Ruling example

"We only address issues that we are made aware of or witness, and within a reasonable time period. Each is taken on a case by case basis, and is generally resolved using a combination of common sense as applied to the server rules and gauging server impact." Jjjerm

Punishments

written by Qizzia

If you got the impression that the answer to any rule's break is YOU GET BANNED! you are terribly mistaken. The DMs got lots of ways to punish players that violate the server rules. Let me mention a few, going from light to heavy:

• A nice little chat.
• A warning.
• Drop RPBonus.
• Take EXP points.
• Take level(s).
• Give Mark of Despair.
• Deletion of a char, or more chars.
• Give a temporary ban. Can be anything from minutes to months or years.
• A permaban.

Combinations of several of these are also a possibility, like a chat, taken a level and some EXP.

Again, you won't get a list of which violations will lead to which penalty. It is like we say over and over again: A case to case situation. Believe me. Every situation is almost always something unique that claims it's specific action.

Don't listen to player's interpretations of the rules. Be it veteran players or not. They are all biased by their own player experiences. It's the DM's that decide whether a rule is broken or not.

Evil councilor (Interactive role play)

written by Jjjerm

Allrighty, so I wanted to put this out there as an educational read, for any who are interested.

Recently, an elected councilor (we shall call him X) evicted a player (whom we shall call Y) from her home, and passed it to an associate and co conspirator.

Here is my view of that: Brilliant! With a bit of interactive RP, this could have turned out to be the RP of the year.... Evil Councilman X attempts to evict prominent resident Y, rally around and take a side, etc. It would have been some great "evil" interaction, and not at all outside of what you'd expect from a corrupt government (that you voted in).

Here's where the disconnect was: instead of doing a bunch of build up and interactive RP, it was basically done when player Y was offline, without any interaction WITH Y. So, just like we'd expect an interactive role play before physically injuring someone in PvP, we expect interactive RP before injuring someone in that way too, it's really a matter of "if you are doing harm to another player in character, there should be some interaction going on"...just to be fair.

The players involved didn't have any malice, and were planning to RP stuff afterwards, but that's where the disconnect was: ACTION FOLLOWS RP, not vice versa. If that makes any sense. Now, the group that X was associated with had RP'ed this quite well in and amongst themselves, but failed to do so with Y, whose house they took.

So, basically I saw it as a violation of rules 1 and 4. 1 because there wasn't interactive role play, and 2 because the position of power was used inappropriately (and without RP about that specific event with Player Y).

I do want to point out that had this been an involved role play over a few weeks of Evil Councilman X kicking a resident from their home, and there was good strong interactive play on it...I would ABSOLUTELY have backed that up. The delineating factor to consider is: Did this create a good interactive RP? In this case, although I have absolute confidence that there was no mean-spiritedness on the part of player X, that crucial element was missing.

So, the councilman in question has been removed from office and is spending his days in the Scorpion Pits for a wile, where Lord Vetinari expects at any time that he will reveal the names of his co-conspirators (whom will all be banished from cordor proper for a week, after he cracks).

The home has been returned to the original owner, and all's well that ends well, generally.

But, take a lesson here, and it will serve you well. The idea was not a bad one at all, just in how it was implemented. A very good way to look at things on the server is not only "will my character gain advantage" (which is how most folks think, if we're honest) but "how can this be turned to promote RP within the server?". Also of note, please keep in mind that I absolutely do NOT believe that these questions are mutually exclusive. But, if you're asking the first ever (and you probably are), don't hesitate to ask the second of yourself as well, eh?

There was some other RP that involved some other characters, which...since it has to date not involved any rules infractions that I've been made aware of, I am making no stance on. So, anyone that was involved and on player Y's faction, don't misunderstand my administering justice as validating your rp to the exclusion of the other faction. I just make sure that in the communities, we observe the niceties that set us apart.

Pleasant gaming, everyone, and pleasant screams.

Jjjerm

Tips for improvements

The simple way

written by Calassus

I've thought something along the lines of a speedy saying: "[Insert Name], the Council of Cordor has found you Guilty of [Insert Petty, False Allegation], and you may hereby consider your rights to your Property in Lower Cordor revoked. You have until the end of the day to hand over the property and retrieve what belongings you wish, after which time the Property will be forcibly taken by the City, and the contents added to city stores or sold off at our Discretion."

Informs the person of it happening, does a bit more than saying "By the way, all your properties are belong to us" and evicting them, and creates RP by giving them an RP reason to come to you and dispute/discuss/argue the case. Creates RP at the time, and gives a clear basis for the victim to create RP following it. And gets over the nasty, bitter parts of it regarding losing items and not being told until its too late.

The grandiose way

written by Jjjerm

Everything in the planning stages was brilliant, the point of failure was in evicting the resident from their house without RPing extensively with them, and in doing so when the player was off line.

What would have moved this to "brilliant" in the execution phase would be something along the following lines:

1. - a nice "lead up" with the player who owned the house. Something slow building and ominous like..."Ma'am, the city zoning commission is looking at your house's location, and we may have to relocate you soon." Maybe 2-4 weeks in advance of any actual eviction, to give them time to get upset in character and "fight city hall", if you will. Basically, give the opportunity for good RP interaction.
2. - a highly publicized (on BOTH parts) statement of intent, a public campaign of sorts. You know, something like..."Noble citizens, in our constant efforts to improve our city, we are going to relocate some citizens to take care of Important City Needs" on the one side, while the other side campaigned "Save Our House! Fight city hall!" type stuff. Basically, an interactive, somewhat lengthy, PR campaign, on both sides, each pushing for their own agendas.

If the above had been done in advance to evicting, that would not only have been BRILLIANTLY interactive and well done role play (regardless of who won or lost), but whoever won or lost...I'd back up the role play. Because the reality is...corrupt governments DO sometimes stick it to the citizens. The trick of government, IMO, is not necessarily not to be evil ...rather it is to not be PERCEIVED as evil, and if so, of such a minor level that it's generally more effort to remove them from office than to just go with some of the minor exploitation that governments are famed for.