HEX

If you want to play the game, you have to follow the rules. Simple as that, and trust us, we will enforce them.

For Starters

• NO POWERPLAYING - Powerplay is moving another person's character without permission. This is never allowed and will never be allowed. The only time it is ever acceptable to move another person's character is if said person gives you permission to do so.
• NO GOD-MODING - There are some things you are going to have to accept. Your character may get hurt, they may be outwitted and they more than likely will be tricked by other players. God-moding is essentialy when people play their characters in such a manner that they manage to avoid any sort of pitfalls or even just the basic crap life throws at you. While this game is built on the idea of fantasy, it does not grant you permission to act like you are invincible.
• REQUESTS - Do not email requests for characters or any of your OOC talk (unless it's before a post and a quick message to another player about gameplay) to the mailing list. All requests should either be emailed to the moderators to advertise on the site or posted at our shared forum Deus Ex Machina under the section for Hex.
• CHARACTER LIMITS - For those new to the game, you will be limited to only one character. Once you have posted regularly for a month and we believe you are capable of handling another character, you are free to do so. For people that we are familiar with, especially with their posting habits, we will limit you according to how much we feel you are capable of. We do this because sometimes with a game our eyes our bigger than our stomachs. Unless your posting habits change drastically, we'll keep the character cap at what we give you.
• NO OOC DRAMA...EVER!! - Under no circumstance will any OOC drama be allowed to leak into the game. If you're having a spat with another player, it should not reflect on your characters in the game. Your drama is something you need to fix and doesn't need to involve the rest of the players involved in the game.
• ABSENCE & VACATION - If you are going to be gone for a period of time (more than 5 days) you need to give the mods proper warning of this. If we don't get a warning, you'll probably be dropped, especially if we email you and get no response. All it takes is a simple email stating you will be gone and give us the time period that you will be so we can give a fair warning to others who you are playing with. Now note, an email is required, end of story. A message on AIM is easy to forget and we can't check your myspace, livejournal, or facebook to know your current whereabouts. So email us, that way he have a hard copy that you warned us.
• LEAVING THE GAME - If you are going to leave the game, email us. Please please email us. Also tell us if you wish to allow your characters to become adopted. We will leave you time to phase your character out of the game. And if you have no intentions of returning, we can always have your character killed off or something like that. If you don't mind that is.

Posting Format & Ettiquette

Being a play by email role playing game that requires the players to have a certain level of writing skill, we've constructed this part of the rules page to explain what we expect from your posts, how to post to the site (proper formatting), and warnings of common mistakes that role players make.

You will be sending your posts through email, so we'll work from the top of your email page to the bottom, to make sure you see everything every step of the way.

• Subject Lines

  For the subject line of your entry, we are doing it just slightly different than what you might be used to. It is as follows:

  Character Name: Subject (Attention to others)

  If you disect it correctly, you can see that your character's name goes first. Usually a nickname goes here, especially if the name is long. It is followed by a fun subject to set the mood for the post! Last and in parenthesis comes the attention part. This is where you call attention to other players. If you wish to leave it open for others to tag you or if you wish to allow others to join the conversation, then just put "anyone" in there. If you don't want others to join, remove the "any" or "anyone" tag from the subject line before you post. Here is a better example to see it in action:

  Chester: Night Fever! (Harvey, anyone)

  See? Easy as pie. Not hard to understand at all. This and the footer are going to be the least of your worries.

• Header

  For the header, it's basically the little blurb at the top of your entry to remind people where your character is located. This is very simple, so it's not hard to learn, but you need to remember to put it on the top of every post:

  Location

  See how simple that is? You basically just put the name of the place where your character is, so anyone who is looking to jump in knows where exactly they are going. So basically it can look as follows:

  Uncle Fester's

  Really easy, but make sure you remember that you put it at the top of everytime you post!

• Body Text

  When writing the actual post, there are general requirements we expect out of every post in order for us to be okay with it. Here are a few of them:

  • 3 FULL PARAGRAPHS - That's the minimum. And by full paragraphs we meant about 4-5 sentences per paragraph. Once you've got your three paragraphs you can break down other paragraphs to include, but those three are the minimum requirement. Any post with less than three or with three paragraphs composed of small and undecriptive sentences will result in us asking you to repost.
  • BE DESCRIPTIVE - Describe your surroundings, the clothing, the mood and setting. Often times in a conversation the mind wanders which usually leads the subject of the conversation to change. If your character is doing something, elaborate on it, especially if they are doing magic. Don't allow your posts to be dull, this is a creative rpg, so use that creativity of yours!
  • BE TRUE TO THE CHARACTER - Be true to how your character was created. If you are playing a mean person, you're going to have to be mean. If you're playing a nice person, your character's thoughts and actions should reflect that, and not have them blow up for no reason. Play the character how they are written, otherwise you will be asked to repost.
  • GIVE SOMETHING TO WORK WITH - When it comes to posting, you want to be able to give enough action, conversation, and emotion for the people playing with you to feed off of. They need to react enough so that you can can react. Being descriptive is great, but remember that if you spend a whole post of your character's inner thoughts but with little or no action, you haven't given anything back to that person for them to use in their own post.
  • PAY ATTENTION - When responding to others, it's important to pay attention to what they have written to you. Movements, actions, acknowleding of others, it all plays an important part in the game and it's important to remember to note those things in your post. For example, if you are in the same location as another group of people, read their posts in case they are doing something that might catch your eye. Like an argument, a lover's embrace, or a boisterious greeting. Also note that if someone is whispering, chances are you probably won't hear them, so don't go barging in a conversation giving a response if the person is obviously be secretive about it.
  
  

  What you see there is ettiquette and so please be sure to pay attention to that. Also note that when replying to a post of another person, we require you to show what exactly you are replying to. You will use a ">>" before it, following by the person's name and then a colon, followed by the blurb in which you character is reacting to. Remember this is important because sometimes, even though we try our best, we lose ourselves in the conversation and sometimes things are misinterpreted.

• Footer

  For the footer, it's basically the litle blurb at the bottom of your entry to remind people what character you are posting for. This is very simple, so it's not hard to learn, but you need to remember to put it on the bottom of every post:

  Full Character Name
  Type of Witch

  See how simple that is? You basically put your character's full name (as in first and last name, if they have a last name) as seen on the profile page, and then the type of witch you are playing. If you are playing a Human, then that's all you have to put down. If you want to add anything extra, like a little blurb, a title for them, or perhaps a quote, you are free to do so, but it isn't required of you. So basically it can look as follows:

  Manchester Sarakinis
  Earth Witch
  Resident Awesomeness

  Again, as you can see, it's really easy to pick up on, though sometimes easy to forget, so remember to play close attention to add it at the bottom of your post.

• Example Post

  The following is an example of what a post might look like in a game. This is so you understand the format, not neccesarily the content:

  Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here.
  
  >> Name: Their quote here
  
  Your Response Here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here.
  
  >> Name: Their quote here
  
  Your Response Here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here. Main body text here.
  
  Chester Sarakinis
  Earth Witch
  Resident Awesomeness

• Averages & Counts

  With all that you see above, there is still more that we ask of you. But trust us, it's for the good of the game and for you. Because if nobody does their part with these next few rules, the game could easily fall into shambles.

  • POST # REQUIREMENTS - If you have five characters, you must post once a week per character. Which means if you were to post each character once during that week, your posting count as a player would be 5 posts that week. Get the picture? You want to do BETTER than that, you want to get at least two posts in per week. We give the one post per week minimum, but you really want to rise above that.
  • POSTING AVERAGES - Posting averages are basically what you want to keep up. On average there are about four weeks in one month. Now, each month (maybe two months) we will be doing posting checks and part of that will be averages. You want to average 2 posts at least a week...per character. If you are not meeting the 1 a week minimum that we set above once we do the averages, you will be cut down in posting and quite possibly cut from the game. If life happens to get in th way, give us the heads up, we'll excuse you from the game so you can take care of whatever business you may have.
  • POSTING CHECKS - Once a month (or once every two months), we will be doing posting checks. We expect everyone to be meeting a minimum of one post per week per character, so the more characters you have the more posts we expect to see from you. Posting checks can be tedious, but they are for the survival of the game. Sometimes they are a reminder to players that they need to pick up the pace, while to others it may be a signal they need to drop characters. Regardless, these checks are done, and they are going to be pretty detailed in the sense of what they will have. So be on the watch for them.

• Terminology

  The following are a list of acronyms and other little phrases you might see often in the game and should know the meaning of (if you don't already).

  • OOC: Out of Character. Meaning that whatever is said in that little tag should not be taken as the character speaking, but as the actual player.
  • IC: In Character. Usually found after the "OOC" tag when the player is done speaking. This means that after that little mark (in posts) it is the character speaking, not the player.
  • NPC: Non-Played Character. These are characters that are free to use and push around because they are not being played. Granted though, do not move an NPC that another person has mentioned if it is obvious the other player had no intentions of them being moved by someone else.