This thread contains important definitions and rules for writing (and reading) fanfictions and RPGs. Please read them carefully and make sure to obey the rules. Thank you!

1. General deifinitions
2. Raiting
3. Warnings
4. Genres

1. General Definitions

Fanfiction:
Fanfictions are stories, written by fans to fans, about famour TV-series, Stars, Bands, Anime- or Mangaseries. How the term "fiction" says, these stories are completely fictious, and not real. Charakters get fictious stories and fictious characteristics, the author does not have any limits. Fanfictions are for fun, no profic is made with them and it's not the author's aim to harm anybody with these stories. (Mark this in the socalled disclaimer (definition later)) There are also partnerfanfictions, which can be written by two ore more writers.

Original:
Originals compared to fanfictions are stories which are written by an author without any orientation on stories which already exist. The Author writes, imagines and designs all of the characteres and the whole story by himself.

RPG:
RPG stands for „Role Play Game“. Different writers play one (or somethings two ore more) charakteres which are either designed by themselves (so it would be an original RPG) or already exist in an original storie, series or something (Fanfiction-RPG).

One-Shot:
One-Shots are already finished stories, which are posted one time (not splitted in chapters) and which are not going to continue. The length of a one-shot stands in the power of the author of the storie.

Betareader:
A betareader is a person, who reads the story of an author to correct big mistakes. A story with a lot of mistakes is not pleased to the eye of a reader and so we advise to get a betareader, if you are not very good in grammar or spelling. Betareader are not needed within a RPG.

Header:
A Header is the part, that stands over the first chapter of a story or the one-shot. In the header you can write the name of the author (= your nickname), the serie the story is about, rating, warnings, a short summary, disclaimer, claimer, eventually also pairings, an author's note and more. Whith the header, a writer has the chance to make his story look attractive to the eye of the readers. A header is very important - every fanfiction should have one. There are no rules fixed, what a header has to contain but we can give you commendation what you should mention.

AN:
"Authors Note" - here you can write about important comments about the story, the characters and so on. Also greatings, dedications or acknowledgements you can mention.

Rating:
The Rating tells you how old you should be to be allowed to read special stories. An author shoult write a rating into the header. Our ratingsystem is explained later.

Warnings:
The auther of a fanfiction should mention important warnings and a rating at the beginning of the story (in the header) so that the author is able to have himself registered as a trademark. If someone who isn't allowed to read a fanfiction because he is to young, the author does not take responsebility on that, if he has mentioned warnings and rating correctly.

Summary:
The "Summary" should be short, if you like to add one in the header. This is not obligatory.

Pairing:
If you want to, you can mention the pairing(s) of the story in the header.

Disclaimer:
Among warnings, the disclaimer ist the most important point in the header if you write a fanfiction. Here you should write, that the charakters are only "borrown", that the story is completely fiction and not real, that you don't make money out of them and that it's not your intention to create rumour with your stories. Selfmade charakters you can list in the socalled "claimer“: The rights of these characters owns the writer of the fanfiction only. If you write an original story, such a claimer is not necessary.

TBC:
TBC means„To be continued“, the story will proceed.

Cliffhanger:
A "Cliffhanger" is an end of a chapter which is very exciting. It's advantageous if you want to make readers interested to the rest of the story.

Review:
"Reviews" are posted by readers after reading (either in form of a threadpost under the story or as a PM to the author) to comment the story and to express his opinion about it. Also reviews like "I love your storie, please continue soon" or somethin like this are nice to read but reviews should be informative for the author and include feedback. The feedback should be not too hard. You can write what you like about the story and anso, what you dislike, but stay friendly. "Flames" in which the author is attacked personally by a reader are inacceptable. Admins and moderaters of this site can an will delete such messages.

2. Raiting

The Header of a storie should contain rating which have to be obeyed by the readers (the responsibility has the reader). The author does not carry over the responsibility if a reader offends against these ratings.
Please indue your stories with one of the following ratings. Also if you have posted your storie already on another site with another rating, please adapt our rating system an chance it in your reader.
Our ratings are:

G:
for „General“. Stories with this rating can be read by all ages.

PG:
PG for „Parental Guided“. Stories which contain already softly sexual actions like petting must be marked with this rating. These stories are not appropriate for yound children.

PG-13:
This rating stands for „Patental guidance over 13„ and stories which are marked with this rating are only for people over 13.

R: ("Over 18" section)
R marks „adult themes„, sex actions and adult themes which are not appropriate for young people.

NC18: ("Over 18" Section)
NC18 means „No children under 18", so people under 18 are not allowed to read stories which are marked with this rating. Sexual content is shown explicit and also the aduld themes are not appropriate for young people under 18.

3. Warnings

Here you can find a choice of warnings specified which your header should contain an for you to understand and to use correctly.

Fear:
This mark warns you agains descriptions of for example anxiety states, panic attacks, psychological problems and so on... Everything that is churning up so that someone (charakters or sometimes also the readers) cannot sleep or are going crazy.

Death:
When one or more charakters of the story dies (no matter if through an accident, a disease or suicide, - if you write abour suicide use the rating R, NC18, if you describe it explicit!, and so on) use this warning. Often also the warnings depri or sad are combined with death.

Language:
If there are curse words and foul language, also slang (like "fuck", "bitch") the warning needs to be set to at least PG-13

Loli-con:
If you see this warning, you are informed, that the author deals with the topic pädophilia in this story. Loli-con means, that's about an underaged girl. Shota-con is the male complement.
Lolicon and Shotacon stories and pictures are not allowed on this site. If you violate this rule you will be banned from this site permanently!

OOC:
„Out Of Character“. A charakter does not remind in any way on the original charakter anymore. In extreme example, the charakter does only have the lock and/or the name of the original.

PWP:
Short for „Plot? What Plot?“ This warning shows, that the following stories deal only with the description of sexual acting (explicit). Mostly the meaning behind this story is not realy deep going or the reasons for the sexual acting are not elucidatet nearly. Rating: R and if shown explicit NC18.
PWP-stories are not allowed on this site! If you violate this rule you will be banned from this site permanently!

Sad:
Sad marks stories where the charakteres have to cope up with sag thoughts, sad experiences, lovesickness and others which makes worries. Tears are running often (in the stories, but often also the reader cries because the story is so sad.) An increased warning of sad is Depri - short for „Depression“. Here the author deals with negative thoughts and experiences. From lovesickness to suicidal thoughts. (If you write about suicide, you have to mark at least the rating R, if shown expicit, NC18!)

Sap:
In a story that is marked with this warning,Romantic (totally sweet and so on) plays a big role.

Silly:
The story and the charakters are totally„silly“. They are teased by the author, slapstic, ironic/sarcasm, complete absence of sense, every kind of humor is allowed.

Violence:
This warning is obligatory, if a charakter gets cheated ciolantly in any way. Also fights count to „Violence“ but the warning can also mark stories in which brutal and bloody acts of violence are shown, also if weapons are used. (rating: R, if explicit NC18!)

complete translation of the german genre-descriptions will follow soon!


4. Genres

Under this point you can see a choice of genres you can use for a fanfiction or an original story. These genredefinitions you can, but you don't have to use them in your header. (Genres which have a special rating have to be marked!)

Actionadventure:
This genre marks an adventurestory. No matter where the story takes place, which characters appear, when a main character (or more main characters) aim for a goal, what is mostly combined with a lot of action, here you can mard the story as an actionadventure.

AU:
Short for „Alternative Universe“. For this genre, popular characters are set into another time, another universe, another ambience as known from the original. You can give the characteres new roles, can change the aquaintances or the relations to other characters. You can write, whatever you want.

Crossover:
Here you can combine characters out of different (two or more) series. An example would be charakters out of "Harry Potter" and "Sailor Moon", which are thrown into one pot and be mixed up. There often come out a lot of interesting and funny pairings and plots. Crossovers are similar to the genre...

Fusion:
Like in Crossover it deals with a combination of different series. The difference here is that the fanfiction is near to the original storie. The series are fusioned and linked together. Also a complete chance of roles is possible. The character of one story gets fit into another story or replaces the character of another story completely.

Drama:
Drama or also tragedy is the mark for sad stories, in which the charakters have to cope up with bad strokes of fade. Opposite to romance and humor (what does not mean that these elements cannot be used in such a story) a serious and thoughtfully tone dominates.

Horror:
If you want to teach your readers jimjams, write a horrorstory. No matter if classic with vampires, zombies, werewolves, sirens or modern murderers which are after screaming vergins, all is allowed. Also blood and violence are in addition to goose skin important parts of this genre. (Rating: R, if shown explicit NC18!)

Humor:
or also comedy, funny, entertaining easy to digest. High literary intentions are noch necessary, the most important ist the fun that you should have while writing or reading. Humorous, ironc, maybe a bit sarcastic, slapstick and so on are desired! Stories, in which heroes often drop a brick should be marked as humor stories.

Krimi:
Detectivestories, policestories, the story deals with robbing, murder and so on? Then you write a criminal story. It's not so frightening than thrillers, but just as exciting. Also the brain cells of the reader you can stimulate and make them think about the secrets in the story. If you want to know who's the murderer, read the story till the end!

Lime/Lemon:
This genretitle you should use if the story has erotic contents. Lime is the a bit lighter version, sexual acting is indicated but not explicit shown. For stories which contains explicit sexual acting you have to use the genretigle Lemon. Lime and Lemon do not describe stories which contains only(!) sexual acting. The story has not to bee an erotic story solely. (Rating R, if you use explicit descriptions(Lemon) use NC18!)

Mystery:
Mystische Geschichten, unerklärliche Dinge, unbeantwortete Fragen, unlösbare Rätsel schmücken deine Geschichte und lassen einen selbst nach dem Lesen noch fraglich zurück? Dann bezeichne sie am besten mit dem Genre Mystery.

Parodie:
Wieder ein sehr humoristisches Genre. Hier wird parodiert und aufs Kreuz genommen, was nicht bei 3 auf den Bäumen ist. Reale Ereignisse oder originale Stories werden hier in meist ziemlich sinnfreien Geschichten veralbert und versprechen jede Menge Spaß, jedoch Vorsicht, wer nicht genügend Humor hat, kann so was leicht als beleidigend empfinden!

Self Insert:
Self Insert beschreibt eine Geschichte, in die der Autor der Fanfiktion sich selbst (oder andere reale Personen) als Fanfiktioncharakter in seine Geschichte miteinbaut. Diese Charaktere werden in die fremde Welt hineingezogen und treffen dort die Charaktere aus den Geschichten. Kenntnisse über die Originalserie sind nicht immer von Nöten.
Das Gegestück zu diesem Genre wäre dann…

Revengefic:
Hier kommen die Charaktere einer Serie sozusagen den Autor besuchen, und „rächen“ sich dann quasi für ihre Be- oder Misshandlungen (je nach Ansichtssache) in den Fanfics des Autors, was einen sehr ironischen Unterton erzeugt.

Science Fiction:
Dieses Genre ist bestimmt allen schon ein Begriff, die Geschichte spielt in ferner Zukunft, Aliens, Weltall, Raumschiffe, hochtechnologisierte Wunderwaffen etc. einfach alles futuristisches, vom Roboter bis zum fliegenden Auto und was euch sonst noch einfällt.

Slash:
Mit Slash werden Geschichten gekennzeichnet, in denen Homosexualität eine Rolle spielt, ob jetzt vordergründig oder als Hauptthema der Story. Unterteilen kann man den Begriff, wenn man will auch in maleslash (Homosexualität zwischen Männern) und femslash (Homosexualität zwischen Frauen), etwa gleichzusetzen mit den japanischen Begriffen Shonen-Ai und Shojo-Ai.

Songfic:
Eine Songfic ist eine Fanfiktion, in der der Text eines Liedes wichtiger Bestandteil der Geschichte ist. Entweder wird der Liedtext in die Story eingeflochten oder die Geschichte baut sich darum herum auf, erzählt den Songtext nach etc. Die Lyrics stehen hier oft in direkter Verbindung mit dem Geschehen in der Story. Auch Änderungen an einem Songtext, die dazu dienen, das Lied für einen Charakter in einer Geschichte singbar zu machen, fallen unter dieses Genre.

Spamfic:
Dieses Genre bezeichnet Fanfiktions, die eher kurz und meist sinnlos daherkommen. Hier stet der Witz am Ende im Vordergrund. Schräger Humor ist hier willkommen.

Thriller:
Wer kennt das Genre nicht, die Geschichte ist spannend, verreißt einem die Nerven oder lehrt einem das fürchten, meist mit ernstem, tiefgründigen Hintergrund. Blut und Brutalität stehen hier weniger im Vordergrund, wogegen die Psyche des Menschen viel mehr ins Zentrum der Geschichten tritt. (Empfohlene Altersfreigabe: R)