Rules of the realm

You applied, you were read by a person, and you swore the oath. Everything below is what that oath means in practice.

We play a living town in Kuttenberg in 1403. Your character is a person with a past, fears and something to lose, not an avatar for winning.

Other players are people first. Their enjoyment of a scene matters as much as yours. If you are unsure whether you are going too far, you probably are.

The spirit of a rule beats its wording. Looking for a loophole is itself a breach.

Staff rulings are final in the moment. Argue them afterwards, in a report or an appeal (section 7), never in the scene or in public chat.

Not knowing a rule is no defence. You accepted these rules when you swore the oath, and you are expected to re-read them when they change.

Names fit the period and the place: Czech, German, Hungarian and other names a Bohemian would plausibly bear in 1403. No jokes, no brands, no modern names, no titles of nobility you have not earned in play.

Dress and gear stay in period. Use the clothing the game provides, and do not mix modern or fantasy looks into your character.

Adults only. Characters are at least 16 years old, and nothing in a scene may involve the sexual abuse of anyone, ever.

No famous historical persons and no characters from the single-player story. You may be their servant, their rumour or their rival; you may not be them.

One life. A character who dies a permanent death (a character kill, CK) is finished. Do not play them again, and do not use what they knew.

A new character after a CK is a new person: a new name, a new look and a clean memory (see 3.9). Family ties to your old character need staff approval.

Character kills must be approved. Nobody CKs another character on their own authority. The proposer opens a report (7.2) with the scene's story, the staff review it, and both players are heard.

A CK is approved only when the story built to it, the victim's player had real chances to avoid it, and it was proportionate. Staff may approve a CK of your own character if you ask for a dignified end.

Permanent injuries and maimings follow the same rule as a CK: agree it with the player, or ask staff.

You may hold a limited number of characters on one account as the staff allow. They never share money, items, houses or knowledge.

Stay in character whenever other players can see or hear you. Modern talk, game talk and mod jokes stay out of the story.

Out-of-character (OOC) talk goes in the OOC channel or on Discord, kept short, and only when it must be said. Do not mix it into in-character speech.

Value your life (fear RP). Treat a blade at your throat, a crossbow or a gang of armed riders as the end of your story. Do not fight what you cannot win, do not run at armed men, and do not treat injury as an inconvenience.

Do not powergame. Do not force outcomes on others ("you are tied up and cannot move"), claim abilities you cannot show, or ignore a result because you dislike it. Give other players room to answer.

Do not metagame. What you learned outside the story (Discord, streams, the map, another character, the player list) is not what your character knows.

Cross-character knowledge. Whatever one of your characters learned stays with that character. Do not tell your friends your alt's secrets.

Do not abuse game mechanics for advantage: bunny-hopping or jump-spamming in a fight, animation cancelling, climbing onto roofs to be unreachable, sprinting through doors to dodge a scene, dropping items to skip a search, and the like.

Do not use bugs. Report them (7.1). Using a bug in play to gain an edge is cheating (5.1).

After a CK, forget everything. A new character does not know the old one's grudges, loot, hiding places or killers.

Combat logging is forbidden. Leaving, crashing on purpose, or alt-tabbing out to dodge an arrest, a robbery, a fight or its consequences is a punishable offence. If you really crash, rejoin and say so to the staff.

Do not break a scene's tension to be funny or to "win". If a scene is not working, step out politely (3.2) and let it end.

No fail RP: do not behave in ways that make no sense for the setting, such as ignoring a guard, trusting strangers with your life savings, or shrugging off a plague.

Initiation. Before you attack, rob or kidnap, a scene must begin: demands, a threat, a challenge, or a clear, visible reason. The other player must have a chance to respond in character.

No random killing and no killing on sight. Every death needs a story reason you could explain to staff in two sentences.

Robbery has limits. You may take what a character carries on them when a robbery is properly initiated. You may not take everything, strip someone repeatedly, or rob the same player again within a day (in-game or real, whichever is longer) without a new story reason.

Hostages and ransom. A hostage must be taken through a proper scene, may be held for at most one hour of real time without a story development, must be treated as a person, and must be ransomed or released in character. Do not hold someone for no reason.

The law. Kuttenberg has a town guard and a magistrate. Crime may be reported, investigated and punished in play. Do not murder guards without a plan and a reason that would survive staff review.

Arrest and punishment in play must be reasonable: fines, a stay in the cells, the stocks, forced service. Do not impose permanent harm without agreement (2.9).

Court scenes. When a case goes before the magistrate, everyone stays in character, tells the truth about what their character saw, and accepts a reasoned verdict in play.

Safe places. Do not start fights, robberies or kidnappings inside churches, during weddings, funerals or markets, or in a character's own home unless the scene truly requires it and staff are told.

No revenge cycles. After a conflict is resolved, do not hunt a player across several sessions for it. A new reason is a new scene.

Do not drag other players into a fight they have no part in. Passers-by are not combatants unless they choose to be.

Banditry is a game for everyone, not just you. If your victims are leaving the realm, you are playing it wrong.

No exploits and no duplication. Any technique that creates items, coin, XP or quality from nothing is cheating. Report it at once (7.1); using it is a ban-level offence.

No real-money trading. Never buy, sell or trade goods, coin, characters, ranks or access for money, gift cards or services outside the game.

Guild conduct. Guilds are communities. Treat apprentices fairly, do not sell guild secrets out of character, and do not use rank to bully.

Fair prices. Prices are for players to set, but gouging the desperate or crashing the market through endless dumping is not the story we are here to tell. Staff may step in on abuse.

Scamming in character is allowed when it is a story: false promises, bad goods, a dishonest broker. It must stay in the scene, and your victim must be able to learn of it in play.

Scamming out of character is not allowed: promises to pay real money, false claims about staff, tricking someone into using an exploit or giving away their account.

Maker's marks are earned. Do not pass off another maker's work, or use tools to forge a mark.

Do not hoard to starve the realm. Cornering a necessary good to wreck other players' crafting is not allowed.

Stations and shops belong to everyone who needs them. Do not block benches or anvils to deny others.

Voice and chat in the world are in character. Keep your voice at the volume your character would use, and do not talk over scenes.

No slurs, hate speech or harassment, in character or out of it. Period-accurate hardship is a story; contemporary cruelty aimed at real people is abuse.

No threats, doxxing, stalking or pursuing someone beyond the game. We act on what we see on Discord and elsewhere, too.

Streaming and recording are welcome. Streamers must delay their stream by at least two minutes if they play in public, and must never use a stream to find, follow or ambush another player.

Do not share private evidence, application text or staff messages publicly.

Keep arguments out of the scene. If a ruling seems wrong, write to the staff afterwards.

Report rule breaks, bugs and exploits to staff on Discord, with names, the time, and a clip if you have one. Do not take justice into your own hands.

Reports are handled in the order they come in. Expect an answer, not an apology. For a CK request (2.7), include the story so far.

Follow staff instructions in the moment and appeal afterwards. A staff member can ask you to stop a scene, step out, or leave.

Appeals go to a different staff member than the one who issued the punishment. Write to staff within 14 days with what happened and why you disagree.

Staff are bound by the same rules and cannot use powers to benefit their own characters. If one does, report it to an admin.

Applications that are denied can be re-submitted after 14 days. Lying on an application is grounds for removal.

Staff may skip steps for severe breaches, and may add or remove in-game consequences (item loss, a character reset) with a written reason. Every punishment can be appealed (7.4).