GENERAL RULES - MUST BE READ

To anyone reading, 'sup. Welcome to Pokemon Spectrum, a Pokemon Role Play board in which players can explore the world of Altoria with their Pokemon companions, battle other trainers, face the Ivory League challenge and maybe even become the Champion.

Now, this place is about fun and parties and all that sexy stuff, but we've got some pretty general rules. For in-canon rules about making your character, forming your pokemon team and battling, click here.

• First and foremost, respect each other and try to get along. Nobody likes a moron who wants to ruin everyone's fun, so if we hear that you're upsetting someone then you'll be perma-banned. We don't deal with shitheads. If you really don't like someone, just avoid them. It's really that simple.
  
  
• No flaming and no spamming. This is a rule you'll probably run into a lot and there's a reason for that - it's annoying. Once again, repeated cases where you're spamming over and over will result in a ban.
  
  
• No autohitting. While fighting's going to happen, no doubt about that, you have to agree with your opponent that you're fighting them, so you can't run up to someone and say "LET LOOSE DOGS OF WAR, FUCKERS!" and you can't say "Well, my guy hits" because that's not how fights work around here. Avoid saying your pokemon's attacks definitely hit as much as you can, only that they use them. At the same time, if you're in a battle and your pokemon is attacked, be leniant with letting the opponent hit you once in a while and trying to keep the fight on relatively even terms. Which brings me to...
  
  
• Please try not to make your character overpowered. The system itself should restrict that - godmodding and powerplaying are frowned upon.
  
  
• YOUR USERNAME MUST BE YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME. Please don't ignore this.
  
  
• Metagaming, the act of your character having knowledge they shouldn't, or using OOC knowledge in posts, is frowned upon, and a bannable offence. For instance, instantly knowing a character's deepest secret, or a Pokemon's weakest point despite never having heard of it... yeah.
  
  
• Bunnying, the act of controlling another person's character - without permission - is frowned upon and will be taken seriously. Also frowned upon is automatically assuming KOs for Pokemon. Please try to decide battles' outcomes beforehand.
  
  
• Solo RPing isn't allowed - it's a cheap way to rack up points. You have a good, vibrant community and swathes of challenges - go for THEM, instead!
  
  
• Every IC post must be at least 150 words, though we recommend more.
  
  
• You're not the only person playing. You can't win all the time; if you've been fighting in a very stupid manner, or if your opponent's just better than you, concede defeat. I'd recommend that the two of you discuss an ultimate winner before the fight itself, but for things like gym battles or league events this isn't as viable, so if you're down you're down and nothing's going to change that.
  
  
• Tolerance and opinions, for the moment. We're not going to say "don't argue about your favourite movies" or anything extreme; people are going to have their own opinions, and at least I believe that you should be able to defend them and argue over which is best, but don't start wars over it. Pokemon Spectrum is a home for anyone and everyone. If someone chooses to use a pokemon that you think is terrible, they "made a poor decision" but they aren't "stupid" for doing so. They may have their own reasons, or just happen to like that Pokemon, or that film, or think that this would be a nice feature to add to the site. Be tolerant. On that note...
  
  
• This shouldn't be something you have to be told, but any whiff of racism, homophobia, sexism, intolerance of religious beliefs or lack thereof, lifestyle choice or any other form of intolerance, you're gone and you're not coming back. If you've got a problem with gay people, or think atheists are going to hell, or think anyone who votes for the Social Workers Party is a dirty communist who should be shot, leave it in your head and don't start spewing it. This is a home for everyone, and if you start kicking shit off, we'll get rid of you.
  
  
• A minor one, but we have a "As it comes" policy here when it comes to content and swearing. While Pokemon is quite light-hearted in nature so we'd ask you to avoid things like characters killing one another, backstories involving rape or people using racist, sexist or homophobic language, we're not against swearing or violence or innuendo and risque-ness to a reasonable degree. If you ARE offended by these things, tell the person who offended you to tone it down in threads you're in, and if they carry on tell a member of staff, but at the same time don't call bloody murder and demand we turn this into a E for everyone enviroment the first time you hear the word "panties".