Server Rules

Server Rules and PvP Guidelines

Server Rules

Out of Character (OOC) Behaviour Rules

• (5) All players must behave towards each other in an OOC (out of character) respectful manner. Insulting tells are forbidden. OOC disrespect is completely unacceptable, IC disrespect and conflict is fully encouraged. Players should not confuse the two.

• (6) Item transfering between different PCs belonging to the same player is strictly forbidden. Assisting another player in this item transfering (twinking), or doing it yourself is grounds for banning. Even if you are remaking a character, you must not transfer any items or gold.

• (7) Exploiting Monster AI in unrealistic ways is forbidden. This includes "luring" (the practice of drawing a single monster away from others with a ranged weapon or dragging groups of monsters from a fortified position to march at your party in single file) or trapping monsters on cliffs or other impassable areas and then killing them with ranged weapons. Also to be avoided is the practice of using walk or backwards-walk to prevent a NPC from attacking you. The monster AI is limited, all we ask is that you try to avoid situations where monsters behave in a completely implausible manner. Of course we understand this can be difficult, but do your best.

• (8) Logging off to avoid death is forbidden. This includes both PvP and Monster death. If you feel you are being griefed, please contact a DM.

• (9) "Power-gaming" is not allowed. For the purposes of our server, we define power-gaming as any activity that has no IC rationale and is done for OOC reasons. It is okay - and even encouraged - to have a character that wants to get rich or powerful, and accomplishes this through various IC means such as founding a guild of thieves or becoming a merchant. It is not acceptable to perform an act such as repeatedly "farming" a single spawn of monsters or other such activities.

• (10) Meta-gaming is not allowed. This means that you can not take advantage of knowledge that you as a player might have but your character does not. A very simple example of this is that although you can see what another character's name is through the tab key, your character can not. You as a player may know something about the setting through a source book, but your character does not. Always think about what sort of knowledge is IC (in character) as opposed to OOC (out of character). Players should not use tells to coordinate PvP or other tactics.

• (16) Do not attack blue NPCs unless you have received permission from a DM.

• (19) Repeatable scripted quests in most cases should be considered as a new experience when repeated. Your character does not remember the location of traps, spawns, dangerous rooms, etc. If you feel that it is immersion-breaking to repeat a specific scripted quest, you should feel free not to do so. Some scripted quests may be considered as a repeat experience when it makes excellent sense for it to be so. Likewise you may make allusions of a persistent trouble (i.e. undead in the ruins) if it makes sense to do so.

• (21) Tells and text marked with // should be kept to a minimum and is always considered OOC.

• (28) Graphic depictions of torture or extreme violence should be avoided. Certainly this is a violent and dark world, and murder/torture/sacrifice has its place, but generally speaking the details of what exactly is happening should be avoided. The subject of sexual violence is to be avoided in role-play.

• (30) You may not enter into a Quest Area with a group unless all members of the group are aware and give consent that you are mechanically added to the quest with them. The only exception to this rule is if you have contacted a DM and the DM has allowed you to enter the Quest Area.

• (31) Players are expected to use their common sense with the tools we provide. For example, the use of "/c recall" is intended to assist with summon control; it is not acceptable to use it as a free teleport or regroup spell. The practice of sneaking ahead invisibly or in stealth and to then use "/c recall" to teleport your summons on top of monsters or enemy PCs is expressly forbidden and an obvious exploit.

• (32) Although not expressly forbidden, the practice of using stealth or invisibility to gather the treasure of random exploreable areas without actually defeating the monsters is in most cases frowned upon. If your character(s) engage(s) the monsters, fail and are unable to defeat the foe, feel free to consult with a DM if it would be appropriate to attempt to use stealth and trickery to plunder the area.

• (44) If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you discover a method to earn GP or XP that seems out of line with other methods, or can be used in some non-balanced way, please check with a DM to ensure it's legitimate or bug report the issue.

• (45) The use of voice chat programs to communicate with team-mates while RP'ing on EFU is not allowed. Communication between characters/players must exclusively be through NWN while in-game.

Roleplay And In-Character (IC) Behaviour Rules

• (18 ) Players should reflect their character's stats. A low charisma/intelligence/wisdom character should reflect these weaknesses through their RP. Having a character with low charisma "smell bad" or be "ugly" but otherwise be a well-liked leader is discouraged.

• (20) Always stay in-character, and do not break immersion for other players. Inserting real life references into your RP, including abbreviations or smileys into IC talk, acting in a ridiculous or OOC manner is not acceptable.

• (22) Languages are not supported, there is a single universal language that everyone can speak. Using racial languages is optional, but discouraged as some players find it disruptive and/or confusing. Written languages are handled by scripted lore checks or through a DM.

• (23) Although characters may make references to the existence of sexuality, actually role-playing explicit sexual acts is not allowed. The practice of explicit "cyboring" is completely forbidden on this server. Relationship RP is generally frowned upon unless handled with an extreme level of care.

• (24) Breaking and entering into faction areas must always be done with the supervision of a DM. Taking items from faction storage when you are not a member of the faction should be done with the supervision of a DM.

• (25) If you find faction equipment (equipment clearly belonging to certain members of a DM faction, including keys), you should contact a DM if your character decides to keep it or use it.

• (26) Many items are marked stolen. This doesn't mean you stole them. It is just meant to make them unsellable for to merchants. Find a PC to buy it instead.

• (34) Roleplaying during quests is required and organizing the quest must be done through appropriate IC methods and not through tells, IRC, or other out-of-game communication methods. If we observe a pattern of behavior in which players wordlessly proceed with scripted quests in a non-inclusive way, roleplaying at the bare minimum with the same players who are OOC friends (regardless of character) we reserve the right to warn, remove experience points OOC'ly, retire and maybe even ban.

• (35) If you are roleplaying a high-conflict character that has regularly engaged in PvP, please do not play alternate characters (alts) until your main character is resolved.

• (36) Please do not share IC secrets through OOC methods or lightly. Although it is fine and encouraged to roleplay as a teacher instructor and share information, some secrets are best kept quiet in order to allow for other players the same enjoyment of solving mysteries.

• (37) Information about alchemical or herbalist recipes may not be shared OOC'ly. If you learn something with one character, you can not use it with another unless likewise learned through legitimate IC methods. Most recipes should not be shared lightly but rather roleplayed as being a treasured secret to be gifted perhaps only to the most trusted allies.

• (47) Players should generally be careful about their use of the sending system. Sendings should not be vulgar, pseudo-OOC, or in a trolling style. Sendings should not be made in a tone of anti-establishment unless done with DM supervision. Messenger NPCs should not be given messages that "roleplay" the NPC or would be reasonably considered as implausible (they deliver messages, they are not parrots or looking to make particularly controversial messages).

• (48 ) If you have a group and want to do a quest, then do the quest. Please do not split up a large group into smaller groups in order for each to tackle a particular quest with the aim of getting more of a reward - this makes no sense and is a clear example of putting OOC ahead of IC. Note: if due to quest restrictions you are unable to take the entire group on a particular quest, then it would be OK to split up.

• (49) Players should generally use their best judgment when tackling scripted quests to do so in the manner that the designer clearly intended. For example, if there is a room with loot in it - you must defeat the monsters in that room to get the loot. Using stealth or invisibility or line of sight to avoid monsters while taking their plunder is not appropriate in a non-DM monitored situation.

• (52) Players are urged to respect the RP involved in hostage situations and not immediately default to attacking hostage-keepers without due consideration of other alternatives. A subdued hostage may however be healed as part of a rescue operation, however the hostage must remain down and helpless and not activate any defensive damage modes (i.e. no switching on expertise or equipping shield). Hostage keepers are advised to take precautions like stripping their opponents of defensive armor, etc.

• (58) Blood Vial labels are OOC unless the PC who made the vial would have labeled them (check this first through tells if necessary). Characters may, however, always recognize a sample of their own blood. PCs with high-heal or affinity with blood-magic also potentially recognize blood vials if they come from special kinds of creatures (consult a DM if in doubt; generally however we hope that players would rely on good judgment for some of these minor questions).

• (43) If the DM team believes that a character's stats are not being properly portrayed (i.e. low charisma but has lots of friends), we reserve the right to reshuffle stats according to how we see fit.

Character Creation and Levelling Rules

• (1) Your character must have an appropriate appearance for his race and subrace. Humans may not have the horned head appearance. Standard elves may not have drow skin coloring. You must select a name for your character that makes sense for the setting, and is not directly copied from a well known fictional or real life person. Including titles or honorifics in the character name is discouraged.

• (2) Subraces, prestige classes, and special/elaborate backgrounds (such as inclusion in a canon organization) require applications to the DM staff.

• (3) Paladins, Druids, and Clerics need an appropriate alignment and deity in order to be able to cast spells. Clerics also need to choose from the supported domains of his/her deity. Information about the deities of the Forgotten Realms may be reviewed on our Faiths of Faerun forum. If you play a cleric/druid/paladin, you should be familiar with the tenets of your faith as you may receive spell failure if you act in a way contradictory to the teachings of your deity.

• (33) EFU is a roleplaying server based off of character interaction and mutual story-telling. Although it's fine to pursue a mechanically strong character, optimizing characters to an extreme extent is highly discouraged - the stats should generally be selected according to the concept. A repeated pattern of choosing stats based exclusively on mechanical power may be cause for OOC adjustment.

• (54) The practice of skill point banking (saving skill points in order to dump them into a class skill at a later level) is generally forbidden. When multiclassing roughly evenly, players may save their skillpoints every-other level as needed in order to keep a primary skill maxed. Other situations of modest skill banking may be permissible depending upon the build, but egregious examples of (for example) taking a single rogue level at a high level in order to maximize tumble/UMD is something we reserve the right to crack down upon.

• (55) Application-based, subrace, faction, prominent/semi-prominent or high level PCs who are not played for an extensive period of time (1 month+) should not return to active play after this break unless permission is given from a DM or you submit an application to do so. We're eager to welcome back players to EFU but it can be highly disruptive for characters that have long been missing to make a return. That said, there may be exceptions - you simply need to check with us first.

• (56) The practice of playing "alts" (alternative characters) is discouraged but not strictly forbidden. Although we understand it may take a while for players to find themselves with a character that they really enjoy, long experience suggests that playing alts can lead to incidents of unintentional metagaming, unfairness, and perhaps most importantly degrades the playing experience. Cycling from alt to alt and concept to concept can be an easy trap to fall into but will likely lead to a very unsatisfying playing experience. We reserve the right to retire alts if they get mixed up in each other's affairs.

Player versus Player (PvP) Combat Rules

• (4) You should not initiate PvP or muggings against level 2 or level 3 characters without extremely good reason to do so. If the DM team feels that you are deliberately causing grief, or targeting low level PCs, we reserve the right to ban you.

• (11) This is a full PvP server, and legitimate IC-motivated PvP is fully encouraged. PvP must always be initiated for IC and justifiable reasons, insanity or a desire for random death may be considered as an excuse for griefing by the DM team. If you perform PvP, you must be prepared to face the IC consequences of the IC action -- IC crimes are investigated by law enforcement or other characters behaving IC. OOC issues or concerns are always handled by the DMs in an OOC manner. Players are advised to read the 'PvP Karma' thread when deliberating over whether or not to use Full Damage mode. Characters may not respawn from PvP, but can in some cases be raised - the DM team reserves the right to rule on whether Resurrection is required, or if the corpse is unavailable for being raised.

• (12) You must always set your opponent to Dislike (hostile) before PvP. The dislike/like toggle is fully OOC, and is just a mechanics thing. Seeing someone set you to Dislike should not be considered an IC act. Many players set the whole server to Dislike in preparation for PvP that may well have nothing to do with you, so you should not read too much into it if it happens. Be warned that if someone sets you to hostile, and you then relog, they will still see you as hostile/red whereas you will see them as non-hostile/blue. This is not their fault.

• (13) When beginning PvP, send a /dm tell indicating that PvP may begin in your area. If you are in a populated area, the presence of a DM is required. If someone else is engaging in PvP, you may always respond IC with no confirmation from a DM.

• (14) You should not initiate PvP in the presence of NPCs unless you've received confirmation that DMs are available to possess these NPCs and make them react appropriately. Note: Law Enforcement (Watcher & Spellguard) PCs may in some cases proceed with PvP without a DM if in their area of jurisdiction, however they do so at their own risk and the PvP must be of the sort that would be considered legitimate by the NPCs (i.e. a real arrest, not random beatings or murder).

• (15) If you engage in PvP, you should remain in the server for a substantial period of time to give others an opportunity to respond to your actions.

• (17) If you plan on using traps through PvP or otherwise, please review our trap policy on the forums. Traps should be used in moderation, should not be used at transition points, and you should not close all conceivable avenues of escape with high powered traps. Traps should never be stacked. As a rule of thumb, you should limit yourself to one stunning/disabling trap and one damage-dealing trap being out at a time. Exceptions may be made, consult with a DM about your specific plan. If you believe you are the victim of bad-trap policy, please do not attempt to OOC'ly pause the PvP but rather consult with a DM during or after as it is possible an exception was made.

• (50) If your character has engaged in a PvP encounter please do not rest mid-PvP or break off to rest and re-engage without seeking DM permission to do so.

• (51) There are some nuances to damage modes and subdual in EFU PvP. If a character is attacking in full damage mode, and a target is sent into negative HPs immediately, that target is not subdued - they can be healed, continue fighting, flee, etc. If, however, a player is demonstrating OOC courtesy by using the Subdual damage mode - a subdued opponent is completely helpless, must remain on the ground, must cooperate with dropping_pack/giving over items/removing armor if ordered to do so, and may not re-engage or flee unless the PvP is finished and the victory has departed, gives verbal permission, or a DM gives permission. Note that sometimes an observing DM will give permission to attempt to flee or re-engage if we deem it appropriate.

• (27) Goblin/Kobold/other subrace PCs can legitimately be killed by other characters just for being goblins/kobolds, however as always if the PvP occurs in an area with NPCs there should be a DM supervising. Playing a goblin/kobold is not an excuse to attack other characters without excellent reason to do so.

• (53) Using blackout mode on a subdued PC to steal or rescue a PC under the control of another character is forbidden unless you have specific DM permission to utilize this technique.

• (57) Characters may not utilize faction HQs or plot-locked (non-bashable/pickable) doors for the purposes of PvP unless they have permission from a DM. This includes law-enforcement PCs bringing a character into their faction for "questioning" or something seemingly innocuous yet with an intention to make a more significant arrest. The basic principle to adhere to is that characters should always have the right to attempt to resist a serious arrest, and as such is basically impossible in a HQ without a DM supervising, the moment of decision whether to cooperate or otherwise needs to happen outside of the Faction HQ.

• (59) Taking advantage of a chaotic PvP environment to heavily loot characters that you had little to do with defeating is to be avoided without consultation with a DM.

Miscellaneous Rules

• (38) Banned players from EFU have been banned for a good reason. If they would like to return legitimately to EFU, the DM team is forgiving and willing to consider the matter. Banned players should not hide their identity in an attempt to return, and other players aware of a banned player playing secretly in EFU must inform the DM team.

• (40) If a major DM-supervised event is occurring in which multiple characters are dying, do not take advantage of the confusion to loot other characters. Likewise, on a DM quest, loot from the DM that is obviously intended to be shared should be shared fairly or in an appropriate IC way. For example, IC'ly mocking an enemy or non-contributing coward and deliberately not giving them a share or a reduced share is completely fine; quietly concealing loot and keeping it for yourself is not. If there is a plot significant item that your character would like to steal or conceal from others for some reason feel free to let the DM know and ask for permission to proceed.

• (41) DMs are forbidden to use quest spice or IC monsters as a method of punishing disliked characters or rule abuses. Spice should not be considered as a punishment, even if it may be very hard (usually reserved for strong characters that could benefit from the challenge or players we like!). If there is an issue DMs will instead use OOC methods: warning, deducting XP, retiring, banning, etc.

• (42) All players, former-DMs, and current DMs have the right to fairly play characters anonymously. The practice of sleuthing out who plays who is completely forbidden.

• (46) If I have to constantly keep updating this list because of things you do, it may be a sign that you don't quite get the spirit of EFU. It's not a crime to be a bad fit for EFU, but it may be an indication that there are other more suitable gaming venues out there for you.

Remember: Not every rule is written or can be, and the DM team reserves the right to adjust anything and everything as we see fit and according to the best interests of the server. If you have difficulty operating in the grey area of EFU common sense, please consult with a DM before proceeding with something that you think may be considered an exploit or unbalanced.

PvP Guidelines

What would your favourite work of fiction or movie be without a little rough and tumble every now and again? Although EFU is not an arena server, legitimate and stylish PvP between characters as the result of roleplay is fully encouraged. PvP is often complicated though, and this post will hopefully be a one-stop read for everything you need to know about PvP on EFU: City of Rings.

When engaging in PvP, it is important to:

• Seek beneficial PvP Karma.
• Adhere to the strict rules and regulations that are in place in order to ensure an OOC'ly fair competitive situation.

PvP Modes

Subdual Mode

(activated via "/c subdual subdual")

In subdual mode, when a player character is reduced to zero health points, they will instead be beaten to the ground and stay at one health point, unable to perform actions for a time. If you are subdued in PVP (indicated by a red [Subdued] appearing above your character) then you should stay down/inactive (consider using the "/e fall" command to fall over) until given OOC permission to act IC by the subduing party or a DM. Subdual mode should be the most common mode used in PVP for engaging player characters in conflict and furthering stories.

Blackout Mode

(activated via "/c subdual blackout")

In blackout mode, when a player character is reduced to zero health points, they are knocked unconscious and transported to a "blackout" area to represent this. A placable/item is then spawned to represent a corpse which is able to be awoken/moved by the party that knocked the player unconscious (or perhaps other parties). If you are knocked unconscious in PVP (indicated by a red [Unconscious] appearing above your character) then you should stay down (consider using the "/e fall" command to fall over) until given OOC permission to act by the subduing party or a DM. Blackout mode should generally only be used to support an IC need such as kidnapping or moving a subdued player character.

Full Damage Mode

(activated via "/c subdual full")

In full damage mode, when a player character is reduced to negative ten hit points, they die. This is the same as a death to general dangers, though with the exception that you cannot respawn from a PVP death. It is possible to prevent a player character from being raised or resurrected as well with further action. Full damage mode should be reserved for when you intend to kill a deserving player character in a significant point in their story. This mode should almost always be after repeated conflict or a significant story event, though can be for something else, such as killing a monster or egregious actions as well.

PvP 'Karma'

• "You reap what you sow"

PvP Karma is too amorphous for us to strictly enforce, but is something we like to encourage. Seeking it will make you a happier player, avoiding it (even if you don't strictly break any rules) will just lead to disappointment for all involved (yourself, your opponent, other players, and the DMs).

• Is the PvP justified?

Has the conflict between your characters reached a point where the natural progression would be PvP? Are you certain that the desire for PvP is entirely your character's, and not your feelings as a player seeping into your RP?

• Is it best to subdual, to subdual-loot, or to FD (full damage) kill?

Has the character (and player) had opportunities to avoid being FD'ed if they've lost? Is the rivalry or conflict sufficient cause that you think looting or FD'ing is justified? If the situation was reversed, and you were playing your character's opponent, would you feel the same way? Has the story progressed to a point where a FD death would be appropriate? Please note: often the answer is yes, sometimes in EFU it's just time for FD time.

• Is the PvP fun and stylish?

Style is intangible, but should always be sought. Put some thought into it.

• Is your attitude as a player relaxed, respectful, sporting?

Are you a gracious winner, and respectful loser? Sportsmanship is important. Note that this does go both ways, even if you're the victim of PvP that you think doesn't agree with the PvP Karma Guidelines, you should still try to be gracious and respectful. Of course, feel free to come to the Dms if you have concerns.