Unofficial Rules of Roleplay

Most roleplaying communities ascribe to the Common Rules of Roleplay or some approximate adaptation of them in a reliable way. However, like most, the World 42 community has a number of Unofficial Rules of Roleplay that are usually unspoken, unwritten, or generally spread by word of mouth rather than by concrete list of what to do and what not to do. These rules apply to most aspects of the World 42 community, from combat to character creation, and are guidelines for how to avoid social and political taboos. Not everyone ascribes to every single one of the unofficial rules, and some outright ignore many of them or elect to take a new spin on the usual version. Often certain sub-communities within RuneScape's role-playing network have similar beliefs about which of the unofficial rules are most important. Whichever way, this article serves to provide an archive of such unofficial rules for the sake of reference.

Ask Before You Kill
It is considered polite to obtain permission from a player before attempting to kill his character. This courtesy is a respect for the sentimental connection that can form between a player and his character. Some users feel that each individual has the right to chose the circumstances of his character's death. A common variation of this rule is to, rather than ask permission, warn the player of your character's intentions so that the player may have his character make decisions to help allow or not allow the kill. Common exceptions to this rule include characters who initiate combat, characters in high-profile positions like kings who should expect frequent attempts on their lives, and characters on battlefields.

Attack Justification
It is considered polite to, if a player controlling an opponent character requests, offer legitimate justification for your character initiating combat. This is a protection against metagamers in that the opponent player wants to make sure that your character is not attacking for out-of-character reasons, like personal disagreement or boredom, and that player's character is in danger fairly. The opposite side of this coin is that, after justification is given, your opponent character is obligated not to unfairly use that justification, obtained out of character, to his character's benefit.

Warn Before an Assault
It is considered courteous to provide a reasonable period of warning to an enemy group out-of-character before launching a multi-player assault on that enemy group's territory, holdings, or so on. Such grace periods can last anywhere from an hour to a month, but most clans will accept 24 to 48 hours of warning without protest. The justification for this warning is that any major city or organization is likely to have a formidable organized force ready to defend it from attack at a moment's notice, but the availability of players to be present and represent such defenders fluctuates by time, season, group, time zone, and many other dynamic factors. The grace period in this unwritten rule is meant to allow the defending clan to alert its members to be online and available at an agreed upon time, thus making the conflict as realistic (in-character) and fair (out-of-character) as possible. The unspoken understanding on the other end of this rule is that groups given warning are expected not to abuse the warning and metagame character knowledge of the incoming attack so as to prepare special defenses against what would realistically be a surprise assault.

Start Small
It is typically advised for new players to start with relatively usual races when creating their first character(s). That is, humans, dwarves, goblins, gnomes, and sometimes elves are considered to be the best choices for beginners. This is because the world 42 community has many idiosyncracies that new players are bound to run into and attempting to play a rare or powerful breed of character like a Mahjarrat or Gorajo that can be much more tricky to play in ways the community considers fair can be somewhat trying or discouraging. Instead, new players are advised to get used to things with an easy character and, only after acclamating to the community, then pursue more ambitious profiles.

Temporary Royalty
Though based on the social hierarchy and monarchies of medieval Earth, royalty is not necessarily a permanent position in the realm of RuneScape role-play. While the crown does not have an expiration date, monarchs are rarely expected to last for remarkably long periods of time. For a monarch to either be killed, dethroned, or to step down from power are all considered common occurrences in the World 42 in-character universe.

Contemporary Values
Though there are many scenarios in the World 42 universe made to resemble medieval Earth society, like social hierarchy and romantic-style combat norms, there are still many very contemporary values exhibited in the in-character society which are treated as normal despite being far from the reality of medieval times. To name a few, characters on different social castes often treat each other as equals, torture and unnecessary cruelty are usually considered abominable, and many government systems practice innocent-until-proven-guilty. Along similar lines, it is also considered normal for a commoner to earn a private audience with the monarch himself.