Frequent Reminders (IMPORTANT READ)
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This list is not exhaustive of our server rules, but encompass the ones we've had to call attention to on a regular basis. Make sure to read these periodically as reminders of some of the issues we feel are important to bring up with the player base. This post is taken directly from many of our old stickied topics in this section:
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Griefing
@Catharsis:
I'd like to clarify a few points, especially since people seem to be a bit fuzzy around the edges.
Griefing is any sort of pestering attack, be it verbal, in game actions, or otherwise that seeks to anger, or annoy to a degree of retaliation.
All accusations of griefing need to come to us in an email at cityofarabel@gmail.com and should include screenshots of actions a particular person had against you.
I want you to read up there, no where in that paragraph does it say to, handle the griefer yourself, make public rants in IRC or on the Forums, or telling the person they are a griefer and making direct accusations towards them.
Plain and simply put, if you feel you have been griefed, you email us. If I catch you publically making accusations, then heed this as your warning: you will be banned from the medium you made that accusation from, due to the fact that it is an immature, ineffective, and rather stupid way to get a problem dealt with. We will handle any griefers for sake of fairness and sanity, not you.
And that's my rant.
Also, the first thing you should do when you are griefed is not to run to the guards, but saving your logs/screenshots and writing the email.
Guards are players who applied to play a character, they have not applied to handle griefers and are not equiped to deal with them.
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Charm and Dominate Spells
On CoA, Charm and Dominate spells cast on PCs are exactly what the mechanics do: They stun the victim, for the exact length of time that the spell lasts. You do not need to roleplay it as anything else if you don't feel like it. In no way does this make you a worse roleplayer.
If both sides agree and want to roleplay it as something else, you must get a DM to oversee and determine the rules. You may not make up some on your own.
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Courtesy
Lately we've had a batch of complaints about players being rude OOC to others. I don't care if someone metagamed to hell and back in order to grief you, loot you and steal your significant other. If you insult a player you will be banned. If other player insults you and you respond with more insults, you will both be banned. If you can't remain civil OOC, you don't belong in CoA.
If you have a complaint that cannot be resolved with the players in question, you bring it to the DMs and no one else. You do not bring it up in IRC, forums, send abusive tells to the player you have a disagreement with, or anything of the sort. Once again, if you are found to have been abusive, no matter how grievous your disagreement with the player, you will be banned.
Let me try once again.
It doesn't matter if another player is sending you pictures of him eating babies alive, doing your sister or reading Cosmopolitan. You don't deal with it yourself, you talk to a DM so that he or she deals with it. Insulting or harassing other players OOC for ANY reason is a bannable offense, and we will ban you before we deal with the original alleged offender.
I find appalling that some players consider reporting an issue to a DM to be immature (as if reporting a crime to the police was the same as tattletelling in recess) but have no qualms to engage in insults over tells.
Grow up, for god's sake.
And to make this crystal clear: It does not matter how or where you harass another player.
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DM Faction or Plot Items, Areas, and NPCs:
If by any event in the game, whether as part of a plot or accidentally, you come across a faction only item (such as a guard's armor or a key to a chest) or get access to a faction only area (by gaining a key or magic access to it), notify a DM IMMEDIATELY. Usage of faction only resources by non members should be done only under DM supervision to avoid metagaming of all the NPCs and checks that might be triggered by an impostor or a thief. Looting faction chests without notifying the DMs is particularly lame, and will be detected and may result in bans.
If you have any item from a faction you don't belong to, notify the DMs immediately. This is not optional, people. Follow the instructions or bad things WILL happen.
1. Notify a DM - You are required to notify a DM if you come into lasting possession of faction gear. You don't need to tell us if a Faction member died and you happened to get their gear, and plan to give it back. But if you happen to get it, and plan to keep it, you -must- notify a DM that you have it, and what you plan to do with it.
2. Faction Gear is Unique - This means no amount of dye, alterations, etc will be enough to make it so you can wear it without fear of an NPC guard, PC, etc noticing that the equipment belongs to a certain faction. Therefore, don't get caught parading around in dyed Purple Dragon equipment, and expect no one will notice.
-Violation to point 1 can result in character deletions.
-Abuse and the attempt to sidestep Point 2 through metagaming (dying faction gear and using it as ph4t l3w7, etc) will result in the removal of said equipment.The prefered method of contacting us with information about faction gear is through the e-mail. In the e-mail include your character name, player account, the Faciton gear you have, and what you plan to do with it.
Plot items are not meant to be stored in persistant storage.
If you acquire a plot item and especially one that is sought by many characters for various reasons, do not hide it away in persistant storage completely destroying any chances that it is taken back from you until the time comes to use it.
You carry it around, or hand it to another character unless you have a DM permission to store it.
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Paladins:
This breaks their oath, this rule is really quite simple.
Paladins can not in any way associate with evil. Doing so is breaking their oath as a Paladin and will stop them being a Paladin.
@The:
Because he is duty-bound to supress evil, a paladin won't tolerate an evil PC. He may take the evil PC into custody, physically restrain him, or demand his expulsion from the party. If all else fails, the paladin severs his ties with the party and goes his own way. In any event, inaction is unacceptable.
A paladin finds it difficult, if not impossible, to avoid contact with evil NPCs. They are everywhere: walking down a street, dining at an inn, shopping at a bazaar. A paladin's ethos doesn't compel him to attack or even confront all evil NPCs; in many cases hostile confrontactions could be counterproductive, particularly if such an action distracts the paladin from a more important mission, or if it triggers retaliation from the NPC's companions against innocent bystanders.
Time and circumstances permitting, a paladin may question evil NPCs, follow them, or make inquireies about them. None of these actions violate a paladin's ethos when used in moderation. (However, spying and similar actions should be a last resort, because they connote deception). A paladin walks on shaky ground, however, the moment he begins an association with an evil NPC that could be perceived as friendly or compliant.
And this is preemptive:
Following and making inquiries does not equal going on a quest and or helping them.
Doing a search for paladin and evil will get you many threads discussing all of this in fine details.
@Catharsis:
Paladins caught questing with Evil PCs will receive Alignment shifts. Since we don't seem to be clear enough on the whole, "Paladins Cannot Quest With Evil" campaign.
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Traps:
We've had several instances lately of people trapping places like the transistion to the visitor's center and other places of interest to lower level characters and new players.
This is a bannable offense.
Placing traps on any transistion zone where players might load an area and immediately step on a trap is unacceptable. To do it to a place like the visitor's center, a place new players frequently visit upon their arrival at the server, is not only unacceptable, but also inconsiderate of new players.
It's common sense, but for those of you who might lack it, you've been warned.To put this straight, "inconsiderate of new players" translates to "You're making new players think they will get PK'ed left and right everywhere on this server and scare them away".
Since I rate new players as the best thing that can happen to any server (especially for such an old game like NWN) I consider alienating them as an attack on the server itself, almost as if you'd hack it. THAT's why it is an offence where I rather ban first and then ask the questions.
EVERY instance where you place a trap is logged, a DM alert is sent (which means a DM can be on your character even before your done standing up from planting the trap) and if it is outside of areas where traps make sense we carefully examine it even if no DM was online that time. Orwell's "Big Brother" is a little boy compared to the stuff we log on CoA.
Traps are fine to use against NPCs in quests, but if you use them in PvP do not abuse OOC matters like area transitions to your advantage - this may result in you having an empty character folder again.
Trapping unlocked rooms in inns to "protect your privacy" while you sleep in is as bannable as trapping the middle of the market. A new player might just barge in and get killed in a second.
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NPC Griefing
Despite having answered this question like ten times in the Ask a DM forum and countless scattered posts, there are players who still believe they can go killing NPCs in the city because they're ev0l.
Killing a non hostile NPC (animals aside) without explicit DM permission is considered NPC griefing, and may get you banned. I don't care if you think your character had the best of reasons. If a DM is not there to judge if you can do it and/or if any of the thousands of people that are not represented by NPCs sees you or not, don't do it, period.
Remember, you don't get to judge if the NPCs (represented or not in the game) react to your actions or not and how. And also, the NPCs aren't there for you to kill for XP or anything else, but to give ambience to the game. Don't be surprised if you kill a commoner without checking with a DM first and the next thing you see is the fugue plane loading.
"Oh, the invisible war wizard killed you, he didn't think he needed to check with you first"
@Mr.:
Remember: It is against the rules to claim that NPCs are doing things with your character that did not happen in game.
You can claim you had dinner with some generic farmers at the local inn.
You can not claim you had dinner with the Warden and Lord Lady Lahl at the local inn.
You can claim that you had a strange dream where Tymora played a game of dice with you.
You can not claim that Tymora showed up and helped you win a game of dice down at the Dancing Dragon.
Remember this especially with Dieties and Key NPCs–all NPCs are entirely under the control of DMs and you should not claim that you interacted with them without the approval of a DM.
@Harry:
Just a friendly reminder. There is absolutely no problem with nodding to unpossessed npcs, saying hello to them, or doing anything benign like that. However, if you wish to take interaction with an npc a step further, contact a dm.
If you decide to spit on Lheskar Bhaliir, or pull down Mitchell DeSchurr's pants, or even…. I don't know.... threaten to kill Karin Gallin - contact a dm. Lheskar's not a fan of spittle. Mitchell kind of likes his pants. And while Karin is generally a big cuddly teddy bear, we should certainly possess her to make sure she shows you the appropriate level of cuddly love.
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Item Transfer
@Mr.:
Item Transfers, you know, those things we preach on and on about all the time. Wouldn't you find that important? You should, because it is. DO NOT ENGAGE IN ANY FORM OF ITEM TRANSFER BETWEEN YOUR OWN CHARACTERS.
This includes using a medium, such as another person, or for those of extra lack of wit, using the ground.
IF YOU ITEM TRANSFER, WE WILL FIND OUT!
It's simple, folks, just don't do it, and you'll be fine. You have no reason what-so-ever to try to transfer items, so please don't.
@SelfFulfillingProphecy:
Reminder Re Item Transferring/Remakes
If a DM okays this, the DM will see to it being performed.
Any player asking you to assist in such a task and saying a DM said it was alright, is lying, and should be reported to the DMs immediately.
Orwell's "Big Brother" is a little boy compared to the stuff we log on CoA.
Item transfer is a bannable offense. It doesn't matter if you transfer a healing kit or a Fullplate +2. At the very least, it will result in deletion of all your characters. It's not worth it, so don't do it.
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Roleplaying Stats
@DivisionByZer0:It has been noted by the DMs recently that there are many characters opting to minimize their stats in certain 'useless' attributes for their specific character build (The most common example being 8 int, 8 cha, 8 wis fighters). While this is permissable and not against the rules of the server, it is against the rules of the server to select such stats and not play them appropriately.
Refusing to acknowledge flaws in a character build is a form of metagaming and powergaming which the DMs of the server do not approve of, and will take measures to enforce. Those characters found to be minimizing attributes on their characters, and not roleplaying them will be receiving roleplay penalty tokens that will severely reduce their experience gain.
For those of you who are uncertain as to what I mean, here is an example:
You play a fighter whose attribute arrangement is 18 str, 12 dex, 16 con, 8 int, 8 wis, 8 cha. When interacting with other characters you make no effort to express your lack of charisma, and may even take it a step further and play a 'ladies man'. When interacting with other characters you also frequently offer sage pieces of advice of worldly wisdom. Finally, you also articulate and frequently offer solutions to complex problems.
In this example, you are not playing your 8 charisma (which is below average) because you are not making an effort to show how unrefined or grotesque you are (and if you play a ladies man, then you're essentially playing like you were Gollum hooking up with girls every night). You are not playing your 8 intelligence, because you play your character to be well knowledged to be able to articulate solutions to complex problems. Finally, you are not playing your 8 wisdom because you offer sagely pieces of advice frequently.
Characters who have such stats, but nonetheless play them out are perfectly acceptable. However, as I've mentioned above, characters who refuse to acknowledge their character attribute flaws will receive penalties accordingly.
Note: Refusing to play the flaws in STR, DEX, and CON are also inappropriate. WIS, INT, and CHA are the most common attributes that are minimized, and so they were used in this example. Likewise, a character with low DEX should not be graceful, low STR should not be strong, and low CON should not be hearty. The average level is 10 for each attribute.
Since I made a remark in a separate thread about these two subject that could be misunderstood when taken out of context I'll try to clarify the general DM consensus about them.
CoA is a roleplaying server. That means character concept comes before character build, but they're not necessarily opposed traits. In general, we prefer that multiclassed characters keep similar (that's not the same as equal) levels in their different classes. The rationale behind it is that if your character concept of story makes him, say, a outdoor type cleric (represented by cleric and ranger levels) it doesn't make a lot of sense that as he progresses in levels he only takes cleric levels. In any case, this is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule. We don't assume powergaming out of a character's multiclassin. We observe powergaming when those classes are clearly taken and used for the purpose of maximizing the game mechanics benefits with complete disregard for the character concept and behavior.
One important remark, as this has come up a few times. In general we don't have issues with high level characters multiclassing to get a single level of another class. At that point it's usually evident when this multiclassing is the result of life changing events or not, and more likely than not, the change is going to have negligible effects in the character's ability to level up quickly since he's already at a high level to start with.
As for gimped builds (builds where abilities and classes are taken with the purpose of NOT being optimal), there are different opinions. Some DMs don't have any particular affection for those characters, while some others do like them (and I don't want to imply any link to said DMs' inability to make optimal builds as players ). But generally speaking, this is again a character vs build issue. We like players who make characters with flaws or quirks that get reflected in their stats and which are consistently played. Making a gimped build for the sake of it or with the only goal of attracting DM attention is not going to work well.
Bottom line: play your character, not your character sheet.
@Division:
Keep in mind that flaws in a character means the low charisma and low intelligence. However, these usually don't get considered as "gimps" or "flaws" because many characters tend to talk and think like they have high intelligence, or charm and inspire like they have high charisma, even though they have 8 in each. When you're obviously playing your 18 str, 14 dex, and 18 con, but are also a brilliant tactician and charming individual, then you're obviously not playing your 8 wis, 8 int and 8 cha.
If you want to build a character with low int, cha, or wis, feel free. As Gurb said, we don't judge characters based on their stats. Some of my personal favorite characters had builds that are considered "optimal." But the difference is these players chose to play their low intelligence, wisdom, and charisma ALONG with their high strength, dex, and / or Con. So keep in mind that you are free to build your character as you like, but play the character to reflect these physical and tangible flaws, as well as strengths.
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Faction bugs
Faction bugs occur when non-hostile NPCs get attacked, this includes getting caught in area of effect spells. Between players and DMs it is important to minimise the attacking of non-hostile NPCs but it does happen, and when it does players need to get away from the falsely-hostile NPCs and send a message in the DM channel that they are faction bugged immediately. DMs can fix faction bugs extremely quickly if you alert them immediately and stay away from the hostile NPCs.
Faction bugs are 100% OOC and never ever to be taken IC ever unless a DM very specifically tells you otherwise.
In events involving friendly NPCs, it is a very good idea to minimise the use of hostile area effect spells wherever possible. Amongst a few spells that people commonly forget enter this category are as follows - darkness, prayer, battletide.
Container bugs upon dropping
There is a known but unfortunately unfixed bug whereupon containers dropped upon death/subdual have the contents rearranged automatically starting with the smallest items first. Unfortunately, this means if there is no room for the larger items to be placed at the end, they are automatically destroyed. DMs cannot replace items lost due to this bug along with any other bug.
The best way to avoid this is to place items of a similar size in each container. In particular, 3x2 objects should never be placed in a full container with lots of smaller objects or they will stand a very high chance of being lost upon dropping.
Bartering and inventory bugs
Always barter by clicking the barter icon on a player and then dragging and placing items AFTER the window opens. If you drag items directly from your inventory and drop them on an usable object by accident when trying to target a player, and that object does not have an accessible inventory (e.g. a chair), the items will be destroyed automatically.
Always barter by first placing items in your root inventory, and then in the barter window, do not take them directly from containers and place them in the window. This is because when the barter is cancelled, the items will be placed into your root inventory. If there is no room for the items in your root inventory, the items will be dropped on the floor and there is a strong chance that neither you nor a DM or anybody will be able to pick them up.
If you are going to quickslot inventory items ALWAYS keep spare room in your root inventory to hold the items you want to be able to swap out and more. If you do not, the items swapped out will be dropped on the floor automatically, and there is a slight chance that the above bug will occur and they will not be able to be picked up.
Standing still when DMs are trying to help you
The tools that DMs use to help fix a myriad of problems on players rely on DMs being near the players and able to see them to call up their character info. If you send a message to the DM channel asking for help with something, please, please, please stand still unless you absolutely cannot. Running around, transitioning through multiple areas while the DM is checking things makes it very hard for the DM to help you.
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Upon scouting out fortified defenses
Please remember that one guard NPC does not necessarily equal one guard IC, we don't put all hundred guards in each area or the lag would be unbearable. By the same reckoning we normally just put stationary guards and not guards patrolling noble estates and so on. People should not be planning assaults on for example a noble estate thinking you're just assaulting two men stood by the front gate like numpties because that's all that is toolsetted in, unless told otherwise you need to think about multiplying those numbers by five at least and think that the guards will be patrolling the grounds and so on.
Obviously DM time is limited and it's good that people try to do things by themselves as much as possible but to get a proper scouting report on a landmark or area with a view to actually running an operation against it you need to be talking to a DM who can fill you in on exactly what you will actually be up against and not just looking at what we toolset in to give the area flavour and save on server lag.
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Some people need to read the part about item transfer.
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Remember the Item Transfering policy. We will find out and we will ban you.
Cheers.
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Standing still when DMs are trying to help you
The tools that DMs use to help fix a myriad of problems on players rely on DMs being near the players and able to see them to call up their character info. If you send a message to the DM channel asking for help with something, please, please, please stand still unless you absolutely cannot. Running around, transitioning through multiple areas while the DM is checking things makes it very hard for the DM to help you.
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Remember the Item Transfering policy. We will find out and we will ban you.
Cheers.
Some of you are not taking this seriously. A reminder.
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Honestly guys! It's really simple and easy to avoid transfering items between your characters.
If I hear another 'Oh sorry, I didn't realise' I'm just going to DM kill your character there and then, at the very least. It's a massive waste of time having to police such basic cheating. I don't care if it's a piece of tinder, a single sling bullet, or a vorpal sword of uber pwnage your transferring. The line is drawn at ANY ITEM being transferred between your characters because it would be ridiculous to make a list of what is 'allowed because its not that bad'
We honestly do have insanely detailed logs, you wont get away with it, stop trying, and stop lieing, or be banned.
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Alright folks, this is an IMPORTANT read and I have found too many players not even being aware of half the stuff on this topic. Please make sure to read this, even old players can forget over time. Take this as a polite reminder, cause this is IMPORTANT to read so you do not do any of it IG.
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All faction gear is NOT allowed to be ALTERED or DYED in any kind of way, this include non-app ranks such as Silver Bannermen. Most uniforms will not allow this by auto but some new uniforms have been over looked. Tampering with faction gear is frowned upon, if you know you have done this please contact a DM so they can give you a replacement. We are currently working on making certain the new uniforms cannot be altered or dyed, but wish to remind new and old players of this rule.
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Okay guys, it is not difficult to remain courteous. There has been a great deal of bad habits of lately, both on the forums and in IRC. Hence, I wish to remind every single one of you about our courtesy rules. viewtopic.php?p=403536
Whatever the reason how it all "started" is not relevant, if you have an issue bring it to the DMs. Do NOT harass other players over disagreements, and NEVER bring toxic comments to the game, IRC, or the forums. We are a community of multiple cultures and each player here is a REAL PERSON, and every person reacts differently to words, and we ask you to respect that.
