Rules

Arelith Rules

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Rules are put in place to keep the enjoyment of Arelith community. There are only 5 rules on Arelith servers. Sometimes they are called the Golden Rules. Note that there are separate articles about Wiki rules and Forum rules.

The following are rules that all players agree to abide when entering the Arelith server. Players are responsible at all times for abiding by the rules of Arelith and role playing, and will be held accountable to them. Please, make sure that you read and understand thoroughly each of the 5 player rules, and if there is a question, don't hesitate to ask (e.g. on forums). For more explanations and specifics see articles listed here.

Arelith staff enforce these rules stringently to provide a richer, fuller RP experience. The rules are vague on purpose. For example, there is no definitive line between griefing and good roleplay. DMs will apply judgment with good sense, and players should too. Arelith rules do not function on Zero-Sum ('black or white') mentality, instead following the spirit of the rules, not the letter. Ruling example can demonstrate that.

First of all, please address questions about specific incidences with DMs, privately.

The most current version of rules can be found in game in players' Journal at all times.

Rule 1: Role Play We expect you to Role Play here. OOC and // talk are not allowed. Stay in character, which is what happens on the game server, not 'offline' (forums, chat services, voice, etc). Famous characters, using unearned titles, or using external software to modify the physical appearance of your character (including headpaks) is prohibited. Also note, that character names, skin tones, etc. can be rejected at DM's discretion and if asked, you are expected to remake without complaint. Similarly, if your character concept is harmful to the immersion of the world (e.g. you're playing Drizzt) you will be asked to delete and start over with a different concept.

On Talking Animals

We do not find speaking in common while shapeshifted to a wolf appropriate RP, Totem Druids are not talking animals. If you want to play a talking animal, please use a major reward.

DM Titania

"If you want to talk common whilst in animal shape? You can. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing against the rules.

However, it's often seen as a little lazy and may have a slight effect on your rpr. Not to say we'd necessarily drop someone's rpr over it, but I wouldn't think very highly of someone who was just talking in common whilst being an animal. Using emotes, animal language, or just being more creative will earn you far more RPR kudos than just speaking common like normal.

But that's really all there is to it."

DM Grumpycat

On Roleplaying Children

On Arelith, it is not permitted to emote the presence of a baby or under-age child. While such references can exist in the universe of a player character's personal development and history, children must always be off-camera and not present in a live roleplay scene. This includes pregnancy and unborn children.

It is, of course, still permitted to interact with child NPCs and characters spawned and played by DMs. As always, the rules regarding friendly NPCs apply.

Pindrop

• Roleplay Rule
• Famous Names, Titles, and Modified Appearances
• Psychic Powers
• Slavery

RULE 2: Abide by the Rules of Engagement

"Combat actions and political actions (using our Citizenship System) against other PC's (PvP) MUST BE INTERACTIVELY ROLE PLAYED. That means you interact, they interact, etc: BEFORE any action occurs. No exceptions. Thus you must INTERACT DIRECTLY with a player before issuing an EXILE or a Pariah status, or evoking a shop or ANY OTHER POLITICAL ACTION. NO EXCEPTIONS. No speedies or NPCs may be used in lieu of this. If your character is killed by another PC (or vice versa), you must wait one realtime day before participating in PvP or interacting in any way with that PC or other hostile PCs from the battle unless both sides explicitly agree to. You are always free to take flight from PvP. Having an opposite or evil alignment is not sufficient reason for PvP action. Before attacking another player the dislike/hostile state must be activated."

Do not raise anyone from the dead while in combat with other players. If you or your party killed someone, it requires the express permission of the dead player to resurrect them. If you cannot contact them through tells because they have -notells enabled, you are out of luck. This waives the twenty-four-hour rule. However, you should not raise someone just to kill them again without a good reason for doing so.

A small addendum for exiles as per DM Ruling:

If you don't have a pcs name, and you want to exile them - then you can kill them and show the registrar their body/head, and that will do instead. But also exile rp has to precede this - so they need to be told they're being exiled by the person doing the exiling, then someone has to kill them, then their body/head brought to the registrar This should not be done lightly: Every effort should be made beforehand to get the name. This exception is only allowed to prevent the use of disguise to prevent any exile consequences from those who never give their real name.

• Player versus Player Rule
• Twenty-Four Hours Rule
• Sailing

Settlement Raids

All settlement raids must be DM approved, and overseen. These are the requirements to conduct a settlement raid:

   * Players must submit a request to the Active DM team on the forum with a minimum one week RL notice and wait for approval or rejection.
   * In the request, you must detail what roleplay it is generating, what purpose it serves and what people are planned to be involved.
   * You should put as much effort in to make it clear to the DM team that both sides can have the most fun out of it – not just to stomp all over your opposition.

As a reminder, a one-line DM channel notification that a raid is going to happen is not enough. And those continuing to raid without permission will be handed punishments accordingly. We are all attempting to tell a story and have fun, let us not ruin it by breaching the rules.

Note: A DM will likely reject continued raids on the same settlement and offer some peace to players enjoyment. We do not just want endless requests to raid.

Further: For the purpose of this rule, any NPC populated area counts as "a settlement". That includes: Arcane Tower, various Castles/Watchtowers, Lighthouses, Ports, Outlying Inns, etc. In short: You see NPCs wandering about a place you wish to attack, get DM approval.

Grumpy Cat's Update:

A 'Raid' is an attack on the structure and NPCs of a settlement. Which is to say – any attack that /knowingly/ targets a settlements npc population and structures – as opposed to the pc population, should be done only with DM supervision – and with an application to the DM team (as the above post outlines.) Targeting NPCs and rping attacking a settlement without permission may be deemed a rules breach.

PC attacks on other pcs in a settlement are not deemed raids. HOWEVER if the force attacking is large (say over 5 pcs) we STRONGLY suggest you do so only with a DM's permission and oversight, and ideally you should refrain from large scale conflicts in settlement areas entirely. Such attacks can end up involving, and being at the cost of, uninvolved, low level PCs. Being killed by a mob of 20 people at level 8 for being in the wrong place at the wrong time is no fun for anyone.

We understand such things can happen 'on the spur' of the moment – as rescue operations for example – but a DM presence is vital for a) Ensuring all rules are kept and b) allowing NPCs to properly respond. So please, if you intend to attack PCs in a settlment with a large force – seek DM oversight and remember to respect the presence of NPCs, with or without Dms.

Whilst we are laxing the rules on what counts on a 'Raid' we will still be monitoring people property respecting the presence of NPCs. Though who repeatedly and blatantly fail to respect them will find their rpr lowered, and possibly a MoD given out.

Small Addendum

This really shouldn't need saying, but the above really goes double for monster races attacking surface settlments. Please don't do this unless you have DM oversite and Permission.

RULE 3: No Excessive Theft

"Stealing more than ONCE per real time day from the same player is prohibited and will result in painful penalties, or worse. Stealing 'once' means one successful item or gold theft. One item means one stack of items - so you can steal 99 stacked arrows, or one bow. Please note, that stealing or destroying someone's furnishings is considered griefing if more than ONE piece is damaged/stolen. Please use the pickpocket skill with extreme caution, as there can be dire consequences when used wrong."

• No Excessive Theft Rule

RULE 4: Be Civil

"Unwarranted rudeness, potentially offensive role play, inappropriate sexual references, foul language, harassment, killing non-hostile NPCs without DM supervision, and poor gamesmanship (including wanton destruction, griefing of any kind, exploiting known or unknown bugs, transferring items, logging to avoid consequences, etc) are prohibited.

Quarters and Be Nice

To conserve server resources for all, ownership of game property is limited per PLAYER (not character, CD key, login name, etc. Player. Real, flesh and blood player)."

• Any number of temporary property (marked as such. Please be very considerate with quantity of temp property.)
• 1 permanent shop If that shop has a quarter attached to it, then that counts as your 1 quarter & 1 shop and you may not own an additional quarter or shop!)
• 1 quarter (Vaults count as quarters) or 1 guild house (And a single quarter inside of the guild house, if it has one)
• Ships count as a guild house, unless it has no quarters, in which case, it counts as a quarter.
• Slaves or Outcasts may not own quarters/shops in surface settlements
• Slaves may only allowed to own quarters in the Slave Pits, or if they own a room in a guild house owned by their Master.

Exception: If you own a Guild house, you may own a quarter inside that guild house.

Read more at: Quarter Rules

Rule 5: Keep Content 'T'

Arelith is not an 'M'-rated server; all behavior should be consistent with a 'T'-rated game. This includes, but is not limited to:

1. No sexual content, either in the form of explicit content or content intended for sexual gratification. Use appropriate restraint with any 'intimate' RP. Additionally, themes of rape/nonconsent are COMPLETELY forbidden.

2. No severe or excessive swearing. Use moderation and good sense. Real-world racial or other slurs/etc. are COMPLETELY forbidden.

3. No excessive gore, graphic violence, or 'torture porn.' You can allude to it, but don't go into hideous detail. Suicide and suicidal themes also fall under umbrella: don't bring it into the game.

4. Not specific to 'T'-rated content but relevant, pregnancy/children should not be roleplayed here.

If you're not sure whether something is appropriate to say or emote outright, then either don't do it or write around it.

Expanding on Swearing

it's allowed in small doses. Using that word (or Shite, Shyte etc) is fine very, very occasionally (maybe two or three times per IRL month) but not on a regular basis. As others have pointed out, it's kind of impossible to get exactly the same psychological "punch" out of some mild swear words as you do from the 'usual' ones. This is because swear words are taboo and inherently not PG-13. That's... sort of the point.

But most people understand that, and it's very possible to get a character sounding crude without breaking the PG-13 rule. I will say that any "swear" word that's used by the voice set is fine. (Hells, damn, bugger, blast bloody, etc) Other mild swear words are also alright if used in extreme scarcity. (e.g. shit) the F-bomb and a certain four-letter word beginning with C are not to be used here.

So basically, you're never going to get the same "punch" as if you used some of the harsher swear words - but on the other hand, if you do use those it will no longer be PG-13 (it can't be, by its nature.) So this is just something to accept.

DM Grumpycat

We've been over whether or not we can use certain words considered "strong language", and you have your answer: Avoid it.

DM Rakshasa

A good guideline is if the curse word isn't in voice sets or the campaign don't use it excessively. FR Flavor curse words are great and perfectly acceptable.

Avoid/use sparingly the F-word and its fe- variation please (It's literally just the F-word). I try to be slightly on the relaxed about this as I can personally, but excessive use will have you see my gossamer wings up close. I don't need to go through a whole list of what qualifies as just as extensive, but in general again: FR curses/made up swearing is great. Strong modern swearing avoid.

DM Titania

If you want to swear IC, use something creative and setting appropriate, and avoid words that you wouldn't (or shouldn't) use in front of a family with kids.

Mithreas

Rule On Offensive Images

The posting of images of WELL-KNOWN mass murderers; serial killers; sex offenders; war criminals; et cetera with the intent of humor is not welcome. WELL-KNOWN indicates that both the poster and all responders KNOW and UNDERSTAND the person's identity. The poster may be assumed to know the identity of the person used. Responders may or may not know this identity and can expect either a conversation with moderation or an immediate ban pending investigation. AS OF DECEMBER 19 2017, offending players will be banned and removed from forum and game with no chance of repeal.

Irongron

• Switching Characters Rule
• Metagaming
• God-Emoting
• Griefing
• Muling

RULE 6: Listen to the DMs

"The Dungeon Masters are to be considered the final authority in any dispute, question, or issue that comes up, and by playing on Arelith, you agree to abide by their decisions. If there is a dispute with a DM ruling, or if you feel you've been dealt with unfairly, OBEY THE RULING at the time, and then contact the lead DM and they will resolve it. Send any complaints or compliments to them by PM on the forums."

• Listen to the DMs

Consequences

"Disregarding any of these rules will result in punitive disciplinary actions up to and including permanent removal from the Arelith community if it is deemed necessary for the community as a whole."

On Rules, Rulings and Shadow Rules

There are huge differences between a rule, a ruling and a shadow rule.

The 5 Golden Rules are the rules on Arelith that every player agrees to obey on entering. These rules are universal.

A ruling is something one or more DMs make, based on these 5 Golden Rules. This is done in a specific situation, towards specific player(s), and with specific knowledge of the specific circumstances. These are what are called "case by case situations". The DMs will always try to make clear which rule is violated, how and why.

A shadow rule is something that some players (incorrectly) believe are rules. The most common reason for the spread of shadow rules is that one or more players generalize one or more specific rulings into a rule, believing that said "rule" is universally valid in any situation. Many cases are alike, and the DMs might come to the same ruling for several different similar cases. Nevertheless, such a ruling should not be perceived as a universal rule. Spreading shadow rules is not very different from rumour mongering, and it's not advisable to do so. Always confirm with a DM or a dev.

Rule Waivering

(Read thoroughly)

The rules exist to protect the community and limit incidents that may occur, as many players can be passionate or feel personally attacked for actions that may happen IC. However, not all the rules are necessarily set in iron. If all the players involved in certain situation don't feel the need to be protected by certain rule, they may OOCly agree to be exempt from it.

As example, normally you can only steal from a target once every 24 hours, but two rogues may have stealing contest from one another, or even organize a stealing event. In the latter case, a DM is better contacted. As long as everybody involved knows (OOCly) that the rule is going to be waivered for the sake of RP and everybody is fine with it, there's no harm done, and the rule is safely ignored.

If your actions are going to affect a third party that is not present at the moment, it is better to assume that their consent is not given.

It's also adviceable that you take a screenshot of the chat the moment you agree to waiver your personal protection for safe-keeping, and confirmation with the DM Team should a situation get out of control.

Remember that waivering a rule is an act of OOC cooperation. If you feel that the RP goes in a direction that you are not willing to follow, you should inform any player involved that you don't want to be exempt from the rule anymore.

Be mindful that some rules may never be waivered (cybering, muling), and others exist in a permanent grey zone (metagaming, god-emoting).

As always, don't game the system. Don't think in how something is technically not breaking a rule. Use your own intuition to discern what is fine and what is not, and if that fails you, ask around. The players and the DMs both will fill the gap.

Contesting a Ruling

Any ruling can be brought to the administration team for review, if you think you were treated unfairly or not given an adequate understanding of why there was issue. They will take a second review of the ruling and follow up as they see fit, from enforcing the ruling to undoing it. There are no higher powers to which you can appeal.