it is acceptable in some cases to arrange OOCly with the other people involved to handwave something happening and establish it by having the characters discuss it or mention it in narrative. Please try to keep this to a minimum, but we understand that sometimes things just can't get finished due to timing clashes, or would simply be less than entertaining to play out or read.
Communication: Communication is your friend. When in doubt, talk it out. If you have a conflict with another player, please try to work it out between yourselves first. If that fails, then bring the issue to the admins. Please note that if you bring something to the admins and you haven't tried to work it out yourself first, they will instruct you to give it a try before they intervene.
Your Fandom: Don't assume anything with regards to how characters in the game already view your fandom. Be sure to contact the players of other characters from your fandom to check what the precedent is and find out who is from which part of the timeline so you don't accidentally step on each others' toes.
Canon Relationships: Canon relationships don't automatically translate to your character's relationships at Fandom High without the express permission of the other characters involved. Talk to people, plan ahead; that's half the fun!
Approved Journals Only: Only approved character journals are allowed to participate in official Fandom High threads, including those on character journals. If there's an unapproved journal commenting on one of your posts, tell them to stop it and then bring it to the admins. Players of unapproved journals may have their membership revoked (if they're a current player with other characters) or be banned from joining in the future (if not currently a member).
Former Characters Once a character leaves the game completely, they are not permitted to interact with the current characters in game comms or character journals. They can be mentioned in narrative and handwavily visited offscreen, but can't appear "live" without specific permission from the administration to be an approved guest star.
The exception to this would be if that character returned to the home universe/timeline of a current FH character and became their NPC. At that point the former character would be under the control of the player of the current FH character, and may appear off-island under the same rules as any other NPC.
Alumni/Expatriates: those characters who have graduated from the school and left the island count as alumni. Those characters who have spent more than one year (or a full school year for students) in the game and left the island on or after January 2007, count as expatriates.
Both of these character types are still in the game and may interact with current islanders under the rules found here.
Guest Stars: You can have the occasional guest star for your plots. To cut back on the amount of guest stars running around Fandom (as people often get carried away), we do ask that you have a legitimate plot-related reason for that guest star to be in town (ie: their presence is necessary/they're not just there to hang out). Please run your guest stars past the administration so we can moderate the number of characters coming in at any given time.
ICA=ICC: In Character Actions = In Character Consequences. Think before doing something, because you will be expected to deal with the consequences of your character's actions. However, there is such thing as OOC decency. Do not hide behind ICA=ICC as an excuse to be rude to people. If you want to deal with in-game consequences, arrange it OOCly with the other player(s) involved first.
Diversity: Try to branch out from your fandom. This is about mixing up characters from all fandoms, not clinging together.
Time and Timing: Your character can't be in two places at once. (Unless they happen to actually have that superpower...) Pay attention to when posts/threads are set and take care to make sure you're not doubling up.
OOC vs IC: What you know as a player and what your character knows are two totally different things. This includes anything you learned from an unofficial game community. Don't use OOC knowledge IC. Period. When in doubt, talk to the other people involved OOC to clarify what should or shouldn't be known before posting. Also, IC issues remain IC. OOC issues remain OOC. If you let an OOC issue leak into IC interactions, you will be called on it.
Godmodding: Godmodding is indicating that another character carried out an action without permission of that character's player or doing something that will affect another character without the other player's permission. Don't do it. It's bad cricket. Ask before affecting other characters. Mistakes will happen, but if it's a regular habit admin action will be taken, including possible removal from the game. That would be bad.
Retconning: Don't go back and change the past in a way that forces other players to amend their own character's history and memories to deal with your changes. In other words, don't go back and re-write scenes that multiple people have participated in, top-level posts, events that affect more than just the people in that scene, and descriptions of what happened in the past that are known by the game at large.
However, in a private conversation, it's fine to edit or delete a comment, or to delete multiple comments and re-write, as long as everyone in the conversation agrees to it. If you need to fix a mistake/accidental metagame/conversation that's just going in an uncomfortable direction for both players, and what you're changing hasn't been mentioned on the radio or by one of the characters in a later conversation with someone else, go for it.
Magic and Combat: This is pretty much covered under 'godmodding.' If you take a swing or cast a spell at a person, you don't get to control the outcome. That's up to the player of the character you are attacking. It's much easier if you just work out the scene beforehand with the other player/s involved. The scene will flow easier. You cannot detect that someone is under the influence of magic or has used magic unless it's canonical for your character to be aware of such things. However, there are magic-sensitive characters in this game. Don't think you can cast a big spell and not have it noticed. No major magic is to be performed on the island without administrative permission.
Alternative Role-Playing: Playing by email or IMs is allowed. In order for your playing to be considered as game canon, you have to post the finished logs in your own character journal or in the appropriate community in a timely fashion (ie: ASAP). If it doesn't show up in your character journal or in the communities, it didn't happen. Also, you may not include external role-playing sessions with players that have left/been asked to leave/players who aren't part of the game without admin approval. Try to keep external role-playing of events in public places to a minimum because it rules out the possibility of witnesses or possible consequences.
Deleting Journals: If you delete your journal or delete past entries or make them inaccessible, you are out of the game and will be on a permanent ban list. This is a one-strike offense. For real, don't do it. (If this happens due to an emergency/privacy issue/accident, just contact the admins and explain the situation; we'll work with you. Just don't deliberately delete or hide established game history.)
Interfering/Getting Involved With Plots: If you want to participate in someone else's plot, ask OOCly first. New twists to our adventures are often fun, but make sure the person running the plot is okay with it before getting your character involved.
Deaths: No player-character deaths are permitted without prior admin permission. Character death plot proposals will only rarely be accepted as death has a huge effect on the other characters in the game and it's unfair to impose that kind of trauma on everyone on a regular basis, so please take that into consideration. (If you plan to take a character through to their canon death off-island, we're very likely to be fine with that, but you still need to let us know.) We get a lot of character death requests. Don't take it personally if you're told no. When it really does happen, we want death to remain significant. If people die too regularly and then come back to life, it lessens the impact.
Realism: We're wacky enough as it is. Try to keep things a little bit realistic. (ie: if you get hit by a bolt of lightning, play out the consequences!)
Extreme Plotlines: Please get admin approval before running any extreme plotline. This includes anything involving a lot of violence and/or controversial issues such as rape, torture, suicide, kidnapping, etc. This is not to infringe on anyone's creativity, but there may be other issues going on with players that may make the situation inappropriate at that time. You can't be expected to know what's going on with every player in the game, but the admins do have a better idea of it. Please just check in to be on the safe side. Also, please read over the Guidelines on Handling Sensitive Topics post.
Changing Character Type: Townies are allowed to become teachers and vice versa, but students are to remain students (until they've graduated and become alumni, or leave the island and become expatiates) and townies cannot ever become students. More specific information on all of this can be found here!
Everyone is Fictional So No One is Fictional: All characters in Fandom are fictional, so we pretend that no one is fictional. This means that your character will not recognize any of the other characters in the game from TV shows, movies, books, plays, comic books, etc. They just won't. The way we get around this and still manage to keep pop culture references that are so important to some characters is to "meta" everything. We use alternate names for canons and the characters in those canons. For example, Bitterwoman is the Fandom version of Wonder Woman. Vanessa Saturn is the Fandom version of Veronica Mars. Space Battles is the Fandom version of Star Wars. Wormhole X-treme is the Fandom version of Stargate. Each of these shows have 'fake' names for the characters as well. Read more about Meta and the 4th Wall here, and check the FH Meta Wiki to see if a meta name already exists for a reference you want to make - if there is none, go wild and make up your own! (Then add it to the wiki so other people can use it.)
Using Other Peoples' Canon: When your character visits a universe that isn't their own, there are several guidelines to follow. If you're just passing through or brushing past known NPC characters and there are no characters in Fandom from that canon, then it's okay to have a few scenes and move on. If you intend to have more than 2-3 harmless scenes in that canon (ie: more than a brief visit, any kind of plottiness), you will need to write in for admin permission in advance. If you wish to visit or plot within a canon that is not your own but that does have characters in Fandom, you are required to contact every player involved in that canon and get their approval. It's only polite, so please be sure to do the legwork before messing with someone else's canon.
Keeping Traffic Down: If there's already a post for a particular location (eg. the second floor common room or the Perk), start a new thread in that post for your purposes rather than starting a new post. Just label it with where exactly you are and when to keep things clear.
OOC comments in IC threads: Try to keep OOC comments to a minimum in IC threads. If need be, just start a new thread dedicated for OOC comments so those involved can keep track easier.
Slow-Play: Due to the pace and international nature of the game, slow-playing scenes (continuing to play beyond the real-life day in which the scene is set) is allowed. Please try to be courteous about this, and restrict it to threads where everyone involved is good with the slowplay, and nothing is happening that would affect or contradict events in the game at large, which will have already moved on.
Pre-Play: If you know that there will be scheduling problems when trying to finish an important post (plot-related or not), it is acceptable to pre-play the thread. This involves playing with the other people involved either via instant messenger, email, GDocs, a filtered LJ post or some other means, coding the finished product into a table and then posting it in character journals at an appropriate time. There's also a Pre-Play Coder to help automate a lot of the table creation for scenes pre-played in an LJ post!
Not Work Safe and Sensitive Topics: Any content (major swearing, sexual content, graphic violence, drugs) that would not be safe for people to read at work should not be posted in the communities. You're welcome to post such things in your character's journal, but please label the post as "NWS" (not work safe) or with references to sensitive topics inside, so people can carefully avoid it if they want to. Detailed Guidelines on Handling Sensitive Topics
Due to LiveJournal's wavering standards on adult content, we do request that you friends lock posts with NWS content. This isn't a requirement, but it's probably safer so your journal is at less risk shenanigans from Livejournal's abuse team.
Jaaaaaaaazz Haaaaands Handwavery: If you don't have time to play out a scene, it is acceptable in some cases to arrange OOCly with the other people involved to handwave something happening and establish it by having the characters discuss it or mention it in narrative. Please try to keep this to a minimum, but we understand that sometimes things just can't get finished due to timing clashes, or would simply be less than entertaining to play out or read.