Our highest priority is not just the enjoyment of our hobby, but of maintaining respectful communication with one another. We do not tolerate passive-aggressive statements or personal attacks against members, and gossiping behind the scenes is heavily discouraged.
Please remain kind and respectful to one another as we share this space together. We do not allow harassment, sexism, racism, bigotry, or any other form of prejudice against other players. A character's unsavory actions do not represent the users ideals.
Targeting another player by taking In-Character (IC) interactions to an Out-of-Character (OOC) level is unacceptable. If you feel someone is taking something IC too personally and impacting your personal interactions, OOC dislike of another player is impacting your character in-game in a way that is pointed and malicious - please contact a staff member.
We hold a strong belief that what happens in-character should stay in-character, and out-of-character relationships should not impact the game in a negative way.
We encourage members to communicate with one another so as to make this an enjoyable and hospitable place for everyone, but if you feel that something is wrong, please let a staff member know so that the issue can be resolved. Anytime a staff member can be presented as a third-party help or a way to help express words.
The Vivarium is a sandbox-style RPG of writing play-by-play posting where members are allowed to weave their own stories and narratives, but this must be conducted in a way that does not god-mode, power-play, or otherwise take control of another person's character in any capacity within the game against their wishes. This includes injuries, death, general interactions, and otherwise writing in a way that takes autonomy away from the other member and their character.
Please note when writing that Vivarium allows only the use of third person writing perspective (he/she/they). Please refrain from writing in first person when posting (I/me). You can write in either present or past tense, but please try to remain consistent within your posts in regards to what tense you have choesn.
You are required to communicate before taking such actions and receive explicit permission for each instance this occurs, and state it within your post OOC. Mistakes do happen, but if it's a recurring issue, a staff member will reach out. Metagaming and 'mind-reading' will receive the same results.
Please keep in mind that players also do not need to give warnings or heads up for this own character's actions, feelings, thoughts, or words unless it is a trigger warning topic or heads into power-playing territory.
If you are unsure about another character's actions or their intent, we encourage you to send their player a private message and ask for clarification. Likewise if you aren't enjoying how a plot or thread is working, it's advised to reach out and discuss this with the other member, especially if you feel that there is a misunderstanding.
We do not want feelings of negativity to fester unaddressed behind the scenes - this only creates further problems down the line.
It is also important to respect each other's boundaries when it comes to certain subjects in roleplay that they do not wish to engage in. Do not force another player into a situation they have explicitly stated they want to avoid writing out.
A staff member can always help if requested.
What happens in the game, stays in the game, and should not reflect personal feelings of the players involved. While a staff member may step in if there is any aforementioned powerplay, god-modding or overall metagaming, it is generally expected of members to work out the terms of in-character conflict on their own unless they wish for a third party helper.
Collaborate, but also recognize when your character may not be able to escape injury or consequences of their actions. The Viviarim Staff team moderates roleplay to make sure that characters cannot trespass multiple times and yet continue to be unscratched, or likewise continue to cause issues with neighboring packs and escape situations where most would not in stories. It is important to remember: actions have consequences.
This rule extends beyond “in character”, as well. If your character’s actions have consequences that you, as a player, do not like, you are NOT able to undo them.
The Vivarium does not condone or approve of any theft, such as claiming other characters and their art. Unless you have specifically purchased, been given consent, or created the character and art yourself, you should not use it. Being caught using stolen or copied work can result in a warning, strike, or even a full site ban depending on the severity of your case.
Please note that The Vivarium does not allow the use of AI art.
Having inspiration from certain franchises, lore, and existing entertainment is alright, but we ask members to avoid directly copying from books, movies, games, TV shows, comics, etc. unless the authors and creators have given specific permission to let AUs (alternate universes) come into play.
The following are stories that we have obtained explicit permission from by the authors:
This also includes characters itself that are heavily inspired. We remain firm that while light inspiration is allowed, please don't recreate an existing character from another franchise.
We do not allow table-templates in ic posts. The Vivarium desires the easy ability to read posts all across the board; however, you may choose different fonts and coloration in posts if you wish.
We are a play-by-play posting that follows real life and goes by liquid time. One day passing IRL is one day passing in-game. However, characters can have multiple threads going at once on different days, but it is up to the user to keep track of their timeline.
Forward-dated threads can only be made a max of 3 days ahead. Back dated threads can only be a maximum of 30 days back, and cannot be used to gain any sort of advantage or change things that have already happened. We're hoping to avoid The Butterfly Effect!
Members cannot use this to meta-game.
Characters are required to post once every 3 months, or they will be removed and placed in an "inactive" status by an automatic sweep. Characters who are inactive cannot post or be used toward group member counts.
Inactive members can become active again by simply re-applying.
Please see the Group Creation guide for more information about leader expectations and group creation.