The Lore Mechanical Standard

[Alan 1815]

* All credit for the writing of this wonderful post goes to Lagomorphia *

 

The following post is a full explanation of the foundation that the new lore regulations branch from. This is heavily based off of how Aegis worked in practice and takes full advantage of PvP default.

 

Firstly, what is lore? Lore means two things: one is the server backstory and "theme". This is the widely accepted definition. On LotC, "lore" has another meaning, which is a post detailing the history of something and the rules of how to roleplay it/with it in a fair and balanced way. "Breaking lore" is doing something that's impossible In Character. For example, roleplaying as an Argonian (they don't exist) is breaking lore. If you're in doubt, don't be afraid to ask.

 

With this in mind, what can be roleplayed without breaking lore? Certain things require approval from a Lore Master or moderator to be roleplayed, but approval is only required to deviate from the "Lore Mechanical Standard"; a derivation of the Mechanical Standard. Simply put, the Lore Mechanical Standard is the capabilities of a normal Minecraft character. Essentially, if you can perform an action in Minecraft and you don't break existing lore or server rules, it doesn't matter how you explain it in-character.

 

If your armour is Iron Armour, you can RP it as whatever you like, from simple plate to armour made from the bones of your enemies and blessed by a necromancer. So long as what the armour is RPed does not break the lore mechanical standard, it is perfectly alright. If your sword uses an Iron Sword Item, you can say it's whatever you like, from a dagger to a greatsword bigger than you are to a sword that talks. You could RP it as a cursed sword that drives the wielder insane. However, if this sword instantly kills whoever it touches, then it no longer obeys the lore mechanical standard, as it would have to be a sword that does 40 hearts of damage, and no GM in their right mind would hand those out. (Not to say that you can't claim it instantly kills in character in order to sell it to an unsuspecting adventurer...)

 

If you still die and lose 30 minutes memory plus memory of the events leading up to your death (a server rule) when clicked to death then you can roleplay that you're undead. However, you could not roleplay as an Undead Necromancer, the Aegis antagonist. This is because they are created by the daemon Iblees, and you suddenly becoming one would be breaking the server lore.

 

You aren't giving your character an unfair advantage by making up abilities for them, and thus it doesn't matter what you do. The canvas is the same, and you're free to paint it however you like. If the lore mechanical standard is obeyed, then people will no longer make up abilities on the spot to win in situations, thus subduing a large motive for powergaming.

 

Thus, with the lore mechanical standard in mind, approved lore is only required when the action you want your character to take would be breaking server rules if they were a standard character, and the people you are roleplaying with are unhappy with this. The easy way to check is this: If you took away the ability your character is using, would you be breaking the rules?

 

For example, a player decides their character has telepathy. They use their telepathy to find out that their friend is in an enemy guild base, and gather their forces to raid and rescue him. Take away the telepathy, and you're metagaming quite severely. You could be playing a character that's kept alive by a magical curse and who's body is slowly rotting: they're undead. They get into a fight, they lose, and they "die" and wake up at the Cloud Temple, having lost the memories of the events leading up to their death. Remove the undeath and no rules have been broken! Therefore, this character meets the lore mechanical standard and you don't need approval to roleplay as them.

 

There is one recommendation I have here, and it's a recommendation, not a rule. Don't create a character with special traits or abilities unless they were born with them and thus you have to. It's far more rewarding to start with a basic character and gather their interesting traits IC. It creates more RP, more server depth and most importantly more fun if your character loses their arm in a battle and has to seek out the dwarves to have them construct a runic limb to replace it than to create a character who lost his arm and gained a runic limb in his backstory.)

 

However, there are exceptions to this standard, which are clearly stated in the new lore regulations. Refer to this link to see what those exceptions are:

 

The Newer Lore Regulations

[Lago 2572]

* All credit for the writing of this wonderful post goes to Lagomorphia *

 

Given how heavily edited from the original it is, I can't take full credit. :P

[Viper3X 1056]

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