Wiki Systems Player Killing

Player Killing

The roleplay rules for killing another player, what happens when you do, where fighting players is barred, and how area skills treat bystanders.

Player killing is allowed in Rogue, and it is governed by roleplay. A kill must come out of real, recent roleplay between the characters involved. Killing someone for fun, for experience, for their gear or because you could is punished, up to deleting the character. help pk is the rule in full, and you are expected to know it; staff will not approve a kill in advance.

The rules#

The reason must be personal, political, religious, guild business or part of a story, and it must be current. An old grudge counts only if recent hostile roleplay has built on it, and one small incident is not enough.
After any player kill, mail staff with what happened, why, and the roleplay that led to it.
Being paid or ordered to kill someone does not excuse you. Staff may ask for in game proof, such as mail or a contract, and you still need your own part in the roleplay. Belonging to a group that dislikes someone is not a reason.
Traps, powers, items and setups you arrange that kill a player are judged as if you struck the blow yourself.
New players are not immune, but they are still learning the world, so think hard before escalating against one.
Killing the same player again needs serious, substantial reasons.

A character killed by another player does not remember who did it, nor any name or detail that would identify them. They may remember fragments and play suspicion or fear, but not certainty, even if others saw it. Whatever the outcome, everyone stays in character about the events.

What happens#

kill (or attack) works on another player anywhere fighting is not barred (see below), and so do most hostile skills and spells. The player struck fights back at once, as they would against a monster.

A few ways into a fight are closed between players:

melee, scouting, marking or shooting from range, and a necromancer's hostile rites (Strip Enchantment among them) never work on another player.
target cannot open a fight with a player, and bump and a ranger's order to their companion cannot be turned on one, except on the Barred Sands during a Colosseum bout. Elsewhere, start with kill.

A player killed by another dies in the ordinary way: their corpse holds their gear and anyone may loot it. The realm hears of it in a red banner that names the dead and never the killer, and The Rogue Times prints the death the same way.

Nobody can quit in the middle of a fight. A player whose link drops leaves their body behind, unconscious and still able to be killed. Staff keep a record of the fight as the victim saw it.

Where it is barred#

Fighting is barred in rooms set aside for peace, among them parts of the temples, the Colosseum's stands and passages, the shopfronts on Shopfront Row and rented inn rooms. A hostile skill or spell is refused there too.

Staff can also switch player against player combat off across the realm, with a banner when it goes off and when it comes back. While it is off no player can harm another by any means: blows, spells, damage already ticking and pets acting for their owners all stop short.

At sea, player ships cannot fire on each other; see Ships.

In Aurin the patrolling watch steps in when players fight in the street. A guard orders the fight stopped, and a few seconds later arrests a fighter who is still at it for disturbing the peace. See Cities and Citizenship.

For a fight with nothing at stake, arrange a bout at the Colosseum: the loser is carried to the surgeons and loses nothing.

Area skills and bystanders#

An area skill a player uses spares their own group, and the pets, minions and thralls belonging to them or their group. It hits other players standing in the room wherever player combat is allowed. In a peaceful room, or while staff have switched player combat off, it spares every player. A monster's area attack still hits every player.

Heroes and henchmen never harm a player or anyone's companions, whatever skill they use.

If someone is harassing you#

earmuff <name> stops you hearing a player on channels, and report <name> <what happened> sends it to the staff. See Reporting problems.