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What does it mean for Arabel to be a Roleplay server?
Players are expected to remain in character as much as possible, and denote out of character comments with some notation, such as an OOC prefix. Powergaming and metagaming are frowned upon. Gameplay is substantially different from Diablo or Everquest.
What is powergaming? The exact definition of powergaming varies from person to person, but it is generally agreed to describe actions that have no roleplay logic to them, but are rather designed only to 'power up' a player. Exploiting quests to powergame may be considered 'cheating'.
What is metagaming? Metagaming involves using knowledge that your character could not possibly know. This should be avoided entirely for any PvP situations. Here is an example: An assassin tells a low level wizard that he killed his friend. The player who controls the wizard logs off and logs back on with a high level paladin and slays the assassin for his crime. The paladin could not possibly have known this.
I keep on getting booted. What's going on? The module reserves slots for DMs, usually 2. Watch your message bar - you will be sent a message before being booted.
What happens when I die? You will be moved to the Fugue Plane and your body will remain in the 'real' world. A companion can use a Raise Dead or Resurrect spell on your corpse to revive you. Your corpse can also be taken to an NPC cleric, who will charge a nominal fee for resurrection. Raise Dead and Resurrection spells will cause the deceased to suffer the loss of one level of experience. True Resurrection, while costly, affords no experience loss. In the Fugue Plane, one also has the option to respawn (assuming you did not choose Hardcore mode when you first entered Arabel - see your character tool for more info on Hardcore mode), but the XP penalty is very heavy. For every 3 levels of experience, you will lose 1 full level. This system leans towards "true death" while allowing for the option of respawning for those who absolutely want it. It also allows those of low levels to 'get started' in the world a little easier.
Respawning
Among other changes, the respawning has been changed.
Someone killed in PvP now has to wait an half hour before he can respawn. The raise spells can still be used immediately.
This was done to prevent PvP victims from immediately returning to the point where they died and accusing their attackers. I ran into a problem. Will DMs reimburse my lost XP/gold/items? No.
If you run into a problem, we'll do our best to help you at that time, but messages like "I died and lost 2000gp due to a bug yesterday" are difficult to deal with. We will always listen to the issues and try to get them solved, but we will avoid giving experience, gold, or items in the process. We sympathize with players that have lost time spent improving their characters, especially when it occurs through no fault of their own, but the sheer amount of these requests is overwhelming, to the point where DMs do not want to log on. The DM's are here to play with everyone, not to be 'gods', and so the best we can do to be fair is a blanket refusal of such requests.
Can I play an evil character? Yes. Keep in mind that any character you play has been admitted into the city, and is allowed to remain there. This means that he or she must be generally accepted by the society - no insane dwarves or mass murderers. Evil characters can be selfish, greedy, lying, backstabbers, but there is no 'killing for fun' or 'destroy the weak' personas, as rampant murder is not tolerated even in 'evil' societies. Alignment is just a guideline of how to play your character, and in any society, they can and do change. A paladin slaying a thief just because he knows him to be evil or dislikes his verbiage will be arrested and charged with murder, along with all the other common criminals.
Being an evil character or PvP character carries with it the responsibility to ensure that you are providing an entertaining time to the players whose characters you are working against. You must be almost like a DM in that you must be fair in the degree you play your character. Hunting newbies is not fair. It offers no challenge for a new player to overcome because they haven't a chance. That is not fun for a player.[
Are player guards DMs?
Player guards are not DMs. Like everyone else, they are role-players, acting out the part of an adventurer who has the part-time job of a city guardsman. Like other PCs, they have their own personalities. Bear in mind that the city laws are 'in character' laws, and PCs should treat it as such, even trips to jail. Breaking city laws is completely different from breaking server rules. The latter incurs a ban, but the former is almost expected from good role-players of certain characters.
Can I pick pockets? Currently, pick pocketing is broken. The target will always know you have stolen something, even if successful. Do so at your own risk. Penalties to low level pick pocket skills have been implemented to deter griefing.
OOC is sometimes unavoidable and generally fine if clearly labelled as such.
That having been said, try to bear in mind that some people are taken out of the element by OOC. Each time you use OOC, you should consider whether you should avoid it if possible to help keep everyone's RP experience enjoyable. If you MUST go OOC, but only with 1 person, then take it to tells instead of talk/party, so that only that 1 person is impacted
Is PvP allowed? Yes. Respect your fellow players. Remember that despite what characters say and do. There is another person behind that mask whom you do not know. This person puts hours, weeks, and months into his or her character just as you do. Each piece of equipment they own and all the exp they earn is all paid for with that time.
If you steal or kill another player make sure that you are earning the right to do so.
Make sure that you are returning the time that player has lost to them in entertainment value. Do not cheapen the loss of their exp or goods by doing it OOC. That only makes the other player feel that they have wasted their time in acquireing what they have.
If for any moment people feel they are wasting their time then they will have bad feelings and leave.
Can I PK? Everyone plays a character who has been admitted into the city and for the most part, follows its laws. Players are not given the option to control 'insane dwarves' or 'mindless monsters' who attack anything in sight. Paladins and assassins may personally strive to slay evil or kill for money, but both live in an ordered society which does not accept wanton murder.
PKing and PvP in general can be a very touchy subject. If you cannot be sure that both parties understand that the conflict is fully within character, then you should avoid the issue entirely. This 'understanding' should be present before anyone is killed. Blatant PKing is not allowed under any circumstances. Even if you have a reason for it, it will not be tolerated.
Player Versus Player and Player Killing is beginning to cause some major headaches for the DM team. There are a lot of hard feelings floating around from poorly conducted PvP and PK, and several bans have even been t***ed out recently for people who could not differentiate playing a character that engages in PvP and PK from being a complete griefing jerk.
To avoid this, here are some guidelines. These are guidelines, they will not fit every situation--but by keeping them in mind you can make the life of the DMs considerably easier and make PvP situations move forward much smoother.
1. PvP should not always end in PK. Many times just beating someone once and leaving a solid threat that next time they die should be enough. If you just wanted to steal something, just subdue them and steal it. If you want to convert someone to your god, it may take more than just "Convert or Die" why not actually try to convert them first with words, by defeating them a few times to show your strength, or through a series of challenges to prove your god/philosophy is better--then if none of that works call out "convert or die". It'll be much more fun for all involved, and who knows who may wind up having their faith shaken during the roleplay that follows. Plus if you're enemies know you're loathe to kill, they will be slow to retaliate with death themselves.
2. If you do decide to PK, always try to be sure the other player has the chance to escape and they should be aware you intend to kill them. Its not fair to attack someone on FD when you know they're on SD and that the worst that might happen if your attack fails is that they SD you and leave you there then flee. They should know you planned to PK them at least so they can decide if they desire to return the favor.
3. Full looting is acceptable, but its generally not polite or sporting. We prefer that if you PK someone you try to leave most of their gear for them, or if you take it make sure the player has a chance to get the gear back. Either by using it as blackmail "don't cross me again and I'll return this", "don't tell the guards nuthin' and I'll return this", or perhaps even filter it through other ways so it slowly returns to the player just as a gesture of OOC kindness to your fellow players. This is especially true in situations where the other guy didn't have a very fair chance to escape you or beat you. If you're Overpowering and kill someone, its hardly fair to add injury to insult by full looting.
4. If you engage in PvP and leave some Near Death, or kill them but don't full loot. Its polite to make sure that wandering monsters don't finish off the poor Near Death guy, or that wandering PCs uninvolved don't find their gear and corpse and full loot them leaving absolutely no way to recover their gear. Its alright, even prefered despite the OOCness, to lurk by the Near Death guy and make sure he makes it out okay--feel free to taunt him the entire time "I could kill you any moment so run back to the city, run!" or send him a TELL "IC I'd have run off, but I'm sticking around OOC just to make sure you make it back to town safely". The same applies to their gear if you do PK them but don't plan to loot send them a quick TELL "OOC I'd have run off, but I don't want anyone stealing your gear, can you send a TELL to a friend to come quick OOC and pick it up?" or TELL "I"m grabbing all your loot, but just OOC, once you're out of the Fugue tell me where to meet you and I'll make sure it gets back to you since OOC I don't want you losing all your gear."
5. Even in situations where you come across a player corpse and have the option to loot, stop and consider the other player. This holds especially true during slum invasions, it is incredibly rude and inconsiderate to full loot people during the slum invasions. Playing an evil character requires you to stop and consider the other players much more than when playing any other alignment, there are times when you must consider the evil actions your character would take and understand that they are a detriment to the server. Stealing every item another player has while they're dead and can not even fight against you is
the kind of behavior that will drive newer players from the server, and is disheartening to even older players. If you can not show due consideration to your fellows, you do not belong with this community. This is not to say you can't loot the fallen, but that you should stop and consider very carefully your actions. Taking some gold, or a couple of items is one thing--taking every single thing is often well into the realm of being a complete jerk.
6. When you are full damaged killed, make it realistic and don't be an annoying ass. Respawning three minutes after dying and reporting your killer, sending city wide messages calling them a murderer, reporting your on death to the authorities is hardly the behavior of person who was just violently killed. Consider staying dead for a few days or a week if you intend to be this kind of a reckless individual, otherwise the other person is totally in their right to just kill you again and again and again and the DMs won't consider it greifing--if anything after I PK the same person two days in a row for the same thing because he just got raised and came after me again I'm actually feeling sorry for the murderer and not the victim. You may also consider the fact that you DIED. This has a traumatic effect on intelligent and sentient creatures. You may actually realize, "OH S***, this guy can KILL me" maybe I should stop insulting his mother since the last five times he gutted me. It almost seems like reverse "griefing" since you just keep coming after them no matter what they do and by the sixth or seventh death its pretty clear that you're overmatched and should be showing a modicum of fear.
Again, these are guidelines and not rules. However, these are guidelines that will keep things moving smoother, add to a bit of realism in PvP, and make things more amicable as we all try to enjoy a game. We're making these guidelines clear because there has been far too much PvP and PKing that we just don't like. People Full Damage killing and looting for no better reason than "I was broke and he was nearby." people slaying opponents because "he refused to convert when I talked to him for the first time" instead of actually working on a conversion process" and people sending city wide announcements that "Mr. Smith just killed me for the eighth time this week."
Feel free to discuss these guidelines in General Chat if you have questions/comments/concerns.
We've said this multiple times, and I'll repeat it. There is no such thing as "subdual death". If you subdue someone, you have, well, dubdued him. If you want him to be harmless, you can subdue him into concussion. But if what you want is him being dead, by all means set full damage on and kill him.
You may agree with another player to remain in subdual mode and play it out as if you were in full damage. If you do that, all the power to you, but don't expect anyone to adhere to that policy by default. The reason subdual damage is set to be the default upon login is not to facilitate "subdual death" but to avoid accidental friendly fire deaths, such as when you accidentally fireball your own party or you misclick on a party member in the middle of a melee.
So, remember: subdued is subdued, unconscious is unconscious and dead is dead.
PS: Just in case, by saying this I'm not encouraging a killing spree. Death threats work better when there's actual death to back them.
Basic Info
Just some quick answers to basic questions.
What kind of server is Arabel? Arabel is a persistent world server based on Arabel, a city in the Forgotten Realms. Arabel is part of a small country called Cormyr. The server is primarily a role playing environment. It includes HCR.
What is Forgotten Realms? Forgotten Realms is a world based on the popular game known as Dungeons and Dragons. The main module shipped with Neverwinter Nights is based in this world.
What is a Persistent World? For Arabel, this means that the world will be up 24/7, notwithstanding unexpected crashes. The players and characters will continue to develop throughout an extended period, as opposed to a single session.
What is HCR? The HardCore Ruleset, created by a talented group of designers, is intended to provide gameplay that more closely matches PnP Dungeons and Dragons. Arabel uses most of HCR's rules, modified to fit our own world.
Is the world scripted? Yes! Even excluding HCR, Arabel has nearly 2000 script files, purely original work.
Do DMs play? Very often. As opposed to being a local 'god', the DMs on Arabel join in by playing the parts of NPCs. DM quests can and do occur without notice. Sometimes half the server will be involved in a special quest, while the other half go about their regular routines.
How does ECL work? As an example, a Tiefling has an ECL of 1. This means that a level 1 Tiefling is considered, for purposes of party level and experience, level 2. This character needs 2000xp to reach the next level, instead of 1000xp. In Neverwinter Nights, you cannot change the amount of XP needed to go up a level - so the experience earned is scaled. The Tiefling will get 50% of all XP that a normal character would get. When he reaches 1000xp, a regular character doing the exact same things would have earned 2000xp. In short, though it may not reflect on the character sheet, subraces with ECLs work correctly, as defined in D&D rules.
What Other Abilities are there? Check your crafting radial for special ranger, paladin, etc.
Quest Time restrictions
Reminding our players that using conversations to bypass time restrictions on quests is an exploit. Leaving the party and rejoining the party while in the middle of a quest conversation is not permissable, and is grounds for immediate banning from the server. Furthermore, players who allow other players to use this exploit will be considered accomplices and will also be banned immediately.
Players who see other players leaving and joining parties in such a manner should report the incident to a DM with screenshots and log files. Players involved in parties that are found to have used this exploit will also be considered accomplices.
We are aware that some scripts for certain quests make bringing people who have not passed the 24 hour marker very easy. Steps are being taken to correct them, but in the meantime, that is not an excuse to attempt to bypass the time restrictions.
Try to make sure no one has done the quest in the last 24 hours, if you have any doubts. If a certain player is unable to go due to a bug, that is still not a legitimate excuse to exploit, and should be handled by contacting a DM or posting in Bug Reports.
Quest System
If a quest has a minimum party size that means you have to bring a minimum amount of people. It does not mean you have to invite people in your party and go solo the quest. Doing the quest solo is cheating and cheating is a banable offense.
In an effort to stop certain practices the DMs feel take away from the quality of the server, our policy on metagaming, powergaming, and other exploitation has changed. What will occur in the event of a violation is at the DMs discretion, and will vary based on the offense, but often a death without the possibility of true resurrection (or, possibly, any resurrection) is typically considered minimal punishment. Obviously, our most severe course of action is banning.
Other actions which are absolutely prohibited include: passing equipment from one of your characters to another, in any manner, including using an intermediary; giving people equipment for any ooc reason, including ooc relationships or interactions with a player's "other characters"; killing NPCs or other actions performed without an IC reason to do so; logging after stealing or attacking/killing another character without giving sufficient time for actions in response (if you don't have time to deal with the consequences, don't commit the actions). Finally, server issues occasionally cause characters to be duplicated into the wrong server vault. If this happens do not log in; simply report it on the forum under server issues. Logging in using someone else's character is an exploit and will be dealt with as such.
This list is not all inclusive. Please use your best judgement. Remember that the spirit of the server is such that things which are not conducive to a roleplaying environment are generally unwelcome.
Exploitation of bugs to gain gold, experience, duplicate items, or such, will almost certainly result in a permanent ban.
Can I log off when my character is in trouble? Arabel is role playing server, and the abrupt disappearance of a character, especially while in battle, ruins that atmosphere. This is doubly true when it occurs in events involving other players, and often upsets other players when used as an 'escape route'. Robberies, muggings, and death are all a part of a character's life in Arabel. Logging to avoid death is a bannable offense.
Can I shout? Shouting has been disabled.
Can I Be un-banned? The address to turn to is cityofarabel@gmail.com. Add the account name you were using and your public CD key. It needs to be the public part from the primary key you used to install base NWN with. We will then look up in our banlist and decide whether we should let you back in.
If you know who banned you (you should have gotten a warning by the DM before he banned you unless you logged off before a DM could get a hold on you) you can contact this DM directly - only the DM who banned you will decide whether to lift the ban. We do not ban for trivial offenses, so if you are banned the chances that we will be inclined to lift the ban are pretty slim.
As it has been asked before: buying another game DOES allow you to play again, but whether we let you continue or ban the new key again is decided on a case-by-case basis.
Becoming unbanned is rare, because if you broke server rules once, it is rather likely that you will do it again. And we DMs prefer to play instead of watching possible cheaters. It is possible, but I won't detail how because then it could be faked. I WILL detail what will not work in the hope that these mails subside somewhat. It is bothersome to check our banlist every time someone mails us a faked story.
* Posting here in forum how unfair the banning was will not work and come out quite to the contrary. * Making up fake stories and character names or omitting crucial parts will not work - we keep a list why everyone was banned. * Claiming that it was your brother/husband/dog/canary will not work - when IP and CD key match, for us it was you. * Asking one DM after the other in the hopes one of us will unban you will not work - we DO talk to each other.
* Simply asking "I was banned, unban me. Here is my key ..." will not work - you caused grief or cheated, and we don't ban lightly. * Making up a CD key will not help - even if we DID decide to unban you, the made-up CD key is not in our list we cannot unban it.
Can I transfer Items to other characters of mine? Item transfer between characters belonging to the same player is forbidden and it's a bannable offense, since it's metagaming to the extreme. This also applies if the transfer is done through one or several third parties. Freely giving items from old characters to newly created character of other players is frowned upon and may be considered a violation of this rule. Of course you can give items for free, but be sure it is done in character. It's not acceptable to load each new character of your buddies with uber gear they would never be able to earn by themselves. Be buddies in character and be moderate in your gifts.
When we advice to remake a character, we mean to delete the old one and start again from level 1, with no item transfer. If you screwed up at creation time, it's not acceptable to 'notice' when you are level 10. You can export your character to your local vault and experiment with several paths of development, so don't complain if you make the wrong choice.
We reserve the right to make exceptions to this rule, but we will not accept requests to transfer items. If you insist very, very hard, we may help you with the first part of the transfer: deletion of the character.
Is it against the rules to loot corpses? In short, no. Adventuring is a dangerous profession. If a PC stumbles across a dead body with gear, he is at liberty to take it, though some morally upright characters would feel the need to return the items. However, if the owner of the items is nearby, or a friend is standing over a bag of equipment, the items are considered 'in possession'. Taking things is then considered stealing, just as if one person put a bag down at his feet, and another took it. Though it is understandably difficult, we ask that players do their best to stay in character and have their characters value their lives more than their items.
Familiars Small natural animals (birds and bats) will now be allowed to roam the city, provided that they cause no trouble to the citizens. As mentioned earlier, it's unlikely that a normal person would know it is a familiar and not just an ordinary animal. Goodly fairies are allowed as well. Demonic creatures and mid to large sized animals (boars, wolves, etc.) will not be allowed to walk the city streets.
Griefing is any sort of pestering attack, be it verbal, in game actions, or otherwise that seeks to anger, or annoy to a degree of retaliation.
All accusations of griefing need to come to us in an email at cityofarabel@gmail.com and should include screenshots of actions a particular person had against you.
I want you to read up there, no where in that paragraph does it say to, handle the griefer yourself, make public rants in IRC or on the Forums, or telling the person they are a griefer and making direct accusations towards them.
Plain and simply put, if you feel you have been griefed, you email us. If I catch you publically making accusations, then heed this as your warning: you will be banned from the medium you made that accusation from, due to the fact that it is an immature, ineffective, and rather stupid way to get a problem dealt with. We will handle any griefers for sake of fairness and sanity, not you.
CYBOR This is just a friendly reminder, but we do not desire to catch people engaging in cyber sex.
Further, while this server deals with some mature issues and violence is a part of the game. Do recall that certain graphic acts of violence, specifically rape should not be roleplayed here under any circumstances.
This is a game, I do not log in to deal with a crime that has victimized every single woman I know in real life, which many still awake from in the middle of the night screaming with nightmares. This is not something "fun" to bring into this game world. Keep it out.
Traps We've had several instances lately of people trapping places like the transistion to the visitor's center and other places of interest to lower level characters and new players. This is a bannable offense.
Placing traps on any transistion zone where players might load an area and immediately step on a trap is unacceptable. To do it to a place like the visitor's center, a place new players frequently visit upon their arrival at the server, is not only unacceptable, but also inconsiderate of new players.
It's common sense, but for those of you who might lack it, you've been warned.
NPC Griefing Despite having answered this question like ten times in the Ask a DM forum and countless scattered posts, there are players who still believe they can go killing NPCs in the city because they're ev0l.
Gurb wrote:
Killing a non hostile NPC (animals aside) without explicit DM permission is considered NPC griefing, and may get you banned. I don't care if you think your character had the best of reasons. If a DM is not there to judge if you can do it and/or if any of the thousands of people that are not represented by NPCs sees you or not, don't do it, period.
Remember, you don't get to judge if the NPCs (represented or not in the game) react to your actions or not and how. And also, the NPCs aren't there for you to kill for XP or anything else, but to give ambience to the game. Don't be surprised if you kill a commoner without checking with a DM first and the next thing you see is the fugue plane loading.
"Oh, the invisible war wizard killed you, he didn't think he needed to check with you first"