1. The Rules
Basic Basic Rules
-Don't be rude, kids. *waggles finger at you* It's something you learned either before or in kindgergarten, and I shouldn't have to repeat it. Use common sense.
-Graphic images are no-nos.
-Please only use 'kind' swearing, and keep it IC. Words that go under the title of 'kind' are: bloody hell, crap, etc. Just light ones instead of the 'b'- and 'f'-words, and those kinds of phrases. Again, keep this in character, and don't swear to each other OOC. That isn't nice.
Basic In Character Rules
-No power-playing or god-modding. If you are unsure of the meaning of these terms, post in the 'Notify Us' forum, or PM an admin.
-Translation
OOC means, 'Out of Character'.
IC means, 'In Character'.
You cannot talk OOC in an IC forum, unless it is just a quick something in your psot, clearly marked as OOC. If you want to chat to people, there is a little something called the 'Ooc Discussion' forum. Talk all you want there.
-Characters cannot read minds. If another character is thinking something, your character might guess what they are thinking, but they don't know. The same goes for Medicine Cats and cats who ahve dreams from Star Clan - no one will know what these dreams mean right away! An admin will PM a Medicine Cat if a dream is in the plot, and give them the details to follow. While I'm at it, I'll say now that I don't want cats having dreams left and right. Dreams from Star Clan are uncommon, and could mess up plots (once we get them going) if everyone is having dreams.
-In an IC post, put what your character is thinking in italics. If they are saying something aloud, put it in bold or color or both. Just make sure people can read it. You can put posts in different fonts, like Times New Roman, verdana, or Bookman Old Style. Just make sure that it isn't too small, too big, or un-readable in any way. You can also use tables. Also, if you have more than one character in your account (see the Character Rules for more info), it helps to keep the rest of your post in a different colour as well. For example, I would keep posts for Cookie in this colour, "Cookie is talking ... la-la-la ... ", and another post for Spot goes here ... dum-dee-dum, "Spot is talking ... dum-dee-doo ... "
Get my drift?
-There is a handy little 'edit' button that allows you to edit posts. IC, if you want to leave a topic and have gotten no reply yet, edit your first post instead of writing an entire new one. Also, if your character is leaving, please post something like:
-Cookie has left the area-
It would also be nice if you stated where she went.
-We role-play in past tense third person.
Correct Example: Cookie trudged through the snow, sniffing the cold air as she went.
Incorrect Example 1: Cookie trudges through the snow, sniffing the cold air as she goes.
Incorrect Example 2: I trudged through the snow, sniffing the cold air as I went.
-Posts need to be at least one paragraph, ten thorough sentences. The sentence, 'Cookie sniffed the air' does not count as an entire sentence.
-There are people ('two-legs') living near the forest and general territories in the role-play. You can NPC them, and have them walk by patrols and such, as well as their pets (other, but owned cats, dogs, etc.) as well, but try not to over-do it. For instance, if you were to role-play a pack of dogs chasing your cat and invading camp, without asking an admin or mentioning it anywhere first, you'd ahve to change you're post. First, a pack of domestic dogs isn't likely at all, and the forest isn't exactly big enough for wolves. Second, though admittedly less of an issue, a thing like that would cause a scene at camp, and it might disagree with something in the plot-ness. So just put a word in to the admins via PM or in the 'Notify Us' forum. Thanks.
Okay, those are the basic, basic rules. ^^ Others, such as character-, breeding-, adoption- and fighting-related can all be found in the proper forums. For instance, the character rules are in the 'Character' forum, along with the character application. M'kay? M'kay.