OOC and Character Rules

[Head Moderator]

What makes OH a fun place to play?

Because it's about the story. Plain and simple.

There aren't a ton of fancy rules and regulations for what you are allowed to play and where. We let you play your character however you want to play them - quiet, loud, rowdy, brawler, flirt, evil, lawful, chaotic - whatever. The only strict rule we have for our chat rooms is that you take all sexual acts between characters to private rooms. Of course, there are consequences for actions. Kill someone? You'll probably be hunted down. Destroy a tavern? You will have to pay for damages. Rape someone? You'll be castrated.

There are no reports to send in. You don't even have to save your logs once they are sent in to be counted for credit unless you wish to. No need to apply for an audit when you reach d90. We do all the calculations for you and it's kept where everyone can see! Checks and balances are in place to keep this fair!

Speaking of fairness...Rank is gained by activity, activity earns points (XP), points give you certain ranks and dice. It's not a guessing game, or dealing with favorites or who has kissed whose ass. You show up and participate, you gain points, you gain rank, you earn skills, you grow in power.

We aren't trying to control you, we aren't trying to guilt trip you into playing our game. You can play as long as you wish, and when you don't want to play anymore, then you are free to leave, no hard feelings, no veiled threats, no accusations of disloyalty.

It's a do-it-yourself storyline game. Some of the upkeep is done by you, on the honor system, using your online character info sheet on our message board, your "dossier".. which is a little scary perhaps but if you are ever found out to be fudging things or continually "forget" to add or take away items, you will be removed! We do spot checks every now and again to make sure you aren't changing skills out, and keeping up with your things! Yet another one of our checks and balances in place to make this fair for everyone involved.

The founders of this game are quite fond of d&d, so you'll notice that we've used a lot of d&d ideas, as well as ideas from Umbra Victus (an online game many of us were in back in the old d100 rp days) and RaS. There might be dabblings here and there that derives from various gaming systems. It is a conglomeration of (we hope) all the best ideas together in a happy system. If you have ideas to make the game better, then we are all ears!

Like I said, it's about the story. Your story.

[Head Moderator]

a. "Logic Reigns" - Your character has a right to any profession or race as long as it fits into the storyline and is logical. This is a fantasy medieval setting, remember. Use logic, I reserve the right to deny races that I just don't think logically could exist. We do have some recognized races that gain skills and weaknesses, but we cannot cover everything. That is why there is an "Original" race, so you can craft your own. We also have certain classes and professions, if you do not want to take them, you don't have to but you do not gain the benefits nor will we create special skills for "original" classes or professions.

b. "No Indian Givers" - Any character given to another mun to play is done at your risk. We understand that you might want a more full SL, and we welcome that with open arms. But once the character is theirs and they have been playing them, it is officially their character and no longer yours. If a fight breaks out between yourself and the other mun, we will do our best to help smooth things over, but we will not take the character back from them.

c. "One Discord Name" - We allow you the option of having only one Discord name for your play in OH. You may play multiple characters on the same name, as long as you are very clear as to WHICH character you are playing in chats, as well as in paperwork. Using something like [Maria] before your post allows us to know which character you are playing.

d. "Multiple Characters" - You are allowed 1 character upon joining. Once you know how everything works, and understand the system you may apply another character. After that, you may add one character a month, up to TEN total characters. These may be on separate screen names, or all on one. That is up to you. You can use different font/color if you use one screen name. Please bear in mind that if you are never going to play an alt (publicly or privately), we don't need alts that never see the light of day just cluttering up our roster. Alts that are barely played would work better as an NPC.

e. "NPC's Add Depth" - We welcome NPC's that add to the development of our storyline, so if you wish to play an NPC or two to add to the story (such as the bar wench, or someone from one of the criminal organizations, etc). If your NPC needs stats, you must talk to a Moderator to get permission. NPC's do not gain rank or higher stats, they use what they are given no matter when they are played. There are also some NPC's drawn up with stats already that you may play.

f. "Time Flies" - For pregnancy, and child growth, two weeks = 3 months. So a normal, human pregnancy would be 6 weeks long. This is a suggestion, it's up to you if you wish to play it longer.

g. "No XP for Self-Recruiting" - If you add more characters into OH, you don't get the XP bonus or any current recruiting incentives for recruiting yourself. In the same vein, your friend can't get the incentive either!

h. "Enough is Enough" - The most defense you can have based on the type of armor you wear. If you wear no armor/light armor you can have up to +20 DEF. If you wear medium armor you can have up to +30 DEF but with a -5 Penalty to Initiative, and Max QCK 12. If you wear heavy armor you can have up to +40 DEF, but with a -10 penalty to Initiative, and Max QCK 8. There are other caps as well, such as on each defensive item, or on weapon damage. Be sure you know the max for what you are doing / buying.

i. "Fair Fighting" - You may duel or fight ANYONE you so desire and gain the XP for doing so, regardless of your gemstone level or theirs. BUT, if you are dueling or fighting someone that is more than ONE (1) gemstone level lower than you and you win, you may not earn a "Win" to be put towards Ribbons from that match.
Note: If the lower ranked person somehow wins, they do get it counted as a win.

For example, if you are Sapphire ranked, in order to spar someone and earn the "win" for ribbons you must spar someone Amber ranked or above. If you are Ruby ranked, you must duel someone Emerald ranked or above to earn the "win" for a ribbon.

j. "Until You Run Out" - You can use your skills such as evade, reflect, etc until they run out if you want. So, if someone attacks you, and you reflect it, they can then evade it if they have an evade. Or let's say you attack a monster, they reflect it, you can then reflect it right back if you have a reflect available, which IF the monster has an evade left, they can then evade it or take it!

k. "Two Is The Limit" - There are ways to boost your Trait Points over 12, whether temporarily or permanently. Permanently, you have opportunity to gain 2 extra points that you can distribute as you wish. Temporarily, there are skills, bonuses, loot and even magic and combat maneuvers that'll take you over the allowance but there are limits. You can only EVER be TWO points over the base of 12, regardless of what you are using. This keeps our DDC limit at DDC24 The only thing that is allowed beyond the TWO EXTRA are special ONE-TIME skills or items that boost you for one round only such as Avoid Blow.

l. "Pets are Privileges, Not Rights" - It is up to the DM of any given mission or quest whether they will allow pets in the form of Animal Companions or Familiars to attend. They have the right to say no to all pets, they can allow them to come but in support positions or they can even have people sign up early to take their companions and if you do not sign up you cannot take yours. Remember, that a companion is like having another person on the quest which takes up time in combat and in roleplay so if a quest already has 8 to 10 people on it, having a bunch of companions will only detract from the quest experience, not add to it.

m. "Old Enough" - While we do allow you to make characters of any age for storyline purposes, unless your character is at least fifteen (15) years old you will not be allowed to attend adventures and quests. You may still roleplay, and do storylines, but Maria will NEVER send a child under fifteen on her missions! Many races age different than others, such as the wilden, so there is some leeway on this as long as your character is considered a YOUNG ADULT or ADULT then they are fine. TesarikOne has final say on whether your character is considered a child or adult.

[Head Moderator]

a. "No Crossing" - All OOC issues are to be kept OOC. Crossing is not tolerated. There is nothing that kills a roleplay worse than mun drama feeding into how characters act. If you are so upset that it's bleeding into roleplay, take a break and walk away.

b. "Argue in Private" - Please keep all OOC arguments in private, not in our chats! Use IM, or if you need someone to assist with arbitration, we will go in a PR.

c. "Don't Lose Your Cool" - Any member found sending emails or IMs in which you severely bash another player get consequences. We're all adults here, and sometimes tempers flare and things are said, that's natural and even understandable at times. We are not trying to get into your private lives but if you are reported for excessive bashing, there could be consequences such as docked xp or gold, or even removal from the SL. And if you send logs of excessive OOC bashing, and you are doing it right back to the person, you both get consequences if it's bad enough.

d. "It's More Than Just Dice" - We are not here just to gain rank, dice and awards, we're here to build in-depth stories with our characters and to literally create a world where people fill in specific roles based on their personality. If you are seen to be merely trying to gain as much XP as possible, in sneaky ways (such as sparring your alt over and over) then we may ask you to leave, or dock you of XP or gold.

e. "Quality Over Quantity" - We are not out to build a massive roster with people that never play. Every so often we will purge our rosters of people that have not gained any XP or been seen for a while, and I'm not required to warn you if I do this. If you don't want to play with us, don't join, that's fine! We are not the type of group that just wants to have numbers, we want quality over quantity. THIS IS WHY WE DO NOT FORCE YOU TO SIT IN RECRUIT ROOMS! If people see us roleplay and want information - then great! But spending time recruiting, trying to talk people into joining, being bored as hell - is not doing one damn thing for our story. Let them see us play. [Note: You wanna do recruiting? You are free to do it, we just do not ask or beg you to do it.]

f. "Acknowledge Each Other" - If you are the chat creator, we expect you to acknowledge everyone that roleplays an entrance into the room in some way, whether that be by a wave, a greeting, or even a nodding of the head. It is also your responsibility to let any new entrants know the setting of the room they have entered, by either emailed, IMing or posting in the chat a brief description of the chat room and setting. The best recruiting is done in rooms other than recruits.

g. "Freedom For Chats" - We have a 'base' chat room that you can open and rp anywhere in the OH world, but you are also encouraged to open other chats with OH at the beginning if you wish some specific areas.

h. "Keep Private Things Private" - Let's be careful about what we do in public chats and on the boards. You have a lot of free reign on what you do, but if things get too steamy move to a PR (private room) or IM - most do not want to watch this in a public room. I don't ever want to hear of someone walking into a public OH room and finding people having sex. Nudity, foul language, flirting, bloodshed, etc... ok, that's NC-17. But when you get into sexual acts go to PR or IM please. And do not post sex on the boards!

i. "We're Old-Fashioned" - While we will allow certain technology and magi-tech, we are not a fully modern storyline. Our time frame is at the simplest parts of the world, fantasy medieval and at the most advanced, steampunk fantasy (victorian era). You can be creative, we aren't trying to stifle you, but if you go off the deep end and drive a car up to the inne, you may get talked to. There are most certainly ways to work many modern niceties into the storyline without being blatantly modern, and remember what you do in private is just that, private. We aren't trying to become Big Brother on you.

j. "Dossier is King" - If it's not listed on your character sheet thread before the adventure it DOES not exist for that adventure. I am mainly speaking of new skills and spells! If you've ranked up and haven't updated your dossier, then you must abide by what your dossier says when the adventure starts.

k. "DM has Final Say" - Your DM has put a lot of time into running SL's, missions, and quests for you and if something comes up where a call has to be made, the DM has final say. Even if you KNOW the DM is wrong, if the DM makes the call abide by it. You have ONE CHANCE to talk to the DM in IM or chat telling them your feelings and if they still make the call, then abide by it and speak to a Moderator when one is available. Corrections can always be made later, but taking up precious time in quests just to argue over perception of rules is disrespectful to the DM and to the other player's time. DM also has the right to ban members from attending their quests if the player causes problems. It is their story, you are there as THEIR GUESTS. Give them some respect.

l. "Cheaters Gonna Cheat" - And if you cheat, it is up to the moderators but you could lose all your XP, all your gold, be stripped of rank or any mixture of these things, or simply be removed from the storyline.

m. "Big Brother Isn't Welcome" - You are the author of your own roleplay destiny, and your OOC life. If you want to have your character get raped, cheat on your spouse, or beat the crap out of your pet cat then you can certainly do that in private. We do not have the desire nor energy to police what you do in private. We won't read your messages, and we won't put listening devices in your homes, or steal your mail. If you do certain things in public, though, you may have to face the consequences of your peers. As for as ooc goes, we will not tell you what to write on your lifestream, your web sites, your profiles or anything like that. You are adults, and while you may not always ACT like adults, what you choose to write ooc for everyone to see is up to you, and you deal with the consequences.

n. "Patches are Inevitable" - In a game of this sort, that is going from a group of minds to gameplay, it is inevitable that patches will happen. Tweaks will be made, nerfing of abilities and skills, and changes to how things are done to make sure the game is fair, fun, and simple enough for people to enjoy. Please accept the tweaking with consideration for the big picture of a fair game for everyone.

o. "Quitters get no Rights" - We've all been screwed over by other online folks at some point, I'm sure. We don't know who will try to screw us over or who won't, so if you quit OH in any sort of angry outburst, whether public or private or leave under any sort of negative cloud, do not be surprised if we remove you from the site and make it so that you cannot sign on again. This is always something that can be reversed if things change, but we have had too many people in past games try to hack/fuck up/erase or otherwise play the jackass for us not to take precautions with EVERYONE. So do not take it personal, and really if you are quitting, it shouldn't matter to you unless you wanted to fuck something up in the first place!

p. "We're Old School AOL RP" - We do roleplay in AOL chats, much of our roleplay is done on AOL proper, in the Arts and Entertainment section, the old school aol roleplay area. You are welcome to join if you are strictly an AIM player but you must be aware that our roleplay in public AOL is how we gain new members, and show activity so while some of our missions, or storylines will be done on AIM, most will be done in public AOL chats so we expect you to understand and accept that before you join so that in the future when you aren't able to participate as much as others you do not get frustrated or angry.

q. "Momma got Final Say" - Momma is me, the Storyline Leader, Pamela (tesarikone). I try to give all my Moderators as much freedom as possible in their individual duties, but in some cases final calls have to be made. If a final call is made and you do not agree, we are rational human beings and will listen to ONE explanation of why you disagree. It will be considered, and then a decision made. If you are told this is the SL Leader's final call, respect the call. You do not always know everything that is being handled at any given time, nor the entire circumstances for a decision so remember that before you get pissed off that something doesn't go your way. Decisions need to support the group, and sometimes that means one individual loses out.

r. "Momma don't like Drama" - No I don't, not one little skinny bit and if I feel like you are constantly causing drama then I have every right to remove you from this game. I'm patient, and most say I'm kind-hearted and easy-going, and I can deal with a LOT of stuff but when you pass the point of no return with me, then you are out with no regrets from me and probably a final, "Fuck off". If you are the type that likes to do the whole "I'm quitting" thing in order to attempt to glean sympathy or try to use that to start drama, I'm the wrong person to play that game with because if you say you're gone, I'll probably open the site and remove you right then and there!

s. "Diamonds are Forever" - We have a very special level of ranks for overachievers called Diamond, and there are a few rules. First, you do not HAVE to ever progress to Diamond, you can stay Obsidian. You must have the skill Epic Power to even progress to Diamond, and the highest level of XP you can gain by cashing in old characters is 2000XP. At Obsidian High Elder, you must earn your XP on THAT character to gain Diamond, as Diamond ranking is supposed to show a dedication from that particular character.