Welcome to Gaia! ::

Roleplaying is a complex, deep hobby. It's an involved, thought-heavy process, but can be lots of fun. However, the main rule of role-playing, particularly in a story-based form, is that what you get out of it will be based almost entirely on what you put into it. To some people, this comes naturally, with a good base for building ideas and stories - but there are probably a great deal more who have a difficult time with it. That's what these guides are for. If I can, I want to help people make more out of the effort they put into roleplaying, so that each person can make the experience more enjoyable for both themselves and their fellow players.


Basic Rules

There are some very simple rules you should know when you start role playing. These are the rules that make and break a game.

1. When you go Out Of Character, note that. Use an OOC notice before the out of character post you want to make. You can also use BIC (Back In Character) to signal that you continue as your character again, but it's optional.

2. Use clean and correct writing. Meaning that you look after your grammar, build-up, and all that.

3. Make your post a worthy one. Don't go making posts of one or two rules. It's not so that every post you make should be two paragraphs long, but try to go for at least a bit of a decent effort when writing.

4. No God-moding. Your character is not invincible, and his chakra is not endless. Play out both the strength and weakness of your character, and don't go on a power trip.

5. No sudden character killings. You can't just go and kill another person's character. If you want to, or think the story might require this, talk to the owner of that character in private or through PM to discuss what's gonna happen.

6. Character types. Players are allowed one bloodline character within their first five characters. Clan characters are limitless, however.

7. Explicit content.

Since there are many minors on Gaia, whenever you are in a thread that has something that can be considered to be explicit or exceedingly mature, be sure to give a warning of such content. This is basically any crude or vile act, such as intense violence in detail, rape, cruelty that many would find offending, and vulgar language. Basically, anything you wouldn't see on regular television, don't post here without a warning. Some children could run across something they have seen in this Guild and be very unnattracted to it by some offense that they may take to it, so a warning would be needed.

Basic Combat Rules

This little list of guidelines is designed to let you know if you are being fought fairly, and if you yourself are abusive in combat.

Note: Most of this applies to one on one combat. The guidelines that apply to massive battles will be marked as such.

The number one, most important rule: Do not call your hits. It is essentially a form of playing your opponent's character when you say that your Katon Ryuuka smashes into their character. Describe the attempt, even write up the factors going against the opponent being able to dodge, but in the end, the choice of getting hit or not lays with the opponent. Always. A mod or admin will step in if a dodge is excessive.

Rule Two: It goes hand in hand with rule number one. Combat is about give and take, not just take. If you dodge everything, with ease, in a battle with someone of the same rank, there might be a problem. Part of give and take is admitting when you are disadvantaged. Rank is an important factor. A Genin might be able to fight with a Chuunin, but he is disadvantaged. A Genin fighting a Jounin ranked Shinobi is practically doomed to lose.

Rule Three: One attack. That is what a fighting post should consist of. Combat is a chess match, you do not take multiple turns in chess. Feel free to add dialogue, thoughts, feelings, descriptions, and such to your combat post. But do not exceed one attack per post unless your opponent has given you permission to perform a combo. When you state that your character performs this, and then that, and finishes with a last technique, you are also saying that your opponent stood there and did nothing while you were being flashy with your techniques. That is a definite abuse.

Rule Four: Group Combat. Clones, summons, these things are bound by one attack rule as well. Now, here is the deal with many vs. one combat. If everything you control is attacking, you need to specify either an order ("the kage bunshin attacked with X, then the summon did Y, finally the character finished with Z") or state that they are all attacking at the same time ("kage bunshin did X, summon did Y, and character did Z, all converging on the opponent".) Note: keep in mind that if you are attacking the same person at the same time, one good dodge will evade the attacks. I've seen a whole lot of "there was no way he could dodge all of these" when the truth of the matter is that if everyone is headed for one specific point, all a character has to do is not be at that point to avoid being hit.

Rule Four, sub1: Dodging a Group When attacked by a group, try to account for the fact that it is significantly harder to dodge a succession of attacks. Unless there is a decent rank difference, many on one is almost always disadvantageous for the one. Play accordingly.

Rule Five: If you use Kanashibari or something of the sort that paralyzes your opponent, and then slay him/her, expect a less than pleasant note in your inbox. Please consider other RPrs and be nice. Note: feel free to use such techniques against clones, summons, etc.

There will be more to come when I see things that need commenting on. For now, please try to adhere to these guidelines.