Volume Three Special Edition
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............./ / THE LEGENDARY TIMES
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..../ /_/..\______/./_____/./__/.../__/./_______/ MUD
.../________________/ running on mud.aus.sig.net 9999
199.1.78.16 9999
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http://mud.aus.sig.net/ ftp://mud.aus.sig.net/pub
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SPECIAL CODE OF CONDUCT ISSUE November 1st, 1996
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WHAT IS THIS ISSUE ABOUT?
For some time now, the staff of LegendMUD has been working on developing a
coherent and consistent document that could serve as a player code of
conduct. The reason for this document is simple: the controversies and
debates over whether or not certain standards were rules, whether or not
certain matters of etiquette were official, whether or not standards of
punishment were codified, and on so on, had reached a point where even
simple enforcement of basic rules was becoming counterproductive.
A major effort was made to gather together all the many rules, suggestions,
standards, and policies into one document, for easy reference and to once
and for all end the debate as to whether a given behavior was illegal or
not.
It is important to emphasize that there is nothing NEW in this document.
Rather, this is just a formalized version of the rules under which all the
players already live and play with really, very few problems. Yes, it seems
like a huge, daunting list, but really, the vast majority of it is common
sense, and the document you are about to read tends to overexplain even the
most basic things so that there is a definite reference to point to.
WHERE WILL THIS CODE GO?
The rules overview will be placed in HELP RULES, which replaces HELP CHEAT
as the basic file to refer to for guidelines. There are also individual
help files for each of the 12 rules (yes, there are only twelve rules). In
addition, all new characters will get shown these twelve rules as part of
the character creation process, so that even a casual spammer who wanders
in cannot say that they were ignorant of the rules.
In addition, the code of conduct will be placed on the welcome board, and
it will remain there permanently, so that it is easily referred to by
players by that method as well. And of course, the help files are
accessible by anyone. On top of THAT, it'll also be on the web site.
REASONS WHY YOU SHOULDN'T FREAK OUT
"Oh no! The evil immortals are imposing more of their moral judgements upon
us! Agh! I must flee!"
Hardly. So relax. As I said above, there are only twelve rules. They cover
the basic stuff that you all already know quite well, like multiplaying,
abusing bugs, and harassment. All we've done is gather them together and
formalize them. From now on, if you get punished for something that is not
in this document, you've got a great case in your defense; on the other
hand, we're not perfect, and probably missed something. Because of that, we
expect this to be a "living document" that evolves and changes over time.
Another major reason why you should not freak out is really a simple one.
The rules are designed primarily to protect the players, and not to
circumscribe them. In order for that to be perfectly clear, there is
commentary interspersed below that describes the rationale for each rule.
Frankly, none of them are very controversial.
WHERE TO DISCUSS THE CODE OF CONDUCT
Since this is a living document, player input is always welcome. Although
the welcome board has the code posted on it, it is not really the best
forum for discussing it. Rather, discussion and debate related to the code
of conduct is best posted on the discussion board in the Out of Character
Lounge.
Please do not flood the Legendary Times address with comments about the
code.
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The following is HELP RULES, the overview of the twelve rules. This file is
also sent to newbies during character creation.
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RULES
LegendMUD has few rules, but the following activities are unwelcome here.
Players caught engaging in these activities will be dealt with on a
individual basis, but the basic violations listed below all potentially
call for character deletion. Punitive actions can also include any and all
of the following: removal of equipment or gold, alteration of stats, denied
access to mud commands (e.g. being muzzled or glued), denied access to a
character, forced clanning, demotion of level status, or banning of a site
if repeated violations occur.
Generally, first offenses will result in your name being noted in a log of
offenders and perhaps the loss of some skill, stat, privilege, or
equipment. Upon a second offense, the log will be updated, you will be
reminded that you were warned, and you will lose one half of your
experience; other punishments--loss of stats, equipment, gold, or
privileges--may also be imposed. A third offense warrants deletion, and
your site will be noted in the log. A fourth offense may result is siteban.
(See HELP VIOLATIONS, HELP RIGHTS)
All players are held responsible for understanding and following the rules
set forth below, and violations will not be less severely punished because
a player claims to have not known he or she was breaking a rule. For
additional information, see individual help files or immorts with the
'Admin' flag.
1. Multiplaying (logging in more than one character at a time) and
trading equipment among your characters (or using one of your
characters to benefit another of your characters in any way) are
prohibited; additionally, only one player may play a particular
character. (See HELP MULTIPLAY).
2. Harassing other players is prohibited; harassment may include, but
is not limited to, out of character threats, sending unwanted tells
when asked to stop, using offensive language, making unwanted
out-of-character attacks or comments, or using in-character
justifications for what are really out-of-character assaults.
(See HELP HARASSMENT).
3. Sexually explicit language, cursing, and slurs are not permitted
over public channels--like chat, auction, and info--or in other
public fora like illusions or character names/titles; such language
may be prohibited even in 'tells' to the extent it amounts to
harassment. (See HELP HARASSMENT).
4. Non-clanned players may not interfere in the general activities of
clans or player-kill. 'Interference' may involve, but is not
limited to, using skills, spells, or other in-game functions to
assist a pkiller or impede his or her opponent, either directly or
by using skills, spells, or other in-game functions against other
mobs or the mud environment. (See HELP PKILL).
5. Non-clanned players may never loot the corpse of a clanned or
non-clanned character, except anyone may remove items from the
corpse of a character at that character's request to assist in
corpse recovery, so long as he or she does not thereby involve an
non-clanned character in pkill. (See HELP LOOTING).
6. Asking or getting immorts to reveal or change your stats is not
permitted, nor is getting or asking them to load items or mobs for
you or to confer any other unfair advantage.
(See HELP IMMORTS, HELP CHEAT).
7. If you find a bug, you must report it by using the BUG command or
mudmail to an immortal or even email to [email protected]. Taking
advantage of a bug or using it to crash the mud is not permitted.
(See HELP CHEAT).
8. Intentionally placing a character over rent by loading him or her
with excessive equipment is not permitted. (See HELP CHEAT).
9. Experience may not be 'given' away by clanned characters permitting
others to pkill them; repeated deaths will attract the attention of
immorts. (See HELP CHEAT).
10. In-game information (such as mob or item stats, quest solutions,
etc.) may not be placed on public channels or boards (including
clan boards). (See HELP CHEAT).
11. Making false accusations under these rules is itself a punishable
offense.
12. There are also several rules that we have catalogued under
'etiquette.' Violations of these rules may not necessarily call for
character deletion, but repeated violations may call for one of the
lesser penalties listed above. Adherence to them will help to ease
your relationships with other players on LegendMUD.
(See HELP ETIQUETTE).
See generally, HELP MULTIPLAY, HELP HARASSMENT, HELP PKILL, HELP ETIQUETTE,
HELP RIGHTS, HELP VIOLATIONS, HELP IMMORTS, HELP CHEAT, HELP LOOTING.
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What follows are the individual help files referred to above. Each one is
prefaced with a brief explanation of why the behavior is deemed undesirable.
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VIOLATIONS
Every law must have its penalties for when it is broken. Because this is an
area in which so many have felt unfairly treated, we are going with a very
straightforward system. This system has been in use by the admin department
ever since the wizbit system went into effect.
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VIOLATIONS
Immorts maintain a log of violations in order to allow graduated punishment
against repeat offenders. In the event of violations of the above policies:
* First Offense: a stern talking to, being written up in the offenders
file, and possibly muzzling or revocation of other
privileges or wrongfully acquired equipment or gold
(tell, chat, etc.).
* Second Offense: a reminder that you have been warned, an append to the
offenders file, plus the loss of half of your experience
and, when relevant, loss of other equipment, stat, or right.
* Third Offense: character deletion and notation in the offenders file of
the site from which you are logging.
* Fourth Offense: siteban is very possible.
The administrators reserve the right to upgrade the punishments based on
the severity of the offense, and punishments may be more closely tailored
to the specific violation (loss of gold or equipment or some other benefit
wrongly acquired). Again, by entering the mud, you have agreed to abide by
its policies and will be held responsible for them. We have very few
problems on LegendMUD, as a whole, and the players themselves tend to
uphold these rules as stringently as the immortals do. So please help keep
this mud as nice a place as it has been for the last few years. See HELP
RULES for basic guidelines and a list of related help files.
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MULTIPLAYING
Multiplaying not only gives an advantage to those players who run mud clients,
but it also causes problems for the mud design itself. When a player uses
multiple characters at once, the efficiency of monster-killing goes way, way
up. The result is that there is less available for players to do. A mud with
60 multiplayed characters has to be larger than a mud supporting 60 separate
characters. We prefer to sustain the maximum amount of people possible, rather
than cater to fewer players. In addition, having 60 real people instead of 20
people and 40 robots also makes for a more interesting gaming session for the
players themselves, as they get to interact with more people and have more
varied experiences.
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MULTIPLAY MULTIPLAYING CROSSPLAY CROSSPLAYING
Players may make as many characters as they like, but they may connect only
one at any given time. The rule against multiplaying is designed to put
players on, as much as possible, an equal footing: to ensure that every
item or advantage gained by a character was really gained by him or her or
in grouping with other players. Where you have any doubt whether or not a
particular activity constitutes multiplaying, ask yourself if the benefit
your character is about to enjoy could have been gained if he or she were
the first character you had ever made on LegendMUD.
In its most obvious form, 'no multiplaying' means you may not connect two
characters at once, whether those characters are grouped or not grouped or
for any other purpose. But 'no multiplaying' also means you may not use one
of your characters for the advantage of another of your characters: you may
not get equipment with one your characters to be given to another of your
characters (either directly, by leaving it for the other to pick up, by
giving it to another player to deliver, or by any other means).
Multiplaying also includes dropping link, not completely renting out a
character before logging on another character.
In the spirit of the rule against multiplaying, LegendMUD also asks that no
more than one person play any given character. You may give away an
non-clanned character, but please do not permit other people to play one of
your characters. Sharing your character password is always a bad idea. No
exceptions to the rules will be granted because a player claims that
someone else was playing his or her character.
See HELP RULES for basic guidelines and a list of related help files.
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HARASSMENT
It seems odd to have to justify a rule against harassment, but there you
go. :) As the help file explains, Legend has attracted a wide range of
players of all ages and nationalities. A game is only fun as long as most
of the players get along most of the time. At times, people get angry or
upset, but that doesn't justify personal attacks that would not be
permissible in real life either. In the past, the staff at Legend has had
to resort to real-life action against those who have engaged in harassment,
because this sort of behavior is frowned upon in general by law enforcement
around the world.
In a different vein, the language restrictions are simply because polite
society demands a higher standard of discourse than conversation among
friends does. The public channels on LegendMUD are public venues, and
people do not have a way to partake in the good aspects of them while
filtering out the bad. Therefore we try to maintain a minimum standard on
the public channels. It is worth noting that the restrictions given are far
less stringent than what the Congressional Decency Act defined--and that
the CDA is *not* defeated but merely in dispute and not currently enforced.
Legend supports free speech, and believes that you have every right to
state your opinion in a mature manner, but we also don't want the mud to be
sued or shut down on obscenity charges. :)
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HARASSMENT
In the area of harassment, we are concerned primarily with two topics:
language used over public channels (general harassment) and harassment of
particular persons or groups (specific harassment).
LANGUAGE
LegendMUD has had players ranging from the age of seven on up. Therefore,
we strictly enforce the following restrictions on language:
* No sexually explicit or strong cursing language on public channels. This
includes CHAT, INFO, AUCTION, clan channels, and on public boards. Upon
occasion a chat conference that has the tag [adult] may be created by an
immortal, and [adult] conferences may make use of stronger language.
[Adult] conferences must be explicitly joined by the individual, and
hence listening to one implies acceptance of the language there.
* Said language is also not permissible in private communication--for
example in mudmail, using the TELL command, or on clan boards--if it is
unwelcome or someone hearing or receiving said language has asked you to
stop.
* Said language is also not permissible as part of a character name or
title, or in illusions.
HARASSMENT
* Derogatory comments directed at the player operating a character are
outside the bounds of LegendMUD and therefore have no place here. Real
life threats are not only unwelcome on LegendMUD, they are illegal in
real life.
* A pattern of extreme rudeness toward a specific character or player that
is judged to exist outside the framework of the game and roleplay will
not be tolerated. If harassment persists, we will go so far as to contact
the systems administrator at your site and request that punitive action
be taken, such as restricting access to our port, Internet service, or
even that school disciplinary or criminal charges be filed.
* Likewise, a pattern of aggressiveness that has the above characteristics
will not be tolerated, particularly if the aggressor carries it across
multiple characters. OOC harassment masquerading as IC roleplaying is
impermissible.
* Using unwanted and intimate socials on another character may be
harassment. If he or she asks you to stop, then stop. In other
circumstances, use your good judgment and remember that there is a person
behind the character in the game.
* 'Spamming,' or the practice of sending repeated strings of text, is not
allowed. Spamming a particular individual in tells will be considered
harassment as will spamming over public channels.
* Racist or sexual slurs or slurs against any group are not any more
permissible than the personal attacks forbidden above. Sexual harassment,
including unwanted advances, is also not tolerated, including in names,
titles, on public channels, in illusions, etc.
* Asking players repeatedly for help--spellword locations, equipment stats,
skill advice, etc.--may be considered harassment in certain cases.
* In general, if a player asks you to leave him or her alone, you would be
advised to comply.
See HELP RULES for basic guidelines and a list of related help files.
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PLAYERKILLING
This is probably the touchiest part of the rules, and the most
controversial. At the same time, in many ways it is the most necessary. The
players of Legend are essentially on an honor system when it comes to good
behavior with playerkilling. None of what follows is new, but hopefully
seeing it all laid out will help. The reasoning behind the playerkilling
and clanned/unclanned rules is simply that there is so much potential for
bad blood with the current system. Players and immorts do not favor going
to a pkill-free mud nor an all-pk mud, and therefore we've collectively
saddled ourselves with these rules.
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PKILL PLAYERKILLING
Pkill is the exclusive prerogative of pkill-enabled characters, who must
actively choose to become pkill-enabled. You may have only one pkill-
enabled character at a time. Once a character is clanned, you may only
unclan that character by either permanently retiring that character through
deletion, permadeath, or petitioning to be included in the Hall of Legends,
or by reaching 100,000,000 experience.
Characters who are not pkill-enabled may not interfere with pkill. In other
words, while only pkill-enabled characters are actually able to kill
another character, non-pkill-enabled characters might be able to find ways
to interfere (for instance, by healing a participant in pkill, making him
or her invisible or providing detect invisibility ability, repairing
equipment, putting up walls, killing innkeepers or trans mobs, etc.)--such
activities confer the excitement and fun of pkill without any of the risk.
Likewise, non-clanned characters may not ask a clanned character to kill
another clanned character, or loot anything from the corpse of a clanned
character. In other words, clanned characters may not accept a 'contract'
on another clanned from a non-clanned character.
Therefore, any direct or indirect interferences, by a non-pkill-enabled
character, even if the action is on behalf or otherwise representing a
clanned player, will result in forced clanning of the non-pkill-enabled
character (and the consequent deletion of any other clanned character
belonging to the player); if the interference was solicited by a
pkill-enabled character, he or she will also be subject to punishment.
Non-pkill enabled characters should generally refrain from giving any
assistance that might be of use to pkill-enabled characters if there is any
doubt about whether the pkill-enabled character is presently engaged in a
running pkill battle. In other words, if you are grouped with a pkill-
enabled character and saw him or her get wounded by the lion, you are of
course free to heal him/her. But if that same character appears by you,
leaking guts, and begs a heal (or any other help), it is your
responsibility to be certain you are not interfering with pkill; when in
doubt, it is your responsibility to make sure you are not interfering with
pkill.
LegendMUD encourages grouping, and nothing in the rules concerning pkill
should prevent clanned and non-clanned players from grouping. But, as a
general rule, when pkill ensues, if you are an non-clanned character
grouped with pkillers, you may not assist. Nor may you, alerted to the
situation through your non-clanned character, run to get your clanned
character to assist, since this would be multiplaying.
See HELP CLAN and HELP RULES for basic guidelines and a list of related help files.
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ETIQUETTE
This is a catch-all grab bag of minor rules and tips. Mostly tips. Often
etiquette and social conventions on Legend are mistaken for hard and fast
rules when they are not. But in many ways, conventions are more binding
than rules (for one thing, usually everyone enforces them, not just the
immort staff). You will see the term "officially discouraged" below. It
refers to behaviors that in general are considered "twinkish" or poor
sportsmanship, but which are unenforceable as rules. They'd likely get you
kicked out of someone's living room, but won't get you kicked out of
the mud unless they escalate into an illegal behavior. They WILL get you
sermonized against, yelled at, and quite possibly discussed as an example of
how Legend's playerbase is going to pot (hey, it's happened plenty before...)
One of the main things to keep in mind about these sorts of etiquette
rules is that they have arisen out of PLAYER concerns more than out of
immort concerns, and have become so entrenched that we often get requests
that they be officially enforced. They are not the immorts' rules so
much as they are your own.
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ETIQUETTE
Society has many, often unspoken, rules of conduct that it relies upon for
smooth operations. Newcomers to mudding are often unaware of mud etiquette.
The tips that follow are a crash course in the most serious 'don'ts' of
life of LegendMUD.
* Purposely attempting to put someone over rent is illegal.
* P lease refrain from using all caps, in any circumstance. It is considered
shouting.
* Please think carefully about the language and socials that you use (see
help harassment). LegendMUD has an elaborate system of 'socials' that
allow you to perform everything from a bow to a lick, but not every
'social' is appropriate in every situation or with people you have just
met. When in doubt, ask yourself if you would presume to do x in real
life... and, if not, then refrain.
* The general consensus on the mud is that multiple kills of another player
are bad form. They will be frowned upon, and will make the perpetrator an
immediate target for permanent death among other pkill-enabled players.
Multiple kills are not illegal; they are officially discouraged.
* The Out of Character Lounge is to be considered a place separate from the
main mud. Please do not drag in-character conflicts into that area.
Sitting in the OOC and taunting opponents is considered very bad form, as
is hiding there from opponents. Again, it is not illegal; it is
officially discouraged.
* Never lie to an immortal; always be fully co-operative with them, as they
are trying to do a tough job. Do not assume they have all the information
they need, and be as helpful as possible to them so that they can respond
appropriately.
* Treat every character as a separate individual, and do not play 'across
characters' ('crossplaying'). Do not give out the names of a player's
other characters, do not ask for them, and do not reveal any information
about their real life, including sites from where they connect, email
addresses, etc. Real life stops as soon as you see the title screen--
leave it there.
* Requests for help will generally be answered--demands for help will be
ignored or flamed. Be polite and people will generally be polite in
response.
* Do not place in-game information such as the stats on equipment, mobs,
other players, quest steps, etc., on public channels or boards, including
clan boards.
* Be reasonably polite and helpful to others on the mud. This includes
things like not stealing their kills, not sitting by a mob and claiming
you are 'reserving' it, not looting others' kills, etc.
* Before asking for help, take advantage of the FAQs and extensive help
files that LegendMUD provides.
See HELP RULES for basic guidelines and a list of related help files.
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PLAYER RIGHTS
You were wondering, I'm sure. :) The player rights section attempts to correct
some oddball myths about Legend--like the weird notion that we log everyone all
the time--as well as make clear to what extent you have freedom there. The rights
are really the foundation for all the other rules. Harassment rules would not exist if
it were not for the right to enjoy "a mature atmosphere in which to play" (as
it is described below). In that sense, this is the most important section of
the rules.
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RIGHTS
* You have a general right to privacy. LegendMUD does not log your activity
except for a log of failed saves for the purpose of tracking reimbursals.
Snooping your activity only takes place during the course of an
investigation into a violation of the rules, or with your explicit
permission.
* You have the right to a mature atmosphere in which to play and enjoy
yourself, and freedom from harassment.
* You have freedom of expression insofar as it does not harass anyone or
violate the game rules or the rules of conduct.
* You have the right to professional treatment by the immortals. They have
a much stricter code of behavior than players do, which may be read on
the welcome board.
* You have the right to have your complaints heard. Please keep in mind
that you should be ready to provide evidence or witnesses for complaints.
* Players with a complaint or those accused of any rule violations have a
right to know who is accusing them and what they are being accused of;
they have a right to defend themselves before the immort involved,
explaining their take on events, what happened, and why; they have a
right to have the immort making the decision explain his or her decision
and the punishment imposed. Generally, these rights will attach before an
immort takes any action against you; in extreme situations (as where
someone is intransigently chatting obscenities), immorts reserve the
right to act first and make inquiries after.
See HELP RULES for basic guidelines and a list of related help files.
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LOOTING
The following rules are really related back to the clanned and unclanned
rules. Nothing in either of them is particularly surprising. One thing
to note is that changes to corpses with the new skill trees may make some
of them obsolete, by literally not permitting some of these actions to
occur.
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LOOTING
* In general, looting of player corpses is only allowed if both the victim
and the looter are clanned. This means that non-clanned characters may
not loot the corpses of clanned characters or of non-clanned characters.
Clanned characters may not loot the corpses of non-clanned characters,
but they may loot the corpse of any clanned character (realizing, of
course, that looting another pkiller's kill is likely to direct his or
her attention to you).
* The one exception to the looting rule occurs in the case of assisting in
corpse recovery. Clanned or non-clanned characters may loot the corpse of
any character, at that character's specific request, in order to help
that character recover his or her equipment, so long as this does not
impermissibly involve an non-clanned character in pkill.
See HELP RULES for basic guidelines and a list of related help files.
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CHEATING
The reason why the following things are not allowed is simple: we want the
mud to stay fun. A game where all the solutions are handed out to you in
advance is a game where there is no challenge, fewer surprises--and in the
long term, a lot less players. Hence rules restricting the public
dissemination of stats, solutions, and so on. This doesn't mean that you
can't help out your friends, of course. It just means that going about it
in a very public manner is counterproductive. Instead of helping those
people, you are actually limiting their enjoyment. If ever in doubt, think
back to when youfirst managed to solve some particularly tricky quest, or
discovered that awfully cool item--and ask yourself why you'd want to deny
that same thrill to another player.
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CHEAT CHEATING
* If you see a bug, you are obligated to report it (SEE HELP BUG) and not
to take advantage of it, for the sake of the mud's balance and the
enjoyment of other players. We typically give small rewards for reporting
bugs. Exploitation and concealment of a bug is regarded as cheating. Any
advantages you gain from a bug will be stripped if it is discovered you
have been making use of one.
* Purposeful crashing of the mud will result in immediate deletion of all
characters involved.
* Offering quest solutions, mob or equipment stats, locations of skill
teachers or spell words, or any other 'secret' in-game information over
public channels (info, chat, etc.) or by posting on public or clan boards
is cheating. We officially discourage the posting of such information on
web pages or through clan mailing lists.
See generally, HELP RULES, HELP MULTIPLAY, HELP HARASSMENT, HELP PKILL,
HELP ETIQUETTE, HELP RIGHTS, HELP VIOLATIONS, HELP IMMORTS, HELP LOOTING.
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IMMORTS
In case you were feeling like the immortals had it easy in this whole
thing, here's this section to show otherwise. The immort staff is obligated
to follow *ALL* the rules that apply to players, only to an even higher
standard. They are often not allowed to even help their friends *with their
mortal* in a way that would be perfectly legal if they were not immort. In
general, being an immort is treated as a volunteer job, complete with
progress reports, bosses, and deadlines. It is never a way to help your
mortals advance--in fact, as a rule you can expect your mortal characters
to stagnate as all of your time gets taken up with immort duties. :)
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IMMORTS
* Immorts are not permitted to give in-game help. Attempting to get an
immort to give in-game assistance or information is illegal, especially
information about other players' characters, sites, etc. Repeated attempts
may be considered harassment.
* Immorts are not permitted to use their status as immortals for the
benefit of their other characters. Immortals must generally log out their
immort before logging in a pkill-enabled character.
* Immorts are not permitted to use their status as immortals to abuse or
harass players; they may not use their abilities to help players outside
the realm of their immort duties.
* Immorts are governed by a strict code of conduct. If you believe you have
been wrongfully treated by an immort, inform an Admin Immort or one of
the Implementors, Kaige or Ptah at [email protected].
See HELP RULES for basic guidelines and a list of related help files.
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THE IMMORT CODE OF CONDUCT
One thing which may strike you about the imm code of conduct is that it isn't
fair towards the immorts. It outright states that "this doesn't cover everything,
and it doesn't matter. If you do something wrong that violates the spirit of
these rules, you're still in very hot water." That is not the case with the
player code of conduct, which will get amended to cover new situations as they
arise. Immorts are held to a much higher standard, and the rules are consequently
more vague.
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IMMORT CODE OF CONDUCT
General Principles:
* the immortals are here to improve the mud
* the immortals are here to make the experience of being on Legend
enjoyable for everyone, not just your friends
* use your head! if you have to stop to think whether an action is
illegal, it's better not to do it, and ask someone, than to chance it
* respect the players--they are why we are here
* do nothing to harm the growth of the mud
Punishment structure:
First offense: warning
Second offense: demotion (stripping of wizbits and/or level)
Third offense: deletion
This means that if you are given a warning for command abuse and are then
caught harassing a mortal or another immort you will be demoted. This is a
very strict punishment system but should be easy enough to live with if we
all behave like adults.
Warnings remain on record for six months, so you can screw up once every
six months until someone catches on to the pattern.
Command Abuse:
Using your immort powers to give benefit to ANY mortal (yours or others')
beyond the scope of your normal immort duties, is considered abuse of
immort powers. Likewise, using your immorts' skills and spells to benefit
ANY mortal is abuse.
Examples of some things not to do:
* transfer a player from anywhere but OOC unless within the scope of your
job
* attack or kill a player by any means
* snoop or otherwise spy upon a player or other immortal
* heal a player
* use immort knowledge or commands for in-game benefits such as telling
another player where an item or mob or player is
* revealing anyone's site or other characters to anyone
* steal from a player
* load or otherwise obtain objects for players
* alter or affect a character's attributes or equipment
* transferring mobs
* registering unapproved descriptions
* stringing items without a coupon
* etc
This is a pretty small list of possible offenses. It represents the SPIRIT
of the rules. If you violate the spirit of the rules, you will be held as
accountable as if you violated the letter of the law.
There is a small list of things that may seem counter to these rules that
are permissible IF you have the appropriate wizbit. Ask your dept. head
about them.
Harassment:
An immortal harassing a mortal in any way has place on Legend, and may
result in summary demotion or deletion.
Immortals harassing other immortals will be considered on par with any
other offense.
Information and actions as a mortal:
An immortal may not give out any information beyond hints or explanations
of why something happened. If you do not know why something happened, SAY
SO. Do not simply tell players, "You must have done something wrong." At
all times, be as helpful as possible within the rules. The mortals of
immorts are held to the same standard, which means they must not give out
quest solutions, teacher locations, skill information, item stats, etc.
Similarly, immortals' morts may not engage in playerkilling or stealing
without extremely clear in-context reasons that are clearly evident to the
victim. If the victim is not aware of the reason, then the immortal is at
fault. Yes, this limits the scope of an immorts' actions as a mort, but all
immortals MUST serve as an example of ideal player behavior, or the
credibility of all immortals is undermined. It may also serve to help
immortals broaden the scope of their actions and roleplay, rather than
falling back on the typical mortal behaviors.
Summary:
All of the above are intended to do the following:
- encourage trust in the immort staff
- encourage the immort staff to take a more creative and helpful role in
the development of the mud
- encourage a more mature and polite atmosphere
If you do not feel comfortable with the principles embodied in the above,
it is suggested you depart from the immort staff as quickly as possible.
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Legendary Times is published by the gods of LegendMUD. Please send all
replies/additions to to our address at [email protected] for
inclusion in the next edition. We, however, reserve the right to moderate
this discussion, and may object to some submissions. If you feel we have
wrongly omitted one of your messages, please talk to Rusalka online or
through EMail and see if she did indeed receive it in the first place.
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