Roleplay Rules, Noble Chat Stuff, Imprisonment Rules Etc.

[MonMarty]

A couple of matters needing to be publicly elaborated on. Note, these things are not open for discussion, we're merely explaining our stance and regulations on some of them.

Black Hand

• The Black Hand was recently made fairly redundant. We're restoring their functional rights:
  • Black Hand Members can only carry Weapons and wear Armor.
  • Black Hand Members must conceal their Black Hand Status.
  • Black Hand Members may enter forbidden territories (Slums).
  • Black Hand Members may conceal their identity from Law Enforcement.
  • Black Hand Members may maim/kill only on Direct Imperial Command (Emperor/Crown Prince)
• In all cases, Black Hand Leader bears responsibility for the actions of the members. If the Imperial Steward believes the Black Hand has gone rogue and Vigilante, the organization will be shut down. In any and all circumstances, the Black Hand Principal Secretary has reporting duty to the Imperial Steward, meaning they must send their ongoing plans and missions to the Steward for review (not approval, just making sure he knows what is going on).

Noble Chat Stuff
There's been some controversial topics being raised in Noble Chat the last few days with regards to inappropriate Roleplay. The rules are explained /only/ as followed:

• Inappropriate Roleplay is counted as: Physical rape, Birthing Roleplay, Excessive Torture, Disgusting Roleplay (feces, gore), Erotic Roleplay. These are forbidden to be done in public in any and all circumstances, though may be engaged in by consenting adults in a private setting.
• Opt-In Roleplay is counted as: Torture Roleplay, Slave RP, Child Violence, Elder Violence. These are Opt-In meaning you may choose to say "I'm not comfortable with this, please let's time skip this scene", in which it will still happen, but it doesn't have to be role played out.
• Inappropriate Roleplay with regards to Sexualization of Character or act is counted as:
  • Any action involving touching, groping, looking at or somehow interacting with: Sexualized body parts (female breasts) and sexual organs. This is counted as public ERP and liable to a Ban.
  • Undressing a character while the above body parts are not visible, is not rape or inappropriate Roleplay.
  • Forcing a character into an intimate act that does not involve any of the body parts above (such as forced kissing, caressing an exposed shoulder or ear licking) is not rape, though it is counted as Opt-In Roleplay.

The above definitions and regulations are all defined in such a way because we work off the base assumption that players can distance role play characters from reality in the same way that gamers can distance shooting hundreds of people to death from reality. There are however, still subject matters that are inappropriate and not tolerated, however they are exactly spelled out above. When in doubt or in a gray zone, inquire with Lore Staff 3 for clarification on the Rules.

Imprisonment Rules
The Imprisonment rules apply only to Guard Roleplay and Regalian City Guards, however in some cases, we've been inquired whether they apply to abductions as well, since they have become more frequent as of late. Essentially when imprisoned, the rules dictate the city guard may not leave an imprisoned person unattended for more than 15 minutes, and have to release them if they do. These rules DO NOT apply to abduction.

• Abducted Individuals may, in theory, be held imprisoned indefinitely by the opposing party until the story line has come to a conclusion. Generally, the most reasonable abduction case should last no longer than a week. HOWEVER, if the abduction becomes unreasonably detrimental to a person's ability to roleplay, they may contact Lore Staff to mediate on the matter. If Lore Staff decide in favor of the imprisoned individual, the people who imprisoned them will be compelled to provide more roleplay for the person, or to release them. The general core concept there, is that a player must be able to log on every day and get at least one hour of solid roleplay in. If being imprisoned stops that from happening, the people who imprisoned them should step up, or release them.
• The 15 Minute Rule and 1 Hour total Rule only applies to Regalian City Guard. This is because City Imprisonment is not a narrative. There is no end goal with the imprisoned person, they are simply being punished for an IC action, where-as abduction implies the act of imprisonment itself is the IC action.
• Abduction however, as much with any roleplay, is partially Opt-In. Players can generally not be forced into any roleplay generally speaking, but everything should be done in consideration towards the idea that opposition in roleplay is about giving and taking. A character that consistently simply uses an OOC excuse to get away from negative consequences for their character, is a Mary Sue, and will be treated as such when it comes to rule enforcement and privilege assessments. If however the individuals involved have valid reasons to avoiding a roleplay scenario such as abduction, then the request will be respected provided the reasoning is legitimate.

Abusing any of the rules above to avoid IC consequences of IC actions will be mediated by Lore Staff and counted as powergaming if necessary. Please remember that negative consequences to characters help build Character narrative as well as Character development.

RP Blacklisting
RP Blacklisting does not, and should not happen on MassiveCraft, though there are some exceptions to this concept that make it possible:

• If you feel a person you are roleplaying with has shown you OOC disrespect, verbally assaulted you, or generally been a mean person to you, you may choose to personally (just yourself) not roleplay with them. The server will never force you to roleplay with an individual if you feel that individual does not respect you as a person. However, if your interaction with said person is required for the narrative of a group (for example, you are a guard, and a gang member was really mean to you and you refuse to RP with them individually, you cannot refuse to RP with them if there is an ongoing battle between gang members and guards which you two are participating in).
• If you are an outsider (I.E, your friend is the one Blacklisting someone), you may not under any circumstance actively Blacklist an individual unless they have targeted you personally also. Even if the server Law Enforcement has punished the individual for their supposed crime against your friend, you may not Blacklist someone unless you were the personal victim of the crime.
• The Server System will never Blacklist someone outright, but keep in mind that all privilege systems use the same criteria and quality checks to come to a decision. Basic rights (such as Character Applications) will never be deprived unless abused, while Privileges (such as Permissions) may be blocked from a player if they are outright misused. If the system denies privilege to a player for any reason, under no circumstance may players pile on top of that and additionally Blacklist a player. The denial of Privilege in this case is counted as punishment enough, and any attempt to further aggravate a player with public humiliation is counted as harassment.

In any and all circumstances, using private conversations or public means to defame a player, to encourage others to Blacklist or otherwise deny roleplay to an individual for personal reasons is one of the worst kinds of harassment, and will be judged in the same category as bullying a player off the server, which in essence is what happens when you attempt to convince other players to avoid roleplay with someone.

Remember also that in any and all circumstances, if a player violates a rule, that they should be reported on the relevant section of the Forum to the relevant authorities. Starting public bashing sessions, humiliation runs or otherwise attempts to publicly incite opinion against individuals or a group of people, is counted as harassment. Lore Staff may in some cases use public encouragement for players to better themselves, but Lore Staff members should be trusted to be able to tell the difference between a public incitement, and a co-operative responsibility check.

 

[Gwyndo]

Good stuff.

 

[Devoruku]

Nice re-cap, iv seen a lot of players who break these or do heavy RP blacklisting on me on massive and other rp servers. Iv even had players go after me on Skype to force me to quit because they thought they knew me irl so blacklisting re-cap was a needed update.~