General Rules & Server Conduct

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Foreword

We're all here to enjoy an experience of cooperative play. As such, it's expected that all who participate will treat one another exceptionally, with consideration and respect. Enforcement of these rules are always intended to ensure everyone is being treated fairly, and to ensure this environment of cooperation; all DMs are held to this same standard of conduct on an equal level to players. Keep in mind that the spirit of the server triumphs over the letter of the rules - behavior that doesn't align with the server's culture and values won't be tolerated.

The following are themes of TDN's rules:
  1. Authenticity to the setting & your character is expected.
  2. Those who play on TDN should aim to roleplay and operate on any aspect of the server's platforms (Forum, Discord, In-Game, etc), with a high regard for maintaining the integrity of our community.
    • When your personal fulfillment begins to come at the cost of other player's experience, it is time to reassess whether you are truly adding to the setting and server, or detracting.
  3. Understand that everyone involved with this server is human, and therefore, fallible. The admin, staff, DMs, and players will all make mistakes at times. Be respectful to everyone in-game, give them the benefit of the doubt, and encourage one another to be good to one another.

Disciplinary process

Purpose​

Disciplinary measures and punitive actions are meant to work towards the goal of rehabilitating players and helping them better integrate in the community. A player that cannot be rehabilitated will be removed, but it is absolutely never the goal.

Process​

  1. Minor offences are met with an informal warning and do not count towards progressing the disciplinary track stage as long as there is positive reception to our telling them to not repeat them and why, and as long as they do not repeat them.
  2. On the first serious offence, or a repeat of a minor offence having been told against, the player is given a warning and explained what they need to change. This is Warning 1, and it will be very explicit.
  3. On the second serious offence, or further repeat of the first offence, the player is given a second (and final) warning against the behaviour that led to it, and once more explained why if needed. They are also told that any further offences will lead to a 30 days ban. This is Warning 2.
  4. On the third serious offence, or further repeat of the 2nd offence, the player is suspended for 30 days, with the option to appeal after the suspension finishes. An appeal that convinces us that they understand their mistake and are willing to correct it will grant them re-entry. This suspension will be announced in the transparency discord channel.
  5. On a repeat of the offence that they were temporarily banned for, or the accrual of a fourth serious offence, the player is permanently banned, with no possibility to appeal (except for highly irregular circumstances). This permanent ban will be announced in the transparency discord channel.
Statute of limitations: The law has a statute of limitations, and so do we. If an offence that the player was warned for is not acted on (the player does nothing for it to lead to a further offence) for one year of regular play, it is erased from their record (it will be kept for our historical records, but it will not be used against them when deciding the next punishment step).

Records: The team will be keeping thorough records internally for all offences and the warnings given, together with supporting evidence.

Transparency posts: While we will post suspensions for transparency, they will never provide explicit details. Any player affected by suspensions/bans can, however, request detail on what led to their ban if it is unclear going forward and it will be provided.

What is a serious offence?​

Generally, most offences will be minor. However, certain offences are treated more seriously, and so they skip the stage of an informal warning.

Note: A serious offence can also be constituted by the repeat of a minor offence.
Click to expand...

The following is a guideline of what constitutes a minor offence, and what constitutes a serious one:

Minor offences​

  • Griefing, harassment or discrimination to fellow players or DMs, OOC or IC.
  • Excessively sexualised / explicit joking or references (some crude IC remarks are acceptable in moderation).
  • Direct verbal attacks on TDN developers, players or other servers.
  • Overtly excessive descriptions of violence for shock value or otherwise.
  • Use of immersion-breaking language, real-world references, emoticons written in chat, manual use of voice lines or IC behaviour which egregiously disrupts other players’ roleplaying experience.
  • Player vs Player combat that’s initiated with little or no roleplay leading up to it - such as attacks from stealth/invisibility with minimal text involved or no text involved.

Serious offences​

  • Blatant mechanical exploits.
  • Erotic Roleplay (ERP) - See link for a detailed description of TDN's definition of ERP and all information about it.
  • Any kind of hate speech (racial/ethnic, political, religious, sexuality, etc).
  • Corpse-camping players in PvP or repeatedly killing them in a short space of time in an effort to permanently kill them.
  • Attempting to log into another player's account.
  • Fake reports, i.e if you’re discovered to be attempting to fake evidence to get another player banned.

Exceptionally serious offences: As with everything, there are exceptions. If an offence is serious enough to convince us that there is no rehabilitation for the player, or that they cannot be allowed to exist in the community, a permanent ban can be immediately administered. This can only be done by an administrator.

Finally, if a member of staff approaches you about a particular point or piece of behaviour, please act respectfully and try to adhere to the direction given. If for some reason you feel the staff member approaching you is singling you out or asking something of you which seems unfair, you may escalate this with the admin of the server to review. Please try to provide screenshots of this conversation and the issue surrounding it.

Staff are expected to adhere to all these rules and more, as they are in a unique position of responsibility and to some degree authority in the server. Any rule breaches from a member of staff will be treated with the utmost seriousness, as they are meant to represent the server and its values.

PvP and Conflict
As we’re constantly striving to adapt the server and create new ways to improve upon age-old problems with certain systems or features in Neverwinter Nights roleplay servers, we have devised a new system we believe will help make player vs player conflict feel much more impactful with permanent death scenarios while not impacting the enjoyment of those who potentially may not want to worry about such situations. For details on Roleplay, Rules & Guidelines related to PvP, please visit: PvP & Conflict.

Enforcement and Disputes
  • While the rules and conduct expectations outlined above are meant to provide a general overview of how the team wishes the server to operate, the DM Team, is expected to provide ongoing feedback to the community when necessary. In some cases these conversations will revolve around character stories and future events, other cases may be specific to roleplay processes and clarification of guidelines and expectations.
  • If at any time you feel that you are receiving unwarranted DM oversight, please message an admin (Goldberry or Krezk) with your concerns. As a Development & DM Team, we are open to feedback and ensuring we provide a place to play that is engaging for players while maintaining a consistent setting that does not bog people down with thousands of rules. These options and communication avenues exist to support the community, if you have suggestions related to systems or rules, please use Discord or the Forum to express those suggestions.

Appendix


Character Creation and Interaction
  • All players are expected to follow the character creation guidelines provided on the forums. Likewise, we expect characters to RP only what is present on their character sheet. They can't use abilities they don't have, or faculties they may lack. They are expected to play their statistics as they're presented on their character sheet. As such, characters are not permitted to have a character with over two of any attribute below the value of 10. This is considered an illegal build on TDN.
    • Use proper English with Character Names.
    • Do not use obviously unique, famous, or infamous names (Darth Vader, Drizzt, etc).
    • Do not use coloring codes on your PC's name.
    • Do not mimic characters from popular video games or fiction. (Geralt, Yennefer, etc.)
  • While romantic interactions are perfectly acceptable, we do not allow sexually explicit RP in any capacity on this server. This includes any form of RP interaction in tells (if two characters are "afk" in an inn room, we reserve the right to break it up and remind you to log off). If a story is heading in that direction, players are to take all such interactions off-server. ERP (Erotic Roleplay) is not tolerated on TDN.

Dungeoning and Exploits
  • Farming or camping dungeons is not allowed.. Likewise, we ask players not to exploit or manipulate NwN mechanics for an advantage while dungeoning. Things such as drawing spawns through encounters in order to escape death, pulling large groups of enemies into one spot and trapping enemies through quirks in an area's tileset are considered OOC and are not permitted. (Please note that funnelling enemies into a doorway or other strategic play is acceptable, this rule only applies to obvious defects in the game)
    • Stealth looting or leveraging the Invisibility Spell to loot a dungeon, particularly without clearing the enemies first, is considered a form of farming and against the spirit of TDN. This can be further defined by using either of the above to avoid all forms of combat and only obtain gold. This also extends to 'ninja' looting, aka running ahead of other players to steal loot, especially if they are still fighting enemies.
  • While we provide some examples of exploits below, the list is not an 'end all be all', it is important to note that we expect the community to play the game with the mindset and intent that the integrity of the experience be maintained. Generally, we identify exploits as things that are done to take advantage of the Engine, a system, or the server. We're focused on the intent behind the action. When in doubt, ask!
  • List of actions that are exploitative in nature:
    • Taking Advantage of Poor AI "Pathing":The act of intentionally leading enemies to a spot in a dungeon or on the server where they are guaranteed to get stuck, and then killing those enemies from ranged/safety as they cannot reach the PC. Asking yourself "Would the NPC really act like this?" is a good checkpoint on these types of things.
      • Finding one or two enemies in a dungeon that get stuck and have to be killed is not exploiting.
        • In these instances, attempt to unstick the enemy by engaging from a different position. If one enemy gets stuck while engaging an encounter, it is permissible to take care of the group before attempting to 'unstick' the final creature. If you've made the effort, killing the NPC is fine. Please report these instances to the DM team with a Bug Ticket.
      • Pathing abuse as a process of clearing an encounter or dungeon IS considered exploiting.
    • Side-Stepping to avoid being Overburdened: The act of using keyboard commands to sidestep your character at regular speed, bypassing your PC's weight limit speed restriction.
    • Swapping Weapons mid-combat frequently to obtain higher APR: Using quickslots to swap weapons mid-combat, at times, can prompt another Attack-Per-Round. Swapping weapons in general during combat isn't naturally perceived as abuse, however it becomes obvious very quickly if someone is attempting to take advantage of the Engine in this way.
    • Pulling Single Mobs via Line-of-Sight:The act of approaching a group of monsters, avoiding line of sight for the majority, and ranged attacking one and only pulling that single creature. (In some cases, the other monsters that are nearby the attacked creature, will not engage the aggressor, despite the originally attacked creature charging forward.)
      • Pulling a group of creatures with a ranged attack, and then leading them to a choke point, or through a spot where you've established strategic advantages, is acceptable.
      • Note on Corner Re-Stealthing: This is defined by "The act of turning a corner while being chased by an enemy, and using the NPC's Line-of-Sight loss to immediately go back into stealth for purposes of gaining Sneak Attacks/Death Attacks on the enemy."
        • Corner Re-Stealthing is acceptable once per enemy encounter - that is against a single or group of enemies that are close to each other - either to run away or simulate 'tricking' an enemy. It is not permissible to continuously restealth around corners to exploit enemy AI.
  • We do not allow muling (passing items between your own characters) and twinking (giving powerful items to players that would have no way of normally obtaining then). Exploiting game mechanics is never allowed, and players are encouraged to privately report any exploits to the team.

Remaining IC and IC Character Behavior
  • Players are expected to remain IC at all times, beyond short OOC conversations for gamelay purposes. Long-term OOC conversations can be taken to Tells (which is considered to be always OOC). OOC chat is expected to be demarcated with appropriate symbols: ((OOC)), // OOC etc. Players should remain aware of metagaming, and should try and restrict their character's knowledge only to things they would have a reason to know.
  • Players are asked to remain aware of how NPCs might react to their character's actions in the gameworld. While DMs cannot always be present to provide reactivity, NPCs can't be ignored. Behaviors such as excessive running through towns, brandishing weapons or a flagrant use of magic would cause a reaction of suspicion or even panic in some situations. These kinds of actions need to have valid IC rationale.
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