From the NannyMUD documentation
2001-10-06
NAME
general - general rules for wizardsDESCRIPTION
First a few incoherent points to consider. Then, some miscellaneous things. * You can place your castle in the /room-area. * You are not allowed to place anything else in the /room-area. * If what you create is covered by the rules, it need no approval unless that is stated in the rules. * The wizlist is not a high-score list. * The wizlist is monitored when the admin searches for things to check. * Players should not lose XP involuntarily, dying excepted. SOME ABBREVIATIONS Hopefully, you have seen/heard of those in the game. On the odd chance you haven't, here are a few that will be used throughout this congregation of text files. Abbrev Means +-------+------------------- gc gold coin, gold coins HB heart beat, heart beats HP hit point, hit points SP spell point, spell points QP quest point, quest points XP experience point, experience points NP Nanny point, Nanny points A FEW DEFINITIONS A player, or user, is someone logged on to the game. A mortal is a player with a level less than 20; a wizard is a player with a level exceeding 19. THE 'NEED TO KNOW' RULE The first rule of all is that you need to know the rules. Claimed ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse. COMMON SENSE Use your common sense. Unfortunately, common sense seems to vary from person to person, so perhaps it should rather be phrased as the common sense of the admin. This is, of course, hard to know beforehand. If you are unsure, ask. LANGUAGE The language of NannyMUD is English. APPROVAL All things created will have some impact on how the game is played by the mortals. If you create something that influences this heavily or alters the game balance (such as it is), this must be discussed and approved before it is added to the game. The approval should be noted in your file under /permissions with a note on who approved what, and the stats for what was approved. A date must also be added. It is the creators responsibility to check that this is done and remind the approver otherwise. The game is dynamic and with time your item might cause so much trouble that the approval will have be considered again. Don't be surprised at this. For an object to have a chance of approval, there must be an area where it will be placed, so it is possible to judge how hard it is to get. No area, no approval. CLONABLE OBJECTS If an object can be cloned by someone at all, it must be possible to clone for the admin. Measures will be taken otherwise. THE WEIGHT OF OBJECTS Unless otherwise stated, an object that can be handled (picked up, sold, ...) by the players and has a value that is non-zero must have a weight of at least 1. THE VALUE OF ITEMS No items should be worth more than 5000 gc. They will be adjusted when found. Items with a value above 1000 gc must be very rare. Don't set a high value on your items to prevent them from being sold; use the property 'special_item' to that end. CORRECTED FILES When the admin finds an item not fulfilling the rules or influencing the game in a bad way, the item will be adjusted. The creator will be notified via mail. The admin making the adjustment will make a comment in the code about the change. You might not redo the changes without first discussing it with the admin who made them. It is quite possible that the item can be approved after some small changes. FREE THINGS Free things are things laying around without a guardian. The value of the free things in your area must not exceed 500 gc per reset. Free things must not be good things. INFINITE SOMETHING It is not allowed to have infinite amounts of anything, or have it reappear with no or little time in between. The basic time period is the reset, and anything appearing should do so a few times per reset. This applies to all objects. It also applies to indirect healing, like being soaked and stuffed, and every other situation where it's needed. Try using some common sense. A few examples: + Monsters that appear as soon as someone enters a room. + Money delivered if you press a button. + Drinks from a stream, with soak added everytime. AUTOLOADERS All autoloading objects must be approved, have no weight and be impossible to drop. The players must be provided with a way of getting rid of them, too. SECOND CHARACTERS You are allowed to have second characters - as long as you register them (/room/registration_office). The second character is considered a normal mortal for most purposes, playing the game on the same terms as all other mortals. You and your mortal must not be logged on at the same time, nor are you allowed to be logged on with more than one second at a time. You must keep your wizard and your seconds separate - don't use knowledge gained as a wizard for your second, and do not under any circumstances use your wiz to gain knowledge for your second, like exploring other wizards areas. The area that you will know best in the game is the one you yourself created. Therefore, it is not a good idea, nor common sense, to play your seconds in it! You are allowed to visit your area to solve a quest, a puzzle or to attempt to kill a monster, but regular visits are not allowed. You may not bring other players with you into your area, nor may you give equipment from your area to anyone or divulge any information at all to anyone about your area. If you want to inform the mortals about anything in your area, use your tourist information booklet. Seconds must not divulge information about the game that you have gained by being a wizard. This is of course a gray zone - beware of the admins' judgement. Under no circumstances are you to create things that can only be used by seconds, either yours or others. When the admin finds out (and they will, have no doubt) you will be in trouble. Don't give your seconds password to others. Due to the amount of problems this causes, the admin has decided that doing so will be followed by a demote of the wizard and a removal of the second. TEST CHARACTERS Your test character should have a name similar to your own. Don't use it as a player; a test character is by definition here to test things, not play. You will name the testcharii or jr. If your name is too long to allow this, you can cutoff characters at the end until you can add 'ii' or 'jr'. Be sure to check this doesn't make it look like someone elses testchar. SNOOPING A wizard can snoop players, that is, see everything they do and see. This is a powerful tool for debugging and getting ideas; it is NOT for the amusement of bored wizards. Valid reasons for snooping include: + You are trying to check on bugs and what players are typing to get bugs. + You snoop a mortal during your conversation with them to get some privacy. + You snoop players in your area when they are questing or whatever to get ideas in general or on how to improve your stuff or area. + You are checking to see if a player is cheating, and there are no admin around to mention it to. The two latter cease to be valid when the player you snoop engages in a private conversation with others, or other such activities. LOGIN AND LOGOUT POINTS It is possible to set the login and logout points for mortals, i.e. the location where the mortal starts when logging in, and a location where the mortal is transferred when logging out. Wizards are forbidden to set this on other characters than themselves and their test characters. MORE TO READ Read the tips and hints in the file 'debugging'. CREATIVITY Your area should contain not only standard stuff, but preferably something never seen before on any MUD. Use your imagination, talk to friends in the game and in Real Life, read books, goto movies, etc. Beware of the inflation though; make things interesting instead of outright excellent. The admin might not approve another wc 23 weapon. FEELINGS AND SOULS The standard soul, /std/soul/soul.c, is one of the foremost characteristics of NannyMUD. Extra feelings and adverbs can be added directly into the soul with a minimum of effort. TRAPS Don't create dangerous traps without having ample warning! Leave hints for the mortals that there is trouble to be found around the next corner. HARD INVISIBILITY The admins can use 'hard invisibility', which is a mark that they are occupied and are to be left alone and not disturbed. Therefore, no code in wizards dir shall reveal the presence of hard-invis admins.