Ravenloft PotM Server Rules

[Talek]

Section 1: Main

Even if we would prefer if we could just rely only on the one rule of "using your common sense", diverse understandings of what online roleplay should be about requires some common boundaries, procedures and principles.

Here, all our rules are build around these three overriding rules:

1. Play how you like as long as you don’t impair the roleplay experience of others.
2. Be authentic to your character and the setting.
3. Always treat your fellow players, DMs and developers with respect.

What does this mean in a practical sense? Not that the DM "hand of god" will be waiting in the shadows to hammer down on people who at times choose soloing and fighting monsters over engaging in intricate roleplay. First of all because it would be a waste of our DMs' time that is much better used on creating roleplay for others, but also because we don't want to make playing here feel like being under constant monitoring, enforcement and strict control. Playing here is meant to be enjoyable and rewarding - and ultimately, we'd also prefer to put some trust in your own judgement. There are many ways and aspects of role-playing and we will not claim to always know better.

However, with regards to rule two and since this is a role-play server, always make sure that you do not compromise the stories, setting and IC experience of others - don't mention or use OOC terms and mechanism, such as game mechanisms, in IC action. Never spoil the atmosphere that your fellow players may be experiencing, but instead, always strive to enhance it. If you at times grow tired of interacting with others, go to secluded areas and avoid contact rather than slacking on acting IC and in respect of the roleplay experience.

If you're in doubt about rule two, confer to the roleplay manifest, as well as relying on rule one and three. We won’t stop you from playing an evil character, but alignment is no excuse for ruining other people's roleplay. In fact, it's partly your responsibility too that those you interact with have a rewarding experience - give each other due respect OOC even if your characters do not IC.

If you can adhere to the above principles as well as generally use your common sense, you should be covered in far the most cases. But whenever you think you might be doing something controversial or sketchy, potentially leading to conflict or being exploitive, it's always a good idea to confer with the rules below first. And if you are still in doubt, confer with a DM or a member of the Community Council.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

2: Character Story and Creation

Character Naming:

- Capitalize first and last names, and use apostrophes, hyphens and accented characters in moderation.
      e.g. "John Smith", not "john smith" or "joHn smITh"

- No nicknames or titles - these must be given out in-game and are not to appear in your character name.
      e.g. no "Pascal the Enchanter", "Sir Andras Fellspur" or "Landyr 'Landy' Krull"

- Character names must be appropriate and believable for their background and setting.
      e.g. no "Shoe", "Nightmare" or "Thumper", or "Jimmy Coltrain" for a native Barovian.

- Taking names from fictional works, or real-world people, is not allowed.
      e.g. no "Drizzt", "Count Von Zarovich", "Flash Gordon" etc.

- Do not use colors or symbols to decorate your character name.

Character Appearance and Story:

- Hair, skin and eye color must be natural for the character's race, origin and template.

- Characters must not have (or have had) any traits, powers or abilities upon creation that a regular character of the same class, level and race would not have.

- Your character's backstory should reflect what a standard level 2 character could accomplish; it cannot include a loss of power to explain their current state.
     
- Characters cannot be related, in any way, to canon characters from Ravenloft or other settings.
            eg. no apprentices of Elminster or scions of the Von Zarovich.

- Characters must be 18 years of age or their racial equivalent of adulthood. Characters should not be roleplayed as underaged in their physical appearance.

- Characters must represent the setting of origin for their subrace and template, and cannot have experiences beyond this setting with the exception of their arrival within Ravenloft.

- Characters not native to Ravenloft may not have arrived earlier than three months prior to character creation and may not have integrated within native culture, nor gained experience or knowledge beyond what is reasonable in that duration.

Character Origin:

- The mists of Ravenloft can reach into any world. Your character may come from any supported D&D 3.5 (or prior) setting, other game setting or homebrew world, so long as that world is compatible with D&D 3.5's brand of fantasy and is no later than 1650 C.E. in terms of culture and technology. Homebrew worlds cannot be alternate versions of established settings (eg. Earth instead of Gothic Earth). Be true to their original setting in terms of names, appearance, and religious beliefs (i.e. domains and practices matching their deity).

- Characters from established D&D settings cannot come from a time beyond D&D 3.5 (eg. no Curse of Strahd characters, no post-Spellplague Forgotten Realms characters).

- Characters from Gothic Earth presented in the Ravenloft spin-off setting Masque of the Red Death must come from a time no later than 1650 C.E.

- Characters from unsupported settings and homebrew worlds can only choose the standard supported D&D races and must adhere to the standard D&D appearance and traits for that race (eg. no gelflings, no witcher, no dark elves from WoW, no snow elves from The Elder Scrolls). They cannot start with a template.

Deities:

- Clerics must worship a deity (or equivalent) from their setting and have cleric domains given by that deity, as listed on the forums.

- Favored souls must worship a deity from their setting of origin. They are required to select the favored weapon of their chosen deity, as listed on the forums. If the chosen deity has no favored weapon, they cannot have one and must select the Favored Weapon (None) feat.

- Shamans must pick one domain from this list: Air, Animal, Death, Earth, Fire, Healing, Plant, Repose, Sun, Undeath or Water, and another from the following list: Chaos, Darkness, Destruction, Dream, Evil, Good, Knowledge, Law, Luck, Magic, Protection, Strength, Time, Travel, Trickery or War. More information on patron spirits can be found on the forums.

- Voodan must worship a loa from their setting of origin and have domains and a school of magic given by that loa. Supported loa are listed on the forums or in the OOC Lounge.

- If required by the setting of origin, paladins, healers, rangers and druids must also possess a deity, or they will be unable to level up.

- Generally, paladins and healers may not follow evil deities. However if the setting of origin explicitly supports such a concept, an application for an exception may be submitted to the DM Team for review.

- If your desired deity is not listed, please discuss it with a DM first.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

Section 3: Character Progression

Multi-classing/Prestige-classes:

- Classes must be no more than 10 levels apart when multiclassing.

- Monks can only multiclass with the following classes: Assassin, Blackguard, Divine Champion, Dwarven Defender, Shadowdancer, Tattooed Monk, and Weapon Master.

- Paladins who multiclass can no longer progress as paladins and lose all paladin abilities, except when multiclassing with the following classes: Divine Champion, Dwarven Defender, and People's Champion.

- All prestige classes are available, except Dragon Disciple, Harper Scout and Purple Dragon Knight. Hallowed Witch is only available to native characters.

- The following prestige classes require an application: Assassin, Blackguard, Black Powder Avenger, Dragon Disciple, Hallowed Witch, Master of Many Forms, Pale Master, People’s Champion, and Shadowdancer. The application form can be found on the forums.

- Prestige classes must have a minimum of 5 levels in them by the character's maximum level.

Monstrous Characters:

- Applications are required to play monstrous player characters (MPCs). You must submit an application in writing to the DM team. The form and details can be found on the forums.

Character remakes:

- Applications are required to remake characters. You must submit an application in writing to the DM team. The form and details can be found on the forums. Requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. In the case of a denial, the DM team will explain the reasoning.

- Characters will not be deleted from the server vault. You can create new accounts if your vault is too full.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

Section 4: Interacting and Roleplaying

- Generally deteriorating, disruptive or disrespectful behaviour, both by OOC and the elements you bring into IC, is not permitted. Always consider the experience of those you roleplay with, and strive to avoid OOC aggravation or grief. If you experience someone that you feel is disruptive, deteriorating or disrespectful to you, contact them and inform them of this. If they fail to cease, report it to a DM, and it'll be evaluated.

- Always prioritize the OOC overall enjoyment of your fellow roleplayers higher than IC. This doesn't mean that you can't ever impose negative consequences or loss - a conceivable line of events and an element of risk can be in the benefit of the general experience - but remember that we as players and DMs decide OOCly what we bring into the game, so ultimately we are responsible for it too. Never use IC as an excuse to lessen the OOC experience of others. Don't create characters that will only become a nuisance or aggravation. And when going into conflict with others, strive to make it an enjoyable experience for the player, even if it's despair and frustration for the character.

- Conversely, try to be open to others' approach to the roleplay and remember that what may be unfriendly and unappealing IC can be quite different OOC. Being able to enjoy things that your character despises makes the roleplay much more enjoyable for all. Distinguish clearly between what's IC and OOC. Don't let a character's disagreement with your character become a disagreement between you and the other player. Keeping in check OOCly when playing out aggressive or provoking interaction ICly is always a good idea.

- If it should happen that you feel someone's actions IC is too much frustration for you OOC or ruins your roleplaying experience, contact the person OOC in a friendly manner and try to reach mutual understanding of the source of this aggravation and find a solution that both can agree to. In the same way, if someone contacts you concerning how your own character's actions frustrates them OOC, be open to suggestions and work to keep a friendly OOC environment.

NPCs:

- Attacks upon NPCs are expected to be handled in character and always under DM supervision. Killing a NPC needs to have a valid role-playing reason - being "evil" is not sufficient. And be aware that wholesale slaughter will likely get you executed.

- Interacting with the world is an essential part of every persistent world, that is interacting with both other players and with the environment. Ignoring NPC's and such aspects of the environment willingly during roleplay is detrimental to the realism and consistency of the setting. As such, it is considered akin to metagaming to ignore the NPCs when they from an IC perspective would be expected to react. For example, if your character is currently wanted by the city guard, it is not acceptable to ignore the guard NPCs simply because there are no DMs online to control them.

In-game chat:

- Please remain in-character when around others and try to keep "Out of Character" (OOC) comments to a minimum, preferably in tells.

- If you need to give a OOC message to multiple persons, and do not have time to send tells to multiple people, mark it by putting "//" or "ooc:" in front. Please try to do this only if it's relevant to all who will be able to see it.

- No profanity, racial slurs, cyber-sex, etc. is allowed.

- Anyone caught participating in "cyber-sex" on our server will be permanently banned. This is mainly because otherwise minors could witness or be sexually harassed, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Take notice of the ban of cybersex as we take this rule very seriously. Essentially, cybersex encompasses all scenes containing elements of erotic nature (both from the perspective of the players and the characters). This implies things such as roleplaying situations involving exposed genitalia or exposed female breasts, and also all activity that gives sexual satisfaction of any form to either participant part (innocent mouth to mouth kissing is acceptable). If the roleplay story entails such elements to naturally occur, simply let it surpass by a nondescript emote like [fades to black].

- No "Cheesing": "Cheesing" is the act of playing your character as if they have an ability or feat which the NWN engine would not otherwise allow them to have. "Cheesing" could also mean playing your character as being a race, template, class or otherwise that isn't applied to your character through the game. An example could be playing out a character as a vampire even if the character is not setup to be that.

Disguise:

- Players may not use the Disguise skill to assume the identity of another player or an NPC without DM supervision.

- Disguises should follow the same rules as all player names and descriptions.

- Piercing a disguise does not confer knowledge of the player's actual name, merely recognition if the player already knows the character and knowledge of the fact that the character is attempting to disguise themself.

Player privacy:

- Don't speculate others' identity or repeatedly inquire for it - show respect if someone might be wanting to remain anonymous. The only exception to this rule is if you suspect someone is using another account to circumvent a ban, in which case you should contact the DM team and leave further investigation to them.

Interaction with DMs:

- Always follow DMs' directives and respect the DMs' judgments in-game. If you feel you've been treated wrongly or unfairly and are unable to resolve it with the DM, either contact a Head DM, Assistant Head DM or the Community Council - don't break off or compromise anything IC as a reaction to the issue.

- If anything disrupts the current roleplay environment or the immediate roleplay enjoyment (such as grievers, getting stuck on an inaccessible tile, or bugged characters) please contact a DM in game and it will be dealt with immediately.

- Alternatively, if the issue is not urgent, then it is to be left for a forum PM. If you have any complaint or issue you need resolved, send a Personal Message (or "PM") on the forums to either the Head DM or one of the Assistant Head DMs. Do not complain to or argue with DMs or other players via tells in-game as it's simply too disruptive and takes up too much time from roleplaying. If you continue to complain by tells or otherwise in-game after a DM has directed you to the forums, it may be treated as a breach of our rules and dealt with accordingly.

- Don't play DMs up against each other ("Mommy-Daddying"). If you've asked one DM something and he/she said no, don't move on to the next to ask the same. If you disagree with the DM's decision, contact the Head DM or an Assistant Head DM on the forum and state clearly that you have already made a request to the specific DM and was denied.

Sharing of items and interaction between own characters:

- Leaving items/gold for one of your other characters is not permitted, and using one character to acquire the corpse of another of your characters is not allowed either. If you have more than one character on the server, remember they are two different people. Don't let what occurs to and involves the one character transfer to the other. This also includes any way of passing on an item and knowingly acquiring it later with another character.

Tag-teaming with own characters is not allowed. Don't use one character to clear an entire dungeon or parts of an area to then log in with an alternative character to roam the same place. Don't have your character in any way react upon or use knowledge acquired by another of your characters.

- Don't hand out items/gold based on OOC reasons, OOC based friendships or because you are closuring or abandoning your character.

Multiple characters and faction memberships:

- To preserve the suspense and better allow designing plots, membership of certain factions bars your other characters from active membership of factions having conflicting interests with the first. Your one character might still have multiple faction memberships however.

- Factions currently covered by this rule encompass: Ba'al Verzi, Gundarakite Rebels, Red Vardo Traders, Dementlieuse Gendarmerie and the Vallaki Guards. Other factions (including plot and unofficial factions, eg. player-run) may be added to this list.

- If you have characters that have faction memberships conflicting this rule, you may decide to make the one character inactive, temporarily removing faction forum access. While having a character being inactive in this way, you should also avoid playing the character.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

Section 5: Player Versus Player

- Do not engage in conflict (including PVP) with players with whom you have unresolved OOC conflicts or issues. You must resolve these problems first; if you need help, contact the Community Council or a DM.

- Conflict should always be done to further the story, and be a positive experience for all involved.
   - Killing characters rarely leads to more roleplay. Consider using emotes and dice rolls rather than PVP. If you PVP, consider using subdual.

- Conflict should be a collaboration between players, even if their characters are in conflict. Consider communicating with the other party OOCly respectfully during conflict and maintaining good relations. Remember they are humans too.
   - If you feel the other player is not willing to handle the consequences of their character's actions, contact a DM, do not press on regardless.

- You must have a valid IC reason to engage in PVP, and the other party must have opted into that conflict through their character's actions.
   - Valid IC reasons to engage in PVP include acts of aggression (extensive provoking, aggressive/confrontational behaviour, intruding upon you) and refusing to deescalate, being a member of a faction in open conflict with your own, in retaliation upon friends and allies, or being a MPC.
   - OOC consent to "opt in" is encouraged but not required; choosing not to deescalate the conflict given the opportunity in-character is considered opting in.
   - If you are in doubt at any time, contact a DM first.

Example 1:

Spoiler: show

   Character A aggressively insults and goads Character B.
   Player A sends a Tell to Player B saying "Hey, my character's just a real jerk, feel free to tell him to shut up and go away."
   Character B tells Character A to shut up or they'll get a beating. Player B sets Character A to Hostile and activates subdual mode. Player B has given Player A an opportunity to deescalate, and fair OOC warning that an attack is imminent.
    Player B sends Player A a Tell saying "No worries, but my character isn't going to take this. If he keeps going, my character's going to swing for them."
   Character A continues to insult and goad Character B. At this point they have opted in, by declining to stop, apologize or withdraw.
   Character B engages in PVP with Character A, knocking them out with subdual. Character B then heals them up, and asks if they're ready to apologize.
   Character A does apologize, and the conflict is resolved.

Example 2:

Spoiler: show

   Character A is a thief, and would like to try and steal something from Character B.
   They send a Tell to Player B, saying "Hey, my character's a thief, can I try and pickpocket something from you?"
   Player B sends a Tell saying "Yeah, I'm good with that. Go ahead."
   Player A toggles Hostile, and approaches Character B, emoting bumping into them. They roll Sleight of Hand, and Player B rolls Spot to oppose. Character A's Sleight of Hand roll was higher, and Character B opens a barter and transfers an amount of gold to them.
   Character C, a nearby friend of Character B, sends a Tell to Player A saying "Hey, can I roll Spot to see if I noticed you pickpocketing them?"
   Player A agrees, and rolls a higher Spot, noticing the pickpocketing.
   The encounter plays out like Example 1; with Character C telling Character A to give it back. This time, Character A declines to deescalate and instead flees the scene.
   Next time they meet, both B and C have justification to engage A in PVP, because there is an established conflict.

- You must set the other character to Hostile before engaging in PVP. We suggest doing this 10-15 seconds beforehand, so that spells function properly and to give them fair warning that an escalation to PVP is imminent.
    - Do not use OOC knowledge that an attack is imminent to your advantage.

- Ordering or paying others to attack someone also counts as PVP from the one requesting the attack, and falls under the general PVP rules.

- Do not abuse the PVP rules to your advantage - do not back down or signal OOCly that you don't want to fight, only to go ahead and fight anyway.

- If you feel PVP rules have not been observed, merge your chat windows, take screenshots of the incident and send them to a DM.

Player Corpses

- Hiding, badly impairing, or mutilating (including from Voracious) corpses falls under the general PVP rules.

- Player Corpses/Remains should be treated as other in-game items - they cannot be hidden or disposed of 'off the map.'
   - They cannot be hidden behind doors requiring a specific key ("plot-locked").
   - They cannot be placed inside placables or terrain that is inaccessible or would prevent the corpse from being detected by tab highlighting. Doing so is considered an exploit.
   - Their location must respect the NPCs section of the rules.
   - They cannot be held indefinitely in player inventories. Corpses can only be carried to be brought to a specific destination.

Traps

- Only PCs marked as hostile are damaged by traps. This is considered PvP and subject to all relevant rules.

- Setting traps on transitions such that an incoming player cannot possibly avoid them is not allowed.

- Stacking multiple traps on top of each other is considered an exploit.

Stealing

- Stealing is subject to the general rules of PVP, except if no living owner of the stolen items is present.

Spying & Hidden Characters

- Hidden characters are those in stealth or under invisibility, sanctuary, or ethereal effects.

- Legitimate methods of detection are limited to:
 - Detection through the Spot and Listen skills.
 - Alarm, Detect Chaos, Detect Law, Invisibility Purge, and spells and abilities which grant see invisibility.

- Telltale signs of a hidden character's presence (eg. opening/closing doors, casting sounds) may alert your character.

- Other means of detection (eg. area of effect spells, dispel magic, caltrops) are not allowed.
 - Using the combat log is considered metagaming.

- Hidden characters detected in a private location are considered to have refused to opt out to determine if they can be PvPed. For the purpose of this rule, private locations are locked indoor locations. These include, but are not limited to, private inn rooms, faction headquarters, and rentals. Outdoor and travel areas, dungeons and openly accessed areas, are never considered private.

- In any other situation, hidden characters must be given a chance to deescalate before PvP can occur.

- Hidden characters cannot initiate PvP unless standard conflict rules apply.

- All standard conflict rules apply to situations involving hidden characters.

Examples of possible situations:

Spoiler: show

Situation #1: You're in a private area. No detection skills, spells or abilities have revealed hidden characters, and no suspicious signs are present.
Rule: You cannot use spells, abilities, or items to detect hidden characters.

Situation #2: You're in a private area. Suddenly, a door opens and closes on its own, raising suspicion.
Rule: Offer an opt-out to the hidden character. If they don't accept the terms, you may initiate PvP actions.

Situation #3: You're in a public area and legitimately detect a hidden character.
Rule: Offer the hidden character an opt-out before any PvP action occurs.

Situation #4: You're in a private area and legitimately detect a hidden character.
Rule: The hidden character is automatically opted in for PvP, but strive to roleplay the situation first.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

Section 6: Adventuring, etc.

Death and dying:

- We generally consider "permadeath" as an OOC term, and as such, we prefer to avoid it as a consequence of the IC roleplay. Character stories can come to a "closure", but only by the decision of the player of the character. Nonetheless, in some situations it may still be very unlikely that a dead character should ever return to life, practically amounting for the same but is entirely IC.

- Any character that commits suicide will as such be considered "closured" with no possibility of revival, as per the 3.5 ed. rules.

- Once dead, a character can choose to return to the world as a PC spirit. These are static impressions of PCs and their attire/possessions at the moment of their deaths. They cannot attain any new knowledge or information in this form and everything experienced as a spirit is forgotten upon returning to life. They cannot speak nor can they understand speech, and are completely inaudible.

- PC spirits can wander the world, but they cannot interact with it in any physical way. Focused entirely on their death, they are driven only to mourn their demise and/or attempt to return to life. They can relive their death using emotes and try to lead others to the site of their death and/or mortal remains, but should only move from this location if it's to seek help or to follow someone possessing those remains. For more information on spirit RP, see here.

Soloing:

- Soloing is allowed, but the module is balanced for group play. You solo at your own risk on PotM and we generally encourage you to team up with people.

Bugs and game limitations:

- Exploitation of bugs or holes in the game engine will result in consequences, up to and including banning.

- If you experience a bug, please report it on our Bug Reports forum in the Feedback section.

- If you experience an exploit, please report it via forum PM to one of our developers.

- Logging out and logging back in to avoid death is not allowed.

[EO]

Section 7: Live Streaming

- Players should have informed consent about being livestreamed at all times. If that is in doubt or not practical, streamers must stop broadcasting.

- When broadcasting, streamers should activate streamer mode using @streaming. Using @streaming list will show all players currently streaming.

- Streaming of public roleplay taking place in open areas such as the Western Outskirts, Keep of the Dyad - Arrival, open taverns, etc., is always allowed - consent is assumed in these places. If in doubt, consult a DM.

- Streaming of semi-private roleplay such as whispered conversations, dungeon runs, encounters with monstrous player characters, etc., should only be done with the consent of those present.

- Streaming of scheduled DM and player-run events can be done only with the consent of the event organizer, consent which must be announced publicly ahead of time.

- Streaming of private or secretive roleplay and high-stakes conflict is not allowed.

- Failure to follow the live streaming rules constitutes a rulebreak under General Neglect of the Rules.