Joining Guide and Site Rules

Welcome to BLOODLINES, a site inspired by the Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines game. You don't need any pre-knowledge regarding the game in order to join the site, or understand what's going on. While the site is inspired by the game, we still want the setting to be somewhat original. The site does not include any of the canon characters from the games. The site is heavily character driven, with focus on character development. We're laid back, have no word count or site level. We do not force anyone to participate in major site events, unless they play a major key or important character. What does this mean? Basically this means that while the site offers plots and events, people can still 'sit in the corner and do their own thing', too.

Here you can read about our rules and guidelines, and while we do consider ourselves very open-minded and lenient, we do expect these to be followed. They're not overly complicated and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to grab a hold of one of the staff members and we'll be sure to clear any confusion!

BLOODLINES was founded by ✩ Melusine . We're a team and not just one person. Every decision goes through a voting process in our staff chat. This means that some decisions, even the ones members might consider "small" can take time for a final answer, as we'll wait for all staff members to weigh in. The skin was created by ✩ Melusine . All content created on BLOODLINES is is the intellectual property of their owners. Site information is copyrighted to BLOODLINES unless otherwise stated. Stealing is prohibited. The site is based on Vampire: The Masquerade and is created by Mark Rein-Hagen and released in 1991 by White Wolf Publishing.

A link to our discord can be found here! While using our discord is encouraged, it is in no way or form forced. Those who would prefer not to use discord can use the guest chatbox on the sidebar or use plotters/DMs/whatever (or none at all) to interact with the other members.

Character Limits and Rules

Although there is no character limit here on the site, please do understand that we expect you to be active on all accounts before moving on to creating your next character. This means that you can make as many characters as you'd like without having a certain amount of posts before making another one, but the staff does reserve the right to stop you from making more characters until you've made your current ones active.

New and inexperienced members can only play vampires from 10-15th generation, while experienced members and staff can play 6-15th generation vampires. Staff reserves the right to judge this case by case basis, and decide whether or not a member can be considered experienced. Knowledge about the game the site is based on does not count.

If your character breaks the rules or laws of society or the Masquerade they will be punished by an authoritarian character as they see fit within the confines of their authority. A post may not be changed to omit the rule-breaking after the character has been punished for it.

Creating Your Account

You can create your account with whichever name you'd like (your forum username), but you'll have to change your display name to your character's first and last name. Properly capitalized without caps.

Profile avatars should be 100x100. any sizes above this, such as 150x150 or 200x200 will automatically resize. The mini-profile image is 230x350.

Once you've completed filling out your profile, simply copy the link and put it in the "finished applications" server on discord and a staff member will look it over as soon as they are able. For those members who aren't on discord, simply copy the link of your application and send ✩ Melusine a PM with the link, and the application will be added to the que.

Normally, most apps are accepted immediately upon review, but some might require a little editing. If this is the case, you will receive a PM from a staffer and be asked for the necessary changes for the application to be accepted. Once edited, simply repeat the earlier process.

Once your application has been accepted, you're required to fill out your claims. Keep in mind that if you fail to do so, and someone else reserves or claims your claims, be it your face claim or something else, they have every right to said claims, and you'll be required to change yours.

Content and Maturity

While we do not discourage people from writing mature themes, we do ask you to follow the ProBoards TOS. Please be mindful of trigger sensitive topics and mark your threads with trigger warnings when needed. Fade to black, skip ahead as the clothes come off and hands go down below the waist. The same goes for violence. PG-13 scenes are allowed.

Anyone who wishes to take their threads further than what ProBoards TOS allows, can move their threads to private discord servers or similar. These themes do not belong on the site, or in the official discord server.

We'd like for those who choose to play characters with mental illnesses and/or traumatizing stories, be it having killed someone, having been abused in some form or another, to do the proper research on the field. We're in no way discouraging this from being included in your character's life, but we do ask that this is being properly read up on and written both maturely, realistically and respectfully.

Want Ads and Plotters

If you'd like to fill the spot for a character that's needed in the world (a key or important character), you're more than welcome to apply for one! The site itself have a selection of character roles to fill, be them canon or no. Just head over to the wanted characters board and take a look.

You should also consider making some form of plotter or shipper for others to reach out to. While on-site plotting is not required (as you can also use discord for this), it is highly encouraged.

On Discord, there are several servers dedicated to different types of plotting and want ads, which can be used as plotting tools. We'll also do our best to keep you guys entertained through events and games. Although, as we're an inclusive community, we highly discourage one-on-one plotting that "clog the chat", we'd like to ask those of you who'd like to discuss plots one-on-one to take this to DMs.

Age Requirement

While Bloodlines is not considered a mature themed site, in which way we do not allow explicit content, we still require our members to be at least eighteen (18) or older. This means that you must be eighteen years or older to register. By registering, you are hereby agreeing that you're above the age requirement.

Godmodding

Though it should be a given, let's avoid any form of powerplaying, metagaming and godmodding. Attempts to shift the roleplay to your favor, so that your character takes up all the spotlight is frowned upon. Keep others into consideration and be inclusive.

YOU CAN'T...

• USE ACTIONS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO DEFEND AGAINST.
  
• CONTROL SOMEONE ELSE'S CHARACTER, AS WELL AS YOUR OWN, WITHOUT THE OTHER'S PERMISSION.
• DODGE EVERYTHING AND ALWAYS HIT YOUR OPPONENT.
• USE GAME INFORMATION OUTSIDE OF WHAT IS AVAILABLE IN A GAME TO GET AN ADVANTAGE IN-GAME.
• UNREALISTICALLY OVERPOWER YOUR CHARACTER'S OPPONENT AND OVERSTEPPING THE BOUNDS OF REALISM IN THIS PARTICULAR UNIVERSE.
• USE IN-GAME EXPLOITS TO GAIN AN ADVANTAGE OVER OTHER PLAYERS.

Golden Rule

Remember the golden rule: Do to others what you would have them do to you. This also means that we expect everyone to be tolerant of others and we expect that everyone keeps negative behavior ic, where it belongs. Show respect in all manners, from language to ooc chats, discussions and respecting other people's beliefs. This goes both ways! And please do not push your beliefs or personal stances on other people.

Please do not pressure other members to reply to you faster. If you feel like a thread has not been replied to in an adequate amount of time (30 days), you may "fake tag" the thread (and the player) in the #the-tag-hole channel on Discord. Keep in mind that people write at different paces and have muses for different things at different times. Pressuring people to post may cause anxiety and stress.

Activity Checks

We want to make sure that all positions and claims are available for everyone, so the staff will run monthly activity checks. All accounts will be tagged and it is each member's responsibility to reply to these. Once the member have responded to the activity check, and they meet the needed requirements (one post per 30th days for original characters, and one post per 14th days for key or important characters), their character(s) will be taken off the list. The characters who aren't taken off the lift by the time the activity check ends, will be retired.

* If you suddenly leaves the discord server with no warning, it will be assumed you've left the site too, and as such, your character will be retired.

Discord

The chat box is meant to be a place for fun chatter and free discussion. We do not allow flaming, spamming or discriminating messages towards anyone. Do not discuss any person, site or content negatively. Do not spam or advertise unless there's a specific channel for it.

Please keep one-on-one conversations (such as plots between two characters that only revolves around those two characters) to direct messages or on site private DMs. This server is intended to be inclusive.

Please change your discord name to your ooc alias use on site if it isn't already. You are welcome to add your pronouns after as well.

Pictures, gifs, videos, talk of video games, tv shows, movies, face claims, etc, should all be taken to their respective channels, such as #face claims, #multimedia, etc.

Word Count

We have no word count or site level. We welcome both experienced and inexperienced roleplayers.

Face Claims

We use real life face claims, which means that you have to use an actor/actress, a model, a musician or someone else paid to have their pictures taken. Face claims needs to be thirteen years or older in order to portray a character on-site.