Darkstone Player Charter

This document is intended for use by Darkstone's player base as a guidebook for behavior within the game, Legends of the Darkstone. Staff will have final say over what constitutes a violation of these rules. Darkstone Enterprises reserves the right to change its policies at any time. Repeated Violations of any rules of conduct set forth in the terms of agreement can result in the deletion of your characters and possible banning from the game.

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When playing on Darkstone, we ask that you respect the rights of other players and allow them to enjoy the game, just as you would like to. Basic guidelines are listed that all players are expected to follow, and are enforced by the Staff.

1. The Staff is always prepared to give fair and equal treatment to each player. If there is any suspected or reported abuse of the game, or the players of Darkstone by others who play, the team will investigate fully, and do what we believe to be in the best interests of every player. Different violations can result in punishment, or deleting of the character at fault, and possible banning from the game itself. Any player that is punished in any way will be told the reason at the time of punishment, or the punishment will be carried out if the player cannot be contacted.

2. No player is allowed to use any form of communication in such a way that it is unlawful or that would restrict another player from the use and enjoyment of the game.

3. All players agree to use the Darkstone services only for lawful purposes. Below is a list of unacceptable conduct which is a set list of rules to follow when using the game. We reserve the right restrict conduct that may be deemed unacceptable by either the Magistrates or the Staff.

4. All players are expected to follow any instructions given to them by the Magistrates or Immortals without hesitation. Failure to comply with any instruction given to you can be taken as a violation of these rules, and action will be taken if needed to punish those who do not follow the given instructions.

5. In all situations, the rule of common sense applies. If you would not want something done to you, do not do it to someone else.

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1. Do not harass, threaten, or embarrass any other player in any way that would cause distress, unwanted attention to that player, or discomfort in any way. Darkstone does not in any way approve of or allow harassment in any form, and a player can be punished severely for violation of this rule. No comments toward race, religion, ethnicity, origin, gender, lifestyle, or any other affiliation will be tolerated.

2. Do not post any sexually explicit notes, or use different forms of communication to direct other players to look at such images of offensive material, as well as anything illegal.

3. Do not organize or participate in any Clan/guild/order that is based on the race, religion, ethnicity, origin, gender, lifestyle, or any other discriminative group.

4. Do not impersonate any person. This includes portraying your character as a member of the Staff. This includes making names that are similar to ones already used by other players.

5. Do not engage in any form of disruptive behavior, such as any conduct that will interfere in the normal flow of gameplay, and do not use the game to make solicitations, advertise, or make commercial postings. This includes chain letters, or marketing schemes.

6. Do not violate any operating rule or guideline of any other service through the use of the game. This means to follow the guidelines of your chosen internet provider as well as respect our guidelines when playing.

7. Do not attempt to modify any files that you have not been asked or allowed to modify.

8. Do not abuse or exploit any bugs, undocumented features, errors or problems you may find while playing. Players are expected to report any bug found as soon as possibly to improve gameplay, so no permanent damage can be caused.

9. Do not ever attempt to hack the game or any other players account at ANY time. This is highly punishable, and will result in the balzhuring of your character and possible banning from the game. Also, restrain from using any macro or automated programs to play the game for you, this can spam the mud and cause lag that prevents others from enjoying the game. Please note that in all cases, multiplaying is prohibited.

10. Do not take any part of the areas of Darkstone for use of a personal or public use, as all areas and files found on Darkstone legally belong to the owners of the game and/or their respective authors, and such theft can lead to deletion of your account, and possible legal action.

11. Do not engage in any behavior that is contrary to the 'spirit of the game' or any action that would ruin the roleplaying aspect of the game in any way.

16. You may NOT cross-clan spy. This means you are not allowed to have characters in different clans (usually used for the purpose of spying on opposing players). This includes characters on different accounts. However, we will not discourage two groups from cooperating with each other against a third. While we want all opposing groups to wage war against each other, there are times when a little cooperation is appropriate. Temporary alliances in this manner are not a violation of our rules.

12. Never attempt to use more than one character at any time. This includes characters on the same account, or a separate account. No player is allowed to use more than one character at once at any given time. This offense is known as 'multiplaying'. Attempting this can lead to your characters being suspended for an amount of time, and repeated offenses will result in the deletion of your account, or accounts if you use multiples.

13. "Roleplaying" is not an excuse for violating any policy. Out of character considerations always have priority over roleplaying.

14. When you create your character, please make sure the name you choose is appropriate to the game. Darkstone is a medieval environment, and we only want names that will go along with the theme of the game. Try to be original when you pick a name. We do not allow use of common names, names from books, or well known words. If we find that your name is not suitable, we will approach you and ask you to pick a new one, and change it for you. Only repeated offense of this is punishable, so, do not make characters with an inappropriate name on purpose. Any vulgar or obscene name, however, may be grounds for immediate disciplinary action.

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On Darkstone, our goal is to build a strong community that offers a comfortable atmosphere for all of our players. This means seeing that players have the ability to combat antisocial behavior.
Some tools created to achieve this purpose include the "Ignore Player" option and the obscenity filter. We have an option to block, or ignore, certain players permanently is they repeatedly use offensive language. Simply type ignore (person’s name) and you will no longer see any comments made by that player.

What is considered harassment?
Harassment consists of flagrant misuse and abuse of game mechanics with the intention of distressing and offending other players. So what's a game mechanic? Game mechanics allow players to interact with the world and each other. Rambles, tells, say, osay, or any other channel consists as game mechanics. Use of game mechanics is by no means considered harassment in and of itself. The key to determining whether the mechanic is being misused or abused is to determine "intent". What was the person trying to achieve through their actions? Were they purposefully trying to disrupt someone else's game? While an action may cause others distress, it is not considered harassment until it is determined by the Staff that it was done to intentionally cause distress or to offend other players. The notion of 'intent' is key to the handling of any case.

Also considered as harassment is any behavior that is incessant, inescapable, derogatory and directed specifically at you or your group. An important point to note regarding this type of harassment is that a genuine attempt to alleviate the situation must have been made. This could be an attempt to leave the area or the offending player, or simply the act of asking them politely to stop. If a sincere attempt has been made to solve the problem and the offending player persists in the harassing behavior, it can be considered harassment, and should be reported. For more information, see "How do I report harassment?" below.

Harassment includes the (ab)use of otherwise normal game mechanics, such as playerkilling with the intention of OOC harm (chain-killing.)

Behavior that is always considered harassment includes derogatory and/or hateful comments that are sexual, racist, religious, or related to gender or creed. Darkstone has a zero tolerance policy towards harassment of this kind, and violation of the above can result in immediate and permanent account suspension on the first offense.

Note that terms such as race, sexual, religious, etc. apply to the "real-life" versions. In-game racial discriminating role-play (e.g. between Dwarves and Trolls) is perfectly acceptable and even encouraged. Common sense dictates when racial or other slurs cross the boundary between good-spirited roleplay and OOC insults directed at the player personally. In all cases however, avoid using "real-life" swear words; our playerbase is diverse in age and background, so we ask that you avoid potential offense this could cause.

So what happens when I report harassment?
1. When harassment is reported it is investigated as quickly as possible.

2. We will observe the reported harassing behavior, and determine whether the harassment report is valid.

4. If the harassment is valid, we will take appropriate disciplinary action against the policy violator.

What are the penalties for harassment?
Darkstone condemns all forms of harassment, and this type of disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. Harassment is a severe offense in the eyes of the Staff, and a clear violation of the Rules of Conduct.

A judgment of valid harassment can result in penalties placed on the harassing party up to and including immediate account closure, based on the severity of harassment and the player's past account history.

How do I report harassment?
Please report harassment by contacting a Staff member as soon as possible. Try to keep a log of the offenses that we look at to take the best course of action.

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Player organizations are an integral part of Darkstone. In order to ensure the longevity of any organization, we must make sure that each has a leader with the authority to make critical changes in guild structure and guild setup. We assume that if a leader is absent for more than 3 weeks, that s/he has abandoned the group (for whatever reason). At this point we will auto-promote a new guild leader from within the guild. The system works as follows:

1. If we see that there are no active leaders for a period of two weeks, then we send an e-mail to the missing leader(s). This e-mail informs them that if they do not log in within the next week, they will forfeit their position as leader and someone else will be promoted to fill the position.

2. If no leader character is logged in for a period of three weeks, then we will automatically demote the old leader to Number 1, and promote a new leader from within the ranks of the guild. The system will promote the next active (logged in within the last week) highest ranked character. If there is more than one character of that next highest rank, then the character with the most played time within that rank will be promoted.

3. The old leader will be sent an e-mail explaining the actions that were taken.

4. The new leader will be send an e-mail explaining the actions that were taken.

5. Once these changes are made, the new leader is in command of the guild, and the changes will not be reversed for any reason.

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Items will not be reimbursed for any reason except one. If you lose an item due to a game anomaly or verified bug, we will investigate the issue, and determine if we can reimburse in each instance. Only an Immortal can reimburse items, and only after proper and thorough investigation by the Staff.

Please note that frivolous requests or attempts to retrieve items you never had or lost legitimately will not be taken lightly, as it requires significant effort to determine what caused an item to be lost.

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Character restoration is only permissible in two cases:
1) Advanced warning is given to the Staff of a known prolonged absence. The Staff will do as much as possible to ensure that the equipment is safe-guarded, but in the unfortunate event of a crash or other such problem the equipment will not be restored.

2) Case by case basis: In the cases of autodeletes or moments of silliness and self-deleting, players must petition the immortals with an EMAIL to the immortal mailing list, including a list of the reasons that the gods would bother to care about a mortals silly worries about their life; for example, the character's importance to the Realms in RP and what "stories" they have created for the lands, the explanation for the OOC absence, and an IC explanation, story, for the absence.

Note that in the latter case, it is very likely that you will lose almost all or all of your items. This is meant to make you think long and hard before deleting; we don't want players deleting and coming back on whims.

***These are the ONLY options. If your character is deleted, do not contact immortals via tells or other means to try to get a restore. Email the immortal list with your explanation. If you know you will be gone for some time, contact an immortal to make sure things are saved properly.***

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All account security is the sole responsibility of the player. This includes hacking protection, password protection, virus protection, and anything else that has to do with computer or account security. If you believe that your account security has been compromised, please contact a Magistrate or Immortal, and we will do everything that we can to help you recover security on your account. This includes helping to change passwords, and offering basic suggestions for improving your account security.

If an account has been stolen, hacked, or in any other way compromised, we will investigate fully, and do whatever we can. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause, and we will complete the investigation in as timely a manner as possible. Once a thorough investigation has been performed, we will determine the appropriate course of action.

Once our investigation is complete, if we find someone who is involved with hacking or theft of accounts, they will have all of their accounts banned.

- pick a good password. Good passwords mix upper and lower case letters, with numbers or punctuation marks. Avoid picking an easy to guess password, such as your name, email address, character name, etc.

- do not share your account. While you may trust your friends, every time your password leaves you, you lose a degree of control.

- keep your email secure. Since passwords can be emailed to your account, you need to keep it secure as well. The password tips apply. You should also be careful who reads your email.

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Darkstone discourages the use or sale of your account, characters or even items to another player.

This is a free game, and we highly discourage any involvement of real money to purchase things in the game. Making a profit off of somebody's free work is rude, and we reserve the right to take action if we consider it necessary.

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The following is a list of the things you can expect from us when dealing with any case presented to us:

1. Any problem can be reported directly to any Staff member, or posted in the appropriate Forum section. The Darkstone Forums can be found here.

2. You will get a timely response to your question or concern, based upon when the case was filed and how many cases are before yours. Under normal circumstances you should not have to wait longer than a couple of days before receiving a response. You will not receive a response to "How Do I" types of issues; these should be directed to the Forum.

4. We will make every attempt not to interfere with you or the game, unless absolutely necessary in the performance of our duties.

6. Any incident that could be construed as a violation of our policies will be investigated fully, with the benefit of the doubt being given to the player, prior to action being taken.

7. All disciplinary action will be resolved as quickly as possible, and will be based on the severity of the violation, the situation in which the violation occurred, and account history.

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It is Darkstone’s intent to provide a game that everyone can enjoy without the intrusion of the Staff. However, there are times when issues arise that violate the Player Policy or Code of Conduct. When this happens, the Staff will investigate each incident fully, ensuring that we are fair and equitable in our dealings with everyone involved. Depending on the severity of the violation and the players' past history, we may take the following actions after investigation.

1. We may do nothing at all. If we find that there was no violation, we will let everyone involved know that we found none, and remove ourselves from the situation so that the players can continue gameplay.

2. We may give the offending player a warning about their actions. Only Staff members may do this. If this happens we will mark their account with the warning and any details. The player will be told what happened, why it happened and what exactly it means.

3. We may suspend the players account for some amount of time. Only Staff members may do this. This is intended to be a "time-out" period that allows the player to think about their actions and cool down. If this happens we will mark their account with a suspension and any details. The player will be told exactly what happened, why it happened and what exactly it means before this is done, unless we are unable to contact that player, at which time they can email the immortals at Darkstone-imms@betterbox.net, and ask for an explanation. Suspension time can be anywhere from an hour or two to weeks, depending on the severity of the offense and account history.

5. We may destroy (balzhur) the character, or even the account permanently. Any such action must be approved by senior Staff. If this happens we will delete the character, or the account and all characters on the account. We will attempt to tell the player of this before action is taken, and if contact cannot be made, you can send an email to us to ask why.

If you find any problems with this, or any other page, please do not hesitate to contact us,