imepro | Rules

Game Tone

This game is invite-only. To apply, you must have at least 2 references from current players. If you were a player who left prior to the game switching to invite-only, you're welcome to send in your reapp without references, though we reserve the right to decline it. Please note: having references does not guarantee your place in the game.
Be ready for the game's tone. Imeeji, if you can imeejine it, is something like a cross between Danganronpa and Ouran High School Host Club in tone: dark things like murder and betrayal happen on a regular basis, but it's also just manic and weird sometimes! Some days, characters might be forced at gunpoint to kill one unit to save another, while some days, characters are throwing status-effect potatoes at each other in a rowdy game of hot potato. This game is meant to be both competitive and cooperative; everyone might be competing for the most points and the most fans, but it's all in the name of business! Except for when it's not and it's all about grudges and throwing each other under the bus for survival.

While the tone may slightly change due to its variety, this is not a game wherein characters who seek to break the system or overthrow the status quo can be sustainably played. We reserve the right to reject applications that give us reason to be concerned that system-breaking is a requirement to the character's (or player's) capability of playing long-term in the game.

Additionally, should a player cause long-term undue OOC stress to players by being inflexible against the game's tone, we reserve the right to eject the player from the game. This is not a game meant for everyone, and we appreciate players understanding and respecting that.

By apping to Imeeji, you are agreeing to engage with in-game traumatic events and other bad things to a reasonable degree, and you understand it is your responsibility to navigate the game with your comfort and tolerance in mind. We expect all players to be down to clown with in-game murder (both their character being murdered and their character murdering) as well as generally playing the moral injury game of having to choose to do bad things to survive, and the consequences of those choices.

With that in mind, we also take player comfort very seriously: all games and event traumas are screened for common/known squicks (such as eye trauma) and appropriately warned for. When able, gamerunners and event runners will give alternative traumas to choose from. If a game is expected to have unavoidable squick trauma, it will be warned for and expected to have lower turnout.

Players are expected to be aware of their own limits while engaging with in-game trauma. We do our best to balance the game with silly fun and traumatic drama, and we are welcome to feedback if the game seems to tip one way or the other.

Due to the nature of the game's tone, all players must be 18 years old or older.

Joining the Discord server is required. The game will contain potentially triggering material, so OOC communication and coordination is a must. We encourage players to use the Imeeji Discord server to contact each other.

Activity Expectations

Be active. Our minimum monthly activity consists of the following:
- One 14 comment (7 comments from you) threads engaging with one or more unitmates.
- One 14 comment (7 comments from you) thread of any topic, including Games, Lives, Vids, or daily life threads.
- In total, two threads a month with an accumulated 14 comments from you. Threads may not overlap, but they may be from the same post.
In general, we expect players to be active beyond the minimum monthly activity. To allow flexibility for players with slower tagging speeds and/or narrower tagging availability, our AC is deliberately kept low. However, as unit bonding and unit CR development is one of the main appeals of a teamnesia game, we reflect that in our activity requirements and expect players to do their best to be present for their unit.

Different units will have different paces, and extenuating circumstances happen all the time, so this is a loosey-goosey rule—effectively, our bar is "be around to help your unitmates make AC, even if you already have AC." If a unit is at a lower base level of activity, that's okay! But, if the activity is low to the extent that a player(s) on the unit is struggling to make AC despite being active, mods may impose extra minimum activity requirements on inactive unitmates, up to double the standard activity.

Additionally, should we find a player to be skirting by on minimal unitmate activity for multiple months, to the extent of causing long-term difficulty to the unit, we reserve the right to idle and eject the character from the game.

Exceptions to minimum AC requirements include the following:
- The character is new to the game. We allow a 1 AC grace period for all new (including reapped) characters. Please note that this does not cross over multiple months—if a character is placed at the end of January, their 1 AC grace period will be for January, not February.
- The player takes a hiatus (or slowatus) for over two weeks. Players are allotted one hiatus per three AC periods.
- The player is experiencing hardship due to life circumstances and has reached out to the mods to ask for an AC exemption. We are very flexible and understanding of circumstances—however, we cannot read player minds, nor can we reasonably keep tabs on everyone's life situations.
  
  Notable life circumstances include (but are not limited to) the following: illness, job change, moving homes, school finals/exams, bereavement/grief, disaster weather (hurricane/tornado season), etc.
Failure to submit AC properly (missing, invalid links/proofs) will result in a mod email for additional proofs. If you do not have sufficient threads and there are no extenuating circumstances, mods reserve the right to idle your character and eject them from the game.

Continuing to make new threads after being idled is grounds for a ban.

Game Content

Our general posting rules are as follows:
- General use posts should be made with either wotanon or idolpro. This includes public memory broadcast mingles, general mingles, and open unitposts. Lives, closed/themed unitposts, or otherwise posts that are not open to everyone can be posted with character journals.
- Public memory broadcast mingles should contain only memory broadcast toplevels. Public memory broadcasts may be posted on general mingles, but we encourage players to post to memory broadcast mingles instead for ease of searching—generally, a memory mingle is always welcome, so when in doubt, it's fine to just go for it.
  - When posting a public memory, please consider marking the subject with "Witnesses OK" if you're fine with characters watching but not necessarily interacting with the memory taker at that moment in time—or, inversely, if you don't want witnesses, please denote as such.
- While general mingles are acceptable, we encourage players posting themed mingles. Themed mingles are simply any mingle with some sort of prompt already included, such as rainy day mingles, prank mingles, etc.
- Lives should be, when able, a separate post from any given mingle. However, if the Live is meant to be small, short, or otherwise expected to have only a few people, you may post one in the general mingle at your discretion.
  - Please note in your subject if you want restrictions on who interacts with your Live! For example, "8 people max" or "unitmates only"—Lives can get overwhelmingly big, so we encourage Live hosts to pay close attention to their hosting limits.
Where capable, please avoid posting Lives or mingles on the first day that a game is running. This is out of courtesy to our gamerunners, who are working very hard! If the game spans several days, then getting the Live out on the second day is A-OK, as are Lives or mingles which are actually part of the game. Closed posts where a group of characters who are not participating in the game do something else (for example, a beach trip or dinner party or giant robot fight) are also fine.

In ECATS style RP, tags are in a minimalist style. This means that descriptions are treated as points of interest and engagement. While we don't find failing to do so an actionable issue, please take care when including internal dialogue or player commentary as it may be mistaken for something that's meant to be engaged with.

R18 content is heavily restricted in this game. While Imeeji does institute a minimum age requirement, we are also not a sex game. For the sake of everyone's comfort, please:
- Mark or move threads that have sexual content accordingly:
  - Suggestive sexual content and nudity should be marked as [nsfw-ish]. Examples would include sexually charged flirtation/actions, or otherwise attention being drawn to a character's sexuality, ex. noting that a character is particularly well-endowed or unclothed/scantily clothed.
    - Please note that, particularly in ECATS style tags where descriptions are more minimalist, descriptions written in bracket text are generally read as something to be engaged with by the thread partner. Thus, things like writing descriptions of how a character's bra can be seen under see-through clothing can be read as a noteworthy point for a threading partner to engage in, and would therefore fall under the category of suggestive.
  - Mentioned sexual content should be marked as [nsfw mention]. Examples would include one-off innuendos or otherwise characters discussing activities that happen to include sex, ex. "Last night, I went down on Batman."
  - Implicit sexual content should be marked as [nsfw]. Examples would include characters getting hot and heavy in a sexually charged situation.
  - Explicit sexual content should be moved off-comm and onto a personal journal. Examples would include explicit interaction with sexual organs, etc.
  - Barring explicit sexual content, all the above is allowable on the Imeeji main comm as long as it is marked appropriately. If it is a post, please put the content under a cut. If you're not super sure on where your post or comment falls under, it's fine to err on the side of caution and mark it anyway, ex. [nsfw?].
    - Broadly speaking, we do not consider things like fight-flirting or blood drinking or similar kinks to be sexual by default. However, if you feel that the thread is sexually charged enough, or that it enters a grey area, you're welcome to tag it as you see fit.
  - Toplevels with suggestive-to-implicit sexual content should be split in two, with the sfw toplevel as the first comment and the nsfw option as a reply to that first comment. Example!
    - Explicit toplevels should be linked off-comm, for the same reason listed above in the Explicit section.
  - Tap non-NSFW thread partners first before referencing NSFW in SFW threads, including in brackets. For example, if a character or bracket text is referencing a sexual encounter with platonic CR, please make sure that player is okay with sideways-engaging with that! We want to respect the players who would like to just not have to see that in front of their salad.
  - Be considerate of underage NSFW content, particularly in fanmail. Underage NSFW content should always be marked and never be sprung on anyone without explicit consent. Additionally, while players are free to request fanmail from others, please consider the comfort of others when requesting or writing fanmail. Many players are uncomfortable with age gap/underage NSFW, so please keep this in mind and only request or pursue underage NSFW content from players you are certain have the same comfort level as you in this regard.
  - Take care when requesting or writing fanmail for other players, in general. Please check the squicks list first to make sure you're writing something the player is actually okay with, and don't ask for raunchy fanmail unless you know the player is down for it.
    
    We encourage all players who offer fanmail to list out their boundaries in their Plurks/messages so that requesting players know what they can and can't ask for.
  - Keep OOC conversations about NSFW content in the specific designated NSFW spaces. On Discord, this would be in the #nsfw and #r18g (18+ gore content) chans. On Plurk, this would be plurks that are marked with or otherwise overtly about nsfw content.
  - Please keep in mind whose space you're in when you talk about NSFW stuff on Plurk. While Plurk is a space outside our domain, we ask that all players be courteous to each other and respect each other's spaces. To that end, we ask that players be mindful when they bring up NSFW subjects in another person's plurk - if the Plurk OP is fine with it, then cool! But make sure you ask first.
  - Understand that this is a matter taken very seriously in Imeeji RP. Should we find a player is stepping on other people's boundaries, or otherwise boundaries that we have laid out, we will send a Notice of Player Conduct to the offending player. If repeated, pervasive offenses occur, we will discipline accordingly, up to and including banning the offending player.
    
    Please note: If the matter has not been discussed previously, or if the rules do not reflect the general boundaries for a given incident, we will take responsibility as it will be our failure to outline the rules properly. In that case, when we update the rules, we will send out a Non-Disciplinary Notice to the players involved, and it will not be considered an offense by the involved players.
- Please be courteous about posting squicks on the comm. If it's in a comment, please content warn in the subject, and if it's in a post, please content warn and put the text under a cut.
  
  Common squicks include:
  - Gore, torture, eye/tooth/nail trauma (especially detailed descriptions)
  - Food (especially detailed descriptions of food), eating, disordered eating
  - Cannibalism
  - Animal harm
  - Spiders, bugs, parasites
  - Bathroom content
Player Conduct
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- Above all else, be courteous and kind to your fellow players, and always act in good faith. This section is going to be long because we've been around long enough for our fair share of trouble, but what everything boils down to is this: don't be rude, don't be mean, and don't assume people are out to get you or that they're lost causes when it comes to resolving conflicts. If you feel a player is genuinely out to get you or that they are unnecessarily causing strife, let the mods know and we'll take care of it.
- Remember that IC=/=OOC. A character's opinions are not the same as the player's—and, vice versa, a player should not be so emotionally invested in their character that their OOC opinions change the way the character acts, or the character ICly parrots exactly the same sentiments that the player says OOC, or the player is devastated by results that are subpar to their character's expectations.
- Communicate with your CR, especially when there's a conflict. Communication should be standard for any sort of CR—OOC consent is how everyone gets to have fun without stepping on any toes! However, it is imperative that you actively work to maintain lines of communication and actively work with those your character has an IC conflict with so that RP remains OOC drama free.
  
  Additionally, please check in with your important CR—especially your unitmates—when you're planning on doing a big drama plot so that everyone can be on the same page and adjust accordingly to their comfort.
- Strive for OOC harmony over IC accuracy. While much of RP enjoyment comes from accurately portraying characters to one's understanding of those characters, these are ultimately fictional dolls being played with on the internet. If you're unhappy with an IC conflict, or if you find yourself stuck in a situation, consider what you OOCly want out of the situation and approach your relevant CR with this in mind.
  
  When hosting or otherwise contributing to a drama plot, please be considerate to important CR that requests to keep the drama contained, and never consign your important CR to drama without their informed consent. Additionally, if you're hosting a plot that results in another player's character being unwittingly accomplice to the drama, please make sure the player is OOCly aware of and okay with the details before going forward with the plot.
- Understand that the game is big enough for everyone to have fun with trauma and drama. We expect players to take care of themselves with regards to their own trauma intake, which includes being chill with other players who are having fun. If you're feeling like you don't have the space to have your own fun player plots, reach out to those involved and talk it out.
- Don't try to cheat the system. This includes all of the following:
  - Godmoding: We have a lot of games with PvP, so obviously there's going to be some power level comparisons here. Please do not try to strongarm other people into agreeing that your character is so super powerful that they definitely have to win. Additionally, please remember that everyone is reduced to human levels of operation here! Just be flexible and keep tabs with your thread partners so everyone can have fun.
    
    In nearly every PvP situation, losing just means the chance to get fun status effects or trauma or consequences for your character, so losing is a type of winning too!
  - Handwaved Puppeting: If you're unable to thread out something specific with your thread partner, that's totally fine! However, please refrain from one-sidedly assuming that your character or their character did something off-screen, or otherwise knows/should know information that wasn't given to them on-screen. It's A-OK to handwave, but make it a two-way street and tap the people involved so everyone can be on the same page! And, when you've agreed to handwaving one thing or another, please stick with the agreed upon handwaved activity until/unless you can talk to the affected parties and agree to the changes in off-screen actions.
  - Infomodding: Again, we have a lot of competitive games, and losing is part of the fun of those games. We run primarily on the honor system, but if we catch anyone deliberately taking advantage of their access to multiple units/other private channels to give themselves/their unit an unfair advantage, or otherwise gleaning information that shouldn't be ICly accessible in order to inform their character choices, the player will be banned. No ifs, ands, or buts. If you can't play by the rules, you can't play here at all.
    
    Infomodding also includes non-game scenarios: for example, if there's an antagonistic player plot going on, or otherwise some sort of character vs character tension, we expect players to pay strict attention to the divide of what they know versus what their character knows. Things like a character mysteriously intuiting that they should reach out to a character involved in a conflict should only happen if the players in that conflict have consented to that. Things like characters already intuiting that a character has a certain reputation without the character having done anything is also forbidden—it's just shitty for everyone who's trying to have fun. Even if you're excited to get involved with the drama, or otherwise feel FOMO for not getting involved, please be considerate to those already involved in the IC conflict and don't try to muscle your way into it without consent.
    
    We understand accidental infomodding can happen—however, we expect accidental infomodding to be corrected immediately upon realization.
    
    Additionally, we expect players to have discretion when it comes to sharing information unprompted, as it may dampen the fun for the thread partner. Cases like this appear primarily with secretive information in games, as some players find enjoyment in figuring out in-character mysteries without being spoiled, but we're also including bracket text that makes antagonistic commentary about the thread partner's character. We're not saying you can't write out internal monologues about how much the thread partner's character sucks, but please note that it can be frustrating for players who are made aware of the conflict in such a way that cannot be addressed (whether in an escalating or mediating fashion). If you're uncertain, please tap your thread partner!.
  - Avoiding reasonable consequences: If your character gets mad and murders a dude, that sounds rad and like a good time. However, if you tell the unit of the murdered person that they can't murder your character in return because they'll burn down all of Tokyo-F, then you've just cut off future potential actions for them and are basically godmoding other characters by controlling what their allowed actions are. It's not cool, so don't do it!
    
    We note reasonable consequences because it is A-OK to establish boundaries in the form of, "please don't make the consequences something I can't deal with." For example, if your character gets mad and murders a dude and then people start talking about ostracizing your character and completely isolating them and convincing your character's unit to dump them in the street, and you're like, "this makes me want to not play any conflict out with people," that's 100% an acceptable boundary to have.
    
    For obvious reasons, the line between acceptable and unacceptable is pretty blurry—what we ask is that players keep in communication with each other to make sure everyone gets to have their fun, even if it means making some compromises.
  - Skirting around AC with hiatus abuse: This is another fairly loosey-goosey rule, but it's happened in the past so we have to address it. Basically, just don't tell people that you're planning on strategically placing your hiatuses so you don't have to be active for a solid portion of the year. Like, if we hear about it, we're just going to revoke the hiatus legitimacy. We try to be really flexible and forgiving about AC, so if you know you're going to be out of commission for multiple months, just talk to us about it. Don't try to game the system.
  - Deliberately attempting to get other players in trouble out of a personal grudge: Unfortunately this has happened in the past so again we have to address it. Just don't try this one, please. We take every complaint very seriously, and will research every conflict as much as we can before we lay down a verdict. If there is little substance to your complaint, we will know, and if we find out that this was a deliberate attempt to punish someone via manipulating the mods, we're just going to ban you. Don't do it.
- Be kind to the gamerunners. We expect players to be chill about winning and losing, and when it comes to determining who wins, gamerunners generally get the final say (unless the mods have something to say). Gamerunning is unpaid labor, so don't give gamerunners any grief, especially when they're in the middle of running or just have finished running the game. While good-natured critique is helpful, no one likes backseat drivers, and post-gamerunning depression/sensitivity is real. If you have something to critique about the game, please give the gamerunners the courtesy of 2-3 days before bringing it up to them. If it's something severe or results in an unplayable situation, please email the mods at imeeji.p @ gmail.
  
  Additionally, if a gamerunner asks you to do something while they're running the game—for example, if the gamerunner asks you to keep track of your dice rolls, or comment to specific threads—please do your best to follow instructions.
- Don't use players or Imeeji RP as emotional crutches. Given the state of the world, escapism is completely understandable. However, Imeeji mods are not therapists, and neither are the players of the game—nor does anyone owe you energy that comes at the expense of their own well-being. Should we find that a player is creating undue and unwanted stress to other players in the [ you should be seeking professional help ] way, or otherwise has made their happiness solely reliant on other people behaving the "right" way for them to thrive in the game, we will be ejecting the player from the game immediately. This is a Wendy's.
- Harassment/online stalking will not be tolerated on any level. Harassment is considered repeatedly and/or severely badgering someone when they have expressed they do not want to be in the conversation. Online stalking is considered seeking out confidential information, which may range from trivial, such as trying to divine the queue/placement order (outside of contacting to ask the mods) in order to determine when others are being placed, to severe, such as details of player conflict incidents that mods have determined to be private. Simply coming across this information is not an offense in and of itself—we consider it to be stalking when a player goes out of their way to seek out this information in order to take action against another player, request that others do so on their behalf, or otherwise share the private information of others.
Mod Contact & Process
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- If you are facing or aware of harassment or abuse of players in Imeeji, please let the mods know. Even if you think this is something we have addressed already or otherwise not a big deal, when it comes to discomfort or harassment, please tell us anyway—we are better able to understand and moderate the playerbase when we have a fuller understanding of any given situation.
- If a situation on Discord is fraught enough, mods will step in either independently or on behalf of another player. Don't be afraid to ping the mods if you feel a conversation is getting out of hand. Mods are generally attentive enough of the Discord that there's a good chance we'll notice, but it never hurts to tap us and signal that intervention is necessary.
  
  If someone you’re talking with—whether in a unit channel or elsewhere—requests a mod presence, don’t worry; it isn’t a sign that anything has gone wrong, much less that anyone is in trouble. As mods we want to be proactive in dealing with tricky situations, and encourage our players to do the same.
- Please use the appropriate channels to contact mods about questions. We have #shower-thoughts for simple questions or questions with simple answers, but if the question is more complicated, please use our Q&A page or email us (imeeji.p@gmail.com). If you have suggestions for the mods, you can either email us or contact us on our Suggestions Page.
- If the issue is not immediately urgent, please send serious complaints to the mod email. When sending in a complaint, please include logs, links, or caps where capable and comfortable.
- Upon receiving a complaint, mods will take the following procedure:
  1. Investigate the complaint. This may range from requesting and reading logs to searching the comm or server for evidence of specified complaints. This process will likely take several days.
  2. Examine mod-created information pages. If, for example, the complaint is about someone who's not respecting someone's boundaries or squicks, we'll check to see if the person has actually posted those squicks on the Sensitive Content page or otherwise on the player's profile. Conversely, if the complaint is about not adhering to a mod ruling, and we see that we did not post the mod ruling anywhere easy to see, we'll acknowledge the fault as ours and correct our documents.
  3. Determine root causes, intentions, and derive solutions. Often, the root cause may be a matter of miscommunication; in that case, we'll start a moderated chat with affected players and work to straighten things out. In cases where boundaries were overstepped, or otherwise the player was unkind to other players unintentionally, we'll send a Notice of Player Conduct email.
    
    Should we determine that a player took action out of malintent, or otherwise that a player is overly emotionally dependent on other players to the point of causing undue stress as a result of pushed/violated boundaries or a lack of consideration for time/emotional energy, we will take more severe action.
Disciplinary Action
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- The following are actions the mods may take, should a player be found to be causing problems:
  - Activity may be increased up to double the requirement activity for inactive players.
  - Players that cannot adhere to our R18 or squick rules on Discord will have their public chan rights revoked, aka they will not be allowed to speak in non-unit chans.
  - Players with an excessive number of anti-requests may only be allowed to have one character in the game.
  - Gamerunners that are found to be causing problems will have their gamerunner privileges revoked.
  - If the mod team loses faith that a player can be expected to behave well and treat their fellow players kindly, we will ban the player and eject the player's characters from the game.
- Please note: while we will endeavor to give players warnings first, should the situation be severe enough, we reserve the right to forego warnings and go directly into disciplinary action.
- Once we have decided on a verdict, it is non-negotiable; attempting to protest, override, or circumvent it will result in a permanent ban.

Rules

Game Tone

Activity Expectations

Game Content

Player Conduct

Mod Contact & Process

Disciplinary Action