General

1) Hoof Prince is open to all players and levels of experience. Respect is a must. Part of the respect is mature content- no excessive swearing, no long breeding.
2) Hoof Prince has no word count, with the exception of your initial sample post on the join board, but we do ask that you do your best.
3) You must join and be assigned an Element before posting in-character anywhere on the site.
4) Please only join as many characters as you can maintain.
5) There can be no duplicate character names. Please double check the database before joining.
6) Please don't let Out of Character issues effect your In Character interaction. If you have a problem with another member, please talk to a staff member or owner. Contacts
7) Do your best to not tell another player what their character is doing or saying. Little things are unavoidable just due to the nature of interaction; but no killing, maiming, crippling, making them do the salsa, etc. without permission.
8) If you break the rules, you may receive a warning, or be banned without one. This depends on the severity of the offense. Anyone caught posting character's that are not their own, will be banned.
9) Game time progresses that 1 game year = 4 real months. (1 month=1 season).
10) You can only visit the Oracle to receive a new element once you have reached level IV in your previous elements.

Tokens

1) Tokens are what help your character achieve new levels to their elements or new traits if they are a nonbeliever. You can earn tokens both In Character and Out Of Character. While Out Of Character tokens may be transferred between characters, In Character tokens must stay with the character that earned them.
2) Examples of In Character tokens are: The tokens a character first receives upon joining, tokens they earn from participating in a War or Debate War, tokens earned from Sparring with another character, and God or Oracle handouts.
3) The amount of tokens a character can earn from a War or Debate War is dependent on the number of rounds that character passes. The more rounds you pass, the more tokens you earn. The winner-loser token ratio for the rounds are as follows: 2-1, 5-2, 8-3, 12-4, 18-5 and so on.
4) Spars are another way to earn In Character tokens. Limits on tokens earned from spars are only as much as you are willing to wager (ex: If both opponents wager 2 tokens, the winner takes 4 tokens home while the loser is now down 2 tokens). Another thing to note: Spars are not Challenges, you do not earn tokens from Challenges. You are more than welcome, however, to wager your freedom in a spar if you so choose.
5) Examples of Out Of Character tokens are: Tokens earned through posting, tokens earned by using the Word Of The Day, tokens earned from advertising or bringing a new player to the site, tokens awarded for Player of the Month/Thread of the Month/Character of the Month, and tokens that the Staff may randomly hand out.
6) There is no limit to how many tokens you can earn through posting, provided the posts fit the requirements which you can find here. You can also earn 2 tokens per day for using the Word of the Day, however you can only do this once a day. Yet another way to earn tokens is through advertising. You may earn up to 20 tokens a month (100 ads = 20 tokens) through advertising for the site.
7) 10 tokens will be awarded to a player for their birthday. However, their birthday must be on the Birthday List.

Appearances

1) Any horse breed is allowed, but the height and color must be acceptable to the breed standard of your character.
2) Horses are measured in hands, and partial hands can be measured as 14.1, 14.2, and 14.3. The next largest size is 15 hands. (as an example)
3) All traits, such as a horn or wings, are currently not permitted upon joining. Traits can be earned in game. As of 08/18/13 the logistics are being worked on by staff.

Herds

1) A stallion can have as many mares in a herd as he can maintain. Only one adult (over three years old) stallion per herd.
2) The lead stallion determines the original lead mare of their herd and which kingdom to align the herd with, if any. You may approach the kingdom or the kingdom may approach you about alignments. Lead mares determine the original positions for the rest of the herd.
3) If a mare is won by another stallion in a challenge or a steal, the mare must go with him. If an unclaimed mare wanders into a territory, she can be claimed by that herd.
4) A territory becomes open for claiming if the lead stallion hasn't posted in two weeks without notice of being away. You must post on both the territory board and the Updates board for your claim to a territory to be valid.

Kingdoms

1) A kingdom can be good or bad depending on the leader or leaders ruling it. They can also be under "Invite Only" status, meaning a horse from that kingdom must invite your character to live there.
2) Kingdom characters are permitted to freely walk among the herds that are under their kingdom.
3) One player cannot play more than one character that rules a kingdom.
4) Ruling positions can be challenged for after having the position for 1 month (4 weeks after taking throne).
5) If the current King/Queen names an heir, that character gets first rights to the throne. If no heir was named, the kingdom is put to a vote or the new monarch is determined by staff.

Breeding

1) Both parties must be over the age of 3 to breed. There will be no inbreeding or line breeding to any blood relative.
2) The foal form must be completely and properly filled out or a stillborn foal will be granted by Staff.
3) Foal stats are posted in the breeding thread by a staff member. They are decided at random based on the parent's stats. Foals are born one week real time from the day they are conceived. Any foals born early will be stillborn.
4) Traits and defects are given randomly. (12345)=NOTHING (6)=TRAIT OR DEFECT. If a 6 is rolled the die would be rolled twice more, once to determine whether a trait or defect is given and a second time to determine the specific trait/defect that will be given out. (123)=TRAIT (456)=DEFECT.
5) Breeding can occur at any time, though the odds of survival will be figured into the breeding… These will be decided by dice roll as follows: Foals born in the WINTER=(123) live, (456) die. SPRING=(12345) live, (6) die. SUMMER=(12345) live, (6) die. FALL=(12345) live, (6) die.
6) Mares may only breed once every three months, real time. Except in the case of a stillborn, which they can breed again immediately.
7) A foal is dependent on its dam for the first year of its life and will stay with her during this year. You may join as an orphan foal, but these foals must be adopted by a foster mare. The foster mare must be producing milk (due to a pregnancy, stillbirth or having had a foal of her own recently) otherwise the foal will die.

Stealing

1) Herds may only steal from herds, kingdoms may only steal from kingdoms, and a thief may only steal one individual at a time. The exception being a mare and her dependent foal. Dependent foals cannot be stolen individually.
2) All members of kingdoms can write steals or post blocks, but keep in mind there are only 2 blocks per herd or kingdom per steal.
3) You may be as creative as you'd like, but steals must be in English.
4) Every steal must include a clue to whom you are stealing from, their home, and 3 clues about the individual you are stealing as well as clues about your own home and leaders to be valid. Your character's name must be posted in the "name" field unless you provide additional clues pointing to your own character.
5) If your steal is not found in three days, you must reveal the answer to your steal. Staff will determine if you are successful.
6) If a guess has been made on a steal, the thief must post stating if the block correct or incorrect. If you fail to respond to a block and are seen ANYWHERE else on the site the steal will be invalid. If you need to go on away before the deadline, email the steal's answer to an admin so they can answer guesses.
7) When a horse is stolen, the stolen horse must stay in the thieving kingdom or herd for three real life weeks before they can be challenged for or counter-stolen. In addition they must be active in that kingdom or herd, posting at least once a week. If you fail to do this, your character will be ineligible for challenges or steals.

Challenging

1) All challenges, spars, Wars, and results will be posted on The Ridges. Battles may be a debate, role played or left to a dice roll provided both parties agree. The only exception are Raids, which will be posted on the raided kingdom's board.
2) The challenger sets the terms and posts first, but both players must agree. If players cannot reach an agreement, staff will provide terms for you or the fight will be thrown out. Word limits are prohibited at all times, non-elemental battles are prohibited in the cases of Guardian or Spirit challenges and there is a mandatory 1 week cooldown period between challenges.
4) If you are being challenged and are active, you have three days to reply. Failure to do so results in an automatic forfeit. If you are away, you are only protected for 3 weeks. If you have not returned in that time your herd and territory may be claimed and your position or title challenged for.
5) Herd mares may challenge other mares for the position above their own or challenge the stallion for freedom. Challenges can only be issued once per week and will run one at a time instead of concurrently. Herd stallions may challenge for a territory, a mare, or for an entire herd.
6) All horses over level 3 of an element may challenge to become a Spirit of that element. All horses over level 4 of an element may challenge to become a Guardian of that element. You can only challenge for a temple position once every 2 weeks and each character may only hold either one Guardian position and one Spirit position or two Spirit positions at a time.
7) Only Staff may determine the outcome of a fight. Any disputes can be taken up with the Admins.
If you need a basic set-up, request for one and it will be posted.

Wars, Raids & Crusades

1) Upon the Admin & Staff's discretion, Wars & Crusades will occur. Wars will gain participants tokens while Crusades will gain participants a special trait or item. Prizes given are determined by Staff.
2) Anyone can be a part of a Raid or a War, but only Guardians and Spirits are permitted to attend a Crusade; and in a Crusade each character may only fight for one temple that they belong to.
3) Any Kingdom can raid another kingdom in a best of 5 battle with Admin permission. Terms of the raid must be set before the battles are fought and the warriors & defenders can be chosen from the kingdoms themselves as well as any other allies.
4) Once pairs/battles are posted, you have three days to respond. If no response is given in that time, you forfeit.
5)Crusades, Wars and Raids are "quick series battles", allowing 2 physical attacks/2 defenses and one use of a single element for either an additional attack or additional defense.
Challenger -- (2 Attacks)
Defender -- (2 Defense, 2 Attacks)
Challenger -- (2 Defense)
6) All judging decisions are final.