Roleplay Rules

Community Policing

Community Policing is done very hands-off on Massive, meaning we mostly rely on Players self-moderating, with reports for serious offenses or situations where Players cannot resolve their own disputes. By default, we ask that Players assume ignorance or carelessness, never malice on the part of other Players, because genuinely very few people come to a Roleplay Server to give others a bad experience. Trying to not attribute malicious intentions in others, is always a great starting point for conflict resolution.

• Ease of Entry: MassiveCraft is a non-Whitelist server with a heavy emphasis on ease of entry. We aim to have as few obstacles as possible stopping a player from immediately roleplaying on the Server. We also ask that Players remove any barriers for new players to join their roleplay groups. It is not required to be friends with everyone, we promote the liberal use of /ignore add <player> if someone is unpleasant, but generally we ask inclusiveness and a helpful and mindful attitude to new players.
• Social Conduct: We encourage a respectful, no-trolling, and generally positive environment where Players should show basic respect. MassiveCraft is a heavily LGBT+ friendly server, that seeks to be socially conscious to the diverse population that interacts with our community. This includes all the usual: no discrimination, racism, sexism, bullying, purposely excluding someone from the community, inflaming an ongoing dispute by needlessly picking sides, malicious passive aggression, and so forth.
• Appropriate Conduct: Massivecraft is a mature-positive, but ultimately teenager-friendly environment. The majority of the player base is adult, but we do not exclude minors from the community. MassiveCraft is a recommended experience for 16+, given the reading comprehension required. Interacting with minors in a sexual way is strictly forbidden, even when it happens off-server, and will result in permanent termination. Erotic Roleplay is forbidden on the server, including any and all Official Discords.
• Forbidden Topics: MassiveCraft seeks to keep some topics entirely outside of the community. We do not want to see any discussions on suicide, sexual assault, minority violence (like lynching), domestic abuse, drug abuse, and don't want to see these topics in Roleplay at all either. Players on a Minecraft server are not suitable replacements for therapy and/or professional help, or law-enforcement assistance in case of a home problem. We also ask that Players refrain from posting pictures of minors, or discuss infants.
• Gossiping: Everybody loves gossip, and while the phrase "No-drama zone" is common, ultimately some drama will happen. MassiveCraft does not police private social conduct within a safe environment for example on Discord, but malicious gossiping with the intent to exclude or eject someone from the community circumventing Staff discipline, is strictly disallowed, even in private. Venting to release pressure is encouraged, insofar everyone understands that it is not meant to sway public opinion against the individual.
• Plagiarism: MassiveCraft has a fairly strong policy against plagiarism. You are not permitted to steal Characters, art, buildings, or content belonging or paid for by others without their consent. MassiveCraft provides free skins on PlanetMinecraft under the tag "MassiveLooks", as taking skins from others is severely frowned upon. You may not submit traced art to any of our media sources unless it is specifically marked as traced art, and the same goes for AI-generated art.
• Overfamiliarity: Players are encouraged to approach each other respectfully, as nobody needs to be afraid to approach or meet new people, but to do so with tact. If a Roleplay scene looks personal or tense, DM one of the participants to ask if you can get involved. If you are not over-familiar or friends with someone, refrain from over-familiar humor or personalization, like using their real-life name or using insult-humor. Players should feel comfortable to set boundaries for each other.
• Plugin use: Generally speaking, Plugins should be used what they were intended for. Abuse of plugins by for example using the announce or scream chat modifiers excessively to broadcast roleplay across Regalia, Minecraft-glitch with ender pearls, are disallowed. Abuse of plugins or Minecraft features should be reported to staff to investigate. Cheating is also strictly disallowed, and falls under the general server rules of not using hacked clients or mods to the advantage of the player besides cosmetics.
• Stream Content: You may stream MassiveCraft content, Wiki, Forums, etc. You must however inform anyone who exchanges private messages with you, that you are streaming unless they are already aware. Additionally, you may stream Roleplay when it occurs, though are required to give notice that you are streaming when in roleplay in private settings, or conflict scenes (such as Combat Roleplay). It is not great optics if your friend watching a stream suddenly shows up in the same scene, they may be asked to leave.
• Added Rules: While this page covers the general Rules for the Roleplay side of things (applicably only to Regalia) some of the general conduct Rules apply across MassiveCraft's services, like our public Discords and Forums. Some of our Forums and Discords will have additional rules covering the use of Channels, avail yourself to Pinned Messages or Threads to find them, they are often too short to mention here. For Survival Rules and Rules pertaining to Factions, please refer to the https://www.massivecraft.com/rules

Staff Engagement

Staff on MassiveCraft are generally speaking unpaid, while the Server Owner grants free Server Ranks and occasional gifts to Staff Members, in general they work for the betterment of the server, having a seat at the table of decision making, popularity, or a healthy mix of these three. It falls on Server Management to curb negative social excesses of Staff, while channeling their efforts into a productive and positive environment where no matter the source of motivation, it leads to a more fun experience for Players.

• Staff Treatment: Players are requested to stand their ground if they feel mistreated, but also try to walk a fine line between that and not being over-argumentative. Staff are willing to accept different points of view, but these should be expressed formally and politely, not with back-handed commentary, passive aggression, or learning about it from some other Discord. If Staff mistreat Players, either Discord Tickets, or Forum Reports can be made to call in higher ups for policing.
• Service Hours: MassiveCraft Staff tries to be present at all times of day, however since most Players and staff hover in the EST timezone and adjacent, there will be times in which Staff are unavailable. Tickets may take up to a day to answer, and responsiveness may vary, with a request to the players for patience. In general, players should avail themselves of the Ticket bot, to avoid asking Staff to work in off-hours, as some Staff have opted to make their Discord friends list private, and don't want public tags.
• Boundaries: Staff Boundaries of Authority work both ways: on one hand we cannot enforce Rules on Discord Servers we do not own (like our Official Servers), but players also should not expect us to try and act when something they do not like happens somewhere else. MassiveCraft Staff will never attempt to moderate how you spend social time with your friends, so long as it does not conflict with other Rules, or starts actively hurting other players. Private Discords are private, so long as nobody gets hurt publicly.

Roleplay Conduct

General Roleplay Rules apply. MassiveCraft in general assumes that a new player understands all the common Roleplay rules that may apply to a server, such as: No Metagaming, No Godmodding, No Powergaming, etc. It feels superfluous to mention these, so the Roleplay Conduct section will mostly cover general behavior and decency in Roleplay, as well as some fundamental rules that apply to Character safe-spacing and protections. Roleplay Conduct Rules (including Artifact/Custom Kit and such smaller scope rules not mentioned on this Page) assume an equal playing field between all players where Staff act as guarantors for equity. Players can, assuming all participants of a scene are fully able to voice their opinion without social pressure consent, suspend certain rules to expand their Roleplay options. If a player ever feels pressured to disregard Rules or Protocols, they are strongly recommended to make a Ticket to report the matter to Staff. Finally, Staff will not accept responsibility for a refusal to report rule violations or issues, and will actively watch for rule violations in so far they see them, but not investigate beyond if a Player is unwilling to stand their own ground for their mistreatment by cooperating with Staff to find out the details. Roleplay Rule enforcement relies on mutual respect and inclusion, this includes Staff members. You cannot force players to adhere to fake rules, by social pressure or otherwise, in essence.

• Kill-Perms: MassiveCraft does not believe in robbing a player of agency when their Character dies. No Player can force death on your Character unless you want to. There are some extenuating circumstances: In some cases the Regalian State may execute your Character, but this will never come as a surprise, and must always be signed off by Lore Staff through an OOC request. Staff will always ensure that a Player has had adequate forewarning or awareness of the path their Character is going down.
• Design-Rights: Also called "Maim-Perms" referring to the idea that Players cannot force your character to become maimed, irreparably physically changed, or have part of their core concept removed or made impossible through physical harm. There are some exceptions, for example even though Vampirism is a core concept, Vampirism is curable and can as such be removed. The State can in some cases also cut off a hand or arm from a murderer or serial-attacker, though these must always be approved by Staff.
• Character Design: MassiveCraft does not have a Character approval Process, all we require is a recorded listing of Abilities so that they do not suddenly change mid-combat. We request Players do not incorporate mental illnesses into Characters, or rely on backstory trauma too excessively for shock value or motivations or out of canon lore. In general, each Character should function stand-alone without over-reliance on specific Abilities or functions in Roleplay.
• Lore Continuity: MassiveCraft creates a generally fairly open-ended framework for the lore. This means that Societies, Religions, and History and more exist with some strict lore, but that the finer details behind those things (like cities, places, events, etc.) are usually up to the players. We ask that the players try to work with the lore instead of emphasizing contrarian concepts, and try to appreciate parts of the lore that they feel excited about, instead of trying to change them or reinterpret them.
• Combat Roleplay: Combat Roleplay is in most cases, opt-in. If a Character aggresses your Character without a valid reason, you may decline. If however your Character is competing or aggressed another Character or their friends prior, you may not decline conflict. If you initiate Combat, you cannot log off mid-combat, or decline further consequences. "logic-rp" Combat is permitted, but we also provide an Optional Combat System for those more comfortable with stratified rules and Dice rolls.
• Clean Roleplay: In general, Roleplay should be clean and not overtly gross, traumatic, or sexual. Cursing and crude language is permitted, but emoting gross actions (such as urination, torture, gore, or dismemberment) are never permitted near minors, only with consent from all adult parties in private. Trauma Roleplay is permitted, but it is always a courtesy to notify players in advance that a scene is about to become very sad or traumatic. Erotically charged dialogue is never permitted towards minors or without consent.
• Scene Respect: Generally speaking, Players should respect the boundaries of a scene and understand that time passes quickly for people not involved in the RP. You should not use Minecraft running to your advantage to quickly alert allies, who in turn can just use the launcher to instantly switch skins. Even if reinforcements are required, the groups involved should allow for adequate time to pass for quality RP to take place before trying to "win" as quickly as possible.
• Character Swapping: Generally speaking, having more than one Character belonging to you in a scene is disallowed. In some corner cases, however, you may be forced to swap Characters by leaving a scene and coming back. As soon as you have used a Character Sheet (Abilities/Proficiencies) from one Character, and then rotate to a different Character, you are still locked into the Sheet of that Character, including all Abilities and enduring Cooldown Timers.

In various bullet points of this list, "Private Roleplay" is mentioned where players are allowed to bend Lore/Rules. To explain what this means: Private Roleplay is RP that takes place with a controlled amount of people who communicate well, and do so in an environment where they can control who walks in. It is by definition not possible to have Private Roleplay in the city itself, because a player can always walk in. Private Roleplay is therefor best done in Rental Regions, Instance Regions, or so far removed from the city in the Wilderness that no player could reasonable stumble into it by running around (Gloomrot also counts as city interior and is not a good place for Private Roleplay). Suppose Lore/Rules were broken In Private Roleplay with the consent of all participants (for example by pretending they have 2x the amount of Proficiency points, or that they can cheat death when lore says they cannot). In that case, all participants must ensure that this Private Roleplay remains contained. What this means it that nobody should talk to people who were not present about the events, or use the events to dictate further actions taken by them in public roleplay. This kind of scrutiny is not required when you are just casually roleplaying 1 on 1 and are still "in-lore", only when you opt to break Lore Continuity or Rules for your Roleplay.

Guidelines for Spy Roleplay

• You cannot listen through solid blocks, leaves and wool blocks are the exception.
• Doors and trap doors can only listened through if you are on the same block as it. When listening through a door you must emote near it, this is so in the case of metagaming disputes we are able to track your position.
• You cannot crouch or use invisibility potions to hide yourself, this is using minecraft mechanics to avoid OOC detection.
• If you have your character name on you can be considered in character at all times. To be considered OOC remove your nickname or change it.
• If you are being spied on and go from speaking in normal say to mutter or whisper emotes, emote lowering your voice as to indicate that conversation is still ongoing but inaudible. This is to indicate to the spy that the parties are not simply away from the keyboard.
• You do not need to ask OOC permission to spy in character.

Roleplay Happenings Rules

These are rules regarding tagging other players in the Massivecraft Community Discord.

• Messages tagging players in Roleplay Happenings should be restricted in the information it provides. This information is limited to the name of the Characters involved, the publicly available area they're in, and the general purpose for them being there.
• Players cannot tag in Roleplay Happenings when Combat Roleplay is in progress. Players can be alerted once combat concludes when tagging for medics, however. Exceptions to this are no-stakes combat such as duels between characters, or CRP Tournament Events.

Crime Roleplay Rules

The these general behavior rules are applicable to all organizations, including Criminals, Vigilantes, Mercenaries and even regular citizens.

• Reinforcements entering a situation (or stumbling upon it during a patrol) must emote their entry, either individually or as a group under one emote. After this emote, it is necessary that the both sides are given a reasonable amount of time to emote their response to the reinforcements. Reasonable here means if they are able to. For example someone who is already on the floor and cuffed cannot reasonably respond. This emote requirement does not apply for sneaking or arriving from an angle from which the opposing side could not see those arriving.
• It is forbidden to accuse any party of metagaming their presence through DynMap, Radars or Minecraft names through walls either directly or indirectly, particularly during a roleplay scene or otherwise. If you suspect foul play on part of whoever found your base or combat rp scene, make a ticket and have staff investigate it. If no staff can help immediately, continue roleplaying out the scene as you would. You can make a report later, and have the roleplay voided by staff if foul play is proven. No good has ever come from a meta accusation in OOC chat. If any of such accusations are made, the guilty party should immediately be reported for harassment.

Conflict Resolution

There is a general step procedure to follow when players encounter a rule violation, or run into a conflict of opinion or preference:

• In general, we request that players do not presume guilt until proven otherwise, and try to assume ignorance instead of malice from others.
• Inform each other of your discomfort, or what you disagree with, and explain your reasons why without resorting to irony or passive aggression.
• Be solution oriented, propose alternative solutions and try to find a compromise that makes everyone happy instead of relenting to avoid conflict.
• Is the situation urgent or a severe rule violation that warrants a permanent ban? Contact staff immediately. Reporter anonymity will be respected.
• If you cannot resolve the matter immediately, attempt to alert staff who are online in a Server /Ticket. If this is not fast enough, try Discord Tickets.
• Please provide as much unedited evidence or timestamps. We generally do not accept evidence from outside of the server except for cases involving minors.
• For more complex cases, we request Forum Reports where Players have more time and space to write full messages and attach files for evidence.
• Staff will always be ready to assist you in Discord Tickets if you need more explanation, or would like input in an ongoing or past situation.