Guidelines

RWBY Fanon Administrative Judging Guidelines For the rulings decided upon by the RP Moderation team. May not apply to judging the character, may simply be a stance we have agreed to take on a certain topic.

Guidelines subject to change.

REMEMBER. If you are unsure about a particular Ruling, and how it may pertain to your Character or other Original Content, feel free to ask an Administrator or other Staff member for assistance. We are always here to help.

Rules marked with MANDATORY are compulsory to follow, Rules marked with DISCRETION are advised, but can be omitted following well written explainations and examples to the contrary on the character in question.

RECOMMENDED rules are not compulsory in any form, they simply exist and are listed to help provide information for character creation.

Naming Policy

 * Viewable Here: http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131130235255/rwbyfanon/images/2/2d/ColorNameRule.png
 * MANDATORY: If name can't be deciphered or isn't included in Trivia, OCs owner must be asked if there's one or if the name comes from one.

General Rules

 * No Limits Fallacy: Where ANYTHING the character does, is, or has, has no limitations. (Invulnerability, Indestructability, etc.)
 * MANDATORY Make sure there's no Unlimited anything, following the No Limits Fallacy
 * The moderation staff reserves the right to retroactively reject a character based upon finding a point in the character overlooked by the previous moderator who judged said character, or if information was added Post-Acception that would lead to rejection.
 * In the event of a retroactive rejection where One Reviewer misses an aspect that would lead to the Character being removed from Pending and a Second Reviewer notices this, Reviewer Two MUST do the following BEFORE passing the new judgement:
 * Inform Reviewer One of the aspect in question, so that an explaination can be reached if there was a reasonable reason for the ommission.
 * Reviewer One MUST be the one to go back to admit to and correct the mistake, if the conclusion is that a mistake has been made.
 * If the above cannot be done, Reviewer Two can be the one to correct the decision, but MUST, as SOON AS POSSIBLE, have Reviewer Ones consent given on the Comments of the OCs page.
 * This is to ensure that people do not feel that certain Reviewers are prejudicing against their Characters, and that an honest, unfortunate mistake has been made.
 * Characters that are intending to be Beacon Academy students MUST be 17 years of age or older, the lowest that will be accepted is 16, and only if their biography has a clear, valid reasoning as to why they were bumped ahead a year.
 * A character's profile requires an exact age up until they are at least 40 years of age, past which age bears little impact upon the grading, although a range (e.g., 'fifties, early seventies, etc) would still be required.
 * The characters are being judged on their canonical accuracy and how well they would fit in the canon as a character of their age, status, and race. Additionally, power levels of character are rejectable if too weak for their position, or too strong.
 * Any additional information, critiques, or compliments in a Character Review that is not related to WHY it was Rejected will be positioned below where the Review staff commonly put "--RP Moderation Team--"

Weapons

 * RECOMMENDED: Weapons in RWBY, from what we've seen, tend to posess multiple functions (such as, but not limiting to, shooting as a firearm, and being able to be used as daggers, or transforming into entirely different weaponry). This does NOT mean the weapon must posess transforming or shape changing properties, (See Yang, Lie Ren, Weiss.) Your character does not have to follow this, (as we've seen with Jaune, who posesses a hand-me-down) However, following this better helps the character fit the world and lore of RWBY. Remember your character fits INTO the RWBY world, not the RWBY world is made around your character.
 * MANDATORY: No More than Two DIFFERENT weapons (Two+ of the same weapon eg. Yang, Ren, Penny count as ONE) Only one can transform.
 * MANDATORY: A weapon may have only up to three transformations.
 * MANDATORY: No Artificial Intelligence, Self-Awareness or Automation in Weapons. (Automation meaning weapon reacts on its own to protect the user, not that it essentially is capable of moving under its own power.)
 * DISCRETION: All weapons the character posesses should contain the same overall fighting style and/or be able to be used in tandem as well as separately.
 * DISCRETION: Weapons cannot copy a Canonical Characters weapon too closely, this is left at the Reviewers discretion on what they deem as too close.

Dust

 * MANDATORY: Red (Fire), Cyan (Ice), Yellow (Lightning) Dust is allowed. Characters may freely use these types of Dust.
 * MANDATORY: Blue (Water), White (Impact), Purple (Gravity), Green (???/Wind), Orange (???) Dust is allowed, but must be limited.
 * DISCRETION: All weapons must use Dust, either as ammo or as energy source. Dust, however, can be used without weapons.

Semblances

 * Semblances are NOT required at this time, due to very little information and being only one Volume into RWBY.
 * MANDATORY: Semblances may not be too similar to those of canonical characters.
 * MANDATORY: Semblances MUST fit the character in some way, be it personality, fighting style, etc
 * MANDATORY: Semblances MAY NOT include: Illusions, Mental/Psychic Abilities, Summoning or Transforming, Soul Manipulation, Shadows, manipulation of Aura, or Death.
 * DISCRETION: Should not be able to be used as separate attacks/weapons entirely on their own. Anything that does will count towards the Weapon Limit. (eg. loud Sonic attacks or throwing Fire without Dust.)

Aura

 * MANDATORY: Aura does not posess unique traits to the individual, these are manifest in Semblances for now. Traits Aura DOES cover are: Protection from Harm, Use with Weapons acting as conduits of it, Slight Regeneration of injuries, and giving you the feeling of being watched when you're in danger.
 * MANDATORY: Aura does not work as ammunition for things such as Guns.
 * DISCRETION: Lacking in any of the first points skills due to lack of training or other circumstances.
 * Attacks made against humans/Faunus that have the specific effect of bypassing or otherwise target their victims Aura directly will be rejected, regardless of source.
 * Same goes for attacks made on vital points, as long as their intended target has Aura remaining, it would prevent them from causing any more harm than an attack would to any other area in a serious fight.

Faunus

 * MANDATORY: Faunus only have ONE physical feature like the animal they represent (Ears, Tails, Horns, etc.)
 * MANDATORY: Faunus only posess Night Vision as an additional trait. No other senses of theirs (Hearing, Smell, etc) are augmented.
 * MANDATORY: Faunus do not have claws or other such natural weapons.
 * MANDATORY: Characters must be either Faunus or Human. If a character's parents are not both Faunus, they are human.
 * DISCRETION: Prehensile tails are fine IF the Animal the Faunus takes after has them, within reasonable limits of capability.
 * All Mammals are acceptable Faunus types.
 * Bird Faunus will be Accepted due to reasonable speculation (Transient Princess). However, the above Faunus rules still apply. Feathers are fine, Wings, functioning or not are still Awaiting Canon Info material.
 * Reptilian/Fish/Amphibian Faunus are still not Accepted, but if this is the only issue, character will be placed in Awaiting Canon Info.

Robots/AI

 * Artificial Intelligences are allowed to exist in human sized or larger bodies, however, their use may, at the Reviewers discretion, place the character using them into Awaiting Canon Info until more about the upper scope of robotics technology in Remnant is known.
 * MANDATORY: Cannot look/be mistaken for a Human. (Until proven otherwise, Penny is NOT a machine or artificial intelligence.)
 * MANDATORY: Use cannot contradict earlier rulings concerning Weapons.
 * MANDATORY: Concerning Cyborgs, (Humans/Humanoids with robotic/cybernetic replacements for things like limbs) Two limbs maximum, if weaponized counts towards Weapon Limits.
 * DISCRETION: On cybernetic Organ replacements of any sort (Heart, Lungs, Eyes, etc.)

Fan-Made Grimm

 * MANDATORY: All fan-made Grimm must take after some sort of animal in terms of appearance.
 * MANDATORY: Grimm cannot be capable of using the powers of Auras or Semblances, no exceptions.
 * MANDATORY: Grimm cannot posess intelligence or instinct rivaling human thought. So far they appear to be bestial and behave as feral animals beyond simple survival instincts.
 * MANDATORY: Grimm have a skin color consisting primarily of black. However, being covered by a large amount of white armor is fine.
 * DISCRETION: Grimm size and other abilities not explicitly listed above subject to moderation if the Reviewing staff feels they're stretching boundaries of plausibility or if the Grimm in question is too overpowered.

Fan-Made Locations

 * MANDATORY: Fan-Made Locations cannot be based around being a lost or forgotten Fifth Kingdom or continents that have been lost or forgotten from maps.
 * DISCRETION: Fan-Made Locations should, barring very well written reasonings, have some form or way to defend themselves from Grimm attacks. These can be as varied as your imagination allows, but they must be plausible and grounded in RWBY lore.

Fan-Made Factions/Organizations

 * MANDATORY: Factions may not be directly involved with Canon plot elements or organizations in major ways (Influencing Beacon Academy's decisions, How the Deathstalker got into the cave in the Emerald Forest, being affiliates to the Schnee Dust Company, having influence in Roman/Cinders' crime ring, etc.)
 * Beacon and other Combat School teachers are allowed as Original Characters, but unless the school is entirely fan made, no position above Teacher will be accepted.
 * Transfer Students from Fan-Made schools outside of Beacon, are an allowed exception to the above rule.

Miscellanious Non-Review Oriented Rules

 * ALL Decisions that require an Administrative Vote must be discussed with ALL Administrative staff and the Owner, even if Majority would already be reached before this has been accomplished.
 * The exception to this is if an administrator takes longer than one week since the proposal was first made, in which case the others make the currently voted ruling.
 * ALL Decisions the Owner wishes to pass that would require a Vote by Administration must be brought up with ALL the Administrators at the VERY least.
 * No person should be promoted to ANY Staff member position without Majority Support from Admins/Crats
 * CMs, Reviewers and Admins MUST only be removed with majority support from the Admins/Crats.
 * No Crat (Bureaucrat) can be instated without unanimous agreement from the Administrators
 * No Admin/Crat has the power to veto something already passed via majority.