New Rules

Basic Server Standards

Relevant Community Rules Apply

You must be 18+ to play here.
You must be courteous to others in OOC and LOOC.
You must not provoke others OOCly.

If you noticeably diminish the community's wellbeing with your presence, you may be removed from it regardless of the other rules.

Standard Server Standards Apply

No Metagaming: using information that your character should not be aware of
No Metagrudging: using your out-of-character sentiments against another player to deliberately act detrimentally to a specific player's experience
No Metacommunicating: exchanging sensitive information about the ongoing round via out-of-character means
No Exploiting: habitually and knowingly exploiting a bugged feature or mechanic to achieve an unintended and unfair advantage
- Low Pop Exploitation: do not exploit times of low population to rob or break into high-value or protected locations (keeps, churches, vaults, government buildings, stores, etc.) when those locations cannot reasonably be guarded (No owner is available).

Standard Character Standards Apply

Your character must be unquestionably adult. They may not look, sound or be underage.
Your character must fit the setting. Avoid resembling a modern individual, either in appearance, speech, behavior, morality, or beliefs.
You should not be a reference to a meme, joke, or modern sub-culture. You should not be pulled directly from pop culture.
You should not break the fourth wall, i.e. use in-character means to portray out-of-character sentiments.
Your descriptors and general flavor text should be written in a tasteful way and should not include elements that cannot be seen such as backstory, preferences, and internal thoughts.
The artwork of your character's portrait should be relatively tasteful. While it can be risqué, avoid being too much.
If you are using someone else's artwork, they reserve the right to request it to be taken down.
Avoid making characters that significantly clash with the aesthetic of the setting. We are flexible, but we have limits.

Admin Discretion is King

Our rules are meant to be interpretive. Instead of having specific rules for everything, much is left to administrative discretion. Admins can take action against players who degrade the server quality, even beyond specific rule violations. Those who are deemed boring or unfit for the server will be removed after discussion by staff.

Players must respect the setting and contribute to immersion. Staff may guide you on staying within the setting’s boundaries. Staff also reserves the right to remove anyone engaging in malicious behavior, such as griefing or metagrudging.

The Rule of Interesting

The Rule of Interesting is the expectation that you act in ways that give others something fun, meaningful, or dramatic to play off of over quick and boring resolutions. One should be focused on creating engaging and dynamic narratives. Instead of focusing solely on winning or immediate resolution, players are encouraged to build compelling stories and character interactions with motives that justify their action.

Outside of rules in regards to player conduct and requirements, this is the most important rule when it comes to dictating the flow of the game and it often takes precedence.

What's the Point?

The point is not to win, rather it is to make an interesting story. Even in the most grimdark servers, they say: "Murders - Often, this is the easiest and quickest way to resolve a conflict - and therefore very boring. Don't breed boredom, or you'll die from it yourself."

Avoid Quick Fixes Whenever Possible: Instead of resolving conflicts through swift actions like execution or violence without roleplay, players should seek opportunities to add depth to their interactions whenever it's allowed by their circumstances. For example, a knight should explore the motivations and background of a captured intruder, rather than resorting immediately to execution. After all, what if there is a mastermind behind all this?

Earn Your Quick Fix: Killing should be narratively earned; senseless killing, or offering a thin ultimatum, i.e. "do or die", which is immediately acted upon, does not make a satisfying narrative by itself. This holds particularly true for enforcing a clearly impossible ultimatum.

Be Engaging with Others: People should feel like they're able to interact back in a scene, unless a position of authority needs the room. You should not be spamming mechanics outside of combat. Furthermore, you should actually interact with what happens to you, i.e. not ignoring pain or what's happening around you.

Be Proportional: Mechanics must be proportional to the weight of the situation. Ex: Amputating every limb off over the slightest of slights is not proportional nor interesting.

Be a Good Loser: Most importantly, be prepared to lose. The rule does not exist to protect you from consequences, i.e. death, punishment, etc. If you do everything in your power just to win and only that, you are not interesting. Furthermore, making a big fuss and reporting a player every time you die is neither interesting nor fun. You will be removed if it becomes disruptive.

Examples:

A Beggar disrespecting the Nobility should be met with proportional violence: a beating, public humiliation, or tongue removal, not the amputation of their limbs.

A Kingsman should explore the motivations of a captured intruder, not immediately resort to execution.

If you are too busy to interact with a prisoner, allow another individual who is available to take over handling the prisoner.

An antagonist should focus on causing distress, chaos, and disorder, not mindlessly kill everyone they see.

Discretion: Sometimes, you will regrettably die ICly in mundane and uninteresting ways. It may be unavoidable due to the nature of the game. Not everyone will die an awesome death.

Practical Applications

Note: This list is not comprehensive, but seeks to give examples of the most popular issues to ensure consistent enforcement.

Roleplay First

This server prioritizes roleplay above all else. Your behavior in each round should clearly reflect that your primary goal is to roleplay. You should be hesitant to dish out the quickest and easiest, therefore most boring, solution in a round if possible, i.e. murder. After all, this is not a team deathmatch server. If you do not engage in roleplay, you will be removed.

Conversely, this server is not a chatroom experience either. Conflict, consequences, and action are all core parts of roleplay. Death can be part of the story, and players are expected to accept character death when it occurs. Consequences are what give roleplay weight and meaning.

On Engagements

There are no rigid rules governing engagements. When no prior context exists, you should generally attempt to roleplay and establish it first. However, some situations reasonably require no prior interaction due to existing context. For example, silently rushing someone who has repeatedly evaded you may be appropriate if done within a reasonable timeframe of one another. Likewise, if a Duke openly declares an assault on a rebel village, battle may occur without additional roleplay. An assassin looking to take out an important leader-type figure like the Duke may do so, given prior context or roleplay.

Ultimately, if your intent to roleplay is clear, and your behavior in the round and your history support that, you will be given the benefit of the doubt. However, abuse of this trust will be met with severe punishment. We expect players to operate in good faith towards one another in order to support roleplay on the server. For instance, type-baiting is forbidden for this reason. You are not allowed to initiate typing and then use that to lure the others into a false of security to attack.

On Yielding

Yielding should generally be respected if possible. However, it is not always reasonable or possible to do so. For instance, taking the lich as a prisoner may not be of interest whatsoever. If you betray the trust of your captor once by trying to escape, it may not make sense for them to respect your attempts to yield a second time. Other times, it may just not be practical, but players should not abuse this.

The same applies in reverse: players should not abuse yielding. If someone respects your yield and spares you but is suddenly interrupted, rejoining the fight when another player engages them in the same fight is frowned upon.

If you refuse to yield or surrender when given the opportunity, do not expect administrative intervention if you get killed, unless some other rule-break happens. Your actions have consequences.

On Avoiding Unnecessary Intrusion

Unlike our initial hands-off approach to roleplay, Ratwood now aims to provide an immersive experience that prioritizes player enjoyment while preserving player freedom. That freedom, however, will no longer come at the expense of others’ enjoyment. While erotic interactions between characters may occur, please respect those scenes unless intervention is clearly justified for the plot, especially when they are not disruptive or noisy.

This applies to non-consensual scenes as well, especially if they are not loud or disruptive enough to demand intervention. Unlike its early days, Ratwood requires respect for players’ OOC preferences at all times, rather than only upon entry. In the past, IC intervention was strongly encouraged, but that is no longer necessary. More often than not, we’ve seen this used as an excuse to frag or behave poorly OOC. For example, characters may “rescue” prisoners by killing a dungeoneer, only to abandon the victims in their cell while heading out to later beat a woman's face to a pulp for insulting them. These so-called white knights are typically interested in fragging, not in genuinely playing virtuous characters, and often creates a poorer roleplaying experience for everyone.

To intervene, you should do so if you need to move the plot along, such as rescuing the princess or having to fetch the knight captain, so it enables the creation of new roleplaying opportunities, and you're able to justify it with good roleplay and are able to provide both parties with roleplaying opportunities. Furthermore, you should have a proven personal connection to the victim, i.e. factional loyalty, bodyguard, and so forth. This restraint makes it more meaningful when someone does rise to the occasion in a way that fits the setting and strengthens the narrative, and it should feel special, not ubiquitous. Ultimately, this exists not to remove consequences for the involved parties, but to ensure that roleplay for everyone involved is sustained or enhanced, rather than merely removed.

A common example is pillory sentences: engaging roleplay often gets shut down by “white-knighting,” leaving the punished player with nothing to do and turning the sentence into a waste of time. Doing so breaks the setting, i.e. intervening on the behalf of a criminal that one should not care about, especially one that's being punished with public humiliation (that is what the pillory is for), and violates the Rule of Interesting by removing, rather than adding, meaningful play.

On Boring Mechanics Spam

Spamming mechanics, especially for torture, is boring. Repeatedly twisting limbs on someone already incapacitated shows a lack of creativity. If you're only spamming mechanics and can't roleplay or engage otherwise, you're dull and will be removed from the server. Focus on creating interaction through dialogue and emotes, allowing the other person to respond and engage.

On Ignoring Everything

Don't act like an SS13 player or a rock—be engaging. Ignoring pain or torture (e.g., shrugging it off) is fail RP and should result in your in-game death, unless your character has a class trait resembling that.

Asking the most revered character for a heal while casually showing no sign of distress is boring. Furthermore, unless you're a zealot, Templar, or tough warrior like a Veteran or Barbarian, don't act fearless with no regard for your life.

Might Makes Responsibility

Higher Levels of Responsibility

If you are playing a more powerful position or if you are in a winning position, i.e. you are a knight that has cornered an intruder with a group of guards in the keep. You are expected to take the route of being more interesting and to enhance the plotline if they have yielded and nothing prevents you from roleplaying with them further.

Leverage your influence. If you're a high-ranking character, such as a knight or leader, you have the responsibility to shape the narrative actively. Your actions should drive the plot forward and offer something interesting to the week.

This applies to anyone in such a position, as you assume responsibility for continuing the plotline. Indeed, executions may be necessary for the plot point, or at least removing individuals that are uncooperative for further roleplay. However, if someone is willing to roleplay and cooperate with the plotline, give them the opportunity to do so.

Moreover, removing another player’s agency makes you responsible for their experience until it is restored. Do not, for example, simply throw a criminal into a cell and forget them. Be creative, or allow someone else to take over their care. If you lack the time or availability, delegate the task to someone who does.

Examples

A tyrant that executes brutally with great roleplay can be an excellent way to introduce drama and conflict to the story, but wordlessly throwing people into the vulf pit does not make a good and fun antagonist.
A Duke that decides to execute a prisoner instead of handing them off to a willing dungeoneer or trusted member of the court or retinue is not interesting.
A bandit that wordlessly assaults and kills passer-bys, particularly unarmed civilians, is not interesting. One that corners their victim and makes clear threats and demands makes for a good story, even if it ends in bloodshed.
An antagonist like a wretch or bandit that kills a prisoner for knowing their way into camp, even if said prisoner is being cooperative and has someone, i.e. a fellow antag, willing to be responsible for them, is not interesting.

Metagroup Regulation

A metagroup is a group of players entering a round with a shared dynamic or gimmick in mind.

Examples that have once existed include Gronn Hordes, Grenzelhoftian Mercenary Company, or Slavers in the Bog.

These groups typically plan their general actions in advance with their members. While metagroups are allowed, certain precautions apply:

Inclusivity: Metagroups should not be exclusive based on friendship; anyone meeting their criteria must be allowed to join, given quality minimums are met to ensure metagroups behave.
Cooperation with admins: Groups must work with administration on any issues related to their metagroup.
Round engagement: Members must actively participate in the round and avoid isolating themselves.
Factional Limitation: If they join a faction like the Keep, no members can join any other factions. They are also strictly limited to that faction. Furthermore, if the group exists outside of a faction, no members may join the round as a member of a faction like the Keep. IC duties to their faction always take priority.
Antagonist interactions: Metagroups must not assist antagonists without very good IC reasoning. Extra hands from a metagroup can make members partly responsible for any ducal-wide slaughter that may happen. Abuse of this may ban metagroup cooperation with antagonists altogether.

Failure to meet minimum standards will result in disciplinary actions. More may be added as needed. It is up to the metagroup to keep themselves up to date.

Miscellaneous Rules

Other Rules

There is no enforced continuity between rounds; players may choose whether an event is canon to their character’s arc. However, it is not your place to publicly proclaim others’ crimes from previous rounds. This does not prevent your character from feeling negatively about them, especially if a character is notorious.
You may steal from a SSD or AFK player if they have been disconnected for an extended period of time, but do not murder or kidnap them without cause, nor engage them in ERP unless explicitly permitted by the player.
You may not violate OOC preferences in regards to erotic roleplay.
Bestiality is not allowed. This pertains to any four-legged, non-fantasy animal, regardless of how sentient or feral it is. However, this does not pertain to andromorphs, i.e. other humanoid playable races, werewolves, nor clearly fictional monsters that possess intelligence comparable to sentient beings such as dragons.
The game allows mature themes and content that some may find disturbing. Players may disconnect if they encounter content that causes emotional and/or mental distress. However, if you frequently disconnect under this rule, you should report the issue to the administration team. Do not abuse this rule to avoid consequences.