Basic Rules -
Give the Immortals the respect they are due. These are people who dedicate a portion of their time specifically to making this realm a better place for everyone at no profit, save for the players enjoyment. If an Immortal gives you an answer or judgment, do not go behind that Immortals back to ask another Immortal the same question to try and get a better result: this will only make things worse for you. If you feel you have been treated unfairly by an Immortal, send a log of the incident in question to the Immortal staff or appropriate council head. A fake log will result in banning.
Always follow directions given to you by an Immortal or IMP. If you disagree with the directions given, leave the game or end the conversation, then write a note to Imm stating your concerns. Logging in with a different character to do either of these actions is permitted but logging in an alt to continue an argument is NOT, and this will result in additional penalties. In this kind of situation it is usually better to log out and take some time to calm down. Remember, Immortals are, in reality, human too, and they're just as capable of becoming frustrated as you are, so do not go out of your way to inflame a situation.
Always follow directions given to you by an Immortal or IMP. If you disagree with the directions given, leave the game or end the conversation, then write a note to Imm stating your concerns. Logging in with a different character to do either of these actions is permitted but logging in an alt to continue an argument is NOT, and this will result in additional penalties. In this kind of situation it is usually better to log out and take some time to calm down. Remember, Immortals are, in reality, human too, and they're just as capable of becoming frustrated as you are, so do not go out of your way to inflame a situation.
IC Behavior Rules -
Swearing (cursing, vulgarities, whatever you are accustomed to calling words that are not for use in polite company) is allowed, but do so in moderation. Again, this calls for common sense. Do NOT swear in a manner that insults other OOC players: this is considered harassment and is not acceptable.
A player who has gone LD (Link-dead) or AFK (Away-From-Keyboard) should be considered nonexistent in an IC sense. Do not steal from, PK (Player-Kill), or otherwise negatively impact a character that is LD or AFK. (see help linkdead)
While we realize that not all Gathering players use English as their primary language, we ask that you use English to converse when you are speaking IC. This makes communication easier for most players and allows the language system to work correctly: if two characters are speaking Demonic, but one is speaking Japanese and the other is speaking English, they aren't really speaking the same language, are they? To keep things clear, English is the baseline language for the IC world. (see help rp-policy)
Do not summon or otherwise draw aggressive mobs to the main city plazas or cast utterdark in them, as these actions are potentially lethal to low level characters and can be confusing to new players. If you want to RP with these elements, do it in a less populated area.
A player who has gone LD (Link-dead) or AFK (Away-From-Keyboard) should be considered nonexistent in an IC sense. Do not steal from, PK (Player-Kill), or otherwise negatively impact a character that is LD or AFK. (see help linkdead)
While we realize that not all Gathering players use English as their primary language, we ask that you use English to converse when you are speaking IC. This makes communication easier for most players and allows the language system to work correctly: if two characters are speaking Demonic, but one is speaking Japanese and the other is speaking English, they aren't really speaking the same language, are they? To keep things clear, English is the baseline language for the IC world. (see help rp-policy)
Do not summon or otherwise draw aggressive mobs to the main city plazas or cast utterdark in them, as these actions are potentially lethal to low level characters and can be confusing to new players. If you want to RP with these elements, do it in a less populated area.
OOC Behavior Rules -
When speaking in OOC terms or on OOC channels, do NOT use language, insults, or titles that are offensive to a race, gender, religious belief, or similar idea. While IC bigotry is acceptable on some levels (goblins hating elves and vice versa, for example), it should be kept to a minimal level. Constant harassment of a character and excessive spamming are considered OOC abuse and are not acceptable, and these are by no means the only forms of insulting OOC behavior that may incur penalties. Out of character threats/insults/racist comments/etc. will result in penalties up to and including being booted and banned from the game and archive. Your ISP may also be notified. If you are unsure of whether or not something you have in mind will be considered offensive, ask an Immortal. Think before you speak.
Do not spam socials or emotes for experience: this will result in your experience being docked, among other possible penalties for repeat offenses. Do not spam any command in a way detrimental to others. Remember that common courtesy is a good thing.
Do not Multi-play. This includes, but is not limited to:
- logging in multiple players at the same time
- transferring gold or items from one of your characters to another in any way, shape or form, by any method, real or imagined, RP or not.
- using a character to cast spells on one of your other characters or their equipment (even if one is linkdead) If two of your characters are seen on at the same classed as multi-playing. Penalties can include character deletion and/or a site ban. If you believe you play in circumstances that warrant multi-playing, discuss your situation with Immortal staff BEFORE you multi-play.
Please keep In Character (IC) and Out of Character (OOC) actions separate. Use the correct channels at all times (ie: do not refer to experience levels on an IC channel). Do not use information gained through OOC communication to help your character IC: remember, you know more than your character. Please keep in mind that this is a GAME, and our primary purpose is roleplay.
Abuse of bugs is cheating and will not be tolerated. If you encounter a bug, report it to Immortals IMMEDIATELY. Failure to do so constitutes abuse, along with exploiting the bug or giving information on how to exploit it. If you are unsure of whether or not an anomaly you have experienced is a bug or simply a fluke, send a note to Imm regarding what occurred, just to be on the safe side. Logs can be your friend in this situation.
Your presence here is a privilege, not a right. Poor behavior is not tolerated: behave in a mature adult-like manner and you will be fine.
Do not TROLL. This means you may not advertise or even attempt to recruit for another mud. The penalty for disregarding this rule is a site ban.
On the OOC global channel, DO NOT:
-argue or debate in a heated fashion (take it to tells or a private room)
-ask IC questions (ie: Where are the training fields?). If you have IC questions ask them in character or ask on the question/answer channel.
-see help swear for words deemed as too offensive for OOC chatter.
Do not spam socials or emotes for experience: this will result in your experience being docked, among other possible penalties for repeat offenses. Do not spam any command in a way detrimental to others. Remember that common courtesy is a good thing.
Do not Multi-play. This includes, but is not limited to:
- logging in multiple players at the same time
- transferring gold or items from one of your characters to another in any way, shape or form, by any method, real or imagined, RP or not.
- using a character to cast spells on one of your other characters or their equipment (even if one is linkdead) If two of your characters are seen on at the same classed as multi-playing. Penalties can include character deletion and/or a site ban. If you believe you play in circumstances that warrant multi-playing, discuss your situation with Immortal staff BEFORE you multi-play.
Please keep In Character (IC) and Out of Character (OOC) actions separate. Use the correct channels at all times (ie: do not refer to experience levels on an IC channel). Do not use information gained through OOC communication to help your character IC: remember, you know more than your character. Please keep in mind that this is a GAME, and our primary purpose is roleplay.
Abuse of bugs is cheating and will not be tolerated. If you encounter a bug, report it to Immortals IMMEDIATELY. Failure to do so constitutes abuse, along with exploiting the bug or giving information on how to exploit it. If you are unsure of whether or not an anomaly you have experienced is a bug or simply a fluke, send a note to Imm regarding what occurred, just to be on the safe side. Logs can be your friend in this situation.
Your presence here is a privilege, not a right. Poor behavior is not tolerated: behave in a mature adult-like manner and you will be fine.
Do not TROLL. This means you may not advertise or even attempt to recruit for another mud. The penalty for disregarding this rule is a site ban.
On the OOC global channel, DO NOT:
-argue or debate in a heated fashion (take it to tells or a private room)
-ask IC questions (ie: Where are the training fields?). If you have IC questions ask them in character or ask on the question/answer channel.
-see help swear for words deemed as too offensive for OOC chatter.
PK Rules -
Here at The Gathering... we have pkill (or player killing) enabled. While it is a feature, pkills are not taken lightly. There is a list of rules for it and these can be found in (help pk-rules) and (help pk-reason). Player killing works much like mob killing, with attacks and spells, skill usage and everything that goes along with combat. Unlike mob fighting though, every pkill must have an IC reason behind it, and after every pkill ALL parties involved must write a pknote within 2 hours of the pkill.
Everyone begins at character creation with a peaceful status, and will not be pkable until they either go active (help active) or join a religion. If you wish to join or remain in a religion, or if you're active and wish to no longer partake in pkilling, you may obtain a tattoo of serenity from the questmaster. This will protect you from pkilling, but if your character does things to ICly deserve PK and you're hiding behind serenity, the immortals might flag you as unprotected, which will override your serenity and allow you to be pkilled.
Once you are pkilled, your corpse will remain at the pkill location, and will not be moved to the morgue. If this is the characters last death, the killer may loot your corpse of equipment. Quest items, babies and items from the divine armory are protected from looting.
The exception to the required pknotes, and an exception to pk in general are arena rooms. These are rooms with a special flag (not just the word 'arena' in the room name), and in these rooms, pk will last until one of the players reaches 0 hp, and then the fighting will stop and the defeated player will have 1 hp returned. This type of arena combat does not require any reasoning or pk noting, unless the pk actively interferes with rp going on in the room.
Whether actual pkilling, or arena pkilling, there is a 20 level difference range. Meaning you cannot pkill someone more than 20 levels lower, or 20 levels higher than you are.
When pkilling, it will not count as an IC death unless all parties agree ahead of time that it could result in an IC kill, just as with roleplay fights. If this is the case and it is an IC kill, please include that information in your pknote.
Everyone begins at character creation with a peaceful status, and will not be pkable until they either go active (help active) or join a religion. If you wish to join or remain in a religion, or if you're active and wish to no longer partake in pkilling, you may obtain a tattoo of serenity from the questmaster. This will protect you from pkilling, but if your character does things to ICly deserve PK and you're hiding behind serenity, the immortals might flag you as unprotected, which will override your serenity and allow you to be pkilled.
Once you are pkilled, your corpse will remain at the pkill location, and will not be moved to the morgue. If this is the characters last death, the killer may loot your corpse of equipment. Quest items, babies and items from the divine armory are protected from looting.
The exception to the required pknotes, and an exception to pk in general are arena rooms. These are rooms with a special flag (not just the word 'arena' in the room name), and in these rooms, pk will last until one of the players reaches 0 hp, and then the fighting will stop and the defeated player will have 1 hp returned. This type of arena combat does not require any reasoning or pk noting, unless the pk actively interferes with rp going on in the room.
Whether actual pkilling, or arena pkilling, there is a 20 level difference range. Meaning you cannot pkill someone more than 20 levels lower, or 20 levels higher than you are.
When pkilling, it will not count as an IC death unless all parties agree ahead of time that it could result in an IC kill, just as with roleplay fights. If this is the case and it is an IC kill, please include that information in your pknote.
General Sex-related Rules -
No character under the IC age of 14 is allowed to have ANY form of sex. This means that if your character is the age of 1-13 years of age In Character, then they are not to have sex. Ages 14 and up only. Your personal preference in the matter is irrelevant: this rule is in place for a reason. Respect it. Also, this rule IS NOT WAIVED by the underage character's consent!
Additionally, if YOU are under 18, you are NOT allowed to do any sort of sexual RP! Wait until you're of legal age. If you are caught doing so, there will be consequences to your actions.
Never sexually harass anyone! (If the harassment is consensual, don't do it in public, as others may still be offended by it.) This includes IC and OOC harassment: don’t try to molest or rape another character IC if that player does not wish it to occur. Likewise, don’t harass the player directly in OOC channels or tells: it will not be tolerated.
Keep possibly offensive kinks out of popular public areas, such as city plazas. This includes most of the "harder" kinks such as IC-rape, bloodletting/mutilation, heavy bondage and S/M, incest, and the various forms of bathroom play, among others. (Yet another time when common sense is important to have on hand.)
Sex is not allowed in any form or fashion within Dragondale Square, or publicly within the cities itself.
Also, please do not advertise your character as 'rape' material on open channels. If you wish to advise of this information, please limit this exchange to tells alone.
Keep in mind that those who partake in ANY form of sexual rp (SRP), should be asking and revealing their true real life age to the person(s) they are engaging in such RP with via tells. This is an adult mud and those under 18 are again, NOT allowed to do any sort of sexual RP.
Additionally, if YOU are under 18, you are NOT allowed to do any sort of sexual RP! Wait until you're of legal age. If you are caught doing so, there will be consequences to your actions.
Never sexually harass anyone! (If the harassment is consensual, don't do it in public, as others may still be offended by it.) This includes IC and OOC harassment: don’t try to molest or rape another character IC if that player does not wish it to occur. Likewise, don’t harass the player directly in OOC channels or tells: it will not be tolerated.
Keep possibly offensive kinks out of popular public areas, such as city plazas. This includes most of the "harder" kinks such as IC-rape, bloodletting/mutilation, heavy bondage and S/M, incest, and the various forms of bathroom play, among others. (Yet another time when common sense is important to have on hand.)
Sex is not allowed in any form or fashion within Dragondale Square, or publicly within the cities itself.
Also, please do not advertise your character as 'rape' material on open channels. If you wish to advise of this information, please limit this exchange to tells alone.
Keep in mind that those who partake in ANY form of sexual rp (SRP), should be asking and revealing their true real life age to the person(s) they are engaging in such RP with via tells. This is an adult mud and those under 18 are again, NOT allowed to do any sort of sexual RP.
Staff Rules -
1) No harassing players
2) No immortal favoritism
3) No loading eq/potions/money etc for players.
4) No aiding in leveling, or PK
5) No spying on mortals without either a good RP reason behind it, or they are suspected of breaking rules.
6) Do not entrap players into breaking rules.
7) No Going out of your way to harm others RP, avoid it if you can.
8) Obey the Mortal rules and any religion rules you might be apart of.
9) No changing the stats on mortals.
10) Don't annoy the admin staff asking to be promoted or gaining access to commands you do not have.
11) Only ADMIN can dole out punishments. If there is an issue you witness, please note to ADMIN with a log of said issue with a briefing of the situation.
12) Immortals should never be bored, and if they are, shouldn't let non-immortals know.
13) If a mortal shows that you've offended them in some way, do not argue the issue with them. Drop it immediately. If it persists, note to ADMIN of the situation so that we may deal with it properly.
14) You may play mortal characters, but they should get no special treatment with the exception of being able to use immtalk.
15) Please run all large-scale RP storylines by Head of RP to ensure for the continuity of the storyline with past events and RPs.
16) Do not reveal the identity of any mortal to any mortals. This especially includes revealing to the playerbase that your mortal is played by someone who is an imm, or another imms mortal is played by an imm.
17) Imms may log up to 2 mortals at a time, along with their Imm alt. However, this does not mean that you are able to multiplay. This includes the general rping of your Alts together on a large scale. A amount of RP together is allowed, but farming XP through RP is not. To put it simple, your alt should in NO WAY benefit the other alt in any way, shape, form, or fashion. This is including, but not limited to, items, gold/silver, rpxp. If you are caught doing so, your privledge to multilog will be revoked.
18) Do not transfer mortals around for them to save them having to travel there themselves unless gathering them together for a global event.
19) Do not get equipment for other mortals.
20) Dont attempt to compenstate mortals for accidental deaths caused by an imm (i.e. moot them back the xp and set their karns back up by one.) You can get their corpse and stuff, then write a note to admin and the admin will fix them up. This includes the compensation for OOC pkills. There are many reasons for this policy the main one being that if the admin deal with it, then it will be dealt with in a consistant way. But other reasons include other more minor points like mooting their xp back increases their RPS as well as XP.
21) All quest rewards if a new or modified object must be approved by ADMIN prior to giving the item to the recipient. The procedure for doing this is creating the quest reward, writing an inote to ADMIN, then the appropriate parties writing an inote back stating the response (these inotes could also be cc'ed to rp). Using this system means everyone is aware of what is happening and we don't get mystery objects appearing in the game. note: the only exception to this rule is if the only modifications to an existing object is in the form of it being restrung or the new item is of type trash.
22) Immortals must keep up-to date on all Inotes, News, and Changes. Do not log on and make any changes that can affect mortals without first being current on all information.
23) Remember at all times we are a team, be considerate of each other. If you have a problem with how another imm is behaving, speak with them about it (if you feel confident enough to do so), Otherwise speak with the person in charge of the council they mainly work in or to ADMIN.
Above all, you should play your mortals with a higher standard of honor and doubly obey any rules, even if your alts are secret, for you represent the face of the mud. Infringements occurring while on a mortal WILL have consequences for your imm too.
Trellan is not allowed to leave/quit the mud for any reason.
Kedanna is not allowed to leave/quit the mud for any reason.
Sheylynn is not allowed to leave/quit the mud for any reason, and is required to humor Kedanna when she flirts with her.
2) No immortal favoritism
3) No loading eq/potions/money etc for players.
4) No aiding in leveling, or PK
5) No spying on mortals without either a good RP reason behind it, or they are suspected of breaking rules.
6) Do not entrap players into breaking rules.
7) No Going out of your way to harm others RP, avoid it if you can.
8) Obey the Mortal rules and any religion rules you might be apart of.
9) No changing the stats on mortals.
10) Don't annoy the admin staff asking to be promoted or gaining access to commands you do not have.
11) Only ADMIN can dole out punishments. If there is an issue you witness, please note to ADMIN with a log of said issue with a briefing of the situation.
12) Immortals should never be bored, and if they are, shouldn't let non-immortals know.
13) If a mortal shows that you've offended them in some way, do not argue the issue with them. Drop it immediately. If it persists, note to ADMIN of the situation so that we may deal with it properly.
14) You may play mortal characters, but they should get no special treatment with the exception of being able to use immtalk.
15) Please run all large-scale RP storylines by Head of RP to ensure for the continuity of the storyline with past events and RPs.
16) Do not reveal the identity of any mortal to any mortals. This especially includes revealing to the playerbase that your mortal is played by someone who is an imm, or another imms mortal is played by an imm.
17) Imms may log up to 2 mortals at a time, along with their Imm alt. However, this does not mean that you are able to multiplay. This includes the general rping of your Alts together on a large scale. A amount of RP together is allowed, but farming XP through RP is not. To put it simple, your alt should in NO WAY benefit the other alt in any way, shape, form, or fashion. This is including, but not limited to, items, gold/silver, rpxp. If you are caught doing so, your privledge to multilog will be revoked.
18) Do not transfer mortals around for them to save them having to travel there themselves unless gathering them together for a global event.
19) Do not get equipment for other mortals.
20) Dont attempt to compenstate mortals for accidental deaths caused by an imm (i.e. moot them back the xp and set their karns back up by one.) You can get their corpse and stuff, then write a note to admin and the admin will fix them up. This includes the compensation for OOC pkills. There are many reasons for this policy the main one being that if the admin deal with it, then it will be dealt with in a consistant way. But other reasons include other more minor points like mooting their xp back increases their RPS as well as XP.
21) All quest rewards if a new or modified object must be approved by ADMIN prior to giving the item to the recipient. The procedure for doing this is creating the quest reward, writing an inote to ADMIN, then the appropriate parties writing an inote back stating the response (these inotes could also be cc'ed to rp). Using this system means everyone is aware of what is happening and we don't get mystery objects appearing in the game. note: the only exception to this rule is if the only modifications to an existing object is in the form of it being restrung or the new item is of type trash.
22) Immortals must keep up-to date on all Inotes, News, and Changes. Do not log on and make any changes that can affect mortals without first being current on all information.
23) Remember at all times we are a team, be considerate of each other. If you have a problem with how another imm is behaving, speak with them about it (if you feel confident enough to do so), Otherwise speak with the person in charge of the council they mainly work in or to ADMIN.
Above all, you should play your mortals with a higher standard of honor and doubly obey any rules, even if your alts are secret, for you represent the face of the mud. Infringements occurring while on a mortal WILL have consequences for your imm too.
Trellan is not allowed to leave/quit the mud for any reason.
Kedanna is not allowed to leave/quit the mud for any reason.
Sheylynn is not allowed to leave/quit the mud for any reason, and is required to humor Kedanna when she flirts with her.