Policy
Everyone loves policies. Here are ours. (Also feel free to check out the Privacy Policy.)
General
Roleplay Environment
The game is considered RP-Enforced, meaning player characters should always stay in-character unless in an explicitly OOC room, such as the Mysterious Room used by GMs to have OOC conversations with players, or the Mentor Lounge where mentors can give OOC advice and guidance to other players. Such rooms will have an "OOC" designation next to their name. Another exception would be specifically OOC communication tools such as the #QUESTION channel or usage of the tell command.
Multi-accounting
Playing multiple characters/accounts at the same time is not allowed. Playing multiple accounts from the same location is blocked by default, but if there is a situation where multiple people in the same house want to play the game together, please send an email to clok@contrarium.net explaining the situation with the subject line of: CLOK multiplaying
Alt Characters
Each account is limited to 3 active characters that can be switched between on the fly (but not played simultaneously). If a player wishes to make a new character but already has 3 active on their account, they may temporarily shelve one of their active characters to be unshelved again 30 days later.
It is not okay to transfer money, items, IC-acquired knowledge, or any other goods or services between alternate characters, regardless of method (dropping and switching characters, mailing, giving to another player's character who then transfers it to one's alt, or any other chain of events that results in such). Alternate characters must remain completely separate from one another.
Scripting
Scripting is allowed, so long as the player remains responsive. In other words: No AFK scripting. If subjected to a script check and found to be unresponsive, a player may penalized with an ASP (AFK Scripting Penalty) or, in the case of particularly egregious or repeated offenses, reduction of experience and skills, the locking of a character, or other consequences to be determined by staff.
Bugs & Bug Abuse
Bugs happen. Sometimes bugfixes will be accompanied by actions going toward reversing what the bug caused. For instance, a bug that caused twice the amount of skill gained from an activity might result in the reduction of skill for characters who benefitted from the bug. Similarly, a bug that caused too much money to be earned might result in involved characters having their bank accounts reduced. (On this note, a good rule of thumb is: "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is - so bug report it, just to be safe.")
Intentionally abusing a bug for any kind of benefit is grounds for punishment. An example might be a bug that causes a character to receive twice the amount of money that the game text describes when looting a creature, an action duplicating an item, or being able to see a hidden character's actions when that character should obviously be hidden from the viewer. Please use the bug command to report a bug and then avoid it until the bug is fixed (notifications are sent to those who submit bug reports when said bug reports are addressed).
Language/Vulgarity
Language and vulgarity are matters that can be easily moderated to help keep the game more enjoyable for a wide audience. As such, please avoid using the nastier curse/swear words or offensive real-world slang and slurs. The game will attempt to catch and replace common cases with in-genre equivalents in IC situations, but this unfortunately does not extend to any related third-party channels such as Discord, where users are encouraged to abide by the same guidelines.
Harassment
Players are expected to handle their own personal problems. If someone is using game mechanics to harass another player and make the game unplayable for them, that may be looked into. If a player is being made fun of, teased, or other such things, players are expected to be mature enough to handle that on their own. Remember that everything that goes on in game should be considered in-character, save for private OOC communications such as the chat channels and tells - in the latter case, a player may simply squelch or ignore another harassing player's OOC communications.
On the other hand: Players are expected to be respectful to one another. The above does not in any way excuse disrespectful or mean-spirited OOC behavior, and cases of such will be handled as deemed necessary on a case-by-case basis.
ERP (Erotic Roleplay)
It should be noted that the developer of this game does not want the game to have a reputation for being an ERP hub. If it occurs naturally between characters that is one thing, but please exercise both restraint and common courtesy to the community in this regard. Players who are interested primarily in ERP should find another community to join. That is not what this community is meant to be about, and the developer actively dislikes the idea of this becoming a primary or defining trait of this game or its community. If it ever starts to look like that's where the game or its community is headed, the policy will be updated to a simple "ERP is not allowed in this game" statement. Until then, ERP is allowed so long as it follows the below guidelines:
- ERP must be restricted to private rooms that other player characters cannot accidentally enter (in other words, keep it to rented inn rooms).
- All parties must consent to the scene both IC and OOC.
- Non-consensual ERP is not allowed for any reason, not even in private rooms, not even if all parties consent OOC.
- ERP involving minors (either the player or the character) is not allowed for any reason, not even in private rooms, not even if all parties consent OOC.
Player Character RP & Background
- All player characters must be considered adults both physically and mentally. Characters that could be construed as minors based on either physical age or mental ability/maturity are not allowed. A key point of this is that a character must be able to be fully aware of the decisions they're making and capable of making them for themselves as adults, and be portrayed as such.
- Note that the game does not allow choosing an age younger than 20. Please do not attempt to somehow circumvent this restriction via roleplay, as it will be considered breaking the above policy.
- Characters with backstory conditions resulting in significant functional impairment (physical or mental) are not allowed. Developments of certain fantasy conditions (such as being nethertouched, infested, canim, etc.) are done on GM initiative and should not be assumed as part of backstory.
- Keep in mind that the Undying condition is a phenomenon that only happens within the geographical region of the Lost Lands. The exact range and borders of applicability are not known, but backstories should not include a character dying outside the Lost Lands and returning as an Undying. (Note: The range does include part of the ocean bordered by the Lost Lands, so death at sea in the area is within bounds.)
- Various pieces of lore have been included in the wiki/helpfiles, and while it's not expected that players can know all the lore of the game world, the player should do their due diligence in investigating the particular lore elements involved in their backstory. Backstories that directly contradict the game's lore are prohibited. Avoid speculative involvement or details regarding any events or factions that seem deliberately mysterious, vague, or speculative themselves. Avoid personal involvement in major governmental/religious positions or historic events.
- Immortals are acknowledged enough in the game's world that they should be considered at least potentially real, but in any case they would be powerful entities outside the scope of the role of player characters. Roleplaying as an Immortal, even one who is "in disguise" amongst mortals, is not allowed.
- There are many takes and perspectives on the various known Immortals based on geography and culture, and it is fine to take up more unique takes on Immortals so long as it is not too divergent from their known core and common traits. Please avoid inventing completely new Immortals, however.
Staff reserves the right to make judgment calls on all of the above. Not being aware of any of the above, or policies not being specifically written out at the time of a character's creation, is a regrettable circumstance but will still require either some fixes to the backstory or a retiring of the offending character if a retcon seems unacceptable for whatever reason. The game's lore will not be altered to accommodate divergent backstories.
CvC/PvP
CvC (Character vs Character) is part of the game, and there is no way to mechanically opt out and be immune to it. That said, there ares policies in place in order to moderate the CvC that occurs in the interest of preventing CvC from long-term ruining a target's enjoyment of the game. These policies are likely to evolve and update more often than other policies. As with all policy changes, updates will be announced in-game and on the BBS.
Assaults need a reason
Randomly attacking other PCs is not allowed. Attacking another PC should have a solid and believable reason behind it, and that reason should be specific to the target. Nothing so broad as, say, "my character is an insane psychopath and just attacks everyone".
On the flip side: Potential targets should learn to walk away. If a threat is made and the target reacts dismissively or aggressively, it should come as no surprise when the situation escalates and the one making the threat follows through by attacking the one they threatened. If a player wishes to avoid CvC, a valuable tool to that end is learning to avoid letting themselves be baited into escalating a situation. (All this said, attackers should still have a believable reason for making threats in the first place.)
One kill per incident
If a situation has escalated to the point that one player character has felt justified in killing another, let that death be the end of the incident. A second attempted kill should require a new instigating reason leading to that, and again, must be a solid and believable reason with substance to it. There should never be an "immediate kill on sight from now on" situation. If a situation has escalated to the point where a character has formed such a powerful and lasting grudge that they feel they would want to attack another person on sight, at the very least the other character should be given warnings (even in the form of threats) and a chance to flee the situation if they don't wish to fight. Attackers should give their targets the opportunity to respect and react accordingly to the attacker's proven capability to follow through on threats. Targets should learn to avoid further pressing those who have defeated them in the past.
Corpses and recovery
As is stated in-game when starting to drag a PC corpse: "As a general rule, only drag player character corpses if you are sincerely intending to help. Otherwise, leave it where it is. All instances of dragging player corpses are logged."
Killers should not "corpse camp" - that is, remain near their target's corpse with any intent to prevent or discourage the target from being rescued/revived. If the attacker continues to harbor any desires to further harm or impede their target in any way, they should leave the scene upon the death of the target and await a new incident where the roleplay of the conflict situation can be continued after the target has had time to recover.
On the flip side: If a character has been killed in CvC, they should avoid immediately insulting, taunting, threatening, or prodding their killer (most likely to happen over ESP). To do so would be to give their killer reason to continue the conflict rather than give their victim time to recover, making these policies more difficult to justify. At the very least, an offended victim is advised to wait until after they've managed to get their gear back before engaging in any communications with their killer.
Keep it IC (in-character)
CvC situations can get heated. Avoid letting it spill over into out-of-character feelings against the other player. If harassment or a breach of policy is suspected, report it via the report command. Do not take it to public OOC channels. In the case of reports, please be patient and keep in mind that staff are not always around to immediately respond to a situation, but know that reports are always taken seriously. If there are grievances between the two parties that one or the other wishes to discuss OOC, this should be done directly via the tell command and not on public OOC channels where it is likely to cause unnecessary community drama.
