Regarding the Use of Alternate Accounts

An Alternate Account (Alt) is any character account used by a member who has more than one account. This is neither illegal nor discouraged, as we would like to see members branch out in as many different directions as they feel comfortable, without being restricted to any one choice at a time. However, Alts have been misused in the past to gain unfair advantages. In order to prevent any member from intentionally or unintentionally gaining an unfair advantage, the following restrictions and limitations have been established:

Interactions between Alts: Different Alt accounts belonging to a single member should not interact cooperatively with each other in Open RP to gain an advantage over another member. This restriction is a broad guideline which cannot cover all scenarios. Discretion and common sense are necessary whenever two PCs written by the same person interact. It's one thing to have a drink together, but it is quite another to go into battle together. This restriction does not apply in semi-closed/closed RP situations (SL classifications defined here), so long as all participants are agreeable to the expanded use of Alts. If you are ever in doubt as to whether this rule applies to an RP you are a part of or planning, please PM a Whill or create a thread in the Misc. Requests/Questions sub-board of the Consult the Whills.

Group Memberships: Alt accounts may join as many faction usergroups as the member wishes. Multiple Alts may join the same usergroup, so long as the other Alt account rules are observed. Members are also encouraged to set their default group for each Alt to your primary faction of choice. However, please do not set multiple Alt accounts as default to the same faction. If multiple Alts are defaulted to the same group, they will not be double-counted for Faction Bonuses. These bonuses are per-member (unique IP address), not per-character account. For Alts, and all characters, it is recommended to enter the primary faction in the "Affiliation" field of their profile, as this field is also displayed on posts, but it not used in any calculations of bonuses. 

Fleets and Armies: While different Alt account characters linked to independent RP storylines may each have their own forces, no two characters written by the same member may combine forces in any way (such as supporting one another in battle), as a way to circumvent the personal fleet limits. This includes having more than one character in a single faction with fleets. Alts with fleets or armies should not have sustained cooperative interactions, or be direct in character (IC) members of the same faction in Open RP. If two Alts impact the same storyline cooperatively, the writer must ensure that the combined forces of the two characters do not exceed the fleet and army limits for what is allowed for a single character.

Creating an alternate account is relatively simple, and can be used for several things. If you wish to create another player character (PC) that has nothing to do with your main character, or you just think that the new character deserves its own profile, creating another account and linking it to your main one is a useful feature. Learn how to create an alternate account linked to your main account by following the How-To Guide here.