New Moon's Rules and Code of Conduct

People come here to play on New Moon because it is relaxing, it is fun, and the players and creators here are friendly. Harassment of any sort will not be condoned, nor will it be allowed. If you are told to stop doing something to someone (ie. they find it annoying or bothersome) please use common sense and stop it. It is for the benefit of everyone here who plays, if we can all respect each other and get along there really should be no problems. If you decide not to listen to a plea for quittance of your actions, you will receive a warning. This is to be heeded. If you do not decide to listen to these requests for cooperation, a suitable punishment will be decided for the harasser by an appropriate level creator. Most likely this will be a Lord and since New Moon's Lords are busy people, your punishment might just be a bit harsher than you expected.

"What might be considered harassment?" you may be asking.

Well here are some examples of the sort of things we consider to be harassment:

1. Doing an aggressive or annoying soul command (such as kick, punch, spit etc) repeatedly (including in quick succession to each other) on the same person. If that person does not mind this then it is acceptable, but if it is not and if they tell you to "Stop", you should kindly stop.
2. Using emote or souls to make it seem that you and another person are doing something that is lewd, or annoying to the other player. If both parties agree, this is of course acceptable, but "No" means NO, no matter who or where you may be.
3. Using the public channels (chat, newbie or shout), or private means (tell, whisper, etc) to write profanities, spread malicious information or to abuse someone racially, sexually or otherwise. This is not desirable and in some cases will be hurtful to other people and so you will be warned to stop immediately. If you continue to persist in this way you will be reprimanded for your actions.
4. Insulting other players. It is one thing to roleplay, but if one person takes offense roleplaying stops, reality takes over and insults can be exchanged. This is not only immature, but annoying for the other players. If someone takes offense (and if you do take offense, let that person who offended you know), kindly stop your roleplaying across those lines. And if it wasn't role-play then it constitutes personal abuse anyway.
5. Intentionally seeking out invisible creators. Creators use invisibility primarily as a way to get some uninterrupted work time. Persons who insist on revealing/talking/etc to invisible creators are harassing them. Please do not do this.
6. Bad-mouthing creators will not be tolerated. If you have a problem with some aspect of the game, file a bug report, or post about it on the relevant board. However, players do _not_ have the right to be disrespectful of our creators. This might include statements along the lines of "this (spell/command/thing) sucks", or "Why did (creator) ruin this (aspect) of the game?". Take the time to give a reasoned explanation of your problem, and when possible give some alternative solutions. Remember to speak to creators in a way that you would like to be spoken to. Our creators are people just like yourselves that love New Moon, and they dedicate their time freely to make it something special for players. Show them the respect they are due. To repeatedly do otherwise is a form of harassment.

Those are just a few examples that may be deemed as harassing. All we ask you here at New Moon is you use discretion when interacting with other players. Just because this is a fantasy gaming environment doesn't mean 'anything goes'. Usually, if it is unpleasant behaviour that would not be tolerated in life itself, it won't be tolerated on New Moon. If you act wisely, maturely and politely there will be no problems.

Special note to all creators: Being a creator does not place you above the system. Remember, being a creator also means being responsible. It is up to the creators to set an example by their actions.

If you are a victim of harassment, you should contact or mail a LIAISON creator or a Lord. Or you could talk to any creator who may be on at the time. Another option is to go to the Town Hall in Heliopolis and leave a post on the town hall board (only creators can read this), describing your situation and who was the culprit. (Warning: Do not falsely accuse anyone of harassment, because in truth you are then the person doing the harassing and this will be dealt with accordingly.)

Cheating comes in a variety of guises. Often players aren't sure what is or isn't considered cheating and ignorance is one of the most common excuses when we catch players at it.

So, to clarify, here's what we consider cheating:

This means operating more than one character in the game simultaneously. We don't mind players owning up to four characters. But, we must make it clear that these characters must never come into contact with each other.

This means:

• Never be logged on at the same time as each other. This speaks for itself. Remember that Lords have ways of seeing where you are connecting from and it doesn't take long for the coin to drop.
• Never interact in any way. This includes little tricks like Player A drops something and logs out, then Player B logs in and picks it up. It also includes things like mailing items and money between your different characters.
• Never be used as a gaming or roleplaying team. It is not acceptable to use your characters as a team to bait, challenge, harass or indeed help other players. This is especially pertinent in Player Killer situations and we do not allow you to use one character as bait. It is also not acceptable to log on a different character in response to a request for help received by the character you are currently playing (for example logging off your fighter character to log on your healer character in order to heal a friend or party member).
• Never be used to spy for your main character. It is not acceptable to log on a special character whose main or sole purpose is to act as a spy and access areas your main character cannot access. An example would be creating a special character just so you can read a board your main character is unable to access, or to hang around in a guild building spying for your main character. This is considered multi-play and is against the spirit of the game.

As in any MUD, from time to time you will encounter bugs (errors) in the game which might bring you benefits (usually in experience points or money) beyond those normally found in the game.

It is often obvious when something is bugged, but here's some examples:

• A monster that refuses to die properly and keeps regenerating, giving repeated experience points.
• A broken search routine that allows you to search repeatedly and gives you an item or money every time you search (until you can carry no more).
• A monster or action that rewards an inordinately huge amount of experience points or money. Players soon get a feel for the 'balance' of the game and it's usually easy to spot an unbalanced piece of code.
• An item found in the game that is obviously over-powered. It shouldn't happen but occassionally careless creators leave test items lying around. These can seriously unbalance the game, so if you find something unusual just lying in the road then please ask if you're unsure if it's ok to own and use it. Luckily this is a rare occurence.
• Finding you can access areas of the game that you shouldn't be able to. Sometimes a bug can cause a player to get somewhere he/she shouldn't normally be able to access. If you think you have stumbled somewhere you shouldn't have, please ask a creator if it's ok to be where you are. Again, this is thankfully a rare occurence.
• Finding and exploiting a combination of circumstances which brings huge rewards but which obviously the creators never intended. This is hard to specify, but please use your common sense and intuition. If you're able to earn an insanely large amount of xps from an action or combination of actions it's almost certainly a bug and should be reported.

New Moon's quests are there for everyone to discover and enjoy. The whole point of quests is that they are there to test the adventurer and are supposed to be solved by the individual (or sometimes a group of players) using their own powers of deduction. To tell someone the solution to a quest not only ruins the experience for that player, but also is considered cheating. We find no problem with you giving the odd cryptic hint to someone who is really struggling, but we seriously object to players 'tramlining' other players through entire quests. It is not hard for creators to spot this in action, so please be don't do it. And if you're stuck in a quest, please don't expect other players to give you the solution and don't continually pester players (or even creators for that matter) for one. It will not be forthcoming.

Some people (often players with a history of cheating or bug exploitation) think it is clever to publish cheat sheets of quests or other new moon information. This is, of course, illegal, and anyone found to be publishing, passing on or using questlists will be dealt with severely as will the compilers of such lists.

Sometimes players seek to gain advantage or prevent an impending demise by logging out during combat. This is considered cheating and will be punished. Obviously, sometimes a link will drop during combat making it appear like you have logged out. We keep a log of all people who quit during combat and lone occurences are usually explained by link death. But it is easy to spot regular offenders and we DO take action.

When a player interacts with a creator, for example to have equipment replaced, or to ask for a life to be returned, or to inquire about the possibility of a bug in the game, the creator will respond in the appropriate manner. At that point, the matter should in general be closed. It is cheating to then go from creator to creator to try and elicit a different or more favorable response, in the hopes that another creator will have a different opinion, or simply be misinformed. If your interaction with a creator is unsatisfying, you may mail a Lord, or file a complaint in the Town Hall if you wish, but "creator hopping" is cheating, and can even become a form of harassment.

Here at New Moon we wish to keep as secure a system as possible. Therefore, we do not take kindly to anything which deliberately or even inadvertently compromises our security. It should be taken as read that attempts to hack and breach our password system will be dealt with using the strongest powers available to us. We also do not tolerate password swapping, even between friends. It may seem harmless enough to give other people (including other players) your password, but it can lead to serious security headaches. We will act swiftly if we find evidence of password swapping and punishment will be harsh. It goes without saying that the implications are massive where creators are involved and the punishment will usually involve demotion. So, whether player or creator, please do not password swap under ANY circumstances.

Well, that about covers it. It may seem like there's lots of rules after all, but really there isn't. Most of the above is simple common sense and we don't expect to need to remind most players about our rules. Luckily we rarely need to as we usually find everyone gets along just fine. But please do not push our creators to see how much we will tolerate before we react because you really won't like it when we do. Finally, if you are caught breaking the rules, please note that ignorance of these rules will no longer be accepted as a valid excuse.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this document. Remember, if we all act maturely New Moon will be a very fun place to mud. Please help keep the game enjoyable for everyone.

Many Thanks and Happy Mudding!