Rules

## General Rules

1. Please keep drama at a minimum. Keep personal fights out of the group, and prevent unnecessary quarrels.

2. Do not spam the group.

3. All notes concerning the group must be sent directly to the group; do not send any notes to staff or members.

4. Breaking rules will result in a warning. Strikes will be assigned for multiple infractions. After three strikes, you will be kicked from the group. Appeals for rejoining will be taken by a case-by-case basis.

5. If you are kicked from the group due to inactivity, you must wait four months before attempting to re-apply (this includes sponsorships). If you leave the group of your own volition, we ask that you wait two months before re-applying: if you leave repeatedly, this waiting period will extend by two months.

6. If you are taking a hiatus from deviantART/the internet, please inform the Admin Team via note so that we are aware of your absence. Any members on hiatus will be exempt from assignments, but may be asked to complete an informal assignment upon their return.

7. Please refrain from mini-modding on deviations or comments on the page. We ask that you leave the modding to those who are mods. If you are concerned about something in a comment or on a deviation, please note the group about it, rather than commenting/replying. Thank you!

## Character Rules

1. Fill out the character sheet according to the direction in the Joining blog.

2. No sparkle cats. Fur and markings must be realistic. Manes and hair tufts are to be kept at a reasonable size and length. Eyes must be of a realistic colour for the species.

3. No god modding, Mary Sues/Gary Stus, or unrealistic traits. Keep your character at a nice balance of strengths and weaknessess, positive and negative character traits, and stats.

4. Members are allowed a maximum of seven characters. New members must wait a minimum of four months before applying for their second character. Members who have had their second character approved must wait only one month before applying for a new character.

5. Non-members must apply during openings or through Sponsorship. Members may apply for a new character at any time during the off-season after receiving approval from the moderators (adhering to rule #4 as well).

6) No applications should be left blank. WIPs (works in progress) are allowed, but an application should *never* be empty; kittens must have complete applications before being accepted, as seen in the Relationships blog. Accepted characters who are undergoing a revamp must retain information under all of the mandatory categories (personality, history, etc.), even if they are only from an older application. Any members found with incomplete or blank character sheets will be given a time frame within which to complete their application; if it is not completed within that time, or an extension is not requested, then the character will be considered dead.

7) Official diagnostic names of mental illnesses should not be listed on biographies. This primarily refers to disorders, as there is no method of diagnosis available in the tGB universe.

**This does not mean you must rewrite your character!**
Merely, that you must remove the actual term from character biographies.

Things that are **not** allowed: “X cat has schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, ADHD, Tourette’s Syndrome, Autism, Alzheimer’s, etc.”

Things that **are** allowed: “X cat is allergic to bees, is anxious, hears/sees things that are not real, is prone to panicking, is finicky about the alignment of their nest, cannot remember things very well, experiences frequent mood swings, has involuntary movement/vocal tics, has trouble communicating thoughts verbally, has any physical illness, etc.”

> Please note that this rule does affect everyone in the group, including those characters that already have mental illnesses listed. We ask that you remove any and all names of mental illness from your character biographies. Members who are found to be active, but have not removed mentions of mental illness from their character's biography, will be given one warning and one opportunity to remove it before being given a strike.
>
>

8. Rape, sexual assult, and incest are strictly forbidden in TGB. Any references alluding to these will result in a punishment anywhere from a strike to an immediate kick.

9. Heavily fandom associated characters will no longer be accepted into the group. Preexisting characters are not required to change, but new ones will not be allowed.

## Submission Rules

1.Please regard all dA submission rules.

2. No stolen artwork will be allowed into the gallery. If you are caught trying to submit any, you will be banned without warning. Bases and linearts are not allowed (with the exception of the hypokit meme).

3. Make sure you are submitting your work to the correct folder.

4. Only submit finished artwork to the group. If you intend on keeping a picture as just a sketch, you may submit it.

5. In the artist's comments, please mention at the top or bottom to which tribe you will be sending the points. (You do **NOT** need to count the points yourself, we will do that for you, as members frequently miscount points, more often than not undervaluing their work)

## Chat/Roleplaying Rules

1. Keep drama at an absolute minimum.

2. Be polite to everyone and respect your fellow members and the mod team.

3. If there is a roleplay going on, please join the chat being used as an OOC chat; if there is not one, then point a chat and mention in the main chat that it will be used for OOC.

4. Please do not spam any roleplays with massive amounts of OOC.

5. No spamming or advertising.

6. No god modding or meta-gaming.

7. No power-plays.

8. If your character breaks any laws within the game, you will not get in trouble; however, keep in mind that if your character is caught, they might be.

9. Make sure you know the difference between in-game and real-life; if your character is insulted, that doesn't mean the other player is insulting *you*.

10. Any special events or predators may only be roleplayed by a mod, or by a player with a mod's permission. (See the Predator Library for details.)

11. Secondary Shadow-Tribers are able to communicate with the dead. Roleplayers of Secondary Shadow-Tribers are able to roleplay their Shadow Triber communicating with a dead cat of an ex-member. This is the only instance that roleplayers are allowed to roleplay with non-members. The guidelines for the character are that: they must have been canon; they cannot have been an NPC; and the player cannot have been kicked from the group.

## Environment Guidelines

1. Your characters cannot leave the boundaries provided on the map.

2. The universe TGB plays in has no humans.

3. Do no create imaginary animals or mention mythical creatures.