Rules
THE QUICKLIST
1. You must be 14 to play. This game has adult concepts.
2. Stay in-character. Put the role in role-play!
3. Keep active: one post and another short thread per month.
4. Don’t godmod. You control your character and no-one else’s.
5. Don’t power game. Your character can’t take a level in badass and instantly learn a new skill just because it’ll get them out of a jam.
6. Avoid meta-gaming when unwelcome. Pop-culture references are sometimes unavoidable, but not everyone wants to have their character go through an existential crisis. Please respect this.
7. ICA=ICC. In-character actions have in-character consequences. If your character runs into a burning building, they’re going to get burned.
8. IC=/=OOC. Just because you know something doesn’t mean your character knows it. The actions of a character do not reflect the attitudes of a player. And finally, if you are having difficulty with another player, please don’t let it affect your character’s actions.
9. Play nice. Don’t break things or spit on anyone. It's both rude and unsanitary! If you’re having problems, poke a mod. It’s what we’re here for!
APPLYING, RESERVING AND CHARACTER RULES
APPLICATIONS
∝ You must be fourteen to apply. We’re a game that embraces horror and includes violence, smut, and crack humour (though not always in that order.) While we have an adult community, these themes will still be very present in the main community, game’s plot and events, and so we can’t accept anyone under fourteen. Sorry!
∝ Applications will be processed every weekend.
∝ The deadline for submitting applications is Friday, 6PM, EST. Any applications submitted after this time will be processed the following weekend.
RESERVES
∝ Reserving a character Means that no application but yours will be accepted for as long as the reservation lasts.
∝ Reserves last one week from the day they were made. The reserves page is here.
CHARACTERS GENERALLY
∝ Characters must be fictional. No real people, including author-avatars from web comics. No historical, mythological or religious figures unless they are from a specific work of fiction. You can play Shakespeare from Shakespeare in Love. You can play Benjamin Franklin if you want to, but only if he’s drawn from Dr McNinja or another work of fiction.
∝ Characters must be well-rounded. This applies mainly to original characters, but sometimes to fandom characters as well. A character must have flaws; they can’t be the best at everything! They should have strengths and weakness in their personality, their abilities and their interactions with others. We don’t accept Mary-Sues or Gary-Stus, so if you’re writing an OC or fleshing out a fairly minor fandom character, really flesh them out.
∝ You can apply for characters who have died. Characters that have died within their own fictions will show up at the Keep moments after their death, completely healed. However, their clothing and anything that they were carrying at the time will remain exactly as it was when they died - dirty, bloody, ripped or broken.
The exception is any character who became a ghost within their canon. You may apply to play a ghost, however we do have specific restrictions upon ghost characters. Please contact a moderator ahead of time.
∝ You can apply for five characters initially. If you would like to apply for any more than that, you need to get moderator approval before submitting the application. Approval will depend on how active you are with the characters you already play.
∝ If choosing PBs for OCs or book characters, please don’t pick an established character. For example, if Johnny Truant shows up with an icon set of Tyler Durden, then there might be a problem. But if he just happens to look like Brad Pitt, then he’s fine. You can't use icons from an obscure but published anime or manga to represent your OC, no matter how obscure it is.
∝ Characters will be assigned a room. They don’t have to stay there if they choose not to. They may be able to opt for better accommodations. They can sleep in the kitchen, if you like. But a character’s room serves as an opt-out safe house for any Keep events. It is safe for as long as you would like it to be.
∝ Characters will be issued a keep record upon arrival. More on this below.
∝ Characters must have a language. The Keep records are language-based, and your character must keep a record. Languages can be written, verbal or signed, real or invented. As long as characters have one, it doesn’t matter.
∝ Every character will find a tattooed ring of letters somewhere on their body upon entering the Keep. This ring is ever-changing and often in languages unrecognizable. Its precise location is up to you. If the skin there is damaged, it will move, rather than disappear.
FANDOM CHARACTERS
∝ We accept any fandom, any medium, as long as it’s fictional. The fandom application form is here.
∝ One character per fandom cast. Unless, however, your second character has nothing to do with and no reason to interact with the first. This one’s a bit tricky. Basically, you can play both Jango Fett and Wedge Antilles from Star Wars because they’ve never heard of one another and are unlikely to blink twice at the other’s name or appearance if they encountered one another in the dining hall. However, you could not play both Darth Maul and Luke Skywalker because even though they’ve also never heard of one another, Darth Maul would probably recognize Luke’s surname. Likewise, Luke is unlikely to miss the fact that that guy walking past him is a Dark Lord of the Sith. As with everything, if you’re not sure, then ask a mod!
∝ No fan OCs. This refers to fan-characters from plot driven media. You can’t play a jedi knight who has never appeared in any Star Wars film, book, video game or other published media. For personal avatar characters created for MMOs and communal settings, see below.
∝ Avatar Characters from sandbox and plot-driven games This refers to games like Mass Effect and Fallout, where there is an overarching plot or central mission, but where you can make choices about race or gender which affect a character’s history or personality, and make choices for the character throughout the game which effect the game's progression. These characters can be applied as fandom characters.
∝ No doubles. We only accept one version of a character from any given fandom continuity. If you want to play a different version, their continuity must be different. You can play Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time if Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is already in the game, as the second is a reincarnation of the first. But you can’t play Link from Ocarina of Time if Link from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is already in the game, as the latter is a sequel to the former. It’s the same continuity. You also can’t play Link from the Ocarina of Time manga if Link from the Ocarina of Time game is already at the Keep, because even though some story elements might vary, it is still clearly the same story in the same time.
∝ No fan AUs. You can play Squall from Final Fantasy VIII. You can play Leon from Kingdom Hearts. You can’t play Squall/Leon from a New York high-school for mercenaries.
ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
∝ We accept OCs. The application standards may be higher, but don’t let this put you off! This rule is in place because we can't skim a Wiki to get a better idea of their personality or background. The OC application is here.
∝ Personal Avatar Characters created for communal settings or games like MMOs Characters created for games like World of Warcraft, other MMOs or tabletop games are considered OCs; you created them and they’re original. But to prevent conflicts, please don’t include a major role in significant world events as part of your character’s history.
CHARACTER BELONGINGS
∝ Characters bring what they carry. Clothing, pocketed items, weapons - anything that they had immediately on hand will be brought with them, excluding vehicles.
∝ Weapons will be altered. Generally, no single blow from a weapon will prove fatal. Weapons will be “set to stun”; guns will shoot bean-bag rounds and blades will refuse to hold an edge. You should outline these limitations in your application. They are largely self-imposed.
SUPERNATURAL CHARACTERS
∝ Characters may be re-sized. Characters taller than 10’ will find themselves proportionally re-sized to 10’ upon entering the Keep.
∝ Abilities will be kept, but restricted. Like weapons, they will be rendered less lethal or annulled entirely. Any supernatural ability, but most particularly the aggressive ones, will be harder to perform and weaker in execution. As a general rule, they should be considered at one quarter of their out-of-game strength, or will only last one quarter of the time, or else will take four times as much energy to implement. Therefore, powers like invisibility will not last as long. Fire blasts will be smaller. Supernatural flight will take more energy. Again, as with weapons, you should outline these limitations in your application and they are largely self-enforced. For more information, see the FAQ.
GAMEPLAY RULES
RECORDS
∝ The Holloway's Keep Record The record is an archive of events at Holloway's Keep compiled by characters and staff. Characters can read the compilation, contribute entries and make comment on others’ entries via their issued record.
∝ Entries are transcribed by default. This means that the record is predominantly text. Transcripts are in the language of the reader. However, Audio and Video entries can still be recorded, and will be available in addition to the transcript. They should be marked as Audio or Video in the entry title and can be activated by touching the transcript.
∝ Characters must make an entry in their record once a month. If they don’t, text will begin seeping from the page and appearing on their flesh.
∝ Entries can be made private. But your characters must first learn how to make private entries. For details, see the FAQ.
CHARACTER CONDUCT
∝ You can play out violence, gore, smut and injury. Anything goes, as long as you put anything questionably unsafe for work under a friends lock, mark potentially disturbing content, and put anything unsuitable for minors in the adult community.
∝ Characters can be punished. Punishable offenses within the Keep include destroying a record, structural damage to the Keep, injuring another character, killing another character and attacking the staff. Any of these offenses should be reported here. For more information on punishments, see the FAQ.
∝ Character death is impermanent. But it is by no means inconsequential. For details, see the FAQ.
∝ Your character cannot leave. Leaving the Keep by any conceivable means will result in a character’s death.
ACTIVITY
∝ Activity requirements are as follows: Every character must make a keep record post once a month, and participate in an additional log or thread where they made at least five comments.
∝ We have a self-report activity check. To find out how this works, go here.
A reminder to report last month’s activity will be posted to the main community on the 1st of the new month.
Characters who haven’t posted or met the activity requirements will be warned on the 4th of the new month.
Characters who still haven’t posted or met the activity requirements will be cut on the 7th of the new month.
Characters accepted in the last week of the month are exempt from the activity check at the end of that month.
∝ Hiatuses: Reality comes first. If you hit a rough patch and will be inactive for a time but don’t want to drop the game, take a hiatus. If you’re going to be away for a week or more, please let us know here. If you’re going to be away for less than a week, then you don’t need to post to the hiatus page. You may want let the people you’re threading with know privately or via a post in the OOC community. However, you will only be exempt from the activity check if you make a post on the hiatus page.
A hiatus longer than three weeks will need moderator approval. If you’re going to be completely absent for longer than that, then please talk to us about it! We just want to know that you’ll be coming back.
∝ Idling: Everyone has their own pace that they like to play at, and that’s fine. But generally speaking, if you find that you won’t be able to tag a thread for three days or more then it’s polite to let the people you’re threading with know. If you don’t respond for three days and don’t contact them, then they’re free to assume that the thread is backdated and that nothing great or terrible happened to significantly alter their character in the thread. Otherwise, they’d be left unable to participate in more current events because they wouldn’t know how the thread with your character ended!
∝ Backdating: The game occurs in game-time, which runs the same as real time insofar as a thread occurs at around the time that it was started. So if a thread starts on Tuesday and takes until Sunday to complete, then the events that took place in that thread still happened on Tuesday. If your character learns to use the force on Friday, then they shouldn’t be using the force in the still-ongoing thread from Tuesday.
Similarly, if you find that it’s Saturday and you want the thread you’re starting to take place on the previous Monday, then you only need to place a note in the post title stating that the thread is “backdated to Monday.” However, that still means that your character didn’t learn to use the force until Friday, and so they shouldn’t be using the force in the backdated thread either.
PLAYER CONDUCT
∝ No godmoding. You only control your own character. You don’t control anyone else’s. Your character can try to hit another, but it’s up to the other player whether they dodge in time or not.
∝ No power gaming. Your character has a set of skills that they’ve learned and honed throughout their history and their time at the Keep. If they haven’t learned a particular skill throughout that time - if it’s not listed in their application or they haven’t learned it at the Keep - then they’re probably average at it at best. You can’t suddenly have your character acquire new skills just because it’s convenient to their current situation. They can’t suddenly reveal that they are a master chef just because they find themselves in a celebrity cook-off with Lord Deior. They shouldn’t suddenly realize that they can fly if they find themselves stuck on a roof.
∝ Avoid meta-gaming when it's unwelcome. Some fandoms are so loaded with pop culture references that they’re hard to avoid, so vague references to other fandoms are fine - no names, few details. In addition, if you’re playing a character - Fandom or OC - who is familiar with other fandoms, they have the opportunity to both reference and recognize these fandoms. However you must have the permission of the person who plays the target character. If a player does not want to put their character through an existential crisis by way of meta-gaming, we ask you to refrain from having your character refer to or recognize their fandom. For details, see the FAQ.
∝ Player plots are wonderful! But- We love plots that are designed and implemented by the player-base. Anything from parties to investigatory expeditions are wonderful! However, if you are planning a plot that will effect the entire game, please contact a moderator before you begin to organize the event. We might have some questions ahead of time.
∝ No playercest. We want to play with you! Please don’t thread with yourself.
∝ Stay IC. Crack events are hilarious! Putting your character outside their comfort zone is awesome! But if your character behaves in ways which don’t make sense for the personality and history that you’ve described for them, then it can make it very difficult for others to play with you.
∝ ICA=ICC. This is particularly important to remember during events, but applies generally as well. If your character puts themselves in a certain situation, they’re expected to bear the consequences and you’re expected to play them out. If they pick a fight with the staff, they’re going to get punished and will probably get hurt. If they fall out of a tree, break their arm and only use standard medical treatment for it, then they’re not going to be able to climb trees for at least five weeks.
∝ IC=/=OOC Just because you know something doesn’t mean your character knows it. You might have read already that the earworms in the vegetable garden function as translators. But your character isn’t going to know that until one of the staff tells them, or they happen to stick a worm in their ear. You don’t always have to play out every single discovery, but you should at least know how your character found out most information, even if it’s as simple as “they read it on this open post here.”
Don't hold in-character actions against a player. Characters can be mean and some of them are downright evil, but that doesn’t mean that their players are. If a character doesn’t like your character, it doesn’t mean their player doesn’t like you. Having an in-game enemy could be fun, so please don't let in-character conflicts spill outside of play.
Try to keep conflicts with other players from affecting how you play. It’s inevitable: there are going to be disagreements. You should at least be able to be civil to other players. Please don’t air your grievances via your characters or let OOC problems affect the game too much. If a conflict is getting out of hand, please contact a moderator and we’ll step in.
∝ Regarding player behaviour: Rudeness and harassment will not be tolerated. To reiterate the above if a conflict is getting out of hand, don’t hesitate to contact a mod. We’ll do our best to mediate a solution. While we will always try to reach a solution which will allow everyone to keep on playing, a major rule breach or continuous string of minor breaches may result in a player being asked to leave the game.