I N F O & R U L E S

The Godsea
Oct 12, 2021
6 min read

Updated: Mar 6, 2022

The Godsea is a literature-based open world RP, with a central hub world (Port Heritage), and infinite space for members to populate the sea with wonderful creatures, locations, and myths of their own making. We believe in cooperation, not competition; friendship; communal storytelling; and, above all, fun.

Who are the founders?

The Godsea is run by an experienced mod team consisting of Amy (Mrs-Salt), Ashley (SaltySodas), and Maia (emiyey). Our most recent group was Pinefallow Park.

Each of our team's previous four roleplay groups closed upon the successful ending of a complete story, proving us reliable over the span of 6 years and 750+ members. TGS will not die out on you. If you choose to stick around, you will have a complete experience, beginning to end.

What's the tone of The Godsea?

The Godsea is a fantasy action adventure! There will be themes of violence, secrets, magic, gods, and politics, but also a great deal of slice-of-life, wonder, and exploration.

Though TGS has a high-seas aesthetic, much of the story takes place on solid ground. We aim for creative species and locations.

TGS runs on a perma-death system. Character deaths will occur. Depending on how you engage, there is ample opportunity to avoid character death.

The planned story includes a list of "adventure hooks" that the group can complete (or not complete) in almost any order. Some adventure hooks have prerequisites of certain faction affiliation or previous plot decisions. The outcomes are completely unknown to the mods. Once a fulfilling and complete story has been concluded, the group will also close.

Is the Godsea for me?

The Godsea is for you if:

You are capable of jumping in and out of the story as your time allows.
You enjoy rich, tightly-woven worldbuilding that allows you a plethora of options for characters to mess around.
You are capable of making your own fun and creating your own storylines within a provided scenario.
You are a self-motivated roleplayer who intends to actively pursue new friendships.
You enjoy the diverse creativity and character dynamic options found in largish Groups (30-50).

The Godsea may not be for you if:

It's important to you that your character is influential in most plot points. (As a sandbox world, characters may or may not even be in the same location as certain plot points.)
You experience high anxiety when you are not online for all plot RPs. (A benefit of TGS's nonlinear story is that members can jump in and out of participation; a potential downside is that it may not be possible for all members to be online for all plot scenes. We will write summaries, but if you step away -- which is fine -- there will be catchup.)
Who likes reading? You thrive on the excitement of high-stakes dice-rolling! (TGS includes dice, but keeps up the story's pace by remaining light with combat & rolling.)
You prefer the one-on-one attention of smaller groups, and find it difficult to proactively reach out for roleplays and headcanons.

RULES

No slurs, including reclaiming them. This includes referring to trans people as “tr*ps,” “f*tanari,” etc.
18+ members only.
Label NSFW content. We are cultivating a space that is open to people of all comfort levels, and NSFW/gory content outside of proper channels is not allowed. We're going for "swashbuckling and adventure" fantasy, not "brothels and harems" fantasy. Please review our NSFW policies: https://sta.sh/0kc5wz3jrdr
No blocking a fellow group member without alerting a mod. You cannot be forced to interact with people you don't want to. However, shadowblocking -- blocking without informing that member or mods -- causes limitless issues in Groups, so it is a strikeable offense for the following reasons:

Shadowblocking damages the Group's ability to function. If five people in a channel conduct a conversation, but one doesn't realize they're invisible to another, it dissolves the entire channel into confusion.
Shadowblocking removes the moderators' ability to moderate. If someone does something so bad that it’s blockable, it’s cause for moderator concern. We want to protect other members from being subject to bad behavior, and we can't do that if we don't know anything occurred. If you want to block someone but don't feel comfortable confronting them, that's completely fine! That's why the moderators exist. So please, let us do our job and inform a moderator first.

Social Code of Conduct

Assume the best of your fellow roleplayers. In a Group of this size, conflict will arise. Please remember that people rarely intend to upset others -- and beyond that, sometimes it's difficult to pick up online cues that you are upsetting someone, due to a lack of body language, facial expressions, and tone. Moderators are always here to help smooth interpersonal conflicts both big and small; in return we ask that members 1) are proactive and mature, preferring to find solutions instead of suffering in silence, and 2) give their peers the benefit of the doubt.
Communicate. When conflict arises, speak to the person about it or ask a mod for help. Avoid passive aggression, and save yourself the pain of silently simmering with growing resentments. It’s always sad to hear "XYZ has been doing something for months!"— we would have loved to prevent unnecessary distress by helping earlier! Give us the chance to moderate, and give people the chance to apologize and adjust.
Be mindful when venting. It’s normal to seek comfort from your social group, but both OOC and IC, avoid cultivating an uncomfortably miserable environment.
No politics/controversies. You can mention the pandemic, but refer to rule #3.
Separate IC and OOC. RP disagreements with your character do not indicate dislike for you.
But also -- when running negative RP scenes, over-communicate with the members you're RPing with. Many people do not find endless RP conflict and IC arguments to be fun, and that is a completely legitimate playstyle.
Don’t godmode: being right all the time/never wrong/never losing, too powerful, invulnerable, etc. Remember that RP is a cooperative experience, not a challenge to win.
We will be somewhat prudish when moderating public NSFW language. Online spaces have the tendency to quickly blur lines that would be inappropriate in the real world, where people can measure whether their individual relationships with people warrants sexual banter. In public channels, dialogue such as “That’s not what you said last night!” or “Suck a d*ck!” is not permissible, due to mixed comfort levels. We have a large member base with a wide spectrum of experiences and backgrounds, and safe is better than sorry. Filth is totally fine in the NSFW channel.
Refrain from discussing characters and plots from other Groups. It excludes people.
No gossip. It’s fine to say "I've had my art traced before" or "I've had a bad experience in a Group before." You cannot say "XYZ user traced my art" or "I had a bad experience in XYZ Group." Also, no sharing enough details that someone may be able to suss out the individual, dropping tantalizing bits of information to bait people into DMing you for further gossip, etc.

HOW TO JOIN

The Godsea opens for new member submissions on the 1st to 5th of every month.

Please submit a Join Request on our DeviantArt page and provide the following information:

Name
Pronouns
Are you a minor?
Link to your drawn character sheet.
Link to your written character sheet. If there is info you want to keep from your fellow members (e.g. "My character is secretly a were-octopus!") you must provide the mods a full and unredacted character sheet. Once admitted, your public character sheet is free to be filled with secrets... or even outright lies.
If applicable, include a document listing the lore that must be added to the world if your character is accepted. (E.g., were-octopi, a tavern you invented, the island your character is from -- anything that is not already on this site.)
Ride or die: Are there people who you will not join without? Please list them here. (Please strive to keep to 1-2 people max.) Listing names will not increase anyone's chance of acceptance. This is our attempt to circumvent the logistical complications of receiving mass declines after sending out acceptances and rejections. There is no shame in not wanting to join without your friend -- truly! RP is a social activity! We will not judge you at all. Please just give us a heads-up if you only want to join alongside your friend -- it's super helpful. Thank you bunches!
Please explain what Rule #1 in the Social Code of Contact means to you.