Hawthorn Consortium

Premise
The Hawthorn Consortium is a Templar, supernatural hunter themed cabal within The Secret World universe. Focus is on role-playing within and outside of game mechanics. Players are expected to play primarily within character, though out of character chatting is not discouraged within reason, and should always be denoted as such.

Requirements
Players wishing to join the Hawthorn Consortium must have a Templar character. As this is a hunter themed Cabal, players with character concepts who are Vampires, Werewolves, Demons or Undead are generally not accepted, though this is evaluated on a case by case basis.

Admission protocol
All potential members will be evaluated in character and initiated during the bi weekly meetings; no open field invites are permitted. This policy is to insure that all current members have had a chance to meet and speak with the prospective initiate before a final decision is reached, as well as to maintain a level of consistency with regards to the quality of our player base and character concepts. All current members are permitted to, and encouraged to voice their opinions and concerns during the evaluation. (This policy does not apply to current member’s alternate characters, as this would make for lengthy and often unnecessary evaluations, time which would be better spent on evaluating new players.) Upon successful admission to the group, new prospects will have a 30 days “initiate” status, during which their interactions within the group will be observed. After 30 days, initiates will be granted full member status, and obtain access to membership privileges (Cabal bank, etc.) New initiates are not to exceed 5 per month at this time, in order to maintain a high level of quality with regards to observing new initiates.

Attendance
There are no requirements with regards to time spent within the Cabal during role-playing events or group meetings. Many of us are often busy with work, friends and family, and do not have the time to dedicate towards the game that others might. It is up to the player to determine their level of involvement. However, in the case of scheduled RP events or group meetings where the player has RSVP’d as a positive attendee, it is expected for that player to attend, or to notify the member scheduling the event in character, in advance if their plans change. The reasoning for this is to insure that events scheduled (such as lair runs) are not left short a player when the time comes for the event to begin.

Acceptable behavior
While conflicts are part of any role playing group and can make for interesting dynamics within character, players are expected to be respectful of one another out of character. Harassment in any way will not be tolerated and will be grounds for immediate removal. Furthermore, character conduct is not limited to within the Cabal. Reports of griefing, trollish behavior or harassment from players outside of the Cabal will be taken seriously. Outside of this, we ask that you maintain a general level of courtesy for your fellow players. We are a diverse group of individuals, and any sort of hateful speech, homophobic or racist comments are grounds for removal.

Grounds for removal (Out of Character)

 * Out of character harassment of players within the Cabal.


 * Out of character harassment, trolling or griefing of players outside of the Cabal, backed up with substantiated proof (screencaps of chat logs, etc.) Claims made by outside players that are not backed up with evidence will not typically result in removal of the player from the group.


 * Any evidence whatsoever of hacking, cheating, scamming, or other in-game activities that violate Funcom's EULA.


 * Theft (removal of funds or items from the Cabal bank without officer approval, etc.)


 * Hateful speech directed towards particular races or sexual orientations. (We don’t restrict your right to use whatever words you want, but we exercise our right to not have to hear them.)

Grounds for removal (In Character)

 * Deliberate sabotage of Hawthorn plans or resources, as well as sabotage of alliances held with other organizations.


 * Spying for other factions, working with supernatural factions which Hawthorn have identified as enemies of the organization.


 * Overt criminal activity outside the scope of Hawthorn’s means to ends (examples would be rape, murder of citizens, extortion of legitimate organizations, dealing narcotics, etc.)


 * If a member is turned (becomes a vampire, werewolf, etc) in the course of combat, these cases will be evaluated on an individual basis. If a member is turned willingly, these members will be immediately expelled from the organization and marked as enemies of Hawthorn.


 * Attempted or successful assassinations of other Hawthorn members or officers will result in immediate removal, and said members will be marked as enemies of Hawthorn.


 * In Character theft from another Hawthorn member.

A note about adult RP
While adult RP is not an expressed intent of The Hawthorn Consortium, there are very few rules with regards to ERP within this group. The only thing we ask is that all such activities are intended and kept as private between individuals.