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The Rules

Like any game, BattleMaster has a few rules to it. (Make Delvin write this paragraph).

There is the Social contract, and Government Rules. The Social contract is a summary of all of rules players follow, detailing acceptable behaviour for a good game play environment. It is broken into a few parts, each of which are discussed at length below the summary of each concept. The Government rules are meant for those that take a Dukeship, or a Council position (Ruler, General, Judge, Banker) in the game, and are related to certain expectations and buttons associated with those positions.

When someone is suspected of breaking the rules, the Titans are called to discuss guilt, and pass punishment on the player in question if required. To report potential violations, go to Messages, and on the far right there is a link to "Contact the Titans." Should you have any questions about a rule, please bring it up politely on the forum (Case Archives > Questions and Answers), on Discord (!titans <message>), or in an email to admins (mailto:community@battlemaster.org). More information on the Titans can be found here: Titans_and_Magistrates.

How this document works:

This document is set up in layers for your convenience. When you begin play, the only thing you really need to read is the headers to each expandable box. Each header has further, expanded information below it, as bold text, and then that bold text is further expanded below each statement. As time goes on, and especially as you gain more responsibility within the game, we do expect you to read and understand the bold text, but the information below that text is really only for clarification, certain exemptions, edge cases, and explanation of a rule's purpose. Should you need further explanation, the Titans can answer questions via the formats outlined above. Sometimes a question will be a new edge case for them to discuss, so it may take a little time to get a response.

Basically:

Anything in these boxes, you should read and understand right away.

1.1 Anything that is bold, you should read as you gain more responsibility: Anything that is normal text is just clarifications and edge cases, and is for reference only.

The Social contract

There are seven tenets of the Social contract. These rules have been put in place as OOC fun preserving tools, and they serve to ensure that everyone can play the game the way they like without having to worry about things that are OOC fun destructive. Each point is laid out in detail below.

1. Activity is the #1 right of every player.

All players have an absolute right to log in as frequently or as rarely as suits them, and stay online as little or as much as they wish.

1.1 Players have an absolute right to pause their characters, temporarily or permanently.

• Being able to be inactive at any time, for reasons he doesn't have to disclose, with no prior warning or excuse, is the one holy right of every BattleMaster player. Anyone so much as touching it will feel my unrestrained wrath. --Tom 20:46, 15 May 2006 (CEST)

1.2 This does not exempt characters from expectations to fulfil basic duties when the player is still active: It does not protect players who do not actually interact or play, and only log in enough to avoid auto-pausing/auto-abdication. Egregious negligence of the duties of a title holder is not only There are still many in-game consequences of not interacting.

• The auto-abdication limit is 5 days for council positions, 7 dukedoms and lordships. Auto-pausing is set to 14 days.
• Any time limits imposed on characters should keep this in mind. For example, if a knight has not responded to a letter threatening to be kicked from their estate for a week, the Lord must wait at least 7 more days(for a total of 14 days, which is the auto pause timer) to be sure the knight has logged in before acting on the knight's inaction.
• Short periods of inactivity (see the auto abdication limits) are well protected under this rule. This means that if a short term issue arises, it is a violation of the rules to hold someone to being in game right then and there to deal with it. When we say "not interacting" or "not fulfilling basic duties" we mean over long periods of time, like 10 days or more for a council member. Furthermore, a council member that is "bench warming" does not excuse anyone to break Rule #1. Always give time for the player to respond to accusations of bench warming.

1.3 This rule applies across all platforms that are Battlemaster related: In everything from Facebook to Discord, 'badgering' people or expecting 'activity' either in the game or on the platform is still considered a violation of these rules. While 'pinging' someone is not an issue, expecting someone to instantly reply to that notification is just as bad as assuming they will do so in the BattleMaster interface itself. Any issues on other platforms between players that are related to the game can be screenshot and reported to the titans via a link pasted in the titan message interface (uploading directly is not currently possible), privately via email(mailto:community@battlemaster.org) or sending a private message to an admin on Discord.

2. Play as with friends (Or: Be nice with OOC actions)

Treat others as you would want to be treated. The general idea is act like you are sitting a a table with your friends for DnD or a board game night.

2.1 Treat other players personally with respect out of game: While this should be something that shouldn't have to be said, treat other players like you would like to be treated. BattleMaster is a community that includes people of all ages, and from countries and cultures around the world, so being nice to each other is a must.

2.2 Accurately tag all graphic roleplays: Please remember that what is fun and thrilling to you may be gruesome and horrific to someone else. Thus, BattleMaster now includes a system for tagging of roleplays of a graphic nature. If you include any sort of explicit violence, sexual scenes, or other disturbing content in your roleplay, you must use the appropriate tags to mark it. This allows people who do not wish to read such roleplays to have them automatically hidden from their messages.

2.3 Do not threaten Titan reports: If you have reason to believe another player has broken or may be breaking one or more of the rules, it is fine to inform them of this, referencing the rule(s) in question. However, never say that you will report someone to the Titans if they do or do not do something. If you feel that they deserve to be reported, just report them and let the Titans determine if they deserve punishment.

2.4 Do not publicly accuse anyone of rule breaking. In the same vein as the above, if you believe someone has broken a rule, do not make a public accusation of such, either in-game or in any other medium. Report them to the Titans and let them make the determination—and remember, you do not always have the whole story. It is permissible to reference past publicly-stated Titan verdicts against a player, but please only do so if it is directly relevant to a current conversation.

• Allowing public accusations, even with what you believe to be evidence, can all too easily lead to other players falsely shunning or turning against another player. The Admins and Titans have information at their disposal that no player does, and are well-equipped to find out the truth of any such accusations.
• The restriction on expressing these frustrations in-game is due to the inability of those being complained about to present their side of the story there. There has been an unfortunate history of a player or small group of players misinterpreting an event, getting angry about it, discussing it amongst themselves, making conclusions and becoming more angry, and then spreading their anger at the volunteers to other players, all without there ever being an opportunity to explain that what they were angry about in the first place was based on incorrect or incomplete information. It's not a fair, or productive, discussion that does not involve key stakeholders. We are interested in your concerns, but they need to be given via an appropriate venue. Furthermore, Titans are anonymous fellow players and have much more limited options to respond, thus more limited options to appropriately address concerns.

2.5 Do not insult or complain about the volunteers running this game (Admins, Developers, Game Masters, Discord Moderators, or any other volunteer team) in any in-game messages. If you object to any of their decisions, please bring it up politely on the forum, on Discord, or in an email to admins (mailto:community@battlemaster.org). Constructive criticism is welcome, but thoughtlessly spreading negative attitudes toward those who volunteer their time for the game will not be tolerated. If your complaint is regarding the Titans, the only place they should be directed to is the Admins, via either a private message on discord, or an email (mailto:community@battlemaster.org).

A note directly from Delvin Anaris, Admin and Owner of Battlemaster: publicly accusing volunteers of any kind of bias is unacceptable; volunteers are players too, and have every right to play the game in peace. If you genuinely suspect such bias, report it to me , personally, and privately; if you suspect me of bias, you should know that I don't even know enough about what's going on IC 99.99% of the time to care about realms or characters. If you still suspect me of bias, too damn bad, I run the game and don't have time for your personal fantasies.

3. BattleMaster is not a game to be "won."(Or: Be nice with IC actions)

BattleMaster is a game where you are building a cooperative story. It is about the journey, and not the destination. Always consider your fellow player behind the screen when making in character choices.

3.1 Treat other players personally with respect in game: treat their fun as being as important as your own. Every player has their own way to play BattleMaster, and we want to foster that. Under this idea, there are a few specifically called out rules:

3.1(a) Choosing which type of unit to command: It is important to us that players be given the freedom to develop their characters in the ways that they see fit. This often means specializing in particular unit types. Any 'request' of unit type is a violation of the rules.

3.1(b) Choosing class: It is important to us that players be given the freedom to develop their characters in the ways that they see fit. Choosing your character’s class is a very important part of that, as it determines the mechanical actions available to them and defines their place in the social structure. No one can tell you, or even request that you change class, for any reason.

3.1(c) Going to tournaments: It is important to us that players be given the opportunity to interact in-character with characters outside their realms, and tournaments are one of the few places where that is commonly possible. No, it does not matter if Evilstan is knocking on your capitals front door.

• It should be noted, these rules are collectively known as the Inalienable Rights. They are the rights of each and every player, and will be punished with extreme prejudice.
• "however..." / "but..." / "Not Orders:" some people try to circumvent the restrictions by careful choice of words. Do not accept that. If your boss at work or your commander in the army says "could you please be so kind as to..." you would be foolish to assume that it was not an order you just received. Same in BattleMaster - a ruler saying "I can't (or don't want to) order you to ..., but ..." is violating your inalienable right. When it comes to inalienable rights, "requests" are the same as orders.
  • Any sentence that goes roughly like "I know that (xxx is a right, you can't be ordered to, etc.), however ... (continuation that refers to exactly that inalienable right)" is almost always a violation of the rules. If you refer to an inalienable right and then continue the sentence with "however...", "but..." or any other grammatical construct that negates the first part, you are almost certainly in violation of the inalienable right.
• How to Act: how should someone in a position of power treat these rights? By acknowledging and moving on. Almost all long-winded texts are just sophisticated attempts to circumvent them. The basic rule is: Just shut up and stay 100 feet away from any and all inalienable rights, no matter how well-meaning you are. Some of the worst events of both human history and in BattleMaster were done by people with good intentions.
  • If there's a tournament, don't point out how important it is not to go or discuss the political and strategic consequences. Many players will take such discussions as hidden threats. Do not speak out against going to tournaments, IC or OOC, for whatever reason. If you would like more traders in your realm, come up with incentives and find out why people don't want to be traders. Don't lament to the realm, come up with a solution, that's your job as ruler or banker.
  • If some player explicitly asks for your advice, then feel free to give him some. Don't use it as an opportunity to give it to the entire realm.
  • In general, it is best to stay well clear of these rights, no matter how well-meaning or innocent your intentions. With the sheer number of players with very different backgrounds, there is always a reasonable risk that someone will misinterpret you.

3.2 You can't win BattleMaster. Don't try:

3.3 Don't take conflicts personally: Please remember that all roleplays are entirely about the characters, not the players behind them. That means you should try not to feel upset if someone's character is attacking your character, because it's not about you, the player. That also means that you should never take out your frustration with an in-character conflict on a player.

3.4 Always give newcomers the benefit of the doubt: BattleMaster is an exceptionally difficult game to learn, and this covers everything from wrong line settings, to accidentally looting a region. New players are to be welcomed, not treated as suspicious or stupid.

• This includes "gatekeeping" actions, such as forcing new nobles into poor estates or keeping them in the "home army."

3.5 Base your opinions and decisions about characters on their actions not previous allegiances: Having, or having had, a character in an enemy realm is *never*, on its own, sufficient grounds for a ban.

3.6 Creating chaos in character is fine, but do so with 'Play with Friends' in mind: It is fine to enjoy creating chaos in-character. Having a trouble-making character is a great way to spur activity in a realm, and can make wonderful stories. However, there are some players in the past that have abused the previous two rules to try to only troll a certain realm/faith or family.

• If you are just spending your days using your account to try to break things and troll people because it is 'fun for you,' that is not ok.
• If you join a realm, cause trouble, and get banned for it, you are expected not to join that realm with a new character to cause trouble again any time soon.
• Attacking a single family or group across islands is bullying, and will not be tolerated.

4. Don't cheat.

One account per person. Play through bugs that effect you, report bugs you can cause.

4.1 Report bugs: When you encounter behaviour in the game that seems to be unintended, please report it at https://bugs.battlemaster.org at your earliest opportunity.

• If it is something transitory and out of your control, but not massively game-breaking, like a turn script failure or a combat that didn’t run, play through the bugs. Don’t worry about trying to pretend that the bug didn’t happen, or concern yourself with trying to 'fix' the bug by avoiding actions that you could take under normal circumstances.
• If it is something more long-lasting, or something you can deliberately trigger, taking advantage of it is absolutely forbidden. Those found deliberately exploiting bugs will receive very little mercy.

4.2 No player is permitted more than a single account: This is called 'multi-cheating' and always results in permanent locks to all accounts involved.

• This includes an absolute prohibition on "account babysitting" or "co-playing". If your child/sibling/friend/etc is not old enough, or not interested enough, to play their own account entirely on their own, then they are not ready for BattleMaster yet.
• While you can make a fresh account, you must delete the previous account first.

5. Do not intentionally 'skirt' or 'go around' mechanical limitations.

This includes 'clanning,' 'placeholders,' 'strategic capital moves,' and 'field gold trading,' to name a few examples.

5.1 Strategic capital moves are prohibited: This means moving one's capital for the purpose of closer refitting times in a war. Moving a capital to a central region of the realm or for roleplay reasons (historical, realm named based on capital name, removing a rival duke's power base, keeping a rival duke close by to be watched etc.) are acceptable.

• This includes strategic secession. Creating a new realm, through secession, in order to circumvent recruiting-in-capital-only restriction is prohibited. Friendly secessions are okay.

5.2 Transfers of gold (not bonds) outside of cities, guildhouses, or temples is prohibited: It upsets the balance of the game, allowing long-distance wars due to providing gold in the field. There's a reason there's a difference between gold and bonds. This includes trading unique items specifically to transfer gold.

5.3 Trading items from your adventurer to your noble is also prohibited. The game stops you from doing it yourself, so do not try to "go around" this mechanic. This includes passing an item to a different player character as a mule between your noble character and adventurer character.

5.4 No placeholders: Lordships, Dukeships, and government positions are all positions of the utmost importance and not mere jobs to be shuffled around. If someone holds one of these positions, they are to be considered its rightful holder. Never appoint or elect someone purely to hold the position until "the real holder" returns. This also helps to ensure that new people get a chance to hold these positions more than once in a blue moon.

5.5 Exclusive OOC clans are forbidden:

• The word “clan” has a very fraught history in BattleMaster. Many groups over the years have joined with different intentions, and it is important to be able to distinguish a harmful OOC clan from a group of players that happen to know each other from outside the game.
  • If a group is based entirely on IC criteria, and anyone can create a character and join, it is fine.
  • If it is based on OOC criteria, and excludes those not in your OOC circle, that is not fine. This is true whether it is powerful enough to control a realm, religion, or other in-game structure, and exclude other players from agency within that structure, or if it is not able to do so. Either way, there is an exclusion. BattleMaster is meant to be a game you play with everyone, not stay in the corner with just your little group and shut out everyone else.
• There is no problem with “playing with friends”, whether those friends were made in the game or outside, however, you must not deliberately attempt to play with only those friends, especially in ways that exclude others or ruin others' fun.
  • This is to help protect from OOC "cliquing." Many a good realm has fallen into silence because a small group of players choose to exclude everyone else.
• 'Realm Discords' are fine, as long as they are public to your entire realm. It has come up in some cases that some realms have "Realm Discords" or other, similar groups OOC. Community building is never going to be punished, we encourage all players to get to know each other out of character. However, if the group conducts substantive BattleMaster business, the group must be public to your entire realm. A realm discord, for example, should have the invite link somewhere public, such as the ruler bulletin.

6. Be polite with personal information

Don't share other players' personal information without their consent.

6.1 Keep other peoples' personal information to yourself: BattleMaster is played over years, and people tend to make friends with each other over time. As such, some more personal information is occasionally shared to each other, or over small groups. If you learn private information about another player such as their name, location, or age, that is expected to be kept confidential unless they have explicitly consented to have it shared, or they have done so publicly themselves.

6.2 The personal information you enter will be kept on the game server and not given to any third parties: If you choose to make your information public, it will be published on this site. You agree to not give the personal information of other players to any third parties.

7. Roleplay within the setting.

BattleMaster is a medieval low fantasy game. Every player character is human. No, there are not guns or spaceships.

• While repeated violations of the roleplaying rules are a violation of the social contract, making mistakes in roleplay is common. Honest mistakes, and learning (or re-learning!) the game are not something we punish anyone for.

7.1 Game mechanics define reality: Anything that is stated in game is truth. If there is a battle between Kelperstan and Evilstan, and Evilstan wins, there is no amount of roleplay that changes that. While you can certainly play a character that thinks Kelperstan won that battle, you must make it clear in your roleplay that that is not the case. This includes being factual in OOC conversations.

• There are many things that the game does not model that you can roleplay about your character and have it be truth. Some examples are: chronological age, physical description, personality, cooking proficiency, etc.

7.2 Never play other people's characters: Just as you cannot control my thoughts and actions, neither you nor your character can control the thoughts and actions of other players' characters. This doesn't mean you can never include their thoughts or actions in your roleplays, it just means that anything you roleplay them as doing must be with their consent. This also extends, though to a lesser extent, to NPCs created by other players—you can roleplay their basic actions and words when they're present for a roleplay of yours, but they must always act in accordance to what has been established by the player that created them. In particular, they must not be roleplayed to act against that player's characters' interests unless they have already been established doing so.

• Major changes to other people's characters require consent: Similarly to the above, anything that would be a major change to another player's character—such as losing an eye or limb, and certainly entering into any kind of agreement, as that would require their character's action to consent—must not be done without the player's prior agreement.
• Don't "god mode" in roleplays: Like in regular gameplay, your character is not omnipotent or omniscient in roleplays. If you and another player are roleplaying an in-character conflict of any sort, please remember that you do not get to just decide that you win, regardless of their roleplay. Naturally, this is a bit subjective, but please remember that you are expected to treat other players like friends.

7.3 Humans only: All player characters and player-controlled NPCs in BattleMaster are humans.

7.4 No wizards: Player characters and player-controlled NPCs cannot use innate magic.

7.5 Use appropriate names for the setting: Character, unit, realm, etc names should be something that could believably be a name in that context.

• No numbers or special characters:
• No designations: Your characters must earn their titles in game, by the game. Unacceptable name examples include: "King Delvin," "Duke Delvin," "Delvin the Great," "Delvin the Mountain," etc.
• CamelCase and 1337-sp34k: L33tsk33t is not appropriate, nor is DelVin.
• English words: Can only be used if they make sense. "Miller" and "Smith" are fine, but "BloodyKnuckles" is not.

7.6 Explicit Atheism is not permitted for any character in BattleMaster: While not unknown during the Middle Ages, Atheism was not accepted, and would in many times and places have been considered a capital crime. Because the cultural bias against it is not present among any but the most dedicated modern roleplayers, we explicitly include it here to protect those that wish to play the priest game, and to maintain a proper milieu.

7.7 Treat duels with the grave seriousness they deserve: Duels are serious affairs meant to be used to defend one's honour, and may result in character death. They are not for sport or fun.

• Sword fighting tournaments: While sword fighting guilds are perfectly fine, they can not use the game-mechanic duels. They must use the Training Match feature available at an academy, or roleplayed matches.

7.8 Treat adventurers as peasants: Nobles are expected to treat commoners as their social inferiors, and vice versa. Treating commoners with abject disgust or abuse is certainly not necessary, but deference to a noble from an adventurer is required. Each realm culture handles this differently, from treating them to all but cattle, to treating them like useful pets. Just remember, as a noble, you are better then them, and as an adventurer, the nobles are better then you.

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Government Rules

Furthermore, after the Social Contract, there are several rules that really only apply to those that are charged with the responsibility of the realm, or have the buttons to break these rules. While we recommend all players read these rules, they are only relevant to Rulers, Generals, Judges, Bankers, and Dukes. Dukes do need to read this section as well, since they have buttons and some responsibilities that are referenced in this section.

Mechanical limitations

• Realm mergers are illegal. Realms may surrender to another, including annihilation of their lands, but they may not merge as equal entities on friendly terms.
  • Realms that are too small to exist (under 20 nobles) are excepted from this rule, and may merge into another realm with prior Admin approval.

• Strategic capital moves are prohibited: While this section is in the Social Contract, it bears repeating. This means moving one's capital for the purpose of closer refitting times in a war. Moving a capital to a central region of the realm or for roleplay reasons (historical, realm named based on capital name, removing a rival duke's power base, keeping a rival duke close by to be watched etc.) are acceptable.
  • This includes strategic secession. Creating a new realm, through secession, in order to circumvent recruiting-in-capital-only restriction is prohibited. Friendly secessions are okay.

• Alliance limits: This mechanic is in the game to promote game balance, and prevent any group of realms from locking an island into a 'frozen' state. There are ways to 'go around' this mechanic, however we expect you to be mature enough not to do so.
  • Alliance limits are final and the titans really get cranky when people try to go around them.
  • If an alliance was under the limit, but is now over the limit, that is not against the rules, but it is still something that a titan case can be made about - depending on the specifics, they may or may not do anything about it. It's not actually illegal, but may need an OOC hand to be resolved with some grace.
  • Dropping regions to join an alliance is ok, taking those regions back after the button is hit is not. While dropping regions isn't against the rules, taking them back is because it is explicitly gaming the system into giving the button to ally even though the realm(s) should not have it.
  • Dogpiling - declaring war on a realm that is already losing a different war so badly that that war is "hopeless," let alone more war
  • Starting wars with realms already at war is (generally) ok (the exception is dogpiling). the reason/purpose of the new war is what the titans rule on when it comes to alliance limits
  • When a realm is at war with a different realm that your realm is not allied with, you can not help them militarily. Some examples include - "happening" to be in the same region(see note), any cooperation or messages between realms (example would be like "you hit this region and we'll hit this one"), or any war goals that are to support the other realm (examples are like "to support other realm" or "until other war is over").
    • note: "happening" and happening are different. since the titans do not want cooperation between realms, happening to be in the same region isn't against the rules, its simply chance, but "happening" (that is, intending to do so but saying it was not intended) is not

• Changing regions to get around density restrictions: Similar to above, having an realm hand your realm a region because your realm can not sue to density is prohibited.

Fair Play

• You can't win BattleMaster. Don't try: While it is certainly understandable for one's characters to have ambitions of ruling the world, and very tempting to try to remove every last ounce of uncertainty in your realm's situation, forcing other realms on the continent into situations where they cannot realistically pose a threat destroys the fun of the players in those realms, and amassing enough power and allies that you can dictate terms to an entire continent destroys the fun for everyone there but you. BattleMaster is a game, and most of the fun in it comes through conflict and uncertainty—the closer the conflict, the more uncertainty, and, generally speaking, the more fun. Peace terms that would cripple a realm, or make it impossible for it to pose a threat to other realms, are the clearest violations of this rule within the context of the leadership of a realm.

• Avoid Cheaters and Abusers: Do not encourage or tolerate cheating and abuses of the game rules in your realm. If you learn of any cheating going on, or suspect someone is cheating, report it to the Titans. Dealing with cheaters and abusers is one of your responsibilities as a government member.

Leadership Expectations

• Fun is Your Responsibility: As leaders of the realm, it is your responsibility to look out for the fun of all members of your realm. Even in internal conflict, it is your responsibility to ensure that all parts of the realm are enjoying themselves. Do not actively suppress player attempts to engage one another in the interests of asserting your dominance over the realm. Be a leader, not a tyrant, at least OOC. consider you actions against your realm engagement. you can be a tyrant to your realm's characters, but you need to be a leader to its players
  • Oprutuintiys (opportunities?) not making people do stuff

• you have both OOC and IC responsibility

• Proactive not reactive (opportunities)
  • don't hide things it makes realms suck

• Do not Micromanage: BM is a team game, not a single player game. make sure you are doing your best to try to engage your players, even if it's not the most "optimal play."

• Try to Guide, Not Order: This is a game, not the military, even if it simulates a martial society. Try to guide people. Do not micromanage. Work with suggestions and help and leave people their autonomy. A strict hierarchy of orders and blind followers is more efficient, yes. It also causes people to lose the fun and leave the game.

• Play Within the Game Background: You are playing a noble in a medieval feudal society. Your conduct and behaviour should fit to that background, and as a leader you should very much encourage others to follow. Most importantly, the world of BattleMaster is not a militaristic one, and blindly following orders does not befit a noble. Engage the other players instead of just passing out orders.