Rules

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Shard Rules

Role-Playing

UORP is a "Relaxed Role-playing 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.
  • Out Of Character conversations are allowed on the server. However, they should not interfere with ongoing role-play. We recognize that not everyone wishes to role-play 24/7 but it is expected that they respect others who are involved in role-play. Please avoid going out-of-character within any city limits or around other players in general.

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:

This was a topic I have been forced to give a lot of thought. The Ultima Online Role-playing community is certainly no stranger to role-play involving highly sexual topics and themes and as the vast majority of our players are adults this is to be expected. There are several reasons however that here at UORP we will be limiting what we allow in this category of role-play.

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 a rule against such play.

Role-play containing sexual themes will certainly be allowed. The only thing that is banned by this rule is the detailed in-game role-playing of sexual acts which many refer to as RRP, Cybering, or sexting. Please take these to IRC or another chat method.

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

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 looting of other player's corpses is another difficult subject on which the rules 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. In regards to this I will mention my intention to combine the Detect Hidden, Tracking, and Forensic Evaluation skill into one named something like “Inspection” which I hope will allow for more options of response.

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 requires 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. 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 then 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 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.

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

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