DM Reminders and Messages

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MalKalz
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by MalKalz » Sun Apr 10, 2022 6:10 pm

The Team wrote:Over the past while, the Arelith DM team has significantly grown in number. And, we understand that there are growing concerns that these new DMs and the whole DM team is taking a hard stance on punishment. Some players have raised concern within their circles, and others within echo chambers, suggesting that the team has an agenda to ban players and simply remove them. I wished to provide some transparency on the matters and offer some insight.

With our lower numbers and the increasing number of active players, the DM team was swamped with a backlog of reports that spanned several months. This was not an ideal situation - it is our goal to always deliver a full, thorough investigation of player concerns and answer and address any private message sent to our inboxes (forum or email). But, with a small staff, we were heavily overwhelmed with workload and particular cases were prioritized over others. The more severe and more immediately needing addressed cases were saw to first. But, with the increase in number of DMs, the new recruits worked closely with the veteran members of the team and processed this backlog at an exceptional rate. We have dropped from a lot of pending cases to only fourteen as of late (this excludes current on-going workload though!). This is a positive in the administrative workload and will eventually free up more time for events and other DM involvement. Though this processing has raised red flags for individuals, whereby they think that the quicker response is just a ban being levied out to each and every player. This is not the case.

However, I wanted to address some concerns here from the team that have lead to bans to several players: erotic roleplay. There has been an increase in this, and while we will never list names, we have done our part of being strict in handling it and these players have received long term bans with appeals after a good length of absence. Which may be a reason people suspect we are banning more frequently based on what they hear circulating if a player vents. This type of roleplay has absolutely no place on our server and shall never have a place - these actions are not what we condone. We have given more than enough warnings over the years publicly about this sort of behaviour. If you find yourself with a ban because of it, please do not act surprised that it is forbidden. You should know that it is by the rules you agree to when joining the server, our constant warnings and common sense. This then segways into the next topic at hand.

There was a small echo chamber that was circulating false information that the Arelith staff tolerates and allows non-consensual acts on this server. This has never been a thing nor will it ever be. It has no place. We take all of these actions and accusations seriously and anyone that pushes this in-game or OOC'ly will be removed from the server with no appeal process allowed. We will never accept this. Period. Those individuals who were suggesting this agenda existed and providing falsehoods have been removed to protect the community. They will not be allowed back.

We ask that the players approach this game more carefully and safely; this is meant as an avenue of fantasy roleplay and adventure in a safe environment to escape the real world. It is not a place for these actions described above. Please do not do these if you wish to continue to remain in Arelith. You agree to abide by the rules at all times when joining the server and cannot claim to not know them with multiple resources available. And, if you encounter these, please do reach out to our DM team and we will address these concerns as best as we can.

The Arelith staff will continue to work with the mindset of providing a safe and fun gaming experience for everyone.

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Monkey » Wed Apr 27, 2022 4:17 pm

The GrumpyCat wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:55 pm
We're seeing a large increase of bad language of late. Language which is not suitable for Arelith. Language which is not PG13.

For some guidelines

*Swears found in the voice set (Hells, damn, bloody, ect) are absolutly fine to use. Go wild.

*Swears that are relitivly minor, but still swears (I'm specificaly thinking Sh*t here, but that sort of level) you should use VERY SCANTLY. I'm thinking no more than once or twice PER REAL LIFE MONTH. Not with every third sentence.

*Swears that are more severe F*ck, C*nt, most synonyms of genetalia ect - have no place on this server SHOULD NEVER BE USED and use of them may result in punishments.
I may be a little more lenient with the F word, as I know how prevelent it is in the world. I get we all slip up. But really you should NEVER be conciously using this word In Game.
*Swears that are real life racial slurs will result in an immedate ban.


Questions That Often Pop Up
'What words should I use instead of these then?' - Consider looking into some of the Forgotten Realms swear words perhaps - or even some RL old medievil terms. I find 'Pike off!' and 'tosspot' (synonym for a chamber pot) are great for example.

'But I can't PLAY my character unless then can be foul mouthed, dropping F's and C's everywhere!' Oh ok, that's a shame. Best find a new server then, one that isn't PG13. Because this one is, and we won't tolerate that sort of language.

I hope that clears everything up.
Hi guys! This still applies. I'm happy that first bit rhymed and this bit doesn't.

Try harder! Help set a good example of roleplay for the server culture.


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The GrumpyCat
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by The GrumpyCat » Sun May 01, 2022 1:33 pm

For the many amazing players of Arelith; I'd like to take a moment to raise something of a minor concern, a niggle. The Staff has been working through what seemed, at a point, to be an endless and inundated backlog of reports and cases that needed to be addressed. At this point now, such backlogs have been completely eradicated and we are now able to quickly respond to and investigate each report or issue that is raised to the DM Team and Admin Staff.

This presents an opportunity, that staff and the players can regularly interact in an In Game basis, through small and large scale Events. However, many on the team have raised the point that a significant proportion of our player base, feel they can only approach the DM Team to report poor conduct or aspects of gameplay that negatively impact themselves or the server. This is very much not the case. So I'd like to invite players of Arelith to more openly approach the DM Team, inviting the staff to support the amazing stories being created on the server. Whilst we cannot promise every player an event of their own, at every given moment, the team will actively be interacting when and where we are able to.

Though, do be mindful of what can be provided for your stories. A DM can certainly create a scene to be interacted with, but ultimately our events end where they began. We've not the means to modify the server beyond the memories we can help create in our events. It is also critical, for the sake of ensuring we are able to provide a scene to each player, that you be aware that we've not the capability to create scene after scene for the same players. So for such specifically requested stories, we'd limit what we can offer.

If you'd like to approach the team, I'd encourage you to reach out to the Active DM message on the Forums. As these events will be small scenes and tasteful additions to your RP, try to keep the intended plot compact and easily understood with the inclusion of Playername and Character Name.

-DM Poppy
This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by The GrumpyCat » Sun May 01, 2022 3:15 pm

Re. Events.

As reguards the above post, here's some guidelines for what I believe the team is looking for here.

a) Nothing that changes the integrity of the setting, as Poppy said. Basically – not events that 'close' the rift in Benwick, or that destroy Cordor or murder Guld Founder members ect. By all means your request can of course /attempt/ to do those things, but you must keep in mind they are unlikely to succeed
b) Something short, sweet, that can be concluded in or one or two sessions of no more than a few hours. Mass huge events involving multiple factions/dms and dozens and hundreds of hours of game time isn't likely to be accepted. We're looking for things we can do in a few hours, over no more than say, two or three sessions at absolute maximum.
c) Small personal stories are fine, and indeed wanted! (I personally love messing with peoples backstories) but its best if they can include at least one or two other players. This isn't to say single-player 'events' will be thrown right out, but I'd expect such 'event' requests to really be very small and simple.
d) Events involving direct contact with god(s) will also be rejected.
e) Do not expect things to 'go your way' in the event. Maybe they will? Maybe they won't? If you want us to do something with your backstory, be prepared for angst as well as joy. If you want to have a thrilling robbery event? Expect that there will be a chance of failure as well as success. If you want us to support a fun festival event? Expect that there may be rude interlopers or complications, as well as extra vfx and npcs.
f) Finally event requests that directly attack the mechanics of other players (e.g. taking gold out of a players account, stealing items from the players quarters, removing a player from a position of power) will also be denied.
This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Wake » Wed May 25, 2022 6:53 pm

A reminder about owning property in game. Property is meant to be used and is meant to be owned by active characters. This means:

If you own a guildhouse with empty quarters, you should be actively looking to fill these and not letting them sit open, even if there's only two internal quarters and you own one of them. This also goes for properties that serve a political function, such as the district guildhouses in Andunor, barracks in various surface cities, and the large auction properties such as Darrowdeep and Gloom. If you/your faction don't have the time to fill these properties, you should let the property go so someone else can have a chance at filling it. This requires an ongoing process to keep rooms full, and if the guildhouse houses a faction, then faction members should seek residence in the guildhouse before looking for housing elsewhere.

If you have become inactive on your character and don't foresee becoming active again in the near future, you should release your property so an active character can have a chance to use these server resources.

If properties have a unique function such as ships and taverns, they should be regularly used by yourself and/or others for its intended purpose.

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Herald » Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:44 pm

I have noticed a sharp uptick in players owning multiple shops and quarters this past month. Please refer back to the original reminder made by Poppy for the server policy on property ownership: https://discord.com/channels/6518790256 ... 2468081674. For those who currently own more than one shop/quarter, please ensure you become compliant with the property policy as soon as possible so I can strike you off the Herald blacklist and avoid having to be social!

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DMSatyr » Wed Aug 03, 2022 6:50 pm

Meta, RP Mechanics and You!

Lately the DM Team has noticed an increase of players using purely OOC attained knowledge for the benefit of their character in-game. Some of this however is for fairly innocuous reasons meant to facilitate roleplay (read: the "good" meta) but a lot of this can and is abused which is not in accordance to our rules. Our wiki-site has a page about metagaming but to further clarify we will bring up some examples.

- Sensing someone on the ley. Using the player-list to 'sense' if someone is a certain area or call it "on the same ley" is not a valid method of RP, especially when this is to the detriment of the other PCs involved. We want to make it clear that even if you are an Epic Diviner of demigodly potential, you are not able to discern whether or not someone is in a specific place or area by simply referring to the player list. We will also remind that scrying someone that immediately logs in is considered in exceptional bad taste.

- WYSIWYG. Some mechanics in-game are blatantly obvious and in a general sense we operate with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), meaning if your character Billy Bill Tom spots Bob Dead-In-The-Arm using his palemaster arm against someone then that is something that falls under WYSIWYG. However some are less obvious. Tiffany Warlock might cast eldritch blast on someone but for you it mechanically shows as "unknown spell" then we expect it to be roleplayed such and not jump immediately to conclusion that Tiffany is the worst because, you, the player knows what that is. Another point is also to not abuse the in-game mechanical limitation to force such a conclusion. You can not try to coerce or trap one you suspect is a baddie to use a planar summoning spell and decry them once they summon a fiend, just because the mechanics allow for nothing else to be summoned. This is not how they are meant to be used and also not in according to lore of the summoning spell.

A good rule of thumb for this sort of thing is asking yourself whether or not the meta you are doing is going to make the other player upset (outing them, scrying to gank them, etc) or if it is a neutral, even beneficent for the player (scrying to find them so you can meet and share tea and cakes!). The latter does not carry so much consequence (depending on the cake), the former certainly can.

If you are unsure whether or not something is potentially in breach with our rules of meta-gaming you are always encouraged to approach or ask a DM about whether or not this is permissible as per our rules on it. We also highly advise you read through our wiki-page on metagaming here: https://wiki.nwnarelith.com/Metagaming to get a more general overview of what is being discussed.

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by MalKalz » Sun Aug 07, 2022 7:01 pm

Zero Tolerance Reminder
===================

The server has ZERO tolerance for racism, sexism, any form of harassment, et cetera. If you are found to be conducting in this you will be promptly removed from the server permanently. And by permanent, I do mean permanent - you have zero grounds for appealing anything as you made an extremely poor decision as a human being. The server is meant to be a safe place for everyone to play and enjoy themselves. The staff will continue to work to the best of our ability to ensure that this safe space is there for people.

If you or you see anyone encounter anything that makes you uncomfortable, feel targeted or unwell, please report it immediately to the Arelith Staff. Please keep it away from the public as that is not the appropriate way for these things to be handled. As always we will investigate and address any concerns that are brought forward as promptly as possible. If you are seeing anything in the Discord, feel free to tag myself, a @Dungeon Master or @Discord Moderator and we will act as fast as we can.

Please be kind to one another.

- Spyre

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Wake » Fri Sep 16, 2022 9:52 pm

Please keep in mind that stealthing through transitions to break line of sight to gain an advantage in PvP is a form of transition abuse. Transitions are OOC indicators of area changes and aren't physical barriers in the world to hide behind.

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Starfish » Sun Oct 16, 2022 1:27 am

Hello everyone, just want to remind you that the Far Realms should not be directly mentioned IC. The Far Realms itself is a meta construct used to OOCly categorize the aberrant aspects of the setting. Things that are far beyond Mortal Comprehension. DMs may pull back the curtain a little bit here and there (It's my personal favourite thing to do) but even the slightest glimpse into this other worldly eldritch space is enough to bring terrible afflictions of the mind. These afflictions are generally referred to as Madness. As an Adventurer, you cannot just go read the wiki and then use it as IC fact. Your characters cannot know these terrible truths and the Far Realms as a place does not exist. They might know there are other things out there, dark things that lurk at the corners of creation. Things that do not fit into the snug and comfortable categories that the every day orc or elf or hin knows. These appear as aberrations. The rabbit hole is deep and dangerous and venturing down it leads to Serious Consequences. Warlocks get a glimpse but are still mostly clueless as to just what they saw.

I'd like to note that Arelith does have some weird stuff relating to the above mentioned here and there in the natural discoverable lore. These are still surface layer things and may or may not be cause for great alarm. It's up to you.

TL;DR Don't directly mention Far Realms as it's an obscure OOC construct used to categorize aberrant aspects of the setting.
Roleplay is a two way street.

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by The GrumpyCat » Wed Oct 19, 2022 2:00 pm

A reminder about Disguises.

If a disguise isn't 'broken' (breached by spot score) then you don't recognise them. It doesn't matter about helm/hood, you need to breach someone's disguise to recognise them. Just removing the hood or helm, does NOT remove their disguise.

Now there may be some exceptions – If someone's visual appearance is incredibly distinctive (e.g. blue hair, wings, tail ect) -if they have made no effort to change their description or outfit, or if their words/attitude give them away plainly. However all these points are under scrutiny. So if you are going to use any of these, be prepared to defend yourself from accusation of metagaming. I suggest plenty of screenshots. And in general, I'd really suggest erring on the side of caution and sportsmanship, and limit breaching disguise that isn't mechanical.
This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by The GrumpyCat » Thu Oct 27, 2022 5:35 pm

As a gentle note, the ! (Hostile) status is an OOC mechanic, and not to be taken IC. We don't blame anyone for any subconscious change to their roleplay because of of course, but someone turning hostile to you is not something your character should openly comment on or recognise.
This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by Queen Titania » Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:04 pm

I want to remind players about slave characters in the Underdark.

Only non-good humans and half-orcs are allowed on creation. If you create a different race, or a character of good alignment, and you rush down to the Underdark to give yourself a slave collar, you are exploiting the mechanics and will have the following incur:
-Loss of slave collar.
-Returned to your starting position.
-Barred from ever taking the collar again on that character.
-Returned to the level you were pre-collar.

If you did exploit to become a non-qualifying slave and let us know before we address it with you, you will be allowed to keep your current level and get the slave collar again, provided it is entirely in game and in character.

Helping people become slaves through OOC coordination is also against the rules. The setting expectations and mechanics should be respected. If you want to play a slave, create a character that qualifies.
Please don't feed my sister.

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by The GrumpyCat » Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:56 pm

Regarding the New Reward for Good Tieflings/Evil Aasimar.

Previously it was ruled that whilst Tieflings and Aasimar could be neutral, they could not be Good (Tiefling) or Evil (Aasimar) and if they started behaving in such penalties could occur up to, and including removal of character.

Whilst this was by no means an unreasonable ruling it did create a few odd situations and, more importantly – was actually against cannon lore. After all, NWN Hoards of the Underdark itself has a Chaotic Good Tiefling, and whilst plane touched who go against their natures are rare, they are not unheard of.

So the recent changes have brought us more in line with cannon, and opened up the playing field to certain character concepts. But the question then arises – how does this effect current Tiefling/Aasimar, who are made with a mixture of Major and Greater awards? Well, rather than get picky about what was made with what, our ruling is the following:

If you currently (or going forward) Play a Good Aasimar or an Evil Tiefling then I'm afraid you are stuck in your alignment and may not apply for shifts to Evil/Good. (Law/Chaos is of course still fine.)

If however you play a Neutral Aasimar or Tiefling (or going forward an evil aasimar/good tiefling) you may send applications in for shifts. Such applications should show significant and long term roleplay towards that alignment and team do reserve the right to deny such applications, especially for those created before 2023.

A final note – If you're playing/will play a Neutral Aasimar, and you want to shift them towards Good (or Tiefling to Evil) then that is of course possible. But I do recommend asking the DM handling it to make a note of such a shift on the forums – so you can remain applicable going forward for shifts back to neutral or such if you want. (The same, as an aside, applies to Good Underdarkers, or any alignment award. If you want to roleplay your Good Kobold turning darker and more evil, that's fine, we can shift them, but just make sure that a note of it is made so that we can shift t hem back later if wanted)
This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by The GrumpyCat » Sat Jan 14, 2023 8:44 pm

Technically not a DM reminder, more of a Forum thing - but this fits best for it I think:

The Suggestion Box

It's great that you guys are so passionate about this, and so full of interesting and cool ideas but, we have to be honest, you're a bit too full!
I, Starfish, Kalopsia and Kenji spent about three hours last night ploughing through all the suggestions, and by the next morning there were another dozen to approve. We can't keep up!
With that in mind – we're instituting a new rule.
From now on, each poster is only allowed ONE suggestion (one thread) per week.
This is to keep numbers down. Please take time and consideration as to what your suggestion will be. If I see someone posting more than once a week, the most recent suggestion (whatever it is) will be deleted. If you keep on posting more than once a week, then we may consider putative measures.
But regardless of any enforcement, please follow this rule because it makes our lives easier and keeps the workload a bit more manageable. Thank you.
This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Spark » Wed Jan 18, 2023 1:54 pm

Crossing the Streams and You

We have noticed an increase in issues with players 'crossing the streams'. This term refers to when players have multiple characters that associate or otherwise 'cross' with factions/groups of people. It can also be used for muling, passing items on from one character to another OOCly.

As a player, you are not allowed to have characters that are aware of each other or have any shared knowledge or information that would give them an unfair advantage over others. This includes any form of association in the same groups, factions or organizations.

To maintain the integrity of the game and ensure fair play for all, if you do play more than one character actively, avoid playing them in the same areas/groups/places where another of your characters frequents.

This rule is in place to make sure it's easier for you as a player to avoid using information or knowledge gained from one character to influence the actions of another character.

If you have any questions or concerns, or have suspected issues with people doing this to gain an advantage OOCly, please reach out to the DM team.

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Wraith » Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:34 pm

Hi Community,

Since introduction of the -setstats and -setclass command, there's been an inundation of these requests to the DM team. We wanted to take a moment and discuss a few aspects and changes that will be moving forward as of this announcement please see below.

The Intention of -setstat/-setclass

The functionality of -setstat/-setclass was created as a helpful tool for when major class changes affecting characters are enacted within the server, and potentially to help small changes to a character. These are not meant to wildly change a character concept/class*/etc. but meant to ease the burden of changes and again, small mistakes. This tool was also not meant to replace gift changes, and in the spirit of that, we will not be offering any gift changes to characters. (Examples have been provided below)

What we are seeing

Collectively within requests we have been seeing changes to entire playstyles with characters that essentially are giving an entire new concept/class/playstyle which is not what the function of -setstats/class was created to do.


Appropriate:
A fighter/pal/rogue character has forgotten that 13 str is a prerequiste for power attack and thus divine shield/might and had left their str at 11. They submit a change to their stats to perform as intended with the class/concept of the character. This would be something that will be approved and can be fixed, as it is a small change/mistake.
Another example (and no this isn't happening or even under discussion), Paladins are moved back to a wisdom based chasis. Paladins would then be able to resubmit a change based on this MASSIVE change to a core mechanical concept of a class.

Inappropriate:
Irong Ron makes a str based FTR/WM/ROG to smack for heavy crits and ease of damage while leveling up. At level 30 he decides they no longer want to be a STR based character and would like to be DEX based. Irong Ron's request would be denied.

Grum Pycat decides that they dislike being a warlock, so they want to change their base class to be a druid to have more fun or a Barbarian that overnight changes into an Enchantment specialist Wizard.

Moving forward

In light of these observances with the -setstats/class command, we will be enacting some changes to the process for these requests. This is applicable to all past requests, currently pending, and future requests, we will be moving to only allow only one stat/class change per character UNLESS there has been a particularly massive (and I mean MASSIVE) change implemented to their class. As well, due to the sheer volume of these requests, we will only be allowing 1 character from within each players vault per 3 months. Additionally, we will be creating a new forum group (name TBD) that will handle the -setstat/-setclass requests, please be on the look out for an update once that new grouping is created. As with everything this is subject to administrative change in policy as deemed necessary.

Thank you all for understanding and continuing to be a part of this community. We look forward to continuing to see the life given to the server through your characters both old and new.

Cheers,
The Team

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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by The GrumpyCat » Fri Feb 17, 2023 12:08 am

Today we implemented a new feature – Manacles, which hopefully will further increase the roleplay options surrounding PvP, enabling a mechanical way to capture people – whether it be criminals, or victims!

Because this is a essentially a PvP tool (a tool for players to use on other players) we tried to put in a lot of thought about how to implement this in as sensitive and fair way as possible. I think we've done quite well, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a lot of re jigging in future. We do welcome feedback on these and we hope that you will use them responsibly to enhance the roleplay of yourself, and those around you.

With this in mind, a few quick notes on the use of these.

1) Attempting to use the cuffs on a person is considered a hostile action and as such requires rp before hand, ESPECIALLY if you're planning on PvP if the manicles are refused/resisted. Obviously if the rp has already happened due to pvp you don't need to worry about this too much.

2) Though manacles are always OOC opt-in, they are not necessarily IC opt-in. Characters who are put in manacles did not always agree to them, even if the player chose the option to not struggle or flee. ICly punishing prisoners with accusations of allowing themselves to be cuffed will not be tolerated when the specific instance is a Player Choice.

3) The -optout command exists as an OOC emergency measure. There exist at least half a dozen IC methods of escaping manacles, and also a good many more OOC options (talking to captors OOCLY, contacting us the Dms, ect) which can also be utilized. But it exists in cases where, for example, the rp becomes extremely uncomfortable (and no requests to tone it down are listened to) or where you've been removed long term from all rp, or some form of ooc emergency occurs. It is not a quick and cheep way of escaping rp you agreed to. If we see this feature being abused by the community as a lazy escape method, then we may consider removing it. Please remember that upon using the -optout command, your character is then under the PvP 48 hour rules. Knowledge of their capture will be fuzzy, you should not interact with your captors for at least 48 rl hours)

4) Linked to that, if you're using the manacles on someone please be thoughtful of their comfort OOCly, esp where the above points are true. If we regularly see these being used to bully players, to put them in highly uncomfortable situations, and the like – we will consider removing the entire system.

5) Finally – and this should be obvious – don't use them for sexy elven fun times. Anyone we catch using these for any form of sexual type roleplay will find themselves banned.

This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

DM Poppy
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Poppy » Sun Apr 09, 2023 11:38 pm

Property Ownership -

I cannot seem to stress this enough. But I shall do so once more in response to a steady increase in detected multiple property ownership. Our rules regarding property ownership are clearly outlined and I shall include the link below.

https://wiki.nwnarelith.com/Rules#Quarter_Ownership

Property Ownership limits are "PER PLAYER". This is to say no matter how many Characters you have, you THE PLAYER may only own One Guild, One Quarter and One Shop.

As an Example -

  • If you own a Shop on your Character Bob and Quarter on your Character Tim, this is OKAY
  • If you own a Shop each on your Characters Bob and Tim we will release one to bidding without notification.
  • If you own a Guild on your Character Bob and a Quarter on your Character Tim, we will release the Quarter to bidding without notification. Because you are only permitted to own a Quarter within a Guild that you own.

Guild - A Building with multiple properties within it. Their are examples of Ships with multiple properties within, these are also considered to be Guilds.
Quarter - A locked door with a storage container. Whether it is a House. A Room or a Vault. These are all Quarters.
Shop - A shop.

Temporary Shops and Rental Ships are excluded. But should be used at full capacity.

If you own a Guild, you are only permitted to own a Quarter within that Guild. If your Guild or your Quarter has a shop associated with it, you may only own that associated shop.

Our detection system is automated, we do not need to check each sign on the server and write it down for reference. It alerts us to multiple ownership with big red writing. Our response to this has been and shall continue to be "The DM Team shall select which property we believe you'd desire less and release it to bidding."

If you currently are in breach of this rule, then I would advise that you rectify this with haste and release any additional properties from your ownership, or you will risk loosing them via DM Release.

A small period of grace is extended to recently won bids to allow for the moving of property, but the onus does remain on you to check whether your bids have succeeded or not.

I'm the nice one.. I promise :twisted:

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DM MoonMoon
Dungeon Master
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM MoonMoon » Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:17 am

Hello all!

Seems there is a rumour going around about PvP requiring giving an 'Out'
I would like to state that this is NOT the case. There is no rule regarding someone to give you an 'Out' for pvp.

What is expected though, is following the PvP rules:
https://wiki.nwnarelith.com/Rules#Playe ... nteraction

Basically:

  • Adequate RP must be done before any PvP (this mean ANY time a new scene happens)
    You cant leave and come back 5mins later warded and attack without a word!

  • RP before PvP must be clear on hostile intent! (Emote it, say it, but ensure your clear!)

  • Sufficient time for response needs to be adhered to! (You cannot go: "I will attack now" and attack without pause!)

Now with above, an 'Out' isnt needed. But it CAN provide a good building block for RP. Some Examples!

  • Letting that necromancer go, because you wernt sure they were his zombies? ("help" by offering to rid the undead thats chasing them!)
  • Drow Matron letting a mouthy lesser go, with a firm threat that violence isnt her only weapon.
  • Asking for compensation/payment etc, let them go with conditions!

At the end of it all though guys, Be Nice and build a colaborative story with each other!

MoonMoon Out!

DM Wraith: @DM MoonMoon Nice one, Idk howl you do it, it does seem a bit furfetched

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DM Starfish
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Starfish » Tue May 30, 2023 9:20 am

Please remember that all managerial systems and or systems that use player names are not there for you to use to verify disguises.

This includes: Bankers, Settlement NPCs (paraiah and exile), speedy messengers and similar messaging mechanics, -yoink, corpses, names on broken disguises, names above the character's head and anything else even remotely similar. No excuses. If you have not been explicitly told a character's name In Character you likely do not know it.

Shop and quarter names are fine, they are in character.

If you do these things expect to have a chat with one of us about why you should stop.

Roleplay is a two way street.

DM Favoritism
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Favoritism » Mon Jun 05, 2023 10:53 pm

Ban Evading and You!
A reminder for the wider Arelith Community!

Banned players are banned for a reason, and history shows that they are not always open as to why they are banned. Twisting of narrative is a common theme, and anyone can be led astray. That said, ban evaders will be removed without notification - and people found to be knowingly supporting and playing with people they are aware are evading bans will be addressed ranging from a warning to being banned in equal measure if found out. Malicious participation will weigh heavily upon this.

If you find people which you believe are ban evading, it is urged for you to either contact the Administrative Team through the Forum or privately so it can be investigated. Rather safe than sorry!

Best regards,
The Arelith Staff


DM Spark
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Spark » Mon Sep 11, 2023 3:26 pm

Another quick reminder about using colours in your IC descriptions of your PC or item fixtures - description text is great to have but don't overdo it with colours of the rainbow! Less is more.

We are seeing that fixtures can and do go poof when colour codes are used, so if you use them for fixtures, use at your own risk!

The GrumpyCat wrote:
Thu May 27, 2021 3:17 pm

A reminder - Coloured Text is a powerful and fun tool but it does seem to be over used right now. We're asking players to please tone it down.

To quote from Batcountry (this is a great guide)

Arbitrary text coloring is a somewhat divisive subject internally (which makes sense because it's 70% an aesthetic consideration), though naturally we'd err on the side of permissiveness (again, in light of that fact). But no one on the team really wants to see random words and sections throughout descriptions colored all the colors someone deemed fit to inflict on the world. Hence all the 'less is more' calls for moderation.

Arelith's UI design for character descriptions is already defined, for both consistent style and accessibility. By way of example for 'accessibility,' a common (and easy to make) mistake is choosing a color that appears deep and rich on a TN monitor might be so dark as to be nearly invisible on another player's IPS monitor. Some of the older language text colors still need to be updated to correct this, for instance!

This thread puts knowledge out there and that never goes back into the bag, so I'd like to humbly suggest a few simple guidelines that we'd appreciate your respect for, both for other players' enjoyment and to be more seamless with Arelith's existing text feedback.

Code: Select all

Only add colored sections at the end of the description to keep them grouped with mechanical ones.
Colorize the entire paragraph, not just a few words or sentences.
Avoid too-dark or too-bright colors.
Use moderation (for the nth time, I know!).

Freely color-codable text is a double-edged sword from a serious design perspective. If people adhere to the above- that is, keeping colorized sections of descriptions to brief faction tags appended to the ends of their main descriptions? That'd be lovely; if it becomes a reliable cultural thing I'd even be game to shuffle around how descriptions are displayed to group them together with other tags, like Harper/Zhent/Outcast/Radiant etc. to help make them look even better.

If people are wacky (not meaning one-offs, but people 'consistently' doing a lot of eye-blasting), quite frankly, I'll be keen to just remove the ability to do so, in all honesty. If that were the case, I'd also want to script up a 'faction pin' item that would let people set up custom colored tags within certain parameters since I hate just removing things without also giving options. But the vastly easier and all around better option is where folks are cool just sticking to the above, so super thank you if you could!

EDIT/ADDENDUM:
Do NOT use colored text in the names of shops or houses (any ownable properties) as this Will break things. If you have done this, please revert it at first opportunity. This will be addressed by devs or by DMs as necessary.


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DM Wraith
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Wraith » Sat Sep 30, 2023 1:25 am

Hi everyone,

At times, we have to re-evaluate systems within Arelith to assess their functionality and if it still aligns with the spirit of Arelith. I know that this is likely not going to be a well received change but it is one that we feel is needed for overall health of the server.

Effective immediately, all -setstat/-setclass and level 1 feat change requests are no longer permitted. For those that have recently been approved, unfortunately we will not be going through and completing those. Below I'll reference the rationale behind this decision. For those still wishing to see to changes made to a pre-existing character you have -remake_character and -relevel currently available. In light of full transparency the current iteration of -relevel is being assessed as well.

The first and foremost reason for this change is due to the spirit of Arelith and the current usage of these abilities. At its core foundation, Arelith is a roleplay server. With that in mind. what we want to see promoted within the community is that focus towards a collaborative narrative. Unfortunately many of the requests we've seen lately are detracted from that, and more focused towards min/maxing and heavily focused towards the mechanical aspects of Arelith as opposed to helping to drive narratives. This has had a degradtive effect where the fixation is on the mechanics and we feel that the aspect of a collaborative narrative within these classes/abilities/etc. has been lost. I would encourage everyone that sometimes having a glaring weakness/inability to something/etc. can really serve to reward roleplay and bring about life within the character you are presenting to the community.
Another aspect that led to this decision is simply the time involved and number of requests the DM team has been given. To be frank, the DM teams time is better served in seeing to addressing reports, running events, and other aspects of their duties. Many times, the requested stat lines etc. were incorrect when submitted and so what should have been a fairly quick 2-5 minute process would turn into a 30-45 minute process for dm's to figure out what the appropriate stats would be, and sometimes that then turned into not wanting the stat change after going through all of that.

Thank you all for continuing to be members of this community. While again I understand that this change is hard, it also is not a set in stone change as we may re-implement the ability through the support page in the future. If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact me.

Cheers,
Wraith


DM Spark
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Re: DM Reminders and Messages

Post by DM Spark » Mon Dec 11, 2023 10:09 am

A clarification on ship names:

Since there's no clear visual way to identify ships you encounter at sea, ships should be given unique names.
The main identifier of a ship with our system is its name, which is quite a big mechanical limitation. Giving a ship the same name as another is taking advantage of this particular OOC limitation and shouldn't be done moving forward.


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