The Rules

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This section exists to provide a place for handlers to RP/write outside the typical constraints of the island. Its purpose is to represent happenings in the rest of the world, as it reacts to the games. This section will generally not be policed too heavily, however, due to its unusual nature, there are a good number of specific rules you should be apprised of, which follow.

There are no thread limits in this section. Activity is not enforced. Participation is entirely optional.

In this section, you may RP as a wide range of characters. The limits are simple:

You may not RP as a character created by someone else, or related/tied to a character created by someone else, without that person's permission. For example, you could handle one of your own characters' parents, but not another handler's character's parents.

You may not RP as a notable/important figure (that is, anyone of regional/national import) without permission from the staff; this is a decision that requires staff deliberation, so any ruling made without posting for discussion in the staff lounge will not be considered valid. If in doubt, ask.

You may RP as any character of yours approved for V8 pregame but not participating in V8 proper. You may not RP as any character in the John Endecott Memorial Academy senior class who was not approved or used as an NPC during pregame without staff permission. Any character removed from play for whatever reason is not eligible for use in this section. Characters from other grades/schools are fair game; we just don't want to suddenly have twice as big a senior class as we did in pregame without an explanation. If you use a previously submitted and approved character in this way, they may not be submitted again in later versions, even if they did not appear in pregame proper. Otherwise, if they have no appearances, they may be reused for other games pending approval at that time.

You may RP as older characters of yours (V4 survivors, families of V4 kids, past winners, etc.) as long as they're alive and such. There is one slight exception here: if you have a V3 survivor or possible survivor who was not previously cleared to appear in Meanwhile, check with staff for their official standing. Many of these characters were essentially in limbo between the end of V3 and the events of V6 concerning STAR, so there may be some things which need to be cleared with staff concerning these characters before they can appear. Anything concerning the fate of STAR at large should also be run by staff if it intends to go into more detail than what the general population would know (the destruction of the organization at the hands of the AT during V6, the surviving members currently in political limbo, etc.).

You may not use this board as a medium to preview characters you plan to use for future versions; any character you use here will be denied if submitted for V8 or any future versions.

Realism should be held to the same standard as is typical on SOTF. If it wouldn't fly in pregame, it probably won't fly here. Keep in mind that the stigma against viewing SOTF still holds; people aren't going to be discussing it and posting clips on Facebook or any other mainstream social media platforms.

Continuity should be adhered to. Please remember that there is a gap of about one month between the disappearance of the John Endecott Memorial Academy seniors and the beginning of the broadcast.

As a result of the abduction, John Endecott Memorial Academy has offered counseling services to the friends, classmates, and family members at the school affected by the disappearance, and midterm exams have been postponed until further notice.

If you have any scenes or ideas in mind that would have sweeping implications for the community, please check with staff. Overall, please try to keep such things localized and smaller scale. For example, having a reporter call every single kidnapped student's family would not be kosher, because it would force other handlers to potentially work around this in their posts. Stating that JEM would be closed and students moved to new schools would similarly affect everyone else using this section. We want to avoid that sort of thing.

On a related note, staff reserve the right to declare any problematic portion(s) of this section non-canon at any time in the future, up to and including the entire thing. For example, if something should happen mid-game to interrupt the broadcast, this would render any thread dealing with people knowing exactly what happened after that point impossible. Actual-game trumps this section every single time; this is here for fun and expansion of the SOTF story, but will not be allowed to cause problems.

You do not need a character in V8 or on the island to participate here, as long as you abide by all the other rules.