Rules For Roleplay
1. Submit a character profile and wait for approval before playing.
See The Shadow King’s Black Notebook for more details on the submission and approval process.
2. Take Turns
When posting to three or more people at a time, please wait for everyone in the conversation to have posted once before posting again. This will avoid confusion, and is courteous to the group. If one of the participants logs off or says they need to take a small break, then it's okay to pass over them and continue.
3. Get involved with the other players
In the event that there are no hosts present in the club, interact with other guests and have fun before the hosts arrive. The other guests just may surprise you and you may find some new friends!
If a host or guest is already speaking to someone, don't subdivide their attention by talking solely to them. Instead, please talk to everyone in the group as if they were all standing together having a conversation. It would be rude to only talk to one person in a group setting.
If you want exclusive one on one conversation with a host (or even with another guest), please use Music Room Three for hosting settings, or Tamaki’s Mind Theater for settings outside the host club. The hosts will be able to give you undivided attention there at a more leisurely pace.
4. Always write something for people to react to.
When interacting with the hosts or guests, keep the conversation and interaction going like a real life conversation. If all you give is short, clipped answers with nothing to respond to, you leave the impression that you are uninterested in the game, and you force the other player to do all the work creating the conversation. Neither of those are fun to play with. So please always offer the other player something to react to.
Don't:
Host - "Welcome back, Chihiro-hime. May I spend time in your pleasant company? Are you doing well this afternoon?"
Guest - "I would like that. I'm fine."
Do:
Host - "Welcome back, Chihiro-hime. May I spend time in your pleasant company? Are you doing well this afternoon?"
Guest - "I'm good! I'm excited about this year's cultural festival. Is the host club going to do something like a ball or gala?"
5. Post Format Limitations
We don't want to tax our players (and especially our hosts) by straining their eyes to read text. Nor do we want to distract them with flashy graphics. We also have hosts and guests that are often restricted to their mobile devices. Extra graphics and tiny fonts make it more difficult for them to play.
- • Font size must not be any smaller than size 11.
- • Text colors must not be blinding or difficult for others to read.
- • No images larger than 100 x 100 pixels
- • No excessive graphics (upside down font, borders, titles)
- • If you still feel the need for a post format with excessive graphics, please put the format in a spoiler tag.
If the amount of formatting is bigger than the content of your post, your format is too big.
Occasional posting of art you’ve drawn or had commissioned, or fun things you’ve found is entirely welcome. If you find a lot of fun things or draw a lot of cool art for us, please post them in Moe Moe Ouran Journal for our archives!
6. Magic and Crossover Characters and Limitations
Ouran is a low-to-no magic reality. Gaia’s Own Host Club is a slightly-alternate take on that reality, and we permit both magical characters and crossover characters from other media sources, with the following limitations.
• For magical and non-human characters: you're welcome to play with us even if you're a magical creature, but please, keep your magic or non-human parts to a carefully-concealed minimum. Your hosts can only take so much bending to their reality before they snap.
A good rule of thumb is to consider the following: Would Kyouya Ootori, razor-sharp as he is, find your activity suspicious? If so, you probably shouldn't be doing it in front of any of the normal humans. (Whether Nekozawa-senpai is normal or not is open to debate.) If you're bringing in a magical or non-human character, please be prepared to discuss it thoroughly with whoever is approving your character, so that your character will fit in well with the rest of us.
• For crossover characters: Ouran is the dominant reality, so we do ask that if your crossover character is a magical type or a non-human, to tone it down to a suitable level to fit in at Ouran, just like OC magical characters. Your character should fit in with our setting. Also, the Ouran characters have the home-team advantage. You're visiting our anime, so any competitive conflicts are more likely to resolve in our favor. If you're bringing in a crossover character, please be prepared to discuss it thoroughly with whoever is approving your character, so that your character will fit in well with the rest of us.
• With regards magic and technology: no magic or technology should be used to coerce another player into doing something against their will. Mind control magic and technology is strictly off-limits. Illusory magic or technology is acceptable within reason but should never be used to coerce others.
7. No Reboots
You may not decide to start a character over from scratch. It is too difficult for other players to forget all of their prior history with that character. You may retire characters and bring them back later, but their past history with the rest of the club will not be altered.
