Riata-Online.net --> A horse sim-game for mature players run by mature players

Rules

The rules of Riata are very, very important. You absolutely must read these before you join, in their entirety. Players should also return to this page frequently to refresh their knowledge or to make sure they're following the rules. In order to make the rules easier to find, there is a table of contents page at the top with clickable links that will take to directly to the section you'd like to read.

Table Of Contents

Joining

You are not officially a member of Riata until you have fully completed the Joining Form and have been approved by the Admin (if you have been approved you will recieve an email stating your approval). If you start playing in Riata before you are approved to play, you will be prohibited from joining Riata.

Grammar Expectations

You must use mature and proper grammer in Riata, capitalize words that need to be capitalized, type in full sentences, spell out words (ex. do not use 'u' as 'you') and use proper punctuation, without excessive exclamation marks. Members who do not follow this rule will have their post edited and will recieve an official Riata Warning. Riata reserves the right to suspend or expel players who have not followed any of the grammatical expectations. We also reserve the right to ask players who are not yet at the level of play that we expect them to be at, to leave.

Conduct Expectations

Players must be mature enough to play Riata. Riata is a game for mature players, not for all players. As such, we reserve the right to not accept players who we feel would be better off in a different game. We reserve the right to ask any player to leave for breaking any of our conduct and other expectations.

Do not send any unsolicited, non-game e-mail to other players. This includes chain letters, pyramid schemes, virus warnings, scams, and anything that could be termed "spam." If you think you may have sent a virus to other players, please post a message on the message board. It happens, just let us know! :)

You may play in other cyberbarn games while in Riata, but you may NOT advertise your game on any Riata-related webpage, on the message board, or in Riata e-mail (signatures, etc). If we become aware that you are recruiting players to join another game, we will ban your ass immediately.

Plagiarism of any sort is strictly prohibited. Do not use other players' content, layouts, graphics, ideas, or any other original content. If you are in doubt as to whether or not you are plagiarizing, ask the player first if you can have permission to use the content in question. Have fun designing your own ORIGINAL webpages. We're always willing to help you if you need it! Just let us know!

Forum Expectations

You must use a realistic name on the forum. You do not have to use your real name or your last name (there are all kinds of creeps on the net and we don't want you to be unsafe), but it must be a name that someone would name their kid. That means no names like "PieceOfAss," "TexasChicken," "KittyKat," and so on. If someone else has your name, use the first initial of your last name.

Please do not post messages specific to one player on the forums. Use e-mail or the PM system for that. Do not post show entries on the forum. Do not post cheques on the forum. If you have attempted to reach a player and do not think your e-mails/PMs are getting through, then, and only then, can you post on the forums ATTN: Player Name.

Signature images may be no larger than 400px wide and 200px tall and must be under 50kb in size.

Do not bump old topics on the forum for no reason. If you post to a topic more than a month old with a stupid reply like "Wow!" or something similarly stupid and useless, we'll get grumpy. The first time this happens, you will get an official warning. The second time it happens, you will get a second official warning and 10 posts will be removed from your cumulative post count. The third time it happens, you will have a third official warning, 25 posts removed from your cumulative post count, and we'll be speaking to you in strong words. If it happens a fourth time, you will be removed from the game.

Activity Requirements

Players are expected to remain active and should manage to take part at least once a week. If a player does not post for two weeks on the forum, she will be moved to the inactive list. If a player does not request to be moved back to active status for another two weeks, she will be deleted from the game and all her horses will be given to Zodewood.

Player Levels

As players spend more and more time in the game, you have the opportunity to move up through the levels of play. Players do NOT need to move from one level to the other at any point, but players may not move up until they have met some requirements.

Pre-Boarders

This is the level at which all players begin.
Players may own a maximum of 20 horses.
Players may create no more than two horses.
In order to advance, players must have been in the game for one month and must have made 50 good posts on the forum.

Boarders

Players may own a maximum of 20 horses.
Players may create no more than 5 horses (3 more than Pre-Boarders).
In order to advance, players must have been in the game for three months and must be a boarder for two consecutive months and must ask for and receive their mentor's approval to open a mini barn.

Mini Barn Owner

Players may own a maximum of 40 horses.
Players may create no more than 10 horses (5 more than Boarders).
Mini Barns are to be located on the menthor's barn location and mini barn owners must always designate their barns as Mini Barn Name @ Main Barn Name.
In order to advance, players must have been in the game for six months and must have had a mini barn for three consecutive months.
Additionally, players must have hosted one successful show no less than one month prior to applying for private barn status.
Players must demonstrate strong HTML and website design skills in order to present a mostly completed barn page to the voters for evaluation.
Players must show proof of record-keeping and proof that your horses have their information detailed and up-to-date.
Finally, players must submit at least the last month's financial records to the voters for consideration.
In order to advance, players must have their barn approved by 80% of the current barn owners in the game via secret ballot on the forums. Please use this post on the forums for instructions on how to apply for main barn status.

Private Barn Owner

Players may own a maximum of 90 horses.
Players may create no more than 20 horses (10 more than Mini Barn owners).
In order to advance, players must have been in the game for nine months, must have been a private barn for three consecutive months, and must submit and pass a Boarding Barn Exam.

Boarding Barn Owner

Players may own a maximum of 90 horses.
Players may create no more than 20 horses (10 more than Mini Barn owners).

Breeding Barn Owner

Players have no limit on the number of owned horses.
Players have no limit on the number of created horses.
This level requires that players be either Private or Boarding Barn status and also requires the successful completion of the Breeding Barn exam.

Finances & Records

Players must choose a starting sum of money that does not exceed $250,000. This sum must be added to the player's banking and finance records before beginning to play the game. Players are expected to maintain and track all incoming and outgoing monetary expenditures on an ongoing basis and to have financial records prepared should a game-wide audit be announced on the forums. Failure to keep proper records will result in a fine or suspension/expulsion from the game.

Equine Database

The Riata Equine Database (ED, not to be confused with Erectile Dysfunction!) is the backbone of all game-related horse transactions. Horses do not exist in the game if they are not registered in the ED. Name conflicts shall be solved by using the earlier registered horse in the ED. All players must have an ED account and all players must actively participate in keeping said ED up-to-date.

Horse Creation

All players receive a set number of creation credits based on said player's level within the game. The ED tracks use of these creation credits so that players cannot create more horses than they are allowed to create according to the game rules. Under special circumstances, players may be awarded more creation credits due to member points, completion of assignments, or referring new members to the game.

No two horses may have the same name. This includes adding a barn name (or initials) to the original name. Example: Serendipity and Zodiac Serendipity are not allowed. Additionally, horses who have the same name with different spellings are not allowed. You cannot have a My Chic and My Chick; they're way too similar! Similarities between names are confusing for everyone involved and should be avoided. It is your responsibility to through the database carefully and make sure there are no naming conflicts.

The Admin will be fining any players found to be in violation of these rules. Players will be fined $5,000 for the first offense, $10,000 for the second offense, and third offenses will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Breeding

All players save for Breeding Barn owners have breeding limits in place. Players may not breed more than 6 horses per year.

For the purposes of the ED, the mare's owner is to be counted as the breeder when two players use one mare and one stallion for the breeding. The mare's owner is the one who loses the yearly breeding credit and who is the one who registers the resulting foal in the ED.

Use common sense when breeding horses. You cannot breed a one year old filly to a colt or vice versa. The youngest a filly/colt can be bred is three years old, although most people wait until four years old.

A mare can have only one foal born in a year. This isn't to say that your mare can only give birth once in a game year, but rather, if she gives birth to two or three foals in a game year, each foal must have a different birth year. A foal must be at least two years younger than its sire and at least three years younger than its dam. You can age your horses multiple times, but don't do it too often (every six months to a year is recommended). Remember that you must take your horse's parents' ages into account and if the foal has parents that are not owned by you, you must first ask for and receive permission from the parents' owner.

Breeding License

Players who are a Private Barn or Boarding Barn Owner have the opportunity to complete the Breeder's Exam. Successful completion of the exam means that players no longer have horse limits. Breeding Barn owners may own an unlimited number of horses, may create an unlimited number of horses, and may breed an unlimited number of horses. With greater freedom, however, comes greater responsibility, and any player deemed to be abusing the breeding barn priviledges will have her status revoked.

Breeding Barn owners must pay a fee of $25,000 per year for their license and must recertify with a separate certification exam at the same time. Failure do complete either will result in the player's breeding license being revoked.

RL Horses in the Game

No real life famous horses shall be permitted in the game under any circumstances. Famous in this instance means a horse who competes at the top echelon of his or her discipline. Additionally, any horse using a real life horse's name must use entirely different characteristics so that there can be no confusion that your horse is based on the real life horse. The only exception to this rule is for a horse that you personally own in real life or that you receive permission from the owner to use.

Importing & Exporting

Players who wish to "import" a horse into Riata from another game must utilize a creation credit to do so. Additionally achievements, offspring, and earnings from outside Riata do not count and should not be listed on the horse's Riata page.

If a player wishes to "export" a horse to a different game and out of Riata, the horse is considered killed in Riata and all achievements and results are null and void. The horse may not then be imported or resurrected at any point in the future.

Horse Care

Horses are required to have a farrier visit at least every two months and a veterinarian exam every six months. Players may choose to use a Riata vet and/or farrier or they may choose to deduct money from their account for these visits from an "imaginary" vet or farrier.

Additionally, horses must have proper feed, turnout, and exercise. Pre-Boarders and Boarders do not need to purchase feed for their horses. For these players, their mentors are responsible for supplying feed and all needed supplements. Mini Barn owners, Private, Boarding, and Breeding Barn owners DO need to purchase and organize their own feed.

Entering Shows

Be realistic when you enter your horses in a show. A horse cannot possibly compete in Grand Prix Dressage, Grand Prix Showjumping and CCI**** Eventing or Western Pleasure and Barrel Racing. A two year old cannot do A Grade Showjumping. If you are not sure about a discipline, or what a horse is capable of competeing in, please ask on the message board.

If you do not enter as per the show host's entering rules, the host is within her rights to delete your entries with no notice. It is the person entering the show's responsibility to enter properly or to ask for clarification before entering.

Horses may only enter one show a day and riders may only ride horses in one show a day.

You are allowed to have virtual riders in shows (as long as the show permits it), but be realistic about how many horses your virtual rider rides in a show. A rider OR horse can only be at one show a day. If you have separate teams to take two DIFFERENT sets of horses to a show, that's fine.ALWAYS read the show host's rules when entering shows.

Holding Shows

You should only host a show if you know that you'll have enough time to create the classlist, decide on rules, take and process entries, and most importantly, to get results out in a timely fashion. Shows require a lot of effort, so make sure that you don't have too many real life obligations coming up when your show is happening.

Make your rules clear. How many horses are allowed in a class per owner? Per rider? What are the entry fees? Administration fees? And so on. Your entry fees should be large enough so that you can afford the regular costs of running the show, as well as enough extra money to allow for monetary prizes of some sort.

Give players at least two weeks to enter your show in order to make sure that you have a good number of entries. Results for the show should ideally be completed and out within one week of your show's date, but you have three weeks to complete them, if needed. The closing date for entries should be a few days prior to the actual date of your show to allow yourself time to finish the results. Results MUST be done randomly.

You may enter your own shows, but suspicious results or complaints submitted by other players will be followed up. If you feel inspired, do writeups about the classes or even the entire show. It makes reading and looking at your results more interesting.

Funding Shows

The Riata Show Fund exists to help fund the various shows in Riata. It does not exist to line the pockets of players or to provide exorbitant prize money for regular association shows. The Riata Show Fund will provide $150 per class in a show as well as $500 for Champion/Reserve Champion as long as you apply for the show fund using the form found on the show fund page. Any other funding must come from entry fees or from private fundraising requests/donations.

Associations

In order to open an association, players must demonstrate there is a need and an active participant base for said association. Players must first hold one or more shows to gauge interest and participation levels for the association. Once the show or show series has been held, the hopeful player must put forward a proposal for voting.

Ten yes votes must be obtained and 50% of the voting players must have horses that participated in the show/show series. Additionally, there must be at least 50 horses registered in the ED for an association to be proposed.

Associations must hold a show at least every two months. Registrations must be returned in a timely manner. Failure to hold shows or to properly care for the association will result in that association being taken by the administration and rehomed to a new player or, if participation is low, closed.

Associations receive $5,000 a month from the Riata admin to help with the costs associated with running the association, holding shows, and so on. This money is given to associations automatically and players do not need to apply for it from the admin.

Businesses

In order to open a business, players must create a proposal upon which all players in the game will vote. Players must receive five yes votes and the players should consider the need for the business in Riata before starting a business. There can be more than one business for one service - tack stores, feed stores, graphic design, etc.

Businesses receive $1,500 per month to help with costs associated with running and promoting the business.

Buying & Selling Horses

Players are responsible for keeping the ED updated with any purchases or sales of horses. The seller is responsible for updating the ED with the new owner's information in a timely fashion. If the seller does not update the information for the buyer, the buyer can contact the admin who can update any horse in the database.

Reclaiming Horses

Reclaiming posts may be posted on the forums in January and June. Players must include in their sales contract if failure to respond to a reclaiming post is ground for reclaiming. If this is not in their sales contract, players must personally PM individual buyers to ask for updates and only then can players reclaim due to no response.

If a player is deleted due to inactivity, the previous owner of a horse (and only the PREVIOUS owner, not the owner three owners ago) may reclaim the horse. The player must post that she is reclaiming the horse, otherwise the admin will move all horses from that player to Zodewood's account.

Players MAY NOT reclaim offspring from their horses or parents of offspring that a player owns. The horses will be sent to Zodewood and adopted out from there.

Member Points

Completing various tasks in the game will earn players points. These points may then be used to purchase creation credits, breeding allowances, cash, and other playing rewards. Member points must be submitted between the 1st and the 7th of each month and may only be submitted for the previous month.

Assignments

Assignments are optional tasks that players can complete in order to receive more member points. These assignments must be posted on the forums and will be graded by an admin. Assignment points will be added to players' member points automatically and do not need to be submitted on a monthly basis.

Disasters (& Good Things)

Disasters are a list of Bad Things that could happen to you, your horse(s), your farm, or your riders. If you choose to post a write-up about a disaster, then you will receive member points based on the difficulty of the disaster.

If you're feeling daring, you can post and ask an admin to randomly assign you a disaster. You run a 1/5 chance of receiving a Good Thing from this random drawing. A Good Thing could be a creation credit, a free breeding, free entries to shows, or some other gift.

Photograph Permissions

Riata and its owners do not condone the use of copyrighted photos on players' pages. As such we are under no liability if a player does so. Players are strongly advised to ask and receive the permission of the photo's owner before placing it on their pages.

Game Page Requirements

All pages within the Riata world must be clearly labelled as being part of a game. Additionally, ALL pages must contain a link to Riata specifying that it is a "sim game" or a "horse sim game."

Naughty Players

If you are a player who breaks any of these rules, you may be subject to disciplinary measures. Everyone makes mistakes, so don't freak if you do something accidentally. Doing something after being told not to, doing something really bad (advertising or recruiting for another sim counts as really bad), or doing something over and over again will result in a fine, a suspension, or expulsion from the game depending on what the admin feel is a fitting punishment for our naughty players. Copping an attitude or thinking that you're above the rules because you're so.freaking.wonderful will result in a much harsher punishment, we promise you that.

Return Levels

We all know that sometimes life throws wrenches at us. Sometimes these wrenches mean that a player is forced to leave Riata. If a player leaves the game in good standing (meaning that players leave the proper way by filling out the quitting form and they have not caused problems in the game), then they may rejoin at different levels depending upon the level that player had when she left. Here are the levels:

Players who left as an Admin in good standing may come back as a private barn. They may also adopt five of their previous horses back from Zodewood.
Players who left as a Breeding Barn in good standing may come back as a mini-barn. They may also adopt 4 of their previous horses back from Zodewood.
Players who left as a Boarding or Private Barn in good standing may come back as a Boarder. They may also adopt 3 of their previous horses back from Zodewood.
Players who left as an Mini-Barn owner or below in good standing must start over from the beginning. They may also adopt 2 of their previous horses back from Zodewood.

In addition to the above levels, players who leave without filling out the quitting form will be allowed to return once to Riata. Leaving without notice is a crappy thing to do and you shouldn't do it. If you do it twice, you need to find somewhere else to play.

If a player leaves in good standing (aka: properly), then they can return twice using the levels listed above. If a player leaves three times and they wish to come back for a fourth time, they must start at the beginning of the playing structure.

As always, the admin has the final say. We may choose not to readmit a player for any reason. We may also choose to allow a player to return more often than these rules say based on a stellar playing record and so on.

Leaving/Returning & Horses

If a player creates horses during their time here, and neither removes them from the game or sells/gives them away, those horses will automatically go to Zodewood.
When a player returns, they must first search for their old horses in the ED and in Zodewood. If a horse is not found in either location, they may re-create that horse, but it will use a creation credit to do so.
The horse's previous achievements and records do not exist after they are originally deleted.
Along with that, a horse that has been bred in game, or has had foals in game may not be deleted or taken with you when you leave.
If a player's horses are found in Zodewood, they may adopt as many back as are allowed for their returning level. (See above) All other horses are "fair game", and must be retrieved through a Zodewood sale or Auction.
If a horse is found in the ED not under Zodewood, the returning player may contact the current owner about purchasing the horse. The current owner, however, has NO obligation to allow the returning player her horse back.
All horses adopted from Zodewood are subject to the Zodewood adoption contract.

Quitting

If you're quitting the game, first of all, we wish you all the best. We would very much love if you would fill out our quitting form so that we know why you feel the need to leave and what we could be doing to make the game better. Please don't post a final hate-filled message on the forums as that really serves no purpose other than to prove that you're a bitter, petty cow, and that's not really a pretty sight. Once you have posted your quitting message, you have 24 hours to say your goodbyes, rehome any horses you may want to rehome, and delete the horses you do not want sent to Zodewood from the database. After that, you will be sent to the Quitters usergroup and you will no longer have access to the forums or the PMs.

Finished?

Finished? Agree with them? Please proceed to the Joining Form!