General Rules Ignorance of Rules Willfully refusing to read the rules and policies of Shards of Dalaya is not an excuse, and you will be punished for any rule breaches regardless of ignorance. General Disclaimer We reserve the right to any time, for any reason, deny you access to Shards of Dalaya. Chain of Command When faced with an issue that needs the attention of staff, go first to a GM, not a Developer or Administrator, for help. If they feel that the issue needs the attention of a Dev/Admin, they will give you permission to contact one directly. Bugs and Exploits If you encounter or become aware of a bug within the game that can be used to your or any other players' advantage, do NOT use it. Report ALL bugs to the buglist on this webpage or by using the ingame /bug command. Third Party Programs Any third-party programs that is designed to alter the client, sniff or alter the data communication between client and server, or automate any task within the client are expressively forbidden. Log parsers are OK. Player Conduct Show proper conduct in dealing with other players. Deliberate training, killstealing, griefing, excessive vulgarity or otherwise being a prick to other players will result in severe repercussions to yourself. We try to maintain a friendly attitude and expect players to show respect to one another. Harassment Policy Any form of harassment is absolutely unacceptable on Shards of Dalaya, and we do not look kindly on sexism, racism or stalking. All players have the right to play this game without being harassed or the target of unwanted attentions. Character / Item Sales Policy You may not attempt to sell your account, items, or any other SOD data for any kind of real currency or real life items/services, nor may you attempt to trade it for in-game items, in-game favors, or essentially request any form of payment at all. Accounts that are sold or traded in this manner will be banned. You are permitted to give your account access away for free to others. Camp Policy We do not recognize camps in any shape or form. "Rights" to a mob in the eyes of the staff belongs to whoever engaged it first. There are some exceptions to this rule in 'raid' zones, please see the Policy Plaza forum for details. Multi-Client Policy No more than two clients are allowed to be played by the same person at the same time. This rule is entirely grounded in real life persons, not IPs, computers, or any other medium. Two characters at the same time per living, breathing person, whether you share IPs or not. Be aware that if you are playing more than one character at the same time they must be on separate accounts. Multiple characters from the same account being online uses up many more resources and is a jailable offense. Accounts are free - you can make as many as you want! Staff Conduct Policy The staff of Shards of Dalaya is bound by strict policies that forbid favoritism, corruption, and abusing knowledge gained as a GM to further their player characters. The fact that we maintain a clean house also means that we do not enjoy having rumors spread about GMs by people in rivaling guilds or with personal grudges. If you have a problem with a staff member, take it up in private with an Administrator, so that we can investigate and take action if your allegations turn out correct. If you have a problem with an Administrator, take it up with a Woldo or Zoie directly. On the same token any attempts to solicit staff favors in any form are dealt with harshly. This applies both to a staff members staff character and player characters. Backseat GMing Policy When you notice another player breaking the rules or naming policy, report them in private via /petition or by notifying a GM. Do not call them out publicly or start a racket in OOC over it. This only creates needless drama, especially if it turns out your interpretation of the rules was incorrect. Evasion of Punishment At no time should you attempt to evade a punishment by doing things such as creating a new forum account, or logging onto an unjailed toon to continue posting or playing respectively. Rerolling another toon after a ban is only acceptable on a case by case basis, and it must be cleared by the staff. Loaning of Characters Be aware that the actions of your character are your responsibility regardless if you are the one playing the account. If you give your characters information out and abuse results the fact that you were not the one playing the character is irrelevant. Both your character and the person who committed the abuse on your character will receive punishment. Minor Offenses Read the Jailable Offenses post to keep to date on annoying catchphrases and trends that are considered jailable offenses. Policy Plaza Refer to the Policy Plaza forum for rules clarifications, updates, and specific policies too narrow to be listed on this page. Naming Policy Titles No titles. You can't be "Lordgrey" or "Jackthegreat". Sorry. Stupid or Well-Known Names No names from well-known, popular media. You can't be Aragorn, Gandalf or Garfield. On that note, no unrealistic or completely idiotic names either. "Rogue" or "Iksar" are not acceptable names. Wordplays and Wordmeshes No wordplays. "Froak Frog" is not an acceptable name, nor is Frog or Froak by itself, but those go under idiotic names anyway. In the same avenue, no combine-word names. You can't be Rockjumper or Swordswinger or Deathdancer. These are acceptable last names, but not acceptable first names. Gibberish Go Away Your name must be something resembling a name. You can't be Xbaihjsfa, Qwwwwb or otherwise have a name with no wovels like Fgbnm or Xfds. The Linguistic Lambada Cleverly bypassing the naming policy by using a different language, spelling it differently/backwards or using an obvious anagram will not win you any sympathy points. We will still change your name when we find out. Kooky Combinations If you create a pair of characters with names that carry an obvious meaning together, or form a word play together (for example Louise and Thelma) they will be changed even if the individual names do not violate policy. This rule does not apply to simply having two similarily named characters, such as Ling and Leng or Ling and Gnil. Even Then! That "you used this name on live" does not mean it magically bypasses the policy. We will not tolerate this excuse. Use the rules here, not the non-existant name rules on EQlive. Spirit of the Law Finally, the rules above are a guideline for staffers, not an absolute set of rules, so use common sense and try to follow the spirit of the law. If you feel your name has been unjustly changed, send an email to [email protected] stating your case. Clarification For further clarifications of the naming policy, read the Naming Policy Clarification post in the Policy Plaza forum.