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.

Specific Rules

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.

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.

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.

In Game Rules: Elysia

Posted on various bulletin boards though out the city. *

In Elysia and the lands it controls, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. This holds true for citizens and non-citizens alike.

Murder - The willful or accidental killing of anyone in Elysia is against the law, unless done in self-defense. The law sees no difference between a citizen and non-citizen, noble or commoner.

The first offence carries a 1,000gp per victim fine, paid to the city of Elysia. This money will be distributed to the victims or their family.

The second offence carries a 5,000gp per victim fine, paid to the city of Elysia. This money will be distributed to the victims or their family.

The third offence carries a 5,000gp per victim fine, as well as exile from Elysia, on pain of death. This money will be distributed to the victims or their family.

Theft ? Stealing is illegal in Elysia and the lands it controls. If caught, the thief, will be forced to either return the stolen property or pay restitution equal to the value of items stolen, plus a 1,000gp fine paid to the city of Elysia.

Summoned Creatures - Elysia does not bar summoned creatures of any sort with in the city limits, but the person who summoned said creature is fully responsible for any act the creature takes. And will be treated as if he or she was the one who committed the act. This includes payment of fines and possible exile from the city.

Drugs ? The use of drugs within the city limits is illegal and caries a 500gp per offence fine paid to the city of Elysia. Also the person will be held fully responsible for any act committed when under the influence of drugs.

Signed by the ruling console of Elysia. *

OOC: Ok here?s what all that means.

Innocent until proven guilty, this means unless you actually see the act, or the person admits to it, there isn?t much you can do. Naturally a DM can work around this if he or she wishes, by providing ?proof? of the crime. Everyone is allowed to help enforce these laws, but if you act without proof, you will be guilty of whatever act you commit.

So for example, you see someone fighting a NPC in Elysia, you move in and attack the PC, kill him and make him cough up a fine. Only to find out afterwards, that the PC was attacked by the NPC first due to a faction bug. You will then be guilty of murder yourself, and need to pay all appropriate fines, including the possibility of the 1,000gp fine for stealing, if you forced the person to pay the murder fine. So make damn sure you know the full story before acting.

Murder, if you see someone whacking NPC?s feel free to stop them. But keep possible faction bugs in mind. If the person is unwilling to cough up the fine, your allowed to take a item to hold for ransom, until the fine is paid. Accidental death counts the same as willful murder. So if you catch a NPC with a fireball, you?re guilty of murder. People exiled from Elysia will have their names posted on the tavern boards, feel free to kill this person on sight, and take a single item given back to them only after they leave the city and surrounding area.

Stealing, again you have to actually catch the person in the act, seeing someone walk out of a house isn?t enough. If someone picks a PC?s pocket, you?re free to ?subdue? them and take back what they took, but nothing more, unless you need to hold a item for ransom.

Summoned creatures, anything goes here, you can?t stop someone from walking around with a Balor or undead, let alone a familiar or animal companion. But if the summoned creature goes apeshit and starts whacking NPC?s or something, feel free to nail the creature and make the person pay the fine required.

Drugs, they are illegal to use or sell in Elysia, because they do not promote the greater good in any way. This doesn?t mean you can attack someone who you think is using them, but if you see someone in the act of using a drug or selling drugs, you can try and force them to pay the fine. I would say killing them to take a item for ransom would be going to far.

Fines will be paid by dumping the money in a donation box in the temple of O?Ma. It?s not there yet but I asked Orleron to put one in.

Ransom of items. The only way to make a PC do something quite often is to hold on to an item they want back. In order to avoid hard feelings and such, if you find yourself in a situation where you need to hold a item for ransom, please limit it to one item, and not something that will prevent the person from being able to effectively play anymore. Taking someone?s only weapon for example would be IMO bad, take a ring or something else instead. If you do take someone down, you must stand guard over their corpse and make sure no one loots them.

All in all, common sense must be used in these situations. So if you see someone fighting a NPC but they seem to be trying to get away, don?t assume they are guilty of murder. But on the other hand, if you see someone kill a NPC then stand around waiting for the other NPC?s to attack him or her, you don?t have to buy their story about a faction bug either.

Lastly, there are other laws in Elysia. But for the most part, they aren?t something a PC can do, for example arson would be illegal, but there?s no way for a PC to set fire to a building in NWN, so I didn?t bother addressing it. Bottom line, Elysia is a Neutral Good city, and as such, the laws always take a back seat to the greater good.

Player Guidelines

Player guidelines aren't official rules, and don't have formal punishments for breaking them, but they are community guidelines accepted and followed by the community of players.

CvC Guidelines: The Gentlemen's Agreement

CvC Gentlemen's Agreement

The Gentlemen's Agreement is a set of rules created and enforced by players. The most likely consequence of breaking any of these rules is that your own character wouldn't be covered by them either, specially by the no looting rule.

Gentlemen's Agreement:

No looting of items except for consumables/replaceables: A weapon, a helm or a magical wand are examples of things that can't be looted under general circumstances. Items that can be looted include but are not limited to magical potions, healing kits, ammunition, crafting components, gems and scrolls.
Withdrawal upon defeat: If you are defeated in CvC you must not attack the enemy who defeated you until twenty four real time hours have passed. Leaving the area where you were defeated is the best way to achieve this. The purpose of this rule is to give some meaning to victories achieved in CvC.
No use of "banned" spells: Bigby's Forceful Hand is the only spell that at this time of writing has been considered "broken" for CvC purposes. No other spells are forbidden by the Gentlemen's Agreement even though some players might frown upon certain other spells. Regardless, everything else can be used.

Rules

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