Following the Rules.
Unless you’re blind or you’ve never set foot in a roleplay thread, you’ve probably seen the Rules post. But what exactly do all those rules mean? In the interests of not letting you get yourself banned from your roleplay (and possibly Gaia), we’ve taken the time to list and explain a bunch of commonly encountered roleplay rules. Learn them well, and take them to heart, as they will make you lots of friends.

1. OBEY THE TOS!
Probably the first (and surely the most important) rule on the list. ToS stands for ‘Terms of Service’, which is fancy talk for: ‘If you wanna use this site, you follow these rules.’ If you break any of the Rules laid out by the ToS, the very likely result is that you get banned from Gaia, no refund. If you don’t already know what the ToS entails, Navigate your butt over there pronto and read up on it. If it keeps you from getting kick off the site, it’ll be the best 20-30 minutes you ever spent.

2. Keep it PG-13 (PG), No Cybering.
This is actually two rules, both covered by the same area of the ToS. Extra stress is put on this rule because it is one of the most often broken. It means no depictions or descriptions of either graphic violence (the bloody, gory kind), or sexually explicit material. ‘Cybering’ is slang for Cyber-sex, which means one or more people roleplaying scenes of sexual intercourse (or foreplay, fondling, masturbation, or plain old nudity). Some people like to lower the content limit of their RPs to PG only. This is fine, and surprisingly unrestrictive in many types of RP. But there are those who try to raise the limit to something between PG-13 and R (PG-15 or some such). This is usually an attempt to ramp up the violence (falsely equating it with maturity) of the Roleplay, and is a violation of the ToS. Quietly report anyone you see breaking this all important rule to Gaia’s mods immediately.

3. In this thread, I am God.
This is an assertion of the thread author’s authority. Though not actually God, you’re meant to obey them slavishly as though they were. What they say goes. If they ask you to do something, you do it or leave the thread. If they ask you to break the ToS, you leave the thread (and quietly report them).

4. Obey the Thread Mods.
Some people designate moderators (mods) to help them run the thread and/or roleplay. You will listen to these people as though they were the thread author. If they ask you to break the rules of the RP, report them to the thread author or another thread mod. You may want to stop RPing for a while until the issue is sorted out or dropped. If they ask you to break the ToS, report them to Gaia’s mods, and the thread author and thread mods. Don’t bother to stop RPing in this case, you’re firmly in the right. If nothing is done, leave the thread. There’s always another RP.

5. No advertising or begging.
Few things are quite as annoying as trying to roleplay with a bunch of inconsiderate people who keep interrupting the action by spamming the thread with ads for their own roleplay, or begging for donations to their avatar quest. Even if you don’t see this rule on the list, it’s considered bad form to use somebody else’s thread to advertise yours or beg for gold/items. There are special forums for doing this, and Barton isn’t one of them.

6. Be active/Give notice of absences
This one’s pretty much self explanatory. Nobody likes it when the person they’re roleplaying with up and disappears for two weeks in between posts. Roleplaying is a very time-hungry hobby, and before you join one, you should ask yourself what kind of time you have to commit. Most will ask you to post at least once every couple days, and some will ask you to be on every day. As for the second half of the rule, if something comes up in real life that means you won’t be around for a while (longer than the between-posts interval described above), it’s considered polite to give your RP buddies a quick heads-up, so they’re not left scratching their heads, wondering where you went. Some folks kick people who disappear like this out of their RPs, sometimes for a first offense.

7. Use [ ], (( )), or * * for OCC.
OCC stands for Out of Character Comments. It’s basically anything and everything in your post that does not directly advance the roleplay, and if you don’t somehow keep it separated from the actual roleplaying, your friends are in for some confusion. The most common conventions for doing this are by placing all your extraneous remarks at the top of your post, inside brackets, double parenthesis (single can be used in the RP, so be sure to make the distinction), or between a pair of asterisks. If you type in fancy colors, you might even exclude your OCC from the color code. Likewise for oddball font sizes, but in all cases, use one of the listed conventions.

8. Keep OCC to a minimum.
Roleplay threads are for Roleplaying. That’s probably what everyone is there for, and some people might not like seeing your 5-paragraph essay on quantum mechanics break up the flow of the roleplay, or watching you and your buddy chat back and forth in the thread. If you have a short, Roleplay-related comment for the whole thread, by all means make an OCC. But for the rest, that’s why God invented the Private Message.

9. Semi-Lit to Literate only.
Roleplayers take pride in their ability and intelligence. So when we see someone using *action* Talking *action* to portray their character, it tells us that they don’t care enough to take the time and do it right. It’s like an insult to the art form and all who practice it (I liken it to a stick figure exhibit in a fine art museum). Look, the simple FACT of the matter is that non-literate roleplay styles are not as descriptive as literate ones. And in a hobby that’s nine-tenths description, you’re cheating yourself ad everyone around you by not attempting literacy. Most good roleplays won’t accept anything less than semi-lit, so expand your horizons and learn to be lit today! Note that even semi lit isn’t good enough for some RPs, and these will often have [Lit.] in the title. Only serious writers need apply!

10. No Autohitting, Godmodding, etc.
This is a big one! Nothing will piss off your roleplay buddies faster than the following inexcusable behaviors.
Autohitting- In RP combat, when you attack your opponent, you describe your attack and explain what it might do. And that’s it. Once the attack is made the ball is in the other court. It is always your opponent’s decision to take the hit or not. If you go on to describe the attack hitting your opponent without giving them a chance to evade, you’re autohitting. Attacks that are unavoidable in and of themselves are also a violation of this rule.
Godmodding- This is when a roleplayer takes control of another person’s character. You never describe a character you don’t control as doing anything that their roleplayer didn’t say they were doing. This includes little, seemingly innocuous things like breathing, and taking a few more steps in the direction they were walking. Never take for granted that a character has to do something.
Godmoding- Note the slightly different spelling of this very different offense. this sometimes gets called godmodding because of the similar parlance. ‘God Mode’ is when your RPC is so powerful, nothing can hurt it. Either he shrugs off damage like Superman, or else dodges every attack perfectly. This is very frustrating to good RPers who want a fair fight, not to mention pretty boring to watch. Nobody cares about a fight with a predetermined outcome. Frustrated and bored RPers usually find a different RP.
Mindreading- This is when your opponent describes his next move, usually either by writing it outside the dialogue and action, or by having his character think it out, and then you make your character act like he knew the plan all along, even with no discernable means of discovering it. Always try to just react to your opponent, and play your character from his own perspective, not yours. Your character only knows what he sees and hears, not what you see and hear (and read in your opponent’s posts).

11. Send all profiles via PM.
Most of the RP threads that fall prey to noobs or bad RPers have one thing in common. They allow you to post your profile straight into the thread and just start RPing. This is bad for a number of good reasons. First, it breaks up the flow of the RP, as everyone has to stop and read the new profile that just popped up. Second, it makes the profiles hard to find again if not immediately copied into a profiles post by the thread author. Third, and most important, it lets just anyone cobble together a crappy profile and RP crappily with their crappy character. Sending all profiles via PM means they all get looked at by the thread author, who can decide whether to post them into the thread or not. If the RP doesn’t have this rule, there’s no way to screen the applicants and control the quality of the profiles.

12. Include this symbol in your profile.
Often, the rules will ask that when you PM your profile to whomever screens them, you include a designated emoticon or a special password. This is a safeguard to ensure that everyone who gets into the RP has read the rules. Make sure it’s visible in your PM, because you won’t get accepted if the screener doesn’t see it. Alternately, you may be asked to title your PM a special way.