Storylines

On the SURP, the basic form of RP is the storyline, which is essentially an RP thread about anything you want, involving your characters. Solo threads are heavily discouraged, and will earn less rewards than threads that have others involved. While fights are often a prominent feature in most storylines, it is not necessary to include combat in your storyline to gain P. It can be in effect, anything you want. A mission to capture a bounty; a raid on a town; the search for a hidden treasure; the search for a needle in an exceptionally large haystack; Looking for clues to homeworld; Even just a day in Charm City; all of these are equally viable ideas for a storyline.

There are no set minimums or maximums for storylines. Remember that the storyline is essentially a story about your characters, and as such, you should attempt to be descriptive and to explore your character as much as possible, besides from just making them use amazing moves that decimate the enemy forces in the blink of an eye or them knowning everything about everything such as when Homeworld is going to arrive (Which is not allowed). However, keep in mind that Staff Members are within their right to alter the setting of your RP if they feel it doesn't make sense. After all, storylines must be believable even for a Cartoon universe such as this.

Narrators are members, Staff or otherwise, who can help your storyline to progress if you don’t want to run them yourself. There is no difference in having a Narrator handle the events of your storyline, it is just a matter of preference. If they are requested, they will typically handle the NPCs and major plot events of the storyline, and you and your posse simply react to whatever they throw at you. Narrators can be requested here. Narrators also have the job of helping to make sure the freedom players are given isn’t abused.

When the storyline is reviewed by a Staff Member, it will usually result in gains of P, SD, and Reputation. Additional rewards in the form of items or any other manner of material reward, are also possible. If there is a particular reward beyond the normal P, SD and Reputation that you would like to gain from the storyline (providing there is a logical reason for it, according to the events of the storyline), you may request it when you submit the storyline for approval here. Note that there is no guarantee that you may get your request.

Storylines are graded based on a few things. However, the most important thing to realize is that this site is designed so that you don’t reach ridiculous levels of power in a few weeks. You are certainly encouraged to post often, but the idea is that you don’t let the RP rewards govern your posting patterns. The system is set so that there is a cap on the number of P that can be awarded for any Storyline, based on the duration of the Storyline from starting date to ending date. So posting 100 times in 5 days is not, all other things being equal, going to get you anymore than someone who might post 5 times in 5 days. Time is not the only factor, however, but this system is in place because it is pointless to penalize someone because they have better things to do than sit at the computer all day and just make post after post after post (No offense to those that do). Also, we discourage solo RP, where you just post volumes by yourself. These will be penalized, as will unfinished RPs with no attempt to conclude them. Characters may enter one storyline per day.

An invasion is, as the name implies, whenever other members/characters intrude on the storyline of another member/character. More specifically, an invasion only occurs when the invaders are members playing their own characters. The distinction is important, since staff members can also invade storylines via their position as part of the staff. When they do so (without using their own personal characters), it is called a Hounding instead of an invasion. A hounding is usually occurs when a SL is growing out of proportion (flying flaming chairs or a character never being hit by one clearly stronger because the member doesn't want to lose, etc.) and a staff member needs to step in to act as a god of the SL and deliver punishment through trials in the SL. Therefore, Houndings are not part of this category, and are treated separately.

There are four separate types of invasion categories. Each of them has it's own set of rules and regulations, and it is important that they are followed. Please note that the staff cannot be omnipresent, so if you as a member think a rule has been broken or someone is cutting corners, do not hesitate to inform us.

The first type of Invasions are known as Crossroad invasion. This type of Invasion is when two SLs merge briefly. Basically, another member(s) activates a new plot device in your SL, whether you wish it or not. In the spirit of an open, and it's many people, sides and allegiances, it is our wish to try to bring this feeling over to the forum. Of course this doesn't mean that if someone is doing an RP that is going on in homeworld in a very private jail that you and your friends from Earh can randomly end up there without any explanation. A crossroads invasion is a short, random, chaotic or wacky event that is over as fast as it started. The invaders may be finishing their own SL this way, or they may go back to their own topic after the invasion. To help make sure the stay is brief each invading member is only allowed 3 posts and each post must be made 24 hours from the last post of the thread. This, ofc, can be bypassed if the SL owner allows the invader to stay.

These invasions are mainly meant for Bounty Hunters. In this invasion a bounty hunter can intrude on any of your SLs if it makes sense for them to be there. The purpose of this invasion is so the bounty hunter can attempt to claim whatever bounty is on your head. In most cases this invasion will not be favoured but in a free word you can't stop someone from chasing you to the ends of the Earth so we must follow that logic here too. As with the other invasion the bounty hunter must make sure to post within 24 hours of the last post otherwise they will be hounded out of the SL and will not reap any rewards.

These invasions differ quite a bit from the above ones, in that they are not strictly an invasion. A special invasion occurs whenever you want to; their distinctive trait is that you agree to them (In other words you must have permission from the SL owner). Any and all outwards involvement that occurs, that isn't a hounding, that you agree on, fall in this category. There are no extra rules about it outside of that, however. At least not from the staff side. It is, however, a very good idea to come up with a ruleset regarding these Invasions. Then, make sure to post this rule list publicly in the thread, so everyone involved knows what is agreed on in regards to PvP, activity and so on. This is also so that the staff have a standard to measure against should the thread go haywire; a very good precaution, in other words.

In short this invasion is simply for those who are RPing in the same area as another. For example, if I was in an SL in charm city and in another SL some gem is wreaking havoc throughout the city, I can temporarily leave my SL to invade that SL and try to stop the gem or whatever. When this happens your own SL will not be put on hold if other memebrs decide to stay and if you are gone when the SL is over you will still get rewards, albeit not as much.