Rules and Guidelines

=Rules and Guidelines= Our aim is to provide a fun and immersive environment for everyone to roleplay and simply socialize. Below you will find a list of rules and guidelines that will help us achieve the environment we strive for.

You must be over the age of 16 to play on this server.

All content created by players and staff belongs to the creator and is used in Philadelphia by Night for non profit.

General rules of Discord
1) Respect. Derogatory remarks, racial slurs, or comments directed to others regarding race, gender, religion, disabilities, or sexual orientation will not be tolerated. While In Character those things may come up, due to the nature of the setting, such behavior Out-Of-Character is a bannable offence.

2) Staff. A final ruling of a Storyteller is not debatable. Please respect both it and the staffers person. We are all trying to make a fun story together. Deliberately lying to the staff about In Game events is unacceptable.

3) Separation of Perspective. You are not your character. While two characters may have a mortal feud, their players may and should stay friends. Don’t bring In-Character grudges into your personal interactions. Don't bring personal grudges into Role Play

4) Cheating. It may take many forms, from misreporting dice rolls to lying to one member of the staff about another's ruling, disregarding a staff member's ruling, lying to the staff. Do not do this.

5) Meta gaming. It can be hard to separate what the Character knows and what the Player themselves know sometimes. That said, any intentional use of Out-Of-Character information to gain In-Character benefits will not be tolerated.

6) Harassment. It includes: disrespectful communication, repeated arguments about the same topic, forcing unwanted interactions (for example sexual roleplay), repeated arguments about the staff's rulings. None of this behavior is tolerated in Philadelphia by Night. While what happens in Personal Messages is usually not the business of the staff, if a player harasses another, or a member of the staff team in PMs, actions may be taken.

7) NSFW content. While Philadelphia by night is an adult server we do not accommodate erotic roleplay or images depicting pornography, gore, or otherwise hard NSFW content. When an In-Character interaction becomes sexual we ask you to respectfully fade to black.

8) Activity. If you will be out of play for longer than a month or two please inform a staff member. Otherwise you may be removed from the game.

9) Advertising. We are happy to help advertise sister games run or played by our players, as well as support and spread their creative endeavors. Any other form of advertising is forbidden.

10) Spam. Please don’t.

Community Guidelines
1) Accepting the nature of the game. Vampire the Masquerade is not a "fair" setting. Your character will face adversity, sometimes of no fault of their own. They will face no win situations and their will can be subverted. That said NO roll or discipline may be used to force a sexual encounter that the player doesn't consent to. The staff doesn't care how In-Character it is, this is not  a server for that.

2) Accepting the Staff's rulings. If a staff member has made a ruling you disagree with, you may politely offer a reason as to why it should be different. If they disagree please accept it as absolute in the given scene. Do not approach another staff member to overrule it. After the scene has run its course, you may discuss said ruling with the staff council in the appropriate channel. Retcons are not allowed but rules moving forward may be clarified.

3) Character Death. It will happen. Players do not have to consent to their characters' deaths. Any situation or altercation between two players or players and NPCs may end in death if that is how the dice decree. Foolish actions will result in your characters death, owing to the setting.

4) Sexual content. Any sexual encounter must have the Out-Of-Character consent from all the players involved to happen. No sexual roleplay is allowed on the server, please fade to black.

5) Voice chat. Philadelphia by Night runs primarily in text. Still we have options of voice roleplaying and socialising. If roleplaying in Voice Chat, please make sure to have a staff member present if the scene will have consequences. When simply socialising please remember that the rules above apply to Voice Chat too.

6) Personal disagreements. Sometimes two people will simply never find a common ground, even if no rules are broken. It is their responsibility to deal with the matter like grownups, and not fill the server with negativity. If they are unable to do so, the staff team may intervene to prevent the hostility in the server, using methods up to and including bannings.

7) DON'T BE A DICK.

Rules for Staff
1) Integrity. By accepting the position of a staff member you are expected to be held to a higher standard of integrity. Make sure your rulings are as fair as you can make them. Know that intentional cheating will be punished far more severely if it is found in staff

2) Favoritism. Don't give advantages or easy passes to people simply because you like them.

3) Duties. Some staff positions come with assigned duties, such as different types of coordinators. You are expected to fulfill the role that comes with them. General duties of staff include: Playing NPCs, running plots, overseeing rolls, ensuring that the rules are followed.

4) Rolls. A staff member may NEVER oversee rolls they make for their own characters.

5) Communication. It is very important for the staff members to trust each other and communicate. That involves any questions, personal concerns, issues raised by the players and any number of things. We are doing this together.

6) Activity. As staff are the people that make Philadelphia by night work, any leave of absence longer than 2 weeks needs to be talked about with the Storyteller team. Going missing may result in your exclusion from the staff team.

Staff and Accountability
All staff members in Philadelphia by Night are volunteers chosen by the players. If at any point in time four or more people call for a vote of non confidence, the position of the staff member in question will be up for reelection. The staff member in question may choose to put forth their candidacy again or not.

Player Reporting
If you are made aware of another player breaking any of the rules or guidelines above, please notify a staff member, preferably while providing proof. We expect our staff to hold themselves to the highest standards, both in-character and out-of-character, so don't hesitate to use this option if the target is a staff member.

Disciplinary Actions and Banning
At any time the members of the Storyteller team may take away typing permissions from players if they find that tempers are getting too heated. Neglecting any of the rules outlined above will result in a formal warning from a Storyteller. Followup infractions may result in a short term (two to four weeks) Ban, at the Storyteller teams discretion. Three or more severe infractions will result in the players permanent banning. Please remember that the Storytellers want to do it no more than anyone and respect when they have to make such a decision, because chances are, they are just as broken up about it.

=FAQ=

- What edition do we play here?

- PbN uses Revised (3rd) edition of VTM, augmented by homebrew to adapt it to a living world setting. You may find resources in #helpful-links.

- What timezone does the server operate in?

- We have players from all over the world, but for the sake of having one common reference point we use CST.

- Can I advertise my server / channel / anything else here?

- Other games or creative endeavours of our players are welcomed. That said, do not spam and do not promote any random things. If you are asked to stop by staff, please do so.

- Where are the sexy channels at?

- We don't allow for ERP on our server.

- Who are the Storytellers?

- As of current our storytellers are @The Famine ST (Avery) [Delirium], @The Pestilence ST [KJ], @The Death ST [TBA], @And Steven ST.

- How many character slots do we provide?

- One and only one.

- What age, generation, sects and clans are allowed?

- Short answer is almost all of them, with the main exceptions of infernalist and children concepts. Generation is decided by a dice roll and can range from 6th to 13th (14th, 15th on volunteer basis).

- Can I play a mortal?

- No, our chronicle is strictly Vampire. You may, however, be embraced as your first scene and play any retainers your character has, human or animal (they are not considered characters and do not gain XP).

- How does the time pass in game?

- Every two real life weeks are equivalent to one in game month. We call that our game Cycle.

- How is XP handled?

- Each cycle that you were active even in one scene will award 5 XP. Additional XP may be gained by taking part in plots and shenanigans.

- The character creation / sheet is confusing.

- We are happy to answer any questions in #character-creation. The character creation largely follows rules for each sects outlined in the respective books. The sheet functions exactly as any PDF sheet would.

- How do we write here?

- We don't have any kind of length or similar guidelines as different people will enjoy different pace in scenes. That said we do ask you to keep speech in "Quotations" and narrations in Italics for the ease of comprehension.

- How "crunchy" (system and dice heavy) is our chronicle?

- Depends entirely on what direction you will head in. More interested in roleplay and social interactions? You may never end up rolling a die. Interested in combat and Discipline usage? Then the rulebook will come into play. The chronicle at large is not combat focused, however.

- How deadly is our chronicle?

- We like to think that we do all in our power for it to be minimally so. That said, we still run a World of Darkness and death is an ever present aspect. Some mistakes may and will kill you and PvP is allowed. Your character may be hurt, their will subverted, put out of play or simply die if in game circumstances lead to it.

- Can I be in multiple scenes at once?

- As long as none of them are likely to end in significant character changes (death, dismemberment, crippling disciplines being used etc.) and the scenes are on different IC days, you may be in multiple ones.

- What is our stance on homebrew?

- We are fairly opened for player creations and additions, though in some areas more so than others. Custom rituals, merits/flaws and combo disciplines are easy enough to include. More involved things may take a fair amount of work and balancing to make them fit into our game.

- What to do if I want to make a roll?

- Is it something simple like singing or a part of your characters routine like a mask of 1000 faces for a Nosferatu? Just roll it and report successes in the scene you're in. Is it combat, frenzy or something affecting or prying into other characters? Ping a @Staff member and wait until someone mediates the rolls. Unsure if you need supervision for something? Feel free to ask.

- When should I ping a @Staff member in the scene?

- If any of following circumstances arise, the scene MUST be overseen by a staffer: Frenzy rolls, Rotschreck rolls, Combat rolls, Discipline use against players or NPCs, Social rolls of importance between Players or NPCs, Crafting, Influence, Investigations, Blood bonds

- How do I spend XP / Submit my character / Arrange scenes with NPCs / Otherwise submit something for ST approval or notice?

- if you add yourself to the @Submission role (see #role-changes), you will see the appropriate channels #general-submissions #scene-requests #exp-spends #new-characters