Basic Rules

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Overview
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Master Rule

Treat everyone and this means everyone with respect!

General Rules

Rule 1

This is a roleplaying server. Players may NOT use the shout channel, and they must stay in character at all times.

Rule 2

Any play style that brings annoyance to other players, otherwise known as "griefing" will not be tolerated.

Rule 3

As in the last rule, Player Vs. Player combat is not allowed. All combat between players is CHARACTER Vs. CHARACTER, meaning it is roleplayed in game for in game reasons. Any conflict that takes place for real life reasons in the game will not be tolerated.

Rule 4

The last rule... cheating, duping, or exploitation of bugs of any kind will be punished with banning.

Collecting and Crafting

This is something that has come up recently with people carrying far too much ore for their strength.

Weight Limit

DMs will be instructed to take notice of any PC carrying more than 3 times the natural runnable carrying weight. So a PC that can run with up to 200lbs of ore, can safely carry up to 600lbs before it is deemed to be exploiting the engine.

Punishment

PCs continually exploiting in this way are likely to meet with less than pleasant encounters while they travel to the crafting equipment, so please dont do it

Disguises

Voices

If a character is always using a *disguised voice* the character can be recognised between two different times, especially if this is the only way they've been heard speaking as to the people listening it would be their usual voice.

The best way to differentiate between different disguised voices would be to include more detail in the emotes, such as

  • speaks in a disguised voice with a lisp
  • speaks in a disguised deep voice
  • speaks in a disguised bad elven accent

which can be quickslotted for ease of use. The same disguised voice used in two conversations can link the two.

so speaks in a disguised deep voice in the first and speaks in a disguised deep voice in the second is a fair assumption that it could be the same person.

whereas speaks in a disguised bad elven accent in the first and speaks in a disguised voice with a lisp is not a valid assumption that its the same person.

Keep in mind this is also pretty much irrelevant if they're always wearing the same clothes, and just changing the voices, as this allows an assumption to be made based on the clothes.

Equipment

Personally speaking if its visible on the avatar it needs to be switched. Non avatar-visible items are optional. After all how can you tell if another player has changed amulets or rings?

Heres the list of what i would expect to be changed for a character to go totally incognito.

  • Armour / robes
  • Helmet / hood
  • Shield
  • Weapons / Staff
  • Any rings / amulets / bracers /belts that emit a coloured light.

All would need to be changed to be totally disguised. Changing at least the armour and helmet is enough to create doubt that they may not the be the same person. Assumptions can be made that it may be the same person, but its by no means conclusive, and RP should reflect that.

Spells

If casting spells with an audio component the PC can be recognised if overheard casting spells again. This is because it is impossible to disguise your voice when getting the incantation correct

Metagaming, Powergaming and Exploiting

Metagaming

Metagaming is simply another term for using out of character (OOC)information rather than just the in character (IC) information your character has learnt whilst you are playing him.

Metagaming is when you think more about the way NWN works then how Arkaz works. Or OOC vs IC.

Picking stats, skills, feats, and so on are al'l examples of metagaming. When you level up, you again are metagaming, because you pick skills, feats, and so on. There can be IC reasons for what you decide, such as muticlassing because of something that happened to your character, say he now lives in the woods so you think he will develop ranger skills. But most character development is done though metagaming but this not always bad.

But it can be a bad thing, if it?s done in a way that harms or effects other PC's. The best example of this, being the whole 'floating name' issues, that has been discussed and argued over on the avlis boards many times. The floating name is completely OOC information, and using it to identify someone you don't really know or couldn't identify normally is considered a 'sin' on Arkaz.

Some examples of both good and bad Metagaming or OOC behavior; (these aren't hard and fast rules, just examples of the type of behavior so you can judge if what your doing is acceptable or not.)

Good:

  • Increasing your Int/Wis/Cha score so you can cast higher level spells.
  • Taking levels of another class, for IC reasons. (i.e. you had a religious experience and decide to take levels as a cleric.)
  • Increasing a stat, that isn't of primary use for your class, to qualify for feats that are useful to you. (i.e. Increasing Int to 13 so you can get improved knockdown)
  • Taking a feat, not for the sake of the feat, but for other feats you can now qualify for.
  • Using the floating name to identify someone you know well, but whose avatar looks like other PC's.
  • Using the Player list, to see if a friend is online at the time.
  • Using the examine option to read the bio someone has put in there.

Bad:

  • Taking levels of another class with no logical IC reason for doing so.(i.e. Your PC isn?t religious, but want to be able to cast buffs (protective spells like stoneskin) so you take levels as a cleric.)
  • Cancelling out of a level up process to get a better HP roll.
  • Using the floating name to identify someone you?ve never met before.
  • Using the Player list, to see if PC you want to attack is online at the time.
  • Using the examine option, to see what buffs someone has or what level they are.

Powergaming

Powergaming is the middle ground of the three things. Almost all forms of powergaming are frowned on, here on ARkaz, but powergaming isn't normally enough in of itself to get you banned from Arkaz. Extensive powergaming may do that, but you would have to do it a lot before it becomes an issue. However if you're busy powergaming, it's likely you?ll miss out on opportunities to roleplay, which is the focus of Arkaz.

Powergaming is generally defined as doing things for purely OOC reasons, mechanical advantages, or in game actions that are done to increase the power of your character, that makes no IC sense. It's related to metagaming because your approaching your character from the stand point of how to make her more powerful, rather then as a someone growing a character based on events that happen to her. Like metagaming, powergaming isn't always bad, it's frowned on most of the time on Arkaz, but there are a few cases where it could be over looked, or even approved of. These however are rare cases, normally reserved for low level characters. (i.e. level 1-3)

Some examples of acceptable, and unacceptable powergaming actions. (Again these aren?t hard and fast rules, just examples)

Acceptable:

  • Doing low level quests over and over again, to get your PC past the first few levels. (Doing a quest more then once isn't powergaming. But a mid to high level doing it like 10 times a night is.)
  • Hanging out in one area to kill monsters or other NPC's over and over again, at low levels, to complete quests or gain some money.
  • Going back into a area you cleared out, or respawning something you just killed, to get the final 50exp's you need to level up, when you should have been in bed an hour ago.

Unacceptable:

  • Taking a single level in a class, because of some benefit you get for having that class. (i.e. 1/19 Paladin/Sorcerer. Or taking a single level of Rogue, for the ability to pick higher then DC25 locks)
  • Finding an area that allows you to make a lot of exp's rather quickly, then spending several hours every day there, for no other reason then to gain a lot of exp's quickly. (There's nothing wrong with monster hunting, or spending several hours doing it. It's only when you stay in the same area for hours that there's a problem.)
  • Going to an area to kill NPC's or grab loot that would be against your characters beliefs in some way. (i.e. A paladin breaking into houses, or a dwarf looting a religeous area sacred to dwarves)
  • Rushing off the moment the server restarts to kill NPC's or open chests that you know drop good loot.
  • Towing, taking lower level PC's with you in your party to reduce the average party level, for no other reason than to get more exp's for yourself.
  • Spending every moment you are on Arkaz, killing monsters and gathering loot. (Again killing monsters and gathering loot, isn't bad. But if that's all you do, then there's a problem)
  • Having a really low score in one stat, so you can have a really high score in a different one. But not playing as if you had that really low score. (i.e. Having a 8 wisdom and charisma but acting as if you had a avg score in both)

Exploiting

Exploiting, is in many ways, the same thing as cheating. It is the practice of doing something you know you shouldn't be able to and then repeating it as many times as you can. In nearly every case exploiting, involves a bug of some sort, be it one created by the Arkaz staff, or one from Bioware. Anyone found exploiting, will be put on the watch list, and is likely to be banned from playing on Arkaz.

If you ever find yourself thinking That seemed way too easy for what I got or wait, He already gave me a reward because you got a reward you didn't earn, then it's likely you found something that could be exploited. We try very hard to make sure that the rewards you get are fitting to what you did. A different form of exploiting is using a trick to avoid something really bad happening. In either case you are doing something that shouldn?t be able to happen, to benefit you in some way.

There is one and only one case where doing something you think is an exploit, is acceptable, and it will be clear to us if you're doing this or not. That is testing something you think might be an exploit, to make sure what you think just happened, did in fact happen. Provided you only do it that one more time, and report it, then you won't be punished for exploiting. However a DM may still take what ever you got from it away from you. It's important to note that if you had benefited from something you think may be a bug, doesn't mean you're guilty of exploiting. It's when you keep doing it, over and over again, that you're guilty of exploiting. If you run across something that you think might be a bug, please report it so we can fix what ever is wrong.

Some examples of exploiting.

  • Hitting 'escape' and quitting the game, when you?re at negative hit points, to avoid dying and going to the after life.
  • Giving a NPC a quest item, then finding you have the option of giving it to him again, even though you don?t have it any longer.
  • Dying, and having someone grab your gear, then crashing the server so you can come back before your character is saved, so you have all your gear back, but your friend still has everything he grabbed off your corpse.
  • Logging in with a character that doesn?t belong to you. (It can happen by accident, but you need to quit as soon as you realize your not using one of your characters)
  • Giving all your gear to a friend, or leaving it in a chest, then logging into a different world, and coming back to Arkazvia a portal, so you have all your gear, plus copies of it in your chest or with your friend.
  • Finding a chest that spawns in an item that should never be there (i.e. +3 flaming long sword), and going to it every chance you get.
  • Collecting the reward for a quest you never actually finished, or even started. But because of a bug in the dialog you can collect the reward anyway.
  • Getting into a really bad situation, and logging out rather then sticking around to take what?s coming to you. (i.e. surrounded by a bunch of really tough NPC's you know will be able to kill you).
  • Logging out, then logging back in again, to restore your lost hp's and spells.
  • Finding an item needed to complete a quest, you were given some place else, logging out and logging into that server to finish the quest, rather then walking there.
  • Finding out that by doing X, Y, and Z, or because of some server glitch you become invincible, then running around and killing NPC's you would normally never stand a chance against.
  • Asking high level PC's to take you places you have no place being, then hanging way back so you can get massive amounts of exp's with doing no real work.
  • Asking low level PC's to go with you to places they have no place being, then having them hang way back so you can get a massive amount more exp's then you should normally.

Sex Crime

Roleplaying Sex Crimes on Islands is prohibited

This is a zero tolerance policy and anyone caught commiting sex crimes of any kind will be immediately banned from Islands, and the rest of the CoPaP worlds too.

This means:

  • No rape, IC or not
  • No unwanted groping, IC or not
  • No unwanted sexual attentions of any kind whatsoever, IC or not
  • No sexual contact of any kind with an IC minor
  • No sexual contact with an OOC minor

In short, IC or not, DON'T DO THESE THINGS. You will be banned WITH EXTREME PREDJUDICE!!

posting personal attacks in the forum

Posting personal attacks will do 3 things.

Watch Listing

we will move the post and add it to your watchlist if you have one...or make one if you do not.

Issue Warning

you will receive a warning. We only give so many warnings.

Banning

If you've been warned and have ignored us and this isn't the first issue get ready for a ban.

Summary

Please do not do this. I know people get mad. Hell there are times when I want to vent big time. Posting it on a public forum is not the way to do it. Even if you do not leave names, the people you are talking about probably know you are talking about them.

Illegal Static Drops or ISD’s.

Arkaz is a low magic world.

Which means you should never see a Great Sword of Uber Slaying +20

Anything giving perma haste, DR, soak, true seeing, extra spell slots and the following

Drops over +1 enchantment. Drops over +1 stat increase. Drops over +6 skill increase. Elemental damage greater than +2. No weapon that glows.

Others

By no means a comprehensive list, please use common sense as always as regards drops. If you find such an item or in doubt you have found an ISD, contact the Team, or ask a DM either online or via staff@arkaz.com.

Please remember this helps the world as a whole and will see you viewed favourably by the Team.

If you feel you have had an ISD please report it and be as precise as possible, i.e. where/when/what dropped the item, party members etc. Be as precise as possible please.

Curtesy to DMs

Remember DMs are Volunteers

All our DMs do so voluntarily, and for the fun of the players

Examples of what not to do

Asking a second DM if you can do something if the first DM told you no. Surprisingly enough the DMs do actually talk to each other.

Arguing with a DM if they tell you no.

Continuing to pester a DM if they've told you they're in the middle of DMing something, and they'll be with you shortly.

Pestering a DM to run something for you, because the DM you originally made plans with is not available / got hit by RL. We want our events to be the best possible, and so prefer not to jump into things with no prep time. It makes the event less fun for the players and the DMs involved. A simple question on the DM channel is welcome. Multiple requests with an "I came across x many servers / got up at 3am for this so i deserve to be DMed" attitude are not.

What to do if you have problems with a dm

If you have a problem with how one of the Arkaz DMs handles things an email should be sent to Alphonse@Arkaz.com

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