Site Rules

Index
➼ Forum Rules
➼ Role-playing
➼ Post Templates
➼ Active Accounts
➼ Writing Rewards
➼ Magic Rules
➼ Non Player Characters

Forum Rules

No Persons Under the Age of 18

Omens in Ashes (OIA) is an Adults Only forum which isn’t suitable and doesn’t accept members under the age of 18. Please be responsible and bookmark our site for a later date if you’re not quite old enough to join yet. Accounts created by anyone found to be under the age of 18, will be removed.

No Harassment
noun
aggressive pressure or intimidation.

Here at OIA, we enforce a zero harassment policy. If someone asks you to leave them alone, please respect their wishes. Aggressive behaviour, including hurtful or spiteful passive-aggressiveness, will not be tolerated. Please do not harass our Moderators and Storytellers, who work hard (for zero profit) to make sure you get the most out of your time here. OIA is a community led forum, founded and maintained by volunteers, working for free, sacrificing their hobby time to create a great, inclusive, safe space for all members.

If you feel you are being harassed, please contact a trusted Moderator (with evidence) and they will investigate the issue on your behalf.

If it looks or smells like harassment, it will be treated like harassment. Please be informed that Moderators can only moderate what is said and done on this forum or in the associated Discord Channel. Anything that takes place outside of site related applications is beyond our control. In such cases, we suggest you make use of the block option.

We will not tolerate hate speech of any kind. This includes, but is not limited to, speech that offends, threatens, or insults anyone on the basis of race; ethnicity; national origin; religious affiliation; sexual orientation; sex, gender, gender identity; or disability.

Violations of this policy may result in the removal of the offensive content; a temporary site suspension of two weeks; the permanent ban of the offending account; and/or the permanent ban of the player responsible, including the deactivation (retirement) of any account(s) they own, and attempt to make in the future.

No Spamming
verb
gerund or present participle: spamming
send the same message indiscriminately to (a large number of Internet users).

This includes any nonsense, duplicate posts, plagiarism, and posts that advertise other sites. All posts should be made in English. Any player who if found guilty of breaking these rules will be warned. Continued offences may result in temporary or permanent suspension (retirement) of accounts.

Hosted Images

The use of gifs is not permitted. Any images containing nudity or offensive slang is strictly prohibited and will be removed. Please try to credit the artist who created the image.

Avatar Specifications
All Avatars must meet the following criteria:
Height: 150 pixels.
Width: 150 pixels.

Signature Specifications
All Signatures must meet the following criteria:
Height: No higher than 120 pixels.
Width: No wider than 350 pixels.

Administration

OIA has a small, incredible Admin Team who have worked tirelessly to design, code, create, and maintain this site. All lore, information, stories, and content submitted by them to this forum remains the intellectual property of the individuals behind the accounts of Rune and Spire. Any misuse or plagiarism of said content is ill-advised and will result in the termination and suspension of all accounts of the individual found using it. Legal action may be taken in extreme cases.

Please treat the Moderators with respect. They have worked and continue to work incredibly hard to run and maintain this site. When it comes to the enforcement of Site Rules, please remember, they pay the bills, play by the rules and you won't have any trouble. If a Moderator says no, there will be no further discussion regarding the denied request, topic, etc. A Moderator's ruling is final. Players are expected to respect this.

Storytellers

Storytellers are volunteer players, dedicating their extra hobby time to write stories with all OIA members. There are three levels a Storyteller can earn.

Level 1: Can moderate threads with up to 5 players.
Level 2: Can moderate threads with up to 10 players.
Level 3: Can moderate World Events and Gods.

Role-playing

Plagiarism
noun
the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

The Moderators on OIA take plagiarism very seriously and understand that all players maintain the right to have their work (published on this site) recognised as their own whether they are a part of the site or not (active or retired).

Intellectual Property
noun LAW
intangible property that is the result of creativity, such as patents, copyrights, etc.

Anything you post to Omens in Ashes remains your Intellectual Property, regardless of whether your account is active or not. The work of any retired accounts is not to be tampered with. This includes, but is not limited to, editing, change of ownership, re-writes, and archiving.

It is against the Site Rules to:
i. Copy someone else's work. ii. Edit a post without the author's permission. iii. Claim someone else's work as your own, including changing the account it was originally posted by. iv. Use any of the lore found on the Omens in Ashes forum outside of the forum (don't write a poem, short-story, novel, form another site, etc using our lore). Legal action may be taken in extreme cases. v. Editing lore without the creator's permission. vi. Using inactive or retired characters as NPCs.

Word Count
The OIA Team do not expect players to adhere to an official word count per post, however, you are rewarded 10 gold crowns for every 200 words you write. We appreciate and welcome all writers, no matter their writing ability.

God-Moding
noun
godmoding (uncountable) (informal, role-playing games, often derogatory) behaviour that gives one's own character an unfair advantage.

God-moding is when you attempt to move or control another person's character, effectively taking the choice out of their hands. It is not permitted on the Omens in Ashes forum. Do not attempt to write, move, control, or speak for another player's character without their explicit permission. This includes the use and movement of character owned pets and non-playable characters, also known as NPCs.

Reported instances of God-moding will land you in the Book of Shame. Repeated offenses may even earn you a warning. Please respect your fellow writers by allowing them to write their own characters, free to choose and move as they please. If you run into conflict in a story, in which the outcome is difficult to determine, decide together out of character (OOC) or use the Dice Rolling System on the OIA Discord Channel to govern the outcome of an action.

Power-Playing
noun
a roleplayer who exerts powerplay.

Your character is not untouchable. Most Power-Players, however, believe they are. Power-Play is when you write your character in a way that makes them incredibly difficult to interact with. This usually takes place in fight scenes where one or both characters make themselves untouchable, invincible or god-like. All decisions to land a blow in battle, should be agreed upon out of character (OOC). If an agreement can not be made, leave it to the Dice Gods to decide by rolling the dice in the official OIA Discord Channel.

Power-Play also commonly occurs in cases of character illness, when a character claims complete immunity to disease, illness and poison. They might also boast resistance to types of magic, which is not possible in OIA without the use of runes. Walk Around Characters, those who are never faced with a challenge they couldn't just step over, are dull to read and write. Challenge yourselves as writers, allow your character to suffer from time to time (within reason) and try to work collaboratively with other players. After all, this is a collaborative writing site.

Writing a God

All gods, immortals, celestial beings, titans (whatever you want to call them), are only to be written by a Moderator or an approved Storyteller (level 3). You can not have a god interact with your character, appear in your stories, etc, without explicit permission. Your character is allowed to pray to a god, however, you cannot assume that god's response. The gods in the OIA do not tend to interact with mortals or their children.

Writing a Divine
Each player is allowed one Divine character. You can never create a second, so choose wisely. Collaborate with a Moderator or Storyteller if you feel you need more information, ask at the Help Desk.

Post Templates

Box Codes
The use of Box Codes is strictly forbidden. They are often poorly coloured, boast pictures that slow the site down and distract the reader from the writing which, in our opinion, should speak for itself.

Text Colours

Font
Fonts can be difficult to read, especially when players start to get fancy with their font choices. Please be considerate of others when selecting the font you want to use. If we are unable to read it, you may find your font edited by a Moderator. This is a mobile friendly site.

Speech
Please try to use speech-marks whenever your character is speaking and remember that, when a second or third character speaks within a story, that speech should start on a new line. This makes stories easier to read. For example:

Incorrect:
Captain Jody shook his head. "I can't allow you to do that," he said. "What do you mean?" Asked Dante, "we have to fire the cannons or they will gain on us." "He's right, captain," said Alex. Jody scratched at his beard. "Very well then."

Correct:
Captain Jody shook his head. "I can't allow you to do that," he said.
"What do you mean?" Asked Dante, "we have to fire the cannons or they will gain on us."
"He's right, captain," said Alex.
Jody scratched at his beard. "Very well then."

Colour
Some players like to colour their character's speech. We tend to discouraged this, however, it is not against the rules. Please refrain from using brightly coloured text, or shades which may clash with existing forum templates (see light and dark).

Banners and Signatures

Players are permitted to use a banner in their Character Sheet and a Signature on the board displaying their character or related content. Some players prefer to use their signature to display recent character wounds, existing scars and recognisable character traits. You are free to use either or, just be sure to follow the size rules posted above.

How to Post

Go to the desired forum:
Click: New Topic.
Subject: Enter the title of your story.
Topic Description: Enter a brief summary about the story.
Topic Tags: See below for details.
Message: Your story goes her.

Topic Tags:
Press 'Enter' after each tag to list multiple.

Important Topic Tags
The following tags must be used for explicit content:

City Name
You must always tag the city or country your thread takes place in. For example, Aramane, Clead, Rathos, etc.

Open
The thread is open, which means anyone can reply.

Closed
The thread is closed, which means no one else is allowed to reply.

Solo
The thread is solo, which means no one else can join.

Memory
The thread is a memory, which means it took place in the past.

Event
The thread is part of an event, usually led by a Storyteller.

Gore
The thread contains graphic violence, etc.

Mature
The thread contact scenes of a sexual nature, nudity, sex, etc.

Date System

All stories must be date stamped. If a story is not date stamped the player will receive a reminder to add a date stamp. Stories that are not date stamped will be removed from the forum so please try to remember this.

Day (of the season) | Season (current) | Year (including Age, for example: 8K = yeah 8 of the Age of Kings

Active Accounts

Active:
To be considered an Active Member, you must complete a minimum of 3 threads a season or 1 thread every month. A thread is a solo story of at least 1000 words, or a story told with another player, where each writes 5 posts with a minimum of 200 words per post.

Inactive:
An account that has not been logged into for three months. After 6 months of inactivity, an inactive account will be retired.

Retired:
Retired accounts are greyed out names that can not be used to post on the forum anymore. All Player Characters will be retired after 6 months of inactivity unless the Moderators are provided an explanation regarding the reason for inactivity before you go inactive. This can be as simple as “deployment for X months” or “health issues.” We do not need private details. After a year of inactivity (beyond reason), the character will be retired.

Maximum Amount of Characters:
Players are allowed a total of 5 characters. Of these five characters, the first two are free. The third character is a one off $25 donation, the fourth is $50 and the fifth is $100.

The more characters and content on site, the higher the upkeep costs are for the owners. Once you buy a character slot (3rd, 4th, 5th), you maintain the right to play up to five characters at any one time. Anyone found to be abusing this system (via proxy, etc) will have all of their accounts retired and find themselves permanently banned from the site.

There is a small admin fee of $5 to bring a Retired Character out of retirement. Any character can be retired for free.

Role-play Rewards

Play by Post (PBP), is a collaborative form of writing that allows two or more players to write a story together, post by post. Players take turns posting and establish an order when writing with more than one other people. The OIA Team love collaborative storytelling, which is rewarded in different ways.

Per Word Rewards

For every 200 words you write in a post, you are rewarded 10 Gold Crowns, the main currency in the world of Noar, used by our characters to buy different items.

For example:
200 words per post = 10 CR
400 words per post = 20 CR
600 words per post = 30 CR
800 words per post = 40 CR
1000 words per post = 50 CR
Etc.

Collaborative Rewards

A completed thread between at least two players, in which each player writes 5 posts (of at least 200 words per post) is awarded 100 Crowns each on top of the PBP Crowns already earn from posting. This is a Collaboration Bonus and cannot be earn for solo threads or threads in which you write with two of your own characters.

Solo Threads
As Omens in Ashes is a site that encourages and rewards story collaboration, solo threads are not rewarded the extra 100 crowns upon completion. However, players still earn 10 coins for every 200 words they write.

Multiple Character Writing
Writing with yourself is permitted on OIA, however, it is not encouraged. When two characters played by the same player are used to complete a thread, you still earn 10 Gold Crowns for every 200 words you write, just as you would in a solo thread, however, you do no earn the Collaboration Bonus.

Rules of Magic

Magic is exciting, allowing us to write experiences for our characters we can only dream of. However, not everyone shares such enthusiasm for Magic, which is why the OIA Team have also created an Anti-Magic called Rune Magic. All magic spells have descriptions that inform the player how their character can use the magic, what it looks like in writing and the damage they do during fights. Of course, we welcome players to use their own creative licence to expand, within reason, on what has been detailed.

As special rewards for World Events and Featured Character awards, we often allow players to create their own spells that are unique to their character. We believe this keeps things interesting and leaves room for enough individual flavour to keep things fresh. It is extremely difficult to learn a second magic, an opportunity given only after the completion of a World Event (once every six months), something only active players can compete in.

If successful, the player will be given the chance to roll a 1D12 after naming the magic they want their character to learn from a list. If they are lucky enough to roll the corresponding number, their character will then get to undergo a quest with a dedicated Storyteller or Moderator to learn that magic.

If unsuccessful with their roll, all players who completed the World Event will be able to create a new level 1 magic for their character. The list of magic spells will then be submitted for Moderator approval. If a spell is denied, a Moderator will work with players to come to an agreement. You can only create a spell for the existing magic(s) your character knows.


Live Roleplay

The following are the rules of magic for live role-play:

When using a spell, you do not need a 1D20 to hit.

At level 1, all Runes have 20 health.

At level 2, all Runes have 50 health.

At level 2, damage dice for level 1 spells are doubled. For example, the level 1 spell Heal Ally would read: If successful (2), the Caster is able to heal an ally for 2D10. This only works within range (touch).

At level 2, the length of spell effects are doubled. For example, the level 1 spell Smoke would read: If successful (2), the Caster gains disadvantage on their next 2 attacks. If successful (3), a single hostile target gains disadvantage on attack rolls for the next 4 turns.

At level 3, all Runes have 100 health.

At level 3, damage dice for level 1 spells are tripled. For example, the level 1 spell Heal Ally would read: If successful (2), the Caster is able to heal an ally for 3D10. This only works within range (touch).

At level 3, negative effects to Casters are negated. These rolls will instead be counted as successful. For example, the level 1 spell Smoke would read: If successful (2), (3), a single hostile target gains disadvantage on attack rolls for the next 6 turns. This gives the Caster a 2 in 3 chance of casting the spell successfully, rather than a 1 in 3 chance as it stands at level 1 and 2.

Non Playable Characters

Non Playable Character (NPC), also known as a Non Player Character, is a fictional character portrayed by a player to add flavour to a story. An NPC should be thought of as a ‘supporting role,’ like an extra on a television show. Their key role is to help the main character (your character) shine! An NPC should never eclipse your character, but instead be considered a prop to help your character tell their story.

NPCs can be used for dialog, buying, selling and trading goods, etc. They are also used to fill out roles in your character’s family, friend circle and place of work. However, there are some basic rules surrounding the use of NPCs the OIA Team would like all players to follow.

i. Your character can not learn any skills, abilities or magic from an NPC. ii. All NPCs created by you should be listed on your Character Sheet, whether they are Story Essential (SE) NPCs or Flavor NPCs (FN). iii. You are permitted to start with two free Story Essential NPCs with 25 stats each. Any extra Story Essential NPCs accumulated after that cost In Character (IC) Gold Crowns (see prices below). iv. All SE NPCs must be approved via the Requests & Consent forum. v. NPCs do not gain stats over time, however, you can pay the difference to upgrade stats from 25 to 50, 75, or 100.

The Living Rule: There is a difference between flavor NPCs and story essential NPCs. Flavor NPCs are characters used in stories to give it flavor. Sometimes these characters might be named, but most of the time they are used to fill in the gaps.This includes family NPCs, deceased NPCs, and any character who doesn't play an essential role in the direction of your character’s story. We call this rule the Living Rule for the simple fact that the only time you should be writing information up for an NPC is if they are alive, if they will interact with your character on a frequent basis, and their information is necessary to the journey your character is undertaking.

Keep in mind that you may write NPCs, such as deceased characters or characters you will use infrequently, but they do not need approval. If we see players abusing this privilege, we hold the right of ret-conning (deleting) information/stories and administering consequences.

All Base Stats are 5. You are paying for extra stats (25, 50, 75, or 100).
100 Crowns 25 Stats.
250 Crowns 50 Stats.
500 Crowns 75 Stats.
1000 Crowns 100 Stats.

How to calculate your NPCs stats:

All stats start at 5, excluding any stats you have purchased. Add the stat type you have purchased (25, 50, 75, or 100), then add your NPCs race stats (see Race Page).

Information that should be displayed for each NPC you own is as follows:

Compulsory
Race: (The NPCs Race).
Name: (The NPCs Name).
Relationship: (The NPCs relation to your character).
Magic: (The class of magic the NPC knows if any).
Stats: (purchased stats + race stats).
Background: (A brief character background including how your character came to know them).

Optional
A 150 x 150 picture (square or circle).