Rules and Guidelines [READ FIRST]

How to play
The City is an experimental freeform roleplay project in which you, the player, create a character and contribute to the "story" of the city.

I'll start from the beginning for the benefit of anyone not experienced with roleplay: roleplay simply involves creating a character and playing out life through the eyes of that character. You know what they know, you see what they see, and you act how you think they should act. The best characters are ones with a detailed personality, background and appearance, though only basic details are necessary at first, as long as the other players can get an idea for the character, and you know your place in the universe.

If you have done roleplay before (D&D, D20, World of Darkness, Shadowrun, etc.) but are unfamiliar to the concept of freeform RP, the idea is simple. It's like any other roleplay, but with no GM (game master) and no formal rules. If, in normal roleplays, the GM is the "storyteller", in freeform it is different in that ALL the players are writing the story. Now, because of this, you are playing for the story, not to advance your character, so remember you don't always need to win. If you were writing a book, would you have one character always succeed at everything? No, so bear this in mind. Everyone does it differently, but it's reasonable to affect other characters than your own in your posts too. This may be kind of confusing, so i'll give an example using my man Inspector Biggs. You should describe your characters actions in third person, describing what your character is doing as if you're writing for a reader. It's sort of like a story written by all the players, where the players concentrate on one character each. Here's my post:

Inspector Biggs shoves open the bar door and out of the pouring rain walks the tall figure of a man, his short black hair dripping and his long brown trenchcoat soaked. Looking somewhat fed up, he walks over and sits down at the bar, dripping all the while. He mutters "scotch" to the barman, and the barman fetches him a drink.

As he's drinking, he glances over to his left and sees a man sitting there, seemingly taking pains to keep his face obscured. Under a hunch, Biggs grabs the mans arm and gets a look at his face. Looking shocked, the soaked investigator flashes his badge and tells the man to freeze. The shady man mutters "aw, shit" and bolts from the bar and out the door. The inspector runs out into the street after him, drawing his gun as he goes. He gets out onto the street and the man's already gained some distance, so Biggs stands, takes aim for a moment, and shoots at his leg. The guy's moving too quickly and the bullet misses and ricochets off the pavement. Hearing this he panics and quickly darts to the right, down an alleyway. As the inspector approaches it becomes apparent that the runner didn't go all the way down the alleyway, as he leans out round the corner and shoots a few shots from his handgun, one of which catches Biggs on the thigh. He stumbles and winces in pain as the man runs down the alley and escapes in his car, parked at the other end.

Limping back to the bar, the door flies open once more as Biggs stumbles in, his hand covered in blood and clutching his leg. "You're bleeding! What the hell did you come back here for?" asks the barman in surprise. Biggs looks at him for a moment. "I didn't finish my drink." he replies calmly, before downing the rest of the glass and limping back outside, into the rain.

If you're not sure what to write or the best way to put something, simply think of a normal book. Just because you, the reader, know what Frodo is doing doesn't mean Aragorn, who at the time is elsewhere, does. This applies in the same way to your characters. I can write in as much detail as I like about what Biggs is doing outside the bar, even if there are no characters around to see it but Biggs himself. You're writing for the players reading it, not for their characters. Remember that people won't know who you're talking about if you refer to someone only by their name and at no point specify who they actually are. If the man at the bar had been called Cassidy, and i'd said "Biggs flashed his badge and Cassidy bolted from the room", the reader has no idea who Cassidy is.

Remember to seperate what you, as a reader, know and what your character knows. If Officer Wedge had been sat in that bar, he could not have asked Biggs "why didn't you drive after him?", because the character didn't see anything after Biggs left the bar (though he'll have heard the gunshots), so he couldn't know that the runner HAD a car, even if I knew it as a player. Using out-of-character knowledge in character is called "metagaming", and you will be given a warning, followed by suspension if it continues.

How The City is different
Now, the more observant of you will probably have noticed how in the last section I said "like any other roleplay, but with no GM", yet my name, conveniently, is "GM". This is for a reason. You see, though The City is 80% freeform, i'm attempting to merge the concept of freeform RP with directed storytelling. I will introduce NPCs, plot lines, stories, etc., and your characters can react to them. For example, if one of my plot arcs was that the mayor's daughter had been kidnapped and had been sent a photograph of her, with writing on the back demanding ransom, your character may be an inquisitive cop that thinks to take the photo as evidence and go run it for prints down at the lab, and things will go from there. I'm going to have plot arcs very loose, with only the most major points being scripted, so how it works is that you do what you like, and then later on i'll decide whether it stands or not. I said in the last section "like a story written by all the players"; so if you guys are the authors, think of me as the editor!

Using the same example, if you were to take the photograph down to the labs for testing, you can post whether you find anything or not. If you say you find prints and it's a match to person X that supposedly died three years ago, I may read this and think "that's a damn good idea", and then add more plot events from there and based on that. Essentially, i'll be freeforming it too, within reason. If I see it and think "nah, i'd say he was wearing gloves", then I may delete/edit the post saying you've found something and let you know that the photograph came back negative for prints.

I guess you're wondering "How can one man do all this moderation and storyline checking/updating on every forum?". This is not an issue, unlike some other things; I will simply lock the forums every day or two (or when i feel like it) and make sure everything is in sync, everything is allowed, and update any events/plotlines.

Last point to remember as far as plots go: There will be several story arcs going on at once; just because something is happening does not mean you have to get involved if you don't want.

Characters and how to use them
There are essentially three different types of characters in The City: PCs (Player Characters), NPCs (Non-Player Characters), and Plot Characters. There are simple rules on how each can be used by you, the player. It would take far too long to wait for the sole controller of each character to respond to your actions, so in this freeform roleplay it is taken for granted that each player can control his/her character, and the characters relating to them at this moment in time, as I demonstrated in my example by controlling Biggs, the barman and the runner.

• Under no circumstances can you control a character marked as a Plot Character. You cannot presume their actions or speech, and if you are directly involved with one you should post only your actions and await response.
  
• You may never speak for or presume the actions of other PCs, though it is reasonable to specify an effect as long as caution is exercised. For example, you may want to write that you shoot the player and hit them in the leg. I strongly encourage players to improvise and go with this rather than altering it, but if for some reason it is not desirable it is reversible at the descretion of the players involved.
  
• You may presume the speech and actions of NPCs, but please adhere to their set personality and take into account how they would act in a given situation. If you are not sure of this, consult the "character profiles" forum. Alternatively, if the creator has not yet posted the character there, either ask the creator how the NPC would act or presume their personality for the moment. Again, if someone presumes something about one of your NPCs, it is far better to improvise and build on it than dispute it; remember you're writing stories together, not necessarily working in the best interest of certain characters all the time.
  
• You can usually find out what type a certain character is (NPC or Plot) by looking for them in the profiles section.
  
• If you make a somewhat important NPC, please try to post the appearance, details and personality in the profiles section and mark it as an NPC.
  
• You cannot make plot characters.
  
• Please post your PC in the profiles section as soon as possible. Pictures and photographs are allowed as long as there's no obscenity; this could result in a warning, suspension or ban depending on the nature of the pictures in question.
  
• You may only have one PC, and your posts must always relate to this character.

Getting around
The city is a big place, with plenty of places to go and things to do. In the forum index you'll notice a list of location categories. Some of these are "set" locations, and others are "open". In set locations you can do what you like, but the places to go are already set and no more can be added. An example of this would be the Police Dept., in which there is a list of places to go within the station, but you may not add any locations to it. Most of the locations are "Open", meaning you can either use the ones already there, or create your own; this allows for the idea that, for example, there will be more than the few set bars in the city. It also allows you to create locations based on your character; perhaps your house, or the shop you own. There is a STRICT rule to creating locations: The name of the thread MUST be the name of the location, and threads created for any purpose other than a location will be promtly deleted unless it has special permission. When creating a location don't forget to use the first post to describe the location itself, and what people see when they enter. Please have a good reason for creating your own instead of using existing places, and if possible it would be nice if you could post this reason clearly in the first post. I will not enforce this, as for a while at the beginning, I don't mind that much seeing as there aren't many places to start with.

Seeing as it's related, remember that it takes time to get around, and you need some way to do it (walking, car, public etc.).

Guidelines and issues
These are some notes on things you may and may not do within the city, and also some remaining problems that need to be ironed out (it's young, give it chance).

• OOC talk and information in the IC forums should be written [[like this]].
  
• Your USER NAME should be your CHARACTER NAME. If it isn't, i'll know you haven't read this.
  
• Gender is your character's gender.
  
• The forum profile information is NOT NECESSARY, but if you do want to fill it in, please keep "Birthdate" in-character. Others are up to you.
  
• Nothing magical at this point. This includes vampires, werewolves, mages, time travel, etc.
  
• This is a modern day city, albeit a little more sinister; if you walk around toting a katana or a sword bigger than your house you will be arrested. If you're a wannabe ninja stalking the rooftops at night then there may be an exception, but what i'm trying to say is that The City is NOT anime-themed, and you should act accordingly.
  
• If you attempt to specifically disrupt my game or plotlines you will be swiftly suspended.
  
• If you somehow find a way to powergame/munchkin this then you will be nerfed. If it continues then you will, again, be suspended.
  
• Profanity is fine in character, but not necessary in excess.
  
• Respect other players and respect their characters. Your enjoyment relies 100% on the other people playing; it's a collaborative effort.
  
• Don't take the piss; you will be banned.
  
• Don't ask how the progression of time works when posts fall out of sync, we're working on that. Just try your best.
  
• When leaving a location, remember that your post doesn't have to end when you leave. You should try and imply where you're going so others can follow you if they feel they want to. "Inspector Biggs limps out of the bar and gets into his car. He drives for a short while, with difficulty due to his leg. After a few minutes he arrives at the Hospital. He parks up, stumble out, and limps inside." At this point you would head over to the Hospital forum and continue there.
  
• Relating to this, remember you don't have to post in every location you CROSS, only ones you have actions in. When travelling to the hospital, I didn't need to post "i'm driving" on every street I went on, unless for any reason you specifically want to.
  
• Read the news OFTEN. It will tell you important storyline updates, and major changes to the city or NPCs.

So...
Who will you be? The rookie cop? The hardened investigator? The grocery store owner with financial troubles? The guy who just won the lottery and now has his wife trying to kill him for the money? The marine back from the front line?

The choices are endless, so show some imagination. The more detail you put into your character the more detailed the world becomes, and the more fun it makes the game for everybody.

So make a character and get stuck in!

Welcome to The City.