<div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;">RULES OF PLAY</span></strong></div><br/>These are my standard OOC rules of play for group games. I put them in every group game I run, usually with minor variations to suit the specific setting. I like to think there is nothing draconian or unacceptable here, and I ask all players to read them. Submitting a character sheet to me implies that you have read and are in agreement with these rules.<br/><br/><strong>IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH SOMETHING HERE, <span class="bbc_u">PLEASE TELL ME!</span></strong><br/><br/>All rules except two are negotiable!<br/><br/><strong>Detective Direction</strong><br/><br/>This is a GM directed roleplay. What that means is that I as GM provide you the players with a mystery to solve. I will provide you with the clues you need to solve it, but I will also provide red herrings. It is up to you to decide which are which. You may choose which leads to follow up and which to ignore, and your ultimate goal is to track down and arrest the murderer.<br/><br/><strong>RULES:</strong><br/><br/><ul class="bbc_list" style="list-style-type: decimal;"><li>The GM's word is law. This does not mean I'm not open to discussion, but if it comes to an impasse, if a decision needs to be made, or a discussion is getting out of bounds, I will render a decision that I expect to be abided by. I will do this based upon context.</li><li>Respect other players ons and more importantly, their offs! <strong>This is NOT negotiable.</strong> Ons and offs are there for a reason. If you feel someone has broken this rule, please PM them first to talk about it. If they will not change their post, then contact me via PM and I will deal with it. Please note that persistently ignoring another players O/Os is grounds for reporting to staff! <strong>NOTE: Smut is not permitted in this game.</strong></li><li>Try to post at least once a week. If you know you will be unable to post for a while please let us know in advance in the OOC. it is a good idea to create an Apologies/Absences (A/A) thread so everyone you are RPing with knows where you've gone. Players who fail to post for a considerable length of time will have their characters teken over by the GM and removed from play</li><li>If you know you are going to be away for a considerable time (more than a week) please bring any story-arcs you are involved in to a conclusion, or extract your character from them. If you inform me you will be away, I will not kill off your character!</li><li>If you find your character is sitting around doing nothing, post something to the OOC, or PM me. If you wait for someone to interact with you, you will wait a long time. Let me know and I will create an event for you.</li><li>If you have any questions about anything in the game, ASK! The only stupid questions are "how many beans make five" and ones that aren't asked!</li><li>The OOC-Chat thread will be for people to chat. I have no problems with you guys discussing the latest football results if you wish, (although I'd rather you didn't as I don't like football), because it means you are getting on as a group. Use that thread as you see fit, but please give priority to game related discussion.</li><li>Please tag all IC posts using the code that will be supplied, editing the details as appropriate. This will enable other players and myself to track where everyone is.</li><li>There is no rule 9.</li><li>Players who drop out of the game will have their character taken over by the GM and disposed of as I see fit. <strong>If this is unacceptable to you, don't drop out of the game.</strong></li><li>Please try to post a minimum of 300 words per post. If you post short once in a while, that isn't going to be a problem, but doing so consistently will draw my attention and I will ask you to expand your posts. If the player you are responding to has not given you enough material to write a decent length post from, PM them and ask them to expand <em>their</em> post.</li><li>God-Moding is a big no-no, but a certain amount of "moving the story on" needs to be expected. If you feel you have been god-moded, talk it over by PM, and if you cannot reach a satisfactory solution, bring it to me.</li><li>Actions have consequences! If your post has been replied to, it has become canon. Please do not edit it without permission.</li><li><strong>HAVE FUN!</strong> This too is non-negotiable. If you aren't having fun, I would like to know why, so I can change whatever it is that is stopping you having fun!</li></ul><br/><hr/><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Posting Rules</span></div><br/><strong>IC Posts:</strong><br/><br/>Please use the following code to tag all posts in the IC thread.<br/><br/><div class="codeheader">Code: <a class="codeoperation" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="return smfSelectText(this);">[Select]</a></div><pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0;"><code class="bbc_code">[floatleft][img height=150 padding=5]Put character image here[/img][/floatleft]<br/>[b]Name:[/b]<br/><br/>[b]Location:[/b]<br/><br/>[b]Date/Time:[/b]<br/><br/>[b]Doing:[/b]<br/><br/>[b]Tagging:[/b]<br/>[hr]<br/></code></pre><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://www.jewishjournal.com/images/bloggers_auto/Peter_Falk.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Lt. Columbo<br/><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Los Angeles<br/><br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>Sometime in the 1980s<br/><br/><strong>Doing:</strong>Asking just one more apparently random question<br/><br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>The people who dry-cleaned his raincoat, Mrs Columbo, Dog<br/><hr/><br/>Please could people use three-letter abbreviations for months, Jan, Feb, Mar, etc., to avoid the confusion over the fact that the USA has it's own unique way of writing dates that is used no-where else in the world.<br/><br/>If you are tagging a NPC who's name you don't yet know, please put "NPC".<br/><br/><strong>Post Length:</strong><br/><br/>Please try and post at least 200 words for IC posts.<br/><br/>There is an obvious problem here when interviewing a suspect.<br/><br/>Players conducting an interview may wish to do so in real time via IM, and transcribe the result into the IC thread and/or witness statement, or PM me a list of questions asked at the interview - possibly with "If/Then/Else" options to deal with different answers I might give, and transcribe the reply. The latter would be my preference.<br/><br/>Conducting an interview in-thread is an option too, provided the list of questions asked is linear - it does not branch off in different directions depending upon the interviewee's answers.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Post Frequency:</strong><br/><br/>Just to be perfectly clear, unless you have a valid reason such as being ill, work getting on top of you, having zero energy, your muse taking a holiday somewhere with a better climate and not taking you, your computer blowing up, etc..., I would like people to post within seven days of their own previous post.<br/><br/>Please remember that Real Life Comes  First. (RLCF). Any reason at all is a good enough reason why you haven't posted, except "I can't think of anything to post". The latter is not a good enough reason, because if you ask me I will help you out!<br/><br/>HOWEVER, if you don't tell me why you aren't posting, I don't know and so I will be chasing you, under the following conditions:<br/><br/>Remember that we can all see when everyone was last active on E, and we can all see each others' most recent posts. So if you have been active and made recent IC posts to other threads, I will probably be a lot more aggressive in my chasing than if you have only made OOC posts, but even then I will want to know what's wrong with our OOC thread?<br/><br/>If you have been active but not posted, I will probably want to know if you're okay and if I can help. If you haven't been active, I will become concerned and send you a PM in the hope that you get it eventually!<br/><br/>If you are waiting for another player (including me) to post, then either give them a nudge or let me know.<br/><br/>Please do not wait for GM posts as these will be random and will depend upon your activity... If players don't do anything, nor can I!<br/><br/>(Note also that the ME is no longer a NPC, she is now my player character and I will be putting a character sheet up for her at some point!)<br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Posting to the Case File Thread:</strong><br/><br/>Any player may post to the evidence thread at any time, with anything they think is pertinent to the case. Players DO NOT have to use the forms provided, IF your character would not do so.<br/><br/>If you are playing someone who is methodical and thorough and/or a stickler for rules and procedures, then you DO have to use them, and what is more you should have your character complain IC to any character who doesn't!<br/><br/>The case file thread is<strong>Semi-In-Character</strong>. In other words, posts there probably do not count towards the IC total required for big game status, they are to record information in such a way as to make it accessible. They are part of the IC structure of the game and as such should be written from an in-character perspective. But they may be written by myself as GM rather than the players concerned, to simplify matters and move things on.