Difference between revisions of "Rules"

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This is permitted via global chat or IRC chat, which can be turned off in game if it becomes bothersome to players. Try to confine OOC to party if you have to, or wish to, engage it in  game. You, or a member of your current party can add a player to your party by typing /add and targeting the player you wish to add. If a member of your party invites another player then you, as the party leader, will get a prompt asking if you approve
 
This is permitted via global chat or IRC chat, which can be turned off in game if it becomes bothersome to players. Try to confine OOC to party if you have to, or wish to, engage it in  game. You, or a member of your current party can add a player to your party by typing /add and targeting the player you wish to add. If a member of your party invites another player then you, as the party leader, will get a prompt asking if you approve
  
Use the [ ] brackets to enclose any OOC text, and use it only when necessary and when you cannot use another means of communication. No chit chat in OOC, the only exception to this rule will be if you are within the privacy of your home, you will be warned if caught. Continued offenses will be met with punishment.  
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Use the [ ] brackets to enclose any OOC text, and use it only when necessary and when you cannot use another means of communication. No chit chat in OOC, the only exception to this rule will be if you are within the privacy of your home, you will be warned if caught. Continued offenses will be met with punishment. We have an inventive way to counter those of you who refuse to stop using OOC chat, along with the potential to face jail time.
  
 
'''3:''' ''PVP''
 
'''3:''' ''PVP''

Revision as of 19:29, 23 August 2016

Shard Rules

General Rules

1: Role-playing Enforced.

Enough said. Now because this is in fact a role-playing enforced shard, it is expected that every character will have their character profiles properly filled out with their physical descriptions.

2: Minimal Out of Character (OOC) talk in game.

This is permitted via global chat or IRC chat, which can be turned off in game if it becomes bothersome to players. Try to confine OOC to party if you have to, or wish to, engage it in game. You, or a member of your current party can add a player to your party by typing /add and targeting the player you wish to add. If a member of your party invites another player then you, as the party leader, will get a prompt asking if you approve

Use the [ ] brackets to enclose any OOC text, and use it only when necessary and when you cannot use another means of communication. No chit chat in OOC, the only exception to this rule will be if you are within the privacy of your home, you will be warned if caught. Continued offenses will be met with punishment. We have an inventive way to counter those of you who refuse to stop using OOC chat, along with the potential to face jail time.

3: PVP

Killing players for no better reason than loot is not acceptable on UORP. All combat MUST be preceded by RP, the only exception to this rule being an assassination. Any combat initiated without RP is considered PKing, and will be dealt with accordingly.

Minimal RP is acceptable if the guild war mechanic is being used however the players have opted to RP that can be determined by those players.

4: Be considerate of your RP content

Here on UO Roleplay we allow players of all age groups to enjoy and contribute to the story that we are all actively writing together, as a community. With this in mind, we ask that all extreme content be reserved to the privacy of one’s home, or at least not within public. As well, before engaging in such RP, proper permission MUST always be obtained from the other party. There are no exceptions to this rule, we will not allow players to force others into situations that they are uncomfortable being a part of. Complaints will be treated in the same way as OOC hassling.

Also, to enforce that some things are kept in private role-play situations. All players should, when role-playing is brought to an R-rated level, use mechanics to make sure they stay that way. The whisper command should be used at all times in these situations. You can use whisper in game by pressing semicolon and then hitting space. When you do this, you'll see Whisper: in front of your text. Only players within one tile of you in any direction will be able to see what you say.

5: Character and pet names

Tamed animals are not to have names such as ‘a’ or ‘b’ or ‘a1’ or anything remotely resembling them. Animals should be named properly, and even three letters is better than one or two. Any tamed critters found with names like that will be instantly killed by GMs. Character names, cannot be racially/religiously/etc. offensive to other players. Also, they must be realistic. Names such as ‘a thief’ or ‘a warrior in plate’, cannot exist. As well, any names non conducive to RP will be immediately changed without question.

6: Bugs and exploits

Report bugs and exploits and do not use them. Have respect for the game and its balance for the simple fact that we do it for fun, and if you go out to spoil that fun, you will be banned. The Bug forum board is there and bugs do get addressed as soon as we can get to them.

7: Macroing

Unattended macroing is NEVER allowed for the purposes of gathering resources. This includes but is not limited to fish, crafting materials, reagents, herbs, or gold.

Unattended macroing is absolutely allowed for skill gains as we want our players to be able to focus on enjoying our role-play environment rather than feeling compelled to grind out skills. We only ask that Macroing not occur in highly frequented public areas.

8: Exploiting the Artificial Intelligence

Leading NPC monsters into a town to kill the guards is prohibited. Doing so is considered exploiting the AI. You can, and will be, be punished for this up to and including a potential ban.

9: Locked-down items blocking areas

Blocking of access to areas using locked-down items is forbidden. Said items will be destroyed immediately by GMs and repeated offenses will be dealt with more harshly.

10: IRC and UO

If possible IRC is not to be used for In Game discussions. If you want to make a deal or discuss plans for anything, do so in game. It’s uncool to act as if you are telepathic, and makes those who go out of their way to spy on you waste their time. Anything that belongs IG, is to be spoken IG. This is a role-playing game, so role-play. IRC can be used to organize meeting people somewhere, but that’s all.The official chat room, much like the faction chat rooms, is a place where we want to gather our players, not only to chat about UO-related matters (role-play, events, seeking GM assistance), but also to create a friendly and healthy environment for the shard. As we all know, a mature OOC community stimulates better RP interactions, which result in fun for everyone - which is why we are here in the first place. In light of this Staff will not hesitate to kick and or ban you from the chat for lewd or out of line behavior.

11: Metagaming

Metagaming is strictly prohibited in any fashion. Metagaming is defined as the use of any knowledge garnered in an OOC fashion, IRC, Messenger programs and non-role-playing UO RP boards in an IC context that directly affects the actions of your character. Intentional use of metagamed knowledge in order to plan your character’s actions is a sign of not only poor role-playing, but also of irresponsibility of the player. If a player is found to be using this information they will be punished accordingly. Examples of this would be looking on the UO client to see that a person is home in game, and therefore not attempting to break into their house, when in all reality your character wouldn’t know that without metagaming.

Similarly if you know that a player is sleeping, at work, at school, or merely AFK, you are not allowed to plan your actions around their schedule, especially when the actions are against that player. As well, any information gathered via the player’s character sheet in game with the exception of the physical description is not to be viewed as ‘common knowledge’, you do not simply know that someone is a vampire because their race states so. Please use common sense in this regard.

12: Treat everyone with respect

Any form of Harassment, Contempt, Threatening, Bullying, and Offensive behavior WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. Do not harass, do not pester and do not disrespect another player. Things happen within the game that we may not always be fond of OOC, this in no way gives you permission to begin insulting the players behind these characters. Roleplaying is one thing, OOC hassling will get you banned.

Rules explained

UORP is a "Role-Playing enforced shard." That means while we encourage role-play and expect it from our players, we accept role-players of all skill levels and only expect an honest attempt. We believe that with mature respect between players, there is room for everyone. To make sure that our expectations are clearly understood, the following role-play rules are presented:

General Role-play Respect:

  • Do not tell other players how they should be role-playing or that you believe they are role-playing something wrong. If you believe they are in breach of some aspect of the server lore report it to a staff member. Staff will make the decision to inquire with them on the matter or not. Otherwise, if you disapprove of their role-play, avoid them.
  • There are a number of sources available for character and race development. However none of these must be ever expected to be canon. There may be a lot of a certain type of elf, but they will never be the "only" one acceptable.

Names:

We believe a proper name is a very important part of a role-playing environment. Your characters name should not make overt references to the real world. This is certainly a gray area and we will make name change requests at our own discretion. Our policy for name changes will be to attempt to contact the player and if that fails, change their name to something at our whim and give them a deed for a name change. Make the name realistic and not of our world.

Metagaming:

Metagaming is an often occurring problem in any role-playing community. While all forms of metagaming are of course against the rules of the server the question of “What is metagaming?” is what must be answered here to help guide players to not break the rules.

  • Sensitive Knowledge: If a situation arises wherein one player accuses another of meta-gaming the acquisition of sensitive and secret knowledge and it is determined that it is indeed not public knowledge it will be expected that the accused present a source for their knowledge. Preferably this evidence will be something like a screen shot or other objective source. Do not try to justify knowledge of a sensitive piece of information with shabby reasoning.
  • Role-play between multiple characters of the same player: Due to the often ambiguously difficult scenarios that occur from such play it is highly discouraged to role-play between characters of the same player. It is impermissible to share sensitive knowledge between your own characters including books or notes. If a situation arises which accuses you of metag
  • Public vs. Private Knowledge: There are many means by which one can obtain OOC knowledge about in-game events yet not be able to justify their character being aware of such. Sources of information such as forum posts, stories, paperdoll profiles, physical appearance, titles, etc. constantly barrage us and result in both purposeful and accidental instances of metagaming. While it is impossible to avoid these entirely and we will be very understanding in regards to such breaches of etiquette we urge players to be extremely mindful and err of the side of caution in regards to such knowledge.

“Romantic” Role-Playing:

It is no secret that the staff of UO role-play periodically check in on players, with the normal intent of this to witness and reward general role-play. However, this task is difficult to perform when we feel we must worry about becoming peeping toms. While the offending parties may not care about this there are many on the staff who are made uncomfortable in these instances.

The Ultima Online Role-playing community is at this point well aged and we are very familiar with one another, most having played on any half a dozen servers in our time. This includes the owners of these servers, many of us being now second-generation who have inherited servers. Speaking with other owners it is come to my attention that there are currently little to no options for players below the age of 18. While it is not my intention to pander towards this group, we are also one of the few role-play servers which does not require an application and by this we make no attempt to limit the age of our players. I have told other administrators that they are welcome to recommend our server in these cases, and so to avoid complications we must publicly maintain limitations upon such role play.

Role-play containing sexual themes will certainly be allowed. However, it is encouraged that anything above what would be considered an "R" rating kindly be taken to IRC or another means of communication.

Extreme/Distasteful Role-play:

There are some subjects that are so troubling that they must be role-played with tact and understanding in regards to the rest of the community before your own personal desires to play them. We will not outright ban these circumstances, but if any of them come to our attention as an issue this will in all likelihood result in those involved being admonished even to the extremes of telling them to change their story. These are all scenarios which absolutely require OOC consent from all involved parties, and thus implies full responsibility to all involved. Do not say: “I was just doing what the role-play led me to.” as an excuse. That is to say if you involve your character with multiple others of the community be extremely cautious in regards to consenting to any of these subjects of role-play. If they lead to trouble including the emotional trauma of other members of the community, you may very well be told to drop the story line entirely. While this is a shard where it is hoped that difficult and mature subjects can be addressed and played we advise players to be extremely cautious in these circumstances. With this in mind, these are certainly things that occur in the real world and all fantasy worlds. These may have certainly happened to your character and had a huge impact on them, but do not ask members of the community to enact scenarios revolving around them.

These scenarios include: Rape Torture Unwilling Slavery

PvP and Other Aggressive Acts

Aggressive acts are acts which negatively interfere with other's characters or sometimes their role-play and result in them needing to respond in kind or lose

Stealing:

This includes the skill itself, scamming, taking items that you know were not intended for you, betraying the trust of another, looting, and any other situations which result in you taking possession of an item from another player against their will. In regards to the shard rules looting a player's corpse is considered an act of theft. Acts of theft which do not violate other rules of the server are fully permissible.
Stealing is an in-character interaction. As such, we will take out-of-character actions into consideration when determining whether an act of theft is simply that or also includes an act of griefing.

Corpse Looting

The rules on the looting of other player's corpses can vary dependent on the situation. The type of items taken, the amount, and the intent behind the action all play a role in determining if the act violates the rules of the server. As with any sort of stealing, looting is an in-character action which can and probably will lead to ramifications. While a player may consider the act logical to their character we emphasize that role-playing is at its heart an interactive experience. With this in mind any and all forms of looting and theft must allow for a reasonable level of response from the victim. The preferred method of this would be a significant clue that could be found, or a physical description of the thief. You will never be allowed to take significant items from another player with the expectation that they will not know who did so.

Guild Wars

Guilds which have declared war against each other must do so through the Guild War function. Members of guilds at war against one another still retain community protections but will be free to take offensive action against one another with a minimal level of role-play interaction necessary before hand. Ambushes without warning are allowed. Looting and theft are much less regulated. The act of declaring a guild war is an act of permanent consent for negative actions for its duration. Members of warring guilds can still be held accountable for their actions in-character of course.

PvP

PvP is fully allowed so long as it suits the role-play, but should have out-of-character consent. This means that before engaging with another player they must be aware that you intend to do so and agree with this. If they do not consent, it is their duty as the non-aggressor to diffuse the situation. Be aware this may not be possible for every situation. This may allow for one character to “bully” another based solely on mechanical balances, but anyone who does so must keep in mind that we will monitor such situations closely and will have no qualms in taking action if we feel it best for the health of the server.

Consent is not always Out of Character and verbal and there will be certain situations where PvP consent is implied. If at any time one character repeatedly insults or offends another beyond the point where a reasonable person would consider it provocative it will be legal for that person to retaliate through PvP. This means, if you emote that you spit in someone's face, do not complain if you are killed. If you jump through a moon-gate without permission, or refuse to leave a person's home, they can remove you forcibly.

The Server

Macroing:

AFK Macroing is allowed in all ways except for the acquirement of resources of any and all types. This includes hunting, mining/lumberjacking, and things like fishing. If we discover you doing this we will delete items, jail characters, and put a tag on your account. We watch particularly for rune book macroing, and we will delete your books if you don't respond along with the other normal responses. Macroing between accounts is entirely allowed. You may macro in ways such as giving two different characters a sword and some armor and letting them spar through the night.
AFK macroing and disruptive macroing such as the repetitive playing of instruments or casting spells in highly public areas will definitely result in being kicked and possibly result in skill penalties and/or jail time.

Exploitation of the Server:

Exploitation of the server is regarded as any behavior which can reasonably be understood to be acting contrary to the intentions of the server and community. This may include but is not limited to abusing bugs, cheating, and file manipulation. It may also include many less objective abuses of the community. If you have any thought that an action or situation of the game might not be approved of please inquire from the staff.

House Decay

All houses will stand for 60 days until they decay. Automatic Refresh is disabled. All houses must be refreshed regularly with a door. On very rare occasions houses have been known to decay randomly on RunUO servers before their allotted 60 days. If this happens the house & items can not be replaced sorry. Consider it a natural disaster and an opportunity to rebuild!

Consequences for Breaking Rules

Most rules will have these consequences implemented

1st offense, will incur a 24 hour jail time of character

2nd offense, will incur 7 days of jail time of character

3rd offense, will incur a 7 day ban of account

4th offense, will incur a 1 month ban of account

5th offense may potentially incur a Permanent Ban of account

All of the above may also include loss of skill gained, resources gathered or deletion of rune books used during the breaking of rules. On occasion certain situations may be reviewed upon an individual base and are at the discretion of Staff.

Harassment, Contempt, Threatening, Bullying, and Offensive behavior are grounds for automatic banning.

Bug Exploits

1st offense, will incur a 7 day ban of account

2nd offense, will incur a 1 month ban of account

3rd offense, will incur Permanent Ban of account


As we do not enjoy banning players, the constant breaking of rules or using bug exploits will not be tolerated as it is unfair to the rest of our players.

The Community

IRC and Forum Code of Conduct:

The forums, IRC, and game server are not here for anyone to vent their negative opinions, frustrations, arguments, threats, or inflammatory remarks. Any such remarks will be locked or removed by a staff member. Our goal is to create an exciting, enjoyable, and fun gaming environment that everyone can enjoy and those types of things are not enjoyable to anyone. If the post or comment is not positive please don’t share!

Respecting Others

Here at UORP we emphasize respect between players no matter the circumstances. You should treat everyone here as if you are both guests in another's home playing a table top game. To take this metaphor further, you should act like they just paid for pizza for everyone including yourself.

Dealing with Stress

If you find yourself in a stressful situation and you are not certain what to do first and foremost you should try to sort it out personally with the others involved. If this can not be accomplished to your satisfaction then you may make staff aware of the situation and we will see if there is anything we can do about it. If there is not and you remain stressed or upset about the situation we recommend you distance yourself from the server at least temporarily. Do not ever post a rant/rage/criticism thread publicly aimed at anyone or anything. It will be deleted and you will be immediately banned.

The Staff

  • Staff will strive to be respectful of Players at all times. They should treat players with courtesy and patience. Staff should never assume a player has done something wrong, no matter their personal opinions. Staff will assume all situations are misunderstandings and seek to help all parties involved and encourage players to resolve their issues on their own.
  • Staff will stay concealed unless they are in private or they are dressed appropriately and are willing to engage in polite conversation or role-play.
  • Staff reserve the right to NOT engage in RP if they are in a hurry to help someone else, or are simply not in the mood but know they need to log on to help. They will seek not to break an existing mood however and message you privately.
  • Staff are regularly rewarded for their service. This will most often include benefits such as obtaining decorations for their homes and characters, but may at times include other items. We will not be deceptive about this practice and we will not give benefits which elevate staff characters above those of others on the server.

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