Basic Rules

+ Sim Rules

  1. No metagaming – You cannot use OOC knowledge in an IC setting. This includes IMs, group notices, or information learned on an alt unless specifically noted.
  2. No godmodding – You cannot control another character, and you cannot determine their actions or reactions for them.
  3. No powergaming – Everyone has a weakness, and those weaknesses must be usable. No character is invincible or impervious to damage.
  4. You must gain consent for any action against another player – especially major actions. If you plan to kill, maim, or otherwise harm another character (this includes anything that alters their storyline in a major way: framing for crimes, creating intertwined storylines, ect.) then you must gain consent from the player in question before the action is undertaken.
  5. No Child Avatars – No underage avatars of any kind are allowed on sim. Staff retain the right to determine if an avatar appears to be underage. Please see number 10 for our rule on prim babies.
  6. No furries/hyper avatars – No cartoon avatars (anime/furry/etc), clothes, accessories, or objects. Anthro or ‘furry’ avatars may be welcome if they look realistic enough, but no neon colors. Please seek approval for unusual anthro avatars, or those that may be close to ‘furry’ proportions. Large avatars must be in proportion.
  7. No ‘god’ characters – This is related to ‘no powergaming’. No one character can be all-powerful, or the ‘deity’ of death, life, fertility, ect.
  8. No canon characters – No characters from video games, movies, ect. In addition to this we do not allow characters or races which are offensive to real-world cultures or religions. (i.e. G*psys, W#ndigos, ect.)
  9. Outside as well as inside of combat, consequences must be accepted for your actions. If you kill someone, you may be hunted. If you are in a fight, you may be injured. Attempts to OOCly avoid taking consequence for your actions may result in a warning. This is part of both metagaming and powergaming.
  10. While prim babies are allowed on sim they are restricted in where they can go. All prim babies, including nonhumans, should be kept to safe faction areas and away from all violence, nudity, or any adult content. Additionally they cannot be played by themselves and must ALWAYS be accompanied and worn by a fully adult avatar.
  11. When in an IC area, please keep OOC chatter to a minimum, and indicate that you are OOC.
  12. No bullying, harassment, or any kind of OOC abuse towards players or staff members will be tolerated. Any OOC disagreements must be resolved in IMs, or taken to a moderator. In addition, discussions on religion, politics, etc. are not allowed in the group chats.
  13. Owners/staff members have the final word. If one owner/staff member gives you an answer, warning, etc. that is it. No running to another owner/staff member to try and get a different ruling.
  14. Trolling or griefing on sim will result in automatic ejection.

+ Rental Rules

  1. Houses are only meant for roleplayers on the sim. If you are found to be renting without maintaining a character on EoC, you will be evicted without a refund.
  2. Players may not have more than one rental per account. This INCLUDES being a tenant on another person’s rental. Your name may only be on one rental at a time.
  3. Do not rent a house where your character has no right to be. You may only rent in a faction area if you intend to join said faction. If you rent and refuse to join the faction, you will be asked to move your rental.
  4. If you are absent from the sim for more than two weeks, without notifying an admin, you will be evicted and your items returned.
  5. Items must stay within or very close to the house
  6. Furniture must fit the aesthetic of the sim. No sci-fi or overtly modern furniture.
  7. If you go over the prim limit, you will be given 24 hours to remedy the situation. After which, we will return random items until you are under the limit.
  8. Please do not rez anything with persistent sound or movement scripts.

+ Basic Combat Rules

  1. All races start with 3hp
  2. Summons require two posts to be completed, and if interrupted the process must start over again. One post must start the process, and the next is to finish it.
  3. Shifts require one full post to be completed, without an attack. You may attack again the next round.
  4. Healers can only heal each combatant by one hp per fight, and may only heal three people during the duration of the battle (using the ‘heal’ roll to do so if you are using dice). They may not heal themselves during combat.
  5. Each AoE can have a maximum of three targets, and there must be two posts between each AoE – one to recover, and one to charge. During the charging post you may not make an attack, and may be interrupted. If interrupted you must take another post to charge. If opening up combat with an AoE you must /still/ take one post to charge before using an AoE.
  6. Character bonds cannot be used to summon help during combat.
  7. You must accept consequences for your actions – If you kill someone, or break a law, expect to be arrested or hunted for it. If you stroll into an enemy faction with weapons drawn expect to fight the NPCs and players. If you insult a queen to her face, expect to be arrested.
  8. If you die, you must wait a full RL week before you may be resurrected. Please see the listed rules below for a fuller explanation of the combat rules.
 

HUD Combat Rules

All players on Empire of Crowns roleplay sim are encouraged to choose the rule sets they think most appropriate for their roleplay. We allow both freeform and dice RP, with freeform combat following the rules stated above. All combatants in the roleplay must agree unanimously on which rule set to use for their play but if no agreement can be reached, the default rules for EoC are the EoC Standard HUD Combat Rules written below.

During dungeons and events, these rules may be altered as decided by the sim admins or owners to allow more variability. Any alterations to the rules stand only for that event alone, and may not be carried outside of that specific combat.

Please also remember that not everything is a numbers game. Some of these rules are meant to keep the logic and flow of RP, not just to make you win or lose.

Entering Combat

At the start of combat, everyone makes a roll using the INIT. ROLL option to determine the posting order. The highest roll goes first, and then the other combatants go in descending order. In case of a tie, the tied people reroll their initiative and the new results are used. Every combatant starts with three hit points unless they have bought more HP using the XP system.

 

Additional Combatants

After combat has begun, any new or added combatants to the initiative order must gain the consent of all current combatants then enter combat in the last position on the next rotation. For instance, a player has asked to enter combat in the middle of the combat order on Round 2. All current combatants agree to allow him to enter the combat. He must wait until the last combatant has acted on the next rotation, which is at the end of Round 3. If this player instead was a planned ambush and all combatants agree they may enter combat, and agree to the surprise attack, they may enter combat at the end of the same combat round that they declared their involvement.

Healing

Another basic action. To heal, you post how you’re healing and who you are healing and then you make a roll by choosing the HEAL ROLL option, and selecting your target. This will present a heal roll with your bonus included (if any) against the opponents roll. If you succeed your rolls, then the target regains one hitpoint. Please note the regular healing rules still apply. A combatant at zero hit points can not be brought back into the fight in this way and nobody can gain more than their maximum amount of hit points. This roll is only required when healing during combat. Outside of combat it is completely optional.

Fleeing Combat

Fleeing combat is the one exception to the trend of ‘post first, then roll’. To flee, you first roll the dice, indicating that you intend to flee. To succeed, you must roll a 10 plus 1 for every opponent. Like any other action this can only be done on your turn in the post order. If you succeed, post your success and leave the combat. You are not required to leave the scene when you flee a group fight, but you may not affect the ongoing fight in any way. If you flee from a duel, you must leave the scene. If you fail, you are stuck in the fight and can try again the next round.

Shifting In Combat

Any character capable of taking on a shape, shapeshift, polymorph, or transform, must spend one post to perform the shift. They cannot perform additional actions as the re-arranging of bones and vocal cords prevent any tactical coordination on their part. Smaller transformations, such as the presence of a tail or horns, does not require an entire post-round.

Making Your Post

You have several options when it comes to actions available to you, but generally you make a post and then make an (opposed) roll to determine the effect. If you make a roll outside of your turn, that roll is forfeit without exception.

 

Attacking

The most basic of actions. You post your attack and make an opposed roll against your opponent. To make an opposed roll, click the roll button, choose the ROLL VERSUS option and choose your opponent. If you roll a natural 20 it is always a hit, just like a natural 1 is always a miss.

At zero hit points, a combatant is out of the fight and can not be brought back. It does not mean they died, just that they are somehow incapable of continuing to fight. They get to make one post to remove themselves from the scene on their next turn and then they are removed from the fight.

Defending Another

The Defending Another action can be used on your turn in combat instead of an attack. You must clearly designate the target of your Defending Another action. Until your next turn, all attacks against your designated target require two attack rolls against you, the defender. If both of the rolls miss, no damage is taken. If one attack hits, you will take one HP of damage. If both attacks hit, you and your defended target will each take one HP of damage. A Defender can only defend one target at a time and a target can only be defended by one defender at a time. A character who is charging an AoE cannot be defended. Defense must also be declared during your turn and cannot be retroactive. e.g. you cannot post your action, see someone else being attacked, and then change your mind after your post and switch to defending them.

Example: Player A wishes to defend player B from Attacker

Player A declares their intent in OOC brackets, on their turn in the post order: ((I am going to defend player B))

Attacker now must roll twice against player A, instead of rolling against player B.

Outcome 1: Attacker wins one roll, and fails the second. Player A takes one point of damage, player B takes none.

Outcome 2: Attacker wins both rolls. Both Players A and B take one point of damage.

Outcome 3: Attacker fails both rolls, neither player takes damage.

Multi-Post Actions

Area of Attack (AoE)

An Area of Effect, or AoE, describes an attack that may hit multiple targets during your combat round. An AoE comes in three required phases with distinct rules for each phase, they are Charge, Attack, and Recovery.

+ Charge

In order to employ an AoE, a character must first spend their turn charging it. This is the first phase of an AoE. During a charge, a character may speak, or move (but not to attempt to escape combat), they can take no other action or their charge is immediately canceled. A character remains in the Charge phase until the successful employment of their AoE or they are interrupted. An Interrupt is defined as any successful hit against a character that is charging. An interrupt does not necessarily require damage to be dealt, but any successful ‘roll against’ will interrupt a charge. Once a Charge has been interrupted, a player may take any action on their next turn, or start again with a Charge for their AoE.

+ Attack

Attack with the AoE begins on a player’s turn immediately after their successful Charge turn. During Attack, the combatant will choose up to three different targets. These targets are selected before any rolls will be completed and announced at the end of the post. Then, they will perform an attack roll on the EoC Dice HUD for each of these targets. A success will remove 1 HP from the target it hit, and failures will not remove any HP.

+ Recovery

The Recovery phase of an AoE is far more lenient than the Charge phase. During a Recovery a character may move, speak, attack, or attempt to escape combat. A character remains in a Recovery phase from the end of their Attack round through the next full round of combat.

Summoning an NPC

As mentioned below in the NPC rules, there are two different types of assistant NPCS – pets and summons. The main difference is that pets must be noted in the RP before combat begins, while summons can be brought in after combat at cost of an extra non-attack post. A Summoning action comes in two required phases. They are Charge, and Summon.

+ Charge

In order to Summon, a character must first spend their turn charging their attempt. During a charge, a character may speak, or move (but not to attempt to escape combat), but they can take no other action or their charge is immediately canceled. A character remains in the Charge phase until they successfully summon a creature or they are interrupted. An Interrupt is defined as any successful hit against a character that is charging. Once a Charge has been interrupted, a player may take any action on their next turn, or start again with a Charge for their Summon.

+ Summon

On this phase of the Summoning action, your summoned creature comes immediately into play and they can act on this turn. You however, must recover, and your actions are limited to move, speak, or flee. Your Summoned creature, regardless if it is magical, animated, or called from the gate as a local guard who will fight for you, will take one HP of your health for its use. If they had just taken your last HP you can no longer take any more actions during combat but your summoned creature may still act within the confines of Summons and Guard rules until it, too, is struck and defeated.

Additional Rule Sets

 

NPC Rules

• NPCs Cannot be ignored – They are there for a reason and should be acknowledged by your character.
• In a faction area with posted NPCs you may summon a total of one NPC (with 1hp) to help fight. If this NPC is defeated, you may not summon another one.
• NPCs must act realistically – ICly, NPCs are their own person (barring summons). They may have their own personalities, their own backstories, etc. But they must be played out realistically. If you are a dragon attacking the city, the NPCs will not side with you. If you have been arrested for murder, the guards are not going to be your friends.
• If you attack a standing NPC (a guard, etc), you must click to attack with your HUD. If you lose all of your HP you must flee, and you cannot fight that NPC again for 24 hours. NPCs CANNOT capture players unless previously agreed upon with the faction lead.
• You may have only one pet or summon at a time. Any pet or summon must take one 1hp from your own pool, and adds only one attack roll to combat. You must post your NPCs actions within your own post, and roll for both your attack and the NPC’s attack immediately after.

• Your pet may not heal you within combat, nor can standing NPCs step in and refresh your HP. Outside of combat, as always, one may heal by whatever method they choose. This includes being healed by infirmary NPCs or by your pet/summon.

Healing Rules

Please note that the below rules apply only in combat situations. Outside of combat you may heal with whatever method you please, with no limit for number of people healed or attempts. Nor do you have to roll to heal outside of combat.

• Each healer may only heal up to three HP total in combat.

• Each healer may only heal each combatant by one HP per fight.

• Healers may not heal themselves.

• Healing potions used in combat may restore only one HP, and must be rolled for using a ‘normal’ roll. A roll under 10 fails, and the potion is used up without restoring a HP. Potions are the one exception to the rule against self-healing, but you MUST clearly state their existence before combat begins in order to use one. There is also a limit of one per combat.

• Healing AoE’s are allowed both in and out of combat. An AoE, just like with attacks, can target up to three people at once. However, once cast you may not cast another healing AoE for the duration of that combat. It also requires one post of charging before casting the AoE. Any failed heal rolls from an AoE can be attempted again as a single-target heal, until you have used all three of your heals.

Magic Rules

All magic has limits. – Your character will be fatigued by magic that they use, no matter what. Eventually, their magic will run out. You will not be able to cast powerful spell after powerful spell, and should you try your character will very likely experience adverse effects.

• Resurrections can only be performed by high ranking healers and/or priestesses (i.e. a member of one of the three highest guild ranks. One staff member must also be present). You must have two people to perform the ritual, and one person to petition. This means to be resurrected you must have three different people willing to do such a thing for you. Death should not be taken lightly.

• Any powerful items must have proof of their creation, or must be approved of by an admin – Magical items only need approval if they significantly alter your character’s abilities, or lend a bonus to their attacks. Examples: Daywalker ring (allows vampires to be out in sunlight) Lighting spear (grants the ability to perform one AoE a week without charging up first), Soulbound Weapons, etc. Minor magical items like staffs or bags of holding do not require approval. ( You can find the magic item app under the ‘applications’ dropdown.)


 

Death Rules

Character Death should not be taken lightly. While we do allow resurrections, they must follow the rules below.

• If your character dies, they must stay dead for one IRL week.
• Resurrections require at least two other players – a priest, and a healer – to be performed. You cannot be resurrected until you find two such players to do the deed. See above info in Magic Rules for a fuller explanation of requirements
• You cannot use your own Alts to resurrect your character.
• Some races are ‘immortal’ – namely fae and demons. These races do not need to be resurrected in the manner detailed above. However, there is still a price to pay for death. Please see the Whispermere or Fae pages for more information on an immortal’s death.

Alt Rules

In EoC we do allow players to use multiple accounts for different characters. However, there are a few basic rules that go along with this to prevent metagaming.

• If you wish to join a fight with your alt, you must state that the character is in fact your alt, and you must gain approval from all the other combatants. If you do not wish to reveal your alts, then you may not join combats alongside another one of your characters.
• Alts cannot be used to perform any major duties for your other characters. You cannot use an alt to create a magic item for yourself, or to resurrect your own character.
• You cannot ‘know’ information that your alts know without some logical way of communicating between your characters – sending a note, sending someone else to tell them, ect. If two of your known characters are found to have shared information, you may be asked to prove how you exchanged that information between characters

Bond Rules

Character bonds are allowed, but they must follow certain guidelines to avoid godmodding and metagming
• The further you are from your bonded, the weaker the bond grows. If you are standing right next to your bonded you may be able to feel their feelings, hear every thought, etc. but the further you are the more effort that takes.
• Just like with Alts, you cannot automatically ‘know’ information that your bonded knows. It still must be communicated through RP.
• You cannot automatically know your bonded’s exact location. If you intend to find them, the summon or attempt to locate them must be posted. I.e. if you are in a scene and wish to summon your bond partner, you must post in local that you are doing so.
• Related to above, if you summon a bond partner to join a fight, they are not automatically included. You must still seek consent from all other parties, and a bond partner must wait for at least a full round between the summoning post and their posting into the scene.

Warding Rules

Separate from the simpler rules of magic, wards are powerful protections cast by a single mage or groups of mages with the intent of protecting a place or a thing. The strength of these wards is determined by the number of mages casting them, and their breaking is just as complex as their casting. A ward can either be bypassed, in which the person only enters through the barrier and must still roll to avoid being pushed back out, or broken, which takes greater effort, and results in the ward being destroyed entirely. Please read the rules and guidelines below to gain a better understanding.

 

• To break any ward, one must be in physical proximity. No standing in the gardens and trying to break a ward in the Zer’Tath tower.

• When in RP and inside a ward that you have pushed through, the ward will activate once every two rounds. This means you can either flee or make another attempt to avoid the ward before it strikes again. The posted roll for the ward is the number you will need to beat each time.

• Like an NPC, a failed strike against a ward will drop you one hit point for each failed roll/attempt.

• The strength of a ward is determined by how many people help cast it. The weakest wards are cast by only one mage.

• As stated above, the number of spellcasters creating a ward determines how strong the ward is, and thus what roll is required to break it. A weak ward cast by one person will require a 16 or higher to beat. Every two casters working on a ward ups the roll by one. 2-3 people needs a 17 to beat. 4-5 requires a 18 to break the ward. ect. Some wards are special to the lore, and may require different rolls to beat. 

• Wards weaken over time. They must be regularly strengthened or re-cast to avoid failure. (Once a month for weak wards, once every two months for powerful ones)

• You may only attempt to break/bypass a ward once per day. This means if you fail three attempted rolls, and are reduced by 3hp, you have to leave the area. In the event of a group assault upon a ward, the attempt can take one of two forms: Just like casting a ward, the number of people in your group will bolster your attempts. A group of mages can either choose one representative to roll for them, and then add a bonus determined by their number. (Two mages is +1, 3-4 is +2, 5-6 is +3, and any more is a +4.) Or they can all roll individually, without adding the group bonus. Additionally, a staff member must be present in at least an OOC capacity to observe any group attempt at ward breaking.