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1) No multiplaying. 
2) Always remain In Character. 
3) No out of character harassment. 
4) No cheating (bug abuse). 
5) No automated improvement.
6) No OOC abuse of the mud, or it's players, or it's immortals.

Any instruction given by an immortal is to be considered a rule, if you think the instruction is unfair, go ahead and report it, but obey it in the meantime. Please see relevant helpfiles for more information (multiplaying, ic, harassment, cheating, automated, and alternate), ignorance is not an excuse. 

RP Rules[]

RP Rule 3[]

There is only one RP Rule, don't metagame. Metagaming is defined as doing things other than RPing your char in order to exert undue and unfair influence over the RP environment. Metagaming can be further broken up into the following catagories, but there are some instances not covered.

1. No authoring NPCs.
It gives people an unfair amount of RP power if they can write the RP for any number of NPCs. This can be anything from RPing have an NPC cast spells for your events, to RPing having some NPC nemesis. This is permissible as long as the NPC does not play an in anyway important role. See the NPC exceptions section to the right.
2. No authoring or referencing show characters.
Really a subset of 1, but much more important, for obvious reasons we can't have half a dozen people deciding what show characters did or didn't do. You are free to reference anything that actually happened in the show, just not the unwritten areas.
3. Do not RP any significant ability, event, or accomplishment that you do not have some kind of real code support for. See explanation to the right.
4. Do not RP something as different to how it is shown in the show, for instance healing spells being able to miraculously fix injuries etc. See the Evil Characters policy section below as well.
5. Do not significantly involve one of your alts in the RP of another.
6. Don't use reroll to bring back characters, you can apply to have old pfiles restored, also never bring back a character who died through code, ie RKed.

It is against the rules to RP some significant ability without the coded support for it.
Clearly if there is a code way to do it, doing it without having the coded way is immensely abusive, like RPing being a doctor without having the job. Or RPing being invisible without having the invisibility spell. If there isn't a straight way for you to do it, but there are still things you could do to either do it, or come close to doing it, you're still expected to do that. Like getting the doctor job to RP being a psychiatrist, or using events and other RP tools to simulate other big RP that you want to be going on. If there is some code way to do it, or approximate it, you are always expected to do that. If there really isn't absolutely any thing you can do to approximate it, then it's only permissible if it's not a very significant ability, event, or accomplishment. While we understand the desire for creativity, it's just unfair for people to RP having these great, game changing abilities when they haven't done anything to earn them. This also applies to events and accomplishments, you can not RP having defeated some demon or saved some person or any such thing without having really done something for it, like an event etc. Obviously your character can lie about having such abilities and accomplishments.

NPC Exceptions[]

There are two exceptions to the no authoring NPC rules, they are:

1. It does not give any OOC/IC benefit to your character, this is often tricky as many things may have benefits you haven't thought of for instance something might be bad for your char but good cause you like your char to suffer.
2. It is something that could otherwise be done without NPCs, which is tricky, because even the use of an artefact to bring about evil that isn't personified credits an NPC, simply because someone had to create, activate, and place the artifact at some point.

In essence the rule in there to prevent people being able to give themselves greater power than they actually have, or stop people being able to do things and not have them attributable to their characters, as well as stop problems with enemies and important characters that nobody else can get at cause you made up.

Policies[]

Automation[]

This is improving your character while not at the screen, through the use of triggers or other similar things. You can use any client features you wish as long as you are actually AT the computer, if an immortal sends you a tell and you do not respond within a minute or two, you will be penalized.


Cheating[]

Cheating on Buffymud is seen to be the unintended use or abuse of a function of the mud to the unwarranted benefit of your character. All cheating whether done intentionally or not will incur a punishment such as deletion of the character involved, or in repeated cases the sitebanning of the cheater.


Evil Characters[]

This is a subset of rp rule 4, that is not rping things different to how it is on the show. Like it or not to prevent large moral ambiguities the show fairly conclusively made it so that vampires and other soulless entities were purely evil and unredeemable.


Particularly the lack of a soul seems to cause a type of sociopathy, wherein the person cannot feel guilt or any kind of moral restraint, they would happily rip out a person's jugular just to move up a position in a line at the DMV, and generally consider the DMV to be a government provided buffet anyway.


If you are going to play a soulless character you have a responsibility to the mud and the rp environment to do it in a way congruent with how it is presented in the show, that is, you're a bad guy. If you're incapable of playing a bad guy, reroll, if you wish to have your bad guy want to go good, want a soul, you must ask permission, we believe this has only occurred once in the past millennia or so, so it's very unlikely to actually happen ICly.


Evil characters are the most important for rp, but they're also often the most difficult, playing someone completely devoid of morality is often much harder than just playing someone of a different race, gender, or with different speaking patterns, again I'd suggest if you're not up to the challenge, you not attempt it.


Signs that you’re rping evil correctly are that you are generally hated, a mob is forming to kill you, or you’re constantly under some sort of attack, either verbal or physical. If you haven’t experienced these, then you're likely not.


How can you know if your evil char is actually bad, well ask yourself this do the good guys want to kill or imprison you? If the answer is no, then you're likely not, there are of course exceptions, some good guys won't try to kill/stop evil chars they're friends with, either cause they're bad RPers or are playing a morally weak character. Also some might want to kill you for personal reasons, or you could be playing a sneaky char but in that case you can just ask yourself, if they actually knew what I was doing would they wanna kill/imprison me?


While I'm aware that most people come here to play the concepts they want to play, remember this is a community, you have an obligation to the other players who want to play in a buffy world, also the immortals are always happy to talk things through with you if you think any of your concepts or RP might be a bit iffy.


Ideas[]

It's policy on buffymud to read and consider every idea posted, but that's all we can promise to do. Inevitably some ideas, even good ones, won't get implemented, either because they have technical problems, like affecting class balance, or because they are too difficult to implement. Just because something isn't implemented doesn't mean we're not interested in hearing your ideas.


In Character[]

Buffymud is an enforced IC environment with a number of exceptions.

1. The newbie channel is always OOC.

2. All interaction with immortals are OOC

3. Aid, question, mtalk, newbie channels are OOC but are strictly for the purposes of questioning and aiding other players, no other use of these channels will be tolerated (Chatting, exchanging AIM details, etc).

4. It is illegal to in anyway facilitate out of game chatter, that includes exchaning IM details, emails, chat sites etc, if you've been RPing with someone for a significant period of time you may apply to the imms to be allowed to exchange IM details etc.

5. It is illegal to discuss IC things in an OOC way, that includes discussing RP plots, explaining your character, explaining your character's actions, complimenting or insulting other people's RP, complaining about IC things, asking people to RP with you, organizing RP, asking about IC things, as well as all other IC/RP things.

An enforced IC environment means that excluding the above exceptions all interactions with other players and the BuffyMud world are to be In Character, you must behave as your character would in this world.


Immortals[]

The Immortals on Buffymud have fairly free reign. Their governing rule is that they should not interfere with the game in such a way as to preference any particular player in a tangible way. What that means is that an immortal can do things like take on a guise to RP with people, or talk on chat, etc... But they can't change someone's stats, fiddle with circles, etc... I'm sure you get the idea. The only exception is they're allowed to reward people with a bit of exp for participating in quests and the like. If you think an Immortal is breaking these rules, see help policy reports.


Immortals will generally try to help with anything that doesn't affect the game tangibly, like restringing people's accents, eyes, and circle names. As long as what you're asking isn't going to make you more powerful, or be unfair in any way, we'll try to accommodate you. Immortals are allowed to, and do from time to time have mortal alts. I do request that all immortals keep their alts secret. There are two reasons for this. Firstly: The immortal in question is likely going to want to be able to play the game, like a normal player, without people treating them differently. The second reason is that many players would react differently if they knew a character was an immortal. It's unfair to other circles, for example, if everyone is joining the circle of an Immortal's alt just because they know that that person is an immortal and they want to earn the immortal's favor or just bask in reflected glory. It's unfair to a player who won't want to PK someone, out of fear of immortal retribution. Because there is, and will always be players who can't seperate an player's mortal identity from their immortal one, known immortal alts hurt the game. Immortals who do play morts aren't given any special privileges. They are expected to level up, RP, and earn everything they get the same as everyone else.


Merit[]

I know there are a lot of muds out there, and even a lot of RP muds, every one has to work out how they want to handle things, with Buffymud I wanted to try a system
that I hadn't really seen before on an RP mud, a system in which code and RP intermingled and a system in which IC accomplishments were based on merit. In most RP muds, the decision of what can or will happen to a character is based on permissions, having played and staffed on these muds I always found it to be a pretty poor system, one that rewards people for nagging others OOCly and RPing poorly, ie never allowing things to happen to them. Most RP muds also seemed to encourage OOC cliques, groups of friends who'd arrange for RP to happen, and work out ahead of time what was going to happen, and the consequences etc. I never liked this, I envisioned a mud in which it wouldn't matter who you did or didn't know OOCly, where it wouldn't matter if you sucked up to the immortals, where you could log on, and without any OOC mucking about, just play, just experience the life of your character completely ICly. But most of all, I wanted a mud in which how cool your character was, their power, and accomplishments were not based on how cool the player chose to make their character, but rather on a system of merit.


No measurement of merit will ever be perfect, even assuming you can agree on what should be measured, anybody who's been through high school will know the trauma of studying really hard for a test, just to have it not ask any of the questions you studied for. This system rewards people for Rping, making friends/allies ICly, running plots, forming/joining circles, engaging in PK, levelling, and clever/tactical use of code. The reason we wanted levelling to be a factor over just like emote count, is people enjoy RPing, they don't enjoy levelling, so levelling involves an actual sacrifice of time in order to gain power. So if you assume some evil guy is running an apocalypse, and the good guys wish to stop him, the code would firstly reward someone who runs a counter, which involves some level of creativity, social factors, and then pk survivability in the last act which includes just about everything, from money, allies, minions, lackeys, level to tactical skills. If nobody runs a counter, then the person who stops it would be the one who overcomes the pk survivability of the one running it, involving all the above factors. In this way the person who saves the world, is determined by merit.


While you may disagree with the systems used to determine merit, or even what is given merit, the fact still remains that all players have as close as possible as equal opportunity and the one who triumphs will almost always be the one who tries harder, not just in that instance, but overall to attain the things to make instances like that easier. Doing something like authoring an NPC villain, disturbs this balance, they're not physically existent, so nobody can hurt them, or stop their plans, unless you as author let them. Thus the system is no longer based on merit, but now on what you think should happen. There is a reason our system for resolving conflict does at no point involve the judgement of the immortals on what is good or bad RP, such things are in our opinion, an absolutely horrid measure, as they're always very biased and subjective. You can be sure if we don't think when we're not even involved that we can be perfectly fair, that we definitely don't think that you can be fair when it's involving your character and your RP.


RP rules are in place to ensure that this game remains a merit based game, and while of course you can argue for the emphasis of merit being put on different things, or the systems to measure it being altered, it will always be a merit based game, and will never become a permissions based one. If you really want to be able to play a mud in which you are in complete control of what happens to your character, and have the freedom to RP being/doing whoever you want, this will never be that place. What it does offer, is hopefully a refuge for people who get sick of others making up stories about beating up the devil in their lunch hour and having to go along with it, and for people who want to play in an RP environment that's realistic and fair.


Multiplaying[]

Multiplaying is the logging in of two or more characters by one person, this is not only illegal but the use of one character to benefit another will also incur a cheating penalty, meaning that if you multiplay to cheat your characters, you'll incur a double penalty which will possibly lead to your permanent removal from the mud.

The only exception to this rule, if you have an immortal granted rp char, you can play that char and your main char as long as you do not use them to aid each other in any way.


Permdeath[]

Buffymud does feature a permdeath system. You can learn more about it by looking at help showdowns. Living on a hellmouth is absurdly dangerous. The mortality rate in Sunnydale is very high, and many of the show's main characters did in fact die. It was important when creating a Buffy game to include this possibility of permanent death. As with PK, our descision is guided by trying to deliver as authentic a Buffy experience as possible. Enemies should be able to attempt to kill one another, just like they should be afraid for themselves, and for their friends. Since the PK penalty here is quite small, it also helps people play the game a bit more responsibly, as it gives players a way to deal with poor roleplayers.


For these reasons a permdeath system will always be in place on Buffymud, though we may vary how it works to try to achieve the right balance. Right now, the system relies on players. Showdowning is very difficult and dangerous, but only if players take the opportunity to try to kill people who are generating showdowns. If no one tries to stop them, then it becomes a fairly easy endevour. Even characters who are many times more powerful than anyone else on the mud are vulnerable when generating showdowns.


People don't like losing their characters, and who would? What's important to understand is that permkill isn't about making the game better for any one person, it's about making the game better for everyone. Permkill opens up new RP opportunities and creates a dangerous atmosphere for Buffymud.


Yes, occasionally your character may die, but that is merely the price you pay for living on a Hellmouth. If you think your char is getting RKed a grossly disproportionate amount, maybe you need to find out why that is. While permkill can never be perfectly fair, there are about 20 voluntary rerolls to every one successful showdown. Additionally, it is far more common for the person who initiates a showdown to die from that showdown than it is for the target to die from it.


Player Killing[]

PK, or player killing, has developed quite a bad rep in online games, with the view often being that it's just a way for bigger people to harass smaller people for their own sadistic giggles. While this can be true, PK on Buffymud, like everything else, is IC, and is primarily supposed to be used as a RP tool.


If you're a fairly normal, goodie type slayer, your job is to stop evil. Most of the evil in the game is being perpetrated by soulless players. They patrol the streets, killing innocent people. It's quite simply bad RP for you to ignore that just because you know OOC that they're a player. A world in which vampires and slayers give companionable nods to each other between killing their prospective targets is simply not the world of Buffy. While some people may choose to play pacifists and cowards, you need to figure out why your character would kill dozens of demons and vampires every night, and then completely ignore those that are players. Some players may have valid IC reasons, but most don't. I try to make pk code as unobtrusive as possible, with variable injury timers, or even the ability to just incapacitate your opponent and leave, for those of you who really don't want to annoy people. But you have to remember at all times that this mud is set in the Buffyverse, and in the Buffyverse, slayers kill vampires, and vampires kill humans.


Players are largely responsible for whether or not this feels like a Buffymud or just another gothic mud with vampires. It's up to you to give the vampires something to fear, to make them more careful in their hunts. It's up to you to stop them ending the world, just like it's up to the evil players to stop the slayers, and run their evil schemes. PK is a tool we give you to carry out the IC actions of your characters. PK is not the enemy of good RP, it's a tool of good RP.


Say you're might be out on a date, and you get jumped by a vampire who trashes your plans. You might say "Hey! That PK nut just ruined my RP!" In response, I'd say go watch 'never kill a boy on the first date.' If Buffy is about anything, it's about the supernatural world screwing up your attempts to have a normal life. And furthermore, it hasn't ruined your RP, it's just changed your rp. Your characters best laid plans will often go awry, just like in the show or real life. It's up to you to take that new development and roleplay the consequences. Often RP going awry leads to a much better, more interesting plot than you never would have though of.


Possession[]

Possession is a special subset of RP Rule one, refering to people playing two characters at once coinhabiting the same body. Generally speaking this is illegal, for the reasons that it conveys much of the same unfair advantages as playing alts together or authoring NPCs.

When it's ok:

  • If the possession is long term and complete, if someone is taken over by a demon or being and is just that demon or being and not who they used to be, and will be that demon or being for the forseeable future, ie at least a few weeks without change from one to the other at all. Then it's just really a character change and therefore fine. This means you can't be one with the occational 'glimpse' of the other showing through or anything similar, you are entirely one or the other.
  • When the posessing force is non sentient. If you are possessed by a spirit or force that might make you a little darker, or more animalistic or even lighter but has no real thoughts of it's own, this is fine.
  • When the minds merge, similar to above in that there is only one resultant mind, even though it might have memories of both or be something differnet to either one it is just one mind.
  • When it is the product of psychological forces, ie your character is legitimately and mundanely insane. They again aren't actually two people but just one with a psychological defect that presents as different personalities.


Reports[]

Sometimes, you'll want to report something on buffymud, be it cheating, abuse, or just some behaviour you don't like. It's policy for the Immortals to investigate whenever there is a report of cheating or abuse. Immortals will then do one of two things:

1. Uncover the cheater and prosecute.
2. Uncover that there was no cheating and explain to the plaintiff.

Unfortunately, it is also possible that the Immortal will suspect cheating but be unable to prove it for certain. It's policy on Buffymud not to prosecute a player without positive proof. If you make a report and don't hear back for more than a week or so, feel free to nag us and we'll let you know what's going on with it. That said, here are some simple rules you should follow to make things run smoothly.

  • Be polite, simple, and to the point. Don't rant or threaten or make snide comments.
  • Stick to the issue. I can't count the number of four paragraph posts I've read that could have been one sentence. I don't care about anything other than the ACTUAL issue.
  • Don't assume anything. If you think an immortal is helping their alt, you should post about it, but don't say 'this person is helping their alt,' because if it turns out that they're not alts, it hurts your case. Just stick to 'this imm helped this char.'
  • Do not ever let someone know they've been reported, or post your report publicly. We can't prosecute someone based on nothing but another player's word. So if someone is abusing bugs, multiplaying, or botting, and you tell us, then tell them you've told us, they're very likely to stop before we can investigate and catch the offense.
  • Don't confuse people and issues. If someone is ruining your game by repeatedly pking you, they're not the problem, the system that allows someone to legally ruin your game is the problem. And it's the system you should be complaining about, feel free to use the player to illustrate your problem, but unless they're breaking rules, or abusing bugs or some such, a complaint about them is not going to be given much merit.


Theme[]

The theme of Buffymud, as you might have guessed, is the Buffyverse. Every piece of code that goes into the game is intended to contribute to an authentic Buffy experience. We don't try to be the most popular mud, or even the best mud, just the Buffyist mud. To do that we utilize a combination of RP and coded features. Generally things that are coded are those which are bad for your character. If we didn't have permadeath and PK, you could never defeat someone unless they let you, and that would cause problems. So we decided to let the outcome of battles and anything else that a player might not want to have happen to them, be determined by code. This keeps people who are overly attached to their characters or are bad RP'ers from ruining everyone else's fun.


PK exists because combat and conflict are integral parts of the buffy world, and anything that claims to resemble that world should also include a large element of conflict. Sunnydale is on top of a Hellmouth, making it the premier site for the battle between good and evil for the fate of the whole world. Without conflict, Sunnydale just wouldn't be, well, Sunnydale.


Some people believe that PK is the natural enemy of RP. We believe and that a good combination of RP and PK can be greater than the sum of its parts. We think some things work better as code, and some work better as RP, so we try to give you the best of both worlds, but the most important thing to keep in mind is RP makes PK better and vice versa. Without PK, Buffymud is just a chat room, and without RP it's just hack and slash.


For example, the RP of the game is usually what will give you a reason to engage in PK, because of something was done to your character or because of who your character is. This elevates PK from simple sport, and into an expression of your character. On the other side, being PKed, or PKing others, leads to RP in the form of vengeance, injuries, planning, or whatever.


So when you're on Buffymud, don't expect an 'RP Mud,' and don't expect a 'PK Mud,' because we're not really either of those. Before anything else, we're a 'Buffy Mud.'

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