The rules of the house

Treat the people behind the characters kindly. Disagree with ideas, never attack the person. Your character can be cruel; you can't.

• No hate speech or slurs aimed at real people or groups, in or out of character.
• Keep in-character conflict in character. If a scene is getting heated for real, step out and talk, or step away.
• Respect other writers' characters. Don't control, injure or kill someone else's character without their agreement.
• Every room and world can add its own rules on top of these. Follow them while you're there.

Collaborative fiction only works when everyone wants to be there. Before a scene goes somewhere intense, check in out of character.

• Ask before introducing romance, violence, mature themes or anything a partner might not expect.
• “No”, “not now” and “let's fade to black” are complete answers. Don't argue, guilt or pressure.
• Anyone can pause or leave a scene at any time, for any reason, without explaining.
• Keep out-of-character talk clearly marked so nobody mistakes your words for your character's, or the other way round.
• Respect the limits people list on their profiles and in Looking For posts.

Some stories are dark, violent or sexual. They're welcome in the right place, behind the right labels.

• Mature content belongs only in worlds, rooms and stories marked 18+. Only members who have confirmed they are adults can see them.
• Never post sexual content involving minors, or characters presented as minors, in any form. This leads to an immediate ban and, where the law requires, a report to the authorities.
• No sexual content involving real people.
• Tag your work with the right content warnings (violence, gore, abuse, self-harm and so on). Readers can hide warnings they would rather not see, and that only works if you tag honestly.
• Keep profiles, portraits, room banners and public areas suitable for everyone. Explicit images go behind 18+ settings or nowhere.
• Real-world self-harm or suicide is never roleplay. If someone seems to be in danger, tell staff straight away.

• Don't follow, message or tag someone who has asked you to stop. If they block you, leave it there.
• Don't make new accounts to get around a block, a mute or a ban.
• No sharing other people's private information, messages or photos without permission (doxxing).
• No threats, brigading, or organising others to pile on a member.
• Unwanted sexual advances out of character are harassment, even if they're framed as a joke.

You can block anyone from the card that opens when you click their portrait. Blocked writers can't message you or send you Marks.

• Only post writing you wrote. Quoting a line or two with credit is fine; copying someone's posts, profiles or lore is not.
• Don't upload art you don't have the right to use. Commissioned art is fine with the artist's permission; art found on search engines usually isn't.
• Credit artists. If you use someone's art for a portrait or banner, name them and link to them when you can.
• Don't trace, recolour or edit someone else's art and present it as your own.
• Mark AI-generated images as such when you post them, and never present them as hand-made.
• Published game rules and adventures stay out of lore pages and the library unless their licence allows it. See Licences & notices.

• No flooding rooms or chat with repeated messages, walls of emoji or off-topic posts.
• Advertising other sites, servers or paid services needs staff approval first. Sharing your own art or writing elsewhere is fine in moderation.
• No scams, phishing links, or links that hide where they go.
• Don't game appreciation, contests or the Hall of Fame with coordinated tipping or voting.

One account per person is plenty: you can keep many characters on it. A second account is allowed only if you tell staff about it and use it for something distinct, such as running a shared NPC account for a world.

• Alts can't be used to evade blocks or bans, vote more than once, or tip yourself.
• Moving Marks between your own accounts is not allowed.

Marks are a way to say “I loved this”. They have no cash value and never will.

• Never buy, sell or trade Marks, Marketplace items or accounts for real money, goods or services, on or off the site.
• Don't offer or ask for Marks in exchange for votes, roleplay, art or favours.
• A tip spends your own Marks and counts only toward the Hall of Fame; the writer you tip gets recognition, not Marks to spend. A gift hands someone Marks they can spend in the Marketplace. There is no cash-out: neither can ever be exchanged for money.
• Staff can remove Marks, items or badges gained by breaking these rules.

Staff are volunteers who care about this place. Here is how we handle problems:

• Use the report option on any post, profile or piece of art to flag a problem. Reports are private; the person reported won't see who sent them.
• Depending on how serious it is, staff may give a friendly word, remove content, issue a warning, suspend an account, or ban it.
• Some things skip straight to a ban: sexual content involving minors, threats of real violence, doxxing, and ban evasion.
• If you think a decision was wrong, you can appeal. Contact the staff calmly, explain what happened and why you disagree. A different staff member will review it where possible.
• Arguing about moderation in public rooms doesn't help and may slow things down.

These rules may change as the community grows. We'll announce meaningful changes, and the current version always lives on this page.