The Rules

The Lost Souls Tavern does not require a character sheet, though we do keep notes on characters, and you may submit your character for approval or to work out difficulties. The ops do not always have time to go over things immediately so be patient, please.


In General

In the IC areas, you will remain IC or type in (()) to indicate you are speaking out of character. Using () around any other statement may be treated as ooc. Unlike some channels, we do not ban all ooc conversation, but please do not overuse it. Similarly – do not over use cursing or capital letters.

Bear in mind that just because we hate your character does not mean we don’t like you. If we kick your booger-flinging goblin from channel 23432 times, that does not mean we hate you, it just means we despise booger-flinging goblins. Similarly, if your elf and an op’s dwarf get into a big argument, don’t assume that when you or the op bring in another character, the argument will still apply to the new character. Keep your characters separate, and separate OOC and IC issues.

If you make your characters universally unlikable and unplayable in our world — we’re going to encourage you to play somewhere far, far away.

Like on another Net.

Characters not to play without talking to a storyteller.

  • No angels.
  • No half-angels.
  • No demons.
  • Half-demons are only allowed if they were entirely raised by humans on this plane. Not in any hell, not in any abyss, only on the prime material plane.
  • No character who can destroy entire towns in an afternoon by itself. (It should take all day, at least.)
  • No ‘comic relief’ characters – if that is their entire purpose, they are not welcome. In particular – be aware that just because you think it is funny, we might not.
  • No ‘mysterious puddles’, unattended children who are expecting to stay that way, pathetic figures who cannot be helped, or other characters that are difficult to interact with because they are meant only to be the center of attention and cannot react to anything in a normal way.
  • No characters who are under the impression they can do whatever they want without consequences. There are always consequences.

You can play just about anything in the LST except an actual god or godlike being. Remember that just because your character calls himself a god does not mean he is one here. And if you definitively identify yourself OOCly as something, we are liable to hold you to it.  If you really want to play something like this, you MUST talk to the head storytellers.  It is not impossible. Its just really not likely.

And just because I want people to know this, the channel founder hates kender, gully dwarves, ‘cute’ characters, and the excuse ‘he/she/it doens’t know any better’ or ‘its just his/her/its nature!’  Your character’s chaotic evil nature is not something the locals have to tolerate if you can’t keep it under control.

Bannable offenses

  • Explicit sexual activity, especially if told to take it private.
  • Attacking people without clearing it with the player ooc and/or for no clearly understood reason.
  • Spamming. (Advertising for other channels, scrolling, refusing to stop chatting ooc after a warning in channel, etc.
  • Bossyness by a non-op/storyteller. (Ops and storytellers are supposed to be bossy. It’s their job.) You want to make the rules — get your own channel.
  • Offensive or inappropriate names. Don’t bother coming in with a name like Master_Baiter or Biggus_Dickus. Or worse.
  • Refusing to comply with the channel rules.
  • Ignoring an ongoing event/scene/action that should have some affect on your character. Particularly after you’ve been told to stop ignoring it.
  • Backtalking an Op who’s doing his/her job. Discussion of sensitive matters can if necessary be in Private Message. Backtalk should be done right to someone in the room so we can role-play slapping you.
  • Because we just don’t like you. Don’t go away mad. Just go away. Yes. This really is a rule. If you are obnoxious, arrogant, weird and generally unfriendly and make yourself disliked by a large percentage of the players, we can and will just kick you out. Mind your manners.

Combat

If you start a fight in the tavern without clearing it with the person you are fighting, and/or the storyteller on duty, you are probably going to lose, regardless of how you free-form in other rooms. No magic, no gifts, no alien technology, no special powers or abilities of any kind will work on anyone if they do not wish it to, including yourself if a storyteller needs to rule on something, without speaking with the Storyteller on duty. Period.

Until you talk to one of the Storytellers, you are simply a normal elf/human/wolf or whatever it is you walked into the room as. No super strength, no above natural agility, etc. You can SAY you are a vampire, you can role-play it and maybe never need to talk to a storyteller at all. But if you want to compete, fight, show off some power, or even heal, you MUST speak to the Op on duty, who will forward the details the senior storyteller of the room.  Yes, we talk about things, we do not all live in a vacuum and never tell each other what’s going on.

Character Deaths
This is a hard decision to make for an op. Deaths are not necessarily final in a fantasy game. But there are ways to make them final and they will be used on characters we don’t want back. And while it is nice to have permission to kill someone’s character before doing so, if you clear it with an Op because the other player doesn’t wanna get killed or won’t acknowledge a hit, characters can be deemed hit or damaged or charmed or killed by another character if it seems necessary. If you don’t like the possibility that an Op might rule against you sometime — don’t play here.

Storytellers

Storytellers who wear the Symbol of Power (the @) are always, always, more powerful than the most powerful non-member in the room, regardless of your status in other realities.

If any op or moderator speaks to you OOC, you had best listen. We will kick your butt a few times if we think you’re not listening. There is no big deal about being kicked. We will do it to get your attention, to annoy you into compliance if you’re being a jerk, or for a warning that you’re about to step into bannable territory. If you were kicked and don’t know why, ask. If you are going to be emotionally damaged by this, don’t come here, there are plenty of kinder, gentler channels.

Posting

No, No NO 30-90 minute descriptions from players of any sort.  More than 3 lines(full posts, including cuts) for a post is absolutely forbidden for anyone who is not actually a Storyteller on duty. If you cannot role-play without the long involved descriptions that take several hours of how you turn a freakin’ doorknob and your eyes sparkle and your boots are just so ….then this is not the channel for you. Dances, stories and songs are fine and are encouraged within reason. Do not try to sing or dance or whatever in a busy, ongoing scene.  Its rude.

Don’t post for someone else. Posting “I take a swing at Fester’s head!” or “I trip Fester to make him fall down and ruin his cake” is probably alright. Posting “I take a swing at Fester’s head and obliterate it in one punch” or “I trip Fester and he falls down and ruins his cake” is not acceptable. Type Intent, not Action. Actions will be resolved by mutual agreement or an Op on duty. If you don’t want the Op to interfere, you better not make it his biz.

Don’t start calling “autohitautohit!” when someone posts as above. Just say “Bill moves out of the way with agile grace” or “Bill falls clumsily out of the way, evading what looked like a sure hit”. You don’t want to get hit — don’t. But don’t be an asshole about it, either.

No one is obligated to wait past five minutes for another person to post. No one is forced to move on until another person has posted, either, except if the storyteller on duty is going to go on, a storyteller may move on at any time, with or without someone’s posts. Do not wander off to play a video game, do your laundry or walk your dog in the middle of a moving chat session, we will not wait for you.

The Tavern’s Special Attributes

The Lost Souls Inn is a magical place and occasionally moves or vanishes without warning. It is very chaotic – anything could and does happen. People and things from any reality may appear at any time nearby it. Be forewarned – the Tavern-keepers have ways of making sure their tavern is protected.

No, you cannot break in. The place is warded and guarded by all manner of beings.  Unless the Storyteller on duty says otherwise, the tavern is pretty much invulnerable.  Don’t blame us – blame the guys that kept burning down our taverns.