Shattered Kingdoms

From a prayer:

Q: Am I allowed to spam master my spells while I'm deaf, or is that bug abuse?

A: Not bug abuse.

Is it no longer the case that you can stun a character to remove a cursed item? That doesn't seem like poor RP at all, considering that while painful, it's certainly nowhere near as severe as death.

With regard to the rules on RP before PK: What's the ruling on defending a nation (as a non-tribunal member), allied territory or even allies? I have a few examples to indicate what I mean.

Example 1: I'm an Imperial Ain Hellion and I'm resting in the inn when I hear a bunch of yelling about the guards and judge being attacked. There are no Legion members online. I run up and see someone I've never met breaking a person out of jail, which is both an affront to Ain and an open attack on the city. Am I allowed to intervene without running into the room and telling them I'm going to attack them first, which would more than likely result in me getting attacked first or them otherwise just ignoring me? If attacking without a warning isn't acceptable, what measure of RP would be required?

Example 2: I'm a Harlequin and I hear that the Hammer of Light is planning a raid on the Crucible HQ. The Crucible are my allies, but none of them are online. I group up with a Harlequin sorcerer friend of mine and we ambush the Hammer of Light as they're killing the outer guardian. Are we liable to be cursed because we didn't RP with them before their attack that we were planning to stop them?

Example 3: I'm an unprincipled sorcerer resting in the Nerinan inn. I'm in formation with my friend, when I wake up and notice he's being attacked by some griffon I've never seen before. Am I liable to get punished if I cast petrification at the griffon before asking him to stop and waiting for his response?

Example 4: I'm a Hammer of Light character sitting in Exile and I hear yells about undead attacking the city. I'm not a peacekeeper. I notice there's a necromancer in the orphanage of Taslamar murdering the orphans. Do I have to take the time to send him a tell or yell or walk into the room and tell him to leave before attacking him?


If it isn't obvious, there's no explicit allowance in the rules for defending allies or allied territory, specifically allied cities and allied HQs, and judging from the 12/17/2015 post, Does this standard also apply to someone who is attacking an allied city, allied HQ, or even an ally of yours?

1. The hellion is supposed to issue a challenge, not just run in and attack.
2. You won't get cursed for defending an ally's HQ, territory, or guards.
3. If your group is getting attacked you can of course defend yourself.
4. That necromancer is engaging in "prior RP" and knows full-well that he or she is being aggressive and there may be consequences.

I will say that in all cases some RP exchange is best. Especially in the case of the hellion. Even if the hellion doesn't get cursed for trying to intervene, a blemish could still happen for failing to live up to the code. The whole point of that aspect of the code is that the hellion is supposed to be able to intimidate people into doing things, not just attack them, and if you don't even try to bully them into compliance first, you're not really living up to the code.

Please keep in mind that the purpose of these rules is to prevent people from wondering why they were attacked and to make sure everyone is having fun with PvP, to eliminate the "random gank" aspect of PvP from diminishing players' enjoyment (and if you like that aspect of PvP, there are options at SK for you anyway). It should be obvious to someone attacking a judge, tribunal guards, a cabal HQ or an orphanage that they're running the risk of being engaged by other PCs. That falls under Common Sense. Both sides will then deal with any IC ramifications of the exchange.

Can someone attack an ally of their enemy even if you arent at war with said person? Can I go after outlaws of taslamar if im allied with keepers?

Yes. But, you would have to engage in RP with them first as outlined in Rule 1.

I cleaned up the trolling, disinformation, conjecture, and argumentation from the last few dozen posts to make this thread more readable. If you find yourself in here stating opinion as fact, calling people "kid," posting images to take potshots at the staff, or trying to figure out ways to rules-lawyer your way into unsportsmanlike play, you've come to the wrong place and you can expect your posts to get deleted.

Unless the outlaw is in Exile fighting guards, right?

Sorry, I'm trying to understand the PK rules...it seems like they are more complicated than I thought.

My view of things is as follows.

I think the rules read pretty accurately. There were two punishments recently that came about on account of characters purposefully targeting others that they had no prior interaction with, let alone conflict interaction. Functionally, they looked like grief ganks, the sort where you log in, see someone on the who list that you want to kill despite having never met them ICly on your character, and then look for a cheap easy gank/junkloot. I don't think that anyone would argue that such an attitude is good for the game, because it's blatant disrespect for the other player.

The question in view now is "Is it ever allowed to PK someone without even a modicum of meaningful interaction first?" And the answer in general is: No. However, there are exceptions that Thuban has noted. Namely, elves can kill other deep-elves on sight, and deep-elves can kill other deep-elves and elves on sight, with the reasoning that you roll one of those classes you recognize that there's an inherent enmity present. Also, if you're at war with someone's faction, you're welcome to engage in combat freely with a character in a warring faction, or if you're a tribunal member you're free to attack outlaws of your tribunal without having to establish any sort of RP beforehand with the character. If you're starting to see a pattern here it's that you shouldn't go for cheap ganks on characters that you haven't interacted with or haven't otherwise placed themselves in the PK arena.

Ultimately, if you remember that you aren't here to "win" by racking up a killscore at the cost of RP, you're not going to run the risk of getting punished for PK without any preliminary RP. It's impossible to consider all possible forms of when it is and isn't acceptable to PK someone before RPing with them first, and documenting all of them would only end up being more confusing than it is helpful: If you're really worried about being punished for this reason concerning someone you want to gank, then just send them a tell first that says "Swiggity Swooty I'm coming for that booty" to make sure they're aware of it in-game. If you're willing to sacrifice RP for the sole purpose of being able to get the jump on someone, then you're probably valuing your killscore over RP, and you should make sure you're maintaining a respect for the player on the other side of the screen.

Q: I'm on the road playing from a hotel room/I'm at a friend's house/I'm playing from somewhere I usually don't play from/A friend and I are logged in together at a coffee house. Is this a violation of the game's proxy rules?

A: No. This is all perfectly legitimate and allowed.