MUCK Rules

[Bahati]

General
Kings and Vagabonds is a Lion King-themed RP environment with endless room for storytelling. Why, you may wonder, have so many MUCKs (and so much fan fiction) been based on Disney's "The Lion King"? Aside from the popularity of the movie, it surely has something to do with its excellent potential for increased scope. When you roleplay in the world of The Lion King, you can play a species of animal and live in places not shown in the movie, and still fit in perfectly. Kings and Vagabonds is set in the movie's past a generation before its dramatic opening scene, and with luck will last well beyond the end of its sequel. Our chosen setting gives us room for innumerable sideplots, and the opportunities for depth and character development are everywhere.

Since we value freedom and creativity, there aren't a ton of rules you'll have to learn. You are expected to read each of these rules files at least once, however, just so you don't inadvertantly cause trouble that could be avoided.

To begin with, you are expected to keep in mind that this MUCK is based on a family movie and that there are minors playing here. For that reason, we ask you to do nothing that wouldn't be allowed in a PG-13 movie. Sexual roleplay, strong cursing and graphic violence are out. Characters acting romantically affectionate with each other is fine, as is a bit of blood now and then, but please don't go further than that. If you're unsure whether a scene would be acceptable or not, feel free to ask a wizard or staffer.

There are no 'living spaces' on KaV, which is to say, no rooms owned by individual players for the purpose of private RP. This is because we want everyone to be encouraged to interact rather than forming into small, isolated groups. This means that if you want to have a private conversation, you are safest using the commands 'page', 'whisper', 'mail', and 'page #mail'. You are, however, allowed to create homes for your characters and link them to certain designated rooms. It's just that you're not allowed to keep people out of them OOCly, thus designating them to be publically available to everyone.

Privacy policy:

Your privacy is held in the highest regard here on Kings and Vagabonds MUCK. It is therefore our policy for the wizards never to read the server logs in any but the following situations. If there is an issue between players that requires resolution through the use of submitted logs, and there is reason to suspect that a log may have been fabricated, the wizstaff may deem it necessary to access the server log files. They will only do so after receiving permission from all parties involved and reaching a consensus among themselves, and will read only what is relevant to the matter at hand. Any other information found in such cases will be ignored, even when it constutes a violation of MUCK rules, unless it is considered to be a legal issue. In addition, if there is a legal issue that requires investigation, such as persistent harassment or sexual solicitation of a minor, the logs will be turned over, should they be requested, to the proper authorities, without being read by the wizards.

It is permissible to advertise other MUCKs, forums, or other types of roleplaying venues on Kings and Vagabonds, provided that this advertisement is done respectfully and tastefully. We put forth our efforts to benefit our players, which means that we're happy whenever anyone finds comfortable, enjoyable roleplay through KaV MUCK, even if it's somewhere other than here. However, repeated announcements on public chat channels, advertisement through group-pages, announcements in all capitals, and other disruptive types of advertisement will be considered spamming, and may lead to suspension or banning of the accounts involved. Advertisements not related to any form of roleplaying are also not allowed. Should you advertise a venue for roleplay that allows behavior not permitted under a PG-13 rating, you are required to specify this in your advertisement.

In general, you should never feel that there will be retaliation toward you for reporting a violation of any of the rules. If you feel that you have been subject to retaliation or that a MUCK rule has been broken, please report this to a wizard or staffer as soon as possible and he or she will bring it to the attention of the headwizard to investigate the matter.

[Bahati]

Roleplay
Roleplay is the heart of any MUCK. While many of our players have been doing this for years and years, we welcome players who are new to real-time, text-based roleplaying. New players sometimes have trouble fitting in harmoniously at first, so in order to minimize problems, we present a few basic guidelines for having a healthy and fun roleplay experience.

First, you should always give other players a chance to respond to your actions. If you physically interact with another character, don't assume the outcome of this interaction without input from the other player. For example, say you're trying to grab another character. Even if your character is likely to be capable of this feat, it's not a sure thing: the individual you're aiming at could have hidden capabilities, or might just be able to avoid you through dumb luck. Out of respect for other players, you should therefore usually pose physical interactions as attempts rather than declarations. For example, use "Timon throws the rotten fruit at Pumbaa" rather than "Timon smacks Pumbaa with the rotten fruit." This adds a level of interaction to the roleplay and reduces OOC frustration. Exceptions: you may directly impact other players if you've agreed to it ahead of time, if they are set DYN (Dyanamic, see @status #list), or if the contact is minor and unlikely to have a serious effect on the RP (although even then, the player you've affected has the right to change the outcome).

Important note: no character may be killed without their consent. Thus, if you are attacking someone and are close to killing them, you must work with the character's player to find a way for them to escape, unless they have given such consent.

On the flip side of the coin, always remember that no one is perfect, and even the mightiest of rulers have their bad days or things they aren't good at. Don't assume your character is able to avoid any and all damage in a fight, for example, even when overpowered. It will quickly earn you a bad reputation. Likewise, if you are unwilling to lose your character, don't make a habit of putting yourself in life-threatening situations and then insisting that you be given a way out. Again, it will earn you a bad reputation.

!! In-Character Actions = In-Character Consequences! !!

We understand that some players are new to the realm of roleplay and that some of them have for a long time been involved in chatting media and forums that demand speed and efficiency to rule over quality, completeness and depth. However, it would improve upon the other players of the MUCK if you take the time and attention necessary to write your poses as if you were writing an important letter or report with a purpose, including such things as proper spelling, punctuation, watching out for run-on sentences, etc. Emoticons are also not necessary in poses, though they're acceptable for OOC chatting. Also remember that usually the more sentences you have in a pose, the better it looks on the screen, though there is a point where it becomes tedious to read an expansive pose. Three-to-five sentences per pose is a good number to keep with.

Obviously, learning to roleplay well on a MUCK takes experience and practice. Base your poses on what others around you do. And if you feel you're taking too long to generate a single pose, try taking a sentence or two off of it. If at any point you would like to practice roleplaying properly without the scene actually effecting anything ICly, ask a wizard or staffer to do a practice roleplay with you. They can give you constructive criticism and ideas for how to better improve your roleplaying skills.

Respect existing plotlines. If you assume things in your poses, make sure they're consistent with the continuity of the MUCK, and if you've implied something inconsistent by mistake, be willing to redo your pose if asked. Try to keep things moving smoothly. If you're going to be away for a long time and your character is involved in plots, let those you've been playing with know that you'll be gone. If you're going idle for more than a few minutes, set yourself IDLE. If you have to leave in the middle of a scene, try to let everyone know ahead of time and make a final pose that removes your character from the scene.

For further tips on roleplay, ask experienced players, or check out one of the various RP guides and tutorials on the web. And if you're ever confused or uncertain about some situation in a scene, ask a wizard or staffer. They're always available to assist and clarify in confusing situations.

[Bahati]

OOC
Being OOC, or Out-of-Character, means that you are being yourself rather than playing a character. There are several ways to talk OOCly on a MUCK--set yourself OOC, use the osay and opose (or '+ooc' or '>') commands, or talk through pages or chat channels. All conversation in pages and public channels (like Public and Guest) is considered OOC, so do not use them to do your roleplaying. (Joking around in a way that emulates your character is fine, just so long as you're not seriously RPing on public channels.)

When you are in a room where people are roleplaying, you must use one of the above methods if you want to talk OOCly. If you are having a lengthy OOC conversation with someone, it is polite to talk in pages or move to an empty room, so as not to bother people who are RPing. Using the spoof command when OOC in a room where people are RPing is also a no-no.

There is a network of rooms called the OOC Complex, which might be called the administrative center of the MUCK. To go to the OOC Nexus, type 'oocc' from anywhere on the MUCK. Rooms in the OOC Complex include (but are not limited to) the home for newly created characters, the offices of the wizstaff, and the Portal Room which allows you to get quickly to various regions of the MUCK. Everything that goes on in the OOC Complex is OOC.

As with all roleplaying, your character does not automatically have information you learn through OOC means. In some cases it may be appropriate to assume your character knows something that you never RPed learning, (for example, if someone in your pride has been missing for a while, it would probably be fair to assume your character knows about it), but use judgement in exercising this option.

Relationships that occur IC should never be assumed to exist OOC. If your character hates someone IC, please remember that it's just a game and do not carry this hostility into the real world. If another character is in love with yours, do not assume that character's player feels similarly for you. And so forth. We are not our characters, even if they represent aspects of our personalities.

Finally, take note that even when you are OOC, the MUCK's PG-13 rating still applies. Please keep your OOC commentary reasonably decent--there may be minors present.

[Bahati]

Harassment
Kings and Vagabonds MUCK is a venue where players from all over the world can come and roleplay happily and comfortably. If anyone feels that they are no longer happy with the environment on our MUCK due to harassment, we very much hope that they will let us know immediately. The staff takes harassment very seriously, and will not tolerate situations where players feel threatened by others present on the MUCK.

Should you feel you've been harassed, keep a log of the incident and present it to a wizard of staffer as soon as you can. Please mention the time and date somewhere in the log, which can be done by using the MUCK's 'time' command.

Harassment is any unwanted advance that makes the targeted individual uneasy. Some examples: constantly requesting roleplay despite being told no every time; repeatedly asking someone to have your characters be mates; repeated nagging about something the target finds embarassing; insisting that someone speak with you about something that they would rather not speak with you about. Conversely, accusing someone of harassment when nothing untoward has actually occurred may be treated as harassment in turn. If you think you've been harassed, but aren't sure whether the staff will agree, you can safely let us know your feelings without worrying about being disciplined.

Players found to be guilty of harassment will be spoken with and given a single warning. A second offense will result in being banned from the MUCK for a year. Harassment is not something we take lightly.

[Bahati]

Character Creation
Kings and Vagabonds is relatively unrestrictive when it comes to characters. At the same time, players are encouraged to put thought into every character they create! This way, the lands are populated with living beings that matter to the people giving them life, creatures with soul and personality. We also value diversity, because The Lion King wouldn't have had a fraction of its wonder-inducing scope if the only animals in it were lions!

The rules are as follows. You can have as many characters as you want with only minor limitations. For each male lion character you have, you have to have at least one non-leonine character, and you have to play it at least comparably often! As for species, the possibilities are vast. Any African species is allowed, even if it doesn't live in East Africa (although if your character comes from a place particularly far away, like Madagascar, you should put the background story of how and why it came here in your pinfo). Extinct species are allowed if they died out because of human influence. After all, we've got none of that here!

There is no formal rule for what names are allowed, but we encourage you to use African names, words, or phrases. Swahili is the African language most often used on Lion King MUCKs, followed by Zulu. If you want help, you can find naming resources on the forum. As for non-African names, we will probably approve of them if they're interesting and unusual enough. The wizstaff reserves the right to ask you to change your character's name if we find it inappropriate for the setting.

You are allowed to play physically unusual characters, but in order to keep things relatively sane, each player is only allowed one 'special' character, which includes Maneless or Barbary lions, albino characters, and inter-species hybrids such as the marozi or zedonk. Other particularly odd colorations or features may also be deemed 'special'.

If you want to play a character with supernatural powers, such as the ability to speak with the dead or control the weather, you must get approval from a wizard or staffer before @requesting the character. These characters are great fun, but if they were too common, their wonder would be diminished. The same goes for animals with coloration or features that just don't occur in nature, like a spotted lion--we -may- approve such characters, but you have to make your case in advance.

To get a character, just type @request and fill in the fields as instructed. You'll be asked for your name, birthday and e-mail, and for your character's name, sex, species, age and password. You'll also be asked to type a little bit about your character's personality and history. You don't need to be exhaustive as you would in a pinfo file--two or three sentences each will do. We simply ask that each new character have a little thought behind it. If your character is very young, all you have to enter under Biography is whom he or she is being born to. If you want to play a young character with no parents, you'll have to explain where your character came from and how he or she has been able to survive so far. Generally, if you want to play a cub or juvenile character, it's best to arrange to be someone's child rather than an orphan.

Once you've completed the EasyRequest form, your character will be created and entered into the list for validation. Whenever a wizard has some time to look it over (which is usually right away), he or she will have a brief conversation about the character with you--a welcoming interview, in a manner of speaking. If there are issues with your character that need to be resolved, this is your chance to discuss them. Assuming there are no problems, your character will be validated and you'll be free to RP!

This system is a compromise between extremely informal systems that tend to let a MUCK get cluttered with seldom-used characters, while players run the risk of being spread too thin, and systems that use web-based or e-mail applications and can take a long time to approve. This way, you can create a new character and be playing it in as little as ten minutes!

[Bahati]

Building
Building on KaV is generally restricted to wizards. We have seen too many MUCKs succumb to the sprawl that results when everyone builds whatever rooms they like where they like, leaving groups of players isolated and distant. So, we control the layout of our MUCK rather tightly.

We are, however, open to suggestions for new lands, or to modifications with existing ones. If you have a proposed building project, however large or small, bring it up with a wizard or staffer. If it sounds reasonable, you will be asked for more details and possibly for a map of the proposed area. The staff may offer to build the area for you, or we may give you a builder bit in order to let you do it yourself, in which case we will @chown the lands to a wizard and list your chosen name as the author (which will also be the name of the parent environment room for your creation, in case it needs to be modified or removed in the future).

In cases where we give you free reign to build an area without precise specifications, please don't be upset if we don't end up linking it to the grid. There may simply not be a good place to put it, or we may decide that it's not suitable for the MUCK. That's the risk you take if you wish to build without prior consultation. In a case like this it may be a good idea to check in with a wizard or staffer as you go so that you can get feedback.

Small homes for characters are an exception to these rules. Some rooms will be designated as linkable for homes, such as burrows, caves, and trees, and these can be built and linked without staff permission, however you should be aware that these rooms are still public.

[Bahati]

Feature Characters
Feature Characters, or FCs, are characters that come from source material--in this case, the Lion King movies and books. On KaV, Feature Characters are not given special weight when we design plots, although they may end up being important simply by virtue of their position. Because the Feature Characters, familiar faces that they are, are a valuable part of the Kings and Vagabonds environment, there are some restrictions given to the people who play them.

Feature Characters are required to be reasonably active. Players of FCs are required to be present and at least willing to RP for three hours per week. This is a bare minimum--we would like FCs to be a lot more active than this. In addition, FC players must submit at least one RP log in which they figure prominently every month. This log can be posted on the forum by the players themselves or by others, or, if preferred, sent privately to wizstaff. Alternatively, an FC player may send the wizstaff a timeline or summary of his or her FC's roleplays for a particular month.

If an FC player has to take a hiatus from playing his or her character for any reason, he or she must let the wizstaff know. If they deem it necessary, they will appoint a replacement player for that period of time, who handles FC responsibilities while the primary player is unavailable. Please be aware that extended absences, such as four or more months, may bring about an evaluation period to determine who is allowed to play the character upon your return.

In some cases, the wizstaff may designate FC status (or more precisely, OFC, or Original Feature Character status) for certain original characters who are particularly important for a particular plot, or who have become exceptionally important to the MUCK as a whole. The same activity requirements will then apply to them as well.

When a Feature Character becomes available, a new player will be selected by the wizstaff, or (often) in the case of OFCs, by the leader of the group or plot in which the OFC figures prominently. The selection process may involve auditions and/or applications, or it may simply be based on who those involved know that they think would fit the part. FC vacancies will be announced in motd and in Staff Announcements on the forum.

[Bahati]

Wizards
To begin with, wizards on Kings and Vagabonds MUCK are required to follow all the same rules that the players do. They are not above the law. In addition, there are a few rules for how the wizards are to use their special powers.

The @toad command, which erases a player and repossesses all of his or her objects, is not taken lightly. There are two general types of @toading: required @toading and requested @toading. Required @toading is done for one of two reasons. A player who has broken the rules so badly or often that they must be removed will be @toaded, and players who have been idle for several months will occasionally be @toaded (after e-mail warning) in an alt purge. These operations are carried out by a single wizard in charge of @toading.

Requested @toading is done for a player who wishes to remove one or more characters from his or her account. It is preferred that players who want characters @toaded should contact the @toading wizard, but any wizard can do this. When @toading a character by request, wizards should verify that it does in fact belong to the requesting player by checking that player's altlist and by comparing their last-connected hosts.

In order to avoid the occasional but dangerous mishaps that can result from mistyping a letter or number when @recycling or @chowning objects, wizards are asked to take precautions. When using these commands, they must always use database reference numbers (or dbrefs), rather than object names. They must make sure that the objects they are @chowning or @recycling are not vital parts of other things, such as program commands or exits connecting active rooms. In the case of objects owned by non-wizard players active on the MUCK, wizards must ask permission before @chowning or @recycling them. Wizards should avoid @recycling objects that do not belong to them when possible. If a wizard @recycles something by accident, he or she must let the headwiz know immediately, in hopes that he can identify and replace it.

Teleporting players through the @teleport command, while helpful, can also be annoying, especially if they weren't expecting it. Therefore, if someone asks for directions, wizards should first just try telling them how to get there. They can ask if the player would like to be teleported, but should remember that the room the player is headed for may not be easily accessible for a reason, and that it may not make sense for their character to be there. For example, if a lion asks to be @teleported into a meerkat tunnel for IC reasons, the wizard should refuse.

It is easy for a wizard to look at a player's MUCK properties. Some of the information stored there, however, is private, and wizards are therefore asked not to view player properties without first asking for permission, even when doing it to fix problems. Most players will agree to this, but if a player refuses, wizards must respect the request for privacy.

Wizards are not required to be available at all times when connected to the MUCK, but they should try to be available more often then not. After all, the wizards have jobs, families, lives, and so forth (suuuuuure!), but while they are around and active they should usually consider themselves On-Duty and agree to assist with problems and player requests. This goes double for when there is only one wizard logged on.