These are the rules that all players must abide by for the roleplay to run smoothly. Consistent rule violation in spite of warnings can and will have a player removed from the roleplay, along with all of their characters.
▹Above all, all Iwaku rules always apply. Any site rule violations will be reported immediately.
▹A player is allowed to have as many characters as they can control, and these characters are allowed to interact in reasonable ways, but characters whose main and/or sole purpose is to assist another are prohibited.
There is no character limit in the IRBL, and in fact it is encouraged to play multiple characters due to the nature of the game. Just don't swamp yourself by trying to control too many at once. This is out of concern for the people behind the computer screens rather than a rule focused on the welfare of the IRBL—the other rules take care of that.
The second part of the rule is keeping the community from being swamped with near-pointless characters who essentially can't be challenged to fights on their own due to their design. This is, after all, a game centered on fight roleplaying, not progressing any kind of storyline. However, having characters who are perfectly capable on their own but operate in a team nonetheless—such as the players in a Homestuck session—or characters who fight mainly or solely with commanded creatures—such as a Pokemon trainer—is completely acceptable.
▹A character must have a posted and cleared CS before they can be played. Any and all alterations to abilities or weaponry must be made while the character is not engaged in a match. Changes cannot specifically target another character.
CSs are to be posted in the Character Index with a separate post for each character and can only be cleared by myself or a mod if the sheet contains all required fields, is clear and concise, and abides by all game rules. Details on the CS requirements are included in the pinned post on the Character Index.
The second part of the rule is to prevent any character being given an unfair advantage over another in a form of metagaming. Changes can be made while a character is in non-combative roleplay, however.
▹Invincible characters are prohibited. Weaknesses must be significant.
You cannot have a character who cannot be hurt by anything that their opponents throw at them. Not only is this boring and pointless in a fighting roleplay, but leaves fellow players feeling helpless and frustrated. That is the absolute opposite of my intentions for this community.
Subsequently, having a character with a very specific weakness—like Superman's weakness to Kryptonite—is far too close to having an invincible character. This is why I encourage characters to have weaknesses as significant as their strengths and abilities.
However, temporary invincibility—such as involved in the application of a temporary/breakable shield—is allowed.
▹Canon characters are prohibited.
Once again, this is boring and lacks creativity. Besides, if I allowed canon characters, that's all the IRBL would have and there would likely be multiple of the same character—which just doesn't make sense. I will also allow fandom-based characters, but they will be held to the same standards as fully original characters.
▹Godmodding, autohits, and metagaming are prohibited.
Godmodding, also known as godmoding, according to Urban Dictionary, is 'when someone's character has the ability to do practically anything without limits or boundaries.' Clearly this ties into the already placed restrictions on invincible characters. Godmodding also involves the second property, autohitting.
Autohitting involves making your character's attack make contact with another roleplayer's character without the player's permission. Roleplaying is an honor system in a way—each player has to keep track of their own character's abilities and limits. Autohitting is a form of assumption and can be incredibly aggravating for your fellow players.
Metagaming, as quoted from Wikipedia, is 'an "out of character" action where a player's character makes use of knowledge that the player is aware of but that the character is not meant to be aware of.' It also includes giving your character abilities that are not specifically listed on their profile, essentially enabling you to give your character whatever you want them to have, which also ties into the restriction on invincible characters. If your character has abilities, all of them must be listed on the profile—no exceptions.
▹Disagreements over the outcome of a battle will be settled by an impartial third-party, such as a mod.
Due to the anticipated size of the IRBL, I am recruiting reliable, active, level-headed roleplayers to serve as moderators in the threads and Discord. Although I have all the information for the roleplay, the mods can also be asked for help with questions or disagreements.
▹A certain character can only participate in one battle at a time.
This is also known as the Singularity Clause, which pretty much states that a single character can only be in one place at one time. This just makes sense according to concepts like linear time. No, time manipulators cannot evade this rule.
▹If an issued challenge is not answered in 48 hours or less, the challenge is considered void.
This actually works in the challenger's advantage, since due to the Singularity Clause they're only able to challenge one or one group of characters at a time. After 48 hours have passed without response from the character they challenged, they can move on and challenge someone else.
▹No matter how it occurs, the loss of a match is final and irreversible.
Battles are not required to be to-the-death. If one character wants to yield/surrender, the opponents must let them. However, if a character declares yield, they cannot participate in that particular battle anymore. Betrayal kills are never allowed.
In the event of a to-the-death match, the respawn mechanic enables anyone to challenge anyone without fear of losing their character for good. When killed in a fight, the character will respawn back at the main entrance to the IRBL and can make their way back from there. However, they've still lost that fight and cannot rejoin it. This includes temporary death, rendering all forms of resurrection abilities invalid.
▹All colors used must be cleared with the Iwaku Color Guide to ensure readability on all backgrounds.
This is a mainly cosmetic rule but very important to ensure ease of reading for everyone involved in the roleplay. The only exception to this rule is when using the optional post template, which has a white background so colors must only be dark enough to easily read on white.
Bottom line: don't be a jerk, be considerate of what your fellow players are trying to do.