DM Rulings: A Record of DM Decisions (Obsolete for now)
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 12:31 am
DM RULINGS
Alignment detection
Smite Evil is not to be used as a substitute to Detect Evil in non combat situations in order to detect alignment. It is a breach of the Paladin Code to strike someone to slay them when there is uncertainty as to whether death is deserved. The feedback given in the combat log should not be used to determine whether a PC is evil or not. This extends to any spells that have their effects only resolve on a certain alignment.
Animal Language
Animal language acts as a stand in for animal empathy in PNP. It allows the issue of simple commands by whistles and clicks and the like, and allows for body language and temperament to communicate basic ideas like hunger, sleep, directions, danger, and so on. It is, in effect, a language entirely of emotes rather than words. The animal language should not be used to communicate or understand complex or abstract concepts.
Appearance Changer
Anything made by the appearance changer is considered costume wear. You should not roleplay wings or other strange accessories as physical parts of your body.
Appraise System Limitations
Until further notice, the Appraise mechanic listed in game cannot be used to determine the race of a PC that is fully masked or wearing a helmet. It does not comply with the current set of rules that we have listed on the forums.
The DM team is discussing what to do with it.
Please follow the below set of rules until a decision is made.
- Underdark players on the surface, and surface players within the tunnels of the Underdark, who have been identified are considered to have consented to PvP and may be killed on sight. The exceptions are for the city of Sshamath and the Upperdark, where all involved are still required to follow normal PvP rules.
- Characters outfitted in a way that completely hides their identifying features require the aggressor to apply normal PvP rules, regardless of which side the disguised character is from. The disguise must be complete and hoods by themselves do not count. Patterns of speech, accents, body language, and other distinctive qualities are discerned only through roleplay over time, and details such as "a funny-sounding name" or the size of the character alone do not count for the purposes of identification.
Campfire Crashes and Item Loss
The DM Team will no longer be reimbursing items lost due to muling using campfires. Utilizing campfires for muling items is highly discouraged due to incidents of crashes and the possibility of theft. Relying on another player for muling is a far safer choice. Use campfires to mule items only at your own risk.
Capture Rule
If a player's PC is captured by another faction or PC, the RP for the capture is to be completed within 72 hours. If the player's character has not been rescued we either expect the captors to allow the character in question the ability to escape, or to execute the prisoner(this is up to the captors). If the captor cannot do this in 72 hours, the character is to be believed to have escaped and is back in the game.
Chatlogs, Screenshots, and other OOC Documentation
Chat logs, screenshots, and other documentation recorded using OOC methods should only be used for OOC purposes and are not considered a valid format for in-character use. Players are encouraged to paraphrase and/or summarize the contents of their logs, screenshots, and other OOC documentation into an IC format if possible.
DM's use of Guild NPC's and Assets
Except for special occasions, DMs will normally approach guilds and ensure their involvement before causing casualties to NPC assets, or cause damage to other guild assets. This does not apply to major lore NPC's associated with guilds. If this does not happen, report it to the HDM's.
Drug Use in RP
Drugs can be discretely used and tolerated, so long as they meet these guidelines --
You must keep the level of descriptivism of both the use and the effects of the drugs at the level you would expect to see in a Content: Teen game. You should also remember to use Lore-appropriate drugs, not "real-life drugs," to maintain setting consistency.
Entropic Husk
Entropic Husk on the server does not affect the soul of the target, only their body. As such, it is not evil to use it and is open to use by PCs of all alignments. The description of the spell has been amended to reflect this.
Ethereal Magic
Greater Sanctuary, Ethereal Jaunt and similar spells and spell-like abilities do not let you walk through walls in every-day non-DM-supervised RP. If you wish to use it in an event, ask the DM in question if it will be allowed. Do not argue if the DM says no.
Half-Drow Appearance
For in character purposes, Half-Drow will be viewed as and treated as legally and socially indistinct from full Drow by in character polities and NPCs of the surface. Further, all characters that are Half-Drow must have their standard in character appearance depicted at character creation and thereafter with dusky skin and silver or white hair, with a broad range of eye colors allowed, per DM Team interpretation of Forgotten Realms lore on the topic. Characters that date before this ruling and that do not comply with the appearance ruling herein may request a one-time 100% RCR, but otherwise normal RCR rules will apply.
Off-Server Roleplay
Only roleplay that occurs in game or on the forum will be regarded as legitimate. You may use Discord and other forums for your own personal character development, but this roleplay will not have any impact on the game world, NPCs, or DM Team decisions as to in-game influence or success.
Playing Multiple Characters in One Guild
Playing multiple characters in one guild should be avoided if there is any chance that they would know each other or interact with each other. Per the sharing-information-between-characters rules found here, any information your character has should be gained from IC sources that are not your alternate characters. Out-of-character information can be helpful to gain context as a player, but by no means should it be used to dictate any aspect of in-character behavior. If you do have multiple characters in one guild, avoid overlapping them in any way—including only using one character per plotline.
If you do have multiple characters in one guild, they will not be counted toward filling the activity requirements when applying for guild pages, applying for a guild hall, or when obtaining any guild assets. Activity requirements are fulfilled by number of active players, not active characters.
PnP/Lore spells
Between players: Spells that do not exist in the game do not exist. Cantrips that do not affect another player are fine, but all other spells do not exist. (this is part of play what is on your sheet)
PVP and the Friendly Arm Inn
On PvP: PvP on this map is not allowed inside the courtyard of the Inn, in front of the gate to the Inn or in front of the Order of the Silver Rose Keep.
Quarterstaffs disallowed in cities
Quarterstaffs are considered as weapons regarding city rules and Flaming Fist patrols.
IC/OOC Nature of Quests
As it stands, it is open to players to treat individual quests their own characters undertake as IC; alternatively they can treat the quests as OOC. As an exception to this, when undertaking quests in settlements in which they would not be permitted (Baldur's Gate, Ulgoth's Beard, and "uncivlised" orcs in Nashkel and Beregost), Grey Orcs must use an AFK tag, not interact IC within the settlement and keep the time spent there to a minimum.
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- The message is received mentally. No one in the vicinity of the recipient can hear the message.
- The caster of the spell needs to speak aloud (or in a whisper).
- The recipient replies mentally and does not have to speak.
- The name is purely OOC for the mechanics of the spell to recognise the character receiving the Sending. In other words, when the message is spoken, the "[name] Message:" bit is OOC.
- Following on the above, the caster does not actually need to know the name of the recipient, merely be familiar with the recipient (as described in the spell). That also means you cannot send to someone whose name you know but have never met.
- Sending is not subject to Non-Detection. As Sending is not a divination or a spell trying to find the location of the recipient, Non-Detection simply does not apply.
- It can only be blocked by anti-magic zones.
- The caster knows if the message does not reach the recipient, but is given no reason as to why.
- Sending does not transfer other sensations than the message, except tone of voice.
- The recipient can not be traced by a third party.
Shadowdancer Shadow Summon
In PNP these share alignment with the summoner but in NWN2 and on BGSTCC they are currently Chaotic Evil. A fix is in the works to shift the Shadow's alignment to True Neutral, to allow the use of this ability by non-Evil characters. As a rare exception to the play what is on your character sheet rule, please consider the Shadowdancer's Shadow as True Neutral for RP purposes.
Slavery
Slavery is not allowed among PCs. This has in the past led to RP that is outside the PG-13 rating of the server and as such has been banned.
Speaking While Polymorphed
If a polymorphed shape can speak common, it is capable of speaking any vocal language the character knows while in that shape.
Animal Shape - Only the animal language is available with fluency. Fragmented words in Common can be spoken in non-magical beast shape, but whether it is legible Common will depend on factors such as, but not limited to, mouth/snout structure, the complexity/compatibility of the word(s) being spoken, and the effort on the wildshaper's part to communicate clearly. Overly long and complex words and/or sentences may still end up unintelligible regardless. When in doubt, err towards caution, and at worst, assume that you can only speak what both you and the creature you've polymorphed into could speak.
Plant Shape - Treants speak the Treant and Common language. Shambling Mounds do not speak a formal language.
Elemental Shape - Elementals are incapable of speaking Common or any other language besides the one representing their element. As a pure embodiment of their plane an elemental lacks the magical ability or physiology to communicate in any language other than the one representing its element, barring certain outside influences (of which polymorphing into an elemental is not one of them).
Magical Beast Shape - Phase spiders do not speak. Winter wolves are capable of speaking common. Celestial leopards do not speak.
Dragon Shape - Dragons are capable of speaking Draconic and Common.
Spirit Shamans and Deities
Spirit shamans are no exception to the requirement that divine casters have a deity, and they draw their powers ultimately from a god. However, in the case of a spirit shaman, spirits act as intermediaries of this divine power, and it is the spirits themselves that spirit shaman PCs bargain with. While usually a spirit shaman will know the source of his divine powers, it is also open to a spirit shaman to venerate a cause, a broad aspect, or the spirits themselves, without realising that ultimately his or her power is derived from a god.
Stealth
On hiding in cities: Hiding in plain sight in the open space of cities is allowed provided you have a minimum of hide and move silently. This can be used to sneak into guild halls, but being caught makes you subject to infiltration rules.
Note: If a DM is present, he/she may decide that one of the NPCs present have higher (or sometimes even lower) spot or listen than normal.
On invisibility: Being invisible does not automatically make you quiet. If you do not have the above requisite move silently skill, NPCs will detect you.
Teleportation Runestones
Runestones exist as a mechanism to allow the teleportation (including tree stride) system to work. They are a deviation from the way teleport works in pencil and paper D&D required by the limitations of the NWN2 game engine. It is still the case, however, that PCs are only intended to be able to teleport to places they have themselves visited and a mechanical fix for trading of marked runestones is on its way.
Until any fix comes IG the following ruling applies from the date of posting:
- Teleportation has an IC gold cost that represents reagents and preparations. This does not need to reflect a huge sack of gold being expended at the moment of teleportation.
- Unmarked runes (and leaves) are tradeable items with a weight and gold cost.
- Marking a rune (or leaf) is an IC act, and owning the rune (or leaf) is IC.
- The location stored on a rune (or leaf) is NOT tradeable and runes should not be traded with a location stored in them. This is because, IC'ly, knowledge of a location is required in order to be able to teleport (or tree stride) to it.
- Using a rune (or leaf) with a stored location on it which was acquired by trade is forbidden. It should be considered in effect a form of metagaming.
- The spell description for Mark Rune is in error and has been amended on the forums as follows. Please consider the IG description in error and we apologise for any confusion. We will update it as soon as we can:
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Vampiric Regeneration
For the purposes of staying true to alignment, vampiric regeneration on weapons is not considered to be evil. Paladins and other good-aligned characters can wield weapons with this enchantment without worry that they are betraying their alignment.
See also, the spell Vampiric Touch, which does not have the "Evil" spell descriptor.