Backstory:
About six years ago, Xavier's, a well-established and respected university, opened a new branch campus in Westchester County, New York. This new campus is trying something new with their enrollment rules as a social experiment: Admission is not based purely on grades or test scores, it is based on personal potential and strives to ensure that the students achieve it. Or, at least that was the company line. This branch campus is for mutants only.
Now, after numerous adventures, misadventures and the passage of the Mutant Registration Act, the school has gone underground. The game follows the lives of these students, as they learn more about their mutations, and the powers they possess. Where will it take them? How do they deal with it? How will society deal with them? Well...that's for us to decide.
The general guidelines for playing and rules of conduct are as follows:
-- You must be 18 or older to play. All players will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
-- Only characters from the Marvel universe: Players may only choose from characters from the Marvel universe. No Original Characters (OC) are allowed to be played unless if they are Non-Playable Characters (NPC) who will only be there as supporting characters, for example family members, friends, or other personal plot additions.
-- Only play your own character: Players decide on only their own actions and reactions. In the event in-game instructions are given, it will generally be by a staff member or designated leader either in a planning room or via private message. If there is any question on an instruction given by another character within a game, and you are unsure as to whether you must follow it, please private message a staff member. Keep in mind that the moderator is busy doing a dozen things at once, and while technology is great, it's not foolproof. We will not intentionally ignore any request or inquiry.
-- NO cheating! So pretty much we mean no Godmodding or Power Playing by this. Just because you, the player, knows something does not mean the character knows these things so your own game knowledge shouldn't come out of your character's mouth if he or she wouldn't be able to know this information.
-- Keep in game emotions in game: Just because you had an argument in game with another character does not mean you are now arguing with the player of that character. Recognize that game emotions are just part of a game, and don't let them spill into other areas. Also, in accordance with the rules of chat and of this forum, abuse or harassment will not be tolerated.
-- Less is more: For the most part, these are ordinary kids with extraordinary powers. When plotting personal plots, remember that your character's problems don't have to be catastrophically dramatic to be interesting.
-- There is no canon, there is no history: We start our characters with a completely clean slate, meaning no references to a canon character's past or supporting canon cast, except in the case of humans (for example, Cable can't have Cyclops as his father, but Wolfsbane might have Moira MacTaggert as a foster mother). The only things carrying over from the established stories are powers and appearance. You choose everything else for your particular character. Any history, connections, whatever between characters must be agreed upon by both players in advance. Do not create connections with characters that are not being used. Example: if you play Cyclops, do not establish Havok as your brother if no one is playing him or if the Havok player does not wish to be brothers. All player characters are incoming college freshmen to fit the story, so they should all be 17-21 years of age.
-- No more than three characters per player: A player starts the game with only one character. If that character remains active for an entire school year, the player may choose one additional character to play and, with the next year, the third will be available. Since the focus of this game is on character development and relationship building, players are encouraged to stick with their characters and give them a chance to develop. Since we start from the ground, a character can be molded in any way the player wishes, if they take the time to do so.
-- The setting is modern day, the real world: It's the year 2014, so aside from a few things established in the game, such as the existence of Cerebro, the Blackbird and the Danger Room, the technology is what we have now and there are no alternate universes, time travel, magic, etc.
-- Mutants are becoming a major presence in the world: The American Mutant Registration Act has passed and is in full effect. The anti-mutant Robert Kelly is the US president. Recently mutant terrorism has become a part of the political landscape of the United States with the actions of The Brotherhood.
-- NPCs and PC instructors: NPCs and PC instructors: Xavier, Styger, McCoy, etc. are adult NPCs (non-player characters) and school instructors. These characters exist only to facilitate plans made by game staff and are under the direct supervision of the game staff. They are played by staff or players designated by them. Some older student characters also act as junior instructors.
-- Xavier's is still a school: We all know it's a school, but keep in mind that while we may not often instance classes, your character does take classes and have homework, just like any student. While we used to have a set class schedule, with so many characters of various ages in the game that's too difficult. Generally, younger students will have basic general study courses in history, mathematics, sciences and such. Older students will have more specialized classes based on their interests. Graduate classes are available as well.
-- The Timeline: There are two semesters every school year, and each semester has its own separate time line. All instances, games and fics are recorded in the time line and generally run as they are played, in a chronological order. If you have an instance that for whatever reason needs to be backdated, it is your job to inform the game's official timeliners (tears~fall~like~glass) via U2U, who will then ensure that a placeholder is placed in the timeline. If you fail to do so, your instance will be time lined with the others listed as 'current'.
-- Instances: Players do not need to ask permission to instance from game mods for everyday scenarios. Rule of thumb is if you're doing anything that could have a major impact on the character/characters involved, the school, or the overall story, consult the staffs first. When sending instances to moderators, remember to give us the title you prefer for your instance, and a timeline note we can post at the beginning of the instance. Also, the old moderators are permitted to post their own instances if they so wish, though they are subject to the game staff's approval in as much as if the staff believe that there has been any sort of game or universe rule breaking, the instance will be taken down and will not be posted again until the corrections the game staff have suggested are made.
-- Special instances: Players who want to arrange a special instance 'maybe a specific scenario starring certain characters' can post a request for that instance ahead of time, and use that thread to decide on a day/time to play. This facilitates coordinating groups.
-- Fics: When posting your own fics, if you want them timelined, please post them in the In Continuity Fic forum, and place a brief timeline note at the beginning of the fic.
-- Subplots: We encourage players to think of interesting personal character plots, or subplots involving other players. Please feel free to talk to the staff about subplot ideas. Once a subplot is approved, staff and involved players will hold a meeting with the basic outline of the subplot and roles within it discussed. The staff (and everyone involved in the subplot) should be notified of changes to roles or the overall story. This allows everyone to stay in the loop and have the desired participation. Failure to do so will result in a two game ban and possible retconning of the subplot.
-- Planning and Inclusion: The guide for planning for subplots works for every instance. It's imperative that everyone involved in an instance knows what's going on, and if there is a conflict introduced in the instance, everyone involved must know what the consequences of their actions may be. Similar to the need to keep in-game emotions in-game, there is a need for people to be informed if their actions will have fallout, especially if this fallout is negative. While in real life you may not be able to foresee the consequences of your actions, this is a game. Blindsiding another player is not good practice. Play is only fair if everyone directly involved is informed of the effect a particular action could have on his or her character, so that player can plan his or her own next move. For example: If Doug crashes into Scott's car with his bicycle during an instance, Scott should not laugh it off during the instance, then later tell Doug he hates him unless both players know before the instance is completed that Scott will hate Doug.
-- Team structure: We no longer have the separate Medical, Security, Infiltration, and Combat teams. All students are considered 'X-Men' from the day they enroll and will be trained in all areas, unless you specifically request a student not be involved. The team leaders are still senior leaders and team leaders will be chosen for a given mission based on the characters involved in the situation.
-- Rooming: All students are housed in separate dormitories according to their sex. It is normally two per room and four sharing a bathroom unless there is an odd number of students of a particular gender in which case there will be three in one room. Generally roomies will remain the same throughout the school year unless new students arrive or old ones leave, in which case the game staff will reshuffle a few people to ensure that everyone is partnered with a playable character if they so wish.
Now, we all know that this is a college and relationships happen between students and we encourage this, but while students are of course allowed to 'stop over' at their partner's room they aren't allowed to officially 'move in' together unless they are officially engaged, married or have children. If your characters are in such a circumstance then please let the game staff know and separate accommodation will be arranged for your character by the school faculty.
And of course, characters do not have to live at the school if they don't want to, you are more than welcome to reference your character living elsewhere and coming into Xavier's for classes.
Anyone who had an arrangement different to what is listed here with the old mod team will simply be 'grandfathered' in to save everyone a headache.
-- Pregnancy: You must inform the staff if you wished your character to become pregnant, as it is such a character changing event and can effect the school at large, even to the point that it may effect overall semester plots.
-- Post-Graduates: Once your character has graduated you can have them set off into the great blue yonder to pursue a normal life and pick up a new character, or you can choose to continue to play them through use of the Xavier post-graduate course. This allows your character to train as an instructor and teach the newer students. If that is something you'd be interested in doing with your character please contact the game staff with your ideas for what you'd like to study and go on to teach.
Also, from semester 14 onwards, post-grads and regular students will be roomed separately, to prevent the awkwardness of having to share a room with your teacher.
-- Power Limitations: We'd just like to state that as well as the 'no magic, no aliens rule, no extensive time travel/alternate realities' there are three 'powers' that we the staff will not allow for a playable character, these are reality warping (on a cosmic level, see Nightscrawlearth villian Proteus), 'invincibility' and pre-cognition (being able to see the future). The reasoning is thus, the first two would make for a boring character and could make the more actiony plots difficult, how are you meant to instill any sense of threat if a character is able to just wave a hand and turn all the enemies into possums, or just wade into the fray, grab the bad-guy and just walk out, it just wouldn't be enjoyable for the other players. The final power, pre-cognition, would mean that the player would have to be privy to every single plot and runs the risk of ruining any surprise plots people had planned. Slight leeway is given with this rule when it comes to psychic characters, who are permitted very rare glimpses of the future with game staff permission, but you're not permitted to have that as your characters actual mutation.
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There is no point in having rules if we do not require people to follow them. We all make mistakes occasionally and leeway will be shown in accidental rule breakage. Blatant rule breakage will result in a penalty given to the player in private by the game staff. Three penalties are allowed before a two game probation period will be enforced (no instance participation allowed during the probation period). However you can redeem yourself through observation of game rules once reinstated.
If you require any clarification or have any questions about the rules, please contact the staff.
[Edited 03/11/2013 - Steyn : Added 'no OC' rule]
