Rules

Community Rules and Provisions
By playing here at Legends Reborn, you agree to the following terms and provisions. Please review them as you will be held accountable for them.

1 ) Cheating & Exploits.
Ultima Online, by design, is a game that relies on on character advancement. We promote and encourage this. That’s one of the reasons we provide a free player-run server. What we do not encourage is cheating. Cheating can be classified as gaining items, attributes, or intentionally using flawed code to your advantage. If you find a bug, report it. If you see that something is broken, let us know. We won’t tolerate cheating. This is the one warning you will receive about cheating, the next course of action is a permanent and irrevocable ban.

2 )Behavior / Accountability
This is, first and foremost, a community of people. You might find Trolls in-game, but they won’t be tolerated in our community. We encourage conflict as it drives any story worth telling; use your head and don’t be stupid. We’ve made our world open to you as a guest, and you will be held accountable for your actions if found to be a general bother to the players or staff.

3 ) Language
This is a community for all ages, young and old. Be free, Role-Play, do and say what your character would, but keep the language clean. Out-right foul language is frowned upon; take it to IRC (Private Messages), in-game chat, or the messenger of your choice. We’re not mind police, and we’re not looking to make any issues of your personal style of roleplaying – but again, use common sense. If you wouldn’t say something in a public place, think twice before saying it in-game.

On the topic of language, we don’t require that you speak elizabethian, old english, or be fluent in latin. The language of this community is primarily English, and we’ll do our best to accomodate those who do not speak english as your first language, but in-game we ask that you speak english to the best of your ability. The majority of our players are from the United States, and the state of things as they are, this makes us having to understand different languages a great deal harder than for the rest of the world; consider this a geographic disavantage, but a rule nontheless.

4 ) Meta-Gaming / OOC
Meta-Gaming is the act of obtaining or using knowledge which should not be known to your character in-game. If your character doesn’t have a plausible reason to know something, then it shouldn’t know it. Period. General Information regarding the world such as “Where is the Altus Bank?”, are perfectly admissable and are genuinely helpful, while questions such as “Where do you have the Undying Zaggat spawn, I heard it’s a secret, and has awesome loot”, are detractors for the players, and for the game as a whole.

There should always be a limit to what your character knows versus what you know. Just because you read that a character might be “turning evil” on the forums, or in IRC, doesn’t mean your character would know. A seperation between what is learned in-game and out of character is required.

Out of Character speech should be kept to a minimum, and optimally, out of the game entirely. We understand it happens, but try to minimize OOC chatter when possible.

Roleplaying is a large part of the experience here at Legends Reborn. The world has been designed from the ground up to facilitate this aspect; many of the mechanics from the original Ultima Online have been altered, completely redesigned, or removed entirely. To help accomodate yourself to our world please be familiar with these in-game, or henceforth IC (in-character) rules. These terms are used synanmously, as while you are in game you should be in character.

1) Role-Playing: The Basics.
Role-Playing is first, foremost, and almost entirely, common sense. While IC, you are removing your biases or your frame of reference and replacing it with another; your characters. You see what your character sees. You hear what he or she hears. You do as they would do. Just because something happens on your screen does not mean your character sees or hears it; for example, you’re inside of an Inn next to a Blacksmiths shop. While in the Inn, you see a Thief steal some gold from a Merchant. Take into consideration that there are several walls, a couple roofs, likely chatter from the Inn, and possibly other factors that would detract from your ability to otherwise see the events in the next building over. As a player, you are given the ability to see this; but as a Role-Player you are expected to only see or hear what your character would. This is a big hurdle for many players, but after they get over this hump they go from fledgling Role-Player to Amazing Role-Player.

2) Character Naming
Your character should be named realistically. We understand this is a fantasy game, but we have gone great lengths to enforce a realism within the context of fantasy. You must give your character a name; by name, we do not mean Metallica. By name we do not mean an existing name, Such as George Bush or Ron Jeremy. By name we mean using some of your creativity to come up with a name free of “OOC” references, brand names, band names, drug references; the list goes on. This should be common sense. If you are not able to come up with a name on your own, Page a GM. If your name is not acceptable, it will be changed at the descretion of the current Administration. This applies to pets and mounts as well.

3) Character Premise
So, you’re a blind, half drow, half-elf, half-demon, wandering monk samurai who was once an ascended being from the upper-pantheon? No. You’re not. At least not on Legends Reborn.

Your character should not be in a position of power, at least any signifcant form that would affect the general populous. He or she should not possess any skills, feats, or abilities that would otherwise indicate he or she is but a mere mortal. We facilitate your choice to become a Hero, Villain, or something inbetween – but this happens through character development and not at character creation.

You character should be an average, or slightly above average, individual. Special abilities, Magical Powers, and mastery of skill come through spending time with your character and advancing them in the world. Does this mean your character cannot have Role-Played special abilities? Of course not – but only as long as they do not interfere with other characters. Can your character see the wind? If they want to! Toss a dagger up in the air cand catch it with their teeth? Why not? Speak with all of the Animal Kingdom? If you so choose.

Can your character freeze other people with his or her mind? You’d better have quite a few Paralyze scrolls in order to do so, because expecting others to conform to this style of Role-Play is not only unrealistic, but it is not allowed. This is “Forced Role-Play”, as it necessarily gives your character the power to force others into conforming around your Role-Play, rather than the Role-Play stem from an interactive of communal effort.

We do not require that your character be from one of the towns or cities of the continent of Altherra, where the game as of this writing takes place. We have characters who have gone the extra mile and created, through role-play, different continents, lands, and civilizations to accomodate their character. This is a form of communal world building, and we are by no means against this in any way. This has been done successfully for a variety of reasons; namely, because they did not force their idea of the world onto ours, but instead, created a world that would fit with ours. They have taken the idea of our world, and fit their concept around it – not the other way around.

If you want to do something different, but aren’t sure if your character would be a breech of any of these rules, Page a GM, post on the forums, or hop into IRC and ask; these rules aren’t here to limit you, but to make it so whichever character you wish to play can flourish in our world.

4 ) Evil Characters
If you’re going to be evil, you have to be smart. There’s a trend in our world; if you’re an intelligent criminal, it’s less likely you’ll be caught. Band together, make an alliance, plan ahead. By design, the cities are meant to be safe and you won’t last long unless you use your head.

5 ) Player Killing / Resurrection Killing / Looting
Player killing is allowed. This is one of the tenants we stand by. This must be carried out in IC. If someone asks for your gold, and you do not yield, this is (as with real life) how many people die, and is acceptable form of role-playing. Any and all attacks must be provoked and participatory. Participatory includes tacit consent. This is a very common-sense rule, but here are some guidelines.

a) If a player attacks you without saying a word, page a GM, or let some know via IRC.
b) If you harass, demean, or otherwise trash talk a character – expect to be dealt with by violence. The majority of players deal in cutting people up, bashing them in, filling them full of arrows, or setting them on fire. If you don’t have anything nice to say, make sure your armor can withstand the beating. We strongly stand by “Just Desserts”.
c) If you enter an area, and someone says leave or die, as with real life – would you really argue? Here’s some food for thought.

Resurrection Killing is not allowed. If you kill someone, allow them to ressurrect. Nothing is gained by littering an area with corpses except jailtime. If you have killed someone, and they ressurect before you have time to loot them, they are off limits.

That being said, if a character attacks you right after you kill them (in ressurrection robe or otherwise) you are by no means required to not defend yourself. Anyone who is attacked has the right to defend themselves if they so choose. Unless provoked killing the newly ressurected is considering griefing. You will receive a verbal warning if you are found doing this, and jail time for repeat offenses.

Looting should be reserved for valuables only; a clearly identifiable magical item, gold, or various other items is acceptable. Looting a person for all they are worth, however, is not. This is called dry looting. To strip a person of all of their belongings is considered bad form, and is likely out of character for most players. Shirts, shoes, cloaks, or hats are common, mundane, and cheap items that most thieves would not take the time to steal – even off of a corpse.

6 ) Stealing / Thieving
Stealing from players is allowed, however, there are soem guideliens. Firstly, this should be role-played. A Thief would likely not target newer, less advanced characters as they are the ones who are often in simple or plain clothing. The money is in the higher class; those who are well dressed, brandishing fine blades or armor automatically set themselves apart as targets. There is little more motivation needed for a thief. If you do, however, choose from less well off characters, Role-Play this verbally – make sure you are alone, or that the character has reason to believe you have business being close to them; here are a few examples.

a) Thief: “Hello, my name is Ronald Nightwing. How do you do?” Target: “I am well. My name is Susanna. What brings you to haven?” Thief: “Came into town for a bit to eat – say, is that a leaf in your hair?” Thief then attempts to close ground and steal something. This is acceptable Role-Play.
b) A character is walking around in the middle of the night, and through an alley they see someone beckoning them. They enter, and the beckoner, who happens to be a Thief pulls out a blade, and tells them that if they move they die. This is circumstantial (night time, dark alley, player walking into said dark alley) but acceptable.
c) A thief walking through a crowd of players emoting *bumps into [characters name]*, while saying excuse me is again, circumstantial and acceptable.

A target that has not set themselves apart to be a target, and has not been sufficiently role-played in either circumstantial or verbal means, is unacceptable. You will receive a warning for your first offense, and it is up to the responding GM thereafter to decide the punishment.

7 ) Power Gaming / AFK Macroing / Third Party Programs
Power Gaming is classified as abusing the mechanics of Ultima Online to your advantage. This is different than normal skill gain, or simply playing the game. AFK Macroing falls under the catagory of Power Gaming, and is not allowed. Those suspected to be AFK Macroing will be questioned, and have 5 minutes to respod. If you are found to be AFK Macroing, the skill in question will be reduced at the administrators discretion, as well as possible jail time.

8 ) Muling

Muling is classified as using one character (or more) to supply goods, resources, or gold for another. An example is creating four other characters to give their gold to a chest in a town, to which you will later travel to and receive. This detracts from the community and from the game. Don’t do it. You will receive one warning for this, then jail time.

9 ) TSPOR (The spirit of the rules)
Ultimately, the spirit of the rules are far more important than the rules themselves. We want to make this community a place where you can have fun; we don’t want to wave a banstick around anymore than you want to be banned.