Rules

As a guild we have some rules that ALL members must adhere to.  Those are listed below.

  1. While we have no hard restrictions on character names, we do not accept characters with what would be considered “k3wL d00d” names or off character capitalizations.
  2. Every role playing character you join to the guild must have a background story that should include the following details:
    • Every role playing character has a place of birth, a human birth as well as their rebirth into darkness. Its important to note WHERE your character comes from and some backstory on places they have traveled.
    • WHEN the character was made; as in an their rebirth date.  Your character should have an age.  That age can be any number — you can role play an ancient vampire (which usually require more in depth character bios) or you can role play a newborn vampire.
    • A storyline about WHO made them and what type of relationship they have (or lack) with their makers.
    • A description of WHAT strengths and weaknesses (all vampires have weaknesses) that character has.
    • You will also need to write about HOW you came to be part of the Children of Darkness and what beliefs you hold in common with us and/or what believes you don’t and how your character will interact with the other characters in CoD.
  3. We allow you the freedom to enjoy your characters in OUT OF CHARACTER game play with other members of the Catskills community.  To do so we ask that you untag, untitle yourself during the OOC gameplay.  However your guild affiliation and guild title must be shown at all other times.
  4. Be respectful of character, guild, and town histories.  If you wish to write about anyone else’s character, guilds or towns, you MUST seek out permission to do and also have them approve your storylines and plots to ensure accuracy to their histories. And speaking from personal experience, even during PUBLIC events when reporting about them, you should have permission to name others or speak for them.
  5. Lores that will be used by characters tagged into CoD must be documented, with a loremaster and two lorekeepers, and be acceptable to use by any member of our guild.  Lores remain part of our guild structure only and we must find a balance between them and other lores outside of CoD that we encounter.
  6. Be honest, courteous, and respectful to other fellow players regardless of affiliation, guild, or play-style.  When engaging in theme wars, we keep to a very simple outline of rules of engagement:
    • DO NOT GO OOC – RP PvP engagements must be done IN CHARACTER at all times.
    • DO NOT ATTACK WITHOUT WARNING – This means, be sure you ROLE PLAY your intentions to attack and they confirm.
    • DO NOT KILL AFK’ERS – If they cannot confirm your intentions, they are considered AFK; do not engage.
    • DO NOT LOOT – Ever, do not even look in a body.
    • DO NO RESS KILL – In fact, you should offer a resurrection if you can.
    • DO NOT RE-ENGAGE A KILLED PLAYER – You should wait a minimum of 1 hour for the player to regroup.
    • DO NOT RE-ENGAGE AFTER BEING KILLED – You are required to wear your death robes over your armor after you recollect for 30 mins. However, for large scale battles between groups, once you are dead there is absolutely NO RE-ENGAGEMENT allowed, not on ANY of the players characters. Use this time to role play injuries or other befitting conditions.
    • DO NOT “TURN SOMEONE A VAMPIRE” – Your role play must not turn someone into a vampire without previous consent from the player.
  7. No member of CoD can flag as a MURDERER without a story or plot associated with the “in character” action that should be pre-cleared with the leaders. “Going Red” without prior clearance will cause an immediate trial and possible excommunication from our coven.  Accidental mishaps, well we all have those… we are afterall vampires.  Just know that whomever you may sink your fangs into, may bring you up on charges… which are then role played into trials.
  8. Arrests and captures must adhere to the following rules:
    • To ARREST any character (be it CoD, its related guilds, or outside guilds) there must be a WARRANT issued for the arrest that is posted on UO Stratics Catskills, RP Forums that details the crimes and charges. This opens up the RP a bit to others that may “capture” the criminal. It is possible that more than one city/organization issues a warrant at which time we would work with those affected to compromise and reach a suitable agreement..
    • We have TWO JAILS… one of them is owned by House Romanus (the one at Legion Headquarters) and the other one (in West Umbra, next to the RBG office) is owned by the RBG, which in essence is owned IC’ly by the Crown.
    • For the Legion one, ONLY Generals, Lt. Generals, and Commanders should be the only ones deciding what happens with their jail. For the RBG one, ONLY Captains, Lieutenants, and Sargeants are the only ones deciding what happens with their jail.
    • Both jails have warding mechanisms that DISALLOW ANY MAGIC to be cast within them. Now does it allow for breakins or breakouts, riots, etc. sure… both parties must consent to such an action before it happens though.
    • Anyone captured for a CRIME can only be held for upto ONE WEEK (real time), otherwise they are released with the excuse of “not enough evidence to warrant a trial”.
    • Prosecutors/Defenders have that ONE WEEK (real time) to get a trial and convict or aquit a defendant of all charges.
    • If a criminal is CONVICTED, the time spent must be something that both the player of the criminal AND the player of the prosecutors MUST AGREE ON.
    • If its LONG TERM — more than 1 yr — the sentence is to be carried out in YEW PRISON and transporting the convict opens up more RP possibilities as well.
    • CoD characters are only allowed to arrest anyone within the city of UMBRA and the outskirts of Umbra (as defined in our website). RBG characters may only arrest anyone that resides within the KINGDOM‘S territories or annexes.
    • If one of our RBG characters arrests a criminal OUTSIDE of their TERRITORIES, they are to DELIVER them to the LOCAL policing authorities and provide a statement.
  9. Ceremonial colors are: BLACK/SHADOW, LUNA WHITE, and BLOOD RED.  For all ROLE PLAYING events, members are required to wear a combination of those colors.  A secondary color we sometimes use is DARK BLUE but only outside of official ceremonies.
  10. Communication is very important to us as a guild, as such all members must register on our websites (CoD and VL) and download and install ICQ.  Please be mindful that the leaders are planning events and fun activities for you to participate in, so participation is key. Communicate with us when you are not going to attend guild events by use of our FORUMSICQ is the most accepted form of offline communication for members of Catskills shard. So members should provide their ICQ #’s in their profiles for their registration on the forums.  FORUMSICQ