DM Rules and Guidelines

Rules – The rules of the staff must be followed at all times, a breach of them will earn a DM a warning. If they breach them a second time, they will be demoted or removed from the staff. A third time and they may be temporarily banned from the server or removed from the staff permanently.

The main overarching focus of staff is one thing. We are here to make DLB an enjoyable experience for all players involved in it. The players come first and foremost, and staff are here to facilitate this experience for them. DMs should be logging into client regularly and making sure requests are answered quickly as well as events take place for the players. Admins, builders and scripters should make sure updates are done in good time as well as documented and implemented properly.

1. DMs should strive to be personable and talkative with the players, whilst it has always been that one must be professional, it does not require one to be inhuman about it. Having good interactions with players is as important as performing ones job properly. You are expected to behave in a manner befitting anyone on our server, though to also lead an example for others.

2. DMs are expected to be polite and well mannered, even when criticising others or when rectifying a problem with a player or amongst players. Outright rudeness will not be tolerated.

3. DMs must not make DM only available information available to the players. This includes information from DM land, as well as IG information such as levels of others. A DM is an OOC construct to deliver IC RP to the players, enhancing their play time, however if it is mistreated it will be dealt with immediately.

4. DMs are expected to answer player requests and queries promptly, and if they are unable to do so, then to get back to them when they are no longer busy. If this is impossible as it sometimes will be, sending them to the forums or another DM is what one should do.

5. DMs are expected to resolve disputes amongst the players objectively. If one feels they cannot deal with a player or players objectively, they are to step back and inform said players that the matter will be handled by another DM. It is expected then that the staff are immediately informed of the issue and then deal with it as soon as possible.

6. DMs are expected to confront other DMs openly on topics they disagree with or believe the other DM is acting wrongly on. They are to do so in an adult fashion, and provide the argument for what they think and why they believe such. A HDM should mediate such situations and come to a resolution on the matter. DMs are expected to be able to work as a team and confront each other appropriately, not work behind the backs of others because they feel their opinions are not considered valid. If a DM feels another ADM/DM or HDM is incapable of doing their job properly any more, they are to take this up with their group HDM, who will then share and discuss the concern with the other HDMs.

7. DMs are expected to be objective in their eventing. No group is to be favoured over another, and faction DMs are expected to involve parties other than their faction in their events from time to time, to avoid cliques being formed and allowing players to interact with different RP paths. If DMs are found to be favouring one particular group or area over another, they may be assigned another one for some time in order to spread the DM activity around, and debunk the claims of DM favouritism.

8. DMs are expected to DM for the players first, and this includes when a player feels an event has been done poorly or they must OOCly back out of it. Allow the player to do so, and then address the concerns afterwards. If either the player feels the DMs response is inadequate, or the DM feels the player has no grounds on which to complain, contact the HDM of the area and have them mediate the issue.

9. DMs may not use extreme RP in their events directly, though it may be that the story requires the 'hint' of the RP having taken place (a prisoner may look like they have been tortured, but a DM may by no means conduct the torture RP wise as part of the event). Any DM found to be making extreme RP a direct part of their events will be warned against such.

When unsure about a rule, do not hesitate to ask another DM or HDM on the matter, it is better to put it off for a day or so than to enact something that has to be revoked due to breaking the rules.

Events – As said many times now, events are the key focus of the DM team, and as such there will be a lot to consider when running one and the responsibilities of the DM running an event.

1. DMs MUST keep their own personal log on time spent on client, and are expected to be on client at least once a week. ADMs are encouraged to do so, but are not required to. This does not mean one needs to write an essay on each time spent on client, merely insert a date, time spent and a general outline of what happened.
For example, 12/01/14, spent 2 hours running small interactions with players, as well as handling requests.

2. DMs are not expected to run only the server plot or main events that effect the entire player base. Small interactions are as encouraged as this, though what matters is getting on client and doing something. A DM is encouraged to find their strong point and hone their skills on this, providing the best experience they can to players.

3. DMs are expected to create events for all types of levels and play styles. Sometimes people like the old Diablo style mash up events, whilst others prefer almost totally RP centric events with little combat or mechanics. Both are needed in order to fulfil all players expectations of a good server.

4. DMs should handle the players in their events accordingly, and players are expected to treat DM events with respect. If a player begins to disrupt an event through their OOC actions, pause the event and attempt to rectify the situation, if this proves impossible, porting the problem player away is acceptable. At no point should a players IC RP meet an OOC interaction however, and if a players character is simply being out of place to the style of event (example, an Orcish barbarian trying to covertly infiltrate an Elven camp), they should be met with IC consequences.

Rewards – Every event should have a reward, either a material possession, RP benefit or simply tokens. Without them, an event would be typically meaningless (even a purely RP event gives tokens for the RP that it receives).

1. DMs should think RP first when giving out items to players. Not always is the reward going to be particularly powerful, but useful nonetheless. Items should have a certain uniqueness if they are not immediately powerful (a +4 sword might be nice, but a ring that allows its wearer to translate texts is equally useful, if for different reasons). Certain items that give RP abilities are acceptable, but may only be used when a DM is present, take the ring stated above for example. These add more diversity to the RP of players in general.

2. DMs may award languages now if a series of events take place with the character learning the language. These are to be presented as an application first to the DM team, and then approved before the event string may take place.

3. DMs should reward appropriately to the RP used to attain them, a barbarian that beats up a troll isn't going to be interested in magical robes, but the merchant he saved may offer him a better stick to beat trolls up with instead.

4. DMs should not be stringent with their rewards, typically, a planned event between a DM and the players initiating the roleplay should yield a medium token or appropriate item rewards. Off the bat events (ones that happen spontaneously) should often give anything from 1-3 lesser tokens. Epic tokens may be awarded for truly epic events, these need to involve situations that may permanently kill characters (in which case they get the epic token and the perma death bonuses), include either the server plot or a main faction plot, and minimum last 4-6 hours, or a series of events, such events should be recorded onto the server lore section, and passed in a vote by the staff. It is encouraged that tokens are given instead of exp, as exp may be attained via the tokens if players wish for them (unless of course the exp comes from a particular boss fight or battle event). Rewards for RP should be first and foremost, rewarding. Players want to have fun, and getting stuff which is either unusual, unique or useful to their character is worthwhile, whereas mundane, easily attainable or simply items a character cannot use is not rewarding.

Problem Players – At some point it is likely that a player will be dissatisfied by a DMs event or RP, this is just something DMs have to deal with and it is better to deal with the problem immediately than let it escalate into a full on complaint.

1. DMs are expected to remain calm and polite when confronted with a dissatisfied player. Always screenshot these conversations and post up a problem player thread on the forums afterwards if necessary and the issue was not resolved in the immediate discussion. If it is too much to handle at the time, step back from the player and ask them to refrain from contact, which if they cannot, warn to kick them from the server (and proceed to do so) if they do not listen. Either get another DM to stand in if possible, or post up the screenshots in a problem player thread.

2. DMs may have to deal with PvP situations between players, in which case they must encourage good civil discourse OOCly between the players, but make sure the IC remains IC. If problems arise, screenshot both players views on the matter and post it up in DM land or discuss it with other DMs.

3. DMs must never counter OOC issues with IC measures, this is against the job of a DM. If a player acts uncooperative OOC, they must not be hampered IC because of it. If the player cannot discern the difference between the OOC issue and IC measures, any conflicting RP must be paused until it is solved between the DM and player. If no answer can be reached, post up on DM land screenshots of the conversation or converse with other DMs on the matter.

Banning Players – Sometimes it becomes necessary to ban players due to their misconduct either on the forums or IG after repeated offences or simply doing something that harms the entire community of DLB (this could be hacking the server). In these cases, banning the player is necessary and needs to be done properly.

1. DMs may warn a player about their misconduct if they become too difficult to handle, such as refusing to accept a staff ruling or actively working against one.

2. DMs may temporarily ban any player committing an offence to the server rules after they have been warned previously, a temporary ban should last for one week, and the player should be informed why they have been banned temporarily.

3. DMs may have to permanently ban a player that repeat offends after a temporary ban, or simply commits a huge offence to the server. In these cases, the HDMs must come to a unanimous decision.

4. DMs may only use prior offences as reasoning to ban someone only when there is evidence to back up the claim, if there is none and the player denies it, it must be assumed the player is telling the truth.

5. DMs, under extreme circumstances, (hackers, deliberate trolls or similar) may immediately ban people. These bans must be recorded on the DM forums still.

Metagaming – Metagaming is not tolerated. Players who are aware of what metagaming is (long standing players, players who have committed such before) must be issued a formal warning, this must be recorded on the DM forums. First time offenders or newer players must be directed to the server rules section, so that they may see why metagaming is banned and how it effects the server and others RP.

Extra rules:
1. DMs must never have a deity enter any plotline without staff approval, the DM in question may receive a formal warning if this is breached.

2. DMs may delevel players (any amount of levels), switch one feat per character (the player chose a feat earlier than their build would have, so may not access classes before 20 for example) and give small rebuilds up to level 5 for free. Anything else must be done via application on the forums.

3. DMs may shift players alignments up to 5 points maximum due to RP they have witnessed. If a player chose an alignment they feel is inappropriate to their character on creation, they may have it shifted totally. Any other large alignment changes must have an application and documented RP.

4. DMs may give players deity changes if they are aware of the players RP, get approval from two other players who have witnessed the conversion process, or if the player feels they made a bad deity choice for their character either on creation or pre-tenth level. Any other deity changes must go through an application process with documented RP.

5. DMs may enforce perma death on a player through the perma death rules, however they must inform the player BEFORE any RP takes place that the player will/may die through their actions.

6. DMs may grant languages to players for the following reasons: the characters INT modifier exceeds the number of languages currently known, the character is Human and therefore receives one free language, the characters background RP makes sense for the character not to know one of their racial languages and it may be swapped out (Aasimar that has never been to a celestial plane for example), the character spends a medium token and documents RP of learning a new language.

7. DMs may change the names of characters if appropriate RP has taken place (such as joining a guild or getting married etc.), otherwise an application needs to be made on the forums.

DM Rewards - DMs may ask for and be granted DM rewards for time spent on the client and recorded on the forums.

DMs may receive 10k exp per week, or 2 lesser tokens.
ADMs may receive 5k exp per week, or 1 lesser token. (Half of full time DM compensation)

A DM may collect a few weeks worth of rewards at once if they wish and they have not taken any rewards for some time, as well as having logged their DM time when being on client.

To claim compensation for DMing, the following is required per week:

1 event minimum that is no less than 1 hour AND involves at least two players
-OR-
5 hours minimum AND taking care of at least one player request.

Detailed logs of these, especially events, are also required for claiming compensation.

The (A)DM handing out the compensation to their fellow DM is expected to make sure the above requirements are met and they must log the reward given on the appropriate DMs log.

In addition to the base compensation granted for regular and active Dming, 2k exp will be granted for each event that lasts at least an hour long IN ADDITION TO the 1 event required, up to a max of 6k exp (4 events per week) OR 1 lesser (if the 6k is achieved). This means that if a full time DM chooses, they can get a maximum of 16k exp per week of logged activity (unless they choose the token reward from the base compensation). An ADM would be able to get a max of 11k exp (unless tokens were chosen from base compensation)

Logs must be in the following format:

Event Date:
Event Length:
Reward:
Participants:
Event Summary:
Personal Notes:

In the event of players purchasing an item with tokens, receiving rebuilds, fixes, or asking questions, etc, the following format is to be used:

Players interacted with:
Length of interactions:
What was done:

DM Logs – DMs must keep a log of all events they run client side that have significance either to a faction, area or the server. ADMs are not required. A log does not need to be an essay on what has happened, but should typically include these things:
Date/Time/Location
Length of event
Players associated (number will do fine)
Important NPCs involved (if any)
Brief summary of the event that took place (Lord Gnasher sent some Goblins out of their village to raid Shadowdales farmland, a few farmers were killed and some captured before the guards could chase the raiders back into the barn. Local adventurers then went down into the caves and met heavier resistance than usual, but eventually defeated the goblins and rescued some captured farmers.)
Any special rewards/RP (recognition from a local merchant, a favour from the thieves guild, a whistle that summons rodents etc. etc.)

This is so other DMs know what has occurred about the server, and how this will effect their events, the RP of the NPCs, and to generally keeps things in order. It also allows DMs to have more detail in their events (particular NPCs remembering players actions), which gives a better feel of immersion and atmosphere to the playerbase.