Rules & Guidelines

[The documents below contain rules of conduct, and free form roleplay guidelines for the patrons of the Castle Of Shadows. None of these rulesets are definitive, but are comprehensive enough to solve any disputes which may arise between players, and to a serve as a general guide for roleplay within the Castle. The House Rules which follow apply to the chat rooms, the message boards, the guestbook, and to the submission forms, included in the Castle Of Shadows website. They are not unreasonable, and are included so that it is as pleasant as possible for all patrons.]

lessandro turned out to be the dark-haired man from the trio at the Great Hall. He was obviously human, for his skin sported a suntan, and despite the roughened stubble on his lower face, and his overall look of scruffiness, his eyes carried an intelligent, handsome shine with them. "I don't see why AshKa can't tell you this stuff. She knows it just's well as I do. Mind you, I reckon she's being awkward, as usual." With a healthy swig, Alessandro drained the content of his ale mug, and began relate the rules of the house.

"Watch your language, for a start. There's no need t'be generous with the expletives. I know me an' the lads don't exactly set a perfect example, but that's no excuse. If y'want t'be foul-mouthed, go down the Lemmsos docks. No-one'd tell the difference there..."
[No excessive foul language. Light cursing, and the occasional 'Soddit!' are perfectly acceptable, particularly in-character, but repeated use of the -f- word isn't. Chatters whose language is considered inappropriate will be warned, before being kicked from the chat room, and banned if they persist.]

"Although most who come through these doors are capable of lookin' after themselves, we in 'ere, 'specially Devilin, look after our own. If someone's bein' given a hard time, we'll 'elp 'em out. There's bound t'be some inter-racial tension, what with mortals, and vampires, and other species, in the same room, but there's a limit, too."
[No harassment, unless as part of a storyline. Racial discrimination can be made between characters, but not their players. Those who harass or are racist beyond a joke will be temporarily, if not permanently, banned.]

"None of us object to music or light entertainment, but if a patron decides to impose on us their singin' ability for too long, we'll make 'em change their tune, if y'know what I mean."
[No flooding. Filling the chat room or post window buffer with meaningless text and characters is rewarded by being kicked from the chat room, or banned from the message boards or guestbook.]

"Pedlars pass through 'ere quite frequently, and generally, without any bother. 'Owever, if some bugger attempts t'sell dubious wares, then there'll be trouble, sure's orcs are green."
[No hacking. Sending of patches/viruses to people in the chat room is strictly prohibited, and punishable with a permanent ban.]

"Last, for gods' sakes remember where y'are. This is the Castle Of Shadows, and this is Cypria, so I suggest y'respect that, otherwise y'll get a very different sort of local 'ospitality."
[It is appreciated that not everyone wants to roleplay at the same time, so out-of-character conversation is permitted, even when others are roleplaying; the Castle Of Shadows chat room is just as much a meeting place for on-line friends (how else did such close roleplaying communities evolve, if it wasn't by making friends with out-of-character talk?) as much as a roleplaying channel. Nobody is forced to roleplay, nor are they forced to hold an out-of-character conversation in the chat room.
However, chatters are asked to accordingly resort to private messages or the out-of-character message board if their conversation is obviously disrupting the roleplaying of others. This has been known to have been quite a touchy rules subject, but in the moderators' experience, no problems arise if chatters merely use their own discretion and a bit of common courtesy. That is to say, if an out-of-character conversation receives no complaints from whoever is roleplaying, then it's perfectly alright to continue it, unless a roleplayer respectfully requests that it is taken to private messages or the appropriate message boards.

The webmaster's exact opinion of chatters who insist on not using their common sense on this subject isn't printable, but as an alternative, says: "Talking about your day at work/school while the players gather/warm up is fine, as long as when the serious roleplaying starts, and people want to concentrate, the out-of-character chatter should be taken to private messages or off-site chat programs. Chatters should ultimately respect the wishes of the room as a whole. There are times when people would rather chat, than roleplay, and times when people would rather roleplay than chat. One roleplayer can't force six casual chatters to get in-character, but nor should a lone out-of-character chatter disrupt the room's roleplaying. Just use your heads."]

It must also be stressed that although the Castle Of Shadows is situated in the Warhammer World, games systems such as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, White Wolf, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Warhammer Fantasy Battle itself are only used as a source of background information, and none of the rules from these games apply in the Castle Of Shadows. This is a Free Form Roleplay website.

In addition, it is known that many players like to create their characters using sheets/generators associated with these games, to get an idea of how, for example, strong, their characters are, or how quick on their feet. While this is fine for comparative purposes, stating that your character has Weapon Skill 7 or Celerity 5 wouldn't carry any weight in the Castle Of Shadows chatroom or message boards. Instead, the character should be described as being particularly skillful with their weapon of choice, or un-naturally quick, respectively. Posts in which particular game attributes or statistics are quoted are irrelevant; in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, characters having a point of Strength between them, say 16 and 17, aren't exactly equally matched - in Free Form Roleplay, however, these are much of a muchness and would be roughly as strong as each other.

The Basics

Role-Play Guidelines - A newcomer's guide to free form role-play, and character creation.

Rules of Combat - Rules for resolving physical conflicts between characters.

Character Interaction: The Chat Room - A guide for character interaction within the Castle Of Shadows' chat rooms.

Character Interaction: The Message Boards - A guide for character interaction on the message boards.

IRC Commands - A guide to both basic and advanced IRC commands.

Glossary of Terms - Explanations of the internet/free formroleplay jargon used within the pages of the Castle Of Shadows.

Advanced Guidelines and Articles

Advanced FFRP Combat Guidelines - Tor's guide to the world of FFRP combat, beyond the rules which are written.
By Tor

No Dice! Free Form Fighting - Bloodsong offers guidelines on how to expand and enhance your FFRP fighting.
By Bloodsong

FFRP By Example - Josh uses simple examples to highlight the common mistakes made by FFRPers.
By Josh Catone

God Characters vs. Munchkins - Patrick Feaster's view of power-gaming.
By Patrick Feaster

Playing The God - Vampire Hunter D advises on how to handle power-gamers.
By Vampire Hunter D

Plot this! - Bloodsong's approach to storylines.
By Bloodsong

Spontaneous Generation of Worlds - The best storylines depend on the players' independent actions, not on a dungeon master's decision, writes Patrick.
By Patrick Feaster

Documents reproduced with kind permission.

Any comments, queries or suggestions on the rulesets should be submitted here.

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