Rules

 

Rule 1:  The Zero-Sum Rule. Power not only corrupts; it seduces, especially in a FreeForm environment. It is far too easy to create characters or creatures or devices of such magnitude of ability and influence that game balance is completely destroyed. The Rules of any game must maintain the game's stability; in our FreeForm game, the Zero Sum Rule helps to serve this purpose.  

 

This is the wordiest of our Rules ... but it is a single, simple concept.

 

The Rule: Any positive aspect introduced into the game must have an equal and opposite negative aspect. If your character enjoys a great power, he or she must have an equally great weakness; and if your character can tap into great energies, he must pay an equally great price for their use. Most importantly, the negative aspect must manifest itself in the game at least as much as the positive aspect does (in other words, to offset a power that is used regularly, you cannot claim a weakness that is rarely if ever felt).  

 

Infinity and Negative Infinity: All power must be finite -- measurably so. Incomprehensibly vast powers simply cannot be tolerated, no matter what counterbalances might be in effect. But, to say that a power is "limited" does not in itself satisfy the Zero Sum Rule; there must be some negative counterbalance, not just a limit.  

 

Accountability: All negatives relied upon to satisfy the Zero-Sum Rule must be posted up-front in the game, either as soon as a corresponding power is used, or before-hand, on a character sheet or in play. No hidden or secret weaknesses satisfy the Zero-Sum Rule. However, all players are free to introduce more weaknesses than are necessary to counterbalance their powers; any character may be "over-weak" -- and often such characters are far more fun to play in terms of challenges and triumphs.

 

Arbitration: It is initially up to each individual player to define both his powers and his weaknesses. The Honor System assumes that the player will create a suitable balance, and all players are free to introduce whatever powers and weaknesses as they see fit. There are no "points" or numerical measurements involved; common sense must prevail in determining whether a given power is sufficiently balanced by a given weakness. Also, it is not necessary to have a strict one-to-one accounting of powers and weaknesses; if you give your character three or four reasonable powers, you might offset them with one or two extra-strong weaknesses, or five or six moderate weaknesses, as long as the manifestation of these weaknesses balances the powers -- of course, the more such discrepancy a player relies on, the greater the chances of losing his Zero-Sum balance, which can lead to an intervention in play to restore balance, for it is the ultimate decision of The Angel from Hell as to whether any character or creature or device is in compliance with the Zero-Sum Rule. Angel from Hell reserves the right to demand and implement whatever adjustments are necessary to maintain game balance.  

 

"Fatigue": Becoming tired after using a psychic power, being able to use such power only once per time period, or using energy sources that deplete after a certain number of uses of a power, do not effectively create balance for a power. It rarely if ever fails to play out as more than a simple skipping-over of the fatigue, such as "Hax is tired for the rest of the day. Then, the next morning, he feels better ..."

 

Psychic abilities: These abilities come at a cost that the player themselves must find a balance to. A psychic can be of any race, but Psi Vampire and Dark Fae do get an "upper hand" of sorts in this as it comes with their races. The other races can have such abilities, but the zero-sum rule must be applied. A psychic can have perhaps only a single power, or many, but let say that George has the power of Telepathy and telepathy alone, while Victor has the power of empathy, telekniss and telepathy, Victor's teleknisis can not and NEVER be as powerful as that of George (taken that George does not develope more powers). This means that the more psychic powers a character has, the weaker they are. All powers must have their limitations mentioned in their applications and if a character is to develope more powers throughout the game it must either be mentioned in the application or the player must contact Angel From Hell and seek acceptance.

 

The Zero-Sum Rule has caused some controversy; but most experienced roleplayers will embrace and agree with it, and would abide by it anyway, of their own accord ... for it is well understood that the unrestrained exercise of power ("munchkinism") appeals only to poor or misguided players, and that truly enriching and rewarding roleplaying thrives on the overcoming of personal obstacles and limitations. If you do not understand this Rule, just try to abide by it, and you will learn something about roleplaying in general.

 

Rule 2:  Keep it Clean. Sexually explicit descriptions, excessive graphic violence, and otherwise objectionable content, are not allowed. You may include whatever you like in your storylines, but as it enters areas of offensiveness, tread carefully. There is nothing special about such content, and we have all seen plenty of it before, elsewhere. It's boring (which is worse than objectionable), so if you must incorporate sex and violence and so forth into the story, do so as economically as possible. Consider it a test of your writing ability. While the Feeding of Living/Undead vampires is acceptable do try to keep the violence to a minimum.

 

Rule 3:  Traveling.  If a character leaves a section of the game to go to another one, they are required to put where they are going in that post and where they are coming from in the next post from the new place.  They may do this by saying it, (i.e. Lisa walked from the Shannonn University to Dragon's Bar ; then, Lisa came to the Dragon's Bar from the University) or by writing an OOC in each post (i.e. OOC: To Dragon's Bar; OOC: From Shannonn University)

 

Rule 4: Setting.  Posting needs to be done in conjunction with the setting.  If it is raining, the character should be wet.  If it is snowing, the character should be cold and wet.  In the same way, if they are in the desert, it is hot.  And dry.  If they are in the mountains, there is probably snow.  If it is summer, play summer.  If it is winter, play winter.  Just stay true to the setting.

 

Rule 5: PC Killing.  While killing a player character is not forbidden, it is looked down upon.  If someone intends on trying to kill a PC, they have two options.  The first is that they may contact the player and discuss it with them.  This is advised.  This way, the gods will not have to sort out a problem of bringing the character back to life, if need be.  The second option is to just try and kill the character.  It is fairly hard to kill a PC because you have to leave room for the PC to react.  If George swings a fridge at Victor’s head, then he has a right to dodge it.

 

Rule 6: Resurrection.  It is not possible unless when a human becomes either a nosferatu/Living vampire.

 

Rule 7: Playing Your OWN Character.  Only post for your own character.  Period.  And let people react to your character’s actions.  The only way that it is allowable for another player to take over posting for a character is if the player of that character is taking a leave of absence and posts on the board for the specific person to play them.  If the person’s playing is abused, the character will be taken over by Shirihjah, and the player abusing risks being banned from the board.

 

Rule 8: GM Rules:

 

A.     Power Freak.  While the GM may control the story line of the game, they are not to “lord over” the players.  The players may interact within the game as they like, and the GM must compensate accordingly.  Unforeseen things often happen.  GMs must be patient with their players.

 

B.     Cooperation.  If another GM is running a story, you cannot have your story change what they are doing, unless you discuss it with them first.  (i.e, if one story is about a group trying to Bring down D.I.E , another GM can't create a story about a group putting a stop to their plan).

 

C.     Other rules will be added as needed

 

Rule 9: The Major Npc's.  Posting for them is COMPLETELY off limits.  If you do so, you risk a HIGH chance of being shown the door out of the game.

 

Rule 10: Psi vampires feed off the life of other characters, they can do as they wish with their own NPCs. Say that Charles the Psi Vampire is trying to feed off Linda -both are PCs- In his/her first post Charles states that he is clearly attempting to do so, in Linda's reply he/she can decide wether it is a success or not.