Rules & Regulations.

Rules and Regulations

ARFD is a strictly canon RP.
Only canons (that is to say, characters that officially appear in DC Comics) are allowed on this forum. No Original Characters(OCs) or Made-Ups. The administrative body decided with the creation of this forum years ago that OCs did not suit their vision for the site. This is a non-negotiable point.

ARFD is an intermediate-to-advanced roleplay.
The minimum for In-Character(IC) posts is two paragraphs. Absolutely no one-liners. We firmly believe in "quality vs quantity." However, for intermediate-advanced roleplayers, even bearing that in mind, the minimum should be easily within reach.

General Rules

ARFD is rated PG-13.
This forum is roughly rated PG-13 in accordance to the Proboards Terms of Service. We feature situations and instances that can be considered, but will never surpass, a PG-13 rating. Under no circumstances will sexual situations be featured on this forum. Cursing is allowed, but censor more foul language, and alcohol reference and use, blood and gore should not exceed the PG-13 rating.

Be courteous and respectful.
Respect is key here. By registering here, you're promising to be polite and have general common sense. If you can't be nice, don't join. We don't want people who mistreat one another clogging up our forum. If you're old enough to be legally registering as a member here, you're old enough to act maturely and follow this rule.

No theft, plagiarism, etc.
Theft will not be tolerated. When someone posts on this forum, the content of that post is respectfully theirs. Do not copy anything from this forum and put it on another. That includes rules, plots, board descriptions, official threads, posts and so on.

Activity standards and purges.
We generally encourage our members to try to achieve at least one in-character post per-account weekly in an ideal situation. The usual minimum we ask is at least one in-character posts per-account each month from our members. At the end of each month, the administration will go through and purge inactive accounts, listing which characters have opened upon the Dropped/Newly Available Characters thread. With each additional character you take, keep in mind the amount of extra work that comes with them necessary to maintain standards.

Cover your absences on the absence board.
Life sucks sometimes. You know that. The staff know that. We aren't naive enough to suppose that you'll always be able to log in. If you are going to be gone, or even a little less active due to something in real life, please post in the absence board to ensure that there are no misunderstandings and accounts don't get deleted that aren't meant to.

Display names should be civilian identities.
To cut down on the confusion inherent in a DC Comics setting, your display name should be your character's civilian identity. If you're picking up Superman, his display name should be "Clark Kent," as an example. This makes thing simpler, since a "Batgirl" could be "Barbara Gordon," "Cassandra Cain" or "Stephanie Brown."

Artwork and visual depictions.
Though ARFD has a plot point directly before Flashpoint, you are allowed to use any comic artwork to represent your character so long as it doesn't compromise any of their core aspects. (Tim Drake shouldn't use artwork of him as Robin, since he's Red Robin now, as an example.) We encourage you to rely on official DC Comics art when possible. If you use fan art, please credit the artist.

ARFD's usage of graphics.
We do not use signatures. The signature field has been removed from displaying on the forum. On ARFD we use the large icons, which are 200px wide and 350px tall, and the primary, standard icons that show beneath them, which are 150px wide and 150px tall. To install the larger icons, go to your profile's "Personal" tab/page and scroll down to the "Hover Image" field.
Make sure to paste your icon's url in the "Custom Image" field of the same page to get it to show in your mini-profile appropriately.

12 is the maximum character roster number.
You can play a total of twelve characters at any given time on this forum.

How to obtain additional characters.
Your first character is "free." Your second character can be claimed when you reach 5 IC posts with your first. To obtain a third character, your first must reach 10 IC posts, while your second must reach 5, and so on and so forth. So, for example, for a fourth character, your third would need 5, your second 10 and your first 15. If you need help deciphering how many posts you'll need, please contact a staff member.

Intelligence when selecting characters.
Please see our Character Selection Information thread for more info.

Regarding account deletion.
We want characters that are played by someone who isn't active to be open as soon as possible. Once at the end of every month the administration will go through and purge inactive accounts. If you're a good, active, social member we'll try to warn you if you need to post IC or an absence thread to be safe from a purge. If one or more of your characters are deleted and you return, feel free to try and pick them up if they aren't already claimed (and you meet the requirements). We don't want to see members constantly going inactive and resurfacing, however. So we might tell you (in the worst case scenario) that you aren't allowed to return the next time you go inactive.

Roleplaying Regulations

Do not post in-character before approval.
You are not allowed to post in-character until you are approved. That means when your application has been moved to the Character Database and you've been sorted into a member group. Feel free to post an introduction post out-of-character while you wait, though! We'd love to welcome you to the forum!

No incomplete posts.
If you don't have the time to finish a post, save it to a word program or PM it to yourself to finish at a later date. We do not allow members to post unfinished replies to come back and complete at a later date.

No powerplaying, godmodding, etc.
You control your character and not those of other members. The only actions you should be describing in your posts about a character that you don't play is something that the writer of that character has already stated. Otherwise simply post your actions open-ended to give the other player a chance to choose how they'll respond. Your character is not invincible. Everyone has weaknesses. Your character can't dodge every attack or defend against every tactic. (If you get prior approval to powerplay another character from their writer, make sure to put a note saying so in that post.)

No double-posting.
If you post and realize that there's something you forgot to include, edit it in.

Post in third-person, past-tense.

Turn order.
In threads, abide by a turn order. This order is determined by the first "round" of posts. Member A posts, then B, then C, then the cycle begins again. If a participant of the thread needs to be skipped for a round, they should wait until the next one to jump back in in their original place.

Members using multiple characters in one thread.
It is permissible to have more than one of your characters in the same thread, thereby effectively posting with yourself, so long as this allowance isn't abused.

NPCing minor/other characters.
On ARFD we allow minor-moderate NPCing of characters that are not in play. Richard Grayson, for example, would be able to interact with, control and make use of Alfred Pennyworth in his posts. If you're going to NPC a character for larger-scale plot points, get staff approval before doing so. Also, an NPC character is generally free game (meaning Alfred could also be controlled by a Tim Drake or Stephanie Brown, etc., and is not the right of a Richard Grayson's use), but should not be used in a way that compromises other members's plans and desires. Also note that unless a character is used as an NPC for an official ARFD, staff-controlled event, if that character is later taken by a writer, they're allowed to acknowledge or discard any on-board continuity that accumulated through prior NPCing.