Please note that according to US law (COPPA, to be exact) we can not legally collect information from someone under the age of thirteen. Since we require an email address to verify information, we can not, legally, allow people thirteen or younger to use the MUCK. We do not currently have a policy restricting age any further, and therefore you can expect that some of your fellow roleplayers will be under the age of eighteen.

As such: Please consider the public areas of this muck to be PG-13. For non-Americans, PG-13 stands for "Parental Guidance under the age of 13" and while it doesn't mean that 13-and-unders are barred from seeing this content, it means that while nothing explicit is shown, there are some mature subjects within, and it should be viewed with a parent or responsible adult who can talk with them about what it means. R, the next level up, is aimed at adults age 17 and over, so what this means for us is that we'd like to keep our public spaces at a level appropriate for the average 13-17 year old. Most prime-time network television is held to a PG-13 standard, so, if you wouldn't see it on prime-time TV, you shouldn't be doing it in public, here. You see sex, violence, and mayhem every day on prime-time television, but it's PG-13 sex and violence. The suggestion of gore, or partial nudity, is enough to imply what's happening.

In the simplest possible terms: No explicit full-frontal nudity, no intensely descriptive gore. If you're European, it's somewhat like your television standards, only we're somewhat stricter in regards to sex, and less-strict in regards to violence. If you're Asian (with the exception of Japanese), we're a lot less strict about everything. If you're Japanese, we're prudes in comparison.

So, to make it easy, no genitals, and no guts/brains. At least not graphically. We can, and do, imply both of these quite a bit in our television, we just don't show pictures. It's a bit of an art-form, but if you watch your American counterparts, you'll pick it up in no time. Feel free to ask us if you're not sure about something.

This policy will be enforced in part via simple adherence to the IC theme. If you try to boink in the street, the Knights of the Mists are going to come along and drag you away to a dank cell. Then you can boink there if you want, for all we care. If violence is more your thing, then you can assume that the Knights will be along to shoot at you if the gore-factor rises above prime-time standards. We can't control, nor do we have any responsibility for, what you do in dark alleys or the privacy of someone else's home, but please keep public roleplay somewhat clean.

The bottom line is that, no matter your age, you may see things here that you find objectionable. It's your responsibility to leave the area of the muck if you do not feel that you can handle those situations in a mature way. The WhatIs system is in place partly to help other players be aware of your boundaries (type wi #help for more information), but you must be responsible for your own boundaries, as well. If roleplay is edging toward a direction you're not comfortable with, whisper to the other players involved BEFORE things get out of hand, if it involves you, or excuse yourself from the situation if it's happening around you. We're all here to have fun, and while that may mean traumatizing a CHARACTER, we don't set out to traumatize the player behind that character.

This muck and all public areas inside this muck are considered 'Implied Consent'. What this means is that if you squat over a viper, you cannot complain if you get bitten. This does not mean that you can go on a random spree and kill off people's characters without their consent, at least not without a pretty good reason. Character death is taken seriously here and is generally permanent, and major drastic changes to a character are considered to hold valid until/unless something else happens IN ROLEPLAY to reverse them. You are considered to have consented to the possibility of such things happening by the very act of putting your characters into situations in which they CAN happen.

What this does mean is that characters can opt out, BEFORE getting involved. If someone's character jumps out of the shadows at you with a knife, you can tell them, OOC, that you don't want to play, and they will have to let you go. If, however, someone jumps out of the shadows at you with a knife and you play along to the scene's ultimate conclusion, you can not, later, complain to the wizards that you were injured or killed without your consent. We will only go so far to save your character from itself. Actions have consequences here, and it is your responsibility to either avoid situations that might lead to those sorts of consequences as soon as you see things heading down that road, or agree to take your chances and accept the result.

Bottom line: IF YOU CONSENT TO SOMETHING OR START SOMETHING, YOU CANNOT COMPLAIN AT THE END BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE THE OUTCOME. This is collective storytelling, not a night rolling 20-sided dice around the dinner table. So tell your story. Have fun. Make enemies. Don't sweat it if your story ends with you horribly mangled, 'cause sometimes good fiction ends that way.

One caveat to the rule involves 'adult' situations. Just because someone consents to tussling with you, does not mean they consent to having a full-out sex scene with you. Just like in RL, if someone doesn't want to sleep with you, it is not your place to force them, the same goes for their characters. If they say, OOC, stop, then stop. It's easy as that. Even when they do consent, you will find that many players on the MUCK prefer a discreet 'fade to black' over roleplaying out all the gory details. You are expected to respect that.