Discworld Etiquette

Etiquette

This is just plain good manners.

• Don't ask every player you see to group with you, especially if your character is a lot younger than they are.
• Read a players finger and reference information before asking them for anything, unless you need help immediately because you're getting killed in a fight with an NPC, or have fallen in a river or similar, or have died and don't know where the shrines etc are (in which case, look at the rescue section!).
• If you make a mistake, say sorry. Apologise and move on.
• Once the transgressor has fessed up and apologised, the incident is over.
• Never get involved in somebody else's argument. One-on-One is bad. Feuding gangs are much much worse.
• Some things are simply bad etiquette. These include
  • killing NPCs when someone else got there first,
  • picking up property dropped or fumbled by someone else,
  • picking up a floating shield that you have seen knocked out of orbit,
  • taking someone else property that the mud code has placed in a publicly accessible place such as at a Post Office Parcel Counter or Gapp's Low Altar,
  • picking up items dropped as a player's inventory is generated at login,
  • offering to provide a service such as fixing weapons and not returning the weapons to the owner,
  • any sort of scamming that involves a promise of providing goods or service, whether for payment or not, as a means of suborning another person's property.
  If you engage in these things, you may find yourself subject to sanctions from other players, to the maximum extent that they can do so, and some players have shown themselves to very inventive in doing so.
• If someone accuses you of something, step back and look at their viewpoint before going into denial? Did you check the NPC's health before you attacked it? Was there anything you could have checked and didn't before you did whatever it was that upset them? Are you using an alias that might bury things that you didn't kill, or get loot from other corpses?
• If someone denies your allegation, step back and look at their viewpoint before going into orbit. Were you in hiding? Could they have made an honest mistake?
• Don't keep repeating the same question on the talker. You will often be given a pointer to information in response to a question, follow up the pointer and only ask for further help if you didn't understand what you found.
• Don't keep asking older players to scribe spells, help with quests etc.
• Don't jump the queue at vaults and similar locations where only one player can go at a time. This also applies to reading spellbooks!
• Thank other players for freebies and help.
• Don't attack NPCs when another player is already in a room without asking first. Don't attack NPCs that someone is already fighting unless they ask for, or you offer and they accept, your help. Note that Djelibeybi actually has a rule about this.
• Looting from and / or burying a corpse that someone else killed will often annoy them, if you want body parts, recover it and hack it about afterwards. This doesn't apply if they left the room after killing.
• Leaving rubbish lying around is spammy and contributes to lag. Bury everything. One mistake new players make is failing to bury corpses, the disc gives as much XP when you bury the corpse as when you kill it! If you use a behead attack, please remember to bury the head!
• Infecting other players characters with fleas is pretty irritating. Please don't do it.
• Killing NPC shopkeepers is anti-social, note that some NPCs sell spell components or other services that other players rely on. Killing NPC shopkeepers is banned in Ankh Morpork.
• The same goes for killing NPC teachers. Killing Priests Guild NPC teachers is banned in Ankh Morpork.
• If another player asks you not to attack / kill a specific NPC, it may be worth asking them why.

Grouping

This is an attempt to explain my philosophy on grouping, it may or may not match that of other players.

• Good reasons for grouping:
  • To achieve a common objective, eg a rescue mission.
  • To attack NPCs or groups of NPCs that individual group members would not be able to kill, or to kill faster than when solo.
  • Because you're friends and enjoy doing things together.
• Bad reasons for grouping:
  • To benefit in XP or money from a more experienced player's combat abilities.
  • To obtain combat benefits (eg shielding, healing) from a more experienced player with which to solo an opponent you would normally be unable to beat.
• Good group leadership:
  • Group leadership includes responsibility for not getting groupmates killed.
  • Don't attack anything you can't handle solo without discussing it.
  • Work out in advance who loots / buries. Some people say group leader, others say youngest player, and some rotate it.
  • Monitor shields and status regularly, and always before starting combat. If you have people responsible for shielding / healing, they will do this too, but you still need to keep an eye on things in case bailing out is needed.
• Good group play:
  • Group membership means not wandering off solo, even if you were chasing an almost dead NPC.
  • Don't expect instant healing.
  • Don't expect instant shielding.
  • Let the group leader decide what to attack.
  • Assist the group leader (or whoever they ask you to).
  • Protect weaker members, or anyone else the group leader asks you to protect.
  • If you are working as a shielder or healer, keep an eye on group members' statuses.

More thoughts on Grouping

When I'm leading a group, whether I'm the tagged leader or not, there are decisions I expect to make and things that I expect to be in control of, these include moving the group round, where the loot goes and who buries what. I also expect to be responsible for making sure that everyone is ready before we start combat or enter an aggresive area, e.g. that people have shields / dusties etc.

If someone else is leading the group, I expect them to do these things too. If you're so busy chasing off somewhere that my shield which was knocked down gets left behind, I'm not going to be comfortable with your style of group leadership.

If you're in a PK group, or are a PK in a mixed PK / NPK group, and plan on attacking (which is any aggressive PK interaction including stealing) another PK, check with all your groupmates (even npk ones) that they are happy with this, and if they're not, either ungroup, give them the option to ungroup, or leave it till later. The person you are attacking may be a friend of theirs. I won't tolerate those that I am in a group with attacking my friends, and I don't expect my friends to tolerate their group members attacking me.

Gittish Gameplay

Anything that you wouldn't want others to do to you. Note that doing such things to others may lead to others doing such things to you, and the players "doing to you" may be bigger than the players that you "did to".

NPKs should be aware that their NPKness will not always protect them from the consequences of some forms of gittish behaviour, and that if they are subject to such retaliations as are possible against them, neither the mud admins nor other players are likely to be particularly sympathetic if they are deemed to have brought those repercussions upon themselves, provided in the case of mud admin that those repercussions do not exceed certain limits that mud admin may determine.

PK / NPK Interaction Issues

This tries to be a guideline for non-PK (NPK) players about involvement in PK issues. PKs can kill each other, loot each other's corpses and steal from each other. This is level of player - player interaction that NPKs do not have. However, there are some PK issues that NPK players may need to be aware of. Amything here that an NPK should not do, it is equally wrong for a PK to ask an NPK to do.

Note that if mud admins judge you to be repeatedly in breach of these rules, they may apply various sanctions, including making you PK or deleting your character.

• Scrying - don't scry PKs on behalf of other PKs. This includes scrying an NPK groupmate of PK "a" on behalf of PK "b" in an attempt to locate PK "a" on behalf of PK "b".
• Shielding - don't shield PKs who intend to attack other PKs, or are involved in a PK encounter, even if they did type stop or use other means to temporarily remove interaction flags.
• Healing - as with shielding, do not heal PKs who are in the middle of a PK encounter, even if they did type stop or use other means to temporarily remove interaction flags.
• Portals / Passage - Helping a PK escape (or flee) from a difficult situation to eg Brother David's should be avoided. So should assisting a PK in dragging a corpse etc.
• Hidden Players - you may notice players hiding in some rooms, they may be PK players, and their hiding may be for concealment from other PKs. Announcing their presence may be interference in a PK fight. If you want to tell them you saw them, use a "tell".