Terms of Service

New sections added 6/21/2024 are marked with a ☆

By signing up for the site, you agree to these terms:

BEHAVIOR

• You must be kind and courteous! No rude language, hatred, or inciting drama. Don’t hate on people’s identity for being LGBT+, don’t be racist, etc. This is a safe space for people of all identities, whether you agree with them or not. We are here to have fun and not be antagonized.
• No spam. No repeatedly posting messages to clog chats, etc.
• Begging is also not tolerated. Do not repeatedly ask others for sparkles, characters, or items.
• No spreading rumors about anyone on the site. Extremely damaging rumors or jokes that imply dangerous or extreme accusations such as p*dophilia, r*pe, m*rder, etc. are not okay and action will be taken immediately if they are spread.
• You must be 18 or older in order to do real life currency purchases on merlotarpg.com or on its server.
  • We don’t feel comfortable doing background checks or asking for ID, so we’ll be trusting given word. Lying about your age to conduct USD transactions is forbidden, and we may have to ban you from completing trades if this is the case.
• You agree to not pester, harass, or otherwise repeatedly message staff for insider information or beg for content.
• You agree to not "grief" other players' characters in roleplay or prompts without their permission, especially if the nature of the action can be deadly or damaging to the character's owner.
  • Traits such as Cursed or Blessed Power can be revoked without compensation if you use them to grief other player's characters without their consent, and such a repeated use may constitute a ban.
  • Planning out angst between two people is one thing, harming or killing another player's character in an RP with no warning is another thing entirely.
  • Note that this not only applies to "harmful" actions, but also potentially beneficial ones. Giving a character a gift is okay, but there is a fine line to walk with much "greater" actions, such as with healing magic. Magic has great potential in Merlot and has the implications to heal things such as blindness, deafness, or muteness. For some characters and players, their disabilities are integral to them and who they are. Having someone try to "cure" a character when not desired can be extremely harmful and insulting to the character's owner.

☆ ACCEPTABLE CONTENT ON OUR SITE

• Certain mature topics such as death, loss, racism, discrimination may be discussed in lore, writing, and art, but with clear warnings. We ask that you do not glorify them in any way!
  
  • Discord server: Mark sensitive content with a spoiler warning.
  • Onsite: Content uploaded must have a gallery content warning attached.
  • Content must be marked so that users can choose to see which topics they want.
  • We expect these topics to be treated with seriousness and respect, and not treated as punchlines, jokes, or similar.
  • This rule may be eventually changed or removed, but for now we want to allow users avenues to explore serious topics (such as the ones they may personally face) without feeling too much pressure.
  • If at any time we feel as if a user is glorifying these topics or fetishizing them, we will issue a warning or strike upon their account.
• Certain content is forbidden on our site and server no matter what, and is subject to immediate banning if posted:
  • NSFW of any form
    • Can be drawn, but never is allowed in our public spaces.
  • Anthro x feral, humanoid x feral content
  • Incest topics
  • Pedophilia or romance between a minor and adult
    • Romance between two underage characters is allowed, but must not enter sexual territory.
  • Zoophilia

THEFT AND SCAMMING

• Theft and scamming are unacceptable conduct on the site. This applies to stealing designs, art, bios, or plagiarizing writing.
• Always credit art. You can be given a pass for uploading art that you're not sure who the artist is, but direct and deceitful theft is unacceptable and will be punished.
• Do not scam! Whether your scam is successful or not, you will be banned for even attempting to do so! There may be leeway if there are accidents and misunderstandings in trade discussions (with sufficient evidence nothing foul was intended), but malicious behavior with intent to mislead, harm, or take advantage of others will not be tolerated and is worthy of immediate banning. We do not want liars and thieves in the community.

BUGS, EXPLOITS, AND SITE MECHANICS

• Willing and knowing attempts to "exploit" the site and its mechanics to generate exponential amounts of currency or items is prohibited. Rewards gained through this manner will be rescinded with no compensation. Repeat offenses will constitute a ban.
• You, as the player, are expected to immediately report exploits or bugs onsite that you have discovered and that have the potential to damage the site's economy and data.
  • This does not extend to minor bugs such as graphical glitches and similar things, only to damaging bugs and exploits.

MULT-ACCOUNTING

• Creating multiple accounts on the merlotarpg.com website is forbidden. Additional accounts will be banned, and if the creation of more accounts persists, then all accounts related to the user will be banned, and you will not be permitted to re-register. Creating multiple accounts imbalances the game.
  • NOTE: People with DID are welcome to have their alters play the game, but for reasons above, we cannot allow alters to have their own accounts. We understand this may be frustrating, but it is impossible to verify who is and isn't telling the truth. Making exceptions is something we do not wish to do because our faith in our players can be easily abused in letting others create accounts where materials and currency can be earned and funneled for free.

STRIKES AND BANS

• Warnings are given to a user for small infractions. 3 warnings constitutes a strike. 3 strikes constitute a ban.
• Strikes can be given out at any time depending on a user's offenses.
• In dire situations, a user may be subject to an instantaneous ban with no warning.
• Banned users are given a time period of approximately one month to trade or sell their onsite belongings before the ban fully takes place. We reserve the right to refuse this time period to users who have been banned for scamming and poor conduct.
• Banned users may no longer participate in the merlotarpg.com site and discord.
• The following are actions that will result in an instant ban from the merlotarpg.com site and community:
  • LGBT+ phobia.
    
  • Posting of 18+ (NSFW) content anywhere onsite or in the community.
    
  • Engaging in inappropriate discussions with minors in the community.
  • Inciting drama or fights.
    
  • Scamming or theft.
  • Creating multiple accounts on the merlotarpg.com website.
  • Lying about your age to gain access to the site or aspects of the site or community.
  • Intentionally and maliciously exploiting features of the site in unintended ways that break the game.
  • Intentionally and maliciously exploiting bugs on the site.
  •  ☆Posting of zoophilic or pedophilic content.
  •  ☆Posting of incest.
• We reserve the right to expand and change this list at any time.
•  ☆ We also reserve the right to issue strikes or bans if a user's conduct violates content that is not on this list that does not follow the spirit of our Terms, subject to admin discretion.
  • This rule exists solely to protect against other things here that we have not listed as rules.
  • If at any time you believe a moderator is "power tripping" or banning for no valid reason, you may appeal your ban by emailing ch3rvbcreations@gmail.com.
  • Appeals are not a guarantee that your ban will be removed, and we have the right to reject any appeal that we feel will harm our community.

CRYPTO, NFT, AI - Forbidden.

• You cannot sell anything on MERLOT ARPG for cryptocurrency.
• You cannot turn any art on MERLOT ARPG into an NFT, whether you made the art or not.
• Art on the MERLOT ARPG site is not free use for AI generators or other similar projects, full stop.
• Any sites that are found using MERLOT ARPG designs or art for any unauthorized projects will be contacted and action will be taken.

VOIDING AND REVOCATION

• Designs on MERLOT ARPG will not be revoked even after rules are broken and the design's owner is banned.
  • Users who are banned from the site will have their designs marked as "Banned", they will not be able to be used on the site, and ownership of them will no longer be tracked.
  • Designs that are banned from the site can be found here for reference so that players will potentially not be scammed into trading for a banned design offsite.
  • Banned designs can't be unbanned and won't be allowed in the community. The owner of the character may still choose to do whatever they wish with the design offsite.
• You may choose to void (delete) a character at any time. Submit a report with a link to the character you wish to void.
  • Voided characters will be removed from the masterlist.
  • You may only void a character that you own (that is under your username.)
  • Any items used to make the character will be refunded. You, as the character's owner, are expected to produce a concise list of all design/MYO updates and the items consumed within.
    • You cannot claim items for a character that you did not create or update, as providing a link to another user's design/MYO updates is impossible, and as such, proof cannot be provided.
    • You will be refunded all items spent on the character, nothing more or less, or anything that is split into different parts. For example, if you used an unusual slot, you will receive an unusual ticket. You cannot receive 3 uncommon tickets.
  • Voiding is a permanent decision, and we will not allow re-submissions of voided designs at this time. If you want to give up your design instead, you may surrender it to the Adoption Center.

COPYRIGHT

• By obtaining a MERLOT ARPG design, you agree that I, CH3RVB, still retain copyrights to the species designs and lore.
• You retain copyrights to the design and qualities of the particular character you have made. You retain the rights to keep the qualities of your design and turn them into a non MERLOT ARPG design if you desire, with no restrictions.
• You retain your rights to any submitted art or writing, and we will not sell them. We may "repost" selected works to share them with the community, only with proper attribution and credit, and only after asking for permission to share said content.

REPORTS AND CONTACT

• You are allowed and encouraged to submit reports regarding the site or its users at any time through our report system onsite. Reports can be made for, but are not limited to:
  • Problematic users or user behavior
  • Rule-breaking content onsite
  • Voiding designs
• Bug reports may be reported through our discord's #bug-reports forum.
  • Dangerous exploits or bugs that can damage the site, such as those that generate infinite currency or items are expected to be reported here, so that they may be handled and investigated privately.
• Please do not contact the staff through discord DMs regarding reports at this time, and instead use the reports onsite.
• Please ONLY contact the staff through the site PM feature if you have personal concerns to be made regarding reports.

We have the right to ban anyone from the site indefinitely if they continuously break the rules, or even the first time they do if they commit a grave offense such as spreading damaging rumors or uploading distasteful or harmful content.

MORE LEGAL TERMS OF SERVICE HERE