Roleplay Rules for ALL Animal-based Roleplays - MUST READ

[Tess]

Please make sure you have read and understand ALL of the rules in this topic before you begin roleplaying.

There can be serious consequences for breaking these rules or for posting anything which is deemed inappropriate for young viewers.

Image Rules
Violence/Fighting/Gore Rules
Romance, Mating & Pregnancy Rules

[Tess]

Rules for Images and Text Posts in the Roleplay Boards

The power of written roleplay is that you are only limited by your imagination. This is what makes roleplay so interactive and unpredictable. We don't believe you should rely heavily on drawings and photos to define your characters or setting. Heavy use of images has made the roleplay boards difficult to manage in the past, so we have limited the number of images you can use. This also includes the use of decorative images. Once the appearance of a character sheet becomes more important than the writing the purpose behind roleplaying is getting lost.

Appropriate Images
Like the rest of the site, all content should be child-friendly. If you're using images for your roleplays they need to follow these rules:

• If using drawings: do not steal random art you find online - only use art which was drawn by you or for you unless it is something widely distributed for free fan-use from famous books, movies, or TV shows, such as official images from My Little Pony, Pokemon etc. If you have recieved special permission from an artist to use their drawing you need to credit the artist well visibly and provide evidence of the permission given.
• No images showing excessive blood/gore/horrific injury or animal cruelty
• If using artwork for furry and anthro characters make sure they follow our rules regarding nudity in furry and anthro artwork: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=259622 .

Image and Link Limitation Rules
Character Reference sheets

• You may only post one reference picture per character, unless they are a shape-shifter and then you can add one picture per species/form. If you want to describe different outfits, hair styles or accessories then do that in writing. Do not post secondary images or link to extra images.
• Please do not make image collages or animations to get around the 1 image per character rule.
• Your reference picture should be no more than about 600px on the longest side, as large images make browsing difficult. Large animated gif files may be removed if the file size (in mb) is too large.
• Your reference image should either be something you personally own the rights to use (such as a drawing you made), or something which is widely distributed online for fan use such as celebrity/movie images, famous models, or TV characters. Remember this only includes official artwork/images such as gifs or screencaps from shows, not fanart drawn by other people.
• Please pay careful attention to the source of anime-style artwork, as many of the anime images found online are not available for free use. If you want an anime style reference picture please remember you may only use official artwork such as gifs or screencaps from shows, not fanart or original designs made by other artists. The only exceptions are if you have the artist's permission, or you drew the image yourself. If you recieved special permission from an artist to use their drawing you need to credit the artist well visibly and provide evidence of the permission given.
• You should never use someone's personal art/fanart/photography/characters/fursonas which you found on Google search or on websites like deviantart, tumblr, furaffinity, Chicken Smoothie and related image sharing websites unless the artist/photographer gave you permission to use it, or said that it was for anybody to use.
• Please do not link to videos (eg: YouTube) in your character forms for things like theme songs or voice examples.

Roleplay Descriptions + Introduction Posts

• You should only use 1 image per post in your roleplay's introduction (Introduction, Rules, Characterlist, ...).
• You should only use 1 image (max) per setting that you wish to describe for your roleplay - for example one picture of the highschool, one picture of the city, one picture of the sports field.
• Any character references posted on the main post should follow the same rules of only containing one image per character.
• Please do not make image collages or animations to get around the 1 image per roleplay description/introduction rule.
• Your reference picture should be no more than about 600px on the longest side, as large images make browsing difficult. Large animated gif files may be removed if the file size (in mb) is too large.
• Any text-images or roleplay descriptions used should be created specifically for the roleplay. Copying text and images from other roleplayers is not acceptable behavior.

Font images
Font images from sites such as 1001Fonts allows people to make cool headings and subheadings in different fonts.

• You may use font images for a heading/subheading of your character sheet or roleplay introduction posts.
• You should not use font images for additional 'decorative' purposes such as quotes or song lyrics.
• You should not use those for every roleplay post you make, as posting images repeatedly is considered spam.

Decorative images

• Images which only serve decorative purposes are not permitted to be used in either your character forms or roleplay topics.
• Please do not make image collages or animations in order to include decorative images.

Special formatting for reference sheets and roleplay topics, common names and images
We sometimes get reports complaining that someone has stolen their layout or "form". Unfortunately you cannot copyright your particular layout of bb code and font colors. We encourage everyone to design their own roleplay layouts, but there's nothing we can do if someone else's font color, alignment, size and placement of images looks suspiciously similar to the formatting of your own posts. It's quite possible that the same design may have been thought of independently and it's not worth getting upset about it.

We also sometimes get reports about character "theft" if someone else starts using the same reference image that you use, or the same character name. If you own exclusive rights to the image then you should report anyone else who uses it, but if it's just something random you found online then you don't own it and you can't stop anyone else from using it. If your character name is particularly unique then you can report the person who you believe stole it and give us any information to explain why you think they stole it. However, if your character is just named something like John or Taylor then there's nothing unique about that and anyone can use that name.

Roleplay Posts
Once you've posted your character reference and been accepted into a roleplay, you can start posting!

• Avoid repeating information/pictures in posts.
• Your post replies in roleplay topics should not contain any links or images (including font images).
• Please do not decorate your posts with repeating text such as information from the character's ref sheet. Keep your posts tidy and simple so that they're easy to read and search for.
• There is one exception here: You are allowed to include a link to your character's reference post.

[Tess]

Violence Rules

Violence is common in role-plays, as most characters get into a fight sooner or later. However, like the rest of Chicken Smoothie we want all content to be safe for children to view. Fight scenes may not be overly violent, graphic, disturbing or gruesome.

• There should not be descriptions of excessive blood/gore or serious bodily injuries.
• There should not be descriptions of sadistic violence where a character takes pleasure in the victim's suffering, whether described by the aggressor, victim or onlooker.
• Sexual violence of any kind is never acceptable to roleplay or imply, whether described by the aggressor or the victim. This includes any mention of "forced mating".

Ongoing and unprovoked abuse is not an appropriate roleplay topic for CS, and will not tolerated.
A character may not be physically abused without any explanation/provocation, nor can there be a relationship between two characters that is purely centered around an 'abuser' and an 'abused'. This includes "slave/master" relationships where one character repeatedly abuses the other.

Characters MAY:

• get into minor fights and scraps that do not end in very bloody/gory scenes, such as scratching/kicking/biting and then walking away with only minor bruises and scratches.
• have implied (PG) violence in their character history, as long the mention and description of it is not overly detailed and inappropriate. Implying a history of sexual abuse or forced mating is NEVER ALLOWED.
• get into implied violence "off-screen" that is not described in an inappropriate or detailed manner.
• suffer death or serious injury as a result of a fight/attack, as long as it is not described in gruesome detail during the fight or in recovery (e.g. a character may go to vet to be treated for broken bones, or may lick its wounds, but without gruesome descriptions of their injuries or how they happened.)

Characters MAY NOT:

• Get into scenes which describe actions and details to a level that would be inappropriate for children and sensitive users to read. This includes overly descriptive or graphic scenes involving excessive blood, gore, serious injury, and death.

[Tess]

Animal "Romance", Pregnancy and Mating rules

Roleplay content must be child-friendly at all times. This includes content in private messages and invite-only or 1-on-1 roleplays.

Mature roleplayers who want to roleplay descriptive romantic and sexual scenes may find our rules too strict. If that's the case, then you must find another website to roleplay on. We will not tolerate rule-breaking here no matter how old you are or how willing your roleplay partners are. Users who break these rules may get board warnings, lose posting abilities in the roleplay boards, lose the ability to send PMs, or may be permanently banned from CS depending on the severity of their behavior. You can be banned instantly without any prior warning if you are found to be involved in descriptive sexual roleplaying.

Animal Characters MAY:

• Lick or nuzzle each other affectionately
• Be described as having mated with another animal to become pregnant - without any further description of the mating process
• Be pregnant and give birth - but the birthing scene should not be described in any great detail
• "Go somewhere quiet to be alone for a while" without any further description or implication about what they're up to, i.e., a 'time-skip' or 'fade to black'

Characters MAY NOT:

• Roleplay or mention "forced mating" or unwanted mating in any sense, as either the victim or the aggressor, under any circumstances.
• Mention or imply that they were mated or will be mated without their consent
• Characters may not have gruesome or descriptive mating or birthing scenes

Roleplaying in PMs:
All of our rules apply to all areas of the forum, including PMs. People found to be breaking the roleplay rules in their private messages will be subject to the same punishments as those who break these rules in the roleplay boards. Do NOT ask players to take romance scenes to PM if you're intending to take them further than kissing.

[Simon]

Other Banned Themes

We have some extra rules against certain themes which we don't believe are appropriate for roleplaying on Chicken Smoothie. If you want to roleplay these topics, please find a different roleplay site to do that on.

Banned subjects/themes in all roleplays:

In general, we don't want to see roleplays about animal abuse and exploitation. There are a few topics in particular where animal cruelty/exploitation seems to be a heavy focus, so these are not allowed:

• "Puppy Mills" or other roleplays which revolve around forced-mating or other cruel breeding practices
• "Dog fights" or other roleplays which revolve around forcing animals into situations where they will be injured/killed or forced to kill others
• "Animal Laboratories"/Animal Testing - including roleplays where animals are living in a laboratory and are regularly experimented on, or roleplays where animals evolve and develop new abilities in the process of the testing.

Your characters may sometimes fight, or mate, or maybe even consume special potions so they can develop special abilities. But when these actions are forced upon them it becomes cruel or exploitative, and is something that many CS players would find upsetting to read about.

You are allowed to make a roleplay which begins after characters escaped from these scenarios, but there should be no details or descriptions about what happened before their escape.

You are allowed to use these themes in a character's history, but you may only mention it without giving details about what exactly happened to them.