Honestly, the board is primarily rated PG-13 (or under) but there are suggestive themes in some threads. For the most part, roleplay threads that contain more explicit content will be labeled "M" to avoid any potential offense.

Likewise, some threads on Hou Tian contain the use of expletives; primarily within the spam threads. Although this is a case by case phenomena, few threads exceed the P13 level in this regard.

This forum is a teen-friendly environment, and while we, as the admins and staff, do not condone any explicitly sexual content or cursing, we believe it's the members' job to be mature, and responsible for their own actions.

If you have a problem with something and feel the need to complain, don't hesitate to contact us! Feel free to express your concerns to the moderators in PMs so the matter can be handled discreetly. We'll try and take care of your issues as best we can.

The Crater (aka the palace), Upper Ba Sing Se, and the Air Temples are all considered to be restricted. Each board contains a note about who is able to post there. For the palace, it is the royal family and their staff. The same goes for The Upper Ring. The Air Temples are open to wannabe Airbenders, or people like Teo's family. However, with a legitimate invitation from someone who can give it and a logical reason, you can post there. For example, if Aang invites Character A to an Air Temple when Character A would normally be unable to post there, that is perfectly okay.

For canonical reasons, we can't just have everyone wandering through the Fire Nation palace, or the impossible-to-reach-alone temples--especially if, as it sometimes happens, the character posts once and is never heard from again. There are ways to play here, however, and one of those ways is to join the staff of the Palace. There are a lot of available positions in the fire nation as well as the Earth Kingdom--be sure to check them out!

Besides guys, the staff at the Palace is where it is at. They can be as silly as they want and no one cares! It's tempting to want a royal character or to be Zuko's BFF, but trust me. They are so boring.

Not site-wide, unfortunately. For each individual board you're able to mark posts as read if you really want to do that.

It's come to our attention that at times certain web browsers may cause registration issues--as in, the registration will not go through. We can only assume this is a proboards issue, but in the meantime, please try and use the browser Firefox to register if all else fails. Everyone who's had issues in the past has found everything worked just fine with Mozilla.

For starters, embedding is a tricky, code-centric process. If you're not an expert at BBC, our Forum Code Guide can help. But if it still doesn't make sense, we suggest using an image host (like tinypic, photobucket, etc.) and using the [img][/img] tags. It's much easier, we promise.

Those forum symbols to the right of topics are simple!
- Plain folder- A normal every day thread. Nothin' spectacular.
- Locked folder- The thread has been locked by a staff member, so that no one can post in it.
- Burning folder- The thread has reached two pages.
- Pink burning folder- The thread has reached 3+ pages. It’s a hot topic!

We don't require people to have an "OOC account,” and some people do not.
The only reason we strongly recommend having an account for each character is because it makes the RP boards a bit easier to follow, especially when it comes to tagging. If people can just put the character name in the tag, everyone knows right off who's where and what's happening, so on and so forth.

All you have to do to make multiple accounts is create a new account for the board. The link is down at the bottom of the page under the login box. Just like you did the first time around, you can do as many times as you want/need to accommodate your characters. It's as easy as that.

In order for some folks around here to have the colors for the characters that they have (Aang is white, Katara is Blue, etc), there's a certain level you have to put the account under, which is why you see the Admin link. However, these players have no real Administration rights or roles, it's just to be able to make your account look nifty.

Do not make a scene on the forum. Work it out through PMs and if things do not get any better, PM a security mod. We'll try to work things out. But don't go being a whiny cry-baby about everything. Not cool.

Of course! We don't delete any of our profiles, even if a player goes inactive. Simply PM a mod with your character's name and they can retrieve your old profile(s) for you. We only ask that you refrain from posting in the IC boards until your profile is back on display for everyone to read.

Due to the multitude of storylines on Hou Tian, it can feel confusing at first and hard to understand when you are just starting out. The timeline box at the top of the page does cover major events, but it can't possibly take into account every single plotline and character arc. You should never feel nervous about asking anyone on the moderation staff to help you out if you're still confused by something.

We do have a lovely map courtesy of Eevachu.

Okay! Please refer to the Character Creation FAQ

Well, hold up for a second, and please refer to the Character Creation FAQ

Hou Tian does not have a “master list” to establish which players control which characters (though there is the "Taken Canons" which lists who plays which canon characters.)

Not everyone has a player account to compliment their character accounts, so for some of our members simply pm'ing them through a character account is the best way to reach them for brainstorming or potential plotting. Some members do keep a list of their characters within their signatures.

Most importantly, don’t be afraid to ask! We’re a friendly bunch; if the person you want to speak to has any preferences about being contacted, they’ll let you know

Each thread has its own time-bubble; you can have an RP going on in the past or future simultaneously, and each thread moves independently. Not everyone plays at the same pace and RPing in real-time would be a real headache.

The Letters board is a place for an written correspondence between two characters to go. They must be in-character and abide by what has already been roleplayed or agreed upon. If you are writing to a character for the first time, it is probably a smart idea to let the player know in a PM--it just makes things easier on everybody. Remember this board is in character. You should not be writing to someone your character does not already know.

You need never ask permission to join an "open" thread! In fact, the only reason we would even remotely encourage that would be if you wanted to join in and attack somebody-- then you might give the player a heads-up to find out if they'd rather do that without a group of other characters around. Extremes aside, you can join no matter what.

IAs a general rule, if it hasn't been posted to in a whole week, it's probably fallen through the cracks. Now, if the other player hasn't posted at all anywhere in that week, they might just be hung up in real life-- after all some of us are notorious for not posting promptly.

Use your best judgment. You can always PM the other player, too, and ask if they want to continue the thread or not.

You're free to be in as many threads at once as you like! Your character also be in multiple places, too, as long as it's along your character's individual timeline. So if your character started in Omashu, but was going to go to Ba Sing Se, if you were still finishing up threads in Omashu but the time of the board moved on and you don't want to get left behind, you can start threads up in BSS while still backlogging those old threads. That's just on your own cognizance and ability to keep track of everything.

For these specific groups, please refer to the Character Creation FAQ.

...Nope! But there are plenty of other options out there, so go wild. Take a look around the character adoption pages as well!

Information on the Scarlet Plague can be found here.It is currently only centered around Ba Sing Se, but this is subject to change as the story progresses. Pay attention to your stickies and you will be kept up to date.

Probably most of the things you would see in a modern pediatrician's office is thanks to the miracle of modern science. Stethoscopes and needles, needing to pee in a cup, MRI machines (;p), probably not things you would see in the Avatar universe. Use simple discretion and try to keep things realistic and you should be fine.

There are no specific ‘procedures’ you have to do; it’s up to you!
Occasions like weddings and birthdays can RP out for fun, or your character’s profile page can simply be edited you like. Those kind of changes do not have to be approved by our character hub mod.

Sure, everyone probably knows that Aang the Avatar brought peace to the world, but do they know about how instrumental the rest of the Gaang was?

Really, it all depends upon who your character is, and just how connected they are with the rest of the world. Since the Avatar-verse doesn't have things like the internet or phones, it's a bit more difficult to gather information. If a character is some poor peasant living in tan out of the way Earth Kingdom town with a slow flow of travelers, it's more than likely that they know next to nothing about the Gaang and their story. On the other hand, if a character is in a hub of society such as Ba Sing Se, where people are constantly coming in and out (though probably not so much now with the plague and all), they probably know a good deal about the story. That would be the same for any character who is connected to the Gaang in any way of course.

Basically, your best judgment is probably correct, though you’re always free to ask.

Yes. You can even make a roleplay archive thread. It won't be stickied, but you can use it in your signature for reference.

Polarpumas, Puppykittens, ttldx, Rathounds, Wolfbears, Wolfbats, and other things. The possibilities are endless. Animals abound at Hou Tian.

Go for it! Refer to the Character Creation FAQ for more specific guidelines on what's acceptable.

If the animal is a character that's legitimately going to be played, then yes, make a regular profile for it. If it's just an NPC who tags along with another character (and the same player controls both of them), then usually you can just tack on a "mini-profile" of sorts in the owner-character's profile.

For the record, the mini-profile is only required if the pet is a new hybrid animal creation. If it's something we see in canon, you can pretty much just say "so-and-so has a ______ for a pet."

You can have as many characters as you can handle. Whether that be one, three, or ten, we encourage active roleplay throughout the forum and if you need more characters to make that happen, then by all means, create another if you'd like! The more the merrier.

This is probably scattered somewhere over the board, but as far as characters go, you can refer back to the Character Creation F.A.Q. for rules regarding what is allowed here and what isn't.

Well if you haven't already, a good place to get the ball rollin' might just be the Beginnings board, where you can introduce yourself and meet the mods and other roleplayers on the forum.

Certainly! Please refer to the Character Creation F.A.Q. for more specific rules about all the bending disciplines.

Also keep in mind is that there are subsets of bending, like Lightning, Metal and so on. However, you may not incorporate these bending styles into your character right away. In order for your character to know these unique bending subsets they must be mentored in roleplay by the canon character who introduced the ability (aka Toph for metalbending, Azula/Iroh/Ozai for lightningbending, Katara/Hama for bloodbending). We adhere to the idea that none of these subsets has been taught formally so knowledge is limited to the canons who showed proficiency.

The list of current taken canon characters can be found here.

A current listing of vital currently unplayed canon characters can be found in the ticker on the Hou Tian Homepage. If you are interested in playing a canon character, post your tryout to the Canon Applications board. If the canon character you are interested in is unlisted, PM a mod with the details.

Canon refers to characters that are originally from the show itself, ie: Aang, Sokka, Suki, etc.

Roleplay is when you assume the persona of a character. It's a lot like writing a story but in this case you are writing while interacting with other people. Posts are made in a sequence (usually) and you respond to what happened in the previous post.

An example would be:

Post one: Barney ran around in circles, screaming wildly.

Post two: Fred moved towards Barney and attempted to hit him with a club.

Post three: The club met with Barney's head and crushed his skull.

Granted, you will be expected to write more than that. Fleshed-out, descriptive posts are appreciated. You can't give a roleplay dimension and meaning with a series of shallow, vapid one-liners.

Godmoding or "powerplaying" is when someone takes control of another person's character without permission, forcing them to do things that the creator might not have intended to happen. Power-playing is also when someone writes as if their character is invincible and indestructible. This is retarded. Don't do it. Otherwise disciplinary actions might have to be taken.

For a more in depth description on Godmoding, powerplaying, and other no-no's, you can check here.