Roleplay Rules
NOTICE: If you are reading this right now, these rules are currently unfinished! Please provide feedback whereever I asked you for it. Thanks!
A note on phrasing
The rules here are, for the most part, purposefully worded to allow freedom of expression in roleplay.
However, there might still be mistakes and unintended consequences to these rules. Because of this, we might sometimes ask for some character details to be changed, even if they would normally abide by the Character Rules.
Remember that you can always ask a staff member any questions related to whether something is allowed or not! There's no such thing as a bad or stupid question.
Etiquette
- Outside of the noncanon roleplay channels, you must submit a character and wait for it to be approved before you can roleplay here. To enforce this, the roleplay channels are read-only until a character is approved.
- Do not godmod, powerplay, metagame, or retcon. Do your best to not engage in bad roleplayer behavior.
- Depictions of gore or other sensitive material must be spoiler tagged with a content warning. Please keep in mind that the roleplay is available to minors.
- Do not kill off a character without first gaining permission from its roleplayer. If you cannot gain permission, don't do it.
- When speaking out of character (OoC) in a roleplay channel, make it obvious that you're doing so with some notation. For example, Flit starts OoC messages with two forwardslashes (//).
These, alongside the global rules in the previous post, are basic courtesies that are expected of every roleplayer. Repeated failure to follow these may result in removal from the roleplay channels.
Character Rules
Species restrictions
These rules determine what kinds of characters you can make, as well as what restrictions may be placed on them. Note that staff and other selected roleplayers may use banned or restricted species as part of Special Story Events.
If a species of Pokemon is not mentioned here, it may be used without restrictions.
Banned species
The following species are currently not allowed. Note that these restrictions may be lifted or altered in the future. Do not ask when that will be; it will happen when deemed fitting for the current state of the roleplay.
► Show Spoiler: Click to expand
- Anything that is not an official Pokemon design used in the officially-released video games, including, but not limited to:
- Non-Pokemon characters, such as humans or other real-life animals, Digimon, Pals, etc.
- Fakemons
- Fusions
- Beta Pokemon designs (eg. GS Spaceworld)
- Shadow Pokemon as seen in Colosseum, XD, and GO
- The tower duo - Lugia and Ho-Oh
- The super-ancient Pokemon - Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza
- The Pokemon of myth - Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina
- Arceus
- The Tao trio - Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem
- The Aura trio - Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde
- The light trio - Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, and Necrozma
- Guzzlord
- Eternatus
- Calyrex
- Pecharunt
- Terapagos
- Any Pokemon, or forms thereof, introduced in Winds and Waves, until stated otherwise
- Any Pokemon, or forms thereof, introduced in any future games, until stated otherwise
You may only have
two total characters that are limited species.
► Show Spoiler: Click to expand
- Celebi
- Celebi may time travel to the past; however, it acts as a spectator, and cannot be perceived or influence its outcome in any way.
- Celebi may also bring one other Pokemon with it to the past. That other Pokemon is subject to the same limitations as Celebi.
- When traveling to the past, to ensure accuracy...
- If the primary focus is on a character's backstory, the character's RPer's approval is needed.
- If the primary focus is on the history of the setting, the Lore Team's approval is needed.
- Celebi cannot travel to the future outside of special story events.
- Jirachi
- Jirachi may grant wishes as often as it'd like.
- Wishes that aren't very powerful, such as teleporting a nearby item, have no restrictions; however, substantial or more complex wishes require approval from the Lore Team before the roleplay can continue, and will cause it to grow extremely tired, preventing further wishes for a while (at least 24 in-universe hours).
- Making things out of nothing, and changing something into something else, are substantial and require Lore Team approval.
- Wishes cannot permanently modify a character in any way.
- Deoxys
- Regigigas
- The forces of nature
- Hoopa
- Hoopa may only be Unbound during special story events.
- Hoopa cannot summon Legendary Pokemon while Confined. It may only do so in its Unbound form with Lore Team approval.
- The guardian deities
- The legendary heroes
- They may not start with the rusted weapons, and must obtain them in a Special Job Request; see the Roleplay Mechanics post for more information.
These species are freely allowed, but have other restrictions.
- Manaphy: Heart Swap may be used to swap bodies of other characters, but permission is required from all roleplayers involved in the swap first, and the effect is always temporary.
- Victini: It can lose.
- Kubfu: It may not start with either scroll, and must obtain them in a Special Job Request; see the Roleplay Mechanics post for more information. (You may make an Urshifu character with no restrictions.)
Other character rules
- You can redesign a Pokemon species as much as you'd like for your character, but it must vaguely resemble the species in question, and it cannot include things that would give that species a fair advantage (eg. giving wings to a Pokemon that normally wouldn't have any).
- Including a direct meeting with a banned or restricted Pokemon species in your backstory that isn't another active character requires Lore Team approval before posting your character profile.
Submitting your character
Please
don't use a Google Doc; instead, send your character profile directly in one new forum post in
#char-submissions. (This is for convenience, and other future reasons.) It's okay if you need to split your profile into multiple messages.
Required things
Your character submission must have all of these things clearly listed.
► Show Spoiler: Click to expand
- Name.
- Age. This can be numerical or an age range (eg. "young adult").
- Species.
- Gender. However your character identifies as now. If you wish to specify a different birth gender, you can list it separately, or mention it in your character's bio later.
- Preferred Pronouns.
- Romantic Preference.
- Level. Your character may start at any level up to Level 60. Their level determines available level up moves,
- Ability. It must be an Ability your character's species can have. Hidden Abilities are freely allowed.
- Active Moves. It must be a bulleted list of up to six moves. The Pokemon must normally be able to learn these moves in any generation, and you must specify the method of learning each move (level, TM, etc). These moves can be used in RP.
- Level-up moves may be freely used up to the Pokemon's current level.
- TM and HM moves may be freely started with as well.
- You may start with only one move from any of the following methods: egg, tutor, wild Tera, Purified, or event.
- Egg moves must match parents.
- Event moves will be scrutinized more heavily, will require explaining how and when it was learned, and aren't guaranteed to be allowed. It's highly recommended to ask before using event moves.
- Other Moves. This is a list of non-levelup moves that the Pokemon has learned previously, but has since forgotten. It can recall these moves at any time with a Character Update.
- Appearance. What does your character look like? Describe in at least 2-3 complete sentences. This is required even if you have art of your character, so that those with screen readers can participate.
- Personality. What is your character like? How do they act around others, what do they do in their spare time, etc. Describe in at least 2-3 complete sentences.
- Backstory. What happened with your character before the events of the roleplay? Note that involving a continent that isn't in the official PMD games may be scrutinized more heavily. Describe in at least 2-3 complete sentences.
To make it easy, here's a pastable template:
Code: Select all
**Name:**
**Age:**
**Species:**
**Gender:**
**Preferred Pronouns:**
**Romantic Preference:**
**Ability:**
**Active moves:**
- Move 1
- Move 2
- Move 3
- Move 4
- Move 5
- Move 6
**Other moves:**
(none yet, gained in RP)
**Appearance:**
**Personality:**
**Backstory:**
Using this template is optional, but note that everything listed is required!
Tips and resources
Bulbapedia is a good place to look at what Abilities and moves a Pokemon can have. Other sites are also usable but may not be as accurate due to not being crowdsourced. Bulbapedia also has descriptions in a Pokemon's Biology section that you can use as a starting point.
For a reference of the official PMD world, you can use
this interactive map.
If you have Discord Nitro, it's recommended that you do
not use the Nitro character limit. If your Nitro expires, you cannot edit your posts that have exceeded the non-Nitro character limit.
Maintaining your character(s)
Character list
You must create and maintain a character list in order to roleplay.
Your character list is a post in the
#char-list forum. All that's required is a link to each character's profile post. You may include anything else you'd like in your forum post.
Once this has been posted, a staff member will give you the Roleplayer role, which opens up the roleplay channels!
Character updates
Sometimes, you will need to edit your character's profile post, including level increases or changes to active moves.
Whenever you do this, you must post a summary of what you've changed in
#char-updates.
How to roleplay
If you're just starting out or don't have any plans with others, it's recommended that you ping the "@RP Ping!" role in
#rp-request to see if anyone is available to roleplay. You can also write a starting post in a free roleplay channel and tag the role afterwards (make sure you mark it as OoC!).
Identifying and claiming a free roleplay channel
Each location has one channel. A channel is "free" if either of the following is true:
- The roleplay that was happening there has been clearly marked as ended (either with a separator or an agreement between whoever was there).
- You asked those roleplaying there if they've finished, and they said yes.
The #homes-shops and #other-dungeons forum channels have one forum post for each location, which work the same way as the rest of the channels.
To claim a roleplay channel, write and send your starting post, or if you are continuing a roleplay, make an OoC post linking to the previous response and write your response. There's no need to type "Claimed!" or anything of the sort; using the channel is claiming it.
If you can't find an open roleplay channel, every category has a #threads forum channel where you can make a thread for your roleplay. These threads cannot be stolen. If you use these channels, make sure you specify where the roleplay is taking place.
"Stealing" a roleplay channel
If a channel doesn't appear to be free,
but it has been
two weeks (14 days) since the previous post, you may "steal" the channel.
To do this, send the following:
...or similar,
as its own message. Then you may start or continue your RP as normal.
► Show Spoiler: Why this is allowed
This probably isn't something I (Flit) need to explain, but I've ran into minor scuffles with this before in other places, so I feel the need to.
Participation in a roleplay is collaborative writing, and as such it is naturally a commitment to some degree between whoever is participating in it.
Two weeks is far more than enough time to write a response in my view. Younger roleplayers often don't have school on weekends. Even if older roleplayers have a full time job, it's very likely - required in most places - that you have at least two days off. That time off alone is more than enough time to write a response. Even disregarding this, there's still the off time after school or work to write.
Some people are busier than others, and that's entirely fair. However, if they're so busy that they can't write even a short response for an entire week, it would probably be best to pause the roleplay and continue later when they have more time. Failing to do this is not only unfair to the roleplay partner, who may potentially have more free time and be capable of responding quickly, but also unfair to everyone else if using a roleplay channel, because these channels are inherently more visible and therefore more desirable, yet also more limited.
There's something to be said about wanting to do other things with the limited free time that you have. While valid, this also implies that roleplay is not important enough to prioritize, which is still not fair to those who do prioritize it.