General Rules

Here are the General Rules and Guidelines for participating in the PPB Challenge. These rules have been put in place to make sure things go as smoothly as they possibly can. If you have any questions please contact one of the mods!

Make sure to also check the Author or Artist Rules as well!

## General Rules and Guidelines

* To Sign-up for PPB you must be 18 years or older by September 1st, 2020.
* To participate in this challenge you must sign-up first! Sign-ups will be open from July 1st to the 30th for Authors and until August 31st for Artists.
* By signing up you agree to follow all of our rules and guidelines to the best of your ability. Failure to do so may result in disqualification, please make sure to contact one of the mods if you have any questions or doubts.
* To remain an active member of this challenge you need to meet all of our check-in deadlines and keep in contact with your collab partner.
* To be able to complete this challenge you will need a stable internet connection and the means to create and submit your fic/art. Please keep backups and a Plan B, just in case.
* You may not promo or speak about the project you are working on for this challenge in any public space outside of the ones approved by the mods until your posting date. (The PPB Discord Server and the PPB Private Forum are the spaces that are approved.) The one exception will be sharing your promo post during April, 2021.
* Be honest and use your common sense, if a rule says you can't do X, don't try to find a loophole that allows it. The mods are all nice and just want to see everyone have fun, but there needs to be rules in place for this to happen and mods are here to ensure things go smoothly.
* Make sure to read the Author and/or Artist Guidelines for specific deliverables and content rules.

## Partnership Guidelines

* You will be paired with a collab partner **from the start of the challenge**, please keep in mind that this means communicating with your partner is essential for both the success and enjoyment of this challenge! We highly encourage to keep your partner updated every single step of the way. Send them every chapter and every sketch, go to them to brainstorm ideas or get feedback, etc. The mods will always be available to help if any trouble arises with your partner.
* Before you decide to drop out make sure to talk to your partner and The Matchmakers to see if any arrangements can be made.
* If you drop out before December 6th, 2020 there will be no penalty.
* If you drop out before February 7th, 2021 you will be banned from taking part in the next round of PPB, but will be allowed to return after that.
* If you drop out, *without a reasonable cause*, after February 7th, 2021 you will be banned from taking part on any future round of PPB, indefinitely. (To be waved from the lifetime ban due to a reasonable cause please contact one of The Matchmakers as soon as you find out you need to drop out.)
* However, if both you and your partner decide to drop out together there will be no penalty for either one of you at any point of the challenge. Mods will probably be sad about it, but we will deal. This is **not** a good reason to try and force your partner to drop out with you, if we find out you tried to *bully* your partner into dropping out you *will* be penalized.
* Please keep in mind that due to the nature of this challenge if you drop out you will relinquish all rights to your ideas for the project to your collab partner. None of your actual work will be used without your approval (or proper credit), but you can not stop your partner from using the ideas, premise, setting, backstory, etc that you had discussed for use in this challenge. This is to allow your partner to continue to work on the project you dropped out of without having to start from the beginning.
* If we are forced to remove you from the challenge for any reason we will discuss adequate penalties depending on the reason for the removal and the time-frame of the event.

Many of these rules have been adapted from rules, guidelines, and policies created by Muse, Jojo, and Diamond for DCBB.