Rules
Age Requirement: All players of X-Men: Alternate Class must be eighteen (18) years of age or older.
Respectful Conduct: All players are expected to conduct themselves with respect, professionalism, and consideration for others. Harassment, discrimination, and disruptive behavior will not be tolerated, and all interactions should promote a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment. Respectful communication and adherence to shared standards are essential to maintaining a positive community.
Discord Enrollment: Players must belong to the X-Men: Alternate Class Discord Server for out-of-character communication, battle map access, and event coordination.
Group missions and team-based activities cannot function if players do not post in a relatively timely manner. Inactivity or inconsistency in posting puts additional strain on the other players and slows plot momentum. By joining, you agree to keep up with minimum of posting requirements.
Minimum Posting: Players are expected to participate in all team missions, unless they are currently involved in a side-story plot where the character has a reason to be absent or the player has been excused via a Leave of Absence (LOA).
Response Time: Players should respond to tags in active scenes at least once a week. If you need more time, please communicate with your team members and the GM to manage expectations. Real life comes first, but communication keeps the story moving.
In the event that a character has been inactive in a group scene for two weeks time, the GM will take control of your character and move them forward to prevent the scene from stalling.
Leaves of Absence (LOAs): If you are unable to meet activity expectations for any reason, please let us know. Life happens, and we're happy to work with you.
LOA notifications can be submitted in the LOA channel on Discord or directly to the GM.
LOAs are not requests for permission—they're simply a heads-up so we can coordinate around your absence.
Short-term schedule disruptions or busyness can also be shared informally in Discord. This level of communication helps everyone plan better and is encouraged.
Extended Inactivity: If you have not logged into Nova or communicated with the GM for more than 30 days without an LOA in place, we reserve the right to retire your character(s), conclude or reassign any associated plots, and remove access without notice.
Posting Format: All posts must be written in third person and past tense. This maintains consistency across the campaign and creates a cohesive narrative voice.
Use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. We're all human and mistakes happen, but players who are excessive with these types of errors will be handled accordingly.
X-Men utilize telepathy for communication outside of standard speech. Please use an tilde (~) before and after and words that are intended to be telepathic communication.
Example: ~The control room has been cleared.~ Cyclops telepathically informed his team as the last, unconscious guard quietly slumped forward in his chair. ~Who's left, Jean?~
Writing in Character: All players are expected to avoid some basic potential pitfalls:
Only write for characters assigned to you. Don't control other player characters or major NPCs without permission.
No Metagaming. Do not use your out-of-character knowledge to give your character in-game knowledge they wouldn't otherwise have. If the GM tells you something privately, your character only knows it if they learned it in-game.
No God Syndrome or Solo-Heroism. Writing characters with superpowers has the potential to get out of control very quickly, the emphasis of this game is creative storytelling not being a Mary Sue who can dominate any scene. Players cannot add to or revise their mutant abilities without GM approval first and usually some from role-play needs to occur to develop and justify the changes.
Stick to your character's biography and skills. Do not spontaneously generate new mutant abilities, skills, or resources to solve a crisis or give your character an edge. All characters are subject to the consequences of their actions.
GM Direction: The GM may find it necessary to drive certain responses or consequences for progression of the story. This may include temporary changes to your character or permanent ones.
Location and Timeline: An appropriate location and timeline information (date, time) are required for all posts and should coincide with the general storytelling regardless of order published to the website. This allows for multiple writers to keep active without always waiting on big group events. Please be mindful of when personal events are occurring in relation to group missions or large world events.
The most important rule of thumb when considering violence, gore, sex, nudity, or language in a scene is: What does this serve? How does this deepen an understanding of the situation and/or the characters involved?
Game Rating: 2-2-2
This means that language, sex, and violence are all allowed with some limitations.
All of this means that players should not be gratuitous with their use of any mature content. In terms of movie rating standards this game is a PG-13 or R-Rated movie over an X-Rated movie.
Violence: Graphic violence is permitted when it serves the story and atmosphere and violence should enhance tension and horror, not glorify suffering for shock value. Torture scenes should be faded to black/from black. We can understand torture happened without dwelling on graphic details. Medical scenes in the aftermath of violence don't need to be excessively graphic.
Sexual violence is absolutely prohibited. Do not depict or suggest rape scenes or sexual assault in any way. This will result in immediate expulsion.
Sexual Content & Nudity: No explicit sexual content. Sexual encounters and nudity can be initiated and described but hyper-detailed explanations of body parts or actions is considered gratuitous.
If a post contains sexual content, please include a warning at the top of the post.
Sexual characteristics may be described tastefully. Don't sexualize normally mundane scenes. Extended scenes of nudity are acceptable if they serve a purpose (bathing, changing clothes, medical examination), but don't over-describe details.
Xavier’s School offers an environment where students under the age of 18 and adults over the age of 18 reside together. There are to be no romantic relationships between characters deemed as ‘students’ and those deemed ‘residents’ or ‘teachers’. Writing teenage courtship between student-level peers is one thing, but an adult with a minor is not allowed. If your character is legally 18 but still enrolled as a student at Xavier’s, consider them to be a minor who will not be allowed a romantic relationship with anyone outside of fellow peers in the student body.
Language: Mature language and swearing is permitted with limitations. Nothing excessive or inflammatory towards actual minorities. No racial slurs.
Adversity and prejudice are common trends and encounters for mutant characters but characters partaking in blatant racism or hateful slurs is not allowed. Discrimination for being a mutant or minority is one thing but your character going on a tirade or refusing to work with someone because of their race/gender/sexuality/ethnicity is another. We're here to tell stories about fighting inequality, not to role-play bigotry.
X-Men are an allegory for defending and advocating for equal civil rights. Therefore, they will face prejudice against them because they are mutants. Equality and acceptance are the general outlook of this game and of the GM running it.
If you would like to join X-Men: Alternate Class please review the Character Creation section.