PACT AMERICANA strives to be a safe, yet expressive community for all of its players. As members of the PACT AMERICANA community, players are expected to follow the notices below and report any offenses against them to appropriate staff.
For any additional questions, clarifications, or otherwise, feel free to ping @narwhal.zip or @xyvix. :)
SERVER RULES AND EXPECTATIONS
Take note of and abide by Discord's Community Guidelines.
If you decide to ignore literally everything else, please at least do this.
Be willing to communicate.
Not every player will have the same schedules, lives and everything else going on beyond the screen. Talk to your partner/s regarding boundaries, expectations, likes, and dislikes in order to ensure that your sessions flow smoothly.
We are an 18+ server — despite this, please do keep heavily sexual or otherwise largely NSFW themes out of public channels.
Yes - the server is 18+ only, as we acknowledge that we tackle mature or darker themes and ideas within the setting. By going through verification, you acknowledge this requirement and are assumed to be abiding by it. Members that are suspected to be in violation of the age requirement are subject to further verification by Overseers.
With regards to NSFW, please fade it to black or take it to DMs. While there's nothing wrong with it, we'd like for spicier topics in particular to be easier to avoid for members that aren't particularly interested in seeking them out.
Avoid the use of GenAI art or writing tools.
Our roleplay depends on personal creativity and the individuality of each player. When the writing and artwork come from the people in the server or sourced from elsewhere, the shared story feels more authentic and meaningful, and more importantly, is the primary reason to engage in storytelling at all. AI produced content often lacks a personal voice, can create mismatches in tone, and can undermine the work others put into their characters.
By keeping all writing and art human made, we preserve the shared experience, protect the creative identity of the group, and maintain a fair and balanced atmosphere. If you ever need help brainstorming or developing an idea, you can always ask other players or the staff. That collaboration is part of the fun.
Use common sense.
We're all here to have a good time. Staff members reserve the right to respond appropriately to any other offenses that may not necessarily be outlined above.
In order to better facilitate readability, immersion and mechanical clarity, PACT AMERICANA uses specific formatting rules and guidelines for posts made in roleplay channels. Playing in PACT AMERICANA means agreeing to these rules, which are just as enforced as the server-wide rules. In the most severe cases, breaking these can be grounds for warnings, timeouts, and bans.
THE DO'S:
OBSERVE BASIC ROLEPLAY ETIQUETTE
This includes asking before joining into scenes, refraining from metagaming or godmodding, etc. - you know the drill. We expect roleplayers to be experienced enough to know when what they are doing is inappropriate.
MAINTAIN A MINIMUM STANDARD OF QUALITY
Your post should describe your character's actions, their state of mind, what they may say or think, and give something for the other player(s) to respond to. It should have a minimum length of roughly 6 high-quality sentences. Not every post needs to or should be multiple pages or hundreds of words - but you do need to show effort.
WRITE IN LIMITED THIRD PERSON
It helps maintain the boundaries between your character and you, while allowing you to be more clear and precise in your writing. Describe how your character acts and remain impartial when conveying neutral information.
INCLUDE MECHANICAL DECLARATIONS
When declaring an Action, you must include the mechanical declarations in brackets at the very end of your post, [Like this.] If you are doing multiple things in Combat, such as moving a Zone, activating a free Ability and using an Action, include each in a separate line.
[Action: Attack Darius]
[Move: Distant to Nearby]
[Free: Sustain Shroud of Crimson]
After declaring an Action, make any rolls as appropriate using the designated bot in a separate message. The bot will post the roll results for the GM/other players to interpret. If you would like to discuss the rolls and the implications before the next post is made, you may do so in an OOC chat.
THE DON'TS:
Below are rules of roleplay that must be followed. Posts or users in violation of these are subject to have their messages deleted or be penalized in other ways, up to and including permanent bans for egregious and/or repeated violations.
FOR GM-GUIDED SCENES,
...avoid being a cause for delay. Players are required to respond within 24 hours when it is their turn, and ideally sooner.
Keeping the pace of play at a reasonable level is in the best interest for everyone's enjoyment, and shows respect for everyone's time. If you think you will be unable to maintain this for the duration of an event, we urge you to wait to sign up until you can, in order to preserve your experience alongside everyone else's. If you have an extenuating circumstance, be sure to notify the GM beforehand or as soon as possible if it occurs during the event to see if a resolution or workaround can be negotiated. Failure to comply with this will skip your turn and removal from the event.
Repeated violations may result in blacklisting from GM-guided scenes.
FOR ALL OUT OF CHARACTER DISCUSSION,
...including reminder/notification pings to other players, please keep it out of the roleplay channels.
You may discuss in a dedicated OOC channel/thread, in direct messages or any other appropriate non-roleplay chat. Messages sent in roleplay channels that ping another user will be automatically deleted via bot moderation, so do not tag someone in a post as it will be deleted. Moderation will also purge OOC messages not caught by the bot.
FOR IN-POST MEDIA,
...please don't overdo it. While we love an occasional well-decorated post, especially for those special hype moments, readability comes first and foremost.
Excessive use of images, links, videos, GIFs and other non-text mediums within RP posts are not allowed in the interest of preserving accessibility for all members, especially those on mobile. If you are attaching an image or GIF to every post you make, that is excessive. Staff will let you know if it is too much. Repeated warnings will result in removal of media permissions in roleplay channels.
ABOUT GENERATIVE AI,
...any post suspected of being generated by an LLM such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, etc. will be reviewed by moderation and deleted if a consensus is reached.
While you will not be banned for a first and sole offense, if after review, you are suspected to have generated posts in the past, you will be banned permanently. No exceptions. Disputes and appeals related to LLM content may be raised to Head Admin @narwhal.zip, who will give the final judgement.
OUR BEST PRACTICES:
Maintain literate, high-quality writing. Use descriptive and potent word choices, describe your character's inner world, how they feel about the other characters and how they engage with the city of New Salem. You want to not only engage your fellow players in the scene, but readers both in the current and future. You are engaging in creative writing, flex your muscles!
Use restraint when using formatting tools, including markdown, spacing, bolding, italicizing and others. When describing your character's activity, you do not need to italicize the entire post or underline their dialogue. Legibility and immersion are maintained when you use it sparingly. Of course, there are times where it can add emphasis and contribute positively - save it to convey your character's strong emotions or a particularly powerful and climatic moment.
Allow for narratively interesting outcomes, even if it involves failure or consequences for your character. Taking a sub-optimal action, such as charging headfirst into a fight you won't win, or allowing the dice to determine an outcome, can create iconic and climatic moments in the story. What this doesn't mean is that you need to throw your fellow agents under the bus. We ask you use your best judgement of when to act rationally.
