Contents 1 Introduction 2 The Plot 3 The Rules 3.1 Rule One: Be respectful and communicate 3.2 Rule Two: In Character v. Out Of Character 3.3 Rule Three: Rating 3.4 Rule Four: 'Kid' Count 3.5 Rule Five: Activity 3.6 Rule Six: Admin Action 3.7 Rule Seven: LOA 3.8 Rule Eight: Avatars and Signatures 3.9 Rule Nine: Prove it! 3.10 Rule Ten: Dramas 3.11 Rule Eleven: Sensitive and Offensive Subjects 3.12 Rule Twelve: Time Travel, Magic's existence pre-shift, Technology 3.13 Rule Thirteen: CBOX etiquitte 3.14 Rule Fourteen: Magic and Abilities 3.15 Rule Fifteen: NPCs 4 How to Tag/Date and Time 5 See also 6 Comments

IntroductionEdit

First of all, welcome! If you should have any questions at all, please visit our cbox or post in the help forum. You must be registered to post in the help area.

Twenty, as it's called, was started in April of 2010 (real time) and is meant to be an open world in which players can participate in the unfolding future of this new world that was revealed when the 'Great Shift' happened in 2012 (game time).

Twenty is a cooperative story telling/role playing forum that is meant for individuals who are at least 17 years of age. Those under the age of 18 will not be allowed access to the Adult Content on this site.

Twenty picks up in 'real time' meaning each day that goes by in real life, thus a day goes by on the board. For example, this was posted on April 20th. If this were an in character post, it would have begun April 20th, 2013. Everything that happens in that scene/thread will be assumed to take place on that particular day in the time line.

Posts are to be written in 3rd person, blogs, apps, and profiles in 3rd or 1st person, with the exception of RP samples in the site application.

The site was designed to be 'open source' and created on a participatory basis by any and all players on the board - so if you have any suggestions on races, factions, canons, etc, PM our staff with your suggestions. We also need help with events and time lines, and appreciate your input!

We also allow for custom forum, canon and faction creation. Visit this post for instructions.

Here are a few of the board's features:

• Blogs are available for your character's back story. Generally they are written in first person, but Third Person can be used to build upon your character's history without making new threads on the board. You can find this area in the Character Development section of the site along with the plotting board and time lines.
• Profiles are available (and required) for each character. You can add pictures and video and other formatting via BBCode. More about this here, here, and here.

There is also a chat for mini sessions of RP. This will not be displayed until you have registered!

The PlotEdit

Destruction happened in 2012. Rebirth started in the year 2013. Earth is now a world that has seen magic, myth and the supernatural return to reality due to the alignment of Earth and the Sun with the galactic center. Mayan legends called this area of the galaxy the 'Dark Sun'. They also foretold that Earth would be born anew in December 2012 as the alignment would bring about 'The Great Shift of the Ages'. No one knew exactly what the ancient legends meant when they foretold the Shift of the Ages, till after a beam of energy struck out from the center of the galaxy and struck the Earth, changing all life and the planet in one moment on the night of December 21st, 2012.

The Veil between the mystical and the mundane lifted and nearly 1/3 of the world's human population instantly became 'meta-human'. These are variants of the human race that had been limited to myth and legend before, but are now real flesh and blood due to sudden latent genetic expressions. Animals experienced a similar change, producing the varied monsters and beasts of legend that now roam the wilds.

Along with the transformation of many humans, the lifting of the veil allowed for other creatures of all sorts to make them selves known on Earth, among these are angels and demons and other 'otherworldly' beings. Certain planets that were in between the Earth and the galactic center had some of their residents carried along with the energy, and they were instantaneously transported to Earth with the beam. There are thousands of possibilities here, and they are as varied as the Meta-Humans and animals.

The world has also seen the return of magic, as suddenly people have manifested abilities long thought as bogus or part of fairy tales; only to find out that magic is now real. It is still somewhat unusual, with only 10-15% of the populations of both humans and meta-humans showing the potential, and even fewer are trained to bring out their talents.

Three super-virus strains have managed to infect a small portion of the human and meta-human populations. These produce Zombies, Werewolves and Vampires respectively; all of which are bloodthirsty blights upon the world and humans/meta-humans alike. Whether or not this is related to the alignment of 2012, as part of the genetic mutations or if it is something man made remains to be seen.

A note about the viruses: There is an 8 to 24 hour window in which one can receive treatment by antiviral or magical means to reverse the infection. Once the transformation to an infected is complete beyond the 24th hour, the process cannot be reversed. It is permanent.

There are various factions that rival one another in this new world. Most of the nations on Earth collapsed, save a few, and along with the factions that vie for control, Mega-Corporations have stepped into the power vacuum upon the collapse of the world governmental structures; at first glance this would seem like chaos, but given that most of the world was already mostly ruled over by corporations for most of the 20th century, the transition was easier than imagined.

The world is irrevocably changed, and as Western Civilization teeters on the edge of a knife; as does individual life, thrown into a brave new world wrought with new dangers, hang in precious balance.

The RulesEdit

We expect that you WILL read these if you are honestly interested in joining this role playing group. So, thank you for the time you take to do so.

Rule One: Be respectful and communicateEdit

• No matter our good intentions, none of us are mind readers.
• Do talk to your fellow players, do speak up, do ask questions, do make suggestions, do poke the mods.
• Your input and activity help make this game grow and thrive, and we heartily welcome it!

Rule Two: In Character v. Out Of CharacterEdit

• Have respect. Do not blur the lines between yourself and your character.
• If you have a problem with a character/typist, take it off-site and do your best to resolve it on your own.
• If you feel no longer able to deal with it, please contact the mods and we'll mediate the situation.
• Remember, we're here to make your playing experience smoother, not to be babysitters.
• Remember, your character can not control the actions of other characters. It is also called 'god modding'. This is not only against the rules but it's rude as well, especially when the control results in something happening that the player attached to the controlled character doesn't want to happen. Keep this in mind and be respectful of others. Control only your characters, please, unless you and the other typist(s) involved have predetermined that such things are acceptable.
• If your character does things that are amoral or objectionable to more powerful groups than her, then you must suck it up and deal with the consequences. This also might mean your character will die. Deal with it. If you continue to violate the rules and ethics of IC laws, groups and cultures, this will be considered god modding, and you will be contacted by a member of staff.
• Please, no meta gaming, or inserting information or knowledge into your character's mind that he or she may not reasonably know.
• Remember, even if a thread says "open", when it is an older thread, it is a good practice to PM those involved before joining in with any drastic actions. This is a common courtesy that we expect on this board, since we are a collaborative writing based community.

Rule Three: RatingEdit

• General M - Mature Rating (language) content with Adult Content (AC) forums for smut/extreme violence/extreme gore. Yes, some of that goes on here, just like in real life. Except you get to read about it. Simple, if you don't like it, don't read it!

• This is not purely a 'sex site', Twenty is meant to cater to all styles of role play. So, if you do not wish to have access to the AC forums, please let a mod or admin know and you will be removed. No one can access the AC forums unless they are a registered and approved member that is granted allowance to see them, and this may be revoked at any time and for any reason.

• Mild to moderate violence/adult themes are acceptable in most of the forums, as is R language.

• Post in AC forums ONLY graphic sex or descriptions of sexual body parts, or the like.

Rule Four: 'Kid' CountEdit

• The approved number of characters per player is two upon joining. After one month, the player is allowed a third character. After that the player is allowed one additional character per month up to a maximum of five. Player is allowed to have five characters in total with staff approval.
• A sixth character is permitted if you have shown commitment to your current characters by keeping them active a minimum of six months prior to the consideration of a sixth. You must also have been with the site more than a year and/or have shown your reliability in handling multiple characters. During that time you must have participated in role play with a reasonable amount of activity with all characters. You must also have not dropped characters in key plot/leadership positions and leave other players stranded. And finally, all considerations are upon staff approval only, and the staff reserves the right to be the final say on the matter. To be considered for a sixth character, make a post in the staff help area, and your request will be answered there.

• It is requested that within one month of joining to create a using the Time Line Template and post it on your Characters' wiki pages.

• Also, please date your threads in each opening post if the date is different than 'today', as exemplified here. Staff will lock threads that go without a date if it is not done within one week of thread opening, and a pm will be sent to the user to get the date set correctly.

Rule Five: ActivityEdit

• Here at Twenty, we will try to contact you through Private Message after one month of inactivity without a notice. If after three times (three months) we have not heard from you, your character(s) accounts WILL be deactivated, but not deleted. You will, however, lose your face claim at this time, so it behooves you to keep us notified in the event of any extended LOA's.
  
  
• If you do not make a post in three months, you will be notified at the beginning of the fourth month. After such notification, if you have not made a post within that fourth month, your PB claim will be lost, and your account deactivated, unless you have put in an extended leave of absence.

Rule Six: Admin ActionEdit

• We urge all players to take the rules seriously, especially Rule #1 and #2

• One incident of clear rule-breaking receives a written warning.

• Three written warnings, and the offending typist's accounts will be suspended for 24 hours. After this period is over, the typist will have three more warnings to correct the offending behavior before having all accounts permanently deactivated.

• We're all smart enough to know what is and isn't acceptable and appropriate behavior when dealing with other people. And if you're not sure? Just ask.

Rule Seven: LOAEdit

• Be sure to alert everyone when you will be away from the game. That way no one will think you've left them suddenly to rot in a thread and it lets us mods know what is going on with your account(s). It's polite, too.

Rule Eight: Avatars and SignaturesEdit

• The board only allows avatar/icons up to 150x400 (wxh) pixels. Please make avatar/icon an image of your player base/character.

• Please limit signature images to 625 pixels wide.

• No nudity!

Rule Nine: Prove it!Edit

• Prove that you read all these rules. Code word is "Stowinchmahardt", which is entirely made up.

Rule Ten: DramasEdit

• No Drama. Ever. Try to work things out before blasting your drama on the board. Do not use the PM system to abuse, gossip about or insult others as well. You will be banned for this, and your character retired forever from this board. Do not bring your dramas here or abuse other players on the board or in cbox. Admins may make a judgment call to ban after even one violation of this rule. We are serious about this issue.

Rule Eleven: Sensitive and Offensive SubjectsEdit

• No rape (in your character's history or in RP). No abortions. If you want to RP on a site like that, please by all means find a place that's more suitable for those types of things. Thank you.

Rule Twelve: Time Travel, Magic's existence pre-shift, TechnologyEdit

• Time travel - In order to avoid paradoxes, if your character is here due to travelling from the past or future, you shall treat this world as an alternate time line or universe. The old time line is lost forever to your character, and the story unfolds on this time line. No exceptions.

• Magic's existence pre-shift - Does not exist since the last Shift that occurred roughly eight to ten thousand years prior (no one really knows). The world was rather mundane prior to December 21st, 2012. This means magic, supernatural, psychic abilities, meta humans, creatures of myth and legend, angels, demons, gods, etc, etc, ad nauseum, did not exist from the end of the last Shift thousands of years ago to the latest Shift of 2012. No exceptions.

• Technology - Technology MUST be appropriate to modern day, real life Earth. All technology that is too advanced must be explained by an Alien heritage, time travel or alternate universes. As always, mod/admin discretion will be utilized in order to preserve the continuity and purity of this modern fantasy site. However, we understand the need to creatively express ones' self, so if the story is interesting and more importantly believable as far as the scope of what is possible in this universe, we wholly welcome your creativity to this site.
• We ask that you seek Admin approval for plots and characters that are in the gray area of science fiction, especially regarding Pre-Shift matters. PM Bronx Rock about this issue, or leave a message in the staff help area for him.
• Here's what a short list of example technologies that are NOT allowed (unless alien origin):
  
  Artificial Intelligence
  Cybernetics
  Cloning
  Ray Guns
  Humanoid Computers
  Teleportation Machines
  Time Travel
  Wormholes or travel to other places in the galaxy/universe (this is not even allowed by aliens)
  Faster than Light travel by mechanical means
  Biotech suits (think Iron Man)

• List of examples in that 'gray area':
  
  Human genetic augmentation (character must have been born in the 90's)
  Rail Guns
  High tech armor and weaponry that is super exotic or currently experimental
  Any kind of experimental aircraft
  Medical cloning (magic kind of makes this obsolete)
  Robots

Rule Thirteen: CBOX etiquitteEdit

• No spamming or advertising other sites.
• No drama or negativity. Cbox is not the place for complaining about your friends, your family, etc. Take that to instant messenger or email.
• No arguing with mods in Cbox. If you have an issue, take it to PM/IM/Email.
• No politics, religion or taboo subject.
• Do not mimic people's user names/avatars in cbox. This is rude.
• General PG-13 rating in cbox. *NOTE: the worst filthy word that can be used is 'fuck'.

Rule Fourteen: Magic and AbilitiesEdit

• If you are creating a character with magic/abilities (the terms are synonymous), please read the Magic and Magus pages. All abilities/magic are to be balanced either with drain in the case of a Magus(as explained on the magus page) or with balancing vulerabilities/negatives in the case of Humans with Abilities. The staff will help you with this. These two pages have been updated as of 9/21/11, so a review is probably a good idea.
• Magic items are now to be considered the same as abilities, and must be listed in the abilities section of your character's app/profile (subject to approval).
• New (meaning after your character app has been approved and moved to the approved section) magic/abilties/magic items are to be submitted for approval in the Staff Help Area.

Rule Fifteen: NPCsEdit

• Ask before controlling/killing/disabling another person's NPC.
• Use [npc][/npc] BBCODE for NPC speech in posts.
• NPCs that are considered to be co-stars that appear on a regular basis, or of special ability, must be listed in the wiki's Canons & Co-Stars, and tagged with 'Co-stars' and 'Characters'. PM a member of staff to help you with this, if needed.
• There's a limited number of NPCs that can be created for each faction/Group. As of 9/21/11, that number is six, but can change.
• 'Red Shirt' NPCs can be used, and will not count towards a faction's total NPCs, but these NPCs are not to be used for anything other than rabble, fodder or very minor actions. These are the only characters on the board that are ever subject to auto-kills and are really only used for story purposes. Abuses of this rule will not be tolerated.

How to Tag/Date and TimeEdit

Time is an important subject on this board. While the game begins in the year 2013, it will not be 2013 indefinitely. As the board ages, so will this 'world' that we are collectively creating.

It is assumed that whenever a new topic thread is opened that the numerical date and time (but not necessarily the day of the week - i.e. Monday, Tuesday, etc) will be the same in the scene as the topic post date that is displayed by the forum. The current date is displayed at the top of the page, under the staff images.

For example if you start a thread at 2 in the afternoon on August 5th in REAL LIFE TIME (what the board displays), but you want it at night and on June 5th of any year, you will put this in the first line of your post:

June 5th, 2011, 11PM

For continuity's sake, 'flashbacks' to former times are allowed for character development, but going forwards in time is not, unless you get Admin (not mod) approval. Please enter date and time at the beginning of your thread, if they are different from what is displayed by the board.

If you want your topic closed to other players, please indicate this with {{Quote:[Tag:Characters you want involved]}}. Otherwise, it will be assumed that your thread will be open to everyone.

It is also a good idea to start a timeline for your character(s) as soon as possible, as they will become important, especially if you get into a lot of threads.

See alsoEdit

References
Information	Orientation • The Post Shift World • Creating your Profile Page Creating Meta-Animals • FAQ • Requests and Restrictions
Database	Canons • Characters • Directory • Events • Locations • Staff