DM Reminders and Messages

[DM Herald]

From 11/29/2023:

Announcements and Reminders (Part I):

On RPB Evaluations

We ask players to wait at least a 2 month (61 days) period between RPB evaluation requests, or RPB promotions. That is to say, if your RPB evaluation is denied, please give it some time before submitting another RPB evaluation request. Similarly, if you have been recently promoted to a higher RPB level, please give it some time before requesting an RPB evaluation. The only exception to this announcement would be for players seeking RPB 20. We expect consistent roleplay over a significant period of time for higher RPB levels, and believe a period of at least 2 months (61 days) between evaluations is a fair amount of time to show consistency.

As a reminder on RPB evaluations, giving specific examples on how your characters fulfill the requirements of the RPB level you are applying for, really helps us make the determination.

On Scroll Case/Spell Sequencer Stacking

There has been a fair amount of talk on how to stack scroll cases and spell sequencers in the Arelith Discord recently. Please note, scroll cases and spell sequencers are not intended to be stackable, and it is considered an exploit to stack these items in shops for the purposes of saving item slots.

Announcements and Reminders (Part II):

On Soliciting External Roleplay

A reminder to all players that soliciting for erotic, suggestive, or server policy breaking roleplay whilst on Arelith is a bannable offence (whether through tells or in character), as we have minors on the server. This is irregardless of whether the characters are Arelith based or characters which do not exist on Arelith, but are invented for outside roleplay. Soliciting for any kind of erotic, suggestive, or server policy breaking roleplay with Arelith as the platform to make the offer is strictly forbidden.

Example: If a player solicits server policy breaking roleplay with the characters "Bob" and "Sally" to another player, even if neither players have "Bob" or "Sally" in their vault, the act of using Arelith as a platform to solicit this type of roleplay is still actionable.

On Parties and Runic Shrines

Dropping from your party to loot a shrine is against the rules and considered an exploit. Players found engaging in this behavior may have the items gained deleted from their character.

On Death Memory

As a reminder, characters can not behave in such a way that they have the ability to avoid memory loss. Even if your chararcter might have access to information, as a player, you should know to refrain from using it in a way which circumvents memory loss or turns you into an investigator, detective or reliable source of information.

[DM Herald]

Rules Clarifications and Policy Reminders

Rule Clarification

On theft: One item or item stack per 24 hour period means a single item stack, regardless of fullness. Players cannot withdraw multiple smaller stacks of an item type and deposit the items back into storage to make a larger single item stack for the purposes of theft. For example, if a player storage chest contains 5 stacks of adamantine with 10 adamantine ores each, a thief cannot withdraw all 5 stacks from the chest and deposit it back, making a single stack of 50 adamantine ore for the purposes of theft. The player may only steal one stack of 10 adamantine ores in this example.

Policy Reminder

On half elf lineage: As a reminder, half elf characters must have a human parent and either a sun elf, moon elf, or Wood elf parent. An Avariel, Aquatic, Wild elf or Drow parent is not permitted. Other elven races not supported by the server are also not permitted.

On the horned head model: The horned head model is reserved only for Tiefling or Fey'ri characters. If your character has this head model and is not a Tiefling or Fey'ri, you will be asked to change your head model. Please contact your local DM to have your character's head changed if they do not qualify for it.

On muling of gold and items: We are always actively monitoring the trading of gold and items between characters. Please note, the muling of gold and or items may result in a bank and inventory wipe on all involved characters. Don't do it!

On surfacer-drow interactions: Drow are considered monsters by general society and cannot openly exist on the surface. While surfacer characters are free to have opinions that are at odds with society, these opinions are the exception, not the norm.

[backlands]

Theft Rules and Gift Wrap

With the new system we wanted to clarify on rules around theft and wrapped gifts because we know questions will inevitably be raised around it.

For any rules relating to theft, wrapped gift are considered 1 stack, regardless of what item is inside of the gift. This means a gift wrapped container (such as a scroll case) counts as one item and the entire container can be stolen.

Note: A thief accessing a chest can choose to unwrap one item, but once unwrapped you must take that item or nothing.

[Queen Titania]

Two Reminders from the DM Team:

OOC in Fixtures: Please do not include OOC messages in fixture descriptions, specifically in regards to telling others to not steal a fixture. Repeating, excessive fixture theft is simply to be reported to the DM Team. (Posting a time-zone gathering time remains permitted.)

Disguise Reminder: Please do not disguise as yourself, as your title/rank, nor disguise as a nick name (Example: Lucy "Goosey" Goose, disguises as "Goosey"). Disguises should generally be invented personas, such as Lucy disguising as Sarah Apple, with generic disguises such as Elven Assassin or Shrouded Rogue used as one-shot disguises.

[The GrumpyCat]

A reminder about capture/subdual/ressurection ect...

On the OOC side: As players, we should be supporting other players' autonomy in telling stories, not tearing them down. Don't denigrate other players for pursuing the plot opportunities they pursue or declining the plot opportunities they decline. Even if a character did an objectively stupid thing, it's happened, and complaining as a player isn't productive. If it's genuinely problematic, report it to the DMs and move on. Harassing other players over their plot choices - whether to participate or abstain - is the opposite of Be Nice.

On the IC side: Characters are not their players. Remember that player consent does not automatically imply, or even suggest, character consent. Remember that as far as our characters know, every death could be The End for the dead character, and death is something to be feared. Remember that characters do not know who is resurrecting them when they are resurrected. While characters do not have to Be Nice to each other, your character's negative words/actions/attitudes against other characters should not be influenced by the fact that a character's negative experiences almost always require player-level consent.

[MalKalz]

From MalKalz

There has been some disappointing individuals of the community attempting to stir the pot and cause trouble over the past while. This has not been in reference to one case, but several different cases. So I thought I'd address it and make some rather clear statements.

1) Individuals that decide to besmerch their fellow players OOC'ly through Discord, forums or in tells (green text as the kids call it these days) will not be welcome on Arelith. Every player is playing this game to provide a narrative, if you do not gel with them - move on. If you believe they are breaking rules? Report it to the DM Team (and do allow us enough time to compile logs and address it).

This is about respecting one another. You may have your differences, and you most certainly do not have to like everyone. But, you are expected to be respectful, abide by the server rules which you agree to upon joining the server, and act appropriately. If you cannot? The door will be shown to you.

2) Individuals that think that they can belittle staff members because we have denied you purchasing RP incentives, RPR increases or awards with money, give your head a shake. The fact that you think any member of the staff would accept a bribe is beyond me. And, then to cuss them out when they tell you no? This shows a severe lack of maturity.

3) Muling. My goodness folks - we have extensive logs that catches this. Do not do it. Do not lie about it. Do not get angry when you are caught and heavily penalized (loss of all gold in all your bank accounts, loss of items and potentially a loss of character). Accept your mistakes, learn from it and move on - if you cannot? The ban will be indefinite instead of a short period like the team has provided.

This is not difficult folks. We are all a part of the Arelith community - it is you the players that make the server what it is (whether it is a good experience or a bad experience, it all depeends on how you play it and how you interact with each other). As I have stated before, if there are concerns of rulebreaks or people's behaviours REPORT IT. The DM team will work to address / coach and intervee as needed. And, if the DM team is failing to do something in your eyes, you can report that to DM Wraith and the Active Admins - we do take thing seriously, we do consider your words and we do look to improve as we can make mistakes of our own.

Please do not continue these actions if you wish to remain on the server. And, those that do not care and wish to continue to spread it will lead to an indefinite ban on their account as it shows their true character.

Thanks,
MalKalz

[DM Herald]

Settlement Election Integrity

In certain recent elections, up to 34% of votes casted were eliminated from the final count because the characters which casted the votes had little to no roleplay leading up to the election. This is absolutely unacceptable, and those players will be sitting down with me for a chat in the coming days and weeks.

For everyone else, a reminder that the team expects a significant amount of roleplay to occur on a character before voting. Only characters currently active in a settlements roleplay should decide the future leadership of it. Infractions against this policy could range from warnings, to political bans or game bans. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please reach out to any member of the DM team.

[MalKalz]

From MalKalz

March Relevel Abuse Review:

• 2871 times was the -relevel command used across all players during the month of March.

• 1304 unique characters used the -relevel command

• 32 characters were found to be abusing* the -relevel command. This means that 2.54% of the users using -relevel abused it in some manner.

• We have been monitoring this to determine if there is an increase in players abusing it. We do not want to punish the majority by removing -relevel and we will address the minority that are exploiting its availability. Those individuals may lose levels or be permanently barred from using the command.

• Totals do not go down after each month. But I do keep a record to then count how many a person did after the last time I collected in a short period of time.

Please do not abuse what is a QoL update. I have found a character to have releveled 121 times on a level 30 character since we started keeping track of these numbers.

[The GrumpyCat]

Two Reminders and Messages today!

Strong Language

Recently, we’ve noticed an increase in the amount of crude language and swear words being used. In particular we’ve a few times heard rumors of a shadow rule that a certain four-letter word beginning with F is allowed on a ‘once per month’ basis, and that is in accordance with the T rating.

To be clear: we do not wish to see that word used AT ALL in game. We know the f-bomb is (unfortunately) commonly-used in modern parlance, and during language checks we do make some allowance for player error. However, this should not be confused with having an 'allowance' of that word. If we see regular uses of it - whether that be over a day, a week, a month, or a year - then we will take action.

If you aren't sure if a word is T-for-teen appropriate, don't use it!

How to Write a Good Incident Report

To help us on the DM team be able to quickly and efficiently investigate reported rulebreaks:

• Screenshots can be very useful, but DO NOT use Discord-hosted screenshots in your report. Discord is not designed as an image-hosting service, and these links break quickly. Use some other hosting service, such as imgur. Put another way: if you send all your evidence in Discord-hosted screenshots and we can't completely resolve the case before the link expires, we no longer have any evidence!
• Provide approximate dates and times with your timezone. Time doesn't mean anything without a timzeone.
• Provide specific location information when relevant. Use the "-area" command to get the name of the map you're in.
• Provide a list of character names for everyone involved, including your own. Disguise names are fine.
• Provide context when relevant. A one-off encounter between strangers can be quite different than the tenth encounter in a feud.

You do NOT have to have all of this information to submit a report, and we do look into every report that is submitted. But the more of this information you can provide, the less time it will take for us to get a complete picture of what happened, and the more likely we will be able to respond accordingly in a timely manner.

Poor Example:

I was wandering around with some friends when a group of orcs attacked us and killed us without provocation.

Poor Example:

The screenshot speaks for itself: [discord image link]

Good Example:

Aragorn (me), Legolas Greenleaf, and Gimli son of Gloin were running through Rohan (East Emnet) when we came across three disguised orcs: "Smelly", "Stinky", and "Yucky". None of us had seen them before as far as I know. They attacked us without any interaction and killed us (see attached screenshots). This all happened between roughly 10 pm and 10:05 pm GMT on 1 Jan 2024.