RULES & FAQ//
Rules & FAQ!
DO NOT TL;DR THIS.
It looks like a lot to process, but these are the rules and questions that you will undoubtedly ask if you don't read the following.
RULE NUMBER ONE: THERE ARE NO RULES.
Ha, just kidding. Don't let the OOC beef get into the IC stew. Furreal.
So... what is this?
LOLOCRACY! is a Hetalia-based roleplaying game... with a twist! It's focused on the lives of the nations as 100% plain ol' human beings: your average people that work hard and play hard, with a little help from first-person blogging and third person roleplaying on the main community, lolocracy.
Awesome! How do I get started?
Check the cast of taken characters or the wanted section, pick an unclaimed country, hop on over to the application, and go nuts!
Are there ratings or are all scenes PG?
The comm is marked for adult concepts, just to be safe, but it's more of an all around PG-13 rating. The game isn't FOCUSED on it, but it's to be expected that adult characters may be involved in scenes involving language, drug/alcohol use, and sexuality. However, anything that is rated above PG-13 needs to be marked as such (see posting format) and locked.
Do I get one and only one character?
Nein! Currently, the cap is at two characters (and maybe if we like you we'll let you have a third...). We ask that you don't apply for two characters at the same time because we WILL reject one of your applications, no matter how awesome it may be.
(UPDATE: Since a number of our players have been grabbing a second character, we're makin' it a rule that you wait at least two weeks before apping another helping. It just makes sense to get the feel of your nation before going for another.)
What are "activity checks"?
Activity checks are how we figure out who is currently active: i.e. posting journals, participating in scenes, and so on. We hold them the first of every month. As a rule, you should be posting journals at least twice a month, as well as threading/logging twice a month. That's it - we're relatively lax here.
If you post any threads in the last week of the month, they technically don't have to count towards the activity check of the month you posted in. Let's say you posted a thread in the last week of June, then it can count towards your July activity check that we post on the first day of August.
(UPDATE: For muns with multiple characters, if one or more of those characters are OCs then they have the freedom of just one scene and two journal entries for those OCs.)
I'm not sure how time works in this game...
Our game operates in real time. This may take some getting used to, but it cuts down on a lot of confusion and saves us the trouble of not having to figure out what in-game date it is. You do not want to know the kind of suffering and confusion Christmas in spring causes.
The time stamp obviously doesn't have to be on that very day. If, for example, you wanted your characters to spend Christmas together, we don't expect that everyone leave their family and friends on Christmas day to come and post on the comm. So you can wait until a few days after, or post the thread a few days before and mark it "Christmas Day, 25th."
(UPDATE: When filling the "when" header, please remember to include the actual date, i.e. Thursday morning (August 6th); especially if you're writing a backdated log.)
What goes in the journals and what goes in lolocracy?
Your character journals should essentially be treated as their blogs, and anything you would do with your little corner of the internet applies. E-mails, text messages, phone conversations, and chat logs are allowed in the journals, as long as you keep them IC. They double as a means of displaying your character's private personal space, so if technology isn't their thing, letters, notes, written diaries, gifts, etc. can be posted there. You may also use them to do an "ACTION" post, which is a way to describe what your character is doing in third person.
Posts on lolocracy must be in-character (IC) and this is where third-person roleplaying will take place - think of it as team-written fanfiction. You're free to thread, or do logs over instant messenger and e-mail, just remember to stick to the posting format and rules before you post. (And do remember to use tags! They make everyone's lives a lot easier, we promise.)
How do we know if a thread is "complete" or not?
You do not need to have 100+ comments on a thread for it to be considered complete. Your scene can be finished in as less than a dozen comments, whether threaded or played out over messenger/e-mail. Sometimes you may really need to write at least a hundred comments to accomplish the goal of your thread. There really are no requirements for this. When you and the other players feel that your thread is finished, simply mark it with the appropriate status tags.
Tags? LJ-cuts? I'm new to this!
Tags, as mentioned above, do make it easier to get around on LJ and keep our community tidy. They're words or short phrases used to organise the journal entries; in this case, they're the names of the nations. Add names to a new entry (or while editing an old entry) by typing the tag name in the tags field. Separate multiple character names on the same entry with a comma (e.g. Hong Kong, England, Prussia). By tagging your posts with the characters involved, anyone can click on those tags and find other entries involving that character.
An lj-cut should be used to "hide" the bulk of your entries in lolocracy , with the posting format being the only text above the cut. Type
Are we allowed to "screen" entries and comments?
Yes you certainly are! For those that don't know, screening a journal entry means choosing who gets to see it (if you want them to read it at all) - without locking or actually using the LJ screening option on the entry/comments (because your mods are lazy and don't want to have to sign in to constantly check on things, hur hur~).
This is accomplished by tacking on something like [SCREENED TO FELICIANO] or [LOCKED AGAINST THAT LOSER GILBERT] in your subject title or in the body of your entry itself. The first means that only Feliciano can read the entry or the portion that is "screened." The second means that everyone except for Gilbert can read it. Of course, this doesn't mean that you as a mun can't read it, just that your character isn't privy to that knowledge.
I want to play France/Francis but make him like [insert totally OOC description]. Is that allowed?
Short answer: No. Long answer: Hetalia is canon. Whilst not all the nations have in-depth personalities in the strips, there is enough there to get a decent grasp of some of the character, so semi-canon applies to their "true" human form in our game - your interpretation is key but don't overlook important things about your character.
Countries that have only had small roles and OCs are pretty much free game though, but remember, your character should be something like their nation so do research!
(UPDATE: This has now been added to the application page in more depth.)
My character's first language isn't English. What now?
And some of us don't know that character's native language, or don't have English as our first language either. We're not going to enforce that you learn how to speak German if you're playing a Germanic country, or Greek if you're playing Greece, or Italian if you're- you get the picture. But if you do know? You're more than welcome to practise here. And if you'd like, you can even whip out a dictionary or use an online translator to look up phrases in your character's native language - no one's going to stone you (we hope?).
On that note we don't require you to add a translation for every little thing your character says, but if they do speak at length in another language then we're going have to ask that you tack on some translations in the footnotes.
Can we have... ho yay?
We aren't against shipping and we certainly don't have a problem with het, yaoi, yuri, straighties, lesbians, slash, teh ghey, etc.
I have to quit the game for whatever reason!
If you must leave the game (for however long), we ask that you please go defriend all other character journals, generally to keep things nice and neat for the rest of us. You may keep thelolsquad as a friend so that your journal can still be part of the game's history. Do not delete your journal.
Hey, where are the, you know, RULE rules?
Okay, let us lay down some ground rules for those of you that might not know the common courtesy in games: be respectful to other players (be nice, love each other, don't be a dick, et cetera) and don't god-mod. The exception is if you and another player have allowed each other to write in minor actions, but if someone is going around and putting words in your mouth and you're not okay with that, you need to alert the mods.
One more thing...
If you use asterisks, colons, hyphens, and whatever else is used to denote action in a scene you will be taken outside and shot in the back. Same goes for emoticons. Third-person on lolocracy, first person on journals, 'kay?
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