GROUP RULES
This group has a PG-16 rating. There may be mature themes and sensitive topics that may be inappropriate for some individuals. Please protect yourself and join at your own discretion. Common themes may be those such as animal violence, animal death, horror, murder, mental illness, politics, and more. Overtly sexual themes are NOT PERMITTED in any written or art form within the public server and submissions to the group. For further information on what themes are or are not permitted, please read our CHARACTER CREATION journal.
2. This is an intermediate to advanced literature-based group roleplay. Members MUST be capable with the written English language to participate. Writing is required for participation- art is not (although it is always encouraged!).
3. All content submitted to the group MUST be your own. You may not use pre-made line art (yours or other’s) for your character’s application, activity, nor memes. You may use commissioned or gift art for a character’s application with permission from the original artist. You may use character designs provided or purchased from others.
4. Be kind and courteous to all other members. If an issue arises and cannot be handled one on one, you may send in a note to the group, open a ticket in our Discord, or message a staff member to find a mediator. If your issue lies with a staff member, you may message another staff member directly instead for privacy, or send in a form on our Anonymous Submission box. Our #meet-the-staff channel in our Discord server should act as a way for you to find which staff member you may be most comfortable approaching. We have a NO-TOLERANCE policy for drama between members, gossip, and bullying. Members, including staff, found to be breaking this rule will suffer the consequences- strikes, removal or, in extreme circumstances, total bans.
5. Discriminatory language and actions are NOT allowed. This includes discrimination against race, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. OOCly. Discriminating against other members or their characters in the group for any of the before mentioned list is absolutely not allowed. This includes posting public want ads within the group that specify things such as “dfab girls only”, “cis toms only” or other similarly discriminatory language. You or your characters may have whatever views or preferences you wish, but those sorts of exclusionary ideas are to be kept out of our public GB spaces. This rule extends for IC prejudices. Intolerant NPCs within backstories and character histories are permitted, however, as we recognize that RPing characters that have suffered through that discrimination are often used as an outlet for those undergoing similar situations in real life. In Goldbloods, though, those attitudes IC would be seen as odd and abhorrent, as we’ve built the general GoldBloods universe as one that happily accepts all of those under the LGBTIA+ spectrum.
6. Please be sure to read all information documents. Goldbloods has a large set of journals and documents full of information- and it can be overwhelming! If you ever have any questions, feel free to comment or note the group directly, or even apply to join our peer mentor program, the Star Guide Program!. All information journals are numbered in the order we recommend you read them.
7. NOTE the group or SUBMIT A TICKET in our Discord if you have any questions or concerns. Outside of difficult circumstances, please do not contact a staff member’s personal account. Remember that the staff have their own lives as well! If there are minor delays in responding, answering questions, or processing activities or submissions, please be patient and do not harass the staff for speed.
8. There are minor activity requirements for participation. We always encourage players to do more, but Goldbloods’ minimum activity requirements for normal players is very little! Please be sure to keep this in mind, and keep an eye on our Character Roster if you are unsure just when your character’s activity is due. Failure to meet the activity requirements will result in characters falling missing, deceased, and eventually player removal.
9. This is a Discord HEAVY group. We have a Discord server through which we make announcements and where members can interact and roleplay with one another. It also serves as an area for members to ask questions of staff members. It’s HIGHLY recommended to join it to have the full Goldbloods experience, but it is not required to participate. You can join it by clicking here! All rules listed in our Discord server are official group rules.
10. This roleplay group is inspired by tabletop RNG games like D&D- random chance WILL play a role in your character's fate. You don't need to know anything about D&D in order to join and have fun in GoldBloods, but some of our mechanics may be unfamiliar to members who are used to more traditional Warrior RP Groups. Things like rolling dice and random chance may have an impact on the stories and characters. While we like to keep most elements of RNG optional to members, there are certain scenarios where RNG must be used, consequences and all. This includes plots like attempted-murder of high-ranks, escape from capture attempts, plots with conflicting interests, etc.
11. In-Character actions will have In-Character consequences. While we don't punish members OOCly for their character breaking IC rules (ie; Halcyon laws), we always remind all members that a cat's IC action may indeed lead to an IC consequence, even if you don't want it to. If a character is very vocal about their hatred of Halcyon, they may find themselves before a Halcyon court and subject to punishment. If a character tries to murder a cat, that cat may very well turn the tables on them. Because some of these scenarios may not be exactly what a member wants OOCly for their character, we try to use RNG elements to make things more fair in terms of the likelihood of escape/avoiding consequences. However- this also means that something as serious as death could be on the table for a character that makes dangerous decisions. We will never strive to kill a member's character, and RNG elements will be played out fairly to allow the chance of escape, those sorts of outcomes depend entirely on the rolls that are made and we ask members to be comfortable with those possibilities, or to simply avoid putting their character in overtly dangerous scenarios in the first place.
12. At this time, there is no member cap, yay! This may change if Member numbers swell too greatly. However- each individual clan and ranks within each clan are subject to being opened/closed when they reach certain number thresholds. These updates are displayed on the side of the main GB front page, as well as announced on our Discord.
JOINING AS A NEW MEMBER
0. By applying to the GoldBloods group, you agree that you've read and accepted all of the rules and guidelines laid out in this journal and all others. We are not liable for any unwanted consequences that occur from not reading the group rules.
1. Create your character! Use the CHARACTER CREATION journal and our #character-pre-review channel for help! Please complete both the art and written portions before submitting. To join, your character’s application MUST be submitted to DeviantArt as a deviation.
2. Make sure the group is open to new members. Goldbloods has Seasonal Openings- meaning we are only open certain months of the year! The countdown on our front page will always include a reminder as to when we will be accepting new members!
3. When ready, send a join request to our DeviantArt group! Given the group is open, you will click the “Join Group” button on our GoldBloods main page- In the comment section of the join request itself, please include a link to your character's application, and include the answer to the following questions:
Where can you find your current character(s)’s activity status and activity period? Please link the location!
What happens when ALL of your characters miss their activity requirements at once?
4. Await review. Your character will be looked over, and anything that needs to be fixed will be communicated to you. Please allow 24-48 hours for our staff to review your application. Once your application has been reviewed and any necessary fixes have been made, you will be accepted as a member of the group!
5. Submit your character application to their clan’s application folder! Each clan application folder can be found in our gallery, as sub-folders in the Character Applications folder. We also highly recommend that you join our Discord, and get acquainted with your fellow group members to begin looking for plots and roleplay opportunities!
ACTIVITY REQUIREMENTS & CONSEQUENCES
Goldbloods can be a very laid back experience if a member wants it to be, so activity requirements are not strict and are left very open. You are permitted a large amount of characters, but each character must have some form of submitted activity EVERY 3 MONTHS.
Any character that does not have activity for a season (3 months) will be marked as officially “MISSING”. Missing characters are considered missing in-canon- the only way to bring a character back from missing is to submit activity for them! Should a MISSING character go another 3 months without activity (6 months of no submissions!), they will be considered “DECEASED” and will be unable to be recovered. The activity to bring them back does not count as their activity check for their next season- it will only save them! We ask that you do your best to keep your characters at least minimally active, and to this end, “MISSING” statuses must be acknowledged and explained away in-canon. There are repercussions to deal with for leaving your clan for so long!
If ALL of a member’s characters become MISSING, the member will be removed from the group and all MISSING characters will become DECEASED. When a member is removed for inactivity they may submit a new join request during the next group opening.
TO SUBMIT ACTIVITY FOR A CHARACTER you must submit a deviation meeting the correct requirements to said character’s clan’s Art & Literature folder in our gallery! Just be sure to include in the deviation description: "Activity Piece for [Cat Name] of [Cat's Clan]"! If there are multiple cats included in the picture/literature, just submit it to YOUR character’s clan's folder, and include ALL characters’ names and clans in the description. Roleplaying in the group’s Discord server DOES NOT count towards their activity- it MUST be submitted to the group on DeviantArt!
1. One piece can only count towards ONE of YOUR OWN character’s activity. Multiple pieces can be together in an “activity compilation”, but one writing or one drawing of multiple characters will only count towards one.
2. Monthly Memes cannot count towards a character’s activity. The only exception is when completing previous month’s memes after the due date- if it meets activity requirements!
3. Group-Wide events do not count towards activity. There may be other rewards for group-wide events, but unless stated, it should be assumed that they do not count towards activity.
4. Hiatuses MUST be approved and recorded by staff! To submit a Hiatus Notice, you should note the group or open a ticket in our Discord server. Please include your DeviantArt username, all of your characters’ names and clans, and the date you expect your hiatus to end. The minimum length a hiatus can be is 2 weeks. After a hiatus ends, you will have until the end of the month (if the hiatus extended into a new month) to submit activity for your characters to prevent them from going missing or deceased. Players in Hiatus MAY NOT participate in events or group mechanics.
5. What counts for activity?
The piece MUST include your character, but may include other characters. It can be from your cat's past, present, or future. AUs, crack/parody, and non-canon situations do not count towards activity, but metaphorical/symbolic art submissions may be permitted. The MINIMUM requirements for activity are explained below. You ABSOLUTELY may do more than required!
â–¸ ART: a bust of your character, colored, with a background (must have some sense of LOCATION- flat colors and patterns DO NOT COUNT)
â–¸ WRITING: at least 500 words from your character’s perspective
â–¸ ROLEPLAY: at least 500 words total between your character’s posts
6. Certain types of characters have special activity requirements and activity periods to meet.
CLAN LEADERS must submit activity at least ONCE A MONTH. Leaders are expected to interact with their clan far more often than a normal character, create and participate in plots, and manage their clans lore and history.
KNIGHTS, DEPUTIES, and TASK LEADERS must submit activity EVERY TWO MONTHS. High Ranks are expected to interact with their clans far more often than normal characters.
If a member with a High Rank character is mostly inactive within their clan both OOC and RP wise, but still gets their formal activity requirements in at the last minute, that member may still be subject to intervention from Staff and a request to pick up their activity level within their clan. If the activity of said member/character does not improve over the next month or two, that character may be demoted to allow for a more active and involved replacement.
ROLEPLAY RULES
1. Be careful not to god-mod. God-modding is taking control of something beyond the scope of your own character. Some forms of god-modding are acceptable, such as small changes in weather, the environment, NPC characters/animals, etc., and in some situations of battle with other characters (these situations must be discussed and agreed-upon between players). Do not take control of another character. Breaking this rule three times without listening to corrections will result in removal from the group. If you find yourself the victim of true character god-modding (and the other player fails to fix the issue), you are well within your right to ignore the action. Please bring these situations, if unfixed, to the attention of a staff member.
2. Be careful not to metagame. Metagaming is when your character is shown to have or act on information they do not possess. It is incredibly important to be mindful of what your character knows, given that information is so freely shared OOC but far less IC. If you do not have evidence (in-game scenes) of your character learning information, you would be correct to assume they do not know anything. Information MUST be shared in-game from character to character. Characters cannot “coincidentally assume” the correct information. They cannot “just so happen” to do something the correct way they have never heard of before, just because the player knows it is correct. Metagaming ruins the fun and breaks the game, and if the staff have reason to believe your character should not know the information they are showing, we will ask you to provide evidence of their learning that has happened prior to the event. If it is concluded metagaming is taking place, the player will be given a warning or strike. Continuous metagaming will result in removal from the group.
3. Personal plotlines are subject to intervention by staff. We want to foster a fully-creative environment with as few limitations as possible. However: certain plotlines must be discussed and approved by staff. You are in charge of anything that happens to your cat, be it good or bad, but, when those decisions are large enough to affect a clan as a whole, they must be brought to the attention of the administration FIRST. Personal plotlines are important; rather than saying “NO” we will try to work with you to prevent your plotline from interrupting any group-wide plots or arcs, as this may ruin the entire experience for others. Consider your large plots a collaborative effort with the group as a whole, because they may affect the group as a whole. Please also be aware that while we are encouraging free plotlines, there are overarching plots that we run as the group’s main story. Unfortunately, we cannot allow an individual player’s plotline to become the group’s main story. If you are uncertain whether or not your plotline may upset the group’s arcs, don’t be afraid to check by staff.
If we think that your plotline needs to be overseen by admins, we will have you open a ticket in the Discord server during which an admin will DM a short session with dice rolling in order to see whether your character succeeds or fails in their attempted action. You may also open a ticket if you would like a fight between characters to be overseen by admins or have another situation you feel would benefit from supervision. The admins are not responsible for bad rolls and will not disclose the potential consequences of actions that have not yet been undertaken. The group does operate under risk of death for characters, and the actions your character takes will affect their outcomes. Admins are not responsible for the actions a character takes in-character and are not responsible if those actions lead to their death. As a group with no character limit, you are permitted to make a new character in their place.
4. Recreational drug or alcohol use by characters in RP will, in most cases, not be allowed. This includes hallucinogens of all types, poppy seeds, catmint, fermented items, etc. For a variety of reasons, we have deemed it inappropriate to allow drug/alcohol usage to be RPed by player characters- though certain themes of similar natures may still be permitted in characters’ backstories on a case by case basis.
5. Certain on-going plot things should be kept private until complete. This includes GM sequence tickets and sensitive in-character actions. Discussing these things is a very easy way to lead into accidentally god-modding or metagaming a situation and ruining its authenticity.