The World Of Arleah Rules and Guidelines

First and foremost, the World of Arleah is a Roleplaying Server, and while the DM’s are loathe to impose a horde of do’s and don’ts on its players, it is necessary to list a few. These are listed here so that everyone is clear on what one can and what one cannot do, thereby taking away the excuse that one did not know that it was wrong.

The general rule here is common sense and respecting a fair ground OOCly for all players. I'll be a little more clear below, and get into some specifics.

Here is the most important thing to keep in mind while playing here: If you think it might be wrong to do what you're doing, it probably is. Don't do it. Use common sense... and if you ever doubt something, double check with a DM before doing it. I'm going to list a bunch more specific things, but they all stem from what's said above.

If you ARE found doing something or other that you shouldn't be doing, any punishment given will vary completely based on the situation. It may be something from a slap on the wrist and a warning to an outright server ban. I won't list specific punishments that will be given for any rule, as everything is situational. In every circumstance we will try and make any punishment as fair and as fitting as possible.

Concerning DMs

DMs have the final say, do not get disrespectful or argue in a demeaning way. They often are dealing with a lot at once, sit tight and let them finish up what they need to finish up, and simply go by their judgment in the meantime. It'll work out better for everyone in the end.

If you happen to have a problem with a DM or what a DM is doing, please feel free to approach them calmly and rationally about it. If you are hesitant to do so, please send a message to the Administrative Team (HalfangelM and Chaszmyr88) either through the forums or arleahadmin@gmail.com.

Remember that DMs are players too, and they're also DMs out of their own free will, using their own time and energy, to try and make this a better place for you to play. Send them a thank you from time to time, it'll make them feel warm and fuzzy.

But because they are players too, sometimes they just want to play and enjoy the world, just like anyone else. Unless a specific DM says otherwise, please don't try and contact them in game while they're trying to play. Some don't mind, but for most it's a pain to have to deal with these things while they're just trying to enjoy themselves.

Powerplaying

No Metagaming. Metagaming is defined as using information that you have OOCly to help you ICly. For example, you read on the forum about someone talking about their vampire, Bob, and you run across Bob in game, which appears to be a totally normal person; your character does not know that Bob is a vampire, and without any in character clues to have figured this out, you would not have any idea that he is what he is. This also includes logging off if one of your characters gets killed and logging on as another, more powerful character, then killing the one that killed you. This is bad as well as unfair to others. Don’t do it.

No Powergaming. Powergaming is defined as trying to get the highest level and the best equipment you can with little to no RP at all, and little to no regard for other players. For example, hogging an area to continually kill the monsters and not letting others participate. This is also unfair to others. Do not do it.

Don't drag a low level around with a high level character without a good amount of RP going on, and the low level character participating in some way. For example, a mage taking out an apprentice to the ice slaadi and describing in great detail how his newly dominated ice slaadi can be buffed up and turned against its enemies, while simultaneously having his apparentice practice some simpler mind spells on the remaining slaadi is fine (and a fun RP experience to boot). Just remember that there's a limit on how much this is sensible.

No Item Swapping. There is NO, let me reiterate, NO, item swapping between characters owned by the same player. This includes the transfer of gold as well. Either by dropping the item and logging out and back in as your other character and picking it up, or by using another player as an intermediary. There are no exceptions to this rule. Even if you play two characters that are ICly related to each other. Even if they're twins. Even if they're siamese twins. Don't do it.

Don't arbitrarily give yourself RP powers that the game doesn't that give yourself a clear advantage over others. For example, being able to read minds. If you'd like to have your character have something like this, check with a DM. If it's something small, like having a sharp nose, or even something exotic just for flavor, then feel free. We're all for having unique characters, just don't put yourself at an unfair advantage to be unique.

Players on Arleah have always been given a lot of leeway to creatively explain most of the custom content added with the PRC pack; for example, the prestige class Morninglord of Lathander can't be directly explained as we do not have 'Lathander' as a deity; instead, it would fit Charys easily. This is not only acceptable, it is encouraged; within reason. For example, if you take Deformity(Madness) for the sweet permanent immunity to mind-affecting spells, you will be expected to roleplay being legitimately insane in some significant capacity - a 'creative explanation' of why you have a feat of that calibur without the roleplayed side-effects will be frowned upon and may result in action taken against your character.

While a DM isn't always on hand to provide reactions for NPCs, NPCs are still 'there'. Don't murder someone in the middle of Arleah just because none of the NPCs will try and stop you without DM intervention (or worse yet, SPECIFICALLY because DM intervention is unavailable and you can get away with it). They are ALWAYS part of the world. Act sensibly when there are no DMs around, and if you plan to do something that strongly warrants or requires NPC reaction, please brief a DM (provided they have free time). Stretching the non-reaction of an NPC due to a lack of DM presence is a serious offense.

Exploiting

Exploiting known bugs: This includes any known or unknown bugs that will further aid your character. An old example of this: if you place a campfire down in front of a monster, the AI will not have the monster go around to get to you. It will stay there, allowing you to get away or kill it at your leisure. If you discover a bug that can be exploited you need to alert a DM immediately so we can fix it.

Don't mistake ease of exploitation for design intent. If you find a loop that lets you generate infinite amounts of money just by running items around doesn't mean that it isn't an exploit, and it will still get you in trouble.

PvP Rules

There should NEVER be ANY OOC Player vs Player fighting outside of the Arena. If you want to kill a character for an IN CHARACTER reason, that’s fine, Character vs. Character fighting is alright.

PKing is defined when the player who was killed has no idea whatsoever why they were attacked and can’t even begin to guess. Something as simple as “you will now die for hurting my feelings” is fine, as long as there is RP to support the kill.

While you are never required to provide an OOC raise, it is a recommended courtesy if the player in question was killed by overwhelming odds (I.E. 5v1, or a level 30 killing a level 10) unless the individual was the instigator.

Respect death. That's not a rule, that's a request. Your characters are still feeling pain, and death, while temporary here, is FAR from a pleasant experience. Please keep that in mind as these situations arise.

If you have a dispute over any PvP related event, make absolutely sure that you have taken screenshots, and provide these to the DM team when registering your complaint. We want to avoid 'he said, she said' situations, and screenshots generally provide definitive proof.

Party and OOC Chat

Player parties can potentially lag the server out and cause it to behave erratically. The larger the party, the higher the potential; please refrain from 'full server parties' and instead limit partying to guilds, hunting, other group combat that warrants it, and other similar activities.

Keep party chat to a minimum, as it shows up in a DM's chat box and can quickly grow irritating when mixed in with everything else. Party chat should only be used when discussing something with a party that you’re near to the members of your party (for example, calling through a closed door or across an area transition). If you are seen using the party channel as an OOC party and a DM asks you to stop, please do so, as it can often spam a DM's chat window.

OOC chat is fine. This is a game, after all, and sometimes you'd like to just talk with your friends. However, please do it in a more private place, if you suddenly start talking about the latest Jets game on the plateau, you're going to be irking people.

Multiguilding

Multiguilding is permitted. However, each guild generally has one item that is unusually strong or has unique properties; do NOT mix these items. This will (eventually) be automatically enforced, but regardless, don't try it.

Individual guilds will likely have their own IC restrictions on multiguilding; the Enclave of Arcane Light might not wish their members to join the Dark Magics Guild, as an example. These restrictions are IC only; guilds are not to restrict 'double agents' on an OOC level.

Housing Rules

Houses are NOT to be shared by characters played by the same person.

Under normal circumstances, players are not to exceed 1 house owned per character.

We are happy to import player-built custom houses for your characters within reason. See Chaszmyr if you are interested in building your own house.

Gods

Gods are divine beings of immense power, that rarely, if ever, manifest themselves. If for any reason you DO see a god... please realize this. Don't say "Oh look, there's a deity, whoopdy-doo." Don't just shrug and turn your back. It's a god, and even the most fearless of characters is going to have SOME sense of awe.

Gifting

Anyone under level 15 shouldn't receive anything worth more than what makes sense for their level. Outfitting a level 1 character with a +5 keen sword of uberdeath with invincible armor is a bad thing to any degree. Use common sense when handing out gifts, and make them appropriate to the recepient's level of power. After level 15, anything goes, however.

Permission Based Feats

Dev Crit will be restricted to large two handed weapons only. These will not include dual weapons such as Double Axe or Two Bladed Swords. As small characters cannot wield any of the eligible weapons, they cannot take Dev Crit.

Dev Crit is entirely permission based from the Administrative Team only. Outline your request including which character and why you wish to have Dev Crit. If you are found with this feat without the Administrative Team's permission, you will lose the character. This is not open to argument.

Dev Crit is generally regarded as an insanely overpowered feat. As it is hardcoded and cannot be adjusted, it is only on the table due to our restriction of the weapons that make the most sense for it (large 2H only) and no 18-20 crit range weapons.

Spellfire Wielder is, even without levels in the Spellfire Channeler class, an extremely powerful 1st Level only feat. This feat is entirely permission based from the Administrative Team only. Outline your request including why this feat makes sense for your character as well as entire planned character build. This is a 'background feat' and will be treated as such; established characters need not apply. Self-imposed roleplayed penalties for this feat are a plus, if you plan to be roleplaying a character flaw/penalty that is a result of this condition, please include it in your writeup.

Minimum Levels

With the new level cap of 30, the old minimum 5 level rule has been removed. However, abusive builds and non-sensible classes (best example being 1-2 levels of paladin thrown in) may be asked to rebuild if you are not properly roleplaying them.

Subraces / LETO Edits

Arleah now utilizes many races provided by the PRC as well as some of our own homebrewed races. Please see the associated forum post for information on what subraces are free to make, which races require permission, etc. Roleplaying your character as a non-standard race without following this system will likely result in the loss of your character. Subraces of the standard races that are not covered in the subrace post are generally fine; when in doubt, ask a DM.

'Children' characters can be altered to a child appearance regardless of race, it is recommended that you make children characters with the proper race and have them edited to the 'halfling' (human/elf child) or 'elf' (human teenager) appearance afterwards.

Aesthetic LETO edits are acceptable if they make roleplay sense. See Chaszmyr if you have a roleplay concept that can only be implemented by character editing.

Adult Conduct Rules

Before doing ANYTHING vaguely adult oriented, you should ask the permission of the other player, and check they are of legal age.

Now, this is the central rule on this matter: An OOC “No” is final. No debates, no whining, no claims of “No means yes”. If another player says no OOC, the matter is final. Adult/sexual roleplay is not something you have to take part in, it’s something you choose to take part in. No player NOR DM can force you OOC in any shape or way, and that is utterly final.

If you say no OOC, and the other player continues, you are free to ignore any action they take ingame (you can walk away even if bound, you do not have to test strength if he grabs hold of you). In fact, this is possibly the ONLY situation where you can "legally" log off from a confrontation.

If you find yourself sexually harassed (i.e. a player does not take a no for a no), you should take it to a DM right away with log, screenshot, and all. The offender will receive a warning at the very least, a server ban at worst. This is not something that we're going to mess around with.

Keep it private. I don't mind, and I'm sure no one minds, people doing what they want "behind closed doors", so to speak. Anything remotely graphic, however, should be kept behind those doors. Younger people play here, and the last thing we want is an upset parent thinking this is a horribly depraved place for their child to play in. Non-lockpickable specifically keyed doors are recommended for any and all adult roleplay.

Basically, this is a PG-13 server, if you want to do anything beyond that, please check the RL ages of those involved and keep it private.

Miscellaneous

THE WORLD OF ARLEAH IS UNIQUE AND SEPARATE FROM FAERUN OR OTHER D&D PLANES - this means that it is unacceptable to have characters from other realms of the d&d world such as krynn, sigil, faerun, ravenloft or elsewhere. nor may your character be gated from another plane or world. you may however make characters that are from as of yet undiscovered parts of the world and are new to the world as you find it in arleah.

STRICT ALIGNMENT CLASSES - Some classes with alignment restrictions have them for a reason. While a Bard that goes Lawful isn't a big deal, a Paladin that falls from Lawful Good is a very big deal. If you play a strict alignment class and your alignment changes in a way that no longer makes sense for that class, you will be asked to replace those levels with a comparable class (I.E. Paladin falling from grace to Fighter, Paladin being corrupted to Blackguard). Characters made specifically for conflicting alignment classes (I.E. a barbarian monk) may be asked to rebuild and lose the class(es) that no longer pertain to their alignment.

DOMAINS: If you play a class that is granted spells or abilities from a deity that also receives domains, ALL chosen domains MUST be domains listed under your deity.

PALADINS: Remember you have to be faithful to the God you choose to get your powers. If you are not faithful, you become fallen and lose your paladinship. A paladin that loses their faith becomes godless. A godless paladin will lose all paladin levels and have them replaced with fighter levels. Paladins must pick a god or have their paladin classes removed for some other class.

PALADIN RESTRICTIONS: The following lists of gods are the only gods that would empower Paladins: Dsituyt, Hirath and Teraphiel.

MONK/DRUID, MONK/SHIFTER - There are many reasons why this combination is simply not permitted. Don't do it. Never mix monk into any shifting related build.

REQUESTING LANGUAGES - At character creation, you may ask DMs for as many 'character background' languages as you have natural, unmodified int mod. Your racially learned languages do NOT count towards this total. Some rare or difficult languages may require an explanation to know at creation. Animal, Druidic, and any secretive gesture languages may not be requested at creation unless you meet the class prerequisites to have them (see race/language post for more information). Half-breeds learning languages at creation do not count against int mod either, even though you are given a choice on them (I.E., A Half-elf may have been raised by humans and not know Elven, but a Half-elf raised by an elven parent may request Elven at no impact to their int mod, just like an elf). You may hold off a few days if you are unsure, but you may not request a language weeks down the road simply because you have the int mod; it is a one time deal near character creation. All languages must be learned through roleplay thereafter. You are not REQUIRED to choose as many languages as you have int mod; choose whatever makes sense for your character. Not everyone needs to be supremely multilingual.

LEARNING NEW LANGUAGES - Some languages are difficult to teach and may only be learned from relevant races. They are: Abyssal, Celestial, Goblin, Infernal, Sylvan, Giant, Gnoll, Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Terran and Drow Sign. You may only learn these from players who gained these languages racially; you may not learn them from players who learned them from someone else. Draconic, Drow, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Orcish and Undercommon are widespread in Arleah and can be learned and relearned relatively easily. Animal, Druidic and Thieves' Cant are more 'talents' related to class or other criteria and cannot be taught; either you can do it because you have the relevant class/criteria, or you cannot. Any other secretive sign languages are un-requestable and you will only learn them if offered.

ITEM EXCHANGE - It is almost inevitable that some items not meant for players will find their way into the server; either misfiring scripts, items with hidden effects, DM quest rewards, etc. If such an item is found, we reserve the right to replace it with an equivalent item that fits within our intended item design.

SUPPORTING ROLEPLAYED MECHANICS: Roleplay is about creativity, and a great deal of that creativity is not represented by the game engine. We reserve the right to choose to mechanically support interesting and well thought out roleplay elements of certain characters as they come to our attention and are found to be well established, positive, interesting, depth-enhancing concepts that enrich the experience of the server as a whole.

In Closing

We want everyone to have fun and be able to RP the way they choose, but there are those who do not like to allow this. When we find these players, they will be asked to leave, and if they choose not too, we will make them leave. A DMs only job is NOT to be a police person. We also like to reward good players and sponsor quests as well, but we are not able to if we are constantly having to enforce the rules. So please, lets all be mature RPers and play the game!

*NOTE* We reserve the right to change, add to, or delete from this document as we see fit. If at anytime we do so, we will let everyone know of the changes. Also, many situations are unique, so if a DM changes a rule a bit to fit the situation, that is their decision and it is final.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation,

The Staff of Arleah