Rules

RULES

Time for the hard stuff, all. The rules listed in these pages are for the benefit of allowing the highest possible level of free roleplay in the Transformers Universe MUX environment as humanly possible, without having a great deal of interplayer troubles. You are expected to know these rules, if you break them, a warning or more severe penalty will be incurred, potentially even up to the point of being requested to leave the MUX. Ignorance is NOT a valid claim for violations, since these rules are publicly posted and available for all.

Topics:

General, RP, Rulechanging

General Rules
This section is mainly ideas and thoughts the Director had one night at 3:30 am after drinking far too much root beer. Mostly these are things observed either from elsewhere or from discussion with MU*ers.


 * Reprogrammings -- After seeing bad news with reprogrammings on other MU*s with themes similar to ours, reprogrammings have been ruled unthemely, in order to not foster similar problems.


 * Player Harassment -- This is a dangerous topic to step on. It will NOT be tolerated in any way, shape or form, from any player, to any other player. If a player asks you to stop saying something about them, or such, you -stop-. Sexual harassment will not be allowed either. Violation on either of these counts is grounds for removal from Transformers Universe.


 * Admin -- If you see a case where an admin has seemingly abused their powers to gain advantage for themselves in an IC situation, or see them potentially abusing powers otherwise, report it to another admin immediately. Such action is grounds for the firing of the admin in question. They will be asked to explain their actions thoroughly during a formal hearing on the matter. If it is proven they abused powers, they will be punished or removed from adminship, and possibly from the game, if necessary. If it was proven not to be an abuse, an explanation will be sent to the reporting player, so that they can understand why the action was taken.


 * Tinysex -- Sexual situations between Transformers are COMPLETELY unthemely. I don't want to see or hear about them, basically. If someone is found to be engaging in such activities, they will be asked to stop. If they continue to do so, and their activities are made public in some form again, they will have their chars taken away. End of story, for Transformers. For humans, it can't really be declared unthemely; however, make sure whoever you are doing it with gives consent and such, and try to make sure, if possible, that it isn't a minor who will get in parental trouble for such activity. It shouldn't be made public really, either, but is more acceptable than Transformer sex.


 * Cliques -- This isn't really a rule; more of a suggestion. I've noticed from other places that sometimes people form little groups or 'cliques' of people who seem to RP mainly with each other, and not a lot with anyone who's outside their little group. I'm not a big fan of this, but I do know and understand that people are OOC friends at times, and want to hang around one another. I only ask that the RP of people not in the particular group of people doesn't get ignored by the group, and whatnot. Unless its ridiculously twinkish, in which case you should tell an admin, no RP deserves to be ignored. That's part of the goal of making the MUX the best it can be.

A few things about TPs -- This section is mainly based on what I've seen elsewhere myself. I know that you all have lots of good TP ideas that will make TFU rock the universe, but these are some things I thought should be mentioned.

1) Scripting. I'm not a big fan of heavily scripted TPs. Make sure that in any TP idea you have, there is more than one thing that can happen along the way, so that the TP can be moved in the direction of the RP the players are doing, instead of a preprogrammed one which needs to happen in a script. This makes players less fearful of taking action in said TP, since they won't have to have fears that if they do something, they'll mess up something about how the TP is 'Supposed To Go,' and thusly will be able to react more naturally.

2) I've seen on other places where they had infections or rays, or whatnot else that infected a certain group or certain kind of thing. If your TP idea is like this at all, (ie: if it will infect all animal altmode ones only), be aware that not all the players with chars of this type will potentially want to be involved. Please respect them if they do not wish to be, and give them a way 'out' as it were, so that they can avoid the infection, but not get shut out of RP from it. I've seen this one from personal experience elsewhere, and don't want to see anyone shafted here from something similar.

That's about all I can think of for now, if I think of something else, I'll put it in. :)

RP Rules
Transformers Universe uses a consensual policy of roleplaying. What this means is that you, the player, have the right to decide what happens to your character. However, you are also responsible for your IC actions, and you cannot use the consensual policy to avoid the consequences of the actions that you choose to take. If a disagreement arises about what those consequences should be, a judge is the final arbiter.

Common sense should govern your actions. If you don't want your character to die, don't put him/her in situations where you would IC'ly die. If you don't want to be taken prisoner, retreat before you're in danger of getting knocked out, make sure you've got a friend nearby who will pull you out, or make sure the other side's players don't mind leaving you for dead. And so on.

You are also expected to cooperate with other players. Be courteous -- if you want to take some actions that will greatly affect other players, ask them for their consent OOC'ly beforehand. If they refuse and you feel that the refusal is inappropriate, or if someone takes actions against your will that affect your character seriously, talk to a judge/TPstaffer.

Remember the goal of the MU*: for everyone to have fun. If you persist in acting in a way that makes things less fun for other players, you will eventually start incurring the most unpleasant consequences possible for your actions. If that doesn't stop you, or the actions are very problematic, your actions may be retconned and/or your character taken away.

The only exception is the case where the RP would make you, the player, OOCly uncomfortable. This includes such scenarios as torture or adult-themed RP. You ALWAYS have the right to refuse to participate in such RP, and even if you agree to participate, such actions should be kept as private as humanly possible. Also, there are three scenarios which are forbidden on Transformers Universe: Sex between Transformers, nonconsensual sex between humans, and suicide. Under absolutely NO circumstances are such scenarios to be RPed.

If you have a specific idea for a TP or some RP that would put you in danger of unpleasant consequences, and you want to avoid them, talk to TPstaff. This rule is not to keep such events as prisoner-taking, defection, infiltration, etc. from -ever- happening; it's to keep them from happening indiscriminately and without enough planning for them to be fun for everyone involved, not just the one person who is carrying out the actions.

Action                         Possible Consequences

Insulting someone              Painful beating, more powerful than you         death Infiltrating base, staying     Capture, interrogation, in a fight to the end          execution of your endurance Disobeying orders, creating    Stay in the brig, stay in    problems for your faction       prison colony, kicked out of faction Defection, being kicked out    Getting hunted down and killed Going insane                   Being mindwiped, being brigged, being packed off to a mental institution

These are just examples. It doesn't mean that what is possible definitely will occur -- just that you need to be prepared for negative consequences when you take dangerous actions.

Combat should also be handled with common-sense. Very few individuals are capable of fighting to the finish, and even fewer have the total lack of basic common sense to actually do so. And though injuries to Transformers can be repaired more quickly than humans recover from their wounds, if you've been badly injured, you should not be in battle again later the same day or even for a couple days thereafter if the injuries were serious.

Similarly, if you were not present in a room when a battle began there, and you wish to join in, you must obtain the consent of the other players present in the room, or that of a judge if one is present. If you are in a fight and want to call in reinforcements, ask the other people there first.

The "standard procedure" for combat is for combatants to pair off and take turns. Actions like using your radio, activating a forcefield, helping an injured comrade off the field, recovering from a stun weapon, making attacks, transforming, and similar actions, all consume a turn. You also need to alternate your weapons -- your most powerful ones should be used least frequently.

Please be aware that the combat system is not a substitute for cooperative RP. If someone doesn't want something to happen, you cannot force them into accepting it simply by grasping them. Conversely, if you want to take a reasonable action in response to someone else, you don't need to grasp to see if you succeed. (EG, if someone falls on top of you, you don't need to grasp in order to push them off you.) And, of course, you must also fill out any system messages with poses and speech.

Altchars of the same player should not interact with one another if it is avoidable for them to do so. If two alts are within one faction, the admins here at TFU do understand what lack of medics and small bases can cause in relation to this issue, so it won't be said as totally banned, unless players begin to abuse this rule. Abuses should be reported to the admin; the parties committing the abuse will be disciplined.

Please keep IC and OOC separate, and do not get OOCly upset over characters' IC actions. Just because Octane insulted your character and his creator, does NOT mean you should have a beef with Octane's player. That's the way the character is -- be sure to separate the players from the roles they play. Also, try to minimize the use of +ooc while in RP situations, especially in a room with a large amount of characters, as it tends to get spammy and inhibit RP.

Finally, a note on retcons (retraction of continuity, or pretending that events that took place IC'ly didn't happen). If only a small group of people was affected and the events weren't made public, then if those involved agree, the events can be retconned. Otherwise, you need to contact a judge and ask them to formally retcon it.

The decisions of a judge/admin handling a particular situation are -final-. If you disagree with such a decision, please don't start an argument, especially if it's in an IC situation -- it will just disrupt things for all more, even if you're right. After the situation is resolved, you can talk to the admin privately and ask them to change their mind, or appeal to the head judge, the staff head, or the Director to overrule the decision.

Rulechanging
If you disagree with a rule or policy, and you want to change it, here's what to do: 1) Write up a replacement policy or an explanation of why you think the rule/policy should be removed. 2) E-mail or @mail it to the director.

The director will send it out to the rest of admin for discussion. If the consensus is to agree with the e-mail, the rule/policy will be changed. If not, you'll be given an explanation of why the original rule is being kept.

Copyright © 1997, 1998 TFU Mux Team. All rights reserved.