Rules:Specific Rules:Cheesing

Cheesing

"Cheesing" of races or abilities is not acceptable on Avlis.

ahem* *puts on his professor cap*

"Cheesing" a race is the act of picking one of the standard NWN player character races and then entering some other non-NWN race into the subrace in order to try and pass yourself off as a non-standard race. "Cheesing" an ability is the act of playing your character as if they have an ability which the NWN engine would not otherwise allow them to have.

Example: You cannot be a giant-kin by picking half-orc and writing "Veerbeeg" in the subrace field. This is not allowed, and if you are caught doing this you will be forced to re-make your character.

ONLY real races are allowed. Custom races are goblin, kobold, half-ogre, half-nymph, half-dryad, drangonari elf, lizardman, and orc. You CANNOT play any other races other than these and the standard elf, dwarf, human, halfling, etc.

Example2: You cannot say your character is a vampire with exceptional strength and the ability to make other characters into a vampire by biting them. ONLY abilities that are granted by your class, race, and level within NWN are in-game. Extra powers that you make up or pretend to have are unacceptable.

There is a very very good reason that we have this rule. A long time ago *evil grin* a player came in and decided they wanted to be a vampire. So they did all kinds of things to fake being a vampire, and none of the abilities were really implimented in NWN. It got to be really bad because in order for that vampire to be successful, OTHER player characters had to PRETEND that this person was a vampire. So it became this whole big thing about having REAL NWN abilities and abilities that you are PRETENDING to have. Not only is that really cheesy, IMO, it can get very confusing.

Player1: *pretends to whack Player2 over the head* Player2: What was that for? Player1: You're unconcious now. I whacked you over the head. Player2: No I'm not. You didn't do any damage to me at all. Player1: But I have a 42 strength. I'm a giant. Player2: No you aren't. You look like a halfling, and your character sheet says you have a 7 strength. Player1: I know. I know. That's what my character sheet says. But I'm REALLY a giant and I have a 42 strength, so you better roleplay being knocked out, buster. Player2: That is the stupidest fucking thing I have ever heard.

That's just an example. You can substitute *pretends to bite your neck and suck blood* in there for the first line if you want. But I think you see my point.

Anyone caught doing these things will be asked to remake their character to conform with the NWN engine and to stop faking abilities.

Character Backgrounds

In addition to Player Character races, the PC's background could have the possibility of falling into this cheesing category. Though it is perfectly IC to have one of the following traits in your background, you MUST have an approval of a (vet or senior) DM before you can RP this out.

This list contains examples and is not exhaustive.

PC's are assumed to NOT to have any direct/blood relationship (Son, Daughter, wife, husband, lover, etc...) to deities.
PC's are assumed to NOT to have any special "gateway" from a foreign world to Avlis, ie: Magical Cloud, Divine intervention, Special Borg Spaceship, Birth from a Rock, Formed by the faeces of a god, transport via a microbiomolecular transport, etc. (Exception: Other than CoPaP, in which case, you must make your character in that CoPaP World then come to Avlis ICly).
PC's are assumed to NOT to have any special blood of non-playable avlisian races. (Drow, Vampires, Vampyres, Balors, chickens, demons, badgers, Celestials, Dragons[*See below for Dragon Disciple Exception] etc..)

We encourage players to come up with great backgrounds for their PC's, but like in PnP, if your character has a special background, you must clear it with the DM. We are just making sure the players know that.

Thank you

Avlis DM's

Exception to Dragon Disciples - There's an exception to this bloodline PC's, namely, Dragon Disciples. However, notice we didn't mention the "color" of this dragon disciple. As of this posting, the Red Dragon Disciples simply do NOT exist. NO Native Avlisian character (Characters that are made in Avlis) have the blood of a "Red" Dragon. However, in the future, if the team has enough time, we may implement some kind of Dragon Disciple that is similar, if not the same as Red Dragon Disciple. But as of the time of this posting, there are no dragon blood in any of the Avlisian characters.

Races

You cannot play a custom race that is not created by the AutoBic golem. Filling in the subrace field is not acceptable. Custom Races

Elves

All this information is already posted on the boards or in the players guide. I have consolidated these statements into one place, since players are claiming to not be aware of them. Ignorance is no excuse.

1) Do not make elves with dark skin and white hair on Avlis.

2) Avlisian Elf (directly form the players guide) The most common type of Elf, referred to simply as an Avlissian Elf, is generally akin to a high elf in 2nd Edition AD&D terms. Their skin tones range from milky white to a mild tan, although there are sometimes grayish or bluish undertones visible in rare individuals. Their hair can range from a deep black or blackish green, to a bright blonde or red, much like the human hair colors. The almond shaped eyes of these elves can cover the entire human range of blues, greens, and browns, but violet is also seen. All other statistics for physical stature and size, as well as game play, are identical to high elves.

3) Ghost Elf Physically, these elves are much more thin and frail looking than Avlissian Elves, but their state of delicacy is a beautiful one. Their skin is almost always a bright yellow, or bright yellow with a very slight greenish tinge. From some angles, their skin almost seems to give off a faint glow, hence the name ghost elf.

4) Drangonari Elf They appear mostly elven in form, except they have scales much like a lizard in colors ranging from the darkest green to a bluish color. Their hair is always black, and their eyes contain slit pupils and range in color from gold to dark brown, with the occasional violets and greys.

Drangonari PCs always have black hair and green skin regardless of the colours chosen in character generation

5) Sereg'wethrin Sereg'wethrin look very much like Elves. The main differences are their dark skin and black hair

Drow

Avlis reserves the right to protect what we call the "Tone & Feel" of Avlis. This is defined by the entire Avlis works that make up the world's history, culture, and traditions, and is marked by its contrast to other famous campaign settings such as Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and Dragonlance.

Native Avlis Drow are against the Tone & Feel of Avlis and are illegal. You may not play any drow character that is purported to be born on Avlis or from any ficticious drow societies on Avlis, of which there are none.

Drow PC's from OTHER CoPaP are wholly welcome to play on Avlis so long as they go by the following stipulations:

1) The PC must be created with Red Golem's AutoBic character generator on another CoPaP world, otherwise it will be considered "cheesing".

2) The drow must be roleplayed as a drow in the biological sense, i.e. sensitive to light, and any other physical drow characteristic.

3) The drow may be of any alignment so long as it follows 1) and 2).

Drow PC's from other CoPaP worlds must be aware of their IC plight on Avlis: There exists another race called Sereg'wethrin which are a dark-skinned elven race that is native to Avlis. This race is hated and feared by the inhabitants of Avlis even more than the inhabitants of the Forgotten Realms hate drow. There are NO examples of good Sereg'wethrin. Thus the inhabitants of Avlis will automatically assume that any dark-skinned elves are up to no good. If you play a drow and come to Avlis, you WILL be mistaken for a Sereg'wethrin by those you encounter, unless they are otherwise educated ICly. This is regardless of your drow's alignment.

Actions taken against your character by other players within the bounds of Sereg'wethrin treatment are not considered griefing if it is a legitimate IC/CvC situation.

The actions of Avlis inhabitants against Sereg'wethrin or drow mistaken as sereg are not a personal attack against you as a player. They are the mistaken ignorances of a society that does not know any better, and was designed that way by me.

If you feel your drow PC has been treated unfairly by another player in game, take the appropriate measures listed in our rules for reporting grief behavior.

If you feel your drow PC has been mistreated by a DM, report the incident immediately to the Avlis Team by sending a private message to the "Dungeon Masters" group on the Avlis forum. Avlis does NOT condone DM-harrassment of drow PC's simply because they are drow. However, they WILL mobilize the NPC population of Avlis to react appropriately to you, thus giving you a hard time in that way. Please do not confuse the two:

Good: Your drow walks into a bar. Five barmaids and the bartender freak out and refuse to serve you. They pee their pants and run.

Good: Your drow wanders into the forest and comes across a M'Chekian army encampment with some really buff Equalizers among them. The entire group of soldiers turns on you and attacks.

Bad: You are walking on a road in the middle of nowhere, and 20 Balors and 8 Pit Fiends spawn out of nowhere and kill you. There was no story going on to give a reason for this. It just happened.

Pregnancy

Female PC's cannot become pregnant.

If you want your character to become pregnant, you:

1) Have to retire her permanently from PC status and make her an NPC.

2) Need to have team approval to do this.

There are no if's, no but's, and all those things. I really hope this doesn't need to be clarified any further.

Additional Rules around Pregnancy

Can a player play the child of another one of their characters? No.

Can a player play a child (ie. Character under age 18)? No.

Can a player play the adult child of another player's character? Only with an approved background - Write the Avlis team (send a private message to the "Dungeon Masters" group on the Avlis forum) beforehand. The team will look over what you're doing and THEN get back to you with a Yes or No.

Can a….? No.
But…? No.

As you can see, the default answer around situations regarding pregnancy is No. It's been our experience that this area can lead to considerable issues between players and it's been overall better for the community to not allow these situations.

Prestige Classes

1. Red Dragon Disciple (RDD) and Champion of Torm (CoT) prestige classes are not, should not and will not be available for taking for Avlis characters on Avlis.

- ad. RDD: Red dragons do not exist on Avlis, your native Avlis character will not be able to have the most important IC requirement: red dragon blood in his/her veins. He/she should not even know a Red Dragon exists, unless he has knowledge about other planes. Your Avlis character should in no way be able to take this PrC, not even on other worlds, unless he/she is not a native to Avlis because of the lack of said dragon blood. If your character is not a native to Avlis, you should have made it on another world in the first place. Characters native to Avlis that have RDD class will be deleveled by DMs. The argument that certain spells allow you to summon or change your shape into a red dragon will no longer hold ground. Coders are all set to remove those effects from the involved spells and replace them with Avlis specific creatures.

- ad CoT: Champion of Torm can only be made by Torm or an order dedicated to Torm. Torm does also not exist on Avlis as a god, so you should head over to another world that does have the Deity Torm in its pantheon if you want to ever be able to take this PrC.

Prestige classes in general: The option to gain a prestige class on Avlis should only be available if you meet the requirements AND have done a quest to unlock the class (either scripted or by DM intervention).

If you have taken a PrC on Avlis without meeting these requirements you have intentionally or unintentionally abused a bug in the PrC disabling code. You should contact a DM to get rid of the levels, if you do so on your own you will receive your XP back.