Naruto Universe's Rules

~The Rules and Regulations of NarutoU~




Hello, and welcome to Naruto Universe, a text-based RPG that focuses on the principles and concepts of the Naruto series. We are very well-knit community that offers enjoyment, fun, and creativity. However, there are rules and morals that must be upheld when operating such a large network. As intended, rules and regulations are put into place for the benefit of the members; however, it also serves as a guiding principle for the Staff to follow in order to conduct business in a professional manner.

First and foremost, harassment has been an ongoing problem on Naruto Universe for quite awhile. Therefore, a rule has been put into place in order to better serve our members which can be found below.


Harassment Rules



On NU, we do not want people harassing each other or Staff, because people need one another in order to make a good site, and Staff deserves to be respected by people, even if you personally do not like them. If you don't like someone, try ignoring them or doing things without them in it such as Private Roleplaying. I know I may make things sound really easy, though this is something I want to put across before I start laying down the law, so please follow these things before going down to the lower parts of this message.


How to handle Harassment:


If you are being harassed by people, I hope you will follow what I am saying, and stay out of it as much as possible, because yelling back will just make things worse. We have a lot of members here, and the only people with Privileges here are the ones on Staff, because they spend a lot of time making your Roleplaying experience better, so please act mature and stay out of trouble. Now, How do you deal with Harassment?

1. Talk to someone: If you are being Harassed by someone, I really want to encourage people to send them a PM in which they will try talking to someone in order to stop the insanity and act civil so you can both get through the same door. We do not want people to get fed up with the site and leave because one person can't try to behave, and that is why you should try talking first. Once this does not work, and the Harassment keeps up, move to Step 2 and ask a Moderator.
2. Ask a member of Staff: If you can not settle this through mature conversations, then that is where that part of the story ends, and where you start contacting a member of staff. Make sure to contact a Moderator who will look into it, and will hear the story of both sides. After this is done, the Moderator will try to fix the situation, and in case of one person being incredibly offensive, even when contacted by a Moderator, an Admin will take care of the Situation, meaning it will result in something l like to call my "Behave or Fuck Off" policy.
3. Behave or leave: When talking to the person who is working hard to Harass someone can not be handled by talking or by the Moderator asked to handle it, an Admin will work on it. Once this happens, the one harassing or trolling without end will get an Ultimatum, which is simply "Behave or leave", in which case someone either stops trolling, or they get IP banned, because I will not have one Asshole ruining this site we all work hard on and enjoy being ruin it for others, just so they can feel better about the gutter they crawl out of in order to get on here. Either come here to RP and Socialize, or leave and don't come back.

PS: People who think one of the Admins will help them after they have been IP-Banned are horribly mistaken, because you will have been given enough chances at this point, and if you still managed to fuck all of that up, don't expect people to drag you out of the grave you dug for yourself.

Trolling:

I understand that Trolling can be fun, and we all do it to get some people on their toes sometimes, though they are jokes, and should be considered as such. This of course goes both ways, since people need to keep it as a form of joking with people, rather then being offensive and trying to hurt people for no reason other then Trolling. For the people that Troll, I want to put up a couple of things too.

1. Jokes: Trolling in the form of jokes is fine, there is no problem with, and I do not want to keep people from joking around, because this is not a Nazi Regime where people get forced into obeying the rules or stepping into a Gas-chamber. People may say things like this that you might find to be offensive, but there are things that you have to learn to live with, so try and consider it as a joke.
2. Be Humane: As the person Trolling, I want you to act mature, and when someone gives you a good reason as to why you should stop trolling about a certain subject, then please do so. The thing is, there are people that have been through a lot, and there are people that are easily hurt by things, so please, act like a Big Girl or a Big Boy, and make sure these people do not get hurt over some jokes.



(*Note* The above rule will be enforced to its fullest extent. Please read over the above and have an understanding what is expected of both the members and the Staff. No one is above the site's rules and regulations.)

Expectations from Members and Staff


All members and Staff should respect one another and the Staff members. This is a crucial component in becoming a unified network. With meeting this expectation you become a role model for new members, thus, can be apart of a chain reaction to change the attitude and atmosphere of Naruto Universe. Our members are who can make a difference.


All members and Staff should be tolerant of one another. We are all human and someday must learn to be around people we do not like. By achieving and practicing this expectation, you also help make Naruto Universe a better place. Tolerance is key to a successful campaign on this RPG and is also a successful attribute to your character within life.



We ask you to please maintain a consistent high-standard of role-play on this site. Please try to keep spelling, grammar and punctuation as accurate as you can. This will help everyone understand and enjoy their roleplay experience. However, knowing that we do have members whom are not as precise on the site as others, we are very lenient on this expectation Among all things this is a place where members can not only come to have fun and showcase their talent but also where they may come to learn and sharpen their skills. Basically, our expectation is that you work to hone and sharpen your writing skills, because writing and the understanding of language is an important principle to carry with you beyond the roleplaying experience.


This forum is PG-13. Adult content, foul language and anything else considered 'beyond' this age rating will be removed and can result in warnings, suspension or even an immediate ban. There are younger children on the site, and there are adults that don't see vulgar content as being fit. However, it is also against the rules put in place by Forummotion that vulgar, inappropriate, and pornographic content not be found on websites they host. Therefore, we expect our members to be decent and clean. Respect your fellow member and yourself All members of Staff are expected to follow such as well.


Only members of Staff may post on application threads (character, summon, clan etc.). If you are not a member of staff and you post on one such thread, your post will be deleted and you may receive a warning. Certain members may be given special permission to post on applications (Primarily PAC). Please show them as much respect as you would a moderator or administrator. Failure to comply with the member will lead to exactly what failure to follow a moderator or administrator's instructions would be, lack of approval. To keep clutter and confusion down and not intimidate or confuse members there will be a limit to 2 mods in the approval process of any applications (this does not include admins). So, in addition, we expect our members to respect each other and not post on other member's applications, because it adds unneeded posts onto said application, making it look messy. **NOTE** Staff will only look over an application when it is thought that there is a problem with a said application in which a member has violated Character Creation rules.



Please do not spam outside of the spam sub-forum. Excessive posting, in one topic repetitively, noted more than double posting is an example. Posting unnecessary comments or otherwise in character or out of character posts that are not approved of by everyone else within the topic are ill advised. An example of this would be entering a topic with a few posts to deliberately intrude on others who are role playing, without proper cause. We will delete posts and issue warnings if you do not adhere to this rule. This rule also applies to spamming in the C-box as well and includes but not limited to repetitive text, imaging, scrollers and bots. So, we expect that both STAFF and our members do NOT spam in areas that aren't designated for such.


Role-Playing Rules



In the past, metagamming has been an ongoing problem also. If you're not familiar with the term, it is when you use out-of-character knowledge to influence motives, events, behaviour, etc. within the in-character playing field. It is not logical for out-of-character experiences to have an impact on what goes on with your character and/or others' characters. There is no justification, at all, for metagamming on Naruto Universe and it will not be tolerated. Anyone that is reported metagamming or caught doing so will be dealt with accordingly.


Metagamming Explained:
Spoiler:


In a Standard RP Context:


A character tricking a medusa to stare at a mirror when the character has never even heard of medusas and should not be aware of their petrifying stare

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In a Naruto RP Context:


Having your character avoid eye contact with an Uchiha possessing MS when there is no logical in game reason they would know about the abilities and thus know to avoid it.

You find character mourning at the memorial stone and who is currently questioning whether she has what it takes to be a ninja. She lost her mother when she was just two. You character is unaware of this but you have read her character sheet and so know. Your character walks up to her to reassure her she’s a great Ninja and that her mother would be proud of her.

Your character knowing about a secret Anbu mission in progress when he is just a genin.

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Metagaming makes the RP less immersive and your characters actions less believable, in extreme cases it can be as bad as god-modding, being used to evade things your character wouldn’t have or acquire things he wouldn’t logically have access too.

It’s not the worse problem out there or even totally unacceptable it’s just nice to be aware of. Most metagaming is incidental and as such completely understandable but its best to try and avoid it wear possible. Here are a few pointers:


It’s always a good idea to read the character sheets of individuals you meet in because people generally work hard to produce them, they tend to be interesting and enjoyable and you will connect with the characters more easily and enjoy the RP all the more. However with regard to what your character knows about them the base assumption is absolutely nothing. Much like when you meet someone in real life for the first time you know next to nothing about them. From this base you take into account your characters rank, country, prior social interaction and what he has learned in RP to form what you know.


Always bare you rank in mind when considering what your character would know of others or on matters. A genin’s knowledge would be limited to some basic jutsu, whatever he has picked up on mission, knowledge on his own clan relative to his rank, non sensitive info on the academy and his country and knowledge of his fellow peers (though not specific). The Hokage on the other hand will know or have access to a great many things on a wide range of matters, from who the cleans the toilets at the hospital to the true nature of Konoha’s Kekkai Genkai and who the present holders of the villages summoning contracts.


Your country/village should likewise be bared in mind. Villages are by nature very secretive and anything more then common knowledge would be hard for outsiders to come by.


Personal histories should nearly always be considered unknown to anyone but the parties involved unless revealed by the character in question during RP. Bare in mind though that anything done in an official capacity is likely to be recorded and known to ones superiors. Also you may have been watched, though this is very unlikely unless there are good grounds for it.


Clan knowledge, Jutsu, Special abilities and Kekkai Genkai fall into an interesting category. On the one hand many Clans are quite famous and basic information about the abilities and techs is widely spread. Unless your clan is particularly obscure or has very few members it should be assumed that the chances are that some basics concerning you clan’s tech is known. However at the same time the techs themselves especially high level techs are very closely guarded secrets and their true nature is likely to be known by a few people. A good example would be the Uchiha Clan. Most people in Konoha and even beyond are probably aware of their red eyes and some of its basic functions but MS itself will only be known to a select group of people. Not even an Uchiha Genin is likely to be aware of techniques like Susunoo.


Remember that the RP does not follow Cannon and that none of the Cannon characters are existed with relation to it. What we know about rare techs, kkg and special abilities that came out over it may not be known. Using Deidara as an example if someone was to create an Akatsuki character with his abilities and a similar profile, then any Konoha Nin who encountered him would be unaware of his capabilities even though we know them all. In a RP sense his abilities would be new and unheard of.


Never forget that certain characters may be adopting a cover identity, hiding something or lying to you, be it the Hokage or an Academy student. If your character has been given no reason to suspect this then he/she should act as if he remains ignorant of the fact. A good example of this would be if Hailstorm’s Character Hayate actually introduced himself as Bob to whomever he met. Unless you have recourse to doubt him which unless you know his real name seems unlikely, your character would think of him as Bob and should call him such until the point they know better. Similarly if your superior tells you to meet up one but intends much like Kakashi to turn up 3 hours late a diligent genin will turn up on time. The more skilled the Nin and the more practise they have the more believable the lie. Consider this in light of a Jounin Sensei being deliberately late its highly unbelievable that one of his genin students would expect him to be lying and know to arrive 3 hours late. Keeping something known OOC that is in IC secret requires certain amount forethought. Much like an assumption of ignorance, one should always assume that someone is telling the truth unless you have good reason to suspect otherwise or your character possess a suspicious nature.

Deathmatches are allowed and can happen at any time, in almost any location. If you want a topic NOT to become a deathmatch, put [No Killing] in the title. Similarly, you can put [No Fighting]; [Deathmatch] or other requirements in your topic title.

When performing a technique in roleplay, please put the technique details (as on your character application) at the bottom of your post so that other participants can see and understand what you have done and how dangerous it is. To prevent metagaming hidden techniques that the user would not see or Genjutsu may be PMed to the moderator of the topic. Thus the user will place “PM to mod” where the jutsu would otherwise go.

It is very possible for acts of nature to happen within the game. Should a character get too out of hand and the individual controlling the character get too Hostile, the administration reserves the right to use nature against the character. If the individual has created a technique that has extended beyond that which was originally intended and approved by staff, the administration can quite literally say "Your character seems to have forgotten ____ technique.". Please, play fairly and appropriately. We are a Naruto RPG site designed for fun, not for people who are too chaotic to be trusted and allowed to Roleplay properly.


Like metagamming, GMing, also known as "God-Modding", has been a very large problem at hand in the past. In order to make sure that this does not happen again, the Staff will be vigilant in their efforts to make sure that this problem does not arise again. God-Modding is when a character does something illogical and/or abuses abilities that their character possess to make them seem "God-like" hence the term "God-Modding". As such, anyone that is reported to have God-Modded or been caught in the act of doing so will be dealt with accordingly.


God-Modding Explained:
Spoiler:

Here are a few random examples (they are not taken from anywhere on site, this is not an exercise to point out peoples RP skills, which take time to develop after all):

In a Standard RP Context

(Example One): A character runs in to an enemy he cannot hope to defeat. Next post he claims to kill the enemy in a blink of an eye without even losing a heart beat.

(Example Two): Your character is taken captive and thrown in prison. Next they go claim to have walked out of the prison after beating the guards with nary a scratch

In a Naruto RP Context

Dodging every attack thrown at you in a fight whatever the likelihood of you being able to do this
Not just saying you threw a kunai at his heart but then say which you subsequently struck killing your foe when fighting a PC
Some how being immune to lethal poison you have never come into contact with before and you app mentions nothing about being poison resistant

God Modding is often simpler to do then you might realise. Every time you post the actions of another without their consent or the results of your attacks such as your fireball striking your foe your God Modding whether you realise this or not. The easy way to avoid this is to never post for other PC’s without their explicit permission and never post for the results of your attacks. Its fine to throw a fireball towards someone quite another thing to say it hits them.

When dealing with Jutsu bare in mind that any Jutsu has the possibility of being reversed and absolutely no Jutsu has so much power that it is impossible for any opponent to counter it. It may extremely hard for a academy student to avoid dying at the hands of a S Rank technique but it may be possible. That said it is just as bad to constantly completely avoid your opponent's attacks. Most battles especially between similarly ranked Nins are close and bloody affairs and avoiding injury or where it is clearly bound to happen death

Similarly all Jutsu used must be mentioned at the time of use. Claiming to have used a Jutsu at later point when no evidence exists in the former posts is God modding. Spamming attack's that would normally cost you an insane amount of chakra is also another form of God Modding. Using Jutsu costs chakra which is a finite resource after all. Over using Jutsu will deplete ones reserves and lead to Charka exhaustion.


Chatbox Rules

The chatbox is in place for easy user to user communication and plotting. It possess many other uses as well. Proper use of the chatbox is required, any unnacceptable behavior or misuse of the chatbox may lead to your discontinued use of the chatbox, or other consequences. If you are asked to stop by ANYONE, or feel what you are doing is unneccesary or excesive, then stop. When within the chatbox, please obide by the simple rules listed to keep our site fun and clean!

1). No excessive violence, language, or otherwise profane behavior is permitted within the chatbox. The occasional curse word, or crude behavior will likely be let go, however it is illadvised to continuously do so. There are many different people from many different backrounds and ages, please be respect them.
2). No excessive innapropriate behavior, this includes sexual and implied comments. Though you may find something humorous, others may not, so please respect their presence.
3). No advertising, pictures, or otherwise improperly placed comments within the chatbox. There is an advertising, a general, and even a spam section. Please make proper use of those sections, the chatbox is not the place for these things.
4). No excessive rude, disrespectful, or annoying behavior within the chatbox. If you are asked to stop doing something that may bother another member in the chatbox, please do so. If you are constantly asking staff members for something within the the chatbox and are asked to stop, please do so. Those are examples.
5). No negative discussions of other forums, sites, or affiliated subjects/locations in the chatbox. If you would like to disrespect or imply negatively upon somewhere else, please do so there. We do not tolerate this within our site. We are an open forum allowing all types from everywhere to join, others may share different opinions than you and we ask that you respect that by not starting the negative conversations to begin with.
6). No 'Flaming', or purposefully provoking someone through use of 'down-low' comments that certain individuals may understand, and others may not. There are many other ways to 'Flame' people, and loopholes to these rules do not exist. Please respect each other.
7). No use of 'Loop Holes'. The staff ultimately make the final call on your behavior. Figuring yourself for a genious and attempting to create, manipulate, bend, or loophole your way through any rules will not work. There are many 'unwritten' rules that are very basic, please think before acting.
8.) No flooding the chat box with needless discussion, if you must do something that can be classified as this, do it in the forums in spam or general discussion. This includes ranting and other similar discussions that may drag on for an extended period of time. The chat box IS for chatting, with each other, not to have a one person debate which forces everyone to work around you.

Banned List:
Canon Characters: This is not a canon site. This means that we will not permit character taken directly from the anime/manga in the Naruto world. This site is based heavily off of the anime/manga, but not entirely and things will be modified as staff sees fit in order to enhance your roleplaying experience. Because of this, we have canon jutsu, canon weapons, but they may be changed slightly.
Space Time Manipulation: Jutsu like the Flying Thunder God jutsu of the 4th Hokage will not be permitted on this forum. You can create something similar with high speed movement, but you will not be able to actually bend space time jutsu unless it is to be summoning your summoning jutsu, or summoning weapons from scrolls.
Certain Clan Kekkei Genkai: There are certain clan kekkei genkai and advanced elements that will simply be denied upon request. Among these are the following, and this list may grow over time:


Gravity (Admin Permission)
Time/Space
Chakra Regeneration
Spontaneous Regeneration (Within Reason)
Reality
Kekkei Genkai Mimicry
Immortality
Indestructibility

Admin Permission Only:

Rasengan & Chidori: Currently these are permitted with and only with admin permission. Because of the requirements for these jutsu, they are given to characters that are elite and have some clear indicator of advanced chakra control and dedication to their ninja art. Do not apply for these jutsu without admin permission first.
Curse Seals: These are currently permitted, but can only be made/given with admin permission. What is more, one will have to have fuuinjutsu as one of their specialties, and can only make curse seals that reflect their level of fuuinjutsu. What is more, the character that is making the curse seals has to be at least jounin ranked. These will be graded heavily, seeing as they are cause to potentially over powered characters, and will need to have great costs as well.
The Hachimon: The eight celestial gates are able to be approved and trained by those that have taijutsu as their main specialty only. However, beyond the first two gates, these jutsu require admin permission to train/purchase.

Rules Regarding Shunshin (Body Flicker) & Kawarimi (Substitution):
These are the basic rules that dictate how many times someone can use the Kawarimi ninjutsu, or the Shunshin ninjutsu in on topic. This is to limit someone from simply subbing out of every attack, and spamming high speed movement. As such, these need to be followed closely, and understood. These rules will not be changed or debated in the slightest, so read closely:

Kawarimi & Shunshin Rules:

Genin | C Rank Shinobi = Once.
Chuunin | B Rank Shinobi = Twice.
Jounin | A Rank Shinobi = Three times.
Elite Jounin | Elite ANBU | S Rank Shinobi = Four times.
Kage | S Rank Organization Leader = Five times.

Note: Organization has to be approved by the forum, and listed as one of the color ranks in order to be counted here.

Travel Rules:
One: When you are leaving a village, you may not control NPCs, such as guards, to allow you to leave. NPCs will be played by other members of the village, most likely the kage, and will react according their will. It is very hard to sneak out of a village, and there are guards posted at every exit/entrance that one would need to be able to go through, or slip by.
Two: When you create a topic in which you are leaving your village, you must indicate just that in the topics title. If it is not clearly, blatantly, and obviously stated that you are leaving the village in that topic, an admin has the ability to void the topic, regardless of the content within it. Appropriate titles would be something like "Leaving the village" or "Entering the village."
Three: The topic is by no means completed after your post of entrance or leaving. It is open to all who care to join, regardless of whether you specify that it is a closed topic or not. NPCs, other village jounin, ANBU, or friends from the village all have the right to enter the topic. Anyone that has any real, legitimate reason to be there, know what you are doing, and want to stop you may do just that, or at least try. Should a staff not find someone's reasoning legitimate, they can void that character's post.
Four: This is an important rule, and must be followed carefully. No new topics may be posted/created while you have posted an entrance or exit village topic for at least 48 hours after the entrance/exit village topic has been finished. This means that someone has to post the entrance and/or exit topic and then wait 48 hours to see if someone should try and stop them. Even if you are able to kill off all of your pursuers, you need to be able to wait 48 hours where no one responds in order to make the travel topic valid.

The Infamous 48 Rule:
The 48 hour rule is simple, and has a lot to do with posting order/can only be imposed when there is a clear posting order in the topic that it is being declared in. The 48 hour rule states that when someone does not post in their topic for 48 hours, and is thus holding up the posting order and the topic, they can be skipped. The rule also states that should someone have made an attack on the person in a previous post, and the attacked person does not reply within 48 hours, then the attacker can post again, skipping the attacked individual, and making their attack hit. Let me give you an example. Let's say that Suzy is fighting Joe. Suzy makes an attack where she throws a kunai at Joe's head, and then ends her post. 48 hours go by, and Joe does not post a dodge. Suzy sees that 48 hours have gone by since she last posted, and so she makes another post, detailing that the kunai hit Joe, since he never posted a dodge - or at least not in time. This rule does not apply when there is an away topic from the person that would be getting 48 hour'd. To clear up confusion, this does not mean that Suzy posts, Joe does not, 48 hours go by, and Suzy posts again with a free auto hit. The only way that the hit goes through in an auto hit fashion is if the attack is made before.