1 - The Golden Rule

Treat others as you want to be treated. Be polite, follow RP etiquette, and don't cheat, exploit, or metagame.

What if I don't agree with someone or what they're doing?

Ultimately ask yourself whether what they are doing violates the rules. If not, then there isn't much you can do. You can check out our report flow chart to determine if a report is an appropriate response. Either way, communication is key here and we encourage you to just reach out and talk to others if they are doing anything that makes you feel uncomfortable and that thing is unjustified.

2 - Plan OOC Sparingly

Plotting means that you spoke OOC to someone about a situation to plan it out, or had your own notion of how something would work, and thus orchestrated how something played out rather than letting it play out naturally.

You can plot in ways that help you with joining a pack, starting out to know new wolves, to determine if starting a family is ok, or to build histories for your wolves. Essentially, the only plotting allowed is pointing your character in a certain direction. Everything else should build organically.

You may never OOC plot in any way that is plotting against another user or their characters. All actions taken in game that could be harmful or may largely affect other characters must be built up in-character and have a trail of in-character evidence. One or two threads where your character felt offended is not enough for your character to want another person's character to die.

3 - It isn't Win or Lose

There is no winning or losing here. This is simply a place where we write wolves together (as adults). Things that benefit your character (or harm them) should be written out clearly in actual posts. Sometimes you will lose a fight, lose precious objects, lose a territory; and sometimes you will gain all of those. Please accept whatever happens with grace.

IC actions have IC consequences. If something leads up to your character's death, they cannot be brought back. Act accordingly to fear for your character's life when appropriate. On the same vein of thought, actions your character carries out will impact their health, how others see them, the outcome of certain situations, etc. The actions of the characters in game is how our stories are built together.

4 - Respect the Lore

Our lore is not extensive right now but please be respectful of the map, setting, and what could realistically happen in any given moment. There is no year or era here other than IC years which are tracked with the seasons and weather.

There are no humans, human artifacts, signs of humans, or human remains here. That means there are no ruins, homes, or any signs of humans. This is a world yet untouched by humankind and your character cannot come from a place where humans exist.

5 - Write Properly & With Patience

Make sure that all of your posts are third-person narrative style and that they have proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Make sure the meaning of your words are clear.

We value quality over quantity. There is no word requirement to your posts. You can have a post with as little as one word - so long as what you are writing does actually contribute to the story you are building with others.

Do not rush others to post. While some of us may spree (post back to back) with one another, you are not required to do so. Posting here is meant to be a fun hobby, not a chore. If a post is needed then simply tag them and wait, but be respectful.

6 - Activity & Results of Inactivity

On the subject of not rushing others, you should be aware that some situations will require a bit more urgency. Those situations include fights or pack meetings - you are able to be skipped if you do not respond to these threads after a set number of days. Please see section 10 regarding specific fighting rules.

Characters which are not posted with every 90 days automatically get shelved. You can re-activate them at any point but if you fail to post before the daily rollover, they will be shelved again.

Other characters can assume your character is missing if you have not communicated what they would be doing in your absence. Likewise, if another member has shared what their wolf would be doing while the writer is away, you are required to respect what they have laid out. Your wolf cannot be angry at another for "never being around" if it has been clearly laid out what their routine is and that it is established they are present. That said - you should be willing to just ask each other before making IC assumptions.

7 - Communication & Drama

Communication is the key component of Nocturne. Speak to those around you and ensure information is correct, to express concerns, to talk over frustrations, and to clarify any information you need. Talks of what is going on should not happen behind closed doors as this can worsen the situation rather than help it.

We are a no-drama website. Meaning anyone who stirs up drama for the sake of drama (poor communication to watch things burn, toxic language, or generally harmful language/actions) will be removed from the community. We do not owe you or anyone an explanation for you being removed from the community for this.

Building off of no-drama: You are not permitted to post a leaving thread or post in discord that says anything more than you're leaving, and a small reason why. You cannot slander other users, staff, or the site on your way out. Your leaving message should not add to or stir up drama. If you leave in this way, you will not be welcome back to Nocturne.

Do not create documents, letters, spreadsheets, etc regarding problematic members. Either talk it out with that member or escalate it to a moderator. Do not be part of the problem.

Admins and Mods are here to manage back-end things such as creating or editing boards, general maintenance, and observing to ensure everyone is following the rules. You should always try to talk out any issues with another player to find a compromise before reporting. Ultimately things are up to you and the other player. If you cannot agree, it is better to part ways. We will not help unless a rule is clearly broken. That said, be respectful in all conversations even if you disagree with the other writer.

Do not use someone's communications, ideas, words shared in private, or anything else about that person against them. That means do not spread drama for the sake of it, do not attempt to get them removed from the community (or other communities) because you don't like what they're doing, do not call them out in general as if they are a bad person. If you don't like what is happening, and what is happening is not a rule break, then please move on. In essence: mind your business.

8 - Character Rules

No copyright or canon characters. You cannot play Balto. However, you can play a wolf named Balto who is similar to the wolf-dog from the movie so long as their history etc is different. Characters based on a copyright character are a-ok, but they cannot be that literal character.

If your character dies, you cannot make a direct copy of that character as a means to replace them. You can create similar characters but each character you bring into the site must be uniquely their own. Creating a duplicate character can be seen as avoiding IC consequences.

Your character must be realistic in overall appearance. They can be any of the colors listed in the character creation guide, any size on the guide, or have any eye color on the guide, but all markings must be markings that are naturally found on wolves or wolf-like animals in the wild. Spots, tiger stripes, and large patches of white are not permitted.

• One exception to this rule is that coyotes cannot be marked any larger than average, as they are quite a bit smaller than wolves.

Your character can be a wolf or coyote. If you choose to play a coyote, you do so with the knowledge that coyotes and wolves most often do not get along.

Characters can NOT be deleted. If you are banned or decide to leave Nocturne you should not clear out profiles or request that the characters be removed. Whether you like it or not, that character is involved with other characters and may be involved with families. It is unfair to erase them from timelines and threads to suit your own needs. If you're leaving, do so quietly. The characters still belong to you and there is no harm in people seeing them. Additionally, if you are found to be doing this and weren't banned, you will be banned, and we will restore the deleted characters for site integrity.

9 - Timelines and Timing

We use liquid time. Meaning that you can backdate storylines if you need to, be in multiple at a time, etc. It's up to you to determine when events happen for your character. If you need help because it gets complicated, just ask! Likely someone in the community can help you piece it together.

In addition to this, you may skip others as mentioned above if they do not post for a while. However, we encourage you to be patient and wait for others to post when they are able.

10 - Fighting Others

When fighting you are required to roll fighting for each roll. You will describe what your character is doing, what their defenses are, and what their main action is. The next player reads your intention and determines how things land and hit based on how well you rolled. In this way, the receiving player has at least a little say in what happens to their character. If you need help on how fighting works, we do also have a fighting guide.

Regarding rolling: you are required to receive damage that is appropriate for the roll. If a roll is critically successful then it most certainly hit where it was aimed to hit. If it is effective, it definitely hits but maybe not exactly where the attacker intended it. If it fails, then they can miss, barely damage, or not hit at all. Please be realistic and use the dice as the tool it is.

Intended attacks and defenses must be realistic. If the throat of the other character is blocked in some way, your character can't magically get it no matter how successful the roll is. Your character should be aiming at openings, not trying to push through or around defenses.

If you are inactive from a fight thread for longer than 5 days and the other participants and yourself have not agreed on an extension, then you automatically forfeit the fight. Fights become very stressful if they are drug out. If your character was winning, they exit the fight and do no further damage. If your character was losing, they are assumed to have lost. If your character was close to death or close to killing, then it is assumed the other is left for dead (and up to the writer of the injured wolf to ultimately decide if they live).

Fights are assumed to be no-kill by default unless there is ample (minimum 5 completed threads) history between the characters to justify it OR both parties agree that it could end in death. If your character has built up an enemy over time, then you must deal with the consequences of that - even if it means death.

11 - Death and Dying

Death and dying cannot be off-screened except in the case of the writer choosing to do so. There is no gray area here. If a deadly fight dies out and was not finished, then the more damaged character is left for dead. The writer of the "winning" character cannot deem the other character dead. Whether they survive is up to the author of the damaged character. This is not a win-lose game.

With that said, a pattern of not posting in fights in which your character is heavily damaged and close to death so that you can avoid IC consequences is also not allowed. These patterns are obvious and easy to find and you will be reprimanded.

12 - Travel

Please travel realistically. It takes a day to a day and a half to travel between one large area to another (the main boards). The map page has useful information as well as a grid to help.

The exception to "skipping" across the map is if your character has been dormant long enough that they could have traveled that distance. If your last thread with them would have taken place a week ago, then a week's worth of travel is possible. It should still make sense as to why they are appearing in another area.

13 - NPCs

Character NPCs are allowed in very specific situations. Your character can be marked as NPC if you cannot be around and it is your responsibility at that point to provide details on what they would be doing. Likewise, others are required to adhere to the fact that your character is present as an NPC and may reference them.

Wild NPCs are also possible. Your character can have a companion in the sense that they have an animal that seems to be unafraid of them. Your canine cannot, however, communicate with any companions they've bonded with. The companion must also make sense and have real-world roots. A wolf with a raven friend is logical. A wolf with a lynx friend is not.

14 - Avatar & Profile Art

Avatars must be photo manipulations, otherwise you may use photo manipulations or artwork of your character, so long as you can show proof that the art is yours. This will only be questioned in situations where it seems something is off. AI art is not allowed on profiles or posts.

If you do not credit the artist or original source for images on the character's profile, you should still be able to give the source if asked. You are responsible for ensuring proper attribution.

At no point should any image on your profile or your character's profiles, nor in any of your posts, be an image created by AI.

Large avatars are 300x175, small avatars are 200x200, and gallery images are generally 700x350. If you use anything smaller, you will notice a loss of quality as the site will scale the images to fit.

None of the images which you use on the site can be pornographic in any way.

15 - Other Stuff

Random events can happen at any point! There are a variety of random events that happen automatically. If a random event happens, you'll see it after making a new thread or post. It is up to you whether your character responds to this random event. You can either edit your post to respond, or respond in your next reply.

You must be 18 or older to write on Nocturne. Nocturne allows writers to write in a variety of mature themes and as such we have a strict age requirement based on the laws in the United States, where Nocturne is hosted and run. If you are found to be younger, you will be removed from the site and will have to appeal later for re-entry.

No postscripts or styled posts. You can apply dialogue color in your character's profile, but otherwise your post cannot be styled or changed in any way. This keeps everything tidy and uniform across the site, and ensures readability for everyone.