- This is a role-playing game. Keep all speech and behavior inside the game 'in character.' If you're not sure what this means, look at the roleplaying help.
- Insults and language derogatory to a given social group or race are fine... welcomed, even... as long as we're talking about a group or race in the game. You know, "Dirty Rat!", or "Mangy Fox!" Bringing up epithets that have no bearing on a world full of intelligent animals will get you kicked or banned. Oh, and case anyone is confused, gays are a group of people.
- Obscenities are not welcome. If you want to swear or use colorful language, be creative. Swear by the rocks. Swear by the trees. Swear by the hair on your chinny-chin-chin. Taking the name or title of a deity in vain is considered acting out of character... I don't remember putting any religion in this game.
- Respect the boundaries of the game world. Threatening other players with a hack attack or banning them from your own games if they don't do what you want will get you banned. This is a one warning rule. I have no tolerance for cheaters. I don't care if they attacked you or took your stuff... they're playing the game and acting in character. You're not.
- Respect the channels of communication. 'OOC' is for out-of-character chatting, all other communication commands are for in-character. People who use the 'OOC' command to discuss game matters may have that command taken away. People who constantly break character in the other channels will be warned. Those who continue will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
Aside from having clearly posted and stated rules, all new characters will be subject to a temporary probationary status during which they cannot attack or be attacked. Combat isn't a huge part of the game anyway, but I find that a lot of people, when first logging into a game, will attack anything they're able to attack because they assume that's the point.
I'm building FoomerMUD, which is only a temporary game. It's a roleplaying game set in a prehistoric world where your become a member of the primitive society and you need to help the whole village survive in the harsh world. That's not as hard as it sounds though, there's still room to have fun.
My rules regarding that are that as far as the game goes, there is no such thing as a player. Only characters that interact with each other. If you talk about players, you're pushing for getting banned. Players don't exist, and should never be discussed. Things existing outside the game should never be discussed in the game. Things existing in the game should never be discussed outside the game.
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Part of the rule above is that discussing anything outside of the game is a big fat no-no. Insulting Canada or whatever is something outside the game. They could be banned for that, or at least have that character mysteriously struck by lightning (even if he's inside his hut).
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Prehistoric people don't know what obscenities are. Discussing them would be discussing something that belongs outside of the game. Nothing wrong with making up new words to describe stuff, like calling someone 'you miserable piece of lizard dung' would be just fine.
All names need to fit the "theme" of the game. A character named "Neo" wouldn't fit, nor would one named "Lord Zarg". Instructions for naming will be provided. But remember, my game is a play-by-request game. If I don't like your character, I don't have to accept it. If you want to get in, better create the character by my rules.
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As I said several times already, discussing anything outside of the game is a bannable offense. Mentioning a "player" is also bannable. The combination is very bannable. On the other hand, if you cheat in my game, you'd better roleplay it pretty darn well or you're going to get deleted.
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I don't have any channels for communications ;o) If you want to talk to someone, use the say command. If you want to shout at someone, use the shout command. Global communications don't fit a roleplay environment in my opinion, so I refuse to have them. If you want to talk to someone, do it OOC through the pager or IM. OOC is only for discussing technical difficulties that need to be mentioned to explain character actions. "Sorry, got disconnected" is an acceptable OOC message. "Hey guys, I got a new computer!" is not. Disruption of the roleplay environment for any unnecessary reason can get you deleted or banned.
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In my game, all new characters are sent to a tiny "newbie island" where they can learn how to do things and speak however they want to other players, but practicing roleplay is encouraged. They can never leave the island unless they are approved by the administrators (me) to be in the actual game, which means they must have a proper character with proper information filled out. Characters that are disapproved who are on "newbie island" get deleted to save bandwidth.
PKing in FoomerMUD isn't going to happen. There will be creatures to kill for hunting purposes who can also kill you if you're not careful, but I don't want to see players killing each other in my MUD. It might be primitive, but they're supposed to be getting along.
My MUD might be a bit strict, and I wouldn't expect a large player base at all considering the quality of the players at BYOND. But then, since FoomerMUD will be telnet compatable with hosting, it'll be advertised on Mudconnector.com if things go well. And so what if I have a small player base. At least they'll be the kind of players I want. And anyone can get in, they just have to follow the rules.