|
The Rules Etiquette: You should also keep 'netiquette' in mind when you participate in out-of-character venues. While spirited debate and discussion are highly encouraged, Tales of Adventure moderators, and management will not tolerate any of the following: - Profanities (both in-character and out-of-character)
- Personal Attacks Absolutely no out-of-character attacks on individual players will be permitted!
- Sexually Explicit posts, content, or images
- Excessively Graphic Violence
NOTE: Please help keep this environment a clean, fun and family one. Anyone violating the above mentioned rules can and will be disciplined with either a warning, an account suspension, or banishment as deemed appropriate by administration. Message Boards To make the region easier to navigate, and to give the community the feel of a large scale realm complete with very individual and unique cities the message boards have been divided with one board for each "major" city of the region. Please feel free to add areas for your adventures as well, this is highly encouraged! The region of Ebonloch is simply created to allow you a skeleton design to work with, and to give a base for your adventures to begin. The world beyond the region is endless, and bound only by the imagination of the players of the region. Please use the Wilderness Board for any adventures into new regions. The following Message Boards are available at this time: - General (OOC Board): The General Board is the "Out of Character" (OOC) Board. Please use this board for sharing of ideas, out of character conversations, and general discussions. Please refrain from posting 'Out of Character' content on the 'Playing' boards listed below. Out of Character threads which are posted in the play boards may be deleted at our discretion to maintain the playing atmosphere of those boards.
- Ebonloch, Baromir, Cape Pieron, Charynth, & Orynth: Please use these boards for adventures within each of the individual large cities. Please use the city boards for any adventures or posts taking place within those cities and in the areas just outside of them. If you will be travelling to areas beyond a few square miles outside of each city you may switch to the Wilderness board.
- Wilderness: Please use this board for any adventures taking place outside of the immediate region of any of the cities. This board may also be used to introduce new cities, outposts, villages, adventures and wilderness areas outside the region of Ebonloch.
- Expressions: This is the second OOC board. Here members are allowed to post items of a creative nature that no not involve the input of others (eg: poems, short stories etc). Criticism is usually welcome. Other threads may include quizzes and games.
- Undiscovered Land: If you wish to create your own world/country etc. for play, then this is the board to do it. You might want to have your characters know of such distant places as Ebonloch etc. or it might be that your land is so far away, no-one has ever heard of it. It is up to you.
You may NOT control another players character! This is perhaps the cardinal rule of the boards. Players control their own characters and are the own judge of what happens to those characters. One player may not state effects of his/her actions against another player, nor may they speak for those players. The first exception to this rule is if a player is on vacation or otherwise unable to post for prolonged periods of time, AND that player has openly and expressly stated that another player may post as his/her character. The second exception to the rule are the LoreMasters. The LoreMasters are allowed to post effects for characters. It does not happen often that the LoreMasters step into a thread, but it may. The LoreMasters are the force of the fates in the realms, there is no mystery or intrigue when you control the entire area surrounding your character with your posts. The LoreMasters add an element of uncertainty, intrigue, and danger to the realms.
First Writer Privelege: The First Writer Priviledge (FWP) says that whoever invented something has a say in how it looks or works. For example, if you invented an NPC or a town, you get to describe it and other people must follow this description. A town described as "small, with only two streets and a single pub" can not sudenly have a large bar in a back-alley.
You can claim FWP to clarify things, or point out mistakes, but any holes you left are free for the taking.
So FWP is not a perfect protection, it just makes sure your creations aren't abused.
Continuum Rule: The Continuum Rule, or TCR for short, is a simple rule that says that events have happened as soon as they are posted.
This rule's main purpose is to ensure consistency. You can not simply ignore someone else's roleplay. For example, if Player-A summons a wall of stone to block a doorway, and Player-B says he leaves the room (ignoring Player-A's roleplay), then TCR says that B is still in the room, because his (later) roleplay can not have happened - it would violate consistency. Ignoring problems doesn't work, they have to be dealt with. For example, B could modify his roleplay, writing that he dispells the wall before leaving the room. In this case, A can not use the wall any longer, since it has been dispelled, so TCR now works in favor of B.
TCR holds true for everything posted unless a LoreMaster intervenes. That means that even if you complain about something, it's still a fact until a LoreMaster says it's not. Dealing with things will almost always solve your problems quicker than complaining. Oh and yes, TCR also works against yourself. You can't simply say "oops, I didn't mean that" after the fact. If you posted it, it has happened.
The Zero-Sum Rule
Free-form role play is honor system, "story telling," role play. Play takes place within a continuing never-ending "story line" and players create their world around them as they go. Players honor their own characters and others by staying within the events of the story line, and not creating situations or characters so farfetched it ruins play for everyone. If your character enjoys a great power, he should have an equally great weakness; and if your character can tap into great energies, he must pay an equally great price for their use. In other words, to offset a power that is used regularly, you cannot claim a weakness that is rarely if ever felt. In general, it is not permitted to claim fatigue as the sole drawback to magic power, unless you specifically describe the details. In other words, applications that are submitted that say something like "Character X has the power to do Y, but when he does so, he gets tired" will most likely be rejected. Infinity and Negative Infinity
All power must be finite -- measurably so. Incomprehensibly vast powers simply cannot be tolerated, no matter what their counterbalances. But, to say that a power is "limited" does not in itself satisfy this Rule; there must be some negative counterbalance, not just a limit. As a corollary to Infinity/Negative Infinity, it is generally bad practice to describe your character as "the best" at something. You may certainly feel free to think of your character as a master swordsman or an extremely nimble thief, but there are a number of other players in the game that may feel the same about their character. When a player thinks of their character as "the best", they infringe on other people's perceptions of their characters, and tend to cause problems in the game.
Be Real and Realistic.
Tales of Adventure is a world of high-fantasy and adventure, but even in fiction there is a vast degree of realism involved in gameplay. Characters start out with very limited, basic skills and inventory, and players are trusted to provide a fair and realistic description of the character while not empowering the character in any unfair way. Similarly, a character should not perform actions that s/he is incapable of doing (e.g., casting spells above his or her ability, performing actions that he or she has no affinity or propensity towards performing, etc.). Characters should generally follow the physics of their surroundings. In other words, if someone describes a rain storm you get wet and have to deal with walking around in mud and muck or whatever is around you. Naturally, you will be slower and it will be harder for you to see. If you are walking up a mountain and an avalanche occurs, you can only run, hide or use some type of magic to aid you. You can not dance around on the tumbling rocks like a lumberjack because that is outside every character's physical abilities without the use of arcana. A character can not do anything outside normal physical limitations unless he/she is a magic-user, has discovered powerful arcana, or the LoreMasters deign to intervene.
Player Killing Player killing is legal, but it is not at all thought of as a good way to enjoy the game. Management recognizes the absurdity of trying to create a virtual reality and then making this bizarre law from above that you cannot kill some things in the reality. This is treated therefore within the morality of the mortals who play the game. And you must remember that there is a difference between the monsters you kill and the mortals. The majority of players are real people trying to have a good time, the exception to this are Non-Player Characters, NPC characters are those 'players' created by management or another player, and granted existance by them, in order to spice up the game. So killing good things makes you evil, and if you are evil, you become the target of the majority of players. It is highly recommended that players work on quests together, in groups. Information for quests or any other aspect of the game must be gained through the natural playing of the game as intended.
LoreMasters LoreMasters are not Game Masters, they do not (in most cases) create or invent the stories the players are involved in. They can and do however manage the 'storylines', settle disputes and may throw in an occasional evil, trap or 'situation' to spice up the gameplay for all involved. Players are entirely responsible for their own 'storylines,' including anything their imagination can conceive as long as it falls within the Rules Of Play. The LoreMasters control Tales of Adventure and have the final word in all matters. Complaints may be brought before the LoreMaster Council on any matter, but no judgment will be rendered until the complaint is investigated and, if necessary, all involved are allowed to present their case. Suggestions for new additions to the Tales of Adventure universe and/or interesting ideas to improve play may also be brought before Laendyron (founder/manager of Tales of Adventure). NOTE: LoreMasters can moderate any and/or all posts at their sole discretion. Justice is swift. Beheadings occur at sunrise. 
The Use Of Guns, Including Cannon, And Gun Powder in ANY form of chemical make-up are Not Allowed. Tales of Adventure is meant to be a medieval fantasy society with no advanced technology. Webpage courteesy of WebPageGiveAway |
