General Rules

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Important note

The following page is a number of rules we’ve set in place to organize a player-friendly environment on our server. This is due to the fact that we have a huge number of individuals from different countries, backgrounds, time zones, gender, and ethnicities all with their very unique backgrounds, experiences, and views on our world and the hobby of roleplaying in specific.

 

Please take a few moments to read through the following rules as they’re applicable for everyone whitelisted on the server (this includes owners and staff members). If you feel that people in your direct surroundings are not compliant to these rules please open a HELP ticket with the Ticketbot in our Old Guard Discord and report the issue. We’ll then come back to you as soon as possible.

 

If you have questions or concerns, either open a ticket or ask in the #questions channel where your fellow community members and staff (when available) can respond. 

 

((Last updated:  4.25.2024))

The Rules are subject to change at any time

Strike & Ban Appeals

Strikes: May be appealed after a month

Bans: May be appealed after a full season is over and a new one begins. Even if there is a mid-season wipe, any banned players must wait until a new season begins.

Example: If we are on season 3 and we need to do a mid-wipe to go into 3.5 a strike can be appealed at this time. Any banned player will need to wait until the beginning of season 4.

Both strikes and bans can be appealed on a case-by-case basis.

Community Rules

Rules that organize our daily community experience

Rule 1

Be Respectful: Old Guard is a community that is built to be inclusive and fun, centered around immersive roleplay. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, and all other forms of the -isms and -phobias will not be tolerated here. This includes trolling, griefing, and other toxic behavior. Treat others how you would want to be treated. Remember that there’s another person behind the keyboard or mic.

Rule 2

NSFW and Risky Content: This includes, but is not limited to NSFW content in any but the designated channels, anything that violates Discord’s TOS, posts regarding real-world politics, or any harmful links. We are an 18+ community but if you’re in doubt that what you’re posting crosses the line, then do not post it.

Rule 3

Common Courtesy: Do not discriminate, berate, or act condescending to your fellow story writers. Never assume a player’s consent. Be sure to check their profile sheet or ask before performing profound roleplay. Regardless of one’s consent sheet, a player always has the right to FTB a scene.

Rule 4

Zero Tolerance on Harassment: Harassment, derogatory comments based on race, sexual orientation, or gender will not be tolerated in the slightest. Do not target people. Do not solicit other servers through Old Guard’s Discord. Harassment will result in an immediate ban.

Rule 5

Staff Private DMs and Pings: Players will not direct or private message Staff about server status, ticket status, lore questions, or questions about the server. The community must open the appropriate ticket or thread for these questions. Do not ping staff members in public channels unless they request you to do so; follow-up pings within tickets are acceptable. Excessive pings in public or private channels will result in disciplinary action.

Rule 6

Private Discords: Staff does not and will not enforce Old Guard’s rules and policies in private Discords. The limits of our powers stop at the Old Guard server, website, and Old Guard’s Discord.

Rule 7

Meta Gaming: We are all excited to share our stories with our friends, however, there are points at which this becomes hazardous to both the immersion and the flow of the story.  It is in these instances staff is compelled to administrate the situation.

Examples of “Metagaming” include but are not limited to, the following:

  • Using OOC knowledge for IC gain
  • Using Acquired knowledge from Alternate characters on a rerolled character
  • Posting information about other characters in public view
  • Pulling information about ongoing story plots off a Wiki and passing it around ICly as if you’d learned it

Discord mirroring (Character name as profile) is optional though not expressly recommended.

Rule 8

Follow Roleplay Conventions: Do not emote doing something to another character without allowing them a chance to affect the narrative.

I.E: “John throws a spear at Sarah, impaling her through the shoulder.” This would be an example of how not to write an emote because it takes away Sarah’s agency.

The better way to write it would be: “John throws his spear towards Sarah, aiming for her shoulder.” This emote is an attempt; it shows an impending action about to happen and allows for Sarah to write a response, finalizing the action.

Rule 9

You are In-Character at ALL Times: The only two exceptions to this rule are when you are returning to your body after being downed in PvP and while you are in the spawn room. All other actions are IC. If you are jumping around naked or are on a material run or within the hub for whatever reason, that is all IC action. We do not have an OOC tag for this reason.

Rule 10

Warps and Travel: We use warps to save on travel time or for quickly finding roleplay. However, you may not warp after a raid declaration if you are the raiding party or the defending party and you may not camp warp sites for any reason. You may not pull your bracelet to teleport around the map to a bedroll or bed. Any found bedrolls/beds will be deleted. If you are a repeat offender, staff will bring you into a ticket to discuss abusing this mechanic.

Rule 11

No Streaming: We may make exceptions for this during Staff ran public world events, but overall do not stream while playing on our server due to the adult content and to respect fellow players’ privacy.

Rule 12

No Drama: Do not bring past drama from any other servers with you into Old Guard’s Discord or server. Be an adult and try to move past old wounds and slights.

Rule 13

Whitelisting: All players must open a whitelist ticket before their character can be played past the spawn room. If you are found to be in the world and interacting with other characters without finishing the whitelist application, you will be subjected to a strike or season ban.

Rule 14

No Underage Characters: Do not play a character under 18 years of age, or with child-like tendencies (Regardless of when your race reaches maturity/adulthood). You will be banned instantly. The staff has the right to “Age Check” any community member for the safety of the community and its player base.

Rule 15

Pregnancy: Pregnancy is not permitted on the Old Guard server. If pregnancy is to occur, it must start and be completed while that character is shelved.

Rule 16

No Exploits: This includes pulling bracelets or using warps to avoid roleplay, exploiting Pippijack tables, improper use of flight, etc. This includes the use of auto-clickers to avoid the AFK timer in-game. You are to report exploits when found. Please report any found exploits in the form of a Help ticket. If you are found to have discovered a bug, but did not report it and instead made use of it, and if you are discovered you will receive a strike and/or ban.

Queue Skipping:  We can detect who uses this exploit to skip the queue.
-If it’s found players are doing this, it will result in a 24-hour
ban + 1 strike with no prior warnings being given.
-If it continues, you will then receive a 3-day ban with a second Strike given.
-On the third offense, you will be put on an official 7-day ban until you can appeal.
-If there are any further instances thereafter, you will be banned until next season and can appeal at that time.

Rule 17

No Rules Lawyering: As a player, do not take matters into your own hands and attempt to moderate a situation. If there is a disagreement on the rules, contact staff through a ticket. Constant rules-lawyering will result in an appropriate punishment. Staff have the final say in all ruling, and the rules as stated are subject to change at any time.

Rule 18

No Suicides: No Suicides, assisted or otherwise.

Rule 19

LFRP:  You are not to use a wrongly advertised LFRP to purposely lure people to an ambush or otherwise to do them harm. If you do, you will be reprimanded for bad faith.  State precisely the type of Roleplay you are presenting the tag for.

Tags to use: 

Conflict RP – This lets others know the danger.

Story RP – Looking to build relations.

Adventure RP – A wandering, quest-type RP.

Casual RP – Tavern going etc.

 

Disclaimers.  Having an LFRP tag on does not mean only the type you are looking for can interact with you.  If you have found yourself in a scene, and one requests the LFRP tag to be removed, you must comply.

Rule 20

Catch-All Rule: It is impossible to encompass every situation in this ruleset. If a situation does not have a policy and it is clear that the actions are creating a toxic environment for players and staff, staff will address it on a case-by-case basis. Staff will meet to discuss the issue and provide a solution that will be brought to the player(s) in question in a transparent manner explaining why and how things were and will be handled.

Rule 21

Stealth and Eavesdropping:

  • When trying to remain unseen or eavesdrop on a conversation, you must use the “Enter Stealth” Ability in RPR. This places the “Stealth” status over your head. You can only to attempt to hide if you are reasonably hidden. If you’re standing in a well-lit area in the line of sight of others, you cannot attempt to stealth. Those who can see your stealth tag may then use the “Detect Stealth” Ability to determine if they notice you or not. Detect stealth does not require line of sight, as it might pertain to sound, smell, etc.
  • If you’re identified by someone’s “Detect Stealth” roll you may re-enter stealth using “Enter Stealth“, but the person who noticed you is aware you are there. You may roll an insight check against the detector’s deception skill if you want to notice the fact that you’ve been spotted. If you are called out or wish to come out of hiding, use “Exit Stealth” to indicate you are no longer stealthing.
  • You may only eavesdrop if it is reasonable to do so. You cannot listen in through solid walls. If players are inside a fully-enclosed structure you cannot stealth outside and hear the roleplaying going inside of a said fully-enclosed structure.
  • If you are shapeshifted as an animal, you must also wear the ‘Animal Form’ Status from the Shift-R Bio menu. If you are also attempting to stealth, you must follow the same procedure described above

Hub Rules

The rules below are applied to any hub. (Novadomus and Gloomwrought, as of 1.10.2024. The Market serves as a temp Hub only when there is not another surface hub available, and otherwise isn’t protected)

 

No ERP: We DO NOT allow ERP in hubs. There are personal homes for a reason. ERP in this context includes the wearing of kink apparel or walking around undressed, or engaging in any other similarly erotic activity. If players are caught ERPing in the hubs, all involved will get a strike.

 

No Followers: No mounts, pets, or thralls within the hubs. Mounts are far too large to be brought into the hubs and can be left outside of the main hubs and market away from the warp location. As far as pets and thralls are concerned, Conan tends to bug out and reset the “attack nothing” setting. If the thrall or pet is to attack a player, they have full permission to kill it and you will not be compensated. It is best to leave them at your base.

 

Notice Boards: Ensure that you post on the proper board (Advertisement, Job/Bounty, Notice). You may change the author name to an act name, so long as you are not impersonating another character

 

No aggressive species of shapeshifting (bear, tiger, wolf, etc.) is allowed in the hubs: Think of it this way, you are out grocery shopping and suddenly see a tiger. You would not turn a blind eye to this predator animal. Non-aggressive species (fox, house cat, raven, etc.) may be in the hubs.

The only form of PvP allowed in the surface hub is skirmish: Refer to PvP rules, Rule 9 for the definition of skirmish cons.

AFFLICTED CHARACTERS may con, but are NOT protected by the city and it’s guards. This reflects the aversion against afflicted character’s by the game world while making the characters choose better hunting grounds.

NPC Trader Rules

To travel to the Market, take a caravan to Market of Shaundakul. The Market will contain profession NPCs and collection points for doing your profession, as well as player-placed trader NPCs that can be stocked to buy and sell.

To receive your 2 Tot! Trader NPCs, have someone from your clan open a whitelist using the following format

Clan Registerer Character Name / Discord Name:
Clan Name:

When you place one down and hold E then select the green bottle for Configure trader You will get the following menu

  1. This is where you define what currency your trader will accept. It can be ANY item. Will other players buy from you using Silver Pieces, or maybe a profession material you need? This is up to you. A TRADER CAN ONLY TRADE IN 1 TYPE OF CURRENCY. THIS IS WHY 2 TRADERS ARE GIVEN
  2. This is where you control how much is sold, and for how much. In this screenshot, I am selling 1 Mineral Oil (Stack value defines the quntity) for 1 conan gold coin (Sell value defines the price).
  3. This is your merchants inventory. You must fill this with the items you wish to sell in order for your merchant to sell it. When a player buys from your merchant, the currency will be placed in here for you to empty out later.
  4. This is your inventory. Drag things over to the merchants inventory to stock your merchant

Be sure to dress your Trader, and do not set them to any constantly-moving emote

    Building Rules

    Can we do it…?

    Any player with a base found to be in violation of these rules will be contacted in a ticket with clear instructions on what needs to change as well as a deadline by which the changes must be completed. This deadline will take into account the player’s availability. If the changes aren’t made by the deadline, the build will be subject to deletion without further warning or reimbursement for lost materials.

    If you’re not sure if your base violates these rules or not, open a help ticket! The staff will be happy to review your build or concept and let you know. 

    Build Audits: Individual player audits and clan build are performed every two weeks. If a player has been inactive for 2 weeks their character in-game will be deleted; their whitelist will be preserved, but their character (inventory, RPR sheet, etc). If an entire clan is inactive for 2 weeks, the clan’s build will be wiped. 

    LOA: If you are going to be gone longer than 2 weeks, please open a help ticket and fill out the LOA ticket form so we do not delete you during audit!

    Rule 1

    Players are allowed one permanent base: No building tiles or placeables may be placed outside of a clan’s main build area. The exception is temporary camps documented with the below process. If you’re not sure if an area counts as being a part of your main build, open a ticket and we will happily review!

    Temporary camps for RP purposes are permitted with a supporting help ticket, and may remain for 24 hours from the time the ticket was opened.

    Rule 2

    Do not block access to resources, major caves, dungeons, bosses, recipes, major thralling locations, or POIs: Explicit staff approval is required to build inside any major cave. No builds are allowed in instanced dungeons.

    Rule 3

    Do not build on unreachable terrain: Your base must be reachable on foot without climbing, whether by natural terrain or by the addition of stairs/ramps. Elevators do not count for this purpose, but bases on islands reachable only by swimming are allowed so long as the swim is able to be done without drowning.

    Rule 4

    Foundations:  Foundations should only be used as the base for structures and to level terrain where necessary No more than three (3) foundations high.  They should not be used as walls.  Nor should they be singularly placed along the terrain as territory placeholders.  DO NOT place foundations along the land to claim said land for yourself. 

    Rule 5

    Buildings must be RP friendly: Player bases should appear architecturally sound, appropriate for the culture they represent, and functional for the region they’re found in. No comically tall towers without adequate support, giant cubes, or sandstone in the frozen north. Player placed NPCs cannot bear the name or likeness to previously played player characters – whitelisted, shelved, or retired.

    Rule 6

    Do not use building exploits: Undermeshing, honeycombing, unreachable floating bases, spamming temperature placeables, and any other building techniques, tricks, or glitches used for the purpose of gaining a mechanical advantage are not permitted.

    Rule 7

    Sister clans are not permitted: Creating a new clan to circumvent the clan cap is not permitted. Each clan must have distinct leadership and possess its own building location and facilities.

    Rule 8

    Clan Bases: Clan Builds can not be within 80 tiles of one another. This is to prevent lag. You can use RPR’s (Shift+R) Tile Tracker tool to measure distances.

    Rule 9

    All players must be in a clan, even If they are solo:  You must open a clan before joining the RP with other people and may leave it anytime if you join another one. All pets, mounts, and thralls must have the clan name on them. Example: Horse (clan name).

    Building Limits

    Clan Size (players) Building Pieces Placeable Allowance Thrall/Mount Limit
    1 500 150 2
    2 – 3 800 250 4
    4 – 6 1500 450 7
    7 – 9 2600 850 10
    10 – 12 3200 1000 13

    Note: Thespians count against a clan’s placeable limit, not their thrall limit. Please remember that the animals running around town count in the thrall/mount limit.

    Specific Restrictions

    Item Limit per Clan
    Animal Pens (all varieties) 1
    Wheel of pain (all varieties) 1
    Preservation boxes (all varieties) 2
    All placeable trees 10
    Religious Altars 2
    Horse Stables 1
    Fish traps/Bee hives 0
    Mining Stations 0

    Note: There are merchants in the hub who sell fish and honey.

    Building Extensions

    It is possible for a clan to extend its tile and placeable allotment in two ways:

    Purchase a building extension for 20 in-game gold pieces (The currency earned through your professions). This extends both the tile and placeable allowance by 200 each. Enter a help ticket to purchase this extension. These extensions stay with the clan, not the individuals.

    Support the server by becoming a donor and redeem your rewards by entering a ticket; tile and placeable extension amounts vary by donor package. See Donations for more info.

    The building extension and donor package allotment increase stack with one another, but a clan may only benefit from one of each per season.

    Robbery Rules

    Relax… I take it from here

    To enact Theft RP OR breaking and entering, breaking and entering, there are some phases you must go through.
    Only the player lockpicking or breaching may enter through the door they are breaking into. If you wish for more than one person to enter a building, a raid should be declared. 

    YOU MUST OPEN A DM TICKET AND LEAVE POI’S WHEN BREAKING IN.
    A screenshot of your inventory BEFORE and AFTER stealing must be placed in the ticket along with the screenshot of POI’s, Rolls, and emotes to go with the rolls.
    EVEN IF NOT STEALING ANYTHING, A POI FOR THE BREAK-IN MUST BE LEFT.

    (Our server has the offline raiding/lockpicking turned off.  Meaning, if you wished to break into someone’s house, and they’re offline, you won’t be getting far.) 

    Stealth

    Unless the thief is breaking in via kicking the door in, a stealth check must be done. This will determine the number of clues left behind in a note, for the subsequent ‘investigation’ RP, should the target you are robbing wish to partake in a pursuit. It is also required that one is done when trying to steal while the target is home/present in the area.

    Limitations to Theft

    The thief may take up to 2 weapons and 1 piece of armor (or, 2 pieces of armor and 1 weapon).
    One group of the following may additionally be taken, so long as the items stolen do not make the thief over-encumbered: 250 building materials, a total of 5 profession-based items (Poison, Repair kits/Weapon Fittings), 3 gems, or 1 health potion.

    Once you hit over 99%, you are encumbered and cannot take any more. (It does not matter whether you go to an encumbrance build or not. 99% weight is the limit.)

      Pillaging & Theft

      As a heavy consequence, you may steal one of the following: Up to 3 physical items, 50 Silver, a single magic item, or a potion.
      If you wish to steal the latter two, you declare ” Potion” or ” Magic item” and search for those things, If not declared, they can not be taken.

      Your character must succeed on a successful investigation check, exceeding the creation DC of the magical item or potion in order to steal it.  Based on your investigation, you will be given a list of items that your roll exceeds. If you fail this check, you may not steal anything else. Gear, Racial, or Class items are not able to be taken or pillaged.

      Pickpocketing

      Only available to the rogue class and its subclasses. Pickpocketing is a Sleight of Hand roll vs. a target’s Perception roll. If locked as a tie, then the perception roll will beat the SoH roll. You may take up to 1d12+3 Silver off a player, or 1 physical item weighing under 1 lb. Gear, Racial, or Class items are not able to be taken nor anything worn by the player. You should whisper to the person what kind of item you are looking for (IE, a gem, a ring, food, a vial) and allow the victim to provide you with the item. You may only pickpocket up to 5 people a day, with a 3-day cooldown to rob the same person again.

        Documentation

        A DM ticket must be opened following your successful break-in

        A screenshot of the Stealth Roll, Break in, and Lockpicking rolls (Both for door and Chest) plus their partnered emotes, including their timestamps. As well as, a screenshot of the items taken from their box and into your inventory, displaying the encumbrance value of the thief too.

        Please note:  If you’re simply breaking a door down, and do not steal anything, you will still need to place a POI to say that door was broken into, but nothing was taken. You will also need to roll for leaving clues and post that roll on the POI.

        Additionally, a POI mark must be left describing what you have done, what clues were left behind, and the stealth roll you did so others know the clues left were equal to what number you received. IE. foot/hoof prints, fabrics, or a stench should your character have such, and how you entered/broke into the doors/chests.

        To keep people from overtaking, the screenshot of the items must be done within the inventory of the chest – displaying what has been transferred and the state of the chest before. Should it come into question if more items have been taken, these images should be able to protect you and clarify the situation. 

        Break in/Theft Form:

        Thief Discord name:
        Thief Character Name
        :
        Target Clan
        :
        Stolen Items
        :
        Date of Theft
        :

        Step-by-Step Process

        These should all be included in the thievery ticket.

         

        1. Screenshot of your location on the map so that the clan can be identiified (Or list the clan name if you know who it is) 
        2. Emote that you are lockpicking or breaching the door. After you have emoted, you can commence attempting to lockpick or breach the door. Screenshot all attempts.
        3. After you get the door open, roll your stealth skill in-game. This would decide how the scene would look when found.  Place the first POI explaining this and the stealth roll you made at the bottom. Include POI in a screenshot.
        4.  Emote lockpicking the chest and continue with your attempts.  ANY attempts at lockpicking must have a POI placed down to show it was tampered with in some way.  Screenshot all attempts.
        5. Screenshot your inventory and the chest inventory before removing items.
        6. Screenshot your inventory and the chest inventory after you have removed the items you are stealing.
        7. Leave a POI marker ANYWHERE you have tampered with, corresponding with your dice roll. Screenshot the POIs.

        Example of clues

        Once again, this is stealth roll done in-game. 

        7 or below = You have left quite the scene. Leaving footprints/hoofprints, articles of your clothing, perhaps blood – or some form of a tell-tale sign of you being there – tying you to the crime.
        8-13 = You’ve left your footprints/hoofprints, and some bits of strands of fabric – something that will allow people to have some inclination to what the thief was wearing.
        14-18 = You have only left your tracks.
        19+ = You’ve left nothing but some indications the door was picked open. You are a specter of a thief. An absolute mastermind to the craft, or perhaps you got lucky. Only an extremely skilled tracker will be able to track you down.

        Lock-Out Phase

        Upon a successful heist, the thief cannot rob said target again for 3-5 OOC days, depending on the severity of the theft. Cooldowns will be determined by staff within the thievery ticket.

        If you are caught in the act of stealing within someone’s home and PVP is initiated, you DO NOT count as the defender. You are on ‘Their’ property stealing ‘Their’ things and it is them doing self-defense. You may either fight, surrender or flee.

        Support Us

        Old Guard is a free to play server with no pay to win mechanics. If you like to support our ongoing effort to get better, please consider donate to our cause. Click here to learn more!