Policies

POLICIES

Actors

Players on Gloom MUX have the option of choosing an actor to represent their character on the game's wiki, much the same way a casting director chooses an actor to play a character in a film or on a television show. To see which actors are already in use, please visit our Taken Actors page.

Staff asks that players only upload one image to represent their character. Character galleries, although entertaining for the player creating them, can quickly eat up space on a wiki — we only have so much available.

If you absolutely must have a character gallery with multiple pictures of the actor portraying your character, please create it off the site and provide other players with a link to it at the bottom of your character's page.

(Need help resizing or adjusting a picture? Try PicMonkey — it's free!)

Alternate Characters

City of Tribes MUX is a new game; until we're really up on our feet with a consistent amount of RP happening on the grid, players are restricted to two characters and only one may be Touched. See Character Types for more information.

Building

Players are encouraged to add locations to the game's grid, whether they are businesses, public places, or personal residences. If you have a building project in mind, submit a +request to staff with the following:

  • Room name
  • Room @desc
  • What existing room you would like to link the new room to

For building projects that require more than one room, please submit a +request that explains what the project is, how many rooms you need, and what the project would add to the game's atmosphere. Staff will get back to you within 48 hours.

Character Creation

After creating a bit on the game's welcome screen, prospective players will need to go through the application process, which consists of two stages. Further instructions can be found here.

Idling

Characters who have not logged in for 60 days or more will be classified as missing and assumed to have been absorbed back into the Gloom. If you want to take a hiatus from the game or know that you're going to be away for more than a two month period, please contact staff — there are alternate ways of shelving your character until you return.

Should you return to the game after your character has been classified as missing, no problem. @mail staff to let us know you're back and where you think your character might have been, and we'll reinstate your character bit ASAP.

Interactions

Straight up: City of Tribes MUX is a game meant for adults. Staff will expect that everyone on the game - staff and players alike - will act as such. We all see enough drama in our real lives and elsewhere on the Internet, and staff strives hard to ensure that City of Tribes is as close to drama-free as possible. Violation of policies in this section will result in disciplinary action on the part of staff and, if repeated, may result in you being asked to leave.

Age to Play

Players must be OOCly 18 years of age to play on City of Tribes. As stated above, the nature of the game and its theme is not suitable for children or teenagers. By submitting a character concept, you certify that you are at least 18 and that participation in this game is not illegal in your country of residence. We operate on the honor system, but if staff finds out that a player is under 18, they will be asked to surrender their characters.

Character-to-Character (IC) Interaction

As a rule, IC interactions have a lot of leeway, The trick is to keep it IC and keep it believable. To help that and to help the RP flow, keep these guidelines in mind:

  • See the Consent section. Honor that.
  • The staff expects that IC conflicts between characters will happen. This is okay. Keep it IC.
  • Most scenes have a pose order. Use the first round to establish pose order, then keep to it to ensure that everyone gets equal time.
  • If there are six or more people in a scene, consider the use of "the rule of three" instead of strict pose order - let three poses go by before you pose again.
    • Exception: combat scenes need to adhere to strict pose order for balance reasons.
  • If you need to step AFK (away from the keyboard), use the OOC command to let people know.
  • If you're typing slowly or distracted, let people know. If it's really bad, consider posing out.
  • Try to respect other players' RL schedules. If they say they need to leave, do not keep them longer than necessary.
  • Conversely, if you need to leave, try to pose out gracefully; if you can't, give as much warning as you can.

Consent

City of Tribes MUX is a consent-based game, which means that it doesn't use stats or dice; players are here to write with one another and cooperatively share in the storytelling process. This said, staff firmly believes that in-character actions should have appropriate in-character consequences, and although we would like to be able to promise that no one's character will be killed without their consent, we've discovered over the years that there's always a rare exception, so we'll refrain from promising anything.

Please do not pose another character's actions without the player's permission, be willing to compromise in situations where characters may come into conflict with one another, and if a storyteller is running a scene, to abide by the decision of the storyteller without whining or complaint. In the same vein, storytellers are expected to make every effort not to maim or kill other players' characters without their consent, and to warn their players if their actions are putting their characters in immediate danger.

If there is a debate between a player and their storyteller that cannot be resolved, both player and storyteller should contact a staffer for assistance.

Player-to-Player (OOC) Interaction

As previously stated, we're all grownups here. In that spirit, the following points should go without saying:

  • Treat other players the way you would like to be treated: with courtesy and respect. Remember that a player on City of Tribes may hail from anywhere in the world and their cultural norms may be very different from yours.
  • Think about what you say before you say it. If you wouldn't say it to someone you're face to face with in a bar, you shouldn't say it to your fellow players.
  • If you're asked to stop doing something, stop.
  • There's a reason why sex, politics, and religion are taboo topics at the dinner table. Engage carefully.
  • Racist, sexist, and homophobic commentary, language, and actions are part of RP - when kept IC. None of it is acceptable OOC.
  • Harassment or stalking of other players for ANY PURPOSE will not be tolerated. That said, crying wolf will not be viewed with favor either; if you feel that you are being harassed, talk to the player and ask them to stop before reporting it to staff.
  • Got drama or a conflict with another player going on elseMU*? That sucks. Please don't drag it over here.
  • Gossip behind a person's back belongs in junior high. Please leave it there.
  • This bears saying in multiple places - keep IC conflicts IC and keep a line of communication with the other player open OOC.
  • If you're having problems with another player, try to talk it out with them first. Explain things from your point of view, and if that doesn't work, you can page or @mail staff to mediate any disputes as they arise.

NPCs

NPCs on City of Tribes MUX come in two varieties: short-term NPCs and long-term NPCs. NPCs (or Non-Player Characters) are support characters that assist with storytelling — they might be someone who has come to the Watch seeking assistance, a friend or family member of a Player Character (PC) , or someone the Watch is interviewing for an investigation.

The primary difference between short-term NPCs and long-term NPCs is the duration that they stick around, and how much they contribute to the character development of Player Characters. Short-term NPCs typically don't stick around for more than a couple of scenes; they're the bartender who takes your drink order, a murder victim, antagonists controlled by storytellers for the purpose of a confrontation, police officers who haul members of the Watch back to the station when they're caught snooping around where they shouldn't, etc. Long-term NPCs will have repeated appearances over a longer period of time, and show up often enough that they're a step above short-term NPCs without becoming full Player Characters in their own right; they are more likely to be long-term antagonists created and run by storytellers over multiple plots, family members or friends of PC, employers, or characters who otherwise develop a relationship (friendly or otherwise) with one or more PC's.

Most short-term NPCs don't need to be +requested. If they have paranormal abilities or are an Other for the purpose of a plot, they should be +requested when the storyteller who plans on running them submits their plot request.

Long-term NPCs should always be +requested, whether they have paranormal abilities or not. A storyteller in charge of controlling them may make a page for them using the template on the wiki after approval.

Rating

City of Tribes MUX has a rating of R due to the nature of its theme. Players may expect to see bad language, drinking, drug use, adult themes, disturbing and frightening situations, and graphic violence. The world of the Gloom is not sunshine and kittens, and horrific things are likely to happen from time to time.

Special Note: Tinysex (TS)

About sexually explicit RP, sometimes referred to as tinysex or TS: as previously stated, City of Tribes is an adult game. Do it or don't, it's up to you. If you do choose to engage, keep it to yourself and do not post any sexually explicit material to the wiki. (It violates our host's Terms of Service.) Also, not everybody chooses to engage for a myriad of reasons. Pressuring someone to engage in TS will be treated by staff as harassment. Capiche?

Requests

Submitting +requests using the game's +job system is the fastest way to get a response from staff (short of paging them). It's used by storytellers who want to run plots, players who are encountering issues that require staff intervention, and anything else that you need staff to do (with the exception of chargen - that's handled differently). The easiest way to submit a request is:

+request <title>=<description>

If you need further help on the subject, type: +jhelp player

Restricted

Certain concepts on City of Tribes MUX are restricted or even outright closed. Usually these restrictions are in place for either power balance, believability, or character integration reasons. Please review the Concept Guidance page for more information.

Storytelling

City of Tribes MUX provides its players with a platform to tell stories within the parameters of the thematic information available here on the wiki. Staff's responsibilities involve keeping the site up-to-date, reviewing and approving new character applications, and giving feedback to players who want to act as storytellers for their peers.

Most characters on the game belong to a clandestine organization called the Watch, which is committed to protecting humanity from the horrors that lurk in the realm beneath the surface of our world. This involves not only combating paranormal entities, but keeping the existence of the Gloom a secret as well. Creatures that originate from the Gloom are collectively known as Others, and are known to take countless shapes and forms, making it easy for storytellers to design their own antagonists for the purpose of terrorizing their fellow players.

Stories usually (but do not have to) follow a sort of monster-of-the-week formula, which might look something like this:

  • Inciting Incident: Several Underground maintenance workers go missing while on the job. Although police are called in to investigate the disappearances, they have no leads.
  • Investigation: Suspecting Others may be responsible for the disappearances, members of the Watch begin their own investigation and send a team into the subway where the missing people were last seen.
  • Confrontation: During the investigation, the team encounters and destroys a nest of giant telepathic spiders after discovering the desiccated remains of the missing maintenance workers.
  • Conclusion: The character in charge of the investigation writes up a report for other members of the Watch to view

The above is just one example of what storytellers can do using the game's setting. Most stories will last a week or two at a time, and will be told through a series of scenes, but longer, more involved arcs are possible using long-term antagonists.

To run a story for other players, submit a +request to staff with the following information:

  • What is the basic 'plot' of the story?
  • If the story requires the use of NPCs, who are they? If there is an Other responsible for the activity, what does it look like, what does it do, and how can it be killed? This part is important, because it will eventually be included in the final report, and will allow other storytellers to use the same type of Other in future stories if they so choose.
  • How long do you expect the plot to last?

Staff will process your request within 48 hours.

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