Rules Update: War Stories
We have updated the rules around discussing old RP

After discussions among staff, in guided discussions, and after getting feedback from a group of players we have made the decision to officially allow discussion of 3+ year old RP war stories in some circumstances. The full text of the rule is as follows:

1.H Discussing Old Roleplay

For players who have been members of the community for a long time, it is tempting to discuss old roleplay that you believe does not have an impact on current IC events.

This is only acceptable if the roleplay happened over 3 years ago, you have first-hand knowledge (you are not retelling a story someone else told OOCly), all player characters involved have permed, it doesn't pertain to ongoing IC events, and if you include a disclaimer beforehand stating 'The events described next happened over 3 years ago and all players involved have permed. It still might contain spoilers'.

Any storytelling happening through chat tools provided by the game should take place in the 'War-Stories' channel so people who want to take part can opt in. If you are unsure if a specific event or story fits this criteria, err on the side of caution and do not share it. Failure to abide by this criteria even unintentionally will be considered a violation of 1.F Metagaming and be punished as such.

As a result of this rule change we have added a new channel called 'War-Stories' which is accessible to everyone. This is an OPT IN channel. @xlisten war-stories / xwar

FAQ

I have an IC story I want to tell about one of my dead characters, but I'm not sure if everyone involved is dead or not. What do I do?

You should not tell the story. It would be both time-consuming and potentially spoiling IC information to confirm or deny if a character is dead or alive. At all times err on the side of caution when telling a story like this. Make sure that no details of it are revealing IC mechanics or touching on characters that are still pertinent to the current IC gameworld. Ideally, tell stories only about characters long gone and on events that do not matter to the current IC world.

I accidentally revealed current IC information on the channel, what do I do?

xhelp or email us and let us know the situation. We understand that this happens sometimes. It is possible it will result in a suspension, but self-reporting an issue (as opposed to the other person or persons reporting you) will show that you didn't mean to break the rule, and that will be taken into account when we discuss a punishment.

Someone revealed current IC information on the War-Stories channel, what do I do?

Remind the person in question about the rules (if you feel comfortable) and then xhelp or email us to let us know the situation. Please include a log + screenshots. We will tell you what the next steps should be from there.

Why the change?

In the past we've had unofficial policies around this, but they were subjective, and required admin approval. We wanted to codify the specific rules around it.

We also want to make it possible for people who have been playing for a long time to reveal some of the stories of their successes and failures-- as we think this will help show newer players what is possible, and act as a bit of OOC training on how to think about and execute on plots. This is something that a number of players have suggested, or expressed would help them, without having a negative impact on the current IC world.

If you've got additional questions, please post and I'll answer them as best I can.

I'd love for that to be the case in the long term. As it stands now, the information gained from these conversations is purely OOC, and not for IC use by players. As we see how it goes, if there are people who are telling really good stories that flesh out the IC world, I would be OK with those people submitted lore around it, or if one of our community lore keepers (on the player side) wants to propose writing up the story as an Lore page, they can xhelp and discuss it. I'd want to make sure that the person telling the story is cool with it become part of the lore, that it is relevant enough to be lore, and that it is accurate (cause ya know, players telling stories are only telling their side of it).

VERY NICE!

Could a current or former staffer talk about something they puppeted, if it meets all the criteria?