ROLEPLAY GUIDELINES

In order to facilitate fun and immersive roleplay and to keep people on approximately the same page, we have created a set of Roleplay Guidelines that we ask our members to follow. This is not an intro to roleplaying. It is assumed that you know the basics.

Note: We ask that new members and guests read and understand the Overview and Etiquette sections prior to joining our community.

CONTENTS
Overview (Standards & Lore)
Etiquette (Roleplaying Expectations)
Money (Values, Costs, & Salaries)
Authority (Wealth, Influence, Nobility, & Rank)
Travel (Mounts, Ships, Portals, & Travel Time)
Health & Recovery (Injury, Healing, Disability, & Death)

OVERVIEW (Standards & Lore)

Our roleplay community relies on World of Warcraft to establish our setting. Because of this, it is important that we clearly establish two things: Power Standards and Lore Adherence.

POWER STANDARDS
Player characters and game story heroes are phenomenally powerful in World of Warcraft, nearly rising to the level of demigods in some cases. We do not roleplay characters with this level of power in our community. Your characters can still use magic and have great abilities, but we expect them to be significantly toned down from in-game power standards. We feel this is necessary to create a fair and immersive roleplaying environment and to facilitate good storytelling.

LORE ADHERENCE
We expect characters in our community to reasonably adhere to the World of Warcraft canon lore established by Blizzard. We do welcome reasonable creative interpretations and extrapolations from existing lore, and so minor deviations are usually okay, but we generally expect people to paint inside the lore lines with their characters.

ETIQUETTE (Roleplaying Expectations)

In the roleplaying community there are a handful of items that are considered proper roleplay etiquette. We require all of our members to follow these established norms for good roleplay. The things listed below are considered unacceptable behavior and should be avoided at all times.

GODMODING
Godmoding, in the broadest sense, is when you determine the outcome of a post that affects another character, especially when that outcome could be potentially unwanted or undesirable. The only time this is acceptable is when you have a preexisting understanding with the other player.

The one word that sums up this entire point is “consent”. Roleplaying is joint storytelling and a fluid negotiation of actions and reactions. You can only determine the outcomes for your own character. You cannot determine the outcomes for anyone else's character. In practical terms, good roleplay etiquette involves phrasing your actions against other characters as attempts rather than foregone conclusions.

• Bad: Zydrik balls his fist and punches Kear in the face.
• Good: Zydrik balls his fist and swings aggressively at Kear's face.

It's perfectly acceptable to try to punch another character in a roleplay scene. However, the important distinction here is that, in the good example, Kear has the option on his next post to either be punched or to block or dodge the punch somehow.

This concept can apply to a variety of actions. For example, unless you have a preexisting relationship with a character where you could assume kisses or affectionate touches would be accepted, it may be appropriate also to word those as attempts as well.

The rule of thumb here is that, if you think there's any chance the other character might want to avoid the thing you're trying to do to them, you should phrase your post as an attempt.

METAGAMING
Metagaming is when a player fails to properly distinguish between what the player knows and what his or her character knows. This is a common mistake made by new roleplayers. The important thing to remember is just because you know something as the player does not automatically mean your roleplay character has that knowledge as well.

The simplest explanation of this is your roleplay character's knowledge is limited. Your character can only know things learned through actual roleplaying or things that your character reasonably would have learned through their normal IC activities, even if they weren't actually roleplayed. This last point is an important caveat. No one is expected to roleplay out literally every single interaction they have. Many things can happen behind the scenes or off screen while still being perfectly valid IC.

BLENDING IC/OOC
While we all care about what happens to our characters, good roleplayers maintain a healthy space between what happens IC and their own personal feelings OOC. Just because your character got into a nasty fight with another character, doesn't mean you and that character's player should have any OOC animosity towards one another.

Do not confuse IC romance with OOC romance. Do not confuse IC anger with OOC anger. Just because certain feelings exist in the IC or OOC space, does not mean those feelings should necessarily cross the line into the other space (this goes both ways).

It is considered poor etiquette to become OOCly upset about something that happened that was strictly IC. Of course, misunderstandings and disappointments and disagreements can always occur, and those should be maturely handled through private discussions between the players in question.

OVERPOWERED CHARACTERS
A character's power can come in many forms. It can take the form of physical strength, magical prowess, noble titles and claims, influence among powerful social circles, personal wealth and resources, and other dimensions as well. It is considered poor etiquette to write your character being too powerful in too many dimensions. Good characters have limitations and weaknesses to go with their strengths.

If your character is a master swordsman, it's generally inappropriate for your character to also be an archmage. A good rule of thumb is you should pick one single thing where your character is an expert or master, and then maybe one or two other things that the character is pretty proficient in, but to a lesser degree than their primary focus. Your character shouldn't have a solution to every problem.

AUTHORITY (Wealth, Influence, Nobility, & Rank)

The topic of player authority is a particularly touchy subject in roleplay circles. Despite this (really, because of it), we feel it is necessary to establish some basic policies on the authority and influence of player characters.

WEALTH & RESOURCES
We feel the highest level of resources a player should possess would be on par with a moderately successful merchant family. Players with significant wealth and resources should make that a major part of their character story. If you're going to be a wealthy merchant, you've dedicated your life to that pursuit, and should therefore not also be an expert mage or swordsman.

GENTRY (Sir/Dame)
Sir and Dame are titles awarded to accomplished individuals who have served their kingdoms well and are perfectly reasonable for characters to include in their backstories. We do not recognize these titles as granting any particularly exceptional privileges or authority.

NON-LANDED Nobility (Lord/Lady)
Noble titles are awarded to families and are passed down from generation to generation, and it is not uncommon for characters to be from these noble families. As with gentry, we do not recognize these titles as granting any particularly exceptional privileges or authority.

LANDED NOBILITY (Baronet(ess), Baron(ess), Viscount(ess), Count(ess), Marquis/Marchioness)
By the nature of a medieval fantasy setting, titles of landed nobility presume a large amount of influence, power, and resources, especially the more senior titles. We welcome those claiming landed titles, but this should be a significant feature of your character and not casually assumed. Landed titles should not claim in-game locations. Please create a non-canon location for your holdings. The more senior the title being claimed, the more we will OOCly scrutinize. We would generally prefer those claiming titles of Count or Marquis have significant RP experience and history in the community.

The most senior title of Duke/Duchess is generally only recognized for those with significant community history or GMs or officers of respected and established guilds. Excepting cases of these individuals seeking to join our guild, new members will not be permitted to claim this title.

MILITARY RANKS
It is our general policy to not acknowledge individuals claiming senior military ranks unless they are a GM or officer of a respected and established guild. Typically new members joining the Gilnean Military will start at the rank of Private regardless of backstory or prior history. We may consider IC regimental transfer requests from other established and respected Alliance military guilds, potentially allowing the transferring soldier to retain some or all of their former military rank.

MONEY (Values, Costs, & Salaries)

This section is used to establish a reference for the baseline value of currency as we interpret it in our community. This lets us roleplay salaries, costs of goods, etc. in a consistent manner that players can easily relate to in a modern context. This system maintains WoW's 100:1 currency ratios.

COST OF GOODS

COMMON SALARIES

Job Examples:
Workers (Most citizens): Basic laborers, stablehands, tavern servers, servants, farmers, miners, lumberjacks, soldiers, sailors, nurses, etc.
Professionals: Merchants, mages, druids, physicians, priests, lawyers, architects, alchemists, masons, military officers, government officials, etc.

TRAVEL (Mounts, Ships, Portals, & Travel Time)

Retail WoW's in-game travel system provides tremendous OOC convenience, but also makes the world incredibly small, which does not make for compelling or realistic roleplay. We would like to lay out here our general guidelines for travel in Azeroth.

STANDARD MOUNTS
Standard racial mounts (e.g. horses and nightsabres) as well as carts and wagons should be considered readily available unless otherwise noted for certain RP settings. Stabling, feeding, and basic mount care should be considered available and provided by NPC's at any major location.

EXOTIC MOUNTS & PETS
Exotic mounts, outside of the standard racial fare, are rare. However, as part of your character's own unique story, you can include an exotic mount or pet within reason. Characters should never have in-game “named” creatures as mounts or pets. Your hunter's IC pet can't ICly be the wolf Hati (you could use the Hati model, of course, but it would have to ICly be some other animal).

FLYING MOUNTS
Flying mounts and flying machines require significant expense and upkeep, and most average people wouldn't own one. If it is specifically appropriate to your character story (e.g. a flying machine for a professional engineer character, a gryphon for a professional gryphon rider/trainer, etc.) then you may have one for your personal use. Flying mounts/machines are usually provided by the government or military as needed for official use.

PORTALS
In-game portals should not be considered available for IC travel. Portals may be used in limited circumstances, but generally require an arcane portal specialist. Even a strong portal mage exhausting all their energy for a day could only transport a couple dozen individuals with a portal. The longer the range of the portal, the longer and more energy it takes to open and the fewer people can pass through it.

Individual use, short-range, and line-of-sight portals are much easier to use and can be done on the fly with fewer restrictions, but still require the portal mage to expend significant energy and resources. We don't have strict guidelines for this, but make sure your magic is fun and immersive and not too powerful!

SHIPS
The Kingdom of Gilneas has a few military naval vessels, but also frequently contracts with private ships. If it is appropriate to your character story, you may be a ship captain with your own vessel. However, ships should not be presumed to be widely and readily available.

TRAVEL TIME
Azeroth is a large place! It takes time to get from one place to another. Here is a general guideline for travel times:

• Short Distances (e.g. Stormwind to Westbrook Garrison)
• Walking - 1 hour
• Riding - 30 minutes
• Flying - 15 minutes
• Medium Distances (e.g. Raven Hill to Darkshire, within the same zone)
• Walking - 4 hours
• Riding - 2 hours
• Flying - 1 hour
• Long Distances (zone crossing, e.g. Westbrook to Raven Hill or further)
• Walking - 12 hours per zone crossed
• Riding - 6 hours per zone crossed
• Flying - 3 hours per zone crossed
• Naval Travel
  
• Stormwind to Kul Tiras - 2 days
• Stormwind to Pandaria/Northrend - 4 days
• Stormwind to Kalimdor - 7 days
• Special Travel Times
  • Stormwind to Ironforge via Deeprum Tram - 2 hours

HEALTH & RECOVERY (Injury, Healing, Disability, & Death)

It is extremely common for our characters to get sick or injured during roleplay, but it can be difficult to know exactly how long it should take to recover. These guidelines will try to balance the fun of reasonably quick recovery times with the realism of having significant consequences to getting hurt.

INJURY & RECOVERY
You character could be injured as the result of freeform roleplay or through combat using our dice system. Either way, for injuries to feel significant, they should involve some amount of recovery time, even when magical healing is employed.

The recommended recovery times below assume you are being treated by a professional healer (with magical or alchemical treatments). If you aren't receiving professional healing, double these times.

• Minor injuries (significant cuts and bruises, etc.), recovery takes about 1-3 days.
• Major injuries (stab wounds, broken bones, etc.), recovery takes about 4-7 days.
• Grievous injuries (near death), recovery takes about 1-2 weeks.

HEALING
A note for healers: healing is not instantaneous! In the heat of battle, a healing spell or a good potion can provide someone a short-term boost of vitality and some partial stabilization of existing wounds (resulting in immediate HP recovery), but the long-term consequences of those injuries are not removed just because some HP has been recovered.

DISABILITY & DEATH
No one is ever required to permanently disable or kill their characters, no matter the circumstances. We know that many players put hundreds of hours into their characters, and a few poor dice rolls resulting in the death of that character does not necessarily make for a satisfying story.

However, we want to encourage players to be willing to expose their characters to real risk with potentially permanent consequences. This makes for interesting character progression and development. Scars and limps lead to stories of glorious battles. Consider letting your characters' injuries result in medium-term or long-term problems. It might take years for them to recover from particularly horrific injuries or illnesses, if they ever fully recover. Even the strongest magical healing cannot mend all things or restore a damaged body to perfect function.