Avlis tries to have as few rules as possible. However, there are standards that we enforce to ensure that our vision of a roleplay server is met and to make sure that everybody has fun.

General Rules

Grief-style playing, or griefing, is illegal. Griefing is defined by any style of play that makes the person playing a character feel genuine distress and anger through disruption of their gaming session.
Another note from the boss regarding greifing (from thread "What griefing and abuse is NOT")

"In an effort to tone down the number of petty requests that the team gets, I want to point something out. In character interactions that don't go your way are not griefing Having people express ideas contrary to yours is not abuse Having people get angry at you over expressing ideas is not abuse Having people get angry at you IC is not griefing" Avlis is a roleplaying server. People should be in character at all times. Shouting is disabled. Using tells, IRC, and the party channel to convey in-character information is illegal; however, it is okay to use these media to talk about out of game things. See Communication for more details.

Player vs. Player combat is illegal. However, Character vs. Character combat is LEGAL. A "player" is defined by the person sitting behind the screen playing the game. A "character" is defined by the alternate personality you portray within the game. Characters can have disagreements and fight over them, but as soon as it becomes a personal matter between the players behind the characters, it is no longer justified.
Exploitation of bugs to gain experience, wealth, or to save time is illegal and a bannable offense. This includes duplicating items and inappropriate server hopping.
Cheesing of races or abilities is not acceptable on Avlis. "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 the standard NWN races and Avlis custom races are allowed.
- 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. Anyone caught doing these things will be asked to remake their character to conform with the NWN engine and to stop faking abilities.
Do not speak for or post forum messages as NPCs unless you have the title "DM" underneath your name. You speak for your own characters but not NPCs. The city guard, members of the government, commoners, priests at the temples of various gods, etc. are all off limits to non-DMs.
The floating name above a character's head DOES NOT actually exist IC. It cannot be used to reveal a character's name if the said character has not told you his or her name. The floating name can be used if your character already knows the other character (as long as the other character told you their real name).
No stupid names. Examples are names such as "i33t dood" and "Omagodhees Hungwell." It is STRONGLY recommended that names from fiction, literature, movies, etc. also be avoided. Major and Senior DMs have the authority to order a player to start a new character if the DM thinks the player's current character name is not in line with Avlis' name policy. The current character's level will not be factored into this order – if you have somehow reached 15th level with a character named "Amanda Huginkiss" before a Senior or Major DM finds you, you will still have to start over with a new character. If a player refuses to start over with a new character, the character in violation of the name policy will be deleted from the servervault.
Common sense is a rule. If an action goes against common sense, it's not legal.
See the Rules Forum at www.avlis.org for a more authoritative set of rules.

Servervault Purges

The servervault will never be purged of characters. However, in order to speed up the servervault, characters that have not been logged in for ninety consecutive days are moved to an archive. If you wish to have a character who was lost in this manner be restored to the servervault, you can send a request to staff@avlis.org. The 90 day deletion is not active currently. (06/08/2005)

Powergaming

Powergaming is level advancement without character development (see next section for details). Sure, you can make an excuse like "My character is a fighter so he likes to go around killing stuff," but that does not make for an in-depth character and such a person will likely not be included very much in community affairs and relationships. Powergaming is not against the rules, but it is not condoned, and chronic powergamers will be persecuted. A good rule of thumb is that if you reach level 20, the team should know who you are.

There is no real reason to powergame. If you want to be 40th level, fine. If you powergame your way to 40th level, and the team sees you do it, you probably won't be banned. But you also won't be part of any plotlines or special quests either. Basically you will shoot yourself in the foot because once you reach 40th there will be nothing for you to do in the world, and you will leave or keep powergaming characters to 40th until you get sick of it and then leave. Avlis will not miss you either, because you didn't contribute anything to it while you were here. It's the people who take time to smell the roses and put emphasis on roleplaying that will get the most out of Avlis, that being the old PnP feel of D&D.

Powergaming is the middle ground of the three things. Almost all forms of powergaming are frowned on, here on Avlis, but powergaming isn?t normally enough in of itself to get you banned from Avlis. Extensive powergaming may do that, but you would have to do it a lot before it becomes an issue. However if you?re busy powergaming, it?s likely you?ll miss out on opportunities to roleplay, which is the focus of Avlis.

Powergaming is generally defined as doing things for purely OOC reasons, mechanical advantages, or in game actions that are done to increase the power of your character, that makes no IC sense. It?s related to metagaming because your approaching your character from the stand point of how to make her more powerful, rather then as a someone growing a character based on events that happen to her. Like metagaming, powergaming isn?t always bad, it?s frowned on most of the time on Avlis, but there are a few cases where it could be over looked, or even approved of. These however are rare cases, normally reserved for low level characters. (i.e. level 1-3)

Some examples of acceptable, and unacceptable powergaming actions. (Again these aren?t hard and fast rules, just examples)

Acceptable:

Doing low level quests over and over again, to get your PC past the first few levels. Like a Fedex quest, or the firebeetle quest. (Doing a quest more then once isn?t powergaming. But a mid to high level doing it like 10 times a night is.)
Hanging out in one area to kill monsters or other NPC?s over and over again, at low levels, to complete quests or gain some money.
Going back into a area you cleared out, or respawning something you just killed, to get the final 50exp?s you need to level up, when you should have been in bed an hour ago.

Unacceptable:

Taking a single level in a class, because of some benefit you get for having that class. (i.e. 1/19 Paladin/Sorcerer. Or taking a single level of Rogue, for the ability to pick higher then DC25 locks)
Finding an area that allows you to make a lot of exp?s rather quickly, then spending several hours every day there, for no other reason then to gain a lot of exp?s quickly. (There?s nothing wrong with monster hunting, or spending several hours doing it. It?s only when you stay in the same area for hours that there?s a problem.)
Going to an area to kill NPC?s or grab loot that would be against your characters beliefs in some way. (i.e. A paladin breaking into houses, or a dwarf looting a religeous area sacred to dwarves)
Rushing off the moment the server restarts to kill NPC?s or open chests that you know drop good loot.
Towing, taking lower level PC?s with you in your party to reduce the average party level, for no other reason than to get more exp?s for yourself.
Spending every moment you are on Avlis, killing monsters and gathering loot. (Again killing monsters and gathering loot, isn?t bad. But if that?s all you do, then there?s a problem)
Having a really low score in one stat, so you can have a really high score in a different one. But not playing as if you had that really low score. (i.e. Having a 8 wisdom and charisma but acting as if you had a avg score in both)

The Avlis Procedure for Punishment

When a player is warned online by a DM for a rules violation, they will be placed on the watchlist. Also at this time the DM may remove equipment gained via rule breaking, and may impose an XP fine. The purpose of the watchlist is to facilitate communication among the team. If a character is seen breaking a rule after being placed on the watchlist, they will be subject to punishment.

We have decided to use what we call "Vault Jail" as a method of punishment for most infractions. "Vault Jail" consists of having all your characters removed from the servervault for a period of 2-5 days. The length of time is dependent on the type and number of infractions. Players whose characters are being investigated for cheating, exploiting, or griefing will also have their characters placed temporarily in Vault Jail.

Banning is reserved for players that cheat, exploit, grief other players, or continue to break rules after having being punished previously.

Warnings

How many warnings does someone get before they are punished?

The first warning is in the application.

The Second warning is given on or off line when the problem is noticed. The second warning can also be if the Team makes a post warning players to not do a specific thing.

There is no third warning.

Punishment

On line: When a player is warned (on or off line) for a rules violation, (Warnings) they will be placed on the watch list. Also at this time the DM may remove equipment gained via rule breaking, and may impose an Exp fine.

The Watchlist:

The purpose of the watch list is simple. It is there to facilitate communication among the staff. Nothing more, nothing less. If after they are placed on the watch list, they are again seen to break any rule, they will be subject to punishment.

Punishment:

We have decided to use what we call "Vault Jail" as a method of punishment for most infractions. "Vault Jail" consists of having all your characters removed from the vault for a period of 5+ days. The length of time is dependent on the type, and number of infrations. It is also used to remove characters of players who are being investigated for cheeting, exploiting or PKing (griefing).

We reserve banning for players that: Cheat Exploit Griefing Continue to break rules after being placed in vault jail Manipulate or deceive a DM.

Players who "walk" their characters over from another CoPaP world after being vault jailed are subject to being banned without further notice or discussion.

Review: All cases are judged by a Senior/Major DM and reviewed by Orleron. Please do not PM/ICQ/Email Orleron about any punishment unless asked to do so.

Alternate accounts: When we vault jail someone we may jail ALL accounts associated with them. Simply this means that if a player has an alt account we might jail that one as well. When we ban someone, we ban ALL accounts associated with the banned account. (more on this )

Notification: If a player is being placed in Vault Jail we will attempt to PM them first. We reserve the right to jail first contact later. (Many players have a different name on the forums) If you log in and find your vault suddenly and completely empty you may have been placed in vault jail, and should contact the team via email ASAP.

One last thing, if a DM speaks to you about a problem, please be polite. We are here to have fun also, and dealing with rule breaking is not fun in the first place, a player being an ass only makes it more unpleasant.

Review

All cases are judged by a Senior or Major DM and reviewed by Orleron. Please do not PM/ICQ/E-mail Orleron about any punishment unless asked to do so.

Interacting with DMs

If a DM speaks to you about a problem, please be polite. We are here to have fun also, and dealing with rule breaking is not fun in the first place; a player being an ass only makes it more unpleasant.

Contacting the Team

If you feel you have been griefed or have witnessed someone exploiting, cheating, or metagaming, or if you have an issue with a team member's actions, do not make a post about it on the Avlis forums. Instead, please send an e-mail to staff@avlis.org, and the team will look into it and take appropriate action.

Specific Rules

Metagaming

Metagaming is simply another term for using out of character (OOC)information rather than just the in character (IC) information your character has learnt whilst you are playing him. The term loosely means ?Game with in a Game? in the case of Avlis this means the game of Never Winter Nights (NWN) within the game of Avlis.

Avlis is in many ways a game unto itself. It?s derived from a long running pen and paper (PnP) D&D Campaign world, with it?s own set of rules and history. When playing on Avlis things work differently than in standard NWN, like death, treasure, experience gain, ect.

Metagaming is when you think more about the way NWN works then how Avlis works. Or OOC vs IC.

Picking stats, skills, feats, and so on are all examples of metagaming. When you level up, you again are metagaming, because you pick skills, feats, and so on. There can be IC reasons for what you decide, such as muticlassing because of something that happened to your character, say he now lives in the woods so you think he will develop ranger skills. But most character development is done though metagaming but this not always bad.

But it can be a bad thing, if it?s done in a way that harms or effects other PC?s. The best example of this, being the whole 'floating name' issues, that has been discussed and argued over on the avlis boards many times. The floating name is completely OOC information, and using it to identify someone you don?t really know or couldn?t identify normally is considered a ?sin? on Avlis.

Some examples of both good and bad Metagaming or OOC behavior; (these aren?t hard and fast rules, just examples of the type of behavior so you can judge if what your doing is acceptable or not.)

Good:

Increasing your Int/Wis/Cha score so you can cast higher level spells.
Taking levels of another class, for IC reasons. (i.e. you had a religious experience and decide to take levels as a cleric.)
Increasing a stat, that isn?t of primary use for your class, to qualify for feats that are useful to you. (i.e. Increasing Int to 13 so you can get improved knockdown)
Taking a feat, not for the sake of the feat, but for other feats you can now qualify for.
Using the floating name to identify someone you know well, but whose avatar looks like other PC?s.
Using the Player list, to see if a friend is online at the time.
Using the examine option to read the bio someone has put in there.

Bad:

Taking levels of another class with no logical IC reason for doing so.(i.e. Your PC isn?t religious, but want to be able to cast buffs (protective spells like stoneskin) so you take levels as a cleric.)
Cancelling out of a level up process to get a better HP roll.
Using the floating name to identify someone you?ve never met before.
Using the Player list, to see if PC you want to attack is online at the time.
Using the examine option, to see what buffs someone has or what level they are.

Floaty Name

Rule 1

The floating name above a character's head DOES NOT actually exist IC. It cannot be used to reveal a character's name if the said character has not told you his/her name.

example: Joe meets Sarah for the first time. Joe's player sees the name "Sarah" above Sarah's head. Joe (the character) DOES NOT. Joe cannot say "Hi Sarah"

example 2: Joe meets Tara for the first time. Joe says "Hi my name is Joe". Tara says "Hi my name is Jennifer". As far as Joe is concerned, Tara's name is Jennifer. He does not know that she is lieing.

Rule 2:

The floating name can be used if your character already knows the other character (as long as the other character told you their real name).

example: Joe and Chris know each other. They also told each other their real names Joe and Chris see each other and say "Hi Chris" and "Hi Joe" respectively. This is fine

example 2: Joe meets the same Tara he met in "example 2 of rule 1" again. If Joe says "Hi Tara" i will personally send a dragon to eat him. If Joe says" Hi Jennifer" he gets to avoid dragons for a little bit.

Exception to Rule 2:

A person you know under the effects of "Invisibilty" or "Improved invisibilty" cannot be identified by the floating name unless your character is under the effects of "see invisibility" or "true seeing".

example: Joe and Kelly know each other. Kelly is invisible but Joe "hears" her. Joe DOES NOT have "see invis." or "true seeing" on him and the floating name above Kelly's character says Kelly. If Joe says "Hi Kelly" Joe will soon feel the blades of a Sereg'wethrin Nwalmaer turning him into mincemeat. If Joe says "Who's there? I can hear you", Joe gets a cookie.

Changelings

When a changeling uses the Changeling Special Ability, a message is sent to everyone in the area that the ability has been used. This is an OOC message.

When a changeling changes form, everyone in the immediate vicinity gets to make a spellcraft check (DC 16). This check is made automatically by the engine. If they succeed, they get a message indicating that the user of the power may be a changeling. If they fail, they get no message. If someone changes in front of your face, you do know that they can change form. However you do not know how they are accomplishing this feat unless you succeed in your spellcraft check.

When a changeling memorizes or purges a form, everyone in the immediate vicinity gets to make a spellcraft check (DC 30). This check is made automatically by the engine. If they succeed, they get a message indicating that the user of the power may be a changeling. If they fail, they get no message.

In both the above cases, the changeling does not know if someone made a check or if they succeeded at a check. When a changeling reviews their forms, no one gets to make a spellcraft check to identify a changeling.

This means that anyone without ranks in spellcraft will never be able to identify someone as a changeling. Those with some ranks will be able to identify changelings with a good degree of accuracy whenever they change shape or revert to their true form. Only characters of at least level 6 will have any chance of identifying changelings when memorizing or purging forms, and only epics with any degree of regularity.

If you cannot make spellcraft checks, the only other IC way to find out someone is a changeling is to have someone who ICly knows tell you that person is a changeling. So unless you succeed at a spellcraft check you do not know someone is a changeling, even if they change shape in front of your face.

Invisibility

RULE 1:

An invisible character or creature CANNOT be seen and identified by anyone not under to effects of the spells "true seeing" and "see invisibility" as they can only be detected through hearing.

example: Joe "hears" John while John is invisible. Joe has neither "see invis." or "true seeing" on him. Even though Joe knows John and John shows up on his screen because Joe's character "hears" John, Joe DOES NOT know that it is John because he cannot identify John solely from John's footsteps.

RULE 2:

Creatures and characters under the effects of the spell "improved invisibilty" cannot be identified even after they have taken an action to make them "partially visible" unless the perceiving creature has "true seeing" or "see invis". Characters know that the person/creature is there, but sees only a blurry, semi transparent figure.

example: Joe is in the warzone fighting the elves. Karla is in the warzone and has the spell "improved invisibility" cast on her. Karla doesn't like Joe killing elves. Karla flames Joe's ass. Joe cannot identify Karla as the sassy lass that killed him unless Joe had "true seeing" or "see invis" on him when Karla attacked.

Disguise

It has become very clear to the Avlis Staff as a whole, that not everyone playing on Avlis is following the same rules when it comes to disguises. Considering that there are no rules regarding them right now, that seems natural.

So first point. If you believe that there are rules regarding disguises, you are wrong. There were none prior to this post.

Ok, here's the basic rule, boiled down to its purest form. Consider this the guiding principle for disguises, or any other form of hiding your identity from someone.

The PC trying to keep his/her identity hidden, is the one who must make all the effort. The less effort put into it, the less likely the disguise is to work.

For example, There are no helms out there that somehow alter someone's voice, and by simply putting one on, no one can recognize your voice. By the same token, stating once at the begging of an encounter that you are masking your voice or a single emote, is not enough to cut it.

You must constantly remind people you are altering your voice somehow. A emote every line isn't required, but the person attempting to alter their voice must be the one making the effort to do so. It must be clear to everyone what he or she is doing. If those interacting with the PC can't clearly tell they are trying to be disguised. Then that PC isn't putting enough effort into it.

This helps the PC as well, as it makes for a constant reminder and makes mistakes much less likely.

By the same token, simply putting on a different outfit is not enough to make you unidentifiable. There are several things you have left on that might provide clues to who you really are. So if you want to disguise yourself via clothing/armor, you need to change more then just the torso piece.

The more effort a PC goes to, to hide their identity the more likely they are to actually do so. The less effort the PC makes, the easier it will be to ID them. But it up to the person wishing to keep his/her identity hidden to make all the effort, and make it very clear to everyone else what he or she are attempting to do.

Of course the amount of disguise required is all based on how well the PC in question is known by those interacting with him or her. For my PC, trying to fool Kira his IC wife would be extremely difficult. Fooling someone he's knows fairly well, like say Jorio, or Arena would be less difficult, someone he knows hardly at all, would be fairly easy.

Also the simple fact that your PC's avatar has a hood on, or the hood/mask on, does nothing to help mask their identity, as they are always wearing one so it is as much a disquinshing feature as it hides things.

Any magical item higher then +2 will also be unique, and could be used to ID someone, especially if it's a weapon, or shield. Provided that of course the PC in question has been seen with it before.

For example...

If I want to disguise my PC, I would need to do all of the following to make the disguise 98% foolproof, as there is no 100% foolproof disguise.

I would need to put on armor or clothing that is unlike anything I've ever worn before. I would need to wear a helm unlike what I normally wear. I would need to begin every other or perhaps every 3rd line of speech with an emote of some sort, stating that I am disguising my voice. I would need to put on different boots, and maybe a different pair of gloves. If I have a holy symbol or some other jewelry that is unquine, I would need to change those out.

So to sum up. If you want to hide your identity from those around you, you not them will need to make that clear to everyone. Tells or ooc statements that you are in disguise and no further effort on the PC's part, isn't enough. Simply putting on a different outfit and holding a different weapon isn't enough. Simply putting on a helmet isn't enough.

This works in favor of everyone. For those who wish to remain unidentified, they can show the DM's what efforts they made in remaining so. It also serves as a nearly constant reminder to those involved what the PC is attempting to do, so a mistake is less likely.

Crafting Recipes

I would like to clarify the Avlis crafting recipe restrictions that have been brought up in the proposal for a free crafting guild in Avlis. A while back the team ruled that guilds could not post master recipe lists in the forums for all members to see and learn from. For the most part all guilds pass their information in character, which is how it should be. We have further clarified this rule.

All Avlis crafting recipes must be learned/discovered in game

Distributing a master list of all known recipes is a flagrant violation of this. I don't care who you share your knowledge with as long as you do it in game. If you want to reveal secrets for nothing, that's your business. But there will be no listserv of crafting recipes.

This is a roleplaying server and while we can't enforce certain aspects of crafting that we'd like to, we can certainly set OOC guidelines that you should follow. Yes, there are ways you can get around this but you are violating the spirit of Avlis and this server's atmosphere. Because of limiting game mechanics I cannot create a realistic crafting experience. All recipes are boiled down to a list of ingredients and quantities. IC this is not so simple. Being a master alchemist is much more than slapping down half a dozen ingredients and choosing your recipe. There's skill involved in mixing certain ingredients, under certain conditions (heat, pressure, friction, etc), and observing the changes. This is why you have to have a certain level in a craft to even attempt a certain recipe. All trades are handled this way IC. If I could enforce it I'd require you to either experiment to discover your own recipes -OR- get a mentor to teach it to you.

Exploiting

Exploiting, is in many ways, the same thing as cheating. It is the practice of doing something you know you shouldn?t be able to and then repeating it as many times as you can. In nearly every case exploiting, involves a bug of some sort, be it one created by the Avlis staff, or one from Bioware. Anyone found exploiting, will be put on the watch list, and is likely to be banned from playing on Avlis.

If you ever find yourself thinking ?That seemed way too easy for what I got? or ?Odd! He already gave me a reward? because you got a reward you didn?t earn, then it?s likely you found something that could be exploited. We try very hard to make sure that the rewards you get are fitting to what you did. A different form of exploiting is using a trick to avoid something really bad happening. In either case you are doing something that shouldn?t be able to happen, to benefit you in some way.

There is one and only one case where doing something you think is an exploit, is acceptable, and it will be clear to us if you?re doing this or not. That is testing something you think might be an exploit, to make sure what you think just happened, did in fact happen. Provided you only do it that one more time, and report it, then you won?t be punished for exploiting. However a DM may still take what ever you got from it away from you. It?s important to note that if you had benefited from something you think may be a bug, doesn?t mean you?re guilty of exploiting. It?s when you keep doing it, over and over again, that you?re guilty of exploiting. If you run across something that you think might be a bug, please report it so we can fix what ever is wrong.

Some examples of exploiting.

Hitting 'escape' and quitting the game, when you?re at negative hit points, to avoid dying and going to the after life.
Giving a NPC a quest item, then finding you have the option of giving it to him again, even though you don?t have it any longer.
Dying, and having someone grab your gear, then crashing the server so you can come back before your character is saved, so you have all your gear back, but your friend still has everything he grabbed off your corpse.
Logging in with a character that doesn?t belong to you. (It can happen by accident, but you need to quit as soon as you realize your not using one of your characters)
Giving all your gear to a friend, or leaving it in a chest, then logging into a different world, and coming back to Avlis via a portal, so you have all your gear, plus copies of it in your chest or with your friend.
Finding a chest that spawns in an item that should never be there (i.e. +3 flaming long sword), and going to it every chance you get.
Collecting the reward for a quest you never actually finished, or even started. But because of a bug in the dialog you can collect the reward anyway.
Getting into a really bad situation, and logging out rather then sticking around to take what?s coming to you. (i.e. surrounded by a bunch of really tough NPC?s you know will be able to kill you).
Logging out, then logging back in again, to restore your lost hp?s and spells.
Finding an item needed to complete a quest, you were given some place else, logging out and logging into that server to finish the quest, rather then walking there.
Finding out that by doing X, Y, and Z, or because of some server glitch you become invincible, then running around and killing NPC?s you would normally never stand a chance against.
Asking high level PC?s to take you places you have no place being, then hanging way back so you can get massive amounts of exp?s with doing no real work.
Asking low level PC?s to go with you to places they have no place being, then having them hang way back so you can get a massive amount more exp?s then you should normally.

Duping

What to do when your items dupe?

1) Report to staff@avlis.org of the exact situation that the items are duped. 2) Dump all duped item in a trash can, or ask a DM to help you if a DM is on line.

Simple as that.

Anyone caught duping and using these items in any way, will be subject to disciplinary actions.

Sneaking behind a person through a door

You can not sneak in behind someone who is walking though a door. Try it IRL and see how well it works.

The only reason you can do it at all on Avlis, is the scripts we use by default have a 5 sec delay before it closes the door automaticlly. This was done so more then one person could enter a house at once... Without the owner standing there and unlocking and opening the door for everyone who wants to come in.

Also there is the delay between hitting the area trans and the new area loading up. Which is completely OOC... I can tell you for a fact, that it does not take me 10-30 sec's to walk though the door at my house.

So once again, you are not allowed to sneak into someone's house by following them though a open door.

Transition Ambushes

Ambushing someone on a transition = uber bad form.

If you want the element of suprise, HIDE somewhere on the map. Using the limitations of the engine (transitions) to gain such is meta gaming and a NO NO.

Now, as far as chasing someone accross a transition... I have not really clarified that here, and I will let someone else do the rulesing on that one.

ISD

As a player, it is your repsonsibility to report ISD's to the world leader where you found it.

What is an ISD?

An Illegal Static Drop is a fancy term for an item that drops off of a monster or container that is too powerful. The key words:

ILLEGAL: CoPaP is a low magic conglomerate of servers. Most high-powered magic items are given out by DM's in quests, and VERY rarely, you'll strike it rich and get one in random loot. However for static loot (see below), you should never get items of +1 or greater enchancement bonus, or greater value than 1000 gp. If you see something like this as static loot, it is a bug, and you should report it to the world where you found it. We do this because we do not want people to start "farming" items, i.e. going out and collecting hundreds of copies of the items so they can be sold or traded, thereby hurting the economy we have set up.

STATIC. Static means that the monster has that item as part of their loot EVERY time you kill them. It is not random loot generated by the treasure system.

DROPS. A drop is any item you get from killing a monster or opening a chest, or bashing some other placeable. They can be either static (see above), or random. Random drops are variable and usually controlled by the database on most CoPaP worlds.

Consequences

If you are caught farming an illegal drop, you will be subject to whatever punishment the affected worlds want to give you. Each world in CoPaP controls discipline on their server independently, so you might get off easy on some worlds and banned on others.

If you farm and item in World A, and sell it in World B, you very well might get banned in both A and B if the leaders of those worlds do not like what you are doing.

However, reporting the item drop on the bugs board of the world where you found the item will usually avert this fate. So please help us to maintain the economy of this confederation and you'll be grateful you did it, and so will we.

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 is an example, not exclusive.

1) PC's are assumed to NOT to have any direct/blood relationship (Son, Daughter, wife, husband, lover, etc...) to deities.

2) 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).

3) 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, staff@avlis.org. 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.

Roleplaying Related

Speaking for NPCs

Simply said, don't do it unless you have the title "DM" underneath your name.

You speak for your own characters but not NPC's (The City Guard, The Government, Commoners, Temples of various gods, etc. - all off limits to non-DMs)

Sexuality

A sex crime is any act that meets any of the following criteria: - Non-consentual, In Character sexuality of any kind. - Non-consentual, Out of Character sexuality of any kind. - Any form of sexuality with a minor (per the United States most strict definition of a minor).

Roleplaying Sex Crimes in Avlis or any Avlis owned/controlled medium is prohibited.

Roleplaying includes, but is not limited to: stories, rumors, and accusations In Character.

This is a zero tolerance policy and anyone caught commiting sex crimes of any kind in Avlis or any Avlis owned/controlled medium will be immediately banned from ALL Avlis owned/controlled mediums.

Spies

Independent of your race, class, alignment, age, deity, length of beard, sexual preference, oppressive BO and other such stuff: the same rules apply to every character.

1) The DM sponsor of the guild you're trying to spy and spying for knows about it.

2) All information spied MUST pass through this DM.

This includes Changelings.

The Domination Effect

Domination provides physical control over the victim of the spell, as long as the action would not bring the victim direct harm.

Domination does not provide mental control over the victim of the spell.

Domination does not allow you to force someone to tell the truth.

Examples:
1. "kill yourself" - BAD, can be ignored
2. "jump off this building" - BAD, can be ignored
3. "attack _____" - GOOD
4. "did you ____" - BAD, victim does not have to answer truthfully
5. "go into that house" - GOOD
6. "return to your guild hall" - BAD
7. "Show me the ring on your hand" - GOOD
8. "show me the item that allows you to enter ______" - BAD

Speaking: Familiars,Changelings,Shapeshifters &Telepathy

Speaking Familiars While familiars are magical animals, they do not all gain the ability to speak. Only the following familiars have vocal chords allowing them to speak: Faerie Dragon Imp Mephits Pixie

Speaking While Shapeshifted Shifting into a new form does not allow you to speak with animals of that type. Nor does it allow you to communicate with Druids or Rangers. Most shifter forms are incapable of speech. In addition to PC races, only the following forms have vocal chords which allow you to speak: Azer Balor Death Slaad Dragons (Wyrmlings to Ancient) Gargoyle Giants (Fire or otherwise) Harpy Lupin Medusa Mind Flayer (Illithid) Minotaur Manticore Rakshasa Risen Lord Spectre Tlincalli Troll Vampire

Speaking as a Changeling When a changeling changes form, he changes internally as well as externally. This means that if a changeling assumes a form without vocal chords, he cannot speak.

Telepathy Telepathy can exist between mages and their familiars, depending on the species of familiar. This is the only form of telepathy to exist in Avlis.

No PC may speak telepathically to another PC. No PC may use telepathy or other similar powers to read another PC's mind. This is cheesing.

Languages

English is the official language of the Avlis servers

For IC situations, English is considered to be Common

For other languages in game, you must actually learn the language and use it at your leisure.

An RL *accent* is fine, whatever the accent is.

Importing a RL *language* into Avlis and saying it is an Avlisssian language is not fine.

Avlissian languages are made up on their own. If you want to make a language for Race X from scratch and use French (or any other RL)grammar as the basis, or even take a bunch of French (or other foreign) words and switch around a bunch of letters and vowels to make them completely different words, I don't have a problem with that. The new resulting language must not be recognizable from the base RL language however.

But the wholesale importation of another language is a no no.

Rules

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