Welcome to Aurora Sky! We are a Sword and Sorcery roleplay. Check out the area above this box if you're interested in making a character, and check out the cbox below if you have any questions! Hope to RP with you soon!
Be polite to your fellow roleplayers. They are people too!
You must be at least 13 to play in Aurora Sky.
IC sections are for IC posting only. OOC sections are for OOC posting only.
You can (and should) use your OOC account when controlling NPCs and such while running events but you need a PC account for each of your characters.
Cbox is for OOC chat only.
All advertising must be done in the advertisements forum.
We do not have any post order rules.
Form/Functional Rules
Writing Style
There are no minimum nor maximum word/sentence limits.
If everyone is having fun, you're doing something right! If not, you might be interested in checking out our Roleplaying Tips, particularly the bolded sentences at the start of each section.
Please use proper spelling and grammar. We strongly recommend re-reading your posts to check for missing words (it happens to everyone).
Please use third-person perspective in IC posts (He/She/[Character Name], not "I").
Please don't quote IC posts you are responding to. If you want to emphasize that your character is responding to a specific person you can note that in the post ("-My PC- turns to -person-", "..ponders -person-'s claim..", etc) without re-posting what they just said a couple posts ago.
Avatars/Pictures/etc
Do not use copyrighted images unless you have permission from the source. This includes screenshots from movies and the like. We know this is inconvenient, but the site could get in trouble if we allowed such images.
For PC accounts, we ask that your avatar have something to do with the character. It doesn’t need to be a depiction of them – metaphorically connected and such is fine.
Pictures need to be Safe For Work.
Animated avatars/signatures/etc are not permitted. We mean "animated" as in "picture that moves/changes/etc". You can have animated avatars in the Cbox, however.
Signature banners are okay, don't make them incredibly large.
Posting tables
We do not permit posting tables/postscripts/posting templates, nor other means of having your text be inside of a picture.
Frequency of Posting
We ask that, if you’re going to be gone / have restricted posting for a while, please tell the people you are RPing with. RL happens, we know this is hobby, but vanishing without a trace isn’t being very nice to everyone else.
If you’ve been inactive without saying anything about it for 2+ months ("I'm going to be tied up for an unknown period of time" is fine) we reserve the right to archive your account(s).
Roleplaying Interactions
Time
There are two types of time in Aurora Sky: Present and Past. All threads are assumed to be in the present unless they have the [Past] tag.
Present - Each character can only be at one place at a time in present. Time is otherwise fluid within the same season (so all threads right now will be in the Spring, but you don't need to keep track of days or weeks).
There is no IC:OOC time ratio - the staff just changes the season when everyone feels it is appropriate to do so.
Past - A character can be on any number of past threads, but it is up to them to make sure nothing they do contradicts the present or other past threads. Time is otherwise fluid - a [Past] thread can be at any point in history so long as everyone makes sure they don't change the present. Public location threads (marked with a [U]) cannot be [Past] threads.
Any non-[U] thread can be turned into a [Past] thread at any time if everyone involved agrees to it - that's basically saying "okay, nothing else in this thread is going to impact other events so everyone can now assume their stuff happened after this" or much more rarely "XYZ is definitely going to happen in this thread. Other PCs can just assume that's already happened".
PC interactions
No metagaming or godmoding. Metagaming is having your character act on information that they have no reason to have. For example, knowing the abilities of another character just because you (the player) read that character's profile is metagaming. Godmoding is when you're being unrealistic about your character's faults/limitations. For example, taking no damage from any attack or writing your character as though they are omnipotent. Your character might think they're flawless or all-powerful, but that shouldn't actually be true.
Avoid powerplaying. Powerplaying is taking control of another roleplayer's character, such as saying your attack hits another character before they reply to it or by assuming another character stands there doing nothing while you charge 30' and make several attacks (even if you don't assume they hit). This isn't limited to combat - describing how a character thinks or reacts ("Bob found >your pc< infuriating") is also power playing. We are a bit more lax on this rule than the other ones on this page, as people shouldn't live in fear of assuming minor things, but remember that what might seem minor to you may not seem minor to someone else.
Private [P] threads are allowed.
Intentionally public [U] threads are also allowed - such threads describe a public location that characters freely enter and leave as they go about their business. For example, a [U] thread might describe a bar, with most PCs just using the bar thread while the occasional group creates a [P] thread representing some corner of that bar or a conversation they'd rather keep uninterrupted by others. Using your OOC account to make the first post (the one describing the location) of a [U] thread is generally a good idea.
Remember that there may be 13 year olds reading what you’re writing.
We ask, but not require, that you link related threads to make it easier for others to follow what is going on in any given plotline. For example, if you start an adventure in one thread and then continue it in another one, anyone reading that adventure is going to want to find the next thread and helping them do that would be nice.
NPC handling and Interactions
There are many non-player characters in Aurora Sky. These are characters that do not have profiles, such as most normal civilians, most antagonists, and most politicians. Player Characters are basically protagonists. It’s possible for other characters to be very influential and powerful – such as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series – but they are not who the story is about. Keep that in mind when handling NPCs.
Pets of PCs and such fall under all of the rules of interacting with PCs.
Other NPCs are generally controlled by whoever is running the quest/adventure/task/etc. Such as a bandit group, soldiers, wild animals, etc
Some situations – like interacting at a party – might not be ran by anyone specific. In these cases, a limited amount of powerplaying with respect to surrounding NPCs is okay. If dealing with an NPC others have used in the past (a specific bartender, for instance), please respect any characterization they’ve been given in the past. If Elmer the Janitor has always been a rude jerk, him suddenly being sweet and thoughtful doesn’t make sense.
Ask permission before using an NPC someone else created. Although NPCs are not player characters, people might still be attached to them.
Ask the staff for permission before creating/using an NPC that holds great and/or unique power in the setting. This includes NPCs with bizarre, unique abilities, Dinyue that are in Avarka for some reason, major nobles and royalty, etc.
When having NPCs interact with other PCs – such as when you are running an event – use your OOC account to control the NPCs. That way it is easy to tell PCs and NPCs apart.
Running Quests, Tasks, Etc
Want to run an event where several players help guard a field trip that goes horribly wrong? Perhaps you want to create an NPC-ran less-than-legal fighting arena hidden in the mountains. Have players try to capture a thief on the loose? Have a group in need of a PC thief to help them “acquire” some goods? Or perhaps you’d like one of the lords of Tiberon to throw a ball? Here are the rules for that:
Non-Staff Event Running
If the event has far-reaching consequences (e.g. major noble murdered), or creates new setting elements (e.g. cult has created a new kind of rune), get staff approval before running the event. Approval Subforum
If the event has unusual or unique rewards (such as unique magic items or unusually large amounts of gold), get staff approval for them. You can start the event if it is otherwise approved, but do not have unique items and mountains of riches appear before they’ve been approved.
If you’re not sure whether you need approval, get approval.
As a general rule, awarding each PC no more than (total number of posts in the event)/1.5 gold for an event doesn’t need approval (round up). If the event is very long/complex we recommended getting better loot approved.
We strongly recommend using the LP system (See below) for loot that includes non-gold items. It’ll make approvals easier.
An example of a complex event that doesn’t need approval would be one where a group of PCs are tasked with dealing with some animals that have been assaulting a village, only to later discover the animals had escaped from a group running an illicit kidnapped victim VS animal fighting ring deep in the woods. If you later decide that the PCs should get more loot than the general rule, this loot would then need to be approved. If you want the fighting ring to be one part of a much larger villainous organization, you would need to get that approved as well (although if the Staff see an opportunity to tie them into a larger plot they might ask you first).
You can have your own character(s) be involved in an event you’re running. However, remember you are running this event for other players. Treating your character(s) like NPC(s) during the event is generally a good idea.
Running Reward: Whenever you successfully run an entire event, and didn’t have any of your own characters involved, you gain an amount of OOC gold equal to whatever reward the characters involved in the event received. Using the LP system (see below) makes it easy to handle situations where non-gold loot was given out. OOC gold is kept track of in your OOC account, and can be distributed to any of your characters at any time.
Please don’t abuse this system. We’d rather not have to make running events a more approval-laden process than it needs to be.
Loot Point (LP) system
Using this is optional, as noted above, but we've found it works really well.
Basically, you give everyone on the quest a number of loot points, and then have a LP:Gold ratio along with a list of valuable items that are each worth some amount of points. For example, perhaps each character at the end (or in the middle!) of an adventure get 40 LP, 1LP = 3 gold, and there are 3 pairs of Magic Boots of Examplius that double the wearer’s jumping distance worth 25lp each. First come first serve, or maybe you decide on some other order with the other roleplayers. What happens to stuff that isn’t looted is left vague – maybe a leftover pair of boots was pawned for some of that gold the PCs got. Whoever is running the quest should loot last, should they have one of their own characters participating.
Random stuff like the ordinary chair PC X stole don’t need to be worth points (unless PC X intends to pawn that chair for gold). If it doesn’t make the character more powerful you generally don’t have to take it into account.
Participating in Quests, Tasks, Etc
If you’re unhappy with how the event is being ran, please try to work it out with the event runner and other players before complaining to the staff (or before complaining to the admin / other staff, if the event is being ran by staff).
