These rules look complicated. They are not. The main thing to consider is that we use these RoE in order to make things fair. This is an online game, and it’s not fun or fair to log out in your home, and log in the next day to find that it’s been burned to the ground in an attack, and you couldn’t do anything about it because you were at school or something. Keeping things fair is the intent of these rules, and if people just followed the spirit of them, we wouldn’t need to write them up so completely. But since people do not, they are rather detailed.

In all cases, remember that a GM may always make a decision that goes counter to any of the written ROEs, in any given case.

An attack outside of the town that has no plan or intent to enter the town.

An attack inside the town that has the plan and intent to kill a specific target. It can only be conducted by 1 or 2 characters, any more must declare a raid instead. Kidnappings follow the same rules as Assassinations.

An attack upon the town that is of limited scope. Rescuing someone from jail follows the same rules as a Raid, and a GM needs to be present.

An attack upon the town that is of unlimited scope (usually in order to remove the town’s ruler from power).

A “Town” defines any area which is inhabited by a large group of players. This includes the standard definition of town or village, and also large faction headquarters outside of normal towns. The most obvious “Towns” are the regions zoned as such, like Denshy and all of its districts, Aurelia, and Abidjan. However, if you plan to attack any area which might be subject to RoE, contact a GM to make sure.

A “District” is a smaller town inside of a bigger town. As a practical example, Denshy has the following “Districts”: - The Free City of Denshy (main/leader district) - Denshy: Merchant District - Denshy: Harbor District - Denshy: Slums District - Denshy: Farmlands District - Denshy: Residential District - Denshy: Clerical District - Paranor: Northern Harbor

The rules for attacking a town in general, or just some of its districts, vary.

An attack on a town is an attack on a town. I didn’t think that really needed clarifying, but apparently it does.

If you deliberately cause any NPCs of a town to get harmed, that’s an attack. You can do it under an assassination, raid, siege, whatever, but you can’t say “I didn’t directly attack anyone”.

This includes leading monsters into town, whether they’re under your control or not. It includes leading monsters such as Ettins under your control, then releasing them in town. It includes trapping an area and leading an NPC into it. It includes explosion or other area-effect attacks. Heck, it includes ANYTHING that harms ANY town NPCs (vendors, guards, bankers, stablemasters, etc) other than accidental damage.

Accidental damage is generally something that hits YOU, and then other people around you. Tossing a potion at an enemy who closes the door, and the explosion then hits you and the guard next to you, would be accidental. Trying to disarm an explosion trap, and having it backfire and hit people around you, would be accidental... unless you did it knowing that it would backfire.

Don’t try to be a rules or a words lawyer on this. “An attack on a town is an attack on a town”... that states the INTENT of the rules clearly. You should be able to figure out whether any action of yours breaks the intent of the rule or not on your own. You’re all supposed to be able to RP well, and that includes being able to make judgment calls on what is right and what isn’t.

Not governed by ROE rules and may happen at any time. The only RoE limitation is that the attackers may not use a skirmish as an excuse to enter a town. Note that in this case, a person who is NOT originally a town enemy or JOS or KOS in the town, is not considered an attacker. Joe Thief can attack a target near a town and chase them into town, if they dare. Joe Ork cannot, if orks are considered enemies of the town.

Does not require any ROE announcement, but it must end when the attacker(s) have killed one character within the town. This includes NPCs such as guards or citizens. After that, the attackers must do their best to withdraw without killing any further creatures. If you do not like this restriction, declare a raid instead.

Must be declared 10 minutes before it is conducted. A town official (some PC who can command the town guards) must be available and in-town in order for the raid to occur. A town official who is in town may not refuse the raid except by logging out for the day within those 10 minutes, but one who is busy elsewhere need not be forced to break what they’re doing to accept the raid.

Must be declared and agreed to at least 48 hours ahead of time. Generally only the town ruler may agree to the siege time, but at the ruler’s discretion, his officials may accept siege declarations for him.

Can be done against any targets. ROE does not apply outside a town.

Can only be done against one target. The assassination must end when one defender or town person is killed whether it was the original target or not. The target must be a PC character (no assassinating NPCs who don’t have the wits to do something about it, this includes horses, vendors, guards, etc). However, if a guard or another NPC happens to get killed while a PC is targeted, then the assassination must end as if a PC was killed.

There *are* certain conditions in which a single person could attack multiple targets within town without declaring a raid at the cost of his/her own life, but it would have to be discussed at length with the staff beforehand.

Can continue until all PC defenders who defend the gates/walls are dead. After that, it is considered an assassination for each attacker. So a 5-man raid can kill all the PC defenders, plus 5 NPC or PCs who did not defend the town. If defenders have not all been killed or surrendered, and the attackers are specifically targetting NPCs, then in that case they are limited to killing equal number of NPCs plus two as are in their own party. For example, a raiding party of 1 could kill 3 guards. However, if the NPCs are not specifically targetted, then there are no limitations. For example, if a raiding party of 2 attacks and the defenders are all hiding behind a wall of 10 NPC guards, then the raiding party may kill all 10 guards. Please use your judgement.

Can continue until as many creatures are killed as is desired.

No limitations.

Can occur once every 24 hours. A character involved in an assassination may not participate in another one in that period, and if involved in a raid, they may not kill an NPC if the raid is successful.

Can occur once every 24 hours. Multiple raids may be conducted by DIFFERENT attackers within the same 24 hours, but all attackers must be different in each raid.

Can occur once every week. Again, multiple sieges can be conducted, but all attackers must be different.

No limitations on duration of attack or counterattack.

Must be planned to end within 2 hours. During those 2 hours, the defenders may counterattack the attacker’s town with a Raid declaration, whether those towns have a town official online or not. The defenders may only declare one raid against a town even if attackers from multiple towns exist, and they may only declare against a town if there are attackers from that town involved in the raid. Note that this is a Counterraid, and you can always declare a Counterraid against one town, and a normal Raid against another town, although the normal Raid does require that the other town has a town official in town, which will be pretty unlikely.

Must be planned to end within 4 hours. Although a siege can last for longer outside the walls, the actual battle for possession of the town may only last 4 hours (no victory through superior ability to stay up later).

The laying of a siege can last up to a week from its inception (48 hours after declaration). The battle for control should happen within that week, unless both parties are unable to agree on a date/time within that week, in which case the siege may be extended.

Do not need to be announced. The defenders are not due any prior information.

Announced 10 minutes prior to being conducted, and any defenders within the town or a short distance away (a couple of screens, usually) are allowed to log in and enter the town. Defenders further away have no warning or knowledge of the attack.

Since when Raid is declared, the attack is not always conducted in an open, visible fashion (like an army attacking a town), the defenders who log in are not supposed to know that an attack is imminent. They are allowed to be ready for an attack. Declarations of RoE are meant to make people log in, not to stir the defenders so that they are fully prepared for any attack. GMs will ring the town bells after the attack begins (unless it is in a secluded area).

If the raid is going to be a public one, a GM will ring the town bells and make sure that the defenders are made aware. It is up to the attackers to inform the GM of this.

Due to the division of some Towns in Districts, special rules need to be made. If you wish to attack only a particular District, then only that District’s leaders need to be informed. However, if you are planning to attack more than one district, leaders from ALL districts you are planning to attack need to be informed. Excuses such as “I wasn’t expecting the fighting to spread to other districts!” are not acceptable. If you are chased into another district and end up killing people (PCs or NPCs) there without declaring RoE towards it, you will have to pay a restitution and will lose XPs.

Announced well ahead of time, at least 48 hours ahead of it, and all defenders can know of the attack if they wish.

If no defending leaders are able to be contacted within a week, then the town guards are put in charge. If no guards are able to be contacted either, then a date/time (48 hours in advance) will be set w/ the attackers and posted on the boards. If any townspeople show up, they will be made guards and put in charge. If nobody shows up, the attackers will just fight the NPC guards, and then be given control of the town.

Siege follows the same rules regarding districts, as Raid.

All declarations must be followed through by an attack within a reasonable time. This would usually be from 10-30 minutes of the attack declaration for a raid, and within a half hour of the declared start of battle for a siege. If the attack is not to be conducted (the attackers see the forces waiting and retreat), then the defenders must be told immediately, and the attack counts as if having been performed. If you declare a raid against town X, 20 minutes from now, and within 20-50 minutes from now you do not attack, your raid is done and you may not declare another for 24 hours. Etc.