The Path To Becoming A Pokemon Trainer

Rules and Guidelines

Rule #1: Respect the Users
Our forum is a friendly and welcoming environment, which means you need to respect the other users around you. Do not make attacks to any user, either through Private Messages. Racist, sexist, homophobic (including the use of "gay" as a pejorative) and other slurs are prohibited. Any of these problems should be reported to the Admin immediately, which will then be looked into. If you are found causing any of these problems, you will be banned for 2-3 days on your first strike, the second strike will be 5-7 days, and the third strike will cause you to be banned from the group.

Rule #2: Respect the Structure
The role playing structure of our forum is paragraph structure. You do not have to write a novel, but it is suggested that you do at least 2-3 long paragraphs (the definition of a long paragraph is 7-9 sentences) Please do not use short forms in your postings such as: u instead of you and 4 instead of four. As well, please make sure to check your spelling and grammar (nobody is perfect though, so it is alright to make mistakes) before you post.

Rule #3: Respect the Audience
Do not post pornography and/or anything that can be considered inappropriate graphic sexual content in any format; this includes detailed descriptions of sex acts. There will be a separate category if you do want to role play anything like that, but please keep it to a minimum, since the story isn't just all about sex.

Rule #4: Respect the World
This is a pretty big part of the rules & guidelines so its been split into a list:

Creating Your Character
* Please make sure to fill out the Trainer Application before role playing.
* You may have up to 2-3 characters in the forum.
* Your optional to be making 'minor characters' which can be friends to your character, family members, etc. but please read the minor character information before creating one.

Information about Your Character
* You are a Pokemon trainer in this world, it does not mean that you have mythical powers, cat ears, non-human or anything of that variety, so please respect that. We do not want your Mary-Sues and Gary-Stus in this forum.
* You don't have to be a Trainer though! You can be a breeder, you can do contests, but you cannot be a Gym Leader or be in the Elite Four. We're sorry but we've already have the Gym Leaders and Elite Four Trainers/Champions picked out.
* If your character wants to be in an organization such as Team Rocket, Team Galactic, etc. then you are allowed. This does not mean you can be the head of Team Rocket or anything like that. You can be a grunt or a commander, just something along those reasonable lines.
* If you want to be related to an actual character, (ie. Your grandfather is Blaine) please be reasonable on who you are related to alright? Make sure to read up on them and understand how you can be related.

Your Pokemon Party
* You will have a maximum six Pokemon in your party, six regular Pokemon that means NO LEGENDARY POKEMON, and nothing else. The exception is a Pokemon that follows you around that you don't use for battle.
* Do not god-mod your Pokemon. You aren't all powerful and you aren't the best Pokemon trainer in the world. Be reasonable on how you battle with other trainers.
* You are allowed shiny Pokemon, but your entire party can't just be shiny Pokemon.

The New Beginning Universe
* The world we are playing in is the video game world, not the anime world. There is no Ash Ketchum in this world, we have the original Red instead get it? You can't be related to anime characters that aren't in the video games.
* Please note that this world is set 10 years prior to Red starting his own journey. This means gym leaders have aged and changed, heroes have settled down and Pokemon Professors are still the same (even though Professor Oak is pretty old) Hence why this forum is called: Pokemon A New Beginning.
* The forum you will be role playing in is the Pokemon universe which is a modern day universe. There are computers, cell phones, etc. but please make note that you know the Pokemon technology as well.
* Do not create your own Pokemon universe that doesn't exist use the following regions that are provided in the Pokemon region category: Kanto, Johto, etc.

Weather & Seasons
* The weather isn't always bright and sunny, sometimes it'll rain and sometimes it'll snow. Weather is optional to the role playing users in the forum. You can decide what weather you want in your role play.
* The seasons cannot be changed, so please follow them. The seasons go based off each month, for example:
Spring = March, April, May
Summer = June, July, August
Fall = September, October, November
Winter = December, January, February

Time
* The time is the same as the weather, it can be changed and moved due to your role play.
* That does not mean you can go back into the past or the future, it is always present time.

Traveling from Region to Region
* You are allowed to travel from region to region, using your Pokemon with HMs or other uses of transportation (no cars though)

Battling Other Users
* When battles are issued out, the winner will be decided by flipping a coin (or something along that lines) to keep the chance of winning a usual 50-50 chance. If you lose a Pokemon battle, it doesn't mean anything is going to happen to you.

Gym Leaders and Battles
* All information about the Gym Leaders will be included in their regions. It will state what Pokemon they have, how old they are, etc.
* Challenging a Gym Leader will result in a flipping of a coin, deciding whether or not you defeat the Gym Leader or not.

The Elite Four
* The Elite Four opens up every month on the last day of the month. Only selected users that have 8 badges of that region may challenge the Elite Four.

Pokemon Contests
* Contests will be happening every two months, and will be decided by voting from other users.

Minor Characters
* Creating a minor character is always good to have more detail to your character, and once you create one you are allowed to play as that character on your own choice. Minor characters will be placed in a separate box in the Pokemon Storage System
*The minor character must have the following information:

Name:
Age:
Hometown:
Gender:
Hair Colour:
Eye Colour:
Trainer Class:
Relation To Your Character:

Their Pokemon Team
(please state their names)

Note: The rules will be updated every now and again, once we decide to add more

tldr; Don't be a dick when you're creating your Pokemon trainer. Be actually reasonable when you make one. You can have six Pokemon, we're playing in the video game world, don't god-mod anything, and well... don't be a dick.

Rule #5: Respect the Privacy
Don't share your password with anyone in the forum. That is your profile to keep and take care of. Nobody needs to be going on your account and be playing as your profile trainer, unless you have told the Admins that you are using that person's account for an actual reason (an actual reason would be the person is on vacation for weeks and can't get on the computer)

Rule #6: Respect the Atmosphere
This is a suppose to be a fun friendly role playing forum. We don't want to see any problems coming up and we don't want to see any fights happening with other users. Please don't take anything seriously and if you do have any problems or issues then please speak to the admins since we are more then happy to help you with your problems!

Thanks for taking the time to read the rules & guidelines. If you have any questions please contact any of the Admins!