General Rules & Behaviour for Blood Rites

As a community we try to only impose rules that will allow us to have a safe and comfortable community that allows for well balanced game play. The mission for Blood Rites is that every character should matter, every character should have an influence on the plot and story, and that Jewels or Caste should not determine a character’s eligibility for power play. The HBC and Founders cannot account for every scenario that could cross our boards so we have, as part of our rules set, a rule that refers to the ‘Spirit of the Law’; this means that members who are clever enough to find loopholes will not be able to take advantage of them.

We are a vibrant role playing community that is passionate about storytelling. In every good story, actions and choices have consequences. Here, this applies in character and OOC.

As the Blood say, "Everything has a price."

3 Strike Policy: If the HBC has to issue 3 official warnings, on any combination of rules, the 3rd warning will come with a site Ban of at least 1 year in length. Members who wish to re-join the board after their ban will need to petition the HBC to be allowed to rejoin.  The HBC reserve the right to outright ban members from the site if they feel the situation is appropriate.

Please note we have a no tolerance policy for abuse against members or staff of the site. We are all humans, and mistakes will happen. If you feel HBC or another staff member has made an error, please feel free to reach out. However, angry tirades and abuse will not be tolerated.

Behavioural Rules

• Common Courtesy: Be nice to your fellow members. We have a no tolerance policy on any attacks or harassment. We suggest that members try and work things out between themselves and involve the HBC if no resolution can be achieved.
  
• 250 Word Minimum: Posts that do not meet this minimum requirement will have a points penalty automatically applied.
  
• Keep Things Tidy: Please format your posts properly and use spell check. If you mistakenly post in a thread under the wrong account, just go to the “modify post” command and change your character name at the drop down provided at the top.
  
• Members must be 18 years old: Younger members may join with permission from their parents. This is due to the adult content that we have on the site.
  
• R & NC-17 Content Must be Flagged:

• If a post contains R or NC-17 content (extreme violence, sex acts, etc.) it must be labeled on the topic description or via the topic icon.
  
• You must also tag your R/NC-17 posts with trigger warnings as well (ex. rape, abuse, torture, etc.)
• We forbid the depiction of any graphic sex act involving minors.

Etiquette Rules
“Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”

• Respect the Threads of Others: If a thread is marked “Open” feel free to jump in, however if a thread is not marked as open you should liaise with the writer first for permission before joining.
• Stepping on Toes: Plot lines should be discussed with everyone that it would impact. You should always consider:

• Territory Ruler/Plot Leader: specifically if this is going to happen near his/her capital city or involves a member of their Court, or impact the plot that they’ve set for the Territory.
• Characters required in order to make the plot work: Don’t assume that writers will do something or push them into a position where they would have to be untrue to the character in order to escape the circumstances.
• Any histories involving another character should be run by that character’s writer first.
• When tagging a character please make sure that you’ve discussed the thread or arc with them ahead of time.

• Gratuitous Posting: Don’t reply to every thread possible because you want to get your post count up or just because you want to write. Make sure that there is a good and realistic reason that your character would be in the thread in the first place.
• Have Patience: Patience is important in any community. Not everyone writes on the same schedule as you do and most  have other commitments outside of the community, so this should be taken into consideration.
• Learn to Compromise: Sometimes ideas will clash and you’ll need to learn how to compromise to make situations work. Everyone has their own ideas and their own characters, and you cannot force others to your whim.
• Read Before You Reply: Read the entire string before you post a reply. Make sure that you know everything that’s going on in the thread.

Process Rules

• When Joining

• Board Registration: New members must introduce themselves in the OOC Registration Forum before they’ll be able to register any characters.

• Graphics Requirements

• Avatar Sizes: 160px wide by 260px tall.
• Signature Size: Maximum is 500px wide by 250px tall.
  • This does not include any awards bars.
• Graphics Claims for actors/models/etc/ for avatars must be registered in the Graphics Claim thread.
• All graphics must be PG-13.
• Avatars, Signatures and Graphics Claims should fairly represent the race and culture aesthetics of their cultural background and home Territory.

• Retiring Characters

• Characters can be voluntarily retired outside of the standard Activity Check process if a writer so desires. The writer should reply to the Character Sheet thread indicating their desire to retire the character.

Activity Rules

• Characters will be assigned an Activity Level at the end of each month; the levels are managed by the HBC and updates are sent on a monthly basis.
• Tier 1 - Active Characters (Written within the last month)
• Tier 2, Level 1 Inactive - Characters who have not written in at least 1 month
• Tier 3, Level 2 Inactive - Characters who have not written in at least 2 months
• Tier 4, Level 3 Inactive - Characters who have not written in at least 3 months
• When a character reaches Tier 4 they will receive a warning notification. If they do not post by the end of the following month the character will be marked Inactive.
• Characters at Tier 4 can purchase a 1 Month Activity Waiver to avoid being marked Inactive if they are not written; this should be purchased by the end of the month.
• Members of HBC receive a 1 month grace period. If after 5 months they have not written with a character then the character will be Deactivated. Noted LOAs are the exception to this rule.
• Characters designated as a Ruler Character cannot purchase Inactivity Waivers. Should they become Inactive the Territory will become forfeit and open for Succession.

• Inactive characters can be brought back by going through the Keep process again with a newly posted character sheet appended with a Re-activation Petition.
• Impact on a Player’s Ratio: If a character has been deactivated due to inactivity the author's ratio will be adjusted accordingly. It is the author's responsibility to balance their ratio before any more characters can be pushed through the application process. No additional Dark Jewel characters will be accepted if the writer's ratio is out of balance.

In Game Dispute Settlements
AKA. Blood men and women are dangerous, so you’d better watch yourself.  [OR] In Game actions have real consequences.
Blood Rites believes that, in keeping with the proper setting of Protocol in the Black Jewels universe, as well as the limited legal ramifications of murder, that it is very important that there be an understanding of repercussions for one's actions.

This system should only be used if there is a failing in agreement between the two players in question as to how the scenario would play out. The preference held by the administration is that roleplay repercussions should always be resolved between the parties, though if no satisfactory solution can be met the staff is more than happy to help. Therefore the following guidelines have been outlined in the event of character on character power struggles, combat, and disputes.

Example Scenarios:

• If character A wishes to kill character B because character B has been caught spying on character A, and the players of character A and character B do not agree on who should be successful in this battle to the death, the below process on settling disputes should be used.
• If character A believes B has slighted him, and his resources or influence could in some way inconvenience B's life significantly... and B disagrees with the loss of renown and reputation and thinks it unfair, the following protocol is used.
• ANY confrontational/controversial situation in which the parties involved can not agree on an outcome, the following protocol is used.

Settling Disputes:

• During any dispute of in-character consequences to in-character actions, a letter written by one or both claimants must be sent to hbc@bloodrites.net, during which the action is reviewed.

• Include the Following in the Email:
• Your Name / OOC Handle
• Players / Characters Involved in the Dispute
• Link to the Thread in Question
• Tell Us the Problem (500 words or less)
• The administrative team will decide, by a majority vote, who is deserving of the what aspects of the dispute. In the case of a tie, whether because one of the staffers is involved (and therefore unable to vote) or because an staffer is away (leaving an even number of staffers), the claimant considered the 'defender' (the one being inconvenienced) will be the winner by default.

• As an additional note, in the case where two staffers are involved in a dispute, the remaining admins will rule the dispute.

Spirit of the Law

The High Blood Council has been faced with a difficult task. There have been several occurrences, whether by accident or happenstance, where members have found loopholes in rules that we've put in place. Each time we try to close up these loopholes it complicates the board significantly and makes our lives, as administrators, incredibly difficult.To help with that matter we're releasing a new "rule" for the board: Follow the Spirit of the Law not the Letter of the Law.

• What does this mean?
• This means that if a member is found to be in violation of the Spirit of the Rules the HBC will follow up with them privately. They will be informed that they are in violation and asked to fix the situation.
  
  • Minor offenses will carry a Points penalty.
  • Medium offenses will carry a Points penalty and a Warning.
  • Major offenses can constitute banning.
• Repeat offenders of minor offenses will be penalized at a higher rate of points than others.
• All points penalties will be delivered in private and quietly removed from the bank during the next points update.

When in doubts speak to a member of HBC to clarify what you plan to do against the Spirit of the Rules. If you ever are concerned that you might get in trouble email hbc@bloodrites.net and we'll follow up with you on the matter.We are not going to use this to blindly penalize people for small or perceived issues.

Summary of Board Rules

We have rules posted throughout the board in various sticky threads pertaining to different processes or elements of our community. Below is our best attempt at summarizing all of those specific rules.

Character Registration:

• All character must be registered with both their first and last names.
• No characters can share a first name to avoid confusion.
• Surnames should only be shared between family when possible.

• Characters must be approved through the Keep’s Registry before you write with them.

Advertisements:

• Advertisements are only to be posted in the Advertising Forum.
  
• Advertisements will be removed if they meet any of this criteria:
• Posted in the wrong forum.
• Contains R or NC-17 content.
• Your site doesn’t have Guest Friendly Advertisements.
• Bumps are not allowed.
• Duplicates are not allowed.

• Click here for a full list of Advertising Rules.

Jewel Policies & Acquisition
Everything you need to know about the jewels, and getting the ones you want!

• Dark Jewels are Rare: We strive to represent a full power balance at Blood Rites so that even the lightest of characters can possess great power in the game; this helps to ensure that our players can enjoy the benefits of playing the powerful characters of the Realm without flooding the board with Dark Jewels.
  
  • The characters of Blood Rites are the heroes (or maybe the villains) of the Realms. So whilst it is very likely that you can have a small handful of Dark Jeweled characters in your arsenal, they are the exception. It is unlikely that in regards to your character’s family that any of their relatives would reasonably possess a jewel Darker than Green.
  • Please read the Keep Article: Jewels.
    

• Player Ratio Limits (Dark Jewels vs. Light Jewels):  To maintain a balance of Light to Dark Jeweled characters, while still allowing everyone an opportunity to play the more powerful characters, we have a Light to Dark Jewel Ratio Policy.
  
  • For every 2 Light Jeweled characters you possess, you may have 1 Dark Jeweled character.
  • Exceptions:
    
    • Landen & Jeweless Blood (not broken, born without Jewels) characters will count as 2 Light Jewels within the Ratio.
    • Black & Ebon Gray characters will count as 2 Dark Jewels within the Ratio.
  • What Jewels Count as a Dark Jewel in the Ratio? Dark Jewels, for the ratio, are characters with a Descent of Green or Darker. In the case where only a Birthright is requested a Dark Jewel is considered to be Opal or darker. If a character makes an Offering and receives Green or Darker their character will then be considered dark jeweled and the player's ratio adjusted accordingly.
    
  • Uber Dark Jewel Limitations: Players may only ever have 1 Black Character and 1 Ebon Gray Character at a time.  Alternately, they may play 2 Ebon Gray Jewelled characters but in doing so forfeit their ability to play a Black Jewelled character.
    

• Acquiring Jewels: There are 5 methods in total that can be used when determining a character’s Birthright Jewel.
  
  • Birthright Jewels:
    
    • Selection: A player can always choose to have a Birthright White, Yellow or Tiger Eye.
      
    • General Random: A player can request to have a randomized Jewel.The Birthright will be rolled at random with the help of a randomiser code that references Random.org for the random number. General Random will always roll White to Red. The randomiser has weighting applied so that Red will be least common and Rose will be most common.
      
    • Light Random: A player can request to have only a Light Jewel rolled for them, and the randomiser will roll between a Birthright White and Purple Dusk.
      
    • Petition: Petitioning for a specific set of Jewels is something that should only be done under very special circumstances, and the player will need to prove through the process that the character inarguably requires a certain Birthright to work within the storyline and plot.
      
      • Requirements: A player must have an already approved character before they can undertake a Petition process on a new character.
      • Dark Birthright Jewel Petitions (Green / Sapphire / Red) will require a majority approval from the Review Staff.
      • Further Petition information is available in our Petition Application thread.
    • Points: Blood Rites has a Points Scheme that rewards activity within the community, and allows members to acquire Jewels through various methods of purchase. Further information on the activity rewards scheme is available in our Points System thread.
      
  • Descent Jewels:
    
    • Randomised Rolls for characters will always descend at least two ranks within the Darkness, though players can select to have a character descend only a single rank.
    • Characters who descend only a single rank in the Darkness may request a bonus +10 to their Power Ranks on both Birthright and Descent.
    • Randomised descents will either be 2 or 3 ranks.Points purchases can be acquired to force a full descent where desired.
  • Jewels Power Ranking:
    
    • Characters receive a randomised power ranking between 1 and 100 that determines what level their Jewel falls on a scale of power within the Darkness. This also determines whether a Jewel is a cut or uncut Jewel.
    • Players do not have access to the ranking of characters and can only determine who is darker through a cut or uncut classification.
    • Opal versus Blood Opal: The difference between Opal and Blood Opal is not as simple as cut or uncut at Blood Rites. Opal is the lighter half of the spectrum while Blood Opal is inherently a darker Jewel, there is a clear split between Light (Opal) and Dark (Blood Opal) that is not defined by cut or uncut status.
  • Jewels & Mixed Blood: As with the books we allow Landen and Blood to have children and mix the blood between them, but there are some rules around the outcome of Jewels for their offspring.
    
    • 1/2 Landen 1/2 Blood: Cannot have a Birthright, can make an Offering of up to Tiger Eye. They would have no natural caste besides witch or Warlord but after their Offering at 20 could theoretically train into a caste such as Healer or Priestess. This would not be done quickly as they would only start learning in their adult life.
      
    • 1/4 Landen 3/4 Blood: Can have a BR up to Rose. They would be able to be born into a natural caste. Treat like a normal Blood except with the BR Rose cap.
      
    • 1/8 Landen or less: Treat as normal Blood. Can have any Birthright.

Character Creation, Registration & Approval

• Registration
  
  • Character Accounts should be registered as a Sub-Account tied to a Player Account.
  • Character Names:
  • First Names will be unique; players cannot use a First Name of an approved Character.
  • Last Names can be used across multiple characters even if they are unrelated, though we recommend trying to keep surnames unique or shared only between related characters.

• Application & Approval
  
  • All characters must receive approval from a member of Review Council before being allowed to post.
  • Dark Jewel Petitions, Triple Caste Female Petitions, or Double Caste Male  must receive a majority approval from Review Council.
  • All characters must use the standard Character Application; detailed information on the Application and process can be found in the Character Application thread.
    
    • All minimum requirements must be met on standard applications in order for a character to be approved.
    • Minimum age for a character is 18.
    • On advanced applications the expectations are that the application will exceed minimum requirements and tell a more in depth story related to the advanced nature of the character.

• Petitions
  
  • All Petitions must use the standard Petition forms; detailed information on the Petition and process can be found in the Character Petitions thread.
    
  • Petitions are available for:
  • Birthright Jewel
  • Double or Triple Caste (for Females)
  • Double Caste (for Males)
  • Inactive Character Re-activation
  • The expectation for any character attempting a petition includes the following:
  • Petitions are meant to be used for characters who require a specific Jewel or Caste due to storyline.
  • Characters undergoing a Petition are expected to be plot moving characters with a goal and a purpose in the over arcing plot of the board, Territory or group.
  • The darker a Jewel, or the more rare a Caste, the harder it will be to have the petition accepted.
  • Petition Eligibility:
  • New members may not submit a Petition until they have one approved character.
  • To Petition for a Dual Caste or Triple Caste character a player must already have 4 characters with at least 10 in character posts a piece, and have been an active member for no less than two months.

Points Reward System

• The Concept:

• The purpose of the Point-Rewards program is to promote and reward activity – as well as act as something of a thank you to our most active and involved players. It will provide a unique experience for the writers at Blood Rites and will allow for a variety of prizes to be earned. For every RP post written the author will receive an amount of points. At the end of the month the points will be tallied and banked for each author. Those points will be able to be used on a variety of items that will be refreshed every month for both price and content.
• Points are used to “purchase” a variety of things, from an automatic full descent – to allowing a player to ‘slide’ on a month they’ve been inactive, points are a versatile way to keep things interesting here on Blood Rites! To find out what one can “spend” their points on, head over the the Points Shop and see what’s available!

• Rules Concerning Points:

• Only 1 Points Shop Purchase or Special Event Item can be applied to a single character (some exceptions apply and will be noted on the item within the shop).
• Writers may only purchase an item for another player with approval from a member of HBC, and will be required to give a fair reasoning as to why they are purchasing on another player’s behalf.
  • In the past approvals have been given based on a writer adopting a plot needed character for another writer, or fulfilling a Wanted Ad, etc.