Complete Rules

This a complete list of the rules for 4TMU ripped directly from our new files.

RATINGS, and YOU!
4TMU is rated for players 18 years of age and older only. You are not allowed to be a member of this community if you are under this cutoff age. There are no exceptions and if you are found in violation of this rule you will be banned from the community.

In American television we would be considered a TV-MA or an R rating for the MPAA, an M for Mature for the ESRB. We are not officially rated by any of these organizations but that should give you an idea of the cap on how far you CAN go, not always how far you SHOULD go.

That said people are more then welcome to play at a lower rating for a scene but this should be discussed before the scene. If it's not stated prior all scenes are considered TV-MA, for the maximum rating.

On the other end of the spectrum while we are an Adults only game we are not an adult FOCUSED roleplay. Do not engage in TS in public rooms, save it for the private rooms, or the pages.

Do not attempt to force someone into roleplay of a sexual nature, or of an overly mature nature if they do not want to do that kind of roleplay. It doesn't matter if your character is a telepath or has mystical pheromones or any other excuse you could possibly think of NO MEANS NO. This should be able to go without saying, but if you attempt to force someone into a TS situation or an overly mature situation they're uncomfortable with you will be dealt with.

By the same nature please try to keep the sex talk to the pages as-well, and the swearing on the lower end. We're not prudes but we don't need everything to be constantly about sex or violence.

And as a reminder NO TS WITH ANY CHARACTER UNDER THE AGE OF 18 PHYSICALLY MENTALLY OR OTHERWISE. If you're caught breaking this rule it's an instant ban, no questions no excuses you're gone.

DEATH, and YOU!
Death can be an exciting time in a characters life and will happen on this game, though it should not happen lightly.

Death should never be an every day occurrence for a character, death is a life altering event that is difficult (However not impossible) to overcome. It can have widespread ramifications throughout the entire mush and as such should be used sparingly in order to hold onto the impact of such a life altering (and ending) event.

A character will not die unless there is consent from parties involved directly with the character, and the permission of at least one member of staff.

It's not only OC's (Original Characters) that can die either. Anyone (With adequate story reasoning, and staff approval) can die. There's no special plot armor protecting FC's other then their consent.

Death however seriously we wish for our players to take it, and the ramifications associated with its occurrence in the world, is not, necessarily, a permanent event. Characters can be brought back to life through event chains or simply through a new character applying for the formerly deceased character so long as a proper explanation is provided for why they weren't really dead all along. This could range from only appearing to have died, to being cloned, to mystical artifacts, a trip to the Lazarus pit or even being rescued by friends and family from hell itself.

However such a resurrection of a dead character should come as the conclusion of a plot rather then as something hand-waved in the background.

HARASSMENT, and YOU!
You may find yourself tempted to harass another player through pages or in OOC. If this happens DON'T.

We take harassment very seriously and won't tolerate it from anyone on this game staff or player.

Harassment can take many forms, and we could list them all day, but a general rule of thumb is: be self conscious and when someone asks you to stop doing something stop doing that thing.

CHARACTER AGE, and YOU!
As a firm rule which will be completely without exception, characters must be at least 15 years of age (Both physically and mentally), and must visually identify as such. Characters which misrepresent their age (ex. A 'loli' who is 500 years old in-lore) are not allowed, and will be rejected. If two characters have a child, that child must remain an NPC until they come of age.

Please realize as well that while you CAN play a character under the age of 18 it has to be stressed again that they can NOT publicly nor privately engage in romantic role-play. This is a firm stance that will be directly enforced.

Also please take into consideration that characters under the age of 18 will be looked over with a more fine tooth comb as it were then characters over the age of 18 to ensure they meet game standards.

BANNED CONCEPTS, and YOU!
There are certain concepts which are not allowed under any circumstances. These are non-negotiable, and staff are reminded that anything falling into these categories is considered grounds for immediate rejection of application. This list is not a Definitive collection but exceptions are not to be made for anything falling under this list. Remember to check back on this BB regularly for additions to/removals from this list.

These are the banned concepts so far:

Pets/talking animals/non-sentient creatures.

Characters specifically created for TinySex or seduction, and characters whose main abilities center around sex.

Dimension/Time travelers who retain their ability to travel through time or dimensions.

Characters under 15 years old mentally or physically.

Most anime characters

Lanterns of any color that are not FC's.

Hive Mind/single mind multiple characters/single character multiple bodies. This covers characters like The Borg, and the Stepford Cuckoos

Transformers, or other giant robots that turn into vehicles.

Kaiju

Lary/other universe altering characters

Galactic level threats.

OC clones of FC's. We mean this literally in the sense of "Is a clone of superman" or "Is a Clone of Batman". We also mean this in the sense that you shouldn't really make your character a direct copy of an existing one. We really don't want to see fifty different Hulks running around in rainbow colors. We'd like it if OC's had a bit of originality to them. Of course you can still use common Archetypes when building your character like the flying brick, or what have you, just try to be a bit unique.

Original Characters with a history directly tied to feature characters. If you want your original character to have a direct connection with an FC please roleplay it out, don't just have it added in your background. Your character could have been say inspired by Batman to fight crime, or Snubbed by Tony Stark at some party, but you didn't murder Bruce Wayne's parents, and weren't his Robin.

Original Character family members of Feature Characters.

Characters who were older then 100 years old in 1914. Superpowers didn't exist on earth-2075 until several years after the emergence of Superman. As such we won't allow any immortals who were over 100 years old in 1914, if you have immortality it developed sometime AFTER 1914. This means characters like Vandal Savage must either be from an alternate earth, or only gained their immortality in or after 1914. Also remember mutations (The kind that grant super powers) didn't exist until shortly after 1914 either.

By extent this also means characters native to earth-2075 who had super human abilities before 1914, with one exception, are also banned.

RESTRICTED CONCEPTS, and YOU!
Restricted concepts are different from outright banned concepts in that they can still readily be applied, they simply require greater oversight from staff to keep them reasonable. Most often we would urge new players to shy away from playing restricted character concepts until they get a proper feel for the setting and rules of the game.

Some examples of Restricted character concepts include:

Aliens: Aliens are a rare sight in our version of earth, and character concepts with backgrounds identifying them as aliens are restricted to limit the number of them on grid. From a lore standpoint Humanity has yet to leave earths atmosphere, with space travel all together so far proving a fools errand. A vast government conspiracy has seen to it that what aliens do exist are instead passed off as super soldiers, or mutants. We do not allow OC aliens.

Lanterns: There is One green Lantern of our earth, Alan Scott. Other lanterns may potentially be applied but they would have to originate from other realities. Something important to keep in mind, this universe dose not have any of the lantern corps full stop. The Guardians of OA do not natively exist in this universe. We do not allow OC Lanterns.

Time/Dimension Travelers: While character concepts who actively maintain control over time are banned outright we will still allow on a strictly limited basis character concepts who have traveled through time or dimensions to reach our games reality. These character concepts will be placed under special scrutiny to ensure an adherence to the theme.

Gods: With so many conflicts between the DC and Marvel pantheons we've decided to carefully monitor any deity character concepts. Examples would include Thor, Loki, Lucifer, Trigon. All of these character concepts if applied will have come from an alternate dimension rather then being native to our canon earth to avoid the usual conflicts between DC and Marvel pantheons, and may need to be partially rewritten/toned down in order to fit with our general power level. We do not allow OC gods.

Pure comedy character concepts: character concepts designed as a joke or parody. This includes character concepts like The Tick, Howard the Duck, Ambush Bug, Deadpool, Darkwing Duck, the list could go on forever. The reason that these aren't on the outright banned concept list is that there is still the possibility for some of these to be played well. The likelihood of staff approving one of these character concepts is very small, but unlike items on the banned roster we aren't ruling them out completely.

Anything that doesn't fit the noir feel we're going for. Yes this is a bit of a catch all, but it's true, if your character concepts really doesn't fit the noir/pulp feel of the game we're not very likely to approve it, it's just that simple.

Check back regularly to see when new restricted concepts are added.

IN CHARACTER CONSEQUENCES, and you!
We are a mostly consent based game with a focus on roleplay (Playing a character) first above such things as rollplay (Utilizing dice to determine success.), This in mind we would like to remind everyone that In-Character Actions (ICA) result (=) in In-Character Consequences (ICC).

What does this mean for you as a player? Well for instance if your character decides to go around Gotham slaughtering everyone, you can expect the police to issue out a warrant for your characters capture which can result in jail time or worse. Depending on your actions, your character may be killed.

METAGAMING and you!
Out-of-Character (OOC) is completely different from In-Character (IC.) What happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas, and as such no OOC info should be used IC. Punishing someone IC for an OOC action is equally inappropriate.

Of course we don't mean that you shouldn't get together in OOC to talk about running a scene, what we mean is that for an example: Let's say you know that Magneto is the most powerful mutant who works with magnets. Just because you know this fact doesn't mean you can automatically assume because someone is manipulating metal and you know out of character it's magneto you can assume IN character you know it's magneto.

Or the all time classic of: I know that Bruce Wayne is the Bat-Man, so my character knows that he is the Bat-man! No. They don't. Please realize your character does not know everything that you know.

This goes for technology and historical events to. It doesn't matter if you know how to make a cellphone using two batteries ductape and a soldering kit: Cellphones haven't been invented yet.

Conversely IC (In-Character) is NOT OOC (Out-of-Character) Just because someone is racist, or sexist, or attacks your character or in general just does something you don't like doesn't mean automatically the player feels the exact same way. There's a degree of separation between you and your character. That doesn't mean that someone CAN'T feel that same way out of character it just means you shouldn't assume things about a player from the way they run their character. Someone doesn't hate your guts because their character really dislikes yours for whatever reason more often then not.

Now if you're uncomfortable with that kind of roleplay you CAN however inform the person in question in OOC that it makes you uncomfortable and would rather not engage in that kind of roleplay. If they persist in said roleplay afterwords please feel free to contact a member of staff with logs of the event in question.

PLAGIARISM, and you!
Do not plagiarize content for your character.

Full stop, just don't.

It's theft.

While we admit that not everyone has as much time for working on their characters information as some members of staff, we do not want people to take the easy way out of simply copying a comic vine, or Wikipedia article or what-have-you wholesale and tossing it up as if you wrote it. This is not a request. If you are found doing this it's a fast track to rejection, if it turns out you got away with this only to be found out later? You'll be removed from the character, and told to app again.

This doesn't mean you can't re-use parts of you OWN work on your sheet if you want, with in reason, it just means you can't use anything of OTHER peoples work.

Now if you're applying for a character who has been applied here at 4TMU only to be dropped later, you may in that specific case re-use what has already been written for your character in order to save time on the part of yourself and staff. Remember anything you make here: Rooms, room descriptions, or character descriptions and sheets becomes a part of the game and may be re-used on a case by case basis.

ANACHRONISM, and you!
While we have some leeway in this rule, more-so then the others on this board, we, the staff, would like to remind everyone who is a player of 4TMU that we are a period game, set in an alternate 1920's. As such we do not have iPhones, the world wide web, or many of the modern liberties that people take for granted.

Though our version of the 1920's is a somewhat more progressive time then the actual 1920's it's also still the American 1920's. So you're also not likely to see openly public gay nightclubs or a black president, there may even still be some locations that are segregated. You're in fact not likely to see many bars at all, since the United States is in the height of prohibition. Most bars would actually be very hidden private 'speakeasies' attempting to operate outside the law.

We would also prefer that for the most part people keep their street clothes within what was available at the time in reality. You can dieselpunk it up to an extent if you want, but save the insanity for your superhero costume rather then your every day attire.

While this is not a call for everyone to use exclusively period appropriate slang, or memorize the socioeconomic climate of the real world 1920's, we would prefer if the attempt was made to keep in mind the general attitudes and attire of the people of the world at the time our game takes place.

DICE, and YOU!
Here at 4TMU we make use of a modified version of the Wild Talents roleplaying game. As such there are several key pieces of information you should know when building or playing your character.

In our system you roll D10's in order to do anything from combat to crafting and everything between, but only when there is a reasonable risk of failure, or if you need to know how fast/well you do something as for a race.

In our system you will never roll more then 10 dice on any check, this is a hard cap, and can not be changed.

The reason for the hard limit on dice comes from how dice rolls actually work. To make a check you would take your attribute and add it to either your skill, or your power then roll the final number. If two dice or more match, you succeed at your action. If you rolled more then 10 die you would have a one hundred percent chance of matching two die every roll.

The number of dice which match decides how fast your action is. This means that in conflict the person who rolls more matches acts first. There's no need for initiative here!

The number on your matching dice 1-10 decides how effective your action is. This in combat decides how much damage you do, and in skills how well you do it. You total dice pool, not the amount you roll, but your total number of dice, decides the maximum potential your action has.

A person with 15 dice pool for super-strength is stronger then someone with 10, despite the fact they would both only roll 10 dice. This only really matters in the case of a tie, if you both roll the same number whoever has the higher pool total wins.

There are three kinds of dice in our system: Regular Dice, Hard Dice, and Wild Dice.

Regular: The standard D10 you roll these dice have no special effects. These are the most common die.

Hard: You do NOT roll hard dice. No mater what you do a Hard die will always count as a 10, this means if you have two hard dice in a skill, attribute, or power it will always succeed. However as it is always a ten any check made with hard die will always be made at max power. So for instance if Cyclops has 2 or more Hard Dice in his laser vision he will always use his laser vision at max power. If you have more then two hard die you MUST use that match, even if you also have Wild Dice.

Wild: Wild dice are more complicated then Hard or Standard Dice. Like Hard Dice, you do NOT roll Wild Dice. Instead: If you're rolling a statistic or attribute: Wild Dice match the most common, or highest number rolled, in that order. If you are rolling a skill or power: You select the value your wild dice will have before making your roll all of your wild dice have that value.

If you have Hard or Wild dice, and attempt to effect someone else with Hard or Wild dice the matching dice types cancel each other out turning them into regular dice.

For example: If Cyclops and The Flash were in a fight, and Cyclops made an attack on The Flash we would look at the two's dice pool. In Scott Summers' case let's say for sake of argument he is trying to use his laser eye vision to attack Jay Garrick and after adding his appropriate skill to his power for the sake of argument had a dice pool of 2r(egularDice)6h(ardDice)2w(ildDice). Now Jay does the math for his defensive use of super speed, and finds he has 3r6h1w for his pool. In this case the final roll that Scott would make is: 8r1w since their Hard Dice cancel each-other out and Jay only had one Wild Die to cancel out one of Scott's two Wild Dice.

ALTS, and YOU!
For the current point in time please refrain from applying more then one character. While this will not be the policy indefinitely, it will be for the foreseeable future, at least until we make our final push into an open launch.

This isn't meant to stifle your fun, and we understand that people want to be able to play in multiple spheres. However in the games current state we simply can't allow users to apply multiple characters each.

Now, most likely once we launch the limits will be 3 character slots per player. This would allow players to have one F(eature)C(haracter) one V(illain)C(haracter), and one O(rigional)C(haracter), or whatever combination you want to fill your three slots with.

This current policy also serves the dual purpose of lessening the amount of character reviews and approvals staff have to do. (Which is great for me, since I'm currently the only appstaff, build staff, theme staff, Wiki staff and help staff. So the less time I have to spend approving characters the more time I can spend making cool new rooms, themefiles, and fixing the wiki)

If you're playing an FC, not an OC, we have expectations as to your activity as a member of the 4TMU community. We want to see at least one publicly logged scene from you every single month. This scene should contain at the very least two people other then yourself in participation, and must be posted to the wiki before your 30 days are up.

If you do not post within those 30 days your character will be marked as open for application and anyone who wants the character will be able to send in a request to have that character transferred to them instead. Again this DOES NOT effect OC's.