Boardwide policy on powerplaying/God-moding

I thought I'd post this here for you guys to refer to in a more organized manner.

The policy regarding 'powerplaying' and 'god-moding' on Strife of Khthon is as follows (it is a little different than most boards):

I permit virtually any creature imaginable to roam the world of Khthon--this allows you to be limitlessly creative and adds a thrilling strangeness to the world and roleplay.

However, this does NOT permit anyone to powerplay or god-mode.
The Urban-Dictionary's definition of "god-modding" (same difference) is:

1. god modding

"God Modding" is in essence when someone’s character has the ability to do practically anything without limits or boundaries. And example is when they simply cannot be harmed by any and all means other RP-ers try.

-It can be killing or injuring a character without the player's express permission.
-It can be when they simply can’t be hit and dodge all attacks or anything for this matter aimed at them.
-It can also be using other characters that other people RP with. In other words, if you do not RP as
Legolas, then you cannot have Legolas say anything, or do anything, without the player's express permission.

The absolute worst is when they make out another character to be what they’re not, just to make their own character seem superior. They make others seem weak, screaming for help, when they’ve made it quite clear about their advantages and strengths. This is called power-play. It’s a strain of God-Modding, but instead of just being irritating, it’s offensive to boot.

This is a prime example of God Modding:

Player A: Punches Player B
Player B: Dodges attack, grabs Player A and throws him. Player A flies at Player B, who warps behind him and slashes Player A in the back.

The Urban-Dictionary's definition of "powerplaying" is:

1. powerplay

In a roleplay, controlling other people's characters. This is very looked down open and is against most rp rules.

'Kim punched Kelly and watched her cry,' is powerplaying, because who are you to say if Kelly started crying or not.

Both of these are unacceptable here and will be punished, though naturally there ARE varying degrees of offense regarding this.

What to do if you are experiencing someone you think is powerplaying or god-moding in a roleplay:

This whole policy is set as a BOARDWIDE WATCH by the members. It is your responsibility to report instances of powerplaying and god-moding to the admin (me), as I'm one person and even with my wonderful global mod Katila, we can't (unfortunately) be omniscient and know absolutely everything that's going on in every thread.

If you are roleplaying and you feel your character is being treated in the ways defined, you need to send me, Xathiador, a PM with the link to the thread where this is happening. You may also send Katila a PM with this same information, and she will definitely help you out, but I need to know what's happening here so she will be instructed to forward these PMs to me as well.

After receiving the PM with the link in it, we will take a look at the thread and judge how bad the offense is (if there is any). Then, we will send a warning to the offender, and if they don't comply, then their account might be suspended. If they still don't comply, then other consequences might be shelled out, until finally it may result in a permanent ban from the forums.

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Closing note:

I honestly do not think we will have problems like this here. Everyone I know here is thoughtful and reasonable and creative. The only reason why I've been so formal and strict about this is because of the freedoms I want to allow my members to create whatever kind of characters they can imagine--as long as they do not infringe on other members' enjoyment/rights/etc.

Forum/Roleplay FAQ
Just for organizational purposes, I'm going to post here answers to important questions that come up among our members. Mainly, these will probably be things I've forgotten to mention in the rules, etc. and will tend to be basic forum policy/guidelines related.

1. Are we allowed to roleplay a character in more than one thread at once?
Yes, this forum runs on what is known as liquid time, which means that you may play your character in more than one place at a time, as long as you keep your wits about you and keep important events separated. I.e., if you're roleplaying your character in two threads, one having been started before the other one, if something important happens in the second one, the first one cannot be affected by the event.

2. How many characters are we allowed to have?
You're allowed to have as many characters as you feel you can handle. In fact, we encourage you to have more than one character. We also recommend that you have separate accounts for each character (it makes things a lot less confusing for the other members as to which character you're playing), but that's not a necessity.

3. Do your characters have to be accepted in order to roleplay here?
There's no formal acceptance process for your characters here. Just make sure you post a profile before you begin roleplaying. I read all of the profiles and usually reply to them. I want people to be completely creative here, so I do my best to be flexible with things. If I see anything completely ridiculous that would, for instance, give your character a huge, unrealistic advantage over other characters (like, 'telepathkinesis that shoots fire and instantly kills the person by thinking of them'), then you'll definitely hear something about it, but other than that, there shouldn't be any problems.

God-moding is a strict no-no here, and if anyone notices that someone is behaving that way, I urge them to PM me or Katila (the global mod) with the link to the thread so we can check it out and/or deal with it. We have to be careful of this here because of the freedoms I allow peoples' characters to have.

to be continued...

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the [url=urlhere]Questions & Suggestions[/url] forum section, and they will be answered as promptly as possible!