Fox Hollow is a modern, small-town roleplay community set in fictional North Carolina. Our goal is to provide a welcoming environment where residents can develop characters, families, businesses, careers, friendships, and stories while still allowing plenty of room for casual Second Life living.
Roleplay is encouraged throughout Fox Hollow, but we want it to remain enjoyable, fair, and respectful for everyone involved.
1. Roleplay Is Encouraged, Not Forced
Unless you are wearing an OOC tag or otherwise clearly indicating that you are out of character, you will be considered IC by default while in Fox Hollow.
This means other residents and visitors may approach you, speak to you, or include you in normal, reasonable roleplay while you are in public areas.
If you are not available for roleplay, simply wear an OOC tag, place an OOC indicator in your title, or let others know that you are currently OOC. Once that is made clear, it should be respected.
Being considered IC does not mean you are required to participate in every storyline or scene. You are always free to step away, decline involvement, or go OOC when needed. Fox Hollow welcomes everything from casual everyday interactions to long-term character storylines.
2. Keep Roleplay Within the Fox Hollow Setting
Fox Hollow is a modern-day, realistic community. Characters and storylines should generally fit within that setting.
Fantasy, supernatural powers, magic, futuristic technology, invincible characters, or similar elements should not be introduced into public Fox Hollow roleplay unless specifically approved for a community event.
Characters may absolutely be colorful, eccentric, dramatic, mysterious, or unusual. We simply ask that public roleplay remain believable within a modern small-town environment.
3. No Godmodding
You may control your own character, not someone else’s.
Do not decide another character’s actions, reactions, injuries, thoughts, or emotions for them.
For example, instead of:
John punches Sam and knocks him unconscious.
Use something such as:
John swings toward Sam’s jaw, attempting to land a punch.
The other player should always have an opportunity to respond.
4. No Powergaming
Your character should have realistic strengths, weaknesses, and limitations.
Characters should not be unbeatable, impossible to arrest, immune to injury, capable of knowing everything, or conveniently skilled at everything a situation requires.
Give other players opportunities to succeed, fail, and contribute to the story.
Good roleplay is collaborative, not competitive.
5. No Metagaming
Information learned out of character cannot automatically be used by your character.
This includes information learned through:
- Discord
- Group chat
- Profiles
- Name tags
- Other people’s conversations
- OOC discussions
- Streams, screenshots, or social media
Your character should only act on information they reasonably learned in character.
6. Separate IC and OOC
IC means In Character.
OOC means Out of Character.
Conflict between characters should remain between characters.
An argument, arrest, breakup, rivalry, firing, lawsuit, or other storyline does not give anyone permission to harass another player outside of roleplay.
Likewise, personal OOC disagreements should not be carried into roleplay as retaliation.
If a scene becomes uncomfortable, communicate OOC and resolve the issue calmly.
7. Consent Matters
Major actions involving another player’s character should be discussed or reasonably consented to beforehand.
This especially includes storylines involving:
- Serious injury
- Permanent injury
- Kidnapping
- Major property destruction
- Long-term imprisonment
- Pregnancy-related storylines involving another character
- Character death
- Major criminal storylines
- Storylines that significantly affect another resident’s home, family, business, or ongoing character development
You do not need to plan every conversation or minor conflict ahead of time. However, major consequences should never be forced onto another player.
8. Crime Roleplay
Crime roleplay is permitted when handled responsibly.
Minor incidents such as shoplifting, arguments, disturbances, traffic stops, and similar scenes may occur naturally.
Major crimes should be coordinated with everyone significantly affected by the storyline.
Do not repeatedly target the same resident, family, business, or property without their consent.
Large-scale criminal plots, major disasters, mass-casualty events, or storylines intended to significantly disrupt the town should receive management approval beforehand.
9. Police, Fire, EMS & Government Roleplay
Fox Hollow’s public service departments exist to create roleplay, not to dominate it.
Police officers, firefighters, EMS personnel, government employees, and other authority figures should remain realistic and fair.
Holding an IC position does not give a player OOC authority over another resident.
Law enforcement should have reasonable roleplay justification before searching, detaining, arresting, or pursuing another character.
Players should also give emergency-service roleplayers a reasonable opportunity to perform their roles during applicable scenes.
10. Medical Roleplay
Medical scenes should remain reasonable and collaborative.
Players determine the ultimate outcome of serious injuries involving their own characters.
Doctors, nurses, EMS personnel, and other medical roleplayers may diagnose and suggest treatment within the scene, but permanent injuries or major character-changing outcomes should never be forced upon another player.
11. Character Death
Permanent character death is entirely the decision of the player who owns that character.
No player may permanently kill another person’s character without explicit OOC consent.
Temporary injuries, unconsciousness, or dramatic medical situations should also allow the affected player reasonable control over the outcome.
12. Family & Child Roleplay
Fox Hollow welcomes family roleplay.
All family and child-avatar roleplay must remain appropriate and fully compliant with Second Life’s Terms of Service and Community Standards.
Adult or sexualized content must never involve child avatars or be conducted around them.
Players are responsible for knowing and following Linden Lab’s rules regarding age-play and child avatars.
13. Businesses & Employment
Business owners are encouraged to incorporate their businesses into Fox Hollow roleplay.
Employees and employers may develop workplace stories, promotions, firings, conflicts, and other scenarios, but significant storylines should remain collaborative.
An IC firing does not automatically affect rental rights, community membership, or unrelated OOC positions unless management separately determines otherwise.
Likewise, owning a business does not give someone authority over other players outside that business’s roleplay.
14. Homes & Private Property
A rented home is considered the resident’s private space.
Do not enter another resident’s home without permission unless invited through roleplay or the property has clearly been made publicly accessible.
Roleplaying burglary, vandalism, fire, property damage, or other incidents involving someone’s rental requires permission from the renter.
Never physically alter, remove, return, or interfere with another resident’s objects as part of roleplay.
15. Public Scenes
Public roleplay may occasionally attract additional participants.
If you are conducting a scene in a major public location, understand that other characters may reasonably witness or react to it.
However, joining a public scene does not give someone permission to hijack it.
Be considerate of the players who began the storyline and allow everyone room to participate.
16. Keep Scenes Reasonable
Fox Hollow is a community, not an endless disaster zone.
Constant shootings, explosions, murders, kidnappings, catastrophic accidents, or other extreme scenes can quickly interfere with everyday roleplay.
Drama is welcome.
Chaos every fifteen minutes is not.
We encourage a balance of everyday life, relationships, community events, business roleplay, family stories, emergencies, humor, and occasional larger storylines.
17. Respect Roleplay Boundaries
Players are allowed to establish personal roleplay boundaries.
If someone says they do not participate in a particular type of storyline, respect that decision.
No explanation is required.
Repeatedly attempting to pressure another player into unwanted roleplay may be treated as harassment.
18. Use OOC Communication When Needed
Misunderstandings happen.
If something becomes confusing during a scene, use IMs or clearly marked OOC communication to clarify the situation.
Common formats include:
((OOC message here))
or simply discussing the situation privately in IM.
A quick conversation can usually prevent a roleplay misunderstanding from becoming a personal disagreement.
19. Do Not Interrupt Scenes With OOC Arguments
If there is a disagreement about how a scene is being handled, move the discussion to private messages whenever possible.
Avoid filling local chat with arguments about rules, realism, or another player’s behavior.
If the situation cannot be resolved between the players involved, contact a member of Fox Hollow management.
20. Community Events & Storylines
Management may occasionally organize town-wide storylines, emergencies, festivals, elections, investigations, weather events, or other community roleplay.
Participation is normally optional unless otherwise stated.
Major player-created storylines that could affect a large portion of the community should be discussed with management before beginning.
We love creative ideas and are happy to work with residents to make larger stories possible.
21. OOC Harassment Is Never Roleplay
Roleplay cannot be used as an excuse for harassment.
Repeated targeting, bullying, stalking, intimidation, unwanted contact, or personal attacks will not be excused because someone claims they were “just roleplaying.”
When another player asks you to stop OOC, stop.
22. Management Intervention
Fox Hollow management generally prefers to allow players to manage their own scenes and storylines.
However, management may intervene when roleplay:
- Violates community rules
- Violates Second Life Terms of Service
- Becomes disruptive to the community
- Repeatedly ignores consent
- Creates ongoing OOC conflict
- Significantly interferes with residents or businesses
- Involves harassment or griefing
Depending on the situation, management may issue a warning, end a scene, remove someone from a roleplay position, or take further community action.
23. In Character Actions = In Character Consequences
Actions taken in character may have in character consequences.
If your character commits a crime, starts a fight, causes a public disturbance, threatens someone, damages property, ignores lawful orders, or otherwise creates a situation that would reasonably have consequences, you should expect the roleplay to reflect that.
For example, criminal activity may lead to investigation, arrest, court proceedings, fines, jail time, loss of employment, damaged relationships, or other realistic IC outcomes.
You may not suddenly declare yourself OOC, leave a scene solely to avoid an outcome, refuse to acknowledge established IC events, or otherwise use OOC means to escape reasonable consequences for actions your character willingly took IC.
Repeated or deliberate attempts to avoid reasonable IC consequences may result in intervention from Fox Hollow Managers or Moderators. Depending on the circumstances, this may include a warning, mediation, removal from a scene or roleplay position, or further disciplinary action if the behavior continues.
That said, IC consequences must still follow Fox Hollow’s rules regarding consent, fairness, and godmodding. This rule does not give another player permission to permanently injure, kill, alter, or control your character without consent.
Play your character however you choose, but understand that the world around them is allowed to react.
Most Importantly
Fox Hollow roleplay is meant to be collaborative storytelling.
You do not have to “win” every scene.
Sometimes your character loses the argument, gets the speeding ticket, embarrasses themselves at the diner, gets turned down for a date, has a terrible day at work, or ends up spending the night in the county jail.
Those moments often create the best stories.
Give other players something to work with, respect one another’s boundaries, communicate when necessary, and remember that behind every character is another person trying to enjoy their time here.
Create stories. Build connections. Be a good neighbor. Welcome to Fox Hollow.