From a previous post, here are the guidelines for participation in the new Borderlands Outpost free-form story.

1. You can't kill someone else's PCs without their permission (stole this one from Thieves' World).
   

2. You can't distort someone else's PCs to the point they are unrecognizable or unplayable without their permission. This basically means no getting around rule #1 by paralyzing a guy from the neck down, turning him into a plant, etc. Putting out an eye, throwing him in prison, transporting him to another dimension, maiming, selling into slavery, trapping in magical devices, etc. will be decided by the moderator on a case by case basis, taking into account how the character's creator would react to such an event (i.e. If you think it'd be cool having your character have to bust out of prison, go with it.)
   

   This rule can also be taken to mean no sudden and blatant character shifts (i.e. a character is portrayed by its creator as a strict pacifist, and suddenly someone else has the character turn into a berserk murderer.)
   

3. If a creator appears to have left the list or otherwise lost interest in continuing with the story/game, all his PCs become fair game for anything anyone wants to do with them (the "you snooze, you lose" clause).
   

4. No leaving the overall game/story setting without the agreement of the rest of the participants. Basically, if the story is set in the Borderlands Outpost, no suddenly dragging everyone off to the Plains of Armageddon unless everyone else playing agrees that it is A Cool Idea. Or at the very least is willing to go along with it. Side trips for a few characters are permissible if they are reasonably short and related to the plot in the main setting.
   

5. Certain characters will be designated "NPCs." You may happily butcher, maim, or otherwise abuse these characters as you see fit, without permission of their creator. If you throw a spear-carrier into your part of the story for atmosphere, let everyone know that they can hack him to pieces whenever they feel like it.
   

   5a. If someone takes a liking to one of these "NPCs", they can designate them "PCs" and then rules 1, 2, and 3 apply to them thereafter, with the person designating them "PCs" serving as their creator.
   

   So those are the basic guidelines -- we can add or subtract from the list if people feel it's necessary. We'll also have to do this thing on an "honor system." It's not like we can punish someone who doesn't follow these rules. (What are we going to do? Junk-mail them until they repent?)
   

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