***DISCLAIMER: Since I've had been seeing many different misunderstandings (and so on) regarding the rules of the RP, I will now update them to be more concise and explanatory. Please read ALL of these before even creating your form.

**You should also read the "Lore Changes/FAQ, as it might clear up a few questions, just in case.**

Also, because people keep asking me (and I concede that I should have probably put it there), I have marked the two viable starting positions for RPing once you're accepted.
They are Wigglytuff's Guild (for group RPing) and Forest/Meadow (for individual RP). Please use those. Thanks.

Now, onto the rules, which I have broken down into several sections for your convenience:

Form Rules: These are rules that should be followed when creating a form.

1. Follow the template, please. Please... It is very hard to read through dozens of forms, when one or two does not follow the criteria and I have to prod the RPer for the information I need. Don't be one of those people, please.

2. I am imposing a character limit for the sake of multi-RP sanity. For each person, I am only allowing two or three Pokemon, unless I otherwise give you permission. Just PM me if you think you deserve this privilege, and I will either say yes or no, depending on a few factors, such as overall involvement, contribution to plot, and time spent as part of the RP.

3. As a competitive player of Pokemon, I know the movesets and abilities of most Pokemon quite well. Thus, I will be decently strict on what Pokemon can do what. If a form is presented with an illegal skillset, I will have to ask you to change it, unless you can give me a very good reason otherwise.

Another thing that might be useful is this sheet that I've made. Please take a look at it when building your form. You might get an idea, but you'll also usually avoid the dreaded move spam nonsense I talk about later. While I don't outright ban any moves in this RP, the more "dangerous" the move, the more carefully you want to tread with said move as some are dumbly easy to godmode with.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17JMepLUdds15PPVvXqmf3J7VT-vCNiD1qAMZZ3G9LI8/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=102820473172728363430

4. This should go without explanation, but please, four moves. Pokemon don't learn more than four moves in any game that they've ever appeared in. So please follow that.

5. Piggybacking off of #3, I am also this way with differently-colored Pokemon (and I don't mean shinies- those are fine if done in moderation. Just don't make all your Pokemon shiny, and you'll be fine). If an OC has a color scheme that does not match any form a Pokemon can take, I will ask for the reasoning behind it. And I'm sorry, but if I can't gleam a good enough reason to legitimize it, I will have to deny it. It's just a personal pet peeve of mine.

6. Legendaries- we all enjoy having them and RPing as them. But I must put a limit on them, because of how powerful they actually are compared to other Pokemon. This is to keep the balance of fun and fairness in the RP. If you are planning on roleplaying as a Legendary or Mythical Pokemon, there will be another addendum to your form, stating why you believe that you should be allowed to RP as a legend. Again, I don't do this out of spite, but just to make sure that power doesn't grow out of control. If you present a form with a legendary without a reason stating why, I will ask you for a reason. If none is given, I will have to deny your form.

7. Just like legendaries, I'm especially picky about special quirks that a Pokemon has. Now, I don't mean "she has a top hat" or "she enjoys fishing in the same spot for hours." I'm referring to atypical Pokemon traits such as differing corporeal properties (eye color, and FUR COLOR ESPECIALLY- I WILL BE WATCHING), artificial replacements, or weird abilities that even a Pokemon wouldn't normally have. As an example, Risk has green eyes and a pendant that can tap into his father's Aura. Or Riku, with his Curse messing up the bodily poison-cleansing of a Shaymin, is able to take pain, along with toxins, out of something through his paw and take it on, himself. This sudden boon allows the impacted surface to begin to mend itself rather quickly, but it's quite taxing physically and mentally.
Notice how the stronger power requires a stronger justification, balancing, and explanation. That's the same level of depth that I would expect from another person's "special ability," although I leave it up to you what you think the proper justification should be (although I'll prod you for more if I think it's insufficient).
And hybrids... A subject near to my heart, being so passionate for science and Pokemon, but also the most cringeworthy. I don't want to sound harsh, but the sheer lack of scientific fact surrounding most of the ones I've seen is rather lacking and disappointing. That is to say, I won't be opposed to them, here, but I drive a very hard bargain by stacking your argument for a hybrid's existence up next to my mathematically-derived hybrid, Voltflare (not present in the RP, though, because I'm against type changing in the RP). If I deem that it's not a strong enough argument, I reserve the right to deny that form-no questions asked.
On that note...

8. Keep the roleplay to Pokemon, only. While I do like seeing interaction between human and Pokemon, this style of roleplay will work better with only Pokemon. Although humans may sometimes come into play as plot elements, those must be OK'ed by me, specifically.

9. Finally, although this isn't as important as the others, I try to keep confusion via names from happening. Thus, if your character happens to have the same name as another one already present in the RP, I would appreciate it if you would change it, just to keep others from talking to the "wrong Sally or the third Jimmy." I will tell you if a character has a mirrored name, so you don't need to leaf through forms. Don't worry.

Here's the actual form, and two example forms that demonstrate these rules.

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FORM

Pokemon name:

Species and type:

Age:

Moveset and Ability:

Personality:

Backstory/Prior Life/etc:

Extra quirks/accessories:

**Reasoning for extra quirks, if needed**

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For me, that would look like:

Risk

Riolu- Fighting

Age: 13 (estimated)

Force Palm/Aura Sphere/Shadow Claw/Counter

The leader of a rescue team, Risk watches out for others, even at peril of his own life. He's usually happy and strong-willed, but can get down if a team member get injured.

Wears a red bandana as a scarf around his neck, concealing a pendant from his father. Also has green instead of a normal Riolu's red.

The green in his eyes is a result of a phenomenon known as Raleigh scattering, basically causing a differentiation of the pigments in the eye. Although scattering only changes appearance, the green in his eyes was something he was still actually born with, although the rest of his family does not have it because it can function as a recessive gene, only appearing in certain offspring.

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Riku

Shaymin- Grass/Flying *Sky Forme

Age: 8 (estimated)

Air Slash/Energy Ball/Earth Power/Psychic

As he's still very young, Riku still hasn't fully matured as a Pokemon, which leaves him naive in certain areas of life, although that doesn't mean that his heart for others (or his abilities in battle) are eclipsed. Riku wants to help anyone and everyone that he can lay his paws on.

Riku was cursed a few years ago to turn from a regular (shiny) Shaymin to a dull-yellow fur and red eyes. This doesn't change his kindhearted personality, and he always wants to see the best in others. Because of this Curse, Riku is able to physically draw pain out of others to alleviate them and take it on himself, as well as draw Ghost-Pokemon out of others.

Curses, mainly those given from stronger Ghost types, are able to both mentally and physically affect the recipient Pokemon. In this case, Riku's body isn't able to deal with the overflowing Ghostly energy, and, instead, manifests it by mirroring his appearance with the core of that energy.

(Yes, I know that I didn't include true backstories for either of them. That's because 1. I didn't want to spoil events that happen in their respective books, and 2. For reference, take a look at my Story Guide for a short enough biography on each character of mine^)
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And, just in case you forget anything, my QC's of the RP, blitz233 and Red_Twilightsworn and I will usually respond and tell you to fix things if there are issues. Please listen to us, or I will have to deny your form.

** IF I WRITE "QC" ON YOUR FORM, THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN RP- I'M SIMPLY CALLING ONE OF MY ADMINS TO LOOK AT YOUR FORM! WAIT FOR THEM AND I TO DISCUSS!

Beyond that, one will usually get a "Spheal of Approval" from one or more of them. All I need is one, really, unless I deem it necessary. But it's ultimately the phrase "Accepted" that grants you entry.
**

Common Rules: These are rules that should be followed after you've been accepted and are joining the RP for the first time. (or any other time if you're making multiple characters).

1. First and foremost, be clear with what you're trying to say. This includes the following:

-Using proper capitalization/punctuation/etc

-Stating the speaker, unless it's blatantly obvious to anyone and everyone who is talking. For instance, "Risk: '....'" or "Risk stated, '....'" or "'....' Risk stated" are all very easy to understand. If someone randomly commented '....', I would not exactly be able to follow who is talking. This is especially important when you have many different characters to prevent confusion!

2. Please put effort into your comments. Now, I know that comes off as harsh, but Ill make it pretty clear what I'm after. Consider the difference between:

-Risk: "Yea."

-Risk: "Yea." He laughs along, finding the joke quite funny and retorting with his own.
"..."

It is far easier to picture the character actually performing the latter, and more development is accomplished in it, as well. I would appreciate it if RPing is done the same way. The former, in my opinion, is quite obsolete and useless, in light of the latter. Just try not to give me an essay of development, all at once. Also, if there's a ton of people on at once, try to slow down your posts a bit for the convenience of others.

3. There will be casualties and injuries sustained, some more severe and explained than others. This isn't a perfect world full of happiness and joy, even though much of the anime paints it that way. Pokemon behave towards each other much the same as our real-world animal kingdom. Some eat others, some fight for territory, etc. If getting hurt is not your fancy, then please don't join. However, I will say that killing other OC's is not allowed without that person's permission. It's not exactly fun when someone has, say, a Hydreigon that flies around burning and eating everyone else for fun.

4. If you have an idea for a story element that you think would fit well, please PM me about it. I'll be happy to help you integrate if there's space, and the resulting event doesn't make the overall plot of the RP too cluttered. Also, I haven't officially said it yet, but if this event involves a long, drawn-out adventure, that's fine as well. Just be aware that these are very hard to fit in, sometimes. I will try to work with you on those, though.

5. Hate the character, not the RPer. And please, don't take out emotions against someone using your characters. If you are feeling something about someone's character that your own character wouldn't also share, then don't comment that they mirror your reaction. This is called "faux-play" or stepping out of character, and it is my other main pet peeve in RPing Pokemon. Please, for my sake, don't do it.

6. "Move spam" as I like to call it, is heavily frowned upon. If I see someone with a move like Copycat, Protect, Detect, Substitute, etc, and I see it being used every two and a half seconds (metaphorically) to dodge everyone else's attacks, I will force you to give up that move immediately. Trust me, I have my ways :^)
Just a note, that I also consider spamming moves to include things that will intentionally make people's lives harder, like somebody incessantly obscuring vision with Sandstorm or Hail while we're trying to advance the plot. Beyond this, I just tend to enforce limitations on moves (such as Wish that heal you for free, which causes the Pokemon to grow incredibly weary from it. Or a quite strong move like Hyper Beam has a quite strong recharge time to back it up. This is the same rule for even things like Thunder, just so battles aren't over in three or four moves.)

7. You can talk directly to other RPers out of character by putting parenthesis around what you're saying. But please, to keep the flow, delete your ()'s when you're done talking. It makes the RP look a lot more collected.

8. I don't exactly hate smut as much as some would think I do. I can at least allow it in RP, but please for the love of Arceus, take your smut into PM's. There are children in this RP who would don't want to see that kind of thing in their news feed or comment chain!

9. Only certain areas connect to other certain areas. These are tagged in the "description" of each RP site. Please be mindful of those, as I will not let you jump from one area to another that it does not have access to. Also, please be mindful of "Defunct" areas. Do not RP in them- they are completely finished and are kept only for bookkeeping purposes.

10. Finally, unless I otherwise allow you to, please keep your comments to the single chain started on each form. If there are multiple chains, the correct one is usually the one with the most comments. If you have any questions about this, please PM me before starting to comment.

UPDATE: Due to complains I have been getting, I will be amending rule #10 slightly. When I get a complain about notification spam from someone that no longer wants to join, I will consider initiating a break. This simply means a new chain will be started right where the old one left off.

Punishments: I hope I never have to resort to this, but they're still there to keep the system running.

I do have a "three-strike" policy in place, but I never have had to get to the end of it (which I'm happy about). Things that can earn a strike can involve the following:

-Repeatedly bickering about the same issue (not actual character argument, but RPer to RPer) without even attempting to solve it.

-Continually harassing another RPer (out of character on both ends). Depending in severity, this can also get you blocked/muted/reported/etc. So don't do it.

-Blatantly ignoring something helpful that I or an admin has told you to do. We consult with each other quite a bit, so disrespecting her guidance enough will get you in trouble with me, too. Another thing you should probably avoid.

As one of my friends has so lovingly told some others, it's best not to trigger the wrath of "Oberisk the Roleplayer" (congrats to anyone who gets the reference btw).

***Well, that's all I have to say, so I hope you join and have fun!***

Any questions about the rules: PM me

Any other questions: PM me or an admin

For examples to see what works, see @SSGSSJ2 @blitz233 @StormFox9 (among many others)

** Special rules for Gen 7: **

Since I officially released the ability for people to create/me to accept Alolan Pokemon OC's. However, to prevent my being overwhelmed, I have added a few more rules.

1. For now, there is a... The OC limit of one Alolan Pokemon is officially removed.

2. I will be a fair deal harsher when it comes to the reasoning behind forms. I don't doubt that this will affect you at all, but I figured that I might as well say it.

3. There will be no recolors for gen 7 Pokemon until further notice. This does not include eye color.

4. I will be instituting a "form cooldown" of sorts. For instance, even if I give you special permission to bypass character limits, I will still slow the acceptance of forms. There must be a delay period between forms, which will be handled on a case-by-case basis for each person depending on how quickly they reach their original limit of three (or three in general if you're already past that).

5. All Tapu's have already been claimed, so there will be no more of them. Only one of each exists. Further, there will be no Ultra Beasts or the like (this includes Necrozma even though it isn't a UB). They are far too broken for an RP.

6. Even though Mega Evolution is allowed, if the OC having the stone/keystone is justified and nerfed accordingly, there will be NO Z-MOVES. They're just realistically too strong for an RP, and have yet to be represented in a PMD game.