The rules below are here to describe in high detail how the staff desire to keep peace on this Kingdom Hearts site. Main focus is a desire to roleplay, host events, and just watch the characters interact. All of below is to simply discourage trolling, judgemental, and just those who don't wish to respect ALL characters-members on the forum.
In the Future, some rules will probably be lessened, while others might grow tighter depending on what kind of Members and Guests this site attracts. We will aim to keep our Minds Open and keep the Roleplay Experience overall enjoyable enough to bring Roleplayers out of Depression or "meh" moods.
Be Respectful: The golden rule of all sites, doesn’t mean you have to be friends with everyone, but try to get along. RPing is an activity to get away from the stress of the world, and just to write. Hearts Aligned aims to be an inclusive community, things such as racism, homophobia, albeism, and other derogatory sentiments are not tolerated. Be nice to other members, and if problems do arise, please notify the staff team.
Three-Strikes: Hearts Aligned operates on a three strike you’re out rule. If someone is caught breaking the rules more than three times, they’ll be banned. First strike is simply a warning, second is a ban from the site for a day, and the third strike is a permanent ban. However; in cases of blatant homophobia, transphobia, racism, albeism, or posting pornographic content will be an immediate ban.
PG-13: Please be mindful of the site rating due to Proboard’s ToS. Don’t use art that’s explicit in nature, and keep threads limited to kissing and cuddling, no in depth description of doing the deed. Mentions are fine, but otherwise, keep it offsite, and fade to black. (PMs included). Also when it comes to violence, it’s fine, (we are in KH afterall) but blood and gore is not allowed.
If unsure if a particular character image (such as an avatar) feel free to PM the staff team for assistance on getting the avatar to work!. On the topic of avatars and character artwork, a little blood is fine, but no excessive amounts. Additionally, in terms of a revealing nature your avatar can not be sexually explicit in nature/revealing.
The Big Three: No power-playing, metagaming, or godmodding. In essence, this means don’t control another person’s character without permission (always feel free to DM your partner for permission!), your character can’t dodge every hit, and land every attack. Also, just because you may know something does not mean your character does. No breaking the fourth wall (Unless you play a fourth wall breaking character)
Accounts: One account per character, and an OOC account is entirely optional. You may have as many characters as you wish (Up to 20), however; you must be active with all characters before making another.
Word Count: Hearts Aligned wishes that players players have a fun time posting, as such we do not require an official word count, a bare minimum at least respond with a full paragraph (four lines). On the other hand, do not make posts incredibly beefy that nothing happens either. Brevity is an art, and giving enough to respond to is the most important factor.
Activity: With activity, Hearts Aligned is an incredibly relaxed site. Life happens, we have school, work, and other responsibilities that come before this wonderful hobby of rping! However; please do not bite off more than you can chew in terms of characters and posts.
Character Art: Hearts Aligned allows basically any art form for a character, such as anime characters, cartoon, or cgi depictions for video game characters.. However; this doesn’t allow pornographic imagery. If using commissioned art, please give credit to the artist, and obtaining permission to use the art for your character is important. Art-theft is not tolerated.
Fantasy from Reality: Just because two characters hate each other in I.C, does not mean that you as the rper is the target of the spite. Just because your character is disliked by another character, is not a slight against you as an rper. Tensions arise IC, and honestly that allows for a better writing atmosphere. So while we want to see the good in every character, and try to be friends with everyone, keep in mind that characters can naturally hate each other due to their personalities, ideologies, etc conflicting. As well keep in mind Do not bring IC to OOC such as Relationships, Disagreements, and etc.
Rule of Cool: The purpose of Hearts Aligned is to allow members to have fun, but the nitty-gritty details can begin to interfere with the powers and abilities of characters. We are not Death Battle, so deep analyzing of statistics, and logic isn’t necessarily the end all, be all, interesting storytelling is our goal. So say, you have a character from a fantasy setting using a sword and shield fighting a gunner. Logically the bullets would easily puncture through the fantasy character’s shield.
However; to make things, fun, or cool, the bullets wouldn’t necessarily destroy the shield. This is to instigate just fun, and interesting writing so characters from any time period can have a fighting chance to tell a story properly. So as opposed to people shouting at each other “WELL THIS IS WHAT MY POWER SAYS!” Just try to cool it out, to make for interesting threads.
Sure, evil masterminds would logically follow the easiest route to destroy their enemies, but in interesting writing, films, anime, etc. Evil Masterminds typically toy with their prey, and more often than not, spare them. Don’t be afraid to lose, as this does not mean death for your characters, but a potential means for growth. This applies for both heroes, villains, and all in between.
Combat: Due to the site, and the sort of characters we’ll get here, combat does exist in Basic Paragraph & Freeform format. However; if you go stomping around, trying to pick fights with everyone that you see, you’re bound to get a warning, or people will simply not want to RP with you. Just because your character is strong, doesn’t mean you need to go waving it around and break the pacing of the site. Added to this, is that you cannot kill, or main other characters without their permission. If this is to occur, please PM a staff member with the incident, a warning will happen, and deletion of the particular post will occur. Characters cannot fight, take part in events, or go on quests until they complete a "Private Inventory Form" with their weapons, spells, abilities, and/or items.
Liquid-Time: Hearts Aligned uses a system of liquid time, meaning that threads can take place without having to be linear to each other. Also, you may have as many threads as you wish, just, don't clog up the board, and be respectful to your partners, and yourself. If you feel like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, try to step back a little bit, and ask yourself, “Is the stress of having these many threads worth it to my own mental health? Is it kind to my partners to delay them for several weeks because I’m so buried?” Keep in mind that rping is a collaborative effort, and another real person is behind the keyboard and face of characters in your threads.
Fandoms allowed:
Video Games: Hearts Aligned is based upon a video game, and as such, video games are allowed. This can vary from dark souls to animal crossing. However, characters from Rated M games must be toned down to fit the setting. No blood, gore, and excessive swearing! We are still a kingdom hearts site, and additionally must abide by Proboards T.O.S. Additionally characters from A.O content (Adult Only, such as hentai, and settings that reach beyond R) are not allowed. In cases such as a character that swears heavily change his or her swearing to be the more comic friendly $%!# or something similar. While some minor swears are fine, once in a while, do not post them excessively.
Anime/manga: No NC-17 characters are allowed. Similar to the video game rules. Aside from that go wild, but keep in mind we are pg-13, so some characters just wont work, or will have to be heavily edited. Additionally in character’s histories, please refrain from direct mentions of triggering subject matters such as rape, drug use, assault. While it can occur to your character in their history, do not spend a long time explaining, or detailing it. Please place these triggers in the Private Inventory, so that it will not be out in the open triggering Guests and Members alike.
Other fandoms: Barbie, Cartoon Network, Dreamworks, Discovery Family, Illumination, Nickelodeon, Pixar, etc are allowed as well! However; this can be a case by case basis (such as Dreamwork’s Prince of Egypt not being allowed, Please check Banned List).
AUS: Or Alternate Universe, AUs are basically allowed from any allowed fandom universe.
Banned Fandoms:
Adult Cartoons
(IE; South Park, Family Guy, Futurama, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Rick And Morty etc.) Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and other Adult Cartoon Focus providers.
Live Action Movies or Tv Shows
(IE; Even Stevens, Hannah Montana, Lizzie Mcguire, The Famous Jett Jackson, The Mighty Ducks (movie), etc.) {Even if you have a drawn Image of it }
Questions? Don’t be afraid to ask staff questions, on matter how outlandish they may be. This site aims to be incredibly inclusive and give members as much creative freedom as their heart may desire! Be sure to tag Full staff, No Singling out.
Note: All rules apply to IC, OOC, and the Discord. Strikes are cumulative, and breaking the rules in any area relevant to the site is not permitted. Also, rules are subject to be updated at any time due to staff discretion. The strike system can also be fully gone overridden in some situations, such as use of transphobia, homophobia, or offenses deemed to an extreme for the staff to tolerate. Don’t be a dick.
