Roleplay Rules

MassiveCraft has a comprehensive list of Roleplay Rules that are used to maintain order and structure within the roleplay department, the community, and the daily roleplay happening on the server. The individual rules will often have bullet points to give good examples of what is and isn’t proper behavior in certain situations. All rules apply strictly and solely in Regalia unless stated otherwise. There exists a separate section for Crime Rules which is an extension of the Roleplay Rules, but has been moved to a separate page for ease of reference and to avoid bloating. Anyone who plays a criminal character or a guard should read those rules, but they are not pertinent to every roleplayer.

Regalia and Survival Worlds

Regalia is our strict roleplay universe. This means all rules and lore are strictly enforced in this world. Meanwhile, the survival worlds are PVP and light roleplay worlds. This means while we recommend the roleplay rules and lore are followed, we do not enforce them. The exception to this is when a roleplay event is announced on the forums two weeks in advance, and hosted in a survival world. During this event and at this event, all roleplay and lore rules will be enforced six hours prior to the event’s start, and six hours after it begins. No PvP or raiding may occur during these twelve hours as long as the faction’s description states that the event is going on, and the event has been announced on the forums two weeks prior.

Offense: Raiding a roleplay event can result in a ban of up to 3 days, depending on severity of the offense. If you’re uncertain whether the event is a roleplay event, search the faction’s name on the forums for an announcement, ask the leader, or check the description. If there is a large group of people all speaking in local and emote chat, and if none of them are wearing armor, chances are it’s a roleplay event.

Minecraft Mechanics

Minecraft is a great game to roleplay on. The sandbox environment allows you to build scenes and worlds around, and interact within them. However, there are some inherent weaknesses in this game that can complicate roleplay. Here are a couple of examples:

Hearing Through Walls: You cannot hear through walls. Even though MassiveChat may allow you to hear local chat through walls, in most cases your character logically will not be able to hear through walls, doors, or closed windows. If both parties agree that a character could hear through a wall in circumstances that may arise, then it is appropriate to assume a character heard through the wall.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Mute between 1-12 hours, depending on the severity of the offense.

Third Offense: Light tempjail or light tempban.

Long Drops: Minecraft allows you to survive long falls without death. But in roleplay, if you fall off a two-story building, the best case scenario is a broken leg. There are obvious exceptions to this, such as vampirism or exceptionally agile characters. If you’re uncertain about a character’s abilities, read the lore page to see if it explicitly mentions it, or ask the Lore Q&A.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Mute between 1-12 hours, depending on the severity of the offense.

Third Offense: Light tempjail or light tempban.

Time: Time isn’t strictly enforced in roleplay, but instead dictated per scene. If someone says “Good morning!” they’ve established that, for now, it’s morning time. Time progresses at the same rate as time in real life (seconds, minutes, hours, etc. all the same speed). The exception to this is prison sentences, which follow Minecraft time mechanics. A three-day prison sentence will last an hour in real life because three Minecraft days is an hour. It is worth noting a prisoner can only be forced to remain in a cell without Guards providing rp for a maximum of 15 minutes.

God Roleplay

God Roleplay, GodRP, or Godmoding have summarized terms for a character being overpowered, invincible, unrealistically fearless, or godly. These characters have very few flaws and are undefeatable. God roleplay severely inhibits character development on the part of one’s own character, and those around them. Roleplaying is a cooperative experience. You cannot always win and you must be willing to give as much balance as you take. A well-balanced character can mean more development, more entertaining roleplay with others, and more credibility as a roleplayer. Character development can be your best friend, so make sure you’re taking your character’s weaknesses and flaws into account.

First Offense: Warning and staff counseling in some scenarios.

Second Offense: Mute between 1-12 hours, depending on the severity of the offense.

Third Offense: Light tempjail or light tempban.

Metagaming

Metagaming involves knowing or gaining information that a character otherwise wouldn’t know (such as gleaning IC info OOC), or using OOC information to benefit a character IC. When you roleplay, you must be able to disconnect your own knowledge with your character’s. If you don’t feel confident with that, you must be willing to forego knowledge OOC to avoid accidentally metagaming. Some examples of metagaming include:

Knowing a character’s name on the lettering above their head.
Always conveniently having the perfect item for the perfect scenario (You need a green bunny rabbit with a potato in its mouth? I always carry one of those with me!).
Characters that glean the knowledge of a previous character, such as people’s names and occupations.
Characters that exist to avenge previous characters.
Two different characters that share the same knowledge.
Listening to roleplay OOC, then using that information IC.
Using OOC info to one’s benefit, such as avoiding a person’s character because you know they’re a vampire.
Abilities not meant to detect Aberrants cannot be used to positively detect their identity, even if it logically could and would make sense. Specific Aberrant detection mechanisms exist, and these are the only ones that are allowed to be used. For example: If an Altalar could not do a specific thing while infected with Vampirism, trying to test all Altalar with that thing (which would lead to identification of aberrant Altalar), that is not allowed, even if it makes logical sense and is seen as "clever". This also extends to using curing mechanisms to detect, for example, Vampirism and Cahalism. The only exception to this is Shapeshifters (such as Slizzar) attempting to mimic Afflictions through the usage of Mutations: if their inability to use the powers associated with the Affliction comes up naturally, this can be cause for suspicion.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Mute between 1-12 hours, depending on the severity of the offense.

Third Offense: Light tempjail or light tempban.

PowerGaming

Powergaming, powerplaying, or puppeteering often falls hand-in-hand with GodRP. Powergaming is when you dictate the actions or outcomes of another person’s character. You are not permitted to control someone else’s actions, and it’s generally encouraged you to make emotes somewhat tepid to avoid this. The word ‘attempt’ is a golden word in scenarios where powergaming might become problematic. It’s much safer to attempt to beat Bob with a fish, instead of flat out do it. Examples of powergaming include:

Stabbing a person and watching them bleed.
Licking your lips in a way that’s attractive to the other.
Clapping your hands and making them look.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Mute between 1-12 hours, depending on the severity of the offense.

Third Offense: Light tempjail or light tempban.

Mary-Suism

A Mary-Sue or Gary-Stu is a character that is absolutely perfect. Successful love life, excellent work ethic, fabulous looks, incredible intelligence are all things that can contribute to Mary-Sues if they’re laid on too heavily. Furthermore, a Mary-Sue can also be a representation of the roleplayer themselves, and who they are or who they want to be. The reason Mary-Suism is frowned upon is that it not only has the chance to impede character development and take away the fun for others but if a character is a self-insert, criticising or insulting that character has the chance of inadvertently insulting the actual roleplayer themselves. Some examples of Mary-Sues are as follows:

Special snowflake features, like albinism, that dictate large parts of a character’s importance. Note: While heterochromia is no longer illegal, it is still frowned upon in some cases.
Suggesting that a character was once royalty/nobility/godly, or that their family line currently is (unless, of course, the character actually is nobility). Long, forgotten empires count in this, as well as currently existing empires.
Characters that consistently play the victim, don’t learn from consequences that constantly gets them in life-threatening situations, or get hurt for the sake of getting hurt, are often Mary-Sues.
Dramatic or dismal backstories that dictate major parts of the character (always bringing it up, using it for attention) turns a developed character into a Mary-Sue.
Characters that are heavily based on you as the roleplayer, are often Mary-Sues.
While you are allowed to play child characters (ie, any character younger than 17 years old, and thus without a character application), Lore Staff can revoke your right to do so if your portrayal is done in a way that makes others uncomfortable.

Offense: Light counseling from lore staff.

Incompliance

Incompliance happens when a roleplayer breaks the limitations of established lore. If a person spontaneously changes into an orange-neon green Dragon, this breaks the lore on many levels: Dragons are extinct, normal people may not turn into them, and dragons are not orange-neon green. Furthermore, dictating your character is three hundred years old, your character’s family is Kathar royalty, your character’s family has existed on Fendarfelle since the Cataclysm, all fall under incompliance, and it takes an understanding of the lore to follow it. If you have questions, feel free to submit a ticket IG.

First Offense: Private counseling and/or warning, and/or teleport to spawn to extract incompliance from a compliant area.

Second Offense: Light tempjail or tempban.

Third Offense: Medium or severe tempjail or tempban, depending on the severity of the offense.

Inappropriate Roleplay

MassiveCraft maintains a not-excessively-sexual atmosphere. This means that, while bad words and offensive terms may be used in character, age-inappropriate roleplay should not happen publicly, nor should roleplay that is considered disgusting. Furthermore, MassiveCraft has a complete ban on the discussion and roleplaying of sexual assault, while we also refer to forced nudity as sexual assault. MassiveCraft's view on what is disgusting is explained below. It is however absolutely crucial that the reader understands that while some of these actions may possibly be legal by the rules, consent should always be required for an action. Even if an action you are about to take is allowed, if you do not have the consent of the player in question to engage in this kind of roleplay with them, then you are violating the harassment rules of the server. If you are unsure whether you have consent, PM them to ask, or don't do it at all.

With regards to Erotic and Mature Roleplay:

Erotic Roleplay, or emotes specifically depicting intercourse or other sexual contact is forbidden in public, meaning if any non-participant party can witness it. Fade to black is always the recommended course of action.
Mature Roleplay, is superficial building of sexual tension, physical flirting, or verbal flirting. The before mentioned include either superficial physical contact, verbal reference, or literal reference. This is considered mature role play. These actions must always stop short of actual erotic content, as this would fall under Erotic Roleplay.
Nudity, when performed in a non-sexual way, is not illegal, but should be done tastefully, and not like a sexual exposition. The emotes and actions should support a dialogue narrative and be a transitioning point, not the main action of the scene.
Torture Roleplay is banned outright for Guards, period. It must be time-skipped, with the victim having cuts/bruises and roleplaying out the aftermath, but no Torture RP will ever be performed at the Guard Prison. Non-Guard characters may agree to engage in Torture RP, but only if the victim gives consent in advance.
Gore/Dismemberment, may be started, but must be stopped as soon as the person receiving the actions indicates that they do not wish to roleplay out these actions. This wish must always be respected. The actions will then Fade to Black and be time skipped.
Birthing Roleplay, may only be done in private settings for example in Noble Estates or Houses that are outside the city walls. Birthing Roleplay does not fall under Minor Protection and does not require consent.
Bodily Fluids, or more specifically urine/feces/period or ejaculatory fluids may not be role played out, ever. This is considered unacceptable disgusting roleplay.
Sexual Rape or Molestation RP of any kind, even consensual, even between adults, is strictly not permitted. Any form of Rape glorification is also strictly forbidden, even in OOC chat.
Suicide and self harm RP is not permitted. Any form of suicide and self harm glorification is also strictly forbidden, even in OOC chat.
Cursing Roleplay is permitted, but should be moderated. If a player present asks the cursing to be reduced, this request should be respected but not obeyed explicitly. Generally speaking you should not pepper every single dialogue with cursing.
Drug Roleplay is permitted, but only within the framework of the Lore. Only Lore compliant drugs like Opium and Tabacca and Alcohol are permitted. These should be role played out realistically including their terrible drawbacks.
Prostitution Roleplay, specifically the soliciting or selling of sexual acts is nominally permitted. This means that a character may refer to themselves as a prostitute, and go about securing customers, but the actual acts performed by the prostitute may not be role played out, and should be faded to black.
Please remember that in any and all cases, Erotic Roleplay does not fall under inappropriate sexual conduct in known jurisdictions, even for minors. That being said, we want parents to feel the server does not encourage or facilitate Erotic Roleplay. The server takes a strong stance that Erotic Roleplay with minors is morally reprehensible, and must be avoided at all costs, and must warn adults involved in these activities that they will become socially outcast and potentially legally prosecuted if this comes out. If our own logs corroborate that it occurred on the server, we may consider actions against the adult (we will never take negative action against the minor, but will remind them why Erotic Roleplay with an adult is not okay). But we refrain from taking any action if the activity does not use MassiveCraft (or its services) as a medium. For example, Erotic Roleplay occuring on Discord, or age inappropriate conduct occurring on Discord, is within the jurisdiction of the Discord Community Team, and the parents/legal authorities of the minor. However we highly encourage parents or players who have irrefutable evidence of inappropriate sexual conduct outside of our platform to present this information to the local police authorities. MassiveCraft will hand over any logs pertinent to such cases should police authorities contact us. If there is a very clear case of an adult exposing a minor to pornographic content, or enticing them to engage in pornographic behavior (corruption of a minor) and this can be adequately proven, the adult will be permanently IP banned from the server, and we will support any press for legal actions against the adult. Under no circumstances, the victim of pedophilia will receive any punishment from our administration.

Void/Retcon

Voiding or retconning describes the act of undoing roleplay for the sake of “starting over.” You are not permitted to force a retcon on people who are unwilling. You may only undo a roleplay experience if everyone who participated agrees. Additionally, guard roleplay can never be retconned, and RP staff have the right to force a retcon onto players if they deem is necessary when two parties cannot agree on an outcome.

First Offense: Light tempjail and counseling from lore staff about the implications of ignoring guard roleplay.

OOC/IC Presence & Nicknames

When a player is online but does not wish to roleplay, they are considered "Out of Character". A player is only allowed to be present "Out of Character" in a roleplay scene if every player present consents to this action. A player must have their Nickname set to their character's name or title in order to be considered present in roleplay, and cannot proclaim they are only there Out of Character if their Nickname is set to their roleplay name.

First Offense: Counseling from lore staff about setting nicknames properly.

Second Offense: Warning

Third Offense: Light tempjail or light tempban.

Character Death: Maim & Kill Permissions

MassiveCraft has a set of rules to protect from random deathmatching, and unfair death forced onto others. Character Death is usually a right reserved for the owner of the Original Character, yet there are some rules in effect where this right is given away, for the sake of fairness and equal playing field. These keep the world real, and the fear real, which in itself enhances roleplay. These rules thus exist to ensure players do not abuse their safety clauses to irritate other players or engage in unrealistic response roleplay to tense and dangerous situations. These are codified as Maim Permissions and Kill Permissions, which are explained below. If you have any questions about the writing here, please make a Ticket Immediately. OOC arguing over the rules between players is also not allowed. As soon as a conflict arises about Maim and Kill Rules, both sides must contact Lore Staff via Ticket to mediate.

Maim Perm: Maim Perm means inflicting damage on another character that would permanently disable them in some way. This means eyes, mouth, arms up to the shoulder and legs up to the hip. Character Aesthetics or soft tissue that serves no function (like the nose or ear) or skin of a character being damaged is not a Maim. Any damage to the latter listing is considered reasonably revertable and thus not requiring permission.
Kill Perm: Kill Perm means inflicting damage on another character that would result in the character’s eventual demise either directly or indirectly (through for example either stabbing or poison). Kill Perm as such strictly means the right to murder another character.
Given Consent: Given Consent is the strictly written permission to kill a character. When you have been Given Consent by another player, it means they have indicated you are allowed to either Maim or Kill their character. Keep in mind, Given Consent is only valid while logs (or screenshots of in-game chat) can be proven. Discord logs and outdated conversations are not proof. Given Consent is not perpetual, and can expire. In a dispute, contact Lore Staff.
Surrendered Consent: Surrendered Consent is similar to Given Consent, except that it’s an automatic response to character actions. To Surrender Consent is to allow other characters to Maim or Kill a Character in response to their actions. This may be voluntary or involuntary, depending on the situation. Surrendering Consent does not require your approval. If any problems occur because of this, please ask a Lore Staff member to mediate.
Mental Anguish: Mental Anguish is when a character is forced to suffer or engage in an action that you out of an OOC stand point of view find distressing. For example, if you yourself are a survivor of Leukemia, hair removal may be viewed as distressing and ruining your experience. If such a case is occurring you must always contact a Rank3 Lore Staff member, and you cannot appeal to any sort of exception without their approval.
Maim Exceptions: Any Characters with body regeneration Abilities or any such limb-regeneration powers have no such thing as a Maim Perm. All body parts of any of these characters can regrow, so any kind of damage is non-permanent. This means that you don’t need permission to for example remove a body part from an Allar Character. Instead, reasonability comes into play. Repeatedly crippling such a character just because you can by the Character Death Rules is not allowed and will be counted as Harassment by Server Rules.
Godly Being Exceptions: When interacting with a Dragon, Arken, Void/Exist God, Unspoken God, Emperors, and other quasi-divine deities when portrayed by a staff member, within common sense reason in the context of their interactions, and with the player being OOCly aware with what they are interacting with, there is the potential for Surrendered Kill & Maim Permissions. These surrendered permissions apply when the character acts flippantly in the face of beings that should be afforded some degree of In-Character reverence, or at the very least fear.
Constable Exceptions: State_Metropolitan have special rules concerning the Killing and Maiming of Characters. Principally speaking, they are as such exempt from needing Consent in any way or form, but they are also internally regulated for when they can and cannot take a character’s life or arm by Lore Staff. If you want to read more, please consult the Crime Rules. Be aware however that even though the Constables are constrained by these Law Rules, there remains a provision for Constables to execute characters who "inflict excessive and overbearing harm, law violations, or violently resisting arrest", under approval of the Lord Commissioner and Lore Staff.
Greygate Exceptions: The Regalian Prison has special rules concerning Ability & Special usage within it. If a character uses Abilities to harm, or attempt to harm, individuals within it, Kill or Maim perms may be surrendered by the Constables present. Constables are advised to give OOC warnings to players that an action may result in concession of perms, to ensure they are completely informed.
Imperial Palace Exceptions: The Imperial Palace is the absolute seat of authority in the Empire, and thus should be treated with utmost respect and care. Any Ability or Special Usage, bearing of Arms, Armor, or threatening of the Imperial Family members or Imperial Guards will result in automatic concession of Kill Perms. Additionally, the Imperial Palace has special detection mechanics at the gates, that will automatically notice any Occult or Aberrant, which is only sometimes turned off during Assemblies. Players are encouraged to double-check the status of the Palace before attempting to infiltrate it with an infected or illegal character.
Slizzar Exceptions: Any Slizzar who outs another Slizzar in public as a Slizzar, if that Slizzar has taken reasonable steps to hide their Slizzar identity, shall surrender Kill-Perms to the Slizzar they are outing, including any help or assistance that Slizzar may contract or pay for to get revenge on the Slizzar that outed them. This is to ensure Slizzar understand the consequences of outing other Slizzar, which puts a massive target on their back.
Mutated Character Exceptions: If your character is excessively mutated to the point that (in the review of Staff) they are nearly or exactly indistinguishable from for example Void Monsters, that Constables (of either Regalia proper, or any of the Boroughs like New Crookback) can request Lore Staff Rank 3 for permission to have Character-Kill Permissions.

You should generally seek to avoid killing another player’s character if there are other options available to you and them (and there always are). Consult the player(s) or Lore Staff in question to discuss alternative options. Generally speaking, the community does not look kindly on those who simply kill off characters for smaller reasons, or do not give second chances.

Other Courtesies

There are a couple of other smaller courtesies that do not fall under any of the previous regulations. Here is a list of them:

Avoid OOC talking in public and busy areas. MassiveCraft offers a PM feature.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Light tempmute.

Avoid shouting and screaming in Regalia unless absolutely necessary. Also, avoid screaming during RP events.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Light tempmute.

Respect Guard RP and avoid combat in so-called “non-combat zones.” These will always be marked with a chat warning when you enter them.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Light tempmute.

Do not use More Player Models/MPM to become a mob or to mutate your skin beyond the bounds of lore if you're in Regalia.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Tempjail until offensive model is remedied.

Avoid disrupting roleplay through any manner, be it either OOC, IC or trolling.

First Offense: Warning.

Second Offense: Light tempjail.

Additional Punishments

Punishments for all of the above are listed under each circumstance. Additionally, the following punishments can occur, which can be appealed on the forums or with a member of lore staff:

Being barred from having special permissions.
Being banned from participating in combat roleplay.
Being banned from noble families.