Activity, Vacations, and Idledesting
Players are expected to be able to put a couple of hours each month into roleplay, on average. Characters who chronically do not connect for at least that much time will be considered fair game for idledesting. (In other words, if you log on just for a few seconds in a month, for two or three months running, it's not going to save you from an idledest.) Any character that does not connect at all within a period of 60 days is also in danger of being deleted.
Characters that occupy an ICly important position, either in general (such as key roles in a faction) or for a specific plot are expected to be available for RP a couple of hours each and every week. Any who do not connect for a reasonable length of time over a period of 15 days or more, especially at a time when their characters are crucial to IC events, may have their characters spoofed by staff or even taken away and recast, depending upon circumstances.
If you know you will be unavailable for an extended period, please inform the admin either by page or by post on the forum/bulletin board, and set a note in your pinfo. This will save your character from being swept up in an idledest, at least for a little while.
In all cases, control of idledested characters and their property goes to Maratha's admin; if they judge it appropriate, the character may be killed off, turned into a staff-spoofed NPC, or ICly depart the city. In letting a character idle off, you implicitly consent to the admin disposing of your character. Characters may be adopted out to another player if your prior consent has been obtained.
Alternate Characters
Maratha has a loose limit of four characters per player. Generally only one of these characters can be high-level (mage or tainted of level 3-4), though exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis. Fifth and sixth characters may be requested if you ask the admin for permission first and they judge your activity level sufficient to support adding those alts.
There is no restriction against having two alternates in a scene, so long as it is approached responsibly. This means that, if you have characters in two different factions and some big event brings the factions together, you may have both characters in the scene. It does not mean your characters know and interact with one another on a regular basis; this is not approved. Your alternates should interact as little as is ICly possible. Alternates are not to be used for passing information among your own characters, or to another person by way of your alt. If this privilege is abused on a widespread basis, it will be revoked, and alternates will not be allowed to simultaneously participate in scenes at all. Individuals who repeatedly scene with their alts may find themselves banned from those characters for a time.
Building and Homes
Players are not allowed to build rooms; if you want something created, you will have to ask the admin to make it for you. Public sorts of places, like shops, can be had for the asking; in most cases, these will be limited to a single actual room, and the redesc program enabled if multiple descriptions are needed. Be aware that if you leave the game or are idledested, the admin may choose to give such space over to a new player whose character fills a similar business niche, or have it taken over by an NPC, especially if the shop is a popular RP location.
Private homes are not encouraged, because people tend to sit in them and idle alone, waiting to be approached for RP; the admin would rather see people in locations where other people are, and interacting with them. If a residence is needed for RP purposes over an extended time, one or a few rooms may be built for your use as above; barring that event, use the off-grid rooms as appropriate.
Consent and Consequences
Maratha is not, strictly speaking, a consent-based game — or rather, by participating in a scene, you give implicit consent to the logical consequences of events in that scene. By having your character present at a combat RP, you accept that they may be hurt or killed. This is why the game has a +roll system: to ensure that characters take injuries when injuries are appropriate, and to have the risk of character death be a very real one.
Outside of combat, consent takes more of an explicit role. For any major action to happen to your character (kidnapping, etc.) your permission should be clearly given. Again, however, if you are going to take part in a scene, you are expected to abide by the logical consequences of actions in that RP, especially given that such events are usually related to a TP. If you do not like the direction the RP is taking, for whatever reason, pose out of the scene or inform the other players of your reservations if that is not ICly feasible. By the same token, players are expected to respect such reservations and do whatever is reasonable to accommodate them.
Logging
Maratha's server logs all commands, in case some sort of code or server problem comes up that can't be resolved without knowing what command triggered it, or for reference in the event of a serious PR issue that cannot be resolved with other evidence. In no other situation will the headwizard access these logs.
Many players log their own conversations and/or scenes as a matter of course; this is not restricted in any way. The game is a public area; tailor your expectation of privacy accordingly. Similarly, posting of logs to this wiki is encouraged; but it is recommended that players make sure everyone else in a scene is okay with the posting, especially for private scenes.
Player Conduct
This game is intended for the mature and responsible players out there, whether they have experience RPing or not. Thus, all rules of conduct really equate to just one: Treat other players with respect.
Don't harass people. Try to compromise whenever possible — on both sides of an issue. Be aware that others may not share your sense of propriety; graphic language may not bother you, but that doesn't mean you should overindulge in it.
Do NOT powergame or twink. This may be a fantasy game, but the laws of physics still apply. Everyone has their limitations, including you — and don't presume anything on the part of another character, because they may not do what you're expecting. If you ask first and get approval for a presumption, though, it's an entirely different matter.
Don't let OOC matters overflow into IC stuff if you can avoid it. At least as importantly, just because you know something OOCly — perhaps from reading a log — does not mean your character shares that knowledge. If you can't keep track of what your character does and doesn't know, as opposed to what you've gotten wind of, maybe you should stop accumulating the OOC knowledge for a while.
This game has a mature rating. Violence and profanity are pretty common on the streets. Comments and scenes of a more sexually explicit nature, on the other hand, are strongly discouraged. There are other games for that; keep it there.
Plots and Events
All players are welcome to run small-scale plots without needing to ask for admin permission. These can be one-night or several-night plots, but cannot have a major impact on the game or result in any substantial benefit to a character (no new items, spells, etc.). They can be preplanned or spontaneous, involve temporary NPCs or not, etc. Most things are fair game, but under no circumstances should a player spoof a character that would require special application to play (Hunters, etc.)… unless, of course, permission is obtained first.
Any large-scale plot, or anything that results in one or more characters gaining resources or abilities, affects their degree of taint, etc. must be approved by the admin before it can be played out. To get approval, send a synopsis of the proposed plot, its timeline, and its effects to moc.liamg|kcumahtaram#moc.liamg|kcumahtaram.
Running major events without admin approval may result in a forced retcon of any related scenes.
Staff Conduct
Staff are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner while connected to their admin accounts. This includes setting aside personal opinions in all situations, inasmuch as possible. In cases where that is not at all possible, they are expected to let a less involved administrator handle the issue and remain in a background role. The distinction between their admin account and other characters must be maintained — personal censure of another player is not to be publicly expressed by a staff alt, so that no confusion is generated regarding the administration's official stance, and staff business is not to be conducted with non-staff alts. Exceptions may be made when the staff alt is tied up in administrative business and some other issue cannot be postponed; in this case, it must be generally known that the alternate and the staffer are the same person, and that the alternate is acting as staff for the time being.
All nontrivial and official staff conversations, whether amongst the admin or between staffer and player, should be logged and submitted to the game's email account for reference purposes and to keep all admin aware of important events. (Answering general questions is trivial; receiving a complaint from a player is not.) Major decisions are not to be made without headwiz approval except in cases where some action must be taken immediately and the head wizard is not available. Especially in these cases, logs are crucial in asserting that the action was warranted. However, most decisions will be made by staff consensus, except when there is no general agreement; then, the headwizard has final say.
Admin cannot act on a complaint or accusation without someone being willing to step forward and state it, unless there is a clear and widespread feeling amongst the playerbase that brings itself to their attention. If players have issues with a rule, the lack of a rule, or with another player, the issue cannot be addressed until someone officially asks for the admin to deal with it. Names of those players will be kept confidential, unless permission is granted otherwise or the situation precludes such. Additionally, in many more serious cases (esp. involving players), administrators will not be able to act unless a log of the event in question is also provided; when the case is a matter of 'he said' and 'she said', very little can be done effectively.
