Rules and Regulations

Commitment to Follow the Rules
By playing in the Cormyr Living Campaign, you agree to abide by the following covenant (set of rules and statements). Failure to do so will result in action, up to and including being removed from the community. Our rules pertain to social interactions within our community as well as the responsibility each player has to help maintain a fun and healthy game atmosphere with their actual playstyle. Therefore, there are two types of guidelines listed in this page -- Community Rules, and Gameplay Rules.

NEW PLAYERS: In addition to agreeing to this covenant, you are also under a probationary period for a total of three months. During that time, any failure to abide by these rules as determined by a GM will be treated much more severely. To be clear, if you are deemed to be violating any of these rules during your probationary period by any GM, you can be removed from the community without a second opinion.

EXISTING PLAYERS: If at any time a player is found to be exhibiting behavior that is in violation of the rules below, or that is, in the opinion of a member of the leadership team or GM team, deemed to be disruptive to the community, that player will be subject to one of a number of actions. In certain cases, a "three-strike" policy may be used to allow the player a chance to work on behaviors which may be causing disruption, resulting in action up to and including removal from the community if the behaviors maintain or worsen. In extreme cases it may be called-for to remove a player from the community even when their behavior does not strictly violate the rules below. In these cases reasonable measures will be taken first to ensure there are not alternative solutions. Please understand this community exists to provide a fun place to play Pathfinder for a large group of people, and not to be a personal stage for a very few 'interesting' ones. Disruptive behavior can be harmful even when it is not specifically harassment. Keep this in mind as you interact with other players.

1. Be Respectful
The concept of Cormyr Living Campaign only works if we all try to get along. If your actions are bothering another player and they let you know, just lay off. Disagreements will happen, but I'm pretty sure we can all act like adults. Keep your disagreements civilized, and stay away from personal attacks, period.

If you have a disagreement with another player or a GM, work it out with that specific person in private. If you don’t feel you can, then send a PM to Cinnabon. These are your only two options. Regardless of the nature of the argument, if you start being mean or flaming people to other members of the community, you’re officially in violation of this rule.

2. Be Respectful to your GMs
This is a duplication of the first rule, but I am reiterating it in order to be very clear. I have zero tolerance for anyone who berates, belittles, or disrespects a GM in this community. These people are volunteering their time in order to make the community a better place for the players to have fun with free adventures. If you have constructive criticism, then, dear lord, stop and think for a second to make sure the criticism is truly constructive and better yet, make sure it's private to the GM. If you have other sorts of beef with the GM, see Rule Number 1 for how you should handle it.

3. Be an Adult
Cormyr Living Campaign now has a minimum age limit of 18. What this age limit means is that we expect you to act, at a minimum, with a maturity level sufficient enough to avoid childish outbursts, ‘he said/she said’ whining, and name-calling. If you whine like a child, or you argue like a child, you will be treated like a child, and we remove children from our community.

More than this, We expect to be playing among a community of adults. There are players that may meet the age requirement for our game and still act like a teenager. These players will be given the chance to improve their behavior, or they will be asked to leave. This game is not for babysitting teenagers, it's for playing Pathfinder.

4. Keep it PG-13 and Harassment-Free
Inclusion in this community is not always about whether a specific person is okay with a particular brand of roleplay. It is not about whether or not Cinnabon or any other GM is offended by a particular brand of roleplay. This community had hundreds of people in it, and all members have a right to feel welcome into the roleplay which occurs. Therefore, we have a responsibility to keep the play which happens in this community acceptable for the audiences which participate. This means that, while we are a community of adults and the roleplay can reflect this, we also should be aware that not everyone thinks certain types of roleplay are fun. Inclusion is a priority and everyone must feel comfortable playing here, so do not engage in any roleplay or out-of-character chat that would make another person feel uncomfortable. Light swearing is not an issue, nor are mild mature themes, but keep it light. Additionally, do not engage in roleplay or chat that would be considered racist, sexually discriminatory, or otherwise bigoted toward a player or GM. (Note: In-character racism against fictional races, such a character not liking Orcs, is acceptable and part of the FR setting, but keep it light.)

Since we've had issues with this in the past, I have the unfortunate burden of needing to be specific with this particular rule:

- Erotic roleplay or any roleplay of sex acts is not permitted. This includes roleplay which is not explicitly depicting a sex act but focuses unduly on nudity or sexual areas. If you have to ask about pushing this boundary, just don't do it.

- Deep, involved roleplay that only involves a certain group of people to the exclusion of others, i.e. 'clique' or 'couples' roleplay, should be done on a Discord channel or not done at all. The Roll20 room should allow for all to participate and build social bonds.

- Characters which, by virtue of their 'background' harass, troll, or break immersion for other players -- whether through their actions or their obvious similarities to pop culture -- are not good roleplay. Despite staying in character, players will not be permitted to keep playing these characters.

5. Avoid Being Condescending
Everybody was new sometime, and even those who aren’t will sometimes have questions about a topic you may think is easy or obvious. When that happens, try and be helpful without being condescending. Comments such as, “How do you not understand this?”, or “It’s so easy, what are you confused about?”, are not helpful, they are mean.

6. Be Patient
Our GM squad is comprised solely of volunteers -- players who decided they wanted to volunteer their time to make the experience better for other players. As such, no one here is on the clock at any particular time. There will be times where you need a character approved and no one is available to work with you right away. It’s unfortunate, but it’s just the way it is. Please be respectful of the fact that GMs are players too, and may have other priorities before they can assist you. This also applies to encounters being run. Impatience and pestering will not speed things up. Remember, when you ask for an encounter to be run for you, a puppy dies.

7. Always Include Others when you can
Our concept only works if we embody a spirit of inclusion. Even without a GM present, try and include other players in any open roleplay you may have. Try to start a conversation with a stranger or ask their opinion on a discussion you're having with another player. The greatest benefit CLC will be providing is the opportunity to interact and play pathfinder with many different people. If you can't find it within yourself to include other people, then you're harming our system. Include others. This is not a suggestion, it’s a rule.

1. GMs Have the Final Say
We have a whole lot of posts and information guiding interactions and the processes by which we run encounters and create characters. But, there WILL be times when something becomes unclear or the player group gets confused. In these situations, the GMs that are around at that moment will make a decision, and the players must abide by that decision. Major GM rulings will always be officially reviewed and overturned or finalized in the future, but when you're in session with a GM, their word is final.

It's okay to disagree, but just go along with it anyway and agree to disagree. You can talk about it later to figure out what's really the right way to do things. And remember. if you have constructive criticism, see Community Rule Number 2.

2. Out of Character chat is Out of Character
You have the responsibility to CLEARLY denote when using out-of-character chat within Roll20. My favorite way is with two parentheses ((like this)). Everything your character does and says is required to be in character. Out-of-character chat is acceptable within Roll20 for pertinent messages related to ongoing roleplay or encounters, but should be kept to relevant messages.

The best solution is to use our Discord server for most other Out-of-character communication.

If you want to chat with a friend out-of-character, PM them on Discord.

3. Roleplay Must be Proper for the Setting
Cormyr is based off of the Forgotten Realms Campaign setting. Much information about Cormyr and other parts of Faerun is available online. As far as what Cormyr is like, you would do well to imagine it as medieval Europe. We are not an eastern setting, an erotic setting, a sci-fi setting, a time-travel setting, or any other type of setting other than Forgotten Realms medieval fantasy.

You may not play a character from a video game or a book, or anything taken from pop culture. Your character must be original and fit within the setting. You must name yourself and anything else you control as appropriate to the setting. Highly popular character names from other places are not acceptable (i.e. You're not named Goku or Pikachu).

Eastern classes, and equipment are not available for play within this campaign setting without explicit approval from the GM team, and likewise characters may not come from the eastern setting regions of the Forgotten Realms without the same approvals. These regions had extremely limited contact with the central regions of Faerun during the Era of Upheaval, and it does not make sense for very many, if any at all, of the people of these regions to have passed into Cormyr. Players wishing to play characters from these regions must have a compelling reason to want to play this character backstory or be long-time members of the community, and demonstrate extensive knowledge of the FR setting and the regions the wish to come from.

4. Open Roleplay cannot grant Gameplay Advantage
Open Roleplay is the heart of the community. Especially while we are growing, there are many times where few people are online. During these slow times when no GM is planning on throwing monsters at you, please keep the roleplay alive. Your character is more than a walking longsword or a mobile spell turret. They have hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes. Create that personality through interactions with other players, any time of day. You have a very free hand in what you want your character to do or participate in. If you want them to go buy an item from a shop that's on the Always Available list, go for it! Just put it on your sheet when done. If you want to go feed the birds in the park, go for it. If you want to go chat with the Temple Priest about getting those nasty warts removed, it's your call. Walk around the city.

But do NOT under any circumstances, negatively affect another person's enjoyment of the game or roleplay any situation that would affect the world as a whole. You may not use your character's rope to tie up another player that's bugging you unless they're on board with the roleplay. You may not roleplay audiences with the Princess Regent, etc. You may not roleplay becoming the leader of the Purple Dragon Knights. These situations make it very hard for GMs to treat players equally and can invalidate portions of adventures.

5. Follow All Character Restrictions, including the ban-list
It's your responsibility, not GMs, to make sure you follow the character creation rules. Audits are performed on character sheets from time to time, and violations can result in the simple need to adjust parts of your character with no harm done. Under extreme circumstances, however, they may result in experience penalties, loot penalties, or in extremely rare circumstances, level penalties up to and including re-creation of character. If you repeatedly violate these rules and cannot learn to follow the restrictions set in place as part of Cormyr, you will be removed. Ask a GM if you want to be sure you're following the rules.

6. Embrace All Aspects of Tabletop Gaming With Other People
Pathfinder is a system built around creating characters which posses certain strengths and certain weaknesses. Industrious players will find ways to make the most of their characters' strengths and/or shore up their weaknesses, and this is a natural instinct that rewards clever system expertise. Going too far, however, can cause players to check reality at the door and enter the land of TV and video games, and the experience of other players often suffers -- either due to the potentially reduced need for their character's input in an encounter, or the need for a GM to unduly increase the difficulty (and therefore danger) of an encounter to compensate for a single improperly balanced character, or very often because when the combat stops, many of these unrealistic power characters have very little actually roleplay personality to fall back on.

In Cormyr, this form of gaming is considered a disruption no different than any other described in this page and will be treated as such. There is nothing wrong with strong, incredibly competent characters, and there have not been many cases where this has been a problem. But for those with excellent knowledge of the Pathfinder system -- when building a character, make sure to ask yourself not whether you could, but whether you should.

7. Be Present
You have the responsibility, as a player, to be present during encounters for which you have committed to play. It is disrespectful to GMs and your fellow players if you do not invest your time playing your character and paying attention to the game.

8. When in doubt, write it down
It's important to track any type of advancement your character receives. Our wiki details how you need to track experience and loot, but there are less tangible things, too. Maybe you received a special pin during an encounter that may come up later, or maybe you earned a favor. If you're going to use it later, it must be written down on your character sheet along with the ID of the encounter you earned it in or the GM who gave it to you.

9. Ask Questions
If anything confuses you, look it up or ask. Do not try to proceed with something unless you are sure of how it works. Either ask questions of the internet or of your fellow players or of a GM. Even if a GM isn't online, PM them in Roll20 or Discord and they'll see it eventually.