ules for Tales of Moonsea

Griefing:
Griefing happens when a player intentionally causes grief to other player for the sake of it. While grief is a very subjective concept, examples of griefing are: attacking, killing or looting other characters for no particular in character reason (or just a lame excuse – “but my character is a psychopathic ax murderer!"); harassing or insulting other players out of character (in game tells, the forums or IRC); spamming someone with pickpocket attempts; killing and/or looting people and immediately logging off; and so on. Rendering quests unusable or keeping people out of quests just to be an annoyance is also a form of griefing. This also includes what we call “NPC griefing", which involves wanton killing of non hostile NPCs for no particular reason.

Cheating:
Cheating involves using out of character means to unfairly benefit your character. Examples of this are exploiting the game engine or A.I. limitations to your advantage; passing ANY items or gold between different characters belonging to the same player (this includes the use of arranged intermediaries); trying to circumvent script checks to gain unauthorized access to quests; restricted areas or any other resources you character should not be able to access; logging off to avoid the consequences of your in character actions (such as combat, arrest or death), etcetera. Cheating for the benefit of other players' characters is equally unacceptable.

Metagaming:
Metagaming is to use information that cannot be reasonably known to your character to his or her advantage. Examples are bringing an alternate character to deal with an issue involving a main character of yours, or generally speaking sharing any kind of information, relation or interests between characters that cannot possibly have met in game; using information from private letters or character backgrounds in the forums that you characters cannot know; coordinating in game actions through out of character means; avoiding known risks that are unknown to your character. Some involuntary metagaming is unavoidable since after all it is not always possible to remember what is known in character or out of character, but we ask everybody to do their best effort to avoid it.

Powergaming:
Generally speaking, powergaming is to try and exploit the mechanical advantages of a character while minimizing the disadvantages in order to achieve greater power, wealth, you name it, with little to no regard to roleplaying those advantages and disadvantages. There are a thousand shades of grey regarding powergaming, but in general we demand that you play a character's strengths and weaknesses, and do not like players who only play optimized characters with no visible weaknesses.

Always be in character:
This is a roleplaying server. This means you are expected to be playing your character at all times you are in the server. Out of character comments in game are frowned upon and should be limited, if at all used, to private messages. Likewise, character names, appearance and behavior should fit the setting: names should not have special characters on them, they should not be insulting or disrupting, they should not belong to known, important characters of the Forgotten Realms or other settings, including the real world, and in case of doubt just use the in game name generator; strange skin or hair colors for the character's race normal ranges are frowned upon, and appearances mimicking those of DM approved races (such as drow, duergar, and others) is a definite no-no; leetspeak or modern day slang while in character is not allowed.

Deal with it in character:
At times, bad things will happen to you character. You will be killed, maimed, humiliated, looted and eaten by rabid parakeets. Sometimes as a result of your actions, sometimes not. Deal with it in character. Characters are not ruined because bad stuff happens to them. Your character is not the center of the game as in the single player scenarios, he will have to react to the actions of other characters as much as the environment and the NPCs, and in many occasions things will not go as planned. Deal with it in character. On occasion, very unfair things will happen to your character: lies about your character will be spread in game, figures of power will abuse you, you may be arrested, tried and executed for crimes you did not commit. This is all expected and in fact encouraged for some character types. Do not assume this is some players trying to hurt you, it is their characters trying to hurt your character. Deal with it in character. Deal with it in character. Deal with it in character. You get the point.

Player vs. Player:
This is a PvP server. This means player versus player conflict, up to player killing is not only allowed, but expected and even encouraged. That is not to say that all PvP is acceptable in al circumstances. In general, killing or looting other characters should be part of roleplaying. Earn the right to kill other characters by making their death an enjoyable process. Either make the process of killing them an interesting RP session or make the events leading to a quick death a rewarding experience. There is nothing more off putting than being killed out of the blue for unknown reasons. Full looting of fallen enemies is allowed, but it should be a rather unusual end for long drawn PvP conflicts. People consistently full looting others after killing them for flimsy excuses will be soon in griefer territory and dealt with accordingly. Likewise, people should assume PvP death and loss of gear as part of the normal cycle of life in the server. Trying to weasel out of PvP brought upon you through your actions in character will not be looked upon favorably. If you cannot live with PvP, you should not be playing in this server.

No refund policy:
We do not refund XP, gold or items loss to bugs, sudden disconnections or server resets, or any other glitch due to the nature of the game. We will try and correct situations if we are around to witness them but in general requests to be resurrected, reimbursed or compensated will be routinely dismissed. This is a rather harsh policy but necessary because if we were to make exceptions, all we DMs would do would be scouring the logs to check the validity of the claims and taking corrective measures, and that is not even counting some issues just cannot be resolved, such as accidental character deletion or corruption. Please keep this rule in mind to prevent later disappointment.

DM rulings are final:
This applies to both IC and OOC rulings. We are willing to discuss each situation as much as possible, but once a DM issues a ruling, it is final. No amount of complaining, begging or threatening will help, and in fact may worsen your case. Going to a different DM expecting a different ruling will not only not work either, it is in fact guaranteed to give all of us a bad impression about you. We record and share all the information, so do not even try. DMs are the only ones with the information and perspective to make OOC rulings, do not label other players as cheaters, griefers or the like. If you have an OOC grievance or complaint against other players do not vent it publicly, send a email to the DMs and let us make a call. Do not lie to the DMs. If you lie to us and we find out you will be banned on the spot.

Banning:
The ultimate punishment for violation of these rules is to be banned for the server. We do not ban people lightly, and only in very extreme cases will it happen on a first offense. This means that bans will rarely, if ever be lifted. Any inquiries about the reasons for a ban should be directed to the DMs via the DM email. Under no circumstances we will discuss the circumstances of a ban (or any other OOC disciplinary measure) with players other than the affected one. This is to protect the banned player's privacy and respectability, and the DMs may waive this policy at any time if the circumstances demand it, such as when the banned player decides to vent on the forums, lie about the circumstances of the ban or blaming or harassing other players after the ban.

his is not an all encompassing list of rules, just the most important ones and the ones most likely to affect your continued presence in the server. Many more rules affecting more specific aspects of the game may be announced or clarified in the forums. Search the forums or use the Ask a DM forum for questions in case of doubt. Continued failure to comply to the rules will result in some degree of punishment, from being deprived of DM attention up to character death, deletion and banning from the server. Griefing and cheating will most certainly result in a ban. We will often warn first offenders but we will not bend backwards to do so. In the end we owe the majority of players who abide by the rules the guarantee of a non threatening environment where they can roleplay and have fun.