The rules are fairly simple, here. Breaking them will result in a punishment of some sort, whether it is a verbal admonishment or a banning; all disciplinary actions will be at the staff's discretion. The rules are subject to change at any time.

[1] The rating of this board is R. In the U.S., R means "Restricted." Generally, that means that people 17 years old or younger cannot get in -- here, it is a warning that there will be graphic content such as violence, sex, and bad words. Such threads will be marked, but if you stumble across something by accident, then please be mature enough to handle it.

[2] Respect the other members of this board. This is huge. People are here to have fun; don't be an asshole and ruin it for them. It is expected that you will respect everyone here equally, no matter their rank, status, or roleplaying style.

[3] We don't do COPPA. Sorry, guys, but I have no manner in which to do faxes and the like, so this site cannot support COPPA. That means that if you are under the age of 13, you cannot join this site no matter how mature or grounded you are. Please do not join and lie about your age; if you are caught here I could get in lots of trouble.

[4] Keep your drama off the board. This ties in with the respect rule. I don't want to see a bunch of fighting, mudslinging or name-calling going on -- this rule also applies to guests. I know that if there is a particularly stupid guest, then it's hard to resist being mean or snotty, but I'm asking you to try.

[5] Registration rules.

[a] Have a seperate account for each character.
[b] Register with the first name of your character, or the nickname... whichever. Do not register with a last or middle name.
[c] Inactive members (members who have not logged in for a month) will be placed under the member category "Lost Ones," and their application will be moved to "The Ones We Lost." They will no longer appear on the member list, but they are welcome to reclaim their application at any time.
[d] The face claim will only reserve a face for five days. If the person who reserved it hasn't posted an application, it will go back up for grabs. If you need to hold it longer, contact an Admin with the reason why and it will be considered. If you go inactive without notice, and you get put under the member group "Lost Ones," you lose the right to your face claim.

[6] General non-asshattery rules. These are things that will not be tolerated at this board.

[a] Powerplaying. Do not force a character that is not yours to do something without their player's permission. There is one very notable exception that you will see in a second.
[b] Metagaming. This is when your roleplay your character as knowing something he shouldn't, according to logic, know. For instance, during a conversation, your character wouldn't know that the other character had gone swimming the day before unless he was spying on her or she specifically told him. Characters with special powers are obviously somewhat exempt from this.
[c] Mary-sues. This is a character that is simply horribly cliche. These are annoying, so try to avoid them.
[d] Godmode. This term is sometimes used for powerplaying, but for this instance it means when a character is unable to be harmed. When a character has this "Superhero Syndrome," it is generally very irritating and here it won't be tolerated. Act reasonably.

[7] There is some powerplaying allowed in special circumstances. Please note, right now, that killing without permission is allowed on this board because your characters cannot really die in the October Country. Dying/being stabbed/whatever will hurt, of course, and your character might pass out, but they will not die from it. They will heal like normal, however, so they'll likely be wandering around with stab wounds for a few weeks. This is a very iffy rule to me, and I will be monitering it like crazy. It is still polite to seek permission from another player before you go and stab their character, and if you abuse this loophole, you will lose all priveliges to it.

[8] Notes on the level of writing at TOC. It is expected that people here will be good writers. My definition of this is that they can write interesting, descriptive posts. I do not have a minimum limit set for how long a post can be, because I believe short posts can be interesting and fun. However, you must follow the expectations of the thread you're in -- if the people you're roleplaying with are regularly churning out seven-paragraph posts, at least try to approach this. It's unfair for them to give you long, well thought-out posts and then get a return of almost nothing. If you are low on muse one day or are in a rush, then you may post with less than you might normally in the interests of moving a thread along.

Some of you might see this place and then leave because you don't believe you can match the "literacy level." Please, do join -- I encourage lower-level writers to join on the following terms: your posts are understandable, at the very least, and that you are willing to learn and better yourself with our help. This means that you won't get upset with constructive criticism; nobody is here to make you feel bad. If you do think someone is being less constructive than they could be, feel free to contact the Administration and we will definitely look into it.

[9] There is no maximum character limit. I don't believe in them -- some people can only handle one, and others can handle eight thousand. I don't really care as long as you can handle them. That means that if you apply for eight characters, I expect you to be as active with all of them as another player would be with one. If you can't do that, then know your own limit and stick to it.

If you feel that an above rule has been broken, then please contact a staff member.