Our Golden Rule: “Don’t Be A Jerk” 

 

Eternal Noire started as inspired by a group of individuals who wanted to bring a fair and fun game system to the online chat community. Our team wanted a place where everyone felt welcome and worked together to keep the community positive with less drama and negativity that can develop on chat games. Our one golden rule is “Don’t be a jerk” which encompasses a lot of things all at once. “Don’t be a jerk” to fellow players or staff and generally you’ll have the best playtime here we can offer to you. There are some extra things we should mention specifically.  

 

Expectations of Players 

• Age Requirement – Due to mature content, all players and characters must be eighteen or older at the time of registration to play. 
• No Animals – You must play a human. The system does not support playing animals as player characters, and to ensure adherence to our  Terms of Service content bans on our website, all concepts that come close to playing an “animal” as a PC are banned.
• Imagery & PC Portrayal

• • All character images used on our website, or linked to externally from our website, must be of models that are able to be confirmed at least 18 years of age at the time the image was taken. 
  • All “played by” models must be credited on your character wiki. Your MAIN picture should be a picture of a real person (photograph), credited to that model. If you are using artwork, drawn, generated, or non-photograph image, for additional images on your wiki please credit the artist or where you found the artwork. (This is for Creative Commons purposes.) 
  • No image may display nudity, explicitly or implied, and MUST be considered Safe For Work (SFW). If you are choosing someone who has a lot of Not Safe For Work (NSFW) pictures in a simple Google search, please warn your fellow staff and players on your wiki when you credit your model used with the tag (NSFW). The easy litmus test is this: if you can get arrested for indecent exposure wearing it in public, then you may not use it as a character picture. Examples of NSFW content: Nipple pasties but otherwise full breasts exposed, nipples showing through shirts, public hair visible, genitalia exposed but cleverly covered with a fig leaf, ect. 
• Legal Access to the Books – Playing on Eternal Noire requires legal access to the Chronicles of Darkness role-play books by Onyx Path, at least the core books, for the venues you intend to play on. We do not condone or promote the sharing of illegally obtained books. If you want to play with a merit or a venue, having at least the core books related to this is required.  
• Playing Antagonistic Concepts – We encourage players to play the anti-heroes; the monsters who become the protagonist or even the protagonist who becomes the monster! If you do choose an antagonistic concept, please be reminded we will allow it at our team’s discretion, but you should expect the game to be harder for you because of it. Additionally, if your character comes off as a jerk it is best practice to keep open and positive communication with the other players that it is all IC and fun & games.  

 

Conflict of Interest Policy

Players

Conflict of Interest is defined on EN as any potential for an IC relationship (cell/cabal/coterie/pack mates, IC family, or significant other) on one PC to positively affect or benefit you on another PC or in another venue. A quick rule is, if you have some kind of benefit or plot advantage from playing with one PC that transfers to yourself from one PC to another, then CoI exists. CoI does not exist with coffee shop roleplay or roleplay that does not garner plot or mechanical benefit from one of your PCs to another. In order to keep our game crossover-friendly, please pursue plot hooks on one and not multiple of your PCs. If you are worried, feel free to ask the staff about your situation for advice.

 

Examples of conflict of interest: “Bob & Mary”

1. Bob’s PC1 is dating Mary’s PC1, Bob may not give equipment, or mechanical benefits, or share plot from Mary’s PC1 with Mary’s PC2. 
2. Bob’s PC2 may not attack or go after someone who offended May’s PC1.
3. Bob’s PC1 may not receive equipment, mechanical benefit, or act on plot information given to him by Mary’s PC2 or that originated from Bob’s PC2

 

 

Staff

As ALL policies, the Player Conflict of Interest Policy must be abided by Staff. Since we hold our staff to a higher standard, staff MAY NOT do requests or run personal (one-on-one) scenes for players in their venue with whom they have an IC relationship with for one of their characters. This may seem strict, but transparency and the culture of trust that we want to foster here on Eternal Noire depends on not only our communication with players and other staffers but the positive perception of the players we run the game for. 

When there is not enough staff to accommodate the Staff CoI Policy, Admins need to be notified when a CoI is a concern and they will monitor ST activity with these specific characters of concern. All communication and planning between the STs with/about the player should be clearly kept in thread work and ST plot chats so that it is viewable for Admin Audit at any time. This protects our staff from allegations out of their control, keeps everyone honest, and promotes a trusting environment with our players.

Examples of conflict of interest: “Bob & Mary” Expanded 

1. Bob is also an ST, so Bob should not do Mary’s PC2’s XP requests in their thread and should instead have another ST handle her thread. (ST may view her thread to communicate with the rest of the team.) 
2. Bob as an ST may not run a personal/individual scene for Mary’s PC2 to give her Status 5. 

 

 

Prohibited Behavior

Cheating –  Cheating is defined as acting dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage. Cheating can be a lot of things in the Chronicles of Darkness, and we will provide some examples of cheating below. Some examples of cheating include (but are by no means limited to) “padding dice pools” past what a character would legitimately have, claiming your PC is not being deceptive when they are during a contested social situation, using conditions or powers you do not have, not taking appropriate negatives, ect. 

 

Metagaming – Using information gained out of character to effect choices your player character makes in character is called Metagaming and is strictly against the rules. It’s cheating and giving yourself an unfair advantage in a game where we encourage cooperative play between PCs to reach a common goal of progressing the story line and being awesome. No one just wants one person being awesome, it’s not fun and it’s not ok. Don’t use OOC information IC. Additionally, do NOT talk about IC in public OOC areas on the forum or the chat. You can share this information with friends and fellow players you trust privately, as long as you’re clear that the information is given OOCly.  You may also NOT make a PC that is linked to any of your old characters in any shape or form, for example you may NOT make a PC that’s sole purpose is to “get revenge” on your former PC who has died. 

 

“Being a Jerk” to Staff or Players – Breaking the Code of Conduct and being a general jerk to players or staff is not ok. “Don’t Be A Jerk” encompasses the golden rule of treating people the way you’d want to be treated. We are a community, a small one, that we at Eternal Noire want to ensure that positivity can thrive in a fun game environment. OOCly Being rude, OOCly calling names, OOC cursing or slandering, and any kind of behavior that you wouldn’t want your mother to witness you doing or saying is frowned upon and our staff will issue a PPS. If you simply act with the golden rule in mind, you’ll have no issue with this policy. NOTE: Submitting Negative feedback doesn’t break this policy.

 

Hate Speech – OOC Hate Speech of any kind in any area of our site is strictly prohibited. Hate speech is a one-strike rule and can result in a venue or site ban upon the first offense. A good rule for this to check if it’s hate speech, is “Would I get fired or disciplined for saying it on my Facebook page?”

 

DEFINED: Hate Speech is defined as abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice against a particular group. Hate speech is usually thought to include communications of animosity or disparagement of an individual or a group on account of a group characteristic such as race, color, national origin, sex/gender, disability, religion, or sexual orientation.

 

Harassment & Cyberbullying – the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or group, including (but not limited to) OOC threats, OOC demands, and continued unwanted contact after being asked to cease and desist.  You MUST request the person to stop the behavior before it can be considered harassment or cyberbullying. We only will enforce this on Eternal Noire, and if you are being harassed, bullied, or stalked off of our website we suggest that you contact the local authorities.

 

Spreading Rumors – Intentionally spreading unverified negative OOC information or rumors about other players or staff is prohibited on Eternal Noire’s website, chat, and/or forums. Our staff will always act with transparency in regards to everything that doesn’t have to do with story or plot, and we promise to answer all questions to the best of our ability. To avoid spreading rumors, please put in a feedback and/or speak with staff about the information you received to verify it.

 

Lying to Staff – Don’t intentionally lie or lie by omission to staff. We want to earn your trust, so by default, our staff will have trust in our players. We trust you, so don’t lose that trust with lying to us. If you have concerns or reservations about speaking to any one person on staff for any reason, submit feedback directly to the Admin team.  

 

Avoiding ICA=ICC – Avoiding in character consequences that are a direct result of your in-character actions, by any number of ways including (but not limited to) de-sanctioning your character, avoiding logging in on your character, or avoiding the character or groups of characters affected by your character’s actions. Characters will naturally form relationships with each other, whether they are friendly or adversarial. In either case, the game we are all playing together is still cooperative in nature. Because of this, avoiding consequences only ruins the continuity of the story and can end up rendering the actions of the players around you null and void. Remember, failure can still be fun and make for our most memorable moments in a game. 

 

Submitting Feedback, No Mommy/Daddy-ing – If an ST gives you an answer you don’t agree with, or you have concerns about anything at all you need to follow the proper channels to submit feedback. If you are in a scene, you go to that ST in the scene and default to their rules call until the scene is over. When the scene is over you can submit feedback by this form. In the form, you can choose to submit it to the ST team or the Admins – you can choose either or as the Admins are approachable at any time for all players. You may also approach an Admin on the chat.

 

You should not be submitting feedback outside the proper channels. Do not ask another ST hoping they will overrule their teammate, this is called “Mommy/Daddy-ing”. If you want your ST(s) to discuss what happened (or change their mind), submitting feedback is the best resource for you as the Admins will take all feedback seriously and address each concern as they arise. Submitting feedback outside the proper channels is subject to PPS.

 

We believe in open communication and transparency and submitting feedback through improper channels hinders our ability to create a trusting and fun environment for all players and staff members. 

• NOTE: Submitting negative feedback in a polite and constructive manner will never be a PPS, as per our whistle-blower policy.
• NOTE: “Lobby Griefing” is against site policy, and is NOT an appropriate form of feedback submission. Don’t be a jerk, tell us how we can improve and we will do our best to improve things for you.

 

Prohibited Role Play Content 

• Illegal Content – Bestiality, pedophilia, rape, snuff, and other content that (even as roleplay) are restricted by law in the United States of America is strictly prohibited. There is no warning for this content, and a permanent ban will be issued immediately.  
• Rape & Sexual Assault – There may be no on-screen depictions of sexual assault or rape at any time. There may be no “bluebooking” or off-screen depictions post-sanctioning of sexual assault or rape at any time. We encourage people to play the concepts they want, but we will not tolerate on screen use of either situation whether explicitly or implied. Use of this in your character background is allowed but limited by the Character Creation Rules, please check it, under Character History, for more information. 
• On-Screen NPC Minors – While characters may have children, no NPC that appears “on screen” may be underage. Families can come up in ST-ran scenes, where staff are present to monitor the use of the NPCs. These NPCs may also end up in danger or killed in a horror role play game, so keep this in mind when choosing how you’d like to incorporate these into your stories. 

Player Punishment System 

Three Strike Policy – On Eternal Noire our team strives to ensure that we all have a clique and drama free OOC environment. We also want a game where players and staff communicate respectfully, and while we deal with some heavy stuff ICly we come together amicably and the game still stays fun OOCly. In order to do this, the PPS strikes were set up the way they were for both staff and players. 

 

Three Strikes (Of a Kind) – For most things on EN, “3 Strikes of the same infraction and you’re out” rules, which the noticeable exceptions that are more serious listed on the Code of Conduct Page. This is to ensure that repeat offenders do not have much of a chance to ruin the game for anyone. If any player earns three PPS strikes of the same kind, this leads to a site ban. Site bans can be temporary or permanent depending on the infraction and is up to the sole discretion of the Admin team. You may ask for appeal to the site owner, if you feel the strikes were applied unfairly. 

 

Three Strikes (Of Separate Infractions) – If you earn three PPS strikes, of any kind, in a single venue those STs have the options to ask you to leave the venue. This is to prevent stress of limited time and attention of our ST venue teams from having to deal with a repeating PPS offender. It is not fair to the other players, nor to the staff, if a player takes up all the time and energy due to their poor behavior. This is to also encourage players that may not intend to stress these limited resources with their actions to be more mindful and to take care to follow the same rules and policies that the players and staff both must follow. This is a game, and it’s not fun for other players to not get their scene because their ST is having to PPS someone again and it is definitely not acceptable for burnout for our staff. We are all human, and we all love this game, so let’s remember not to “be a jerk” to each other.If you are banned from a venue, the next venue only requires 2 strikes to ban you. This is to prevent repeat offenses.

 

This is a guideline of the expected repercussions for each infraction.

 

Violation	1st Offense	2nd Offense	3rd Offense
Inappropriate Imagery	Warning & Imagery Removal	PPS Issued	Ban
Cheating	Warning	PPS Issued	Ban
Conflict of Interest	Warning	PPS Issued	Ban
Metagaming	PPS Issued	Ban
“Being a Jerk”	Warning	PPS Issued	Ban
Harassment & Cyber Bullying	Warning	PPS Issued	Ban
Spreading Rumors	Warning	PPS Issued	Ban
Lying to Staff	PPS Issued	Ban
Avoiding ICA=ICC	Warning	PPS Issued	Ban
Submitting Feedback/“Mommy/Daddying”	Warning	PPS Issued	Ban
Illegal Content	Permanent Ban