Game Rules!

Number (1) RP Rule:


In every RPG which is Forum based, or indeed any forum I have ever been on (That is a great many I can assure you) there have been moderators/refs and admin to keep the peace, control and moderate the game/forum.
A game with no rules tends to fall apart very quickly, so we assign a figure of authority, if you will: The police of the Forum! These are your moderators and refs. Moderators/refs have the general control over the forum and will make the call for any outcome/situation for a reason, you can be assured that 98% of the decisions made by them will be for a good reason which is due to outcomes of the game itself, all decisions must and will have a reason behind them. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome you may appeal to the admin. The admin in any RP situation will have the final say and their decision may not be overturned. This does not have to be related to the RP side of things.
You have the right to ask for an explanation why an admin has chosen a particular action or decision, but this does not mean that the decision will be reversed or altered. This action will not be entered into in public or on the forum itself.
If you have any problem with a decision made by any of the staff of the forum, then Private Message them giving the reason for your issue with the decision.

Number (2) RP Rule:


We all have responsibilities and I cannot stress this strongly enough. When you join a gaming community, you accept a responsibility to the forum itself and your fellow gamers/forum users. These responsibilities include being courteous to and being understanding of other peoples feelings. You would also alert your forum as to when you will be absent from an on-going RP (a place for this is set up in your forum).
We know how frustrating it is to have to wait for someone else to post just so the story can unfold further, which is why this rule is in place.
We will try to run Dark Realms on a real time basis; this will run by our time. As we are in England it means we at Dark Realms run by GMT-0. This should help you tell the difference between your characters night/day life and how the environment in which they live changes.
However, what I am going to do is take our real time and half it, so 30 minutes is only 15 minutes for Dark Realms, meaning a day in Dark Realms time will be 12 hours real time, this is still going to be based on GMT-0  but in this way, we can allow characters to have a day's worth of Role Play within 12 hours.
At any point in an RP where it's your turn and you haven't posted for a whole day (24 hours), you will miss your turn to either make an action or attack/defend. This may seem a harsh rule but just imagine if it were you who was waiting for someone else.

Things you may not do.

Players do not control any aspects of the game apart from those that are for their own character (ie: history/background), they can hint to a ref's/mod as to what they want to happen but that does not mean that they will get what they want, especially with finding materials/herbs or monsters to kill. Remember, everything is left to chance!
The only exception to this rule is the ‘story’ option. Past RP's that you may have in your background/history can be controlled, outcomes, death's, findings etc. Just remember that anything which is written up in this fashion is non-consistent with your current level of character. This means for example, if in your story or your past, you write that you find a magical blade of doom and destruction which killed creatures in one blow, you will not have this item in the game. So to make your characters story believable, think first and then choose what happens carefully.
If however, you do choose to write a story of any kind within the stories area, and you are not writing anything which will directly affect your RP character you may write anything you wish to (within reason).



This rule is pretty basic and simple to understand, you can only post your intentions, any outcomes will be 'dice rolled' by a mod/ref and the outcome will be carefully calculated and posted as a result, the decision can at this point be questioned and a request made for a second opinion. In most cases though, it will be posted as soon as the decision is made.
The rule stops players from making personal gain in a game which is based on chance and skill (if you are bright enough) to advance themselves.
Again, the story area is the only exception to this rule.



This rule is in place for one reason only, to reduce the chance and/or temptation to cheat at the game at any given time. By this method, players could easily alter vital information in their posts such as Damage/Remaining HP-MP/Character Stats etc. (Basically it's anything which could alter future posts/calculations)
Although, when editing a post it is recorded and the note of the time of edit is then visable at the bottom of the post itself, plus a reason for the choice to edit. (Only when done after a post is cut off)

However, this isn't perfectly effective as anyone could just lie about what their reason was for editing. (I speak from experience here)
The term "Cut Off" means that another player has posted under the old post which in turn makes the first players post non-editable, in simple terms, if someone else posts after you and you have not edited your post, then you lose the chance to edit it.




Again, another basic rule, it's to avoid confusion as to who can post and at which point in a combat round.
During combat situations, each player is allowed to make a single post per round, stating any actions they wish to make for their turn, however, should they miss anything out, then they may edit it (Providing their post hasn't been cut off already!) and include the left out text, if the Post is cut off however, then their turn is over and nothing more can be added, a second post before the next round (Unless told to by a Ref/Admin) will result in penalties added to that character or characters actions, the penalties will apply only to those players/characters who have made an extra post.
This rule is implemented to allow every player to have their turn in a fair manner and reduces most of the influence they could have received by having to post behind other players in the combat flow que.  
"Combat Flow" is the term we use to describe the order in which players can post and their characters can make their actions during a round of combat.
Please DO NOT POST until your name is stated by the Admin/Ref to do so, because it only messes up the flow of combat more, and makes things very confusing for all in the thread.
Any posts made out of turn by any of the players will be removed as soon as it's seen, and without notification. If a notification is really needed, then one will be supplied to the player who posted out of turn.