Twenty four hours rule
Rules of Engagement are one of the 5 golden rules of Arelith servers. The following are few explanations and clarifications for it.
There are two applications of this rule, both related to player versus player conflict. The first is about killing and the second is for theft. Rules and tips about events before PvP are described in article Player versus player rule.
Death from PvP
If you engage in a player versus player conflict with someone and either of you dies, then do not interact with the other character for 24 Real life hours. You may run into each other by accident, but in that case, it's the responsibility of each player to quickly and quietly take their character somewhere else. This helps with the RP that someone did, in fact, die, and takes them out of the conflict for a while, without forcing anything as drastic as a permadeath on any player. It also gives everyone a chance to cool off a little, and avoid the nasty little scenario where the dead person immediately comes back for revenge, someone dies, they come back, wash, rinse, repeat. We highly encourage you to resist the desire to rush right back in to "finish business." Each player will be held accountable for their own actions in such matters.
The 24-hour rule applies to group conflicts as well. Regardless of who struck the blows, if the PvP event involved groups and/or sides, then any and all individuals involved in the incident must abide by the no-interaction-for-24-hours rule. The 24 hour rule begins on death (entering the fugue) this means that resurrected individuals can't join back into the fight. Joining back into the fight includes healing/buffing allies, calling for help for allies, and attacking or hindering foes.
It is against rules to raise corpse of "enemy" character for future interaction after PvP without prior agreement.
- If you wish to continue to interact with the killed PC, you must agree on it. If you raise someone, without the other character explicitly agreeing to it, it's against the rule. Note the word explicitly. That means, that 'silence means yes', is not valid here.
- As PvP almost always get some player upset, it's very important that both parts try to calm down. (Hence the 24 hours). From experience I can tell, that players acting whilst still upset, create loads of screenies and PMs to the DMs.
- Advice (by all means, nothing you need to follow): If you feel angry, and feel that you are unable to calm down, log off, take a walk, do something else. Don't start sending angry tells to the other player. If you think there was a rule's break, screenie, and contact the DMs. If you feel that you hurt the other player, and believe yourself calm, try to apologize to the other player."
- As a suggestion, if you do accept an offer of resurrection from the person/group that killed you, remember that you may now be their prisoner and consider refraining from playing any escape or rescue attempts for a while to let the narrative draw out.
Theft and PvP
The rules indicates that no character can successfully steal from the same player twice in one 24-hour period. This includes, but is not limited to, stealing gold from a dead corpse (whether you caused the death or not), disarming a weapon, and of course, pickpocketing.
Assassins
Characters with Assassin levels are allowed to ignore this rule on their assassination contract. An assassin is allowed to attack and ambush their contract's mark within twenty four hours after offering sufficient roleplay with them.